Latest / Crime and Horror / He-said-their-faces-were-MELTING
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: In the early morning hours of March twenty seventh, two
- 0:02Speaker 1: thousand and three, a four year old boy was lying
- 0:05Speaker 1: in bed in rural.
- 0:06Speaker 2: Ohio when he suddenly heard his door open.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Now, he assumed it was just his great grandparents coming
- 0:12Speaker 1: in to check on him, and so, you know, he's
- 0:14Speaker 1: a kid.
- 0:14Speaker 2: He just pretended to be asleep.
- 0:16Speaker 1: But he heard whoever this was, make their way across
- 0:19Speaker 1: the bedroom because he heard the floorboards creaking, and at
- 0:22Speaker 1: some point they were standing right next to his bed,
- 0:24Speaker 1: and so curious, the little boy opened his eyes and
- 0:29Speaker 1: what he saw standing next to his bed was not
- 0:31Speaker 1: his great grandparents. It was a huge green monster. But
- 0:36Speaker 1: before we get into today's story, if you're a fan
- 0:39Speaker 1: of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format,
- 0:42Speaker 1: then you've come to the right place, because that's all
- 0:44Speaker 1: we do and we upload two, three, even four times
- 0:47Speaker 1: a week. So if that's interest to you, the next
- 0:50Speaker 1: time the light button goes on vacation, do them a
- 0:52Speaker 1: favor and paint the entire exterior of their house a
- 0:56Speaker 1: blinding neon yellow. Also, please subscribe to channel and turned
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- 1:04Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. On the evening of Wednesday,
- 1:28Speaker 1: March twenty sixth, two thousand and three, a fifty five
- 1:31Speaker 1: year old woman named Linda Myers drove down a secluded
- 1:34Speaker 1: two lane road in Dark County, Ohio. Dark County was
- 1:38Speaker 1: very rural. It was basically just very small towns in farmland.
- 1:42Speaker 1: And so as Linda drove down the road, you know,
- 1:44Speaker 1: kind of in the middle of nowhere, she looked at
- 1:46Speaker 1: her window and she saw the sun setting over a field.
- 1:49Speaker 1: She was coming home from the pizza shop that she
- 1:51Speaker 1: and her husband Jack owned in a town nearby. Linda
- 1:55Speaker 1: eventually turned down a gravel road and onto the sprawling
- 1:58Speaker 1: forty acre farm where she and her husban lived. She
- 2:01Speaker 1: parked outside their old farmhouse, and then she grabbed a
- 2:04Speaker 1: deposit bag with money from the pizza shop out of
- 2:06Speaker 1: the back seat, and then she got out of her car.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Their farm was so isolated that she couldn't hear any
- 2:11Speaker 1: cars on the road or anything from the neighbor's houses,
- 2:14Speaker 1: so it was completely quiet except for the sheep that
- 2:17Speaker 1: were bleeding in the field and the occasional sound of
- 2:20Speaker 1: power tools coming from the barn. She walked around to
- 2:23Speaker 1: the back of the barn and she found Jack hunched
- 2:25Speaker 1: over the engine of a beat up old car. The
- 2:28Speaker 1: two of them had been married for about seven years,
- 2:30Speaker 1: and even though this was actually Linda's third marriage, she
- 2:34Speaker 1: really felt like Jack was her soulmate. In addition to
- 2:38Speaker 1: owning the shop with Linda, the pizza shop, Jack also
- 2:41Speaker 1: had a full time job at a manufacturing plant. Andy
- 2:44Speaker 1: also had a side business for storing cars, and so
- 2:47Speaker 1: Linda often found him out here behind the barn working
- 2:50Speaker 1: on a car around the time the sun was going down,
- 2:53Speaker 1: and sitting in the grass beside the car playing with
- 2:55Speaker 1: the wrench was Linda's four year old great grandson, Damien,
- 2:58Speaker 1: and the second damien'side Linda.
- 3:00Speaker 2: He smiled, and he got up, and he.
- 3:02Speaker 1: Rushed over to her to give her a big hug,
- 3:04Speaker 1: and Damien's smile made Linda feel sort of bittersweet. Damien
- 3:08Speaker 1: was the son of Linda's granddaughter Amber, but Amber had
- 3:11Speaker 1: gotten pregnant at just fourteen years old, and so as
- 3:14Speaker 1: a result, had not been in any position to take
- 3:17Speaker 1: care of a baby.
- 3:18Speaker 2: So Linda and Jack had offered to take.
- 3:20Speaker 1: Damien in and raise him for a few years while
- 3:22Speaker 1: Amber finished high school and got on her feet. However,
- 3:25Speaker 1: this was definitely not a perfect arrangement for many reasons,
- 3:28Speaker 1: but one of those reasons was because Damien's father was
- 3:32Speaker 1: furious about being cut out of the custody agreement. Even now,
- 3:36Speaker 1: four years after you know, Damien's situation had been decided,
- 3:40Speaker 1: the father still argued with Linda about how she wouldn't
- 3:43Speaker 1: let him see his son. But Linda felt like as
- 3:45Speaker 1: much as he was saying he wanted to be in
- 3:47Speaker 1: Damien's life, she felt like at some point he was
- 3:50Speaker 1: going to abandon this child, and so she really didn't
- 3:53Speaker 1: want him to be around Damien at all. She didn't
- 3:55Speaker 1: want her great grandson to be abandoned like that, And besides,
- 3:58Speaker 1: Damien would have another figure in his life soon enough,
- 4:02Speaker 1: because in the past few years Amber had finished school,
- 4:05Speaker 1: she had met a new man and gotten married, and
- 4:07Speaker 1: as soon as Damian finished up this year of preschool
- 4:10Speaker 1: in a couple of months, Amber and her new husband
- 4:13Speaker 1: were planning to take him in and raise him on
- 4:15Speaker 1: their own. Linda was proud of Amber how she had
- 4:17Speaker 1: turned to life around, but she also felt a little sad,
- 4:20Speaker 1: you know, bittersweet, because she and Jack were gonna miss
- 4:23Speaker 1: having Damien around they loved him. He was basically their son.
- 4:26Speaker 1: Linda knew that Jack clearly was busy with this car
- 4:29Speaker 1: and kind of didn't want to be interrupted, so she
- 4:31Speaker 1: just said a quick hello, and then scooped Damien up
- 4:33Speaker 1: and carried him over to the farmhouse. She opened up
- 4:36Speaker 1: the door and she set him down and told him
- 4:38Speaker 1: to go wash.
- 4:39Speaker 2: Up before dinner.
- 4:40Speaker 1: Then she went into the kitchen and she dropped the
- 4:42Speaker 1: deposit bag from the pizza shop into a chair in
- 4:45Speaker 1: the dining room.
