The Murder Years: Ep. 7 - Lester

This series is inspired by true events. The stories you're about to hear are fictional, and so are the characters who are played by actors.

Ay swimmers.

It's top of the hour, which means it's mandatory rest time.

Everyone out of the pool until ten after three.

Thank you.

It's the summer of nineteen eighty seven. We graduated a couple of months before, and we're excited for the next chapter of our lives to begin. But honestly, losing mister Billingsley made all the pomp and circumstance feel kind of trivial, you know. But yeah, we graduated. I'm hoping the summer will be better, and I have high hopes, mainly because I am now a lifeguard at Pineside Pool.

Oh my god, you were so strict, you'd constantly be yelling.

Walk walk walk true. But you know what, I don't care. No one is going to get hurt on my watch, no one. But what happened outside of the pool that I wish I could have controlled. I'm Nancy Clark. This is The Murder Years, Episode seven, Leicester. It's Thursday, August twenty seventh, the last weekend of summer, and my friends and I will soon be leaving for college. We're all excited because on Saturday there's a big keg party at

I laid out at the pool all day.

I wanted to be supertan.

After the pool closed, all of us went to Melanie's to get ready.

We are so excited about the party at Shelley's. She's in our grade, but we're not super close. She grew up out in the country on a fifty acre farm with her parents and two older brothers. Her brother's parties are legendary. Melanie and I had attended several over the years.

I remember Shelley's brother had some of the biggest parties in the history of Mount Pine. This one would no doubt be epic.

Shelley's parents are away for the weekend and her brothers are the quote unquote chaperones.

I did my first keg stand and Tatiana did her first beer bomb that night, but of course we had no idea what was going down. Just like three farms away.

Nine one one, what's your emergency?

Oh my god.

Yeah, So we'll just broke into my house. City. Oh god, someone's in your house. Hang up the phone. Where are you? Hang up the phone now? Or out.

Back?

In nineteen eighty seven, when someone would call into nine one one, their location was unknown because this is before GPS and caller ID, so unless the caller gives their address, first responders don't know where to find them.

I was at the station when the call came in. It was around midnight.

Officer Pat Shepherd has been working for the Mount Pine p D for about three years in nineteen eighty seven, and in those days he preferred the night shift. That's why he was first on the scene at Lisa Anderson's murder in episode one, and why he will be again tonight.

Center was just down the hall and I actually heard the call come in. I took notice because it sounded like the woman was in danger.

Today, Shepherd is a sergeant and looking forward to his retirement, he agrees to share what he remembers from that day.

So, yeah, since the woman wasn't able to give her location, there was almost nothing we could do. We just had to hope she would survive whatever was happening out there and then be able to call.

Us back.

Nine one one. What's your emergency? He's gone, He's gone. This is Joel and McBride. I called before, Where are you? I'm eighty seventh County Road fourteen.

So we're at the party, pretty wasted when we hear and see several police cars and ambulances whiz by, and we get a little freaked out because most of us are underage, everyone pretty much scatters and gets the hell out of there.

I remember there were lots of units sent out there that night. When we arrived, there was a woman on a huge wrap around porch standing there crying with blood dripping down her face.

It was awful. I was so relieved to see the police.

Back in August of nineteen eighty seven, joe Ellen McBride is twenty three years old and taking care of her grandparents' farm while they're out of town visiting family. Today, she's fifty eight in a vet living in Boise, Idaho. She was surprised to get my call, but said she'd share her story with me.

So I remember this night like it was yesterday. I told the officer it was maybe around eleven thirty when I heard the noise downstairs with my grandparents out of town. I was alone in the house, and I was scared. At first, I thought it was just the wind or the old house which was so creaky. So I laid in bed and waited. I mean, I tried really hard to talk myself into falling back to sleep because it was nothing. I heard nothing. I kept telling myself it

Joellen says. The kid standing in front of her is white, around sixteen or seventeen, dirty and shirtless.

I screamed and he told me to shut up. Then he rushed me and punched me twice in the face. I fell down and I could feel the blood streaming down my face. When I started to cry, he told me to shut up.

While Joellen was telling me all this, she started to get very emotional.

She said.

