I can’t remember the poor victim’s name, but she was a young girl who had been placed with a couple who may or may not have been her aunt and uncle. The “aunt and uncle” and I believe their son all took part in abusing her. When the poor girl passed, the aunt claimed that she had driven her to a McDonald’s and met her grandmother there so the grandmother could take over custody. Aunt and uncle continued to collect checks for the girl’s care for years. If I remember correctly, this may have happened in the Carolinas? Please help if you can!

Matthew and Philip were two brothers who grew up together in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2020, thirty-nine year old Matthew was raising his own children- five boys, ranging between the ages of 2-10, with his wife Faye, who was his high school sweetheart. The couple met in high school, and Faye stated that the connection was instant and intense, and they had continued to date throughout college, waiting to marry after Faye obtained her degree in nursing. Faye described their relationship as very loving and happy, and that the pair grew together both romantically and in life. Matthew was an easygoing, loving father who his sons adored, and was described as being a very romantic husband, often bringing his wife small gifts, just to show her he was thinking of her.

At his work as an HVAC technician, Matthew was known to be soft-spoken and analytical, with his manager saying he had “Jeopardy-like knowledge.” Matthew was loyal to his Catholic faith, and was in love with collecting watches, hiking, and riding his bike. His wife said that he loved blasting “terrible Irish music” in the car and at home, often dancing with his young sons. Faye said that Philip especially loved spending time with his younger brother, and the two would often be found out in the garage tinkering with cars. Whenever the family of seven would go out for family outings, Matthew would always invite Philip along.

Twenty-nine year old Philip was an adoring uncle to his five nephews, and they called him “Uncle Phils.” He was described as being full of energy when he was around the boys and would often build igloos with them. He showered his nephews in candy and presents around Christmas time, and was known to tease them as if they were his younger brothers, with sarcasm and wit, making them laugh. Philip was known to be very loyal and helpful to those around him, and he had the tendency to always go out of his way for people, and always had a smile while doing so. Faye recalls her affection for her brother in law, and how she essentially watched him grow up, saying:

“He was just a little boy, like our little boys, when I first met him. He always had a smile on his face and was really funny.”

Philip was employed as a maintenance man at an apartment complex in Cleveland, but just before his death, he was planning a big move to California in order to begin a new job, and a new path in life. A friend of Philip’s had mentioned to him how an employment opening was available at the Montecito Sequoia Lodge, located in the Sequoia National Forest, and interested in living in a new location, Philip had flown out to California and applied for the position. Philip was soon offered the job after he flew back to Ohio. He decided that he would give the job a shot, and planned to work there for at least one year, and if he enjoyed it, he considered staying on as an employee for longer.  He was equally excited, and nervous, about this new journey.   When Philip accepted his new position in California, that meant he needed to make a cross country move to relocate. Matthew, wanting to spend a bit more time with his younger brother, decided he would join him on the drive, as a form of brotherly bonding. Faye encouraged this decision, knowing how much Matthew was going to miss his younger brother while he was away. The two planned to visit popular tourist destinations along the way, and take in the sights that the journey had to offer, following along the famous Route 66.

On March 17, 2020, Philip had dinner with Matthew and Faye, and he was feeling very anxious about his move to California. He had never lived outside of Ohio before, and it had made him nervous. He said to Faye a handful of times that evening:

“I’m jobless and I’m homeless, so, I have to go.”

Philip was thankful for his brother joining him on his long drive, and the two spent the rest of the evening planning out their travel route. They wanted to drive Route 66, and specifically wanted to see Spider Rock in Canyon De Chelly, in the Navajo Nation, Arizona. This route would fatefully take them through Sawmill, Arizona, on their way to Spider Rock Campground.

