Jeannette and Michael Slover Murder Their Grandson’s Mother
(“Concrete Alibi,” Forensic Files)
Updated on June 30, 2022
Although she liked her job as an advertising sales rep at an Illinois newspaper, Karyn Slover was looking forward to making more of a splash in the world after she clinched her first gig as a model.
But her colleagues at the Herald and Review never got to throw her a going-away party or publish a story about the local girl who made it to the big time. Instead, her co-workers attended a memorial service and wrote headlines about Karyn’s murder — after she turned up dead, her body dreadfully abused, at Lake Shelbyville.
Model citizen. It took more than five years to solve the case, but the justice system convicted ex-husband Michael Slover Jr. and his parents, who probably thought they were too upright-seeming to even be suspected of a homicide.
For this week, I looked into where the Slover gang is today. I also tried to find out whether Karyn was the victim of not only homicide but also false advertising by her modeling agency.
So let’s get going on the recap of “Concrete Alibi,” the Forensic Files episode about Karyn Slover’s short life and horrible death, along with extra information drawn from online research:
Sweetheart’s ride. On Sept. 27, 1996, a police officer spotted an abandoned car on the side of Interstate Highway 72 outside of Champaign, Illinois.
Inside the black Pontiac Bonneville, police found a purse, a half-eaten candy bar, and scattered coins.
The vehicle was registered to David Swann, who worked as a circulation district sales manager.
In the bag. David said he’d lent the car to his girlfriend, Karyn Slover, who was going to pick up her 3-year-old son. Forensic Files calls the little boy Christopher, but newspapers identify him as Kolten.
He had spent the day with his grandparents. They claimed Karyn never showed up to retrieve Kolten.
Two days after Karyn’s disappearance, boaters spotted a gray plastic bag on the shore of Lake Shelbyville.
The float. It contained a female head with blond hair and at least six bullet wounds fired to the back with a .22-caliber gun.
Other bags, found in the water, held the rest of her body. The bags as well as the car had chunks of concrete in them. The killer probably used them to weigh down the bags, but body gasses caused them to rise to the surface (another case of criminals who don’t watch enough Forensic Files).
Investigators believed someone had used a power tool to cut up the body.
Grim news. Dental records confirmed the victim was 23-year-old Karyn Hearn Slover.
She had disappeared after leaving the office for the day.
Publisher Bill Johnston called a meeting to tell employees about the tragedy.
Well-liked. “He did spare everyone the gory details,” former co-worker George Althoff recalled in a Herald and Review story from August 2020. “But the emotion was quite raw and evident around the whole place.”
“Karen didn’t have enemies,” her friend Jill Scribner said in an interview with the series Cold Blood. She “was a very lovable person.”
Her ex-husband, Michael Slover Jr., had been violent during the relationship, but he had an alibi for the night of the murder. He’d been working as a security guard at Cub Foods. A coworker remembered seeing him in his office with a shoplifter the store had just caught.
Conveniently forgotten. After work, Michael Jr. taught a karate lesson, went home to shower, and left for his second job as a bouncer at Ronnie’s Tavern.
Police next turned their attentions toward David Swann, who had been dating Karen for just a few weeks. He had some legal problems in his past, including impersonating a law officer (yikes, David Draheim).
David Swann also had a felony conviction for aggravated battery. (Years later, at the trial, he would claim he didn’t remember what crime he committed.)
Distress call. At first, David couldn’t account for his whereabouts for 45 crucial minutes on the day of the murder. He’d been late to a rehearsal dinner — he was slated to serve as best man — at Tater’s Family Grill. Police interrogated him for four hours before he mentioned that he’d stopped to get money at an ATM during the 45 minutes.
The bank had video footage of David that proved his alibi.
Meanwhile, investigators had appealed to the public for help identifying the place where the murder and desecration happened. Surely, there must have been signs of a bloodbath hidden somewhere.
Unlikely suspects. A law enforcement taskforce including FBI agents said they suspected Karyn met her grisly end in a location with tall grass and a gravel or rock base. They asked owners of remote properties matching that description to look around for signs of foul play.
