Linda Sherman Pt. One

is suspected of being responsible for her disappearance. Five years later, a skull is found outside Don's favorite restaurant, and after it's kept in an evidence room for fourteen months, least receive an anonymous note confirming that the skull belongs to Linda. Don maintains his innocence and the rest of Linda's remains are never found.

finger was pointed directly at her spouse. In this particular case, Linda Sherman had been trapped in an unhappy, tumultuous marriage with her controlling husband, Don Sherman, so when Linda vanished without a trace shortly after she filed for divorce, it wasn't too surprising that Don became the subject of suspicion. But this story is a little different from the norm.

Five years after Linda went missing, a skull was discovered outside of a strange husband's favorite restaurant and was eventually identified as belonging to her. To this day, the rest of Linda's remains have never been found, and no one knows who is responsible for placing her skull in a

public place or why they did it. There is definitely good reason to be suspicious of Don Sherman, but if he was guilty, you have to wonder what would motivate him to take the huge risk of digging up his wife's skull five years after he murdered her and turning

the case into such a public spectacle. This would mean that Don is either incredibly brazen or completely innocent, or perhaps there was someone else involved in this crime that we don't even know about, So we're going to explore all the different possible scenarios on today's episode.

frame him for this case? That's what really comes to mind when I think about it.

But you do have to wonder he had nothing to gain by digging up his wife's skull after it essentially gotten away with it and just leaving it out in a public place and turning this case like it back into the spot like five years after the fact, so as you can imagine, there's a lot more ambiguity in this case than your average story about missing spouses who were getting out of abusive relationships, because you have to wonder, even if Don is guilty, is there someone else who

knew that he killed his wife and was just trying to toy with them. They are just so many possibilities.

a suburb of Saint Louis. Our central figure is twenty seven year old Linda Sherman, who's married to her husband, Don Sherman, and they have a nine year old daughter named Patty. The couple were high school sweethearts when Linda became pregnant, so they decided to get married in February of nineteen seventy five, when they were both only seventeen years old at the time, Linda was a junior and Don was a senior, and they moved into a rented

house located next door to Linda's parents. Linda gave birth to Patty in August of that year, but was determined to complete her senior year of high school while her mother helped her take care of her newborn baby. By this point, Donn had graduated, so he took a job as an assistant manager at a gas station in order to support his new wife and child, but the marriage would be fraught with turmoil. The couple often had money problems and were usually forced to work opposite shifts of

their jobs. Don eventually started working in a machine shop while Linda got a night job doing data entry at the US Government Record Center in Saint Louis. Don was known for being jealous and possessive and having a violent temper, and he would often get angry whenever he saw Linda

talking to other guys, including her own brothers. Over the course of the next ten years, Linda would take Patty and move out multiple times, even going so far as to file for divorce from Dawn in nineteen seventy seven, but Linda never followed through with her divorce, and by the nineteen eighties she'd reconciled with Down and the family moved into a new home in Beanita Park. However, the marriage became even more troubled when Linda became pregnant for

the second time and suffered in miscarriage. She also experienced some epileptic seizures, which ultimately made her decide not to have any more children. In nineteen eighty two, Linda and Patty moved out again and filed an order of protection against Don, claiming that he had tambered with her car and even threatened to murder suicide in which he would

kill himself, his wife, and their daughter. Don did admit to having disabled Linda's car on one occasion in order to prevent it from being driven, but deny that he had any intention of harming her. While Linda's order of protection was granted, she eventually reconciled with Don again and moved back in with him.