In the early morning hours of March 20, the brothers set out for their trip in Philip’s black Ford Escape, with Faye and her sons seeing them off. The plan was that the brothers would go at their own pace out to California, visiting the landmarks along their way, and that Matthew would fly home the following Tuesday. What no one knew at the time was that due to COVID, Canyon De Chelly, and all the national parks within the Navajo Nation, were now closed, and no longer accepting visitors. A stay at home order had been issued in the area. While the Trump administration and the CDC told Americans that there was no limitations for travel at the time and that “people should go about their daily lives,” this didn’t account for what the Navajo Nation independently decided to do, which was to close their parks for the safety of their community. In fact, all federal parks in the nation were open to the public at this time, except the parks in the Navajo Nation, so Matthew and Philip may not have known that the parks were even closed before they set of on their trips, with their plans in mind. On the very same day that Matthew and Philip were leaving Ohio, the Navajo Nation issued a stay at home order for all residents. Faye mentioned she had a nervous feeling at the time, but wasn’t quite sure why- and ultimately brushed it off, waving as her husband and brother in law set out for their trip.

On the very first day of the drive, the brothers travelled for 16 long hours, ending the day in Shamrock, Texas. Matthew sent his wife a picture of him and Philip standing in front of a Conoco gas station, the garage that was made popular in the Disney film “Cars.” He was eager for Faye to show their boys, thinking they would be excited to see it since they liked the movie. Faye recalled noticing how tired Matthew had looked, knowing that instead of stopping in Oklahoma as they had planned, they pushed all the way through to Texas on the first leg of their trip. Faye told Matthew to get a good night’s sleep and that she loved him and would speak to him the next morning.

The next day they set out to cross the Texas-New Mexico State lines, where communication became spotty and sporadic between Matthew and Faye. It seems the brothers made one quick stop at The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa- a popular swimming destination. Philip and Matthew were pushing to get to Spider Rock before sunset, and still had a ways to go. At 4:26pm EST, Faye would receive her final communication from her husband: a photo of a train passing through the southwestern landscape. As the evening wore on, that nagging, uncomfortable feeling returned to Faye. She hadn’t heard from her husband in hours, but assumed they may just be pushing through New Mexico, into Arizona.

Around 6pm that evening, Matthew and Faye’s 6 year old son Patrick had attempted to Skype his father, but no one had answered. Faye found this unsettling because Matthew had always been good at staying in touch with her and the boys when he was away, and would never miss an opportunity to say goodnight to the children.  Two hours later, with still no word from Matthew, Faye’s worry began to intensify. Faye began to call around to hotels, campgrounds, and hospitals throughout northern Arizona to see if her husband and brother in law had checked in anywhere, but no one had seen them and there was no record of them staying anywhere. Faye tried to calm her nerves despite her anxiety growing. She later stated:

“I was like, ‘Just wait a minute, they’re probably making that last push like they did the night before, and they’re probably just getting to wherever they’re staying, and then they’re gonna call you or they’re gonna Skype.”

On the other side of the country, in Sawmill Arizona, a small town in norther Arizona with a population of 706 people in 2020, Matthew and Philip were reportedly last seen alive around 3pm that Saturday. At some point during their drive on Navajo Route 7, passing through Sawmill, their vehicle got stuck in the mud and snow in a ditch, about two miles away from the Sawmill Express Convenience store. They men began to walk in the direction of the store, in order to get help with pulling their car from the mud. The men hadn’t even made it half a mile into their walk, when they crossed paths with a killer, and were fatally shot.

A woman who was driving by a short time later to collect firewood discovered their lifeless bodies, partially in the roadway, and had to drive further into town to get service in order to call the authorities. Navajo police were first to arrive on scene, noting each man had multiple gunshots wounds, which had been fired at close range. Later, the Apache County Sheriff’s office would arrive on scene, where this was deemed to be a homicide. The FBI would take over the investigation, as the men were not Native Americans, and the Navajo Nation is a sovereign nation- a news article describes the situation this way:

“When crimes happen on the reservation, the race of the suspects and victims, and the severity of the crime, determine who has jurisdiction. The brothers were not Native Americans.”

