True Crime Brewery

On November 18, 2012, 13-year-old Dylan Redwine traveled from his mother Elaine’s house in Colorado Springs to visit his father Mark in Vallecito, Colorado for a court-ordered visit. According to Dylan’s big brother, Cory, Dylan was not looking forward to visiting his father.  A while back, Dylan had accidentally come across compromising and disturbing photos of his father.  The photos disgusted him and he planned to confront Mark.

Mark Redwine picked up Dylan at the airport.  On the way to Mark’s house, they stopped at Walmart and picked up fast-food at McDonalds. Throughout his trip, Dylan had been communicating with his Durango friends and making plans to see them. Text messages indicated that Dylan tried to make plans to stay with a friend nearby rather than with his father.  When Mark said no to that plan, Dylan made plans to see his friend at six-thirty the next morning.

Join us at the quiet end for Dylan Redwine’s Final Visit.  Dylan’s last phone activity was at 9:37 p.m. on November 18.  He failed to show up at his friend’s house the next morning.  Mark claimed that Dylan was asleep on his couch when he left his home at 7:30 a.m. that morning and that when he returned at 11:30 a.m., Dylan was gone.  As the last person to see his son alive, Mark Redwine was immediately a person of interest.  Sigmond Freud once said “I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”  Not only did Mark Redwine fail to protect Dylan, he was the one who Dylan needed protection from.

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Elaine Hall, Dylan’s mom

Sources

71% of Children Killed by One Parent are Killed by Their Mothers, breakingthescience.org, by Mark Rosenthal,July 23, 2008

A Parent Killing a Child Happens More Often Than We Think, CNN.com, by Doug Criss, July 27, 2017

Brother Of Murdered Teen Tells Court About Photo Showing Dad Eating Feces, Huffpost.com, June 24, 2021

KKTV.com Archives, 2012-2021

KUSA, 9News, Denver, Allison Sylte, June 21, 2021

Law & Crime Network, YouTube.com, July 2021

The rural Oklahoma mobile home of Kathy and Danny Freeman went up in flames in the frigid early morning hours of December 30, 1999.  Kathy and Danny’s bodies were found inside, both killed by gunshots to their heads.  Their 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, and her best friend, Lauria Bible, who had been there for a sleepover, had disappeared from their beds.

Years of searching for the two girls came up empty.  The search extended into Mexico and Canada, but rumors in the small community pointed to local lowlifes as the killers and kidnappers.

Join us at the quiet end for Gone in the Night: Ashley Freeman & Lauria Bible.  The Freemans should have felt safe in their humble country home, but the formally beautiful landscape of Welch, Oklahoma, was immersed in drug culture and the local police were appallingly ineffective, demonstrating shocking levels of negligence and potential corruption.

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Danny & Kathy Freeman

Sources

The Charlie Project, April 28, 2018

Hell in the Heartland by Jax Miller

Hell in the Heartland 4 part series, HBOMax, June 2019

The Joplin Globe, August 31, 2020

Out of the Ashes, Disappeared, Season 6, Episode 9, January 2013

People.com, April 2018

State of Oklahoma Court Archives & exhibits

Unsolved Mysteries, April 2018

Nelson Hart was charged for the murders of his twin 3-year-old daughters, who died of drowning on August 4, 2002. He claimed that he had taken his girls, Karen and Krista, to the wharf at Little Harbour to play on the swing set.  When Krista fell off of the wharf, Nelson got scared and ran for help. He didn’t know how to swim.

Nelson drove home for help.  His wife Jennifer returned with him to the wharf. By the time they got there, both of their daughters were in the water. Karen was already dead and Krista died hours later in the hospital. This was a tragedy, but the Canadian police believed it was also a crime.

Join us at the quiet end for Into Gander Lake. Months after Krista and Karen’s deaths, a Mr. Big operation began with the goal of getting a confession from Nelson Hart. The first contact with Nelson for the Mr. Big sting was when one of the operatives offered to pay Nelson to help find a missing person. After that, he was asked to make deliveries on a regular basis.  Nelson, who had lived his entire life in poverty, was paid very well. He began to feel like the operatives were his friends. Earning money beyond his greatest expectations, Nelson was anxious to become a full-time member of the Mr. Big gang.  Eventually, he was talked into giving a confession to prove his loyalty to this fictional criminal organization.

Mr. Big sting operations have been banned in most countries. While these coerced confessions can provide compelling evidence of guilt, they are often unreliable and they have been responsible for wrongful convictions. But there are at least two sides to this story, which we will explore today.

