Latest / Crime and Horror / He said their faces were MELTING... - MrBallen

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He said their faces were MELTING... - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: In the early morning hours of March 27, 2003, a
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Speaker 1: four-year-old boy was lying in bed in rural Ohio when
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Speaker 1: he suddenly heard his door open. Now, he assumed it
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Speaker 1: was just his great-grandparents coming in to check on him.
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Speaker 1: And so, you know, he's a kid. He just pretended
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Speaker 1: to be asleep. But he heard whoever this was make
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Speaker 1: their way across the bedroom because he heard the floorboards creaking.
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Speaker 1: And at some point, they were standing right next to
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Speaker 1: his bed. And so curious, the little boy opened his eyes.
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Speaker 1: What he saw standing next to his bed was not
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Speaker 1: his great-grandparents. It was a huge green monster. But before
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Speaker 1: we get into today's story, if you're a fan of
0:39
Speaker 1: the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then
0:42
Speaker 1: you've come to the right place because that's all we
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0:48
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Speaker 1: on all notifications so you don't miss any of our uploads. Okay,
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Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. On the evening of Wednesday,
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Speaker 1: March 26th, 2003, a 55-year-old woman named Linda Myers drove
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Speaker 1: down a secluded two-lane road in Dark County, Ohio. Dark
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Speaker 1: County was very rural. It was basically just very small
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Speaker 1: towns and farmland. And so as Linda drove down the road,
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Speaker 1: you know, kind of in the middle of nowhere, she
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Speaker 1: looked out her window and she saw the sun setting
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Speaker 1: over a field. She was coming home from the pizza
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Speaker 1: shop that she and her husband Jack owned in a
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Speaker 1: town nearby. Linda eventually turned down a gravel road and
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Speaker 1: onto the sprawling 40-acre farm where she and her husband lived.
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Speaker 1: She parked outside their old farmhouse, and then she grabbed
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Speaker 1: a deposit bag with money from the pizza shop out
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Speaker 1: of the back seat, and then she got out of
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Speaker 1: her car. Their farm was so isolated that she couldn't
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Speaker 1: hear any cars on the road or anything from the
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Speaker 1: neighbors' houses, so it was completely quiet except for the
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Speaker 1: sheep that were bleeding in the field and the occasional
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Speaker 1: sound of power tools coming from the barn. She walked
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Speaker 1: around to the back of the barn, and she found
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Speaker 1: Jack hunched over the engine of a beat-up old car.
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Speaker 1: The two of them had been married for about seven years,
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Speaker 1: and even though this was actually Linda's third marriage, she
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Speaker 1: really felt like Jack was her soulmate. In addition to
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Speaker 1: owning the shop with Linda, the pizza shop, Jack also
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Speaker 1: had a full-time job at a manufacturing plant, and he
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Speaker 1: also had a side business restoring cars. And so Linda
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Speaker 1: often found him out here behind the barn working on
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Speaker 1: a car around the time the sun was going down.
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Speaker 1: And sitting in the grass beside the car, playing with
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Speaker 1: a wrench, was Linda's four-year-old great-grandson, Damien. And the second
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Speaker 1: Damien saw Linda, he smiled and he got up and
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Speaker 1: he rushed over to her to give her a big hug.
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Speaker 1: And Damien's smile made Linda feel sort of bittersweet. Damien
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Speaker 1: was the son of Linda's granddaughter, Amber. But Amber had
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Speaker 1: gotten pregnant at just 14 years old, and so as
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Speaker 1: a result had not been in any position to take
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Speaker 1: care of a baby. So Linda and Jack had offered
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Speaker 1: to take Damien in and raise him for a few
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Speaker 1: years while Amber finished high school and got on her feet. However,
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Speaker 1: this was definitely not a perfect arrangement for many reasons,
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Speaker 1: but one of those reasons was because Damien's father was
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Speaker 1: furious about being cut out of the custody agreement. Even now,
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Speaker 1: four years after Damien's situation had been decided, the father
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Speaker 1: still argued with Linda about how she wouldn't let him
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Speaker 1: see his son. But Linda felt like as much as
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Speaker 1: he was saying he wanted to be in Damien's life,
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Speaker 1: she felt like at some point he was going to
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Speaker 1: abandon this child. And so she really didn't want him
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Speaker 1: to be around Damien at all. She didn't want her
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Speaker 1: great-grandson to be abandoned like that. And besides, Damien would
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Speaker 1: have another father figure in his life soon enough. Because
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Speaker 1: in the past few years, Amber had finished school, she
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Speaker 1: had met a new man, and gotten married. And as
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Speaker 1: soon as Damien finished up this year of preschool in
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Speaker 1: a couple of months... Amber and her new husband were
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Speaker 1: planning to take him in and raise him on their own.
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Speaker 1: Linda was proud of Amber, how she had turned her
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Speaker 1: life around. But she also felt a little sad, you know, bittersweet,
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Speaker 1: because she and Jack were going to miss having Damien around.
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Speaker 1: They loved him. He was basically their son. Linda knew
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Speaker 1: that Jack clearly was busy with this car and kind
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Speaker 1: of didn't want to be interrupted. So she just said
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Speaker 1: a quick hello and then scooped Damien up and carried
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Speaker 1: him over to the farmhouse. She opened up the door
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Speaker 1: and she sat him down and told him to go
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Speaker 1: wash up before dinner. Then she went into the kitchen.
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Speaker 1: and she dropped the deposit bag from the pizza shop
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Speaker 1: into a chair in the dining room. The bag was
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Speaker 1: full of cash, and her plan was to drop it
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Speaker 1: off at the bank in the morning. Linda got out
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Speaker 1: a pan and began cooking dinner, and pretty soon her
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Speaker 1: husband Jack came inside covered in car grease. While Jack
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Speaker 1: washed his hands at the kitchen sink, Linda asked him
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Speaker 1: about his day. And Jack kind of grumbled about this
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Speaker 1: customer that he had sold a car to on a
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Speaker 1: payment plan the previous year, who had now missed three
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Speaker 1: payments in a row. Jack said he was going to
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Speaker 1: have to drive out there to the person's house tomorrow
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Speaker 1: and repossess the car. Linda could see, you know, Jack
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Speaker 1: is obviously pretty tense here. But Linda knew it wasn't
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Speaker 1: really that missed car payment that was bothering him. The
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Speaker 1: truth was, Jack had been sort of tense really for
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Speaker 1: the past week, ever since he had had this big
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Speaker 1: argument with his 25-year-old son, Greg. Greg had always been
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Speaker 1: very shy and mild-mannered and really close with his dad.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he was the best man at Jack and
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Speaker 1: Linda's wedding. But recently, Greg's life had been falling off
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Speaker 1: the rails. He was in the middle of a divorce,
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Speaker 1: he was struggling with drinking and drug abuse, and he'd
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Speaker 1: been missing ships at work. And so earlier that month,
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Speaker 1: he had come by to ask Jack for money because
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Speaker 1: his house was about to be foreclosed on. And Jack
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Speaker 1: had drawn a line and said no. He told Greg
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Speaker 1: that if he wanted to keep his house, he'd have
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Speaker 1: to clean up his act and get back to work.
