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The-tragic-case-of-a-One-Star-hitman · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today's story is about one of the world's dumbest criminals,
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Speaker 1: so dumb in fact that this story really won't make
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Speaker 1: sense until the end when I explain what was really
0:09
Speaker 1: going on the whole time. But before we get into
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Speaker 1: that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,
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Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. At
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Speaker 1: around nine pm on Saturday, October fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight,
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Speaker 1: a thirty three year old woman named Cheryl Petrie grabbed
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Speaker 1: the candy bar off the rack inside of Pj's Market.
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Speaker 1: Pj's Market was a little convenience store in the city
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Speaker 1: of Port Orchard, Washington, and it was where Cheryl worked.
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Speaker 1: She was the cashier, and without ringing this candy bar
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Speaker 1: up Cheryl simply handed it across the counter to a
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Speaker 1: female college student who had just come into the store
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Speaker 1: to talk to Cheryl. This student had temporarily moved right
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Speaker 1: next door to Pj's market, and the student, after coming
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Speaker 1: into the market and meeting Cheryl, they had immediately taken
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Speaker 1: a liking to her, and so it became kind of
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Speaker 1: like her routine to come into the market basically every
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Speaker 1: night and just sit down and chat with Cheryl, sometimes
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Speaker 1: for hours. The student would talk about their day at school,
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Speaker 1: they'd talk about their personal life, they'd tell Cheryl all
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Speaker 1: of their problems and secrets. I mean, Cheryl really became
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Speaker 1: this student's confidant. And believe it or not, this was
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Speaker 1: an effect that Cheryl had on lots of people. Cheryl
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Speaker 1: was incredibly kind, She was empathetic, She was a great listener.
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Speaker 1: She never acted like she was judging you gossiped about people.
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Speaker 1: And also, Cheryl had a very disarming sense of humor.
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Speaker 1: It was very goofy. She was always cracking up at
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Speaker 1: jokes that she had made, and so people just felt
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Speaker 1: at ease around Cheryl and they typically left interactions with
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Speaker 1: her in a good mood. And on this night, when
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Speaker 1: the student had come into the market. They had told
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Speaker 1: Cheryl that they actually had found an apartment in Port
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Speaker 1: Orchard that they were going to be moving to, so
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Speaker 1: they were going to be leaving PJS where they were now.
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Speaker 1: But the student had said that they really had no
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Speaker 1: money and so it was going to be a challenge
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Speaker 1: to furnish this apartment. Heck, it was going to be
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Speaker 1: a challenge just to buy groceries for this apartment. And
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Speaker 1: when Cheryl heard this, she first congratulated the student, but
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Speaker 1: then also said, well, hey, I'll give you some of
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Speaker 1: my own furniture because I don't need it all and
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Speaker 1: that will help you furnish the apartment. And then also
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Speaker 1: Cheryl had grabbed that chocolate bar off the rack and
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Speaker 1: given it to the student for free as a sort
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Speaker 1: of like, you know, here's your first grocery as well.
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Speaker 1: The student was totally floored by Cheryl's generosity and tried
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Speaker 1: to tell her, you know, keep your furniture and you
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Speaker 1: can keep this chocolate or I'll pay for it, but
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Speaker 1: Cheryl insisted. She was like, nope, tomorrow, I will bring
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Speaker 1: you furniture and please take this candy bar. And so
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Speaker 1: the student finally relented and thanked Cheryl profusely, and really,
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Speaker 1: this behavior was so typical of Cheryl. She was a
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Speaker 1: single mom raising a nine year old girl and a
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Speaker 1: baby boy, and so she worked two jobs to make
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Speaker 1: ends meet. On the weekends she worked at Pj's Market,
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Speaker 1: and then during the week she worked at a Ford
3:23
Speaker 1: car dealership. But despite being totally swamped basically all the
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Speaker 1: time providing for her family, any spare time Cheryl had,
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Speaker 1: she tried to give it to other people, whether that
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Speaker 1: was helping a coworker with their resume or baking some
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Speaker 1: goodies for a sick friend a church. Cheryl was all
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Speaker 1: about helping other people. The area of port Orchard where
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Speaker 1: Cheryl lived was only about an hour away from the
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Speaker 1: big city of Seattle, but to Cheryl, this part of
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Speaker 1: port Orchard felt much farther away than that. She lived
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Speaker 1: in this tiny, little blue, single story house that was
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Speaker 1: tucked away in the woods, surrounded by all these tall trees.
