The Murder of Karyn Hearn Slover

I tend to look a little more closely at a case when I see that cases are being looked into by those involved in the Innocence Project. Many states have their own chapters of this committee I suppose you would call it, and Illinois is one of them. That being said, while I look a little deeper and may take what they say a little more serious than some, I do not always agree that they have taken on a case that does truly involve innocent people. To be fair I am a bit on the fence on this case but I admit that I lean towards the fact that the prosecution got it right despite there being little forensic evidence. While the defense has argued over the years to have more modern testing allowed on the evidence the courts have denied most of these efforts. In 2014 the defense was granted the right to have some specific items DNA tested but for the most part, at least in my opinion, I am unsure that it will make a difference.

On September 27, 1996 twenty-three year old Karyn Hearn Slover left her job as an advertising sales representative for the local Decatur Herald & Review to pick her son up at her ex-husband's parents' home. Michael Slover Sr. and his wife, Jeannette, would claim that Karyn never showed up at their home to pick up her three year old son, Kolton (His name has been said to be Christopher in a few things but most say Kolton and he was listed as KMS in court papers during Karyn and Michael Jr's divorce). The car she had been driving that night belonged to her boyfriend, David Swann. It would be found late into the night of the 27^th on the side of the road. The engine was running, the headlights were on and the driver's door was left open. Inside the car was Karyn's purse and her drivers license.

On October 1, 1996 a couple was out fishing on Lake Shelbyville when they found some plastic trash bags floating around. It seems obviously that they saw something grisly because the police were called. It is unclear how many bags were found but lets just say it was obviously more than one. Inside the bags, that were wrapped and sealed with duct tape were the body parts of Karyn Slover. Whoever had disposed of her had attempted to weigh down the bags with concrete cinder blocks. That attempt had obviously failed.

For the next few years investigators dug deep into Karyn, her life and those around her. Obviously David Swann was an early suspect. He of course was the boyfriend and she was driving his car. Initially his alibi had a gap of about forty minutes that the investigators could not confirm. Later surveillance video from an ATM helped clear David Swann. Then there was Michael Slover Jr. It appears that the couple had had a contentious divorce and custody battle over their son. It also appears that domestic violence had been a part of their relationship. But, Michael Jr. worked two jobs that day and investigators were able to confirm that.

The medical examiner was only able to identify Karyn through dental records, but they were able to determine that she had been shot multiple times in the head. Some reports say that there were seven shots found but another seemed more specific in saying there was one shot to the back of her head and five to her forehead. It was obvious that this was a murder case.

Some say that this case was the first case to use animal DNA in a trial while some other information says it may not have been THE first but one of the first. It was the animal DNA that was used and ultimately led to the conviction of three people. To be fair, one article I read stated that this evidence was thrown out on an appeal but I found no record of that being true. That being said, a veterinary geneticist was brought into the case to examine dog hairs that had been found on the duct tape that had sealed the plastic bags around body parts.

The case languished for a few years it seems but it appeared obvious that investigators were looking at the Slover family. Sometime in mid to late 1999 Kolton Slover was adopted by Michael Slover Jr.'s sister, Mary. After Karyn's death Michael obviously gained custody of his son and it was said that he had not allowed contact with Karyn's family, including her parents, Larry and Donna Hearn. At some point later Mary would say that while Kolton was in her custody there had been contact with the Hearn family but it is unclear if this is true, and if it was just how much contact there was.

Investigators learned that not long before her death Karyn had signed on with a modeling agency and whether it was true or not the Slover's believed that Karyn was planning to leave her job at the newspaper and leave the state to pursue a modeling career. They believed Karyn had all intentions of taking Kolton with her. Prosecutors would later say this was at least part of the motive in her murder. It is also alleged that it had always been the intention of giving custody of Kolton to Mary. It would be later alleged by co-workers of Mary's that she had stated she believed she would be a better mother to Kolton than Karyn and had “wished death” on her former sister-in-law. But, all of that would come out later.

