Insane True Crime Cases of 2026

Some crimes are so insane [music] that even after every detail has been uncovered, they still seem impossible to believe. Over the past year, we've covered cases involving unthinkable motives, unbelievable mistakes, and twists that even investigators could have never predicted. Out of all the wild cases we've covered this year, these were by [music] far the most shocking. These are the most insane cases we've covered in [music] 2026. It was June 23rd, 1996, and a homeless man was searching through a dumpster in Boston when he noticed a black trash bag. It was heavy. It was too heavy. And when he looked inside, he found the upper half of a young woman. Police would spend months searching for the rest of her body, but they never [music] found it. The victim was 20-year-old Karina Homer, a young woman from Sweden who'd come to America just months earlier for what she believed to be the adventure of a lifetime. And instead, after one night out with friends, she vanished in one of the strangest unsolved murder cases in Boston history. a case involving a wealthy host family, rumors of a secret affair, a letter about something terrible that had happened, a suspicious fire, and one missing piece of evidence that investigators searched for for nearly three decades. And that missing piece of evidence was her legs. Karina Homer came from a small town in Sweden, but the life she always wanted seemed to be somewhere else. She dreamed of moving to the United States. Not just visiting and not just seeing it on TV. She wanted to be there to experience the bigger world she'd spent so [music] long imagining. Friends and family described her as optimistic, ambitious, cheerful, and full [music] of energy. She loved the people close to her, and she always wanted more than that quiet life that she'd always known. [music] She wanted her golden opportunity. And strangely enough, it arrived in the form of a lottery ticket. She was not chasing wealth or fame. [music] She was chasing motion. The feeling that life can become larger if she could just get far enough away from where she had started. Karina bought a lottery ticket and won 10,000 Swedish crona. In 1996, that was roughly 1,500 American. It was not life-changing money for most people, but for Karina, it was enough to open the door that she'd been staring at for all those years. The dream was no longer some far-off fantasy. Suddenly, America was real. A plane ticket was possible and a new life was possible. All she needed now was a way in. Karina's plan was to work as an a pair. Basically, a foreign live-in nanny for a family. [music] And normally that kind of move comes with rules, agencies, background checks, visas, a whole system meant to protect both the family and the person coming into the country. But Karina did not enter through that normal system. For reasons that are still not completely clear, she went through an unlicensed opair agency instead. [music] Now, all of those rules can sound boring, but they exist because an OAIR is [music] young, foreign, and dependent on that host family. And these people are often moving far away from anyone they can actually trust. When the system is skipped, that person is stepping into a home that has far fewer protections in place. And that detail matters. Karina entered the United States on a tourist visa through an agency that did not comply with any of the usual regulations and the agent connected to that agency had reportedly been convicted [music] twice for operating without a permit. Now, we don't know whether Karina understood how risky that was or whether she was just so focused on getting to America that the warnings didn't register. [music] But either way, by March of 1996, she'd made it. She landed on American soil and stepped directly into that dream that she'd been chasing for so long. Before long, she found work as a nanny in Dover, Massachusetts, an affluent community where wealthy families lived behind quiet streets, polished homes. The family she worked for was Frank Rap and Susan Nichter. Frank was a photographer and Susan was a painter. They had two children and Karina's job was to help care for them. From the outside, it looked like Karina had found exactly what she wanted. She settled in quickly. She made friends with other a pairs and became the kind of person people naturally wanted to be around. During the week she helped care for the children and during the weekends she went out with friends and tried to enjoy the life that she traveled so far to find. And for a while nothing seemed wrong. The children liked her, her friends liked her. The arrangement appeared to be working. That's what makes this early part of Karina's story so uneasy in hindsight. Nothing about it screams danger. It just looks like a young woman settling into a dream, unaware that the people, places, [music] and small decisions around her would later be pulled apart by detectives. But that's the danger of cases like this. The first signs are not always obvious. Sometimes the story still looks bright from the outside, even when something darker is already moving beneath it. In one June weekend, [music] Karina went out with her friends like she'd done many times before. Only this time, the night [music] did not end with everyone making it home. By June 21st of 1996, Karina had been in America for only a few months. Her opair job came with one unusual perk. Actually, Frank had given her access to his South Boston studio apartment, and that was where Karina and her friends gathered before going out that night. The apartment was loud, crowded, and full of the usual energy of young women getting ready for a night in the city. It should have been ordinary. Another weekend with friends and another memory to send back home. No one in that apartment could have known [music] that they were watching the last hours of Karina's life. The last time that she'd be seen laughing with friends before her story split in two. After leaving the apartment, the group moved through downtown Boston and eventually ended up at Zanzibar, a nightclub near Boston Common. Karina was only 20, but she had a fake ID and most bouncers apparently didn't question it. She walked in wearing a sparkly silver sweater with matching pants, the kind of outfit that would have made her easy to notice under club lights. She danced, she let loose, and to everyone around her, it seemed like another normal night out. But as the night went on, Karina realized she may have gone a bit too far. And in the [music] end, she ended up falling asleep in the bathroom. Now, her friends later left the club believing that she'd already left without them, and no one checked closely enough to realize she was actually still there. That one mistake changed everything. When Karina woke up around 3:00 a.m., she was no longer surrounded by friends. She was alone, intoxicated, and trying to make sense of where the night had gone. She was trying her best to regain her bearings, and she then made her way outside of the club. This is where witnesses later placed Karina long after closing time. She reportedly tried to get back inside the club after she left, but the dorman refused because Zanzibar was shut down for the night. And after that, witnesses said she began singing and dancing on the sidewalk. Some reports say that she pulled a homeless man in to dance with her. And others remember her talking to a man dressed in a Superman costume, walking a large white dog wearing a matching Superman costume. It sounds bizarre and almost too strange to be real, but in Karina's case, these odd little details become some of the final pieces anyone had of her life. [snorts] At around 3:20 a.m., Karina was last seen on foot near Tmont Street, not in a car and not clearly leaving with anyone, just walking away into the early morning darkness of Boston. After that, the trail goes cold. No confirmed sightings, no call home, no return to the apartment, nothing. Somewhere between that sidewalk and the next morning, Karina Homer disappeared. To many, it seemed like this is where Karina's story would end, just fading into the night. But how wrong they would be. 2 days later, on June 23rd, a homeless man was searching through a dumpster in Boston's Black Bay neighborhood. Some sources have suggested this may have been the same homeless man that Karina danced with outside Zanzibar, while others say it was someone else. But either way, he was looking through trash when he found a dark garbage bag that felt wrong the moment that he lifted it. It had weight to it. The kind of weight [music] that makes a person stop. Now, there was nothing dramatic about the setting at first. It was just a dumpster, just an ordinary city morning [music] and someone doing what he'd probably done many times before. The horror was not announced. It was hidden inside a bag. And when he opened that bag, he saw something so horrifying that he backed away and he called for help. Police arrived. They searched the dumpster and they looked inside. And what they found was a body. Well, part of one. Inside the trash bag was the upper half of a young woman. Everything below the chest was missing. Detective Olirri and other officers searched the dumpster and the surrounding area for the rest of her remains, [music] but there was nothing. No lower half, no clothing, no purse, no ID, and no easy way to even know who she was. All they had was a blonde Jane [music] Doe discard in a dumpster in Black Bay, as if someone had carefully removed everything that might lead back to them. Whoever left her there had not simply killed her and fled. They'd separated her body, removed her belongings, and left behind only enough for police to know something monstrous had happened, but not enough to show who had done it. Police quickly spread the word about the unidentified woman. When Frank Rap and Susan Nitchster heard that a blonde Jane Doe had been found, well, obviously by this point they'd realized Karina had been missing. And that's when they had that very sinking feeling. They contacted the police and soon enough that woman in [music] the dumpster was identified as Karina Homer. The young woman who'd crossed an ocean to start a new life in America [music] had been found only months later hidden inside a trash bag with half of her body still missing. But the autopsy made the case even more unsettling. See, Karina had marks around her neck suggesting she'd been suffocated or strangled. There were no clear signs of a struggle on the body, no obvious DNA left behind. Her remains even appear to have been washed before they were dumped. The cut to her torso was clean, and this did not look like a panicked attack following a sloppy disposal. It looked controlled and methodical, as if the person responsible had taken time to remove evidence before leaving her, where she would eventually be found. [music] It raised a terrible possibility. Karina may have been killed in one place, cleaned in another, and [music] then transported to the dumpster after the killer had already done the work of erasing themselves from the scene. The dumpster itself gave investigators almost nothing. There was no clothing, no belongings, and no useful DNA. The only potential clue was a partial fingerprint on the outside of the trash bag, a print that did not belong to Karina. [music] It was tested, but no match surfaced. From the beginning, this case felt like walking into a room where someone had already wiped every surface clean, and investigators still had to start somewhere. And the most obvious place was with the family that Karina had been living with. Frank and Susan were the closest thing that she had to a family in the United States. If someone had been bothering her, if she'd been afraid, if something strange had happened in the weeks before her death, they might know. So, the police went to Dover to speak with them. But before they could even get their bearings, another call came in. And if you can even imagine, it made the case feel even [music] stranger. Police were notified of a fire in a dumpster outside Frank and Susan's home in Dover. On its own, maybe that would mean nothing, but Karina had just been found in a dumpster in Boston. And now a dumpster connected to her host family was suddenly on fire. It was the kind of coincidence investigators could not ignore. For detectives, timing matters. A suspicious event can be explained away. Two suspicious events connected by the same victim in same location. That's much harder to dismiss. After the fire was put out, the charred contents were sent to a lab and investigators found burnt clothing, which immediately raised the obvious question, was this Karina's clothes? But testing later showed the clothing did not belong to her. The answer cleared one possibility, but it didn't make the fire feel any less strange. A young op hair was found in a trash bag, missing half her body, and soon after a dumpster outside the home where she worked burned. Even if the fire led nowhere, it gave the case a kind of shadow that never really went away. The burned clothes not being Karina's did not solve the mystery. It only left investigators with a more frustrating question. If the fire had nothing to do with her, why did it happen right then in that place, right after her body was discovered? As news spread, so did rumors. And many of them centered on Karina's host family and more specifically Frank [music] Rap. According to reports, Karina was not the first opair to work for Frank and Susan, and some former OP pairs had troubling things to say about Frank. They claimed he behaved inappropriately and made advances that felt uncomfortable. Now, Frank was not arrested for those claims, but in the wake of Karina's death, those stories fed a darker theory that Frank and Karina may have been involved in a secret relationship. That rumor grew even larger because some