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Murder on Main Street - Serial Killer Documentary · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:05
Speaker 1: In a community where main street is only one block long,
0:09
Speaker 1: with the population of barely one hundred, the folks of
0:12
Speaker 1: the farming village of Colon, Nebraska have come to rely
0:15
Speaker 1: on each other.
0:17
Speaker 2: That's just the way it is. People know each other
0:19
Speaker 2: and help out who We're.
0:21
Speaker 3: Just good folks with good hearts.
0:23
Speaker 1: But on a late summer evening in two thousand and three,
0:27
Speaker 1: that idyllic harmony is shattered when the shocking murder of
0:31
Speaker 1: longtime resident Sharon Ericksson turns main street into a crime scene.
0:37
Speaker 4: There's a gang laying by her head in a pool
0:40
Speaker 4: of blood.
0:42
Speaker 5: Someone had to get over that fence and cut the phone.
0:45
Speaker 4: Life everybody across the border.
0:47
Speaker 1: Shocks and questions of who the killer may be break
0:51
Speaker 1: communal bonds.
0:53
Speaker 2: People started pointing figures at each other, saying.
0:56
Speaker 4: I bet he did it, or he did it.
1:00
Speaker 2: He did it.
1:01
Speaker 5: It's in the town of one hundred and forty or
1:03
Speaker 5: less people. They're all suspects.
1:06
Speaker 4: It's hard to believe and accept. The killer probably was
1:10
Speaker 4: somebody living next door.
1:12
Speaker 1: No locals who once looked out for each other looking suspiciously.
1:20
Speaker 6: Each other.
1:41
Speaker 7: On June thirtieth, two thousand and three, I was on patrol.
1:45
Speaker 7: It's evening time in the middle of the summer, and
1:49
Speaker 7: there's still plenty of sunlight. I received a call from
1:52
Speaker 7: our dispatch center.
1:54
Speaker 1: N I need an ambulance.
1:56
Speaker 8: Okay, what's going on?
1:58
Speaker 9: And neighbor a lady in Colin was missing founder.
2:00
Speaker 3: And if she possibly did I guessn't hold that we
2:04
Speaker 3: need the shar.
2:05
Speaker 4: It probably a mort.
2:09
Speaker 10: Or.
2:09
Speaker 7: Dispatch center indicated that somebody in Colwan had located a
2:14
Speaker 7: deceased female and believed that she had committed suicide. And
2:19
Speaker 7: she's in a garage along Main Street.
2:23
Speaker 4: Main Street is one block long. There's the bank in
2:27
Speaker 4: the post office, and the restaurant and bar, but there
2:31
Speaker 4: are houses there.
2:33
Speaker 7: I arrived at the scene, made contact with the volunteer
2:40
Speaker 7: firefighters and the ladies from the bank that were standing there.
2:45
Speaker 7: The bank employees got a call from Sharon's family member
2:48
Speaker 7: saying that she had missed their.
2:49
Speaker 4: Five o'clock phone call.
2:51
Speaker 7: They had been asked to go over and check on
2:55
Speaker 7: Sharon Erickson. The garage was open and I could see
3:01
Speaker 7: the car inside along with the deceased female. She was
3:06
Speaker 7: on the left side of the car with her head
3:08
Speaker 7: near the front left tire.
3:10
Speaker 1: In a small town of Colon Karna Codin also happens
3:14
Speaker 1: to be the local prosecutor.
3:17
Speaker 4: I meet with the deputy that was first on the scene.
3:19
Speaker 4: He shows me where the body is. She was wearing
3:24
Speaker 4: what appeared to be like clothes that she would be
3:26
Speaker 4: sleeping in, just like a pajama outfit. There's a gun
3:30
Speaker 4: that is laying just by her head, which is in
3:34
Speaker 4: a pull of blood, and it appears that maybe it's
3:36
Speaker 4: a self inflicted gunshot. She had a small purse, we
3:40
Speaker 4: were guessing at that time maybe that's where she carried
3:42
Speaker 4: her handgun.
3:45
Speaker 7: I did notice that Sharon's shorts were pulled down slightly
3:49
Speaker 7: on one side and her tank top was pulled up
3:53
Speaker 7: just a little bit, exposing her stomach, and also noticed
3:57
Speaker 7: that there was a blood smear on a car.
4:02
Speaker 5: Sharon had been married, what was divorced, didn't have any children.
4:06
Speaker 5: It looked like it could have been a suicide.
4:11
Speaker 4: We talked to everybody at the scene. We learned Sharon
4:15
Speaker 4: had a very definitive routine. Every morning, about eight am,
4:19
Speaker 4: she would go to the postmaster, Rick Hartman get her mail.
4:23
Speaker 4: The post office list right next door to Sharon's residence.
4:27
Speaker 4: She would talk to him for you know fifteen twenty minutes,
4:30
Speaker 4: go over to the bank, check, chat with the ladies,
4:32
Speaker 4: do her business, and then go about her day from there.
4:38
Speaker 5: Sharon and her relative communicated at least once a day,
4:42
Speaker 5: generally at five o'clock. On the day her body was found,
4:46
Speaker 5: her family member hadn't received a phone call and then
4:50
Speaker 5: contacted the bank and asked the employees if they had
4:53
Speaker 5: seen her, and when they hadn't seen her, then the
4:56
Speaker 5: family member requested that they do a welfare check.
5:00
Speaker 4: The bank ladies contacted Rick Cartman, the postmaster, and asked
5:05
Speaker 4: if he had seen her earlier that day. He said
5:09
Speaker 4: he did not see her. So Rick Hartman actually had
5:15
Speaker 4: a key to her place, so they went.