going to be a better person. And I think that gets so complicated when you have a child at the center of it, because as much as you want to protect the child, you also, especially back in the seventies, we're told that you need the mom and dad together, that a complete home is healthier for a child than a broken home, And so there's just a lot of

complicated issues that go in here. Both seem to be working really hard, but it seems like no matter how hard they're working to get, you know, financially stable, it's not good enough to get the emotional and psychological part of their marriage in a healthy place. I feel so bad for Linda and Patty. You know, Don clearly has his own issues and is a sick individual who needs help. But back in the seventies it was kind of like

look away. In the eighties, right, look away. If there's domestic violence going on, that's a family issue, not a public issue that needs to be handled. And I wish it had been. I wish there was more access to resources. I wish there was more conversation at the time where Linda and Patty could have gotten some help, and maybe Don could have gotten help too.

eroded when you're in an abusive relationship. So Linda found the wherewithal to leave, but then when she's on her own, it might have just been this idea that I don't know, if I can do this myself, it's easier to just go back together and maybe he was pressuring her, maybe he wasn't, but it's just so difficult, and it becomes a situation where so many people can simplify it when it's victims of abuse, saying well, why didn't they just leave? But there reasons are manyfold.

and not being alone. So it was probably just a big adjustment trying to leave him and trying to ask for a divorce, and maybe she just decided that it was too much for her and she couldn't handle it and went back to down just hoping that things would change and work out, but unfortunately they never did. By the time nineteen eighty five rolled around, Linda told her family she had finally made the decision to end the

marriage for good. She officially filed for divorce on April of the eleventh, and had all of her mail, including her paychecks, forwarded to the home of her sister and brother in law, Fran and Sam Miller. Since it would be weeks before Don was served with divorce papers, Linda decided to remain living in their house with him, but planned to take Patty and move out soon. At two sixteen am on Monday, April to twenty second, Linda signed out after her night shift ended at the US Government

Record Center. According to Don, Linda did not arrive home until around three o'clock, and they proceeded to get into another argument as Don demanded to know where Linda had been and why she was late. Don would claim that Linda had developed a habit of not coming home from work on multiple occasions, and there were times when he would call the house from work and discover Linda was

not there. At the time, Don suspected that Linda was having an affair with a male co worker, as one of the truck drivers from his workplace had recently seen them together. After the couple's argument came to an end, Don said that he finally went to bed at around four a m. While Linda fell asleep on the couch.

A few hours later, Patty woke up, and even though her mother was the one who generally drove her to school, Don would do so On this particular morning, Patty claimed that as she was leading the house, she saw Linda lying on the couch with her back turned. Patty did not recall seeing any movements from Linda, who did not even get up to say goodbye to her, which seemed uncharacteristic, and when Patty left the house, this would turn out to be the last time she ever saw her mother.

to have a good day. In fact, mom was the one that traditionally took her to school. That don wasn't doing that, So for Patty, she recognized that's quite odd, but at nine, just said, well, I guess mom, you asleep on the couch and she goes to school and that's the last time she even sees her mom. It's eerie to wonder was she already deceased and just lying there and turned a certain way so that Patty couldn't see her face.

his daughter is still at home, but who knows. Maybe he had to think in a panic or something and was trying to formulate a plan. But if she was already dead at that point, that is pretty eerie that a nine year old would be subjected to that.

she may have run off with another man. Don would later say that he believed an overnight bag and some of Linda's personal items appeared to be missing from their house. However, when Fred and Sam Miller were unable to reach Linda and learned that she had not shown up for work, they immediately became concerned. They did not believe Don's story about Linda running off with another man because they could

not imagine Linda abandoning her daughter. In the past, whenever Linda separated from Don and moved out, she always took Patty with her. The Millers demanded that Don go into the police and file a missing person's report, and he finally did so on April twenty fourth, two days after she was last seen. Fred and Sam again performing their own search for Linda, and on a hunch, they decided to check out Saint Louis Lambert International Airport on April

twenty sixth. After pulling into the short term parking garage, they were surprised to discover Linda's yellow nineteen seventy one Volkswagen in one of the spaces. The car was locked, but some of Linda's possessions, including her hat and her school books from a computer class she was taking, could be seen inside. The Miller's immediately contacted the airport police, who noticed that the car's trunk was unlocked and decided

to open it. While Friend and Sam experienced a brief moment of fear that Linda's body might be inside the trunk, it turned out to be empty. The airport kept track of all the cars which were parked in the short term garage longer than twenty four hours, and since Linda's Volkswagen was first noted on April twenty fourth, that meant it was likely left in the garage sometime on the twenty third or earlier. However, there was no listing for a Linda's Sherman, not any of the flights which a

part of the airport during this time period. Once again, Linda's family did not believe that she would have flown off somewhere and abandoned Patty, so they suspected that her car was planted in the garage.

