Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Bosque County Execution of Shelia Vandygriff

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The Bosque County Execution of Shelia Vandygriff · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter. Listener discretion is
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advised. At about twelve thirty pm on Wednesday, August eighth, nineteen eighty
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four, a Boski County road maintenance worker was traveling down a remote dirt country
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road that branches off Texas State Highway one forty four, about three miles west
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of the county seat Meridian. The man sat high in his truck, and
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as he surveiled the roads for work that needed to be done, he discovered
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the body of a woman at the bottom of a small roadside cliff. He
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quickly drove to notify the Sheriff's office, who arrived at the scene not long
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after. Sheriff's deputies combed the area for clues while Bosquie County Justice of the
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Piece James Corpier, inspected the young woman's body. She hadn't been dead long,
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maybe seven eight hours, was certain at the get go. The blindfold
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covering the young woman's eyes said as much. This type of thing was unusual
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in Bosqui County, not necessarily the discovery of a body, but the discovery
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of one so soon after another that resembled the circumstances less than five months before,
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and only eight miles away, the body of a thirteen year old girl,
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Helen Marie Kilgore, was found rolled up in a moving blanket and dumped
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on the side of another remote country road. It appeared to Corpier that the
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subject of this new discovery had met a similar fate as Helen, a gunshot
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wound to the head. Peace Justice Corpier carefully looked over the deceased female.
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She was fully clothed and wore shoes, but looked to have been barefooted at
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some point, as the flesh on her feet was lacerated and raw, perhaps
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as if she had attempted to flee for her life. It looked like the
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body belonged to a young woman in her late teens or early twenties, Corpier
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thought, and the reddish brunette looked to be about five feet seven inches tall
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on a right shoulder, was a good clue, at least as far as
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her identity was concerned. There was a tattoo of the name Dion. In
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her pockets was a ring with two car keys, as well as nine dollars
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and fifteen cents. The Peace Justice wondered if his county had become the new
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dumping ground for big city killers, like Johnson County up north had been for
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some time, and even Hood and Wise Counties to a point. It was
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a strange and violent time for North and central Texas held the entire state,
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but Corpier's short term memory of a rural North Texas dumping grounds hadn't necessarily served
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him well. It was nothing like what was happening way down south off Interstate
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forty five near Houston and Galveston, what would become known as the Texas Killing
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Fields up in Tarrant County, a little over an hour north in Fort Worth,
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mostly a series of murders did have the cops baffled. However, the
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victims were mostly young women and girls, and although a few of the crimes
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appeared as though they might be connected, actual evidence of that was not forthcoming.
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But almost none of the bodies were transported to neighboring counties. The killer,
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or more likely killers in Tarrant County generally didn't put forth much effort disposing
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of the bodies at the time. Anyway, there were plenty of rural areas
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in Tarrant County, plenty of roads seldom traveled peace justice Corpier's theory that this
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particular young woman was killed elsewhere and dumped in his county was nixed almost as
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soon as it came to him. In fact, the Boskie County Sheriff's office
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would learn not only the identity of their decendent in no time, they'd also
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hear the story of what happened from someone who was there. On the afternoon
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of Wednesday, August eighth, nineteen eighty four, twenty four year old Jenny
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Jansen, a pseudonym, reported an unbelievable and horrifying crime to a Hood County,
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Texas Sheriff's Office deputy at eleven pm the night before, Jenny got off
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work at Mars Shortstop, a convenience store there just outside Granbury. Earlier,
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her good friend Sheulia Vandy Griff had called her there and asked if she wanted
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to go to a party with her at Indian Harbor, a waterside neighborhood to
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the west of Picturesque Lake Granberry. Jenny arrived at the Texaco convenience store where
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Shelia worked not long after and helped her friend restock the coolers so they could
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get out of there. They finished a little before eleven thirty pm and headed
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out in Sheelia's car, a dark blue Tudor Dotson, driving south on Texas
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State Highway one forty four, or Morgan Street as it's known within Granbury's city
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limits. Sheilia Denise vandy Griff was born in nineteen sixty four and attended the
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Tennessee Preparatory School in Nashville, where she graduated in nineteen eighty two, A
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state funded school for kids without a home. Sheelia excelled there as the yearbook
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co editor, a Red Cross volunteer, and as the student voted most dependable
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and most likely to succeed. After graduating, she'd come to Hoodge County to
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live with her brother. The county seat. Granbury was home to about thirty
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five hundred residents in nineteen eighty four, a mix of working folk and old
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money, all of whom shared a common bond a great pride in the Texas
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brand of freedom and liberty. Nineteen year old Sheilia seemed to be doing well
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there. She had steady work, friends and a boyfriend. It isn't known
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if Sheelia vandy Griff and Jinny Janssen were aware of the horrific crimes taking place
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in Fort Worth and Dallas at the time. Even many of those cities residents
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were in a sort of denial if they were aware, the two young women
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likely felt safe in their small town environs almost forty miles away from the city.