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Sources

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 7

Confessions of Murder  Exposing the False Confessions Created From the Mr. Big Stings  Alan R. Warren

Mr. Big by Coleen Lewis and Jennifer Hicks

R. v. Hart 2014 SCC 52 Community Legal Education Association

The case of Nelson Hart: 2 girls, 3 years and a mystery ‘Mr. Big, the road to murder charges was in fact an elaborate sting,’ by Nicholas Kohler, October 31, 2013 Macleans.ca

Penny Scaggs had been married for 35 years when she sat down to play her piano on the evening of March 6, 1996.  Her husband, Roger, had just left the house after dinner to return to his office.  Normally, Penny would have washed the dishes right after dinner, but, with Roger away, she took advantage of the time alone to enjoy her music.

Penny must have been startled when she heard the unexpected sound of footsteps approaching her from behind.  A steel pipe crushed the right side of her face, breaking her jaw.  When Roger returned home, he called 911, telling the operator that he found his wife on the floor in a puddle of her own blood.

Join us at the quiet end for A Good Marriage: The Murder of Penny Scaggs.  Penny devoted her life to her marriage, which she saw as a bringing together of three: Roger, herself, and God.  But over the years, Roger appeared less devoted to this sacred union.  Stories of infidelity and dishonesty circulated around their neighborhood and church community.  He would become a predictable suspect in his wife’s death early on, but would the evidence support his guilt?

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Sources

Austin Chronicle Archives

District Court of Travis County, 299the Judicial District, Roger Thomas Scaggs v. The State of Texas, Apellee May 4, 2000

Insideprison.com inmate search 6/22/2021

Statesman.com Archives

The Austin Chronicle “Murder in the Suburbs” Dec. 11, 1998

The Good Wife by Clint Richmond

When Noura Jackson was a child, her mother’s life revolved around her.  Noura’s parents had divorced when she was just a baby and she rarely saw her father, so the mother-daughter relationship was strong.  But then Noura became a teenager.

Most teenage girls argue with their mothers, but Noura and Jennifer’s situation was more extreme than most.  Noura was distant and critical with her mother.  She was drinking, using drugs, and failing academically.  It seemed that the more Jennifer tried to control her daughter, the more she rebelled.

Join us at the quiet end for Memphis Matricide? Early in the morning of June 5, 2005, 18-year-old Noura called 911.  Jennifer had been stabbed 50 times.  A wicker basket had been placed over Jennifer’s head, leading the police to believe that Jennifer had known her killer. At a time in her life when most people are graduating from high school and enrolling in college, Noura went on trial for the brutal murder of her own mother. But the question remains: did Noura Jackson commit matricide or was someone else responsible for this viscous crime?

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 Noura as a baby with her parents

Sources

20/20 The Case of Noura Jackson

ABC news archives

Innocenceproject.org 8/2/2017

State of Tennessee Court of Appeals 8/22/2014

Stranger to the Truth by Lisa C. Hickman

The image of young married couple April and Justin Barber taking a moonlight walk on a warm Florida beach sounds ideal.  They were supposed to be celebrating their third wedding anniversary.  But within hours, everything changed.

A passing motorist made a call to 911. Justin was found bleeding and slumped behind the wheel of his SUV.  He said that he and his wife had been attacked by an unknown gunman. First responders went to the beach to search for April while Justin was airlifted to a trauma center in Jacksonville, Florida.

Although he had been shot four times, Justin recovered quickly. He cooperated with police interviews, claiming to love his wife, despite his multiple infidelities and April’s friends’ claims that April had been planning to leave her husband. This is a chilling and tragic story of love, greed, and loss. Join us at the quiet end for He Used to Love Her, the April Barber story.

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                         April Barber

Sources

Justin Barber and the Two Million Reasons for Murder by Kenneth Miller, Reader’s Digest, January 8, 2013

Murder in the Moonlight, Dateline NBC, Season 14, Episode 30

Secrets In The Sand, 48 Hours: Season 20, Episode 16

State of Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District, 2009

To Love, Honor, & Kill by Lee Butcher

Among the thousands of vacationers who traveled to Ocean City, Maryland, on Memorial Day weekend, 2002, were two couples whose lives intersected, with horrific results.  The first couple, Joshua Ward and Geney Crutchley, were good people looking for a relaxing weekend.  But the second couple, Erika and Benjamin Sifrit, had much darker plans.

Join us at the quiet end for Bad Romance.  At first glance, Erika and Benjamin appeared to be a typical young married couple, but they were a deadly match.  They were big partiers, always looking for a bigger thrill.  When drinking and drugs were no longer enough to satisfy them, they moved on to burglarizing businesses and carrying loaded guns.  Then, one dreadful night, the Sifrits played a twisted game of murder and mayhem, showing their gravitation to violence and their complete lack of human empathy.

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                  Joshua & Geney

Sources

Baltimore Sun Online Archives

Cruel Death by M. William Phelps

Killer Couples: S11 Ep2 

Maryland Court of Appeals 2003

True Crime Daily May 2020 “Ben & Erika Sifrit: Thrill-kill couple caught after Hooters break-in”

WBLTtv.com 2003-2004