This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised. Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and Consequences, a true crime podcast. Hi everyone, welcome to this episode of Crimes and Consequences. I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, my lovely co host, and I have a great story for you all today. I mean, shouldn't
say great. Yeah, you know what we mean. But yeah, this story has a lot of twists and turns, and sometimes things aren't always what they seem. That's ominous. Ominous. I'm gonna tell you about the Trover family. The Trover family exemplified the quintessential, wholesome all American family. They had There was a father and that he had a wife, and there was a daughter and a son, and everything was going really well for them.
John was the dad and Cheryl Trover was the mom, but she went by Sherry, okay, and they lived this just so you know, this happens in December of nineteen ninety eight, and this quintessential family first in a shocking but let me explain. They lived in this very small town. It's called Gillette and it's in Wyoming. I think I had like, well seventeen thousand people, which isn't I guess all that small considering where I grew up. Yeah, there were like two two people. It's a coal mining town.
Like I said, there's about seventeen thousand people. It's surrounded by rolling prairies and antelopes would roam free, like I mean, we're in Wyoming. Yeah, have you been, No, I say when I picture Wyoming, though, there's a lot of I've been there, land and mountains and yeah, animals, yea natural nature nature. The trop family was well known around town. I mean everybody liked them. The parents, for example, Sherry, she was a math teacher at one of the high schools. And John worked
at a coal like for a coal mining company. But he wasn't a coal miner. He did like office work okay, okay, and he was he was an accountant for them. He had been previously married once and he had an older daughter. And I don't know if I said that. They had two children. One was named Tory Okay, she's thirteen. And then they had a son, and his name was Jackson and he's ten. So John had been married before he had custody of his older daughter. I believe her
name was Brooke. I'm not one hundred percent sure. It was very hard to find information on this case, and there's a reason why, but I'll talk about that later. So John's forty three, Sherry is thirty eight. They got two children. You know, she's elementary school math teacher. He's gotten an accountant job. Everything is good and in public, everything seemed fine with the family. There's nothing to know. They were just a normal family.
However, on Friday, December fourth of nineteen ninety eight, that's when something horrendous happens. Yes changed, That's when the bubble. So the Trorer family, it's a Friday night. They want to go out teat. They're going to go out tea, so they decide to go to this local sports bar. It's called Humphrey's Bar and Girl. It's maybe ten minutes away from their house. It's not far. They go there, they're having dinner and when they get done, they head back to their home and it's on Granite
Street. The home is just to describe it a little bit, it's two stories. It's twenty eight hundred square feet. It actually has five bedrooms, two bathrooms. Yeah, two bathrooms. But in America, it's kind of like your normal house, right, that's kind of big. Twenty one hundred square feet is big. Okay, Well, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I mean, I mean five bedrooms. That's a big house. I know. I don't know how they have five bedrooms and twenty eight hundred
square feet though. Yeah, but they also had a basement, so maybe there was a budget. Yeah. So they get home, it's Friday night, it's about ten thirty. What are the kids do? They go to the rooms. That's what I would have done. They're done, Yeah, hanging out with mom and dad. I already hung out with mom and dad,
did my time. I'm done. So John decides he's going to get ready for bed, and Sherry is like cleaning up around the house, locking the doors, shutting the lights off, doing whatever moms do at the end of the day, which you all, you know, cleaning up all the messes and cleaning up everybody else's along with my own, right, And so she shuts up the lights, locks the doors, and John goes into the master bedroom suite and then somebody starts knocking on the door and John goes to
open the door because Sherry is somewhere, maybe in the basement, I don't know. And he's he's wearing his box or shorts, but he's very cautious, Okay, he's not just like a wide open And he does open the door, and when he does, there is somebody wearing a mask in overalls, and immediately John gets attacked by this person and they're struggling. Nobody else in the house can hear it. I don't know the layout of the house, but nobody could hear it. But then this intruder fired two shots at
John. One struck him in his arm and the other was his head, but neither one was life threatening, so I don't know exactly where it hit him in the hud, but it did damage but not enough to kill him. Okay, he wasn't dead. He managed eventually to get up and stumble slowly around the living room, but it took a while. It took a little bit. I mean, there's probably shock going on for him, and he's bleeding and he's like what that? Yeah, what what the hell is