  Authorities were able to identify the victims as Matthew and Phillip by running the license plate from the vehicle though the database, which returned back as registered to Philip. Due to the temperature dropping as night approached, and the fact that the sun was going down, police made the decision to halt the investigation for the night and resume the next morning to search for evidence around the crime scene. When daylight approached, officers were back on scene and noted that it appeared that the vehicle had slid on ice and into the ditch, where it had gotten stuck in the mud. Handprints on the car had all come back to Matthew and Philip, most likely due to them attempting to push the Ford Escape out of the mud and back onto the road. No other fingerprints had been found on the vehicle that had belonged to anyone else. They also noted that the vehicle had not been tampered with in any way, that the car was still locked, and no damage had been done to the vehicle other than from what had occurred when it slid into the ditch.

When Sunday morning rolled around, Faye was beyond worried. She began to call her husband every hour, on the hour, receiving no answer or reply. When calling wasn’t enough, she drove to her father’s home, where the two decided she should contact authorities in Arizona. She headed back to her own home, and while she was preparing to run a quick errand, her doorbell rang.

“I walked up the stairs into our living room and I could see the two policemen through the front door windows,” she said. “At that moment, I knew something was terribly wrong. I felt that way for the whole day. I answered the door and I talked to them. They were very kind.”

The officers told her that she needed to call the Apache County Sheriff’s office in Arizona, and that her husband had been found deceased. Knowing that Philip wouldn’t have left Matthew, she asked if Philip had been found as well. They again urged her to call the authorities in Arizona. When she did, she learned about the murder of her husband and brother in law, something she never expected to hear. She stated that when they set out for their trip, her biggest worry had been COVID having reached the United States- she never expected her husband and brother in law would be harmed in any way. The police stayed at Faye’s home while this call unfolded, and sadly, her oldest son was by her side to hear the news about his father. When asked by police if they could get anyone for her, she recalls thinking to herself:

“The police asked me who they could get for me I just couldn’t even think straight. The person you could get for me is the person you just told me isn’t available.”

  As this happened fairly recently, the investigation into Matthew and Philip Reagan’s murders are still on going and active, and there doesn’t seem to be any word about what has been uncovered so far. Robbery was considered as a possible motive for the deaths, but the motive itself has not officially been determined, and it has been said that nothing was taken from the car or the bodies of Philip or Matthew. It is believed that Matthew and Philip had taken the rural road because GPS had directed them that way instead of on a more populated road that may have taken longer, and that when their car got stuck in the mud, someone with ill intentions happened upon them. Faye stated that it wasn’t like her husband to take such desolate roads, however, and finds it strange that they were so far off the beaten path, with main highways being quite a far distance away. Authorities working on the case has stated that while the road is quite rural, and it is only paved for a part of the way before it turns into a dirt road, which is mostly used by locals, there have been instances where GPS had navigated other tourists down that road in order to lead them to Spider Rock.  

With limited leads, police turned to surveillance video that had been obtained from the convenience store in Sawmill. It showed that Matthew and Philip had passed through Sawmill at around 3 pm that day, which led them to determine the time of their deaths were between 3 and 6pm. The surveillance video showed that no altercations between the men and anyone else had occurred at the store, and it didn’t appear that anyone had been following them at the time. Police were able to identify and track down any individual who had visited the store leading up to the murder or shortly after, and speak to them. One individual they had spoken to had a criminal record, and they felt that he might have been a good candidate as a potential suspect of the shooting. This individual was thoroughly interviewed and in the end they determined that he had nothing to do with the murders and he was cleared as a suspect.

Faye has had a difficult time accepting that her partner of 22 years is no longer with her, or her sons. She said that she sees Matthew whenever she looks at their children- she sees him in their spirit, in their cheek dimples, and in their bright red hair. She worries that their youngest son won’t remember his father at all, once he grows older, but she speaks to her children every single day about their father, reminding them of his deep love for his family. She described the pain of losing her husband, saying:

“At home, he’s everywhere. But then very sadly, he’s not. And that’s very hard."