The guy started threatening her life unless she gave him money. Said she didn't have any money, no more than a couple of dollars, which he took from her purse. He was mad, and he hit her again. This time he punched her right in the eye. Then he said he wanted her to cook him some food.

Joellen says, she makes him a sandwich, and then while he's eating it, he asks for a clean shirt. This is her chance to call for help.

She went upstairs to her grandparents bedroom and called nine one one. Moments later, she turned around and the kid was standing in the doorway with a knife in his hand. Hang up the phone. Punched her a few more times, opened a drawer and pulled out a shirt, made him go back down to the kitchen.

I couldn't believe he didn't stab me right there. And then, I mean, why did he bring a knife from the kitchen upstairs if he didn't intend to use it anyway? He just sat down at the kitchen table for what seemed like forever. I watched the clock behind him, and twenty two minutes went by before he said or did a thing. That's when he asked me for my car keys. I was afraid he was going to take me somewhere with him, so I lied and said my car didn't work.

Joellen watches the guy as he disappears into the night. She takes a deep breath, then calls nine to one to one again.

I tried to get a good description of the guy, Joel and said. When he arrived, he was shirtless and he was wearing gray pants and white tennis shoes. But he left wearing her grandfather's shirt, an old John Dear Green T shirt.

It was Hugh John.

Officer.

Shepherd calls the station with all the details and be on the lookout. Bulletin is put out. Officers alert nearby residents while others patrol Mount Pine, but it seems like the guy has vanished into thin air. About seven hours later.

Nine one one, what's your emergency?

This?

Yeah, this is Mary Charles.

My husband is bleeding, is bleeding a lot. What happened? Please?

Is that help?

He's lost so much blood.

We're at two zero the country road four fifteen.

Please hurry.

Police arrive at Mary and Lester Charles farm to a blood soaked scene. Forty seven year old Lester Charles is lying in the barn bleeding from his neck. Paramedics try to stabilize him, but he's lost a lot of blood. They quickly get him loaded into the ambulance and speed off. Sadly, he dies on the way to the hospital.

So we had another homicide.

Detective Wallace will be the lead on this case. He just solved the murder of the loved teacher Mark Billingsley nine months before.

When I arrived at the Charles farm, I remember Missus Charles was in consolable, but I knew as hard as it was for her to talk, I needed to know if her husband said anything about what happened to him before paramedics took him away. Anything that could help us catch his attacker, shit his killer. The only thing her husband said was that he caught a guy sleeping in their barn and the guy attacked.

Him with a knife. I asked if it seemed her husband knew the guy. She said no, she didn't think so. I asked if she saw him. She said no. It was a trail of blood that led out of the back of the barn, small droplets, maybe from the knife, or maybe the assailant was cut too, But just yards away from the barn, the trail of blood seemed to stop.

Detective Wallace says, they call in the county's canine unit. The dog does pick up a scent, but then loses it about a mile away. Maybe the guy got into a car and the dog lost the scent. With very few leads, Detective Wallace says, he goes back to the station, leaving officers and technicians to process the scene. But back at the station, he learned something that may possibly changed the course of his investigation.

When I heard what I heard, my jaw dropped to the floor.

Detective Tom Wallace is working the homicide of Lester Charles. He was killed in his own barn by some unknown assailant. Although he's at the very beginning of investigating the case, Detective Wallace is stumped until some information comes into the station that points him in a certain direction.

It came across the wire that Stephen Hartford was on the run.

You might remember Stephen Hartford from episode five. He was fifteen years old when he abducted and brutally killed thirteen year old Victoria Brown. At this point, he's seventeen and serving life without parole for that murder.

So, yeah, I learned that Punk escaped prison the day before, Thinking was he the guy who broke into Joe Ellens and later was sleeping in Lester Charles's barn, I called the reporting authorities, needing to learn more. Okay, now I'm just going to read from my notes here. While Stephen Hartford was being transferred to another prison, he and another inmate overpowered the driver and then fled. Now, the authorities told me they didn't contact our jurisdiction because they were

Marcia Thompson is the detective who worked the Victoria Brown murder and helped put Stephen Hartford behind bars. Talking about this particular case is hard for her.

