Latest / Crime and Horror / She had a second chance at life, but the DEVIL had other plans...

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She had a second chance at life, but the DEVIL had other plans... · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: One night in December of two thousand and nine, a
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Speaker 1: man dug through a pile of papers and photo albums
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Speaker 1: inside of an RV that was parked in Texas. The
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Speaker 1: man had recently bought this trailer after its previous owner
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Speaker 1: had died, and so now he was finding it was
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Speaker 1: full of junk that he was trying to sort through.
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Speaker 1: And as he rifled through the documents, he stumbled on
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Speaker 1: a stack of old notebooks. He opened one and he
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Speaker 1: began reading it, and as he did, he felt his
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Speaker 1: heartbeat pickup because the notebooks were actually diaries, and they
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Speaker 1: were full of handwritten rantings about demons and monsters in
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Speaker 1: a deal with the devil. But that wasn't what scared him.
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Speaker 1: What really scared the guy was this writer's horrifying confession.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
0:47
Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place, because that's all
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Speaker 1: we do, and we upload two, three, even four times
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Speaker 1: a week. So if that's of interest to you, please
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Speaker 1: replace the light button shampoo with motor oil. Also, please
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Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our uploads. Okay, let's get
1:04
Speaker 1: into today's story. On the night of July twenty fourth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, thirty year old Susan Woods stood at
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Speaker 1: the entrance to a local fair in a little city
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Speaker 1: called Haiko, located in central Texas, along with her best
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Speaker 1: friend and her best friend's boyfriend, and the three of
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Speaker 1: them were standing there trying to decide if they wanted
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Speaker 1: to continue to stay here or leave now. As they're
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Speaker 1: standing there, they can hear people having fun on all
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Speaker 1: the rides. There's kids laughing and they're screaming. I mean,
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Speaker 1: it's a Friday night. They had chosen to come here,
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Speaker 1: this was the activity, but you know, so far the
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Speaker 1: night had really not been that great. So Susan's best friend,
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Speaker 1: whose name was Cindy Hallmark, and her boyfriend, whose name
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Speaker 1: was Roy Hayes, had convinced Susan to come out with
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Speaker 1: them and come to this fair because Susan's life of
2:12
Speaker 1: late had been really quite bad. She was in the
2:15
Speaker 1: middle of this very ugly divorce and the new guy
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Speaker 1: that she was dating had sort of wound up being
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Speaker 1: very pushy when it came to physical intimacy, and so
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Speaker 1: she had recently dumped him too, and so you know,
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Speaker 1: Susan's life, certainly her relationships anyways, were sort of in
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Speaker 1: rough shape. And so Cindy and Roy had convinced Susan
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Speaker 1: to come out with them and just at least for
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Speaker 1: one night, come enjoy this fair, just forget about everything
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Speaker 1: else and just come have some fun. And so Susan
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Speaker 1: had agreed to go. However, sort of ironically, once they
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Speaker 1: actually got to the fair and the three of them
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Speaker 1: were walking around and playing games and going into the
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Speaker 1: haunted house and doing all the things you do with
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Speaker 1: the fair, it had been Cindy, not Susan, who had
2:56
Speaker 1: ultimately said that they weren't really having a good time,
2:58
Speaker 1: that they were feeling kind of bad. Cindy said that
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Speaker 1: she just had this really intense feeling that something bad
3:05
Speaker 1: was about to happen. It was like this constant anxiety
3:08
Speaker 1: and she couldn't shake it, and it was making it
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Speaker 1: really hard to enjoy the night. And so that was
3:12
Speaker 1: why the trio is, you know, standing at the gate,
3:15
Speaker 1: wondering if it's even worth staying here any longer. And
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Speaker 1: ultimately Roy finally just said, you know what, why don't
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Speaker 1: we just leave? And head back to Stephenville. That's where
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Speaker 1: they all lived, It's where they grew up too. And
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Speaker 1: he said, why don't we go back to Stephenville and
3:26
Speaker 1: we'll just drive around for a bit and eventually we'll
3:29
Speaker 1: go to the Dairy Queen restaurant and we'll get some
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Speaker 1: ice cream. And when Roy suggested this, both Susan and
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Speaker 1: Cindy thought that was a great idea, and so they left.
3:37
Speaker 1: They hopped in Roy's truck and they began to drive
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Speaker 1: back to Stephenville. About an hour and a half later, Susan, Cindy,
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Speaker 1: and Roy walked into the Stephenville Berry Queen. They ordered
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Speaker 1: ice cream Sundays and then sat down at a booth.
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Speaker 1: By this point, Cindy's feeling of dread, you know, that
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Speaker 1: something bad was gonna happen, had mostly gone away, and
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Speaker 1: so the mood was much lighter, and Susan and especially
4:00
Speaker 1: was actually having kind of a great night, you know,
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Speaker 1: the first in a long time. It felt like the
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Speaker 1: last six months or so had been some of the
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Speaker 1: worst in Susan's entire life. Her ex husband Michael Woods,
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Speaker 1: who she had been with since she was in her
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Speaker 1: early twenties, had effectively abandoned her back in February, taking
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Speaker 1: her car and also some expensive crystals that she had collected,
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Speaker 1: and he had left behind a viciously mean tape recording
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Speaker 1: of all the things he hated about her, along with
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Speaker 1: dozens of cruel notes with insults on them hidden all
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Speaker 1: over the place, And so Susan had filed for divorce,
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Speaker 1: and then instead of trying to get her car back
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Speaker 1: from her husband, who was long gone, she just began
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Speaker 1: doing a ton of overtime at the sandpaper factory in
4:43
Speaker 1: order to afford another car. And so in these few
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Speaker 1: months immediately following the breakup with her ex and all
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Speaker 1: this extra work she was doing, Susan had really fallen
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Speaker 1: into a deep depression. But it had been Cindy and
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Speaker 1: Roy who had helped kind of pull herself back together.
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Speaker 1: Susan was now naturally very shy, and she did not
5:02
Speaker 1: have a big social circle. But Cindy, on the other hand,
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Speaker 1: was very extroverted, had a ton of friends and a
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Speaker 1: lot of close cousins, and so she had persuaded Susan
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Speaker 1: to begin coming to their regular meetups with all her
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Speaker 1: friends and cousins. The core group that typically attended these
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Speaker 1: meetups was Cindy, Roy, Cindy's cousins Regina and Scott Hatley,
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Speaker 1: and then maybe one or two others, and collectively they
5:25
Speaker 1: referred to themselves as the members of the round Table,
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Speaker 1: because often these meetups consisted of just spending the whole
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Speaker 1: night sitting around Cindy's round kitchen table, talking and drinking.
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Speaker 1: The first time Susan had gone, and it seemed like
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Speaker 1: such a tight knit group that she really just kind
5:41
Speaker 1: of felt like a third wheel and did not belong.