going on? The intruder shifted his focus onto the children, and he went into the rooms and he tied their hands and their feet together so they couldn't move, and then they could hear like a stirring. The children could around the house noises, arguing, voices arguing, but they were bound and they were gagged too. Sherry, here's the commotion, and from wherever she is, and I don't know where she was at the time, she bumps into
the intruder and he restrains her. Similarly, he's got her hands and her feet bound. And eventually, as I was saying, so you have Sherry bound, you have Tory bound, and then you have Jackson bound, and you have John who's been shot in the arm and shot in the head. John is stumbling now around the house. So the intruder realizes like John's getting up and decides to spend his attention on John because John isn't dead. The intruder retreat a knife, and I'm not sure where the knife came from,
but I believe it was a hunting knife. I don't know if it was brought at the scene or there's, like I said, minimum information on this case. For a reason. He was stabbed multiple times and then his throat was cut o man, and then he was dragged from the main living room into the family's basement. Okay, and that's where he was actually finished off. Was in the basement. That's where the throat being cut happened. This intruder decides to take Sherry and put her in the family truck and drive off.
That had to be terrifying. Yeah, with her kids tied up and her husband, she probably didn't even know where he was. I mean, so she's bound, she's gagged. The intruder walks her into their own truck and he secures her. He puts a seatbelt done okay, just for safety reasons, I don't know. And he drives her to this secluded place and it's in the southern part of Jellette. It's it's known as like South Road. Okay. So this truck comes to a halt and then Sherry is forcibly
well why she's sitting there. Her clothes are like ripped from her while she's restrained, which is strange, okay, And she couldn't defend herself, and then she was raped after she was I mean, Sherry fought really hard for the record, just want everybody to know that she managed to escape. Wow, which is amazing, amazing because her feet in her hands are bound and she runs from the truck and the intruder chases her into the woods, but
somehow or somehow she escapes. The assailant decides give up the chase and light the truck on fire. What but he didn't do a good job, Like I don't know, I don't know how he did it, like try to. But it did catch on fire, but it wasn't like a huge blaze. It was just enough to eventually, at five am, catch the attention of some passerbys and they noticed that this truck is on fire, and they actually put out the fire. They did. Yeah right, that wouldn't be
my first reaction. No, I just feel like nine to one more. Yeah right, No, they put out the fire. So it had only been a few minutes since that fire was started that they put out the fire. And then as they're doing that, they discover Sherry and she is hiding naked in this covert nearby. Her hands again and feet are bound, and she's hysterical. She recounted her ordeal to them and they immediately contacted. It's
called Campbell County, the Sheriff's Department to report the incident. Sherry provided law enforcement with a detailed account of the events that transpired at our home. She's an the assault by her attacker, who is, by the way, wearing a mask. Nothing more scary than opening the door and there's someone with a fucking mask. Following her testimony in the description of the assailant, there was this manhunt launched and fifty detectives. I mean, this is a small area.
You have to remember, we're helping out trying to figure this out because this is scary. There were sheriffs, detect deputies, police officers, members of the Wyoming I'm sorry, my phone is going off. I'm just gonna be honest. I shut off the volume. Sure you did, I did, but it's going off. But we're not gonna We're not gonna let but traditionally it is not work. But I'm you know, I want to turn it up. Mine never goes off. No, you're beeped the other day
once. Okay, Okay, anyway, it doesn't matter. It's one of your quirks that I love so much. I know I don't understand it anyway. Can I just go on, yes? Please? Okay, So we have what the Wyoming Highway Patrol fire agencies. They have two airplanes, two search dogs. You've got the share of. Their primary objective was to locate this person that Sherry described as being dark skinned. It was a dark skinned
man who had allegedly fled on foot. Sherry believes she recognized him and he was from minds for John Morton. She also told police officers that John had been receiving, and this is true, threatening phone calls from a woman who was very upset because rumors were going on the mind was going to close, and he's the accountant, and so he was getting in the weeks before his
death, these threatening phone calls, but he didn't report him. Not his fault, I know, it's not his I know account they're just pissed. I mean, this woman would call repeatedly with threats. So after Sherry gets discovered and she you know, she's talking to police, the police go to her house, right and when they get there, they see the lifeless body of John Trover and he just he's covered in blood. I mean, he's bent, his throat's been slit, he's been stay dab shot shot twice.