  She finds comfort in the fact that the two brothers were together in the moments of their deaths, and not alone. She wants her husband and brother in law to be remembered not for how they died, but for who they were in life and before this terrible tragedy unfolded, saying:

“They both did so many things with their lives that impacted so many people around them in a positive way, that we don’t want the primary thing that they’re ever thought of or when you look for them and is this one single event. There’s so much more than how they were killed. They were people that had tons of family that loved them, they had friends. They had coworkers. They have a lot of people that missed them, but then they are also not able to continue with those relationships.”

Twenty one months after the death of her loved ones, Faye made her way to the desolate dirt road where her world changed forever. She wanted to see the place her husband spent his final moments, a chance to see through his eyes. She placed two wooden crosses at the side of the road- and she used this moment to teach her sons that healing was about forgiveness, and not allowing your heart to harden.

The FBI has put up a $10,000 reward for any information leading to a resolution in the deaths of Matthew and Phillip Reagan. anyone with information about this case is asked to call:

·        FBI Phoenix: (623) 466-1999

·        Navajo Department of Criminal Investigations in Window Rock, Arizona: (928) 871-7519

·        Apache County Sheriff’s Office: (800) 352-1850

  The FBI is working on the case and have vowed to not give up on it, saying to the Arizona Republic:

   “We are confident someone knows who is responsible for the murders of Matthew and Philip Reagan. The FBI and our law enforcement partners have logged many hours of investigative work on this case. The FBI does not forget. No matter how much time has passed, we will continue to aggressively pursue this investigation. We are dedicated to protecting all of our communities and to pursuing justice for Matthew and Philip Reagan, their family, and friends.”

Links

FBI.gov

Cleveland 19

I was wondering whether anyone has heard any more about Darren Pencille since he was jailed in 2019 for the murder of Lee Pomeroy?

There was a programme re the murder: Killed in front of his son:The murder of Lee Pomeroy on the Crime & Investigation Network but nothing was mentioned re Darren Pencille,s life in prison.

I'm currently listening to the audiobook of All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers, and the main case is almost a DIRECT rip-off of the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder. It revolves around the murder of a little girl who was a dancer, and her parents woke up in the middle of the night to find that she was missing. Later she is found dead in a ditch on the side of the road. The little girl does dance like her mother, and her mom is raked over the coals in the media because photos of her dance costumes are shown and people think that her costumes were inappropriate and overly sexual for a child to be wearing. And people think her mother killed her because she was jealous of her success in dance.

SPOILERS AHEAD

!Later on it is revealed that what really happened is that she was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in her basement, and her mother thinks that her brother killed her, so she covers up for him by taking her body, dumping her, and then calling the police to tell her that they woke up and she was missing. And to throw the police off, the parents insist that it was "some creep who got obsessed with her at her dance recitals". That almost mirrors the main theory of the Jon-Benet Ramsey case, where John and Patsy Ramsey were covering up for Burke after he killed her "on accident". !<

And before I read Gone Girl I didn't really know anything about Laci and Scott Peterson, and after watching a documentary about them it bummed me out that it seemed just like a girl-boss yass-ified version of that story. Idk, I still love Gone Girl, but it seems a little...lazy to me? I don't know. What are y'alls thoughts? Anyone else feel this way?

Another BIG win for forensic genetic genealogy. And her brother is still alive to see justice for his sister. Story below (note I've combined two news sources in the article)

Mary K Schlais

An 84-year-old man was arrested this week in connection with the slaying of a female hitchhiker 50 years ago in Wisconsin. 

Mary K. Schlais, 25, was found stabbed to death Feb. 15, 1974, at an intersection in Spring Brook, Wisconsin, the Dunn County Sheriff's Office said.

The Minneapolis woman was killed while hitchhiking to an art show in Chicago, Sheriff Kevin Bygd said Friday.

“This was a very bright lady who had a very bright future ahead of her,” he said. “Her life was taken away.”

Although investigators worked the case for decades, chasing tips and collecting evidence, “no viable suspects were identified,” according to the sheriff’s office.

