Murder Blueprint

The interview introduces Ann Spry, a longtime editor and former newspaper publisher, and discusses her work with the host on several books. The main topic is Ann’s book, Searching For Summer: A Solved but Unresolved Missing Persons Case. This is the story about the disappearance and killing of Summer Shipp.

Ann says she met Brandy Shipp, Summer’s daughter, after moving to Kansas City and having home remodeling work done. Brandy later introduced herself, and Ann asked whether she had considered writing about her mother’s case. Brandy had been approached before but was not ready at the time; later, she agreed to collaborate.

Summer Shipp is described as a former owner of the Bijou Theater in Westport who later worked in marketing surveys. In December 2004, she went to Independence, Missouri, for a survey assignment and did not return. Brandy and many of Summer’s friends organized a large search, and the case received major media attention, including appearances by Brandy on national television programs. The search found Summer’s car in Independence, which helped confirm she was missing.

The discussion also covers the investigation and the trial of suspect Jeffery Sauerbry. Police interviewed him and searched his home but found no clear evidence. Several months later some fishermen found Summer’s remains in the Little Blue River. The fisherman noticed a red scarf and when he pulled on it, he found it was attached to a dead body.

At trial, Sowerby was acquitted in Summer’s case, but he was later convicted in another murder case involving William Kellett. Ann says the book focuses less on the crime itself and more on Summer as a person, emphasizing the community support around her and Brandy. She describes the case as one where love, friendship, and grief were central themes. The interview ends with brief comments about writing and preaching as ongoing work, and Ann shares contact information for her publishing website and email.

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A short episode to update listeners on the outcome of jury deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy trial.

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This episode of Murder Blueprint examines the Lindsay Clancy case as the jury deliberates her fate. At the center of the trial is a difficult legal question: how should severe mental illness be weighed against criminal responsibility?

We review the defense case, including testimony that Clancy sought help from numerous medical providers, received multiple psychotropic medications, visited emergency rooms, contacted crisis and suicide hotlines, and participated in outpatient treatment, partial hospitalization, and a psychiatric admission.

We also discuss concerns that her mental-health treatment was fragmented and lacked a single provider coordinating her care. The defense argues that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her three children.

Prosecutors contend that her actions demonstrate planning, pointing in part to evidence that she calculated how long her husband would be away from the house and used that opportunity to commit the killings.

We examine the distinction between suffering from mental illness and meeting the legal standard for insanity, along with the role premeditation could play in the jury's decision.

Whatever the verdict, the most important fact remains unchanged: Cora, Dawson, and Callahan Clancy lost their lives. Their deaths remain at the center of this case and the questions surrounding it.

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City police detective Gary Jenkins talks with Los Angeles crime writer and researcher Joan Renner about George and Stefan Spitzer, identical twin brothers who became known as the “Roofie Romeos.”

The brothers were convicted in 1998 of using Rohypnol to drug and sexually assault women in Southern California. Investigators searching their apartment discovered boxes of Rohypnol and videotapes documenting assaults. Sixteen women eventually came forward, although investigators believed there may have been additional victims. George Spitzer received a 60-year prison sentence and Stefan received 37 years.

Joan explains how the twins approached women, fabricated impressive backgrounds, gained their trust, and secretly drugged them. The discussion also examines why drug-facilitated sexual assault can be so difficult for victims to recognize and for investigators to prove.

The episode concludes with what happened after the brothers were released from prison and returned to Canada, along with an important discussion about personal safety, watching your drink, and trusting your instincts when something doesn't feel right

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police detective Gary Jenkins examines the disturbing Lindsay Clancy case and the central question at the heart of her murder trial: Was she legally responsible for killing her three young children, or was she suffering from a severe postpartum mental illness that prevented her from understanding her actions?  

The episode begins with listener Lilly outlining the case and the deaths of five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callahan. Gary then examines the prosecution’s case, including the narrow window of time while Clancy's husband was away, fitness-tracker data, her behavior before and after the killings, her writings, Internet searches, medications, and the method used to kill the children. 

Prosecutors argue that the evidence demonstrates planning, awareness, and deliberate action. The defense presents a very different picture—one of a mother struggling with postpartum mental illness who repeatedly sought treatment but may have been failed by a fragmented mental-health system.  
Gary also looks back at several other notorious cases involving mothers who killed their children, including Andrea Yates, Dena Schlosser, and Susan Smith, and considers why insanity defenses have produced dramatically different outcomes.  