Uh. The medical examiner revealed that John had suffered gunshot wounds to his arm had and then multiple stab wounds to his upper tors and then those wounds had punctured his lung and his heart and then his throat slip. In the bedrooms, they found thirteen year old Tory bound on the bed, and then they found ten year old Jackson bound on the bed, but they weren't harmed. And when the police initially saw them, they said they could hear struggling outside
of their bedroom doors. So police and investigators from the Wyoming State Crime Lab, they conducted a thorough search of the Trover property right humming through the scene. Need to know what happened. Sherry meanwhile, is taking to the hospital. She under went a thorough medical examination. She only ended up with minor abrasions and I think that's from just being like bound during the attack. By mid morning, so this happened Friday night, Okay, by mid morning Saturday,
she was released from the hospital. And of course they're not gonna go home. It's a crime scene, right right, No, I yeah, I wouldn't want to go home. And no, no, no, they went to TJ and Kim Ferguson's house and that was their friends. So they're staying at the Ferguson residence. This is a Saturday. Investigators are, you know, continuing to question Sherry and the children regarding this masked assailant who had
you know, killed their dad. Recognizing the the Sheriff's department recognized the importance of the safety of this family, so they ended up having officers like surround the house just in case the perpetrator because he's still on the loose, right, he's still on the loose, his back. Yeah. When they were doing the search of the Trover family home, they found a gun in the bushes by the neighbor the Riley's home. Okay, Okay, they found a
gun. I mean it was a twenty two caliber pistol and it was same with blood and other tissue I'm biological fluids. Okay, okay. They identified it as the murder weapon based on the autopsy because it was a twenty two caliber that had been used and when the investigated like the gun's background, they really realized it belonged to a man named John Riley, the neighbor. John Riley, the neighbor. He was also a principal at the same school that
Sherry worked at. Oh oh that added a whole new dimension to this, like what principal. Yeah, I'm starting to feel a little uneasy about this now, I mean that I was. It raised a lot of questions about did John Riley have something to do with this? I mean it's his gun, right, And does he work at the same school. Yes, he's a principal, same high school. It seems kind of weird. But John Riley was out of town. Oh really, he was an Arizona hmmm.
He was a principal of Campbell County High School. And just so you know, the Riley family and the Trover family, they were really close. They were neighbors, They had kids near the same age. They would spend Thanksgiving together, Christmas together. They would alternate like whose house, Wow, this is? You know is going to be a house very close, right, And that is where Sherry was employed as a math teacher. So they're very close. They're celebrating holidays. But John Riley, he's at a town.
They call him up and he's like, you can search my house. I didn't have anything to do with this. While I'm in shock, and he mentions to them that he has given the key to his house to so many people so many people because it's friends. I don't even know who is Key's in my house nine and I've made like nine and they're all gone. I don't know between my kids and probably I don't know. But he's like searched my house. And you did mention that one of the people that has keiths
or one of the persons was Sherry and John Trover. Okay, and then he mentioned something else. Uh oh, here it comes. He'd been having an affair with Sherry for four years. Four years. I knew it. I knew it. I didn't want to accuse no Ah, shit, okay, uh oh oh shit. But he's out of town, is he though?
