Episode 605 - Holiday Homicides

You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand, KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This is Unsolved with Steve Gregory. Welcome to our special edition Holiday Homicides. In the next couple hours, we're going to review some homicides that happened during the traditional holiday season, beginning around Thanksgiving and

going through Christmas and ending New Year's Day. Typically, overall crime tends to slow down during the holiday season, but when there's a murder during the holidays, it attracts more attention because it's unusual, especially because it's a time of celebration, family and self reflection. But if there is a planned connection, a premeditation between the holidays and a murder, that makes it even more heinous.

Sociologist and author Richard Gels says there are three primary reasons for holiday violence. The first, money, which impacts a struggling family during the holiday season, spending on Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, gifts, and it's worse if the couple or the family have been struggling for a long time. Number two, something Gels calls forced intimacy, with most stores and restaurants closed and relatives who are already stressed out feel an obligation to be together all day and that

stress can compound. And the third reason, he says, is the happiness gap. Gels says that all the TV advertisements, all the TV specials are about how loving and wonderful families are and how life seems so bliss and wonderful, which of course is a bit of a myth. So we're going to walk you through some cases that happened from Thanksgiving to New Year's and whilst some have apparent motives, others don't, but they all have one thing in common.

They're one of the holiday homicides. And caution, some of this material is very graphic. Our first case comes out of Knoxville, Tennessee. Thanksgiving twenty sixteen, twenty eight year old Joel Michael Guy Junior traveled from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, back home to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he reunited with his three sisters and their parents for Thanksgiving festivities. At the end of the evening, the three daughters, who all lived in Tennessee, returned to their homes.

Junior was left alone with his parents. Joel Guy Senior, who was sixty one and Lisa Guy, who was fifty five. Junior and his three half sisters attended what was to be the last event at the Knoxville House Thanksgiving on Thursday, November twenty fourth, twenty sixteen. Now Here is some background on all of the principles. Joel Michael Guy Senior was a pipeline engineering designer. Now Lisa Guy. The mom was a human resources account's payable administrator.

The son, Joel Michael Guy Junior, graduated from the Louisiana School from Math, Science and the Arts in natchetochis in twenty oh six. He previously attended Hanville High School. He'd never worked and had always been supported by his family. Junior was described by others as distant, an outsider, never bothered to establish a relationship with anyone in or outside of his family. His mother doated on him and bragged about him quite a bit. He spent a semester at

George Washington University, then attended Louisiana State University. As a student. He lived in Baton Rouge until the murders in twenty sixteen. He wanted to become a plastic surgeon. The Guys had recently sold their Knoxville house and planned to retire and move out of town. They also planned to stop providing money to Junior. Now, in the event of the parent's death, the son was

to receive five hundred thousand dollars in life insurance money. Prosecutors say Junior hatched an elaborate plot to stab both parents, dismember and dissolve their remains clean, and burn down some of the house, as well as framed the father for the crime. Again another warning, some of this is very graphic. So let's go back to November twenty sixth. Officials say that's when Junior attacked and killed his father with a knife in a second floor exercise room while his mother

was out shopping for groceries at Walmart. The scene showed evidence of a struggle, with torn blinds, blood on the wall and corner, and an overturned bowflex machine. The mom, Lisa Guy, arriving home. She entered through the front door, dropped the groceries on the floor of the foyer, proceeded upstairs. She was attacked then killed with a knife. Nine of her ribs were severed. Now, this all started because Lisa's boss was suspicious of her

absence from work and called police for a welfare check. At first, Knox County officers Stephen Ballard and Jeremy McCord found a seemingly empty house on Golden View Lane. The property had been for sale, remember they were retired and wanted to move out of town, but there was no real estate lock on the front door. They found that the doorknob of a back door had been removed

and installed on the front door. Through the front door, they could see groceries on the floor, including perishable items such as bacon, sausage, and ice cream, and through the hole left by the missing back door knob, they could sense heat and a strange smell coming from the house. An officer used a garage door opener in one of the cars to gain access to the

house. Now when they first walked in and they found a table with the wallets from the parents and a sledgehammer on top, and then another table with long guns. Downstairs, the stove was on and the contents of a pot were boiling. At the bottom of the stairs were the grocery items that were seen earlier. The officers went up the stairs and they heard a barking dog. They looked down a hallway, and they saw the father's hands on the

floor and discovered the dismembered corpses in solution in a bathroom. Among other items investigators found upstairs were sewer line cleaner, a bag of baking soda, drain cleaner, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen peroxide, bleach, and a bleached sprayer and drain opener. Investigators say they also noticed a note in an open suitcase with the name and address of a Louisiana Ace hardware store with a notation about sewer

line cleaner. Investigators soon discovered the father's hands were removed at the wrists and left nearby on the exercise room floor. The head of Junior's mother was removed. It was carried downstairs, placed in a pot on the stove, and heated. At the trial, the forensic examiner testified the head was not just severed, but broken off with force. Both the mom and the dad also had their arms and legs disarticulated, that means broken apart from the joints.

The father was disjointed at the waist, the mother at the knees. Their limbs and torsos were placed in a bin full of chemicals to dissolve each body had a large gash inflicted after death so that the chemicals would more quickly seep into the body's mean cavities. Now, through all of this, Junior had sustained several cuts to his hands, including a deep cut to his left thumb. Later that afternoon, he was seen in Walmart in the first daid section

buying bandages and ointment for the wounds to his hands. He also purchased alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. On that Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend, Junior drove back

to Baton Rouge to have his wounds treated at the Student Clinic. Now, by the time that the officers had discovered the scene, they put out an all points bulletin the FBI Knox County Sheriff's Office in the East Batanuge Sheriff's Office placed Junior under surveillance for a few days, and they eventually apprehended him on the twenty ninth as he was entering his car in an apartment complex in the