I almost fell over when I heard the news. How in the world was this kid able to escape? So there was no way I wasn't going to work the case with Wallace. I wanted that psychopath Hertford back in prison, and I was going to put him there a second time. I just hoped he didn't hurt or kill anyone else before we could find him.

The first thing the detectives do is take Stephen Hartford's mugshot to Joellen McBride. They want to see if he's the kid who broke into her grandparents' house.

Joellen had just gotten back from the hospital and was pretty tired, if I remember correctly, but we showed her a six a lineup of six photos. It didn't take her but a second to point out Hartford.

Yeah, it was number four, without a doubt, I remember clearly. He was number four.

Well, that was all we needed. Stephen Hartford was back in town. We didn't have confirmation he killed Lester Charles just yet, but my gut was telling me it was him. We called in the counties helicopters, the K nine units, and state police to assist. Officers also went door to door and asked if they could search the barns and

We had to find him.

An official manhunt was underway.

God having to tell Dorothy Brown and her son Donnie that her little girl, Victoria's killer was on the loose, that was awful. We assured them they would have twenty four hour surveillance and protection on them.

Later that afternoon, police call a press conference.

We've received word that seventeen year old Stephen Hartford escaped while being transported to court and he's made his way back to Mount Pine. Let me say this loud and clear, Stephen Hartford is armed and dangerous.

My parents, my friends, and I are terrified. My dad puts a weapon in every room like baseball, bats and knives, preparing himself in case that maniac comes to our house. And my parents won't even let me go out. I have to stay home where they can make sure I'm safe. Tatiana and I talk about it on the phone for hours.

We were trying to imagine where he was hiding, who he wanted to hurt, was he trying to go home? Was his dad helping him or hiding him?

Can you believe we're now in a lockdown situation because of a madman? A known murderer is on the loose in Mount Pine.

I opened my old files on Stephen Hartford and it's more digging.

Detective Wallace learns Frank Hartford, Stephen's dad, left Mount Pine shortly after his son went to prison.

So looks like Frank Hartford closer to the prison so he could visit Stephen more often. I asked some of the guys to go to his house and interview him. Frank was home, but not helpful. He said he hadn't seen or heard from his son, and he probably wouldn't help law enforcement even if he did.

Chereming So by the end of the day I started thinking maybe Hartford left Mount Pine. Why would he hang around here when he had to know that everyone was looking for The search team was coming up with nothing. As the hours kicked by, we were all on edge and going crazy waiting.

Early Sunday morning, a tipster calls nine one one from a payphone at the gas station on the corner of Monroe and Sherman. He claims he saw that kid who escaped from the prison. Several police cars arrive at the gas station moments later and locate the nine one one caller. He points to the guy sitting on a bench outside the cafe next to the gas station, The guy he believes is Stephen Hartford, but his officers approached the guy they immediately see he looks nothing like Hartford.

We got maybe twenty eight calls like this since the press conference. The nine one one call center was flooded with tips, but none of them, not one of them panned out normally where I'm not trying to figure out who committed a crime. This time, we knew exactly who we were looking for. We just couldn't find him.

Yeah, we needed him to mess up sooner rather than later, because the town was beyond on edge, and rightfully so He was a violent predator with no regard or remorse for it anything he did or anyone he hurt.

Nine. What's your emergency.

He's here, he won't let me.

He's holding me.

A nine to one one call has just come in from a woman sounding like she's being held hostage.

I felt in my gut it was Stephen Hartford the woman was calling about. So we got ourselves poised and ready to respond, but it.

Shit scenario again. We didn't get an address before the call got cut off. We had to hope and pray she called back. Not that officers weren't out trying to find her or him, because they were, but we had nothing to go on to find this caller.

Fifteen long hours later, around eleven pm.

It was honestly the craziest thing in all my ears then or since.

Officer Charles Dixon has five years on the job back in nineteen eighty seven. He works with the canine unit and still has his best canine, Copper by his side. That's the German shepherd that helped find Victoria Brown's body back in February of nineteen eighty six. Today, Officer Dixon is retired and lives in San Antonio where he fosters dogs.

