True Crime Brewery

After middle-aged couple Wayne and Sharmon Stock were brutally killed in their Nebraska farmhouse, police decided that a family member was behind their murder.  A nephew confessed and implicated his cousin as his accomplice.  But they still needed some physical evidence.

Enter forensics investigator David Kofoed.  Kofoed found a spot of blood underneath the dashboard of a car.  DNA testing confirmed that the blood was Wayne Stocks’.  But other evidence at the scene was not adding up.

The discovery of an engraved ring in the Stock house turned the investigation in the right direction.  The ring was traced to a Wisconsin couple whose truck had been stolen with the ring inside of it.  Two teenagers had stolen the truck and took it for a joyride.

Join us at the quiet end today for Nebraska Joyride.  This is a fascinating case involving a false confession, two cold-blooded killers, and a forensics investigator charged with planting evidence.

Gina Renee Hall experienced more pain in her 18 years than most of us do in our lifetimes.  As a young child, she suffered severe burns. As a result, she went through multiple surgeries and was left with disfiguring scars.

You might think that she would have been bitter and isolated herself from the world.  But Gina was a friendly, outgoing, and pretty young woman. She accepted what life had given her—dressing to hide her scars and yet always being fashionable, playing competitive sports, and attending college.

But Gina’s decision to go out dancing, and to dance with 28-year old Stephen Epperly, would lead somewhere that she couldn’t have predicted. Others who had known Stephen Epperly for years were aware of his violent past.  He had been accused of rape more than once, but he was never convicted.

Epperly was the last person to see Gina alive.  And blood was found in multiple locations where he had taken her.  Her car was found abandoned with the trunk open.  The trunk was stained with dried blood. But Gina has never been found.

In today’s True Crime Brewery, The Search for Gina Renee Hall, we will go over the details in this nearly 40-year old case.  We’ll explore Epperly’s history, his story, and the extensive circumstantial evidence used to convict him in Virginia’s first “No Body” murder conviction.

Long Island has a dark and terrible secret: the infamous Long Island Serial Killer – also known as the Gilgo Beach Killer. This still unidentified killer is responsible for the murder of over 10 women and one man, all whose remains were dumped along the Ocean Parkway.

In December of 2010, the Suffolk County Police Department was conducting a search for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker. Shannon lived in Jersey City and she had been missing since running away from the home of a client that May. While conducting that search in the dunes of Ocean Parkway, Police Officer Mallia and his German Shephard Blue found the skeletal remains of a woman stuffed into a burlap sack. But these remains were not Shannon Gilbert’s.

The search expanded and, two days later, they uncovered three more bodies – all female – that had been dumped in the thick vegetation along the road.

The four bodies were identified within weeks. All four women were revealed to have been escorts or sex workers who had advertised their services on Craigslist. Six more sets of remains were found in March and April 2011.

As the police widened the scope of their search, they continued to find more human remains.  The FBI eventually became involved and speculated that the alleged killer was someone familiar with law enforcement techniques.  But finding the killer has proven been impossible.  Psychologists have put together a profile and several suspects have been looked at, but the case remains unsolved.

Join us today at the quiet end for a discussion of these murders, including a heartbreaking look at the victims and what turned their lives in a direction where they became vulnerable to this serial killer.

Mitrice Richardson was released from the Lost Hills Sheriff department in Malibu, California, in the middle of the night without her phone, money, or transportation on September 17, 2009.  She had been arrested hours earlier after behaving strangely at an upscale restaurant. She was unable to pay her dinner bill and the restaurant staff were concerned that she was mentally unstable or intoxicated.

Once in police custody, Mitrice’s mother was contacted and she was assured that they would be keeping Mitrice overnight.  Her mother could pick her up in the morning. But, by morning, Mitrice had been released.  Her whereabouts were unknown.

No one knew why Mitrice had driven about 40 miles from her home to the oceanside Malibu neighborhood.  She had made some strange Facebook posts and had demonstrated some unusual behavior that day.  When she was released after midnight, she was in an area she didn’t know, without any way to contact her family. Her car had been impounded and she was unable to retrieve it.

Mitrice’s family believed that she could have been having a mental health crisis, so her release was both negligent and dangerous. And, as time passed and Mitrice was not found, her family began to feel ignored and deceived by the Sheriff’s office and the LAPD.

Join us at the quiet end today for the story of a disoriented, young African-American woman who was left to fend for herself, in the dead of night, in the rugged terrain of the Santa Monica Mountains, and was never seen or heard from again.

What happened to Mitrice Richardson? The gaps and omissions in the Sheriff’s department’s handling of her case, as well as her family’s discoveries, welcome further investigation into the events of her disappearance.

Heather Strong was a 26-year old waitress and mother, trying to make ends meet, when she disappeared in 2009. Heather had lived a difficult life which had only gotten worse when she became involved with Joshua Fulgham and Emilia Carr. Joshua was in on-again off-again relationships with both Heather and Emilia. When Heather went missing, Emilia was 8-months pregnant. She claimed that Joshua was the father.

Anne Marie Fahey was a secretary to the Governor of Delaware when she disappeared in 1996. Anne Marie had been having an affair with a married man—an affair she had ended. But her ex-lover, Thomas Capano, was not a man who took no for an answer. In fact, he had been stalking Anne Marie for weeks.

Michelle and Jason Young lived in a suburb outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. They had a two-year-old daughter named Cassidy and Michelle was five months pregnant with their second child. By all accounts, theirs was not a happy marriage. Jason had several affairs and spent a lot of time on the road for business.

When 19-year old Jessica O’Grady stopped answering her phone on May 11, 2006, her friends and family worried. She had left to see her boyfriend late the night before and hadn’t been seen since.

*Jill and Dick will be away on July 15 and TCB will return on July 23rd!*

Kristin Rossum and Greg de Villers were newlyweds who seemed to have a bright future ahead of them. But sometimes things are not what they seem. Beneath the surface, their relationship was poisoned by lies, addiction and betrayal.

John David Smith married his second wife, Fran, in 1990. While confined to her home recovering from a broken hip, Fran disappeared from her New Jersey home in 1991. Fran’s daughter DeDe and sister Sherrie called the house, frantically trying to reach Fran, but there was no answer. Then DeDe called John at work. He claimed that Fran had packed her bags and left him, but how could she have done that when she couldn’t even walk?