A young widow writes a children’s book to help her boys deal with the grief of losing their father. A short time later, however, she is arrested for murdering their father. This case captivated the public’s attention because of its dark, complex nature. Kouri Richins is accused of poisoning her husband Eric with a fentanyl-laced cocktail in March 2022. The investigation and legal proceedings have revealed a web of deceit, financial crisis, and possible affairs. Any of these could have been enough of a motive for murder. (CBS News, Court TV)
The Tragic Incident
On March 4, 2022, Eric Richins was found unresponsive at the couple’s home near Park City, Utah. Kouri Richins called 911, stating that her husband was unresponsive. Despite efforts to revive him, the 39-year-old father of three, was pronounced dead at the scene. At first they said he died of a brain aneurysm, but an autopsy later revealed that he had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system. (CBS News)
Financial Motives and Alleged Misconduct
Investigations into the couple’s finances uncovered a possible motive. Kouri Richins had opened $2 million worth life insurance policies without her husband’s knowledge. Additionally, she was facing significant financial difficulties, and had been diverting funds from Eric’s accounts. She had her own real estate business, but it was only kept afloat by Eric’s funding. Unfortunately, and unbeknown to him, most of that funding was without his knowledge or approval. (CBS News, The US Sun)
The Grief Author’s Paradox
In a stroke of dark irony, Kouri Richins authored a children’s book titled Are You With Me? She said it was supposed to help her sons grieve the death of their father. The book was dedicated to her late husband and was published shortly after his death. This endeavor has drawn criticism, with some viewing it as an attempt to profit from her husband’s demise. While the morbid little book was supposed to help with grief, it came across disturbing. She used her son’s likeness in the book, and had her husband turned into a cartoon ghost that followed the boy around. It was disturbing to anyone who actually works in grief counseling. (CBS News, Court TV, CBS News)
Alleged Witness Tampering
Further complicating the case, Kouri Richins is accused of attempting to influence potential witnesses. Prosecutors allege that she sent a six-page letter from jail to her brother, instructing him to testify about Eric’s alleged drug use, which could support her defense. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any actual evidence of the alleged drug use. Her husband occasionally took a CBD gummy before bed to relax. It’s hardly a hard-core drug habit. The letter was found folded inside her LSAT prep book, led to disciplinary action within the jail and has been cited as evidence of witness tampering .(The Times, People.com)
Legal Proceedings and Upcoming Trial
Kouri Richins faces multiple charges, including aggravated murder, insurance fraud, and witness tampering. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. A judge has denied her bail twice, citing the severity of the charges and her potential flight risk . The trial was set to begin in April 2025, but it has been postponed citing a change of venue. As of this writing, an official trial date hasn’t been publicly released. (New York Post, CBS News, ABC13 Houston)
Conclusion
Will Kouri find a way to worm her way out of this one? She had a knack for working her way out of messes, but I don’t think she will get by with this one. She left too many witnesses and too much evidence. I’ll keep you posted as this case progresses.
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This case is brought to you by Synova’s book “Madhouse Madison County” and Bones Coffee Company
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.
“With a crime rate of 31 per one thousand residents, Fredericktown has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 32.”
I started researching one case sent to me by a desperate grandmother. That case led me to fifteen more. Then I realized this county has had murder, corruption, and chaos since before the Wild West days. This book will start with a lynching by a Fredericktown mob in 1844. Hold onto your seats when you read this one. You’re in for a wild, chaotic ride through rural Missouri.
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This blog is an excerpt from Synova’s book “Madhouse Madison County.” More information after blog post
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.
********************
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.
********************
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.
Photo courtesy of Doug Teel’s Family
Check Out Synova’s Chasing Justice Video On This Case:
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.
“With a crime rate of 31 per one thousand residents, Fredericktown has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 32.”
I started researching one case sent to me by a desperate grandmother. That case led me to fifteen more. Then I realized this county has had murder, corruption, and chaos since before the Wild West days. This book will start with a lynching by a Fredericktown mob in 1844. Hold onto your seats when you read this one. You’re in for a wild, chaotic ride through rural Missouri.
A 21-year-old mother goes out for a night on the town. She hadn’t been out since the baby had been born and was looking for a good time. Christina Whittaker ended up having too much to drink and would be kicked out of more than one bar that evening. Was the alcohol mixing with her bipolar medication and causing problems? We may never know.
Christina was last seen leaving a bar crying, trying to get someone to help her get a ride home. While the rumor mill fingers a local hood and claims Christina was trafficked to the town of Peoria, Illinois there’s no solid evidence to verify this. While the family clings to hope with all of the unverified sightings, not one shred of evidence has come forward to prove Christina ever left the town of Hannibal that night.