I will never forget this. I'm at the gas station on the edge of town, fueling up my cruiser and getting coffee. Copper was with me, probably open. I'd give him a tree or seven, and all of a sudden, I see this woman running towards me. She's barefoot, bleeding, hysterical, and she was pointing behind her.

The woman was Chris Newman, back in nineteen eighty seven. She was fifty two years old. She has since passed away, but her bravery that day is the stuff of legends.

She was freaking out, said the.

Guy who escaped from prison.

He's in my house.

I immediately called in medical help for gave dispatcher address on County.

Road to twelve detectives.

Thompson and Wallace get the call in high tail it too Chris Newman's house.

While paramedics retreating Miss Newman, I got some more information fro him. I did refresh my memory on some of the details, so here they are.

I'd fallen asleep watching TV in the living room, and the next thing I knew, I heard the sound of glass breaking. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, but before I knew it. This kid was in my house. He rushed me and punched me and the face and chest, and I fell to the ground, dropping the knife. He picked it up and said he would stab me if I tried anything.

Now, what happened next was absolutely bizarre.

He said he was hungry and told me to make him some food. So I made him a grilled cheese sandwich, which she scarfed down. He sat quiet for a while, then he paced.

He sat, he paced.

He told me to make him some more food, so I made him a pork chop.

Hours and hours went by, him sitting and pacing and barely speaking, all the while grasping her knife tightly in his hand. Hiss Newman said she tried to talk to him, you know, try and keep him coming, but he didn't want to talk.

She said.

They watched some TV twenty one Jump Street and then married with children. Then, in a moment of brilliance, Ms. Newman suggested he'd take a shower. She said he might feel better, and unbelievably agreed. She got him a towel and a washcloth. She said, you waited for him to get in.

And then I ran out the door and ran until I found someone at the gas station.

She ran out the door and ran until she found me at the gas station. She was one tough and smart lady. For fifteen hours, she outsmart at him and kept herself alive.

I'm incredible.

Mount Pine police surround the small white farmhouse. County and State police arrived moments later.

I had this one moment looking around at all the law enforcement that were there, thinking, this dude is seventeen years old. How in the world did all of this happen.

So a sergeant got on the megaphone and started talking to Stephen Hartford, trying to get him to come outside on his own, saying it was going to be a lot worse for him if we had to go inside and get him. You know, the whole nine yards that Hartford wasn't.

Complying, waited out for two hours. Then they start becoming concerned Stephen Hartford has killed himself, so they decide to go inside. In Chris Newman's bedroom, they find Stephen Hartford asleep asleep.

He was asleep, unbelievable. So we arrested him without incident, and as I was walking him outside, putting him in the back of a patrol car, he said the words I will never forget. He said, I should have killed that bitch when I had the chance.

You know, I never thought I was going to have to deal with Stephen Hartford again.

Boy was I wrong.

And it wouldn't end.

With his arrest.

He was charged with breaking into Joellen McBride's grandparents' house and assaulting her, murdering Lester Charles because we were able to match his blood type to blood in the barn, and he was charged with breaking into Chris Newman's house and assaulting her, not to mention all the charges related to assaulting the officers when he escaped and evaded authorities for days.

Stephen Hartford is eventually found guilty of all charges and sentenced to life plus one hundred and seventy five years. Basically, he's never getting out unless, of course, he pulls off another escape.

Two days after Stephen Hartford was caught, I left for college. I should have been through the roof ecstatic, but there was just this dark cloud hanging over me, over us.

My friends and I were just so rocked by all the deaths that happened during our high school years. All we wanted was for it to be over, even if we were moving away. We didn't want it to continue, not for us and not for those we left behind.

We'd be able to move away and move on for a little while, but the piece it wouldn't last forever.

Next time on The Murder Years, a woman's.

Body has been found in the woods behind Mount Pine Community College.

After thirty years of peace, Mount Pine is under attack once again.

I'm at the scene of yet another murder.

Will it ever end? The Murder Years is a production of AYR Media and iHeartMedia. Executive producer Elisa Rosen for AYR Media co Executive producer Paulina Williams. Written by Leah Rothman, directed by Michael Selditch. Original concept developed in partnership with Anne, Margaret Johns and Greg Spring. Casting by Eisenberg Beans Casting