My Bloody Valentine: Part 2

0:01 Dear listener, Welcome back to the Valentine's Day Special. We have seven more tales of Love Gone Wrong once again. If you enjoy any of these episodes, support that show by subscribing to them in your podcast app. If you need a reminder, all of the names of the podcast you hear today are in these show notes, accompanied by a link to their show. Without further ado, once again, here is your host, Shane Waters. Welcome back to My Bloody Valentine, our two part Valentine Day Special. If you're just joining and haven't listened to the first part of this special, I suggest you do so. I have seven more podcast or friends who will be joining me for crime stories of love gone Wrong in this episode. But first, are you curious who this mysterious Saint Valentine is? Well, it's really a mystery.

1:15 We know that the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints by that name. One legend goes that Valentine was a priest that served during the third century in Rome. One of the Roman emperors decided to outlaw marriage for young men because they made better soldiers. A priest named Valentine defied the emperor and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. Later the emperor found out and Valentine was put to death, but others will say it came from Valentine of Tyranny, a bishop who was also beheaded by the same Roman emperor.

1:57 Both Valentines saints after their deaths. Whichever may be the case. Valentine's Day is a day of love until that love goes wrong, which brings us to our next story from My Friend's Raven and Mandy from Sirens. My wife, My wife, my wife life. My wife is dead. Bird please bird, the doctor. I've been trying to keep you up. I've been quick. If you cannot bringing it, I don't get please okay, I'm try.

2:39 Yeah, I'm gonna hang up black and please okay. February fourteenth, two thousand and one, Susan Hamilton had been strangled and brutally beaten in her own bathroom. Her naked body was discovered by her husband John that Valentine's Day morning. Doctor Hamilton was an ob ui and doctor who had privileges several different Oklahma City hospitals, one of which I worked at. I was an office manager for a doctor and would see him in the doctor's lounge on several occasions. So according to doctor John Hamilton himself, he had been up at dawn for a seven am surgery at an outpatient clinic. That surgery was over by eight am, and afterwards John stopped by the hospital where he had another procedure scheduled for later that morning. Afterwards, the doctor decided to swing back home.

3:30 He was only at home for a few minutes because at nine am his patre went off. It was the hospital calling him to get back for a second surgery. By nine thirty he was scrubbing up for the operation, a complicated removal of a tumor. The procedure went off without a hitch, and later none of the other doctors reported anything at all unusual in his behavior. By ten forty five, he was on his way home again, which is when he says he discovered Susan in a pull of blood. So the timeline was extremely tight for the doctor to even be considered as a suspect. Investigators found a Valentine's Day card at the scene from Susan to John, and it was opened. The card had been found inside John's Jaguar. Susan's message inside said quote Obviously I bought this before last Monday, so I guess maybe they don't seem as appropriate now, But I do love you. Have a good day, Susan. Susan's friend Susan Johnston, who lived next door, and said Susan had noticed that John was getting a lot of cell calls. Susan demanded to see John's cell phone bill. She finds a huge number and I'm talking close to a hundred phone calls to this phone, back and forth to John, and she gets very suspicious and confronts John about it. John had an explanation for his wife that the patient had been having some serious psychological problems and had even threatened suicide. John the good doctor, was simply trying to

5:01 counsel her, and while he may have stepped over his boundaries professionally, he said he never had an affair with her. Elina Aguire, a topless dancer for eight years, testified she had performed table dances at two of the clubs in Oklahoma City for the doctor. She said that he overpaid her for dances that only cost twenty dollars each. The dancer, also known as Nina, had first went to doctor Hamilton in the early nineties when she saw him at his office for an abortion. She said he would give her samples of medication she needed for depression when she didn't have any money to buy any of the prescription ducks herself. Nina said that he was calling her like ten or more times a day, and on February eighth, after Susan learned of the cell phone calls, that doctor Hamilton wrote Nina in a letter saying he could no longer be her doctor. The dancer said Hamilton told her that he loved his wife and didn't want to get a divorce. Soon after arrival, the investigator started questioning doctor Hamilton himself. By then, there'd been that neighbor's tip about problems in the Hamilton marriage from Susan the next door neighbor. The doctor's behavior in the minutes after finding Susan dead seemed off. Hamilton had told the nine one one operator he was performing CPR, but when the first responders showed up, firefighter David Bradbury arrived on the scene and he thought there was something odd about the way that the doctor was performing the chess compressions. David Bradbury said,

6:34 quote he had one hand on her chest one hand on her abdomen, the way that we are taught to do CPR, we interlock our hands. The poem goes on the center of the chest, on the sternum, something in which doctor Hamilton should have been well versed in. Doctor Hamilton had said, I talked to the surgery nurse and she said the surgery before yours started thirty minutes late. I still had fifteen or twenty minutes leeway in there. But because it was Valentine's Day, I wanted to give Susan her first Valentine's Day card, start her day off right before she got busy with her meeting. And Susan's getting ready, you know, trying to get dressed, and we kissed. I gave her Valentine's card. She went into the closet and got one and gave it to me. It has also stated that by Susan's daughter that Susan had threatened divorce in December, but decided against it and to go to therapy with John. This was just two months prior to the murder.

7:32 As the detectives looked more closely into the doctor's timeline that day of surgery, they learned that the second surgery originally scheduled for nine am, hadn't actually started until nine forty am, and why was it delayed because doctor Hamilton was late. To investigators, that delay opened up the doctor's window of opportunity by up to an hour late. That Valentine's Day afternoon, they arrested John Hamilton for the murder of his wife, and the investigators then placed doctor Hamilton in the back of the police car and it was there that they kind of noticed odd behavior. Detective Teresa Sterling said that he was acting very upset. He was banging his head into the screen. He was jailed immediately and denied any bail. She was talking about leaving him, and so the motive was lost love. Believing that Susan Hamilton's threat of divorce was enough to make the doctor's snap, prosecutors developed a theory that the couple had argued that morning after exchanging the cards. The doctor then came back later with murder on his mind.

