TRUE CRIME with Bratterstein

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Samiah Downing with me today.
In December 2012, four-year-old Samiah Christine Cornell Downing died in Adelanto, California, after prolonged abuse by her father, Ronald Dean Greer, and his girlfriend, Bianca Annie Mae Stanch. Prosecutors said Stanch resented Samiah and, with Greer’s participation, subjected her to repeated beatings, whipping, deprivation, and torture in the apartment where they lived.

In the days before her death, Samiah was whipped with a belt and electrical cords and suffered scald burns after boiling water was poured on her. She had been deprived of water for two or three days, was malnourished and significantly underweight, and was locked alone in her bedroom while Greer and Stanch left the home. An autopsy determined that she died from dehydration, with extensive injuries across her body consistent with being whipped and abused.

After finding Samiah dead, Greer decided to conceal the death. He and Bianca Stanch, with assistance from Stanch’s brother Rayshawn, wrapped Samiah’s body in a sleeping bag, drove it to a remote desert area near Baker, California, and buried her in a shallow grave. Authorities located her body in late December 2012 after receiving a tip and interviewing Greer and Stanch.

A jury convicted Greer and Stanch in October 2020 of first-degree murder, torture, and child abuse causing death. On March 12, 2021, each received a sentence of 32 years to life in state prison, 25 years to life for murder plus a consecutive seven-years-to-life term for torture. The California Court of Appeal later upheld the convictions and sentences.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Mary Jane, Zachary, Sadie, and Madison with me today.
In December 2001, Christian Longo killed his wife, MaryJane Longo, 34, and their three children, Zachery, 4, Sadie, 3, and Madison, 2, after the family relocated to the Oregon coast while he was facing escalating debts, fraud allegations, and financial pressure. The victims’ bodies were discovered over several days in coastal waters and inlets around Newport, Oregon, near Christmas.

Evidence established that Longo strangled MaryJane and two-year-old Madison, then disposed of their bodies in suitcases in the water. He initially claimed that MaryJane had killed the two older children, Zachery and Sadie, before he killed her in retaliation, but prosecutors argued and the jury found, that Longo alone murdered all four members of his family.

After the killings, Longo fled to Mexico, where he assumed the identity of New York Times journalist Michael Finkel and attempted to start a new life. He was arrested in Mexico in January 2002 and returned to Oregon to face prosecution.

At his 2003 trial, Longo pleaded guilty to murdering MaryJane and Madison, but a jury convicted him of aggravated murder in the deaths of Zachery and Sadie. The jury then sentenced him to death for all four killings; Oregon’s Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentence in 2006. In December 2022, Governor Kate Brown commuted Oregon’s 17 death sentences, including Longo’s, to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Alison Botha with me today.
In the early hours of December 18, 1994, Alison Botha, a 27-year-old insurance broker, was abducted outside her home in Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha, South Africa. Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger forced her into her own car at knifepoint, drove her to a secluded area near Noordhoek, and subjected her to a prolonged sexual assault.

Afterward, the men took Botha to an isolated field and attempted to murder her. She was stabbed more than 30 times, often reported as 37 wounds and her throat was cut repeatedly. Believing she had died, the attackers left her there. Despite catastrophic injuries, Botha managed to get to a road and obtain help; her detailed evidence was central to identifying and prosecuting both men.

Du Toit and Kruger were convicted of kidnapping, rape, attempted murder, and related offenses in the Port Elizabeth High Court in August 1995. Du Toit received three life sentences, while Kruger received life imprisonment plus 25 years. The sentencing judge, Chris Jansen, said their crimes showed “inherent evil” and recommended that neither man be released on parole.

The two men were released on parole in July 2023 after serving about 28 years, a decision Botha said had occurred without adequate victim consultation. In February 2025, Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald cancelled their parole following legal review and consultation, and both were returned to custody, where the department said they would remain.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Aliza Parsy, Rachel Pernosky, and Mary Ann Murphy with me today.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Larry Streeter with me today.
On Christmas night in 1997, brothers Ted and Jesse Ernst drove to the home of Dr. John Bradshaw near Bigfork, Montana, intending to burglarize it while Bradshaw was away. Ted Ernst, then about 20, was a well-known local wheelchair-racing athlete whose public image as an accomplished paraplegic competitor had made him something of a hometown hero.

Larry Streeter, a 51-year-old businessman and Bradshaw’s friend, was checking on the house while Bradshaw was out of town. After noticing the Ernsts’ car at the property, Streeter approached to investigate. According to later accounts and the brothers’ confessions, Ted Ernst shot Streeter six times at close range with a .22-caliber pistol. As Streeter lay wounded in the snow, Ted fired a final shot from a .357-caliber handgun, killing him.

The brothers attempted to remove evidence and conceal their involvement, but an investigation eventually led police to them. Both were arrested on May 18, 1998, and faced deliberate-homicide and burglary charges. Because they confessed and pleaded guilty, the case did not proceed to a conventional trial.

Ted Ernst received a 100-year prison sentence without parole. Jesse Ernst was initially sentenced to 100 years, but his conviction was later overturned; a 2001 proceeding found him not guilty after his defense argued that he had Klinefelter syndrome and had acted under coercion and fear of Ted. He was released after roughly two years in custody.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Liz Reiser & Brandi Hicks with me today.

