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Hi, crime junkies. I'm Ashley Flowers. And I'm Brit. And back by popular demand, we have Chuck
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in the studio today for our YouTube audience, who apparently he's their favorite. Like, of course, it's a good
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thing he can't talk or we'd be out of a job. But, uh, the story I have for you today is one that honestly has me
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twisted up in knots. One minute it's like, "Fetch me a pitchfork and like rally the troops. This guy needs to be
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buried under the courthouse." But then like the very next minute I'm like, "Oh my god, maybe he's a victim, too." And
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then I feel bad for ever thinking such a thing. So pitchforks or no pitchforks, that will be for crime junkies to
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decide. This is the story of the Feni family. When John Feny gets back to his room at
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Tantara Resort around 9:00 a.m. on the morning of Monday, February 27th, 1995, he sees that he missed a call from the
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high school where he teaches science in Springfield, Missouri. Now, he's been up
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here at this Lake of the Ozarks resort for a teachers conference since Saturday. Wait, can we as millennials
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just real quick acknowledge that this is a teacher named Mr. Phoenix? Oh my like
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boy meets worldart. Honestly, I didn't think about that the whole time I was working on this story.
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It's all I can think about. I had to say something. Mr. Feny, not that Mr. Feny.
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Anyways, the school knows where he's at and why. So, it's strange that they're calling. So, immediate bad vibes that
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just get worse when he calls them back and finds out that they called because they had gotten a call that morning from
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a medical center where his wife Cheryl works as an RN. She's the team lead for the gynecological surgical division,
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which is like an important role, but she just hadn't shown up for work that day.
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So, by the time Jon's on the phone, people had already called over to the kid's babysitter, but they apparently
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never got dropped off there. And no matter how many times or who called the Feny house, no one has picked up there
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either. John is rattled by this because he hadn't talked to Cheryl since Saturday night. like he had called a few
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times on Sunday, even left a couple of messages when he couldn't get through. Mostly like chalking that up to the
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craziness of like taking care of their six-year-old son Tyler, their 18-month old daughter, Jennifer, like she's doing
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this on her own. But now he's not so sure that something isn't wrong. So, he hangs up, calls the Green County
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Sheriff's Office asking them to perform a welfare check. What John doesn't know is that he's not the only person raising
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the alarm. Around the same time that he calls, the sheriff's office is also fielding a call from a woman named
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Teresa. And she's calling from the Fenie's house because she is a co-orker of Cheryl's and she had volunteered to
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like swing by check things out. And she says that when she approached the house,
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she noticed that it's so strange. The pane of glass in the door on like the front like front door had been painted
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over from the inside, which is odd because Teresa and Cheryl are friends. Like she's been there before and that
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hasn't been like that. No. And even more concerning was the fact that the door was unlocked.
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Oh, Chuck's back. All right, let's try it again. Come on, lay down. Here you go.
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You got it. It's okay. Here we go. You can't breathe right in the microphone, though.
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[Music] So, fearing something was wrong, she let herself in, only to find that the house
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had been totally ransacked. But like in the weirdest way imaginable. So like example on the first floor where she's
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at, the Fenie's kitchen has this door that leads into the attached garage. Well, that door was like wide open so
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she could see Cheryl's car in the garage and the car hood was popped and there was all this like random stuff piled on
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top of it, including like a TV. So stuff doesn't just feel taken like run-of-the-mill burglary. It also feels
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moved. I mean, it's weird. like full body chills. Weird. So, she's not going to snoop around. She knows that police
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are in route, so she's just going to like wait for them. Now, season two of the podcast Ozark's true crime is about
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this case. And Teresa actually tells journalist Annne Rodri Jones that it takes like 20 minutes for a solo cop to
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show up. Now, FYI, some reporting indicates that John's mom got there around the same time, but it's a little
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bit confusing because Teresa doesn't mention her at all. But either way, Teresa gives the officer a quick rundown
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and then follows him in, pointing out all the alarming things that she had noticed before. Items that aren't where
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they should be or are where they shouldn't be. Drawers and cabinets that have been left wide open. I mean,
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Cheryl's purse is on the kitchen table looking rifled through. And then in the living room, I didn't mention this, but
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there are shoe prints all over the carpet, seemingly like made from some kind of light colored liquid. So, this
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cop, what he does is he pulls out his radio. He knows that he's going to need some backup. Like, this is as weird as
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she thinks it is. And Teresa kind of hangs back a little while this officer heads to the primary bedroom. And when
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he turns on the bedroom light, she asks him a question, but he is just like staring straight forward in stunned
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shock. Doesn't even hear her, so she has to repeat herself. She's dead, isn't she? And the best answer that this guy
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can muster is look and see. Not his finest moment, no question. But part of me feels sorry for the guy because what
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he sees is horrific. There is a woman, presumably Cheryl, lying face down on the bed and her head and neck are just
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covered in wounds. Her face is aimed away from the door, kind of like almost hidden by her hair in a way that looks
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unnatural, maybe intentional, cuz to Teresa, she looks posed. And then it gets worse because in the next bedroom
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is a little boy laying in the bed on his back with a pillow covering his face and
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blood visible around him. And then in the third bedroom, there is a toddler in a crib, like curled up tight, her face
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buried in the mattress, and a cord wrapped tight around her neck. So within minutes, the house is crawling with
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officers from the sheriff's office. Considering the magnitude of the crime, a multi- agency task force called the
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South Central Missouri Major Case Squad steps in. But it's up to the sheriff's office to preserve the crime scene till
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they can get up to speed. And to do that, the major case squad investigators converge at the Missouri State Highway
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Patrol outpost. And as they shuffle into the conference room, someone mentions that the victims are the family of a
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Springfield teacher. And there are well over a thousand teachers in Springfield.