5:18
Speaker 5: To her home. Her house was unlocked, that was unusual.
5:22
Speaker 5: There was an alarm going off.
5:24
Speaker 7: She had an alarm that went around a door handle
5:27
Speaker 7: on the back door, and they've turned that off.
5:32
Speaker 4: They can't find her in her residence. Assurance's residence was
5:35
Speaker 4: on one side of the street. Her garage where she
5:38
Speaker 4: kept her car, was actually across the street. The postmaster
5:41
Speaker 4: found the garage door opener, opened the garage door.
5:45
Speaker 8: And.
5:48
Speaker 4: Rick Cartman found her body laying next to her car
5:52
Speaker 4: in her garage.
5:56
Speaker 1: Analyzing the tragic scene, something cutches the eye of investigate us.
6:01
Speaker 4: We walk around to the back of the car and
6:04
Speaker 4: the deputy says that he's concerned because there's blood on
6:08
Speaker 4: the back of the bumper. He couldn't explain why it
6:11
Speaker 4: was there. We could never find a shell casing, but
6:15
Speaker 4: we thought maybe it got tucked into her clothes and
6:18
Speaker 4: we would find it at the autopsy.
6:20
Speaker 7: And then also found that there was no magazine in
6:24
Speaker 7: the gun.
6:27
Speaker 4: In the evening, as the sun lord, it started shining
6:31
Speaker 4: into the garage opening and at that point we noticed
6:35
Speaker 4: that there was actually blood on the doorframe. Deputy Coglin
6:40
Speaker 4: opened the door and then you could see on the
6:42
Speaker 4: inside the doorframe that there was a noticeable amount of blood.
6:46
Speaker 4: That totally changed the way we're looking at everything. We
6:52
Speaker 4: both thought, Okay, somebody else had to have done that,
6:55
Speaker 4: because she could not have shot herself and then struggled
6:59
Speaker 4: with the door, shut the door and then put herself
7:01
Speaker 4: in that position without blood being in a different spot.
7:06
Speaker 4: At that point we realized it was not self inflicted
7:08
Speaker 4: gunshot wound.
7:11
Speaker 6: This isn't a suicide, this is a murder.
7:15
Speaker 1: Now, investigators explore the scene with new eyes looking for
7:19
Speaker 1: clues as to who could have done this, and outside
7:22
Speaker 1: Sharon's garage, word spreads along Main Street.
7:28
Speaker 2: I was in the office when people came in said,
7:30
Speaker 2: did you hear about Sharon? Sharon was found murdered.
7:33
Speaker 4: I went, what.
7:35
Speaker 2: Quiet little community that people always got along good. It's
7:40
Speaker 2: scary and unbelievable.
7:44
Speaker 8: Oh, I couldn't believe that when the news came out.
7:47
Speaker 8: Sharon lived on Main Street and I lived one block
7:50
Speaker 8: off in our little community.
7:53
Speaker 4: You just don't even think of those things. It doesn't
7:56
Speaker 4: happen in Colon.
7:58
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing comes to you when you're thinking
8:02
Speaker 2: who could have done it? Well, anybody.
8:05
Speaker 6: Frightened by her murder.
8:07
Speaker 1: Colon's tight knit community wonders why anyone would kill someone
8:11
Speaker 1: so well regarded as Sharon.
8:14
Speaker 5: I had a lot of interaction with her at the
8:16
Speaker 5: Treasure's office. Sharon Erickson was very well known in Colon,
8:21
Speaker 5: and she was well known in the county as she'd
8:23
Speaker 5: worked for the County Treasure's office for over thirty years.
8:27
Speaker 2: Sharon Erickson had probably the highest standards of anybody that
8:30
Speaker 2: worked at the courthouse. She was always dressed properly, very
8:35
Speaker 2: cordial to people. My kids got to know Sharon mostly
8:39
Speaker 2: when we'd go to a convention, because Sharon liked to swim.
8:43
Speaker 2: Sharon jumped in the pool, and of course my kids
8:46
Speaker 2: are in right with her.
8:48
Speaker 8: Sharon was bubbly. She always had positive things to say
8:52
Speaker 8: about other people.
8:55
Speaker 2: This is a retirement party for Saron at the courthouse.
9:00
Speaker 2: Everyone bought a dish and they had a cake. It
9:05
Speaker 2: was just wow, can you believe Sharon just retired? And
9:09
Speaker 2: so that was really sad.
9:15
Speaker 1: At Sharon's property, some investiga just keeps speaking with the
9:18
Speaker 1: locals while others had to cross main street to begin
9:20
Speaker 1: a suite of Sharon's home where she recently installed.
9:24
Speaker 6: I did protection.
9:26
Speaker 4: We found out that Sharon had just constructed a new
9:30
Speaker 4: final fence within a few days of the crime happening.
9:36
Speaker 5: Friends of Sharon indicated that she was pretty paranoid. She
9:40
Speaker 5: was concerned about her safety, the fact that she lived
9:44
Speaker 5: alone and everybody in town knew she lived alone.
9:50
Speaker 4: Law enforcement, trying to figure out what happened at the house,
9:53
Speaker 4: noticed that her phone mine was cut, so.
9:56
Speaker 5: Someone had to get over that fence, and then they
9:59
Speaker 5: had to go there and cut the phone line. So
10:03
Speaker 5: someone was somewhat familiar with either her and or her residence.
10:10
Speaker 5: Inside of her home, you can see that it's neat,
10:13
Speaker 5: but the back door had a prime mark on it.