8:33 In December of two thousand and one, doctor John Hamilton was being tried for her murder. The medical examiner had determined that Susan had been strangled with two neckties, but her fatal injuries came from being bludgeoned with a blunt object never found at the scene. Investigators had to interpret the blood evidence left behind, and for that they hired a blood stained expert named Ross Gardner. Gardner carefully examined every thing the doctor had been wearing that morning. A lot of the blood on his clothing could be explained by his attempt to administer CPR, but the expert looked at john shoes, the left one in particular. The shoes were found near Susan's body. John said that they fell off his feet as he was attempting to revive her. The expert, though Gardner, was certain that whoever was wearing that left shoe that day was present when Susan was being bludgened. Also, but the most damning blood evidence of all may have been found in the doctor's car, on the steering wheel and the driver's side seat and Doorsill crime scene investigators recovered strands of Susan's hair and pieces of her flesh.

9:46 Tom Bevill, the blood spatter expert hired by doctor John Hamilton as the last witness in the trial. He refuted a lot of the prosecution's findings and bolstered his client's case. The prosecutor tossed out an open ended question, Well, mister Bevil, is there anything that the state experts of Oklaimacity Police Department missed in their examination of the evidence. The blood spattered expert on the stand on the payroll of the defense something he noted and what would later be regarded as the atomic bomb of the trial of doctor John Hamilton. It was about that bloody shirt taken from the doctor. He said in my examination, I found additional blood that was not talked about anywhere on the inside of the right cuff. The defense expert was saying that doctor John Hamilton most likely created those bloodstains by bashing his wife's skull. On redirect, doctor Hamilton's lawyer tried to defuse the bombshell testimony, but his argument would not be enough. It took the jurors just two hours to reach their verdict. The doctor realized he'd been scuttled by his own man. A great way to spend Valentine's Day is to go shopping together. It could be fun, therapeutic, and you can, of course by each other gifts to show each other how much you appreciate them.

11:16 If that's their love language. Of course, we are meeting my next friend here, Robin from the Trail went cold. So for this Valentine's Day special, I'm going to be discussing the perfect Valentine's themed cold case, as it involves a couple who got married on Valentine's Day, the husband being found murdered on Valentine's Day exactly one year later, and his wife becoming a suspect, and there are just so many crazy elements to this story. The victim in question was twenty six year old William Edward Trimbach, who went by the name Billy, and he was originally born in Morgan County, Colorado, before he moved to carl In, Nevada during his childhood. Billy had two children with his first wife before their marriage ended in divorce, but on February the fourteenth, nineteen ninety two, he got remarried to thirty seven year old Cindy Trimbach, who had four children of her own from a previous marriage. The couple then moved to Billy's home state of Colorado, where he started his own automotive and diesel repair business in the unincorporated community of Stoneham. However, Cindy would soon receive some life changing news when she learned she had contracted the HIV virus, which developed into AIDS, so doctors gave her about two years to live. Since Cindy's ex husband, Bob Osmanson, also contracted AIDS, she suspected that she originally got it from him. To further complicate matters, Cindy

12:48 was also pregnant with Billy's child. During this time period. She would give birth to a daughter named Allison, who turned out to be perfectly healthy and did not have the AIDS virus. Most of the money made from his business went towards Cindy's medical care, and they would even travel to Mexico to seek out experimental treatments for her disease. While on the couple's one year wedding anniversary, which happened to be Valentine's Day in nineteen ninety three, Cindy contacted the Weld County Sheriff's office in order to report Billy missing, claiming that she had not seen him since the previous morning of February the thirteenth. Cindy's nine year old son, James Osmanson, told police that he saw Billy leaving their house that morning with an unidentified man driving a white sports car, and he believed that Billy was planning to help the man repair something while on the same day he was reported missing, Billy's body was discovered in neighboring Morgan County in a snow bank on the north side of the Interstate seventy six frontage Road near the small town of Wiggins. He had been shot at close range in the head, abdomen, and arm. The location was about forty five miles away from Stoneham, and it was suspected that Billy was shot elsewhere before his body was dumped by the road. In an odd coincidence, on the night before Billy's body was found, the Morgan County sheriff had actually driven by that exact spot and recalled seeing multiple vehicles parked there. In retrospect, the sheriff believed he may have unknowingly driven past Billy's killers dumping his body. Investigator started to become

14:22 suspicious of Cindy when she told them she had also driven by that same spot on the evening of February the thirteenth while she was searching for Billy. Butlike I just mentioned, the location was forty five miles from where the trim box lived and Billy and Cindy did not have any known ties to the area, so why would she have felt the need to drive all the way out there. It almost appeared as if Cindy was trying to fabricate a cover story in case any eyewitnesses sar in Morgan County that night. Investigators also discovered that a four hundred and forty thousand dollars insurance policy had been taken out on Billy's life shortly before his death, and it appeared that his name had been forged on the application. They decided to perform a search of Cindy's Chevy Suburban and found some small amounts of dried blood on the back seat which were consistent with Billy's blood. There were also some items in the vehicle which seemed to match items which had been discovered near the spot where Billy's body was dumped. While the murder weapon was never found, a nine millimeter handgun Billy owned was missing from his home, and his gunshot wounds were consistent with a nine millimeter. Due to the cloud of suspicion surrounding her, Cindy decided to take her kids and leave Colorado Almost immediately after Billy's funeral and they relocated to Cindy's original hometown of Butte, Montana. But then the case would go in a truly tragic and unexpected direction. On April the twelfth, nineteen ninety four, the Butte based

