True Crime Stories

I know many of us have a joke about how as we age we get meaner. That is especially true of me. I have always been what people call “mouthy,” although the politically correct people call me “blunt.” Apparently it seems that Ivy Jean Davis was the same, although most believe it was brought on by her alcoholism. She had garnered the nickname “Mean Jean” before she ever set foot in prison. She was not exactly unknown to police by then though as she had been arrested upwards of twenty times for offenses. Most of those were alcohol related. Ivy Jean had met Wallace Davis in 1959. Little is really known about the marriage itself but it does apparently seem obviously it had it's troubles. In early 2007, after forty-seven years of marriage Wallace filed for divorce. A few months later Ivy Jean would be arrested for attempting to hire a hit man to kill Wallace, her son in law and another man who was sometimes described as “her boyfriend's son.” Some reports say tha...

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I like to see appeal records to get information because I feel they are the best source of getting all the information that was presented at a trial to prove someone's guilt. I want to know what evidence was presented at the trial and see how a jury came to the conclusion that they did. I have not seen an appeal on this case as of yet and so I am still left with those questions. This does not mean that I do not believe in the jury's verdict or even that I think the defendant is innocent in any way, in fact it appears that the defense conceded that the defendant was involved in the death of his wife although there was still a trial. Sometime in early 1982 twenty-nine year old Amy Hurst moved from Michigan to New Port Richey Florida with her husband William. My research indicates that her two children from a previous marriage were living with her until the move when they went to live with their father. When her m...

Of course it is not unusual for a spouse or a significant other to murder or attempt to murder the other. Everyone knows that they are the first people that are looked at. This is still true no matter the age of the victim or suspect. But, this case was a bit different in many ways. The victim, Melvin Roberts, was seventy-nine years old, his girlfriend could have been about sixty-six at the time of his murder. I say could be because one of the articles I read indicated that no one knew for sure just how old she was but I calculated it by the age they stated at her death. The biggest thing that stands out in this case is that Julia Phillips would ultimately be convicted of accessory to commit murder but not only would she not be accused of committing the murder, authorities have never discovered who did. As is often the case, defense attorney's have argued that the authorities used tunnel vision in their quest to solve the case of the murdered York South Carolina law...

It is not often that I do a case here that has not fully gone through the court system unless it is a long unsolved case. However, I feel as if there really is not much more to know about this case despite the fact that Michael Bever, at last check is set to go to trial in June of 2017. His brother, Robert, has already pleaded guilty to the crime that the brothers committed together. Robert did so in order to prevent facing the death penalty but since Michael, who is being tried as an adult, was a juvenile when the crime was committed he is not facing death. Michael's lawyer has fought against the law that allows him to be charged as an adult saying that a sentence of life without parole should be unconstitutional. So far his efforts have been unsuccessful so barring some sort of compromise it looks as if his trial will commence as scheduled. At about 11:30 pm on the night of July 22, 2015 911 in Broken Arrow Oklahoma received a call from a child who stated his brot...

On November 30, 1984 Drexel University student, Deborah Wilson was found murdered in the stairway at the Philadelphia University. There were no signs of rape or even robbery as she was fully dressed, minus her shoes and socks, and her purse was not taken. An investigation was launched and the security guards at the school were questioned. The crime would go unsolved until September of 1993 despite the fact that the answer seemed to be in front of the investigators faces all along. In 1992 police would reopen the murder case and one of the first things they found was a discrepancy in an interview given by security guard, David Dickson. In the interview Dickson told police that he heard the printer working in the computer lab at about 1:30 am so he did not disturb anyone. He claimed that a few hours later when he did his rounds there was no one there. It is unclear if he told the police if he had any interaction with Deborah. Dickson had worked the hall where Deborah ha...

On July 9, 2010 Monique Kitts made a 911 call. She would tell the operator that it looked as if someone had broken into her home. Monique continued to talk to the 911 operator as she walked around her home, which investigators would say this was unusual for someone to do. It was while she was talking to the 911 operator that she would go into the bedroom of her Addis Louisiana home and find her husband dead on the bed. She would cry and yell during the call, something prosecutors would later say was an act. Corey Kitts had been shot three times while he was apparently sleeping. Despite any suspicion that the investigators had it would be nearly three years before they made an arrest. In March of 2013 three people were indicted in the murder of Corey Kitts. The prosecutor had been looking at four people but apparently the grand jury felt differently. According to prosecutors Monique Kitts had paid Karl Howard to kill her husband. And, a man named Corey Knox, who wa...