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Sometimes it still felt like a simpler, less violent time. But as
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the party going friends went about their night, a predator was stocking Granberry and
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gone Cold. On their way to the party at Indian Harbor in Granbury that
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August night in nineteen eighty four, Sheilia Vandy Griff and Jinny Jansen stopped by
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the Mars shortstop on Morgan Street to get something to drink. Once in the
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store, they became uneasy. A man was inside, but appeared uninterested in
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purchasing anything or even browsing. The man was white, tall and thin,
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with light brown hair and a significantly darker and bushy beard. His arms and
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neck were red. It was obvious he either worked or at least spent considerable
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time outside. The man wore a sleeve shirt, a baseball cap, and
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a western style belt held up his blue jeans. The two young women could
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feel his eyes on them. Every time Jinny and Sheilia looked his way.
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He acted nervous as he quickly looked away. The guy creeped them out,
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but once they bought their drinks and left the convenience store, they didn't think
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much of it, at least not for a few moments. After getting in
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Sheilia's dots and continuing on their way down Highway one forty four, traveling south
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The driver of a vehicle behind them began flashing their lights repeatedly. Sheilia pulled
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over on the median, close to the road that would take them into Indian
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Harbor and the party they were to attend. Behind them, a mid nineteen
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seventies model flatbed brown over tan truck pulled to a slow stop. The pickup
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was a step side with KC or similar lights over the There was no tailgate
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and low wooden rails lined the sides of the bed. The man Jenny and
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Sheilia had seen at the Mars shortstop got out of the truck. He approached
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the Dotson and told them that the back wheel of the car was about to
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fall off. Continuing to drive it, the man said would be a life
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threatening risk. If they'd like, he told them he'd drive them into town
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to call someone for help. Shelia and Jenny accepted. They hopped in the
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man's truck and he pulled back on the road, though instead of turning around
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and heading into Granbury, in which a phone was moments away, he continued
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to drive south toward glen Rose. Both young women noticed he was holding a
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pistol. If you shut up and do what I tell you, the man
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said, no one will get hurt. After driving Highway one forty four for
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about fourteen miles, leaving Hood County and entering Somerville County, they arrived in
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Glen Rose's town square. The man continued driving south toward Meridian, the seat
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of Boskie County. In Walnut Springs, he turned off on farm to market
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Road nine twenty seven, which led to the small town of Iredelle. Now
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driving southwest, Sheilia and Jenny were terrified as the man made his way through
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the twisting and turning country roads for what seemed like an eternity. When they
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finally stopped near the bridge over Jackson's Crossing, the man ordered Jenny Jansen out
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of the vehicle. She Sheilia was to stay put, he told her,
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without so much as using a single threatening word. The man's pistol had that
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covered. He told Jenny to sit down on the ground and began digging around
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in the back of the truck. The man emerged with electrical cord. The
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man bound Jenny's wrists behind her back, extended the cord to her ankles,
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and tied them while he bound her. Ginny begged him not to hurt her.
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Why was he doing this? She asked, almost incoherently as she sobbed,
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because I want to, The man replied, now stop crying, if
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you know what's good for you. Ginny could still walk, but just barely.
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She'liall watched in horror as her friend was led back to the truck.
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After they got back in, the man continued to drive through winding rural roads,
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perhaps as an attempt to obscure from his captors their location, but because
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he didn't intend to leave any witnesses, that's unlikely to keep from angering the
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man By crying, Ginny studied the inside of the truck, trying desperately to
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keep her mind off what was going on. The interior was tan, the
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bench seat, the dash, and the doorpan. The stereo cassette player had
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a built in equalizer and digital clock. Nothing incredibly unusual or distinct. After
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turning on a narrow gravel road that branched off Texas State Highway one forty four,
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the man stopped the truck and ordered Shelia out. A few minutes later,
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Jenny heard a gunshot and then saw the man hurrying back toward the vehicle
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without her friend. Jenny Jensen hadn't seen what was done to Shilia, but
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the gunshot she heard and the crime scene told the story well enough. Though
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it can't be known what, if anything, was said, the murder of
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Shelia Denise Vandy Griff could only have played out one way. At gunpoint,
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the man, the killer led Shelia to a small cliff about five or six
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feet high. According to reports, he severely beat her in the chest and
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lower body before having her kneel at the cliff's edge. Shelia was blindfolded.