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Speaker 1: The road to her head was very rural and winding,
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Speaker 1: and so where she lived felt very isolated. It was
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Speaker 1: a beautiful area, no doubt, but it was also kind
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Speaker 1: of a bad neighborhood. In fact, a man had been
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Speaker 1: shot and killed not far from Cheryl's house just a
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Speaker 1: year earlier, but this home was all she could afford. Basically,
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Speaker 1: Cheryl was poor and had almost nothing of her own,
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Speaker 1: but whatever she did have, she was far more likely
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Speaker 1: to give away than keep for herself. Eventually, Cheryl would
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Speaker 1: tell the college student that she really needed to get
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Speaker 1: back to the other customers and kind of do her
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Speaker 1: job and not just sit here and chat this whole time.
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Speaker 1: And so the student said, you know, thank you again
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Speaker 1: for the candy and for the offer of the free furniture,
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Speaker 1: and then the student left the store, at which point
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Speaker 1: Cheryl reached into her pocket and grabbed some change and
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Speaker 1: dumped it in the register to pay for the candy bar.
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Speaker 1: Even though Cheryl knew she very likely could have gotten
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Speaker 1: away with simply giving out the candy and not paying
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Speaker 1: for it, Cheryl was unfailingly honest, and so she knew
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Speaker 1: she wanted to pay for the candy. Cheryl would man
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Speaker 1: the register until eleven pm that night, chatting with many
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Speaker 1: more regulars who came in and out, and then at
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Speaker 1: eleven pm Cheryl locked the front door, and then she
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Speaker 1: checked the register to make sure it was all balanced
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Speaker 1: and all the cash was in there. And then by
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Speaker 1: eleven fifteen, she was calling her boss to report that
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Speaker 1: her shift had gone fine and that she was taking
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Speaker 1: off for the night. After Cheryl had left and locked
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Speaker 1: the store behind her, she made her way out to
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Speaker 1: her beat up silver Sedan car that was parked outside,
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Speaker 1: and then she began the drive back home, knowing that
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Speaker 1: she'd be right back to Pj's the very next morning,
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Speaker 1: right when it opened at seven am. At the same
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Speaker 1: time that Cheryl was wrapping up for the night and
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Speaker 1: making her way home, her ex husband, Roland Petree, who
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Speaker 1: lived on the other side of town, was very excited.
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Speaker 1: This was the night that Roland was going to win
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Speaker 1: back Cheryl. Roland glanced at his watch and saw it
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Speaker 1: was just past eleven PM, and so it was almost time.
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Speaker 1: He imagined how happy Cheryl would be when he unveiled
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Speaker 1: his big surprise. She would run to him and he
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Speaker 1: would hold her and tell her how much he loved
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Speaker 1: her and how he had owned loved her. Roland hadn't
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Speaker 1: yet figured out how he was going to explain his
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Speaker 1: big plan to win back his ex to his current girlfriend,
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Speaker 1: but he figured he would just work that out later.
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Speaker 1: The most important thing for Roland, right now was showing
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Speaker 1: Cheryl how wrong and stupid he had been, and how
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Speaker 1: much he needed her and how much she needed him. Also,
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Speaker 1: he knew their kids would be totally thrilled if they
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Speaker 1: got back together. Roland was looking after their son and
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Speaker 1: daughter that weekend, and he had seen firsthand that his
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Speaker 1: daughter was clearly very upset about the fact that her
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Speaker 1: parents were split up. Roland and Cheryl had a very
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Speaker 1: complicated history, but Roland knew really their breakup was his fault.
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Speaker 1: They had met about twelve years earlier when Roland had
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Speaker 1: been on leave from the military. At the time, Roland
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Speaker 1: was a Marine sergeant and he was also a very
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Speaker 1: accomplished judo instructor. He was handsome and charismatic, and he
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Speaker 1: had a charming Creole accent because he had grown up
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Speaker 1: in a Cajun French family near New Orleans. But despite
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Speaker 1: how how appealing Roland looked, he actually was kind of
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Speaker 1: a terrible romantic partner. Every woman he had ever been
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Speaker 1: with he had cheated on and then made up elaborate
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Speaker 1: lies to cover it up. But regardless, Cheryl had fallen
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Speaker 1: head over heels in love with Roland, and part of
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Speaker 1: the reason that happened was because Cheryl was actually pretty insecure.