5:43
Speaker 1: But everyone had really treated her like she did belong,
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Speaker 1: and these days she did not miss a meetup because
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Speaker 1: this was like her new community. It really made her happy.
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Speaker 1: And so slowly but surely, Susan had begun to feel
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Speaker 1: better largely because of these meetups. And so now as
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Speaker 1: she looked across the table at Cindy jokingly trying to
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Speaker 1: force feed Roy all this ice cream, you know, Susan
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Speaker 1: just smiled. Roy was this big guy, but he was
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Speaker 1: losing the fight and he had chocolate sauce all over
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Speaker 1: his chin. They were just kind of goofing around. She
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Speaker 1: just thought to herself, you know what, tonight was a
6:14
Speaker 1: great night my life. It's turning around and suddenly she
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Speaker 1: had an idea. Susan stood up from the table and
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Speaker 1: without saying anything, she walked up to the counter and
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Speaker 1: she promptly ordered a second hot fudge Sunday. And when
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Speaker 1: she carried it back over to the table with a
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Speaker 1: big grin in her face, Cindy and Roy kind of
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Speaker 1: looked at her surprised, you know, and we're kind of
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Speaker 1: impressed even, which was exactly the reaction that Susan was
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Speaker 1: hoping for. Normally, Susan was very conscious of her weight
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Speaker 1: and wouldn't even finish one Sunday. But tonight she just
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Speaker 1: felt like, you know what, I had been set free.
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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna have fun. But unfortunately for Susan, the
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Speaker 1: ice cream Sundays were really the last fun thing she
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Speaker 1: got to enjoy that entire weekend, because she spent all
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Speaker 1: day Saturday on the line line at the sandpaper factory
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Speaker 1: where she worked, and then all day Sunday she was
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Speaker 1: grocery shopping, doing laundry, and straightening up the house. By
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Speaker 1: about eight pm Sunday night, she had put away all
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Speaker 1: of her laundry, she had made the bed, and picked
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Speaker 1: up the last few items off the bedroom floor. Her
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Speaker 1: house was small, but it was finally starting to feel
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Speaker 1: like hers again. When her ex husband Michael had first left,
7:21
Speaker 1: even though he had gone a thousand miles away to Indiana,
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Speaker 1: she had felt afraid in her house, like he might
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Speaker 1: suddenly come back, and so she'd actually had Cindy sleep
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Speaker 1: over her house for a while to help her feel safe,
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Speaker 1: and also she asked Roy to literally nail all her
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Speaker 1: windows shut. But despite fortifying her living space, what Susan
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Speaker 1: couldn't escape from were all these awful little notes that
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Speaker 1: Michael had left behind and hidden all over the house,
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Speaker 1: All these awful messages just basically telling Susan all these
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Speaker 1: terrible things about her and how much he hated her.
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Speaker 1: She kept finding them all the time, but as of
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Speaker 1: right now, the house was neat and tied, and Susan
8:01
Speaker 1: by this point believed she had found almost every note,
8:04
Speaker 1: or certainly close to every note. So to celebrate, Susan
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Speaker 1: headed over to the couch and sat down and turned
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Speaker 1: on the TV. Her plan was just to watch a
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Speaker 1: couple of shows and just enjoy the peace and quiet
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Speaker 1: and then go to bed because tomorrow she would have
8:18
Speaker 1: to get up early for work. As she was sitting there,
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Speaker 1: flipping through the channels trying to figure out what she
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Speaker 1: wanted to watch. She heard a knock on the front door.
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Speaker 1: Two days later, at six pm on the afternoon of
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Speaker 1: July twenty eighth, Susan's father, Joe Atkins, was at home
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Speaker 1: when his phone rang, and when he picked it up,
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Speaker 1: it was Susan's manager at the sandpaper factory, which was weird.
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Speaker 1: The manager told him that he was calling because Susan
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Speaker 1: had not shown up to work for the past two
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Speaker 1: days and nobody could get a hold of her, and
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Speaker 1: so he was wondering if Joe knew where she was.
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Speaker 1: Joe frowned and said no, he didn't know, but he
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Speaker 1: would go find out. He hung up, and he immediately
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Speaker 1: dialed Susan's number, and when she didn't answer, he didn't
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Speaker 1: think twice. He just put the phone down, grabbed his keys,
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Speaker 1: hurried out to his truck, and started driving towards Susan's place.
9:17
Speaker 1: Half an hour later, Joe pulled up outside of Susan's
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Speaker 1: house and he went up to a front door, and
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Speaker 1: when he knocked, nobody answered, but he could hear the
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Speaker 1: TV on inside, and when he tried the doorknob, he
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Speaker 1: found the door was unlocked. He opened the door up
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Speaker 1: a little bit and he poked his head inside and
9:34
Speaker 1: he called his daughter's name, but he didn't get a response,
9:38
Speaker 1: so he stepped all the way inside. The house was
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Speaker 1: basically clean, except there were snacks out on the coffee
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Speaker 1: table and the TV was still on and it was
9:47
Speaker 1: on pretty loud. But also there were some cigarettes that
9:50
Speaker 1: had been burned out in an ash tray on the
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Speaker 1: coffee table, and Joe knew his daughter didn't smoke, and
9:56
Speaker 1: so at this point everything told him something is wrong.
9:59
Speaker 1: So oh, Joe walked through the living room and into
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Speaker 1: his daughter's bedroom, and his daughter was not in there,
10:05
Speaker 1: but the bed was a mess. The sheets and the
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Speaker 1: bedding had all been ripped off and were sitting in
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Speaker 1: a heap on the floor, and the mattress itself was
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Speaker 1: hanging off the box spring. Joe was about to leave
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Speaker 1: and search the rest of the house when he noticed
10:18
Speaker 1: the bathroom door in the bedroom was open. Joe forced
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Speaker 1: himself to step toward the door, and as he did,
10:24
Speaker 1: his heart began to hammer in his chest, and then
10:28
Speaker 1: when he leaned around the door and looked inside the bathroom,
10:31
Speaker 1: he just froze for what felt like a very long time,
10:34
Speaker 1: but was very likely only a few seconds. Joe didn't
10:38
Speaker 1: move or breathe. Then it's like he broke out of
10:41
Speaker 1: his fog. He stumbled backwards. He ran to the living room,
10:44
Speaker 1: grabbed the phone, and he called nine to one one.
10:47
Speaker 1: Sergeant Donnie Hensley of the Stephenville Police Department had just
10:51
Speaker 1: gotten home after a pretty long shift when he got
10:53
Speaker 1: a call from dispatch to head back out again. A
10:56
Speaker 1: homicide had just been called in and every available officer
10:59
Speaker 1: had to head to the sea right away. The dispatcher
11:01
Speaker 1: did not have many details, but they did know that
11:04
Speaker 1: the victim was a young woman and that she had
11:07
Speaker 1: been found by her father inside of her home. When
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Speaker 1: Hensley got to the address, he found there was an
11:16
Speaker 1: ambulance there, and a couple of fire trucks and police cars,
11:19
Speaker 1: and a whole bunch of police officers that were already
11:22
Speaker 1: out and about stringing up crime scene tape. But he
11:24
Speaker 1: also saw someone that he was not expecting to see.
