Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Man axes wife to death on Christmas Eve, slits throat with knife

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Man axes wife to death on Christmas Eve, slits throat with knife · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, I've worked so
0:12
Speaker 1: hard to get up our Christmas trees and the manger
0:15
Speaker 1: scene and the wreaths on the door. My daughter is
0:19
Speaker 1: cookie Christmas cookies, are getting everything ready, sending out gifts
0:24
Speaker 1: to our family and friends across the miles. It's not
0:28
Speaker 1: like that for everyone at Christmas. I often say crime
0:33
Speaker 1: knows no bounds, whether it's what color you are, what
0:38
Speaker 1: your degree is, or how much money you make, or
0:42
Speaker 1: what neighborhood you live in. I always say that doesn't matter,
0:47
Speaker 1: that crime will find you. Well. Sadly, the season doesn't
0:52
Speaker 1: matter either. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Stephanie Kilhepner is
1:10
Speaker 1: a country girl. Along with her two brothers and sisters,
1:13
Speaker 1: He's raised in the Rolling Hills of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It's
1:16
Speaker 1: a small area about seventy miles outside of Philadelphia and
1:20
Speaker 1: known for its large Amish community. You're only about five
1:22
Speaker 1: thousand residents. Loves animals, especially her two horses, and is
1:27
Speaker 1: well known in the community for her generosity and taking
1:29
Speaker 1: in rescue animals of all kinds. In her mid twenties,
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Speaker 1: Stephanie Kilhepner meets the man she will marry Dustin Klopp,
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Speaker 1: a construction worker. The couple are together for several years
1:39
Speaker 1: and have a daughter. First. After the wedding, they moved
1:42
Speaker 1: from an apartment to a red brick home in Paradise
1:44
Speaker 1: Township and have another child, a son. On Christmas morning,
1:48
Speaker 1: Dustin Klopp takes his children to see their grandparents. The
1:51
Speaker 1: trio spends the day with the Klops, but her Stephanie, Wow,
1:54
Speaker 1: what a storybook tell They actually live in Paradise Township
1:59
Speaker 1: and that's near Lancaster County, which is Amish country, just
2:04
Speaker 1: rolling hills, horse drawn carriages. I've been there many times
2:08
Speaker 1: when I was living in Philly and it's beautiful. Did
2:12
Speaker 1: you hear that the population is about five thousand? What
2:17
Speaker 1: does that mean to me? An incredibly low crime rate.
2:21
Speaker 1: Let me introduce to you our all star panel to
2:24
Speaker 1: break it down and put it back together again. First
2:26
Speaker 1: of all, the lead news anchor for Orlando Morning newsd W.
2:30
Speaker 1: Dbo Ray Caputo, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of
2:35
Speaker 1: Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and star of a
2:39
Speaker 1: brand new program, Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime Network.
2:43
Speaker 1: Chris Buyer's former police chief John's Creek, twenty five years
2:48
Speaker 1: on the force. Now a PI and polygrapher at Chris
2:51
Speaker 1: Buyer's Investigations and polygraph dot com. Renowned psychiatrists joining us
2:56
Speaker 1: from the Atlanta jurisdiction, Doctor Angela Arnold Old. You can
3:00
Speaker 1: find her at Angela Arnold MD dot com. And a
3:05
Speaker 1: very special guest is joining us, a new guest to
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Speaker 1: our show. Let's welcome Judge Craig Steadman, Lancaster County Court
3:13
Speaker 1: of Common please, the former Lancaster District Attorney. Now, can
3:18
Speaker 1: you just settle things once and for all, Judge? Many
3:22
Speaker 1: people say Lancaster, but as I recall, when I lived
3:26
Speaker 1: in Philly, I was admonished that it's Lancaster. Which one
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Speaker 1: is it? Yeah, so I'm not originally from here, and
3:33
Speaker 1: I had to learn it the hard way. It's Lancaster
3:35
Speaker 1: is the way they say, because I thought it was Lancaster,
3:37
Speaker 1: and you got it right. Okay. I usually say it
3:40
Speaker 1: both ways, so I can be fifty percent right and
3:43
Speaker 1: fifty percent wrong, so everybody will hate me. Just want
3:46
Speaker 1: to make sure that happens. Okay. Now that we've got
3:49
Speaker 1: that settled, we're talking about a beautiful young mother. Her
3:54
Speaker 1: name is Stephanie Kilheffner. I want to hear about the
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Speaker 1: area with me, Judge Craig Steadman, former district attorney. Now, Judge, judge,
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Speaker 1: can you tell me about that area. I grew up
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Speaker 1: on a dirt road in Middle Georgia with nothing but,
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Speaker 1: as I like to say, soybeans and pine trees as
4:13
Speaker 1: far as the eye could see. And there's pros and
4:16
Speaker 1: cons to that. We had never we never worried about
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Speaker 1: some creepy d driving up in a white van and
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Speaker 1: grabbing us. We could run and play and tromp through
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Speaker 1: streams and climb trees until it got dark and it's
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Speaker 1: time to come home. Tell me about the area, Judge. So, yeah,
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Speaker 1: Paradise is very similar to what you're talking about, other
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Speaker 1: than instead of the soybeans would be more corn and
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Speaker 1: some tobacco crops. But yeah, it's very very rural. Lancaster
4:43
Speaker 1: is a big county. We do have a city. Everyone
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Speaker 1: identifies more with the Amish country and the farms, and
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Speaker 1: that's what this area of the county is. Paradise is
4:55
Speaker 1: generally really safe. The neighbors know the neighbors. There'd be
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Speaker 1: a lot of people that leave their doors on locked
5:00
Speaker 1: and generally low crime. The Pennsylvania State Police cover it.