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Speaker 1: And so that had led to a very big fight.
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Speaker 1: And so now Linda had a feeling that Jack was
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Speaker 1: genuinely worried that he'd done real damage to his relationship
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Speaker 1: with Greg, perhaps irreparably, because something pretty similar had also
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Speaker 1: happened with Jack's other son, Travis. About seven years earlier,
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Speaker 1: when Travis was 21, he and Jack had gotten into
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Speaker 1: this big argument that was so bad, Travis moved out,
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Speaker 1: and then the two of them had not spoken since
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Speaker 1: for seven years. So Linda thought Jack must be worried
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Speaker 1: that that would be the same thing that would happen
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Speaker 1: with him and Greg. So while Jack washed his hands,
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Speaker 1: Linda rubbed his shoulders and told him not to worry
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Speaker 1: about Greg. He had a good head on his shoulders
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Speaker 1: and he just needed a little nudge to get back
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Speaker 1: on track. And that's all Jack had done. She reassured
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Speaker 1: him that he'd made the right call and Greg would
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Speaker 1: get through this rough patch sooner or later. Then Linda
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Speaker 1: set the table and called the family to dinner. A
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Speaker 1: little while later, after they'd eaten and cleaned up, Linda
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Speaker 1: looked up at the clock and realized it was getting
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Speaker 1: kind of late. Damien had preschool in the morning, and
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Speaker 1: she didn't want him to be tired and grumpy. So
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Speaker 1: she scooped him up and took him to his room
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Speaker 1: upstairs to get ready for bed. She helped him change
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Speaker 1: into his PJs, she brushed his teeth, then tucked him in,
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Speaker 1: gave him a kiss goodnight, and closed the door. Linda
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Speaker 1: went back downstairs, and before long, she and Jack were
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Speaker 1: getting ready for bed too. Before long, Linda was in
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Speaker 1: her bedroom, she had turned on a lamp, she had
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Speaker 1: changed into her PJs, and crawled under the covers. And
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Speaker 1: then once Jack was settled in next to her, she
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Speaker 1: turned off the light, and they fell asleep. But several
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Speaker 1: hours later, Linda was suddenly woken up by this horribly
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Speaker 1: loud noise, and she sat up and looked around, and
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Speaker 1: when her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, she gasped.
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Speaker 1: The next morning, at a church a mile away from
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Speaker 1: Linda and Jack's house, a preschool teacher was getting ready
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Speaker 1: to start class, but she noticed there was an empty
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Speaker 1: chair in her classroom. One of her students, four-year-old Damian Huffman,
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Speaker 1: was late. She knew Damien's great-grandparents led busy lives and
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Speaker 1: had several different jobs and businesses, so she figured they
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Speaker 1: must just be running late. So she began class and
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Speaker 1: hoped they would just drop Damien off before he missed
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Speaker 1: too much. And about an hour later, at 9.30 a.m.,
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Speaker 1: she was leading the class in morning sing-alongs when Damien
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Speaker 1: suddenly came sprinting into the classroom. Now, at first, the
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Speaker 1: teacher was relieved that Damien had shown up. But then
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Speaker 1: she realized Damien looked frazzled and out of breath and
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Speaker 1: He didn't have his backpack and he was wearing PJs
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Speaker 1: and there was the smear of something brown on his shirt.
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Speaker 1: She ran over to him and knelt down next to
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Speaker 1: him and realized the brown spot was dried blood. The
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Speaker 1: teacher asked Damien what was going on and he looked
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Speaker 1: at her with the scared, confused expression and he told
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Speaker 1: her his great-grandparents' faces were melting. Over this past winter break,
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Speaker 1: when myself, my wife, and my three kids were home,
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Speaker 1: I was sent this package of MyMochi, which is like
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Speaker 1: ice cream, these little bites of premium ice cream wrapped
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Speaker 1: in this sweet, chewy dough. And I was told, like, hey,
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Speaker 1: try this out, see if you like it, and see
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Speaker 1: if you want to advertise this product. And I'm like,
9:09
Speaker 1: all right. You know, I obviously tried the product. And
9:12
Speaker 1: I am hooked on MyMochi. Like, seriously, I was blown
9:16
Speaker 1: away by how good these things are. I was sent strawberry, mango,
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Speaker 1: and cookies and cream. And let me tell you, cookies
9:23
Speaker 1: and cream is out of this world. It's so refreshing.
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Speaker 1: That's the way my wife and I refer to my
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Speaker 1: mochi as being like very refreshing. And so we plow
9:32
Speaker 1: through all this mochi we got sent. And literally we
9:35
Speaker 1: went out before this big snowstorm. We went out to
9:38
Speaker 1: the grocery store before it shut down because of the
9:40
Speaker 1: storm just to buy all the mochi we could. Crushed it.
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Speaker 1: It's so good. It's only 70 calories. It's gluten-free. It's
9:49
Speaker 1: so good, you gotta try it. My mochi, it's the best.
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Speaker 1: Each purple box comes with six perfectly portioned mochi snacks,
9:56
Speaker 1: available in mouth-watering flavors like strawberry, mango. and cookies and cream.
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Speaker 1: Cookies and cream, really quite good. Feel joyfully chill with
10:04
Speaker 1: every bite of My Mochi ice cream. Look for the
10:06
Speaker 1: purple box of My Mochi ice cream in the freezer
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Speaker 1: aisle of your local grocery store. It's really, really good.
