True Crime Stories

  I came across this case when I learned about the last one I wrote about. And, like the previous blog there was a lot of confusion on the date in which prosecutors believed this crime had occurred. In the last few months of the year of 1975 the city of Evansville Indiana was a violent one. There were six murders in the matter of seven days. Five of those murders seemed to be focused in much of the same area so much so that they were often lumped together in articles. The other issue with confirming times or dates of death was the fact that the bodies were not found immediately. In fact, on Tuesday December 2 nd the bodies of Joe Edwards and Phyllis McCown had been found earlier in the day and then at 8:30 that evening the body of seventy-nine year old Clara Vickery found was just a few blocks away. Prosecutors theorized that Edwards and McCown were murdered on December 1 st between eight in the morning and two in the afternoon. As my previous blog pointed out there were...

I am very much torn on this case, not in what occurred with the crime, who the perpetrator was, or even whether anything was done illegally, but in where this case should go today after nearly thirty-five years. I am very much a proponent of looking at a person and not just the crime when it comes to criminals. Now obviously there are cases in which I find to be so heinous that I just cannot see how someone can ever be redeemed. If Rod Matthews would have been an adult when this crime occurred I would definitely be less torn but he was only fourteen years old at the time, in fact, I was also fourteen in 1986 when this crime occurred. Before I get into the case I want to address something that I feel passionately about but is also controversial when it comes to the general public. I have gotten into many “arguments” with people over my belief that human nature and eras in history can dictate how a person acts in situations. The case in which I have had the most debates in this ar...

On August 10, 1991 nine bodies were found inside a Buddhist Temple in Waddell Arizona. The bodies belonged to the Abbott, five monks, a nun, a novice monk and a temple employee. All of the victims were either Thais or of Thai descent. Soon after four men were arrested from Tucson and would be dubbed the “Tucson Four.” At least one of the men gave a confession to the crime and they were all charged with the murders. However, it was determined that first, the men had been arrested on the “tip from a man with mental health issues” and that any confessions that had been obtained had been false. After three months the men would be released and at least three of the four filed wrongful arrest suits against the county. In March of 1994 they took a $2.8m settlement from Maricopa County. Reports are a bit unclear but at some point a .22 caliber weapon was found in a vehicle. Some say the vehicle belonged to a man named Allessandro “Alex” Garcia while other reports cla...

I am sometimes surprised when I stumble upon a case I have never heard of before. And, I stumble across this one in a very strange way. I was going through my list of cases, looking for one to research next, and I was searching the perpetrator of another case. The perpetrator had the name Andrew Gustafson, which happens to be the name of the husband and father in this case who found his family murdered back in 1987. It did not take long to confirm they were two different people but this case seemed quite interesting on many levels. First, you have the issue of the grisliness of the crime in which has put Daniel LaPlante in prison and has currently served over thirty years. Then there is the issue of his prior crime that while there seems to be a little bit of conflicting evidence since it is said his crimes have become urban legend, but it is just creepy in and of itself no matter which version you tell. Next from a legal standpoint became the issue that the Supr...

Over time the sentencing guidelines and procedures when it comes to those who commit crimes as a minor have changed. In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty could not be given to anyone who was under the age of eighteen at the time of their crime. In 2012 they ruled that mandatory life sentences to offenders under the age of eighteen was akin to “cruel and unusual punishment.” This did not mean that minors could not receive life in prison, just that mandatory rules should not apply. Both of these new rules threw quite a few wrenches into the juvenile system. First it meant that anyone who had been under eighteen and sentenced to death had their sentence automatically overturned, or at the very least converted to life sentences. Then the 2012 ruling required that every juvenile who had been sentenced under mandatory sentencing laws had to have their case reviewed through the courts. David Biro was sentenced to three mandatory life terms plus terms fo...

I had never heard of this case until probably a year or more ago when I came across a documentary on Netflix.  As happens in so many cases that make it to my list of those to research I had either forgotten a lot of the specifics of the case, or there was just so much more to it than I knew.  This case was one in which I wondered if I would ever be able to stop researching because it seemed at every corner there was another name connected either with the state of Pennsylvania or the county of Luzerne related to some sort of corruption.  Being a lifelong resident of Indiana I know very little about Pennsylvania but my husband spent some of his childhood there.  He was unfamiliar with the county but I informed him it sounds as if he, and especially his troubled brother, were lucky they were not from the area. This case is so convoluted that I am not even sure where to begin.  Let me first say that unlike most of the cases I blog about here this one does not invo...

I try to sit down and take the day every Sunday that I am available to do so and spend the day blogging.  Sometimes it can take me a very long time to find a case in which pulls at me enough to decide I want to take the time to research the case and put it together. Other times I will have heard the story recently and it has stuck with me enough that I know when I sit down that is the case I want to do.   Lately every time I sit down I know what case I want to blog about but I am resisting because it is in the early stages and there is no resolution as of yet.  It is a local case about a 19 year old completely disabled girl who was reported missing a few months ago by her mother who has stated that she woke up to find the girl gone. The community has been in an uproar ever since, with speculation flying everywhere.  Knowing that I would really like to talk about that case, and yet also knowing now is not the proper time has made it a bit harder in finding a case to...