Forensic Files Archives - Page 9 of 22

Dana Ewell: $8 Million Motive

The Murders of Glee, Dale, and Tiffany Ewell
(“Two in a Million,” Forensic Files)

Forensic Files has introduced us to a number of heirs who tried to hasten their fortunes by killing family members — and ended up poor and incarcerated instead.

Dale and Dana played tennis together the morning before the murders

Dana Ewell suffered the same fate, but he distinguished himself from the others in two ways.

Haughty kid. First, he successfully completed all the intended homicides (Christopher Porco accidentally left his mother alive and Bart Whitaker did the same with his father).

Second, he was the most arrogant.

After the murders of Dana’s parents and older sister, word got out that the Mercedes-driving Armani-suit-wearing college student was referring to the lead detectives as Sesame Street characters incapable of solving the case.

Meticulous cops. Law enforcement professionals don’t particularly appreciate that kind of talk, and it made detectives Chris Curtice and John Souza more determined to find out whether Dana had anything to do with the shooting deaths that turned into Northern California’s version of the OJ Simpson sensation.

It took three years of surveillance work and a physical timeline as long as a red carpet, but the authorities eventually proved who plotted and carried out the murders of Glee, Dale, and Tiffany Ewell in a bid for an estate valued at as much as $8 million.

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For this week, I looked into what happened to Dana Ewell in the three years between the murders and his arrest – specifically whether he actually got his hands on any of the money from his parents’ estate and whether he received moral support from his extended family during the trial.

I also checked into the whereabouts of Dana and his henchman today.

Happy family. So let’s get going on a recap of “Two in a Million,” the Forensic Files episode about the case, along with additional information from internet research and other true-crime shows:

Two days after Easter in 1992, a housekeeper named Juanita Avitia entered the residence at 5663 East Park Circle Drive in Fresno.

Avitia had worked for a number of wealthy families and found the Ewells unusual in that they all got along well, she would later say in an interview with Oxygen series In Cold Blood.

Cleaning woman Juanita Avitia said the Ewells enjoyed their togetherness

Sweet daughter. Inside the sprawling adobe-style house, Avitia saw Tiffany Ewell, 24, lying facedown with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. She had collapsed on top of a Foster’s Freeze cup she was carrying.

Tiffany, a graduate accounting student who lived at home, was shy and demure by all accounts.

Avitia fled and called 911. Police found Dale and Glee Ewell also shot to death in the house.

Congenial and thoughtful. Glee had suffered the most violent death. Someone had fired into her heart and face, and investigators would later say that her frozen expression of horror suggested she knew the gunman.

It was an unlikely end for a woman known for her big smile.

Glee, who worked as a translator for the CIA before she had her children, later served on the State Bar of California’s governing board. She was “one of the most well-liked people I’ve ever met,” according to Don Fischback, a friend who appeared on the show Solved. “If you saw her at an event, you’d get a card or a note a week later — ‘great to see you last week.'”

Midwestern guy. Her husband of 31 years, who had died from one bullet to the back of the neck, also knew how to chat people up, although at least some of the time, he had an ulterior motive. He was a salesman with an original way of introducing his product.

The son of Ohio farmers, Dale had studied aeronautical engineering at Miami University of Ohio and married Glee in 1961. They were soul mates, according to Dale’s brother who appeared on Power, Privilege, and Justice.

After moving to California, Dale bought an airplane dealership. He would, uninvited, land one of his small airplanes on a farmer’s field, charm the farmer into purchasing it, and then teach him how to fly it.

Last hurrah. Like any good investor, Dale diversified, buying up real estate and farmland, where he grew pistachios and figs.

One of the Ewells’ properties was a beach house in Parajo Dunes in Santa Cruz County, where the family spent its last weekend together.

The 3,600-square-foot house at 5663 East Park Circle Drive in the Sunnyside section of Fresno

The gathering included the one member of the Ewell nuclear family who would survive the slaughter, Dana Ewell, 21, a business student at Santa Clara State University.

Case of the Benz. Just earlier that day — April 19, Easter Sunday — Dana and his family had taken a walk on the beach together. But instead of heading home with the rest of the Ewells, Dana went 160 miles away to the Bay Area to have dinner with his girlfriend, Monica Zent, 24, and her FBI agent father, John.

Although by all accounts, Glee and Dale Ewell never flaunted their wealth, they enabled Dana to do so. They gave him an allowance of $800 a month and a status-symbol car. Dana liked to flash $100 bills at parties and wear imported Italian suits to class.

When Dana wrecked his gold Mercedes 190, Dale bought him another one identical to the first. It’s unclear why, but Dale reportedly considered the circumstances of the accident an embarrassment to the family and wanted to sweep it under the rug.

Strange bedfellows. Dana could be incorrigible in a number of ways. He lied to a school-newspaper reporter, saying that he owned a $4 million company and sold mutual funds.

The resulting article angered his father, but Dana continued to deceive, getting caught plagiarizing a business ethics paper in college. It was a strange choice because Dana supposedly had a genius IQ. During his Forensic Files appearance, Dana’s uncle said that Dana scored 160 points (or maybe that’s just family lore or Dana switched tests with the chess club president).

Dana was fascinated with people who broke laws in pursuit of wealth. He hung a picture of Michael Milken in his dorm room and openly admired Joe Hunt, the Ponzi schemer and murderer whose life served as the basis of the 1987 NBC series Billionaire Boys Club.

Alarm code handy. But whoever murdered the Ewells should have spent less time watching made-for-TV movies and more time viewing true-crime docuseries.

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The killer or killers made a mistake well-known to Forensic Files viewers: excessively ransacking the house to make the murders look like a burglary gone wrong — but leaving behind valuable items a real thief would have grabbed.

The attacker also turned off the house’s security system, a sign of an inside job. And the bullets used to shoot the victims came from a stash Dale Ewell kept in the house.

Solid alibi. Police briefly looked into a theory that the previous owner of Dale Ewell’s airplane business had ties to drug smugglers who might have played a role in the crime, but that part of the investigation went nowhere fast.

Dana became the No. 1 suspect. Curtice and Souza knew he was nowhere near the house when the murders took place, but believed he had something to do with them.

The tall blue-eyed scion raised suspicions by immediately hiring lawyer Richard Berman to communicate with the police.

Forensic Files didn’t mention it, but Glee, seen here at her wedding to Dale, has been described as an heiress to an oil fortune

Post-homicide spree. Dana did make a token effort to convey bereavement, posting a $50,000 reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest, noting the “wonderful lives that ended in tragedy” and saying that “my world was shattered and my life was changed forever.”

In fact, the death of his family saddened him so much that he bought himself a $130,000 airplane and put his mother’s fur coat up for sale via a newspaper ad, the Los Angeles Times reported.

After quitting college briefly, Dana spent time at Western Piper Sales, his late father’s airplane business, where he got himself named vice president with a salary of $2,000 a month, according to court papers, but he mostly just sat around chatting on the phone, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Expensive whirl. Dana also seemed comfortable living in his parents’ house in Fresno despite that blood and other forensic evidence from the murders were never cleaned up.

His best buddy and former dorm roommate Joel Radovcich, the son of a church organist and an engineer, moved into the house with him for a time.

Investigators found out that Joel, who left school and had no job, had started taking helicopter flight lessons for up to $500 an hour shortly after the murders. A little forensic accounting showed that Dana was underwriting the cost of his buddy’s foray into piloting with Mazzei Flying Service.

Revealing reply. Investigators also found out that Joel had a fascination with lethal weapons and kept a stash of magazines about mercenary work.

And Joel had sent books, one of which gave do-it-yourself silencer instructions, to his friend Jack Ponce, a 23-year-old law student with a history degree from UCLA.

When police visited Joel to ask some questions, he immediately asked if they intended to arrest him.

They didn’t have enough evidence for that yet, but undercover cops staked out a public phone Joel used to call Dana. The two only communicated via pagers and pay phones and mostly spoke in code, but police heard Joel demanding $250,000. Investigators would ultimately conclude that Dana had promised Joel half of the estate.

Dale Ewell described his sister as the “most harmless person in the world.” But she stood between him and $4 million.

Bromance, literally. They found tennis balls in Joel’s home that matched fibers on the floor of the crime scene and on the victims’ bodies. Police believed the attacker used tennis balls to make a homemade silencer — another sign that murder, not robbery, was the home invader’s goal.

At this point, police weren’t the only ones who suspected Dana. When Dale Ewell’s three brothers — who were so close that they all had followed Dale from Ohio to California — read the will, they saw a different side of their nephew.

Dale had stipulated that trustees give Dana the money in increments until he turned 35, when he would get all remaining assets, which in addition to the beach house and main residence in Fresno, included a cabin at Shaver Lake, the two 160-acre farms, and Dale Ewell’s $1.3 million retirement fund, according to a McClatchy News Service article.

Aunt marches in. When Dana found out that he wasn’t getting the millions he expected right away, he became infuriated and pounded his fist on a table — showing more emotion than he did when he found out that his family died in a triple homicide.

After Dana’s outburst, his paternal grandfather, Austin Ewell, tried to stop the trust from distributing any money from Dana’s late parents, although Dana ultimately got hold of around $800,000.

Austin would later make a point of leaving Dana out of his own will.

But not all the Ewells turned against Dana. His aunt — Dale’s only sister, Betty Ewell Whitted — would later fight to have some of the money from Dale and Glee Ewell’s estate pay for a lawyer to defend Dana, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Grandma in peril. Still, Dana’s actions continued to worry the rest of his relatives. Detectives and some family members grew concerned about Dana’s intentions toward his 90-year-old maternal grandmother, Glee Mitchell, who had Alzheimer’s.

Dana inherited the role of trustee of his grandmother’s $380,000 estate. He was suspected of not only misappropriating $100,000 for his own use but also of plotting with his buddy Joel Radovcich to murder her before the nursing home costs frittered away her fortune, according to the McClatchy News Service story.

At Dana’s insistence, Glee Mitchell switched nursing homes and moved into a room with a door opening up to the outdoors. Sheriff’s officials asked the staff to stop Dana from taking his grandmother on any trips outside of the facility.

Quick change of mind. Glee Mitchell died of natural causes, but a California Bar Journal account available on Murderpedia said that Dana actually succeeded in spending all his grandmother’s money except for $2,000.

In March 1995, police arrested Jack Ponce at the restaurant where he tended bar. They nabbed Joel at Taco Bell and took Dana into custody a short time later.

At first, the handsome olive-skinned Ponce refused to talk to the police, but once they let him know the death penalty was on the table, he made an immunity deal and started flapping his jaws.

Razor’s edge. Ponce said that he sold his AT-9 assault-style rifle — which the LA Times described as coming from “little-known Colorado arms manufacturer Feather Industries” and having a “one in 12 twist” (you’ll have to look that one up on your own) — to Joel for $500.

Joel, who clearly hadn’t read up enough about being a successful hit man, later blabbed to Ponce the whole story about how he killed the Ewells.

John Souza and Chris Curtice finally get their man

To avoid leaving forensic evidence, Joel shaved off every hair on his body and sat on a plastic tarp for hours while lying in wait in the Ewells’ house, Ponce said. Joel told Ponce that he shot Tiffany in the back of the head as she walked past him. (Dana wanted her dead so he would get her half of their parents’ estate.)

Glee tried to run, but he chased her down and stood over her as he fired the gun. Joel put on fresh gloves and changed the clip in preparation for Dale’s arrival — he had flown home, separately — and shot him in the back of the neck as he walked by carrying a stack of papers, Ponce said.

Unearthed evidence. Next, Joel said he made sure the victims had no pulse, then waited for dark and slipped out of the house. Oh, and Joel also said he hoped there was no God — because “if there is, I’m screwed,” the Chicago Tribune reported.

Investigators retrieved the gun barrel from where Ponce said he had buried it three years before, in a vacant lot in Reseda. A test showed the gun matched the bullets used to kill the Ewells.

Prosecutors maintained that Dana had agreed to split the entire estate with Joel and then the two of them planned to move to Europe with the funds. The two young men were described as very close.

Fresno’s 15 minutes. With Superior Court Judge Frank J. Freede Jr. officiating, the trial kicked off on Dec. 16, 1997, with KMPH-FM radio broadcasting the goings-on. There were no TV cameras allowed — but plenty of other fanfare.

The Chicago Tribune compared the case to the Menendez brothers’ murders and noted that the prospect of another rich kid killing his parents attracted “the predictable swarm of Hollywood agents, screen writers and would-be authors” to town. At least two books and four true-crime shows ultimately arose from the case.

During a five-hour opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Jim Oppliger alleged that Dana and Joel were obsessed with becoming millionaires by age 25.

Gratis help. Meanwhile, Dana, who by 1995 had squandered the six-figures he managed to squeeze from the estate, could no longer afford Richard Berman, who estimated the defense would cost $2 million.

But Dana was able to snag two lawyers for free.

They were court-appointed defender Peter Jones and the flamboyant private attorney Ernest Kinney, well-known for his ego and onetime friendship with OJ Simpson. Kinney undoubtedly wanted a part in the Ewell case to put himself in the spotlight.