10:16
Speaker 5: Someone had tried to get into the house.
10:19
Speaker 7: Who did find one object that looked like maybe it
10:23
Speaker 7: could have been used to pry the door open. It
10:26
Speaker 7: was a cold chisel, a heavy metal object, kind of rusty,
10:30
Speaker 7: that was laying on the floor.
10:35
Speaker 1: Moving into Sharon's bedroom, investigators uncover more telling clues.
10:40
Speaker 7: We don't find any signs of struggle, but we do
10:42
Speaker 7: see that there's a empty holster that's sitting on a
10:46
Speaker 7: table that looked like she might have been in bed
10:50
Speaker 7: and might have taken the gun out of the holster
10:53
Speaker 7: and left in a hurry.
10:55
Speaker 5: Because the phone line was cut, we were pretty certain
10:59
Speaker 5: something happened in the home. First, we believed that the
11:03
Speaker 5: clothes she had on, some small shorts, underwear and a
11:07
Speaker 5: tank top, may have been bedtime calling. We assumed she
11:11
Speaker 5: ran across to get into her garage because she needed
11:14
Speaker 5: to escape because she couldn't call for help. Sharon didn't
11:19
Speaker 5: keep a large amount of cash or any particular valuables
11:22
Speaker 5: in her home. We discovered that there was cash in
11:24
Speaker 5: her purse, so the assailan who was trying to get
11:27
Speaker 5: into their home. It wasn't clear to us what they
11:30
Speaker 5: were going in there.
11:31
Speaker 1: For Investigators look for ANSAs from Sharon's main Street friends
11:36
Speaker 1: who found our buddy.
11:38
Speaker 4: Everybody that's there is a suspect, so we wanted to
11:43
Speaker 4: talk to the bank ladies and the postmaster.
11:50
Speaker 7: I asked the different people involved to all write out
11:53
Speaker 7: a statement as to what happened. Everybody who was very patient,
11:58
Speaker 7: with the exception of the post master Rick Hartman. A
12:02
Speaker 7: couple different times I had to ask him to step
12:05
Speaker 7: back because he kept coming up close to the garage
12:08
Speaker 7: or in the garage. Kind of started wondering why he
12:12
Speaker 7: was inserting himself so much in the situation.
12:17
Speaker 5: The postmaster did.
12:18
Speaker 7: A complete one hundred and eighty degree flip. He got
12:21
Speaker 7: angry and said to me, if you're gonna arrest me,
12:24
Speaker 7: arrest me, but I'm leaving.
12:29
Speaker 6: Coming up.
12:30
Speaker 4: This is something that was personal.
12:33
Speaker 5: People said, you need to check further on where that
12:36
Speaker 5: neighbor was, because this person's not telling you the truth.
12:40
Speaker 3: Sharon was not one to shy away from conflict.
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Speaker 4: We started hearing rumors that the postmaster and Sharon were
12:48
Speaker 4: more than friends.
12:53
Speaker 10: The killer among US mostly on Ncomming new series Somebody's
12:56
Speaker 10: at Seven on Oxygen true crime.
13:04
Speaker 1: After sixty six year old retiree Sharon Erickson is found
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Speaker 1: dead in her main street garage in Cola, Nebraska, authorities
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Speaker 1: take note of the postmaster's bizarre actions at the scene.
13:17
Speaker 6: Is this something the postmaster is trying to conceal?
13:23
Speaker 4: Rick Hartman was the postmaster. His interaction stood out because
13:28
Speaker 4: he was trying so much to inject himself into the scene.
13:34
Speaker 4: So we talked with the postmaster.
13:37
Speaker 5: Mister Hartman was a postman for a number of years,
13:41
Speaker 5: very friendly with Sharon at her house all the time.
13:45
Speaker 5: He said when she would go on vacation or out
13:47
Speaker 5: of town, he would watch her place. He had a
13:50
Speaker 5: key to her place. But when you're interviewing somebody, their
13:55
Speaker 5: body language, anything emotionally that's coming out, you're trying to
14:00
Speaker 5: judge is this unusual or is it not unusual? And
14:04
Speaker 5: his lined up on the unusual side. He was kind
14:08
Speaker 5: of like, come on, what else do you have to
14:10
Speaker 5: ask me?
14:13
Speaker 1: Detective's number one question is where was Rick when Sharon
14:18
Speaker 1: was being murdered.
14:19
Speaker 5: The postmaster's alibi was that he was home. His wife
14:23
Speaker 5: also came to the scene, and his wife confirmed that
14:27
Speaker 5: you have to be aware of how valid the alibi is.
14:31
Speaker 5: Does that person have anything to gain or lose by
14:33
Speaker 5: giving you a bad information? Do you think they're hiding something?
14:37
Speaker 5: Do you think they're lying about something? And mister Hartman's
14:40
Speaker 5: relationship with Sharon, we weren't one hundred percent sure what
14:44
Speaker 5: that was, so he was involved in her life. I
14:47
Speaker 5: will say that.
14:50
Speaker 7: What we're trained is not just to necessarily react based
14:54
Speaker 7: on what somebody says right then. So we made the
14:57
Speaker 7: decision to go ahead and release everybody and we would
15:00
Speaker 7: follow up later if we needed to.
15:08
Speaker 4: We had the transport come in, bagged the body, and
15:12
Speaker 4: then just took it into the autopsy. We didn't finish
15:17
Speaker 4: up with a scene till about five thirty or six
15:19
Speaker 4: the next morning.
15:26
Speaker 6: The day after Sharon's body is discovered.