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Speaker 1: She had long auburn hair and beautiful blue eyes and
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Speaker 1: this amazing personality. But to Cheryl, she felt like she
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Speaker 1: was kind of plain looking, and she also felt like
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Speaker 1: she was kind of chubby, and she got the sense
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Speaker 1: that men kind of did not find her all that attractive.
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Speaker 1: And when she met Roland, she saw right away that
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Speaker 1: the other women he had been with were these overtly
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Speaker 1: glamorous and beautiful women. And so when she noticed Roland
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Speaker 1: taking an interest in her, I mean, it was incredible.
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Speaker 1: She felt so lucky. And so Roland and Cheryl had
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Speaker 1: gotten married, they'd had their daughter together, and then basically
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Speaker 1: right away, Roland had begun cheating on Cheryl. They ended
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Speaker 1: up getting divorced eight years earlier, in nineteen eighty, and
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Speaker 1: it was right around this point that Roland really just
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Speaker 1: totally blew his life up. The woman Roland was cheating
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Speaker 1: on Cheryl with was also married, and so Roland came
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Speaker 1: up with this plot to murder this woman's husband, and
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Speaker 1: the husband would get murdered. But when Roland was on trial,
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Speaker 1: the prosecutors couldn't really untangle what his actual role was
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Speaker 1: in the murder. It was not clear if he really
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Speaker 1: was the guy who did the killing or if he
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Speaker 1: simply had kind of come up with the idea and
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Speaker 1: other people had done it. And so ultimately Roland was
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Speaker 1: found guilty for his role in this murder, but he
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Speaker 1: was only sentenced to six years in prison, And strangely enough,
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Speaker 1: it was actually during this time that Roland was in
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Speaker 1: jail that he and Cheryl kind of came back to
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Speaker 1: each other. While Roland was behind bars, he had this
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Speaker 1: epiphany that Cheryl was the best thing that ever happened
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Speaker 1: to him, and he totally screwed it up, and so
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Speaker 1: he began writing her letters telling her how much he
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Speaker 1: loved her and how sorry he was for being unfaithful,
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Speaker 1: and also so he began explaining that, you know, the
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Speaker 1: charges he was found guilty of in connection to this
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Speaker 1: murder were totally not true, that he had been screwed,
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Speaker 1: and Cheryl had eventually begun riding back to Roland telling
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Speaker 1: him that she still loved him too, and they actually
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Speaker 1: would get remarried while Roland was in prison, and then
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Speaker 1: when he got out of prison, he moved in with
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Speaker 1: Cheryl and their daughter in Poort Orchard and they would
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Speaker 1: have another baby together their son, and then also Roland
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Speaker 1: enrolled in nursing school, and so for a time this
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Speaker 1: family was back together and everything was great. But eventually
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Speaker 1: Roland went back to his old ways and began cheating
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Speaker 1: on Cheryl again, and before long the couple had separated
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Speaker 1: again and began living separately. And so fast forward back
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Speaker 1: to the night of October fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight, and
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Speaker 1: Roland is anxiously waiting to begin this big plan to
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Speaker 1: win Cheryl back, and he glances at his watch and
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Speaker 1: he sees it's now eleven thirty pm, which means it's
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Speaker 1: go time. And so Roland he stands up really quickly
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Speaker 1: and begins walking to towards the front door of his house,
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Speaker 1: when suddenly he feels so lightheaded that he actually falls
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Speaker 1: back on the couch and passes out cold. Roland had
10:08
Speaker 1: serious blood pressure issues, and sometimes if he stood up
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Speaker 1: too quickly, it would make him feel really dizzy and
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Speaker 1: he would faint, and so that's what happened. And then
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Speaker 1: at some point after he fainted, Roland kind of came too,
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Speaker 1: but he was in such a fog mentally that instead
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Speaker 1: of you know, going out and doing this big plan
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Speaker 1: to win Cheryl back. He just kind of wandered his
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Speaker 1: way upstairs and climbed in bed with his girlfriend and
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Speaker 1: fell asleep for the rest of the night. Cheryl was
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Speaker 1: due back at Pj's Market the next morning at seven am.
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Speaker 1: She was going to open the store and also drop
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Speaker 1: off that furniture with the college student. But when the
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Speaker 1: first customers, including that college student, arrived at Pj's Market,
10:47
Speaker 1: they saw the door was locked and the lights were
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Speaker 1: off inside. Now, all of these customers knew Cheryl really well,
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Speaker 1: and they really liked her, and they knew she should
10:55
Speaker 1: have been there by that point. This was totally uncharacteristic
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Speaker 1: of Cheryl to not be there on time, and so
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Speaker 1: it wasn't long before these patrons began calling Cheryl at
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Speaker 1: her home, but Cheryl never picked up. However, remember this
11:08
Speaker 1: is nineteen eighty eight, so people didn't have cell phones.