Kinney argued that Jack Ponce and Joel Radovcich were responsible for the murders.

Unscrolled account. Joel’s lawyer, Phillip Cherney, said that Dana and Jack Ponce ensnared Joel in their own murder plan.

Meanwhile, FBI agent John Zent supported Dana’s innocence and called Dana a victim.

Joel Radovcich in court with his hair dyed blond — Joel Radovcich had a history of doing odd things to his hair

Detectives Curtice and Souza got a chance to present their 100-foot-long timeline, which minutely detailed the suspects’ movements before, during, and after the murders. It was impressive work from detectives whom Dana had called “Bert and Ernie” and “Mutt and Jeff.”

The trial lasted four months.

The accused speaks. On May 12, 1998, after deliberating for 11 days, a jury convicted both Dana and Joel of first-degree murder with the special circumstances of murder for financial gain, lying in wait, and multiple murders.

The same jury later deadlocked on whether to impose the death penalty, so the judge gave both the young men three life sentences without parole.

For the first time, Dana spoke out in court, saying, “I loved my family with all my heart and soul. We were so very close and happy and content.”

But it was detectives John Souza and Chris Curtice’s turn to feel happy now.

Family affair. “I envisioned the three victims in this case, which caused me to get real emotional,” Souza said after the verdict, according to an AP account from Nov. 19, 1998.

Dana continued to fight for a $500,000 trust fund originally set up for him and his sister. He reached an agreement over it with his three paternal uncles — Ben and twins Dan and Richard Ewell — in 1999, according to a wire story.

As if Dana’s uncles and aunt hadn’t lived through enough tragedy, in the middle of the investigation, Austin Ewell, 86, had died horribly in a house fire in Ohio.

Appeal fails. Ben Ewell, who gave interviews for several true crime shows, would later credit Austin for helping him cope in the wake of the murders, telling him “this too shall pass,” according to a Fresno Bee story from Feb. 15, 2004. Austin had ultimately left his $343,000 estate to Dale’s sister and brothers.

In 2011, a U.S. District Court in California rejected Dana’s writ of habeas corpus.

Today, Dana Ewell, 49, is prisoner No. P04759 with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His status is still LWOP, life without parole.

The state website doesn’t reveal which facility is housing him, but a Fresno Bee story from 2017 identified it as Corcoran, where he lives in a special unit for those who need protection from other inmates.

Crazy neighbors. His fellow prisoners at Corcoran include Rodney Alcala (the Dating Game killer), Phillip Garrido (Jaycee Dugard’s kidnapper and rapist), and Michael Markhasev (murderer of Bill Cosby’s son).

Charles Manson, the cult leader who persuaded hippies to kill actress Sharon Tate and eight others, also lived in Corcoran, until his death in 2017.

Dana proclaimed that he found Jesus while behind razor wire, according to the Bee.

So many lawyers. Joel Patrick Radovcich, also 49, resides in Valley State Prison in Chowchilla and has LWOP status.

As for who benefitted from Dale and Glee Ewell’s estate, it’s not clear whether anyone came out ahead except for the various lawyers in the fight.

One of Dana’s uncles told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the family had about 16 lawyers involved in criminal and civil actions related to the murders.

Ex-girlfriend unscathed. Monica Zent, on whom Dana had reportedly spent as much as $40,000 for a car and tuition, went on to do quite well for herself, although her success had nothing to do with the murder trial — she never testified and hasn’t spoken about it publicly.

She founded LawDesk360 and ZentLaw, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The criminal justice system also came out a winner in light of the Ewell trial. The LA Times noted the convictions were a reassuring counter to the controversial not guilty verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial and the initial mistrial in the Menendez brothers‘ case.

For more about the Ewells’ murders, you can watch Power, Privilege, and Justice on YouTube.

That’s all for this week. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube

Rachel Siani: Gone at 21

Strip-Club Denizen John Denofa Kills
(“Last Dance,” Forensic Files)

On April 1, 200o, an all-terrain vehicle rider spotted the body of a woman under a bridge in Burlington, New Jersey. She was dressed in jeans and a sweater but had no identification.

Fortunately, a former boyfriend recognized a description that the police released. She was Rachel Siani, 21, a psychology student at Bucks County Community College.

“Body Identified As That of Student,” read one of the first Philadelphia Inquirer headlines about the case.

Tantalizing tale. Although investigators suspected suicide early on, the autopsy proved that Rachel hadn’t killed herself. Someone threw her off the bridge.

In the meantime, another one of Rachel’s associates also called police. William Love worked as a manager at Diva’s International Gentlemen’s Club, where Rachel danced under the name Roxanne, and she hadn’t shown up for work.

Now, media outlets had all they needed for a storyline to hold readers’ interest for years — a commercially attractive murdered woman belonging to a workforce sector that never seems to lose its mystique.

Labeled forever. For headline-writing purposes, newspapers changed Rachael’s ID to “Student-Dancer” and then “Slain Stripper.”

It made the tragedy even worse for her family.

As her cousin Nancy Finan said during her appearance on Forensic Files, “If she worked at an ice cream stand, the headlines wouldn’t say ‘Ice Cream Girl Killed.'”

Big spender. She does have a point. And if they’re going to make “exotic dancer” a woman’s personal brand, maybe headlines should describe a man who patronizes an establishment like Diva’s as a “stripper-paying barfly.”

In the Rachel Siani case, the killer turned out to be just that, a gentlemen’s club frequenter named John “Jack” Denofa.

Where most patrons doled out their money $1 or $2 at a time, Denofa handed out $20’s, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer story.

Dad on the premises. And there was a strange twist. Denofa’s wife not only knew about his visits to Diva’s but also approved of them. She sometimes dropped him off at Diva’s so he wouldn’t drink and drive.

John Denofa — John ‘Jack’ Denofa. Photo by William Thomas Cain/CAIN IMAGES

For this week, I looked into where Jack Denofa is today and why Lisa Denofa tolerated her husband’s behavior. I was also curious to find out how a woman like Rachel Siani, who was brought up in a home with a nice father, ended up doing the kind of work she did.

So let’s get going on the recap of the Forensic Files episode “Last Dance” along with additional information drawn from internet research.

Psych major. Rachel Elizabeth Siani was born on April 18, 1978, and lived in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. When Rachel was a child, her parents divorced and her mother died a few years later.

At the time of Rachel’s death, she was living at home with dad Richard Siani, stepmother Janet Titlow Siani, with whom she reportedly had a good relationship, two brothers, Anthony and William, and two stepbrothers, Thomas and Charles.

Rachel attended community college full time and had completed 57 of 60 credits needed for an associate’s degree. To fund her education, she worked at Diva’s three to five times a week, earning as much as $400 a night. School cost around $1,000 a semester plus books, according to an AP account.

Really, no Camaro? In addition to studying psychology, she took acting classes. Like a lot of shy people who ply the performing arts, she lost her inhibitions when on stage.

Fellow acting students recalled that she came alive when she took part in skits.

So the exotic dancing might have served as an extension of that self-expression.

And maybe she really needed the money. She drove an ancient beaten-up-looking white Lincoln sedan (a gentlemen’s club performer without a red Trans Am?) and lived in a household of seven.

Early suspect. After a third party informed her father and stepmother she worked at Diva’s, they expressed disapproval but accepted that Rachel was an adult who could make her own decisions.

So how did she end up dead under a bridge? Police had found her blood on the bridge, suggesting someone had wounded her before she went over the side, although she probably died from the impact of the fall.

Investigators believe Jack Denofa intended for Rachel Siani’s body to fall into the Delaware River

Investigators immediately zeroed in on a cook who Forensic Files calls Jason Woods and the Oxygen series It Takes a Killer identifies as Spike Davis. The club management had fired him because he wouldn’t leave Rachel alone.

But, whatever his name was, forensic evidence soon cleared him.

Successful entrepreneur. Suspicions turned toward someone else connected with Diva’s, a regular customer named John Denofa, age 35.

Denofa owned Apex Sign Supplies, a wholesale business on Railroad Drive in Warminster, Pennsylvania. It apparently generated enough revenue to underwrite waxing and extensions for exotic dancers and sustain a comfortable upper-middle class existence for Denofa and his wife.

He and Lisa Denofa lived in a four-bedroom three-bathroom house on Deep Creek Way in Buckingham, Pennsylvania.

Nice work if you can get it. The Denofas appeared to be respectable citizens. He served as chairman of his high school alumni association and was generally well liked, although he did fly off the handle when he didn’t get what he wanted, according to It Takes a Killer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

Because he had a DUI on his record from 1999, Jack often stayed over at the Econo Lodge next to the club. As mentioned, his wife knew all about this trips to Diva’s and didn’t object. After at least one of his nighttime outings, Lisa met her husband and one of his exotic-dancing friends for breakfast the next day. (The sight of them must have furrowed the brows of other diners — how did this trio come to be?)

Rachel was Jack’s favorite dancer at Diva’s. He found her charm, thick flowing hair, and blue eyes irresistible and sometimes paid her hundreds of dollars just to sit and talk with him.

Last-stop saloon. By all accounts, the two had no physical relationship outside of the club.

On March 31, 2000, the last night of Rachel’s life, she finished her shift at the club, changed into jeans and a white sweater with a butterfly pendant, and headed to a bar named Sportsters. (It doesn’t exist anymore, but I’m guessing it was that special no-other-options dive.)

Jack Denofa went to Sportsters, too, but in a different car.

Rowdy guy. Everyone ended up back at Diva’s parking lot. Rachel and fellow Diva’s employee Rebecca Yavorsky sat talking and smoking marijuana in Yavorsky’s silver Mustang. She snapped a picture of Rachel, and it would later help police positively ID the body.

The house where the Denofa's once lived — The Denofas bought their 2,184-square-foot house for $206,000 in 1995. They sold it for $295,000 in 2000, and it’s worth $527,000 today, according to Zillow

Denofa got a little drunk and disorderly that night, banging on the door of the club, but employees told a concerned police officer that he was a regular and it was fine.

Rachel offered to walk the intoxicated Denofa to his room at the Econo Lodge.

Turnpike-cam. No one ever saw her alive again. Richard Scott, the ATV rider, discovered her body three days later.

Investigators found some blood in the shower of John’s $49.95-a-night room, No. 223, but it was too scant to test.

Video surveillance footage from Interchange 29 of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, however, turned up a gold mine. It showed Jack’s Dodge Ram pickup truck with what looked like a body in the back.

All washed up. The image was blurry enough to raise reasonable doubts, but fortunately, a motorist named Melodie Hall, who was situated high up in the driver’s seat of a tractor trailer, got a clear view of the back of the pickup and saw the body dressed in white socks and dark colored pants, court papers say.

Hall saw the driver’s hair was slicked back as though he’d recently taken a shower, according to the It Takes a Killer episode “The Murder of Rachel Siani.” She didn’t report the incident, because she figured the sprawled-out person was just drunk. It was 3:13 a.m., after all.

Jack Denofa’s truck returned 25 minutes later with the back empty, no body, video footage showed.

Rebecca Yavorsky used a disposable camera to take this photo of Rachel Siani the night she died

Off key. Police searched the truck, which Denofa had cleaned thoroughly, but they discovered some blood in the back, enough to do a DNA test. It came from Rachel Siani.

Confronted with the forensic evidence, Jack Denofa said it wasn’t him driving the truck. Diva’s staff had taken his keys from him a few times — maybe an unknown evildoer copied them in order to frame him.

Investigators weren’t buying it.

Talk show. It seemed more likely that on the night of the murder, the one-sidedness of his relationship with Rachel suddenly dawned on him.

Although concerned about his getting to his hotel safely, Rachel wasn’t quite the stripper with the heart of gold of Hollywood movies.

She had reportedly told her friends at the club that Jack was a sucker for paying her $100 or more just for sitting with him. Sometimes, he gave her so much money for chatting that she didn’t have to bother dancing for dollar bills.

Pool of blood. The medical examiner noted burst blood vessels in Rachel’s eyes and on the rest of her face. He concluded that someone choked Rachel until she passed out that night in his room at the Econo Lodge.

A hotel guest remembered hearing a thud the night of the murder and police found Rachel’s blood in the parking lot below Denofa’s room.

Investigators believe Rachel rejected an advance and he choked her until she lost consciousness. Believing she had died, he then tried to put her on a ledge outside his room so he could drive his truck underneath and drop her into the back.

But he lost hold of her and she fell to the ground, leaving the blood stain on the parking lot.

Still breathing. Jack then threw her in the back of the truck and headed east to the bridge connecting the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes. He threw her body off the bridge — from a height of either 112 feet or 200 feet (accounts vary) — so it would look like a suicide.

She landed on the grass and died of massive injuries from the impact, which created indentations in the ground.

Dr. Faruk Presswalla, the New Jersey State medical examiner, would later testify that the internal bleeding she suffered indicated she was still alive when Jack Denofa threw her from the bridge.

Cops have their man. Econo Lodge night-auditor Diane Crouch told investigators that she saw Denofa walking fast to the parking lot that night and that he later checked out “smelling of soap and without a word,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Police arrested Denofa and placed him in the Bucks County Jail.

