Noreen Boyle Archives - Forensic Files Now

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.

Collier Landry Boyle wearing a black t-shirt — Collier Landry

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.

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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.

Noreen Boyle in a pink Polo shirt with the sea in the background — Noreen Boyle was sweet but ‘didn’t suffer fools,’ according to her son

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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A Reporter Recalls Mansfield’s Trial of the Century
(‘Foundation of Lies,’ Forensic Files)

John “Jack” Boyle clearly saw too many Vincent Price movies. Or maybe he didn’t need to watch any horror films because he already had macabre impulses inside him.

After the wealthy doctor from Mansfield, Ohio impregnated his girlfriend, he hoped to marry her without the financial inconveniences of a split from Noreen Boyle, the mother of his son, Collier, 11, and daughter, Elizabeth, 3.

Noreen and Collier Boyle sitting on a dock — Collier and Noreen Boyle

Jack avoided a divorce by killing Noreen just before New Year’s day of 1990. And here’s the unusually ghastly part of the murder: He buried her beneath a fresh layer of concrete in the basement of the new house that he intended to occupy with Sherri Campbell in Erie, Pennsylvania.

But instead of winning himself a second chance at marriage, he earned a prison sentence of 20 years to life.

I feel a personal connection with the case because I grew up 40 miles from Erie — it was the big city we went to if we couldn’t find something in Meadville — and I had relatives in Mansfield, Ohio.

A previous post discussed the denouement of the crime and its consequences for Noreen’s son, now known as Collier Landry.

This time, I looked into the homicide’s effect on the community of Mansfield — population 46,000 — courtesy of a phone interview with journalist John Futty, a native who wrote about the case for the Mansfield News Journal.

“I’ve covered courts and cops for four decades now,” says John, “but I’ve never covered anything that had that level of public interest or was reported so comprehensively.”

Below are excerpts from my phone conversation with John, who now works for the Columbus Dispatch:

According to Forensic Files, Jack Boyle had a hugely successful medical practice. Had you heard of him before the murder? No, I don’t believe I had. My recollection was that Noreen and John weren’t too involved in the community. But we heard from a lot of patients who were surprised because they really liked him as a physician.

How did locals react to the case? The community was obsessed with it all the way throughout the trial. It’s not your typical murder case. We’re talking about someone from Woodland, one of the most prestigious areas in town, who transported a body to a new home he hoped to share with his pregnant girlfriend.

Was there a lot of sympathy for Collier, who was 12 years old when he testified? Yes. Collier’s testimony was seen by pretty much everyone and it was fascinating. Obviously, a pretty bright kid.

What about Noreen — was there sympathy for her? Yes, especially because her husband had a pregnant girlfriend.

What did people think of the character assassination Jack and his brother waged against Noreen? They claimed she was a gold smuggler and baby seller. That came after he went to prison, when he was trying to get a new trial. The people who knew Noreen didn’t buy it.

A prison mugshot of Jack Boyle with gray hair and a gray beard and mustache — Jack Boyle’s most recent prison mug shot. He has a chance of parole in 2025.

Back to the trial — I assume the courtroom was packed every day. The public had to get there early if they wanted to get a seat inside. There was a video monitor outside for those who couldn’t fit. The judge didn’t want people going in and out of the courtroom.

What was it like to cover the trial as a reporter for a small-town newspaper? There were two of us. We would have a tape recorder running during the trial. We had to transcribe the testimony ourselves. The two of us would stay late into the night to type big sections of key testimony so we could fill a couple of inside pages in the paper the next day.

Did you appear on any of the true crime shows about the Jack and Noreen Boyle case? More often or not, I turn down requests to be on shows. They take your time. You have to go somewhere where they’re doing the filming. You might sit there in the interview for an hour or more and end up with a couple snippets on TV.♠

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

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Tag: Noreen Boyle

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