15:29
Speaker 1: Investigator's first look to establish a time frame in which
15:33
Speaker 1: the murder must have occurred.
15:36
Speaker 4: We were in contact with her family. We learned that
15:41
Speaker 4: the day prior to the murder, Sharon had met some
15:44
Speaker 4: family for supper. She got on about five thirty, so
15:50
Speaker 4: we knew the time frame was about five thirty in
15:52
Speaker 4: the evening the day before and up to when she
15:56
Speaker 4: missed her morning visit to the post office, probably eight
16:00
Speaker 4: am the next day.
16:06
Speaker 9: Sharon was really good friends with her cousin in Lincoln, Nebraska,
16:09
Speaker 9: and it was this cousin who actually dropped her off
16:12
Speaker 9: at her home the evening before Sharon was murdered.
16:16
Speaker 1: I'm just speaking with the cousin who had nothing out
16:19
Speaker 1: of the ordinary to note. Investigators then begin extensively compassing
16:23
Speaker 1: the community of Main.
16:24
Speaker 5: Street, so we have the bank personnel, the postman, They're
16:29
Speaker 5: all suspects until we can exclude them. We started out
16:34
Speaker 5: going door to door asking them if they heard a
16:37
Speaker 5: dog barking, if they saw a light somewhere, heard a noise,
16:40
Speaker 5: anything that was out of the ordinary.
16:44
Speaker 4: Sharon had lived there a lot of years. The Mars
16:47
Speaker 4: has lived in the back and kind of catty corner
16:50
Speaker 4: from Sharon. She knew the Mars family. There were a
16:56
Speaker 4: couple people in town that were oh, just nothing serious,
17:01
Speaker 4: but would get in trouble, such as their son, James Mars.
17:05
Speaker 1: James Mars is twenty five years old and works as
17:08
Speaker 1: a farm haunt in the area.
17:12
Speaker 5: When we talked to the family, James Mars was pretty
17:16
Speaker 5: cooperative in answering questions. His mom was cooperative. The knight
17:21
Speaker 5: of the homicide, mars said he had been drinking in
17:24
Speaker 5: a bar and Wahoo and then said he went to
17:28
Speaker 5: a friend's house and then went home. We talked to
17:32
Speaker 5: that friend and he'd confirmed mars Alibi his mom was
17:38
Speaker 5: up waiting for him and verified that he came home.
17:42
Speaker 5: James mars Alibi checked out.
17:46
Speaker 6: As the main streets canvas cut his own.
17:48
Speaker 1: Investigators learned Sharon kept a sharp eye on her street
17:52
Speaker 1: and her neighbors.
17:56
Speaker 3: Sharon was said not to be one that would shy
17:58
Speaker 3: away from con flicked.
18:02
Speaker 5: Sharon would complain from time to time about people that
18:05
Speaker 5: would stay up too late because she was on Main
18:08
Speaker 5: Street and there was a bar across the road. Someone
18:11
Speaker 5: would leave the bar radio would be allowed grab their
18:14
Speaker 5: car up. But they were all pretty minor things that
18:18
Speaker 5: just happened in a small community.
18:21
Speaker 1: However, investigators discover the one neighbor whom Sharon had a
18:24
Speaker 1: deeper dislike for was the one closest to her new fence.
18:31
Speaker 4: We learned that Sharon had a argumentative, contentious relationship with
18:35
Speaker 4: the trucker next door. They weren't the best of friends.
18:39
Speaker 4: And then we heard it from other people that Sharon
18:42
Speaker 4: really did.
18:43
Speaker 2: Not like him.
18:50
Speaker 10: The killer among us sost My islandcomming new series Somebody's
18:53
Speaker 10: at Seven on Oxygen True.
18:54
Speaker 1: Crime, detectives learned Sharon Erickson had some run ins with
19:05
Speaker 1: a trucker next door. Could this Man Street residence be
19:09
Speaker 1: responsible for ending Sharon's life?
19:13
Speaker 4: Right next to Sharon's residence, there was a trucker that
19:16
Speaker 4: had a shop. He would park his vehicles there do
19:20
Speaker 4: a lot of work on his semi which is loud.
19:25
Speaker 5: The truck driver and Sharon both had strong personalities and
19:28
Speaker 5: they would both tell each other what they thought. She
19:32
Speaker 5: had a number of conversations with a trucker. Can you
19:36
Speaker 5: turn that off earlier? Can you not park here?
19:40
Speaker 4: In speaking with the trucker, he said that Sharon liked
19:45
Speaker 4: her piece and quiet, and at times he would maybe
19:48
Speaker 4: antagonize Sharon on purpose.
19:52
Speaker 1: Detectives pressed the trucker asking where he was the night
19:55
Speaker 1: of June the thirtieth.
19:58
Speaker 5: The trucker said the knight of the homicide, he was
20:00
Speaker 5: in another state. Had receipts at a truck stop.
20:06
Speaker 1: The trucker promises to a ton with receipts, but until
20:09
Speaker 1: then he demands a suspect, one of many in the
20:13
Speaker 1: eyes of detectives on townsfolk alike.
20:16
Speaker 2: People go on main street sort of pointing figures at
20:19
Speaker 2: each other saying, I bet he did it, or he
20:22
Speaker 2: did it, or he did it, And so people got
20:26
Speaker 2: labeled and people had to live with them. So if
20:30
Speaker 2: you knew Saron, then you could be a suspect very easy.
20:39
Speaker 3: And if it is somebody in town, then that means
20:42
Speaker 3: that they're still there.