5:05
Speaker 1: They don't even have their own municipal police department, so
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Speaker 1: it'd be generally not an area that we'd have a
5:11
Speaker 1: lot to deal with. You know, when I was in
5:13
Speaker 1: the DA's office, it just wasn't a lot going on
5:16
Speaker 1: there as far as crime very safe. Well, you and
5:19
Speaker 1: I had very different experiences in District Attorney's office. I
5:22
Speaker 1: prosecuted an inner city Atlanta at the height of the
5:25
Speaker 1: drug trade. You know, everybody would send their dope, their heroine,
5:30
Speaker 1: their crick, their cocaine, their meth, straight up from Miami,
5:33
Speaker 1: right off the boat, all the way to New York
5:36
Speaker 1: on All forty one, and the first major metropolitan stop
5:40
Speaker 1: would be Atlanta. So of course the drug trade brought
5:43
Speaker 1: with it more homicized than we could handle. So there
5:48
Speaker 1: was never a lack of business. As I always like
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Speaker 1: to say, Judge Steadman, you know we're talking about this
5:54
Speaker 1: woman and the very first thing that just jumps out
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Speaker 1: at me. I don't know if you heard our friend
6:01
Speaker 1: from crime online dot Com, Joey Barge, state that Dustin
6:06
Speaker 1: Clark takes his children to see the grandparents, but Stephanie,
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Speaker 1: the mom isn't there. I mean right there, Doctor Angela Arnold.
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Speaker 1: Nothing happens in our home without me being front and
6:20
Speaker 1: center because I don't want to miss a thing, not
6:23
Speaker 1: one thing. I want to be there to wake the
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Speaker 1: twins up. I'm gonna be there sitting in the rocking
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Speaker 1: chair when they fall asleep and I leave the room.
6:30
Speaker 1: I want to be there for every minute. It's really
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Speaker 1: hard for me to get past the fight that they're
6:36
Speaker 1: spending Christmas morning without Mom. Well, and also, Nancy, you're
6:41
Speaker 1: probably the one that plans everything. Santa does that hush hush,
6:47
Speaker 1: your hush, your evil mouth, Sanda dous all the planning
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Speaker 1: at Christmas time. Okay, I have nothing to do with that,
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Speaker 1: nothing at all. I wasn't online all night looking for
6:58
Speaker 1: a blaystation five. That was not me. Okay, well now,
7:02
Speaker 1: but I can't tell you this. I'm right up in
7:04
Speaker 1: the middle of everything, doctor Angie, and everybody depends on
7:08
Speaker 1: you to be there, and they're looking for you because
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Speaker 1: the mommy makes everything right and she makes everybody feel comfortable,
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Speaker 1: and everybody knows that everything's going to go along. Okay,
7:17
Speaker 1: that day, if mom is there, you know, right at
7:21
Speaker 1: the get go to chief Chris Buyers joining me along
7:24
Speaker 1: with Judge Craig Steve and doctor Angie Arnold, Joe Scott
7:27
Speaker 1: Morgan and Ray Kaputo, Chief Buyers. You know, I've wondered
7:33
Speaker 1: and wondered about this ever since I started prosecuting. Why
7:38
Speaker 1: is it then, in our world, in our society, women
7:42
Speaker 1: and children are so often the crime victims? Why is
7:47
Speaker 1: it now? If it's to all you guys on the panel,
7:49
Speaker 1: but what is it when I see a mom missing
7:53
Speaker 1: out of a scenario, I immediately think the worst? Yeah, absolutely,
7:58
Speaker 1: because the provement, the statistics show, just like you said,
8:03
Speaker 1: that the women and children are the prey, they're the
8:07
Speaker 1: easy targets. That there are always seemed to be the
8:10
Speaker 1: victims in these cases for sure. So sad, guys, we
8:15
Speaker 1: know that he the husband in this scenario, Dustin Klopp,
8:20
Speaker 1: seemingly out of a fairy book marriage, shows up on
8:24
Speaker 1: Christmas morning at the grandparents without Mommy question, do you,
8:29
Speaker 1: Ryka Puto, lead news anchor Orlando's Morning News WDBO, when
8:33
Speaker 1: he showed up at the grandparents Was it his parents
8:37
Speaker 1: or her parents? Where they showed up? It was Dustin's
8:39
Speaker 1: parents and Nancy, and they were expecting you know them
8:43
Speaker 1: to all come over, and you know what, it's so
8:45
Speaker 1: easy to say, oh, she didn't feel well, blah blah blah.
8:48
Speaker 1: But on Christmas morning, you know, seemingly all bets are
8:51
Speaker 1: off on Christmas. That's a command performance that you don't miss.
9:10
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about a
9:20
Speaker 1: Christmas morning, a big gathering at the grandparents house, the
9:24
Speaker 1: paternal grandparents house, when Mommy doesn't show up. Thirty four
9:28
Speaker 1: year old Stephanie kill After doesn't show up at the
9:32
Speaker 1: appointed time in location. The children are there, the husband's there,
9:36
Speaker 1: the grandparents are there, everything's decorated, the food is prepared,
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Speaker 1: the party's going on, and mom never shows up. Right there,
9:46
Speaker 1: I smell a rat, especially on Christmas Day. You know,
9:51
Speaker 1: doctor Angie, do we put too much pressure on ourselves
9:55
Speaker 1: for Christmas? I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself,
10:00
Speaker 1: seems to be completely unaware of it, to make everything
10:04
Speaker 1: perfect for my children. Is it just too much pressure?