Baton Rouge area. In fact, surveillance footage caught him on several cameras buying the supplies he would later use to murder and try to dissolve his parents. He used cash for every transaction and self checked out most of the time. He bought the supplies for the murder as early as November seventh, that's the

premeditation. He purchased several of those items at ACE Hardware, muriatic acid, food grade, hydrogen peroxide, and then on November eighteenth, he was seen in a home depot buying bleach sprayers, extension cords, and a timer. He was at a sporting goods store on November nineteenth buying a knife, and on the twenty first, he was seen at a Knoxville Walmart buying a plastic blue tote bag large enough for the dismemberment bodies to dissolve in. They also

found a meat grinder in the trunk of his car. During the investigation, detectives also found what they called a book of premeditation. It was a handwritten journal found in the junior's backpack. It contained detailed notes outlining his intent to murder and destroy the remains of his parents. Now Here are excerpts of one page. Again, folks, it's it's graphics, but this gives you an idea of just the heinousness of this crime. One of the pages had the

following notes. Get killing knives, quiet multiple, Get carving knives to make small pieces. Get sledgehammer to crush bones. Bring blender and food grinder to grind meat. Get bleach denature proteins. Does not matter where they're killed. Just get rid of bloody spots to prevent evidence of time of death in parentheses, not the mattress or couches. Next point, get rid of bodies inside house. There in my DNA. Already there then he has written and crossed

out. Open up doggy door to provide entryway he needs to be blamed, not intruder. Flush chunks down toilet in parentheses. Not garbage disposal. Next point, get plastic sheeting for disposal process. He writes this down then crosses it out. Get hollow point bullets just in case will be seen buying bullets. Just use computer room gun check to make sure there are bullets. Last resort he's not alive, to claim her half of the insurance money all mine

in parentheses five hundred thousand dollars. Flood the house, covers up forensic evidence, turn heater up as high as it goes speeds decomposition. Bleach reacts with luminol just like blood doubts area with Bleach, big Sprayer, lie Lye, trash compactor, question mark, body, gives times of death, alibi, don't have to get rid of body if there's no forensic evidence on the body,

and then in cap in all caps his fingerprints and DNA. Junior was eventually at freehanded, as I mentioned, after a bunch of surveillance from multiple agencies. He ended up pleading not guilty, but he filed a motion that he be given the death penalty if he's ever convicted. Junior's defense counsel presented no evidence on his behalf. The trial took four days. Junior was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. He was also convicted of abuse of

a corpse. Currently he's imprisoned at last Anyone Knows at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee. Coming up another holiday homicide, but first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand, KFI AM six forty live and on demand everywhere

on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is a special edition of Unsolved we're highlighting some of the holiday homicides from southern California and around the country, murders that have happened between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. As always, if you have a comment, story, or a tip from any case we've ever highlighted on the show, simply press pound two fifty on your cell

phone and say the keyword unsolved. Or if you're listening live on the app or on the live stream, just press the red microphone on the iHeartRadio app and record your message. The next case comes from Chicago, Illinois. It's called the Valdez's Early Christmas Present. It's Christmas Eve twenty thirteen. Here is an excerpt from an Associated Press article published December twenty fifth, twenty thirteen.

At six fifty two in the morning, an eighteen year old man was taken into custody after police found a decapitated man early Christmas morning in the northwest side Hermosa neighborhood. Officers responding to a homicide call found the decapitated forty one year old man at about two five am inside a basement apartment in the twenty five hundred block of North Kildare Avenue. Police set police said they also found a

knife on the scene. An eighteen year old man was standing outside the building and was taken into custody, but his relationship with the dead male was not immediately known. Police said the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed the death, but were withholding the man's identity as of one pm, pending notification of his

family. Chargers were pending against the eighteen year old. Police said that was the original story that went out over the Associated Press wires on December twenty fifth, twenty thirteen. We know now that the eighteen year old was Alexis Valdez, a young man who just six months prior had moved in with his aunt

and his aunt's boyfriend, Sylvestri Diaz. Valdez was allowed to move into the apartment in the twenty five hundred block of North Kildare on the condition that he go to school, work and contribute to household expenses, but eventually Valdez stopped working, which prompted Valdez and Diaz to get into an argument, one of many. After this, Valdez was told he would have to move out if

it cantinued this way. On Christmas Eve, while his aunt was at a Christmas party, Valdez and Diaz began drinking, even going to the store to buy more beer. Prosecutors say Valdez hit a hammer by a door, and when the two men got back from the liquor store, Valdez smashed Dias in the head several times. Valdez then shut the windows, closed the blinds, and put on some loud music, maybe to mask the sounds that Silvestri might

have made while being stabbed repeatedly. It was also reported that Valdez was celebrating, even jamming out to the music. He used a butcher knife to cut off Silvestri's ears, nose, and mouth. He also cut off the man's arms and used his bare hands to pull his eyeballs out. He then decapitated Diaz. Valdez then left the head, ears, and nose on the very bed where Diaz and his aunt slept, because he said he wanted to leave

his aunt an early Christmas present. Valdez eventually became exhausted from cutting up the body and called Knight to report a dead body. When the nine to one to one operator asked Valdez if he had tried CPR, Valdez laughed and told the nine one one operator that Diaz had been decapitated. When officers finally arrived on scene, they said they found Valdez standing outside of the apartment complex, saturated in blood. He confessed to the murder and said if his aunt had

come home, she too would have been killed. Valdez had no known criminal history. He was sentenced to thirty three years in prison. Before we get on with more holiday homicides, I want to give you an opportunity to submit your name to a list of very exclusive people that'll be invited to an in person taping of Unsolved with Steve Gregory. We do this only a few times a year, and it's a very exclusive event. We only invite a handful

of listeners because of the nature of the taping. Let me explain. When we dinner for in person taping, what we did was invited only ten listeners to a crowd of fifty. The remaining forty were actually detectives from the seasons before and the current season we were taping. We also invited other dignitaries, the sheriff of Los Angeles County. We've had other sergeants, chiefs of police, and detectives and investigators, Federal and local, and we wanted to make

it a very exclusive experience. So we invite this handful of listeners to come mingle with the actual detectives they've been listening to throughout the season on Unsolved or even past seasons. So how do you get to be a part of that group, Well, it's very simple. All you have to do is email us. This is very important. We want you to email us because it's easier to keep track of all of the details and the information. Email your name, your cell phone number. We need your cell phone number or a

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need to, at least during business hours. Sometimes we might have to call you after business hours, but depending on our schedule, So making it very simple. Then when we get all these names together, then we and we vet the information. Then we randomly select about ten, maybe twelve listeners, and then they can come to the taping. And then we won't tell you where the taping is until the last minute so that we don't have a bunch of people just kind of crashing the party as it were. We want to

continue to make this in a very exclusive event. So you ready for the email. Here we go. It's very simple. Unsolved at iHeartMedia dot com. Unsolved at iHeartMedia dot com. Please email unsolved at iHeartMedia dot com. Unsolved at iHeartMedia dot com. Okay, great, now let's get back to more holiday homicides. But first this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand, kf I

