True Crime Stories

I have gotten a bit of a late start today sitting down to compose cases due to the fact I was finishing up watching the Netflix series The Keepers , another true crime case. If you get the chance to see it you should. It is not only about an unsolved murdered, it is also about abuse within the Catholic Church. In the same respect, if you like to hear more on that type of subject then check out the movie Spotlight . While The Keepers takes place in Baltimore Maryland, Spotlight tells the story of how the local newspaper in Boston uncovered abuse within the Catholic Church there. Think of it as Woodward and Bernstein meets the church. The case that I am going to discuss here today may be a bit difficult for me to convey but I will say that it was a huge lesson on just how a television show can slant, or distort the facts of a case in order to fit their agenda. Going into my research of this case I had not seen anything involved with this story, or maybe I had without r...

I have often stated that names make it on my list of cases to research in a variety of different ways and often it takes me plugging a name into a Google search before I even remember anything about the case. This is a case where my list only contained the name of one of the perpetrators, the state (Georgia) where the crime occurred and stated that the person had been executed in 2003. So, per my usual routine I through the name in as a search and found a case that quite honestly I do not remember hearing. Maybe I never have. Maybe I just heard or saw that the state of Georgia executed a man named Carl Junior Isaacs in 2003 and I just simply wanted to know why. After doing the research, and despite my obsession with true crime, I am a bit sure I could have gone forever without knowing this case. I found references in which it was compared to the Clutter Family case from Kansas in 1959. I have blogged about that case in the past as it was the basis for what is considered to...

Donald Easley I recently moved into a new home and obtained a new cable provider. I now have Investigation Discovery (ID) and strangely enough, despite the fact that I just saw a recent episode on this case on there it just so happened to be next on my long list of cases. Along with getting the new cable provider, I am also obviously in a position to meet new neighbors. I am sure that we have all experienced living near someone who we just did not necessarily like. I had just such a neighbor several years ago, long before the series Fear Thy Neighbor was a stable on the ID channel. Thankfully in my case although it was a family that lived there, it was only the man that was well, unstable, I guess would be the word. We just simply did our best to avoid him and that was fairly possible considering that we lived on a corner lot and the man and his family lived behind us. While interactions with the man were unpleasant it never rose to the level of some of the cases I have r...

Thirty four year old Susan Casey was last seen outside her Glendive Montana apartment around five in the morning on April 12, 2008. Her body would eventually be found in the Yellow Stone River. An autopsy would determine that she had been strangled and was no longer alive when her body was put in the river. When it came to significant others who could have been involved in the case this one had plenty. First there was Susan's first ex-husband, Marty Larson, the father of her two oldest children. Then there was Susan's estranged husband, Ted Casey, and the father of her two youngest children. Lastly there was Brad Holzer, her new boyfriend, who not only was married but who would admit to being the last person to see her alive when he dropped her off at her apartment that morning. Of course Brad's wife would also have to be looked at as a suspect. Susan and Marty Larson had married in 1993 and divorced in early 1998. She would marry Ted Casey in late 1998. I...

This is one of those cases that touch on the issue of mental health services and the lack of understanding, not just in a community but even in the medical field of just how serious things can become and how despite all efforts given to get someone help people can be failed. This is a case in which eight people were killed and four people injured in a mass shooting before the perpetrator took his own life, those twelve people were hardly the only victims here. The perpetrators family, at least those who were involved in his life in a helping way, as well as yes, the perpetrator himself are victims. This always seems to be such a hard thing for society to accept but until you have dealt with someone with a mental illness and dealt with the system that is supposed to be there to help you, it is one of those subjects it is best to stay quiet about in my opinion. When an individual commits a crime or even accused of a crime, society is all to quick to demonize the person. ...

I actually did the research for this case prior to the last blog that I posted. I had initially skipped over it and debated on putting it together because it seems so cut and dry. This case was open and shut within a year. The two defendants in the case pleaded guilty and received sentences of life, plus forty years. They did so to avoid going to trial and the possibility of receiving the death penalty. But, unlike so many other cases that involve plea deals nothing was really discovered from the defendants. While the law does not require a prosecutor to present a motive for a crime to a jury, whether a case goes to court or not, we all want to know why. We want to know what motivated the killers to act. We want to know just what possessed them to do such things. All too often those motives are petty that revolve around jealously or greed and really do nothing to alleviate the crime or the grief of surviving victims, but, we still want to hear it. But, as I said, that is n...

Rebecca Braswell As the mother of boys I have always been more critical of females. Especially those teenage girls who wanted to date my sons, but that's what Mama's are supposed to do... right?? I have never done well with large groups of women either. Some are just full of drama and even a few are down right evil. However, I am unsure that the word “evil” can even come close to describing Rebecca Braswell and her friend, or was she lover, Shannon Butler. Rebecca Braswell met John Marmo Jr. when they were both stated in Italy while serving in the military in 2001. Despite strict rules about fraternizing the two were able to keep their relationship a bit of a secret. Well, that is until Rebecca got pregnant. So the two decided to get married in 2002. Their daughter was born in February of 2003. Soon the couple was back the states, stationed in California but John's military career ended while Rebecca applied for and became a member of the elite Navy Seab...

Few things irritate me more in defendants in cases in which it is blatantly obvious that they are guilty is arrogance. Alec McNaughton had it in spades! Alec McNaughton was innocent and everyone who had anything to do with the investigation into the death of his wife, or any testified against him were liars. Phone records that said he was not where he said he was were wrong. The detective in charge of the investigation was only out to make a name for himself because it was his first homicide case. Despite the fact his daughter, who would tragically later die in a car accident, called 911 years prior to report that she had overheard him state that he was going to kill her, her mother and then himself, she “knew better.” It is likely that Alec McNaughton's arrogance came from the fact that he had once been an attorney but the funny thing is that those skills did not prevent him from talking to authorities or asking for a lawyer when he was repeatedly interrogated. O...