He’s sat behind the bars of Oklahoma State Penitentiary for over two decades without committing the crime that put him there. Richard Glossip has proclaimed his innocence in this witch hunt since the beginning, but no one would listen…until now. He’s been served multiple last meals and given several execution dates. Each time, he barely survives, but he still stands waiting for justice. 

On January 7, 1997, Justin Sneed brutally beat a man to death. The victim’s name was Barry Van Treese. He owned the Best Budget Inn located in Oklahoma City. Sneed worked as a part-time maintenance man in exchange for room and board. When interrogated by police, Sneed was pressured into taking a plea deal that would help him avoid the death penalty. If Sneed told law enforcement that the manager hired him to kill Barry, then Sneed could avoid lethal injection. After intense interrogation, Sneed caved and said that the manager of the motel hired him to kill the owner. That manager’s name was Richard Glossip. 

In August 2004, a jury convicted Glossip of murder and sentenced him to die. The actual killer got life in prison. Glossip fought hard trying to get someone to listen to him, but he was ignored. It didn’t matter that Sneed’s own family believed in Richard’s innocence. It didn’t matter that there was no evidence against Glossip. No money exchanged hands for the supposed hired hit. Glossip has faced death for decades based on the word of a low-IQ, drug addict who was pressured by police.

It also didn’t matter that the police interrogation techniques of these law officers have been publicly questioned over the years. Nothing seemed to matter in the case of Richard Glossip. Oklahoma had put him away in a cage and was determined to kill him. 

Finally, in January of 2024 the Supreme Court agreed to hear Glossip’s case and it was argued infront of the court in October that year. Finally on February 25, 2025 the Supreme Court vacated Richard Glossip’s conviction and ordered a new trial. 

What will happen now? Will Richard get a new trial after all of these years? Will he be released? What, if anything, will be done to pay this man retribution after the state took his life from him? We will have to wait and see. I’ll keep you posted as the story unfolds. 

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     A mother of four goes missing after attending a Halloween party. Her car was found abandoned with a flat tire. Inside was a Cat woman costume and a cooler of beer with a few cans missing. A month later the body of Karen Swift was found in a shallow grave a mere three miles from her car. 

     Karen Swift, 44 was a fitness instructor living in Dyersburg, Tennessee on the night of Halloween 2011. Karen was attending a party at a local country club when she received a call from her child who was spending the night with a friend. The child wanted to go home, so the mother left the party, picked up the child, and returned to her home on Willie Johnson Rd around 1:30 am on Sunday morning. Karen’s soon-to-be ex-husband was the last person to see her. He claimed she left home after putting the child to bed.

Karen and David were going through the divorce process, and Karen had confided in a friend about an affair. During this conversation, she also mentioned an anonymous donor had given her $10,000 for a divorce.

     At the party, Karen had gotten into a verbal altercation with another woman. I haven’t found the woman’s name mentioned publicly, nor have we been told what the argument was about. All we know is a few hours later the mother had vanished. Karen’s 2004 Nissan Murano was found on Millsfield Highway near the intersection of Harness Rd. The vehicle had a flat tire and inside the investigators found the Halloween costume, Karen had worn earlier in the evening along with a cooler of beer. Reports state a few cans were missing. The car had been spotted by a hunter around 5 am.

     Ten days after the disappearance the country club was robbed. The only thing stolen was the security cameras. This tells me that Karen’s killer was likely on those videos and was trying to cover his or her tracks. Of course, the husband came under scrutiny, but after seven years the investigators still don’t have any real evidence to pin this on him.

     Karen’s body would be found a month later dumped at the Bledsoe Cemetery only three miles from where her car was abandoned. Investigators had searched the area previously and aren’t sure if the body in the ditch was somehow missed or if it had been dumped there at a later date.

     At first, the local judge sealed the autopsy reports to shield the investigation, so Karen’s manner of death was not released. In November 2018, a reporter filed an FOIA request and was surprised to receive the autopsy report. The media jumped on it and ramped up the media coverage for this case once again. Sadly, some online trolls have bashed the reporter and all media in general for digging up things just for a story. They claim the media has destroyed the investigation.