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Speaker 1: It was a friend of his, a guy he knew
11:29
Speaker 1: who volunteered at the town's golf course. His name was
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Speaker 1: Joe Atkins. So he walked over and he asked Joe, like, Hey,
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Speaker 1: what are you doing here? But the instant he asked
11:39
Speaker 1: that question, and when Joe turned around to look at him,
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Speaker 1: Hensley understood why he was here. He suddenly remembered that
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Speaker 1: Joe had a daughter, and based on the look on
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Speaker 1: Joe's face, clearly his daughter was the murder victim Joe
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Speaker 1: had found her. Hensley was a hardened detective who had
11:56
Speaker 1: been to plenty of crime scenes by this point, and
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Speaker 1: he had seen some terrible things, but the pure grief
12:01
Speaker 1: on his friend's face was too much for him to bear.
12:04
Speaker 1: He knew there was nothing he could do to take
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Speaker 1: Joe's pain away, so instead, without saying anything, Hensley took
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Speaker 1: Joe's hands and the two men just stood there and prayed.
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Speaker 1: And then after a few minutes, he let go of
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Speaker 1: Joe's hands, and then he turned and walked up Susan's
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Speaker 1: front steps to begin the search for her killer. The
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Speaker 1: crime scene unit was already inside of Susan's home, hard
12:30
Speaker 1: at work by the time Detective Pensley walked through the
12:32
Speaker 1: front door. A supervisor walked over and brought Hensley up
12:36
Speaker 1: to speed. They told him that Susan's body was in
12:38
Speaker 1: the bathroom, and from the looks a bit she'd been
12:41
Speaker 1: dead for a while. The front door had been unlocked,
12:44
Speaker 1: and there was no sign of forced entry, which suggested
12:47
Speaker 1: that Susan may have let her killer inside. Detectives were
12:50
Speaker 1: now dividing up the house into quadrants to examine each
12:53
Speaker 1: part of the crime scene, and Hensley would be working
12:56
Speaker 1: primarily in the bedroom. But the supervisor warned Hensley that
13:00
Speaker 1: the crime itself was incredibly brutal, likely bordering on torture,
13:05
Speaker 1: and he should just mentally prepare himself. Nsley nodded, and
13:08
Speaker 1: for a moment he just stood there and collected himself
13:11
Speaker 1: and took stock of the scene. He looked over at
13:14
Speaker 1: the coffee table in the living room, and he saw
13:16
Speaker 1: it was covered with snacks, including a bag of potato chips,
13:19
Speaker 1: a pack of Twinkies, and an open coke can, and
13:22
Speaker 1: there was an ash tray with six cigarette butts inside
13:24
Speaker 1: of it. It looked like more food and more cigarettes
13:28
Speaker 1: than one person would reasonably consume, and so maybe Susan
13:31
Speaker 1: had had company. But otherwise the house was clean and
13:34
Speaker 1: pretty unremarkable, except for one thing that took Hensley a
13:38
Speaker 1: minute to notice, and what it was is all the
13:41
Speaker 1: windows were nailed shut from the inside, Susan clearly must
13:46
Speaker 1: have been scared of somebody breaking in, and so naturally
13:49
Speaker 1: Hensley wondered if maybe the person she was scared of
13:53
Speaker 1: breaking in was the same person who wound up killing her.
13:56
Speaker 1: But if that was the case, why had she apparently
14:00
Speaker 1: opened the door for this person? At this point, Hensley
14:03
Speaker 1: moved into the bedroom, and as soon as he did,
14:05
Speaker 1: he could tell there had to have been a struggle
14:08
Speaker 1: in here, because the mattress was hanging off the box spring,
14:10
Speaker 1: the sheets had been pulled off and they were heaped
14:12
Speaker 1: up on the floor, and there were all these scuff
14:15
Speaker 1: marks on the floor that suggested the bed very likely
14:18
Speaker 1: had been moved dragged around inside of the room. There
14:21
Speaker 1: was also a white extension cord lying on the mattress,
14:25
Speaker 1: and also there was this pillow that had all these
14:27
Speaker 1: strange black smudges on it. Hensley walked over and looked
14:31
Speaker 1: at this pillowcase, trying to figure out what the smudges
14:33
Speaker 1: could be, and then he realized it was mascara. The
14:36
Speaker 1: pillow must have been held over Susan's face to suffocate her.
14:41
Speaker 1: But when Hensley walked into the bathroom and saw what
14:44
Speaker 1: was in there, despite the warning, he was given about
14:47
Speaker 1: how brutal it was, he still was taken aback and
14:50
Speaker 1: found himself gasping. Susan's body was draped over the side
14:54
Speaker 1: of the tub with her head still in the water.
14:57
Speaker 1: At first glance, it was obvious Susan was dead because
15:00
Speaker 1: her head and shoulders that were underwater were severely decomposed
15:05
Speaker 1: from being in the water, and so at this point
15:08
Speaker 1: Hensley realized that whoever murdered Susan had likely sexually assaulted her,
15:14
Speaker 1: strangled her, smothered her, and then held her body underwater.
15:18
Speaker 1: I mean this had been a savage attack committed by
15:22
Speaker 1: a monster. However, Hensley also realized that this monster, whoever
15:26
Speaker 1: had done this, had made at least one mistake, because
15:30
Speaker 1: one of the crime scene texts that was in the
15:32
Speaker 1: bathroom was pointing at the tub with excitement, and when
15:36
Speaker 1: Hensley looked at what they were pointing at, you could
15:38
Speaker 1: see perfectly clearly there was a set of pom prints,
15:42
Speaker 1: almost certainly left behind by the killer. The following morning,
15:48
Speaker 1: at around ten am, Sergeant Hensley walked into the Stephenville
15:52
Speaker 1: Police station and promptly filled up a paper cup from
15:54
Speaker 1: the Bullpen water cooler and drank it down. It was
15:57
Speaker 1: over ninety degrees outside, and he had just all morning
16:01
Speaker 1: and a lot of the previous night canvassing the neighborhood
16:04
Speaker 1: where Susan had been murdered. But despite all their efforts,
16:07
Speaker 1: they really hadn't gotten much. Susan had been found on Tuesday,
16:11
Speaker 1: but nobody had reported seeing her on Tuesday, or the
16:15
Speaker 1: Monday before or the Sunday before, which left a window
16:18
Speaker 1: of three days for this murder to have taken place.