AM six forty live and on demand everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is a special edition of Unsolved. We're highlighting some of the holiday homicides from southern California and around the gun. The next case comes to us from Ashland, Kentucky. The year eighteen eighty one Christmas Eve. Missus J. W. Gibbons was away from her home in Ashland, Kentucky on

December twenty third of eighteen eighty one. She left behind her eighteen year old son Robert, her fourteen year old daughter Fanny, and a family friend, seventeen year old Emma Thomas, who happened to be staying with him. Missus Gibbons returned the following day to find her home burned to the ground and all three teenagers inside dead. Neighbors discovered the fire around five am on December twenty fourth, and two of them were able to drag the bodies out of the

fire. Fanny's skull was crushed by a blunt instrument and Emma had been strangled. It appeared both girls had been raped. Robert who had lost a leg in a railroad accident, was no match for the intruders. He ran outside to scream and get some help, but before he could do so, the killer struck him from behind with a hatchet. The victim's clothes were saturated with coal oil and were partially burned. It appeared the killer or kill pillers had

tried to start a fire by lighting the clothing. The fire did not catch, so they returned and set the house on fire. Now, of course, this tiny town of Ashlal was shocked at the news. The local newspaper, the Wheeling Register, called it one of the most atrocious and hellish murders ever committed in a civilized community. The town raised one thousand dollars as a reward for the apprehension of the killer, and sent for private detective John T.

Norris. Now imagine that one thousand dollars raised in eighteen eighty one. The axe and crowbar used in the murders belonged to the Gibbons family, so the killers must have known where these things were kept. Norris was convinced the killer was Missus Gibbons's husband, a thriftless drinking man who'd been kicked out of the house several weeks earlier because of his dissipated habits, as it was called.

The community found it hard to believe that Gibbons would rape his own fourteen year old daughter, but the post mortem physicians could not say for sure that the girls had been raped. Norris thought Gibbons had mutilated the bodies after death to make it appear they were raped to throw suspicion on someone else. The newspapers reported several stories attributed to Missus Gibbons, suggesting that J. W. Gibbons was dangerously unstable. He was subject to spells of temporary insanity, frequently

acting like a lunatic. He threatened to kill his family, once cut their heads off and burned down the house. He once pranced around the house brandishing a butcher knife, and at one time had proposed a suicide pact with his wife. Norris was searching for Gibbons and believed he would soon be in custody if he had not already killed himself. Not everyone believed that Gibbons was guilty. In the nearby town of Louisa, the police arrested a black man named

Willis Hackaday. He had been drinking the day of the murder and disappeared that night. The next day, he made some incriminating statements. There was no evidence that Hakaday had any connection to the murder, and the police released him. Hawckaday barely escaped lynching. It turned out the statements attributed to Missus Gibbons concerning her husband's behavior were exaggerated rumors gathered by a reporter go figure the media.

Gibbons denied making the statements. J W. Gibbons arrived in Ashland on January second, bringing overwhelming proof that he was elsewhere the night of the murder, so he was not arrested. Detective Heflin of the Ashland Police Department never believed that Gibbons was the killer. He followed a different path. The night of January second, Heflin arrested three men, William Neil, Ellis Craft,

and George Ellis. George Ellis immediately admitted he was at the Gibbons home the night of the murders, but placed most of the blame on the other two men. He said that Neil and Craft had boasted that they would carnally know Miss Thomas and Miss Gibbons before Christmas. They roused Ellis late on the night of the murder and insisted he go with them to the Gibbons' house. Reluctantly, he went with them. They went in through a window and Ellis watched

his craft raped Fanny. She cried for mercy as he continued his hellish work. Neil then raped Emma Thomas as George Ellis held her arms. Afterward, Emma said, I know who you are, and I'm going to tell my mother. All the commotion aroused Robert, who when outside to scream for help, but then Kraft hit him on the head with an axe. Kraft then told Fanny er time had come, and he struck her on the head and killed her instantly. Neil then killed Emma Thomas. The police took the prisoners

by steamboat to Katlisburg. They managed to secure the men in jail there before the gathering lynch mob could get to them, but everyone believed a lynching was inevitable. The Cincinnati commercial said, most likely before this is read by the many readers of the commercial, the hell hounds in this blood curdling drama will swing into eternity. Ten armed men guarded the prisoners held at the Katlitsburg jail and they managed to keep them safe until their trials. William Neil confessed to

the crime, but Ellis Kraft continued to plead not guilty. All three were charged with aiding a betting and conspiring murder. George Ellis was separately charged with three counts of murder, a technicality allowing him to testify against his accomplices. Neil changed his plead and not guilty, but all three men were eventually convicted. Neil and Kraft were found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to hang Ellis, who testified against Niel and Craft, was found guilty of manslaughter and

sentenced to life in prison. The sentence did not sit well with the people of Ashland. A group of about forty masked men arrived in Katlitzburg by train, broke into the jail through a window, unlocked Ellis's cell, and brought him out with a rope around his neck. They took him to a brickyard near the murder site and hung him from a sycamore tree. Both Neil and Kraft appealed their convictions and were granted new trials and a change of venue to

Carter County. They were taken by steamboat to Maysville, Kentucky, guarded by two hundred and twenty state troops. Five miles below Katltzberg, a gang of men in ferryboats opened fire on the steamboat, and the troops returned fire. The troops killed one of the attackers and wounded several others. Five spectators on the riverbank were killed and twenty one wounded. The prisoners eventually reached Maysville safely.

