True Crime Brewery

On May 20, 1988, 30-year-old Laurie Dann left poisoned snacks and juice boxes at several houses, started a fire that nearly killed a mother and her two children, and sprayed bullets inside of an elementary school classroom. After years of living with a serious mental illness, she had made a plan to hurt everyone she believed had slighted her as well as others who were completely innocent. There had been signs that Laurie a danger to herself and society. In fact, in hindsight, her rampage was entirely predictable.

Join us at the quiet end for A Ticking Time Bomb. Laurie grew up as an awkward child whose parents made perfunctory and misguided efforts at helping her. As an adult, her so-called “quirks” progressed into full-blown psychotic episodes.  But for a variety of reasons, Laurie never received the intensive psychiatric treatment she needed, leaving the lives of everyone in her path at risk.

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Sources

Day of Fury: The Story of the Tragic Shootings That Forever Changed the Village of Winnetka by Joyce Egginton, 1991

The Many Faces of Laurie Dann, Chicago Tribune, George Papajohn, 6/5/1988, ret. 7/28/2022

Murder of Innocence: The Tragic Life and Final Rampage of Laurie Dann by Kaplan, Papajohn, & Zorn, 1991

School Killer Left a Trail of Poison, The Chicago Tribune, Ray Gibson and Linnet , 5/22/1988, ret. 7/14/2022

Winnetka Killer Treated with Psychiatric Drug, Chicago Tribune, 2/13/2007, ret. 7/27/2022

On November 10, 2010, in broad daylight, a man broke into the home of Tina Herrmann and her two young children.  The attacks, murders, and kidnapping that followed were some of the worst crimes in the history of the state of Ohio.

Matthew Hoffman was known by his neighbors as a bit of an oddball, but this didn’t necessarily mean that he was dangerous. He did have a history of breaking and entering that put him in prison once, but he didn’t appear to be a violent person. Then, in 2010, Hoffman’s odd behavior began to escalate.

Join us at the quiet end for House of Leaves.  Tina was a working mother, determined to give her son and daughter a stable, safe, and loving home.  Despite not having much money, she had been successful. But Tina had no way of knowing that her home had become the target of the increasingly disturbed Hoffman. When Tina didn’t show up for work on November 11, the scene inside her house pointed to unspeakable violence. And, when the police entered Hoffman’s home, what they saw inside was unlike anything they’d seen before.

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Sources

Father, stepmother charged with assaulting Knox County kidnap victim, The Columbus Dispatch, by Allison Manning, 5/21/2013

The Girl in the Leaves by Robert Scott

Killer Stuffed His House With Leaves, Kept Kidnapped Girl on Bed of Leaves, ABCNews.com by Jessica Hopper, 2/10/2011, ret. 7/5/2022

The Leaf Killer, Twisted Killers, S1 E5, Oxygen

Man Charged in Deaths of Victims Found in Ohio Tree, BBC News 1/4/2011, ret. 7/7/2022

What was in the home (and mind) of Matthew Hoffman? The Columbus Dispatch 2/9/2011, ret. 7/5/2022

Tina, Kody, & Stephanie

In September 1985, two Muncie, Indiana, teenagers were shot and killed in their car while parked in the popular Westside Park. The murders stunned Muncie families because the victims were well-liked students at Muncie Northside High School. Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were found late at night by the police officer who was clearing out the park at closing time. Their car was still running, with one window down and the other shattered by gunfire.

Join us at the quiet end for The Westside Park Murders. From the very beginning, investigators were inundated with possible suspects, from family members to serial killers. Suggested motives ranged from a random killing, to a family dispute, to a drug deal gone wrong. Although many leads have been investigated over the years, this remains a cold case and an enduring mystery.

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Read “The Westside Park Murders: Muncie’s Most Notorious Cold Case”

Sources

Muncie crime: 150 years of murders, mysteries, Star Press, by Douglas Walker, 3/20/2015

Probe Centers on Two Cars, Muncie Star, by Diana Newlin, 10/03/1985

Sketch of suspect by an uncredited police department sketch artist, Muncie Evening Press, 10/07/1985

Star Press articles, by Keith Roysdon & Douglas Walker, 2010-2015

The Westside Park Murders: Muncie’s Most Notorious Cold Case, by Keith Roysdon & Douglas Walker, 2021

The Westside Park Murders: Muncie’s Most Notorious Cold Case, Virtual Talk with Keith Roysdon, Muncie Public Library, Interview by Sara McKinley, Local History & Genealogy Supervisor, 3/25/2021

Sandra Renee Cantu vanished from her Tracy, California, mobile home park in March of 2009, just weeks after her 8th birthday.  It was a Friday afternoon.  Sandra left home to play at a friend’s house. She was expected home for dinner, but her mother called the police and reported her missing at 7:53 p.m. Police did not find Sandra that day, but they did locate surveillance camera footage showing the little girl skipping happily toward her home before something caught her eye and she walked off screen.

Join us at the quiet end for The Abduction of Sandra Cantu. The FBI became involved in the search for Sandra early on. Their Behavioral Analysis Unit’s profile for Sandra’s abductor pointed to an adult male between 25 and 45 years old, who knew Sandra, lived in the trailer park, and had a history with sexual assault or child pornography. But the profile was based on statistics alone.  With no crime scene, investigators had to rely on Sandra’s family and neighbors for clues. And there was one neighbor who caught their attention, a neighbor who did not fit the profile, but who would soon become the primary suspect in Sandra’s disappearance.