16:21
Speaker 1: One of Susan's neighbors did remember seeing a quote large
16:25
Speaker 1: framed man Parkers truck near Susan's house on Sunday night,
16:29
Speaker 1: but that described a lot of the men in Stephenville,
16:31
Speaker 1: so that didn't really narrow anything down. Now, the police
16:34
Speaker 1: chief had not yet assigned the lead investigator to Susan's case,
16:38
Speaker 1: but because Sergeant Hensley knew Susan's father personally, he was
16:41
Speaker 1: hoping to stay involved. So after drinking a second cupful
16:45
Speaker 1: of water, Hensley headed down the hall to the chief's office,
16:48
Speaker 1: where he asked to see Susan's autopsy report. The chief
16:51
Speaker 1: secretary handed it over and Hensley quickly began to thumb
16:55
Speaker 1: through the pages, but he quickly realized there really was
16:58
Speaker 1: almost nothing here that he didn't already know. The report
17:01
Speaker 1: confirmed that Susan had been sexually assaulted, but her body
17:04
Speaker 1: was so decomposed it was impossible to determine exactly how
17:09
Speaker 1: or when she had died, although the coroner estimated she'd
17:12
Speaker 1: been in the tub for roughly two days. But right
17:15
Speaker 1: at that moment, another investigator named Lieutenant Ken Maltby walked
17:19
Speaker 1: up and grabbed the report right out of Pensley's hands,
17:23
Speaker 1: and before Hensley could protest, Maltby walked back to the
17:26
Speaker 1: bullpen and wrapped his knuckles on a doorframe to get
17:28
Speaker 1: everybody's attention. Then Maltby announced that he would be taking
17:32
Speaker 1: over Susan's case, so everybody else, Hensley included, should back off.
17:37
Speaker 1: And Hensley did not like this, not only because you know,
17:41
Speaker 1: he had this closeness with Susan's father, but also because
17:45
Speaker 1: he had a feeling that Maltby was only interested in
17:47
Speaker 1: this case because he thought it would help his career. However,
17:51
Speaker 1: Maltby out ranked Hensley, and Hensley already had a full
17:55
Speaker 1: caseload of work, so there really was very little he
17:57
Speaker 1: could do here, So with a resigned side, he headed
18:01
Speaker 1: back to his desk. Two days later, around two pm
18:09
Speaker 1: on July thirty, first, Sergeant Hensley stood in the back
18:12
Speaker 1: of a small crowd, sweating through his suit as Susan's
18:15
Speaker 1: casket was lowered into the ground. Hensley was at this
18:18
Speaker 1: funeral really to support Susan's father, Joe, because he was
18:22
Speaker 1: not really a part of the investigation. However, he couldn't help,
18:25
Speaker 1: you know, scanning the mourners, you know, through a detective's
18:28
Speaker 1: lens to see if anybody seemed suspicious. There was a
18:31
Speaker 1: group of people in their twenties and thirties that were
18:33
Speaker 1: standing towards the front, and Hensley assumed they must be
18:36
Speaker 1: Susan's friends. He remembered what one of Susan's neighbors had
18:40
Speaker 1: said about a large framed man, and he looked at
18:43
Speaker 1: all the men, taking note of their size. At the
18:46
Speaker 1: center of the group, there was a blonde woman who
18:49
Speaker 1: was sobbing, and Hensley recognized her as Susan's best friend,
18:52
Speaker 1: Cindy Hallmark, who was leaning on her boyfriend Roy Hayes.
18:56
Speaker 1: The two of them had actually come to the crime
18:58
Speaker 1: scene by coincidence on the day Susan's body was found,
19:01
Speaker 1: and they had totally broken down when they realized what
19:04
Speaker 1: had happened. But now Hensley was suddenly noticing just how
19:08
Speaker 1: physically enormous Roy was, and so in that moment, Hensley
19:13
Speaker 1: thought to himself, if he was in charge of this case,
19:15
Speaker 1: he knew Roy would be somebody he'd take a close
19:18
Speaker 1: look at, but that was not his decision. But then
19:21
Speaker 1: Hensley noticed that there was actually one person who was
19:24
Speaker 1: conspicuously absent from this funeral, and that was Susan's ex husband,
19:29
Speaker 1: Michael Woods. From what Hensley had heard around the station,
19:32
Speaker 1: nearly all of Susan's friends and family were convinced that
19:35
Speaker 1: it was Michael who was the killer. But there was
19:38
Speaker 1: a problem with this theory. Michael lived a thousand miles
19:42
Speaker 1: away in Indianapolis and worked around the police station. Was
19:46
Speaker 1: that during that window of time where Susan was murdered
19:49
Speaker 1: over those three days, Michael was in Indianapolis, and he
19:52
Speaker 1: was around loads of people who would vouch for him
19:55
Speaker 1: being in Indianapolis, which meant that, as far as Hensley knew,
20:00
Speaker 1: really was no way for Michael to be the killer.
20:02
Speaker 1: And so Hensley just hoped that Lieutenant Maltby had another
20:05
Speaker 1: better suspect in mind for the next few weeks, Sergeant
20:10
Speaker 1: Hensley focused on his own cases while still keeping taps
20:13
Speaker 1: on Susan's. Every couple of days, her dad would call
20:15
Speaker 1: him up and ask why Michael hadn't been arrested yet,
20:18
Speaker 1: and Hensley would always tell him that the case was
20:20
Speaker 1: in good hands and they're working on it. But as
20:23
Speaker 1: the weeks passed by with no arrests Hensley started to wonder, like,
20:27
Speaker 1: what was going on here? Something needs to happen. Why
20:29
Speaker 1: is nothing happening. Then one day in early October, so
20:33
Speaker 1: roughly two months after Susan's murder, Hensley walked into the
20:37
Speaker 1: bullpen to find Maltby celebrating, not because of any progress
20:41
Speaker 1: in the case, though, but to celebrate his big promotion.
20:45
Speaker 1: Maltby was going to be the lead of a new
20:46
Speaker 1: narcotics unit, and his open cases that he had been
20:49
Speaker 1: working on were just going to be given to other
20:51
Speaker 1: investigators or filed away altogether. And so as Maltby accepted
20:56
Speaker 1: congratulations from other officers and just made a whole scene, well,
21:00
Speaker 1: Sergeant Hensley could think was, well, what's going to happen
21:02
Speaker 1: to Susan's case? It could easily fall through the cracks here,
21:06
Speaker 1: and so without even talking to Maltby, Hensley walked straight
21:09
Speaker 1: to the chief's office and asked to take the case over.