10:09
Speaker 1: It's a lot of pressure. That's all I take care
10:11
Speaker 1: of around the holidays is people are so stressed out.
10:15
Speaker 1: It's it's financial pressure, it's the pressure to do everything
10:18
Speaker 1: just right. It intensifies around keeping up with everyone around you.
10:24
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know about you, Nancy, but on
10:26
Speaker 1: my street right now, the amount of money that people
10:29
Speaker 1: stunned on holiday lights in front of their house. They
10:33
Speaker 1: are three right there, and the baby fell down. I
10:36
Speaker 1: was out there at one am trying to hammer the
10:38
Speaker 1: thing back into the dirt. You could see the small
10:41
Speaker 1: nation for what some of these people spend on their
10:43
Speaker 1: Christmas decorations. And this year, you want to know something,
10:46
Speaker 1: I didn't put any out front because I'm protesting that
10:51
Speaker 1: I really okay, So have you ever cut your nose
10:55
Speaker 1: off to spot your face? Thing? Just something? Of course,
10:59
Speaker 1: I'm just a jade. I am not an MD like you,
11:01
Speaker 1: But that's just something for you to think about as
11:03
Speaker 1: we move forward. Not putting up Christmas decorations to protest
11:07
Speaker 1: your neighbors. Okay, well, you're the shrink, not me. You
11:11
Speaker 1: know another thing here, And you know, Joe Scott Morgan
11:15
Speaker 1: you have I think you do you better because I
11:18
Speaker 1: love your wife. Okay, I hate to tell you this,
11:21
Speaker 1: but more than you, Joe Scott, you have a happy marriage.
11:26
Speaker 1: You have in laws. I'm just wondering did the in
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Speaker 1: laws not notice she wasn't there. And I gotta tell
11:31
Speaker 1: you something, Joe Scott. I've told you this before my
11:35
Speaker 1: husband's parents, and they must have had to bite their tongue.
11:40
Speaker 1: In all the years I knew David before we married, decades,
11:46
Speaker 1: we never had a cross word, Joe Scott, not one.
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Speaker 1: And if I had not shown up for Christmas, there
11:51
Speaker 1: would be h L L D pay. They would want to.
11:54
Speaker 1: They would be cross examining David Lynch up and down
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Speaker 1: to find out where was I, what was wrong? Why
12:01
Speaker 1: wasn't I there? No way would this have gone unnoticed. Yeah,
12:05
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. It's as delicate as a Japanese tea ceremony.
12:09
Speaker 1: You know. Christmas is one of these things where you
12:12
Speaker 1: have to you have to show up or there is
12:17
Speaker 1: going to be a bill to be paid. You know.
12:20
Speaker 1: In the Catholic Church they refer to Christmas service as
12:24
Speaker 1: one of the Holy days of obligation. It applies at
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Speaker 1: a family level, too, doesn't it. Because even the most
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Speaker 1: subtle thing, the slightest, the slightest absence, or maybe you
12:34
Speaker 1: didn't get the right gift, or maybe you didn't show
12:36
Speaker 1: up at the right time, you didn't bring the right thing.
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Speaker 1: A lot's gonna be read into that. And the fact
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Speaker 1: that this woman is completely and I mean completely absent
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Speaker 1: and out of the picture tells you a lot, because
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Speaker 1: this is just something that doesn't normally happen in the
12:52
Speaker 1: normal context. And yes, there is such a thing as
12:55
Speaker 1: normal and this is not normal behavior for a family. Well,
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Speaker 1: we find out that it didn't start on Christmas morning.
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Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friend Joy Barge at crime
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Speaker 1: online dot com. On Christmas Eve, Stephanie Kilheppner's neighbors Tim
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Speaker 1: and Sheila Rore see her around seven thirty pm. They're
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Speaker 1: outside saying goodbye to their family members. As Kilheppner pulls
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Speaker 1: in her driveway, she waves and wishes them a merry Christmas.
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Speaker 1: At home, Stephanie puts the kids to bed. About ten,
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Speaker 1: she and Dustin have an argument. You know, I'm just
13:28
Speaker 1: thinking about the night before Christmas, on Christmas Eve, when
13:32
Speaker 1: everyone is preparing, getting everything together, putting things together, staging.
13:43
Speaker 1: You know. Let me go out to you, Judge Craig
13:45
Speaker 1: Steadman joining us out of Lancaster County Court, former prosecutor,
13:50
Speaker 1: do you see an uptick in crimes around the holidays.
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Speaker 1: I don't know that I could say that. I mean,
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Speaker 1: you know, I don't think that we ever did us
14:00
Speaker 1: a study that said so exactly, we have a lot
14:05
Speaker 1: of crime, But we don't have those kind of numbers.
14:08
Speaker 1: I mean, I can just give you a sense of it.
14:10
Speaker 1: We do have an increase. There's certainly an increase in stress.