Neither Neil nor Craft succeeded in their second trial. Both were convicted again a first degree murder and sentenced to hang. In a last ditch attempt to avoid execution, Kraft's brother found a bla black man in Columbus, Ohio, who supposedly confessed to the crime. William Diary had allegedly given a woman a bracelet that belonged to one of the murdered girls. No one believed the story and nothing changed. It was thought that Craft's friends planned to lynch direly to

draw attention from Kraft. Reportedly, the people of Ashland were extremely indignant and made sure that Diary was treated fairly. Ellis Crafts hanging on October twelfth, eighteen eighty three, in Grayson, Kentucky, was witnessed by a large and festive crowd. He professed innocence to the end. William Neil was hanged in Grayson on March twenty seventh, eighteen eighty five, and with his dying breath he also professed innocence. Somewhere in the middle of all of that is the

truth, and one thing's for certain. It really shook the small town of Ashland, Kentucky. It actually made such an impression there was a song written about it in the late eighteen hundreds by composer Elijah Adams. The murder ballad was called the Ashland Tragedy, and there's no known music to it that I could ever find, but I did find the lyrics, believe or not. The ballad was a very lengthy one. So here are just a few stanzas come people deer from far and wide, and lend a willing ear to me

while I relate the cruel facts of Ashland's greatest tragedy. George Ellis was one of the men, but Ellis Craft was in the lead, and William Neil the other one that did this awful, awful deed. Now, Bobby was a crippled boy. He saw them, so George Ellis said. Then Ellis Craft, that dark eyed fiend. He turned and crushed poor Bobby's head. They murdered both these little girls and left their outraged bodies lie. They threw a torch inside the house. Poor Bobby's body lay close by. The town

was filled with angry men. They searched the country far and near. George Ellis was a coward at heart. His guilty soul was filled with fear. At last he turned state's evidence. Protect me from the mob, he said. But from the jail. They dragged him forth and hung him by the neck till dead. So let this tale a warning bee, for crime will find you out. At last, you'll meet the fate. George Ellis met with William Neil and Ellis Kraft. More holiday homicides coming up, but first,

this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand, I AM six forty live and on demand everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is a special edition of Unsolved. We're highlighting some of the holiday homicides from southern California and around the country murders that have happened between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.

As always, if you have a comment, story, idea, or a tip from any case we've highlighted on the show, simply press pound two fifty on your cell phone and say the keyword unsolved. Or if you're listening live on the app, just press the red microphone icon on the iHeartRadio app Cordial

Message. Our next case comes from Jacksonville, Florida, body under a Christmas tree from December of twenty eleven, a sixty seven year old Florida woman was found beaten, strangled, and hidden beneath the Christmas presence in her home. The body of Michelle o' dowd was discovered by her twin brother Phil axt, who had gone to check on her at home in a gated community after O'Dowd failed to show up for work at his business. The door was open and

O'Dowd's house had been ransacked. Acts said, chairs and tables were turned upside down, Her car and dog were still at the home. He said, I knew this wasn't going to be pretty. The third time Phil Axed went through his twin sister's den he spotted a foot sticking out of a big pile of Christmas gifts. The rest of her body was buried completely with the kid's

Christmas presents, he said. Beneath those pile of gifts meant for nephew's nieces and grandchildren, Michelle O'Dowd was dad, her bloodied face covered by a terry cloth towel. He said, I grabbed her ankle and it was cold. He was alone, he said, when he discovered the woman who everyone knew was Mickey oh And whom he calls his baby twin sister. He said, presents were piled on top of his sister, and an empty vodka bottle was nearby. He actually thinks the bottle was a prop posed by the killer,

maybe to get people off the scent. The family was told that O'Dowd died of blunt force trauma and strangulation. The police quickly honed in on forty year old Patty Michelle White. White was an ex girlfriend of the O'Dowd's nephew and was considered a family friend. They said White had been staying with relatives in South Carolina and since returned to Florida to rob O'Dowd. Officials at the Jacksonville County Sheriff's Office said whatever took place in that apartment went horrible wrong, and

White ended up beating and killing O'Dowd. Acst said that his aunt actually treated White as part of the family, giving her odd jobs to earn extra money, even though she just couldn't keep a job and couldn't get her life together. O'Dowd had allowed White to stay at her home for a month for free, even trusting her with her pen number to her debit card so that White

could purchase groceries for the both of them. As said his family has known White for about four or five years, and that she and his nephew had recently broken up. She moved to Orlando for a while, Act said, but she also stayed with O'Dowd for a month or so recently and occasionally made overnight visits to help White earn money. Axt and his sister would pay her to clean houses or do other odd jobs. Sometimes she even baby sat his grandchildren, he said. Bottom line, she was part of the family,

he said. He said his sister was just one of those sweet, sweet, sweet ladies. White also knew the entry codes to Grand Reserve, the gated community on Sutton Park Drive, where they lived. White later used that debit card to withdraw one thousand dollars at two bank etms in Florida. He said that withdrawals were made in Jacksonville on a route leading to the highway and in South Carolina. Investigators say after the murder, White drove to her parents'

house in York, South Carolina. Now. According to York Police Chief Andy Robinson, York police officers pulled over a car that White was riding in on a Saturday afternoon at around three forty pm, and according to the police report, White's mother was driving her when deputies stopped them on East Liberty Street near College Street. From the time we were notified, he said, the ball rolled pretty quickly. Their concern was, even though the crime wasn't committed in

their city, someone capable of committing that kind of crime was here. They wanted to secure the person in order to protect the residents. White agreed to go to the police station to speak with Jacksonville detectives. Chief Robinson said during the interview with detectives, White confessed to the murder of O'Dowd. Authorities took some clothes from White's family home in South Carolina to be examined and turned over to Florida police. A car in which White and her mother were traveling when

White was arrested was also examined but later released to the family. A police canvas of ten homes around o'dodd's found only one person home, and they say they didn't hear anything. But he also said his sister's neighbors heard screams. The brother said, so many people in the community said they heard someone screaming and wailing, but no one called the police. Act went on to say that this was his sister's favorite time of the year. She even took care

of decorating his business for the holidays. Aunt Micky, as O'Dowd was known to friends and family, was the sweetest, kindest person who had never heard a fly. He said, Finally, how can you be so sick to bury the victim under a pile of children's Christmas gifts? Before we get to more holiday homicides, we want to let you know the portions of the content from this hour are from the following sources. The Murder by Gaslight website,

the Chicago Sun Times, NBC five Chicago and the Associated Press. Still to come. Two very gruesome holiday homicides right here in southern California. But first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI AM six forty live and on demand everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is a special edition

of Unsolved. We're highlighting some of the holiday homicides from southern California and around the country, murders that have happened between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. As always, if you have a comment, story, idea, or tip from any case we've highlighted on the show, press pound two fifty on your cell phone and say the keyword Unsolved, or you can press the red microphone icon on the iHeartRadio app and record your message. Our next case comes from