Did they confirm that? Okay, don't don't. Don't ask me questions like you asked to hold me. During the search of his house, they found another handgun, and they sees that this is pretty unexpected because I mean, this adds a lot of dynamics. Damn. Forty years and it's found in his bushes and it's his gun. It's his gun, and he's been he's been bang in Sherry for four years. They're close, real close. So the police decide they're going to have they're going to continue to interrogate Sherry
and the children about everything that happened. And they're going to hold a press conference. A press conference, oh, because the guy's on the loose still right, right? Yeah? So this is Friday night. The press conference is Sunday, December sixth, nineteen ninety eight. The chief of police, he wants to be proactive and he wants to address the public and let him know they're safe. Okay, oh wait, wait, there's a guy who murdered someone on a loose, but we're all safe. Don't worry about it.
Yeah, you're saying, and he says in this press conference tomorrow, I'm going to have another press conference and you're going to be shocked at what I tell you. Oh, talk about putting people out of cliffhanger. He's going to divulge more a ton am at a news conference, and the revelations are going to shock the community. Was he running a tabloid? Right? Like? I'm thinking, oh, you wait till tomorrow. His goal was
to have the community feel confident and comfortable that they weren't at risk. I would just be talking about it. What the hell is he going to say tomorrow? Yeah? Right? What there's a mass murderer on thee stay safe, real safe. So the school prepares counselors for I mean this, it's a big deal. It's a small area, and it's the principal, right, I mean, so they've got counselors and they're gonna counsel about John Trevor's Oh, not the principal probably like yeah, the teacher, I mean yeah,
yeah, the school. Yeah, not the principal. Yeah, not the principle. Sorry, well he's the principal. There are three high schools, so he's only the principle of one. So maybe the superintendent I should say, well, it's something that affects the community, right, right, And they had makeshift up crisis centers for people, staff by you know, professional counselors, and they range to set it all up before class started on Monday Sunday. Please tell Sherry they found Hey, we found the gun.
And great. Throughout the weekend, she'd been in consistent contact with them and both and the children, sharing everything they know she was. They were all eager to assist, even though they were they were traumatized. I mean, oh yeah. But one of the things when they found the gun on Sunday, they told Sherry they found her fingerprints on it. Oh shit, oh shit, And she said, well, I'm always at that house. I've got a key. I can explain it. Sure, sure, sure,
Oh we got an explanation for that. And then she said, Okay, the mask man made me shoot John. Okay, that's why my fingerprints are on it. Stop it. This is getting fishier and fishier. The investigators assured Sherry, we are going to get to the bottom of the Yes, it's gonna be okay. They visited the home of Sherry's friends and where her children and she'd been staying, and they did another interview and Cherry was very visibly upset during I don't want to call it an interrogation, an interview.
Sensing they could to all teut like she was getting hysterical, she asked if she could have a moment alone, and she retreated to the Ferguson's master suite, their bedroom, locking the door behind her. There, she found a to seventy caliber rifle in the closet. Oh no, what, I don't know. To seventy caliber rifle, point to seven zero caliber rifle in the closet, and she loaded it and she went into their bathroom and she killed
herself. Are you kidding me? No, her children, her parents, her siblings, her husband's parents, and her friends and the police were all there and she shot herself in the hud. Oh my god. Oh shit, that's because the house the cards are falling right. Oh shit. And so the police rushed in, they break down the door and they find Sherry dead. These poor kids, Oh my god, these poor children. So Monday, the suicide is announced. I mean, they just thy god.
They've got those counselors. The associate principle, his name is Bill Peters of Campbell County High School that's where she worked. He before school started, he had all of the employees from Campbell County High School and some of the other schools get their early to talk about it and talk about how to handle it and let them know. Some didn't even know, and they were provided in like an extra hour to collect themselves. There were sixteen hundred students and obviously
it's pretty well, that's pretty fopped up. Yeah, that's it's something to walk into. Matthew killed herself, Yeah, and her husband was murdered and yeah, it's crazy. Wow. So there's that news conference. Oh yeah, that's morning. Now the sheriffs. He's got even more information to share. Campbell County Sheriff's office had a press conference at ten am. They said there was one suspect in the case, and that was Sherry Trover. Wow. And then they said she killed herself. She was the only suspect.