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Speaker 1: About 15 minutes later, a police sergeant named Mark Whitaker,
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Speaker 1: along with his partner, drove down a secluded road toward
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Speaker 1: a farmhouse in rural Ohio. Sergeant Whitaker had been a
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Speaker 1: detective for the Dark County Sheriff's Department for five years,
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Speaker 1: and he was in charge of the investigative unit. So
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Speaker 1: when the department had gotten a very strange 911 call
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Speaker 1: that morning from a local preschool, he was sent out
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Speaker 1: to investigate. According to the preschool teacher, a four-year-old student
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Speaker 1: named Damian Huffman had come into school covered in blood,
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Speaker 1: out of breath, saying something about his great-grandparents' faces being,
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Speaker 1: you know, melting. The teacher identified the great-grandparents as Linda
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Speaker 1: and Jack Myers. Now, Whitaker had no idea what Damien
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Speaker 1: meant when he had said that their faces were melting,
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Speaker 1: or what kind of situation, you know, Whitaker and his
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Speaker 1: partner would be walking into when they got to the farm.
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Speaker 1: But he had a feeling it would not be good.
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Speaker 1: They pulled up to the farm and parked at the
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Speaker 1: end of the long gravel road. And when Whitaker got
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Speaker 1: out of his car, he immediately noticed how eerily quiet
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Speaker 1: it was. There was another farmhouse just across the road
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Speaker 1: and a few more on the horizon, but otherwise they
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Speaker 1: were surrounded by empty fields in every direction. Whitaker began
11:27
Speaker 1: walking towards the front door when he saw the front
11:30
Speaker 1: door was already wide open, but there was no clear
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Speaker 1: sign of forced entry. But nonetheless, Whitaker and his partner
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Speaker 1: reflexively drew their weapons and they stepped inside the house.
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Speaker 1: Whitaker began calling out to see if anybody was home,
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Speaker 1: but there was no response. From where he was standing,
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Speaker 1: he saw there was another open door in the house
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Speaker 1: that that led to a set of stairs that went down, presumably,
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Speaker 1: to the basement. Whitaker ignored the basement for now, and
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Speaker 1: instead continued clearing the first floor. So he went into
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Speaker 1: the kitchen, and once he was sure it was clear,
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Speaker 1: he continued down the hallway, until he found a doorway
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Speaker 1: that led into a bedroom. And when he went inside
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Speaker 1: that bedroom, he found Damien's great-grandparents, Jack and Linda Myers.
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Speaker 1: And they were lying in their bed, side by side,
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Speaker 1: and he could tell immediately they were both dead. Now
12:14
Speaker 1: Jack was actually lying on his stomach. And he could
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Speaker 1: tell right away there was a big bullet wound on
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Speaker 1: the back of Jack's neck. As for Linda, she was
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Speaker 1: on her back and she had gunshot wounds to her
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Speaker 1: face and her hand, as if she had raised her
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Speaker 1: hand to defend herself before she was shot. And so
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Speaker 1: at this point, Whitaker and his partner did a full
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Speaker 1: search of the house just to make sure nobody else
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Speaker 1: was there and it was empty. And so the two
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Speaker 1: went back to the bedroom to begin investigating the bodies.
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Speaker 1: Whitaker put on a pair of latex gloves and touched
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Speaker 1: the wound on Linda's face. and the blood was still
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Speaker 1: warm and wet, so he figured likely they'd only been
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Speaker 1: dead for maybe a few hours at most. He looked
12:51
Speaker 1: around the floor, and he didn't see any bullet casings,
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Speaker 1: which meant the killer had gone through the trouble of
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Speaker 1: picking them up afterwards to cover their tracks. Then, Whitaker's
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Speaker 1: partner called his attention to this weird plasticky bundle that
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Speaker 1: was lying on a pillow near Jack's head. Whitaker picked
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Speaker 1: it up, and he saw it was a piece of
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Speaker 1: quilting fabric that was balled up and covered in masking tape.
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Speaker 1: His best guess was that it was a homemade gun silencer.
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Speaker 1: The killer likely taped it to the end of their
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Speaker 1: gun to muffle the sound of the blast, and it
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Speaker 1: must have, you know, blown off at some point when
13:22
Speaker 1: they actually began shooting. Immediately, Whitaker wondered, if this was
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Speaker 1: a silencer, why the killer would need one so far
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Speaker 1: out in the middle of nowhere. But when Whitaker left
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Speaker 1: the bedroom and went up a flight of stairs to
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Speaker 1: the room right above where the murders had taken place,
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Speaker 1: he found another bedroom that was full of stuffed animals
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Speaker 1: and toy trucks. It was obviously Damien's room. And it
13:44
Speaker 1: was at this point that Whitaker realized, you know, very
13:46
Speaker 1: likely the killer must have known there was going to
13:49
Speaker 1: be a toddler sleeping right upstairs when they did this.
13:52
Speaker 1: And so they needed the silencer in order to not
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Speaker 1: wake the child when they committed this murder. And so
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Speaker 1: this meant that the killer almost certainly knew Jack and
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Speaker 1: Linda personally. Within minutes, more officers from the Dark County
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Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office swarmed the property. Whitaker went outside to supervise them.
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Speaker 1: and pretty quickly, a forensics officer called him over to
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Speaker 1: look at a set of footprints that they had found
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Speaker 1: in the mud. Whitaker followed the trail of footprints around
14:18
Speaker 1: the side of the house to a basement window. The
14:21
Speaker 1: windowpane had been pried off, leaving an open hole that
14:24
Speaker 1: was just big enough for a person to squeeze through.
14:27
Speaker 1: Whitaker crouched down and looked through the open space, and
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Speaker 1: he could see inside there was a set of stairs
14:32
Speaker 1: leading up to the main part of the house. And
14:35
Speaker 1: so he realized this must have been how the killer
14:37
Speaker 1: got inside. And it was also why, when They had
14:40
Speaker 1: first gone inside that they had seen the door to
14:42
Speaker 1: the basement standing wide open. And so this only made
14:44
Speaker 1: Whitaker more sure that this crime had to have been
14:47
Speaker 1: committed by somebody close to this couple because the killer
14:50
Speaker 1: obviously knew the layout of Linda and Jack's house. Whitaker
14:53
Speaker 1: told the forensics officer to make a cast of the
14:56
Speaker 1: footprints so they could figure out what type and size
14:58
Speaker 1: of shoe the killer was wearing. And then as Whitaker
15:01
Speaker 1: stood back up, he noticed something else. The phone lines
15:04
Speaker 1: that were running along the side of the house had
15:06
Speaker 1: clearly been severed. The killer clearly had planned ahead and
15:10
Speaker 1: made sure that nobody in this house could call for help.