Germanton, North Carolina, nineteen twenty nine The Laws in family Tragedy. Germanton, North Carolina is a farming community near Danbury. Forty three year old Charlie Lawson, his thirty seven year old wife, and their seven children were all put into a truck one day for a drive to Winston Salem, about thirteen miles away. He bought them all brand new clothes. Now, this spending spree was very unusual for the laws In family. Charlie was just a tobacco

sharecropper. After they got all their brand new clothes, Charlie instructed them to keep them on for another trip to a local photography studio. He had him sit for a family portrait, and this is when he told the family it's part of a Christmas surprise. Charlie and Fanny Lawson married in nineteen eleven. They had eight children, though one died of pneumonia at the age of six. Charlie then moved his family to the Germanton area in nineteen teen eighteen and

began sharecropping tobacco. By nineteen twenty seven, the Lawsons had saved enough money to buy a farm on Brook Cove Road. The family portrait still exists today and it shows sixteen year old Arthur, seventeen year old Marie, forty three year old Charles, thirty seven year old Fanny, who's holding baby Mary Lou was just a few months old, twelve year old Carrie, two year old

Raymond, seven year old Maybelle and four year old James. Usually in the evenings, Charlie, Fanny, and their two oldest Arthur and Marie, would work together renovating the farmhouse. On one evening, while removing rotten timbers, Charlie accidentally hit himself in the forehead with an axe. After that accident, neighbors and family members say they noticed a change in his personality. It was

a cold Christmas morning in nineteen twenty nine when Marie woke up early. She wanted to blend together some butter, sugar and egg whites, roll a cup of raisins into flour, and pour that mixture into two circular pans. This was her signature dessert. They would soon become iced decorator cakes and ready for the holiday feast. While the cake was cooling, Charlie, Arthur, and the family's two beagles went on a hunting expedition. They ran out of ammo,

so Charlie sent Arthur to Germanton to buy more. Meanwhile, back at the loss in farm, the oldest daughter, Marie was finishing up in the kitchen. Her two younger sisters, Carrie twelve and six year old Mabel, decided to visit an aunt and uncle nearby, But what neither Marie nor her mother could know was that Charlie was waiting by the barn. As the girls walked by, Charlie shot his daughters, and to make sure they were dead,

he bludgeoned them to death with the handle of a hoe. Charlie returned to the house and shot his wife, who was peeling potatoes on the porch. As he shoved more shells into his shotgun, he swung open the door and pulled the trigger, striking Marie, the oldest daughter. She slumped to the floor in front of the fireplace. The two small boys, James and Raymond, attempted to find a hiding place, but Charlie found and killed the both of them. Lastly, he bludgeoned four month old Mary Low to death.

Charlie then ran off into the nearby woods where he had just been hunting. After the murders, relatives came to the house wanting to wish the lawsons of merry Christmas, but instead they came upon a grisly scene of seven dead bodies. A couple hours later, a gunshot was heard out in the woods, which led to the discovery of Charlie lawson's body he had committed suicide.

Police found footprints all around the area in which his body lay, and it formed a circle, suggesting that maybe Charlie had been pacing just after the murders. Was he trying to process what he had just done, or maybe he was just working up the nerve to end his own life, or perhaps both. Inside his pockets they found two cryptic notes, one of which read trouble can cause and the other one said no one to blame but I. It

didn't take long for people to capitalize on the tragedy. Charlie's brother Marian opened up the home as a tourist attraction, and it would remain open for five years, attracting thousands of visitors, including the mobster John Dillinger. The crime scene was left bloodstained and Marie's uneaten Christmas cake remember that from Christmas more warning it was kept on display. They ended up having to protect the cake with the glass cover, though, because visitors kept taking the raisins off of it

as souvenirs. After the home was closed down to the public, the cake was displayed in carnival side shows. Eventually, a relative of the family buried the cake. The crime shocked everyone in thousands attended the funeral. The bodies were buried in a mass grave, with baby Mary Loo nestled in her mother's arms. They said there was about fifteen hundred people at the funeral, most

of whom were just morbid curiosity seekers. Now, there were a lot of theories, a lot of debate about why Charlie did what he did, and the first and foremost was that he was mentally unstable. He was driven to commit such a horrific act as a result of the head injury he had months earlier. Remember when the acts hit him in the head. An autopsy was performed on his brain at Johns Hopkins University, but it was determined his brain

had no notable abnormalities. But remember this was nineteen twenty nine. Autopsies were not as thorough then and medical knowledge was not as advanced, so it's entirely possible some important was missed in that examination. Another of the ongoing theories was that he raped his daughter, Marie, the seventeen year old oldest daughter, and gotten her pregnant. He didn't want anyone else to know about it,

and killed his family and himself out a feeling of intense shame. According to Murray's best friend, lama A Johnson, Murrie had confessed to her during a sleepover that she was pregnant with her father's child. Also, Charlie's niece Stella later came forward and claimed to have overheard a conversation once between Fanny and several other women in the family, including Stella's mother Jetty, in which Fanny expressed

concern over their incestuous relationship between Charlie and Marie. Now, there was no autopsy done on Marie, and there didn't appear to be an official record confirming her pregnancy. Yet there's another odd theory about what happened. The stock market crash of nineteen twenty nine had just happened two months earlier. Maybe Charlie gave up, decided to blow what little cash he had on the portrait and all

the brand new clothes, and then carried out his murder suicide. Why did Charlie choose to spare his oldest son, Arthur, Remember he was nineteen years old. Some of speculated I dis because he thought Arthur might have stopped him from carrying out his plan. But he could have just simply got around that by killing him first. He may have also spared Arthur because he wanted one of his sons to live to carry on his name. Remember this is nineteen

twenty nine. It was a big deal back then. But Arthur didn't live long enough anyway. He died in a freak car accident in nineteen forty five at the age of thirty two, left behind his own wife and four children. And after that, strange stories of premonitions, curses, and ghosts ran rampant in the Germanton area. But in time the loss in cabin was demolished, an interest in the tragedy eventually became more of a blip on the historic

radar of a once quiet little town coming up or holiday homicides. But first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand, k I AM six forty live and on demand everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is a

special edition of Unsolved. We're highlighting some of the holiday homicides from southern California and around the country, murders that have happened between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's The next case comes to us out of Covina, California, the Christmas massacre of twenty eight Christmas Eve eleven thirty in the evening, forty five year old Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, dressed in a Santa Claus suit, knocked on the

