John “Jack” Boyle Creates a Bistate Horror Show
(“Foundation of Lies,” Forensic Files)
Note: Updated with a new parole eligibility date
Noreen Boyle’s murder sounds more like a page from an Edgar Allan Poe short story than an episode of Forensic Files.
After killing Noreen, her husband decided on a macabre way to conceal her body. Dr. John “Jack” Boyle created a grave beneath the concrete basement floor of their new house in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Amateur job. The story surrounding the homicide, however, is pretty typical as true-crime tales go: A spouse finds a new love and murders the old one to avoid a battle over the kids and money.
But Jack Boyle, a University of Pennsylvania graduate who was a tremendous success as a physician, failed miserably as a hitman, and landed himself in a crypt of his own — a cell at the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio.
The murder took place in the hours before New Year’s 1990 struck, but people from the Boyles’ old hometown of Mansfield, Ohio, have never stopped talking about the case. The Investigation Discovery channel produced a documentary about it in 2018.
Imperfect union. Jack Boyle is still alive, so for this week, I looked for an epilogue for him as well as his and Noreen’s children. But first here’s a recap of “Foundation of Lies” along with extra information drawn from internet research:
Noreen Schmid Boyle, an elegant mother of two, managed to cope with her husband’s various affairs over the years. Maybe she cared more about maintaining a stable home for Collier, 11, and Elizabeth 3, than she did about her own hurt feelings.
Or perhaps she soothed her pride with shopping trips and her Range Rover and BMW. Her husband’s medical practice, which specialized in Medicaid and Medicare cases, was a money machine. One in every 13 residents of Richland County, Ohio, was a patient there, according to Forensic Files.
Surely, Noreen enjoyed Jack Boyle’s status in the community.
Gatsby gal. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Noreen was something of a Holly Golightly. She came from a working-class background, the daughter of a secretary and a machinist.
But she liked people to think otherwise.
Noreen told friends that she grew up in a mansion and had an M.B.A. from the Wharton School.
She did, however, graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dentistry as a dental hygienist (and supported Jack Boyle while he went to medical school).
At some point before New Year’s Eve 1989 rolled around, Noreen had decided that being the wife of a rich doctor wasn’t worth the pain. She found out that Collier had witnessed his father kissing another woman.
Secret agenda. Citing mental cruelty and neglect, Noreen, 44, filed for divorce. But Jack, then 46, persuaded her to make a fresh start with him in Erie, Pennsylvania. He bought a house there and arranged for the sellers to vacate it right away.
All along, however, Jack planned to make Noreen disappear, then marry his girlfriend, Sherri Campbell, and live with her and the kids in Erie, where he intended to establish a new medical practice.
On December 31, 1989, Jack struck Noreen and suffocated her to death after an argument at their residence in Mansfield, Ohio.
Heavy equipment. Over the course of the next few days, the doctor began driving the three hours from Mansfield to Erie, saying he was preparing the new house for their big move. He didn’t mention that he was renovating the basement into a cemetery.
He used a rented jackhammer to make a hole in the concrete floor. Then he secreted Noreen’s body inside, filled in the opening, repainted the floor, and covered it with indoor-outdoor carpeting.
In what must have been a strenuous job, Jack gathered up the pieces of broken concrete and dumped them on property owned by Mark Davis, a business associate who was also Sherri Campbell’s uncle.
Deluded. Now Jack was free to move in with Sherri Campbell, who was 26 years old and very pregnant with his child. He told Collier that Noreen had gone on a little jaunt out of town. Jack would later contend that he saw his wife leave the house and that she was picked up by someone in a car.
Why did Jack Boyle think that his wife’s disappearance would quickly fall off the radar screen?
Maybe he figured the new friends and associates he planned to acquire in Erie would know nothing of Noreen and have no reason to inquire about her.
Jane Imbody, a local Mansfield news anchor who appeared on the Forensic Files episode, said that the doctor considered his deceptions good enough for not only the public and his family but also for himself. “He was such a good liar he believed his own lies,” Imbody said.
But 11-year-old Collier wasn’t having any of it.