21:12
Speaker 1: The chief shrugged and just said, sure, you're welcome to try,
21:15
Speaker 1: so long as this case does not get in the
21:17
Speaker 1: way of his other work. Hensley agreed and then went
21:20
Speaker 1: to get Susan's file, and then after he had it
21:22
Speaker 1: in hand, he hurried back to his desk and began
21:25
Speaker 1: rifling through the pages, and he was stunned to find
21:28
Speaker 1: that there was almost nothing in there besides the original
21:30
Speaker 1: autopsy report. And that's when Hensley remembered that Lieutenant Maltby
21:34
Speaker 1: claimed to have this photographic memory, and so he almost
21:38
Speaker 1: never took notes, and so Hensley was basically going to
21:41
Speaker 1: have to start all over from square one. At nine
21:54
Speaker 1: am the next morning, Sergeant Hensley sat down in the
21:57
Speaker 1: kitchen of Susan's best friend, Cindy Hallmark, as Cindy poured
22:01
Speaker 1: them both a cup of coffee, and then Cindy started talking,
22:04
Speaker 1: and she had a lot to say. She was absolutely
22:07
Speaker 1: convinced that Susan's ex husband, Michael Woods was the giller,
22:11
Speaker 1: and she just could not understand why it was taking
22:14
Speaker 1: detectives so long to arrest him. Cindy said, you know,
22:17
Speaker 1: for most of Susan and Michael's relationship, Michael was just
22:21
Speaker 1: kind of a loser. He couldn't keep a job, and
22:23
Speaker 1: he just lift weights and play guitars shirtless in the
22:26
Speaker 1: front yard. However, when they had broken up, Michael had
22:30
Speaker 1: recorded this totally unhinged audio recording about how awful Susan
22:35
Speaker 1: was and left it for Susan, along with all these
22:38
Speaker 1: notes he had hid all around the house and the property,
22:41
Speaker 1: which also just said terrible things about Susan. And this
22:45
Speaker 1: behavior by Michael had scared Susan so much that she
22:49
Speaker 1: had asked Cindy and Cindy's boyfriend Roy to help nail
22:53
Speaker 1: all her windows shut, specifically to prevent Michael from coming
22:58
Speaker 1: into the house. Hensley listened and wrote everything Cindy said down,
23:03
Speaker 1: but he really wasn't as sold on the Michael Woods
23:05
Speaker 1: theory as everybody else in Stevenville seemed to be. And
23:08
Speaker 1: that was primarily because the police in Indianapolis had spoken
23:13
Speaker 1: to Michael and apparently he had given them a rock
23:15
Speaker 1: solid alibi, and so realistically it didn't make sense for
23:19
Speaker 1: him to be the killer. That said, Hensley was pretty
23:22
Speaker 1: confident that the killer had to be somebody Susan knew.
23:25
Speaker 1: The lack of forced entry, coupled with all the snacks
23:28
Speaker 1: and the coke can and cigarettes on her coffee table,
23:31
Speaker 1: suggested that Susan might have entertained her murderer before they
23:34
Speaker 1: killed her. And so at this point Hensley was much
23:37
Speaker 1: more interested in learning if there were other romantic interests
23:42
Speaker 1: in Susan's life, you know, besides Michael. And when he
23:45
Speaker 1: asked Cindy that question, she said, yeah, there was one
23:48
Speaker 1: other guy, she said, right before Susan was killed, she
23:52
Speaker 1: was seeing this bartender named j. C. Bowman. However, they'd
23:56
Speaker 1: only gone on a few dates. Cindy said that JC
23:59
Speaker 1: had put a lot of pressure on Susan to sleep
24:01
Speaker 1: with him, and so she had just broken up with them.
24:04
Speaker 1: And when Hensley heard this, he felt like this was
24:07
Speaker 1: really promising. And so when Cindy finished telling her Jac story,
24:11
Speaker 1: he asked her if she knew where he could find
24:13
Speaker 1: Jac and she said yeah, and she gave him the
24:16
Speaker 1: address of the bar where he worked. Forty five minutes later,
24:21
Speaker 1: Sergeant Hensley pulled up in front of the bar. It
24:24
Speaker 1: was still too early for business, but there was a
24:26
Speaker 1: delivery truck out front, and there were a few men
24:28
Speaker 1: who were unloading kegs and bringing them inside, and so
24:32
Speaker 1: Hensley walked up to these guys and he asked if
24:34
Speaker 1: any of them knew a J. C. Bauman, and this
24:37
Speaker 1: tall bearded man raised his hand and said, actually, that
24:41
Speaker 1: was him. A few minutes later, Hensley and J. C
24:44
Speaker 1: were sitting at the empty bar. Hensley watched Jac's face
24:48
Speaker 1: very closely as he explained to him that he was
24:51
Speaker 1: here to talk about Susan. Jace nodded and ran his
24:54
Speaker 1: fingers through his hair like he was nervous, and then
24:57
Speaker 1: he said his throat was dry and asked Sergeant Hensley
25:00
Speaker 1: if he wanted something to drink. Sergeant Hensley said he
25:02
Speaker 1: was okay, but Jac he got up, went behind the
25:05
Speaker 1: bar and then came back with a can of coke,
25:09
Speaker 1: and after sitting down and opening the drink up and
25:11
Speaker 1: taking a sip, JC also lit up a cigarette, and
25:15
Speaker 1: so immediately Hensley thought of the coke can that was
25:18
Speaker 1: on Susan's coffee table, as well as the ash tray
25:21
Speaker 1: full of cigarettes. Despite the fact that Susan was not
25:24
Speaker 1: a smoker, and so the interview had barely even started
25:28
Speaker 1: and Hensley was already very suspicious of JC, so he
25:32
Speaker 1: decided to push pretty early and see how JC reacted
25:35
Speaker 1: under some serious pressure, and so right out the gate,
25:39
Speaker 1: he asked JC where he was on Sunday, July twenty sixth,
25:43
Speaker 1: which was the day investigators at this point believed Susan
25:46
Speaker 1: was murdered, based primarily on the autopsy report, and when
25:50
Speaker 1: j C was asked that, he swallowed and said he
25:52
Speaker 1: couldn't remember, which was possible. I mean, the murder happened
25:55
Speaker 1: two months earlier, but it didn't make JC look that good. Oh.
26:00
Speaker 1: Hensley asked JAC if it was true that he and
26:02
Speaker 1: Susan broke up ultimately because he j C had pressured
26:06
Speaker 1: her for sex. JAC turned beat red and said he
26:10
Speaker 1: had never pressured Susan. He said they had been intimate,
26:13
Speaker 1: but just once in Susan's bathtub, and when Hensley heard this,
26:16
Speaker 1: he nearly dropped his pen. It seemed extremely suspicious that
26:20
Speaker 1: j C was claiming to have been intimate with Susan
26:23
Speaker 1: in the same bathtub where she was found dead, and
26:27
Speaker 1: so Hensley wondered if he was maybe trying to get
26:29
Speaker 1: ahead of the fact that his fingerprints would be found
26:32
Speaker 1: on or in that bathtub. Now, legally, Hensley knew he
26:36
Speaker 1: could not compel JC to offer up his fingerprints without
26:40
Speaker 1: charging him first, but he took a chance and just
26:44
Speaker 1: asked anyway, and to his surprise, j C said yes,
26:48
Speaker 1: you can have my fingerprints, and he almost seemed relieved.