     There will always be haters online ready to pounce on the hating bandwagon, but this time I have to interject. Please forgive me as I digress into a bit of a rant. Let me explain to all of you that don’t realize how an FOIA request works. The request is sent by an American who by law has the right to ask for the documents. The request is then sent to the department in charge of the investigation. It is up to them what will be sent to the requesting party. If the judge wanted something sealed, then those parts of the document would be redacted. The investigators will not send out anything that will hinder their case, so all of you out there screaming at the media need to do your homework.

Update:

David Swift was finally arrested for the murder of his wife and indited in 2022. Unfortunately, the prosecutors in this case have not done a good job establishing his guilt. As of June 20, 2024 there was a hung jury and they could not officially decide. As of the time of this writing, David Swift has been allowed to walk free.

Sadly, the jury wasn’t allowed to see all of the evidence and the statute of limitations for manslaughter has run out. Now, the family is left without answers and Karen still has not justice. What happened to Karen Swift? Did her husband do this to her, or is there someone else out there waiting to kill again?

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August 25, 2018: North Las Vegas, Nevada

A concerned grandmother calls in a triple missing persons report to the local police department. She hadn’t seen her granddaughter in days, and now both parents were missing as well. Since both her daughter and granddaughter lived with her, it was rather unusual. 

Lakeia Walker, Ricky Beasley, and 2-year-old Zaela Walker were officially reported missing. Police began their investigation with a strange tale. Over time, it would change, but this was the first wild tale they heard. 

The mother, Lakeia, had an interview, so she left the child with the father, Ricky. When she returned, there was an argument, and the father refused to return the child. He demanded $13,000 for her. The mother promised she would raise the money even if she had to strip for it. 

Then the mother claimed she camped out in the driveway. Hoping to get her child back. She never once calls the police. Then she claims the father told her the child was in California with his family. Then, instead of demanding to see her child or calling the police, the mother and the father end up going on a strange 4-month long road trip. The child is never found.

When police arrest the couple, Lakeia blames everything on Ricky. Since he is driving his mother’s stolen car, they arrest him and let her go. Lakeia convinces police that he held his daughter for ransom and kidnapped her. But, over time, Lakeia’s stories become more outrageous, and police begin to question the mother’s story. They investigate everyone who could have had the child, and no one has seen Zaela. 

Disturbingly, the police discover that neither parent tried to celebrate the child’s 3rd birthday while they were out on this strange road trip. Why would parents not make a fuss over their toddler’s birthday unless they already knew she was dead?

Another strange clue came when the police discovered recorded conversations on Ricky’s phone. Lakeia is heard saying the phrase, “no body- no case.” Who says those sorts of things outside the context of police investigations, legal cases, or true crime groups? 

Both parents are now being held on murder charges in the disappearance case of Zaela Walker. Unfortunately, they have been behind bars for five years, and the case still hasn’t made it to trial. Will this baby girl get justice? Where is she? Is she even alive? 

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 When a wife is found murdered in her home, the first person suspected is always the husband. Maybe it’s the old TV shows that programmed us to believe the bad guy is always the butler. As viewers, this concept makes for good television, and it is expected among the collective masses. The problems begin when the investigators believe this notion and refuse to look past it. This is what happened in the case of Russ and Betsy Faria.

 Two days after Christmas in 2011, Russell Faria arrived home to find his wife dead on the living room floor. He calls 911 in a panic to report that his wife has committed suicide. There was one problem with this theory. Elizabeth Kay Faria had been stabbed fifty-five times, and the knife was left in her neck. Obviously, it was not a suicide. This made the police look hard at Russell Faria. The rest of the clues should have led to another suspect, but once Russ was suspected, they didn’t look at anyone else. One key witness would make sure the focus stayed squarely on Russ Faria’s chest. Her name was Pam Hupp.

The Farias were a happily married couple struggling through Betsy’s bout with terminal cancer. Betsy was a lively, outgoing woman who had many friends. When they discovered her cancer had returned and was in stage four, the couple decided to try and enjoy what time they had left together.

 Betsy and Russ had recently returned from a cruise and were planning another vacation in March. Of course, there were moments of desperation and despair. On a couple of occasions, Betsy talked of suicide, but it never happened. While it’s easy to put on a brave face in public, it was sometimes a struggle in private. To anyone dealing with the trauma of cancer, this is understandable.