“Because the offense was so odious, it also left an entire community clamoring for vengeance,” according to Dusty Rhodes, a reporter for the free weekly newspaper the Illinois Times.
A former FBI profile cautioned that individuals “can commit these horrendous crimes yet they can act like the person sitting next to you in church.”
‘Feudal’ family. The newspaper offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer or killers. Funds were set up for a memorial to Karyn and an education for Kolten.
By now, police had found out that Karyn and her ex-husband’s family didn’t get along.
Mother-in-law Jeannette Slover reportedly hated Karyn.
Tight grasp. Jeannette enjoyed an excessively close relationship with Kolten and acted as though she were the mother.
Karyn had won custody of Kolten in the divorce, but the court ruled that Jeannette and husband Michael Slover Sr. would have the right to babysit him while Karyn was at work.
An ex-boyfriend of Karyn’s would later explain that Karyn sometimes had to physically pry Kolten away from Jeannette and that she had told her grandson that “one day you’ll be all mine,” the Herald and Review reported.
Lot of trouble. Karyn’s father-in-law, Michael Sr., who worked as a pipe insulator at the Clinton Powerhouse, claimed that he’d gone to Kmart and bought a Play-Doh Factory for Kolten around the time of the murder, according to Cold Blood. But the store said that it had never carried that particular toy.
Jeannette, whose occupation has been described as either full-time homemaker or employee at a drive-through liquor business, lacked an alibi.
Investigators couldn’t find a blood-splattered murder scene, so they concentrated on Miracle Motors, a poorly maintained Mount Zion used-car lot owned by Jeannette and Michael Sr.
Fasten down the case. The lot had concrete and cinders that resembled remnants used to weigh down the bags with Karyn’s body.
Authorities called in the U.S. Army to help sift through the soil on the 5,000-square-foot expanse — despite that the Slovers had given the property a makeover shortly after the murder (FF red flag).
Six months into the forensic archaeological dig, the taskforce hit a small but valuable piece of pay dirt: a metal button that matched the ones on Karyn’s jeans. They later found rivets from the jeans and a fabric-covered button that appeared to come from her blouse.
Relocation rebellion. Authorities uncovered evidence that Michael Jr. had participated in the planning and cleanup — he and his folks talked on the phone 12 times on the weekend of the murder. One theory was that Mary Slover, Michael Jr.’s sister, babysat Kolten while her parents “performed the gruesome work necessary to dispose of Karyn’s body,” prosecutors would later allege.
Friends said Karyn was thinking about moving away from Illinois to pursue her modeling career after she landed a job in Georgia (more about that in a minute). The Slovers reportedly feared she would move there and take Kolten with her.
Police arrested Michael Jr. and his parents and charged them with first-degree murder.
Car trouble. Prosecutors made a case that Jeannette shot Karyn in the back of the head when she showed up to get her son.
The loving grandparents dismembered her body at the car lot, bagged the pieces, and weighed them down with concrete from the property, then threw the bags in Lake Shelbyville, the prosecution maintained.
The presence of the Pontiac on the Slovers’ property would have raised suspicions, so they abandoned it along the highway.
Doggone killers. Neighbors remembered seeing Michael Jr. trimming weeds along the Miracle Motors parking lot around the time of the murder, important because investigators believed tall grass grew at the scene of the crime. Witnesses also remembered that the Slovers had been burning items at the lot during the same period.
And as though we needed more reason to root against the Slovers, Jeannette and David Sr. euthanized their dogs after a laboratory matched DNA from Cassie — one of the couple’s black Labradors — to a hair that was found stuck to tape on a bag from the lake, according to Cold Blood.
In 2002, the loathsome trio were convicted of first-degree murder.
Buh-bye. Jeannine got a 60-year sentence. The men got 65 years each.
The Slovers lost a June 2003 appeal.
Nonetheless, Mary Slover continues to fight for brother Michael Jr. and their parents — who probably still can’t believe an outwardly respectable couple like them got caught.