How they found him:

Investigators found Miller from genetic evidence — a hair found on a stocking hat — left at the crime scene near her body. The hat belonged to Jon Miller.

Before speaking to Miller, authorities went to his daughter and received her genetic profile. Research indicated the hair from the stocking cap belonged to her biological father. Investigators say the fact that Miller was adopted initially made it harder to track him down.

But investigators did track Miller down, now age 84, at his apartment in Owatonna, Minnesota. Miller on Thursday “confirmed his involvement with Mary’s homicide” after 50 years, Bygd said.

Miller was awaiting extradition to Wisconsin. It was not clear Friday afternoon if Miller had retained an attorney.

Bygd said he was ecstatic when he heard of Miller’s arrest.

“I had a difficult time controlling my excitement,” he said. “You know, I’ve been here with this agency for 35 years, and this case has been worked on all those 35 years.”

The sheriff continued: “This is a huge victory for our agency.”

The sheriff’s office said in recent years, it had collaborated with Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, and its team of genetic genealogists helped identify Miller as a suspect.

Don Schlais, 79, of Minneapolis, said Friday that he never thought he would see the day an arrest was made in his sister’s death.

“It’s just surreal. You don’t expect it after all this time,” he said.

Schlais said his sister had earned an undergraduate degree in art from the University of Minnesota and was applying to graduate school. She was passionate about horses and horseback riding, he said.

Schlais credited law enforcement and the forensic team for the arrest. He said whatever happens to Miller, is out of his hands.

“I’m going to let go and I’m going to let God,” he said. “I suspect he will take care of this. He’ll have to pay the karma when he dies.”

Source

Source 

Mugshot

Antonio Vecchiola killed his estranged wife, Jessica Vecchiola. She was found dead on the floor in her home. Her husband left her there and then the next day he pretended to do CPR on her in front of his mother in law. How is it even possible that he got a plea deal for involuntary manslaughter when he clearly left her there after killing her? How is it even possible that he could get away with murder without doing prison time?

She died from "internal decapitation" and it was mentioned that she had been in a rage road incident a week prior however the coroner dismisses she died from the rage road incident, said it's not possible she died from that.

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/ellen-greenberg-case-update-november-2024/

Hello everyone,

I have searched Reddit but cannot find what I am after, is there a subreddit that helps people with petty crimes when the police won’t help or are slow to act?

Thanks!

Was just watching 'How It Really Happened' and during an interview with Dr. Harry Krop he stated before Rollings was charged with murders he confessed to Gainesville murders. Rollings had been picked up for an attempted robbery and was interviewed by a forensic psychologist to make sure he was fit to stand trial. During the screening he confessed to murder and Dr. Krop claimed he couldn't turn him in because the screening was confidential. Okay my question is I thought psychologists were mandatory reporters for child abuse, murder, SA, and other things, why was he not required to report him?

I'm curious how others keep track of their investigations or case research—whether for journalism, true crime, or personal projects. Do you have a particular system or method for organizing all the info, leads, timelines, and evidence? Do you use specific tools or apps, or do you prefer a physical notebook and pen? I’ve been wondering if there's a more efficient way to bring all this information together in one place, especially when the case gets complicated. Any insights or thoughts would be appreciated!

I was watching People Investigates and I think her ex partner has something to do with her death.

Basically she wrote a Facebook post calling her ex crazy and then stated she would be leaving the windows wide open while she slept. Hours later she was dead. She had fight with her ex the night before. He also had previous charges of DV from his ex wife. Investigators believe he had something to do with her death but there’s no real evidence.

Full story below if you’re interested.

Dead Inside Her Home: Who Killed Sarah Greenhalgh? Unsolved True Crime Case https://youtu.be/h-XN-oTGjCA

What was that one case you remember hearing for the first time, that made you break down in tears on how horrific it was? Mine would be the case of Peter Connelly or Baby P, which took place in 2007 in England. What that baby went through was pure Hell.