 During Betsy’s battles, she relied a great deal on her friend Pam to help with rides to the doctor and such. She also allegedly depended on Pam to become the beneficiary of her life insurance policy upon her death. This seems strange to investigators now, but at the time of the murder, this was dismissed due to Pam’s explanations. She claimed the devoted husband was a facade, and Russ was an abusive husband whom Betsy wanted to divorce.

 Pam explained that Betsy wanted her to put the $150,000 into a trust fund for her daughters. So, what’s the problem? The trust was set up four days before the trial of Russell Faria, and then it was wiped out right after the husband was convicted of murder. The children never received a penny. The very fact that Hupp received the insurance payout should have been a red flag, but it was overlooked and wasn’t allowed into the trial. This motive would later be the key to giving Russell Faria another trial.

 Even though Russ had a solid alibi for the night of the murder and it was backed up by four witnesses, time-stamped receipts, cell phone towers, and surveillance cameras, the prosecution kept the blinders on and focused on him anyway. Pam made sure of this by telling her stories about Russ to the local media, to the townsfolk, to the funeral home, and to anyone who would listen. By the time of the trial, the entire community seemed to be against the husband.

 The crime scene held some unusual clues that could have pointed at Russ, but to an open-minded investigator, they could have spelled out “set up.” For one, most of the stab wounds were done posthumously, meaning they were done after her death. Someone slit the poor woman’s wrists in an attempt to make it look like a suicide. This feeble attempt could have placed the blame on Russ, but it also opened the possibility of another perpetrator.

 Pamela Hupp was the last one to see Betsy alive. Wouldn’t it make sense to compare the time of death to the evidence of Russ’s whereabouts? This would have excluded the husband and placed Hupp squarely within the time frame of the murder. During the police interview, they immediately began accusing Russ of his wife’s murder. Two interviews were conducted simultaneously. While police were questioning and accusing Russ, they were also being fed false information from Pam Hupp.

 She claimed he would abuse his cancer-stricken wife and talk about how much better it would be when she was gone. Hupp would continue the lies and false evidence throughout the trial. Russell Faria was convicted of the murder of his wife, to everyone’s surprise. Let’s dive deeper into the details of this case.

 Betsy Faria was stabbed fifty-five times. Let’s look at that. The police claimed in the interrogation that this was a crime of passion, and it had to be done by someone who loved her at one time. Russ was obviously the culprit in their eyes.

 Upon close examination, it was discovered that most of the stab wounds were done posthumously, or after death. The slits across Betsy Faria’s wrists were done deliberately to give the first impression of suicide. The other wounds weren’t readily visible, so Russ’s 911 call was beginning to make more sense.

 Couple that with the fact that Betsy had threatened suicide a few times during her bout with cancer, and it became clear that this wasn’t an open-and-shut case against the husband. Everyone around the couple knew it couldn’t be Russ, but investigators were narrowing in on their target. This narrow view would change after the trial. A few days after Russ was convicted of murdering his cancer-stricken wife in a fit of passion, Pam Hupp cashed out the trust fund and kept the money for herself. The two daughters sue, but amazingly, they are denied their right to the money. Pam wins again.

 This behavior and some of her statements on the witness stand grabbed the attention of attorney Joel Schwartz. He argued that Pam’s taking the money provided a motive for murder or at least another trial for Russ. The investigators began to review old evidence and Pam Hupp’s odd behavior after Russell’s conviction. When a new judge reviewed the case, he was appalled at the investigation and called it disturbing.

 During the second trial, the defense was allowed to bring up the evidence against Pam Hupp. This included the fact that she was the last to see Betsy alive, and she had taken the life insurance money without giving it to the children. This, along with Russell’s alibi, exonerated him of his wife’s murder. The prosecutor believed in Russ’s guilt so adamantly that she refused to reopen the case. Now Russ is free, but the murder of Betsy is still unsolved. That’s the end of the story, right? Nope. Amazingly, both the judge and the prosecutor would be voted out of their jobs in the next election after this disastrous case went public. Now, a new prosecutor is looking into it. This would be enough to make the true murderer nervous.

 A few months later, the case was brought back into the spotlight when a woman dials 911 in a panic, and the conspiracy began to rapidly unravel. On August 16, 2016, Pam Hupp called 911, claiming a man was breaking into her house with a knife and threatening to kill her.