people believed Karina may have been pregnant. The theory was that she had an affair that spiraled into a threat, a pregnancy, an exposure, and a scandal, and that someone wanted Karina gone before that secret could come out. Now, this was never proven. Authorities could not even confirm that she was pregnant because the lower half her body was never recovered. But that missing piece is exactly what kept that rumor alive. In this case, the absence of evidence became part of the nightmare. But there is another question that bothered people. Why did a wealthy established couple use an unlicensed opair agency at all? Frank was a successful photographer. Susan was an artist. They lived in one of the wealthiest communities in Massachusetts. If they wanted an opair, they had the means to go through a proper agency with proper paperwork and all the legal work visas. But instead, Karina came through a questionable path on a tourist visa. Maybe there was an innocent explanation, but in a case built from missing answers, well, even that detail felt hard to ignore. Now, this did not prove the family had done anything wrong, but it created another uncomfortable layer. Karina's entire American life had been built through shortcuts, favors, and informal arrangements. And after she was killed, those same blurry boundaries made it harder to know what was innocent and what was not. Then there was Frank's South Boston studio apartment. For Karina, it may have seemed like a generous perk, a place to stay, relax, and meet friends when she was not working in Dover, [snorts] but rumors suggested a different explanation. Some believe the apartment gave Frank and Karina a private place to meet away from the home. But again, none of this has ever been proven. But investigators had to look at the possibility. And the thing is, the deeper detectives dug, the darker things got. And Karina's own letters suggested something in her American life had gone horribly wrong. See, at first, Karina's letters home were full of excitement. She'd made it to America. She was living the dream she talked about for so long. But over time, that tone changed. The job was harder than she expected. She wrote about caring for the children, cooking, cleaning, and feeling overwhelmed by the reality of the life that she had chosen. The glamorous American adventure had become exhausting, and she was planning to return to Sweden. That shift matters because it suggests Karina was not just homesick. Something had changed. The fantasy had cracked. And the girl who once talked about America like it was true freedom was now suddenly talking about leaving. And then there was the incredibly haunting line that still hangs over this case. In a letter to her friend Ola, Karina wrote, quote, "Something terrible has happened. I cannot tell you now what it is, but I will tell you when I get home." That sentence changed the way people looked at everything. What had happened, and was it connected to Frank? Was it connected to the rumors? Or was it something different entirely? Karina never got the chance to explain. She planned to tell the truth when she got home, but before she could even leave America, she was found in a dumpster with half her body missing. It's one of those lines that feels louder, not because of what it says, but because of what it doesn't say. She does not explain. She doesn't name anyone. She doesn't even describe the event. She just promises to talk about it later. And later never comes. Now, Frank was looked at early on in the investigation, but his family said that he was with them at the time Karina disappeared. and that seemed to check out. And to top this off, police did not have enough evidence to even arrest him. The fire, the rumors, the letters, and the strange circumstances around Karina's work situation kept suspicion alive publicly. But suspicion is not proof. And without the missing half of her body, without her clothes, without DNA tying someone to the crime, investigators were left with questions that [snorts] they had a hard time turning into answers. Theories formed quickly because a case this empty creates space for almost anything. One theory focused on Karina's boyfriend, who was reportedly a Boston police officer. Because the crime scene was so clean and the body had been washed, some people wondered whether the killer understood police work well enough to avoid leaving any evidence behind. But that boyfriend was ruled out early in the investigation. The reason has not always been clearly explained in public reporting, and the lack of clarity only fueled more speculation, but still no evidence has emerged publicly to support the idea that he was involved in any way. Another [music] theory centered on the man seen with Karina outside Zanzibar, the man in the Superman costume with the large white dog in the matching outfit. He was identified as Herb Whitten. Police checked his whereabouts and they removed him from the suspect list after learning he'd received a speeding ticket while driving to Andover around the estimated time of Karina's attack. He admitted to speaking with Karina, but said he often walked his dog in the Bolston Street area and talked with women that were leaving bars. Almost a year after Karina's body was found, Herb passed away by taking his own life. Now, whether that had anything to do with the case is unknown, but investigators then searched dumpsters, waterways, remote areas, and [music] any place that seemed like it might hide the rest of Karina's remains. But they found nothing. The lower half of her never turned up. There were no clothes, no purse, no murder weapon, no confession. The case just kept widening, but every path seemed to end in the same place. Nowhere. In many murder investigations, the victim's belongings tell part of the story. The purse, shoes, jewelry, fibers, phone records, something usually remains. But in Karina's [music] case, even the missing pieces felt deliberately selected. At one point, investigators considered whether Karina could have been the victim of a serial killer. In 1999, 3 years after Karina was found, a woman named Dia Lorna Menddees was discovered in a dumpster in Hollywood, Florida. She'd been cut in half and her case was also unsolved. And on the surface, the similarities were disturbing. But as investigators compared the cases, the differences became harder to ignore. Dia's case was far messier. Her body had not been washed. There was more evidence left behind, and her entire body was recovered in that same dumpster. Karina's case, by contrast, was almost sterile. Her [music] body appeared cleaned and half of her remained missing and the disposal seemed controlled. Boston and Hollywood detectives looked at the connection but eventually concluded the two women were not killed by the same person. But if this still didn't provide any clues, where could the police go now? Garina Homer was killed in 1996. And now, three decades later, the case still has no answers. But investigators long believed one thing. She was not killed in that dumpster where she was found. The disposal site was in a busy part of Boston. The lack of evidence suggested the real crime scene was somewhere else. Karina was likely taken to another location. Everything was done to her there and then she was partially discarded in Black Bay. The killer did not just need violence. They needed a controlled location, a tool, time, and enough confidence to clean and move evidence through Boston without drawing attention. That's the part of why this case has never felt like a random street attack. Even though Karina was last seen alone in the street, that means someone had time, privacy, and access to a place where noise, evidence, [music] and disposal could be controlled. And then that person managed to move through the city with half of Karina's body in a trash bag, leaving behind almost nothing but a partial fingerprint that never led anywhere. Police looked at people close to Karina. They looked at men from her final night. They looked at serious offenders, serial killers, and even people fascinated by infamous dismemberment cases like the Black Dollalia. None of it solved the central mystery. Who took Karina after she walked away from Zanzibar? Where did they bring her? Why was only half of her body left behind? And what was the terrible thing she'd promised to explain when she got home? Perhaps the crulest part is what her family was left with, though. Karina came to America believing it would be the beginning of her life. Her family thought that she would be safe, happy, and full of stories when she returned to Sweden. but instead they had to bring home only part of their daughter while the rest of her [music] and the truth about what happened to her remains missing. The truth is the worst cases do not end with a final reveal. They end with [music] the family forced to live around a blank space. Karina's family didn't lose just her. They lost the explanation, the final hours, and the ability to even fully bury their daughter. Most people wouldn't think twice about spending a Saturday afternoon alone at the beach. There were hundreds of people nearby. The sun was out and 22-year-old Heather Teague was simply lying back in her chair waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. Nothing about the moment seemed dangerous. But Heather had unknowingly chosen a secluded spot beside a dense stretch of woods. And across the river, someone [music] looking through a telescope suddenly noticed that she was no longer alone. A man had emerged from the trees [music] and he was carrying a weapon. And within moments, Heather was dragged away from that beach, never to be seen again. Heather Danielle Teague was the oldest of four children, and she'd grown up in Kentucky. In high school, she seemed to thrive. She was intelligent. She enjoyed writing poetry and stayed busy with sports like basketball and track. [music] at Webster County High School. She was also a cheerleader. She was crowned homecoming queen and earned the title of junior miss. Those who knew Heather saw a young woman with a lot of possibilities [music] ahead of her. She'd considered studying psychology at Western Kentucky University, but after graduation, she decided to step away from school for a while. During that period, Heather began dating a man roughly 20 years older than she was. And somewhere along that way, her life began to change. Heather became involved with some unsavory people doing things that were largely unlike her. In fact, just 2 weeks before today's case began, her parents had even reported her missing. She was eventually found safe, but when her family asked where she had been, Heather offered only a vague explanation and said she'd just been running around. Whatever was happening in Heather's life, she was still only 22 years old. She loved the beach. She talked about studying psychology and still had time to find her way back towards the future that she had once imagined. But on August 26th of 1995, Heather went to the beach for what should have been an ordinary Saturday afternoon. But this time, she would not come home. August 25th of 1995 was a Saturday and it started with Heather having plans with her boyfriend to go camping. She went to his house early in the morning, a little after 4:00 a.m., but his house was empty. [music] His car was gone and she was understandably irritated. So, she decided to have a little beach day to herself at Newberg Beach in Spotsville, Henderson County, Kentucky. Eventually, her boyfriend did call her and the two talked back and forth about meeting for breakfast and whatnot, and it was ultimately decided that he would join up with her around noon. [music] Heather agreed. The two ended their call and she went back to sunbathing. Now, this beachfront is located on the Ohio River and is actually on a border between the states of Kentucky and Indiana. And this is where Heather was headed. It's important to mention that she was on the Kentucky side of the river and this beach was [music] packed, but she decided to set up at a rather secluded spot, more or less anyway, by herself. But while Heather was sunbathing and enjoying her time at the beach, waiting for her boyfriend to meet up with her, a man [music] named Tin Wal was waiting for food on the opposite side of the river. And while he was waiting, he pulled out his telescope and was watching people on the beach on the other side and scoping out birds. This was apparently just an ordinary day for Tim. But this day was about to become anything but ordinary very quickly [music] because what Tim was about to see through that telescope was going to spark a crime investigation that spanned nearly three decades. As Tim peered through the glass, he saw a young woman with long dark hair wearing a red plaid bathing suit, round John Linen style sunglasses, and sitting on her lounge chair sunbathing. This was Heather Teague. But just a few moments later, Tim saw a man emerged from the woods behind her. But this man wasn't coming up out of the woods to set up his own sunbathing chair. No, he was armed. Tim sat there watching, stunned and in complete disbelief. The man then approached Heather from behind, threatened [snorts] her with his weapon, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her away into the woods. At [music] first, Tim thought this must have been a boyfriend pranking his girlfriend. But after 25 minutes passed and he saw no sign of the couple emerging from that wooded area, he got very anxious. He also told his wife about this weird incident who was in the back preparing food. And the two, they were just extremely confused. What had he just seen? Well, when his worry got the better of him, he called the Kentucky State Police as well as the Indiana State Police. In the call, Tim described the whole scene to the officer, and he even managed to describe the asalent in