15:52 newspaper, The Montana Standard, published an extensive article about cindy struggles with AIDS and her being a suspect in Billy's murder. It was common knowledge throughout the community that Cindy and her first husband, Bob, were both dying of AIDS, and their son, James, who was ten years old at this point, was frequently teased and bullied by the other kids about this while attending Margaret Leary Elementary School. Well it appeared that James finally reached his breaking point because on the very same morning that The Montana Standard ran their article about his mother, James showed up at school with a twenty two caliber pistol. James then proceeded to pull out the gun on the playground, challenged one of his tormentors to a fight, and then fired off three shots. One of the shots wound up striking an eleven year old student named Jeremy Bullock in the head behind the ear Jeremy died the following day, and to make the situation even more tragic, he was not one of the kids who had been bullying James and was only caught in the line of fire. At the time, James was considered to be the youngest school shooter in American history, though that record has since been broken. Given his young age, James was too young to be charged with murder, so he was since to two years in a residential psychiatric treatment center and wound up being placed in foster care following his release. By that point, James's mother and father had both died due to complications from AIDS, with Cindy passing away on March the first, nineteen ninety five at the

17:22 age of forty. Morgan County investigators eventually decided to travel to Montana to reinterview James, and he finally admitted that his story about having seen Billy leave their house with a man in a white sports car was false and he had lied to protect his mother. However, even though Cindy is now deceased, the authorities do not consider this case to be closed, as they believed that she hired at least two people to kill Billy Over the years, various informants have told law enforcement that a drug dealer from the municipality of Fort Morgan had bragged about murdering Billy with an accomplice. It's been reported that one of these potential suspects was ready to confess to the crime, but his attorney would not allow him to be interviewed, and he decided to kill himself in nineteen ninety eight.

18:08 The other potential suspect appears to be a man named James Samuel England, who was arrested in April of two thousand and eight on unrelated burglary and carthaft charges and publicly named as a person of interest in Billy's murder by the Morgan County Sheriff's office, But it seems apparent that investigators lacked the necessary evidence to found murder charges against England or anyone else who might be involved. In twenty eighteen, on the twenty fifth anniversary of the crime, the authorities did confirm that the investigation was still opened and they believed there was still a killer on the loose in rural Colorado. Well, we have now officially reached the thirty year anniversary of the crime, but Unfortunately, the murder of Billy Trimbach continues to remain unsolved. So yes, I'll say it. I guess you could say the trail went cold and happy Valentine's Day, yess. Skydiving with your Valentine is fun if you're into thrills an adventure. You can both take the jump together to feel alive and energized for the rest of the year. Up next is Method and Madness with my friend Dawn, Sweetheart, my true heart.

19:44 I know there are girls with more shapely bodies, but I'm not caring what they have. I have the greatest part of all blessings, a noble man's deep, true, eternal love. How impatient I am and will be. I want to look up into your dear face for hours as you touch my body close. The words, the language, it was all indicative of the time period a century ago, the Roaring twenties, Prohibition, jazz, and Americans bringing the latest gadget radios into their living rooms. But these words were not lyrics from a ballad. No, these words were written in lead pencil on paper found amongst other torn letters just like it in the grass near the two bodies on Philip's farm. It was there, under a crab apple tree in a field of golden rod outside New Brunswick, New Jersey, that the lovers were discovered that Saturday, September sixteenth, nineteen twenty two, purely by chance. It was a man and his underage girlfriend that came across the scene while out for a walk. It was obviously foul play. The couple was lying on their backs next to each other. She was dressed in a polka dot dress and stockings, her legs crossed. He in a dark suit,

21:18 his coat torn and muddy from being on the ground for so long, and his panama hat pulled down over his face. His right arm was outstretched and propped against his foot was a business card that identified him. It read Reverend Edward W. Hall, Church of Saint John, the Evangelist, New Brunswick, New Jersey. The forty one year old pastor of a local church, was a victim of a homicide, a single bullet to his right temple. His companion was thirty three year old Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, a soprano in the church choir. Her wounds hinted that the killer or killers had targeted her more aggressively. She had three bullet wounds to her head and underneath a scarf covering her neck, a deep laceration to her throat, and it would be determined years later her tongue had been cut out. The pair had been dead for at least thirty six hours. The scene, including the placement of the two bodies, suggested a purposeful, thought out act of murder and staging, from love letters strewn about the bodies to the way the bodies were positioned.

22:44 She called him Babykins. He called her his wonder heart. The two victims, it turned out, were married, but not to each other. Their affair began about four years previously in the church, knighting rumors and prompting whispers of a scandalous nature. A pastor, a member of the choir love letters tucked safely inside hymn books and passed back and forth to each other. On Sundays. Now, in a symbolic display, those letters were out in the open. The affair exposed, the rumors confirmed the whispers now of a different, darker nature. Victim Eleanor Mills was married to James Mills, an officer of the church. Victim Reverend Edward Hall was married to Francis Stevens, a wealthy heiress. She was insistent that the relationship between her husband and Missus Mills was purely platonic, not romantic in nature. The killer clearly one of the public to believe otherwise. But despite the not so subtle staging of the scene and potential for u of evidence, this double homicide was mishandled from the start, from the police arguing over jurisdiction, to reporters handling the reverend's business card, from the curious public flocking to the grassy area to snag pieces of dirt

24:15 two peeling bits of bark from the crab apple tree to keep as souvenirs, and that mishandling had a significant impact on the investigation. What could have been an open and shut case would drag on for years. Meanwhile, the tabloids were salivating. The crime had everything that sells newspapers love, lust, betrayal, jealousy, violence, mystery. Some headlines in the following weeks read murder of popular pastor and choir leader stirs entire state and when murder lifts a small town's lid, And the news was spreading outside that small town and outside of that state, at breakfast tables all over the country, Folks would sit down with their cup of coffee and their newspaper, eager to see what the latest headline would be. The tabloids out of neighboring New York City fanned the fire and kept the country's interest in the case, so much so that today it's been said those tabloids may have been the reason a trial finally took place.