 Suddenly, the operator hears several gunshots, and the woman cries profusely. Pam Hupp had just killed Louis Gumpenberger. In the man’s pocket was a note that mentioned Russell Faria and money. Could the newly exonerated Russ Faria have hired a hitman to go after poor Pamela Hupp? No. This time, the police saw through her ruse quickly. Her staged crime scene and her vicious hit man began to fall apart. Gumpenberger was anything but vicious. It turns out Pam Hupp had lured a mentally disabled man to her home and shot him dead. Why? To frame Russell Faria. Or maybe I should say re-frame? You’d think she wouldn’t try the same failed idea twice, but she did.

Police arrest Pamela Hupp for the murder of Gumpenberger and haul her off to jail. Her attorneys fought to keep the evidence of the previous two murders out of the trial. Wait. Did I say two murders? Yes, I did. You see, this isn’t the first time Pam Hupp was suspected of murder. Allegedly, Pam’s own mother died when she accidentally fell off a balcony years ago. I bet you can’t guess who got money out of that deal.

 Now, after delving into that case, it seems that Shirley Neumann’s death was likely a homicide. Time and investigation will tell. As if this weren’t enough to consider, there’s more damming evidence against Hupp. During the police interrogations in the Faria case, Pam actually said her mother was worth a million dollars.

 Her mother had a life insurance policy for a million dollars. Amid the chaos following the Faria murder, Shirley Neumann accidentally crashes through a very stable balcony and falls to her death. That case is classed as accidental and no investigation followed; not until now. As of this writing, Shirley Neumann’s death has been changed from accidental to undetermined, and investigators are now looking into it with fresh eyes.

 In June 2109, Hupp was facing the death penalty, so she took a plea deal that would take that option off the table. Hupp took the Alford Plea, which means that although she doesn’t admit to the murder, she does admit that the state had enough evidence to convict her. This complex legal term is a rather odd way of pleading guilty in my book. If she wasn’t guilty, she would fight it, but obviously, she just threw up her hands and took the plea. Maybe she knew the gig was up. Now the authorities are looking at the Betsie Faria case again.

 Police are also re-investigating the “accidental” death of Pam’s mother. What do you think? Do you think there is a triple homicide here, or do you believe Hupp’s claims that the evil Russell Faria is out to get her? This is a case that I will continue to follow.

UPDATE: (May 2025)

Hupp is currently serving a life sentence at the Chillicothe Correctional Center for the murder of Louis Gumpenberger. She’s facing a 1st degree murder charge for Betsy Faria, and the trial is scheduled for July of 2026. Hupp still claims her innocence and said she only pleaded guilty originally to save her family from an “ugly” trial. 

I’ll keep you posted on this case as we find out more. 

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Shattered: Behind Every Story Is A Shattered Life

Behind every story I write is a life that’s shattered. These aren’t headlines. These are people. Those who try to twist headlines to generate more views are toying with someone’s trauma. I have raised awareness for 500 cases and helped generate leads for law enforcement. That’s my purpose and that’s what keeps me going. 

This book has the top 40 cases that I’ve highlighted on my blog throughout the years. Please enjoy the book, but remember these are real people with real trauma.

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Studio portraits commissioned by John and Mary Lyon. – Lewiston Morning Journal. 24 August 1975 edition, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138339728

Is it really justice if the murderer goes free for 50 years? Is it really justice if the murderer is behind bars, but the bodies are never found and brought home?

Katherine and Sheila Lyon disappeared from a shopping center in Wheaton, Maryland, on March 25, 1975. The sisters were 10 and 12. This double kidnapping sparked one of the largest police investigations in the history of the Washington Metropolitan area. 

It was the second day of their summer vacation, and the two girls decided to walk to the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center to meet some friends, but they decided to stop off at the Orange Bowl to eat some pizza first.  Eyewitnesses say the sisters were seen talking to an unidentified man outside the Orange Bowl. The girls had a curfew and needed to be home by 4:00 p.m., so shortly after 2:00, they left the shopping center, and witnesses saw them heading back towards their home.  This is the last verified sighting of the sisters.