- 4:45Speaker 2: The bag was full of cash and her.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Plan was to drop it off at the bank in
- 4:49Speaker 1: the morning. Linda got out of pan and began cooking dinner,
- 4:52Speaker 1: and pretty soon her husband Jack came inside covered in
- 4:55Speaker 1: car grease. While Jack washed his hands at the kitchen sink,
- 4:58Speaker 1: Linda asked him about his day. He and Jack kind
- 5:01Speaker 1: of grumbled about this customer that he had sold a
- 5:03Speaker 1: car to on a payment plan the previous year, who
- 5:06Speaker 1: had now missed three payments in a row. Jack said
- 5:08Speaker 1: he was going to have to drive out there to
- 5:10Speaker 1: the person's house tomorrow and repossess the car. Linda could see,
- 5:14Speaker 1: you know, Jack is obviously pretty tense here, but Linda
- 5:17Speaker 1: knew it wasn't really that misscar payment that was bothering him.
- 5:20Speaker 1: The truth was, Jack had been sort of tense really
- 5:23Speaker 1: for the past week, ever since he had had this
- 5:26Speaker 1: big argument with his twenty five year old son, Greg.
- 5:28Speaker 1: Greg had always been very shy and mild mannered and
- 5:31Speaker 1: really close with his dad. In fact, he was the
- 5:34Speaker 1: best man at Jack and Linda's wedding, But recently Greg's life.
- 5:37Speaker 2: Had been falling off the rails.
- 5:39Speaker 1: He was in the middle of a divorce, he was
- 5:41Speaker 1: struggling with drinking and drug abuse, and he'd been missing.
- 5:45Speaker 2: Ships at work.
- 5:45Speaker 1: And so earlier that month, he had come by to
- 5:48Speaker 1: ask Jack for money because his house was about to
- 5:51Speaker 1: be foreclosed on, and Jack had drawn a line and
- 5:54Speaker 1: said no. He told Greg that if he wanted to
- 5:56Speaker 1: keep his house, he'd have to clean up his act
- 5:58Speaker 1: and get back to work, and so that had led
- 6:01Speaker 1: to a very big fight. And so now Linda had
- 6:03Speaker 1: a feeling that Jack was genuinely worried that he'd done
- 6:07Speaker 1: real damage to his relationship with Greg, perhaps irreparably, because
- 6:11Speaker 1: something pretty similar had also happened with Jack's other son,
- 6:14Speaker 1: Travis about seven years earlier, when Travis was twenty one
- 6:19Speaker 1: he and Jack had gotten into this big argument that
- 6:21Speaker 1: was so bad Travis moved out and then the two
- 6:24Speaker 1: of them had not spoken since for seven years. So
- 6:27Speaker 1: Linda thought Jack must be worried that that would be
- 6:30Speaker 1: the same thing that would happen with him and Greg.
- 6:32Speaker 1: So while Jack washed his hands, Linda rubbed his shoulders
- 6:35Speaker 1: and told him not to worry about Greg. He had
- 6:38Speaker 1: a good head on his shoulders and he just needed
- 6:40Speaker 1: a little nudge to get back on track, and that's
- 6:42Speaker 1: all Jack had done. She reassured him that he'd made
- 6:44Speaker 1: the right call and Greg would get through this rough
- 6:46Speaker 1: patch sooner or later. Then Linda set the table and
- 6:50Speaker 1: called the family to dinner. A little while later, after
- 6:56Speaker 1: they'd eaten and cleaned up, Linda looked up at the
- 6:59Speaker 1: clock and realized it was getting kind of late. Damien
- 7:01Speaker 1: had preschool in the morning, and she didn't want him
- 7:04Speaker 1: to be tired and grumpy, so she scooped him up
- 7:06Speaker 1: and took him to his room upstairs to get ready
- 7:08Speaker 1: for bed. She helped him change into his pjs, She
- 7:11Speaker 1: brushed his teeth, then tucked him in, gave him a
- 7:13Speaker 1: kiss good night, and closed the door. Linda went back
- 7:16Speaker 1: downstairs and before long she and Jack were getting ready
- 7:19Speaker 1: for bed too. Before long, Linda was in her bedroom,
- 7:22Speaker 1: she had turned on a lamp, she had changed into
- 7:24Speaker 1: her pgs and crawled under the covers, and then once
- 7:27Speaker 1: Jack was settled in next to her, she turned off
- 7:29Speaker 1: the light and they fell asleep. But several hours later,
- 7:33Speaker 1: Linda was suddenly woken up by this horribly loud noise,
- 7:37Speaker 1: and she sat up and looked around, and when her
- 7:40Speaker 1: eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, she gasped. The next morning,
- 7:47Speaker 1: at a church a mile away from Linda and Jack's house,
- 7:50Speaker 1: a preschool teacher was getting ready to start class, but
- 7:52Speaker 1: she noticed there was an empty chair in her classroom.
- 7:55Speaker 1: One of her students, four year old Damien Huffman, was late.
- 7:59Speaker 1: She knew dan Amian's great grandparents led busy lives and
- 8:02Speaker 1: had several different jobs and businesses, so she figured they
- 8:05Speaker 1: must just be running late. So she began class and
- 8:08Speaker 1: hoped they would just drop Damien off before he missed
- 8:10Speaker 1: too much. And about an hour later, at nine thirty am,
- 8:14Speaker 1: she was leading the class in morning singalongs when Damien
- 8:17Speaker 1: suddenly came sprinting into the classroom. Now, at first the
- 8:20Speaker 1: teacher was relieved that Damien had shown up, but then
- 8:23Speaker 1: she realized Damien looked frazzled and out of breath, and
- 8:27Speaker 1: he didn't have his backpack, and he was wearing pegs,
- 8:29Speaker 1: and there was the smear of something brown on his shirt.
- 8:33Speaker 1: She ran over to him and knelt down next to
- 8:35Speaker 1: him and realized the brown spot was dried blood.
- 8:38Speaker 2: The teacher asked.
- 8:39Speaker 1: Amian what was going on, and he looked at her
- 8:41Speaker 1: with the scared, confused expression, and he told her his
- 8:46Speaker 1: great grandparents' faces were melting over this past winter break,
- 8:53Speaker 1: when myself, my wife, and my three kids were home,
- 8:56Speaker 1: I was sent this package of my Mochi, which is
- 8:59Speaker 1: like ice these little bites of premium ice cream wrapped
- 9:02Speaker 1: in this sweet, chewy dough. And I was told like, hey,
- 9:06Speaker 1: try this out, see if you like it, and see
- 9:07Speaker 1: if you want to advertise this product.
- 9:09Speaker 2: And I'm like, all right, you know, I obviously tried
- 9:11Speaker 2: the product.
- 9:11Speaker 1: And I am hooked on my Mochi, Like seriously, I
- 9:16Speaker 1: was blown away by how good these things are. I
- 9:18Speaker 1: was sent strawberry mango and cookies and cream, and let
- 9:22Speaker 1: me tell you, cookies and cream is out.
- 9:24Speaker 2: Of this world. It's so refreshing.
- 9:26Speaker 1: That's the way my wife and I refer to my
- 9:28Speaker 1: mochi as being like very refreshing. And so we plow
- 9:32Speaker 1: through all this mochi. We got sent and literally we
- 9:35Speaker 1: went out before this big snowstorm. We went out to
- 9:38Speaker 1: the the grocery store before it shut down because of
- 9:40Speaker 1: the storm, just to buy all the mochi we could.