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Speaker 1: They used landlines, and so it was totally normal to
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Speaker 1: periodically call someone and not have them pick up. It
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Speaker 1: just meant they weren't home. Now. At first, people in
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Speaker 1: Port Orchard just kind of assumed that, you know, there
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Speaker 1: must be a rational explanation for why Cheryl is not
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Speaker 1: at work. You know, maybe there was a family emergency.
11:29
Speaker 1: Maybe her car didn't start, but there had to be
11:31
Speaker 1: some sort of reasonable reason for her absence. Thank you
11:40
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Speaker 1: and it made me feel totally lost. But instead of
11:55
Speaker 1: trying to implement new structure and new routines into my
11:59
Speaker 1: civilian life, I just kind of went into a shell.
12:02
Speaker 1: I didn't leave my house much. I was mad all
12:04
Speaker 1: the time. I began lashing out at my family and friends.
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Speaker 1: I mean, I was miserable. Eventually, my family and friends
12:10
Speaker 1: had a sort of intervention for me, and they encouraged
12:13
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Speaker 1: who will listen and help. That night, Cheryl didn't show
13:23
Speaker 1: up at Roland and his girlfriend's house to collect her
13:26
Speaker 1: daughter and son. Now Roland didn't know that Cheryl had
13:29
Speaker 1: missed work all day that day, and so he assumed
13:32
Speaker 1: Cheryl must just be running late. But by six point
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Speaker 1: thirty pm that night, when still Cheryl had not arrived
13:38
Speaker 1: and she hadn't called Roland finally called Cheryl, but she
13:42
Speaker 1: didn't answer, and so Roland just left Cheryl this very
13:45
Speaker 1: upbeat message on her answering machine and then waited for
13:48
Speaker 1: her to call back. But despite how cheerful this message
13:51
Speaker 1: was that Roland left it kind of betrayed the way
13:54
Speaker 1: he actually felt. Roland was not happy that morning when
13:58
Speaker 1: he had woken up and realized he had slept through
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Speaker 1: the night and not done the big plan to win
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Speaker 1: Cheryl back. He felt so stupid. He had this chance
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Speaker 1: to win her back and he blew it. But over
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Speaker 1: the next couple of hours, when Cheryl did not return
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Speaker 1: Roland's call, he went from being solely worried about you
14:17
Speaker 1: know how he blew this opportunity to win his ex
14:19
Speaker 1: wife back to now just being concerned about his ex wife,
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Speaker 1: Where is she? What's going on? And so late that
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Speaker 1: night Roland would actually call the police and report Cheryl missing.
14:29
Speaker 1: A deputy came out to Roland's house to take down
14:32
Speaker 1: this report, and then Roland actually gave the deputy a
14:35
Speaker 1: spare key to Cheryl's place, and then this deputy went
14:38
Speaker 1: to Cheryl's house. It was totally quiet. He knocked, there
14:41
Speaker 1: was no answer. He let himself inside using this spare key,
14:44
Speaker 1: and he found the home was totally in order. There
14:47
Speaker 1: was no sign of any disturbance whatsoever. The deputy eventually
14:51
Speaker 1: walked over to Cheryl's answering machine and he saw there
14:54
Speaker 1: was a blinking light, which meant there were messages that
14:56
Speaker 1: had not been played yet, and so he hit play,
14:58
Speaker 1: and the first message was for Cheryl's daughter, who was
15:01
Speaker 1: calling to say good night and I love you, And
15:03
Speaker 1: then there were several messages from customers from Pj's Market
15:07
Speaker 1: that were calling to ask, you know, why Cheryl was
15:09
Speaker 1: not at work and was she okay. There was a
15:11
Speaker 1: message from Cheryl's boss, also asking you know what's going on?