Meanwhile, Rachel’s family had to wait to bury her because investigators needed her body for evidence. It’s not clear whether everyone knew where Rachel worked, but her father definitely did.

“It’s not something I would have chosen for her,” Richard Siani told the Associated Press, “but it was something she was doing temporarily to pay her way through school.”

No judgments. The Sianis also had to bear the aforementioned media storm. The Philadelphia Daily News devoted four reporters and three pages to her story, “Death of a Dancer,” on April 17, 2000.

Meanwhile, no one seemed to use words like “lecher” or “sleazy character” to describe Jack Denofa for spending money vying for the attention of younger women while he had a wife at home. News stories referred to him as a “businessman.”

But the law considered him a dangerous individual.

Declining to testify. A judge originally set Jack’s bail at $1 million but later reduced it $500,000 and required him to turn over his passport. More than 20 of his friends showed up for the bail hearing and some of them chipped in toward the cause, according to an AP account.

At the month-long trial, Jack declined to take the stand, a wise move as recounting his days as a stripper patron too tipsy to drive himself home probably wouldn’t have helped the case.

Nonetheless, the defense produced 11 witnesses who testified about his “reputation for truth and honesty’ and “issues of habit and custom,” according to court papers.

Breadwinner. His mother-in-law, JoAnn Zener, even took the stand in his defense.

She testified that Jack was a good guy and that, although she didn’t like his boozy trips to the lap-dance emporium, “that was his time of relaxation with people he knew who accepted his drinking and accepted him,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Zener noted that her son-in-law made a nice living and took good care of Lisa Denofa.

Throwing off suspicion. To their credit, Denofa and defense lawyer Albert Cepparulo didn’t try the classic “she attacked me first and died by accident while I was defending myself” ploy (see Jonathan Nyce and Richard Nyhuis).

But they did go the trash-the-victim route.

“She had a number of lovers, and a number of men wanted to be the only man,” Cepparulo said. He also contended that Rachel used drugs heavily and knew motorcycle gang members who might have killed her.

Richard Siani said that it seemed as though his daughter were on trial rather than her killer.

Speedy verdict. Fortunately, members of the jury didn’t feel that way.

After deliberating for two hours, they found him guilty on Nov. 29, 2002.

Before leading him away, officers allowed him to hug his “wailing” wife and his mother. “The constricted position hindered his usual swagger,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Lisa Denofa was helped to the elevator by John’s mother and sister.

No bail. “This part of it is over,” said Richard Siani, “but Rachel will not be with us at Thanksgiving or at Christmas.”

Rachel Siani's long white Lincoln — Detectives at first theorized that whoever killed Rachel Siani deliberately punctured a tire on her Lincoln so she’d accept a ride

Judge Thomas Smith deemed Denofa a flight risk and revoked his bail, so he stayed in jail between the hearing and the sentencing in February 2003 — when he made his first public statement since his arrest three years earlier.

“I am not a murderer. I have been wrongly convicted,” Denofa said. “I grieve for Rachel and her loved ones…I pray every day her killer will be found.”

Interstate intrigue. The judge gave him a sentence of life with a chance at parole after 30 years.

Jack Denofa “raised his cuffed hands to his lips and blew a kiss to his wife, Lisa,” as officers led him away, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

In 2005, Jack won a new trial based on a claim that the judge didn’t make it clear to the jury that they could only reach a guilty verdict if they believed Rachel died in New Jersey rather than Pennsylvania.

Defense drains dad. His lawyers argued that three different autopsies had each yielded a different cause of death.

The decision meant he could apply for bail, which a judge set at $1 million. His father, also named Jack, who had underwritten the cost of the defense for the first trial, said that this time his son wouldn’t make bail and would have to use a public defender.

“All my money is gone,” the senior Denofa said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I spent it on attorneys.”

Living to the max. The New Jersey Supreme Court reinstated Jack Denofa’s “where did she die conviction” in 2006.

In 2017, a court denied a writ of habeas corpus petition that Denofa filed.

Today, John Denofa resides in the New Jersey State Prison, a maximum security facility built in 1836 and formerly known as Trenton State Prison.

Wait, there’s more. He is still maneuvering to get out earlier than in 2032 — when, at the age of 68, he’ll have a shot at parole.

Incidentally, the venerable Diva’s International Gentlemen’s Club found its way into the spotlight again, when HBO used it as the setting for the reality show G-String Divas.

One of the divas, Shannon Reinert, might be familar to Forensic Files viewers because she figured into the 2005 episode “Summer Obsession.”

That’s all for this week. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube

Rachael Mullenix’s Brother Speaks Out

Alex Hagood’s Perspective on Barbara Mullenix’s Life and Death
(“Runaway Love,” Forensic Files)

Updated with information from October 2022

When a jury contemplated the young couple who ended Barbara Mullenix’s life, the term “mitigating circumstances” probably didn’t come to mind.

Rachael Mullenix in a black and white head and shoulders shot — Rachael Mullenix

Barbara, a 56-year-old dreamer still hoping for an acting career, sustained dozens of stab wounds from at least two weapons, including a dining utensil left deeply embedded in one of her eyes.

The attackers placed her body in a cardboard box, which they slid into the water at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, nine miles away from her home in Huntington Beach, California, in 2006.

Afterward, the perpetrators took a joy ride through Florida and Louisiana.

The murderers were Ian Allen, 21, and his girlfriend of three months, 17-year-old Rachael Scarlett Mullenix — Barbara’s daughter.

To most viewers of “Runaway Love,” the Forensic Files episode about the case, the homicide seemed like a betrayal of biblical proportions, a woefully entitled girl snuffing out the life of the woman who gave her life.

But as it turns out, Barbara’s son, Alex Hagood, thinks Rachael was more a victim than a predator.

Alex, who is Rachael’s half brother, would like the world to know that there’s a lot more to the story than the 22 minutes of true-crime TV that vilified Rachael for all the world to see.

In a phone interview with ForensicFilesNow.com, Alex discussed his tumultuous home life with his mother and his love for his younger half-sister:

What was your sister like? Growing up, Rachael was a good kid. She made good grades. She was on a couple of basketball teams, she did ballet, and she did gymnastics. The press tried to portray her as this horrible person, and she wasn’t.

Rachael said that your mother could be a lot of fun at times. Did you find the same? I’d have my friends come over and they’d think my mom was cool. She would buy us popsicles or root beers or whatever. And then the minute they were gone, I thought, they didn’t know her.

Rachael and Barbara Mullenix embracing happily — Rachael and Barbara Mullenix

She could be like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. My girlfriend at the time could see it.

Was your mother trying to protect Rachael from Ian by attempting to stop them from running away together? Before my mother’s death, there were lots of drugs and alcohol around — she liked Skyy vodka and took uppers and downers, and she would party with Ian and Rachael.

My mother realized that Rachael and Ian wanted to go away. She couldn’t make it on her own without alimony and child support, so she didn’t want Rachael to leave.

You’ve said that you doubt the allegations that Rachael had already attacked your mother with a knife in a failed murder attempt in 2005. Why? I moved in with my mother in 2003 when she lived in Oklahoma. A couple of times when I was about to leave, she self-inflicted wounds and threatened to say I did it. She chased me around with a baseball bat. Rachael told me about this same kind of behavior.

Barbara wanted to be the creator and control everyone. She wanted to be the center of attention. If you have children, it’s not like, let’s make a movie – you can’t just push reset.

Emotionally and mentally, she choked Rachael.

Alex Hagood with a colleague — Alex Hagood, left, works as a mechanic in Oregon

Do you believe the contentions that Barbara would deliberately try to embarrass and humiliate Rachael? My mom would call our jobs, our bosses and start problems for no reason. She did it because she felt she was losing control of us. But you can’t do stuff like that. Bosses will fire you.

My stepfather traveled a lot for his job, so he wasn’t always around for Rachael. I tried to protect her. But I had to get out on my own and away from my mother. I moved to Oregon to let everything cool off. I thought my mother would never find me there. She found me in two weeks and she’d call my job.

I’m shocked that the murder happened, but then I’m not. You can’t go around treating people like that and think nothing will happen. At any time, anything can spin out of control.

Do you think Rachael participated in the murder? If anything, Ian was the one behind planning everything. He had a third person.

Were things ever good between Rachael and your mother? The first few years of Rachael’s life, yes, my mother was calm. She dressed Rachael in the best clothes and taught her the best manners.

Ian Allen

How have you yourself coped with the murder? It’s taken me 10 years to work through it. I went back to college, got associate’s degrees, one in psychology. I wanted to see what I could make of myself in the aftermath.

Would you like to see Rachael released from jail? Absolutely. She’s suffered enough. I haven’t been able to hug her since 2005.♠

Rachael Mullenix was released from prison on October 14, 2022 and is with her father, Bruce, in Southern California, according to a tipster. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation no longer lists her as an inmate.

That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube or Tubi

Crystal Faye Todd: Murdered by a Pal

Ken Register Takes Away a Mother’s Only Child
(“The Alibi,” Forensic Files)

Before launching into the recap, I wanted to offer good wishes and empathy from here in the epicenter as everyone copes with the coronavirus pandemic.

Ken Register and Crystal Todd in a swimming pool — Ken Register and Crystal Todd

The Crystal Todd case seems like a good choice for this week’s post, because it includes extensive on-camera interviews with such a sympathetic protagonist.

Even toward the end of the show, when Bonnie Todd says she wishes that her daughter’s murderer got the electric chair, she does so in her own gentle way.

Surprise package. The case distinguished itself as the first time that South Carolina prosecutors used DNA as evidence, but what really made the episode memorable was the way it portrayed a mother’s love.

Bonnie talked about being grateful for having a baby at 39 — a common age for a first pregnancy today but not so much back in the early 1970s.

“She was a miracle to me,” Bonnie said. “I just couldn’t believe I had her, and I was proud of her, too.”

Odd wrinkle in case. The two were close. Crystal had confided in Bonnie that best buddy Ken Register, 18, got a little out of line with her once. But neither could foresee the savagery he unleashed on the night of Nov. 17, 1991.

For this week, I searched for information on what happened to Bonnie Todd from the time the Forensic Files episode first aired in 2002 to her death in 2014. I also looked into Ken Register’s whereabouts today.

In the process, I discovered an unusual twist in the case that either happened after the Forensic Files episode finished production or was just too weird for the show’s producers to mentally process. Frankly, I’m having a little trouble with it, too.

Dad gone too soon. So let’s get started on a recap of the “The Alibi,” along with additional information drawn from internet research:

Crystal Faye Todd was born on Jan. 4, 1974, in Conway, South Carolina. Her father, Junior Todd, died when she was 11, but she grew into a happy, fun-loving teenager, according to Forensic Files.

After Crystal and a girlfriend attended a party on the evening of Nov. 17, 1991, the friend dropped Crystal off in a mall parking lot where she’d left her brand-new Celica.

Women’s intuition. When Crystal didn’t come home by her midnight deadline, her mother called the Horry County police. She was so overcome with anxiety that the police at first could barely make out her words or tell whether the caller was a man or a woman, according to the book An Hour to Kill: The True Story of Love, Murder, and Justice in a Small Southern Town by Dale Hudson and Billy Hills.

Next, she contacted her daughter’s longtime close friend Ken Register, who said that he hadn’t seen Crystal all night and that he would check the local hospitals, according to the ID Network series Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets.

Bonnie located her daughter’s vacant blue 1991 Toyota, which she’d given her for an early graduation present, in a middle school parking lot.

Disturbing to pros. Sadly, Bonnie didn’t have to wait long to justify her sense of dread.

Hunters found the body of a teenage girl in a ditch the next day. She was wearing a class ring with a shiny purple gemstone and “Crystal Faye Todd” engraved inside.

The murder scene horrified even veteran homicide detectives. In addition to bruises and abrasions, Crystal had 31 cut and stab wounds, including an ear-to-ear gash across the throat, according to court papers.

Lecherous outsider. They found a defensive injury on Crystal’s left hand, but she was no match for the attacker’s weapon, which investigators believe was a 3.5-inch knife with a locking blade.

At first, police had a promising suspect in dark, handsome Andy Tyndall, a grown man who liked to hang around teenage girls. Crystal had known him for a week and already had a little crush on him, according to “Killer Instinct,” a 2011 episode of Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets.

Although Crystal and her friends could tell Andy Tyndall was past high school age, they probably didn’t know he was married and wanted by Alabama authorities on a felony charge.

Call the clairvoyants. When law officers came to arrest him in South Carolina, he fled on foot into the woods, with tracker dogs in pursuit.

But all the drama was for naught. Andy Tyndall was quickly cleared.

Next up, investigators turned to criminal profilers. They predicted that the killer would be an angry young white male who was confident the law wouldn’t catch him — and he was probably a friend of the victim.

Low-rise brick building in the historic district of Conway South Carolina — Ken Register’s murder trial was the longest and most eventful in the history of Conway, population of 21,000

Revealing genes. Local homicide detective Bill Knowles, who had just visited the FBI Academy, suggested adding the then-new science of DNA testing to the investigation.

Police asked 51 of Crystal’s male friends and acquaintances if they would give samples.