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Sandra’s Missing Poster

Sources

“Inside Story: Clues to Why Melissa Huckaby Murdered an 8-year-old Girl,” People Magazine, by Howard Brewer, 6/27/2010. Ret. 6/12/2022.

KTLA News Archives 2009-2010

Searching for Sandra by Stacy Dittrich

“Sunday School Teacher Charged with Kidnapping, Murder” Los Angeles Times, by Vives, Ruben, & Rong-Gong II. Ret. 6/5/2022

“Woman, 28, Jailed in Sandra Cantu Slaying,” San Francisco Chronicle, by Kevin Fagan. Ret. 6/8/2022.

“Woman Accused of Raping, Killing Sandra Cantu May Have Drugged Other Girl and a Man,” NYDailyNews.com, 5/22/2009. Ret. 6/8/2022.

1998 was a shocking and disturbing year for the residents of Port Angeles, Washington.  First, a three-day old infant died at the hands of beloved pediatrician Dr. Eugene Turner. Then, the wife of ER physician Bruce Rowen was found hacked to death inside of her car.  But were these two deaths connected?

Join us at the quiet end for A Very Bad Year in Port Angeles. Dr. Eugene Turner was considered saint-like by Port Angeles families.  He had delivered at least one-third of the babies born at the Olympic Peninsula Hospital over the past 30-years. He donated to Habitat for Humanity, cut wood for disadvantaged families, and could even be seen picking up trash on the side of Highway 101. Dr. Bruce Rowen was a respected emergency medicine physician with a nice home and a young family. So, what happened in 1998 to turn these two formerly irreproachable men into murder suspects?

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Dr. Bruce Rowen & Dr. Eugene Turner

Sources

Bitter Medicine by Carlton Smith

Doctor Insane When He Killed His Wife, Jury Rules, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Rebekah Denn, 10/31/1998

Los Angeles Times Archives 1998-2002

Seattle Times Archives 1998-2006

No one really knows what happens between two people in a marriage.  But after events in the home of couple Mary and Matthew Winkler led to a deadly shooting, everyone had an opinion.  Mary and Matthew had married young.  Matthew was a preacher for the Church of Christ in a small town in Tennessee.  Depending on who you’re talking to, Matthew was either a devoted family man or an abusive deviant and Mary was either a long-suffering victim or a repressed and vindictive wife.

Join us at the quiet end for Wife of a Preacherman. In 2006, Mary Winkler became involved in a financial scam.  She wrote bad checks and opened a separate bank account without Matthew’s knowledge.  Then, just days before Matthew would learn about her banking escapades, he was on their bedroom floor, bleeding to death, while Mary and their three children left town in the family van.  This should be an interesting discussion today because Dick and I have some different takes on what happened and if the punishment fit the crime.

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Sources

Did Preacher’s Wife Get Away with Murder? Mike Celizic, 8/16/2007

Feminism and the Disposable Male, Karen Straughan, https://youtu.be/vp8tToFv-bA

Oprah Interview with Mary Winkler, cnn.com. 9/12/2007, retrieved 4/28/2022 on YouTube

Slain Preacher’s Wife Denies Pulling Trigger, CNN.com, 4/19/2007

Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder by Ann Rule

Snapped: Mary Winkler, S6 E1

The Pastor’s Wife by Diane Fanning

The Preacher’s Wife, Dateline NBC, S19 E8

When Jeanne Dominico woke up on the morning of August 6, 2003, she didn’t expect to die that day. She was a hard-working divorced mom of two teenagers, so every day was a busy one.  After working one of her three jobs, Jeanne would go home to fix dinner and clean up the house for her son, Charlie, and her daughter, Nicole.  Nothing was more important to Jeanne than her children.

For the past three years or so, 43-year-old Jeanne had been in a loving relationship with a co-worker named Chris McGowen.  He got along well with Jeanne’s children and they planned a future together as a family.  But in the months leading up to August 6, Jeanne had been having trouble with 14-year-old Charlie, who was hanging with a rough crowd, and 16-year-old Nicole, who had become obsessed with a new boyfriend.

Join us at the quiet end for First Comes Love, Then Comes Murder. It was Chris McGowen who called the police after finding Jeanne unresponsive in her home.  Interviews with Chris and Jeanne’s ex-husband were done that evening, but Charlie, Nicole, and Nicole’s boyfriend weren’t immediately found. The police had their suspicions about what had happened to Jeanne, but a confession that night would surprise detectives, devastate family members, and leave their New Hampshire community in shock.

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Billy and Nicole

Sources

Because You Loved Me by M. William Phelps

Daughter Sentenced To 40 Years For Mother’s Death, WMUR9, 9/8/2005

Hartford Current Archives, retrieved 4/22/2022

Snapped: Killer Couples, S1 E9, 2013

State of New Hampshire v. Nicole Kasinskas, Bernstein & Mello P.L.L.C., The Telegraph (Nashua, NH), 9/9/2005

State of New Hampshire v. William Joseph Sullivan, The Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 4/18/2008