By 5:45 p.m., Mary Lyon was cooking dinner and starting to get annoyed because her daughters hadn’t returned home. That annoyance turned into panic by 7:00 p.m., and the police were called in. House-to-house searches were conducted, witnesses were interviewed, and tips poured in, but no one could find the two sisters.

The police theorized that it must have been a group of people working together to kidnap two children at the same time. They were looking for multiple suspects. 

Over the years, the family threw themselves headlong into the investigation, doing everything they could to raise awareness about their missing children. Rewards were offered, hoaxes were dealt with, and missing person fliers were printed, yet no leads gave them the answers they needed.

 Suspects:

#1: Tape Recorder Man:

A young boy who knew the sisters claimed to have seen them sitting on a bench outside the Orange Bowl speaking to a man. He said he was between 50 and 60 and wearing a brown suit. Strangely, he was also carrying a briefcase with a tape recorder inside. He also had a microphone that the children were enjoying speaking into. He claimed that they were speaking live on some local radio station. Of course, there was no radio station, and this was a clever ruse to get the children to pay attention to a stranger. The police ended up calling him the tape recorder man, but no one could identify him.

#2: A Younger Man:

A local girl told police that she actually saw the girls headed back towards the house but she also saw a younger long-haired man that was following them. The girl’s name was Danette Shae. She told the police that he had been staring at her and her friends so much that they got nervous and told him he should just take a picture it would last longer.

The police made composite sketches of the two men, but they chose to pay more attention to the older tape recorder man than the younger one. Leads came in, but they led nowhere. 

After the composite drawing was released to the public, an 18-year-old man named Lloyd Lee Welch Jr went to the shopping center and informed the security guard that he had seen a man matching the description of the tape recorder man. He gave the police just enough information to sound credible. He also told them that he believed he saw the man force the children into a red Camaro with white upholstery before hurriedly leaving the scene.

The eyewitness provided a six-page report and consented to have a polygraph test done, but he failed it. He was released by the police and classed as unreliable. Unfortunately, he wasn’t just unreliable, he was responsible!

 On May 23rd, 1975, the lieutenant governor, Blair Lee, ordered the National Guard to help search the County forest for the missing girls. Surely 122 soldiers could find the missing girls, but they found nothing.

2013 Reinvestigation:

Sergeant Chris Homrock looked into the cold case, trying to see any clues that could have been missed at the beginning. And boy, did he find them. At first, he noticed a mugshot taken of Lloyd Welch back in 1977. He had been arrested for a burglary. Strangely, his mugshot looked almost identical to the young man in the second composite sketch. Everyone had been so focused on the older, Tape Recorder Man, but they didn’t pay much attention to the younger one.

Then, when he realized Lloyd Welch had come in and given false statements, it was pretty obvious who was responsible. Welch did not come in to give a tip out of the goodness of his heart. No, he gave a tip that would send all of the attention towards someone else.

In the years since the girls disappeared, Welch had acquired a large, violent criminal history and was in prison. So, the sergeant scheduled an interview on October 16th, 2013. At first, Welch refused to speak, but eventually he would admit to playing a part in their kidnapping and murder, but he claimed somebody else actually killed the girls. Other members of his family were even suspected of helping to kidnap the girls. 

 In July of 2015, Welch was indicted for the first-degree murder of both girls. It is still unclear if any of his family were involved in the kidnapping or murders. Since his father is deceased, we may never know. Sadly, the bodies of these two beautiful young girls have never been found.

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February 18th, 1982:

21-year-old Leon Moncer was last seen leaving his residence in Bellaire, Ohio. His car would be found on the side of the road a couple of days later. His wallet, cigarettes, and spare key were still in the car, but Leon was nowhere to be found. 

The Times Leader reported on his case 10 days after his disappearance and said he was a helpful, caring man. While some people remember him that way, the women in his life had a different perspective.  He was known to abuse and cheat on every woman he had been with. To make matters worse, he was a drug dealer in the community, so when he vanished, there were a few people in town who turned a blind eye. It seems this may have included some of the original investigators.

His soon-to-be ex-wife Irene still spoke of him politely despite the abuse she had suffered at his hands. She had a three-year-old daughter with this man, who deserved to know what happened to her father. Unfortunately, 43 years have passed, and no one knows for sure what happened to Leon Moncer.