Semi-forgery. Collier told investigators everything: Jack’s affair with Sherri Campbell, the thumps he heard while his parents were arguing New Year’s Eve, the trips to Erie, and how his father complained of being sore when he returned. His 3-year-old sister reportedly told police she saw her father strike Noreen.
The authorities found the patch of newly paved basement flooring in the Erie house and discovered Noreen’s decomposing body beneath it. She had a plastic bag over her head.
The real estate agent who handled the $300,000 house deal told investigators about the woman who accompanied Jack to his office. She signed her name “N. Sherri Boyle,” in an apparent effort to impersonate Noreen. (When asked about it in court later, Sherri Campbell pleaded the Fifth Amendment.)
Ice overkill. The prosecution ordered forensic tests to make sure the discarded concrete fragments dumped in Mark Davis’ yard came from the concrete in the Erie basement.
They matched, but the real smoking gun was the rental receipt from the jackhammer.
Jack said he used it to break up ice on his property. I grew up near Erie, with the lake effect and six-month-long winters, but never saw a homeowner use a jackhammer to get rid of ice. People either left the ice alone, put rock salt on it, or ruined their shovel blades hacking away at it.
Prosecutor takes aim. By the end of the month, authorities had arrested Jack and were holding him on $5 million bond. The trial kicked off just a few months after the murder in 1990, and the doctor testified on his own behalf — for nine hours.
It came out during questioning that Jack had arranged for Sherri Campbell to cook a pork roast and bring it over on New Year’s day — evidence he knew there was no chance Noreen would show up at home, according to Richland County prosecutor James Mayer Jr.
Stories published in the Mansfield News Journal on June 26, 1990, gave extensive coverage of Jack Boyle’s various evasions under oath.
Witness for the prosecution. In addition to the lies he told to cover up the murder plot — for example, he denied purchasing concrete mix at a local Busy Beaver store — there were self-aggrandizing claims regarding his military service.
He said that he was a former Navy man (true), he flew an F-14 during the Vietnam War and logged more flight time than any other pilot (false), a sniper shot him during the Iranian hostage crisis (false), and that he was a flight surgeon (false).
The trial’s real sensation was Collier Boyle, age 12 by then, who impressed the courtroom with his articulate testimony about his parents. Collier revealed that he and Noreen feared Jack’s nastiness and temper.
Cruel tactic. Jack received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for 20 years for aggravated murder and a consecutive 18 months for abuse of a corpse.
As if losing his mother once didn’t hurt enough, Collier had to go through it again in 1994, when Jack Boyle claimed the body found underneath his basement didn’t belong to Noreen and that she might still be alive.
Some of the autopsy details, including her eye color, were wrong, and the doctor’s brother claimed he’d received a phone call from Noreen after the night she officially disappeared.
Trash talk. Around the same time that Jack was pushing for a new trial, his aforementioned brother, Charles “C.J.” Boyle, began a smear campaign against Noreen.
A lengthy account appeared in the Akron Beacon Journal on July 25, 1994.
Charles Boyle claimed that Noreen’s adoption of Elizabeth from Taiwan was illegitimate.
He also alleged the adoption was “the ‘first operation test’ of a baby-selling organization for which Noreen Boyle became an agent” and that she and an associate had nabbed “several hundred thousand dollars in clear profits” from the illegal enterprise.
A job for DNA. What’s more, Noreen was an international gold jewelry smuggler, according to Charles. And she had planned to burn down the new house in Erie out of jealousy — and she had multiple affairs of her own with men, including a contractor and a police officer, Charles claimed.
He also suggested that Noreen staged her own death and then disappeared on her own volition.
Noreen wasn’t around to defend herself from the character assassination, but at least the authorities were able to refute the story that she had fled on her own accord.
They exhumed Noreen’s body, and a mitochondrial DNA tested reconfirmed its identity.
The misinformation on the coroner’s report was simple human error.
Stay inside, pal. On June 2, 1994, Jack Boyle lost his appeal of the case, when a panel of circuit judges ruled that evidence of his guilt was “overwhelming.”