26:51
Speaker 1: He said, you know, whatever you need to help solve
26:53
Speaker 1: Susan's murder, I'll do it. Two hours later, Sergeant Hensley
26:58
Speaker 1: was back at his desk and the Stevensville Police Station
27:01
Speaker 1: looking at a card that had Jac's finger and pom
27:04
Speaker 1: prints on it, and as he looked at it, he
27:06
Speaker 1: began thinking about those pom prints on Susan's bathtub. In
27:10
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, fingerprints and pom prints were just much
27:13
Speaker 1: slower to process than they are today, and the closest
27:17
Speaker 1: lab that analyzed these prints was an hour and a
27:20
Speaker 1: half away in Fort Worth, and Hensley knew they were
27:23
Speaker 1: always working with a backlog, so his results could easily
27:26
Speaker 1: take months. But Hensley was not going to just sit
27:29
Speaker 1: around and wait, because he had one more suspect he
27:33
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to. The following afternoon, Sergeant Hensley walked
27:43
Speaker 1: into an interrogation room at the police station, and sat
27:45
Speaker 1: down across from Roy Hayes, who was Susan's best friend
27:49
Speaker 1: Cindy's boyfriend. Hensley wanted to speak to Roy for two reasons. One,
27:53
Speaker 1: he matched the physical description of the large man seen
27:56
Speaker 1: near Susan's house around the time of her murder. And two,
28:01
Speaker 1: there just weren't that many people who were close to
28:03
Speaker 1: Susan and Roy saw her when she was both with
28:06
Speaker 1: Cindy and also when she would attend those members of
28:09
Speaker 1: the Roundtable get togethers Now, that was not that incriminating,
28:13
Speaker 1: but Hensley knew that catching the killer was as much
28:15
Speaker 1: about ruling suspects out as it was about ruling the men.
28:20
Speaker 1: So that was really all he was trying to do
28:21
Speaker 1: here with Roy is just maybe find a way to
28:23
Speaker 1: say Nope, not him. But before Hensley could even begin
28:27
Speaker 1: asking Roy questions, Roy just started talking. He told Hensley
28:31
Speaker 1: that he had been thinking about Susan's case NonStop. He
28:35
Speaker 1: said that his mind had been running wild with all
28:38
Speaker 1: the possible ways the killer could have gotten inside, and
28:41
Speaker 1: so now Roy was eager to share his theories. After all,
28:45
Speaker 1: he said, he was the one who nailed those windows shut,
28:48
Speaker 1: so he knew where the weaknesses in her house were,
28:51
Speaker 1: and so Hensley said, okay, let's hear your theories, and
28:55
Speaker 1: Roy began listing all the ways a person might be
28:58
Speaker 1: able to get inside of Susan's house, including what Roy
29:01
Speaker 1: said was the most promising, which was a six inch
29:04
Speaker 1: crack in the window above the kitchen sink. And as
29:07
Speaker 1: Roy did this, all of a sudden, he was at
29:10
Speaker 1: the top of Hensley's suspect list. And when Roy was
29:13
Speaker 1: done rattling off all the ways he would break into
29:16
Speaker 1: Susan's house, Hensley asked him where were you on the
29:20
Speaker 1: evening of Sunday, July twenty sixth, and Hensley watched as
29:23
Speaker 1: Roy's expression changed from very intense to surprise as he
29:28
Speaker 1: realized he was now being asked for his own alibi.
29:31
Speaker 1: Roy started stumbling over another very long, rambling answer, and
29:36
Speaker 1: what he had to say ultimately just made him look
29:38
Speaker 1: even more guilty because Roy told Hensley that on the
29:41
Speaker 1: night Susan was killed, he had been over at a
29:43
Speaker 1: friend's house playing a game called Dungeons and Dragons. So
29:47
Speaker 1: today people know Dungeons and Dragons as a harmless fantasy
29:51
Speaker 1: role playing game, but at this time, in nineteen eighty seven,
29:54
Speaker 1: it was viewed very differently. In the late nineteen eighties,
29:57
Speaker 1: in America, there was this huge fear that sir in games, books,
30:01
Speaker 1: and heavy metal songs were all linked to devil warship.
30:05
Speaker 1: The TV news ran regular stories across the country about
30:08
Speaker 1: how Dungeons and Dragons specifically encouraged players to cast spells
30:13
Speaker 1: and practice witchcraft, and the local paper and Stephenville had
30:17
Speaker 1: carried a full page ad calling the game satanic. So
30:22
Speaker 1: when Roy told Hensley he had been playing Dungeons and
30:24
Speaker 1: Dragons on the night Susan was killed, Hensley immediately thought
30:28
Speaker 1: back to the horrible brutality of the crime scene, and
30:31
Speaker 1: he wondered if maybe Susan's murder could have been tied
30:35
Speaker 1: to some kind of dark ritual. And so Hensley looks
30:38
Speaker 1: at Roy and says, okay, well, are you prepared to
30:41
Speaker 1: give us your fingerprints? And Roy said yeah. Half an
30:46
Speaker 1: hour later, a very disappointed Sergeant Hensley watched Roy walk
30:50
Speaker 1: away from the station. Just like with JC, Roy had
30:53
Speaker 1: seemed incredibly suspicious at the start of the interview, but
30:57
Speaker 1: then he'd easily offered up his fingerprints like he wasn't
30:59
Speaker 1: concerned at all about whether they'd matched the killers so
31:02
Speaker 1: Hensley was not sure what to expect in terms of
31:05
Speaker 1: results here, but he still sent Roy's Prince off to
31:07
Speaker 1: the outside lab to be added to the queue behind Jc's.
31:11
Speaker 1: Hensley was contemplating his next move when the station receptionist
31:15
Speaker 1: walked over and said that someone from the Indianapolis Metropolitan
31:18
Speaker 1: Police Department was on the line for him. They were
31:21
Speaker 1: following up on the inquiry he had made a few
31:23
Speaker 1: days earlier to double check the alibi of Susan's ex husband,
31:27
Speaker 1: Michael Woods. Hensley eagerly ran to the phone, and when
31:30
Speaker 1: he heard what the officer had to say, he practically
31:33
Speaker 1: jumped out of his chair because, according to the Indianapolis
31:36
Speaker 1: Police officer, it was true that Michael said he had
31:39
Speaker 1: an alibi with lots of witnesses, but he had promised
31:43
Speaker 1: to provide the names and contact information for all those
31:46
Speaker 1: witnesses and he had never done it, which meant Michael's
31:50
Speaker 1: alibi the same one Stevenville police used to rule him
31:53
Speaker 1: out as a suspect, or more specifically, they used the
31:57
Speaker 1: idea of his alibi, the belief that as alibi existed,
32:01
Speaker 1: that's what they used to rule him out. Well, clearly,
32:04
Speaker 1: it was totally unverified. Lieutenant Ken Maltby, who was in
32:08
Speaker 1: charge of the case when this decision was made, had
32:12
Speaker 1: just completely dropped the ball. Somebody had to check Michael's alibi.