great detail. According to Tim, the man stood about 6 feet or maybe a little taller and weighed between 200 and 230 lb with a large belly. He had brown hair that appeared to be a wig from a distance, a bushy beard, and he was wearing what looked like a mosquito net, and a pair of jeans. And at the site, Heather's belongings and the chair remained untouched, and Tim could still see them through the telescope. Now, the distance between Tim's house and where Heather was lounging at the beach was about 300 ft, close to the length of a football field. So, not too far at all. So, even though Tim claimed that he had a very powerful magnification on his telescope, it's just bizarre that there was only one witness to this entire crime, and that's Tim, who was practically across the river, 300 ft away from the site. Now, if you remember, this beach was packed with people. And even though Heather was sitting quite a distance away from all the other beachgoers, it's just puzzling to see that no one else in this vicinity saw this happen. According to FBI reports, there were about 500 to 600 people on that beach. And Heather was seated maybe 500 ft or so away from the main crowd. Now, this is a good distance away, but still, with so many people, you'd imagine someone had to have seen something. But no. So after the call, the police arrived at the scene as instructed by Tim. And when they got there, they could tell something was terribly wrong. Heather's lounging chair, her clothes, and other belongings were still there. There were also footprints leading from the chair into the wooded area. [music] And as they got deeper, the cops recovered a discarded towel as well as the bottom half of a bathing suit. It was a red plaid bathing suit, the same one Heather had been wearing. But there was no sign of Heather, nor the man who took her. When the police first arrived, they still didn't know the identity of the woman who'd been taken from the beach. But that changed when they found a red Nissan parked nearby. Information inside the vehicle led them to 22-year-old Heather Teague. And what had begun as a report of a possible abduction, well, it now had a name and a family attached to it. Authorities immediately launched a large-scale search of the area. Volunteers combed the woods. Divers searched the water. Aircraft scanned from above and tracking dogs followed Heather's scent away from the beach. But the trail eventually stopped. Investigators began to suspect that Heather had been moved from the area in a vehicle. Aside from a partial footprint believed to have come from a size 10 lacrosse predator boot, there was little physical evidence pointing them towards the person responsible. For Heather's family, the silence was especially frightening. She'd disappeared briefly before, but this was different. Her belongings have been abandoned. A witness reported seeing her forced into the woods, and days passed without a single call to her parents, her friends, or her boyfriend. Police questioned the people close to Heather, including both current and former boyfriends. But none of those interviews produced a meaningful lead. 10 days after she vanished, authorities released a composite sketch of a man seen on the beach. But by then, Heather had seemingly disappeared without a trace. Then, investigators learned that a camera near the beach may have captured something important. The surrounding area contained several farms, and because vandalism had become a recurring problem, some land owners had installed cameras to watch over their property. One of those cameras recorded a red and white Ford Bronco parked beside Heather's Nissan on the day she disappeared. Now, the vehicle alone didn't prove anything, but it was the first solid object detectives could trace, and within days, they found the man who was driving it. See, sometime after Heather's disappearance, the police were doing a routine traffic stop, and one of the cars that they checked was a red and white Ford Bronco. And the driver was a man by the name of Marvin Ray Dill, who went by his nickname of Marty. As soon as the police saw this guy, they were stunned because Marty bore a striking resemblance to the composite sketch in Heather's case. He matched the height and build descriptions. And when the cops searched his car, they recovered several items. Inside the car, they found several restraints, firearms, rubber gloves, and weapons of various sorts. This immediately put the cops on high alert. The disappearance was still fresh at the time. And now they'd found the guy whose car was found parked close to Heather's on the day of her disappearance, and everything else matched pretty consistently, from the make of the car to the actual man himself. But here's the problem. They couldn't arrest Marty right away. Just because he looked suspicious didn't mean that he was automatically guilty without any evidence. This was exactly what the police needed to find first. So, within a week of Heather's disappearance on August 31st of 1995, search warrants for Marty's house and car were granted, and the investigators got to work. [music] They swabbed and swept every inch of the car, and they did find a couple of alarming things. They found strands of hair that matched the color hair of the missing woman, but DNA tests had to be conducted to know for sure. They also obtained some fingerprints from the interior of the car as well as some areas that contained DNA, but it's unclear if they tested these samples to find out if they really belonged to Heather or not because this was the '90s and DNA testing, well, it wasn't what it is today. But authorities believed it warranted further investigation regardless. So, very quickly on September 1st, Marty's home was swarmed by the police and the FBI. But this visit would not go according to plan because as soon as Marty got wind of being surrounded by the police and the FBI, he barricaded himself in his home and he was armed. This was a very tense situation. You have potentially an unpredictable person who's barricaded in a small space and could make an unpredictable decision at any minute. And on the other side, you have the police and the FBI trying to calm him down and just get him to surrender. They tried to assure him he was not getting arrested and they were only there to execute a search warrant, but things escalated pretty quickly. The problem was Marty was threatening himself, claiming that if the police didn't leave, he was going to do exactly what they had feared. And if Marty took himself out of the picture, well, any hope of finding Heather alive would be gone. The police did everything they could to get Marty to surrender, but he refused. Just moments later, a loud pop echoed through the neighborhood. Marty had taken his own life and taken with him the truth of what had happened to Heather on that sunny afternoon, at least in theory. Because even though the police felt confident that Marty was involved in this, and this recent turn of events certainly seemed like the actions of someone with a guilty conscience, they still couldn't prove much. They had means, they had opportunity, and he matched the guy in the sketch. But that still didn't mean he was guilty. This was a devastating end to this lead because investigators really thought that they were on to something with this progress. But sadly though, one action changed everything. Even though Marty was now out of the picture, the trailer was still deeply searched following this really unnerving incident and nothing in connection to Heather was even found. But they did recover a note inside the trailer that was written by Marty. Again, there was not even a single mention of Heather or anything remotely close to her incident. But people did look into some strange things that Marty was doing and saying in the days leading up to this event. First of all, and this information came from Marty's dad and uncle, the latter being a former police officer himself, Marty was acting really erratically when he found out that he matched the description of the composite sketch. He'd threatened to harm himself multiple times following the situation. Someone had also called him and claimed that Marty matched the sketch perfectly. And after that, he noticed a very significant change in his behavior. He claimed that Marty vowed to do something reckless if the police ever showed up to his house. And Marty made good on that promise. But soon enough, an anonymous caller came forward to the police. He was told by a woman who lived in a home close to Marty that he told her something along the lines of, "The less you know, the better it is." Apparently, he didn't want her involved in something. But the context of this conversation, it's largely unclear, which is why we don't know for sure if it's even about Heather or not, but I'm unsure why this woman would have called in about this if she didn't truly believe that this was somehow in reference to Heather's investigation. But this woman also confirmed Marty's uncle's statement. And she admitted that Marty told her as well if the police ever showed up to his home, he was going to do something irreversible. But here's where things get even more strange. See, Marty was a married man. And according to his own wife, she also grew incredibly suspicious of him in relation to Heather's disappearance. That's because after she found out that he perfectly matched the sketch of the perpetrator, she confronted him about it. She flat out asked him if he was at the beach the day that Heather disappeared. Marty then flew into a fit of rage and ordered his wife Tracy to just leave the home. Now, all of this might be coincidental because who wants to be pinned for a crime just because they're suspicious? But it didn't seem that way to the police. Why was he so adamant about doing something reckless if the police showed up at his house? If he had nothing to hide and knew that he had no hand in Heather's disappearance, why would he act this way? Why did he want even fewer people involved? And what did he not want these people to know? All of this information is really confusing. But really, it just runs in circles. The investigators, or anyone for that matter, feared they wouldn't get any answers because the death of the one who knew everything basically locked this case down for good. At least that's how it seemed. But detectives pressed on regardless. Investigators then believed their next best option was to press Tracy, Marty's wife, for any information he may have let slip. They brought her in for questioning and they spoke with her extensively and they even tried to get her to testify against Marty in a trial, but she refused. In fact, not only that, she refused to answer any of their questions at all and invoked her Fifth Amendment right to silence. She refused to say a word. There's just a lot of uncertainty here. But one thing is for sure, Heather's case was right back to square one with no leads, with no progress and no answers and no sign of the missing woman herself. So after the whole Marty Dill scenario, the police were still looking into suspects, but most of them still believed that he was the one who was involved in Heather's disappearance. But there was another problem that led to a huge number of issues between the Teague family and the police. Heather's mom, Sarah, didn't believe that Marty should have been the primary suspect in her daughter's disappearance. If you remember, Marty matched the description and the general composite sketch made public by the police. But there's a problem with that. [music] At the time of her disappearance, Marty was supposedly clean shaven and bald. He'd been compared to the sketch with older pictures of him. Tim had clearly seen a guy wearing either shaggy hair or a shaggy wig and a beard. And most recent pictures of Marty in which he was clean shaven and bald didn't match that sketch. This was a huge error on the police's part. Sarah believes the police were going after him with tunnel vision [music] and not basing their actions on the general facts of the case. Now, you might agree with this, but I'm sure there's still a question in the back of your mind. Well, if Marty is innocent, then why was he so scared of the police coming after him? And why was his wife so adamant she wasn't going to say anything at all? Well, this behavior was also explained when you look at his previous charges. See, Marty Marty was no model citizen. He'd actually been arrested for growing controlled substances, and he was being looked at for a 5-year prison sentence. but he took a plea deal which then led him to only spend 40 days in prison before he was released on probation. He had a couple other charges against him like disorderly conduct as well as substance related felonies, but he was not deemed a threat to society or himself. Even though this is just a theory, mere speculation, it is believed that Marty didn't want to go back to prison for breaking parole or for growing illegal substances. And he was nervous because he didn't want to be on the police's radar. But still, with all of this stacked against him, there just wasn't any real evidence tying him to Heather's case. With this, the leads on the case had completely run out. Police were trapped at another dead end. And with this, 10 years would pass without an answer. But then the FBI got involved. 