door of his former in law's house. There were about twenty five people inside. Pardo had a gift wrapped package containing a rolling air compressor which had been converted to deliver gasoline from it, and at least four nine millimeters semi automatic handguns. Moments after the door open, Pardo pulled out the handguns and immediately shot his eight year old niece, Katrina Yusupolski, the daughter of Letitia Yusupolski,

which was the sister of Sylvia Pardo. He then fired indiscriminately at people inside the party as they ran around. Police later speculated that Pardo may have stood over and pointedly executed some of the victims using the other handguns. Now after opening fire with the handguns, Pardo and wrapped the other package containing the compressor and used it to spray gasoline to set the home on fire. Nine

people died from either gunfire or flames, and three others were wounded. Yusuf Polski was shot in the face with severe but non life threatening injuries, a sixteen year old girl was shot and wounded in the back, and a twenty year old woman who suffered a broken ankle, jumped out of the second floor window. One person who survived escaped during the attack and ran to a neighbor's

house, where they called nine one one. The resulting fire hit heights of forty to fifty feet high, and it took eighty firefighters about an hour and a half to extinguish all the flames due to the intensity. In the heat of the fire, the identification of the victims was done with dental and medical records. After setting the home on fire, Pardo put on his street clothes and then drove his Dodge Caliber rental car to his brother's house in Silmar,

which is about thirty miles away from the crime scene. He was later found dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound. His brother was not present in the home at the time of Pardo's death. It was initially believed that Pardo intended to head off to Canada by plane, since he bought an airline ticket for a flight on Air Canada, but detectives subsequently discovered that a flight eightinerary on Northwest Airlines from LA to Moline, Illinois with a layover in Minnesota, was

more likely. Pardo had called days before to tell a high school friend that he was planning to visit, but investigators were sure if that was actually intended or if the flight was too full. Investigators he had visited that friend before in October of twenty oh eight. It had also been suggested that the Santa suit that Pardo had been wearing had melted during the flamethrower portion of the attack, and it was actually burnt into his skin, so not all of it

could be removed. Pardo did suffer third degree burns on his arms stemming from that fire. Investigators say Pardo decided to go against his own plan. Police found seventeen thousand dollars in cash, clean wrapped on his legs inside of a girdle. His rental car, parked one block from his brother's house, had remnants of his Santa suit. They also recovered from the scene four thirteen round capacity handguns that were empty and at least two hundred rounds of ammunition. With

all of that ammunition investigators approached very cautiously the car. They called in a bomb squad, and while they attempted to remove a portion of the Santa suit that was in the car with a robot, that robot accidentally started a fire inside the car, burning and destroying. Police had recovered five empty boxes that once contained semi automatic handguns, a Benelium two tactical shotgun, and a container for high octane fuel was also discovered. They also found what was described as

a virtual bomb factory in his home. All told, at least three victims deaths were caused by gunshot wounds alone, while four others died from a combination of both gunshot wounds in fire. Two other deaths stemmed from the fire alone. Some of the other bodies were burned and had to be identified by dental records. At least thirteen children became orphans after that massacre, and two others lost one parent. Here's a list of those who died in that attack.

Sylvia Pardo the ex wife forty three years old. Alicia Sotomayora Ortega was the mother in law. She was seventy Joseph Ortega was the father in law. He was seventy nine. Charles Ortega was a brother in law. He was fifty. Sherry Lynn Ortega was a sister in law, she was forty five. James Ortega was another brother in law, he was fifty two. Teresa Ortega was a s in law she was fifty two, and Alicia Ortega Ortiz was another sister in law. She was forty six. And Michael Ortiz was

a nephew he was seventeen years old. Investigators tried, to, of course, figure out the motivation. Pardo lived in San Fernando Valley. He graduated from John Francis Polytechnic High He also attended cal State North rich He worked at JPL in Law Canata in twenty of fours when he met his soon to be wife, Sylvia. Police have speculated the motive of Pardo's attack was related to

marital problems. After the couple wet in January of six, their marriage quickly fell apart within the first year because Pardo refused to open a joint bank account with Sylvia. He also expected his wife to use her own finances to take care of her own three children. There's also speculation the divorce may have also been caused by Pardo concealing a child from a previous relationship. It was reported Pardo's child had been severely injured in a swimming pool accident several years prior,

for which Pardo did not pay child or spousal support. In June of eight, a divorce court ordered parts to pay Oney seven hundred and eighty five dollars a month in spousal support, and during divorce proceedings, Pardo confided to a friend his wife was quote taking him to the cleaners. In July of that year, Pardo, who had no criminal record or history of violence, was fired from his job at the time as an electrical engineer at Itt. The

divorce court suspended the support payments due to financial hardship. However, as part of the divorce settlement, Parto was required to pay his ex wife ten thousand dollars and she was permitted to keep her wedding ring and family dog. Parto complained that the court Sylvia was living with her parents, not paying rent, and had spent lavishly on a luxury car, gambling trips to Las Vegas, neils at expensive restaurants, massages, and golf lessons. Pardo and Sylvia had

finalized their divorce just one week prior to the attack. Coming up more holiday homicides, but first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand k I AM six

forty heard live and on demand everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is a special edition of Unsolved where we've been highlighting some of the holiday homicides from southern California and around the country, murders that have happened between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Our next case comes to us from Oakland,

California, the Mahari gaver Selassie family Thanksgiving of twenty oh six. The followings from the Associated Press article from Thanksgiving Day, November twenty third, twenty oh six. Two brothers were in police study Friday after gunfire erupted at another family's Thanksgiving dinner, leaving a widow, her brother, and her mother dead.