25:26 They relentlessly reported on the lack of progress in the case, with headlines like sorry, spectacle of justice and Hall slain a year ago? But Justice slumbers. Accusations had been aimed in all sorts of directions at the couple who discovered the bodies, then to the spouses of the victims, of course, but ultimately it was Reverend Hall's widow, Francis, her brothers, and her cousin that became official suspects, accused even by an eccentric woman that swore she witnessed the murders despite doubts about her credibility. And it wasn't until four years later, the same amount of time that the Lovers romance had sustained, that a trial took place in nearby Somerville, New Jersey, The defendants were the reverend's widow, Francis, and her brothers Henry and William. Their destiny, if convicted, was the electric chair. It made sense like a Shakespearean tragedy.

26:34 The two lovers ardent affair, found out their written expressions discovered in a drawer by a jealous wife, the heroic brothers coming in to defend her honor, a confrontation by moonlight, and then the final scene as the two traders, the star crossed lovers meet their demise, with more violent attention paid to the young mistress in an additional act of vengeance, but alas in the end. It was a comment in an article from the Daily News on November twentieth, nineteen twenty two that predicted the outcome quote, indictments will either be returned or the case will be forever relegated to the Annals of Unsolved crimes. And so it was the latter. The trial ended in December of nineteen twenty six with no convictions. All three suspects were acquitted, and a century later, those murders still discussed in a more modern sense on social media and Reddit forums.

27:48 Books have been written, theories tossed around, but the case remains officially unsolved, although only three people stood trial for the Paul Mills murder and all three were acquitted. What happened on Philip's farm in late September nineteen twenty two. Was it the reverend's wife? Had she discovered the truth about her husband's affair. Did she insist his relationship with Eleanor Mills was platonic as part of a greater plan to maintain innocence? Or was it Eleanor's husband, the officer of the church, who set out one evening to kill his wife, the mother of his two children and her prominent lover. Or another theory that it was the work of the ku Klux Klan, who had been active in areas of New Jersey in the nineteen twenties. If only that crab AppleTree could talk the true extent of the romance between Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills. Their love for one another would live on through those letters they'd poured their hearts into, along with diaries they had each capped and wrote in daily to express how much they missed each other, how one couldn't live without the other. Those writings would become their legacy. We'll be right back after a quick break stay with us.

29:27 Walking on a beach is a delightful way to enjoy a nice evening together. I brought a picnic for us to enjoy after a long walk meeting us. Here is my friend Laney from True Crime Cases with Laney. A swinger's lifestyle can be great for some, or it can be problematic for others. For one newly married couple, a wild night of sex and drugs turned deadly okay onto the show. In March twenty thirteen, Actora Bankhead was released from the Indiana Department of Corrections. He had been convicted on February thirteenth, nineteen ninety seven, of carjacking. Actora met Diane Lynde Smith shortly after leaving the Department of Corrections. After dating for a week and only knowing each other for less than four weeks, they married on April twenty third, twenty thirteen.

30:37 The couple moved into Diane's house on Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Street in Indianapolis. According to Actora himself, he found a job just a few days after being released from prison and was set on following the straight and narrow path. Actora also believed Diane was the love of his life and a godsend. On June fifteenth, two thirteen, two bodies were found in a vacant lot and the eleven hundred block of Miley Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana. An attempt had been made to burn the bodies. The two were identified as twenty seven year old Michael Height and thirty four year old Cristel Lucas. Actora Bankhead was soon arrested for the two murders, as it was Diane who had called the police to report the bodies and how they had gotten there. In the early morning hours of June seventh, two thousand thirteen, Diane had come home from work.

31:30 Diana and Actora were in bed when Actora received a phone call from Michael. He got up and went downstairs to talk to Michael. Now. Not long after, Michael came over to their house, parking his car on Indianapolis Avenue near their house. Diane stayed upstairs while Actora and Michael sat downstairs drinking and talking. Some time later, Diane heard a female's voice join in, and she heard Michael tell Actora he had just met this woman, Cristel, at the liquor store. Anne went to sleep, but just after she drifted off, Actora came to the bedroom and woke her up, asking her to drive the trio somewhere to get some crack. Diane said no initially, but Ectora kept on pestering her until she finally agreed. Diane drove them to an apartment at thirty eighth Street and Boulevard Place, where Michael got out and went inside. He was in there for about ten minutes before returning to the van.

32:24 Once they returned to the house, Diane again went upstairs and went to sleep. Yet again, Acta came in and woke her up, saying he was high and he wanted all four of them to have sex. Diane said she didn't roll like that and refused, but once again Actora pestered her until she relented. Michael and Cristel joined them in the bedroom and they swapped partners. Cristel became upset when she realized Michael had sex with Diane without protection. Crystel knew Michael was HIV positive and related this information to Diane. Diane became angry, and so did Actora, saying this was like a death sentence for Diane. Actora lured Michael into the basement, where he attacked him with a stun gun. Once he had Michael subdued, he hog tied him and popped his neck. Worried about Cristel going to the police and believing Diane to be jealous of her, he decided to kill her too. As with Michael, He lured Cristel downstairs and subdued her, then popped her neck too. Although it sounds as if he had broken their necks with his bare hands, the coroner reported that they had died from asphyxiation. Cristel's highoid bone was fractured, and Michael had a fracture to his thyroid cartilage. The next afternoon, Diane went to work, not knowing what had transpired in her basement. She returned home in the early morning hours of Saturday, when Actora told her that Michael and Cristel were gone. When she asked for clarification, Actora made a hand

