True Crime Stories

In the early morning hours of June 20, 1987 firefighters in Portland Oregon were called to a motel. Once the fire was out they would find the body twenty-six year old Candice Straub in one of the rooms on a bed. An autopsy would reveal that she had been strangled before her death and a flammable liquid had been poured on her body and set on fire after her death. A few weeks later a man by the name of Marco Montez would tell the woman he lived with, Annie Edmo, in Idaho that he had helped another man, Timothy Aikens, dispose of a body in Oregon where they had been working as strawberry pickers. Edmo would call the local police. They would arrest Montez a few days later on July 12 th on unrelated charges if for no other reason to get him in for questioning. They had also contacted the Portland police. Once Montez started talking he seemed to change his story often. In his first story to investigators he would claim that Aikens had called him to the motel and he ha...

In every case in which there has been a conviction at some point I make my way to the state (or federal) Department of Corrections website to get information. Generally it is one of the last things I do, but not always. Every website is different as far as much or as little you are required to input before you can get results. As with everything some are better than others in the way they work and the information they give. In this case I had done a little research, but not a lot before I checked the Oregon Department of Corrections. This state allowed me to get away with only entering a persons last name. When I put in Guzek I came up not only with Randy, who obviously I was looking for, but also a Joel. At this point in my research I only knew that Randy's father, who I did not know his name, had helped him hide stolen items after he committed his crime. I clicked on the Joel once I had gathered the information I needed for Randy, expecting charges something like rece...

On February 21, 1998 Patricia Sexton reported her husband, Bobby, missing from their Ducanville Texas home. As is often the case investigators were suspicious of the spouse fairly quickly. On the night of February 24 th the police were back at the house for what I only found referenced a few times as a “possible sexual misconduct” call and they became even more suspicious of Patricia. She would tell investigators that she had last seen her husband on the night of the 20 th between 11:15 and 11:20 when he left in his truck and yet on that night the truck she said he left in was in her driveway. It seems she would later change what vehicle he left in but it really did not matter because that vehicle was also in the drive. Patricia was sixteen years old in 1991 when she started dating the thirty-one year old Bobby. For the most part she had been raised by her grandparents, the Bingham's, her mother's parents. Her father was in prison for murder and her mother was...

When Milton Lindgren and Eric Hendricks, two men in their seventies were found murdered in their Camby Indiana home on October 20, 2008, it was automatically assumed to be a hate crime as men were openly gay. When the full story was revealed and the motive ended up being not because the men were gay but the age old motive of greed people became angry that it had been assumed to be a hate crime. The town of Camby, basically a small suburb of Indianapolis, could not win for losing in a sense. Either it had been a hate crime and they were criticized for their intolerance, or it was not a hate crime and they were criticized for their assumption that it was. The discovery of the bodies can basically be credited to an auto repair shop. On October 20, 2008 a man named Michael Brown came into the shop. The owners wife, Connie Ballard, had met the man before but there was something about him that he did not like. She had met him with long time customer Milton Lindgren. Milto...

Despite having several murder/suicide cases on my list I do not do put a lot of them together because as sad as this sounds they are quite often much alike. The motive of murder/suicides, especially when they involve an entire family is often surrounded by financial issues and the perpetrator most often cites, if they they cite anything at all, the unreasonable idea that they are saving their family from shame and embarrassment. I have a few others together that have researched and have considered one day when I have a few more doing one post devoted to those cases and combining them. However, this one was a bit different for a few reasons. One, the perpetrator, John Markle, was the son of an Oscar winning actress, although not one very well known, at least by today's standards, even for someone like me who next to true crime has a passion for movies. The other interesting thing was the way in which the crime was played out. It was nearly 4:20 in the morning on Novem...

Despite the fact that six people were eventually sentenced to life without parole in the murders of the Lillelid family in 1997, Natasha Cornett is the most talked about. Some say it is because she was the “leader” of the group. Natasha and her attorney's, as well as supporters, dispute that claim. Many believe that this belief came about from the representation of her first attorney who seemed to want to push the idea of cults and satanic rituals being a part of the case, something that seemingly more often pops up in cases from the southern region. During the time of this murder there seemed to be a lot of them actually but over time it has been thought that the Satanic culture was not exactly as it was portrayed or even existed. I cannot say for sure that is the case here but it has been widely disputed. On April 6, 1997 the bodies of thirty-four year old Vidar Lillelid, his twenty-eight year old wife, Delfina were found on the side of the road in a deserted area...

I found this case interesting mostly because technically it did not occur in the United States and yet the perpetrator was being tried in a court in San Diego California. Initially he was charged in June of 2013, not for murder, but for charges such as obstruction of justice, giving false statements to a federal officer and falsifying records. In April of 2015 he would be indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of committing a foreign murder of a U.S. National. This is the first time that I had heard of this being done. When it comes to the legal system, whether it is criminal or civil, the number one issue is always jurisdiction. Of course you have cases that are moved to other counties when a change of venue is sought, usually due to fears of not being able to sit an impartial jury. But, I have rare, if ever, seen a case in which a murder occurred in another country and tried here in the United States. The initial charges in this case were however committed on U.S. soi...

While most of my blogs here pertain to murders that have occurred, not all are actually murder cases. We all know though that there are times in which a murder has not occurred but it is not from a lack of trying. While this case does not involve a murder, although it very well could have, it does have other interesting elements. There is a Hollywood side to this case as well as a more prestigious side then we sometimes see. On October 3, 1988 Aissa Wayne, daughter of legendary actor John Wayne, was beaten inside the garage of her new boyfriend's home. The boyfriend, Roger Luby was also attacked in his Newport Beach California home. The two had just returned to the home after working out at the gym. As they pulled into the garage and emerged from the car two men attacked them. They were thrown onto the concrete floor of the garage. Luby would be pistol whipped as well as have his Achilles tendon slashed in one of his legs. Aissa would have her face slammed onto ...

I have talked a few times about the show Cold Justice. It was originally a TNT television show but despite their apparently good ratings was canceled in early 2016. It was recently announced that the network, Oxygen, is picking the show up but there has not been a release date set. While it seemed rather hush, hush about why the cancellation occurred I gander to guess it had to do with the criticism it received as well as because of at least one lawsuit filed against the show. Wikipedia says that as of January 2015, which was after only two seasons had aired of the show they had twenty-one arrests, eleven indictments, four confessions, three guilty pleas and three conviction had been obtained due to the show. While on the surface this all sounds wonderful but despite the fact that I enjoyed the show, if for no other reason to learn about cases I had not heard of, I was one that often criticized things. It seemed almost unbelievable how this crew would go to a town and work ...

A little after 10 pm on the night of September 20, 2011 in Mustang Oklahoma Rebecca Bryan called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher that an intruder had come into her home and shot her husband as he lay on the couch. She would claim the main, who she did not know, had come in through the garage door, shot her husband and then looked at her and apologized saying that “he should have hired me.” Keith Bryan, a local fire chief, lay dying on the couch while the intruder, according to Rebecca went back out the same door he had entered nd drove off in a small, dark pickup truck. Apparently it seems that Rebecca also called some friends to comfort her in her time of need. Officers would arrive on the scene and while Rebecca's friends would later say that they were on the back porch Rebecca's behavior seemed odd as she made several phone calls to people calming recounting the gory details as to what had happened. Keith had not died right away and was taken to the hospit...