Got the blues. According to an article in the Illinois Times from 2005:
“’Homebodies’ is the word Mary and Michael Jr. use to describe their parents. A night out meant dinner at a fast-food restaurant and maybe a movie. Usually, they were happy to simply hang around their Mount Zion home, grill some pork chops, and watch PBS or the History Channel.”
In 2008, a court filing mentioned an untested human hair found at the scene as well as a fingerprint near a spot of the victim’s blood on Findley Bridge — and ordered a hearing to consider potential new evidence in the case. The Slovers’ camp also called attention to unidentified short blue wool fibers found in Karyn’s car and with her body parts.
Prosecutor’s vow. In an impressive development, the Slovers garnered the support of the Illinois Innocence Project, a legal studies seminar sponsored by the University of Illinois at Springfield. (It’s not clear whether the group is affiliated with the better-known Innocence Project founded by Barry Sheck.)
In 2014, they won a ruling allowing DNA testing on fingerprint evidence from the case.
But that went nowhere, and Assistant State’s Attorney Jay Scott, who prosecuted the Slovers, pledged to work to keep the conviction in place.
Locked up. So where are the Slover three today?
Well, two of them are still behind razor wire, but with some chance of release in the next decade.
Jeannette Slover, 72, resides in Logan Correctional Center, with a parole date in 2029 and projected discharge date of 2032. Apparently, she’s been visiting some version of Laverne Cox’s beauty shop, because she now sports blond hair.
Hail Mary play. Michael K. Slover Sr., 74, occupied a bunk at Pontiac Correctional Center. He had a date with the parole board in 2032, but he didn’t need it. According to a reader (thanks for writing in, Steph Nihi), he died in June 2022. Good riddance.
Mike Jr., 50, is incarcerated at the Illinois River Correctional Center, with a parole date of 2031 and projected discharge in 2034.
As for Kolten, Mary Slover adopted him in 1999 — but that was before authorities had charged Mary’s parents and brother with murder.
Custody contest. And there were allegations of abuse and neglect, according to court papers.
Kolten spent some time in a foster home. After a legal battle, a Macon county judge ruled Mary unfit as a parent because the judge believed she took part in concealing her sister-in-law’s murder.
At some point, cousins of the Slovers also threw their hat into the ring in the custody competition.
Reason to smile. Ultimately, Karyn’s parents, Larry and Donna Hearn, won custody of Kolten. (He must have been a sweet little guy — everyone wanted him.)
“We’re goofy,” Larry Hearn told the Herald and Review after defeating Mary in the battle for Kolten. “We’re just both giddy as a couple of kids.”
So, what happened to Kolten?
Today, he’s in his late 20s and uses a different name. According to a social media account, he works in the home-improvement industry as a flooring remodeler.
Runway ruse? And on the subject of occupations, as previously mentioned, I was curious about the legitimacy of the agency that supposedly snagged Karyn a modeling engagement — there are so many scams associated with that industry.
Paris World, the Savannah-based agency, “would seek applicants through newspaper ads and then sign potential models and place their photos on the internet,” according to testimony from Paris World owner Alan Tapley at the 2002 murder trial.
Tapley said that he couldn’t remember any of the particulars about the modeling job his agency secured for Karen except for the fact that it was temporary, not longer than a month.
Not fee-free. Karyn paid $92 in processing fees in order to get the modeling gig, Tapley said, adding that he returned the money to her family after the murder.
Paris World no longer exists and Yelp didn’t saunter onto the stage until 8 years after the murder, so the modeling agency’s repute remains hazy.
(BTW, the Federal Trade Commission offers guidelines to help prospective catwalkers avoid scams.)
More in store. Whatever the case, Karyn Hearn Slover was a lovely person who never got the future she deserved.
That’s all for this week. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
Thanks, Rebecca. I just saw this ep. The snr Slovers are unspeakable to do this and don’t merit parole; but given the date you cite they’ll very possibly have expired. Jr Slover, I presume, got life for complicity – but I’m unclear if he’s regarded as having foreknowledge of the plan (in which case he deserves such punishment) or merely hindsight, then engaged in concealment. It seems as if only his parents are regarded as directly involved in the murder – in which case he seems less culpable, so why he got the same’s in question.