Forty three year old Asmam Gebra Selassi and thirty nine year old Turdos Gebra Selassi were arrested late Thursday on suspicion of opening fire with two weapons in a third floor apartment at the gated Keller Plaza apartment complex in North Oakland. The men were booked on suspicion of three counts of murder. It's unclear whether they have

criminal records. Killed were twenty eight year old went to Tea Mahari of Berkeley, her mother, fifty year old Regba Baharanngasi of Oakland, and her seventeen year old brother, Jonas Mahari. The family was originally from Osmara, Eritrea, and had lived in the US for about five years. Another of Winta Mahari's brothers, a twenty eight year old man, was seriously injured after he jumped out of a window to escape the attack. He was in critical condition

Friday with a back injury. The man may be paralyzed, but was expected to survive. Police and family members said the shootings were in retaliation for the death of the men's brother, forty two year old Abraham gebris Lassi, who died in March of that year. He'd been married to Winta Mahari. The couple has a two year old son. Wint Mahari's family believes her husband died

of a heart attack. A spokesman for the coroner's office said it listed as an undetermined death, meaning an autopsy failed to reveal a specific cause of death, compounding the brother's concerns. The day after the murders, dozens of Eritrean immigrants strained into the gated apartment complex to mourn the loss of their friends and

to comfort the remaining family members hold up inside. Historically, thousands of Eritreans came to the US's refugees during their country's thirty year war of independence with Ethiopia,

or immigrated after the war ended in nineteen ninety one. According to the Eritrean Consulate, about seven thousand immigrants settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, with about two thousand of those in Oakland, many in the neighborhood where the shootings took place, and as you might imagine, the killings rocked an otherwise close knit community. Now fast forward to the trial of the two brothers.

This text is from a combination of published news stories in twenty sixteen. The lengthy legal saga stemming from the fatal shooting of three Oakland people at a family residence on Thanksgiving Day twenty oh six neared its end today when two in laws were convicted of first degree murder and other charges. Jurors who deliberated for six and a half days, announced their verdicts against Asmaran Geberh Salassi and Tuardos Gebrisalassi

in a courtroom that was packed with relatives and the victim's family members. The courtroom was guarded by six armed bailiffs and ten inspectors from the Alameda County District Attorney's office. In addition to the three murder counts, jurors convicted the geber Salassi brothers of one count of attempted murder for wounding Jefiram Mahari in the shooting, one count of kidnapping for taking Wynta Mahari's two year old son, Isaac

from the scene, and two counts of false imprisonment. They were also convicted of two special circumstance murder clauses, committing multiple murders and committing murder during the course of a kidnapping. It took the clerk twenty minutes to read all the verdicts in the case. The gaver Selassi and Mahari families are both from Eritrea, which was once part of Ethiopia but gained its independence twenty years ago.

Prosecutor Jonny Leventis said the Gebrier Salasi brothers conspired to kill their in laws at the family's apartment at the Keller Plaza complex at fifty three oh one Telegraph Avenue in Oakland on November twenty third of twenty oh six, and what she said was a mistaken act of revenge. She said the brothers erroneously believed that their in laws were responsible for the sudden death of their brother, forty two year

old Abraham to Wolde earlier that year. Towolde was married to Wynta Mahari and died at the couple's home at twenty two thirty eight Russell Street in Berkeley on March first of twenty oh six. Leaventus said two doctors who examined Toolda's body determined he died of natural causes and said no foul play was involved, But Laventus said the Gebra Salasi brothers were still convinced that Toolde had been killed by Mahari, perhaps with the help of her family members, and decided that Mahari

and her family members should die. Leaventus said the Mahari family never would have let out as marm Gebrislassi into their apartment because he had angrily confronted them several times about to Wolda's death, but that they allowed Twardos Gebrisilasi insight on Thanksgiving

because he had maintained good relations with them. Turduros Geversilasi ate food and drank a traditional eritree in coffee drink at the Mahari's apartment, then called his brother as Moram on his cell phone and led him into the apartment, the prosecutor said. In her closing argument, Leaventis said as Maraam geber Selassi proceeded to

shoot and kill Wynta and Yonis Mahari and Bahrenghasi in cold blood. As Moram Gaverslassi, who represented himself at the beginning of the case but was later defended by a professional lawyer after he acted up in court, admitted during the trial that he killed the three victims, but also said he did so in self defense. Gebrisilasi said one reason he thinks his in laws killed to Wolde is that they wanted to collect a five hundred thousand dollars life insurance policy he had

taken out six months before his death. He also alleged that went to Mahari wanted to kill Twolde because he was going to disclose that her brother was gay and he was molesting the culp's young son. He said homosexuality is unacceptable in the Eritrean community and the Mahari family would have been disgraced if Towolda had made

the allegations. Tony Sarah, who represents towardos Gebrisilassi, said his clients should also be found not guilty because there was insufficient evidence that he led his brother into the apartment and knew his brother would shoot their in laws. After the verdicts, the jury's fore woman said that jurors believed that towardos geber Selassi was in on the plan that killed the Mahari family and opened the door for his

brother. The fore woman, a woman from Pleasanton who said her first name's Nancy but declined to give her last name, said jurors did not believe asmaram Gebrislassi's testimony that he acted in self defense. The fore woman said absolutely not. She said the trial, which began with jury selection in January of that year and had opening statements in February, was very long. And very emotional. The fore women said it was difficult at times, but they all agreed

on the verdicts. A cousin of the Mahari family who lives in San Jose, said the guilty verdicts for the Geberslasi brothers are bittersweet because nothing will bring back the three family members that they lost, but he said the case concluded in a just way and justice was served. The da had commented that it was about time the family got the justice they needed, saying she believes the

jury did the right thing. Leventis said jurors did not believe Asmam Gaberslassi's testimony that went to Mahari wanted to kill her husband because he was going to disclose that her brother was gay. The jury thought Asmarm was just saying that to muddy the waters. As Maram's attorney said he's frustrated by the verdict and at a loss because he does not believe there was sufficient evidence to prove his client planned to kill his in laws, saying there was a lot of inconsistencies in

the testimony of the surviving Mahari family members who testified at the trial. The attorney alleged that members of the Mahari family brandished weapons in the Thanksgiving Day incident, but the Leventis the DA said there was no evidence that any of the Maharis were armed. The defense also said he doesn't think that the Tordos Gabriselassi led his brother into the apartment or knew that a shooting would occur, saying

Tardos does not have the nature or character to do that. Okay. Now fast forward to twenty twenty two, the First District Court of Appeal has upheld the convictions of the gunmen as Moran Geber Selassi, but granted a new trial to his brother, tur drose Gebslassi, who was accused of aiding his older brother by leading him to the apartment and signaling that his intended victims were there.