10 years later in 2005, the FBI released a report on Heather's case detailing DNA samples being sent for testing. But what really stood out to everyone was that the bureau claimed to have another person of interest in this case. His name was Christopher J. Bellow. He lived in Henderson County. Eerily enough, he pleaded guilty to the charges of involuntary manslaughter of a woman named Katherine Fetzer in 1991. She was actually someone he was having an affair with. Christopher would ultimately be sentenced to 11 to 18 years in prison for this crime. He was also suspected to be involved in other missing female cases like those of Mary Kushtow who went missing in May of 1995, Christina Porco, who was last seen leaving her parents' apartment on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina in '86, and Shayen Frell, who went missing after a work shift in August of 94 in Ohio. Christopher also matched the composite sketch if you count the shaggy hair and beard. And after combing through all the available evidence and clues, like the farm video footage from '95, investigators alleged that he and Marty, they may have worked together. See, when the car footage was enhanced by the FBI and reviewed over and over, they concluded that a bald man may have been seen sitting in the driver's seat of the Bronco, and investigators believe this may have been Marty, and the other man with the longer, messy hair was the one that took Heather and put her in the back of that car. Again, even the enhanced footage though is extremely grainy and you have to have a really sharp eye to make out any of these details. But regardless, that thought was noteworthy. It was also revealed that Christopher was in the general area where Heather was last seen at the time of the incident, and she also matched the description of all the other women that he'd been connected to over the years. Interestingly enough, Christopher also left the area shortly after her disappearance. And can you guess what the exact day was when he left? The day Marty took his own life. It's very suspicious and leads you to wonder whether it was a coincidence or whether there was more to it. To add to that, Sarah was also notified that Marty and Christopher were classmates back when they were younger. As of present though, he was released from prison and he wasn't charged in any other woman's case or in Heathers for that matter, even though he was picked out of a police lineup three times by none other than telescope guy Tim Wal, the only witness to this entire case. As for Christopher, he's maintained his innocence throughout this and he's denied having anything to do with Heather's disappearance. And to this day, Heather has still not been found. Her mom Sarah had her legally declared deceased in 2007. [music] And since then, her mom has repeatedly plead with police for more transparency in her daughter's investigation. But she claims that police officers are not willing to work with her. And they aren't even keeping her up to date with the case details because police actually exumed the body of Marty Dill so that they could extract a cleaner DNA sample on him. And this was done so they could compare his DNA with samples that were taken from the bottom half of Heather's swimsuit. This whole situation makes no sense. And Heather's mother feels that the Kentucky State Police have developed tunnel vision, and they're dead set on pinning Marty for this crime, neglecting to follow any other leads or suspects. Still, she has fought tirelessly and alone in this journey for getting answers for her daughter's disappearance and what even happened to her. Her work has led to some progress, but it's still not anywhere near the finish line, and she's currently tied up in a lawsuit against the investigators to try to get to the bottom of what's even going on here. At the end of the day, Heather's life was stolen from her far too soon. And for what [music] reason? She was a lone woman just sunbathing on a beach, enjoying an afternoon while waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up for breakfast. She wasn't in a sketchy place. She wasn't out asking for trouble. She was just a woman enjoying some time alone when a bushy-haired man emerged from the woods and took advantage of that. A lie can only live for so long. At first, it may seem harmless. You let your wife believe the future is still safe. But eventually, somebody makes that phone call. And for Lorie Hacking, that phone call changed everything. She was young, pregnant, and preparing to move across the country with her husband Mark, who'd been accepted into medical school in North Carolina. But 4 days before Lorie vanished, she called that school herself. And there was no record of him, no acceptance, no housing, no future waiting for them, just years of lies. 4 days later, Mark called 911 and said Lorie had gone for an early morning jog and never came home. At first, it sounded possible, but then the police found her car abandoned, but her keys were still inside the apartment. So, was Lorie Hacking really a missing jogger, or had these lies now taken on a life of their own? Lorie Sores was born in Los Angeles, California. Not much is known about her birth parents, but she was eventually adopted by Thelma and Eraldo Sores. [music] The couple had two kids of their own, and they welcomed her in with open arms. When she was young, she attended Pacific Drive Elementary School in Fullerton, but then she moved to Utah in 1988 with Thelma when she was just 12. The reason was divorce. She was the 9th grade class president in her school, and she graduated with her high school diploma in 1995. One thing about her is that she knew how important financial independence was. She took part-time jobs to earn extra money and was all around very responsible. She'd been through ups and downs at various points in her early life, from being adopted to witnessing her adoptive parents divorce and now moving to a new city. Sometimes she felt like a fish out of water, but she carried on nonetheless. She also had a close group of friends. She was wellknown in the neighborhood, and she was very kind and caring and held on to her faith strongly, too. [music] In high school, she crossed paths with a person who would become the love of her life. Her high school sweetheart turned future husband was Mark Hacking. They met at a school camping trip and a long friendship started which then converted into something more serious when they both turned 19. Their relationship did start off a bit topsyturvy because Mark actually cheated on Lorie and spent the night at another woman's home when he was on a Mormon mission trip in Canada. [music] He was in a new place all by himself and there was no one to stop him. He thought he would take advantage of this newfound freedom. Now, this was obviously frowned upon in the Mormon faith and by anyone really. So, naturally, he was sent home in disgrace. Now, granted, his and Lor's relationship was not as serious during this time, but they were still seeing each other. Lorie didn't engage in anything like that outside of, you know, her and Mark's relationship. But he did, and well, karma got the better of him and he was sent back to Utah. But he apparently managed to appease the concerns of his family and then more seriously pursued that relationship with Lorie. Now Mark came from a pretty financially stable family. His dad was a doctor, a pediatrician to be exact, and he wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps. His brother was an accomplished engineer and had a stable job. So you can tell that he belonged to an ambitious and successful family. People described him as chill, charming, and humorous and a bit of an attention seeker. Now, Lorie was studying politics and business at Weber State University on a scholarship before transferring to the University of Utah to finish her degree there. After her graduation in 99, she worked at American Express and later at Wells Fargo. She also won several academic accolades during her university tenure, and to put it shortly, she was doing well for herself. As for Mark, he was also enrolled at the University of Utah, and he chose the field of medicine. The couple eventually got married in August of 99 and Mark decided he wanted to pursue his medical studies even further. So they moved to Salt Lake City to find more opportunities because according to him he couldn't find jobs that matched his expectations. So the couple worked and they focused on their lives in a new city and they were also planning to have a baby. Now Mark got the urge to complete his studies once again and this time he set his sights on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The young couple wasn't exactly struggling, but they weren't in the best place financially either. I mean, sure, they both had jobs, but they needed more to sustain themselves and eventually start a family. And for that, Mark thought he had to become a full-fledged doctor to give his family the life of their dreams. Lorie was fully supportive of this every step of the way. Moving cities that to shortly after getting married, wasn't easy, but she stepped up and thought these obstacles were just the trivial trials of life. One day, the couple got the news that they had been anticipating for a while now. Mark had finally been accepted into UNCC, and he was also given campus accommodation, which would be pretty reasonable compared to living in the city. So, it was set. The couple was going to move to North Carolina in no time. But Lorie had no idea that the future they were packing for wasn't even waiting for them. So Mark's family was obviously a bit wellto-do, very highly accomplished, but Mark, well, he was struggling to keep up the image. And it actually turns out Mark didn't complete his studies while at the University of Utah. If you remember, he and Lorie were studying there. But the truth is only Lorie was the one to get her degree. So if he didn't have a premed degree, he obviously couldn't apply to UNCC and get that job, right? Well, yeah, that is right. He not only lied about having gotten that job lined up, but he also lied about ever even applying to UNCC at all. It's a different thing if he applied and got rejected, but the guy didn't even send in an application. He was lying to his wife and his family. He claimed that he was too sick to attend the graduation ceremony and would collect his degree later, and everyone believed him at the time. But then he also lied about having a job. At one point before his marriage, he was working as a psychiatric aid. In other words, he was basically a care assistant to patients. But during that time, he went around telling everyone he was a therapist even though he didn't meet the qualifications. And this seemingly became a trend in Mark's life, claiming to be something he wasn't, and then lying about all of his credentials. And all of this was taking place while Lorie was blissfully unaware. In fact, she was proud of her husband for all of his amazing accomplishments. But she had no idea that each and every one of these stories was a total fabrication. But if Mark didn't have this medical job lined up, it begs the question, why was he so adamant about moving to North Carolina? He didn't even apply there, which means he didn't have campus accommodation, so where were they even going to live? And why didn't he tell his wife about this? What was he doing all this time pretending to write papers, do assignments, and coming back from university with a bag full of textbooks? Well, those answers would have to wait because just now Lori had now found out she was pregnant. So, imagine this. You have a young married couple living in Salt Lake City, Utah, preparing to move to North Carolina, completely on the opposite side of the country. You've handed in your notices at work and now you found out your husband is lying about his qualifications, his studies, and he doesn't even have a reliable place for you to live. And also, you're pregnant. [music] You have no savings, no plan in sight, and you're just taking it a day at a time. I don't know about you, but even hearing about this would stress me out. But Lorie was still very happy, and that's because at this point, she was still living in that blissful ignorance of Mark's lies. But soon enough, the cracks started to show and the levy would finally break when Lorie made just one phone call. It was July 15th of 2004 when Lorie thought to call the UNCC administration office to ask about her husband's accommodation, his student loan, and everything else involved in medical school. But what she learned from the person on the other end of that line left her dumbfounded. There was no record of Mark [music] in the university's application record. There was nothing. The school had no idea who he even was. Understandably, she felt betrayed, heartbroken, and deceived. Her husband of 5 years, her high school sweetheart, the father of her unborn child, had been lying to her all along. And it wasn't about something recent, either. He'd been lying to her since they were studying together at the University of Utah years ago. She was totally blindsided and so completely paralyzed by this that she had to leave work for the day. It's unimaginable to think what she must have been going through at that time. Here she was in that wonderful pregnancy bliss supporting her struggling husband every step of the way. And what did she get in return? A mountain of lies with a healthy side of disbelief and betrayal. But the worst part is Lorie wouldn't even get the chance to sort through this massive trash heap of emotional turmoil because just 4 days later she went missing. It was the morning of July 19th, 2004, and right before 11:00 a.m. 911 received a call from none other than Mark. He informed the dispatcher that his wife had gone for an early morning jog at around 6:00 a.m. while he was at home, and she hadn't returned since then. Now, this jog wasn't out of the ordinary for her. She routinely joged in the Memory Grove in City Creek Canyon area northeast of downtown Salt Lake City. And on this particular day, she even asked her husband to come with her, but he refused and just went back to bed. So, she went on her own. He was worried that she was in trouble or maybe she needed help. He just had a feeling that something had gone horribly wrong. After all, she was pregnant at the time, only about 