Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / A Little Less Mess: [North Carolina] Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk

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A Little Less Mess: [North Carolina] Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to Bless This Mess and the Drew
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Crume Podcast. I'm Kara, just Karra. This is a little
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: less Mess. It's our regular episodes mind us, all the
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  Speaker 1: We have a book club and everything that I do,
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  Speaker 1: so go check that out. All right, This episode or
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: this week's episode is out of North Carolina. So Shannon
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  Speaker 1: Rippy van Newkirk was born in April sixth, nineteen sixty.
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  Speaker 1: Not a lot is known about Shannon. She was living
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  Speaker 1: in Wilmington, North Carolina, working at mott Landscaping. Shannon had
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  Speaker 1: friends and family who she spoke with frequently. Her mother
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  Speaker 1: she would speak to multiple times a day. She did
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  Speaker 1: struggle with a drinking problem, receiving several dwis and finally
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  Speaker 1: getting her license revoked, leaving her only source of transportation
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  Speaker 1: as a modeped type electric bike. On April sixth, twenty fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: Shannon's mom, ROBERTA. Lewis, went to visit her daughter. It
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  Speaker 1: was Shannon's fifty fourth birthday and she was planning on
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  Speaker 1: spending time with her. She knocked on her apartment door
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  Speaker 1: in Wilmington. However, no one answered. This seemed odd to her,
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  Speaker 1: but she thought perhaps she had went somewhere with a friend.
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  Speaker 1: After waiting a while, she decided to leave. She left
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  Speaker 1: the balloons and the present on the doorstep. She proceeded
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  Speaker 1: to call her daughter throughout the day, with no luck
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  Speaker 1: in contacting her. The next morning, she still had not
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  Speaker 1: heard from her daughter, so she was concerned because this
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  Speaker 1: was not like Shannon. She stopped by the house again
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  Speaker 1: and found that the balloons in present were still there.
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  Speaker 1: She contacted the Wilmington Police Department to report her as
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  Speaker 1: a missing person. Officers went to Shannon's apartment with no answer.
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  Speaker 1: After knocking, they forcibly entered the apartment to see if
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  Speaker 1: Shannon was inside, possibly having a medical issue. After searching
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  Speaker 1: the apartment, there was no sign of Shannon. They assessed
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  Speaker 1: the scene and find nothing seems out of sorts, no
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  Speaker 1: signs of robbery, and nothing missing except for Shannon's purse.
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  Speaker 1: Shannon's moped was still parked outside in her parking space.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed as if she had just vanished. They filed
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  Speaker 1: an official missing persons report on April seventh, twenty fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: She was assigned a detective. The detectives begin by interviewing
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  Speaker 1: friends and family. They find that Shannon had spent time
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  Speaker 1: at a bar in downtown Wilmington the night before her disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: She had met a friend there. The friend had purchased
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  Speaker 1: her a makeover package for her birthday and wanted to
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  Speaker 1: see how it had gone. Shannon was in a great mood,
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  Speaker 1: but as the evening went on, she became upset and
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  Speaker 1: just seemed off. Her friend found out that she was
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  Speaker 1: supposed to go on a date that night, but was
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  Speaker 1: being stood up. The date was supposed to be with
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  Speaker 1: her employer, Stephen Mott. They had an on again, off
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  Speaker 1: again relationship, where her friends and family said Shannon was
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  Speaker 1: much more into the relationship than Stephen. While interviewing friends
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  Speaker 1: and family, they requested the cell phone records to better
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  Speaker 1: track Shannon's movements. When they received those records, it is
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  Speaker 1: confirmed that Shannon was at the bar downtown that night.
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  Speaker 1: Phone records also showed that she was in frequent contact
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  Speaker 1: with the man that night, but it was not Stephen Mott.