There are two pieces of tangible evidence in this case, however. Her phone and keys were found just down the road from the bar. This is also the site of what looked like a hit and run accident. There were red paint fragments on a car that looked like it had been hit. No one really investigated this, but a local Hood would later confess to a girlfriend that Christina died on the road that night and they threw her in the back of the red pickup truck they were in. Supposedly, Christina had called a local man and asked him to take her home. They flew around the corner and Christina was stumbling in the road and they hit her.
There is so much quiet corruption and chaos in the small town that no one wants to talk about, but this just lends itself to the rumor mill. So many theories in this case have come up in the last 13 years, but after researching this case there are still only two pieces of evidence. Those two pieces point to a local Hood named Danny Baker. Unfortunately, Baker died on January 4th, 2017. Unless we can find out where they stashed her body that night, the mother will still cling to the hope every time someone sees a young redhead in Peoria Illinois. No one can blame her for this she is a grieving mother. However, sometimes it’s best to let go of the sensationalism and go back to the basics of police work. Like I always said, “When a case becomes too fantastical it’s time to step back and look at the practical.”
Someone needs to investigate this case and find the body of Christina Whittaker. Then maybe the mother can grieve properly. Check out my True Crime Tuesday video below for more information on this case. Also, check out the documentary series titled Relentless. I will put a link below to this documentary created by Christina Fontana. Whatever you do, make sure and share this story. Together we can make a difference.
Each week Synova highlights obscure cold cases on her blog as a victim’s advocate. She never charges for her services. If you’d like to help support Synova in this worthy cause please check out the affiliate links below. By purchasing one of her books or using these links, you will be supporting Synova’s work on cold cases and will ensure her ability to continue to give a voice to the victim’s family. Thank you.
Throughout this show, Synova will reference a documentary created by Christina Fontana. Check out the Relentless Documentary on Discovery+ using this link
If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.
Youtube has started restricting my videos because of their true crime content. This hinders my channel’s monetization, sure, but more importantly it makes it hard to get these stories the publicity they need. Please consider following me on Rumble to help avoid these issues and to raise awareness about these unsolved cases.
The phrase rings in the poor mother’s ears to this day. April had been calling around conducting her own missing persons investigation trying to find her daughter Codie Novack. There had been issues of domestic violence in her relationship and now Codie had missed two appointments on the morning of January 5th, 2023. She hadn’t come home, and she wouldn’t answer the phone. Where was Codie?
“Your daughter is on an autopsy table”
Strangely the GPS on her phone said she was at the sheriff station but when this desperate mother called she was repeatedly told that Codie was not there. Finally, she gets a hold of the boyfriend and he utters the phrase that would change her life forever.
Cody
Codie Novack, 27, was staying in a shared house in Ocala Florida at the time of her death. It was a three-bedroom house that was rented out by the room. She had her own space but shared the living quarters with other people. They weren’t necessarily her friends, but this was her living arrangement at the moment.
Several “narratives” emerged at the beginning of this brutal saga, but none of them made sense to anyone who knew Codie.
The boyfriend was the one who actually called 911 around midnight. At 12:17 a.m. the EMTs declared her officially dead. His narrative was that she fell hit her head and neck and then decided to go to sleep. He checked on her a couple of hours later and found her cold.
The EMTs found her covered in bruises, but the report also states that rigor mortis had set in and she had a lot of visible lividity. These two things don’t happen instantly upon death. Rigor mortis takes up to 2 hours to begin its processes. This means that Cody
Codie died closer to 10:00 pm on January 4th. Of course, all of this is unofficially my opinion. When April tried to ask law enforcement about the time of death she was told that those were TV answers, insinuating that the science wasn’t legitimate. If you study how rigor mortis works you will realize that this has been a go-to method for finding times of death for decades. So what science is illegitimate here?
Codie was covered in bruises and there were some lacerations on her face. Strangely there were lacerations on both sides of her face as if she had stood herself up and had fallen again. The strange bruising patterns around the neck and collarbone are what concerned me. Yet none of these bruises seemed to change the narrative of the story. She has bruises around her elbows as if someone has grabbed her, and bruises on her legs all the way around her kneecaps. Strangely she doesn’t have any bruising on the palms of her hands as if she fell and caught herself. Instead, she has bruises on the knuckles, backs of her hands, and her wrists as if she were covering her head in a defensive maneuver.
I cannot go into detail on all of the strange bruises that were found on this poor woman’s body, but none of them add up to an accidental death in my book.