In 2000, the Mansfield News Journal reported that Boyle was making noise about his attorneys’ not representing him competently. He said they failed to advise him against testifying on his own behalf. That effort went nowhere, and he remained behind razor wire.
In 2010, he failed in his first bid to win parole. As of this writing, he’s still in Marion, with his next parole hearing scheduled for Oct. 01, 2025.
He has reportedly changed his story about Noreen’s death. He acknowledges that he killed her, but says it happened by accident: After she tried to attack him with a knife, he pushed her to defend himself and then he blacked out, he said. When he woke up, he claimed, Noreen was dead.
Okay, whatever you say, Jack.
More about him in a minute. What about Elizabeth and Collier?
‘Colliver’ Twist. Elizabeth was adopted by the family of a local school principal. No other information about her came up in internet searches. She may prefer to remain uncontacted.
Collier found himself alone after the murder. As a Daily Mail story from November 10, 2017, quoted the A Murder in Mansfield filmmaker:
“He … had a lot of rejection from both sides of his family,” documentary director Barbara Kopple tells DailyMail.com. “His father’s family probably felt that he betrayed them, and they didn’t want to adopt him or have him live with them, and the mother’s family probably had some trouble embracing a murderer’s son — in a way, a sense of further rejection.”
Fortunately, a local couple named Susan and George Zeigler eventually adopted Collier. He credits them with helping him recover from the traumatic events of his childhood.
Today, he goes by the name Collier Landry and works as a cinematographer out of Los Angeles.
Return to Mansfield. As of 2016, Collier was seeking to reconnect with his sister Elizabeth, whom he lost track of after the trial.
He conceived of the idea for A Murder in Mansfield, which was produced by Cabin Creek Films.
It shows Collier’s homecoming to Mansfield and his reunion with his mother’s best friend as well as with lead detective Dave Messmore, who also appeared on the Forensic Files episode. Messmore and his wife actually wanted to adopt Collier but legal problems prevented it, according to a positive review of the movie on the filmint.nu website.
Back to Jack: The movie also promised to show a reunion between him and his son. Somehow, Collier has managed not to hate him.
Photo motherlode. The Hollywood Reporter gave A Murder in Mansfield a good review as well. The movie has appeared at a number of film festivals and had “explosive ticket sales” for its showing in Mansfield. But the broadcast on November 19 on the ID network will be its TV debut.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Update: Read about Collier’s life today.
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube or Amazon Prime.
P.S. Read a Q&A with the Mansfield native who reported on the case for the Mansfield News Journal
To order the book:
Amazon
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Indie Bound
Thanks, RR: I recall this story – how mature Collier seemed as a young boy.
Only the other day we were discussing ‘dastardly doctors’ and how many feature on FF, which may have been in your mind when you chose this story. Yet again, we see a doctor evincing an untouchable arrogance in assuming that he’ll yet away with stupid behaviour – because it’s him. We advised not to ‘shit on our own doorsteps’: a body in the foundations surely counting as that (with all due respect to Mrs Boyle RIP), being so easy to detect if suspicion should happen to fall on the perp. Then the receipt for the hammer – either not safely discarded and/or purchased with a credit card, not cash, and not nearby.
The children may have done it for him anyway, as he was foolish enough to misbehave with her in front of them, then to have killed her in the house while they were there, instead of outside while they were asleep. The man did the prosecution’s job for them.
Sibling love doesn’t, I’d say, extend to the brother’s outrageous lies about, and smears of, a murdered sister-in-law. He sounds pretty nasty, too.
Boyle should never be released. Premeditated murder – of an egregious quality, I’d argue – compounded by further lies and so cost to the taxpayer, including, probably, collusion with his brother to besmirch the deceased in what seems like a co-ordinated manner. And all this as a doctor. How could he be said to be fit for release?
We can only wish the children well after the appalling loss of their mother and with a father and uncle who seem not only remorseless but plain wicked.
Throw that key away…
I’m curious to see whether the documentary includes any updates on the brother-in-law. So mean of him to trash his nephew’s mother.