15:15
Speaker 1: Why aren't you at work? And then there was that
15:16
Speaker 1: message from Roland, who had called when she had not
15:19
Speaker 1: come to pick up the kids. And then the last
15:21
Speaker 1: message on the machine played, and when the deputy heard it,
15:24
Speaker 1: he knew something was terribly wrong. The last message was
15:28
Speaker 1: from a stranger who was calling Cheryl to be like, hey,
15:31
Speaker 1: I found your purse floating in Lake Union, which is
15:34
Speaker 1: near Seattle. And the stranger was like, you know, I
15:37
Speaker 1: don't know if your purse was stolen and dumped here
15:40
Speaker 1: or if you were here and you left it in
15:42
Speaker 1: the water or something, but I'd love to give the
15:44
Speaker 1: purse back to you. And the stranger left a phone
15:46
Speaker 1: number for Cheryl to call so she could come and
15:49
Speaker 1: pick up her purse. Lake Union was only about an
15:51
Speaker 1: hour away from poort Orchard, where Cheryl lived, but there
15:55
Speaker 1: was just no real reason she would ever be around
15:58
Speaker 1: Lake Union. She never went on she didn't have the
16:01
Speaker 1: time or money to even for short ones like going
16:03
Speaker 1: to Lake Union an hour away. And then also, I mean,
16:07
Speaker 1: Cheryl's entire life was in port Orchard, and her life
16:10
Speaker 1: was her kids, her jobs, and the church, and so
16:12
Speaker 1: there was just no logical explanation for why Cheryl's purse
16:16
Speaker 1: would be in Lake Union. But regardless, detectives from port
16:20
Speaker 1: Orchard along with police from Seattle linked up and went
16:24
Speaker 1: out to Lake Union and began looking for Cheryl's car
16:27
Speaker 1: because maybe she did go out here, maybe she did
16:30
Speaker 1: lose her purse in the water, and maybe she's still here.
16:33
Speaker 1: But Lake Union is a very busy place, with lots
16:36
Speaker 1: of people and businesses living right along the water's edge,
16:39
Speaker 1: and even more people living right on the water in houseboats.
16:43
Speaker 1: And so there were literally thousands and thousands of cars
16:46
Speaker 1: all over Lake Union, so trying to find Cheryl's nondescript
16:50
Speaker 1: silver Sedan took some time. But on the night of
16:54
Speaker 1: October nineteenth, so three days after Cheryl had failed to
16:58
Speaker 1: show up at Pj's Market for that seven am opening,
17:01
Speaker 1: police would find her car near Lake Union. And at
17:05
Speaker 1: first it seemed like, you know, Cheryl must have just
17:07
Speaker 1: driven here and abandoned the car for some reason, because
17:10
Speaker 1: there was no sign of a struggle inside or outside
17:13
Speaker 1: of the car. There was nothing strange about this car.
17:16
Speaker 1: It was just parked in a lot. But when authorities
17:19
Speaker 1: went around to the back of the car and used
17:21
Speaker 1: a screwdriver to pop open the trunk, they realized right
17:24
Speaker 1: away that that could not have been what happened, because
17:28
Speaker 1: Cheryl was in the trunk and she was deceased and
17:31
Speaker 1: very clearly had been beaten to death. The investigation into
17:35
Speaker 1: Cheryl's murder would take more than a decade. The police
17:38
Speaker 1: started with Roland because one he was Cheryl's ex husband,
17:42
Speaker 1: and two because Roland had previously been convicted for his
17:46
Speaker 1: role in a murder, even though the details of exactly
17:50
Speaker 1: what he did were never really clear, but Roland had
17:53
Speaker 1: an alibi that was air tight. He had witnesses that
17:55
Speaker 1: could confirm he was nowhere near Lake Union or Cheryl
17:59
Speaker 1: on the night that she was killed. And Roland was
18:02
Speaker 1: very cooperative with police after finding out what happened to
18:05
Speaker 1: his ex wife. I mean, he was really bent out
18:07
Speaker 1: of shape, and so Roland very quickly signed paperwork to
18:11
Speaker 1: allow detectives to come into his home and search it
18:13
Speaker 1: and search all of his things. And he also began
18:16
Speaker 1: regularly contacting the police to offer up any information he
18:19
Speaker 1: could think of that could be useful, including an odd
18:23
Speaker 1: story he told about this young man that was following
18:26
Speaker 1: Cheryl around in the few days before she died. He
18:29
Speaker 1: didn't know much about it, but he knew there was
18:32
Speaker 1: something odd happening with this young man. Now, Roland didn't
18:35
Speaker 1: really have much more information than this suggestion that somebody
18:39
Speaker 1: was following her around, and so police were never really
18:42
Speaker 1: able to fully follow up on that lead. But police
18:45
Speaker 1: did interview virtually everybody in Cheryl's life, from her friends
18:49
Speaker 1: to her family, to her coworkers at the Ford Dealership
18:53
Speaker 1: and Pj's Market. They talked to people at church who
18:55
Speaker 1: knew her, and nobody really popped up as being very suspicious.