- 9:44Speaker 2: Crushed it. It's so good.
- 9:45Speaker 1: It's only seventy calories, it's gluten free.
- 9:48Speaker 2: It's so good.
- 9:49Speaker 1: You gotta try it. My mochi, it's the best. Each
- 9:52Speaker 1: purple box comes with six perfectly portioned Mochi snacks, available
- 9:56Speaker 1: in mouthwatering flavors like strawberry, mango, and cookies and cream.
- 10:01Speaker 2: Cookies and cream. Really quite good.
- 10:03Speaker 1: Feel joyfully chill with every bite of my Mochi ice cream.
- 10:06Speaker 1: Look for the purple box of my Mochi ice Cream
- 10:08Speaker 1: in the freezer isle of your local grocery store. It's
- 10:11Speaker 1: really really good. About fifteen minutes later, a police sergeant
- 10:22Speaker 1: named Mark Whittaker, along with his partner, drove down a
- 10:25Speaker 1: secluded road toward a farmhouse in rural Ohio. Sergeant Whittaker
- 10:29Speaker 1: had been a detective for the Dark County Sheriff's department
- 10:32Speaker 1: for five years, and he was in charge of the
- 10:34Speaker 1: investigative unit. So when the department had gotten a very
- 10:37Speaker 1: strange nine to one one call that morning from a
- 10:39Speaker 1: local preschool, he was sent out to investigate. According to
- 10:43Speaker 1: the preschool teacher, a four year old student named Damien
- 10:46Speaker 1: Huffman had come into school covered in blood out of breath,
- 10:49Speaker 1: saying something about his great grandparents' faces being melting. The
- 10:53Speaker 1: teacher identified the great grandparents as Linda and Jack Myers.
- 10:57Speaker 1: Now Whittaker had no idea what Damian meant when he
- 11:00Speaker 1: had said that their faces were melting, or what kind
- 11:02Speaker 1: of situation Whittaker and his partner would be walking into
- 11:05Speaker 1: when they got to the farm, but he had a
- 11:08Speaker 1: feeling it would not be good. They pulled up to
- 11:10Speaker 1: the farm and parked at the end of the long
- 11:12Speaker 1: gravel road, and when Whittaker got out of his car,
- 11:15Speaker 1: he immediately noticed how early quiet it was. There was
- 11:19Speaker 1: another farmhouse just across the road, and a few more
- 11:21Speaker 1: on the horizon, but otherwise they were surrounded by empty
- 11:24Speaker 1: fields in every direction. Whittaker began walking towards the front
- 11:28Speaker 1: door when he saw the front door was already wide open,
- 11:31Speaker 1: but there was no clear sign of forced entry, but nonetheless,
- 11:35Speaker 1: Whittaker and his partner reflexively drew their weapons and they
- 11:38Speaker 1: stepped inside the house. Whittaker began calling out to see
- 11:41Speaker 1: if anybody was home, but there was no response. From
- 11:44Speaker 1: where he was standing, he saw there was another open
- 11:47Speaker 1: door in the house that led to a set of
- 11:49Speaker 1: stairs that went down, presumably to the basement. Whitaker ignored
- 11:52Speaker 1: the basement for now and instead continued clearing the first floor.
- 11:56Speaker 1: So he went into the kitchen, and once he was
- 11:58Speaker 1: sure it was clear, he continued down the hall until
- 12:01Speaker 1: he found a doorway that led into a bedroom, and
- 12:03Speaker 1: when he went inside that bedroom, he found Damien's great grandparents,
- 12:07Speaker 1: Jack and Linda Myers, and they were lying in their
- 12:10Speaker 1: bed side by side, and he could tell immediately they
- 12:13Speaker 1: were both dead. Now, Jack was actually lying on his stomach,
- 12:17Speaker 1: and he could tell right away there was a big
- 12:19Speaker 1: bullet wound on the back of Jack's neck. As for Linda,
- 12:22Speaker 1: she was on her back and she had gunshot wounds
- 12:25Speaker 1: to her face and her hand, as if she had
- 12:27Speaker 1: raised her hand to defend herself before she was shot.
- 12:30Speaker 1: And so at this point Whittaker and his partner did
- 12:32Speaker 1: a full search of the house just to make sure
- 12:34Speaker 1: nobody else was there, and it was empty, and so
- 12:37Speaker 1: the two went back to the bedroom to begin investigating
- 12:40Speaker 1: the bodies. Whittaker put on a pair of latex gloves
- 12:43Speaker 1: and touched the wound on.
- 12:44Speaker 2: Linda's face, and the blood was still warm.
- 12:46Speaker 1: And wet, so he figured likely they'd only been dead
- 12:49Speaker 1: for maybe a few hours at most. He looked around
- 12:52Speaker 1: the floor and he didn't see any bullet casings, which
- 12:54Speaker 1: meant the killer had gone through the trouble of picking
- 12:57Speaker 1: them up afterwards to cover their tracks. Then, Whittaker's partner
- 13:01Speaker 1: called his attention to this weird plasticy bundle that was
- 13:04Speaker 1: lying on a.
- 13:04Speaker 2: Pillow near Jack's head.
- 13:06Speaker 1: Whittaker picked it up and he saw it was a
- 13:08Speaker 1: piece of quilting fabric that was balled up and covered
- 13:11Speaker 1: in masking tape. His best guess was that it was
- 13:13Speaker 1: a homemade gun silencer. The killer likely taped it to
- 13:17Speaker 1: the end of their gun to muffle the sound of
- 13:19Speaker 1: the blast, and it must have blown off at some
- 13:21Speaker 1: point when they actually began shooting. Immediately, Whittaker wondered, if
- 13:25Speaker 1: this was a silencer, why the killer would need one
- 13:29Speaker 1: so far out in the middle of nowhere. But when
- 13:31Speaker 1: Whittaker left the bedroom and went up a flight of
- 13:34Speaker 1: stairs to the room right above where the murders had
- 13:37Speaker 1: taken place, he found another bedroom that was full of
- 13:39Speaker 1: stuffed animals and toy trucks.
- 13:41Speaker 2: It was obviously Damien's room.
- 13:44Speaker 1: And it was at this point that Whittaker realized, you know,
- 13:46Speaker 1: very likely the killer must have known there was going
- 13:49Speaker 1: to be a toddler sleeping right upstairs when they did this,
- 13:52Speaker 1: and so they needed the silencer in order to not
- 13:55Speaker 1: wake the child when they committed this murder. And so
- 13:59Speaker 1: this meant that the killer almost certainly knew Jack and
- 14:02Speaker 1: Linda personally. Within minutes, more officers from the Dark County Sheriff's.
- 14:07Speaker 2: Office swarmed the property.
- 14:08Speaker 1: Whittaker went outside to supervise them, and pretty quickly a
- 14:12Speaker 1: forensics officer called him over to look at a set
- 14:14Speaker 1: of footprints that they had found in the mud. Whittaker
- 14:17Speaker 1: followed the trail of footprints around the side of the house.