5 weeks along. But early pregnancy complications and risks were always there. So, naturally, the police took this disappearance seriously, especially since she had failed to show up for work. Now, you might be thinking, didn't she already hand in her notice for leave? [music] You know, since the couple was moving to North Carolina and all? Well, yes, she did, but until they moved, she did still have to work. and she was the type of person that always showed up on time. [music] If she had a prior commitment, then she would make it a point to inform her workplace or at least her co-workers. But she was unreachable. Texts to her went unanswered. Calls went to voicemail and she was radio silent. So, the search was on. Police officers searched walking trails, wooded areas, and nearby places to see if they could find her or any clue that could lead them to her. Family and friends were extremely worried. It was completely out of character for her to just up and leave. She didn't even take any of her belongings with her. She simply went for a jog [music] and never came back home. An anxious Mark also turned to the media to help spread the news of his wife's disappearance. He pleaded with anyone and [music] everyone to come forward with any information. And come forward they did, but not the public or the community. It was actually friends and family members of Lorie. and they came to the police not with tips but with suspicions. First of all, that work friend of hers who witnessed her breaking down at work following that revelation of Mark's lies, well, she told the police everything, all about [music] his lies, the deception, all of it. Then several family friends also came forward and notified the police about the changes in Mark's behavior, [music] especially after he found out that his wife was pregnant. Now, from what we know, or at least what was visible on the outside, both Mark and Lorie wanted to start a family. Now, she wanted a big family with lots of kids because she came from a small family growing up and wanted something a bit different. You would think that Mark would be over the moon when he found out about this good news. But he wasn't, and he didn't even try to hide it. He seemed withdrawn and not excited at all. And those emotions were visible to family and friends. Now, there could be an explanation for it, seeing as the couple was struggling a bit financially. Maybe he was focused more on completing his studies to become a doctor. That could be why he was not as happy or as excited as he should have been. But even then, well, it takes [music] two to make a baby. If he didn't want a child so soon and his studies were a top priority for him, he could have just talked things out with his wife. But seeing [music] Lorie elated over the pregnancy and Mark's lack of a reaction, it stood out to everyone. So naturally, the police started looking directly at him, but now in a different light. They now wanted to know his side of the story. What was really happening on the day that his wife went missing. So they headed to Mark and Lorie's home. And immediately what they found inside that house, it set off every alarm bell they had. Mark didn't put up a fight when the police asked to search the couple's apartment, but as soon as they entered, they noticed the couple of, well, bizarre things. The house looked and smelled immaculately clean. It looked like a model home with that level of cleanliness, like it had been recently and completely scrubbed clean from floor to ceiling. Then the police went into the bedroom and noticed a brand new mattress on the bed with the packaging just kind of laying on the floor beside it. Now, this wouldn't be alarming on any normal day, but right now, when a pregnant woman was missing, that detail stood out like a sore thumb. Who has time to go mattress shopping when your wife is missing? When the police asked Mark to explain the new mattress, he said that Lorie had soiled the previous one with some kind of bleeding accident, and this was why they needed a new mattress. The police also found out that he'd bought that mattress the very morning his wife went missing before he ever even called the police. Strange. But speaking of strange, just a day after his wife's disappearance, Mark was also put in the hospital. Now, this may sound like a drastic turn of events, and that's because it was. because the rest of the story is even stranger. It turned out the police were called to the neighborhood that the family lived in after receiving reports about something they could never have expected to see. [music] They found a completely nude man running around the neighborhood wearing nothing but flipflops. When the police got there, they found out that that manic man was none other than Mark Hacking himself. He was apparently emotionally unstable over his wife's disappearance and was admitted to a psych ward after this for mental evaluation. While at the hospital, he also got an attorney, a prominent one at that, whose name was a Gilbert A, and he was known as a very popular and successful defense attorney in the community. With this, the police's suspicions grew even more. First the whole mattress story, then him running around the neighborhood nude, then him getting an attorney. I don't even know how to explain this. It was just unsettling. And the investigators knew he was hiding something. So, they decided to search the house once again. And this time, they brought in forensic teams to the bedroom and swabbed every inch of the area. And soon enough, they found suspicious and alarming stains on and near the bed frame. A weapon with Lorie's DNA on it was also recovered. And they also found her car keys inside the apartment. But speaking of her car, it was found the same day that she went missing. And there were a couple of things wrong with it, too. Aside from being unlocked and abandoned in a street near where she jogged, the driver's seat was pushed all the way back. Now, this was concerning for a very pivotal reason. See, Lori was petite and she didn't need to recline her seat all the way back. Now, yes, she was pregnant and sometimes you have to bring the seat back to make room for the bump, but she was not even showing at the time. She was only 5 weeks along, so there was no bump. So, why was the seat reclined so far back? According to the police, someone else with a physical stature bigger than Lorie's was driving her car around that time. [music] And right now, the only bulky guy they had on their radar was her own husband. And the fact that the keys were at the apartment with Mark and not found either in the car or with Lorie, well, that told the police everything they wanted to know. They now strongly believed he had been the one driving her car, but they still didn't have her body. It would have been a slam dunk case if they could have found her, as Lorie was now believed to have passed away. So the police got to work and this time they focused on dumping sites and landfills and that was when they found something. They found a soiled stained mattress, possibly the one that Mark had conveniently discarded and also a handwritten letter was obtained and it was written by Lorie. And in it she expressed how tired she was of her husband constantly lying to her and she admitted she wanted a divorce. At the hospital, Mark's family came to visit him and implored with him to just tell them what had happened to Lori. And by this point, he knew he couldn't keep his lies up any longer. And finally, Mark decided to come clean about it all. Mark confessed to his brother that he ended Lor's life. So immediately after this confession on August 2nd of 2004, Mark was arrested in connection with his pregnant wife's death. The police believed that the two had gotten into an argument over his constant lying and her finding out about his deceit through the UNCC administration personnel. Maybe she demanded divorce from him, which if you know anything about the Mormon community and faith is frowned upon and technically a very distasteful last resort to ending a marriage. So after the fight with Lorie and everything, you know, when they went to sleep, Mark went through his stuff, found a weapon, and carried out the crime, tragically ending her life right then and there. This man was just consumed with rage. It wasn't like he was filled with shame or, you know, anything about being found out. No, it sounds a lot more like he was just angry about her calling him out and threatening to end their life together. But after the deed was done, he disposed of Lorie and the mattress in a dumpster. And it would take police 2 months of searching to finally locate Lor's remains, and they were eventually found at a Salt Lake City landfill. After this discovery, Thelma, Lorie's mother, she was inconsolable. She demanded justice and wanted Mark, the person who was supposed to protect her against all odds, for better or worse, to face consequences. Mark [snorts] was eventually charged with first-degree murder, and he initially pleaded not guilty to all the charges, much to no one's surprise. I mean, the guy did just openly confess to the crime, but you know how these things work. He wanted his chance at getting the last word and spinning the story however he saw fit, his specialty. But thankfully in the end on April 15th of 2005, he changed his plea to guilty for the murder of his wife in exchange for the state dropping many of the additional charges against him. But here's where things get worse. On June 6th of 2005, Mark Hacking was sentenced to life in prison. But that's not all. The sentence carried a minimum term of 6 years for murdering his wife and their unborn child. For lying to everyone for so long, for deceiving everyone who knew and supported him, all because he wasn't smart enough to be a doctor. Now, following this outcry over the sentencing, the laws were re-evaluated and that minimum sentence was increased from 6 years to 15 years. This was implemented under a new law called Lorie's Law. And following this, a criminal will be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison for crimes like this. Thankfully, this law also updated Mark's sentence, and now he was going to spend a minimum of 30 years behind bars and won't be eligible for parole until 2035. So, some level of justice did come and thankfully it came before he was released. He's currently incarcerated at Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison. And in 2006, about 2 years into his sentencing, it was reported he was caught selling personal items, hand tracings, autographs, prison forms, and magazines on an online website called Murder Auction. He was literally making a money off of his wife's murder during his incarceration, but he wasn't given any additional time for this. >> [snorts] >> As for Lorie, she was laid to rest in Orum City Cemetery and the last name of Hacking was finally removed from her gravestone at the request of her family. And good on them. But what's so haunting about this case is the why. Why did Mark have to go to such lengths to get rid of his wife and their child? What happened that day? Was it really just a fight over lies, or was there something else? Did he really just lose his cool because Lorie was leaving him and found out? or was it something else? [snorts] But also, why did Mark want to go to North Carolina of all places in the first place? I think we've already established he wasn't going there to study. So, what was the plan? Was there something else he was hiding? Is there somehow even more to this story? The honest truth is, we'll never know because Mark isn't talking and Lorie isn't here to share her side of the story. Most people wouldn't think twice about meeting a stranger in the middle of the day, especially when it was part of their job. There were co-workers waiting for her back at the office. The house was in a busy London neighborhood, and 25-year-old Susie Lampluff had handled appointments like this countless times before. But Susie never returned from this one. Hours later, her car was found abandoned nearly a mile away. [music] Her purse was still inside. The keys were gone and the driver's seat had been pushed back as though someone much taller had been behind the wheel. Susie had left almost nothing behind to explain where she had gone, only an address, an appointment time, [music] and the name of the client that she'd gone to meet. Mr. Kipper Susanna Lampluff, known to everyone simply as Susie, was born in Chelinham, England. And by the summer of 1986, she'd built a life of her own in West London. She lived in an apartment in Putney and worked as an estate agent at Sturgis, a small agency on Fulham Road. It was the kind of job that suited her [music] perfectly. She was confident, outgoing, and naturally good with people, so she could walk into a room full of strangers and make herself comfortable almost instantly. Before entering real estate, she'd worked as a butician aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship, a job that reflected her willingness to travel, meet new people, and try almost anything once. That confidence had been apparent from an early age. At school, teachers remembered her as bright, charismatic, and naturally inclined to take the lead. Friends described her as warm and sociable, the kind of person who seemed to move through life without hesitation. By the age of 25, Susie appeared to have everything going in the right direction. She had her own home, a steady career, a close circle of friends, and a family who heard from her regularly. There was nothing in her life to suggest that she was preparing to disappear. And yet on July 28th of 1986, that's exactly what happened. The morning began like any other. Susie ate breakfast, got dressed for work, climbed into her white Ford Fiesta, and drove to the Sturgeist office. For the next several hours, she answered phone