14:14
Speaker 1: There's certainly increasing pressure. And you know, one of the
14:17
Speaker 1: difficult things with domestic violence is a lot of it
14:19
Speaker 1: goes on reported and as you all know, and so
14:23
Speaker 1: it's hard to get a true sense of what's going
14:25
Speaker 1: on behind closed doors. I don't know that I could
14:28
Speaker 1: tell you whether there's increasing crime on Christmas. I can
14:31
Speaker 1: tell you that it stands out in my memory when
14:34
Speaker 1: we have Yes, I know there's an increase intention over what,
14:37
Speaker 1: I'm not sure but how things went south so quickly,
14:43
Speaker 1: I don't know. You just heard Joy Barge tell us
14:46
Speaker 1: the neighbors see her pull in at seven thirty pm.
14:49
Speaker 1: She gets out of the car, waves says Merry Christmas
14:52
Speaker 1: to the neighbors. It goes in the home. But take
14:54
Speaker 1: a listen to our friend, Ames Yates, Fox forty three.
15:00
Speaker 1: How can anybody do that? Though Jerry fenning Or has
15:03
Speaker 1: lived across the street from where it happened on Georgetown
15:06
Speaker 1: Road for almost two decades, and was shocked to learn
15:09
Speaker 1: what happened cold and then put her in a music
15:12
Speaker 1: stopped her in a bag, and put her out in
15:14
Speaker 1: a shed. Oh you highest, It's just unbelievable, unbelievable, Dosh.
15:21
Speaker 1: Other neighbors told us the couple have two children, both
15:24
Speaker 1: under the ages of ten, who are now staying with
15:26
Speaker 1: their grandparents. Meanwhile, clop is being held at the Lancaster
15:30
Speaker 1: County Prison. His bail has been denied. For the people
15:33
Speaker 1: that live here, it's still a shock. Feel sorry for
15:36
Speaker 1: the family too. We just couldn't believe it. Shot like
15:40
Speaker 1: that happened this close to home, something like that would
15:43
Speaker 1: happen here in our neighborhood. You know, I'm always amazed
15:48
Speaker 1: to you, Chief Buyers, Chris Buyers joining us former police
15:51
Speaker 1: chief John's Creek now Chris Buyers investigations in polygraph dot com.
15:56
Speaker 1: Nobody ever thinks it's gonna happen in their neighborhood, and
16:00
Speaker 1: they're so shot, But it does happen in everybody's neighborhood,
16:06
Speaker 1: from New York to la to Atlanta. I was just
16:11
Speaker 1: reading in the paper the other day, Chief Buyers for
16:15
Speaker 1: outside some swanky country club, a guy was trying to
16:19
Speaker 1: get a ride. His wife had just given birth. He
16:21
Speaker 1: was at this big country club for a wedding reception
16:25
Speaker 1: or something, and he was outside waiting for an uber,
16:28
Speaker 1: and the guy came up arm, robbed him and shot
16:30
Speaker 1: him dead right there at the gate to this really
16:37
Speaker 1: exclusive country club. And the neighbors in that neighborhood couldn't
16:41
Speaker 1: believe it happened there. It does, chief, Oh, it happens everywhere.
16:47
Speaker 1: I can tell you. I spent the last thirteen years
16:49
Speaker 1: of my career in what was named for at least
16:53
Speaker 1: six years of those the safest city in Georgia, forth
16:56
Speaker 1: safest city in the United States for a long time running,
17:00
Speaker 1: probably the richest zip code in Georgia, I believe we
17:03
Speaker 1: were named a couple of years. And probably one of
17:05
Speaker 1: the most horrific crimes in my entire career that I
17:08
Speaker 1: saw happened in that town. And I worked kind of
17:11
Speaker 1: like you in parts of Atlanta, in the largest county
17:15
Speaker 1: here in Metro Atlanta, and right there in the richest,
17:20
Speaker 1: the richest neighborhood in the state of Georgia. Horrific crimes.
17:23
Speaker 1: It happens everywhere. And you're right. People are always shocked
17:28
Speaker 1: when they say it would never happen in their neighborhoods,
17:30
Speaker 1: but you're absolutely right. It happens everywhere. Take a listen
17:35
Speaker 1: to our friend Pete Montene at Fox News eight w GA.
17:40
Speaker 1: L State troopers say a Christmas Eve crime inside this
17:44
Speaker 1: Paradise township home went unnoticed for nearly a day until
17:49
Speaker 1: the man they say did it had a change of heart,
17:52
Speaker 1: you know. And we've seen nine cruisers go up, and
17:58
Speaker 1: of course they stopped at my house thinking it was
18:00
Speaker 1: the address we need to have something. Neighbors of thirty
18:04
Speaker 1: six year old Dustin Klopp did not want to be
18:07
Speaker 1: identified after they heard what police found here. Just released
18:10
Speaker 1: court documents say Klopp and his wife of three years,
18:13
Speaker 1: Stephanie Kilhefner, were in an argument late Wednesday night. Police
18:17
Speaker 1: say Klopp then punched his wife, slid her throat, and
18:21
Speaker 1: then hit her in the head with an axe and
18:23
Speaker 1: she was just from Mary Christmas right now. It just
18:28
Speaker 1: didn't can't believe that something happened like that. Crime Stories
18:46
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. Let's go straight out to Judge Craig Steadman,
18:55
Speaker 1: Lancaster County Court of Common Please judge, former Uster County
19:00
Speaker 1: District Attorney. What can you tell us about the case? Judge?