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The man put his twenty two caliber pistol to the back of her head and
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fired. In some of the few reports that exist about this heinous act,
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newspapers referred to Sheelia's killing as execution style. Whether she fell to the bottom
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of the cliff as her body went limp or was thrown is unknown. Either
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way, she landed headfirst. Although initial reports said there were no signs of
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sexual assault, later articles state that the man had raped She'lia. The unforgivable
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acts committed by this bushy, bearded and sunburned monster were hardly over. After
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murdering Shelia in cold blood, he sprinted back to the truck and again began
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driving down country back roads. The man stopped somewhere exactly where she couldn't say,
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and raped Jenny Janssen. After the man drove her back to the site
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of her friend's execution, forced her to kneel and placed his gun against the
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back of her head. It's time to die, the man told her.
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Jenny began begging for her life, and thankfully it worked. As the rapist
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and killer drove Jenny Jansen back to Hood County, he warned her that if
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she said a word about what had happened, he'd come back and kill her.
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He'd been a killer for hire for ten years, he said, suggesting
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to Jenny that it was nothing to him until he met the same fate he'd
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doled out to so many. The man continued, he'd stay in that line
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of business. In the early morning of August eighth, nineteen eighty four,
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the man let Ginny go near Granbury. When asked where she lived, she
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told him the wrong area and walked back to her home. By this time,
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hours had passed since this monster abducted the two young women by playing the
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role of good Samaritan. Overnight, a still unknown man had wreaked havoc on
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the lives of Jenny Jansen and Sheilia Vandy Griff, binding and raping, beating
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and killing. For Jenny, the nightmare was far from over. The trauma
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would pervade her life forever. The story seemed unbelievable to Hood County Sheriff's deputies,
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although the terror they saw in Jenny's eyes they knew was real. Upon
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a call to the Boskie County Sheriff's office, they learned Sheilia's body had already
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been found. Jenny looked through hundreds of photographs of the usual suspects, but
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none of them were the guy. Police artists worked quickly with Jenny to create
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a composite sketch of the rapist and killer, and not long after she underwent
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hypnosis and a second, more accurate composite was created. The suspect had likely
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changed his appearance since the crimes. The man had traveled through three counties in
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the perpetration of his depraved act. Since the abduction took place in Hood County,
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detectives with the Sheriff's office investigated the case from their vantage point aggravated kidnapping,
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and it worked the same down at the Bosky County Sheriff's Office. The
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jurisdiction in which Sheilia Vandy Griff was killed. It was also where a majority
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of the crimes the man committed took place. Both investigations were off to a
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slow start. Although they sort of profiled the suspect right off the bat,
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Jinny didn't know the man and was certain Sheilia didn't either. Still, she
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felt like he knew of them. Detectives believed the reason he left Hood County
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is because he was from around there and did not want to allow for someone
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recognizing him. The profiling seemed to do them little good. On Wednesday,
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October third, nineteen eighty four, thirty year old Jerome Patrick Latrelle Junior put
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Sherry Marie Coulson's five year old daughter in the bathroom of her Wataga, Texas
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home. I'll be right back and we'll play a little game, he told
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the child. Posing as a utility worker, Latrelle had gained entrance into the
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Coulson home and bound twenty five year old Sherry while her three year old daughter
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napped in an adjacent room. The madman, who was freon bail awaiting trial
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on assault and aggravated kidnapping charges, proceeded to severely beat, rape, and
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stab Sherry to death because a sixteen year old neighbor had witnessed Sherry trying to
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flee out the back door. The perpetrator of the absolutely savage and merciless attack
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was arrested by law enforcement at the scene. At about one forty five in
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the afternoon, Hood County Sheriff's Office investigators Larry Carter and Mike Stanley made the
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hour drive north to the Wataka Police station and interviewed Jerome Patrick Latrelle, Junior,
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who was said to have had a bushy blonde beard and was said to
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be in Granbury at the time of the abduction of Ginny Jansen and Sheilia Vandygriff.