19:00
Speaker 1: Everyone said look, you know, Cheryl was this incredible person
19:03
Speaker 1: who everybody seemed to love. It makes no sense that
19:06
Speaker 1: somebody would want to harm her. But a year after
19:09
Speaker 1: Cheryl's death, the police would get their first big break
19:13
Speaker 1: in this case. A newspaper journalist contacted the police to
19:16
Speaker 1: let them know that this random young man had contacted
19:20
Speaker 1: him and confessed to killing Cheryl and then hung up
19:24
Speaker 1: without giving his name or his location or how to
19:27
Speaker 1: get in touch with him again. It was almost like
19:29
Speaker 1: this person had called just to get this huge secret
19:32
Speaker 1: off their chest. Somewhat anonymously. The police convinced the journalist
19:36
Speaker 1: to actually write a story about this strange call. He
19:39
Speaker 1: got to see if maybe they could flush out this
19:42
Speaker 1: young man who had just confessed. And when this article
19:45
Speaker 1: ran in the newspaper, one of Cheryl's old coworkers from
19:48
Speaker 1: the car dealership called the police to be like, hey,
19:52
Speaker 1: there was this young man who worked at this dealership
19:54
Speaker 1: with us and with Cheryl who was totally creepy and
19:58
Speaker 1: definitely had a thing for The co worker said this
20:01
Speaker 1: guy's name was alb Brodsweller and that he worked in
20:05
Speaker 1: the garage and he was known as a kind of
20:07
Speaker 1: odd guy with a short temper who totally creeped out
20:10
Speaker 1: all the women who worked at the dealership, And this
20:12
Speaker 1: coworker would tell police that before Cheryl died, she had
20:16
Speaker 1: been working with Alby on his resume, and while they
20:19
Speaker 1: had been working together, Albee had developed this weird fixation
20:23
Speaker 1: on Cheryl. And when police began looking into Albee, they
20:27
Speaker 1: discovered he had quit his job at the dealership a
20:30
Speaker 1: day before Cheryl went missing, and then a couple of
20:33
Speaker 1: days after he had quit. So by this point Cheryl
20:36
Speaker 1: has been found murdered. One of Cheryl's colleagues said they
20:39
Speaker 1: saw alb and he had this really deep cut on
20:42
Speaker 1: his hand that he kept wrapped in a big bandage.
20:45
Speaker 1: Detectives would also discover that Albee's father lived right near
20:48
Speaker 1: Pj's Market, and Albi's mother lived right near the area
20:52
Speaker 1: where Cheryl's car had been found out near Lake Union.
20:54
Speaker 1: And so suddenly Roland's previously odd seeming story about some
20:59
Speaker 1: random young man following Cheryl around before she was murdered
21:03
Speaker 1: made a lot of sense. It seemed like all Bee
21:05
Speaker 1: was this strange young man Roland was talking about. When
21:09
Speaker 1: detectives tracked all Be down, he was sullen and totally uncooperative,
21:14
Speaker 1: but eventually the police got him to talk and he
21:16
Speaker 1: would tell them that he had cut his hand fishing,
21:18
Speaker 1: and so police rounded up all these people all Be
21:21
Speaker 1: said he had been fishing with when he cut his hand,
21:24
Speaker 1: and in separate interviews, all of those people confirmed that
21:28
Speaker 1: all Bee was telling the truth. And also police knew
21:31
Speaker 1: that even though circumstantially all Be looked really suspicious, there
21:35
Speaker 1: was not a single shred of actual evidence that tied
21:39
Speaker 1: him to Cheryl's death, and so pretty quickly all Bee
21:42
Speaker 1: was let go and the police at that point kind
21:45
Speaker 1: of hit a dead end in this case. And in fact,
21:47
Speaker 1: the case went totally cold at this point. And then
21:50
Speaker 1: one day in two thousand and two, so fourteen years
21:54
Speaker 1: after Cheryl was murdered, a man in prison got word
21:57
Speaker 1: out to police that he actually knew exactly who killed Cheryl.
