Death on Hwy 72: The Douglas Teel Story

This blog is an excerpt from Synova’s book “Madhouse Madison County.” More information after blog post

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Please keep an open mind and decide if this was an accident or if it was murder; I’ll leave it up to you to decide. 

July 15th, 2010:

Someone placed his unconscious, broken body across the lane on Highway 72 in the early morning hours before dawn. Nineteen-year-old Douglas Teel had taken a beating and was bleeding internally, but it wouldn’t last long. It was just a matter of time before an oncoming car would destroy any evidence of the truth. A brutal homicide would suddenly become a tragic accident, and the murderers would walk free. No one knows where this devious plan originated, but it would soon work out precisely as planned.

At 3:30 am, their plan was complete as a young woman hurried along the road trying to get her boyfriend to his scheduled carpool meeting for work. The fog made it hard to see what lay ahead, but soon, the disturbing sight was in front of her. A body lay perfectly across her lane in the road. Alarmed, she jerked hard on the steering wheel, but it was too late. The right front tire hit Doug Teel’s head, and it was over. The coverup was complete. All that was left to do now was to convince the mother that her son died in a terrible accident. That would be harder to do. No one would ever persuade Karen that her son laid down on the road to take a nap and got hit by a car. I don’t know any mother that would believe that kind of nonsense. No one in their right mind would lie down on the road to sleep. Doug wasn’t high on anything.

Sadly, no one in law enforcement questioned why the autopsy results didn’t match the accident reports. No one asked why there was internal bleeding. How can a person bleed internally when the heart stops instantly once the brain dies? No one questioned it, no one except his poor mother. She’s still fighting to this day. What really happened in those brutal hours before dawn just outside of Fredericktown?

I know this sounds like a fictional tale, but a young man named Doug was hit in the road just outside of Fredericktown. His autopsy didn’t seem to match the narrative. There’s the truth. There are so many unanswered questions, but everything I print has to say “allegedly” at this point because nothing has been proven in a court of law. I swear, I need to buy a big red, rubber stamp and print the word “allegedly” across every page of this book. Read on if you dare. 

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On a muggy summer evening, Doug Teal was walking home from a friend’s house. At this point in his life, he didn’t have a vehicle of his own, so he was still sharing a vehicle with his parents. He had a good job selling custom knives and had just spent the evening with his coworkers and friends. He had gotten a promotion and was recognized as a top salesman in his company. It looked like life was starting to come together for this young man.

After the work party, Doug rode home with a friend, and we will call him G.A. since everything is “alleged” at this point. His friend stopped by his house before taking Doug home. After getting to the house, G.A. claimed there was something wrong with his gas tank, and he didn’t have enough fuel to take Doug the last few miles to his home. Doug was frustrated because he had purchased gas for his friend earlier in the evening. Aggravated but not wanting to wait around, Doug decided to walk home. It wasn’t very far, and he should have been home between 3:30 AM and 3:45 AM He had walked home many times. It wasn’t that big of a deal. 

Unfortunately, things would be different this night. While walking along Highway 72 outside of town, he was attacked and then laid out on the highway to be hit by a car at 3:30 AM Terrified and in disbelief, the driver raced on down the road, hoping she was wrong and hadn’t seen a man on the road. Surely, it was a deer that she hit. That’s a better probability, right? But as she drove back home after dropping off her boyfriend, she discovered the gruesome truth and called the police. 

The town coroner arrived at Doug’s home to inform the family of the terrible news around 7:20 AM Strangely, the coroner informs Doug’s mom that he believes Doug had already expired before he was laid on the highway. Later on, the coroner would say that this was just a terrible accident and recant his statements to the mother.

Was this simply a slip of the tongue, or was his mind changed after all the evidence was collected? Who knows? Either way, it’s unprofessional of him to say such things during an open investigation. Of course, the mother would cling to his words like a lifeline, and those statements gave her hope that her son would get justice. That’s why keeping your opinions and emotions to yourself is essential until the evidence is collected and the investigation is completed.  

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Nobody could understand how this could happen. Doug had walked home hundreds of times at all hours of the day; why did he end up dead on the road this time? Karen, Doug’s mother, told police that her son had been being threatened by some local young men, but the information didn’t lead to any progress in the case. Who wanted Doug taken out and why? There had been some issues over a local girl, but they seemed to have been worked out long ago. 

An autopsy was ordered on Doug even though the sheriff claimed there was nothing to investigate. Karen had kicked up enough of a fuss that it forced them to do something. The autopsy report clearly states, “The external view of the body shows no trauma to the body other than the head and neck.”  This statement verified the driver’s information when she said her tire only hit the head. She swears she did not run over the entirety of the body. 

Unfortunately, the internal examination would show a lot more discrepancies.  His sternum was fractured. He had three broken ribs, and he had scattered pulmonary contusions on the right side of his body. This means he had been hit hard several times. Doug had soft tissue hemorrhages, liver lacerations, left kidney lacerations, and multiple lacerations to the spleen. This means that he was hit in the liver area, the kidney area, and the spleen area. The car did not run over him and back up two or three times. Please take note of the language used in this report. It doesn’t say these things were crushed. It says lacerations, meaning that they were hit and wounds were left behind. It would be easy here to dismiss the driver’s testimony and just say she was mistaken. Maybe she did hit Doug’s body and not just his head, but if that were true, you’d have seen evidence on the external examination. The report clearly states there’s no external trauma to the body. Besides, if the internal organs were hit by a car, they would be crushed. 

Another damaging report shows 300 mL of blood and fluid in the right pleural space. The pleural space is the space between your lungs, your rib cage, and your muscles. He had a good deal of internal bleeding. In all, he had 600 mL of blood and fluid. Why was he bleeding internally? Of course, this answer was never given to the poor grieving family. 

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So, let’s go on to the call logs for Doug’s phone, surely that will tell us something. Remember, while he was walking home, he was actually talking to people by phone and by text messages. His phone was dying so he limited his conversations to text messages toward the end. 

• 1:47 am – tells girlfriend that he’s going to walk home 
• 1:57 am – G.A. texts and apologizes for not taking him home and tries to smooth things over. 
• 1:57 am – Doug says it was fine and asks his friend to bring his stuff that was left in his car
• 1:58 am – last text to girlfriend

Doug’s phone continues to receive messages from people, but after 1:58 am, none of them receive a reply. He should have been almost home by 3:30, but he seemed to fall off the map just before 2 am. That is until his body is found on the road by a speeding car. 

There are so many unanswered questions, but once the case was labeled as a hit and run accident, no one seemed to care anything about investigating the case further. 

It didn’t matter that Doug was being threatened at the time or that his injuries didn’t match. While officials didn’t investigate, the worried mother continued to collect evidence. Unfortunately, this evidence would be destroyed on Thanksgiving weekend, just four months after her son’s death. A fire raged through her home in the wee hours of the morning. Karen was gone from home, but the house was a total loss. To make matters even worse, all of the evidence she had collected was destroyed. 

Like all of the cases I cover, there’s so much more we can discuss about this case. The rumor mill alone could fill up this entire book, but whatever he said, she said, they did, doesn’t really matter. What’s important now is for someone to step up and investigate this case from the beginning. We need someone who isn’t connected to the local town gossip, someone qualified and non-biased. 

I’d like to say that this case is currently being investigated by someone, but it is not. Karen has spent fourteen years trying to get someone to pay attention. What do you think? Do you think this man laid down to take a nap on the road and was hit by a car? If so, I have some snake oil that cures cancer. It only cost ten bucks a bottle. 

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Check Out Synova’s Chasing Justice Video On This Case:

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