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He also had a flatbed truck, though it apparently didn't exactly fit the
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description relayed to the police by the survivor. The questioning went nowhere for them,
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and we don't know if Latreuelle was considered for any of the other home
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invasions and sexual assaults that occurred in Tarrant County around that time. It was
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apparently a dead end for Hood County investigators. Anyway, they had another lead
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to follow when they liked better. It's unclear if detectives in Bosqui County working
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the Sheilia Vandy Griff murder case, gave any consideration to the idea that there
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may be a connection to the murder of thirteen year old Helen Kilgore five months
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earlier, but what seemed to be their most relied upon theory was that Sheilia
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was killed as the result of a murder for hire. The night before the
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murder victim and Jinny Janssen were abducted. Witnesses told detectives Sheilia had hit her
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older sister Kathy over the head with a wrench during the course of a heated
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argument. Kathy, in turn, apparently told Sheila that she'd have her killed.
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As she left the scene of the fight with a friend, several folks
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heard her say it, according to detectives. Hood County Sheriff's investigator Mike Stanley
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believed Kathy had hired someone to kill her sister, and in the second week
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of November nineteen eighty four, she was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit
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murder. At arraignment, Judge Clara Harden set Kathy's bond at twenty five thousand
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dollars. No co conspirator had been charged or even identified. Kathy was jailed
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in Hood County for months. In late January of nineteen eighty five, after
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a thorough investigation and after she passed a polygraph examination, she was released.
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Although investigator Mike Stanley had no evidence other than something Kathy said in the heat
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of a violent argument, he remarked that the charge were not dropped. At
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some point the Texas Rangers became involved in the investigation. No matter, the
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case went cold, Attempts to connect Sheilia's murder to the many others taking place
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at the time in Tarrant County and the surrounding areas failed. Jenny Jansen,
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of course, had been immediately cleared of having any involvement in her friend Sheilia
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Vandy Griff's murder, but in two thousand and four, Hood County Chief Investigator
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Larry Gohen said that had Jenny reported the abduction, sexual assault, and murder
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right away, the case would be farther along. Her choice to do so
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had doomed it in the long run. Go And said it was a statement
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that provided a terse example of one of the reasons many victims don't come forward.
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It was a cop out for his agency failing to come up with viable
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leads so when had picked up the case years before, and remarked that if
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he were to pick it up in two thousand and four, he'd do new
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rounds of interviews, find others to talk to and go over the file.
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He clarified, if mind you, but anyway, a lot of folks had
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died or moved on, he concluded. According to Gowen, in two thousand
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and four, evidence in the case was preserved, though law enforcement in Boskie
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County, whose jurisdiction the murder of Sheilia Vandygriff falls under, have said next
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to nothing about the investigation. The evidence going suggested potentially contained within it the
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killer's DNA profile. This two thousand and four article misspells both Sheilia's first and
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last names. Jenny Jansen, which again is a pseudonym, never saw the
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man who abducted and assaulted her. Again, she might have not even had
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the chance to. Jenny entered the federal Witness Protection Program and was given a
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new identity, presumably the result of her cooperation with another unrelated case. Sheilia
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Vandygriff was buried in Summertown, Tennessee, at the Barnesville Cemetery. Her grave
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is marked by a metal plaque staked in the ground. Her name not engraved
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in it. Rather, it's spelled out with small, single metal letters that
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slide into place a pauper's grave marker, no doubt. Five months before nineteen
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year old Shelia's murder in April of nineteen eighty four was the killing of thirteen
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year old Helen Kilgore in a similar way. The following year, in June
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of nineteen eighty five, the murder of seventeen year old Judy Whitley shook the
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community of Clifton, a small Bosky County city not far from where the bodies
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of Sheilia, Vandygriff and Helen Kilgore were found. Then, in October of
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nineteen eighty five, forty four year old Mickey Brian was slain in the master
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bedroom of her home. Her husband, Joe Brian, was convicted of the
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murder, but granted a new trial soon thereafter. One thing Joe's attorney failed
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to adequately provide jurors at his nineteen eighty six trial were alternate suspects, and
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there were a handful, including the cop who had committed one of the four
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Boskie County murders. That and the long attempt by Joe Brian to prove his
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innocence. Next time on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime. If you have
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any information about the abduction and murder of Shelia Denise Vandy Griff, please call
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either the Hood County Sheriff's Office at eight one seven five seventy nine three three
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one six or the Bosky County Sheriff's Office at two five four four two five
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two three six two. If you like gon Cold's mission to renew the public's
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Thanks for listening, y'all.