Both men had been sentenced to life in prison without parole. The court said Alameda County Superior Court Judge Vernon Nakamura had wrongly allowed a police investigator to testify that he didn't believe tour drose geb Selassi's statement to police about the murders. Witnesses are supposed to testify only about facts and should not state their opinions about another person's credibility, the court said, and that the case against Touldrose

gever Slassi depended almost entirely on whether or not the jury believed him. Currently, the Alameda County DA's office has filed a new case, which is still pending. Coming up, we'll wrap up this holiday homicide's edition of Unsolved with Steve Gregory. But first, this is CAFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand, I AM six forty live and on demand everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is a special

edition of Unsolved. We've been highlighting some of the holiday homicides from southern California and around the country, murders that have happened between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Our final case comes to us out of Riverside, California, the Catfish Cop. Thanksgiving of twenty twenty two, twenty eight year old Austin Lee Edwards from North Chesterfield, Virginia met a fifteen year old girl online in Riverside.

He posed as a seventeen year old boy and obtained her personal information by passing himself off as someone else. Cops call it catfishing. It's unclear how long the two were communicating. The shocking incident began to unfold just after eleven o'clock the day after Thanksgiving, when police and Riverside got a call for a welfare check concerning a young woman who appeared distressed when getting into a red Kia

Soul in the eleven two hundred block of Price Court. While officers were responding, dispatchers were then alerted to smoke and a possible fire just a few houses away from where police were called for the welfare check. The Riverside Fire Department arrived on scene, and when firefighters went inside, they say they discovered three adults lying in the front entryway. They took him outside, and first responders

immediately determined they were victims of an apparent homicide. Investigators later determined the young woman described in the initial welfare call had lived at the same house where the three people were found dead. The bodies found in the scorched Riverside home were identified as the abducted teens. Grandparents and mother, sixty nine year old Mark Winnick, his wife, sixty five year old Sherry Winnick, and their thirty

eight year old daughter, Brooke, Winnick. Police said they believed Edwards had traveled twenty five hundred miles across the country, parked his car in a neighbor's driveway, walked to the fifteen year old girl's home, and killed her family before leaving with the girl. After Edwards killed the grandparents and the mother, he then lit the house on fire. Riverside police immediately distributed a description of

Edward's car to law enforcement agency throughout California. Several hours later, they located a car with Edwards and the teenager in the tiny community of Kelso in San Bernardino County. Edwards fired gunshots but was killed by deputies who returned fire. That's what the police initially thought, but the investigation would eventually show that he actually killed himself. The young teen was eventually put into the care of relatives.

Almost immediately, people wanted to know how such a brazen attack could be done by a member of law enforcement. The story was not only the headline here in southern California, but also in Edward's hometown in Virginia. Officials in Virginia went on the defensive, and here's the story from a local newspaper outlet, in Virginia. The police officer accused of killing three people and kidnapping a girl in Riverside, California, on Friday, passed a background check in psychological

testing before being hired. Austin Lee Edwards is accused of traveling from Virginia to Riverside, abducting a fifteen year old girl he had met online, and killing her mother and grandparents. According to police, Edwards catfished the girl using a fake identity, then kidnapped her in the eleven two hundred block of Price Court, killing sixty nine year old Mark Winnick, his sixty five year old wife, Sherry Winnick, and their daughter, thirty eight year old Brook Winnick.

Then he intentionally set fire to the teen's home. He later was killed in a gunfight with deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. The girl was

unharmed. He had been an officer of the Virginia State Police then was hired by the Washington County Sheriff's Office. His time in law enforcement lasted less than a year, but during his application process, training, and time on the job, he passed physical, psychological and written testing, as well as a lie detector test that was According to the Virginia State Police spokesperson Kareem Geller, the suspect in a triple homicide was a former law enforcement official from Virginia,

and during Edward's short time tenure with the department, he never exhibited any behaviors to trigger any internal, administrative or criminal investigations. Geller said. Edwards resigned from the department on October twenty eighth, and on November sixteenth, he was hired by the Sheriff's office. He was going through the orientation process as no

issues arose during his background check. That was according to Sheriff Blake Andys, it is shocking and sad he said to the entire law enforcement community that such an evil and wicked person could infiltrate law enforcement while concealing his true identity as a computer predator and murderer. But more would come out about Edwards, including his time in a mental hospital and what had once been described as mental breakdowns

by his father. Law enforcement officials in Virginia eventually admitted Edwards fell through the cracks. A few days after the murders, members of the Winnicks family, along with friends, were part of a press conference at the Riverside Police Department. This is a portion of comments made by Michelle Blandon. She's the oldest daughter of the Winnings who were killed. It was just a few days ago that we all celebrated together that Thanksgiving of blessing and gratefulness, and we recounted

many of those blessings that we had in our lives together. On that day, we had a family debate and it got heated on if the brownies my mom made should be frosted with sprinkles or just left plain. It seems silly at the time, but that's a conversation and a debate that will forever resonate in my heart. Little did I know on that day that would be the last time that my husband and I would see my parents and my sister again.

The next day, while we were out buying Christmas lights for our home, I received a phone call from my parents' neighbor of twenty two years. They were best friends, they looked out for each other. She called to tell us that we needed to get there as soon as we could because my parents' house was on fire. This is the home that my sister and I grew up in. Since we were little. I couldn't get there fast enough. We left everything in the shopping cart at the store and took off.

When I had arrived at my house, we had learned that something more tragic had happened. In a time where communities are afraid to report strange sightings, the loving neighbors on my parents' street saw an unfamiliar car and they immediately reported it to authorities. Ultimately, this is our community and we need to look out and care for one another. Making that call from that neighbor saved my

niece's life, and that neighbor is a hero in our eyes. If something like this horrific tragedy can happen here in our neighborhood, in our community, it can happen anywhere. Sadly, we were too late to save my dad, Mark, my mom's Sherry, and my youngest sister Brooke from that vicious crime. They are forever in my heart and I miss them deeply. In this tragic moment of our family our grief. We hope some good will come

from this. Parents, please please know your child's online activity. Ask questions about what they are doing and whom they are talking to. In November of twenty twenty three, the surviving members of the Winnings filed a civil lawsuit claiming negligence against Edward's employers and Edward's estate, and that's going to do it unsolved with Steve Gregory. The radio show is a production of the KFI News Department for iHeartMedia, Los Angeles and is produced by Steve Gregory and Jacob Gonzalez.

Our field engineer is Tony Sorrentino and our technical director is Raoul Cortes. Portions of content from this hour are from the following sources. Alice Adams from Southern Calls, Reddit, oc Register, Wikipedia, Patch, KFI News, and the Riverside Police Department. This is KFI AM six forty, KFI AM six forty on demand. Yes,