Collier Boyle Today: Moving Past Murder

John and Noreen Boyle’s Son Reveals More of His Story
(‘Foundation of Lies,’ Forensic Files)

When Noreen Boyle suddenly disappeared from her home in Mansfield, Ohio, her husband, John “Jack” Boyle, told friends and family that she simply had gone off on a jaunt. No big deal.

But their 11-year-old son, Collier Boyle, immediately went into overdrive.

He sensed something terrible had happened. Collier pushed for an investigation that ultimately led to the discovery of Noreen’s body buried beneath the concrete floor of a new home in Erie, Pennsylvania that Jack hoped to share with his pregnant mistress.

In 1990, Collier served as the star witness for the prosecution at the sensational murder trial. A jury convicted Jack Boyle, M.D., a popular doctor with a huge practice, and he’s lived behind razor wire ever since.

His son, now known as Collier Landry, grew up to become a freelance cinematographer out of Los Angeles and pitched the idea for the documentary A Murder in Mansfield, which first aired on the ID Network in 2018.

In 2021, Collier started a podcast series. He aims to make Moving Past Murder not just a vehicle for storytelling but also therapy and outreach for listeners.

Collier recently answered some of my questions about his work and life. Edited excerpts of our conversation appear below:

Forensic Files and the ID documentary told the story of your mother’s homicide. Where does the podcast fit in? It’s a true-crime podcast from someone who knows about murder. My message is that you can come through extraordinary things and be a functional person. I’ve stared at the nadir and survived. My mother gave me resiliency. I don’t want her death to be in vain.

What was your mother like? My mom was a kind, giving, wonderful person who often put the needs of others before her own. Every year for Christmas, I would have to donate half my toys to other children because I was fortunate and I should share with others who need it. 

She disappeared on New Year’s Eve 1990. How did your father explain that to you? He said she took a little vacation. I knew my mother would never leave my sister and me.

What did you do first? I stored notes with her phone numbers in a Garfield. I was secretly calling her friends to find out where she was. That’s how everyone knew she was gone. People were devastated. She was the light of people’s lives and they were shocked this could happen to her.

How did the disappearance transition from a missing-person case to a murder investigation? A Mansfield police officer named Dave Messmore saw the case cross his desk over a holiday when there wasn’t a lot going on. I told him, “She’s dead.” Dave didn’t care if my dad was a doctor — he was going to investigate him like any suspect.

It turned out that my father had been accused of molesting my uncle’s daughters and the Maryland police were about to arrest him for that crime, but the girls couldn’t go through the trauma again. The police in Maryland believed he killed my mom.

What happened to you after they finally arrested your dad? My entire family abandoned me. My father’s side didn’t want anything to do with me. And my mother’s side didn’t either because I look like my father. I went into foster care before I was finally adopted.

Your sister, Elizabeth, was just a toddler when this happened. Where did she go? When my sister and I were playing together in a foster home, they would take her away and say we weren’t bonded so they could adopt her out. I haven’t been able to find her.

Can your listeners relate to your history with your father? The manipulations by my father are incredible. He’s written around 500 letters to me from prison. I read the letters on the podcast and people say, “This is just like my abusive father and husband.”

You’ve said you can relate to the emotional side of sheltering in place during the Covid-19 crisis. How so? When I was 12 years old, for six months, I was basically not allowed to talk to anyone because I was preparing to testify.

So I get it with the pandemic. There are kids in abusive homes for whom school is their only relief. Now they’re stuck at home.

Have you ever found yourself attracted to someone who shares your dad’s traits? I got involved with a woman and then realized she was narcissistic and a horrible person. And when I broke up with her, she wanted to destroy me. I’m glad we ended it before the pandemic because if I’d been stuck with her in the same place, I think I would have offed myself. True narcissism is so insidious.♠

You can hear the Moving Past Murder podcast, including an episode in which Collier interviewed me about my blog, on Spotify or Audible or YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

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

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Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube

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