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Speaker 1: Just then, a truck pulled up at the end of
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Speaker 1: the road, and a woman got out and started walking
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Speaker 1: toward the house. Whitaker quickly went over to stop her
15:21
Speaker 1: from getting too close to the crime scene, and he
15:23
Speaker 1: asked her what she needed, and she said she was
15:25
Speaker 1: a neighbor who lived at the next property over. She
15:28
Speaker 1: said that she had seen the police cars coming down
15:30
Speaker 1: the road, and she didn't really know what was going on,
15:32
Speaker 1: but she felt like she had information that they might want.
15:36
Speaker 1: The neighbor said that around 4.30 that morning, she'd seen
15:39
Speaker 1: a minivan leaving the Myers farm. It had been so
15:42
Speaker 1: dark that she hadn't been able to see what color
15:44
Speaker 1: it was, but it had stuck out to her because
15:47
Speaker 1: as far as she knew, the Myers did not own
15:49
Speaker 1: a minivan. And so hearing this, Whitaker realized, you know,
15:52
Speaker 1: this woman may have seen the killer leaving the property.
15:55
Speaker 1: And if that was true, it meant the murders most
15:58
Speaker 1: likely happened before 4.30 in the morning. And so this
16:01
Speaker 1: was potentially quite useful. And so he thanked the neighbor
16:04
Speaker 1: for And after she left, he went back inside the
16:06
Speaker 1: house to look for more clues. He really wanted to
16:09
Speaker 1: piece together a motive. You know, he felt strongly that
16:12
Speaker 1: whoever had done this knew Linda and Jack, but that
16:15
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that the motive is clear. You know, there
16:17
Speaker 1: could be any number of reasons they would attack them.
16:19
Speaker 1: Maybe it was a robbery. Maybe they were just, you know,
16:21
Speaker 1: getting revenge or something. He didn't know, but As he
16:24
Speaker 1: began walking around the house, he found a literal deposit
16:28
Speaker 1: bag full of cash in the living room, which certainly
16:31
Speaker 1: suggested that this was not a robbery, because that would
16:34
Speaker 1: certainly have been taken. And also, there were some pretty
16:37
Speaker 1: expensive electronics in the living room that also had not
16:39
Speaker 1: been touched, so robbery seemed to be out the door.
16:43
Speaker 1: But when Whitaker went back upstairs to take a closer
16:45
Speaker 1: look at the toddler's bedroom, he noticed something odd. There
16:48
Speaker 1: was a little red stain on the bedding that looked
16:52
Speaker 1: like dried blood. While forensics teams were still combing over
16:59
Speaker 1: the farmhouse, another investigator assigned to the case, a guy
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Speaker 1: named Detective Mike Burns, went to the local preschool to
17:05
Speaker 1: speak to four-year-old Damien. Burns was a father himself, and
17:09
Speaker 1: he felt an immediate connection to this little boy, who
17:12
Speaker 1: at this point looked scared and very confused. Now, he
17:15
Speaker 1: knew it was going to be very difficult for Damien
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Speaker 1: to rehash something that was so traumatic, but Damien was
17:21
Speaker 1: the only potential witness in the house when his great-grandparents
17:24
Speaker 1: were killed. So speaking to him was the police's best
17:28
Speaker 1: bet at figuring out what happened. And so Burns sat
17:31
Speaker 1: down on the floor with Damien inside of a private room,
17:34
Speaker 1: and he asked him to explain what had happened that morning. Damien,
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Speaker 1: in a, you know, four-year-old way, said he'd woken up
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Speaker 1: around 8.45 and the house had been very quiet, so
17:44
Speaker 1: he'd gotten out of bed and went into his great-grandparents' bedroom.
17:47
Speaker 1: And then he said that both of them had been
17:49
Speaker 1: in bed, and he thought they were sleeping. But when
17:52
Speaker 1: he tried to wake them up, they wouldn't move. And
17:55
Speaker 1: then he realized there was blood on their face. And
17:59
Speaker 1: he said he had tried to wipe the blood off
18:00
Speaker 1: with Kleenex wipes. But there was so much of it
18:03
Speaker 1: that he realized something was very wrong. He thought for
18:06
Speaker 1: a second that their faces were melting. And so to
18:10
Speaker 1: save his great-grandparents, he had run the full mile down
18:14
Speaker 1: the road to his preschool to get help. Burns was
18:16
Speaker 1: surprised that this four-year-old could remember and articulate so much
18:21
Speaker 1: about such an awful experience. But he was very grateful
18:24
Speaker 1: because the child's story explained why there was blood on
18:27
Speaker 1: Damien's shirt. However, it did not explain why they'd also
18:31
Speaker 1: found blood on Damien's bed. So he asked Damien if
18:34
Speaker 1: he had gone back into his own room after finding
18:37
Speaker 1: his great-grandparents. But Damien said no. He'd gone straight out
18:41
Speaker 1: the front door and gone to his school. Burns thought
18:43
Speaker 1: there had to be more to the story, though, because
18:45
Speaker 1: otherwise he just couldn't explain how blood wound up in
18:48
Speaker 1: Damien's room. So he brought over a dollhouse and he
18:52
Speaker 1: asked Damien to go ahead and act out everything that
18:54
Speaker 1: had happened the night before, using toys to represent himself
18:58
Speaker 1: and his great-grandparents. Damien put the toy that represented himself
19:02
Speaker 1: into bed in one room, and then he put Jack
19:05
Speaker 1: and Linda into the bed in the other room. And
19:08
Speaker 1: he said everybody went to sleep at their normal bedtimes.
19:11
Speaker 1: But later, in the middle of the night, he heard
19:14
Speaker 1: his bedroom door open and he said somebody came inside.