After fighting for 19 months, April still doesn’t have any definitive answers to any of the questions about her daughter’s case. The only definite answer is she is gone, yet the case was closed within thirty days. Check out my interview with April using the link below.
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Youtube has started restricting my videos because of their true crime content. This hinders my channel’s monetization, sure, but more importantly it makes it hard to get these stories the publicity they need. Please consider following me on Rumble to help avoid these issues and to raise awareness about these unsolved cases.
If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.
Mary Josephine Bailey, 81 was found guilty of killing a woman back in 1985. She is facing a life sentence. While it’s great that they finally caught the killer, it makes you wonder what’s the point of a “life sentence” at the age of eighty-one!
December 12th 1985, Yvonne Carrol Menke was leaving her apartment around 6:30 a.m. She was coming down the narrow stairs when she was shot three times with a 22 caliber handgun. A boot print was found at the scene, and the police had a suspect right away, but somehow the case still went cold.
Mary Josephine Bailey was in the middle of a love triangle dispute over a man named Jack Owen. The other woman was Yvonne Menke. Police questioned Bailey at the time of the homicide. She owned both a .22 caliber handgun and a .22 caliber rifle. She claimed that she gave the handgun to her boyfriend to sell it for her weeks earlier and no longer had it. She also said she did not know how to use the rifle. Her boots also matched the tread pattern found at the crime scene. Still with all of this circumstantial evidence they could not bring Bailey in for murder. the case would sit for 36 years.
In the meantime Jack Owen had gotten married and moved off to Montana. Bailey had broken into his home and taped pictures all over the house. They were pictures of Owen and Bailey together. Written across all of the pictures were obscenities of various natures. This is the type of woman we are dealing with.
In 2021, a witness came forward saying that Bailey had an ex-boyfriend burn her clothes on the day of the homicide. Another witness claimed Bailey actually was well versed in firearms and definitely knew how to use her weapons.
Mary Bailey was arrested in November, 2023 and found guilty of first degree murder on May 30th 2024. She showed very little emotion. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years. She would be 101.
It’s been almost 49 years since John Hill was slaughtered in his own laundromat in Ottumwa, Iowa.
On the wee hours of November 22nd, 1976, John was viciously attacked in his own business. Police found his body at 5:06 a.m. lying face down in a small room of the laundromat. He had been stabbed repeatedly and shot. He had fought hard and the scene was quite a bloodbath.
A .25 caliber pistol was near his right hand and five rounds had been fired from it. They found five bullet holes near the front door, but only four shell casings. Did he hit one of his attackers?
Two words were written in blood, the word “older”, and either “black” or “lack.” Was this written as a clue from the victim? Was it written as a taunt to the police? We may never know.
Early reports said his pockets had been turned out and they think he had been robbed of several hundred dollars. Was all of this a robbery, or was it staged by the perpetrators to throw off the police?
Two suspects appeared early on, but all the police had was circumstantial evidence and without any hard evidence arrests could not be made.
Youtube has started restricting my videos because of their true crime content. This hinders my channel’s monetization, sure, but more importantly it makes it hard to get these stories the publicity they need. Please consider following me on Rumble to help avoid these issues and to raise awareness about these unsolved cases.
If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for The Racketeer, Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.
Each week Synova highlights obscure cold cases on her blog as a victim’s advocate. She never charges for her services. If you’d like to help support Synova in this worthy cause please check out the affiliate links below. By purchasing one of her books or using these links, you will be supporting Synova’s work on cold cases and will ensure her ability to continue to give a voice to the victim’s family. Thank you.
Shattered: Behind Every Story Is A Shattered Life (Synova’s Case Files Series)
Follow the heart-rending cases Synova first wrote about on her blog in 2018. Filled with missing persons’ cases, unsolved homicides, and even serial killer cases, this book will give you a greater insight into the shattered lives behind every story. Cases Included in this book: Jayme Closs, Haley Owens, Josh Robinson, Timothy Cunningham, Carol Blades, Pam Hupp, Arthur Ream, Angela Hammond, The Springfield Three, Jennifer Harris, Danny King, Angie Yarnell, Jack Robinson, Madelin Edman, Alexis Patterson, Amber Wilde, Sandra Bertolas, Jennifer Casper-Ross, Crystal Soulier, Jody Ricard, Carmen Owens, Brandon Tyree McCullough & The I-70 Serial Killer
Where did the Dixie Mafia begin? It all began with the corruption of Phenix City, Alabama. In this video, Synova introduces you to the corruption of Phenix City.