*** Before I start I want to point out that Taber was spelled also sometimes as Tabor, often even in the same article that I would read. However, I chose to go with Taber because this was the name used that I found on an obituary site as well as on Findagrave.com.*** This is a bit different than most murder/suicide cases you will read about. I believe this is the first one I have read in which the victims were found in different places. Ricardo “Rick” Taber's body was found inside his St. Peter Minnesota trailer on July 25, 2009. Police found him when they went there to question him about the disappearance of his neighbor, Michaela “Micky” Widmer. According to Mickey's finance', Darnell Mears the last he had heard from her she was with Rick the night before. Micky's four year old daughter, Kassandra, was with them also. Kassandra had been found late the night before about 11:30 alone at a boat ramp. Someone had pulled into the area to turn around an...

If you are a regular reader than you know I do not always agree with a jury verdict. You also know that I have often said I am neither for or against the death penalty but I believe there should be absolutely no question what so ever that the person that is executed is guilty of their crime. The only case that I feel I could categorically state that I felt a person was innocent and yet executed is the case of Todd Willingham in Texas.... this is until now. Maybe it is not a coincidence that this case also took place in Texas or that after years of having what was called an “express lane” to their execution chamber that Texas slowed their process down and started offering more DNA testing to inmates. This is also a case that today would not have seen the perpetrator executed as he was a minor when the crime occurred. On November 8, 1984 at a house under construction in San Antonio Texas to men were shot. The home had been burglarized previously and a water heater had b...

On Monday May 12, 2003 Daniel Stewart and his wife, Kathy got into an argument at their Ava Missouri home. Their son Alex would later say that he saw his mother's van leave sometime in the middle of the night with the headlights off. He was unsure what time that was but it was estimated to be sometime between 10:30 pm and 3:00 am. The following morning Alex and his two brothers, Chris and Devon got up but neither parent was home to take them to school. They called their dad who would come home and take them to school. Later on the afternoon of May 13 th Daniel would file a missing persons report on Kathy but even that seemed a little odd. At the time that he filed the report Daniel would tell the police that it was not unusual for Kathy to take off for days at a time without telling him so it seemed a bit suspicious that he would file a report so soon. Later that evening one of Kathy's co-workers, Angela Ewing at the school where she was a guidance counselor, ...

On January 13, 2010, in Conyers Georgia, two sixteen year old twin teenagers approached a police officer that was paroling the area of their house. The teenagers would say that they had found their mother dead inside the bathtub of their home. When authorities arrived there was no doubt that this was a case of murder. Thirty-four year old Jarmecco “Nikki” Whitehead had been stabbed several times. The wounds would puncture her lungs, her jugular vein, and the back of her neck to the point her spinal cord was nearly severed. Nikki Whitehead had not been born into the best of situations. She was born inside a prison. Her mother, Lynda was serving time for a drug possession charge and Nikki would be raised by her grandmother, Della Frazier. Nikki herself would be only seventeen years old when she gave birth two twin daughters she would name Tasmiyah and Jasmiyah, better known as Tas and Jas. According to Frazier, Nikki was involved in her own issues when it came...

For me this was a strange case. I do believe the person who committed the crime is rightfully behind bars but I am unsure that I feel that everyone involved is, or ever will be held accountable. I tried to dig deeper with my research than I normally tend to do for this one, just to see if I could not determine if anything else has been done with the case. By all appearances the case seems to be closed. On March 31, 2010 police showed up at the home of Monica Schmeyer's in Glenville Pennsylvania in response to a hang up call to 911. They would find Monica shot in the head inside the home. A few of her neighbor would describe seeing a man walking to and from the home. One of those neighbors saw the man walk towards a silver van. As is customary one of the first people that the investigators interviewed was Monica's ex-husband, Jon Schmeyer. They had recently divorced and the the ophthalmologist was paying Monica $1,700 a month and other expenses while she ...