20:44
Speaker 5: I knew most of the people in Colon. There's some
20:47
Speaker 5: people that you just go, there's no way, and then
20:51
Speaker 5: there are other people that you go, I can see
20:53
Speaker 5: a possibility here. You hope you're wrong, but you wonder
20:58
Speaker 5: if the killer's watching you. You wonder if the killer's
21:01
Speaker 5: doing something to cover up evidence, and then you always
21:05
Speaker 5: wonder what am I missing.
21:11
Speaker 1: Detectives find that new leads are difficult to come by,
21:14
Speaker 1: but one week since her murder, Sharon's autopsy concludes, and
21:18
Speaker 1: the results cause investigators to ask what kind of killer
21:22
Speaker 1: are they facing.
21:25
Speaker 4: Everybody in law enforcement, myself included, at that point, we're
21:29
Speaker 4: leaning to somebody shot her and just dropped the gun there.
21:34
Speaker 4: We tended the autopsy and we learned that there actually
21:38
Speaker 4: was not even a gunshot. There was no bullet hole.
21:42
Speaker 4: It was actually roll that she died of strangulation. Everybody
21:47
Speaker 4: across the border shot.
21:49
Speaker 5: And then she had blunt trauma to her head, so
21:52
Speaker 5: it was pretty clear that she was confronted, beaten and
21:55
Speaker 5: then strangled.
21:59
Speaker 4: They did sexual assault swab and they sent those in
22:03
Speaker 4: for testing. But once you realize that strangulation was the
22:07
Speaker 4: cause of death and you start thinking this is something
22:13
Speaker 4: that was personal, strangulation doesn't happen a few seconds. It
22:17
Speaker 4: takes a while for that to happen. So somebody had
22:21
Speaker 4: to be up close with her and determined to make
22:24
Speaker 4: sure that they ended her life.
22:29
Speaker 9: Strangulation can be motivated by very intense emotions, be it power, control, anger, retaliation,
22:37
Speaker 9: even revenge.
22:42
Speaker 1: Well, the cause of death revealed as an exceptionally brutal strangulation.
22:47
Speaker 1: Sauandre's Country detectives huddle up with renewed Vigot.
22:51
Speaker 4: We had a few days where we were theorizing on
22:54
Speaker 4: what could have happened. Who have we all talked to
22:57
Speaker 4: at the scene, who would all be living within a
23:02
Speaker 4: two block three lock radius, which essentially is the whole
23:05
Speaker 4: town in Colon, and who could be a potential suspect
23:09
Speaker 4: from that.
23:09
Speaker 1: Pool, and the suspect that surfaces to the tub is
23:15
Speaker 1: the trucker with whom Sharon had a beef.
23:18
Speaker 5: You wonder if there's maybe something that's more hostile.
23:25
Speaker 1: When investigators follow up, the trucker provides a proof he
23:28
Speaker 1: was far from Main Street the night of Sharon's death.
23:31
Speaker 5: The trucker was in another state. He had receipts at
23:34
Speaker 5: a truck stop, so we were able to prove that
23:37
Speaker 5: he was completely out of state. Didn't have to worry
23:40
Speaker 5: about a timeline.
23:44
Speaker 1: Now, with the trucker cleared, investigators still don't have a
23:48
Speaker 1: top suspect, but when results from the DNA swaps come in,
23:53
Speaker 1: they wonder if their luck is about to change.
23:56
Speaker 4: We found out that there was actually seamen that was
23:59
Speaker 4: discovered on the swamp. It really made people wonder what actually.
24:08
Speaker 10: Happened the killer among us host going Alan Comming New
24:17
Speaker 10: series Sundays at seven on Oxygen. True Crime.
24:27
Speaker 1: Swabs taken from Shannon Ellickson's autopsy reveals she had not
24:31
Speaker 1: only been beaten and strangled, sexually assaulted, deepening the mystery
24:36
Speaker 1: for detectives.
24:39
Speaker 4: So you start theorizing did the sexual assault occur? At
24:43
Speaker 4: the residents and they got in a fight and they
24:45
Speaker 4: ran across the street. Or did the assault occur only
24:51
Speaker 4: at the garage and the strangulation occurred from there.
24:57
Speaker 1: Armed with this new intel, detectives urgently shuttle the swab
25:00
Speaker 1: from Sharon's autopsy to the lab, hoping it will yield
25:04
Speaker 1: a DNA profile of the killer.
25:07
Speaker 4: So we sent the evidence to the un MC the
25:09
Speaker 4: Medcenter in Omaha, Nebraska. It will be a few weeks
25:14
Speaker 4: before we could possibly get just the profile back. But
25:19
Speaker 4: once we determined that there was seemen located, and anytime
25:24
Speaker 4: you see a strangulation, it becomes more personal. You're up
25:29
Speaker 4: close with somebody and you're in contact with them, we
25:35
Speaker 4: were able to focus on narrowing down who would be
25:39
Speaker 4: personally associated with Sharon.
25:43
Speaker 5: Then we started asking for swabs just so we had
25:46
Speaker 5: them on file.
25:48
Speaker 1: Based on the new sexual homicide profile, detectives turn their
25:52
Speaker 1: sites on Sharon's male friends and the token ton points to.
25:56
Speaker 6: One man.
26:00
Speaker 4: Started hearing rumors that maybe the postmaster and Sharon were
26:04
Speaker 4: more than friends.
26:07
Speaker 3: Folks around town who'd sit around the coffee shop and say, well,
26:10
Speaker 3: I wonder who did it?
26:11
Speaker 4: His name would pop up.