33:57 gesture across his neck. He admitted to killing them, and then took Diane into the basement to show her their bodies. Diane saw the two naked and hogtiede lying on top of each other. Actolder told her she would have to help dispose of the bodies or she would wind up like them. Diane went to work on Saturday afternoon, and when she returned home early Sunday morning, they began disposing of the bodies. The two loaded the bodies into Diane's minivan, then Diane drove following act Tora's directions. He instructed her to drive to a vacant lot on Miley Avenue, and they placed the bodies in some trees at the edge of the lot. While act Tora removed the plastic, Diane returned to the van. He put the plastic in trash bags, then poured gasoline on the bodies and lit them. Diane later told police that it was raining and the bodies would not stay lit. After they left, Actora had Diane drive to an apartment complex, where he threw the trash bags in the dumpster. After return home, the couple removed valuables from Michael's car, including the stereo. Diane then drove it to another apartment complex before they returned home and went to bed. Over the next week, Actora kept a close eye on her and would not let her leave his side. During the same time, a friend of Michael's who knew he was at the Bankhead's house, began distributing missing Persons flyers in Diane's neighborhood. Michael had called this friend and said he was visiting with Actora, and then the friend saw Michael's car on Indianapolis

35:31 Avenue before Diane moved it. On Friday, June fourteenth, one week after the murders, Actora finally left Diane alone for a time. She called the Indianapolis Police and changed the locks. Diane spoke to the detective, Harry dunn and told him about the murders and where to find the bodies. When Detective Dunne sent an officer to the lot on Miley Avenue, the bodies were located in a severe state of decomposition and infested with maggot. In addition to the two murder charges, Actora was charged with intimidating Diane. While in jail awaiting trial, Actora met Jeremy Bullock. Jeremy was in jail awaiting trial on two burglary cases. Jeremy had previously been in prison for a murder he committed when he was seventeen. While in prison for his murder charge, Jeremy had been attacked several times for being a snitch. When Actora went on trial, Jeremy testified that Actora had confessed to him in jail. Actora's attorney wanted to introduce evidence that jeremy sentence had been reduced due to his testimony in the David cam case, but the state objected to this. In a concession, However, the court did say the defense attorneys could question Jeremy about testifying in a different murder trial because his motive and trying to bargain for himself was relevant. The defense questioned Jeremy about his involvement with the two thousand and six murder trial and his sentence modification, and afterwards they also mentioned his current charges and the expected

37:04 sentence. Interestingly, they also discussed how in October twenty fourteen, Jeremy had written a letter to a judge asking for leniency in his probation revocation case since he was cooperating with some murder cases in Marion County. Additionally, in the nine months he had been in jail awaiting trial, Jeremy had written eight letters to the Marion County prosecutor, each one talking about other defendants, most in jail on murder charges despite the somewhat uncanny act Jeremy seemed to have for hearing confessions. Actora was found guilty on two charges of murder, but not guilty on the intimidation charge. He was sentenced to one hundred and twenty five years in prisons, sixty years on one charge, sixty five years on the other.

37:52 Actora appealed to sentence, stating the prosecution prejudiced him by showing the photo of the bodies riddled with maggots. However, this photo was never shown during the trial, only mentioned. He also appealed because his defense was limited by not being able to mention the David Cam trial. The third point of the appeal was the dubiousness of Diane's testimony. All three points were overturned and the sentence affirmed. On the second point, the appeals court said his attorneys were able to question Jeremy Bullock without mentioning David Cam's name. The appeals court also said that the dubiousness of Diane's testimony was not valid because she was not the sole witness. Because Michael's friend knew that Michael was at the Bankhead's home.

38:37 He also testified Diane was never charged with anything, a fact that leaves Ectora Bankhead puzzled and angry. In writings he did available on the internet, he claims she was a master manipulator and a pathological liar. He says he did not have anything to do with the murders and accuses Diane, but this leave some questions, such as how did she get the bodies out of the house on her own and how did she commit the murders. Actora continues to appeal his sentence and is confident he will get it overturned some day. He writes from prison, and wants to sell his work to try and earn money for a better defense. He claims he was railroaded from day one and says investigators overlooked obvious clues he was not involved, although he does not say what these are. Nothing about Diane could really be found, except she filed for divorce on June twenty six, two fifteen, and the divorce was granted on September twenty eighth, two fifteen. A detailed obituary was not located for Cristel, just a passing mention about her services, which were held several weeks after her body was found. However, an obituary was found for Michael Hite. His family said he had a loving heart and was the epitome of a Southern gentleman.

39:59 His smile lit up a room. Finding places where live music is playing and just relaxing is another popular date night. The trick is to make sure you know what kind of music your partner enjoys and match their taste well. Otherwise you may just be annoying them with music they hate for the entire evening. Up next as My Friend Charlie from Crime Lines. It is a story of love that turned to control and then to murder. It started innocently enough, with Daphne Wright logging into a chat room in the late nineteen nineties looking for love. Having been born deaf, the Internet introduced Daphne to a larger group of people to communicate with. She met a woman named Jackie from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and she moved from Maryland to South Dakota to start her new life. This relationship didn't last, but the two remained friends and roommates. In August of two thousand and two, Daphne met the love of her life, Sally Collins. Sally and Daphne left the state for a little while, but when they decided to move back to Sioux Falls, Jackie welcomed them to live in her house to help out with the bills. The problem

41:34 was that Jackie and Sally didn't get along well. In part due to this tension, and in part due to her cooling feelings towards Daphne, Sally moved out. She found an apartment in a complex known as the Deaf Apartments because a lot of deaf people lived there. Though Sally had taken a big step away from her four year relationship with Daphne right by moving out, they were still seeing each other off and on, with Daphne growing more and more anxious as she was the losing control of Sallie's heart. While playing cards one day at the local Deaf club, Sallie met forty two year old Darlene van der Geeson and the two became fast friends. It was a friendship that made Daphne jealous, believing that Darlene was trying to steal Sallie from her. It was an irrational jealousy because Darlene only dated men, and she and Sallie were and always would be just friends. One night in late January two thousand and six, Daphne went over to Sallie's apartment unannounced and found her hanging out with Darlene.