- 14:20Speaker 2: To a basement window.
- 14:21Speaker 1: The window pane had been pried off, leaving an open
- 14:24Speaker 1: hole that was just big enough for a person to
- 14:26Speaker 1: squeeze through. Whittaker crouched down and looked through the open space,
- 14:30Speaker 1: and he could see inside there was a set of
- 14:32Speaker 1: stairs leading up to the main part of the house,
- 14:34Speaker 1: and so he realized this must have been how the
- 14:36Speaker 1: killer got inside, and it was also why when they
- 14:40Speaker 1: had first gone inside that they had seen the door
- 14:42Speaker 1: to the basement standing wide open, and so this only
- 14:44Speaker 1: made Whittaker more sure that this crime had to have
- 14:47Speaker 1: been committed by somebody close to this couple, because the
- 14:50Speaker 1: killer obviously knew the layout of Linda and Jack's house.
- 14:53Speaker 2: Whittaker told the forensics.
- 14:54Speaker 1: Officer to make a cast of the footprints so they
- 14:57Speaker 1: could figure out what type and size of shoe the
- 14:59Speaker 1: killer was wearing. And then as Whitaker stood back up,
- 15:02Speaker 1: he noticed something else. The phone lines that were running
- 15:05Speaker 1: along the side of the house had clearly been severed.
- 15:08Speaker 1: The killer clearly had planned ahead and made sure that
- 15:11Speaker 1: nobody in.
- 15:11Speaker 2: This house could call for help.
- 15:13Speaker 1: Just then, a truck pulled up at the end of
- 15:15Speaker 1: the road and a woman got out and started walking
- 15:18Speaker 1: toward the house. Whittaker quickly went over to stop her
- 15:21Speaker 1: from getting too close to the crime scene, and he
- 15:23Speaker 1: asked her what she needed, and she said she was
- 15:25Speaker 1: a neighbor who lived at the next property over. She
- 15:28Speaker 1: said that she had seen the police cars coming down
- 15:30Speaker 1: the road, and she didn't really know what was going on,
- 15:32Speaker 1: but she felt like she had information that they might want.
- 15:36Speaker 1: The neighbor said that around four point thirty that morning,
- 15:39Speaker 1: she'd seen a mini van leaving the Meyers farm. It
- 15:42Speaker 1: had been so dark that she hadn't been able to
- 15:44Speaker 1: see what color it was, but it had stuck out
- 15:46Speaker 1: to her because as far as she knew, the Myers
- 15:48Speaker 1: did not own a minivan. And so hearing this, Whittaker realized,
- 15:52Speaker 1: you know, this woman may have seen the killer leaving
- 15:54Speaker 1: the property, and if that was true, it meant the
- 15:57Speaker 1: murders most likely happened before fourth already in the morning,
- 16:01Speaker 1: and so this was potentially quite useful. And so he
- 16:03Speaker 1: thanked the neighbor, and after she left, he went back
- 16:06Speaker 1: inside the house to look for more clothes. He really
- 16:08Speaker 1: wanted to piece together a motive. You know, he felt
- 16:11Speaker 1: strongly that whoever had done this knew Linda and Jack,
- 16:14Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean that the motive is clear. You know,
- 16:17Speaker 1: there could be any number of reasons they would attack them.
- 16:19Speaker 1: Maybe it was a robbery. Maybe they were just you know, getting.
- 16:22Speaker 2: Revenge or something.
- 16:23Speaker 1: He didn't know, But as he began walking around the house,
- 16:26Speaker 1: he found a literal deposit bag full of cash in
- 16:30Speaker 1: the living room, which certainly suggested that this was not
- 16:33Speaker 1: a robbery because that would certainly have been taken. And
- 16:36Speaker 1: also there was some pretty expensive electronics in the living
- 16:38Speaker 1: room that also had not been touched, so robbery seemed
- 16:41Speaker 1: to be out the door. But when Whittaker went back
- 16:44Speaker 1: upstairs to take a closer look at the toddler's bedroom,
- 16:47Speaker 1: he noticed something odd. There was a little red stain
- 16:50Speaker 1: on the bedding that looked like dried blood. While forensics
- 16:58Speaker 1: teams were still combing over the farmhouse, another investigator assigned
- 17:01Speaker 1: to the case, a guy named Detective Mike Burns, went
- 17:04Speaker 1: to the local preschool to speak.
- 17:06Speaker 2: To four year old Damien.
- 17:07Speaker 1: Burns was a father himself, and he felt an immediate
- 17:10Speaker 1: connection to this little boy, who at this point looked
- 17:12Speaker 1: scared and very confused. Now he knew it was going
- 17:16Speaker 1: to be very difficult for Damien to rehash something that
- 17:18Speaker 1: was so traumatic, But Damien was the only potential witness
- 17:22Speaker 1: in the house when his great grandparents were killed, so
- 17:25Speaker 1: speaking to him was the police's best bet at figuring
- 17:29Speaker 1: out what happened, and so Burne sat down on the
- 17:31Speaker 1: floor with Damien inside of a private room, and he
- 17:34Speaker 1: asked him to explain what had happened that morning.
- 17:37Speaker 2: Damien, in a.
- 17:38Speaker 1: Four year old way, said he'd woken up around eight
- 17:41Speaker 1: forty five and the house.
- 17:42Speaker 2: Had been very quiet, so he'd gotten out of bed.
- 17:45Speaker 1: And went into his great grandparents bedroom, and then he
- 17:48Speaker 1: said that both of them had been in bed and
- 17:50Speaker 1: he thought they were sleeping, but when he tried to
- 17:53Speaker 1: wake them up, they wouldn't move, and then he realized
- 17:56Speaker 1: there was blood on their face, and he said he
- 17:59Speaker 1: had tried to the blood off with Kleenex wipes, but
- 18:02Speaker 1: there was so much of it that he realized something
- 18:04Speaker 1: was very wrong. He thought for a second that their
- 18:07Speaker 1: faces were melting, and so to save his great grandparents,
- 18:11Speaker 1: he had run the full mile down the road to
- 18:14Speaker 1: his preschool to get help. Burns was surprised that this
- 18:17Speaker 1: four year old could remember and articulate so much about
- 18:21Speaker 1: such an awful experience, but he was very grateful because
- 18:25Speaker 1: the child's story explained why there was blood on Damien's shirt. However,
- 18:29Speaker 1: it did not explain why they'd also found blood on
- 18:32Speaker 1: Damien's bed, so he asked Damien if he had gone
- 18:35Speaker 1: back into his own room after finding his great grandparents,
- 18:38Speaker 1: but Damien said no, he'd gone straight out the front
- 18:41Speaker 1: door and gone to his school. Burns thought there had
- 18:43Speaker 1: to be more to the story, though, because otherwise he
- 18:46Speaker 1: just couldn't explain how blood wound up in Damien's room,
- 18:49Speaker 1: So he brought over a dollhouse and he asked Damien
- 18:53Speaker 1: to go ahead and act out everything that had happened
- 18:55Speaker 1: the night before, using toys to represent himself and his
- 18:58Speaker 1: great grandparents. Damien put the toy that represented himself into
- 19:02Speaker 1: bed in one room, and then he put Jack and
- 19:05Speaker 1: Linda into the bed in the other room, and he
- 19:08Speaker 1: said everybody went to sleep at their normal bedtimes. But
- 19:11Speaker 1: later in the middle of the night, he heard his
- 19:14Speaker 1: bedroom door open and he said somebody came inside. Burns
- 19:18Speaker 1: asked Damien who it was, and Damien paused, and then
- 19:21Speaker 1: he said the Green Monster. At first, Burns wasn't really
- 19:25Speaker 1: sure what to make of this. He wondered if Damien
- 19:28Speaker 1: was just imagining things or describing a nightmare or something,
- 19:31Speaker 1: But then Damien set the toys down, and then to
- 19:34Speaker 1: represent this green monster, he used his fingers to crawl
- 19:38Speaker 1: across the floor of the dollhouse toward Damien's bed. Damien
- 19:42Speaker 1: said he had heard the door open in his room,
- 19:44Speaker 1: and he had opened his eyes just a little bit,
- 19:46Speaker 1: but he didn't want to give away that he.