22:02
Speaker 1: He said the murderer's name was Frederick J. McKee and
22:05
Speaker 1: that he was currently incarcerated for cooking meth. Now we
22:09
Speaker 1: don't know exactly how this inmate knew Frederick was the killer,
22:13
Speaker 1: but this inmate who called police was cellmates with Frederick McKee,
22:18
Speaker 1: and so very likely he overheard Frederick say something incriminating,
22:21
Speaker 1: and so this inmate called the police, and so police
22:24
Speaker 1: got a DNA sample from McKee, and they compared his
22:28
Speaker 1: sample to the skin cells that were found on the
22:30
Speaker 1: duct tape that had been used to bind Cheryl's hands
22:33
Speaker 1: when she was killed, and unbelievably, it was a match.
22:37
Speaker 1: Frederick was the killer. But as police dug deeper, they
22:41
Speaker 1: quickly realized that, you know, Frederick's heinous actions of actually
22:45
Speaker 1: killing Cheryl was not the worst part of the story.
22:49
Speaker 1: The story of what really happened to Cheryl Petre was
22:53
Speaker 1: so insanely nonsensical that right away newspapers all over the
22:57
Speaker 1: country began to cover it. It was converted into a true
23:00
Speaker 1: crime documentary, and even a famous author wrote a book
23:04
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, this story really was just totally sensational. First,
23:08
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the facts of what happened
23:10
Speaker 1: to Cheryl, and then I'm going to give you the
23:12
Speaker 1: absurd and tragic explanation for why these things happened to Cheryl.
23:18
Speaker 1: Late on the night of October fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight,
23:21
Speaker 1: So the night that Cheryl disappeared, the meth cook Frederick J. McKee,
23:25
Speaker 1: ambush Cheryl as she came home from Pj's Market. We
23:28
Speaker 1: don't know exactly where the ambush happened, but we think
23:31
Speaker 1: it happened right outside of Cheryl's home. And after he
23:34
Speaker 1: ambushed her, he forced her into her own trunk. He
23:38
Speaker 1: bound her hands and then began savagely beating her. Now,
23:42
Speaker 1: based on her injuries, Cheryl obviously put up a big fight,
23:46
Speaker 1: kicking and punching and trying her best to get out
23:48
Speaker 1: of the trunk. But eventually Frederick had taken the actual
23:51
Speaker 1: medal of the trunk and began slamming it down on
23:54
Speaker 1: Cheryl's face, and that allowed him to overpower her and
23:58
Speaker 1: eventually beat her to death. And after she was dead,
24:01
Speaker 1: he shut the trunk with Cheryl inside of her car,
24:03
Speaker 1: and then he drove her car all the way out
24:05
Speaker 1: to Lake Union, and then he abandoned the car with
24:08
Speaker 1: Cheryl still inside of it and chucked her curse into
24:11
Speaker 1: the water. But this terrible night was not supposed to
24:15
Speaker 1: go this way. Here's what was going on in the background.
24:18
Speaker 1: At the same time that Cheryl was closing up shop
24:20
Speaker 1: at Pj's Market and beginning her trip back home, her
24:24
Speaker 1: ex husband Roland, on the other side of town, was
24:27
Speaker 1: sitting in his house, anxiously checking his watch, waiting for
24:30
Speaker 1: the right time to launch this big plan that was
24:34
Speaker 1: going to win Cheryl back. Roland's big plan was that
24:37
Speaker 1: he was going to save Cheryl's life. He had hired
24:40
Speaker 1: his buddy, Frederick J. McKee, the meth cook, who he
24:43
Speaker 1: had met in prison, and he had given Frederick a
24:46
Speaker 1: spare key to Cheryl's house. McKee was instructed by Roland
24:51
Speaker 1: to sneak into Cheryl's place before eleven PM, so before
24:54
Speaker 1: she came home from work, and then when she got home,
24:57
Speaker 1: McKee was supposed to jump out and ambush her and
25:00
Speaker 1: tie her up and abduct her. Roland had actually gone
25:04
Speaker 1: with McKee to a hardware store to purchase the rope
25:07
Speaker 1: and duct tape that McKee would use to tie Cheryl up.
25:10
Speaker 1: But when McKee actually got to the point in the
25:13
Speaker 1: plan where he was physically removing Cheryl from her home
25:17
Speaker 1: to go take her who knows where, that was when
25:20
Speaker 1: Roland was going to jump in and save the day.