42:45 Daphne's anger boiled over and she started signing to Darlene that she was ruining her relationship with Sallie. Sallie told Daphne to leave, and when she refused, Sallie then asked Darlene to leave just to diffuse the situation. As Darlene left, Daphne made an obscene gesture towards her. Daphne and Sally continue to argue until Sally called the police, and the police told Daphne to go. Daphne stormed off, telling Sally she would be very sorry. Then, five days after the argument, Darlene van der Geeson didn't show up to work. The next day, her parents reported her missing. A family member told the police that Darlene had been getting some insulting emails from a woman named Wendy Smith.

43:37 These emails called Darlene fat and told her that she had elephant feet. Darlene didn't know anyone with the name Wendy Smith, so she believed it was someone using a fake name to send these emails. The police took Darlene's computer in for a search and found the emails. Based on some of the specific grammatical errors, the investigators deduced writer was likely deaf like Darlene, and English was their second language after American Sign language. In continuing to check Darlene's inbox, they also found an email from Daphney Wright that matched the same syntax from the emails that came from Wendy Smith. So they checked the IP on the Wendy Smith emails and it led them write to downtown Sue Falls, to the home of Jackie, where Daphne was still living. At first, Daphney denied to the police that she sent the Wendy Smith emails, but eventually fessed up to it. Over the course of the interview, Daphne changed her story seven times, but she denied having anything to do with Darlene's disappearance. She admitted she wanted Darlene to stay away from Salie, but she insisted that she and Darlene had smooth things over after the argument at Sally's apartment. Based on the email scent and Daphne's changing story, the police got a search warrant for her house, and when they entered, they were immediately hit by a number of

45:07 smells, the strongest of which were paint and cleaning chemicals. The smell grew stronger as they approached the basement door. When they headed down the stairs, they found swatches of blue paint on the walls and the floor and the stairs, not an even coat, but rather a quick, spotty patch job. In scraping the paint they found small amounts of blood, tissue and bone fragments and bone chips, and in a trash can upstairs they found a half empty bottle of chainsaw lubricant and a receipt for a chainsaw. They sent the biological material to the lab to test it against Darline's DNA. Believing that Darline vander Keisen had not just been killed, but also dismembered by Daphney Wright, they began a landfill search. The next day, the DNA results came back on the blood and biological matter from the basement, it was Darlene's. Additional DNA from Darlene was found on the bumper of an suv that Daphne regularly used, so even without a body, they felt they had enough to move forward.

46:22 With the significant amount of circumstantial and forensic evidence. Forty three year old Daphney Wright was arrested and charged in the murder of forty two year old Darlene Vandergeesen, but this wouldn't continue as a nobody case for long. The search of the landfill continued, and five days after starting the search, Darlene's partial remains were found, along with additional evidence linking her to both Daphne's home and to Daphne herself. More of Darlene's dismembered remains were later found in a day in Minnesota. At trial, the state claimed that Daphne had lured Darlene to her house by telling her she was planning a Valentine surprise for Sally. Once she had her there, Daphne killed Darlene and dismembered her in the basement. Daphne's defense was the Robert Durst defense. Sure, the state could prove Daphne dismembered Darlene, but they couldn't prove she killed her. Perhaps Darlene had died falling down the stairs, and Daphne, afraid of being blamed, dismembered her body and tried to dispose of the evidence. The jury didn't buy it and convicted Daphne, but she was spared the death penalty. She remains in prison for murdering a woman she perceived as a romantic rival who was really just being a good friend to the woman. Daphne didn't just want to love, but to

47:55 control. Riding horses is a fun date. Horses are majestic and riding them is fun, especially on trails you've never been on before. If you aren't comfortable with riding horses, carriage rides are always the next best thing. Up next is love murder with my friends Jesse and Andy. Love, nothing else has the incredible power to move people like love. A mother's love can give them the strength to lift a car to save their toddler. It can inspire incredible works of art and literature. It can bring communities together. But the flip side of love is a very dangerous thing. Indeed, that kind of love is the kind that topples empires, burns down villages, and thirst for revenge at any cost. After all, hell hath no fury, like well anyone scorned. But today, yes, we are talking about a woman, and her name is Grace Lusk. In nineteen thirteen, Grace was a prim thirty one year old school teacher who had recently moved to Waukashaw, Wisconsin.

49:24 She was incredibly well read, she was well traveled, she had been to Europe a couple times, and she had a sterling reputation as both an educator and a loyal friend. She was, however, a relatively shy individual, and it seemed like Grace had given up the idea of a grand love affair a long time ago in her life. She was pretty sure she wanted to stay single and be schoolmarmish for lack of a better word. That is, until she met the dashing doctor David Roberts at a party. So doctor Roberts was not only the local veterinarian, but he was also a wealthy man who ran a dairy operation, a cow tonic business, go back cow do business, which I believe was some sort of special dairy cow medication, because again, this is nineteen thirteen ish, and he had also published a series of veterinary textbooks that had netted him the big bucks. Not to mention, he reportedly had a fine head of hair and a big, bushy mustache, two things I definitely look for in a man. Don't we all? The only problem was that doctor Roberts had a wife. Well, this was hardly an obstacle for the randy couple, who began a torrid affair. The relationship went on in secret for nearly four years until Grace got sick of being the side piece and began to put pressure on her bow to ditch his wife and make