Who can comprehend Jeannette Slover’s wickedness as herself a mother who could take Kolten’s mother from him, and in such a horrific way – regardless of her antipathy to Karyn? We have the sense, I suggest, that the elder Mrs Slover was the driver of this crime, who roped her husband in, then the son, in her desperation to steal the boy.
Mary Slover seems an ugly piece of work too. We understand a daughter unconditionally loving parents – but the Norman Rockwell-esque picture she has the audacity to paint of these evil people is perverse. Of course, if she knew about the murder or concealed it, as is speculated, she approximates the parents’ wickedness. We can continue to love our homicidal parents without denying the gravity of their crime and seeking a profoundly undeserved and inapt release. They deserve life; they got it; it is fitting; she should accept it as the only decent response, though she doesn’t have to like it.
A final observation: that of the rank stupidity in the means of body disposal – almost literally in their own back yard, and particularly ‘cos they were always going to be ‘persons of interest’ given the interpersonal dynamics. Stupid white trash seems a fair summation.
Kolten deserves rich blessings in life.
Happy Christmas and New Year to all!
Let’s hope a lot of people write to the parole board about this one — the Hearns have suffered enough.
Yes – the public have a modicum of influence and should use it.
I don’t get why any parole board would let out a Violent murderer.
That is the definition of insane.
Nothing has changed with these people and they will hurt or kill again.
According to Wikipedia, the Illinois innocence Project is a member of the national innocence Project network. Whatever that means.
Thanks for writing in — I just checked out the Wikipedia page you mentioned and it sounds like it really is part of the Barry Sheck organization. I still think the Slovers are guilty, but it’ll be interesting to see what the project does to stir up the case.
https://www.uis.edu/illinoisinnocenceproject/current/slover/
‘The Slovers were convicted in 2002 and sentenced to 65 years in prison after extensive pre-trial publicity and despite the lack of any physical evidence or any kind of coherent theory on how they could have committed this crime.’
Granting that guilt must be proved, not innocence, I observe that guilt based upon circumstantial evidence only is entirely legally acceptable (it’s only since forensic evidence embedded itself so strongly in the last few decades that expectation has been raised per physical evidence to the detriment of circumstantial); and that the meaning of ‘any kind of coherent theory’ is hopelessly opaque. Does it mean they could not have done it (ie, the state’s hypothesis as to how/why is illogical or contradictory?)
As reported, they had the means, motive, and opportunity – the motive being the entirely plausible (though not necessarily applicable, of course) one that Karyn had expressed interest in moving away to pursue her modelling career and intended to take Kolten with her without the father’s permission, thus denying him equal parenting rights – a father and his family whom it’s known there was hostility with. This motive has apparently applied in a number of murders of mothers of babies/toddlers by the ‘ex’ or his family and is thus established as quite sufficient as a motive.
With the other facts of the case it seems the only explanation for the Slovers’ innocence is framing – but there’s no evidence of that.
As Rebecca indicates, putative ‘potential new evidence,’ examined several years ago, went nowhere (the above page could do with updating by the Project!) and this case (of claimed potential innocence) is a busted flush.
PS Since there is no formal jury instruction that adequately defines reasonable doubt, and based on the origins of the doctrine and its evolution, reasonable doubt may be resolved by determining whether there exists an alternative explanation to the facts that seems plausible. If yes, then there is reasonable doubt and the accused must be acquitted.
I’d be interested to know what the plausible alternative(s) per Innocence Project might be…
‘Stupid white trash’
You have to bring race into it?? Poor, poor taste.
Give it a rest:
“The term has been adopted for people living on the fringes of the social order, who are seen as dangerous because they may be criminal, unpredictable, and without respect for political, legal, or moral authority. While the term is mostly used pejoratively by urban and middle-class whites as a class signifier, some white entertainers self-identify as “white trash,” considering it a badge of honor, and celebrate the stereotypes and social marginalization of lower-class whiteness.”