19:07
Speaker 1: So this was, you know, not the typical case that
19:11
Speaker 1: we get that we normally we find the body or
19:15
Speaker 1: get a call if shots fired, as you know, and
19:18
Speaker 1: you you respond and you start unwinding who are your suspects?
19:22
Speaker 1: Who would who would have want to do this? In
19:24
Speaker 1: this case, the first law enforcement got involved was from
19:27
Speaker 1: mister Klopp himself. He called the police the State Police,
19:34
Speaker 1: admitted that he that he had killed her and drove
19:37
Speaker 1: into the State Police barracks. His father drove him down there,
19:40
Speaker 1: and as he's confessing to it to them, the state
19:43
Speaker 1: police are responding to the scene. Okay, wait a minute, judge,
19:46
Speaker 1: just a second. I gotta take in what you're saying.
19:48
Speaker 1: It's like drinking from the fire hydrant. Did you say
19:53
Speaker 1: with me? Special guest Judge Craig Steadman, current judge, former
19:57
Speaker 1: prosecutor in this jurisdiction, he himself into police HQ. His
20:05
Speaker 1: father drove him, so they so you know, on Christmas,
20:09
Speaker 1: So Christmas Eve this takes place, and I guess I'll
20:12
Speaker 1: back up, and what started it was just as far
20:17
Speaker 1: as I can remember, So it's six years and dozens
20:19
Speaker 1: of homicide to go, and it was just a difficult
20:22
Speaker 1: domestic argument that turned physical. He ended up punching her.
20:29
Speaker 1: I believe that there was some some head trauma. She
20:31
Speaker 1: may have hit something when she fell. And you know,
20:35
Speaker 1: he has an opportunity to stop there, he doesn't stop.
20:38
Speaker 1: He gets a knife and and tries to cut her
20:41
Speaker 1: throat and kill her. He still didn't kill her. He
20:43
Speaker 1: actually has another opportunity to stop, and he arms himself
20:46
Speaker 1: with an axe and finishes her off that way, but
20:49
Speaker 1: she was still alive at the time he used the
20:51
Speaker 1: axe on her head. Then now he's got two kids
20:54
Speaker 1: in the house. Fortunately they didn't see any of this.
20:57
Speaker 1: That's the only minor upside in which is a horrible tragedy,
21:01
Speaker 1: is that all weeks different. Best we could tell they
21:03
Speaker 1: saw or heard nothing. So they're up in bed. He's
21:07
Speaker 1: got to make a decision as to what to do.
21:09
Speaker 1: He doesn't do the right thing, even at that point
21:11
Speaker 1: in time. He cleans up the blood the best he can.
21:14
Speaker 1: He takes her body, puts her in a plastic bag,
21:18
Speaker 1: takes her to have like a wood shed. He put
21:20
Speaker 1: her in the wood shed, in a pile of wood,
21:21
Speaker 1: as I recall, and then you would the panels discussing
21:26
Speaker 1: about the pressure is a Christmas, he still has another
21:29
Speaker 1: decision to make, and what his decision is is let's
21:31
Speaker 1: go through with Christmas for these kids. And I can't imagine,
21:35
Speaker 1: you know, what's going through his mind at this point
21:37
Speaker 1: in time. So he takes the kids to his parents
21:41
Speaker 1: to celebrate Christmas to the extent that he can. And
21:44
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened. I don't know whether he
21:47
Speaker 1: talked to his father or his mother but both of them,
21:49
Speaker 1: or what exactly took place, But he makes a decision
21:52
Speaker 1: at that point in time. Later in the afternoon to
21:56
Speaker 1: turn himself in. So he calls the state police as
21:59
Speaker 1: he's drive to talk to the police and admit to
22:02
Speaker 1: what he did. Um the state police are driving the
22:05
Speaker 1: other way to the house to find the house, and
22:07
Speaker 1: of course they find her and unfortunately he was telling
22:11
Speaker 1: telling the truth. So it's just a real unusual situation
22:15
Speaker 1: for us. I mean, you talked about this was a
22:17
Speaker 1: rural area, but we have our Lancaster City actually were
22:21
Speaker 1: run a drug corridor as well, so we had a
22:22
Speaker 1: lot of those homicides as well. Just I don't I
22:24
Speaker 1: couldn't remember one where someone had called where it hadn't
22:27
Speaker 1: been a self defense situation where I had to shoot
22:30
Speaker 1: the guy because he was breaking into my house or whatever.
22:32
Speaker 1: So this was this was a very strange UM case
22:35
Speaker 1: in that respect, and of course it carries the the
22:39
Speaker 1: just the ripples of um the tragedy, compounded by the
22:42
Speaker 1: fact that that it's Christmas, and so all these people
22:45
Speaker 1: who got a lost victim weve got to defending. But
22:47
Speaker 1: the grandparents, the kids, all the surviving family members. I
22:50
Speaker 1: mean that I'm sure Christmas is run for them forever.
