Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / A Little Less Mess: The Unsolved Murder of Lisa Pruett [Ohio]

Transcript

A Little Less Mess: The Unsolved Murder of Lisa Pruett [Ohio] · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome to Bless This Mess and the True
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Crime Podcast. I'm Cara, just Cara. This is A Little
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  Speaker 1: Less Mess, our Monday mini-sode where we step outside the
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  Speaker 1: South for a case that is a strange case. unsettling,
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  Speaker 1: and just a little less messy than our full Thursday episodes.
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  Speaker 1: Now before we get started, here's a quick reminder of
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  Speaker 1: our weekly schedule. On Thursdays, Stu and I are back
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: together for our regular full-length Southern True Crime Cases. And
• 0:45
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• 1:03
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  Speaker 1: All right, let's get into this week's case out of Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: Lisa Pruitt was 16 years old and lived in Shaker Heights,
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  Speaker 1: an affluent Cleveland suburb known for its large homes, strong schools,
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  Speaker 1: and close-knit neighbors. Lisa was bright, active, and involved in
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  Speaker 1: a lot of things at Shaker Heights High School. She
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  Speaker 1: participated in student council, marching band, softball, field hockey, and
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  Speaker 1: the school newspaper. She loved writing and poetry. Friends remembered
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  Speaker 1: her as funny, smart, and full of energy. She was
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  Speaker 1: dating Dan Dreifurt, a classmate she had known for years.
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  Speaker 1: Their relationship had grown closer after a school band trip
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  Speaker 1: to Germany in April 1990. By that September, Lisa was
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  Speaker 1: very much in love. She made tapes for Dan, wrote
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  Speaker 1: him long notes, and kept what she called a happy
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  Speaker 1: book filled with newspaper clippings and little things that made
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  Speaker 1: her smile. September 13th should have been a happy day
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  Speaker 1: for her. She had passed her driving test. Dan had
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  Speaker 1: come back to school that afternoon after spending 35 days
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  Speaker 1: in a psychiatric facility, and she was excited to see him.
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  Speaker 1: Dan had his own struggles. He was part of a
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  Speaker 1: group of friends who were into music, band culture, and
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  Speaker 1: teenage rebellion. He played in a band with the very
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  Speaker 1: 1990 name Your Mother and Her Howling Commandos. His friends
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  Speaker 1: had called themselves the Black Glove Cult. They drank cough
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  Speaker 1: syrup at what they referred to as robo-parties. Dan had
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  Speaker 1: also spent time in psychiatric treatment and had recently been
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  Speaker 1: discharged from the Cleveland Clinic. According to later reporting, he
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  Speaker 1: had struggled with suicidal thoughts and medication. That evening of
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  Speaker 1: September 13, 1990, Lisa's father drove her to Dan's house
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  Speaker 1: after her flute practice. Lisa got out of the car
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  Speaker 1: and talked with Dan for a few minutes. They went
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  Speaker 1: around the side of the house, kissed, and talked privately.
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  Speaker 1: When they came back toward the driveway, Dan joked about
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  Speaker 1: cutting Lisa's hair, and Lisa told him she planned to
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  Speaker 1: sneak out later and return around midnight or 1230. A
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  Speaker 1: few friends were supposed to come over, too. Lisa went home.
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  Speaker 1: Later that night, Dan was at home with his family,
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  Speaker 1: One friend, Ken Tex Workman, had been there earlier, but
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  Speaker 1: he left. Dan's parents were in their bedroom. His sister, Deb,
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  Speaker 1: was away at college and called home. Lisa, meanwhile, left
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  Speaker 1: her own house after midnight to head back toward Dan's home.
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  Speaker 1: She never made it inside. At around 12.30 a.m., screams
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  Speaker 1: were heard outside near the Dryford home. Lisa was attacked
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  Speaker 1: in a neighbor's yard, only about 30 feet from Dan's house.
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  Speaker 1: She had been stabbed 21 times with a knife-like weapon.