They are white; they are trash. Enough said.
Would you be saying the same if someone said ‘black trash’?
Absolutely. In the words of another poster’s reply to yours: ‘If the shoe fits.’
If the shoe fits …
I’m white…and that’s what they are…white trash. I’m not sure of your race and don’t care. If blacks can use the “n” word with each other — use it in rap, use it constantly, I can use “white trash” when referring to my own race. It’s true. You are the one who is turning it into a race thing, which I suspect is typical of you. Stop trying to stir up trouble and focus on what this is about. I’m sure you can start a riot somewhere else.
Another satisfying follow-up from one talented author and Forensic Files fan to others!
Thanks so much, Jeffrey!
Rebecca, I’m a Police Officer in Shelbyville, IL. Some of the investigators on this case would come down from Decatur/Macon Co. (bordering county) to interview possible witnesses and visit reported places they’d need to check out for their investigation. Some evidence was located on Lake Shelbyville. I had just started a couple of months before the murders (June ’96 and still going), and I remember stopping at a convenience store for coffee and picking up the Decatur Herald, and reading about this on the front page. Shocking. Then for the next several years, the investigation would heat up, slow down, etc….very fascinating. Thank you for covering it on this blog….you do an outstanding job, and have a Merry Christmas!
Thanks so much for the kind words and for sharing your experience from the frontlines! I have to ask…do you agree with the verdict that the three Slovers are guilty?
You’re very welcome, Rebecca. You deserve it…allowing all of us to enjoy your hard work, following up on our favorite crime show!
Yes, they’re guilty. I’d be more than happy to provide you with pictures of the Miracle Motors (no longer there), or any other locations for your story. Just email me and I’ll be happy to help. Also…one of the officers I work with is a former Macon Co. Corrections Officer. Like I said, feel free to email me if you’d like, for further information, or whatever you need/want!
Another interesting side note…the former Macon Co. State’s Attorney, Jay Scott, is now our Asst. State’s Attorney. His top assistant, is now our State’s Attorney. We’ve got what we like to call a central Il. dream team now. Those two are also obviously well versed on the case. 🙂
Very glad to hear you think they’re guilty. I did start to wonder after reading about the innocence advocates taking up their cause. Will email you about the pics…
With great respect to the police corporate – rather than your good self – their opinion as to guilt is entirely irrelevant. Guilt is determined by a jury, not police. I’ve no doubt the Slovers are guilty – but not on the police’s say so. Far too many miscarriages of justice have been made consistent with (not because of) police’s view of guilt. Separation of investigation (police) and evaluation (court) is fundamental to justice.
Happy Christmas and Blessing for the New Year!
What is the address of miracle Motors?
Hmmm, I don’t have that in my notes.
N. Rt. 121 in Mt. Zion, Illinois. The building has been torn down though, it no longer exists.
Love that they’re still locked up, as they should be. Beautiful young woman taken from her family
all because the husband and the son couldn’t stand up to crazy “mother.” Thanks, Rebecca.
I have no idea why people like you insist on making Michael Sr. and Michael Jr. out to be some innocent guys who were forced to commit this crime by Jeannette. They both deliberately planned this murder with her. Michael Sr. carried it out. Michael Jr. helped clean up the crime scene. Most likely, the men dismembered the body and all three of them dumped it in the lake.
Michael Jr. BEAT KARYN MULTIPLE TIMES long before this murder took place. He was denied custody of his own child for being neglectful and abusive. He’s a piece of shit, his father’s a piece of shit, and his mother’s a piece of shit. None of them is any more innocent than the others. None of them were coerced into doing this. Period.
There’s a very similar case of the wife of a former cop whose parents-in-law (particularly the mother) hated her and appeared to want their grandson for themselves, following her estrangement from their son, the husband, after he was abusive. They murdered and cremated her, and are now both serving LWOP (there was no evidence the son was involved). Again, the mother-in-law appeared to be the primary perp, and I fail to comprehend how a mother herself could do this to a baby’s mother… It should rank as amongst the greatest wickedness (intentionally depriving a baby of his/her mother) and such people should never be paroled.