22:53
Speaker 1: So that's that's the essence of what took place. It
22:58
Speaker 1: just a just a verbal argument turned and turned deadly,
23:02
Speaker 1: and he had a lot of chances to stop before
23:05
Speaker 1: it went that far, and he made his choices and
23:08
Speaker 1: he paid Judge Craig Steadman. Was there any suggestion about
23:18
Speaker 1: what they were arguing about. I know it's irrelevant to
23:22
Speaker 1: the fact of murder one, but what were they arguing
23:27
Speaker 1: about six years ago? I don't remember. I did try
23:30
Speaker 1: to get the files from the DA's office, so I
23:32
Speaker 1: was not able to get that. My recollection was it
23:36
Speaker 1: was really super inconsequential. It wasn't about the kids. It
23:40
Speaker 1: was something that just just really stupid. So I remember
23:43
Speaker 1: when the reporters were asking me about it, and I
23:45
Speaker 1: was just made me even more upset. It was. I mean,
23:48
Speaker 1: there'd be nothing that would justify any of it, but this,
23:51
Speaker 1: as I recall, was particularly inconsequential, just something so insignificant,
23:56
Speaker 1: and that you know, we were talking about how I'M
24:00
Speaker 1: affects everybody you look at, just how how something like
24:03
Speaker 1: this I'M argument about something minor can turn out turn
24:06
Speaker 1: into somebody losing their life. And that's my you life
24:10
Speaker 1: is so is so precious and we need to be
24:12
Speaker 1: aware and treasure every day with when you see cases
24:16
Speaker 1: like this and just reminders of how quickly things can
24:19
Speaker 1: turn so bad. Now, it's interesting and I'm sure a
24:22
Speaker 1: lot of people on our panel today feel this after
24:26
Speaker 1: you investigate cases like this. You were, uh, I guess
24:32
Speaker 1: the elected DA or an assistant DA at the time, Judge, Yeah,
24:36
Speaker 1: I was. I was a D Yeah yeah, And I
24:41
Speaker 1: was a prosecutor for many years before that, working my
24:44
Speaker 1: way up, you know, judge, and uh, Chief Buyers just
24:49
Speaker 1: got Morgan death investigator. These cases stick with you and now,
24:55
Speaker 1: like Judge Craig Steadman was describing how these children will
24:59
Speaker 1: forever remember this at Christmas, we remember it. I think
25:04
Speaker 1: about cases at certain times of the year that I
25:06
Speaker 1: prosecuted that I remember ran kipute I lead knees echo
25:10
Speaker 1: wdb I what more can you tell us about the murder? Well,
25:14
Speaker 1: I can tell you that Dustin Klopp wasn't an upstanding citizen.
25:17
Speaker 1: Needs he had a list of charges, you know, serious
25:20
Speaker 1: stuff too, you know, resisting arrest, duy, drug charges and
25:24
Speaker 1: you know we're talking about the argument and how petty
25:26
Speaker 1: it was. But some people that knew him said he
25:29
Speaker 1: was paranoid. And you know there's an old saying keep
25:31
Speaker 1: your head on a swivel. I talked to many people
25:33
Speaker 1: law enforcement, and they do things like sitting the corners
25:35
Speaker 1: and restaurants facing outward so they can see everyone. You know,
25:38
Speaker 1: that says being perceptive to the dangers of the world.
25:41
Speaker 1: Dustin seemed to get upset over small things like he
25:43
Speaker 1: was really petty, cussed out a FedEx driver posted a
25:47
Speaker 1: no trust passing sign, even told his neighbors, you know,
25:49
Speaker 1: you see anyone hear the horses, let him know. And
25:52
Speaker 1: you know, the neighbors found that out because they don't
25:54
Speaker 1: live or very many people. So he was just a
25:57
Speaker 1: paranoid guy. And you know, it seemed like the it
25:59
Speaker 1: seemed like the writing was on the wall for this
26:01
Speaker 1: guy of snap at some point, I understand you. Joseph
26:04
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan, death Investigator, Professor Forensics. According to the Pennsylvania
26:09
Speaker 1: State Police, Cloke attempted to clean his wife's spattered blood
26:15
Speaker 1: from their home. How successful was that. I can't imagine
26:22
Speaker 1: it was successful at all. Let's let's think about what
26:24
Speaker 1: he did, Nancy. The trauma that he inflicted on this
26:28
Speaker 1: woman was really over the top. This is a very
26:32
Speaker 1: violent action. You know, First he punched her in the
26:36
Speaker 1: face and I can only assume that by doing this
26:40
Speaker 1: he probably generated a bloody nose and she fell back,
26:46
Speaker 1: as we understand. Then he retrieved a knife. And one
26:51
Speaker 1: of the things I found very curious is they keep
26:53
Speaker 1: using the term that he slit her throat at that point,
26:56
Speaker 1: so you're going to produce blood this way. But the
26:59
Speaker 1: coroner actually stated that that did not kill her. He
27:04
Speaker 1: went on to say that, in fact, these blows that
27:08
Speaker 1: she sustained to her head were the acts. She was
27:12
Speaker 1: still alive as she was sustaining these, so she's still
27:15
Speaker 1: bleeding out. You know, it's a lot of people think
27:18
Speaker 1: that that. You know, if you slit somebody's throat there,
27:23
Speaker 1: they're going to die instantly. That doesn't happen. As a
27:25
Speaker 1: matter of fact, it takes quite a bit of work