19:17
Speaker 1: Burns asked Damien who it was. And Damien paused, and
19:21
Speaker 1: then he said, At first, Burns wasn't really sure what
19:25
Speaker 1: to make of this. He wondered if Damien was just
19:28
Speaker 1: imagining things or describing a nightmare or something. But then
19:32
Speaker 1: Damien set the toys down, and then to represent this
19:35
Speaker 1: green monster, he used his fingers to crawl across the
19:38
Speaker 1: floor of the dollhouse toward Damien's bed. Damien said, He
19:43
Speaker 1: had heard the door open in his room, and he
19:45
Speaker 1: had opened his eyes just a little bit, but he
19:47
Speaker 1: didn't want to give away that he was fully awake,
19:49
Speaker 1: so he's just squinting his eyes and he said when
19:51
Speaker 1: he did that he saw the green monster right next
19:54
Speaker 1: to his bed and the green monster was pointing a
19:57
Speaker 1: gun at him and damien was so terrified he said
20:01
Speaker 1: he shut his eyes and just pretended to be asleep
20:03
Speaker 1: and then he said when he opened his eyes again
20:05
Speaker 1: the green monster was gone After hearing this, Burns realized
20:08
Speaker 1: that Damien's recollection was almost certainly not a dream. More
20:13
Speaker 1: likely than not, Damien had come face-to-face with his grandparents' killer.
20:17
Speaker 1: They were the Green Monster. After leaving the preschool, the
20:25
Speaker 1: next priority for Detective Burns was to speak to Damien's mother,
20:28
Speaker 1: 19-year-old Amber Holsher. And so the detective drove out to
20:33
Speaker 1: Amber's house, which was in a nearby town... And when
20:35
Speaker 1: he rang the doorbell, she answered right away. Now, at
20:38
Speaker 1: this point, nobody in the family had been notified yet
20:41
Speaker 1: about the murders. So Amber seemed to have no idea
20:44
Speaker 1: why a detective was now standing on her doorstep. Now,
20:47
Speaker 1: Burns knew this, and so he said to her, can
20:49
Speaker 1: I please come inside? We need to speak. And so, confused,
20:53
Speaker 1: Amber said okay, and she let him inside, and they
20:56
Speaker 1: sat down in the living room. And then Burns said
20:59
Speaker 1: to her, you know, very gently, that her grandparents, Linda
21:02
Speaker 1: and Jack Myers, were no longer with them. But when
21:05
Speaker 1: Amber heard this, she just looked confused and asked what
21:08
Speaker 1: he meant. Like, where are they? So Burns took a
21:11
Speaker 1: deep breath and he clarified that they were deceased. Amber
21:14
Speaker 1: looked completely shocked and immediately asked, is Damien dead too?
21:19
Speaker 1: But Burns said, no, no, he's alive, but he's going
21:22
Speaker 1: to be kept in protective custody for a while in
21:25
Speaker 1: case whoever killed Jack and Linda try to hurt him too.
21:28
Speaker 1: And until they narrowed down the suspects, Damien would not
21:31
Speaker 1: be allowed to see anybody in the family, including her,
21:34
Speaker 1: his own mother. At this point, Amber just began to cry.
21:37
Speaker 1: Burns felt horrible for her, but really he was thinking
21:40
Speaker 1: about Damien. He knew he had to solve this case
21:43
Speaker 1: as quickly as possible because every day that he didn't
21:46
Speaker 1: would be another day that Damien would have to spend
21:49
Speaker 1: alone without any family to comfort him. Based both on
21:52
Speaker 1: Amber's reaction to the news and the fact that Damien
21:55
Speaker 1: did not mention seeing his mother on the night of
21:57
Speaker 1: the murder, Burns thought it was highly unlikely that Amber
22:01
Speaker 1: was a suspect, but she could know something that might
22:03
Speaker 1: help the investigation. So, once she calmed down, Burns asked
22:07
Speaker 1: her if she knew anyone who might have wanted to
22:09
Speaker 1: hurt her grandparents. And right away, she nodded and she
22:13
Speaker 1: mentioned Damien's father, Andrew Huffman. She said Andrew hated Linda
22:18
Speaker 1: because she wouldn't let him see Damien. In fact, just recently,
22:22
Speaker 1: Andrew had come to Linda's pizza shop and started a
22:25
Speaker 1: fight with her about custody. And it had escalated to
22:27
Speaker 1: the point where Andrew had publicly threatened to kill her.
22:31
Speaker 1: This obviously caught Burns' attention because it made perfect sense
22:34
Speaker 1: as a motive. If Linda and Jack were out of
22:37
Speaker 1: the way, well, Andrew would have an easier time getting
22:40
Speaker 1: custody of Damien. And so he thanked Amber and promised
22:43
Speaker 1: he would be in touch soon. And then as soon
22:45
Speaker 1: as he was back in his car, he called Sergeant
22:47
Speaker 1: Whitaker and he told him what he'd learned. Later that day,
22:51
Speaker 1: Whitaker and his partner made the two-hour drive to Andrew's
22:54
Speaker 1: address in Newport, Kentucky. When they got there, Andrew quickly
22:59
Speaker 1: came to the door and he let them inside and
23:00
Speaker 1: they sat down and Andrew looked at them like, what's
23:03
Speaker 1: going on? And they told him that Linda and Jack
23:06
Speaker 1: had been murdered. And they watched Andrew for his reaction.
23:09
Speaker 1: And he seemed very surprised, but he definitely did not
23:12
Speaker 1: seem upset. Andrew would then admit that he did not
23:15
Speaker 1: get along with Amber's family. And when Whitaker asked him
23:18
Speaker 1: about that big argument at the pizza shop, Andrew did
23:21
Speaker 1: not deny that he had literally threatened to kill Linda.
23:24
Speaker 1: But he swore he would never actually do it. He
23:27
Speaker 1: said it was just an empty thread he made in
23:29
Speaker 1: the heat of the moment. Still, Whitaker thought Andrew looked
23:31
Speaker 1: very suspicious. So he asked him for an alibi. And
23:35
Speaker 1: Andrew said he'd stayed over at a girl's house on
23:37
Speaker 1: the night of the murder. And in the morning, he'd
23:39
Speaker 1: stopped by his dad's house and then gone straight to work.
23:41
Speaker 1: And you could ask all those people and that's where
23:43
Speaker 1: he was. Whitaker wrote all this down and then asked
23:46
Speaker 1: Andrew a few more questions and then thanked him for
23:48
Speaker 1: his time. And then as soon as the detectives left,
23:51
Speaker 1: they immediately went to go check on Andrew's alibi. They
23:54
Speaker 1: went to that girl's house, then they went to Andrew's
23:56
Speaker 1: dad's house, and then they also went to his place
23:58
Speaker 1: of work, and everybody at those three locations all confirmed
24:02
Speaker 1: Andrew's alibi. So unless someone was lying, it left no
24:06
Speaker 1: window of time where Andrew could have driven two hours
24:09
Speaker 1: away to Ohio to murder Jack and Linda. Whitaker was
24:12
Speaker 1: disappointed that they basically wasted most of the day on
24:15
Speaker 1: this lead that now looked like it wouldn't go anywhere.