and be stable and then go get Patty. It's possible, but I don't see it being likely given herm And you've got to remember that Patty's nine years old, so it's not like this little infant that she's like, I can go back and get her and she won't remember or anything like that. I just don't see Linda leaving Patty with a man she knows is abusive, with a man she's claimed threatened a murder suicide against she and her daughter and himself. It doesn't make a whole lot

of sense, and especially not for an affair, right. I could see if she was desperate and scared for her life, and that she had expressed I've got to try and run and then I'll get Patty later. But he's claiming it's all after a man. I don't see her prioritizing a man over Patty.

take off for a while. Of course, suspicion immediately turned towards down, as there were no other witnesses to verify his claim that Linda had left her house at six

pm on April to twenty second. Other than Don. The last firm sighting of Linda was when Patty had seen her lying on the couch when she left for school, but since she never saw her mother make any movements, there was genuine fear that Linda may have already been dead by that point, but Don would soon tell police that he saw Linda in the passenger seat of a van being driven by an unidentified mail a few days

after she originally went missing. Don claimed that as the van was driving past him, he called out to them, prompting Linda to dug out of sight. Don said he made an attempt to follow the van, but quickly lost it and was unable to get the license number. Investigators did check into the male coworker whom DoD had alleged was having an affair with Linda, but he had a

solid alibi and was ruled out as a suspect. Don eventually filed a cross petition for a divorce on the grounds that Linda had a band in both him and their daughter, but since she could not be found, a judge dismissed Don's divorce filing in June of nineteen eighty nine. The investigation remained at a complete standstill until the case took a very unexpected turn one year later. So to me, when you.

fight to try to get away from him. It's also really interesting when you think about could she have been dead on the couch that morning Patty was nine, Like, I feel that Reagan would come over and kiss me or say love you mom, or by mom, you know, if she was going to school and it was kind of I wasn't driving her. It's not like she's three and dad can just kind of like pick her up and move her around and say, oh, mommy sleeping, leave her alone. I just feel like Reagan independently would have

come up and kissed me goodbye or something. And if she was deceased at that time, thank god Patty didn't go up to her. But don't you think that Don would be taking quite the risks that he really can't control a nine year old the whole time she's getting ready for school, and if she touched her mom and she was cold or blue or something like that, it would have foiled the whole thing.

he was like with Patty. There could have been a lot of fear there and what he said went and it was like, you don't go close to your mother. Then maybe she just listened or cowered out of fear, and that was the type of dynamic in that household. But I do agree it's a huge risk to have her body be there and to trust that her daughter, Patty isn't going to discover that her mother is deceased. But maybe he was emboldened by the fact that he felt that he could control her.

both parents. But in this particular case, as Patty got older, she was very outspoken about her dad and did not hesitate to express her belief that Don killed Linda. So it could be a thing where if he just did not raise her that well and she was able to break free from a spell and maybe just kind of had like a culture of fear when she was young, aware she knew that if I break ranks and decided to go over and say hi to my mother, attempt to kiss her, my father is going to get angry.