27:27
Speaker 1: to accomplish that, and you have to know what you're
27:28
Speaker 1: doing when he began to assault her, bludging her with
27:33
Speaker 1: this axe. Now we don't know which end of the
27:34
Speaker 1: acts he used. He would have generated a copious a
27:38
Speaker 1: large amount of blood all over the place, So you're
27:41
Speaker 1: never going to get all of this up. I can
27:44
Speaker 1: only imagine the horror that the pathologists felt when they
27:49
Speaker 1: began to examine these wounds in her head, because they
27:53
Speaker 1: saw that she had hemorrhage into these wounds in her head,
27:56
Speaker 1: which automatically tells them from a physy low standpoint, she
28:01
Speaker 1: was alive while he was doing this. Crime Stories with
28:20
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about the Christmas Eve
28:31
Speaker 1: death of a young mom of two, murdered at the
28:35
Speaker 1: hands of her own husband. And what is also so
28:38
Speaker 1: amazing is that he cleaned up the crime scene, put
28:41
Speaker 1: her in a bag, dragged her body to a shed,
28:45
Speaker 1: and the next day, Christmas morning, what about Christmas with
28:48
Speaker 1: the children, as if nothing had happened. Take a listen
28:52
Speaker 1: to our friends Ames Yates at Fox forty three. Police
28:57
Speaker 1: say Klopp initially called them around five pm Christmas Day
29:01
Speaker 1: to say he had killed her. About an hour later,
29:03
Speaker 1: they say that he came to the Lancaster Barracks and
29:06
Speaker 1: told them the violent details. State police say Klopp told
29:09
Speaker 1: them he got in an argument with kill Heffner on
29:11
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve and punched her in the face. When she
29:14
Speaker 1: fell to the ground, he took a knife and slid
29:17
Speaker 1: her throat. Then he grabbed an axe and hit her
29:19
Speaker 1: in the back of the head repeatedly, before hiding her
29:22
Speaker 1: body in a shed near his house. To Judge Craig Stadman,
29:27
Speaker 1: now Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas Judge, former elected
29:32
Speaker 1: Lancaster County District Attorney after working his way up through
29:36
Speaker 1: the ranks a judge. Of course, the law is that
29:41
Speaker 1: no case can be in criminal court can be prosecuted
29:44
Speaker 1: based on a confession alone, as the law. Now, the
29:51
Speaker 1: scene that you discovered when cops got to the home,
29:55
Speaker 1: did it corroborate exactly what klopps said it did? Yeah,
30:01
Speaker 1: it matched up exactly. You know, there's only two people
30:05
Speaker 1: that knew exactly what took place. It wasn't hard to find.
30:09
Speaker 1: He didn't do a good job trying to clean up
30:11
Speaker 1: the blood. Um. It was very apparent her body was
30:14
Speaker 1: exactly where um she said he said she was, and
30:18
Speaker 1: the wounds matched up with what he had admitted to doing.
30:22
Speaker 1: So whatever took place, and between the homicide and his
30:26
Speaker 1: decision to turn himself in, he did change his mind
30:29
Speaker 1: and come forward with with the with the truthful details,
30:35
Speaker 1: the horrific details. As far as investigative work and challenges
30:40
Speaker 1: for us, this was one of the easier ones that
30:43
Speaker 1: I don't mean to, you know, lessen the impact of
30:46
Speaker 1: the crime. But this, this really was he told us
30:49
Speaker 1: what he did. She was right there. There wasn't a
30:52
Speaker 1: lot of investigation for us to do, you know, to
30:57
Speaker 1: Chief Chris Buyers now at Chris Buyers Investigations in polygraph
31:01
Speaker 1: dot com. You just heard Judge Steadman speaking was the
31:04
Speaker 1: DA at the time, and even then and now, it's
31:09
Speaker 1: very rare that you get a killer come straight into
31:14
Speaker 1: the station and confess and then all corroborates with the
31:18
Speaker 1: physical evidence. That just doesn't happen. Usually a defense attorney
31:23
Speaker 1: will get a hold of them, and suddenly everything changes
31:25
Speaker 1: by the time they get to court and you go
31:27
Speaker 1: to trial, basically rolling the dice. It's either plead guilty
31:31
Speaker 1: or hope one jarr will give you a mistrial and
31:34
Speaker 1: you'll get a cheaper deal after that. But I think
31:37
Speaker 1: what had to do, what had a lot to do
31:39
Speaker 1: with his confession? Did you hear Judge Steadman's state the
31:43
Speaker 1: father drove him to the police station. He didn't do
31:47
Speaker 1: it all on his own. I think that's what ultimately
31:50
Speaker 1: got him in to make the confession, was his father
31:53
Speaker 1: telling him to do the right thing. I guess on
31:55
Speaker 1: behalf of their children. Yeah. Absolutely. I I don't remember
32:00
Speaker 1: for a case ever like this in my twenty five
32:03
Speaker 1: years where someone came and confessed and it was corroborated.
32:06
Speaker 1: So yeah, And I was thinking, as you guys were
32:09
Speaker 1: talking on Christmas Day and you've got his kids there,
32:12
Speaker 1: its father, I mean, just how many generations you know, Yeah,
32:17
Speaker 1: it's true for those kids Christmas and the dad, but
32:19
Speaker 1: how many generations this is going to affect the kids? Kids?