 The Relationships:

Leon was still currently married to Irene, although their divorce would be finalized shortly. They were struggling to try to co-parent their child despite the crumbling of their relationship. While many couples go through this ordeal, Moncer’s abuse of substances didn’t make things easier. Although they had been separated for quite a while, their divorce wasn’t quite final at the time of his disappearance.

Leon had started a new relationship with a woman who has been named GG to protect her identity. He had been dating her long enough that he had proposed. She agreed, but he had recently hit her and broken her nose in an argument. This wasn’t a smart move because GG had Brothers who were furious, and justified in being so.

Leon was known to cheat on every woman he dated, so when he told his brother that he couldn’t attend his birthday party because he had a “hot date,” no one really thought anything about it. No one knew who the woman was either.

The Bar Fights:

Leon was known to be rowdy when he was under the influence, which caused many bar fights. One notable fight happened a short time before he disappeared. It took place at Tin Pan Alley, which was a known gathering place for mobsters at the time. 

The Note: “Leave It Alone, Or You Are Dead.”

The week before Leon disappeared, he received a death threat by mail. It was a letter without a stamp that consisted of letters cut from magazines. It read, “Leave it alone, or you are dead.”

If this note was legitimate, it didn’t seem to faze Leon. He simply shrugged it off and threw it away.  There is no evidence of this note left behind. It would be nice to have it for reference and to take DNA samples from it.

The Disappearance:

Leon was last seen on the night of February 18th, 1982. He told his brother Raymond that he couldn’t make it to his birthday party because he had a date. No one was sure it was, and no one thought to ask. To this day, no one has figured out if he actually had a date that night or if it was a joke.

According to Irene, Leon left his parents’ house, which was across the street, then stopped by his boss’s house tomorrow $20, and then drove to his friend’s house in Wheeling. She believed his first name was Ted, but had no idea what his last name was. Several friends placed Leon at Ed’s Lounge in Lloydsville later that evening, but nobody mentioned his mystery date.

No one was concerned about his absence until he missed work the next day, which was out of character for him. Despite all of his other problems, he was a hard worker who never missed work unless he was sick.

The family filed a missing person’s report with the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department. That night, Leon’s mother received a strange phone call. She was talking on the phone at about 9:00 p.m. when the phone operator interrupted her and asked her to hang up because an emergency phone call was coming through from Leon Moncer. The mother eagerly hung up the phone and sat waiting all evening for a call from her missing son. It was a cruel prank to pull on a grieving mother.

The next day, the family drove around trying to find any trace of Leon. They spotted his gray Dodge Aspen parked off the side of Anco Mining Road. He wasn’t there, but all of his belongings were still inside, along with empty beer cans and an empty bottle of wine. 

Conflicting reports have come in about the state of the abandoned car. Some reports said that it was left idling, and a neighbor shut the car off. Again, there’s nothing to verify this part of the story. We do know that his wallet, his spare key, and his cigarettes were still in the car. We do know that there was mud in the car, but this was a muddy time of year, so that is not necessarily pointing towards a struggle. It is strange, however, that his main car keys were not in the car. Instead, a spare key was found in the console of the car. What does all of this mean? Does this mean he simply stepped out of the car for a moment and never made it back? Or was he drug from the car?

The family reported the car, and the police told them to have it towed and get it out of the way. The police did not come out and take pictures or investigate the car as far as anyone can tell. Instead, the car was towed to Leon’s parents’ house, where it sat in the yard for 10 years without investigation.

The Cold Case team that is currently working on this case is surprised by the lack of interest the original police force showed in this case. The car should have been detailed and searched for forensic evidence, but it was not done, and that evidence has been lost to time.

Reported Sightings:

Like with a lot of missing person cases, there have been some reported sightings of Leon after his disappearance. While sometimes these sightings give the family hope, they also tend to derail the investigation. People don’t realize how unreliable Eyewitness statements really are, especially when you add emotional trauma into the mix, you will find that eyewitness statements are rarely accurate.

For a short time after the disappearance, a  few people around town thought they had seen Leon in a local bar, but they were never sure. One person even saw him walking down the road, but wasn’t sure. After these so-called sightings, it seems like the investigation stalled out completely.