calls, spoke with clients, and filled her work diary with the day's appointments. At around 12:30 that afternoon, she prepared to leave for a property viewing. The client had given his name as Mr. Kipper. According to the note that Susie left in her diary, they were scheduled to meet at 12:45 outside of 37 Shors Road in Follow. Mr. Kipper was supposedly interested in viewing that property, and there was no obvious reason for Susie to treat the appointment as anything other than usual. She gathered what she needed, she left the office, and she drove away. Her co-workers expected her back sometime shortly after the viewing. And at first, nobody paid much attention when she ran late. [music] Property appointments didn't always finish on schedule. And maybe the client had arrived late, too. Maybe the viewing had lasted longer than expected. And maybe Susie was just caught up in traffic on her way back. There were plenty of ordinary explanations. But then another appointment came and went, and Susie never showed up. As the afternoon continued, the mood inside the Sturgeist office began to change. Susie was dependable. She didn't simply abandon appointments or disappear in the middle of a workday without calling anyone. By 5:30 that evening, nearly 5 hours had passed since she left to meet Mr. Kipper, and there was still no sign of her. Her manager eventually contacted Sus's mother, Diana, hoping that she might know where her daughter had gone, but Diana hadn't heard from her either. That was when the concern became something far more serious. Susie [snorts] hadn't returned to work. She'd missed every appointment that followed. She'd not gone home. Jen contacted her family. It was as though she stepped out of the office that afternoon and just vanished between one appointment and the next. Later that evening, the police were called and 25-year-old Susie Lampluff was officially reported missing. But investigators knew exactly where they needed to begin. At that empty house in Fullum, where Susie had gone to meet a man [music] calling himself Mr. Kipper. The police reached Fulham in record time and right away they got some interesting leads. I mean, first of all, Sus's car was found. It was parked about a mile away from the property that she was supposed to show to the client. But when the officers checked inside, there was nothing that could lead to any answers about her. It only led to more questions because, see, the car was found unlocked, the keys [music] were gone, her personal belongings, like her purse and other stuff were still in the car. And as is always a telltale sign in situations like this, the driver's seat was pulled much further back than Susie would have originally had it. Susie was a fairly small woman, but the seat was far enough back for a very tall woman or man to have been driving. Also, why was the car found a mile away from the property and not on the property? It just didn't make sense to the police or anyone for that matter. The next best thing that the police could do was talk to the neighbors and the people who saw her at the time of the viewing. And luckily, a number of witnesses came forward and they claimed to have seen her with a man. According to these witnesses, at around 12:50 p.m., she was seen with a quote immaculately dressed man at the front of the house and the two of them went inside. Now, some claimed that the man was holding a ribbon adorned champagne bottle, while others state that he had this private school boy vibe to him, but either way, he seemed to be in his 20s or 30s and had dark swept back hair. Basically, he was polished to the nines. And he may have had a champagne bottle with him. He may have not. The details are kind of all over the place. But some witnesses claimed to have seen Susie with this man who's presumed to have been Mr. [music] Kipper. And they got into a car together between 2 and 2:30 p.m. The witnesses believed that the two were bickering while getting into the car. And then another witness claimed to have seen the couple driving down a Shirled road erratically, and a man and a woman were seen arguing in the car. The man bore the same resemblance to Mr. Kipper. And the woman looked like Suzie. Now, some say it was a black BMW. Some don't remember, so we don't know for sure what kind of car the two got in, but regardless, these witnesses were called in to help the police make a composite sketch of the man. And once that was done, that sketch was made public. It had now been a few days, and there was no sign of Susie. And everyone was getting more and more panicked for her. She hadn't reached out to anyone during this time. She hadn't come to work or gone home. She was just gone with no explanation. The police launched a massive search in the area where she was last seen. There were many volunteers, search dogs, and parties who searched far and wide for any clue on Susie and where she could be. But in the end, it led to no promising leads. The police were highly suspicious of this mystery client, Mr. Kipper. But aside from a few vague descriptions of his looks in a composite sketch, it was going to be an uphill task to find this guy. But rather obviously, he was believed to be the last person who interacted with and saw Susie in the flesh. So, he was naturally number one on the police's radar. The case was treated as a possible abduction right from the get-go, and Sus's family was hoping and praying for her safe return. But Susie would never come back. [music] No clues were found. And over the course of days, weeks, and then months, the investigation just hit wall after wall with no answers as to where she would have gone. Pretty soon, investigators and Sus's family were terrified that the case had gone cold, and [music] it did. But it wouldn't stay that way for long. With a case like this, where there were limited leads and lots of questions and strange bits of evidence, there were theories circulating around the community. They were very concerning, and each of them was equally troubling for Sus's family to hear. Even though they were still hopeful that Susie would be found alive somewhere. The truth is, their hope was quickly dwindling. And after months had passed, there was more confusion than ever. A friend of Suz's, Barbara Whitfield, claimed to have seen her with a man in a car driving up north on Fulham Palace Road at about 2:45 p.m. Another witness claimed to have seen a blond-haired woman inside a car, apparently distressed, with a man on Stevenage Road, which was the same road where the white Ford Fiesta was found abandoned. This car was a black lefthand drive BMW, and the witness clearly heard the sound of a horn being repeatedly blared as an apparent attempt to attract attention. This statement was disturbing to hear, but it was dismissed by the police because they thought that Susie had brown hair at the time of her disappearance, and the witness mentioned a blondhaired woman. But what the police didn't know is that she had dyed her natural hair a blonde color just a day before her disappearance. And the photos that law enforcement circulated were ones with her sporting brown [music] hair. Even though the statement itself was quite convincing, it was still pretty vague. The witness had a hard time recalling if the woman that he saw was actually screaming or possibly just laughing. And just like the rest of the leads, this one died down as the investigation progressed. But then the police came to learn about a very strange detail. It was something Susie was struggling with before her disappearance. Apparently, she had a stalker. She would constantly receive red roses from a secret admirer at her workplace. Now, we don't know the full extent of this situation involving this unidentified admirer, but it was unsettling in hindsight. This just didn't happen once or twice either. This was happening a lot. And then there was a bizarre incident that occurred a week before she vanished. See, she frequented a local pub, the Prince of Wales in Putney. And on this particular evening out, she left her diary, her checkbook, and a postcard at the pub, clearly by accident. Now, she was extremely worried about her lost things after the fact once she realized what she had done. But the bizarre thing was that the pub owner was contacted by two different people. A woman claiming to be Sarah told the landlord to tell Susie to call her back. And then another caller, claiming to be a police officer, also called the same place. The landlord was the one who eventually found the lost belongings and apparently kept them as keepsakes. It's weird, but okay. But when he heard of the woman's disappearance, he then handed those things over to the police. Now, this might not mean anything, [music] or it could mean something, but it was just weird for these things to happen the way that they did. For example, why did Sarah called the pub's landlord and not Susie if she wanted to reach her personally? That seems odd. If this person knew Susie, why not just call her directly? But also, who was the guy claiming to be a police officer? because police knew nothing about one of their own contacting this pop. So this was a lead for police to follow. But it eventually led nowhere in the end. But soon after the police decided to explore another possible avenue. They were dreading it, but they had to check just in case. They thought that her disappearance could have been the doing of a serial killer. The police checked all sorts of offenders in the area. And then after some poking and proddding, they had a potential person of interest. And this man was a confirmed serial offender as suspected. And to top it all off, he'd recently been released from prison, just 3 days ago to be exact, before Suzie mysteriously disappeared. The man's name was John Cannon, and he'd just been released for a mere 6-year sentence for a previous offense of attacking a young woman, much like what officers believed happened to Susie. So John Cannon came from a middle-class family, but his family managed to send him to a private school when he was just four, although it wasn't for too long. See, John claimed that he was a victim of inappropriate misconduct by a teacher, and it took a toll on his mental health, and a downhill journey started from that point on. He was removed from school later on, which led him to temporarily join the merchant navy at the age of 17. And he ended up working as a salesman for his dad's company, but his criminal streak started when he was just 14 in 1968. And then he pingponged between committing crimes, being in prison for said crimes, having affairs, relationships with women, and then repeating all his offenses over and over. His MO was typically to approach a woman under different aliases, pretending to be either a successful businessman or a real estate agent. Now, he was very charming and eloquent when he wanted to be. He would show up to meet these women dressed to the nines, often with a bottle of champagne, which sounds pretty familiar. He would also shower these women with gifts, with flowers, with attention, all in a bid to get what he wanted. But if they rejected him, well, that's when the tables would turn. He would then intimidate them, harass them, and just make their lives difficult. All because they didn't feel the same way as him. Long story short, this guy was trouble through and through. Considered a high-risisk offender, he even earned a nickname during his countless prison sentences. And that nickname was Mr. Kipper. What are the odds? And on top of that, John or Mr. Kipper had multiple friends who mentioned he was interested in buying a house in Fullum, the same area where Susie went missing. Now, we don't know for sure if he was truly interested in the specific property that Susie was showing or not, but the similarities are striking. But also, remember the pub, Prince of Wales and Putney, the same place where Susie lost her belongings? Well, Janna also visited that same bar all the time. And on top of this, the police sketch of the person last seen with her highly resembled none other than John. And if all this wasn't creepy and coincidental enough, a man matching Jon's appearance was seen peering into the Sturgeist office, that same office that Susie worked at. There were just too many coincidences and circumstances that overlapped with Jon and Susie. And now she disappeared and left so many questions for everyone. But there was one huge obstacle. There was no physical evidence against Jon to pin him for the disappearance. Sure, he was a suspicious guy, and by no means was he a model citizen, but there was just no physical evidence like DNA or anything incriminating that pointed towards him being the one behind her disappearance. Everything so far was circumstantial, and this was why he was never formally charged with her disappearance, even though everyone was highly suspicious of him. Now, there was a single smudged fingerprint found on Suz's car, but it wasn't able to provide any promising results either. Over time, as years passed, her case began to go cold. Leads were popping up now and then, but they all bled to the same dead end. No one knew what happened to Susie or where she was, and her family was devastated by this. They [snorts] just wanted to find their daughter and give her a proper goodbye. They wanted to have a place where they could go to remember her, but with no sign of Sus's body being found. The family adured years of uncertainty. They didn't know who had taken their daughter in broad daylight. They didn't know what happened to her. They didn't even know if by some miracle maybe she was still alive. But in 1987, things changed. John Cannon's name was in the media again a year after Suz's disappearance and presumed homicide. It was now 1987 and Jon had finally been arrested, but not for the reasons you think. He was arrested in connection with another homicide. The victim in question was 29-year-old Shirley Banks, and she was a newly married factory worker living in Clifton, Bristol. On the fateful day of October 8th of 1987, she'd been out on a shopping trip to Broadme and [music] then she was never seen again after 7:40 p.m. She was due to meet up with her husband after the fact, but he waited and waited and she never showed up. This was extremely weird for him and he immediately went into panic mode. He searched from place to place and he couldn't get a hold of his wife and that was when the police got involved and she was reported missing. The search for Shirley was huge. 150 police officers and a total of 140,000 man hours were spent on this investigation. Officers were already on edge with the whole still unsolved Susie Lampluff case. And now another woman had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. But at the end of October of 1988, John Cannon was arrested in Leington Spa after attacking a woman with a weapon. And after a brief cat and mouse chase, he was finally arrested by the police. His hand was seriously injured and there was DNA on the knife and his black BMW was also confiscated by the police which contained restraints and a fake firearm. 