True Crime Stories

  As the mother of two boys this case particularly hits a spot with me. We used to have a joke with one of my sons that he has a tendency to find girls who have “crazy” mothers and while it was true and was a joke, this case proves that it is not always a joke. On the morning of March 5, 1993 eighteen year old high school senior Albert Joseph “Joey” Fischer Jr. was in his driveway in Brownsville Texas washing his car before school. His mom would find him laying in a pool of blood. He had been shot once in the head and once in the chest. The water hose was still in his hand. At the scene of the crime police found a card to a fortune teller and Mexican faith healer named Maria Martinez. Investigators talked to Maria and it seems she just spilled her guts, although I cannot say I understand her train of thinking. According to Maria, Dora Cisneros was a frequent client of hers and had asked her to put a curse on Joey Fischer. Joey had dated Dora's youngest daughter, Chr...

This is a perplexing case for me. I am sure like so many other cases there are those who are convinced Michael Blagg is guilty, just as two juries have found, and there are those who are just as convinced that he is innocent. For me I cannot be completely sure one way or another. I have seen several different television shows on this case over the years and between that and my research it feels as if every time I would begin to lean one way I would find something that would have me lean the opposite way. On November 13, 2001 Michael Blagg called 9-1-1 in Grand Junction Colorado. He reported that he had come home from work and that the back door was open, the house was empty but there was a pool of blood in the master bedroom of the home. Michael's wife, Jennifer and their six year old daughter Abby were missing. Law enforcement would arrive and would state that with the amount of blood they found in the master bedroom that they believed someone was killed in that room. ...

  In 1986 Gregory Webb was the chief of police in the small town of Lyons Nebraska some sixty miles from Omaha. It seems though that despite most everyone believing he was a good police officer it seems that few people knew him very well on a personal level. In October of 1986 a woman named Anna Anton moved to Lyons. The building that Gregory lived in apparently was a house with two apartments in it. Gregory lived on the top floor and Anna moved into the apartment on the bottom floor. Unlike Gregory, people knew Anna on a personal level, well at least they believed they did. Anna was thirty-four years old. Ten years prior to moving to Lyons Anna had been in a car accident and had severely injured her leg. It had left her disabled and using a cane for the remainder of her life. Anna appeared to be a fairly social person who was very much involved in her faith. She soon had many friends in the area who would help her to get places as well as bring her groceries and...

On Sunday November 14, 1998 in the town of Elkridge Maryland a woman named Sara Williamson Raras was murdered in her home. She was laying in a puddle of blood and she had deep cuts to her neck, wrists and stomach. As per is the generally the case, her estranged husband, Lorenzo Raras was the prime suspect. Lorenzo and Sara were married in September of 1994. Three years later they had a son, Lorenzo Williamson Raras who they called “Will.” A few months after Will was born Sara called the police in January of 1998. She reported that Lorenzo had made “murder threats” against her. She told law enforcement that Lorenzo had been diagnosed with depression but was failing to take his medication. He owned at least five guns at the time. Investigators would learn later that shortly after this incident Lorenzo sold the guns and it seems the couple stayed together. But, at the end of June Sara told Lorenzo she wanted a separation. Again she called the police because she stated that w...

This case is one of the more rare types of cases that I do in the fact that this did not involve a murder. However, let us be clear in the fact that while a murder did not occur it, that may have only been by luck for the victim. Richard Hamlin threatened it seems to kill his wife, Susan, by holding a gun to her and beat her several times throughout their marriage to the point in which caused many injuries. Richard never pulled the trigger when the gun was on his wife but the reason for that may never be known. Richard Hamlin was a prominent El Dorado Hills California attorney. In 2004 he walked into the county sheriff's department with his wife, Susan. The couple sat down with investigators as Susan began telling them a story. It did not take long before investigators became suspicious not just of Susan's story, but why she would be telling it. It also seems apparent that Richard was interjecting and adding additional information while the story was being told. The ...

Much like the last blog I posted about I am torn about this case also, just for different reasons. In the last case there was no question as to the perpetrators guilt and whether they deserved to be punished. My issue in that case centered around the age of the perpetrator and whether he deserved to have a chance to be out of prison. This case is different. This is a “no body” case that was not “solved” for forty years. I cannot say that I necessarily believe that John Bayerl is innocent but I do agree with the defense that the evidence for a conviction, despite getting one, was not there. Dona Bayerl was last seen on May 6, 1979. She lived in Muskego Wisconsin with her husband John and their two daughters, Jackie and Jodie who were four and seven back in 1979. John did not report her missing for three days. It was said that John kept changing his story as to what happened on that night but I must be fair in saying that nothing seemed to be clear about what those stories 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...