- 19:48Speaker 2: Was fully awake, so he was just squinting his eyes.
- 19:51Speaker 1: And he said when he did that, he saw the
- 19:53Speaker 1: Green Monster right next to his bed, and the Green
- 19:56Speaker 1: Monster was pointing a gun at him, and Damien.
- 19:59Speaker 2: Was so t terrified.
- 20:00Speaker 1: He said he shut his eyes and just pretended to
- 20:02Speaker 1: be asleep, and then he said when he opened his
- 20:04Speaker 1: eyes again, the green Monster was gone. After hearing this,
- 20:08Speaker 1: Burns realized that Damien's recollection was almost certainly not a dream.
- 20:13Speaker 1: More likely than not, Damien had come face to face
- 20:16Speaker 1: with his grandparents killer they were the Green Monster. After
- 20:24Speaker 1: leaving the preschool, the next priority for Detective Burns was
- 20:27Speaker 1: to speak to Damien's mother, nineteen year old Amber Holscher,
- 20:31Speaker 1: And so the detective drove out to Amber's house, which
- 20:33Speaker 1: was in a nearby town, and when he rang the doorbell,
- 20:36Speaker 1: she answered right away. Now, at this point, nobody in
- 20:39Speaker 1: the family had been notified yet about the murders, so
- 20:43Speaker 1: Amber seemed to have no idea why a detective was
- 20:45Speaker 1: now standing on her doorstep. Now Burns knew this, and
- 20:48Speaker 1: so he said to her, can I please come inside?
- 20:51Speaker 1: We need to speak, And so, confused Amber said okay,
- 20:54Speaker 1: and she let him inside and they sat down in
- 20:57Speaker 1: the living room, and then Burns said to her, you
- 20:59Speaker 1: know very gently that her grandparents, Linda and Jack Myers,
- 21:03Speaker 1: were no longer with them. But when Amber heard this,
- 21:06Speaker 1: she just looked confused and asked what he meant, like,
- 21:08Speaker 1: where are they? So Burns took a deep breath and
- 21:11Speaker 1: he clarified that they were deceased. Amber looked completely shocked
- 21:16Speaker 1: and immediately asked, is Damien dead too? But Burne said no, no,
- 21:20Speaker 1: he's alive, but he's going to be kept in protective
- 21:23Speaker 1: custody for a while in case whoever killed Jack and
- 21:26Speaker 1: Linda try to hurt him too, and until they narrowed
- 21:29Speaker 1: down the suspects, Damien would not be allowed to see
- 21:32Speaker 1: anybody in the family, including her his own mother. At
- 21:35Speaker 1: this point, Amber just began to cry. Burns felt horrible
- 21:38Speaker 1: for her, but really he was thinking about Damien. He
- 21:41Speaker 1: knew he had to solve this case as quickly as possible,
- 21:44Speaker 1: because every day that he didn't would be another day
- 21:47Speaker 1: that Damien would have to spend alone without any family
- 21:50Speaker 1: to comfort him. Based both on Amber's reaction to the
- 21:53Speaker 1: news and the fact that Damien did not mention seeing
- 21:56Speaker 1: his mother on the night of the murder, Burns thought
- 21:59Speaker 1: it was highly unlikely that Amber was a suspect, but
- 22:02Speaker 1: she could know something that might help the investigation. So
- 22:05Speaker 1: once she calmed down, Burns asked her if she knew
- 22:08Speaker 1: anyone who might have wanted to hurt her grandparents, and
- 22:11Speaker 1: right away she nodded, and she mentioned Damien's father, Andrew Huffman.
- 22:16Speaker 1: She said Andrew hated Linda because she wouldn't let him
- 22:19Speaker 1: see Damien. In fact, just recently, Andrew had come to
- 22:23Speaker 1: Linda's pizza shop and started a fight with her about custody,
- 22:26Speaker 1: and it had escalated to the point where Andrew had
- 22:29Speaker 1: publicly threatened to kill her. This obviously caught Burns's attention
- 22:33Speaker 1: because it made perfect sense as a motive. If Linda
- 22:36Speaker 1: and Jack were out of the way, well, Andrew would
- 22:38Speaker 1: have an easier time getting custody of Damien, and so
- 22:41Speaker 1: he thanked Amber and promised he would be in touch soon,
- 22:44Speaker 1: and then as soon as he was back in his car,
- 22:46Speaker 1: he called Sergeant Whittaker and he told him what he'd learned.
- 22:50Speaker 1: Later that day, Whittaker and his partner made the two
- 22:53Speaker 1: hour drive to Andrew's address in Newport, Kentucky. When they
- 22:57Speaker 1: got there, Andrew quickly came to the door and let
- 23:00Speaker 1: them inside, and they sat down, and Andrew looked at them, like,
- 23:02Speaker 1: what's going on?
- 23:04Speaker 2: And they told him that Linda and Jack had been murdered.
- 23:07Speaker 1: And they watched Andrew for his reaction, and he seemed
- 23:09Speaker 1: very surprised, but he definitely did not seem upset. Andrew
- 23:13Speaker 1: would then admit that he did not get along with
- 23:15Speaker 1: Ander's family, and when Whittaker asked him about that big
- 23:19Speaker 1: argument at the pizza shop, Andrew did not deny that
- 23:22Speaker 1: he had literally threatened to kill Linda, but he swore
- 23:25Speaker 1: he would never actually do it. He said it was
- 23:27Speaker 1: just an empty thread he made in the heat of
- 23:29Speaker 1: the moment. Still, Whitaker thought Andrew looked very suspicious, so
- 23:33Speaker 1: he asked him for an alibi. And Andrew said he'd
- 23:35Speaker 1: stayed over at a girl's house on the night of
- 23:37Speaker 1: the murder, and in the morning, he'd stopped by his
- 23:40Speaker 1: dad's house and then gone straight to work, and you
- 23:41Speaker 1: could ask all those people, and that's where he was.