32:22
Speaker 1: And so I have a feeling that yeah, being Christmas
32:25
Speaker 1: Day and dad convincing him to do the right thing,
32:29
Speaker 1: probably has how it played out, because that just does
32:31
Speaker 1: not happen. No, never, never have I seen it happened
32:35
Speaker 1: that way. Not once have I seen some money just
32:38
Speaker 1: come in confess and it all lines up with a
32:41
Speaker 1: physical evidence. And speaking of physical evidence to death investigator
32:45
Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morgan Joe Scott. Even if the crime scene
32:49
Speaker 1: texts say, hey, the guys ain't given a confession right now,
32:53
Speaker 1: they can't just pack up their bags and leave. They've
32:56
Speaker 1: got a process that's seen as if it were going
32:59
Speaker 1: to trial. You bet they do. And you know why
33:02
Speaker 1: because of lawyers. You have to Nancy, there is no
33:06
Speaker 1: stone you guys leave unturned, and you have to anticipate
33:09
Speaker 1: every possibility. This is no time to get lazy. As
33:14
Speaker 1: an investigator. You do your job. You've covered the scene
33:18
Speaker 1: as if the person has you know, skipped the country
33:22
Speaker 1: and has left and there's a worldwide manhunt for this person.
33:25
Speaker 1: You still have to process the scene because you never
33:28
Speaker 1: know what will happen. And how do you know how
33:32
Speaker 1: do you know that this guy was the perpetrator? Now
33:35
Speaker 1: he may have walked in and confessed to this thing,
33:38
Speaker 1: but how do you know someone else wasn't involved? Looks
33:43
Speaker 1: as forensics people, as death investigators, we're all cynics. I
33:48
Speaker 1: assume everybody is lying to me when I'm conducting a
33:51
Speaker 1: death investigation. I have to do that, Nancy, in order
33:54
Speaker 1: to cover all of my bases, and you have to
33:57
Speaker 1: continue to process these scenes until the job is done.
34:01
Speaker 1: I think it also says a lot about him, not
34:05
Speaker 1: that he's insane. Don't tune up with that, doctor Angela Arnold,
34:09
Speaker 1: because I know that's where your mind goes insanity. But
34:13
Speaker 1: as Judge Devon pointed out, he had so many times
34:17
Speaker 1: to stop it. First began with a punch, a blow,
34:21
Speaker 1: then another wound, she wasn't dead yet, then another attack.
34:26
Speaker 1: He had so many chances to back out of this thing. Nancy.
34:30
Speaker 1: I don't think that. I do not think that this
34:32
Speaker 1: is a matter of insanity. But I do believe, with
34:37
Speaker 1: the little that we know about this man, which is
34:39
Speaker 1: which is a lot, that he that he has some
34:44
Speaker 1: sort of pathologic narcissism and and that turned into a
34:49
Speaker 1: narcissistic raid. Now wait a minute, wait a minute, just
34:52
Speaker 1: to break it down now again, you're the shrink. I'm
34:55
Speaker 1: just a trial lawyer that I believe when you say
34:58
Speaker 1: pathological narcissist. You mean unstoppable narcissism. Narcissus was the star
35:07
Speaker 1: of a Greek myth that was so in love with
35:10
Speaker 1: himself he would forever look into a quiet river to
35:16
Speaker 1: see his own reflection. Right, that's exactly right. And what happens.
35:22
Speaker 1: What happens when when someone actually has pathologic narcissism, they
35:28
Speaker 1: have they can't regulate theirselves, they can't regulate their emotions
35:33
Speaker 1: or they before their behavior, and so they have they
35:36
Speaker 1: have impulses. It's just I mean, it's awful. Their impulses
35:42
Speaker 1: just take over. Okay, Well, I know what, doctor Angie Arnold.
35:47
Speaker 1: I appreciate all that psycho discussion, but in my world
35:54
Speaker 1: it's are you insane legally? Did you know right I
35:57
Speaker 1: don't wrong at the time, or do you have some
36:00
Speaker 1: uncontrollable mental delusion that somehow this is an evil troll
36:06
Speaker 1: that's jumped into your home to kill your children. None
36:09
Speaker 1: of that existed that would legally get him off the hook.
36:14
Speaker 1: In fact, I agree with you. The fact that he
36:17
Speaker 1: tried to clean up the scene, tried to hide the body,
36:20
Speaker 1: went through with Christmas morning at the grandparents to hide
36:23
Speaker 1: everything shows he knew what he did was wrong, and
36:27
Speaker 1: we're learning a little bit more about the crime. Take
36:30
Speaker 1: to listen to Pete Mountene News. Eight investigators say Clopp
36:35
Speaker 1: moved his wife's body to a shed on the property,
36:38
Speaker 1: then went to Christmas celebrations with the couple's two children.
36:42
Speaker 1: But it was not until five o'clock Christmas night that
36:45
Speaker 1: Clopp turned himself in. Here at Leicester County State Police Headquarters.
36:49
Speaker 1: It's where police say Clopp confessed to killing his wife.
36:53
Speaker 1: I guess he did develop a conscience. That's why I
36:57
Speaker 1: turn him off, But I don't know what was said.
37:01
Speaker 1: And it's home and you think of the two kids
37:05
Speaker 1: that they had Christmas time, you know, it's sad. Before
37:10
Speaker 1: you start blaming the Christmas season and tensions that some
37:14
Speaker 1: families have. Let me report that additional sex assault charges
37:21
Speaker 1: were added to their murder based on findings during the
37:26
Speaker 1: autopsy report. As we close out our story regarding Stephanie Kilheffner,
37:33
Speaker 1: her children are being cared for by relatives and they
37:38
Speaker 1: are growing up and they are surviving. My prayer for
37:43
Speaker 1: them is that Christmas not be forever tainted, and that's
37:48
Speaker 1: somehow in the future they find joy. Nancy Grace kind
37:56
Speaker 1: of story signing off goodbye friend,