3 weeks following the disappearance of Shirley, the police searched John's car and found a tax document with Shirley's name on it. Her car, an orange mini Clubman, was also found in a locked up garage that belonged to John. And he also had no alibi for the night of her disappearance. He also borrowed a vacuum cleaner from a neighbor to clean his car on the afternoon of October 9th, a day after Shirley was last seen. Another [snorts] elderly witness also came forward to the police and stated that while she was stuck in traffic near John's home by the woods, she heard a woman screaming as well as seeing smoke billowing in the distance. And all of this was far too much for investigators to ignore. But the case came to a head almost a year into Shirley's disappearance when in April of 1988, a woman's remains were found in an encampment at Dowsboro in the Quanduk Hills. Ironically, the place is known as dead woman's ditch. The remains were positively identified as those of Shirley Banks, and her jewelry was also found nearby. A coat of John's, which he'd given to a cleaner, was then tested for DNA, and the police were able to conclude that the stains were linked to the attack on Shirley. In the end, John stood trial for her murder in April of 1989, about a year after her body was found, and he was charged with murder, assault, kidnapping, abduction, and indecent assault, to name just a few. The trial lasted 3 weeks, and the jury deliberated for 10 hours before announcing the verdict. John was found guilty on all charges and he was given three life sentences for the murder and was incarcerated at HM prison full. He [snorts] was a category A offender and he continues to maintain his innocence to this day in both Shirley's and Suz's cases. But speaking of Susie, in 1991, she was finally declared legally deceased, presumed to be murdered. And in 2002, the Metropolitan Police held a press conference which Jon was officially named as a suspect in her disappearance. His parole hearing was held in October of 2023 in which he was obviously denied release considering he was a category A offender. A year or so later in November of 24, John passed away in his prison cell at the age of 70 due to natural causes. But up to his last moment, he refused to admit to Suz's disappearance. Her parents, Diana and Paul, also passed away in 2011 and 2018. And they left this world without ever finding answers to what happened to their daughter all those years back. But I'm sure where they may be now, those answers have been revealed to them. Now, Suz's case is still technically unsolved even after 40 years have passed. But considering all the evidence, I think we can all make an assumption about who likely did this. The evidence is clear. In the wake of this tragedy that completely changed the trajectory of their lives, Paul and Diana dedicated themselves to building the Susie Lampluff Trust, a charitable organization that helps to promote personal safety through programs and various training for people to be aware of their surroundings and protect themselves in times of need. The trust also runs the UK's National Stalking Helpline. This trust was a way for them to remember and honor Susie and provide protection to anyone and everyone who may need it. something Susie was unable to get at the time of her disappearance. The main goal is just to prevent situations of violence, aggression, and abuse through proper education, through counseling, through training, and it hopes to make the UK a safer [music] place. Sus's case was a public and media sensation during the time that it occurred. It aired on Crime Watch Daily. Many documentaries were made on the case, and even a book was written on the case by journalist Andrew Steven in 1988. Although it was met with controversy later on, the bottom line is this case is is one of the most baffling unsolved cases to have taken place in the history of the UK. To this day, Suz's body still has not been found. Even though countless searches, leads, and tips led the police to various areas digging up the ground, but they came back with nothing. This case is as disheartening as it is mysterious. But I think we can all make a logical assumption about what happened here and who did it. But I just hope for the sake of everyone connected to this case that one day the full truth will be revealed. Even if the culprit is revealed to have already passed away just a few years ago. You're supposed to be the safest with the people that you've known the longest. The ones who grew up in your home. The ones your parents trusted. the ones who've been there since elementary school. Jason Sweeney certainly believed that [music] he was 16, working full-time, planning his future, and bringing his first real girlfriend home to meet his parents the next day. But instead, he walked into the woods with the people he trusted [music] and never walked out. What happened to Jason wasn't random. It wasn't a stranger, and it wasn't sudden. It was betrayal. Jason Sweeney grew up in Fishtown, Philadelphia. His dad used to joke that their family was like the Beatles, four of them, always together. Jason worked for his family's construction business and made $500 a week. And he soon planned to join the Navy. He wasn't a reckless guy. He wasn't spiraling. He had direction. And maybe that's what made him different. Because while Jason was building a future, some of the people around him were quietly destroying theirs. And the resentment didn't happen overnight, it started in elementary school. One thing to know about Jason is that he had several friend groups. He was friends with the smart kids, the quiet kids, the loud kids, and the troublemakers. Jason was just that kind of person. He was never easily influenced by anyone or anything, and his primary goal was just to become a Navy Seal. But someone he trusted the most was determined to make sure that never happened. Jason's best friend since elementary school was a boy by the name of Edward or Eddie Batik Jr. The two were really close, and some would say they were basically joined at the hip. To give you an idea of how close Jason and Eddie were, their families also knew each other to the point where Eddie's family would invite and pay for Jason to accompany his best friend on trips. And Jason's family would do the same for Eddie. According to Jason's sister, Melissa, Eddie was a staple in the Sweeney household. He would stop by the house to play with Jason, have dinner with the Sweenies, and hang out with them basically all day every day. Aside from Eddie, Jason was also friends with two brothers, Nicholas and Dominique Koya. Dominique was a year older than Jason, Eddie, and Nicholas, but the four hung out a lot. Now, the thing with Nicholas and Dominique was that they were loners. They were raised by a single dad, and the two brothers would always be together, and the two would always be on their own on the outskirts of town. But still, nothing alarming or anything that screamed bad kid behavior, at least not initially. Jason, Eddie, and McCoya brothers remained friends until high school. But that was when that shift started to occur. And for some reason, [music] Eddie was spiraling out of control, and he became a magnet for troublemaking. He spent more time in the presence of police than he did in his own school. And I'm not completely sure what he was up to and why he was constantly in trouble, but if he had to go to court hearings all the time, then it must have been serious to some extent. So, in their high school era, Jason, Eddie, and the Koya brothers weren't as close anymore. So, it wasn't long before they lost touch and their friendship kind of ended. In the meantime, Jason had plans for his own life. His family ran a construction business and 16-year-old Jason decided to leave school at the beginning of 2003 and work for that family business. Well, after leaving high school and becoming a full-time employee at the construction business, Jason did reconnect with Eddie and the Koya brothers. But he was heartbroken and disappointed to see that his former friends weren't the same anymore. See, Eddie was already going down a dark path, but now he'd made a home there with Nicholas and Dominique. Jason's core ride or die group, who were only 16 or 17, were now heavily involved in hardcore substance and alcohol abuse. This was such a punch in the gut for Jason to hear. Now, Jason seldom used any sort of substances. The furthest he ever went was smoking. But what these three boys were doing was something that both Jason and his family were not comfortable or okay with. Neither Jason's parents nor Jason wanted to see the young boys spiral like that. Jason tried to talk his friends into quitting these habits and getting their lives back on track. But this caused even more tension in the group. Eddie, Nicholas, and Dominique were basically just angry at Jason for trying to correct them. And Jason was just helpless against them. Basically, from Jason's perspective, [music] he wanted his old friends back. He genuinely wanted Eddie and the Koya brothers to get their lives together. They were all [music] fast approaching adulthood, and they didn't have any solid plans for the future, whereas Jason did. He had a job. He made 500 bucks a week, and he was making plans of enlisting in the Navy. From the trio's perspective, though, you could sense there was some jealousy, some resentment, [music] and a lot of anger. The trio was jealous of Jason having his life on track despite having left high school early. Things were looking up for Jason. You can clearly see the stark difference between him and the trio. And if you ask me, this could have been them, too, if they only hadn't derailed their lives like that. Alcohol and substance abuse, it's terrible. But with a rockolid support system, you can overcome anything truly. But Eddie and Nicholas and Dominique were in no hurry to do such a thing. They liked the risk. They liked the parties and they enjoyed that lifestyle. But like it or not, Jason was about to be roped into this mess one way or the other. Especially when Eddie, Nick, and Dominique introduced Jason to someone who would change his life forever. From the outside, Jason had it all. A great job, a great future, all of it. But the one thing he didn't have was true love. That is until 15-year-old Justina Moley came into the picture. But there's a lot to unpack about Justina. See, when she was just 10 years old, she was exposed to the dark world of substances. This was not a great start to her life, obviously. According to her mom, she went through episodes of self harm, and at one point in 2002, she was admitted into Friends Hospital for these issues. Now, this was likely a great move on her mom's part. She was trying her best to get her daughter the help that she needed, but Justina hated every second of it. She all but threatened her mom to discharge her from that hospital, even though the doctors strongly advised against it. And in the end, Justina rejected the help that she desperately needed. And her mom was left with no choice but to discharge her despite the doctor's advice to let her get treated. From there on out, things only got worse. She wrote poems with deeply dark and disturbing themes. She was expelled from school in the eighth grade and she continued to abuse substances of all kinds. She would attend parties, get her hands on her poison of choice by any means, and she was free falling into a deep dark hole, very similar to what Eddie, Nicholas, and Dominique were also experiencing. So, this was the girl who was introduced to Jason. And right away, Jason fell a head over heels for Justina. Jason had never really been in a relationship with anyone before Justina. And to him, she was the one for him. and Jason was very much in love. They hung out for about a week and that was when Jason decided to invite her to his parents home and to meet his parents and everything. Jason's parents and sister Melissa were very excited to see Jason having hard eyes for a girl. They were very interested to meet this mystery girl Jason couldn't stop thinking or talking about. So, the date for the meeting with Jason's parents was set for May 31st of 2003. It [snorts] was a Saturday and Jason would bring Justina to meet his parents, particularly his mom, since the two were very close and all would hopefully go well. But well isn't the word that I or anyone would use to explain what went down after this. Because just a day before Jason was due to bring his girlfriend to his house, he went missing. Normally Jason's routine went something like this. He'd wake up, he'd eat breakfast, he'd go to work, and if he didn't have any plans, like