Michael Sr. owned a business called Miracle Motors. A search warrant was executed at the business at some point, likely sometime in 1999. It was said that the concrete cinder blocks at the business were similar to those used to weigh the plastic bags down. I have to be honest here in saying I am unsure that I can concur with this despite any scientific information they have have determined later saying they were “manufactured” at the same time or however it was they allegedly determined they were all one and the same. Some digging was done on the property and a metal rivet and a plastic button were found that were allegedly determined to have come from the jeans and blouse that Karyn had been wearing on the day of her murder. The Slover's kept two dogs on the property for security reasons. A brush that was used on those dogs was ceased in the search. It was from this brush that the veterinary geneticist compared samples to the hairs found on the duct tape. The veterinary would later testify that while animal DNA and human DNA are obviously not the same they had determined that the odds of finding a random dog with this same make up was 1 in 56,000. It was this evidence that was used to arrest not just Michael and Jeannette Slover but also their son, and Karyn's ex-husband, Michael Jr.

Now, I stated earlier that Michael Jr. had a solid alibi. It was proven that he was at work at the time that the murder likely occurred. But investigators determined that Michael had spoken to his parent several times throughout the day on the phone from work. Apparently compared to other days this was very unusual. While it was not necessarily said as a defense, I have to wonder if the Slovers did not argue that those calls pertained to the fact that Karyn had allegedly not picked up Kolton as expected. What we do know is that September 27^th was a Friday and Mary Slover has admitted to have taken care of Kolton for the rest of the weekend. Prosecutors would allege later they believe Mary was caring for Kolton while her parents and brother were not just murdering Karyn but concealin the crime. To be fair, Mary Slover has never been charged in this crime, but it is important and will be brought up again later.

The three Slovers were charged with murder. In addition Michael Sr and his son were also charged with concealing a crime. It was believed that at least the dismemberment took place at their place of business as well as this is where the tools that were used were located. The defense argued that there was nothing linking the defendants to the crime. There had been no fingerprints or DNA found. The prosecution argued that the defendants had likely wore gloves, hence why there was no fingerprints found. As far as the bags and the other things found in the lake they argued that much had been washed away or too degraded. After a month long trial and the jury deliberating for about twelve hours on May 18, 2002 they were all three found guilty on all charges. They were each sentenced to sixty years on the murder charge and the men received an additional five years for the concealing charge.

The Slovers have continued to maintained their innocence and appeal their case. In 2014 they were finally granted the right to have more extensive DNA testing done but as I stated earlier, the items in which they requested seem to be moot for the most part in my opinion. The prosecution argued much of the same thing but also argued (although I have to question this) that the evidence has been not just degraded but handled by multiple people over the years and could result in inaccurate results. The items that they requested be analyzed included a partly eaten candy bar (I assume the package is what they want to test), a bag of french fries and a straw. All of these particular items were found in the car when it was found on the side of the road. In my opinion any DNA found on these items would prove little. For example if for instance the DNA matched a store or fast food clerk one could easily argue that they had handled the item previously and would have nothing to do with the crime. And, that would be if they went back and fingerprinted and retrieved DNA from all of the people that worked in those places in 1996. In my opinion the more logical outcome would be that “unknown” DNA would be found that still could go back to a clerk somewhere but I can fully see the defense using that as an argument. My problem with that is the fact that those items were found in the car, not with the body. The defense did also win the right to have the duct tape and the plastic bags retested with more modern methods. But remember that this was in 2014 and I found nothing about any results that may have been found, and surely not any that helped the Slovers. Considering the fact that the Illinois Innocence Project has a website and a page devoted to this case if the results had been favorable I likely would have seen them there, which I did not.