24:18
Speaker 1: especially knowing that, again, every moment in this case that
24:21
Speaker 1: it went unsolved was another moment that Damien would have
24:24
Speaker 1: to spend away from his family all alone. The following morning,
24:35
Speaker 1: Detective Burns, the same officer who had spoken to Damien
24:39
Speaker 1: and also his mother Amber, sat inside of his office
24:41
Speaker 1: feeling very frustrated. He had one goal for the day.
24:45
Speaker 1: He wanted to interview Jack's estranged son, 28-year-old Travis Myers.
24:49
Speaker 1: But it was looking like that was going to be
24:51
Speaker 1: harder than he had anticipated. So the day before, a
24:54
Speaker 1: bunch of sheriff's deputies had interviewed Linda and Jack's family
24:58
Speaker 1: and friends. And family members in particular had mentioned that
25:02
Speaker 1: Travis and Jack had some bad blood. And when Burns
25:05
Speaker 1: had dug through the files on Travis, he found out
25:08
Speaker 1: that Travis also had a criminal record. But there was
25:11
Speaker 1: a problem. it appeared that Travis hadn't even been in
25:14
Speaker 1: Ohio in seven years. The last anybody in the family
25:17
Speaker 1: had heard, he'd moved to Arizona to live with his mother.
25:20
Speaker 1: But when Burns had called the mother that morning, she
25:22
Speaker 1: said that she actually didn't know where Travis was at all.
25:25
Speaker 1: And there was no other address on record for Travis.
25:28
Speaker 1: So Burns basically had no idea where he was. And
25:31
Speaker 1: so he began to wonder, like, how was he going
25:33
Speaker 1: to track Travis down? And he decided he should start
25:36
Speaker 1: by visiting Travis's younger brother and Jack's other son, whose
25:39
Speaker 1: name was Greg. Burns knew Greg lived only a few
25:42
Speaker 1: towns over, and even though he really wasn't sure how
25:45
Speaker 1: close the brothers might be, it was the only lead
25:47
Speaker 1: he really had. A little while later, Burns showed up
25:52
Speaker 1: at Greg's house, and he knocked on the front door.
25:54
Speaker 1: And a moment later, a young man in a baseball
25:56
Speaker 1: cap answered, and he looked very much like he'd been crying.
25:59
Speaker 1: Burns asked if he was Greg Myers, and the young
26:02
Speaker 1: man nodded and stepped aside to let him in. Greg
26:04
Speaker 1: did not seem remotely surprised by this visit. He said
26:07
Speaker 1: the police had already contacted him the night before, tell
26:10
Speaker 1: him about his father and stepmother's murder. And since then,
26:13
Speaker 1: he said he'd just been waiting for somebody to come
26:15
Speaker 1: by and talk to him because he'd seen enough TV
26:18
Speaker 1: to know that family members were always the first suspects.
26:21
Speaker 1: But when they got into the living room, Burns stopped
26:24
Speaker 1: in his tracks because there was another young man standing
26:27
Speaker 1: in the doorway and he looked a lot like Greg.
26:30
Speaker 1: Burns asked who it was and Greg said, oh, that's
26:33
Speaker 1: my brother, Travis. Burns couldn't believe his luck. He'd come
26:36
Speaker 1: here hoping to figure out where Travis might be, but
26:39
Speaker 1: he never imagined he would just find Travis standing in
26:42
Speaker 1: Greg's house. And this was a big development, because really,
26:45
Speaker 1: until now, Burns had no idea if Travis was even
26:48
Speaker 1: in the state at the time of the murders. But
26:50
Speaker 1: Greg would actually tell him that Travis had been in
26:53
Speaker 1: Ohio for the past several weeks, staying in an apartment
26:56
Speaker 1: that he had rented right nearby. Burns did think the
26:59
Speaker 1: timing seemed very suspicious. It just seemed way too convenient
27:02
Speaker 1: that Travis had come back into town for the first
27:05
Speaker 1: time in almost a decade, Right before Jack and Linda
27:08
Speaker 1: were killed, it just seemed too perfect. And also at
27:11
Speaker 1: this point, it just seemed really suspicious that these two
27:15
Speaker 1: brothers are just standing here waiting for police to come
27:18
Speaker 1: question them. It just, something felt off. So Burns, operating
27:21
Speaker 1: on a gut instinct, told them both that in order
27:24
Speaker 1: to question them, they actually had to come with him
27:27
Speaker 1: to the station and do it formally down there. Less
27:34
Speaker 1: than an hour later, Detective Burns opened the door of
27:37
Speaker 1: the Dark County Sheriff's Office, and he showed Greg and
27:40
Speaker 1: Travis Myers inside. Now, neither of the brothers were under
27:43
Speaker 1: arrest yet, but Burns had a feeling that by the
27:46
Speaker 1: end of their interviews, one or both of them could be.
27:49
Speaker 1: Burns took Greg into his office for questioning, while Burns'
27:52
Speaker 1: partner took Travis into a room down the hall. As
27:55
Speaker 1: soon as Greg sat down in front of the desk,
27:57
Speaker 1: Burns noticed that he wasn't making eye contact with him.
28:00
Speaker 1: He was sort of acting shifty. But pretty quickly, Greg
28:03
Speaker 1: said he was perfectly willing to tell the detectives anything
28:06
Speaker 1: they wanted if it could help solve his dad and
28:08
Speaker 1: stepmother's murders. And so Burns immediately began asking questions. He
28:12
Speaker 1: asked Greg what he was doing in the early hours
28:15
Speaker 1: of Thursday morning when Jack and Linda were killed. And
28:18
Speaker 1: Greg told him that mostly he was just asleep. That is,
28:20
Speaker 1: until about 4.30 when he got up to go to
28:23
Speaker 1: his job at a factory that was a few towns over.