They all said yes.

A lab determined that DNA from the rape kit matched none other than Ken Register — full name, Johnnie Kenneth Register II — the blond-haired blue-eyed onetime varsity football player who Crystal considered her best pal.

Police arrested him in February 1992.

Sterling reputation. Bonnie knew that Ken Register had once offended Crystal by propositioning her for sex despite that he had a girlfriend, but he was the last person she suspected of the murder.

“He’s been our friend for years and years,” said Bonnie, the Herald Rock Hill reported. “He was everybody’s friend around here.”

Ken and Crystal had dated briefly in their early teens and stayed happily friend-zoned afterward, and he seemed like an asset to the community. He got good grades in school and helped out by scrubbing floors at the little church his family attended. He and his father, Kenny, had recently built a wooden altar for the congregation, according to An Hour to Kill.

Just got tarnished. Little did Crystal’s mother know that Ken had a police record for exposing himself to two Coastal Carolina University students not long before Crystal’s disappearance.

It was not the first time that Ken had come to law enforcement’s attention. At 15, he did something that suggested he was no ordinary budding pervert.

He made an obscene phone call to a grown woman and described in sickening detail how he wanted to slit her body open and kill her — in the same way he eventually murdered Crystal, according to Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets.

Registering an excuse. Ken might have enjoyed menacing women with talk about blood and gore, but he probably didn’t realize that different bodily fluids contain the same telltale genetic code, which is why he willingly gave samples for DNA testing.

Bonnie and Junior Todd with Crystal as a baby — Bonnie, Crystal, and Junior Todd

Forensic evidence notwithstanding, Ken had alibis. His girlfriend said they were together at the Dodge City go-cart track in the town of Aynor on the night Crystal died.

In an on-camera interview, Ken’s mother, Shirley Register, sweetly explained that her son got home from his date too early to match the timeline of the crime.

He needed his mom. Nonetheless, law officers arrested Ken Register on Feb. 18, 1992.

While riding in the police car, he asked twice for his mother, according to court papers.

At first, Ken didn’t want to answer questions without his mother present, so officers went to Shirley Register’s house to pick her up, but instead she gave them a note to hand off to her son.

Unauthorized revision. According to Forensic Files, the note told Ken to clam up until they got a lawyer. But court papers said that she simply wrote that she loved him and knew he was innocent.

It mattered little because police, who are legally entitled to lie while questioning a suspect, told him that they had found his footprints at the murder scene (they didn’t) and that the note from his mother instructed him to tell the truth (it didn’t).

The interrogation tricks worked. Ken cracked.

Hidden blade. The night of the murder, he and Crystal spotted each other at a traffic light, he said. She then parked her car at the middle school and got into his vehicle, where they had consensual sex — but she threatened to accuse of him of rape, so he panicked and stabbed her, he contended.

Investigators begged to differ. There was no consensual sex. She had severe wounding consistent with rape. After killing her, Ken further defiled and stabbed her body, investigators determined.

They never found the murder weapon. Ken said he tossed away the knife as far as he could near the scene of the crime, according to an AP account.

What a spectacle. As if Ken needed any more bad publicity, in a separate court action before his homicide trial kicked off, he was found guilty of exposing himself to the college students. Ken claimed he was actually clothed during the incident and that he stood up in his car and shimmied himself around because the women “wouldn’t give me the time of day” and “made me feel like trash,” according to An Hour to Kill.

The homicide trial didn’t go so well either.

In front of 400 spectators, Ken Register was convicted of Crystal Todd’s sexual assault, murder, and kidnapping.

Girlfriend backs away. The jury declined to give him the death penalty because of his young age. Circuit Judge Edward B. Cottingham sentenced him to life without parole and 35 years to be served consecutively.

Ken’s sweetheart, Angela Rabon, made a few “dutiful” visits to him in prison, then wrote him a breakup letter and headed to college, according to An Hour to Kill.

Crystal Todd’s car had a custom-made license plate that said C TODD.

Over the years, Ken and defense attorneys Morgan Martin and Tommy Brittain made efforts to get him out of prison on two feet.

Character assassination. In 1996, the supreme court of South Carolina was not impressed by Register’s claims that police violated his rights during questioning and that the DNA testing method was below par. In fact, the prosecution had given the defense an opportunity to do its own independent DNA tests, but Ken Register told his lawyers not to, according to An Hour to Kill.

Ken also tried the requisite smear-the-victim ploy in hopes that some nefarious acquaintance of hers would be accused. He said that he heard rumors that Crystal used drugs and he had seen her drink alcohol and smoke marijuana, contradicting his own statement from 1992 that he had never seen Crystal using marijuana, according to reporting from the Horry Independent.

He claimed he initially lied because he didn’t want Crystal’s alleged drug use to somehow sully his own reputation — he had only used the recreational drug a few times in his life when someone happened to pass around a joint, Ken said, as reported by the Horry Independent on Feb. 3, 2000.

Oh, please. Always a gentleman, Register also said he didn’t know whether it was true, but he heard rumors that Crystal “slept around” and that she had helped distribute LSD, the Horry Independent reported.

Shirley Register chimed in, saying she heard Crystal would sometimes leave a party with one guy, then return to pick up another guy or two. She also tried to lend credence to the drug-dealing theory by suggesting that Bonnie and Crystal had too meager a combined legitimate income to afford their lifestyle — and that Crystal rode to school with a student rumored to sell LSD, according to the Horry Independent.

Ken claimed that, at the same time that Crystal’s morals were deteriorating, he himself was embarking on the straight and narrow, thanks to his serious relationship with Angela Rabon.

Writer in their corner. Though vexing to Crystal’s friends and family, the Registers’ tactics are pretty standard, something Forensic Files watchers have seen countless times.

The outlandish twist in the case came after a world-famous author caught the trial coverage on court TV.

Mickey Spillane, writer of the 1940s detective mystery novel “I, the Jury” — and 25 other books in that genre that sold a total of 200 million copies — thought Ken Register got a raw deal.

Audience with a convict. He and his wife, Jane Spillane, who lived in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, believed prosecutor Ralph Wilson framed him.

The Spillanes met with Ken in person and “came to the conclusion that the young man was incapable of committing such a heinous act,” the Washington Post would later report.

Jane Spillane went so far as to run for county prosecutor herself so that she could personally bestow justice upon Ken.

Drama continues. She didn’t win, and both Spillanes later admitted that the law had weighty evidence against Ken Register. They ultimately concluded that Crystal’s murder couldn’t be the work of a single assailant.

Ken Register in a recent mug shot — Ken Register, seen here in a 2018 mug shot, is eligible for parole in 2022

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, however, didn’t find Ken Register particularly endearing and refused to hear his case.

Ken’s bid for post-conviction relief failed as well. “It’s the best thing I’ve heard in a while,” Bonnie Todd commented upon the ruling, as reported by the Charlotte Observer.

Gang assault. Today, Ken Register resides in Broad River Correctional Institution, a high-security prison that houses South Carolina’s death chamber.

The Department of Corrections doesn’t list any escape attempts or disciplinary problems for Ken. And at 5’8″ and 223 pounds, he isn’t staging any hunger strikes either.

It would serve him well to keep a low profile. In 2019, DOC police charged a female Broad River guard after she allegedly unlocked an inmate’s door and allowed 11 other prisoners to enter his cell and beat him up.

Closing the loop. Fortunately for Ken himself, he still has a large support network of family members living in and around Conway, South Carolina, to speak up for him should he face abuse while on the inside.

But enough about Ken Register — what about the mother of the girl whose life he took?

By the time Bonnie appeared on Forensic Files in 2002, Crystal had been gone for 11 years, but her melancholy clearly hadn’t lifted.

Sojourn to Gotham. The murder “devastated her more so than any other family member I’ve ever dealt with,” longtime Horry County homicide detective Bill Knowles would later tell a local ABC affiliate.

But Bonnie, who told Forensic Files that the only time she wasn’t thinking about Crystal was when she was sleeping, did get to have a bit of an adventure.

In the 1990s, she traveled to New York City to appear on Sally Jesse Raphael’s popular talk show along with county prosecutor Ralph Wilson, who later recalled that Bonnie packed instant grits in her travel bags in case Manhattan’s eateries didn’t serve them, according to a Sun News account.

Honored with a song. She also enjoyed a friendship with Ralph Wilson for years after Register’s conviction and often brought him small gifts of food from a garden she cultivated.

Bonnie Faye Todd died at age 79 on Sept. 3, 2014.

Toward the end of her life, she had become close to a niece who she “affectionately referred to” as her “adopted daughter,” according to Bonnie’s obituary.

A music video that two local gospel singers made as a tribute to Bonnie and her lost daughter has so far scored 12,000 hits on YouTube.

That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube

Book cover — B&N
Amazon
Books-a-Million
Target
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Indie Bound

Darrell North: A Builder Is Torn Down

Pool Contractor Curtis Pope Goes off the Deep End
(“Constructive Criticism,” Forensic Files)

Practically everyone has a complaint about a contractor: He installed the sink basin so it’s crooked or he used the wrong accent tiles or he never cleaned up the paint that dripped on the microwave cart.

Over the years, Darrell B. North Jr., a wealthy construction-project manager, had so many encounters with disappointing results that he ended up firing his subcontractors fairly often.

Violence precipitated. And he didn’t let favoritism get in the way of quality. When Curtis Wayne Pope Jr., a pool installer who Darrell had mentored, did inferior work, he couldn’t let it continue.

No one knows exactly what was said between the two men as a rainstorm pounded away on the night of Feb. 22, 2000, but investigators believe that Darrell dished out some tough love, either criticizing Curtis or firing him, or both. Then, Curtis flew off the handle and stabbed him to death.

For this week, I looked into Curtis Pope’s whereabouts today and searched for more background on Darrell North.

So let’s get going on a recap of “Constructive Criticism” — which like so many other memorable Forensic Files episodes, takes place in Texas — along with additional information culled from online research.

Young lovebirds. Darrell Bonnett North Jr. was born on March 27, 1937, and lived at least part of his younger life in Lonoke, Arkansas.

At the age of 20, while still attending Abilene Christian College, he married native Texan Judy McGowen, 21, at the North Park Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. The wedding announcement said Judy worked at Galbraith Electric Co.

Darrell later owned the North Construction Co., which seemed to afford the couple and their son and daughter a comfortable life.

American splendor. In 1979, the Oak Crest Woman’s Club Tour of Homes included the Norths’ house at 408 Arcadia in Hurst, Texas.

Curtis Pope as a young man — A youngish Curtis Pope. Despite his sketchy past, no one imagined him capable of homicide

The Star-Telegram noted its 28-foot-high cathedral ceilings, fireplace in the master bedroom, and “1890 Franklin stove in game room.”

By 1985, Darrell had either sold or closed his business. He joined Bigelow Development Corp., a firm that built Budget Suites hotels.

Nice chunk of work. It’s not clear exactly how and when Darrell met Curtis Pope, a swimming pool builder with a moderately troubling legal record, but Darrell saw potential in the younger man and took him under his wing.

In 1999, Darrell introduced Curtis to Bigelow officials and they agreed to hire him to build pools at the Budget Suites hotels, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Curtis also did some repair work to the Norths’ own pool and constructed a new one for friends of theirs.

But the Curtis-Darrell juggernaut slammed to a halt on February 22, 2000.

Ominous weather. That night, an electrical storm raged, leaving Judy North with no lights or phone as she waited for Darrell to come home for dinner.

When Darrell hadn’t shown up by 8 p.m., Judy hoofed it to a convenience store — she had no car because the electric garage door wouldn’t open —and called her son. He picked her up, dropped her off at home, and went to look for Darrell.

Mark and possibly his brother-in-law (accounts vary as to whether Mark was alone or not) drove to Darrell’s job site, a Budget Suites construction area on the 3200 block of Northeast Loop 820 in Fort Worth.

Conflict boiled over. He saw Darrell’s Ford Taurus sitting at the site but found the door to his trailer office padlocked shut. Peering through the window, Mark saw his father, 62, lying on the floor face down.

Fort Worth firefighters cut off the lock and found Darrell North’s lacerated body and a trail of blood and disarray throughout two of the trailer’s three rooms.

Clearly, a violent struggle had taken place.

Love turns to hate. Darrell had tried to fight back, possibly grabbing a hole punch and swinging it as a makeshift weapon (he should have just dropped it on his attacker’s foot — those things are heavy), but the assailant managed to stab him 46 times using two different knives, and nearly decapitated him.

Exterior of a Budget Suites Hotel — Bigelow Development Corp. made a fortune on Budget Suites hotels and, more recently, created a space-flight company

Investigators noticed the bent hole punch and a clean machete in the trailer. A second machete normally kept there was missing, they learned.

During his Forensic Files interview, Mark North said that his father’s body was so distressed that he made his mother and sister, Kelly Landis, promise they wouldn’t look at it. “If you don’t ever do me another favor in your life, do this for me: Don’t come here,” Mark recounted his words in court.

Him? Never. Police learned that on the night of the murder, all the workers at the job site had gone home because of the storm, but Darrell had stayed to keep a meeting with Curtis Pope at 5 p.m. They were going to discuss problems with a pool that Pope installed.