The Bridgeton Police Department were notified, and the skull was sent to the Saint Louis County Medical Examiner's Office, who determined that it likely belonged to an adult female and was of recent origin.

there for over a year. On September sixth, nineteen ninety one, the Venda Park Police Department received an unsealed envelope with no return address containing a flyer for the Casa Guillardo restaurant. The flyer had a message stamped on it in purple ink which read quote the Bridgton Police have l Sherman's skull. While the Venda Park PD contacted the Bridgeton PD and sure enough they learned that they had a skull in

their possession which had been found outside Casa Guillardo. This anonymous message now made the Venida Park PD suspect that the call might belong to Linda Sherman, who had been missing for the past six years. After checking dental records, investigators were able to officially confirm that it was Linda. It would also turn out that Casa Guillardo happened to be Don Sherman's favorite restaurant, as he was known for hanging out and drinking at their bar two or three

times per week. In fact, Don even remembered coming into the restaurant on the very same day the skull was found, and learning about its discovery, Dow believed that the reappearance of Linda's skull was proof that he was not responsible for what happened to her, as he theorized that someone else intentionally left it there in order to send him some sort of message. However, some people suspected that Don could have retrieved the skull and planted it outside the

restaurant in order to draw suspicion away from himself. But if so, what will compel Don to do something like that five years after the fact.

But I'm not entirely sure if he was in a relationship with this same woman back in nineteen eighty five when Linda went missing, they did write an extensive article in the Riverfront Times about Don and Linda's background, and they didn't report anything about Don ever having any extramarital affairs during their marriage. And also they never found any conclusive evidence that Linda was having any affairs either, even

though Don was accusing her. So I'm just not entirely sure if Don was involved with someone when Linda originally went missing, But how.

interesting that they didn't find any evidence of that. But what you bring up about the skull being discovered, if he was indeed going to get married and he needed to actually be granted a divorce and he hasn't been granted one in absentia yet, then having the skull turn up might be enough for them to go, Okay, well, she clearly is gone and deceased, so now we can move along this marriage that Don was planning to potentially have.

Linda's death. The envelope and flyer which had been sent to police were given a forensic analysis, but they contained no fingerprints, and since the omens velope was unsealed, there was no saliva for DNA testing. Since the rubber stamp, which was used to write out the message on the flyer could easily be purchased at an office supply store, investigators had no luck tracing it. In nineteen ninety nine, linda skull was exhumed and shipped to the Archaeological Institute

of Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania. One of the professors from the college had actually been called upon to assist the federal government with prosecuting archaeological theft cases, so their soil analysis techniques could successfully link soil samples found on items to the locations where they originated from investigators hoped that by performing soil analysis on some dirt attached to linda skull, they might be able to determine where the

rest of her remains were buried. While I have no idea if this decision was related to the soil analysis or not. Police sent a search team and cadaver sniffing dogs to an area near the town of Perryville, located seventy five miles south of Saint Louis, but it doesn't

sound like they tri up anything. The case would be profiled on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries which aired in July of two thousand and one, and their segment featured an interview with the sherman's daughter, Patty, who was now twenty five years old and living in Indiana with a husband and daughter of her own. She did not hesitate to express her suspicions about her father's potential complability in her mother's death, stating quote, in my heart, I think

he might have done it. You know, I can't think of anyone else who would have end quote. For his part, Don never stopped maintaining his innocence. Had always suspected that Linda ran off with another man. Who subsequently murdered her. He got remarried in nineteen ninety four and had a daughter with his second wife, along with two step children. However, in July of twenty fifteen, Don would pass away at the age of fifty eight, So after nearly forty years,

the exact circumstances of Linda Sherman's death remain unclear. So I guess you could say the path went chilly.

seventies and eighties it wouldn't have been. And the culture around domestic violence was so different at the time too, that it's likely Linda didn't share everything that was going on and was trying to figure out can I make this work? Can I tolerate the abuse long enough to

have a quote intact family. It's really hard too, because when you have the skull, I'm assuming there's not really much to go on other than identifying her, because there's no report of weapon marks or any kind of injury to the skull that could indicate even what happened to her. Is that correct.