What a story — and turn of phrase — ‘Coliver Twist.’
Yeah, jack hammers for ice removal? No way. Maybe in the Arctic if you need to tackle a glacier or something.
One Erie-area ice coping strategy I remember was putting a layer of gravel over the ice on the road. By the end of the winter of 1977 there were probably three or four layers of gravel on the road I lived on. That was a long winter.
Glad you remember it the same way — jackhammers were for PennDOT employees. Gravel, chains, and salt were for homeowners.
I vividly recall this episode, particularly the macabre detail that Dr. Boyle was intending to entomb his wife’s remains in the basement of his new residence. What kind of satanic fetish is this?
They should make it part of law that if you kill someone in self-defense, you have to report it to police within (for example) 48 hours. Beyond that, or if you try to hide/dispose of the body or other evidence, you’re not allowed to claim self-defense at trial.
Oh my. Those poor kids. How could a father do that to them? This breaks my heart.
Doc Doyle is a sociopath who hopefully will never be released. But what of the counterfeiter, Sheri? Was she not charged with anything?
I’ll never understand women who want to be with a man 20 years older. I guess she’s a sociopath too, willing to lie and be with a murderer, all for $$
Many of your so-called facts are blatantly incorrect. I will not list each of them. I will say that Charles and Noreen were estranged, so any of his comments should be completely disregarded. I would recommend anyone interested in this case see A Murder in Mansfield which primarily discusses the aftermath of the crime. Collier was twelve when his father was convicted. The climax of the film is Collier confronting his father in prison after twenty seven years. After having several premieres, including film festivals around the world, this docudrama will be shown on Investigation Discovery on November 17, 2018.
I can’t imagine why his mother’s family did not want to take those children and raise them. That is usually what happens in a situation like this. How could they be so cruel to ignore and reject those little children. What a disgrace!
Plus what about the time when Noreen’s sister accused Boyle of molesting her 2 daughters (which was 2 years before the murder)? Baltimore police were going to have him arrested but unlike Collier, his cousins were too terrified to recount their ordeal in court.
What a evil man. I thought doctors are suppose to save lives.
Plus what kind of person would lawyer up during the course of a missing persons investigation? Even Messmore was stunned by it.
I was always impressed at how well spoken Collier was, so I was excited when, on my way to work one day, I heard a radio ad for the Dr. Phil show about the case, and that Collier would be on it. I don’t have cable, so I wasn’t able to watch the show, but I was at least able to check out some of the clips for the show. I came across this site last week, and now get to feel a bit proud of myself for bookmarking that stuff so that I can contribute here.
https://www.drphil.com/shows/witness-to-murder/
I’m a Collier fan too — thanks much for sending the clip!
Indeed; he spoke beyond his years and must’ve been pretty persuasive of the jury – though the evidence was pressing.
Astonishing the perp lied that the body wasn’t Noreen’s until proven so. That he continued to lie after conviction should affect parole: 25 years should’ve been the minimum, and I’d make it longer for that, though I see the 30-yr point’s approaching.
He’ll continue to live with that denial fantasy even all the way up to his dying day.
Truly a Narcotic Psychopath Evil Person! Premeditated murder! This poor young boy, well beyond his years, was more of a young man than his father was a man! May he die in prison! I hope Collier will finally be able to move on, to find peace an freedom! Also to find love and a family of his own! God bless, I will keep you in my prayers!
Did Noreen know that her husband was under investigation for child molestation by the Baltimore police? This happened 2 years before the murder. According to reports, her sister accused Dr. Boyle of molesting her 2 daughters when they were very young. He was supposed to go down for that case but it never made it to trial because the girls were too terrified to go to court to recount their ordeal. I feel Noreen’s sister should at least join in the battle to keep her former brother in law in prison until the day he dies.
I didn’t know about that – yikes!
I also credit Mark Davis (Sherry Campbell’s uncle and Boyle’s business associate) for following the case through the media and leading police to the discarded concrete chips (which matched samples from the Erie home).
Glad to hear that he stuck his neck out in the interest of justice!