- 23:44Speaker 1: Whittaker wrote all this down and then asked Andrew a
- 23:46Speaker 1: few more questions and then thanked him for his time.
- 23:49Speaker 2: And then as soon.
- 23:50Speaker 1: As the detectives left, they immediately went to go check
- 23:53Speaker 1: on Andrew's alibi. They went to that girl's house, then
- 23:55Speaker 1: they went to Andrew's dad's house, and then they also
- 23:58Speaker 1: went to his place of work, and everybody at those
- 24:01Speaker 1: three locations all confirmed Andrew's alibi. So unless someone was lying,
- 24:05Speaker 1: it left no window of time where Andrew could have
- 24:08Speaker 1: driven two hours away to Ohio to murder Jack and Linda.
- 24:12Speaker 1: Whittaker was disappointed that they basically wasted most of the
- 24:14Speaker 1: day on this lead that now looked like it wouldn't
- 24:17Speaker 1: go anywhere, especially knowing that again every moment in this
- 24:21Speaker 1: case that it went unsolved was another moment that Damien
- 24:24Speaker 1: would have to spend away from his family all alone.
- 24:34Speaker 1: The following morning, Detective Burns, the same officer who had
- 24:38Speaker 1: spoken to Damian and also his mother, Amber, sat inside
- 24:41Speaker 1: of his office feeling very frustrated. He had one goal
- 24:44Speaker 1: for the day. He wanted to interview Jack's a strange son,
- 24:47Speaker 1: twenty eight year old Travis Myers, but it was looking
- 24:50Speaker 1: like that was going to be harder than he had anticipated.
- 24:53Speaker 1: So the day before, a bunch of Sheriff's deputies had
- 24:56Speaker 1: interviewed Linda and Jack's family and friends, and family members
- 25:00Speaker 1: in particular had mentioned that Travis and Jack had some
- 25:03Speaker 1: bad blood, and when Burns had dug through the files
- 25:06Speaker 1: on Travis, he found out that Travis also had a
- 25:09Speaker 1: criminal record. But there was a problem. It appeared that
- 25:12Speaker 1: Travis hadn't even been in Ohio in seven years, the
- 25:16Speaker 1: last anybody in the family had heard. He'd moved to
- 25:18Speaker 1: Arizona to live with his mother. But when Burns had
- 25:21Speaker 1: called the mother that morning, she said that she actually
- 25:23Speaker 1: didn't know where Travis was at all, and there was
- 25:25Speaker 1: no other address on record for Travis. So Burns basically
- 25:29Speaker 1: had no idea where he was, and so he began
- 25:32Speaker 1: to wonder, like, how was he going.
- 25:33Speaker 2: To track Travis down?
- 25:34Speaker 1: And he decided he should start by visiting Travis's younger
- 25:37Speaker 1: brother and Jack's other son, whose name was Greg. Burns
- 25:41Speaker 1: knew Greg lived only a few towns over, and even
- 25:44Speaker 1: though he really wasn't sure how close the brothers might be,
- 25:46Speaker 1: it was the only lead he really had. A little
- 25:50Speaker 1: while later, Burns showed up at Greg's house and he
- 25:53Speaker 1: knocked on the front door, and a moment later a
- 25:55Speaker 1: young man in a baseball cap answered, and he looked
- 25:58Speaker 1: very much like he'd been crying. Burns asked if he
- 26:00Speaker 1: was Greg Myers, and the young man nodded and stepped
- 26:03Speaker 1: aside to let him in. Greg did not seem remotely
- 26:05Speaker 1: surprised by this visit. He said the police had already
- 26:08Speaker 1: contacted him the night before to tell him about his
- 26:11Speaker 1: father and stepmother's murder, and since then, he said, he'd
- 26:14Speaker 1: just been waiting for somebody to come by and talk
- 26:16Speaker 1: to him, because he'd seen enough TV to know that
- 26:18Speaker 1: family members were always the first suspects. But when they
- 26:22Speaker 1: got into the living room, Burns stopped in his tracks
- 26:25Speaker 1: because there was another young man standing in the doorway,
- 26:28Speaker 1: and he looked a lot like Greg. Burns asked who
- 26:31Speaker 1: it was, and Greg said, Oh, that's my brother, Travis.
- 26:34Speaker 1: Burns couldn't believe his luck. He'd come here hoping to
- 26:36Speaker 1: figure out where Travis might be, but he never imagined
- 26:40Speaker 1: he would just find Travis standing in Greg's house. And
- 26:43Speaker 1: this was a big development because really, until now, Burns
- 26:46Speaker 1: had no idea if Travis was even in the state
- 26:49Speaker 1: at the time of the murders. But Greg would actually
- 26:51Speaker 1: tell him that Travis had been in Ohio for the
- 26:54Speaker 1: past several weeks, staying in an apartment that he had
- 26:57Speaker 1: rented right nearby. Burns did think the timing seemed very suspicious.
- 27:01Speaker 1: It just seemed way too convenient that Travis had come
- 27:03Speaker 1: back into town for the first time in almost a
- 27:06Speaker 1: decade right before Jack and Linda were killed.
- 27:09Speaker 2: It just seemed too perfect.
- 27:11Speaker 1: And also, at this point, it just seemed really suspicious
- 27:14Speaker 1: that these two brothers are just standing here waiting for
- 27:17Speaker 1: police to come question them.
- 27:18Speaker 2: It just something felt off.
- 27:20Speaker 1: So Burns, operating on a gut instinct, told them both
- 27:23Speaker 1: that in order to question them, they actually had to
- 27:26Speaker 1: come with him to the station and do it formally.
- 27:28Speaker 2: Down there.
- 27:34Speaker 1: Less than an hour later, Detective Burns opened the door
- 27:37Speaker 1: of the Dark County Sheriff's office and he showed Greg
- 27:39Speaker 1: and Travis Myers inside. Now, neither of the brothers were
- 27:43Speaker 1: under arrest yet, but Burns had a feeling that by
- 27:45Speaker 1: the end of their interviews, one or both of them
- 27:48Speaker 1: could be Burns took Greg into his office for questioning,
- 27:51Speaker 1: while Burns's partner took Travis into a room down the hall.
- 27:55Speaker 1: As soon as Greg sat down in front of the desk,
- 27:57Speaker 1: Burns noticed that he wasn't making eye contact with him.
- 28:00Speaker 1: He was sort of acting shifty. But pretty quickly, Greg
- 28:03Speaker 1: said he was perfectly willing to tell the detectives anything
- 28:06Speaker 1: they wanted if it could help solve his dad and
- 28:08Speaker 1: stepmother's murders, and so Burns immediately began asking questions.
- 28:12Speaker 2: He asked Greg what he was doing in.