They believe. They think she did the whole thing out, her kids up and everything. Oh yeah, girl, I'm not done, Okay. They believe she'd been planning it for months. Wow, the chief. The chief said, quote, our investigation has conclusively revealed that Cheryl Trover was responsible for the death of her husband. Holy shit. She'd been described as a delightful wife, mother, and a teacher. And how she could do this a shocking Yeah, so this is what they think happened. First of all,
she's been calling, disguising her voice and threatening her husband. She was the one. She was the one, okay, calling giant work making the threatening calls. Mm hmmm. This is insane in advance, So that's premeditated, right right. Investigators disclosed that the family went to Homphrey's Bar and Grill on Friday night and then they all settled in for the night. As the children
went to their own rooms, and John went to the master bedroom. They believe that Sherry had already retrieved the twenty two caliber because she knew that the man she was having an affair with, the principal name John Riley, was out of town and she had a key. Oh yeah, that's right, and she could just go and help herself. Helped herself to go get the gun. She'd taken it from his residence. She then, with bare hand,
put a mask on in overalls. She knocked on the door. John opened it, and she shot him twice in the hud and once in the arm. So she missed one time, though she tried twice, shot him once in the hud and then once in the arm. He was down to the count for a little bit. Right. Then she went to her children's room. That's what I'm wondering, Like, she went to her children's room. She's got this this mask on, she's got gloves, she's got overalls,
and she disguises her voice. Really, you don't recognize your mom's voice. I would My mom could try to sound like mister T and I would still recognize, right, yeah, you would think. And she bound there. She scared them so much with the mask and stuff, maybe they just weren't thinking bound their hands and she together and gagged them and left them on the fence. But you know, it's interesting. When the investigators came,
the children said they think their mom might have been the person. They believed that they could kind of recognize her voice and like just the shape of her body. Yeah, like it's the person you see every single day of your life, and it gets weirder. They also noted that the voice that was used resembled their mom's voice when she was mad. Oh oh, that the you know, the mad mom voice, attention to your life when your whole
government name right. But despite everything that happened, they thought maybe it was just some twisted game their mom was playing. They didn't I mean, they didn't know. You wouldn't think your Yeah, you don't think your mom's gonna like murder your dad. She's a mad teacher. She never done anything to you, right, So, they later recounted hearing gunshots, but initially mistook them for sounds of They didn't know what it was. They just didn't know.
They probably got like airds on. I don't know if they had them back their music. Whatever. They're not paying attention, they're like, whatever mom and dad are doing right now, I couldn't been watching TV in thething. But throughout the ordeal, the children heard this is so strange, various noises outside their bedroom, including what they interpreted as their mother alternating her voice between different tones to potentially create the illusion that there were other people there.
This is insane? Is that fucking yes? Soon? Right? And you still sound like yourself? Right? These poor kids, they're like, I like how they didn't check though, and like this is weird, but I'm not going outside my room and I'm so tight up. Yeah, And apparently this happened for hours, hours, hours, because she ended up going back and seeing that John was stumbling oh yeah, and then kind of in the
basement. Yeah, I wonder how she got him down there. She dragged him, She dragged him and then stabbed him and then slid his throat. Jeez. Then she made up the whole story about being abducted and going in rape. She said she was raped, but the I'm assuming like maybe they did. I never heard about a rape kit. There's so little to find on this case because she killed herself, so she couldn't be prosecuted. Yeah, and if she's not prosecuted. There's not going to be the police reports
that we usually get on these cases. Yeah, so Sherry ends up after killing John getting inty. Are we gonna say allegedly now because there's been no trial in conviction she's dead. Yeah, that's true. Okay, go on, I'm sorry. She got into the truck and went to the south part of Gillette and then she removed her clothes and she put the mask, the gloves, the overalls, some boots, and the hunting knife in the cab of the truck. And that's why she tried to let light the truck on
fire. Okay, but people came by and put it out and put it out. She's probably like, oh fuck, she's trying to burn evidence. Yeah, so she ignites the truck. Then it gets thwarted because these people come, and so she's like once the culvert and acts like she's all was she tied up? Really? Yeah? She was by herself. Yeah, get away from someone still being tied up, like at least your legs, like you can't run. She's hopping away like getting away from an assailant.
