True Crime Stories

Once again I have come across a case in which I simply could not find a lot of information. However, the information I did find was quite interesting. The last case that I discussed this issue it was a very cut and dry case. There was a perpetrator, there were victims and there was a conclusion even if I was unable to fill in the blanks in the middle. This case is much different. Of course there is a victim. But it is unclear just who the perpetrators in this case were. Every prosecutor has a theory on how a crime was committed based on the their idea of who the perpetrator(s) is. Even when that theory falls apart it is difficult to change that theory, especially when that theory involves more than one person. So to tell this story will be a little difficult. What I can tell you is that on the night of December 10, 1982 in Fort Wayne Indiana, twenty year old Carmen Zink lost her life. She had been shot in the head. Carmen was with another woman, someone I was unable t...

This may prove to be one of the shortest blogs that I have written. There is not a lot of information to be found about this case but it is one that for if no other reason should be remembered for the victims. David Hollis was twenty-one years old in early 1982. He had a young daughter, who was said to be “just over two” at the time. David and his wife, Debra, who was eighteen at the time had separated in November of 1981. In January Debra filed for divorce. One can only assume after hearing what happened next that the marriage was likely riddled with domestic violence. Debra and her daughter, Nina, lived in an apartment in Hammond Indiana with another, unnamed as I could find, woman. On February 27, 1982 Debra was being visited by a neighbor, eighteen year old Kim Mezei along with Kim's two year old son, Craig. David entered the home and by the time he left, Debra, Kim and Craig were all dead. Debra had been stabbed several times and all three victims were strangled. ...

I often come across cases in which research is difficult as I keep finding conflicting information. Much of the time that seems to be because the case is extremely old. When I do cases dating back to the early 1900s or further a lot of “lore” can be found. I have often talked when doing such cases about the issue of “yellow journalism” and how things were exaggerated and embellished through the newspapers for nothing more than sensationalism. When it comes to more modern cases (although I am not sure this case technically qualifies as “modern”) the misinformation found is largely due to one person repeating something that someone else reported. This case took place in 1960 with much of the information about Emmett Hashfield taking place decades before. Appeals were not published in the same manner as they are today, or at least that was the case in this particular case. I am used to appeals being the place to get the “play by play” story of what occurred in the crime, as wel...

  This case has me a bit perplexed on some things. Everyone that has been or continues to be held on death row in Indiana can be found on a particular website. The site is full of information about a case, but more particularly about the person. If they have already been executed it will add things such as what they had for their last meal or their last statement. One of the more interesting things that it often shows is the mitigating and aggravating circumstances of the case. It was here that I found one of the confusing things. The second thing revolved around issues with the jury in the sentencing phase. I will get into these issues as I tell the story but I will let you know that while Daniel Ray Wilkes was sentenced to death in December of 2007, after several appeals upholding this sentence, in 2011 he was subsequently re-sentenced to life without parole. Daniel Ray Wilkes met Donna Claspell when they were both residents at a rehabilitation center in Evansville Indi...

  This case, like the last, involves an individual who was sentenced to death in Indiana. However, this case is very different from the previous one in many ways. I also found a lot of misinformation and confusion with this case when doing my research that I had to figure out. I find this case interesting in part because it is a case in which the defendant pleaded guilty, apparently without any sort of plea deal offered by the state. Now, doing is not unusual if the defendant is adamant, as some are, that they are guilty and either feel they deserve the death penalty or they claim they would rather be executed than spend the rest of their life in prison. Neither seems to be the case here with Trueblood although he claims that at least with the first guilty plea (he did this twice at separate times) he did so on the advice of his attorney saying that he would avoid the death penalty. Now, prosecutors will quite often offer plea deals to defendants to avoid a trial. In my o...

  I found this case interesting because it appears that while by a legal standard Arthur Paul Baird Jr. did not qualify as “insane” it seemed to be understood that he actually may have been. The idea, or the “rule” of someone being “insane” to meet a legal definition has been up for debate for a very long time. The long and short of things is that if someone seemingly knows their actions are wrong, then they are not insane. To prove “temporarily insane” is even harder to prove because actions both before and after are considered and looked at. While I will agree that claiming insanity can be as common as appealing a case based on ineffective counsel and often is nothing more than a tactic used to lessen culpability, that is not always the case. Many believe that these rules should be changed but little has really been done about it. Arthur Paul Baird Jr. lived in Darlington Indiana with his wife Nadine. Even though I have lived in Indiana all of my life I had never heard of ...

I know there is no way for me to know about every crime, no matter how horrible, that happens in my state but I am still very surprised when I hear of one particularly horrible for the first time after many years. When this crime occurred I was actually still in high school about two hours away and lets be fair, I was not as interested in true crimes at that time. In the evening of October 10, 1986 seventeen year old Alicia Elmore went to a store a few block from her Terre Haute Indiana home to run an errand. On her way home a man, who was later determined to be Bill Benefiel, who was wearing a mask and carrying a gun confronted her. Alicia was pushed into a garage and forced to take all of her clothing off. Her head was covered and she was bound with her own clothing and electrical wire. Alicia was then put in Benefiel's van and he took her to a house that he owned. There he chained and handcuffed her to a bed. Over the next few months he continually raped Alicia and to...

In 1992 the state of Virginia executed Roger Keith Coleman. Coleman had proclaimed his innocence right up to the end and there were many who believed after his execution that an innocent man had been killed by the state. There had been DNA testing done prior to his execution but through his defense attorney's Coleman had fought the results. Now of course at the time of his execution DNA was not what it is today so the results were not as conclusive as they could have been many years later. There was a push by those who believed he was innocent to have more modern DNA testing done after his execution, mainly to show the flaws in the death penalty. A decade later the Governor of Virginia allowed those tests to be done and it left absolutely no question that Coleman was guilty. There were many in high places left to “eat crow.” Coleman's case proved that no matter how staunchly someone claims their innocence it proves nothing. While the case of Wayne Kubsch is not as drama...