25:22
Speaker 1: And Roland had really thought about how this moment was
25:25
Speaker 1: going to go. He was going to kick the front
25:27
Speaker 1: door in and jump inside and scream at McKee, you
25:30
Speaker 1: can't do this, and then attack him with his judo
25:33
Speaker 1: skills until McKee ran off scared, at which point Roland
25:37
Speaker 1: would cut Cheryl free and she would grab on to
25:40
Speaker 1: him and say, oh my goodness, you saved me. I
25:42
Speaker 1: love you, I need you. And then after this, Roland
25:45
Speaker 1: believed they would get back together and they would live
25:48
Speaker 1: happily ever after. However, on the night of October fifteenth,
25:51
Speaker 1: at eleven thirty, when Roland looked at his watch and
25:54
Speaker 1: saw it was time to go save his ex wife,
25:57
Speaker 1: he stood up so quickly from the couch because he
26:00
Speaker 1: was so excited to go do this thing that he
26:02
Speaker 1: had one of his low blood pressure episodes and he fainted.
26:06
Speaker 1: And then when he came to a little while later,
26:09
Speaker 1: instead of going out the door to really at this
26:11
Speaker 1: point stopping this abduction from happening, Roland just kind of
26:15
Speaker 1: trudged upstairs and went to sleep. And this was a
26:18
Speaker 1: really big problem because Frederick J. McKee, the meth cook
26:23
Speaker 1: he was hired to actually abduct Cheryl, he was not
26:27
Speaker 1: aware that this was actually a setup for Roland to
26:30
Speaker 1: come in and save the day. McKee literally believed Roland
26:34
Speaker 1: wanted him to abduct his wife, and he didn't ask
26:37
Speaker 1: any questions. He just said okay, I'll do that, and
26:39
Speaker 1: then when Roland didn't show up, Frederick went through with
26:43
Speaker 1: the actual abduction of Cheryl, and during this abduction things
26:47
Speaker 1: got out of hand and Frederick wound up beating Cheryl
26:51
Speaker 1: to death. Both Roland and McKee would be convicted for
26:54
Speaker 1: the murder of Cheryl Petrie, and by the time the
26:57
Speaker 1: cops had finally solved this cold case, Roland was actually
27:01
Speaker 1: already in prison for attempting to kidnap the son of
27:05
Speaker 1: another ex wife in an effort to impress this ex wife.
27:09
Speaker 1: It had not worked. Roland was ultimately sentenced to forty
27:13
Speaker 1: years in prison, which was on top of the twenty
27:16
Speaker 1: five years he was already serving, and McKee would get
27:19
Speaker 1: twenty years. Once the news headlines fade about whatever terrible
27:31
Speaker 1: thing happened to them, the victims of violent crime and
27:34
Speaker 1: their families are often left to pick up the pieces
27:37
Speaker 1: of their shattered lives all on their own. This is
27:40
Speaker 1: why we started the Mister Bolland Foundation. It is a
27:43
Speaker 1: registered five to one C three charity whose sole purpose
27:46
Speaker 1: is to help these forgotten people. However, we can't do
27:50
Speaker 1: it alone. Since last year, with your help, we were
27:53
Speaker 1: able to raise and give away to victims of violent
27:56
Speaker 1: crime and their families over half a million dollars and
28:00
Speaker 1: this year alone, our studio Ballin Studios is going to
28:04
Speaker 1: donate one million dollars. And to be clear, the Mister
28:07
Speaker 1: Ballin Foundation does not make a profit zero, meaning one
28:12
Speaker 1: hundred percent of your donations to the foundation go to
28:16
Speaker 1: the cause, not to overhead, not to salaries, nothing, it's
28:20
Speaker 1: just the cost. So if you're looking for a highly transparent,
28:24
Speaker 1: very active charity that is just trying to do the
28:28
Speaker 1: thing we say we do to support victims of violent
28:31
Speaker 1: crime and their families, then look no further than the
28:34
Speaker 1: Mister Ballin Foundation. To make a donation, simply go to
28:38
Speaker 1: mister Ballin dot Foundation and click on donate again, that's
28:42
Speaker 1: mister Ballin dot Foundation and click donate. So that's going
28:49
Speaker 1: to do it. If you got something out of today's story,
28:52
Speaker 1: be sure to check out our podcast called the Mister
28:54
Speaker 1: Ballin Podcast, where we have literally hundreds more stories just
28:58
Speaker 1: like this one, any of which are only available on
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Speaker 1: the podcast, so you can't get them on YouTube. Again.
29:04
Speaker 1: The podcast is just called the Mister Ballen Podcast and
29:08
Speaker 1: it's available exclusively on Amazon Music