But Darrell’s widow, Judy North, told police they were wasting their time investigating Curtis Pope.

Curtis had once said that Darrell treated him better than his own father did. He also had sobbed over his lost friend at the subsequent funeral.

What a heel. Pope, 37, lived in New Braunfels, Texas, and had a wife and a young daughter — and a police record for petty theft and vehicular manslaughter. But he denied killing Darrell, and passed a polygraph test.

And police had another subcontractor with a motive to get rid of Darrell North. Darrell had fired roofing contractor Bob Johnson a couple of weeks before the homicide. Two days after Darrell’s death, Johnson called to see about getting his job back.

Investigators hadn’t found any forensic evidence pointing toward Johnson at the scene, however. In fact, at first, their biggest find was a heel print bearing the name Justin, a brand of locally made boots.

If the shoe fits. But the fact that the assailant wore Justin boots didn’t exactly crack the case wide open. “How common are they?” an investigator said in a favorite Forensic Files quote. “You’re probably not from here if you don’t own a pair.”

Judy North at home with her son and daughter — Mark, Judy, and Kelly North circa 2008

It turned out Bob Johnson had such big feet that even the heels of his Justin boots were distinguishably larger than the one in the heel print at the scene.

Curtis Pope soon became the No. 1 suspect. He wore the right size of Justins and there was plenty of circumstantial evidence stacked against him.

Blood will tell. Investigators discovered that Curtis’ swimming pool business was not all fun and games. He was drowning in debt and couldn’t pay suppliers, and his only remaining big client was Bigelow Development.

On Curtis’ home computer, someone had downloaded a book on how to beat a polygraph test.

Investigators found one perfect blood drop on Darrell North’s pants, which meant the bleeder was standing still above him, and DNA testing revealed it came from Pope as did blood stains in 10 other areas in the trailer. (Pope likely cut himself accidentally during a struggle for one of the knives.)

Bail, really? Investigators concluded that Curtis Pope and Darrell North argued in the trailer and Pope snapped.

Authorities indicted Curtis Pope in December 2001, and he posted $50,000 in bail.

But instead of showing up for the first day of his trial on Feb. 24, 2003, he high-tailed it toward the Canadian border (strange he didn’t flee to Mexico — it was a lot closer).

Curtis Pope in handcuffs — Curtis Pope in police custody

Northern exposure. At 11:30 p.m., local police in Watertown, New York, noticed a pickup truck driving in the wrong direction on a one-way street. The officers believed Curtis Pope’s claim that he was heading north to meet some hunting buddies in Canada. But the next day, they discovered he was a fugitive.

Media sources vary on how they found out. Police either plugged his license and registration number into a database or were informed by authorities.

They tracked Curtis down at the Econo Lodge — the night before, he had mentioned to the police where he was staying, according to an AP account.

Real-life drama. Twelve local and state police officers showed up at Curtis’ hotel the next day.

“The Lord just intervened in this,” Judy later told the Midland Reporter-Telegram. “If he had gotten into Canada, they might never had caught him, and my family would have lived in limbo like we have for the past three years.”

To those present, however, the big capture probably looked more like marginally divine comedy than divine intervention. As a Fort Worth Star- Telegram story described it:

Before police could nab him, Pope, wearing a jacket and no shirt, sneaked out the back and into 15-degree weather, [Watertown Detective Sgt.] Damon said. He slipped into a second motel about a block away and, once again, went out the rear exit as authorities closed in. Finally, realizing there was nowhere else to run, Pope surrendered at a nearby shopping plaza. “He just walked up to a patrol officer, put his hands up and said, ‘OK, you’ve got me,'” Damon said.

Curtis said he fled because he was innocent.

Neighborhood beef. The arresting police didn’t buy it, but Curtis Pope had plenty of believers back in Texas. Friends and family members showed up to support him on each day of the subsequent trial.

Curtis’ lawyers, Jeff Stewart and Stephen Handy, said their client loved Darrell and they implied that Darrell might have acquired some enemies closer to home.

A newspaper clipping showing Judy McGowen North in her bridal gown — Judy North, seen here in a clip from the Abilene Reporter-News, carried a “white bible topped with a white orchid and streamered with love-knotted satin” for her wedding in 1957

Darrell had threatened to sue people who were doing construction work near his house, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The defense also contended that the blood evidence, tested by an independent lab called GeneScreen, had been mishandled and analyzed with outdated equipment.

Prosecutors Joe Shannon and David Lobingier countered that if the DNA testing really was below par, the defense would have called more blood experts to testify in Pope’s favor.

A Mother’s Love. In a bit of prosecutorial theater, Shannon counted out loud from 1 to 20 in court to connote the first 20 times Pope stabbed North. The prosecution alleged that Pope used his own knife in the attack, then grabbed the afterwards-missing machete to finish off Darrell.

In April 2003, a jury convicted Curtis Pope of first-degree murder.

Curtis’ wife and mother broke into tears upon hearing the verdict. The latter, Maggi Shepherd, said that Curtis was a Christian who had always been “passive” and incapable of such a crime, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on April 12, 2003.

Attempted manipulation. At the sentencing hearing in May 2003, the prosecution noted Pope’s prior involuntary manslaughter conviction, for a Nevada car accident that killed one of his friends.

Meanwhile, the defense tried to pull the court’s heartstrings with mention of the Popes’ 10-year marriage and child.

District Judge George Gallagher handed Pope a life sentence, then gave the victim’s loved ones an opportunity to speak.

Poetic justice. “When you killed him, you killed half of me,” said Judy North, who was married to Darrell for 42 years, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

North’s 16-year-old granddaughter, Shelby Landis, read an original poem including the verse, “God broke our hearts to prove to us that he only takes the best.”

The judge gave Curtis a life sentence.

Behind razor wire. Texas rejected Curtis Pope’s 2004 and 2006 appeals, which both questioned the blood evidence again. Court papers noted that the chance of the DNA coming from someone other than Pope was 1 in 41.7 million. The 2006 decision stated that tests of the scrapings under the victim’s fingernails pointed to Pope and excluded another onetime suspect, Donald Fortenberry.

Judy and Darrell North's house in Hurst, Texas

Today, Curtis Pope probably isn’t doing a lot of swimming. He resides in the James V. Allred Unit, a maximum security prison in Iowa Park, Texas.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice doesn’t provide a recent mug shot of him but, at 5 foot-11 and 237 pounds, he is presumably getting enough to eat.

Water damage. Eligible for parole in 2033, Curtis has plenty of time to wallow in his regrets.

As one YouTube commenter put it, “Yep, killing your last remaining client is totally going to save your business from going under.”

“Moral of the story,” another wrote, “swimming pools are money pits and they will ruin your life.”

That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Watch the Forensic Files episode on Tubi or YouTube

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Adam Livvix: From Illinois to Israel

A Midwestern Kid Aspires to International Terrorism
(“The Root of All Evil,” Forensic Files)

Just a quick update this week, with a bizarre side note to the post about Fred Grabbe — whose cruelty and habit of killing those who offended him were even more profound than Forensic Files depicted in “The Root of All Evil.”

Adam Livvix seen in a high school photo and a mug shot from around 2014 — Adam Livvix in a 2003 high school photo and a circa-2014 mug shot

But Grabbe, a hulking Illinois soybean farmer now in prison for strangling his petite wife, committed crimes that were strictly local in scope.

His grandson Adam Livvix attempted to stage an international terrorist attack.

Gridiron guy. Adam is the son of Jennie Grabbe Woolverton — Fred and the late Charlotte Grabbe’s surviving child — and he seemed like a promising kid in the beginning.

A product of a Jennie’s marriage to the much older Everett Darrell Livvix, Adam was born on April 20, 1984, and played football and had a good reputation at Marshall High School, graduating in 2003, according to Tribune Star coverage. He was reportedly one of the cool kids.

By the time his dad died in 2005, however, Adam had acquired numerous legal woes, including traffic offenses, minor charges related to marijuana, and theft.

No ‘metal’ of honor. At some point, Adam (full name Everett Adam Livvix) borrowed equipment and a sum of $48,041.93 from Custom Films Inc., his father’s plastics company. His dad’s will stipulated that Adam reimburse the estate before he could claim real estate inheritances, the Tribune Star reported.

Although it couldn’t be confirmed, one source reported that Adam ended up receiving no money or property at all from his late father’s estate.

Adam tried to earn himself a windfall in other ways. In 2008, he and younger brother Tyler were accused of stealing aluminum siding and other metals from a business they had connections to, but a judge dismissed the charges, which the Livvixes blamed on a misunderstanding, the Journal Gazette of Mattoon, Illinois, reported.

Startup ambitions. In 2013, Adam skipped a court date related to his alleged theft of a bush mower, according to an AP account. It’s not clear whether he served time related to that offense.

The Dome of the Rock in Israel — The Dome of the Rock’s golden rooftop, right, graces innumerable Israeli post cards

But the persevering Adam — who inherited his father’s entrepreneurial spirit if not his tangible assets — started a number of businesses.

Unfortunately, what they mostly earned for him was trouble. He reportedly was accused of misusing an SBA loan.

Plenty o’ shekels. For his next act, Adam, who began claiming he was Jewish, traveled to Israel as a tourist in 2013 and hooked up with a group of Americans living there.

The beefy 6-foot-tall American opened a power-washing business in Jerusalem, but he also told acquaintances that he had made a lot of money after selling a cancer drug or that he had a rich uncle, according to the LA Weekly.

Whatever the case, Adam somehow acquired a stockpile of cash that funded outings with his new buddies, the LA Weekly reported.

Seal of approval. He ended up sharing an apartment with Kevin Orenshein, 21, an American enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces.

Adam told his new friends that he was a Navy Seal. He had a convincing-looking frogman tattoo, a symbol of the Seals, on his back, according to the LA Weekly.

Saying that he needed to protect his business after some Arabs had thrown rocks, Adam asked Kevin to provide him with some weapons used by the Israeli army.

Intercepted. Kevin believed Adam’s story and sold him $125 worth of explosives, including stun and smoke grenades, explosive bricks, and tear gas canisters.

In reality, Adam had adopted Islamaphobic and anti-Arab sentiments and was planning an act of terror.

A yearbook photo shows Jennie Grabbe singing at her prom — Like his mother (Jennie Grabbe, seen at left in this vintage yearbook page), Adam Livvix was popular in school

Fortunately, Israeli law enforcement, which has a knack for smoking out troublemakers before they have a chance to strike, zeroed in on Adam.

He’s courted. Although Adam had lied about being a Seal, when officers came to arrest him, he did manage a rather cinematic — albeit failed — escape attempt. He jumped to the patio of an apartment a floor below his own, the Jerusalem Post reposted.

In 2014, Adam, then 30, was indicted for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks against Muslim holy sites, most prominently the Dome of the Rock mosque, the 1,300-year-old gold-topped shrine in Jerusalem.

His lawyer, Gal Wolf, called the charges “nonsense,” although Adam admitted to police that he made some early-stage preparations for an attack.

You’re not our problem anymore. The Israeli government also accused Adam of overstaying his visa by a year.

An Israeli court deemed Adam Livvix unfit to stand trial because of psychosis and kept him in a mental health facility. Israel eventually decided “not our circus, not our monkeys” — and sent him back to Illinois.

There, Adam faced charges for the theft of farm equipment, the LA Weekly reported.

Runs in the family. Incidentally, it’s not entirely clear to which, if any, religious group Adam belonged. He has no discernable Jewish heritage. A Palestinian news source described him as an “extremist Christian.” His mother belonged to a Methodist church.

Adam dropped off the radar screen after 2015, but his little brother picked up the torch.

Charles Tyler Livvix, known as Tyler, faced arrest after missing a court date in August 2019, according to the Robinson (Illinois) Daily News.

Back on the street. Tyler barricaded himself inside a house in Marshall, and it took local police, the sheriff’s office, state police, and an ILIAS Tactical Response Team to extricate him, the Tribune Star reported.

The Tribune Star story noted that officers “were aware of Livvix’s relation to Everett Adam Livvix.” But it didn’t mention Adam’s whereabouts at the time.

It’s not clear why Tyler Livvix had the court date in the first place, but he is free today and maintains a presence on social media with somewhat confusing posts about politics and current events.

Race relations. Meanwhile, Tyler and Adam’s half-sister — born in 1961 to Darrell Livvix and then-wife Cynthia — has a moderately high profile but not because of any legal trouble.

A story in the Jerusalem Post notes that she’s “Laura George, who is married to Tony George, the former president and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the founder of the Indy Racing League.”

As for Adam Livvix’s onetime associate Kevin Orenshein, he works as a technology analyst for an Israeli venture capital firm, according to his LinkedIn profile.

That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Forensic Files II Cometh

Series Creator Paul Dowling Talks About the Old and the New

Up until now, seeing a new Forensic Files meant discovering one of the 406 original episodes you missed or didn’t quite remember because you were falling asleep on the tail end of an eight-hour HLN marathon.