28:25
Speaker 1: He also said his girlfriend was at home with him
28:28
Speaker 1: the whole night and she could confirm that. He then
28:30
Speaker 1: said he drove to work in his minivan and he
28:33
Speaker 1: clocked in at 5.23 a.m. And he even had a
28:36
Speaker 1: signed time card back home that would prove it. And
28:38
Speaker 1: Burns was immediately very interested to learn that Greg drove
28:41
Speaker 1: a minivan. Because remember, that neighbor had said she saw
28:45
Speaker 1: a minivan leaving the Myers farm around 4.30 on the
28:48
Speaker 1: morning of the murders, suggesting the killer drove a minivan. However,
28:53
Speaker 1: Burns was starting to realize that Even if Greg's alibi
28:56
Speaker 1: were shaky or didn't check out, the timing alone likely
29:00
Speaker 1: ruled him out. It basically was impossible to drive from
29:04
Speaker 1: Greg's house at 4.30 a.m. when he left, go all
29:07
Speaker 1: the way to the farm, commit the murders, then drive
29:10
Speaker 1: to the factory and be able to clock in at 5.23 a.m.
29:14
Speaker 1: when he had his time card stamped. That just wasn't
29:16
Speaker 1: enough time to do all that. And also, pretty much
29:20
Speaker 1: everybody in the family knew had told Burns that Greg
29:23
Speaker 1: was quite close with Jack and Linda. Now, he was
29:26
Speaker 1: having some problems with drugs and alcohol, but he had
29:29
Speaker 1: no history of crime or violence, and none of his
29:32
Speaker 1: family members thought he seemed capable of being a killer.
29:34
Speaker 1: So even though Greg remained a suspect, Burns decided he
29:37
Speaker 1: would shift his focus to Travis. So Burns asked Greg,
29:41
Speaker 1: how had Travis reacted when he heard about Jack and
29:44
Speaker 1: Linda's murders? And he said Travis had been upset, but
29:47
Speaker 1: he'd mostly been concerned about how Greg was coping, because
29:51
Speaker 1: Greg was the one who was much closer to Jack
29:53
Speaker 1: and Linda. You know, Travis was estranged. Gregg went on
29:56
Speaker 1: to say that it had been at least seven years
29:59
Speaker 1: since Travis and his father had spoken and that those
30:01
Speaker 1: two did not get along at all. Burns asked Gregg
30:04
Speaker 1: about that falling out between Jack and Travis, and Gregg
30:07
Speaker 1: said it just came down to business disagreements on the farm.
30:10
Speaker 1: He said Travis had felt like his father was cheating
30:12
Speaker 1: him out of money, and they had this big argument
30:14
Speaker 1: that got really ugly, so Travis had just quit the
30:17
Speaker 1: business and moved away. Burns thought about this, and he
30:20
Speaker 1: wondered if maybe Travis stood to inherit any money if
30:23
Speaker 1: his father died. Because if so, that would definitely be
30:27
Speaker 1: a solid motive for murder. And so Burns made two
30:29
Speaker 1: mental notes. One was to look into Greg's alibi, and
30:33
Speaker 1: the other was to look into Jack's will to see
30:36
Speaker 1: how his assets were going to be divided up. After that,
30:39
Speaker 1: he thanked Greg for his cooperation, told him to wait
30:42
Speaker 1: in his office, and then Burns left. And he went
30:44
Speaker 1: right down the hall, and he waited outside the door
30:47
Speaker 1: while his partner finished questioning Travis. Burns' partner would say
30:51
Speaker 1: that Travis had seemed really nervous from the very moment
30:54
Speaker 1: he stepped inside the room. The detective had asked him
30:57
Speaker 1: what he was doing in Ohio, and Travis said he'd
30:59
Speaker 1: just been reevaluating his life recently, and he'd realized that
31:03
Speaker 1: he'd never actually met his brother Greg's children. So he'd
31:06
Speaker 1: come back to Ohio to do just that and spend
31:09
Speaker 1: some time with them. Then the detective asked him what
31:11
Speaker 1: he was doing when Jack and Linda were killed, and
31:14
Speaker 1: Travis stuttered out that he was sleeping in his apartment.
31:17
Speaker 1: The detective asked him if he had anybody who could
31:19
Speaker 1: confirm that, and Travis kind of hesitated and then shook
31:23
Speaker 1: his head and said no. Then the detective asked Travis
31:26
Speaker 1: if he had a car, and Travis said that at
31:29
Speaker 1: the moment he was driving his mother's car, a white minivan.
31:34
Speaker 1: After getting debriefed by his partner about this interview with Travis,
31:37
Speaker 1: Burns went back into his office. By this point, Greg
31:40
Speaker 1: had been moved out and put in a different room.
31:42
Speaker 1: and Burns sat down at his desk and he began
31:45
Speaker 1: going over the evidence they'd collected so far. Now, the
31:48
Speaker 1: investigation to this point had been moving really quickly, and
31:51
Speaker 1: so there actually wasn't a whole lot of evidence yet.
31:54
Speaker 1: In fact, it had only been 24 hours since the
31:57
Speaker 1: forensics were sent to the crime lab, so they were
31:59
Speaker 1: still waiting for results on pretty much everything. Burns knew
32:02
Speaker 1: that at this point, the best thing he could do
32:04
Speaker 1: while he waited for more evidence... was go follow up
32:07
Speaker 1: on Travis and Greg's alibis. After all, they are the
32:10
Speaker 1: victim's children, and he already thought that the killer had
32:13
Speaker 1: to be connected personally to the victims, and they both
32:17
Speaker 1: drove minivans. So really, either of them could be the killer.
32:20
Speaker 1: But just then, Burns' phone rang. He picked it up,
32:23
Speaker 1: and it was a local man who said he had
32:24
Speaker 1: seen a news report about Jack and Linda's murders, and
32:27
Speaker 1: he had some information that just might help. The man
32:30
Speaker 1: said that a few days earlier, his friend had called
32:34
Speaker 1: him to see if he knew where they could buy
32:35
Speaker 1: a gun. And when this man who's talking to Burns,
32:38
Speaker 1: you know, asked this friend why they needed the gun,
32:42
Speaker 1: the friend said it was because they, quote, wanted to
32:45
Speaker 1: shoot Jack Myers. The man told Burns the name of
32:48
Speaker 1: his friend who said this. And as soon as Burns
32:51
Speaker 1: heard that name, he knew exactly who his murderer was.
32:59
Speaker 1: Based on this phone call, as well as forensic evidence
33:01
Speaker 1: from the crime scene, This is what police believe happened
33:04
Speaker 1: to Jack and Linda Myers on the morning of March 27, 2003.