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  Speaker 1: His name was James Bradley. When looking into James, they
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  Speaker 1: find he is a coworker of Shannon's. On April night,
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  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, they visited James at his home to interview
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  Speaker 1: him and ask him about Shannon's disappearance. When they told
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  Speaker 1: him she was missing, he seemed very surprised. He told
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  Speaker 1: police that she was severely depressed and had spoken of
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  Speaker 1: committing suicide recently. He was interviewed a few days later
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  Speaker 1: and told police that he had last seen Shannon on
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  Speaker 1: April third. While tracing the cell phone towers, they found
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  Speaker 1: that Shannon had left the bar that night and traveled
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  Speaker 1: south from downtown Wilmington. They pulled the traffic cameras that
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  Speaker 1: were on the path of the cell phone records. There
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  Speaker 1: they find a truck at around the time they believe
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  Speaker 1: Shannon was traveling. They are also able to find footage
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  Speaker 1: from a gas station. The gas station footage shows Shannon
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  Speaker 1: and sitting in a truck and a man going in
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  Speaker 1: to purchase items from the gas station. Taking a closer look,
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  Speaker 1: the man is familiar to detectives. It's James Bradley. They
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  Speaker 1: pull his vehicle records and find that he drives the
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  Speaker 1: same vehicle seen in all of the camera footage. Now
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  Speaker 1: that they have caught James in a lie, they bring
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  Speaker 1: him back in for questioning and get a warrant to
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  Speaker 1: search his home and vehicle. James tells police that he
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  Speaker 1: did lie that night, but he had nothing to do
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  Speaker 1: with Shannon's disappearance. He told police that he had taken
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  Speaker 1: Shannon to a local business and dropped her off. Police
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  Speaker 1: run down his story, but video evidence proves he is
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  Speaker 1: lying again. No one was dropped off at that business
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  Speaker 1: the night of Shannon's disappearance. They bring him back in
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  Speaker 1: and he tells him that he was driving with Shannon
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  Speaker 1: when she began speaking to Stephen Mott, the on again,
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  Speaker 1: off again boyfriend and the owner of Mott's Landscaping, when
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  Speaker 1: she jumped out of his vehicle near Greenfield Lake and
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  Speaker 1: that is the last he had seen her. He tells
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  Speaker 1: them that he was hesitant to tell them the truth
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  Speaker 1: because of his past. When looking into James's past, they
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  Speaker 1: find that he had been convicted in nineteen ninety a
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  Speaker 1: first degree murder for the death of his eight year
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  Speaker 1: old stepdaughter, Ivy Gibson in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In June
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  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty eight, James reported Ivy as being kidnapped
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  Speaker 1: from a bus stop in Fayetteville. Police investigate the disappearance
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  Speaker 1: and find that there are holes in his story. The
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  Speaker 1: crime scene looked staged. James finally confessed two days later,
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  Speaker 1: saying that he was at home sick when Ivy woke
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  Speaker 1: him up by turning the TV up too loud. He
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  Speaker 1: snapped and choked the girl with a sock by wrapping
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  Speaker 1: around her neck. He then attempted to cover up his
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  Speaker 1: crime by placing the girl's body in a trash bag
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  Speaker 1: and taking it to the dump. He ended up pleading
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  Speaker 1: guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life
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  Speaker 1: in prison. However, the crime occurred prior to the North
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  Speaker 1: Carolina Structured Sentencing Act, so he was eligible for a parole.
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  Speaker 1: That day came on February eleventh, twenty thirteen, when he
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  Speaker 1: was released. With this information, police pressed James for more answers.
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  Speaker 1: He denied harming Shannon, but he did admit to taking
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  Speaker 1: at least one woman to a vacant lot owned by
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  Speaker 1: mott Landscaping to have sex with her. So police started
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  Speaker 1: their searches for Shannon at all the properties owned by
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  Speaker 1: mott Landscaping. This included the wooded areas around those lots,
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  Speaker 1: the area around James's home, and Greenfield Lake. They were
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  Speaker 1: unsuccessful in finding her body or any signs of a
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  Speaker 1: struggle or Shannon's things. On April twenty ninth, twenty fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: as they are doing their searches for Shannon on a
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  Speaker 1: farm owned by mott Landscaping and that was mode and
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  Speaker 1: cleared by James, they come across the naked body of
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  Speaker 1: a woman inside three black trash bags. The bags were
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  Speaker 1: buried in a shallow grave. The woman was in the
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  Speaker 1: fetal position with legs bound with duct tape. They send
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  Speaker 1: the body in for forensic testing. They initially think this
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  Speaker 1: must be Shannon. Now that they have a body, they
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  Speaker 1: arrest him for the murder of Shannon. Once brought in,
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  Speaker 1: he he immediately asks for a lawyer and stops talking.