Forensic Files creator Paul Dowling. Photo: Lisa Lake

Now wake up and hear this: HLN has produced 16 new episodes and is rolling out the first one on Feb. 23 at 10 p.m. eastern standard time.

The new shows will feature the same 30-minute whodunit format with a few minor changes like theme music with softer guitar chords. And one giant difference: the narrator.

Beloved voice-over artist Peter Thomas — one of the two most popular male narrators of the World War II generation (the other was Don LaFontaine) — left us at the age of 91 in 2016.

So HLN hired actor Bill Camp to do the off-camera narration for the remade version.

Where Peter Thomas spent his career as the narrator of shows like Nova and national TV commercials like Tang and Listerine, Bill Camp made his name as a player in tense Hollywood dramas like Joker, The Night of, and 12 Years a Slave.

After watching previews of two episodes of Forensic Files II, I’m still getting used to Camp’s more baritone, authoritative voice. Mostly, though, I was relieved to find that he sounds nothing like the My Pillow guy or the Shake Weight for Men shill.

And there’s more good news. The original Forensic Files will continue to be available to stream (YouTube, Tubi, Hulu, Amazon Prime) and watch on TV networks around the world. Series creator Paul Dowling is still signing contracts with channels that want to air classic Forensic Files a decade into the future.

Ahead of the premiere of the reboot, Dowling, who’s CEO of production company Medstar Television, answered some of my questions about both the original Forensic Files and Forensic Files II:

How did you prepare yourself emotionally for watching Forensic Files II? Sitting down to watch the first Forensic Files II episodes was actually very familiar since my righthand No. 2 Vince Sherry is on board for these episodes as senior producer, so this was no different than the originals — but without Peter Thomas.

How would Bill Camp sound?

Bill doesn’t imitate Peter. He makes the storytelling his own, and he’s very good.

What was it like to hear the slightly revised opening FF II theme music? I thought the opening music was a little fresher, brighter, but very familiar. I’m not sure viewers will notice it’s different, frankly.

How does your family feel about your starting this new chapter? Two of my three children were actually in the Forensic Files pilot in 1996 playing the children of the victim and her husband, so they’ve literally grown up with the series and lived with it all their lives.

In junior high, a parent asked my daughter if she sees much of her father. She couldn’t understand the question. She said, “I see him every day! Why do you ask?” “Oh, I thought he was in Hollywood shooting the show, and you didn’t see him much.” “Oh no,” she said. “He comes to all my sporting events, and he’s home for dinner every night.”

To them, TV is Dad’s job just like other kids’ dads have jobs. Nothing special.

But they’re happy I’m not as involved [in the show] as I used to be, and can relax a bit.

My favorite original Forensic Files episodes featured respectable-seeming people (Craig Rabinowitz, John List) no one would suspect of horrible crimes. Will we meet anyone like that on Forensic Files II? Yes, sadly, lots of new stories about killers you’d never suspect if they were your friends and neighbors. But what motivates them to commit these horrible acts? Greed, jealousy, revenge — someone who covets what another person has and takes it. Sad.

The original Forensic Files featured cases way before they caught fire in popular culture — like that of Michael Peterson. Do you think he’s guilty? I don’t know; I wasn’t there.

There’s a guy who had a secret life.

I never thought his story added up. I’ve seen people fall down stairs but never like that.

How about Darlie Routier, who Forensic Files did in 1999 and The Last Defense featured in 2018? I myself never felt she was treated fairly by the state. We did a re-creation of the defense’s case, and we almost couldn’t do it because it was so ridiculous. She was so sloppy.

The husband’s first words to police after his two boys were dead and his wife was in the hospital were, “Did you see her breasts?” And all her stab wounds [which were suspected of being self-inflicted] were around her breasts.

But what do you think Darlie Routier’s motive was? She had just had a baby, and her husband had him upstairs because he was worried Darlie would do something to the baby.

I’m sympathetic to her having depression, but she and her husband should have gotten help.♠

That’s all for this week. Next time, it’s back to the original Forensic Files with a post about killer Fred Grabbe‘s grandson.

Until then, cheers. — RR

HLN will air Forensic Files II every Sunday at 10 p.m. eastern standard time until April 12

Fred Grabbe: Update on an Ogre

A Farm Family Suffers Brutality in Secret
(Forensic Files, “The Root of All Evil”)

Updated on June 30, 2022

From the outside, life at Fred and Charlotte Grabbe’s country mansion must have looked enviable. The couple had a cheerleading daughter who got straight A’s, a handsome football-playing son, and a prosperous 800-acre farm near Marshall, Illinois.

Acquaintances described Fred, who was 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds with blue eyes, as outgoing and friendly.

Charlotte was a foot shorter than Fred and less than half his weight. She had a simple, elegant style and a pretty face with birdlike features.

Charlotte Grabbe with her son, Jeff — The love between Charlotte (with son Jeff) and her children was boundless

Floodgates open. But Charlotte didn’t act like a delicate flower. On the last day of her life, she was driving a tractor and cultivating soybean fields.

And Fred didn’t treat her like she was made of china either. In fact, he physically abused her up until the day he suffocated her with his meaty hands and incinerated her body.

He had four years of freedom before authorities, who never recovered Charlotte’s remains, could put together a case against him. Fortunately, a private detective tracked down Fred’s young ex-girlfriend and she spilled everything she knew about what happened to Charlotte Grabbe.

Hulking heartthrob. Vickie McCalister was mad at Fred because he jilted her and replaced her with another blond woman in her 20s. Barbara Graham was so crazy about Fred that she attempted to break him out of jail.

For this week, I searched for Fred Grabbe’s whereabouts today and any clues as to how this violent tub of lard managed to snag girlfriends despite his horrible past and why Charlotte Grabbe married him in the first place.

I also looked for an epilogue for the Grabbes’ daughter, Jennie, who guarded many of the worst family secrets until long after Forensic Files produced “The Root of All Evil” in 2001.

Charlotte sits on a fence in front of the Grabbes' house with horses grazing in the front — The Grabbes had the largest farm in Clark County

It started in Indiana. So let’s get going on a recap of the episode along with extra information culled from online research:

Fred Grabbe came into the world on June 2, 1939, in West Terre Haute, Indiana, the son of Inez and Chester Grabbe. Before turning to farming, Fred co-owned an agricultural implement store and worked in coal-mining and oil-drilling.

Charlotte Sue Gore was also born in Indiana, on Jan. 31, 1942, the daughter of Melvin and Margaret Gore.

Margaret died young, leaving Charlotte motherless at age 7.

‘I do’ to a sex criminal. According to Jennie, Charlotte and Fred’s marriage didn’t just end in a horror show: It began that way, too.

At age 15, Charlotte went out on a date with 19-year-old Fred and he raped her, according to an interview Jennie gave to a radio show in 2015.

Charlotte became pregnant.

It was 1957, long before anyone had heard the term “date rape” and Charlotte, with no female role model to guide her, probably didn’t know what else to do but marry the man who impregnated her.

Bucolic life. The couple had son Jeffrey Leon on Sept. 1, 1958, and daughter Jennie the following year.

Charlotte caught Fred cheating on her and divorced him in 1961. He must have turned on the charm because she gave him another chance. They did have two small kids together and he hadn’t metamorphosed into a walking sea cow yet. They remarried in 1962.

The family lived in Canada for a while and eventually moved to Clark County, Illinois, in an area rich with corn and soybean fields.

Teenage mom. Charlotte lost her father in 1974 and, thanks in part to family assets she inherited, the Grabbes were able to own and operate a successful farm.

Vickie McCalister and Barbara Graham weren’t exactly on paths of glory before they met Fred Grabbe, but their affairs with him all but ruined the rest of their lives

Jennie would later say that her mother did a good job of raising her and her brother, but Charlotte was so young that sometimes she seemed more like a sister.

Father’s fury. There were some good times. The Grabbes’ daughter-in-law, Cindy Pancake, told Forensic Files that Fred could be a fun-loving and warm host.

But the unpleasant events were memorable, too.

He had fits of rage over practically nothing, usually directed at Charlotte or Jeff, and sometimes they included physical abuse, according to Jennie.

Secrets and lies. Jennie told Forensic Files that she witnessed her dad bashing her brother’s head into the fender of a pickup truck.

“My brother was hospitalized one time and we were told to make up stories…tell the doctor he fell out of the hayloft,” she recalled on the Stop Child Abuse Now internet radio show.

By 1981, Charlotte, 39, had endured enough and asked for another divorce. Fred, 42, had started cheating on her again, with 24-year-old bartender Vickie Jane McCalister.

Hard work and dedication. Fred moved out of the main house, into a cabin on the Grabbes’ property.

For Fred, a permanent split would mean freedom to continue sleeping around — but he wanted to hold onto Charlotte and not divide up the family assets.

On July 24, 1981, Charlotte left the house to do work in the soybean fields.

Her children never saw her again.

Alleged car chase. Charlotte had told the kids to come look for her if she didn’t get back by 4:30 p.m. that day. Jennie and Jeff called the sheriff right away.

Jennie Grabbe as an adult — During her Forensic Files appearance, Jennie Grabbe wasn’t ready to reveal the whole truth about her father – like the fact that he had numerous illegitimate children he refused to support, she said years later

Fred explained to the law officers that he and Charlotte argued in the toolshed that day. He got in his truck, and she chased him in her green Ford LTD and eventually drove off toward the interstate, Fred claimed.

But witnesses said it was a curly haired blond woman following Fred in Charlotte’s car.

Grave words. Police found Charlotte’s purse, uneaten lunch, and migraine medicine in the toolshed.

The authorities drilled open Charlotte’s bank safe deposit box and found a handwritten note Charlotte left, with the instructions to read it upon her death.

It was a voice from the grave (Sandra Duyst, Russ Stager) accusing Fred of stealing some farm equipment and declaring that she was afraid of Fred as well as his business associate Dale Kessler.

Iffy alibi. Kessler told police that Fred was with him the night Charlotte disappeared.

But when questioned by a grand jury about his whereabouts, Fred took the Fifth Amendment.

Jennie, married by now, posted a $25,000 reward for help solving the case, but it went cold for four years.

Terror in the toolshed. In 1984, she and husband Darrel Livvix, who operated a plastics plant, hired a private investigator named Charles Pierson to look for Charlotte.

Pierson found Vickie McCalister in Indiana. She was bitter about the way Fred treated her and wanted the $25,000 reward. She spilled an absolutely revolting story about what really happened the day Charlotte disappeared on July 24, 1981.

While Vickie was hiding behind a tractor, Charlotte and Fred argued in the toolshed. He attacked her. As a sadistic exercise, he repeatedly choked her until she passed out, waited until she came to, and choked her again.

Spotlight on tree experts. Fred finally strangled her to death and severely abused her corpse. Vickie then helped Fred burn the body with diesel fuel in a trash barrel under a maple tree on the banks of the Wabash River.

He threw her remains into the water.

Vickie admitted that she was the one seen driving Charlotte’s vehicle the day she died. She had abandoned the car in Terre Haute.

Obviously, the account from a woman scorned — the holy grail for prosecutors — provided a huge break in the case. But investigators still had no trace of a body, so they had to dig deeply to find forensic evidence.

Ring of truth. Russ Carlson, a consulting arborist (a refreshing departure from the usual blood splatter expert) who Forensic Files viewers may remember from his appearance on the show, and two University of Illinois scientists cut several branches from the maple tree at the site where Vickie said she and Fred burned the body.

The experts found that the 1981 growth rings that faced the river showed a developmental slowdown consistent with exposure to diesel fuel. Further testing revealed evidence of petroleum products in the tree. And the only branches affected by the fuel were those directly above the spot where Vickie said she and Fred had placed the burn barrel.

In 1985, police finally arrested Fred Grabbe. His lawyers succeeded in getting him a change of venue to Vermilion County — after a phone survey revealed that 98 percent of Clark County residents had heard of Fred Grabbe, according to the Mattoon Journal Gazette.

Eyewitness account. Comments from the survey included, “I went to school with Fred Grabbe. Then he was real nice but now it’s another story” and “I hope they electrocute him.”

Vickie got immunity for testifying about the murder and, for the first time, Jennie and Jeff heard the story of the way their mother died.

Fred Grabbe moved to his rustic cabin when Charlotte asked for a second divorce — Fred Grabbe was not thrilled about moving out of the main house and into this cabin, known as Pickens Place

The motive was money — most of their wealth sprang from Charlotte’s inheritance and Fred wanted to retain it. Vickie McCalister admitted she participated in the murder cover-up.

Son intimidated. McCalister testified that Charlotte wasn’t Fred’s first homicide victim. He told her that, at 14, he had murdered someone for killing his dog (hate to defend Fred Grabbe, but that’s a mitigating factor) and later had killed two women over a union dispute, according to court papers filed in 1986.

Jennie would later say that as a child, she witnessed Fred kill a man after a bar fight.

Jeff Grabbe also testified about the physical abuse Fred had inflicted upon family members and said that Fred had threatened to hurt him if he didn’t clam up about his mother’s disappearance.

But Fred Grabbe had some people on his side, too. Paulina Kessler, wife of Dale Kessler, claimed she spotted someone who looked like Charlotte Grabbe in a shopping mall a year after she disappeared, the Decatur Herald and Review reported.