I agree — it’s double cruelty.
Found the case:
https://www.al.com/live/2010/01/update_more_details_released_i.html
Murdered mother by parents-in-law: Rose Goggins. Her child was a baby.
Wow, such evil!
If I recall correctly, since it has been a while since I’ve seen the forensic files episode, Jeanette would attempt to breastfeed Kolten. How horrible for the mother. Poor Karyn.
I just watched this episode again and was eager to get more insights from this webpage. The toad Jeannette was clearly the fat spider squatting in the center of this mung-oozing web.
She believes herself to be quite entitled and is clearly a sociopathic. 80+ and just getting out of prison is too soon for her. You’d think her jets would be cooled down but her malignant evil will only be thinly obscured by her “grandmotherly” appearance, which she will leverage to the end. In actuality, even Kate “Ma” Barker would recoil from her. Hopefully like most of her contemporary senior criminal sisterhood mentioned on these pages she will die in prison. The father and son will end their days as they lived. Stupidly.
Triste
The father, Michael Sr. died today in prison.
Thank you SO much for the info. Unfortunately, the old bag and her trash son are still alive. They should be headed by now.
Jeannette Slover is actually currently incarcerated in Decatur Correctional Center. I was near her on the phone when she got the news that her husband died in June 2022. I felt bad for her but then again I didn’t because I knew that she had been a part in the grisly murder of her daughter-in-law. Seems like justice all in itself that he passed away in prison. She is a very quiet and mild mannered woman, almost creepily so. The rumor in the institutions are abundant and in fact most of the other women are told that they put her daughter-in-law in a wood chipper and that Jeannette tried to breast feed her grandson after the grisly murder
I wonder how the grandson is doing. Late 20s. How did he fare after this horror in his young life and will he refuse contact with his murderous father and grandmother? I’m pretty sure I would. I’m sure Karyn’s parents would have given him a secure home and future. But I can’t imagine there’s anything the two remaining killers could possibly say to Kolten (or whatever name he goes by) for their brutality or wanting to make contact with him. My best wishes are with him.
Because Michael Slover Jr could not have participated in his wife’s abduction or the abandonment of the vehicle per air-tight alibi, I imagine Kolten might accept an argument that he had no foreknowledge of the murder but only learned of it afterward when it was too late (depending on when the flurry of calls between the snr Slovers and him began that day). Thus he could maintain that he helped with the scene concealment because he loved his parents and it was too late for Karen, despite his horror at their actions.
This has to be set against any evidence that he was physically abusive to Karen, which is repellent to a child, and that he did in fact (likely) know his parents’ plan to kill — with them doing the ‘dirty work’ precisely because Slover Jr would be the prime suspect and needed that alibi.
Children of murderous parents sometimes clutch at straws to deny to others, if not also to themselves, that likelihood of guilt is overwhelming, in which case a straw such as this may exist for Kolten. Who could blame a child who’s lost his mom for having the best possible interpretation of his dad’s behaviour? Equally, for wanting nothing to do with the dad who could participate in such wickedness.
For me as an outsider, much hinges on the timing of those calls: did they start before the suspected time of abduction (if that’s known)? If I could accept lack of foreknowledge *on the day* (and also that it hadn’t been planned prior to that day — there being no evidence that it was, presumably), I could accept reduced culpability. Of course this ‘polarised’ guilt, dependent on timing, isn’t quite adequate. Slover Jr may have had no significant foreknowledge but did know *as the crime was occurring*. The first call could’ve stated, ‘We’ve abducted (and killed?) Karen and are now dealing with the corpse’s concealment — we need help.’ Thus if he had *any* notice — even moments — that she hadn’t yet been murdered, he became an accessory because if he couldn’t persuade them against their imminent act he could’ve said he’s calling the police and they — presumably — would’ve demurred and accepted the much less serious charge of abduction.