26:16
Speaker 2: I was golf with the Postmaster at the time, and
26:19
Speaker 2: he said it was just terrible the way he was
26:22
Speaker 2: treated by some people, shunned and scared of him. You
26:27
Speaker 2: have compassion for him, but it's hard to make a
26:30
Speaker 2: conclusion because maybe he did it.
26:36
Speaker 1: Investigators postmaster Rick higher on that suspect list. When he
26:41
Speaker 1: shows up one place, in particular, Sharon's estate sale.
26:46
Speaker 4: You always hear about the onlookers at a scene that
26:49
Speaker 4: are actually the ones that did it. We were wondering
26:53
Speaker 4: would the killer show up at the estate sale and
26:56
Speaker 4: look at her items or you just want to be there?
27:00
Speaker 4: What's going on? So we decided that we're going to
27:04
Speaker 4: get a list of everybody that attends to the state
27:06
Speaker 4: sale and find out who's buying Sharance property.
27:11
Speaker 1: The day of the estate sale, detectives discover Rick Hotman
27:14
Speaker 1: is in attendance and he's keen on one specific item.
27:19
Speaker 4: Law enforcement called and said, we saw the postmaster buying
27:24
Speaker 4: the bed mattress.
27:27
Speaker 5: The fact that we were trying to determine the level
27:29
Speaker 5: of his relationship with Sharon and then he bought her
27:33
Speaker 5: bed at the auction, you have a sexual assault.
27:37
Speaker 4: So you start wondering if he knew that there could
27:40
Speaker 4: be some DNA from him on the mattress.
27:46
Speaker 1: Because of their Discoverty detectives bring back Rick from another
27:49
Speaker 1: round of questioning.
27:51
Speaker 5: When we talked to him about that. What was even
27:53
Speaker 5: more unusual is he denied that he purchased the bed.
27:58
Speaker 5: Why would you be trying to conceal that?
28:01
Speaker 1: Detective's press Rick on his purchase of Sharon's mattress, finally
28:05
Speaker 1: getting him to fess up.
28:07
Speaker 5: He said he had some kids that were leaving home
28:09
Speaker 5: going to college and bought it for them. But he
28:12
Speaker 5: just did a number of things that caused us to
28:14
Speaker 5: second guess everything he was telling us.
28:20
Speaker 1: Then a call from the lab about Sharon's autopsy Swabs
28:23
Speaker 1: breeds new life into the hunt.
28:28
Speaker 4: The lab was able to get a DNA profile from Swab.
28:34
Speaker 4: We run it through the database, which was a little
28:37
Speaker 4: bit smaller in two thousand and three because not all
28:40
Speaker 4: felony convictions were required to submit. We didn't have any
28:44
Speaker 4: matches at the time. We just had a DNA profile.
28:47
Speaker 4: So if we find our guy and he's a match,
28:50
Speaker 4: we're going to be pretty sure we have the right suspect.
28:55
Speaker 6: The killers.
28:56
Speaker 1: DNA has yet to be compared to Swab's previously collect
29:00
Speaker 1: a pen sticking process, and as the month throwby, no
29:04
Speaker 1: matches come back from the lab, leaving investigators with no
29:08
Speaker 1: proof depend Sharon's murder on anyone.
29:13
Speaker 5: We looked into every lead we had. We were in
29:16
Speaker 5: Colon probably every day. We just didn't have anything. Your
29:21
Speaker 5: fear is that how long is it going to go?
29:24
Speaker 4: We were always actively involved, but at some point you
29:27
Speaker 4: realize that you're going to start losing potential witnesses or
29:34
Speaker 4: information and it's just not going to be easy to solve.
29:39
Speaker 5: You certainly don't want somebody out there who's capable of
29:44
Speaker 5: beating someone, strangling them and sexually assaultment.
29:48
Speaker 3: We still had no answers into who committed this crime
29:53
Speaker 3: against Sharon. You wanted to know that Sharon, her family,
29:58
Speaker 3: and her friends would be able to get some justice
30:02
Speaker 3: in knowing who did this and maybe why.
30:08
Speaker 1: The main street regular who investigates us keep coming back
30:11
Speaker 1: to is the man who knew Sharon best Rick Harton.
30:18
Speaker 5: We were trying to figure out the extent of his
30:20
Speaker 5: relationship with Sharon. He agreed to a polygraph that the
30:24
Speaker 5: polygraph was inconclusive, so he naturally was one that we
30:31
Speaker 5: wanted to exclude with DNA. Mister Hartman submitted a DNA sample.
30:38
Speaker 6: Then, knowing they could be just one step away from
30:41
Speaker 6: cracking the case.
30:42
Speaker 1: A new tip surfaces, putting a different Main Street neighbor,
30:46
Speaker 1: one who lives just as stone's throw away from Sharon,
30:49
Speaker 1: back in the crosshairs. The twenty five year old farm
30:52
Speaker 1: hunt James Mars.
30:57
Speaker 5: James Marsh who lived right behind her. The individual that
31:01
Speaker 5: was providing the James Mars alibi. We started hearing that
31:06
Speaker 5: James asked him to confirm that he was at his
31:08
Speaker 5: house if the police came and asked questions. Other people said,
31:13
Speaker 5: you need to check further on where James Mars was
31:16
Speaker 5: because this person providing the alibi is not telling you
31:20
Speaker 5: the truth. The alibi for James Mars started to lose credibility.
31:28
Speaker 10: The killer among us was to go on incoming new
31:39
Speaker 10: series Somebody's at seven on Oxygen True Crime.
31:47
Speaker 1: I mean, just receive a tip that James Mars may
31:49
Speaker 1: have manufactured as alibi. Detectives mobilized to obtain his DNA.