33:17
Speaker 1: Early on the morning of the murders, the killer woke
33:19
Speaker 1: up and got out of bed and right away put
33:21
Speaker 1: on a green hunting jumpsuit. And they also packed a
33:25
Speaker 1: bag with duct tape, trash bags, and a roll of
33:27
Speaker 1: masking tape. Then they put on a pair of latex
33:30
Speaker 1: gloves and loaded the 12-gauge shotgun that they had purchased
33:33
Speaker 1: from a classified ad two days earlier, and they carried
33:36
Speaker 1: all their supplies out to their minivan. After they were ready,
33:40
Speaker 1: they hopped in the driver's seat, turned on the car,
33:42
Speaker 1: and then drove a familiar route through the dark open fields.
33:46
Speaker 1: They were calm at first, until they turned onto the
33:48
Speaker 1: gravel road that led to Jack and Linda's farm. At
33:51
Speaker 1: that point, their heart began to race. Now, the killer
33:54
Speaker 1: felt like they had planned all of this out and
33:56
Speaker 1: prepared for anything that could go wrong. So now really
33:59
Speaker 1: all they had to do was just control themselves and
34:02
Speaker 1: just stick to the plan. And so the killer parked
34:04
Speaker 1: right outside the farmhouse, and then while staying in the car,
34:08
Speaker 1: they climbed into the backseat of the minivan, and they
34:10
Speaker 1: grabbed their shotgun. Then they grabbed this thick quilting fabric,
34:14
Speaker 1: and they wrapped it around the barrel of the shotgun,
34:17
Speaker 1: and they used masking tape to secure it. That was
34:19
Speaker 1: their DIY silencer. But as they went through this plan,
34:24
Speaker 1: the killer's hands were shaking. They were nervous because... As
34:27
Speaker 1: much as they had planned for this, it really was
34:30
Speaker 1: not something they actually wanted to do. But they felt
34:33
Speaker 1: like they had to. So after their gun had its
34:35
Speaker 1: silencer on it, they slung it over their shoulder. Then
34:38
Speaker 1: they got out of the van and crept around to
34:41
Speaker 1: the side of the house. And once they were there,
34:43
Speaker 1: they cut the phone lines so nobody inside would be
34:46
Speaker 1: able to call for help. Then they knelt down in
34:48
Speaker 1: the dirt and they pried open the basement window and
34:51
Speaker 1: they climbed inside. Once inside, the killer walked to the stairs.
34:55
Speaker 1: They went up to the first floor. And they walked
34:58
Speaker 1: straight to the bedroom where they knew Jack and Linda
35:00
Speaker 1: would be asleep. They went inside and there they were
35:03
Speaker 1: sleeping in their beds. And the killer took a deep
35:06
Speaker 1: breath and then raised their shotgun. They fired a single
35:10
Speaker 1: round into the back of Jack's neck. But the force
35:12
Speaker 1: of the gunshot had blasted off the homemade silencer. And
35:15
Speaker 1: so basically it wasn't silent at all. It was extremely loud.
35:19
Speaker 1: And that homemade silencer landed on the pillow right next
35:22
Speaker 1: to Jack's head. And almost immediately from the chaos, Linda
35:25
Speaker 1: sat up. And she looked straight at the killer, and
35:28
Speaker 1: she saw what was happening, and she just raised a
35:31
Speaker 1: hand to try to defend herself. And in a moment
35:34
Speaker 1: of panic, the killer just turned the shotgun on her,
35:37
Speaker 1: and they fired twice. And one blast went through her hand,
35:40
Speaker 1: and the other struck her right in the face. At
35:43
Speaker 1: this point, the killer just paused and waited. The silencer
35:46
Speaker 1: had sort of muffled the first shot, but the second
35:49
Speaker 1: two were so loud, they knew that noise easily could
35:53
Speaker 1: have woken up the third person who they knew was
35:56
Speaker 1: was in this house, someone they really didn't want to hurt.
35:59
Speaker 1: But if they had to, they would. So, just to
36:02
Speaker 1: make sure they didn't have any loose ends, they left
36:05
Speaker 1: Linda and Jack's bedroom, confident they were dead, and they
36:08
Speaker 1: crept upstairs to little Damien's room. And they went inside,
36:12
Speaker 1: and they carefully walked over right next to the boy's bed,
36:15
Speaker 1: and they raised their shotgun and aimed it at this child,
36:18
Speaker 1: waiting to see if they were awake. But the little
36:21
Speaker 1: boy appeared to be asleep, and so the killer spared him.
36:24
Speaker 1: They lowered their shotgun and they walked out of the room.
36:27
Speaker 1: Once they were out in the hallway, they shut Damien's
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Speaker 1: door and then hurried right out of the house. And
36:32
Speaker 1: from there, they got back in their minivan and they
36:34
Speaker 1: sped off. A few miles away, they stopped on a
36:37
Speaker 1: bridge and tossed their gun, their supplies, and their clothes
36:40
Speaker 1: into a river. And then they changed into their work
36:43
Speaker 1: clothes and they drove to the factory, where they would
36:45
Speaker 1: clock in at precisely 5.23 a.m. The killer was Jack's
36:51
Speaker 1: younger son, Greg Myers. Greg had been having problems with
36:56
Speaker 1: money and drug abuse, and his father, Jack, had refused
37:00
Speaker 1: to help him, and they were fighting about it. But
37:02
Speaker 1: Greg knew he would inherit the farm if his father died,
37:05
Speaker 1: and he was so desperate, he decided murder was his
37:08
Speaker 1: best option. When police timed the drive from Jack and
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Speaker 1: Linda's farm to Greg's workplace, they found that he would
37:14
Speaker 1: have actually had just enough time to commit the horrible
37:18
Speaker 1: double murder and then drive straight to work and clock
37:21
Speaker 1: in by 5.23pm. Greg was ultimately arrested about 48 hours
37:26
Speaker 1: after the crime, so quickly that police were actually still
37:28
Speaker 1: gathering evidence to use against him. They later found the gun,
37:32
Speaker 1: other supplies, and shoes that matched the prints found outside
37:35
Speaker 1: the house in a river right near the farm, and
37:37
Speaker 1: fingerprints and receipts tied all the items back to Greg.
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Speaker 1: He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in
37:43
Speaker 1: prison without parole. As for Damien, following the murders, he
37:47
Speaker 1: would go to live with his mother Amber. Despite everything
37:50
Speaker 1: he witnessed at just four years old, Amber said in
37:53
Speaker 1: a 2021 documentary that he is now doing very well.
37:56
Speaker 1: So click here and give them a watch. Alright, until
38:05
Speaker 1: next time, see ya.