In May 2000, best friends Elizabeth “Liz” Reiser, 17, and Brandi Hicks, 18, went to a Hollywood Video store in New Philadelphia, Ohio, after a choir banquet to pick out a movie. As they were leaving, 27-year-old Matthew Vaca approached and said he needed a ride home, offering them $20. The girls, who knew each other through church and believed they were helping someone in need, agreed.

Once inside their car, Vaca gave conflicting directions and led them away from town. When the girls became concerned and told him to get out, he pulled a gun and ordered Hicks to drive to a secluded area. He bound Hicks to the steering wheel with her shoelaces, then forced Reiser into a nearby field. There, he stabbed Reiser repeatedly and cut her throat, killing her.

Vaca then returned to Hicks, made her see Reiser’s body, and drove her to a railroad trestle over the Tuscarawas River. He attempted to sexually assault and strangle her. Hicks lost consciousness but survived; when Vaca pushed her from the trestle into the river, she pretended to be dead and floated downstream until she was confident he had gone. She reached the riverbank and eventually flagged down help. Her survival and account were crucial to the investigation.

Vaca was arrested after investigators developed evidence from Hicks and from a friend he had reportedly confessed to. He pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape, aggravated robbery, and forgery. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, partly to spare the families a prolonged capital-case appeals process. He received a total sentence of 96½ years in prison; reporting described him as not eligible for parole until 2096.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Tim Mclean with me today.
On July 30, 2008, 22-year-old Tim McLean was travelling on a Greyhound bus through Manitoba, Canada, when he was killed by fellow passenger Vince Weiguang Li. McLean had been sleeping or resting in his seat near the rear of the bus when Li suddenly attacked him with a knife. The assault was unprovoked, and terrified passengers and the driver escaped after the bus stopped near Portage la Prairie.

Li stayed on the bus after the passengers fled. During a police standoff that lasted several hours, he decapitated and mutilated McLean’s body and consumed parts of it. When he attempted to climb through a bus window, officers arrested him.

Li was charged with second-degree murder, but a Manitoba judge found him not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder in March 2009. Psychiatric evidence established that Li had schizophrenia and was in a severe psychotic state during the killing; he had believed he was following what he perceived as divine instructions and that McLean posed a threat. He was confined in a secure psychiatric hospital rather than given a prison sentence.

After years of psychiatric treatment and supervised reintegration, review-board decisions concluded that Li, who later changed his name to Will Bakern, no longer posed a significant threat to public safety. He received an absolute discharge in February 2017, ending the Review Board’s supervision; McLean’s family strongly criticized the outcome.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Edwin John Olson Jr. with me today.
In May 1998, 14-year-old Terry Charles Olson shot and killed his father, Edwin John Olson Jr., inside their home in Ferndale, Montana. Terry later testified that he had endured severe abuse, saying his father withheld food and beat him and that he believed killing him was the only way to make it stop.

After shooting his father in the head, Terry checked for a pulse, showered, took money from his father’s wallet, and drove to a mall to play arcade games. When school officials contacted authorities about his truancy, he reportedly told them his father was dead; deputies then went to the house and found Edwin’s body. Terry was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with 10 years initially suspended, a sentence later adjusted to 40 years with 16 years suspended. He was paroled in 2009 but returned to prison by late 2010 after violating his release conditions, including an assault on a girlfriend and alcohol use.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Lindy Sue Biechler with me today. Lindy Sue Biechler’s 1975 murder in Lancaster County went unsolved for nearly five decades, becoming the county's oldest cold case. The 19-year-old was brutally stabbed in her apartment while putting away groceries, and despite exhaustive investigations, including theories involving serial killers, psychics, and a mysterious letter, the case went cold. In 2022, advances in forensic genealogy finally identified her killer: David Sinopoli, a former neighbor. Using DNA from the crime scene and advanced genetic tracing, police matched Sinopoli's discarded coffee cup to the evidence. The arrest shocked the community, as Sinopoli had lived a seemingly normal life for years, married with children and grandchildren.David Sinopoli was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and burglary. Although justice was finally served, the motive behind Lindy's murder remains a mystery. The case highlights the power of modern forensic technology and genetic genealogy in solving cold cases, offering hope to other unsolved crimes. Lindy’s husband and family finally received closure, proving that, even decades later, justice can still be achieved. This case serves as a chilling reminder that killers can hide in plain sight, living among us undetected for years.

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Jonathan Gilbert aka Tyler Lane with me today.

In July 2023, 22-year-old Johnathan Gilbert, known as Tyler Lane, was outside a home on Dobbins Mill Road in Spalding County, Georgia, when three teenagers arrived to egg the property amid an ongoing “lover’s quarrel.” Tyler was visiting another woman whom his ex-girlfriend, 18-year-old Sydney Maughon, reportedly wanted to confront and fight.

When Tyler, who was unarmed, came outside to confront the group, they ran back toward their car. Video and prosecutors’ evidence showed Maughon urging someone to “shoot him,” then taking a gun belonging to 18-year-old Jeremy Munson and firing twice at Tyler as he approached the vehicle. The group fled, leaving him in the road; Maughon and Munson then went to her parents’ home, handed over the gun, and later went to work, while a third person, McKenzie Davenport, ran for help and called 911.

Maughon pleaded guilty to malice murder in November 2024 and was sentenced to life with parole eligibility only after serving at least 30 years. Davenport pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors tied to the events before the shooting. Munson’s case had not yet been resolved in the reporting available from December 2024, despite earlier reports that he was charged with murder and firearm offenses because the group allegedly acted together.