meeting up with a friend or going somewhere, he'd be back by that evening. It was like clockwork. Jason was very good about leaving and arriving home on time. So, when Jason didn't come back home after work on the evening of May 30th, his parents were kind of taken aback, but they weren't all that worried. His parents thought that maybe he was just going through a teenage streak of breaking curfew, seeing if he could get away with it, you know, things like that. But the Sweeney family began worrying when it was almost nighttime and there was still no sign of Jason. Melissa called Jason's workplace and his phone, but he wasn't answering, which was extremely uncommon for him. Where was he? The Sweeney family tried to come up with every logical reason for Jason's silence. But when Monday morning came, they couldn't wait any longer. They went to the police and they reported 16-year-old Jason Sweeney [music] missing on June the 2nd. So, the police came and they took the report and asked about Jason's description, what he was wearing, the usual questions. When Jason's mom described what he was wearing the day that he was last seen, the officer looked up at her with a very weird expression on his face. It was this mix of fear, surprise, and maybe something else. But what was going on? Well, to find out, I've got to take you back just a bit. back to the day that Jason was supposed to introduce Justina to his parents, May 31st of 2003. [music] Basically, on this day, locals had called the police to notify them about something they'd found at the Trails. This was a wooded and remote area of Fishtown near the Delaware River. The Trails was about a mile away from Jason's home. So, the police went out to investigate and they immediately came across an injured and deceased [music] body. The severity of the injuries proved to be a hindrance for the police as they couldn't figure out the age of this person. By the looks of it, the male appeared to be in his 30s or 40s, and he had no form of identification on him. He was only wearing a St. Jude's necklace, and he had a cut on his palm. He was wearing a dark-coled t-shirt and jeans. This male, John Doe, was taken away to the medical examiner's office. And [music] since there were no recent missing person reports, there wasn't a whole lot the police could do for right now. That was until Jason went missing. [music] The police were left gobsmacked at the odds. The John Doe found in the trails was wearing the same clothes as Jason [music] the day that he disappeared. But John Doe was in his 30s to 40s, and Jason was just 16. [music] But still, the police called the Sweeney family in to identify the body. Jason's parents' worst nightmare became true. The John Doe lying lifeless in that medical examiner's office was none other than their own son. He was identified by that St. Jude necklace which was given to him by his grandmother. Jason's [music] family couldn't believe this. Who could have done this to him and why? Now that the police had identified Jason, they knew that someone was behind the attack. It was a very frenzied attack. It was a crime of passion. No doubt about that. Jason didn't just trip and fall in a remote area where he was found. He was attacked. So, the police talked to Jason's parents about the people that he hung out with, any particular peculiar information that would be helpful to the case, and obviously if he had any bad blood with someone. The police eventually found out about Jason's friends, Eddie, Nicholas, and Dominique, and his new girlfriend, Justina. They were the last people to have been known to have interacted with Jason. Even though Jason wasn't as close with the trio anymore, he did hang out with them from time to time. And since Justina entered the picture, seeing the trio was kind of inevitable at that point since they'd be at the same gatherings. So, first the trio, Eddie, Nicholas, and Dominique, were called in, and they were all questioned separately. Eddie was questioned by one officer, whereas the Koya brothers were questioned by another. But they didn't know where Jason was. According to them, they were at a party at a friend's house on the day that Jason went missing. And in fact, they were waiting for Jason, but he never showed up. That was it for the questioning. But there was still one person who could recount the details of the day when Jason had gone missing, and that was his girlfriend, Justina Mortley. She [snorts] was his girlfriend and if anyone knew where Jason was at the time of his disappearance, well, it should be his girlfriend, right? So, Justina was called into the police station for a round of questions. And initially, she gave the same story as the rest of the boys, but she couldn't keep up the ruse for too long. The words that came out of Justina's mouth and what she proceeded to tell the police couldn't have been more chilling. In the end, Justina's statement became the missing puzzle piece in this mystery. Justina basically confessed to the police about how she, Eddie, and the Koya brothers were involved in Jason's attack and his subsequent passing. This was a haunting revelation. These were the four people who Jason was closest with. How could they be the ones behind his passing? Were the police really supposed to believe that a bunch of teenagers had targeted their friend like this? And to make things even worse, it was actually Justina who lured Jason into that very place where he was eventually found deceased. So what happened on that fateful day? Well, according to Justina, the attack was planned way before it was set into motion. And what was even worse was that this wasn't the first time that they had thought about this. Their original plan was to lure Jason to the South Jersey Shore and attack him after he withdrew some money from an ATM, but that didn't work out for some reason. Then the group thought that Jason's home was the best place to carry out the attack. But again, something happened and the plan was put on hold. Finally, it was decided that the day before Justina was about to meet Jason's family, she would lure Jason to a remote place with the promise of a good time, and the friends would be hiding, ready to jump at the perfect moment. Now, Jason was really attracted to Justina, so this was a dream come true for him. He was quick to say yes and he didn't have any reason to be apprehensive. He thought the two were truly in love. He was Justina, his girlfriend, the girl that he had a huge crush on and was only a day away from introducing to his family. But Jason couldn't expect that he was walking straight into a trap. [music] And it was set up by none other than the girl that he loved and the people he called his friends. As soon as Justina lured Jason deep within that wooded area, Eddie, Nicholas, and Dominique came out of hiding. And almost immediately, they launched an [music] attack. Jason tried to save himself. He tried pleading and he tried to make them stop. But in the end, he was unsuccessful. And tragically, Jason Sweeney, who was only 16, lost his life at the hands of the people with whom he'd been close friends with for his whole life. After the attack, the trio and Justina went through Jason's pockets and stole his paycheck for the week. $500, some gum, and some other things. An attack that led to Jason losing his life was for a $500 paycheck. This was all the group wanted. They just [music] wanted his money. And need I remind you, these are a bunch of kids, actual children, teenagers. Well, after their successful money heist, the group celebrated with a group hug and left the scene as if they hadn't literally just murdered their closest childhood friend. They disposed of the weapons, the soiled clothes, and all the other evidence in nearby places. Then they just split the money among themselves. According to Justina, everyone [music] was unaffected, happy even, like they just won the lottery. So, what did they do with all this money? Well, they spend it on partying, drinks, and other random stuff along the same line. They literally went partying [music] after committing murder. This is this is mind-blowing. If this doesn't illustrate the depths people would go to fuel their addictions, then nothing [music] will. But after Justina's confession, the police honestly needed a second to just get a hold of themselves. They didn't expect the questioning to take such a dark turn so quickly. And what surprised the investigators even more was how detached Justina was. Her expression was cold, nonchalant, and you would think that she was just talking about the weather or something boring to her. Well, the police were left shocked. Melissa, Jason's sister, was likely shocked more than anyone else, as she'd also been pretty close with these boys growing up. But this, well, the investigators now had their guys, but they needed to dig [music] more. Would the boys be as cooperative as Justina? Well, surprisingly, they were. One by one, Eddie, Nicholas, and Dominique spilled everything about how they participated in Jason's attack and what part each person played. Dominique confessed that in the days leading up to the attack, the group was listening to the infamous Beatles song Helter Skelter for over 40 times supposedly. Also, this is just a side note, but there were also four attackers. The Beatles also had four members. And if you remember, Melissa said that their family was lovingly called the Beatles by her and Jason's dad because they also were a group of four people. The parallels are heartbreaking, scary, and bizarre all at the same time. Now, you would think that the group's confession would be enough to indict them for murder, but oddly enough, it wasn't. The police needed something permanent, something that could be argued with to successfully take this group of teens to court and punish them. As much as the investigators didn't want to do it, they had to strike a deal with one of the murderers, and they chose none other than Justina Mortley. If she pleaded guilty to thirddegree murder and testified against the rest of the group at the trial, she'd be given a lighter sentence. Justina happily took that deal. It was a bitter pill for everyone, but the state had to do what they had to do, and it was decided to try the whole group as adults for obvious reasons. Well, Eddie and the Koya brothers were eventually charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery, and possessing an instrument of crime. The trial for Eddie, Nicholas, and Dominique was held on February 28th of 2005. And as promised, Justina testified against them. The prosecution also managed to find the weapons that were used to attack Jason, as well as DNA evidence on some of the recovered items of clothing from the perpetrators. The trial lasted for just two weeks, and at every hearing, Jason's family was in the front row just reliving the pain that their son and brother went through. In no time, the jury deliberated and the verdict for the trio was guilty. They were found guilty on all charges. And in May of 2005, Edward, Nicholas, and Dominique were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for the murder of Jason Sweeney, as well as an additional 22 1/2 to 45 years for conspiracy, robbery, and possessing an instrument of crime. It was clear as day they were never getting out of prison until the last day of their lives. But the fight was far from over. Justina's sentencing was still pending. Because of the plea deal in holding up her end of the bargain, Justina was sentenced to only 17 and a half to 35 years in prison. All of them showed little to no remorse. They were not the least bit sorry for taking Jason's life. Well, after 15 years had passed. In December of 2020, Justina Mley was released on parole from prison. She was just as involved in Jason's attack as any other person in the group. And the fact that it's been 5 years since she was released is unbelievable. We don't really know where she is or what she's doing now, but Jason's family, as well as everyone who was involved in this case. They're kind of in disbelief. Jason's family can still feel that void that was [music] left after their son's sudden passing. Jason was just a young man who had so much to look forward to. He was on the right path. He was building his life. He was hardworking and mature for his age. Yet, he still met his tragic end. The main things that make this case so unique and equally terrifying is a [music] the age and attitude of the perpetrators. They were Jason's friends. They were just like him. But they didn't even bat an eye when they ended Jason's life. [music] In fact, they thought it was one of the coolest things they ever did. And B, the motive, what's believed to be the primary motive was just money, but also something else, too. Something deep rooted in something resentful. Whether it be jealousy towards Jason, resentment of his having a better life, or some other negative emotion, something other than greed led to this attack. Because even after two decades, the pain of losing Jason Sweeney is still fresh in the heart of his loved ones. It's something that they can never forget for as long as they live. They lost Jason so suddenly and [music] inexplicably, and it's a wound that will always hurt no matter how much time passes. I think Psalm 55 gives a very deep insight into cases like this. When David says, "It's not an enemy who taunts me. I could bear that. But it's you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend." David too was referring to the deep betrayal of a close friend. A betrayal on its own is hard enough. But when it comes from someone so close, even scripture recognizes how deep those cuts can really go. But we can't forget how Psalm 55 ends with David concluding by saying, "But I call to God and the Lord will save me." He finally adds, "Cast your burdens on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be shaken.