A mysterious stranger walked into the Hotel President on January 2, 1935, and specifically requested an interior room several floors above the ground level. He was a tall man with a large scar on the left side of his head leading down to a cauliflower ear. A torture filled night lay ahead. Just after midnight on January 5th he would be dead. Eighty-four years later Roland T. Owens would be one of Kansas City’s most infamous unsolved cases. This case will take a few weeks to cover all the details, conspiracies, and theories.
Roland T. Owens sauntered into the hotel President on January 2nd around 1:30 pm. He signed his name to the register, claimed he was from Los Angeles, and paid one night’s fee. The hotel staff immediately took notice of the tall, large-built man wearing a black overcoat. Although he tried to comb his hair to hide it, a large scar was visible above his left ear leaving a bald spot. His ear was misshapen in what wrestlers call “cauliflower ear.” Most people would assume Mr. Owen was a professional wrestler or boxer.
A bellboy named Randolph Probst led the strange visitor up to room 1046 and gave the gentleman a passkey. Owen walked in and surveyed the room. Walking into the bathroom, he took out a brush, a comb, and a tube of toothpaste out of his coat pocket and put them in the cabinet. Strangely, these items were the man’s only luggage. A short time later the cleaning staff arrived to clean the room and was startled to find it already occupied. Owens told Ms. Mary Soptic to go ahead and clean because he was getting ready to leave. He specifically asked her to leave the door unlocked because a friend was supposed to stop by in a few minutes. Owens promptly pulled on his overcoat and left the maid to clean. She quickly cleaned up and left the room unlocked when she finished.
The next day, Thursday, Soptic returned to room 1046 to clean. The door was locked from the outside. (I’m not sure how it locked from the outside, but it is stated this way in every police report.) She tapped on the door and received no response, so she let herself into the room with the hotel passkey. Expecting the place to be empty, Soptic was startled to find Owens sitting up in the chair in the dark. The only dim light came from a table lamp that barely illuminated the shadows. She wasn’t what surprised her more, the fact that he was sitting in the dark staring at nothing in particular or the fact that the door somehow was locked from the outside. Luckily, the phone rang freeing the poor woman from the moment of awkward silence.
“No Don, I don’t want to eat. I am not hungry. I just had breakfast.” Owen paused for a moment before repeating, “I am not hungry.”
To add to the unsettling feeling building in Mary Soptic, Owen turned to her and began to ask her details about her job duties. She answered politely and left the room as fast as possible. Unfortunately, around 4 pm Soptic would have to return to the room to deliver the fresh towels. At that time she heard two male voices through the door. She tapped quietly, and a gruff unfamiliar voice answered.
“Who is it?”
Soptic replied saying she had fresh towels only to receive the loud response, “We don’t need any.”
Seven o’clock the next morning the switchboard operator noticed the phone in room 1046 had been off the hook for quite a while. She sent up the bellboy up to room 1046. Probst knocked on the door and heard a deep voice tell him to come in. Probst tried the handle, and it was locked. He knocked again, and this time the voice said to turn on the lights. Probst knocked again and yelled through the door.
“The door is locked. Put the phone back on the hook.” With that Probst returned to the service desk. He told the operator that the man was probably drunk and no one thought anything else about it until a short time later the phone was off the hook again. It is now 8:30 am. This time another bellboy by the name of Harold Pike is sent up to room 1046. The door was still locked, but this time Pike had a key. He opened the door to the darkened room and noticed Owen was laying face down on his bed naked and a large dark shadowy stain was on the sheets around him. The nightstand was knocked over, and the phone lay strewn across the floor. Pike picked up the table and replaced the phone. He locked the door back and returned downstairs claiming Owens must be passed out drunk and spilled his alcohol on his sheets.
At 11 am the phone was again off the hook. This time Probst took the passkey and marched up to room 1046. This had been the third time of the morning. He banged on the door and then opened it. This time he switched on the lights and was horrified by the scene before him. Two foot from the door was the beaten and bloodied man. He was bound on his hands and knees with his bloody head between his hands. Blood was on all the walls and ceilings. Bleeding profusely from three knife wounds to the chest, Roland T. Owen was miraculously alive when police arrived. Police asked him who did this.
“Nobody,” was his feeble reply. Owen slipped into a coma on the way to the hospital. Reports state that due to the coagulation of the blood Owen’s torture had begun at least six hours before he was found.
There’s so much more to this story that will be covered next week including a prostitute, strange anonymous donors paying for Owen’s burial, 13 red roses annonymously sent to the funeral, oh and…his name isn’t Roland T. Owen!
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