50:58 her the new missus. Doctor Roberts gotta get that cowtonic money now. David Roberts was very happy to carry on and put Grace off this idea. Well, Grace wasn't having it and wrote the following letter to missus Mary Roberts, who was fifty two years old to Grace's thirty five. Grace wrote, it has been a desire with me for a long time to tell you finally about the state of affairs between doctor Roberts and myself. You must have known for a long time that your husband's affections have passed from you, that he cared for someone else. She went on to quote a feminist writer in saying, in the Eternal Triangle, our souls require the elimination of one character. Raf Unfortunately, both women desired to eliminate the other. Doctor Roberts cowardly told his wife that Grace was simply an unstable spinster with a crush. This drove Grace to madness. She appeared on the Roberts' doorstep with a gun and threatened Doctor Roberts while begging him to choose her. Then not so good Doctor called the police to escort his lover back to her boarding house. The very next day, missus Mary Roberts showed up at Grace's house and demanded an explanation for her quote assinine performance the night before. Wow, Man, they do not use words the same way they used to anymore now. Grace showed Mary proof of

52:29 the affair. There were some letters and photos of the two of them, at which point a furious Mary called her husband and demanded that he come to Grace's boarding house to have a conversation. As doctor Roberts approached, he heard the sound of three gunshots ringing out. He ran to the door, and at the top of the stairs he found his wife in a pool of her own blood, having been shot to death by his lover. Grace had then turned the gun on herself and was bleeding from the chest is Doctor Roberts flew up the staircase. Where is my heart? She asked her veterinarian lover, who then pointed to his own chest. Grace then fired the gun once more into her own chest, but did not succeed in killing herself. She saw my two gunshot wounds. Two gunshot wounds to the chest. Well, it took her nearly a year to be healed. So by the time she had healed, she went to trial, where her ex lover was the star witness against her. Doctor Roberts painted Grace as a delusional temptress who refused to leave her alone. The defendant stood up and screamed at the man she had once believed to be the love of her life. That's not true, she screamed, that's not true. Oh you dog dog. Grace Lusk was found guilty and sentenced to nineteen years in prison for the murder of her romantic rival, missus Mary Roberts. Upon hearing the verdict, spicy Grace leapt at the prosecutor

54:00 and attempted to strangle him. Honestly, this is so dramatic. She went from not wanting to ever be with someone to killing someone to try to be with this dude. I think it was repressed. I think that she got to a certain age. I mean we're talking about nineteen thirteen at this point, so thirty one was considered a little bit over the hill. Yeah. I think at that point she was like, well, I'm going to dedicate myself to my students. New year knew me. I'm gonna do this thing all my own. And then she got a taste and she did not want to let it go. So five years later, the court pardoned her in nineteen twenty three due to her supposedly failing health, and she did get out and Mary a brave soul named Edwin Brown, which goes to show that there really is someone for everyone. She then did pass away in nineteen thirty at the age of fifty two. Speaking of marriage, that old dog doctor Roberts was married a total of four times in his life. In December of nineteen forty eight, he married his fourth wife at the age of eighty three.

55:08 Stop it was Mary number one. I'm not entirely sure to be honest. Okay, His new wife, Andy was thirty three years old. She was fifty years younger than him. The old Kajer boasted to the ap more than fifty women have told me that they loved me. But now I'll have to tell all the rest. Goodbye, girls, I'm through, Okay, mister, that is the tragic tale of schoolmarm Grace Lusk who killed her romantic rival, missus Mary Roberts. Wow, that was a real, incredible short little Valentine's Day taste. Well, thanks so much for listening. It got real love Murdery, I've been here. Thanks to all of you guys for giving us a shot to close out this Valentine's Day spacial. My good friend Wendy and I will be sharing a story from my podcast foul Play crime series.

56:27 Everything will be Wonderful someday. These words were tattooed on an arm that was found sticking out of a garbage bag that had been dumped in a ditch along with a number of other body parts in Clay County, Nebraska. It was December the fourth, twenty seventeen, and the police knew immediately that they had found the remains of Sydney Luf, who had been missing since November the fifteenth that year. So what had happened to Sydney that day and how had she ended up here? Let's go back to a Wednesday, November fifteenth, twenty seventeen, Sydney was excited. Last night she had been on a date with Audrey, a lady she met on Tinder, and they had hit it off straight away. Sydney had even sent a picture of the two of them together to her firm, Brittany. Sydney applied her makeup and pulled on a cream shirt before grabbing her white Columbian brand jacket to complete her outfit. She took a quick selfie and posted it to Snapchat, saying ready for my date before heading out the door. Her mother, Susan, saw the message later in the evening and was excited for her daughter, sending her a quick text saying how come you didn't tell me you had a date. She was glad that Sidney was getting out and meeting people, and deep down hope that this could

57:58 be the start of happier times for her, who had been suffering from depression. The next morning, Sydney failed to turn up for her shift at the local home improvement store that she worked in. Her colleagues were concerned and went to her apartment, where they found her car outside but nobody home. They contacted her mother, Susan, who lived one hundred and fifty miles away. Susan was shocked to receive the call, but also had a garf feeling that something was wrong. Sydney hadn't replied to her message last night and hadn't called her today. They were very close and spoke most days, so she had already started to worry a little. Susan filed a missing person's report Sheriff Alan Jay Moore, the sheriff of Saline County, Nebraska, after David and Court stated quote. On November sixteenth, twenty seventeen, the Lincoln Police Department received a report of a missing person. The missing person was identified at Sydney Louf, a twenty four year old female date of birth August twenty first, nineteen ninety three, who had been residing in northeast Lincoln. According to a co worker, Sydney was last seen leaving her job at Menards, located at thirty five hundred North twenty seventh in Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska, on the evening of November fifteenth, twenty seventeen. Sidney failed to show up for her