This episode explores the difficult intersection of murder, motherhood, mental illness, postpartum disorders, criminal responsibility, and the insanity defense. When there is no dispute about who committed the killings, the question becomes much more complicated: Why did it happen, and should the person who did it be held criminally responsible?

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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What would you do if your phone rang and you heard your child crying for help?

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, Gary Jenkins examines a disturbing form of fraud that uses AI voice cloning, caller ID spoofing, social media information, and psychological pressure to convince victims that a loved one has been kidnapped, injured, arrested, or is otherwise in immediate danger.  

The episode begins with a frightening case from Arizona. A mother receives a call from what appears to be her daughter, who sounds terrified and says she is in trouble. A man then takes over the call, claims he has kidnapped her daughter, demands money, and warns the mother not to contact police. By keeping her on the phone and emotionally overwhelmed, the scammer attempts to prevent her from verifying whether her daughter is actually in danger.  

Gary then talks with Mick, who experienced a remarkably similar call after leaving the gym. Mick heard what sounded like his own daughter telling him she had been in a car accident. A man then came on the line, claimed he was with her, made threats, and tried to maintain control of the conversation. Mick kept him talking long enough to contact family and confirm that his daughter was safe.  

The episode also examines a scam targeting an elderly woman whose grandson was supposedly jailed in Mexico and desperately needed money.

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins examines one of South Carolina's most baffling unsolved homicide cases—the infamous Superbike Murders.   On November 6, 2003, four people were executed inside Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee, South Carolina. Owner Scott Ponder, his mother Beverly Guy, service manager Brian Lucas, and mechanic Chris Sherbert were all shot to death in what appeared to be a targeted execution. Strangely, no money was taken, valuable property remained untouched, and investigators were left with virtually no forensic evidence or credible suspects.  

Gary walks listeners through the investigation from the perspective of a veteran homicide detective, explaining how police evaluated witness statements, processed crime scenes, eliminated suspects, and explored theories ranging from drug trafficking to personal relationships and mistaken motives. The episode also examines how a DNA evidence mix-up briefly pointed investigators toward a nonexistent love triangle before that lead collapsed under further testing.  

More than a decade later, an unrelated missing persons investigation involving real estate broker Todd Kohlhepp changed everything. After rescuing kidnapping victim Kayla Brown from a shipping container on Kohlhepp's property, investigators uncovered multiple murder victims—and eventually obtained Kohlhepp's confession to the Superbike Murders. He admitted the Superbike killings stemmed from nothing more than anger over his treatment as a customer at the motorcycle dealership.  

Gary explains why experienced detectives withhold key crime scene details from the public, how investigators test competing theories, and why seemingly impossible cold cases sometimes break wide open through completely unrelated investigations. This episode offers a detailed detective's analysis of investigative strategy, evidence evaluation, and the unpredictable path that finally brought justice after thirteen years.

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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In Part Two of this special Murder Blueprint series, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins continues his conversation with retired detectives Joe Langer and Tom Robinson as they reveal how investigators captured one of Kansas' most notorious serial killers—Richard Grissom Jr.  
The detectives take listeners inside the Johnson County Metro Squad investigation as hundreds of officers and investigators worked around the clock to locate Grissom before he could claim another victim. You'll hear how a nationwide manhunt stretched from Kansas to Chicago, Corpus Christi, and Dallas, where a carefully coordinated operation finally brought Grissom into custody.  

Joe and Tom describe the interrogation, Grissom's attempt to negotiate for a deal, and the mountain of forensic and circumstantial evidence that prosecutors assembled despite never recovering the bodies of Joan Butler, Christine Roosh, and Teresa Brown. From DNA evidence and trace hairs to stolen property, eyewitnesses, storage lockers, and ATM surveillance, every piece of evidence helped build one of the strongest no-body homicide cases ever prosecuted in Kansas.  

The detectives also discuss the trial, the prosecution led by Paul Morrison, the sentence that ensured Grissom would never be released, and why investigators continue to follow leads in hopes of someday locating the victims' remains.  

This episode offers a rare firsthand account from the detectives who worked one of the most complex serial murder investigations in Kansas history and explains how relentless police work brought justice for three young women and their families.

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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In the first of a two-part series in Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins is joined by retired detectives Joe Langer and Tom Robinson to examine the opening phase of one of Kansas' most disturbing serial murder investigations.  