31:56
Speaker 5: Initially, Mars alibia where he was that night checked out.
32:01
Speaker 5: Mars had indicated that after the bar we went to
32:04
Speaker 5: a friend's house. We heard from many people that James
32:07
Speaker 5: had asked that friend, if the police asked where I
32:11
Speaker 5: was that night, you need to tell him that I
32:14
Speaker 5: was here. As the investigation proceeded, we talked to that friend.
32:19
Speaker 5: The individual that was providing the alibi wasn't very credible
32:23
Speaker 5: and never admitted to line about the ally. The people
32:27
Speaker 5: that James Mars associated with were no strangers to law
32:30
Speaker 5: enforcement in the community. Although James wasn't brought in and interrogated,
32:36
Speaker 5: he submitted a DNA swab.
32:39
Speaker 1: Authorities rushed the Mars DNA sample to the lab, joining
32:43
Speaker 1: the swab collected from Rick Hartman, hoping.
32:45
Speaker 6: One will match the murderous DNA.
32:49
Speaker 5: Our top suspects were mister Hartman and James Marr's. Mister
32:54
Speaker 5: Hartman had a close friendly relationship with Sharon Erickson, the
32:59
Speaker 5: fact that he was at her house all the time,
33:02
Speaker 5: purchased her bed, and he's being a basie. James Mars
33:08
Speaker 5: was on the list for a number of reasons. One,
33:12
Speaker 5: he was out drinking that night and James Mahr's parents'
33:16
Speaker 5: home where he resides is right behind Sharan's house. When
33:22
Speaker 5: we suspected that he was lying about his alibi, that
33:25
Speaker 5: raised the concern even more, but we were also wondering,
33:30
Speaker 5: is there someone that we've completely missed.
33:39
Speaker 1: Then, after tracking down leads for ten relentless months, detectives
33:43
Speaker 1: finally get the call they've been waiting for her.
33:45
Speaker 4: I get a phone call from the med center and
33:49
Speaker 4: they tell me they had a DNA match. I actually
33:52
Speaker 4: had to stop and think about it. Did I hear
33:54
Speaker 4: that right? She tells me that they actually got a
33:58
Speaker 4: match with a sample that was taken from Sherman.
34:02
Speaker 5: She said, they've got a match, and then it matched
34:05
Speaker 5: James Mars. The DNA hit was enough to arrest him,
34:15
Speaker 5: but there was still some investigation that need to be
34:18
Speaker 5: done with James Mars.
34:20
Speaker 1: James Mars is arrested for the margin of Shannon Edison.
34:24
Speaker 1: Investigators bring Mars to the station an attempt to get
34:28
Speaker 1: him to confess.
34:30
Speaker 5: James Mars was brought into an interview room. He didn't
34:35
Speaker 5: volunteer anything. His confession came bits and pieces. Well I
34:39
Speaker 5: didn't remember that, and then he would eventually say it,
34:41
Speaker 5: so it wasn't like he just finally said, yeah, here's
34:45
Speaker 5: what I did. Mars said that he had been drinking
34:49
Speaker 5: in a bar and wahoo, he did a line of
34:51
Speaker 5: cocaine with a friend. James came home. He was hoping
34:56
Speaker 5: to find up some gas money and bear money, so
34:59
Speaker 5: he went to Sharon Erickson's home, jumped the fence, cut
35:04
Speaker 5: the phone line, and was kicking her back door in
35:07
Speaker 5: when the alarm went off, and then she confronted him.
35:14
Speaker 4: And her gun was not loaded. She probably grandished the
35:18
Speaker 4: weapon to scare James.
35:22
Speaker 5: She recognized who he was, called him and asked told
35:26
Speaker 5: him to get out of her backyard. When she called
35:30
Speaker 5: him and asked, his demeanor changed. You could just feel
35:36
Speaker 5: it when he said, I told her go ahead and
35:39
Speaker 5: shoot me, and when she didn't fire, he started beating
35:44
Speaker 5: her and then she ran into her house. He jumped
35:50
Speaker 5: the fence again and he saw the garage door go open,
35:55
Speaker 5: and he knew that she was going to get into
35:58
Speaker 5: her car and go for help, so he went across
36:02
Speaker 5: the street confronted her by her car, where he admitted
36:06
Speaker 5: that he told her to shoot him again, and when
36:11
Speaker 5: she didn't, he started beating her again and then strangled her.
36:18
Speaker 5: Everything he was saying fit the entire aspect that we've investigated,
36:23
Speaker 5: but he would not admit to the sexual assault and
36:26
Speaker 5: almost started to shut down in his confession.
36:30
Speaker 4: When I went to that, James said he was breaking
36:35
Speaker 4: in to steal something. I don't know that the assault
36:39
Speaker 4: was intended initially, but I think that it happened because
36:43
Speaker 4: the opportunity was there. Sometimes you never know those answers.
36:48
Speaker 9: Even killers have their own strange moral codes. For some,
36:53
Speaker 9: a murder could be justified, but a sexual attack, no,
36:59
Speaker 9: it was impulsive, it was base, it was animalistic, and
37:02
Speaker 9: it's something of.
37:03
Speaker 6: Which he is ashamed. With Mars and Custody. Main Street
37:11
Speaker 6: residents are relieved.
37:12
Speaker 1: And yet deeply saddened to hear that Sharon's accused killer
37:17
Speaker 1: is one of the own.
37:19
Speaker 8: Our son had gone to school with James Mars, and
37:22
Speaker 8: never in my life would I have dreamt that he
37:25
Speaker 8: could have been involved in anything like that. It is heartbreaking.