Sometime after the convictions the custody of Kolton Slover came back to the forefront. It is unclear just how this came about. Mary Slover had legally adopted Kolton in 1999, before her parents and brother were charged in Karyn's murder. She had apparently gone through all the legal channels and at the time it appears that nothing stuck out. The conviction of those in her family changed all of that. Some information states that in May of 2002 (the same month as the convictions) Kolton was placed in a foster home. Other information indicates it may have been in May of 2003. At any rate by August of 2003 they were in court where a judge ruled that she was unfit allegedly based on the information he received from social workers and the state. The state argued that although they had not charged her for concealing the murder of Karyn Hearn Slover they did believe that she had at the very least cared for Kolton so that her family could dispose of her body and that she was aware of their crimes. This appeared to be at least partially a battle of psychologists. One claimed that she had gone to great lengths to erase Karyn from Kolton's memory, another claimed that aunt and nephew were very close. Kolton himself, who was ten years old by then asked to stay with his aunt. But, the judge disagreed and in October of 2003 he terminated not just Mary's parental rights to Kolton but officially terminated Michael Slover Jr.'s rights. Sometime after that Kolton went to live with Karyn's parents.

Both Mary and Michael Jr. have attempted to fight the judge's ruling. Michael has argued that this should not have been done until he had exhausted all appeal in his case and by his words proven his innocence. For Mary, she has said she believes that the judge and those arguing for the state influence a case worker to change what was previously a glowing report to a more damaging one. The judge did rule that no adoption by the Hearn family could take place until all appeals were settled. As of 2004 Mary was still appealing the decision but I found no more information indicating that anything had changed. Kolton would be about twenty-four years old now so his custody is obviously a non-issue at this time.

As I stated the last I could find as far as any movement in this case was in 2014. Currently all three Slovers remain in prison. Jeanette has a “projected parole” hearing in the year 2030 with a “projected discharge” in 2033. Her son and husband have to wait two additional years for theirs.

The Illinois Innocence Project site states that while it seems that the state had planned to seek the death penalty initially, that was dropped in March of 2001. As long as the case was a death penalty case the defendants were entitled to court appointed investigators. They had those but when the death penalty was not sought, the investigators were released. They allege that the investigators had found witnesses that indicated someone else (although not stated) committed the crime but that without the state funds available to pay the investigators the leads could not be pursued. I find this interesting considering that none of the research that I found was anyone else mentioned. I found nothing in an appeal that specified that there were other suspects that had not been adequately looked into, let alone named specifically as this website tended to indicate. I agree that the evidence that I uncovered that was presented was slim but that does not mean that I heard all of the evidence, or in the manner it was presented.

When it comes to the murder of Karyn I have said that while I question a few things, I believe the prosecution got it right. When it comes to the custody issue around Kolton, I am a bit more on the fence. I admit that I would find it highly unlikely that Mary Slover did not know about her family being involved in the murder of Karyn, if in fact they were. Like the defendants, Mary proclaims her family's innocence. But, there was never enough evidence to charge her for being involved or concealing anything after the fact and apparently even after proclaiming they were still considering charges back in 2003, it seems nothing ever came of this. It seems unfair not just to Mary, but especially to Kolton, who was properly settled in his home, that just alleging she knew something was enough to have him removed from her home and her parental rights to him terminated. As I stated earlier Mary claimed that she continued to maintain contact with the Hearns when she retained custody of Kolton but I do not know if this is true or to what extent. Was she a good “mother” to Kolton? Were the Hearns not getting as much time as they wanted? Were they so convinced that Mary had to have something to do with the murder of their daughter that they did not want Kolton in her home? This all hard to tell because the headlines all wanted to “yell” how she had lost custody due to her potential concealment of a crime. Do not take these questions as me being “against” the Hearn's. I heard nothing … good or bad about them. I have no opinion on their character and can only assume that they wanted what was best for their grandson and they believed that meant him being with them. And, yes it seems a judge eventually in a round about way agreed. The judge had really all but said in his decision that it was based on the idea that she likely concealed Karyn's murder. I just have a problem with making decisions based on assumptions. I can just only hope that Kolton has somehow through everything in his life been able to lead a productive life.