What began as the disappearance of Joan Butler in June 1989 quickly escalated when Christine Rusch and Teresa Brown also vanished within days. All three young women lived in Johnson County apartment complexes, and detectives soon realized they were facing far more than isolated missing persons cases.  

Joe and Tom take listeners inside the investigation as law enforcement slowly uncovered the methods of Richard Grissom Jr., a calculating predator who targeted young professional women. They discuss how detectives tracked ATM withdrawals, recovered abandoned vehicles, analyzed forensic evidence, coordinated between multiple police agencies, and gradually connected Grissom to the disappearances.  

The episode explores the challenges investigators faced before modern technology, when DNA analysis was still in its infancy, and every lead required painstaking detective work. You'll hear how alert patrol officers, crime lab specialists, and Metro Squad investigators combined their efforts to identify a serial killer before he could strike again.  

This is the first installment of the Richard Grissom Jr. investigation. In Part Two, detectives reveal how they built the case that ultimately brought one of Kansas' most notorious serial killers to justice.

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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Two condemned men. Two completely different cases. One execution day.  

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins examines two Florida death penalty cases that reached the same conclusion on the very same day.  

The first case follows Dominic Anthony Occhicone, whose long history of anger, alcoholism, and obsession with a former fiancée ended in the murders of her parents. Gary breaks down the evidence that prosecutors used to prove planning and premeditation, leading to a death sentence that survived decades of appeals.  

The second case explores the controversial conviction of former Florida police officer James Duckett, found guilty of kidnapping, raping, and murdering 11-year-old Teresa Mae McAbee. Unlike Occhicone, Duckett maintained his innocence until his execution. Gary examines the circumstantial evidence, witness testimony, forensic evidence, disputed DNA testing, and the questions that continue to divide legal observers.  