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  Speaker 1: As they speak to the people in James's life, they
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  Speaker 1: find out that he had created a cover story for
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  Speaker 1: why he had been in prison for so long. He
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  Speaker 1: told people that he killed his ex wife's lover in
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  Speaker 1: a fit of rage and had spent twenty five years
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  Speaker 1: in prison for that crime, covering up the fact that
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  Speaker 1: he had murdered a child. With James not talking, they
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  Speaker 1: turned to the crime scene evidence and they were in
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  Speaker 1: for a big surprise. Forends testing would show that it
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  Speaker 1: was not Shannon. The body was of a woman by
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  Speaker 1: the name of Elijah Tucker. She was thirty three years old.
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  Speaker 1: Elijah had four broken ribs and had been bludgeoned or
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  Speaker 1: slammed into something four times, which caused her death. She
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  Speaker 1: had been missing since August twenty thirteen. With this new
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  Speaker 1: murder victim, police are immediately suspicious of James. They find
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  Speaker 1: that he would have been the only person with the
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  Speaker 1: means and opportunity that also knew the location and the
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  Speaker 1: code to go into the gate to dispose of the body.
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  Speaker 1: In addition, looking at the friends from the scene, one
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  Speaker 1: of the items that they can test is the duct tape.
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  Speaker 1: They find that it matches the duct tape that was
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  Speaker 1: found at James's home. They also find bleach and the
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  Speaker 1: trash bags that were used in a nearby building where
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  Speaker 1: James would frequent. Now that they did not have Shannon's body,
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  Speaker 1: they had to decide if they should drop the case
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  Speaker 1: against James for Shannon's murder. They ultimately decided to go
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  Speaker 1: forward without a body. This was going to make things
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  Speaker 1: much more difficult for the prosecution. They start by offering
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  Speaker 1: him a plea deal to take the death penalty off
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  Speaker 1: the table, but he declines. They proceed with the trial,
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  Speaker 1: hoping they could convince the jury by showing them who
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  Speaker 1: James was and that was actually a serial killer. They
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  Speaker 1: presented to the jury the cell phone evidence James lying
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  Speaker 1: multiple times in his pattern of murder. They believed he
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  Speaker 1: killed Shannon through strangulation or some means that would not
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  Speaker 1: produce any blood or forensic evidence, and then disposed of
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  Speaker 1: the body. In the end, James Bradley was convicted of
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  Speaker 1: second degree murder in the case of Shannon Ripeat van
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  Speaker 1: Newkirk and was sentenced to thirty three years in prison.
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  Speaker 1: The family of Shannon was very disappointed that he did
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  Speaker 1: not receive the death penalty for all the lives he
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  Speaker 1: had taken. They still did not know where Shannon's body was,
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  Speaker 1: and James had not confessed or taken any responsibility and
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  Speaker 1: was not telling them where he had disposed of her.
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  Speaker 1: To this day, family and authorities are still searching for
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  Speaker 1: Shannon's body to try to bring some closure to the family.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, James Bradley was tried and convicted of
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  Speaker 1: the murder of Elijah Tucker and he was a sentenced
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  Speaker 1: to life in prison. They do believe he could be
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  Speaker 1: involved in other murders in the area. All right, that's
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  Speaker 1: our a little less mess out of North Carolina for
• 10:41
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• 10:43
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• 10:56
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• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and I guess we will see you next time. By everyone,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Don't you know it's bad to be superstitious, but nothing else.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: It's working and my hand it's really hurting and sick
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: of this worry. Bly I Camage