- 28:14Speaker 1: The early hours of Thursday morning when Jack and Linda
- 28:17Speaker 1: were killed, and Greg told him that mostly he was
- 28:19Speaker 1: just asleep, that is until about four thirty when he
- 28:22Speaker 1: got up to go to his job at a factory
- 28:24Speaker 1: that was a few towns over. He also said his
- 28:26Speaker 1: girlfriend was at home with him the whole night and
- 28:28Speaker 1: she could confirm that. He then said he drove to
- 28:31Speaker 1: work in his minivan and he clocked in at five
- 28:34Speaker 1: twenty three am, and he even had a signed time
- 28:36Speaker 1: card back home that would prove it. And Burns was
- 28:39Speaker 1: immediately very interested to learn that Greg drove a minivan,
- 28:42Speaker 1: because remember that neighbor had said she saw a minivan
- 28:46Speaker 1: leaving the Meyers farm around four thirty on the morning
- 28:49Speaker 1: of the murders, suggesting the killer drove a minivan. However,
- 28:53Speaker 1: Burns was starting to realize that even if Greg's alibi
- 28:56Speaker 1: were shaky or didn't check out the timing alone and
- 29:00Speaker 1: likely ruled him out, it basically was impossible to drive
- 29:03Speaker 1: from Greg's house at four thirty am when he left,
- 29:06Speaker 1: go all the way to the farm, commit the murders,
- 29:09Speaker 1: then drive to the factory, and be able to clock
- 29:12Speaker 1: in at five twenty three am when he had his
- 29:14Speaker 1: time card stamped. That just wasn't enough time to do
- 29:18Speaker 1: all that. And also, pretty much everybody in the family
- 29:21Speaker 1: had told Burns that Greg was quite close with Jack
- 29:24Speaker 1: and Linda. Now he was having some problems with drugs
- 29:27Speaker 1: and alcohol, but he had no history of crime or violence,
- 29:31Speaker 1: and none of his family members thought he seemed capable
- 29:33Speaker 1: of being a killer. So even though Greg remained a suspect,
- 29:37Speaker 1: Burns decided he would shift his focus to Travis. So
- 29:40Speaker 1: Burns asked Greg how had Travis reacted when he heard
- 29:43Speaker 1: about Jack and Linda's murders, and he said Travis had
- 29:46Speaker 1: been upset, but he'd mostly been concerned about how Greg
- 29:49Speaker 1: was coping. Because Greg was the one who was much
- 29:52Speaker 1: closer to Jack and Linda.
- 29:53Speaker 2: You know, Travis was estranged.
- 29:55Speaker 1: Greg went on to say that it had been at
- 29:57Speaker 1: least seven years since Travis, in a his father had
- 30:00Speaker 1: spoken and that those two did not get along at all.
- 30:03Speaker 1: Burns asked Greg about that falling out between Jack and Travis,
- 30:07Speaker 1: and Greg said it just came down to business disagreements
- 30:09Speaker 1: on the farm. He said Travis had felt like his
- 30:12Speaker 1: father was cheating him out of money, and they had
- 30:13Speaker 1: this big argument that got really ugly, so Travis had
- 30:17Speaker 1: just quit the business and moved away. Burns thought about this,
- 30:20Speaker 1: and he wondered if maybe Travis stood to inherit any
- 30:23Speaker 1: money if his father died, because if so, that would
- 30:26Speaker 1: definitely be a solid motive for murder. And so Burns
- 30:29Speaker 1: made two mental notes. One was to look into Greg's
- 30:32Speaker 1: alibi and the other was to look into Jack's will
- 30:36Speaker 1: to see how his assets were going to be divided up.
- 30:38Speaker 1: After that, he thanked Greg for his cooperation, told him
- 30:41Speaker 1: to wait in his office, and then Burns left and
- 30:44Speaker 1: he went right down the hall, and he waited outside
- 30:46Speaker 1: the door while his partner finished questioning Travis. Burns's partner
- 30:51Speaker 1: would say that Travis had seemed really nervous from the
- 30:54Speaker 1: very moment he stepped inside the room. The detective had
- 30:57Speaker 1: asked him what he was doing in Ohio, and Travis
- 30:59Speaker 1: said he'd just been reevaluating his life recently, and he'd
- 31:02Speaker 1: realized that he'd never actually met his brother, Greg's children,
- 31:06Speaker 1: so he'd come back to Ohio to do just that
- 31:08Speaker 1: and spend some time with them. Then the detective asked
- 31:11Speaker 1: him what he was doing when Jack and Linda were killed,
- 31:14Speaker 1: and Travis stuttered out that he was sleeping in his apartment.
- 31:17Speaker 1: The detective asked him if he had anybody who could
- 31:20Speaker 1: confirm that, and Travis kind of hesitated and then shook
- 31:23Speaker 1: his head and said no. Then the detective asked Travis
- 31:26Speaker 1: if he had a car, and Travis said that at
- 31:29Speaker 1: the moment, he was driving his mother's car, a white minivan.
- 31:34Speaker 1: After getting debriefed by his partner about this interview with Travis,
- 31:37Speaker 1: Burns went back into his office. By this point, Greg
- 31:40Speaker 1: had been moved out and put in a different room,
- 31:42Speaker 1: and Burns sat down at his desk and he began
- 31:45Speaker 1: going over the evidence they had collected so far. Now,
- 31:48Speaker 1: the investigation to this point had been moving really quickly,
- 31:51Speaker 1: and so there actually wasn't a whole lot of evidence yet.
- 31:54Speaker 1: In fact, it had only been twenty four hours since
- 31:57Speaker 1: the forensics were sent to the crime lab, so they
- 31:59Speaker 1: were still waiting for results on pretty much everything. Burns
- 32:02Speaker 1: knew that at this point the best thing he could
- 32:04Speaker 1: do while he waited for more evidence was go follow
- 32:07Speaker 1: up on Travis and Gregg's alibis. After all, they are
- 32:10Speaker 1: the victim's children, and he already thought that the killer
- 32:12Speaker 1: had to be connected personally to the victims, and they
- 32:16Speaker 1: both drove minivans, so really either of them could be
- 32:19Speaker 1: the killer.
- 32:20Speaker 2: But just then Burns's phone rang.
- 32:22Speaker 1: They picked it up, and it was a local man
- 32:24Speaker 1: who said he had seen a news report about Jack
- 32:26Speaker 1: and Linda's murders and he had some information that just
- 32:29Speaker 1: might help. The man said that a few days earlier,
- 32:33Speaker 1: his friend had called him to see if he knew
- 32:35Speaker 1: where they could buy a gun. And when this man
- 32:37Speaker 1: who's talking to Burns, you know, asked this friend why
- 32:40Speaker 1: they needed the gun, the friend said it was because
- 32:43Speaker 1: they quote wanted.
- 32:44Speaker 2: To shoot Jack Myers.
- 32:46Speaker 1: The man told Burns the name of his friend who
- 32:49Speaker 1: said this, and as soon as Burns heard that name,
- 32:52Speaker 1: he knew exactly who his murderer was. Based on this
- 32:59Speaker 1: phone phone call as well as forensic evidence from the
- 33:02Speaker 1: crime scene, this is what police believe happened to Jack
- 33:05Speaker 1: and Linda Myers on the morning of March twenty seventh,
- 33:08Speaker 1: two thousand and three. Early on the morning of the murders,
- 33:19Speaker 1: the killer woke up and got out of bed and
- 33:21Speaker 1: right away put on a green hunting jumpsuit, and they
- 33:24Speaker 1: also packed a bag with duct tape, trash bags, and.