32:26
Speaker 1: On a bright morning in April of nineteen eighty eight,
32:29
Speaker 1: Sergeant Hensley walked out of the Indianapolis International Airport with
32:33
Speaker 1: a single Duffel bag of luggage slung over his shoulder.
32:36
Speaker 1: He was here to try to collect the fingerprints of
32:38
Speaker 1: Susan's ex husband, Michael Woods, who was now Hensley's primary suspect.
32:43
Speaker 1: Hensley had been trying to coordinate the investigation into Michael
32:46
Speaker 1: from Stephenville, Texas, but it had proven to be kind
32:49
Speaker 1: of cumbersome, and so he decided to just take matters
32:52
Speaker 1: into his own hands and actually go to Indianapolis. He
32:55
Speaker 1: knew Michael did not have to submit to fingerprinting unless
32:59
Speaker 1: he was charged with a cross so Hensley had come
33:01
Speaker 1: up with a plan. He was going to put Michael
33:04
Speaker 1: under surveillance and wait for him to do something illegal.
33:07
Speaker 1: Maybe he gets into a fight or an altercation, or
33:09
Speaker 1: he buys some marijuana or even jaywalked. Anything. Hensley would
33:14
Speaker 1: use it as an excuse to arrest him and get
33:17
Speaker 1: his prints. For days, Hensley sat in an unmarked van
33:23
Speaker 1: outside the house where Michael lived, watching the front door
33:26
Speaker 1: through a telephoto camera lens. But Michael and his roommates
33:30
Speaker 1: seemed pretty boring. They barely even left the house. Hensley
33:34
Speaker 1: was beginning to think that his big plan to catch
33:36
Speaker 1: Michael doing something illegal was a huge waste of time.
33:39
Speaker 1: It just was not going to happen. But then one
33:41
Speaker 1: morning he noticed some unusual activity in Michael's front yard.
33:45
Speaker 1: Michael and his roommates were laying out furniture and clothing
33:48
Speaker 1: on their front lawn, clearly getting ready for a yard sale.
33:52
Speaker 1: Sergeant Hensley was snapping photos of everything they were bringing out,
33:55
Speaker 1: and at one point he saw something that gave him
33:58
Speaker 1: a rush of excitement because through his lens he spotted
34:02
Speaker 1: these crystal figurines that appeared to be the exact same
34:06
Speaker 1: type of crystal figurines that Michael had allegedly stolen from
34:10
Speaker 1: Susan's house in Stephenville when their marriage had ended and
34:13
Speaker 1: he had left to go to Indianapolis. Hensley practically laughed
34:16
Speaker 1: out loud, I mean this was too easy, This was
34:19
Speaker 1: his chance. So he called the local police and they
34:22
Speaker 1: stormed the yard sale and they arrested Michael for theft.
34:27
Speaker 1: Two weeks later, now back in Stephenville, Sergeant Hensley walked
34:31
Speaker 1: into the police station to start a shift and he
34:33
Speaker 1: found a Manila envelope waiting for him and had a
34:36
Speaker 1: return address that said it was from the Texas DPS
34:39
Speaker 1: crime Lab in Fort Worth, Texas, where he had sent
34:42
Speaker 1: all of the suspect's fingerprints. Hensley ripped open the envelope
34:45
Speaker 1: and dumped the contents onto the table, and as he
34:48
Speaker 1: began looking through them, he realized the lab had already
34:51
Speaker 1: analyzed all three sets of prints that he had sent in.
34:54
Speaker 1: They were Susan's ex boyfriend jac Bauman, her best friend's boyfriend,
34:58
Speaker 1: Roy Hayes, and her ex husband Michael Woods. Now, at
35:02
Speaker 1: this point, if Hensley had had to guess who the
35:05
Speaker 1: killer was, he would have guessed Michael, because Michael is
35:08
Speaker 1: this estranged ex husband who had left behind these terrible
35:11
Speaker 1: recordings and notes, and he had spooked Susan so badly
35:15
Speaker 1: at the end of their relationship she had nailed her
35:17
Speaker 1: windows shut to keep him out. And then also his
35:21
Speaker 1: alibi was sort of up in the air. They didn't
35:23
Speaker 1: really know if he had one or not. They hadn't
35:25
Speaker 1: been able to actually verify it or not yet. Jac
35:28
Speaker 1: also had basically no alibi. He drank coke and he
35:32
Speaker 1: smoked cigarettes, just like the killer had left in Susan's
35:34
Speaker 1: living room, or is believed to have been the killer
35:36
Speaker 1: who left those behind. And Roy in virtue of playing
35:40
Speaker 1: Dungeons and Dragons, could potentially be involved in satanism. And
35:44
Speaker 1: also he seemed way too eager to talk about how
35:47
Speaker 1: he might break into Susan's house. However, for Hensley, he
35:50
Speaker 1: felt like one of these three men is the killer.
35:54
Speaker 1: He's about to get his answer. But as he read
35:57
Speaker 1: through each of these reports, he went from a xhilaration
36:01
Speaker 1: to confusion and finally just total disbelief because none of
36:06
Speaker 1: these prints that he'd submitted matched the ones from Susan's top.
36:11
Speaker 1: Hensley wanted so badly to solve this case, to give
36:14
Speaker 1: Susan's father, Joe his friend, some closure, but now he
36:19
Speaker 1: felt like he was totally out of ideas. Susan's case
36:27
Speaker 1: ultimately went completely cold. Sergeant Hensley retired and nineteen years
36:32
Speaker 1: passed by, and then one day in early two thousand
36:35
Speaker 1: and six, Lieutenant Don Miller of the Stephenville Police department,
36:39
Speaker 1: took a box labeled Susan Woods down from a shelf
36:42
Speaker 1: and evidence storage and carried it back to his office,
36:45
Speaker 1: sat down at his desk and began to look through
36:47
Speaker 1: its contents. Miller had recently been tasked with reviewing the
36:51
Speaker 1: department's unsolved cases, including Susan's. He read all of Sergeant
36:55
Speaker 1: Hensley's notes, He studied the crime scene photos, and he
36:58
Speaker 1: reviewed all the witness statements. None of it looked very promising.
37:01
Speaker 1: In fact, it looked like all the suspects had basically
37:04
Speaker 1: been ruled out. But then he saw those pomp prints
37:06
Speaker 1: that had been lifted from Susan's bathtub, which had never
37:09
Speaker 1: been matched to anyone, and he had an idea. Back
37:13
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven, there had been no centralized database
37:16
Speaker 1: of fingerprints. This meant that unless you had a specific
37:19
Speaker 1: suspect to compare an unknown prints against, the unknown print
37:24
Speaker 1: was effectively useless. And that's really what had happened in
37:27
Speaker 1: Susan's case. None of the suspects had matched this unknown print,
37:32
Speaker 1: so the case was what on a shelf. But in
37:35
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, the FBI now had a national
37:38
Speaker 1: database of all the fingerprints of everybody in America who
37:42
Speaker 1: had ever been arrested and fingerprinted, And this meant that
37:45
Speaker 1: if Susan's killer had ever been arrested for any crime anywhere,
37:50
Speaker 1: their fingerprints would likely be in that database. Now, Lieutenant
37:54
Speaker 1: Miller did not have the budget or the time for
37:57
Speaker 1: a full blown reinvestigation here, but he certainly had the
38:01
Speaker 1: time and money to just submit those prints into this
38:04
Speaker 1: FBI database to just see if there was a hit.