No. Yeah, that's a good, that's a good. But I didn't want to bring it up at the time. I thought it though, So I'm like, I'm gonna see where the story goes. I think she lit it on fire and thought it would burn, and then like went to the culvert. Yeah, tied herself up, naked, that teacher naked, and then they came and they found her in the ditch. She knew obviously the gig was up. Yeah, so that's why she killed herself. But they think that the reason why she did it is because she was in love with
the principal. Yeah, I figured. And during her husband's first marriage, I told you he had a daughter. Oh ye older. He got either fifty to fifty custody or soul custody. I don't know. I know custody was a factor, and she was really nervous about losing her kids part of the time. That's a great reason for killing your spouse. So this well
crafted murder, what a mess, really poorly executed. I'm sorry. Yeah, and can you imagine right in the community found out man math teacher, I know, with the principal scandalous then bound her children, Yes, killed her husband, Yeah, faked the rape. So the principal, he was really in Arizona. He was okay, thankfully. On Tuesday, December eighth, he resigned, Yeah, citing personal and professional reasons. Yeah, and
he addressed his former colleagues and offered words of encouragement. He was just so, you know, never considered to be a part of this at all. He eventually moved away from Gillette, Wyoming. It's probably good idea. Yeah, And did you say, Mary, do you know does his wife stay with him? I wonder, I don't know. I'm gonna say no, they prob Yeah, it's probably ruined their lives. But damn, there was a fun put up for the children. I mean, if you think about
it, Tory and Jackson. Yeah, these poor kids, they lost their dad and their mom. Yeah, in a weekend. Yeah. And this is a wild story. I mean, so Brooke is John's older daughter, and she set up a fund for them and she's been helping to like well now it's nineteen ninety eight, but she helped to take care of them. And that's the story. That's crazy. What mom does that she be in love with that? I mean, come on, I just these stories. Just divorce, I know, like, just divorce him and share your kids
with the man that you had the kids with. What's the problem. It's not like he's like a loser. You just share your kids. Yeah, he's got money. You guys can sports. And I don't think you're not gonna get caught. Go your kids go to the school. I mean the girl daughter went to the school. See them. I just I don't know. And I have a feeling that John, I don't know, John wasn't gonna leave his wife. Who knows, right, probably well then kill the
wife. Yeah, sorry, I know I didn't kill your husband. Kill the other woman, right, Yeah, I don't know. This is crazy. This I am always just amazed people think they're gonna get away with it. Like I was telling my husband this weekend, and I don't remember why we got on the subject, but he said, most people are murdered by someone they know. Yes, and a lot of times spouses are murdered by their partner, or people are murdered by their partner boyfriend, girlfriend, husband,
wife. So it's like those are the people that you get looked at first. Well, I'm not trying to be weird, but I would have been like, hey, kids, do you want to stay at your friend's house tonight? Yeah? Right, sleepover at your friend's house, and then I'm not going to tie up my kids and pretend not mom. I think they're not going to recognize you because I have overalls on and a mask, because that's what they're We're just going to be like moms really lost their ship.
Yeah, Like, I just don't get it. It's really sad. It is very sad. I feel really bad for those the community and the kids. Yeah, the kids especially and John. Yeah, and John. John's just standing as a victim here and everything I read said that on the outside, nobody knew there were any issues. Yeah. They were actually one of the most affectionate couples when there were events. Yeah, well that's really sad. I wonder John knew a probably not. I don't know. Maybe
I don't know if you had time. Yeah, he's probably busy and I don't know. But yeah, yeah, it's seeming like when you open the door in his underwear. Yeah, they still they start fighting though. First he had to her because there's a struggle, right, he knows what his wife looks like. Feels like, I mean, come on, let's just be honest. He knows it's her anyway, and that is this is crazy.
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