the plant, then it wasn't there for five years. It was placed there, which means someone was brazen enough to either relocate the skull and retrieve it, or had held on to the skull and then placed it at that scene, which really gives you chills up your spine of who's that evil and dark to once the corpse is already deceased, right and it's a body you can't even leave it at rest. At that point, you mess with her body again.

for DNA testing. They're actually using forensic countermeasures. And while I could see someone doing that in twenty twenty four, this was back in nineteen ninety one, when DNA testing was still in its infancy. So would someone like Don just have the wherewithal to do that to realize, I better not lick the envelope because I don't want my

saliva and my DNA going on there. So that's one of those details that makes you wonder, could this crime have been committed by someone who knew a lot about forensics and evidence and had a lot of experience of this sort of thing, And.

the attention. But it would also be if it was another person who was framing Don because it's like, hey, let's inject some more interest into the case and like push this forward because maybe I'm not getting the attention that I want right now, and this will put it back into the spotlight and I'll get to have that, you know, duper's delight.

that immediacy and access to information. If you were trying to, like, I can't google how to kill someone or how to get away with you know, not having my DNA cod well, don't like the envelope, don't you know, kiss the body, don't do any of this stuff that wasn't possible at the time. So, like you all pointed out, it almost lends itself to a career criminal who is very skilled

and intelligent. For a husband who is just tired of his wife and wants to make sure he doesn't have to pay alimony or doesn't have to share patty or whatever the case might be, would he be that sophisticated?

very well. Don Sherman did not seem like an overly likable person during his Unsolved Mysteries interview, though to be fair, it was filmed over fifteen years after he lost his wife, so that might explain why there wasn't much emotion on display. I definitely don't doubt the allegations that he was a jealous, possessive, and abusive husband and Linda would have been much better off not being married to him. And it also looked pretty damning that Don's own daughter, Patty, did not seem

reluctant to express her suspicions about him. It's unclear when or if Patty became completely estrange from her father, but I find it interesting that when you look up Don Sherman's obituary online, his daughter and two stepchildren from his second marriage are listed as next of kin, but there is no mention of Patty at all. Given that Linda split up with Don and moved out multiple times while Patty was growing up I have no doubt that she may have witnessed some things which made her think that

her father was capable of murder. I will say that if Linda simply vanished in nineteen eighty five and was still a missing person today, I would have no trouble believing that Don was responsible for her death. However, the appearance of linda skull throws a complete monkey wrench into the whole thing, as I honestly cannot think of another

missing person's case where something like this happened. How many other cold cases are there where a victim's skull popped up in a public place years after they went missing, while the rest of the remains have never been recovered. If Don was guilty, then it's hard to imagine why he would do something like this and what he was trying to accomplish. But if Don is innocent and somebody else on earth Linda's skull and left it out in the open, what were they trying to accomplish?

So there's a lot of confusion that would have happened for her. And then when you look at these details like she wasn't part of the obituary, it's just really sad to think of how a strange she became. I think when she stood up just like her mom did and said, I don't believe you, Dad, I don't want to hear any more about my mom being this terrible person. I don't think my mom would have left me. I think don needed to distance himself from her because she

wasn't as easily manipulated or controlled. And that's his imo. He has to have people that he can control. So whether or not he killed her or not, he has a daughter who lost her mother, lost whatever a little bit of a father she had, and grew up really as an orphan who's trying to seek ways to redeem her wife and have quality relationships around her because it sure didn't happen with her dad. That is one of

the most heartbreaking things in this case. And to think that Linda was fighting so hard to get her a better life and that's what Patty got. It's just very, very depressing.

they were responsible. So I do think it says a lot that Patty did not believe Don and became completely estrange for them. And I've always wondered what relationship Don had with his two step children and his second daughter from his second marriage, because you have to wonder what it's like being that situation where you know that this man in your life has been suspected of killing his previous life. But since they stayed together for about over

twenty years after until Dawn passed away. I guess they believed that he was innocent.

the ten dollar Tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsolved Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was

the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smart ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join Tier three.