37:31
Speaker 8: It's not just the person that gets murdered, it's the
37:36
Speaker 8: family that's involved is hurting him too.
37:40
Speaker 2: I knew his family. When I met his dad at
37:43
Speaker 2: the acid job, I said, I'm very sorry to hear
37:47
Speaker 2: what's going on, and he could tell that he was very,
37:52
Speaker 2: very remorseful. You always think, well, why did it happen?
37:58
Speaker 2: I mean, it doesn't make any sense, but at the
38:02
Speaker 2: time a young man thought it did.
38:08
Speaker 5: I thought it was important that he admitted it. I
38:12
Speaker 5: realized family, neighbors maybe don't want to believe it, but
38:16
Speaker 5: this guy's an evil person.
38:19
Speaker 6: The Mayers confession is also vitally important for child.
38:23
Speaker 5: I can't rely just on the DNA. You have to
38:25
Speaker 5: have other evidence and circumstances.
38:28
Speaker 6: That's the prosecution preps for court. That's a huge problem.
38:33
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, James Mars never established that he was waving his
38:38
Speaker 4: right to an attorney. That confession ended up being suppressed
38:42
Speaker 4: and we were not able to use that for a trial.
38:48
Speaker 10: The Killer among Us host to go on incoming new
38:50
Speaker 10: series Somebody's at Seven on Oxygen True Crime.
38:58
Speaker 1: The prosecution team must learns James Marr's confession for margining
39:03
Speaker 1: shot in Edison cannot be used in court.
39:09
Speaker 4: Mars never established that he was waving his right to
39:12
Speaker 4: an attorney. We can't use anything from that interview, but
39:18
Speaker 4: we were able to determine that everything that he said
39:21
Speaker 4: fit with all of the evidence we had. First, we
39:26
Speaker 4: were able to tie him.
39:28
Speaker 11: To the scene through the DNA match, and there was
39:31
Speaker 11: a tool that was found at the scene we believe
39:36
Speaker 11: was used just to break in the house and cut
39:38
Speaker 11: the phone line.
39:39
Speaker 5: We found the tool belonged to James Moore's dad.
39:43
Speaker 4: We also determined that James had to ask someone to
39:47
Speaker 4: generate an alibi for him that wasn't factual.
39:51
Speaker 5: And then there were additional personal confessions that we had
39:55
Speaker 5: with other inmates. Mars talked to six different cellmates. He's
40:01
Speaker 5: bragged about what he had done.
40:05
Speaker 1: Two years since Sharon Erickson's murder, James Mars learns his fate.
40:11
Speaker 4: James Mars was charged with first degree murder and we
40:15
Speaker 4: proceeded towards trial with those charges. We talked with the family.
40:21
Speaker 4: The part that would have been harder to prove with
40:23
Speaker 4: the first degree would be some of the intent. They
40:26
Speaker 4: understood the challenges that a trial would have, so we
40:30
Speaker 4: decided to a plea offer of second degree murder. We
40:36
Speaker 4: knew that we could still get justice for Sharon and
40:39
Speaker 4: her family through that plea.
40:43
Speaker 1: Unlike first degree murder, the charge of second degree murder
40:46
Speaker 1: doesn't include premeditation.
40:49
Speaker 4: James Mars accepted that lee offer and pled guilty to
40:53
Speaker 4: the second degree murder.
40:59
Speaker 3: That day, all so happened to be Sharon's sixty ninth birthday,
41:03
Speaker 3: so for family and friends, they did get a little
41:05
Speaker 3: bit of resolution, and that they were in court that
41:09
Speaker 3: day that he took that plea agreement.
41:17
Speaker 1: In early two thousand and six, James Myers a sentenced
41:20
Speaker 1: to life in prison without the possibility of parole and
41:24
Speaker 1: with Sharon's killer behind bars for good life, and Colin
41:28
Speaker 1: continues on forever changed.
41:32
Speaker 5: You think you're an innocent little community, and all of
41:34
Speaker 5: a sudden you have this horrific thing that's not supposed
41:37
Speaker 5: to happen in a small town, and when it does,
41:40
Speaker 5: then you got to deal with it.
41:42
Speaker 4: I think people start wondering, do I really know that person,
41:46
Speaker 4: and not specifically just mister Mars, Do I really know
41:50
Speaker 4: my neighbor and are they capable of something?
41:54
Speaker 1: Well?
41:54
Speaker 8: It broke my heart, for one thing, because Sharon had
41:58
Speaker 8: a lot of things she could done yet, and she
42:01
Speaker 8: was just really starting to enjoy her retirement and that
42:05
Speaker 8: was all taken from her.
42:06
Speaker 5: Then a neighbor kills a neighbor.
42:11
Speaker 2: You have a suspicion that maybe they could happen to you.
42:14
Speaker 2: I'm sure people have that in the back of their mind,
42:18
Speaker 2: but I do not. Colin drew together. They embraced each other,
42:24
Speaker 2: and I think as a close knit community they did
42:28
Speaker 2: a phenomenal job.
42:33
Speaker 1: For Colin residents and Sharon's loved ones. Her Men's Street
42:36
Speaker 1: murder remains an unimaginable tragedy her life of community service,
42:41
Speaker 1: and it's unfathomable, and so have to remind us all
42:44
Speaker 1: that every moment is a gift, and no act.
42:47
Speaker 6: Of kindness too small.
42:48
Speaker 1: For it's been said, we make our friends, make our enemies,
42:53
Speaker 1: but God makes our next door neighbors.