- 33:27Speaker 2: A roll of masking tape.
- 33:29Speaker 1: Then they put on a pair of latex gloves and
- 33:31Speaker 1: loaded the twelve gage shotgun that they had purchased from
- 33:33Speaker 1: a classified ad two days earlier, and they carried all
- 33:36Speaker 1: their supplies out to their minivan. After they were ready,
- 33:40Speaker 1: they hopped in the driver's seat, turned on the car,
- 33:42Speaker 1: and then drove a familiar route through the dark, open fields.
- 33:46Speaker 1: They were calm at first until they turned onto the
- 33:48Speaker 1: gravel road that led to Jack and Linda's farm. At
- 33:52Speaker 1: that point, their heart began to race. Now the killer
- 33:54Speaker 1: felt like they had planned all of this out and
- 33:56Speaker 1: prepared for anything that could go wrong.
- 33:58Speaker 2: So now really all.
- 33:59Speaker 1: They had had to do was just control themselves and
- 34:02Speaker 1: just stick to the plan. And so the killer parked
- 34:04Speaker 1: right outside the farmhouse and then while staying in the car,
- 34:08Speaker 1: they climbed into the back seat of the mini van
- 34:10Speaker 1: and they grabbed their shotgun. Then they grabbed this thick
- 34:13Speaker 1: quilting fabric and they wrapped it around the barrel of
- 34:16Speaker 1: the shotgun and they used masking tape to secure it.
- 34:19Speaker 1: That was their DIY silencer. But as they went through
- 34:23Speaker 1: this plan, the Killer's hands were shaking. They were nervous
- 34:26Speaker 1: because as much as they had planned for this, it
- 34:29Speaker 1: really was not something they actually wanted to do, but
- 34:33Speaker 1: they felt like they had to. So after their gun
- 34:35Speaker 1: had its silencer on it, they slung it over their shoulder.
- 34:38Speaker 1: Then they got out of the van and crept around
- 34:41Speaker 1: to the side of the house, and once they were there,
- 34:43Speaker 1: they cut the phone lines so nobody inside would be
- 34:46Speaker 1: able to call for help. Then they knelt down in
- 34:49Speaker 1: the dirt and they pried open the basement window and
- 34:51Speaker 1: they climbed inside. Once inside, the killer walked to the stairs.
- 34:55Speaker 1: They went up to the first floor, and they walked
- 34:58Speaker 1: straight to the bedroom where they knew Jack and Linda
- 35:00Speaker 1: would be asleep.
- 35:01Speaker 2: They went inside and there they.
- 35:03Speaker 1: Were sleeping in their beds, and the killer took a
- 35:06Speaker 1: deep breath and then raised their shotgun and they fired
- 35:09Speaker 1: a single round into the back of Jack's neck. But
- 35:12Speaker 1: the force of the gunshot had blasted off the homemade silencer,
- 35:15Speaker 1: and so basically it wasn't silent at all. It was
- 35:18Speaker 1: extremely loud, and that homemade silencer landed on the pillow
- 35:22Speaker 1: right next to Jack's head, and almost immediately from the chaos,
- 35:25Speaker 1: Linda sat up and she looked straight at the killer,
- 35:28Speaker 1: and she saw what was happening, and she just raised
- 35:31Speaker 1: a hand to try to defend herself, and in a
- 35:34Speaker 1: moment of panic, the killer just turned the shotgun on
- 35:36Speaker 1: her and they fired twice, and one blast went through
- 35:40Speaker 1: her hand and the other struck her right in the face.
- 35:43Speaker 1: At this point, the killer just paused and waited. The
- 35:46Speaker 1: silencer had sort of muffled the first shot, but the
- 35:49Speaker 1: second two were so loud they knew that noise easily
- 35:53Speaker 1: could have woken up the third person who they knew
- 35:56Speaker 1: was in this house, someone they really didn't want to hurt.
- 36:00Speaker 1: They had to, they would so just to make sure
- 36:03Speaker 1: they didn't have any loose ends. They left Linda and
- 36:05Speaker 1: Jack's bedroom confident they were dead, and they crept upstairs to
- 36:09Speaker 1: little Damien's room, and they went inside, and they carefully
- 36:13Speaker 1: walked over right next to the boy's bed, and they
- 36:16Speaker 1: raised their shotgun and aimed it at this child, waiting
- 36:19Speaker 1: to see if they were awake. But the little boy
- 36:21Speaker 1: appeared to be asleep, and so the killer spared him.
- 36:24Speaker 1: They lowered their shotgun and they walked out of the room.
- 36:27Speaker 1: Once they were out in the hallway, they shut Damien's
- 36:29Speaker 1: door and then hurried right out of the house. And
- 36:32Speaker 1: from there they got back in their minivan and they
- 36:34Speaker 1: sped off a few miles away. They stopped on a
- 36:37Speaker 1: bridge and tossed their gun, their supplies, and their clothes
- 36:40Speaker 1: into a river, and then they changed into their work
- 36:43Speaker 1: clothes and they drove to the factory where they would
- 36:45Speaker 1: clock in at precisely five twenty three am. The killer
- 36:50Speaker 1: was Jack's younger son, Greg Myers. Greg had been having
- 36:56Speaker 1: problems with money and drug abuse, and his father, Jack
- 36:59Speaker 1: had refused to help him, and they were fighting about it,
- 37:02Speaker 1: but Greig knew he would inherit the farm if his
- 37:04Speaker 1: father died, and he was so desperate he decided murder
- 37:08Speaker 1: was his best option. When police timed the drive from
- 37:11Speaker 1: Jack and Linda's farm to Greg's workplace, they found that
- 37:14Speaker 1: he would have actually had just enough time to commit
- 37:17Speaker 1: the horrible double murder and then drive straight to work
- 37:20Speaker 1: and clock in by five twenty three. Greg was ultimately
- 37:24Speaker 1: arrested about forty eight hours after the crime, so quickly
- 37:27Speaker 1: that police were actually still gathering evidence to use against him.
- 37:30Speaker 1: They later found the gun, other supplies and shoes that
- 37:33Speaker 1: matched the prints found outside the house in a river
- 37:36Speaker 1: right near the farm, and fingerprints and receipts tied all
- 37:39Speaker 1: the items back to Greg. He was convicted of murder
- 37:42Speaker 1: and sentenced to life in prison without parole. As for Damien,
- 37:46Speaker 1: following the murders, he would go to live with his
- 37:48Speaker 1: mother Amber, despite everything he witnessed at just four years old,
- 37:52Speaker 1: Amber said in a twenty twenty one documentary that he
- 37:55Speaker 1: is now doing very well.
- 38:03Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
- 38:05Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
- 38:06Speaker 1: the comments, and remember we have a whole playlist of
- 38:09Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now,
- 38:12Speaker 1: so click here and give them a watch. All right,
- 38:15Speaker 1: until next time, see ya,