59:28 shift. On the morning of November sixteenth, twenty seventeen, Sydney was reported missing by her mother, Susan Louf, who lives in Neely, Nebraska, at approximately five pm on November sixteenth, twenty seventeen. Quote. The search for Sydney began. Missing Persons posters were issued showing three pitches of Sydney, including the selfie taken just before she went out on her date. She was described as five foot seven inches tool one hundred and thirty five pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her family took to social media begging people to come forward if they knew anything. Twelve days after Sydney's disappearance, Lincoln Police asked for the public's assistance. They were trying to locate two persons of interest Bailey Boswell, aged twenty three, an Aubrey trail Age fifty one. No further information was provided, no connection to Sydney was specified. They just stated that it was part of an allgourn investigation, and then the following day, on November the twenty nine, Lincoln Police Department posted a picture of Sydney on their Facebook page with the words quote. The investigation into the disappearance of Sydney Louth continues as investigators search various areas in Selene, Engage Counties. Searchers are being conducted in multiple agencies, including the Gauge County Sheriff's Office, Suddenly County

1:01:00 Sheriff's Office, United States Marshall's Surface, Nebraska State Patrol, Lincoln Police Department, and the FBI. Investigators are searching for any evidence that may help locate Sydney. If you see law enforcement officers searching, we ask that you avoid the area to avoid disruptions to the search. Sydney's family and law enforcement are diligently working to locate her and encourage anyone with information on her whereabouts to call LPD at four or two four one one six zero zero zero. Quote. In the comments under this post, there were many praising the police and supporting the family. The hidden between them were two posts that stood out. A lady posted quote the suspects posted two new videos end quote with links to the videos in question on YouTube. These videos were removed very quickly, but I did find an other video by Aubrey Trail dated November thirtieth. Trail is a heavy set man with dark hair and is wearing a black zipop hoodie. The video is just over nine minutes long. Here are some snippets. I've been watching a lot of posts and comments today so so far today from the comment, we have apparently murdered this lady. We have apparently put her into human

1:02:30 trafficking and sold her. And not only did we do that, we use the money we went to the casino that weekend and use the money that we sold her for. Bailey didn't drop her in a friend's house. She dropped her off and her drop deal was out Bayley's. According to the comments you guys are making, We've pretty much decided to turn ourselves in and see where this goes, because now we're seeing on the news the people of Wilburg are terrified because I guess we're guilty by association, which is saying because I've never made an excuse for anything I've done in my life, I do what I do. And there is a second video from both Trail and Boswell, again denying all allegations that they were involved, but admitting that Boswell was the person who went out on a date with Sydney that night. The second video is really creepy. They are sat in a car, Boswell in a black hoodie, hood up and large sunglasses. Trail is off to the side and a black hat. Throughout the nine minute video, Boswell does not move, just staring straight faced into the camera. So how did the police find a link to Bailey Boswell and Aubrey Trail. The FBI traced the ping from Sydney's phone to Wilbourne, Nebraska, about forty miles from Sydney's apartment, and more specifically,

1:04:00 the pain was from the apartments where Boswell and Trail lived. Both of them had extensive criminal histories, including theft and scams, but nothing violent. When the police turned up to question them, they were nowhere to be found, but their landlady mentioned that their apartment had smelt strongly of bleach. A police warrant was obtained, and as they searched the basement apartment, they found a few unusual items. A dog leash, even though the couple did not own a dog, a sauna suit with a crotch cut out, zipties, a hatchet, a plastic dropcloth smeared with blood, and a book on anatomy.

1:04:46 The apartment was filthy, untidy, and cluttered, apart from one room which had been scrubbed clean. Alarm bells were ringing. The police followed Boswell's cell phone data from the day that Sydney went missing, searching roadsides, ponds and scrubland. It was along one of these roads the first garbage bag was found in a ditch, quickly followed by a further twelve in the surrounding area. Most of Sydney's dismembered, bruised body was recovered, apart from her upper left arm and her internal organs, which have never been found. The autopsy showed Sydney's cause of death a suffocation. Trail said that Sydney had died during a b DSM game gone wrong and that Boswell was not involved. Both Trail and Boswell were challenged with first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and in proper disposal of human remains. Trail stood trial in June twenty nineteen.

1:05:53 During the trial, many women testified who said that they had met Boswell on Tinder and being given money and luxury items to engage in group sex and scams with Trail and Boswell. It was like a cult, and the trial became even more bizarre when Trail rose from his seat shouted quote, Sydney is innocent. I curse you all end quote and slit his throat with a sharpened pen. Trail survived. He also suffered two heart attacks and a stroke during his three week trial, but was finally convicted on all three counts and sentence to death. This is what Trail had to say after his sentencing. I would not say I'm sorry, as there would be an insult to you have to when I put you through, and I will ask for forgiveness of that as I don't knew there is such a thing. Boswell, whose trial took place in September twenty twenty, was also found guilty on all three counts and sentenced to life imprisonment. Thank you for listening. Tinder can be fine, but it can also be deadly. Stay alert, meet in a public place, and stay safe and happy Valentine's Day. I hope you've enjoyed this special collaboration episode I've put together with my team, and I'd like to thank each of my podcast or friends for joining in with me and sharing their story. Love

1:07:28 is desired, love is complicated, and sometimes love is deadly. But when you find it, and when it's true, I'll argue it's worth the journey and risk to find it. Just be cautious. And be safe. All of the podcasts you heard from are listed in the show notes. Again, I'm Shane Waters from foul Play. It's been my pleasure being your Valentine. Tonight were