There is one disturbing sighting that was reported repeatedly by Irene herself. She claimed that for nearly 2 years after Leon disappeared, a strange man would stand in the shadows outside of her house. She would call the police. But they would never arrive in time to catch the man. She even moved a few miles away, but instead of calling her local police department, where they might arrive on time, she would call the original investigators, and of course, they would never make it before the man disappeared.

I find this strange considering the fact that someone could be stalking her and her child, and she’s not more panic-stricken about it, but we all grieve differently. Was she actually seeing anyone out there in the shadows?

Declared Dead:

Leon was declared dead on November 16th, 1988, on what would have sadly been his 28th birthday. His parents never stopped looking for him, and unfortunately passed away without getting the answers they needed. His daughter is still looking for answers to this day. 

Investigation Over the Years:

While the initial investigation seemed to be lacking in enthusiasm, a Cold Case team has picked up this case and has tried to find answers for the family. Unfortunately, the original case file was lost for years and was recently found after an extensive search in an old storage unit. That was back in 2007.

Since the original car was not investigated, it makes it hard to know who was with Leon on that so-called hot date. Was anyone in that car with him at all? Did somebody ambush him on the side of the road? Did he have a girlfriend that night, but she was a plant to set him up? 

We may never know unless somebody comes forward. All of the forensic evidence was lost long ago.

The Ohio Valley Cold Case task force is still taking calls and following leads on this case. It even led them to dig up a basement in Columbus, Ohio. As far as anyone knows, nothing came of that lead. At least the public hasn’t been notified of anything by the police.

Sadly, this family has dealt with scams like so many others. You have so-called psychics calling family members and giving them false hope. You have people calling pretending to be family. But then, when you call back, they don’t exist. Unfortunately, there are predators out there who prey on victims’ family members. They have no empathy whatsoever and will steal millions of dollars from the families if it’s possible. Beware of scammers, especially in cold cases.

Theories:

Mob Hit:

There are a ton of theories out there on this case, and one of them is that it was a mob hit after Leon got into that fight with some mob Associates down on Tin Pan Alley. If there was a silent Watcher on the house like Irene claims, that might be a thin string to point towards a mob hit. Mobsters live by a strange moral compass. They might take out the father, but then watch over the child later. I’m still not convinced that there was a silent Watcher in this case.

GG’s Revenge:

The theory that most people like to go with is the fact that GG’s brothers took out the man who abused their little sister. This is a story of vengeance and makes perfect sense to anyone who has been abused. However, that is the obvious answer, and I have a hard time believing that the police wouldn’t have figured that one out in 43 years. There must be a reason why GG’s brothers haven’t been labeled as Persons of Interest in this case.

Unknown Revenge:

This unknown avenger is a theory that somebody else took Vengeance on Leon that night. Who in his life had the most motive to take him out? I contend somebody closer to him actually had more motive than GG’s brothers. Once the police can figure this out, then they will have their lead suspect. Unfortunately, Leon’s lifestyle opened the door to too many theories. 

He was known to sleep around with many women. Could he have gotten hold of somebody’s wife or daughter? He was also known to fight at local bars regularly. Did he fight with one person who just happened to be more violent than him? He sold drugs. Did he step on another drug dealer’s territory? Somebody in Leon’s life wanted him out of the way. The question is, after 43 years, who had the means to do it and pull it off and get by with it for all these years?

Simple Accident: 

The last theory is that he got out of his vehicle that night to pee and stumbled off into the rugged wilderness of Ohio. In his inebriated state, he may have fallen, hit his head, and died in the woods. If this is the case, I am sure somebody would have found him by now, or animals would have dragged up pieces of his clothing… something. Unfortunately, nothing has ever been found. 

What do you think happened to Leon Moncer? Whatever your opinions of him are, we must remember that his poor daughter deserves answers, and his parents died without ever having the answers they needed. 

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Madhouse Madison County

Chaos rules in a small Southeastern Missouri County. Madison County spans 500 square miles and has a population of approximately 13,000 people. The county seat is Fredericktown with a population of approximately 4,000 people. This rural county should be a safe place in beautiful Americana, but it hides a dark secret. Fredericktown is one of the most dangerous places to live in America. Check out this quote from neighborhoodscout.com. 

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