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  Speaker 1: By the time police arrived, Lisa was dead. Her bicycle
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  Speaker 1: was found hidden in bushes near the sidewalk. The murder
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  Speaker 1: weapon was never recovered. The medical examiner determined that Lisa
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  Speaker 1: had not been raped. The early reporting in the case
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  Speaker 1: fueled speculation and confusion about what had happened. The location
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  Speaker 1: was immediately startling. Lisa was killed just steps from the
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  Speaker 1: home of the boyfriend she had planned to see, and
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  Speaker 1: police began asking the obvious question, who knew she would
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  Speaker 1: be there? Dan was initially treated as a suspect. He
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  Speaker 1: told police that he had heard screams and believed they
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  Speaker 1: sounded like a woman being forced to do something she
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  Speaker 1: did not want to do. He said he and his
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  Speaker 1: father went outside but did not see anything unusual. He
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  Speaker 1: later said he remembered Lisa was supposed to come over
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  Speaker 1: and found her bicycle. called her house, and then called 911.
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  Speaker 1: There were parts of the night that investigators and later
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  Speaker 1: reporters found unusual. Dan told officers different things about whether
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  Speaker 1: he had heard the screams. His father said Dan was
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  Speaker 1: fully dressed and wearing shoes when they responded. Dan later
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  Speaker 1: went to sleep while police searched outside for Lisa. Again,
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  Speaker 1: strange behavior is not the same thing as guilt. People
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  Speaker 1: react unpredictably in a crisis, and a teenager faced with
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  Speaker 1: something horrific may not behave in a way that makes
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  Speaker 1: sense afterwards. But detectives examined Dan's alibi, his statements, and
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  Speaker 1: the people around him. They eventually said they eliminated him
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  Speaker 1: as a suspect. Their focus shifted to someone else, Kevin Young.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Young was 18 years old. He knew Dan and
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  Speaker 1: had been part of the broader group of teenagers in
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  Speaker 1: Shaker Heights. Kevin had significant mental health struggles and had
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  Speaker 1: been hospitalized in the past. Police began receiving statements from
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  Speaker 1: other young people who said Kevin had expressed anger toward
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  Speaker 1: Lisa and Dan. Some claimed Kevin was upset that Dan
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  Speaker 1: and Lisa were together. Some said Kevin had talked about
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  Speaker 1: wanting to hurt them. Another classmate said Kevin had made
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  Speaker 1: remarks that seemed to suggest he knew Lisa had been
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  Speaker 1: stabbed before the detail was publicly confirmed. Kevin denied threatening
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  Speaker 1: Lisa or Dan. He said that on the night Lisa
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  Speaker 1: was killed, he had been at home. His parents supported
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  Speaker 1: his alibi, saying he returned home and remained there. But
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  Speaker 1: police became convinced Kevin was their suspect. They searched his home.
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  Speaker 1: They examined his writings, drawings, and diary entries. They brought
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  Speaker 1: in FBI profilers. They questioned Kevin for hours. He took
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  Speaker 1: polygraph examinations with varying results depending on the examiner. He
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  Speaker 1: never confessed to police, though. And perhaps most importantly, police
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  Speaker 1: did not find physical evidence connecting Kevin to Lisa's murder.
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  Speaker 1: No murder weapon, no blood evidence, no fingerprints, no DNA
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  Speaker 1: evidence tying him to the scene. After police questioned Kevin,
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  Speaker 1: his name became public. The investigation turned into a major
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  Speaker 1: media story in the Cleveland area. Kevin's father was a lawyer,
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  Speaker 1: and he was also a law partner with the mayor,
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Alfred, of the community. And that connection fueled public
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  Speaker 1: speculation that Kevin was being protected. The public pressure was intense.
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  Speaker 1: There were rumors, television coverage, leaked information, and a community
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  Speaker 1: desperate for someone to blame. Kevin was admitted to Laurelwood Hospital,
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  Speaker 1: a psychiatric facility in Willoughby, Ohio, and it was there
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  Speaker 1: that the prosecution's case against him would eventually take shape.
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  Speaker 1: In 1992, two people who had been at Laurelwood came
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  Speaker 1: forward and told police that Kevin had confessed to killing Lisa.