Ridiculous attempt. Fred’s defense lawyer argued that Vickie McCalister made up the murder story to collect the reward.

Regardless, a jury convicted Fred of first-degree murder on June 24, 1985, and he got a sentence of life without parole.

But the drama didn’t stop after the guilty verdict. While authorities were still holding Fred in the Clark County lockup, Barbara Graham — the woman Fred had dumped Vickie McCalister for — shot Deputy Mike Davidson in the leg and fired off four more bullets in an attempt to blast Fred out of jail.

It’s not clear what Barbara’s long-term plan was. Where could the towering Fred ever hide?

Hairy situation. And why did the 26-year-old Graham, whom the Chicago Tribune described as a mother of three, find Fred so alluring? And ditto with Vickie McCalister?

Well, first off, as many who knew Fred explained, when he kept his id in check, he was pleasant, lively company. His daughter said he was a classic Jekyll and Hyde who sometimes seemed like “the nicest person you could meet.”

There’s also the money factor. The Tribune story mentioned that Barbara Graham enjoyed showing off a fur coat Fred bought her prior to the first trial, so maybe she hoped for more expensive gifts in exchange for her gun moll services.

Hope it was worth it. For all we know, Fred promised each girlfriend she would someday become the lady of the household at the spacious Southfork-like main residence on the farm.

Instead, Barbara Graham got a 16-year prison sentence for her futile crime. Vicky McCalister evaded any punishment for her role in Charlotte Grabbe’s murder, but she had to change her identity and flee the area out of fear of reprisal by Fred.

Her worry was well-placed. In 1985, while Fred was securely locked in jail, a fire destroyed the Grabbes’ main house as well as a small abode that Jeff Grabbe was building on the property. Illinois police found evidence of arson but couldn’t prove that Fred, from his cell, had directed any of his associates to set the buildings aflame.

Money problems. Two years later in 1987, more bad news befell the Grabbe children. Fred won a new trial on appeal because of faulty instructions given to the jury.

In March 1988, before he had a chance to testify against his father again, Jeff Grabbe went missing.

Jennie told the Herald and Review that her brother hadn’t worked since their mother died and that he was probably evading creditors, according to a story by reporter Jeffrey Raymond, who covered the case extensively.

Another watery grave. Jeff Grabbe did have a rather dicey reputation. The Herald and Review story noted that he had allegedly been seen trying to break into a local appliance store, but the authorities never pressed charges. “He’s not what you call one of our real troublemakers,” Detective Burt Bennett of the Marshall Police Department told the Herald and Review.

According to his wife, Cindy, Jeff was a financier and had gone to California to seek a loan for a client. She and Jeff had been talking on the phone every day because their baby son had pneumonia, and Jeff suddenly stopped calling.

On March 21, 1998, a boater discovered a corpse in the Pacific Ocean 1.5 miles off Seal Beach.

Died with his boots on. Clearly, this was no accidental drowning. Someone had shot the victim three times, tied an anchor to him, and thrown him fully clothed into the Ocean.

FBI-trained forensic sculptor Marilyn Droz would later comment that she could tell the victim was “at least middle class” because of his expensive snakeskin boots.

The water had rendered the face unrecognizable, but a reconstructive clay bust and dental records enabled a positive ID of Jeffrey Grabbe on May 24, 1988. A theory sprang up that one of Fred Grabbe’s reprobate associates — perhaps the same person who torched the houses — had put out a hit on Jeff.

As John O’Brien reported in the Chicago Tribune:

“Seal Beach police say the killing appears to be drug-related… [Detectives] scoff at the notion that Fred Grabbe, safe in a cell in Downstate Illinois, had anything to do with it. On the other hand, Seal Beach police don’t know Fred Grabbe.”

The monster grieves. In addition to Cindy, who worked as an elementary school teacher, Jeff left behind sons Lucas, 5, and Nicholas, 9 months.

A forensic bust used to help identify Jeff Grabbe's body — LA Times clipping shows a forensic bust of Jeff Grabbe

According to defense lawyer Frederick Cohn, Fred Grabbe cried “like a baby” in Coles County jail after hearing the news of his son’s death, the Herald and Review reported in a June 2, 1988.

His sorrow might have been real. Police concluded that Jeff was killed because he tried to double-cross some of his own business associates in a $7 million money-laundering scheme, the LA Times reported on Nov. 18, 1988.

More to the story. At Fred Grabbe’s second trial, the judge refused to allow a record of Jeff’s testimony, but his widow took the stand for the prosecution.

In April 1988, Fred was found guilty again and got 75 years in prison.

Jennie said she eventually forgave her father even though he never said he was sorry.

Fred actually had a lot more things to atone for than either of the juries ever heard.

Coping with trauma. By the time Jennie was 5, Fred had begun sexually abusing her, according to her interview on Stop Child Abuse, a show hosted by William “Bill” Murray III, who survived molestation by priests and went on to found the National Association of Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse in California.

“I would disassociate — count tiles on the ceiling,” Jennie said. “Some things I didn’t remember until I was 30 years old.”

Jennie also said that she took comfort from playing music and having dogs and horses growing up.

Solace attained. She was popular, and the classmates who elected her to the Homecoming Queen’s court and listened to her sing “Evergreen” in a school show had no idea the upbeat girl lived in a den of depravity at home.

Today known as Jennie Woolverton, she married three times, had five children, and said she ultimately found peace and healing with the help of a Christian group.

In an unfortunate and bizarre tangential note, Jennie’s son Adam Livvix made headlines in 2014, when he allegedly plotted to bomb Muslim holy sites in Israel.

Not loving the cuisine? But that’s a lot to process and this post is already pretty long, so I’ll try to cover the Adam Livvix story in a future post.

Fred Grabbe, now in his 80s, in recent mug shots

In the meantime, let’s get to Fred. Today, he resides in Dixon Correctional Center in Illinois. He’s lost an inch of his height, standing 6’3, and some weight, at 254 pounds.

His profile also mentioned that he’s missing at least one finger from his right hand. My guess would be a farm-equipment accident — it’s hard to imagine even the toughest fellow inmate holding Fred down and slicing off body parts.

And speaking of horrors, Grabbe won parole and exited prison on July 22, 2022. (Thanks to readers RTH and Dennis L. for the tip.)

That’s all for the post. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube

David Keith Rogers: Depraved Deputy

A Killer Hides in Plain Sight, in the Sheriff’s Office
“A Leg Up on Crime,” Forensic Files

California sheriff’s deputy David Keith Rogers was a full-on psychopath who fooled his colleagues and family into thinking otherwise.

The respectable-seeming middle-aged man not only patronized prostitutes but also occasionally killed them — two of them for certain, in 1986 and 1987.

Tracie Clark with honey-coated complexion and caramel-colored hair — Dave Rogers claimed he cried upon learning Tracie Clark was only 15

What’s even stranger about Rogers’ story is that years before the murders, an incredibly sleazy incident should have put all who knew him on pervert alert. But somehow, his reputation stayed intact between then and the time bodies began showing up in the Arvis-Edison Canal.

Street walkers. For this week, I looked into where David Keith Rogers, known as Dave to his friends, is today. So let’s get going on the recap of the Forensic Files episode “A Leg Up on Crime,” along with extra information from internet research:

Dave Rogers originally come from West Virginia and did a 10-year stint in the Navy before moving to Kern County, California, and nabbing a position in the sheriff’s office in 1976.

David Keith Rogers with his wife, Jo, in happier times

He worked the so-called prostitute beat for several years.

To show what “scumbags” prostitutes were, Rogers took his son on a tour of the poor side of Bakersfield so he could set his eyes upon them himself, according to information from Murderpedia.

Lawman’s disgraceful behavior. In addition to the affront to his personal values, work at the sheriff’s office caused him physical woe. Rogers was exposed to PCP on two occasions and needed medical treatment as a result. He was finding his work stressful in general, according to the San Francisco Examiner. He had fainting spells and blackouts, his wife, Joyce, known as Jo, said.

Maybe he was looking to unwind when, in 1983, he took a sex worker named Ellen Martinez to a cemetery, had her disrobe, and photographed her, according to habeas corpus documents dated 2017.

The county fired him once the abuse of power incident came to light, but Rogers appealed to the Civil Service Commission, which got his punishment reduced to a 15-day suspension after Ellen Martinez failed to show up at his hearing.

She later disappeared entirely, according to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise.

Bully as a guard? The slight slap on the wrist hurt Rogers’ psyche so much that “he got headaches and ate aspirins like candy,” according to a colleague, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

Next up, his employer put him on jail duty. In 1984, an inmate accused Rogers of beating him up, but Rogers never faced disciplinary action over it, according to Murderpedia.

U-shaped canal — Canals are vital to Kern County farmlands. Nobody expected Dave Rogers to turn one of them into a graveyard in the 1980s

He eventually got back on street patrol in Bakersfield, a city lined with irrigation canals needed by the many farms in the area.

Sweet girl goes astray. In February 1986, the body of a 21-year-old woman with long blond hair who’d been shot to death turned up in the Arvis-Edison Canal. Forensic Files calls her “Kay Bradley” and shares photos of her as a young girl in dance recital outfits and a cheerleader uniform.

According to newspaper accounts and court papers, her real name was Janine Benintende.

Born on Feb. 13, 1965, Janine originally came from Rhode Island and later lived in Los Angeles with her family. Her aunt, who appeared in shadow on Forensic Files, explained that Janine, who looked as though she belonged on the Mickey Mouse Club rather than in the red-light district, was a well-behaved, studious, much-loved child, but somehow she ended up as a heroin user.

Janine Benintende in a dance costume as a child — Janine Benintende reportedly had a happy, normal childhood, making her descent into drug use and death at age 21 hard to fathom.

On Jan. 22, 1986, she appeared nervous and told her mother she was heading to Bakersfield, according to court papers.

Watery grave. The last time anyone saw her alive, she was working as a prostitute on Union Avenue and dressed in pants, boots, and a white rabbit fur coat.

Janine was murdered on February 21, 1986, and found floating in the water.

Someone had shot her three times with a .38-caliber gun, with two of the bullets fired into the same wound, suggesting an execution-style death.

Still, Dave Rogers evaded suspicion.

Then, in February 1987, some small-game hunters found the body of a pregnant teenager named Tracie Joanna Clark in the canal.

Keen eye for details. Like Janine Benintende, Tracie worked as a prostitute along Union Avenue in Bakersfield. Little biographical information came up about Tracie, except that she was a runaway from Seattle. Clearly, she’d had a rough life. At age 15, she looked 40.

Fortunately, one of Tracie’s fellow prostitutes recalled seeing her get into a truck with a camper top and she helped police locate it — parked right in front of Dave Rogers’ residence. The woman identified the milky-faced Rogers from a photo lineup. Footprints next to the canal matched shoes worn by Rogers during his subsequent police interview.

On Feb. 13, 1987, authorities arrested Rogers as he and Jo were headed out to run an errand.

Admits he did it, kind of. Investigators found a large amount of pornography in his apartment — although it’s not clear why Forensic Files implied it was evidence of his guilt. It’s a free country and plenty of law-abiding men purchase it.

Rogers also had a sizable collection of women’s underwear. Again, no law against that.

But prosecutors didn’t need to rely on that evidence anyway. Dave Rogers told police that he killed Tracie Clark.

Billboard offering help for victimes of human trafficking — A sign in Bakersfield offers help to those forced into prostitution by traffickers

Excuses galore. “He gave us an admission, not a confession, by which I mean he is indicating there were other circumstances than we are implying that led to the killings,” Sgt. Gary Davis said, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Media accounts vary regarding the justification Rogers gave: He argued with Tracie over the price of her services — he offered $30 but she wanted $50 — or she insulted his sexual prowess, or both. Tracie had exited his vehicle and pointed her finger at him, which made him feel threatened, he also claimed at one point. And Rogers worried that she would report him.

Oh, and his gun went off accidentally, he said.

Portrait of himself. According to an AP account, Rogers said he didn’t realize Tracie was only 15 and was stricken by guilt when he found out.

Rogers had had plenty of time to think up his excuses and rehearse his remorse. He had actually participated in the investigation into Tracie’s death and carried in his briefcase the composite photo of the suspect — himself — according to a the San Francisco Examiner‘s account of Feb. 27, 1987.

The .38-caliber Colt that police said Rogers used in the murders had an interesting history. A diner owner had reported it missing after a 1982 robbery. Investigators believe Rogers discreetly helped himself to the gun while investigating the restaurant theft.

Double trial. Authorities later concluded that Janine Benintende and Tracie Clark had been shot with bullets consistent with the ammunition available to deputies in the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.

Although Rogers admitted to Tracie’s shooting, he consistently maintained that he had nothing to do with Janine Benintende’s homicide.

Regardless, Kern County tried Dave Rogers for both murders, in a single court action. with Sarah Ryles prosecuting. (If Ryles — memorable for the marionette-like movement of her mouth during her on-camera interview — looks familiar, it’s because she appeared on an earlier episode of Forensic Files called “Over a Barrel.”)