This episode does not argue for or against capital punishment. Instead, it examines the investigations, the trials, the appeals, and how two very different murder cases ultimately ended with executions carried out on the same day in Florida.
Transcript
 [00:00:00] Hey, guys. This is Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City, Missouri police detective. Was in the intelligence unit, worked some homicides and did all kinds of things. And today I wanna talk about a, current event. Two men executed in one day in the state of Florida. Florida's kind of leading the country in executions this year. That Ron DeSantis he's he don't play. He don't play, man. Whether, I don't know whether you like the death penalty or not, there's always a lot of controversy about that. But but they're going for it down there yesterday Florida State Prison, two men waited in separate cells. They didn't know each other. They'd never met. They didn't do their crimes together. Their murders that they committed were about a year apart and hundreds of mile apart. There, was a difference in them. One admitted to killing two people, but he argued that his actions were driven by an emotional collapse. It was like a, a love deal and his alcoholism too. The other one, who was actually an [00:01:00] ex-cop from Florida, maintained all the way up to the end that they had the wrong man. But they still were put to death by the order of the State of Florida. Today, we're gonna take a look at their crimes, their lives, their convictions, their executions, and how these two men's stories were so disparate, but they came together on exactly the same day. ,... some folks believe that capital punishment delivers justice to victims and their family. Others believe that the possibility of executing the wrong person can never be ignored, 'cause you can't take that back. You can't overturn a capital sentence once it's carried out. We're not gonna argue about either side. I don't know what's right or what's wrong, I just keep doing a podcast and do the best I can each day, and that's all we all can do really. Let's take a look at this first case. . Let's take a look at this first case. Dominic Anthony Occhicone. Occhicone, O-C-C-H-I-C-O-N-E, was born in 1945, same age I am. He's about a month older. He was [00:02:00] born up in New York. He grew up in a stable family. His father had immigrated from Italy and worked as a sanitation worker in New York City. Now, a sanitation worker, some people, that may be a lowly job, but it's not a bad job in, in New York City. People that knew the family always described , the father as gentle and devoted to the family. Mother was just a normal mother. But from an early age, Dominic had , an explosive temper. He was always involved in fights as a teenager and young adult, which a lot of young men are. I've been in a few myself. The anger problems would soon become a recurring theme through his life, plus the alcohol. He was drafted into military during Vietnam, as everybody was. He failed to appear instead of reporting on that day that he was gonna be inducted in. He was court-martialed, and he served two years in a military prison, and that was like the beginning of the end for him. His life just gradually moved south from then on. Following his parents' [00:03:00] retirement, the whole family relocated to Florida, and he moved down there too. In 1977, he was a young man who'd just got, probably just got out of serving his two-year sentence in the stockade for failure to report. He married a woman named Sharon. They had a son. Sharon died, and their son was only two years old, and he did not stick around to raise the child. This child went to live with relatives. Occhicone spent increasing amounts of time drinking. His alcohol abuse was, became severe over the years, as it does. If you're an abusive drinker, it ain't gonna get better, and you're not gonna cut back. It's just gonna get worse and worse until you reach out for help. Years before marrying Sharon, he had dated another woman when he was still living in New York and he'd had a child out of wedlock, a daughter, and neither the father nor the daughter knew of each other's existence until years later. He didn't find out till he was on death row. Occhicone met his daughter [00:04:00] on death row. In the 1980s down in Florida, Ochoco had began a relationship with a woman named Anna Garrity. Following the six months that they lived together, Garrity already had a son and a daughter, and they took in Ochoco's young son, and they got engaged. They planned to get married in 1985. But two months before the ceremony, Anita ended the relationship. According to the testimony, she ended it because of his violent temper and his abusive behavior, and probably goes without saying, his alcoholism. But for him, as with many cases like this, for her the relationship was over, but for him it was not over. He continued to contact Anita. He continued. He sent flowers. He stalked her. He was trying to reconcile. In his mind, he thought if he could just do the right thing, he could get it going again. He could get it back together. I think maybe every man at some point in their life have had a [00:05:00] breakup where they thought, "If she just would listen to me, she'd understand, and then we'd get back together and everything would be fine again." And it never is, for the most part. She started dating somebody else, and when he found out about that, he was not happy. During that conversation she also told him she had an abortion, and she refused to identify the father. It could've been him. The harassment continued, and it really increased after that. He increasingly blamed her parents for their failed relationship, and that's common. A, a couple starts breaking up, and say the woman, in this case it's the woman is close to her parents, and so she, uses her parents for support. Many times they'll move in with the parents. And the man will then start blaming the parents for the failed relationship. Raymond and Martha Arsner Ochie Cone had threatened Anita with not only harm to herself, but harm to members of her family. Now, that's a good way to get a girl back, ain't it? Go out and threaten to beat them [00:06:00] up or threaten to hurt them if they don't come back or threaten to hurt their family. The Archeners lived in Holiday, Florida, and one day Ochie Cone arrived, wanted to, he just wanted to talk to Anita. Baby, just let me talk to you. Baby, come on. Just let me talk to you." Of course, she threatens to call the cops. "I've been there," "I'll call the cops. Get out of here." He leaves temporarily, and he comes back with a gun He was pretty calculating on this. He was pretty calculating on this, and probably one of the reasons it ended up with a death penalty. Before approaching the house with a gun, he disconnected the telephone lines so they couldn't call out. Inside, her father, Raymond Archner he saw Oticon was outside and he tried to call the cops. The phone wouldn't work. The father, Raymond, went outside carrying a broomstick as a weapon and warned Oticon to leave, and they end up in an argument, and Oticon shoots him in the face. He then forces his way in the house. Inside, [00:07:00] his girlfriend, Anita, sees him breaking in, and she runs out the back with their daughter and gets away. Her mother, Martha Archner, stayed inside Ochocone shoots her four times. Three gunshot wounds to the chest. She dies at the scene. Raymond's transported to the hospital. Before he dies, a deathbed statement, he identifies Dominic Ochocone as the shooter. Later the same day, they charge him with two counts of murder. He will admit this at trial,, they've got the death penalty is on the table, and he's trying to mitigate that and get life in prison and not get the death penalty. Obviously they didn't have a deal. And even, his attorneys, even after the jury heard this evidence of his alcoholism, his depression, his emotional distress,- the prosecution argued something pretty different. They presented the evidence that Ochocone had repeatedly threatened the Archers. He'd been [00:08:00] going after them, that he disconnected those phone lines. This was a calculated deal. He left and got a handgun and came back. That shows planning and premeditation. That's one of the things you need to get the death penalty, is planning and premeditation. If you just got a gun right there, folks, and you pull it out and you shoot somebody in an argument, then you got a chance to mitigate your penalty and by not showing that planning and premeditation. Jury will recommend the death penalty. It's a no-brainer to convict him. He admits to it They sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder of Raymond Archer, because if you remember, he came out with a broomstick trying to run him off, so they've got like a fight between the two men. But he then, after he kills Raymond, he goes inside

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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