38:07
Speaker 1: So he submitted them and then put her case file
38:10
Speaker 1: back in storage, and sure enough, a few days later,
38:14
Speaker 1: Miller was at his desk when his phone rang and
38:17
Speaker 1: it was the FBI, and they told him they had
38:19
Speaker 1: found a match. But when the FBI agent told Miller
38:23
Speaker 1: the name of the person whose prints these matched, it
38:26
Speaker 1: meant nothing to Miller. He didn't think he'd actually even
38:29
Speaker 1: heard the name before, and the person had been arrested
38:31
Speaker 1: for robbery in Nevada, not Texas. Miller thanked the agent
38:35
Speaker 1: and he quickly began digging through this person's history, and
38:39
Speaker 1: he also went and got the Susan Woods case file,
38:41
Speaker 1: and slowly but surely, it all began to come together.
38:45
Speaker 1: And as Miller read through in her file, all the
38:48
Speaker 1: names of the people that Susan spent her time with.
38:51
Speaker 1: He noticed something, and finally it all just clicked. Lieutenant
38:56
Speaker 1: Miller had found the killer based on evidence collected at
39:07
Speaker 1: the crime scene and the killer's written confession. The following
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Speaker 1: is a reconstruction of what police belief happened to Susan
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Speaker 1: Woods on the evening of Sunday, July twenty sixth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty seven. Stephenville's main street was busy as the killer
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Speaker 1: drove through town in their brown pickup, sipping a mixture
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Speaker 1: of soda, vodka and cough syrup. They stared out their
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Speaker 1: window at all the happy people in the restaurants and
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Speaker 1: the storefronts, And as they stared at these people, a
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Speaker 1: darkness stirred inside the killer. This darkness had been there
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Speaker 1: for years, telling the killer they were no good and
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Speaker 1: they would never be close to anyone. Alcohol was the
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Speaker 1: only thing that seemed to make this darkness go away,
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Speaker 1: so the killers stayed half drunk most of the time,
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Speaker 1: but sometimes even the alcohol wasn't enough. A few years back,
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Speaker 1: when the the TV news had been running non stop
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Speaker 1: with talk about devil worshiping, the killer had been sort
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Speaker 1: of inspired and they thought they might try that and
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Speaker 1: so they had lit a bunch of candles and set
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Speaker 1: them around their room in the shape of a pentagram.
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Speaker 1: And then the killer stripped off their clothes. They stretched
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Speaker 1: out on the floor, and they offered up their soul
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Speaker 1: to the devil in exchange for freedom from this darkness.
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Speaker 1: But unfortunately the darkness remained. And so now the killer,
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Speaker 1: feeling very riled up, took another drink and thought of
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Speaker 1: Susan and the way she'd smiled at them the last
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Speaker 1: time they had seen each other. The killer had not
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Speaker 1: had the courage to make a move back then, but
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Speaker 1: now you know, with this buzz that they had from
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Speaker 1: their drink, they really couldn't see a good reason not
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Speaker 1: to make a pass at Susan. So they turned off
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Speaker 1: the main road and they drove the short distance to
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Speaker 1: Susan's house. In a matter of minutes, the killer was
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Speaker 1: at her door knocking. Susan opened the door, and surprise
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Speaker 1: flashed across her face, but then it's softened into a
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Speaker 1: smile and she told them to come on in. Susan
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Speaker 1: told them to get comfortable, and as they sat down
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Speaker 1: on the couch, she went to the kitchen to get
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Speaker 1: the killer a coke and some snacks. Then she brought
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Speaker 1: them back and she sat down on the couch next
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Speaker 1: to the killer to talk and catch up, and that
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Speaker 1: was when the killer made their move. They leaned in
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Speaker 1: to kiss her, but Susan immediately pulled back, suddenly angry.
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Speaker 1: The killer grabbed her and Susan slapped them across the face,
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Speaker 1: and right then the killer exploded. They would take almost
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Speaker 1: twenty years, but that single action of the killer placing
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Speaker 1: their hands on the bathtub did eventually give Lieutenant Miller
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Speaker 1: the killer's identity. He was the younger cousin of Susan's
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Speaker 1: best friend, Cindy Hallmark, and he was one of the
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Speaker 1: members of that round Table group who supported Susan through
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Speaker 1: her divorce. He had also been at Susan's funeral and
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Speaker 1: helped her friends through the aftermath of her death. The
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Speaker 1: killer's name was Scott Hatley, and just a week before
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Speaker 1: he killed her, he had been hanging out with the
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Speaker 1: members of the Roundtable and Susan was there. And Susan,
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Speaker 1: who was this you know, very shy, gentle person, had
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Speaker 1: sort of opened up around this group. You know, she
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Speaker 1: was feeling happier and happier, largely because this group of friends,
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Speaker 1: including Scott, had been so supportive. You know, she really
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Speaker 1: felt like she belonged here and was safe here. And
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Speaker 1: during that meeting amongst the members of the roundtable, just
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Speaker 1: sort of inexplicably, Susan had looked over at Scott and
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Speaker 1: simply smiled at him, and for that reason, pretty much alone,
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Speaker 1: Scott a week later had shown up on her doorstep
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Speaker 1: and murdered her. By the time Lieutenant Miller put all
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Speaker 1: of this together, Hatlee was forty one years old and
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Speaker 1: was still a free man, and so on June seventh,
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Speaker 1: two thousand and six, Miller had him arrested and charged
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Speaker 1: him with Susan's murder. He would ultimately take a plea
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Speaker 1: deal and was sentenced to thirty years in prison, but
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Speaker 1: would only serve eleven years before he was released for
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Speaker 1: good behavior. However, three years after Hatley got out of prison,
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Speaker 1: he was found dead inside of av from cancer complications,
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Speaker 1: and among his things investigators would find this handwritten diary
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Speaker 1: where he confessed to Susan's murder. The pages were also
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Speaker 1: filled with references to Satan and demons, and Hatley specifically
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Speaker 1: wrote that some kind of outside presence had been responsible
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Speaker 1: for pushing him to ultimately assault and kill Susan. Thank
43:33
Speaker 1: you so much for watching. Let me know what you
43:35
Speaker 1: thought of today's episode in the comments, and remember, we
43:38
Speaker 1: have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for
43:40
Speaker 1: you to binge right now, so click here and give
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Speaker 1: them a watch. All right, until next time, see you