Co-workers had no idea. Rogers’ defense relied on claims that he was sexually abused as a child. Mental health professionals testified that Rogers killed Tracie Clark while he was in an “impulsive, highly emotional state” and that he suffered from dissociative identity disorder (once known as multiple personality or split personality).

The revelations about Rogers came as a surprise to those who knew and worked with him. At the trial, seven law enforcement officers testified that the defendant was a skilled, conscientious deputy adept at defusing emotionally charged situations, according to 2006 court papers. Several of the officers testified that the defendant had always appeared normal.

Nonetheless, on March 16, a jury found Rogers guilty of the murders of Tracie Clark and Janine Benintende.

Wife still loves the guy. Upon hearing the verdict, Dave Rogers remained expressionless, but Jo wept in the courtroom, the AP reported.

Jo, who was Rogers’ third wife, and his four children stayed loyal to him, the San Francisco Examiner reported: “In my heart, it wasn’t the man I know and love,” Jo said. “It was another person. And the one I know and love I’m going to help all I can.”

In the penalty phase, jurors recommended the death penalty, and off Rogers went to San Quentin.

Testimony voided. Rogers has successfully avoided the gas chamber, however.

In July 2019, the California Supreme Court voided his death sentence because a witness for the prosecution named Tambri Butler recanted her testimony, saying she wasn’t sure that Rogers was the man who assaulted her while she was working as a prostitute.

Sarah Ryals during her appearance on “A Leg Up on Crime”

Today, Rogers is still in San Quentin, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. It was never proven whether or not he really suffered sexual and other physical abuse at the hands of his parents.

Bad apples will turn up. In addition to the tragedies he caused, Rogers left some of his former colleagues emotionally scarred, according to the San Francisco Examiner. They had known him only as an “excellent” deputy they never imagined would betray public trust or bring shame to the sheriff’s office. In fact, some of Dave Rogers’ co-workers reported having nightmares and sought counseling to cope, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

Perhaps the situation is best explained by YouTube commenter Paul Murray: “Well cops are folks too. They have their fair share of psychos.”

That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube.

Carla Hughes and Avis Banks: Fairy Tales Canceled

Keyon Pittman Sure Did Leave a Mess
(“Textbook Murder,” Forensic Files)

Note: You can also listen to this post as a podcast

Carla Hughes’ charmed life hit a pothole one day and, a few years later, it took an unthinkable turn into a bloodbath.

Murder victim Avis Banks

Just a few years before she killed romantic rival Avis Banks, Carla was winning beauty pageants and hitting the kind of educational milestones parents like to write about in their Xeroxed holiday letters.

Innocence doubted. It was an affair with a promiscuous educator named Keyon Pittman — who lived with Avis Banks and was expecting a child with her — that spurred Carla to do what she did.

Keyon never faced any charges related to the murder, but many found it suspicious that he and Carla spoke on the phone just before and just after Avis died in the garage of the house she and Keyon shared in a suburb of Jackson, Mississippi.

For this week, I looked around to find out how Keyon Pittman has fared in the court of public opinion. I also searched for more background on Carla Hughes and the downfall of her storybook life.

Humble beginnings. But, because Avis Banks is the innocent victim in this tragedy, let’s start the recap of “Textbook Murder” with her story:

Avis Banks was the middle of three daughters born to Frederick Banks, a city street sweeper, and Debra Banks, who babysat part-time. The family lived in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The first in her family to enter college, she studied early childhood development and graduated cum laude from Alcorn State University. She snagged a position at a daycare center and began dating Keyon Pittman, who taught math and coached basketball at James G. Chastain Middle School in Jackson.

Young homeowners. Avis clearly came from a strict background. During his Forensic Files appearance, Frederick Banks said that Avis asked for forgiveness upon telling him that she and Keyon Pittman were having a child. But she intended to make things right by marrying Keyon.

The two of them got engaged and bought a house in Ridgeland, Mississippi.

But their future together ended on Nov. 30, 2006, when Keyon, 31, returned home from work to find Avis, 27, in a pool of blood on the garage floor.

Keyon Pittman smiling — Keyon Pittman helped to end one woman’s life and ruin the other’s

Parents’ worst fears. He called 911 and also summoned Avis’ mother and father to come immediately, but wouldn’t say what was wrong.

The Bankses told Dateline Mystery that they thought Avis had lost the baby. But the news was much more grim. They arrived to the sight of police tape. The coroner told them their daughter had died a horrible death.

It looked as though someone had ambushed Avis, who was five months along in her pregnancy, after she stepped out of her car at around 6 p.m.

Staged scene. She had been shot four times with a .38-caliber pistol and stabbed repeatedly in the upper body. The assailant had slashed Avis’ throat. One of the bullet wounds had been fired at close range to the back of her head, police ascertained.

Investigators found shoe impressions where they believed the assailant kicked a door before breaking into the house and creeping into the attached garage.

The intruder had ransacked some rooms, leaving drawers open, but didn’t steal anything.

Resentful survivor. Lab-testing identified some gunshot residue on Keyon’s hands, and he had some bloodstains on his clothing. Police later concluded the forensic evidence came from his handling the body, not firing a gun.

But there were other indicators that didn’t look so good for Keyon. The video footage of him talking to his lawyer shortly after he discovered the slaughtered mother of his unborn child revealed a man utterly without grief or anguish. His only noticeable emotion was disgruntlement because police considered him a suspect.

Investigators found out that Keyon usually entered the house through the front door, but on the night of the murder, he went in through the garage. Maybe he knew he’d find a body there.

Not exactly Michelangelo’s David. There was also the question of why he ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911, when he had a cell phone with him. He also reportedly called Carla Hughes before summoning help for Avis.

The house in Ridgeland Mississippi that Avis Banks and Keyon Pittman shared — *A love nest turned into an execution site*: The three-bedroom house Avis Banks and Keyon Pittman shared at 708 Old Square Court is worth $190,000 today, according to Zillow

And Keyon — who reporter Kathryn Kight described as “not a looker” but with “lots of confidence” — was clearly a serial cheater and liar.

Staff members at Chastain Middle School said that, in addition to the affair with Carla Hughes, he’d been getting close to the mother of one of the basketball players he coached. That woman denied a relationship, and she had a solid alibi anyway.

Pretty blatant. But so did Keyon. He was at school when the murder happened, and numerous witnesses could vouch for his whereabouts.

Police had a better suspect in cheerleading coach Carla Hughes, who had been enjoying a not-so-discreet relationship with Keyon. Colleagues saw them carrying on out in the open.

Carla was a former beauty pageant winner and mother of a 3-year-old boy. At first, she told police that she had no dog in the race, that she and Keyon were just friends — but she lacked a convincing alibi.

Lethal loan. Phone records showed that Carla was near Avis and Keyon’s house around the time of the murder.

Soon enough, Carla Hughes reversed herself and admitted to the affair with Keyon but denied having anything to do with Avis Banks’ murder.

The big break in the case came when Patrick Nash, one of Carla Hughes’ cousins, told police that Carla had borrowed his folding hunting knife and Rossi .38-caliber gun, which was loaded with five bullets, on Nov. 26, 2006.

Carla Hughes in a tiara on a beauty pageant brochure — Carla Hughes participated in multiple state and local beauty pageants.

The ammo was gone when she returned the firearm to him on Dec. 1, 2006. She said she had gone target shooting.

Wrong feet forward. Although Carla would later deny it, Nash said that she was crying when she brought back the gun.

Investigators matched the bullets recovered from the victim’s body to Nash’s gun.

Police discovered that the footprints from the crime scene matched a pair of size 10 TredSafes found in Carla Hughes’ closet, and they had Avis Banks’ blood on them.

Carla Hughes was indicted on charges of capital murder.

Too many children. Still, those who knew Carla Hughes weren’t willing to connect the dots — she was too nice.

So, who was this woman and what made her stake her happiness on a long shot like Keyon Pittman?

Carla Hughes was born June 12, 1981, to a mother who already had more kids than she could support, according to Dateline Mystery.

Overachieving girl. Fortunately, her relatives Lynda and Carl Hughes, who were both schoolteachers, adopted her as an infant. She would be their only child.

Carla excelled at horseback riding as well as her regular schoolwork, according to information from Murderpedia, and she grew into a tall, pretty young woman with even features and high cheekbones. Friends described her as bubbly and fun-loving.

She belonged to student council and Key Club and was a majorette, a cheerleader, and a page in the Mississippi State Senate.

The On the Border Mexican restaurant where Keyon Pittman moonlighted — Despite Keyon Pittman’s character flaws, he was hard-working. He moonlighted as a bartender in addition to coaching and teaching full time. Of course, the part-time gig gave him the opportunity to flirt and rendezvous with more women

Things go askew. Carla Hughes’ beauty pageant wins included Washington County Junior Miss and Miss Greenville Teen.

She graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi and went on to earn a master’s degree in education at Belhaven College.

During her upward trajectory, she met the man of her dreams and got engaged, but he suddenly panicked the day before their scheduled wedding in 2004.

Suddenly alone. He left her single and two months pregnant. That was the first sign her fairy tale was not to be.

She gave birth to a son, and eventually took a job as a language arts teacher at Chastain Middle School, where she met Keyon Pittman.

As the internet meme says, “If you don’t like the end of your story, write yourself a new beginning.” In Keyon Pittman, Carla Hughes saw a fresh chance at Camelot.

Carla Hughes in her high school marching band uniform. Her parents called her a perfect child and begged for her life in court

Optimistic — or delusional. There’s no way of knowing what Keyon Pittman really told her about his intentions, but he would later testify that Carla Hughes knew that she was merely a secret side dish and he had made it clear to her that he intended to marry Avis Banks, according to court papers.

But Carla, 25, insisted upon referring to him as her “future husband,” he said.

Investigators believed Carla Hughes wanted to eliminate and basically replace Avis Banks. Carla longed for a home with a husband and probably imagined Keyon would adopt her son and help her replicate the life her baby’s father should have given her.

Claims no role. Prosecutors contended that Carla broke into Keyon and Avis’ house and ransacked drawers to make it look like a burglary. She lay in wait for Avis in the attached garage and shot her, stabbed her, and slashed her throat. Forensic Files didn’t mention it, but Avis Banks’ pants had been pulled down, perhaps in an effort to make the crime look like a burglary that turned into a rape-murder, according to Dateline Mystery.

When questioned by detectives, Carla didn’t implicate Keyon.

At the trial, however, Carla’s defense team pointed out that Keyon sometimes borrowed her shoes — their feet were the same size.

On the witness stand, Keyon denied having anything to do with the murder. (Although investigators strongly suspected otherwise, they never had enough evidence to charge him.)

Wages of sin. Carla Hughes sobbed in the courtroom when the jury returned with a guilty verdict after deliberating for eight hours. Although eligible for the death penalty, she received life without parole for capital murder, on Oct. 14, 2009.

Carla Hughes wearing magenta sweater in court — Carla Hughes was held in jail for three years while awaiting trial

The victim’s mother, Debra Banks, later told Snapped that she felt a huge burden lifted from her upon hearing the verdict.

Carla Hughes went off to prison.

She lost a 2012 appeal based on the defense’s claim that the judge hadn’t made it adequately clear to jury members that Carla’s refusal to testify in her own defense was not an indicator of guilt.

Lots of blame to go around? Carla’s mother, Lynda Hughes, maintained that Keyon Pittman wanted to get rid of Avis Banks — and that he framed Carla for the murder. She set up a GoGetFunding page to finance a new investigation, the Clarion Ledger reported in 2016.

Carla’s supporters also lay blame on forensic pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, a witness for the prosecution. They noted that he was doing 1,500 autopsies a year — bagging more than $1 million annually, according to the Innocence Project — and that some evidence from Hayne in other cases didn’t hold up in court. The state of Mississippi had voided some convictions from trials where Hayne testified for the prosecution.

And the pro-Carla Hughes Justice4Carla blog said that her own lawyer was at fault, too. His specialty was tobacco litigation — not defending clients against murder charges.

Fit behind razor wire. Right or wrong, the Justice4Carla website seems to have some integrity — dissenting opinions are allowed in its comments section. For example:

“She killed my cousin over a guy that didn’t want her the way she wanted him. I hope you raise millions because you will need it for representation that will allow a jury to ignore facts.” Shannon Royal

Today, Carla Hughes is serving her life sentence in the Central Mississippi Correctional Institution. At a trim 140 pounds, the 5-foot-7-inch Carla has apparently resisted the siren song of heavy prison food.

Her son is being raised by his maternal grandparents.

Bounced right back. So where is Keyon Pittman — the cause of so much heartache?

Keyon Pittman and Carla Hughes in the bleachers at the middle school where they taught

According to a number of media accounts, he got married and moved out of Mississippi.

“And look at Keyon Pittman now,” the No Single Mama Drama website notes. “He’s cuddled up with his new wife, while [Carla’s] off to prison, where she can’t be a mother to her son for the rest of her life.”

There’s no telling whether Keyon is making his wife’s existence into a fairy tale, but it’s sure to have a better ending than what Avis Banks and Carla Hughes got.

That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR

Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube

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