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  Speaker 1: One was a young staff member who said Kevin had
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  Speaker 1: made troubling statements while they talked and played chess at
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  Speaker 1: the hospital. She said that while watching news coverage about
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  Speaker 1: Lisa's murder, Kevin became upset and muttered that he did
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  Speaker 1: not mean to hurt the little girl. She also said
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  Speaker 1: he later made comments that sounded like an admission. Another
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  Speaker 1: former patient also claimed that Kevin confessed. Those alleged hospital
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  Speaker 1: confessions became the basis for the grand jury indictment. In
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  Speaker 1: November 1992, more than two years after Lisa was killed,
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Young was charged with aggravated murder. He pleaded not guilty.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin's trial began in June 1993. It was broadcast nationally
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  Speaker 1: on court TV. The prosecution argued that Kevin had been
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  Speaker 1: obsessed with Lisa, angry that she was with Dan, and
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  Speaker 1: had murdered her after learning she planned to visit Dan
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  Speaker 1: that night. The defense argued that there was no physical
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  Speaker 1: evidence tying Kevin to the crime, and that the alleged
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  Speaker 1: confessions were were unreliable and that investigators had focused too
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  Speaker 1: narrowly on Kevin while failing to fully explore other possibilities.
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  Speaker 1: The defense also pointed back toward Dan Dreifurt. They questioned
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  Speaker 1: the timing of events at the Dreifurt home, Dan's behavior
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  Speaker 1: after the screams, letters and notes he had written to Lisa,
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  Speaker 1: and the fact that Lisa was killed immediately outside of
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  Speaker 1: his house. The defense did not have to prove Dan
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  Speaker 1: committed the murder. They only had to convince the that
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  Speaker 1: the state had not proven Kevin was guilty beyond a
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  Speaker 1: reasonable doubt. The trial lasted about three weeks, and on
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  Speaker 1: July 21, 1993, after roughly 10 hours of deliberation, the
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  Speaker 1: jury found Kevin Young not guilty. He walked out of
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  Speaker 1: court legally cleared of Lisa's murder. But an acquittal does
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  Speaker 1: not solve a murder. Lisa's family still had no answer
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  Speaker 1: about who killed her, and the case is stayed open.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Young continued to live under the shadow of the
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  Speaker 1: accusation for years. He worked as a house painter and
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  Speaker 1: a handyman. In a later interview, he said that even
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  Speaker 1: though a jury had acquitted him, people would search his
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  Speaker 1: name online and judge him based on the case. Kevin
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  Speaker 1: died in 2017 at the age of 44. He was
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  Speaker 1: never convicted of Lisa's murder and no one else has
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  Speaker 1: ever been charged. The Lisa Pruitt case is hard to
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  Speaker 1: talk about because it's full of unanswered questions. Lisa was
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  Speaker 1: a teenager with a busy, hopeful life. She was excited
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  Speaker 1: about getting her driver's license. She was excited to see
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  Speaker 1: her boyfriend. She left home for what should have been
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  Speaker 1: a quick late night visit. Instead, she was murdered only
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  Speaker 1: steps from the place she believed she was going to
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  Speaker 1: be safe. Her case also shows how quickly a community
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  Speaker 1: can become attached to one suspect. Kevin Young was tried
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  Speaker 1: in the public. His name became nationally known. A jury
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  Speaker 1: acquitted him, yet many people continue to believe he was guilty,
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  Speaker 1: while others believe the investigation had overlooked more likely suspects.
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  Speaker 1: In the end, the murder weapon was not found. No
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  Speaker 1: one has ever been convicted, and Lisa's family has spent
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  Speaker 1: decades without a final resolution. As of the latest reporting,
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  Speaker 1: Lisa Pruitt's murder remains unsolved. If anyone has any information
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  Speaker 1: about Lisa's 1990 murder, Shaker Heights Police have asked for
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  Speaker 1: tips to be directed to their detectives. And that is
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  Speaker 1: the unsolved case of Lisa Pruitt. And that's it for
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  Speaker 1: our case this week. Thank you all for listening to
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  Speaker 1: A Little Less Mess. We'll be back on Thursday with
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  Speaker 1: the full Southern true crime case. Until then, stay safe,
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  Speaker 1: lock your doors, and keep that porch light on. Bye everyone!
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Don't you know it's bad luck to be superstitious. But
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  Speaker 1: nothing else is working. And my head is really hurting.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm sick of all this worrying about things I
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  Speaker 1: can't control.