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Okay? So like, no one mentions any names. It could be any of those families. But in that instant, an
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investigator named Rita turns to the person next to her and almost casually says, "Wasn't John Feny's family, was
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it?" Which needless to say, the question practically knocks the wind out of the other investigator who's like, "Well,
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yeah, actually it was." Yeah, that feels weird. Like, wouldn't even believe it if
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it was a movie on the nose weird. Why are they dropping his name immediately? Well, so Springfield may be the third
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largest city in Missouri, but it does have major small town vibes, like a six degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of thing.
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And apparently Rita and John actually have a history. So they went to high school together and then she took a
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chemistry night class that he taught at a local university and that was like just the prior fall. So it's someone she
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knows when she goes and takes his class. It's not weird that they got to talking
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things even non-chemistry related. And somehow like a recent high-profile crime became the topic of conversation during
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one of these classes or after or whatever. And probably because it happened like mid semester and Rita was
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working the investigation. You see, in September of '94, a 37-year-old woman named Lisa Rall was killed in her home
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south of Springfield. Now, investigators, Rita included, quickly put Lisa's husband under the microscope
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as their prime suspect. Like, tail as old as time, right? Yeah. But Rita says that Jon was super interested in the
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investigation as it played out in real time. Maybe too interested cuz Rita tells an on her podcast that one
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particular question stands out in her mind, especially in hindsight. Jon was obsessed with knowing one thing. What
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was the husband's big mistake? What fatal misstep did he make that allowed police to zero in on him? What got him?
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Right. Which like, why do you ask, sir? Right. But she gave him an answer. She said that he talked to police and he
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shouldn't have. No potential suspect or person of interest or whatever she said should ever talk to the police because
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that is how many of them wind up in prison. So that is what is at the back of her mind when she brings up the
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fenies. And it probably stays on her mind after they get briefed and head to the Feny house and walk this bizarre
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scene. And truly, I mean bizarre. Like on the surface, it's strange, but when you drill in close and look at the
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details of this thing, it gets really, really weird. Like those shoe prints in the living room. What they find out is
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the liquid that those are in is beige paint. The prints themselves have dried, but they find a still wet puddle in the
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garage. Wait, like the same paint used to maybe paint the glass on the front door? You know, I'm not sure that they
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ever that's ever verified or reported on. I couldn't find anything about that. But I think that's the working
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assumption. But again, that's not even like the strange part. These prints that they have, they don't make sense because
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they don't fade like you would expect them to. I mean, like, think about it. If you walk through a puddle of paint,
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like the first step should leave the clearest print, right? And then like the more steps you take, the drier it gets.
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Especially on carpet, right? Like they're going to start to fade. But the ones that they're seeing, like they
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don't fade. All of them are like equally saturated. Like someone is painting the
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bottom of their shoes like every step or two, which just like why? Yeah. Like that doesn't make sense for a crime if
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it happened this way. And these are the the killer's prints. Yeah, but the paint
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was used for something else, too. So, investigators find a cryptic message painted on the wall of Cheryl and John's
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bedroom, and it's painted in the same beige paint. The message says in all caps, bit die.
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Now, everyone seems to agree that two letters are missing from the end of that first word, like bit is what it says.
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And they think that it's missing the ch. So dye is what they think. But maybe they ran out of paint because they use
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it all on their freaking shoes. Like my knee-jerk reaction is no. Because here's
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the thing. When you actually like see a photo of this, I saw a glimpse of it in like coverage from like the trial, like
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old old coverage. Bit is written above the word die. So in my mind, it's like the first word, right? So like running
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out doesn't make sense. Neither does the writer getting spooked mid message like
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because then we don't we shouldn't have the word die, right? I mean, it's possible that die was written first and
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then like maybe they had some paint left over and was like, "Oh, how can I add insult to injury here?" Like, oh, I'll
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like call her names, too. But, but then they only got through the first three letters. And I don't know why you would
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still write it above the word die. So, not this doesn't make sense to me. But again, so much of this crime scene
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defies explanation. So, when I hear beige paint, I'm going to be honest, it's not like the flashiest color. You
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would expect like red or something, right? Yeah. Like, would this even stand out on their walls? Like, what color are
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their walls? Also, a shade of beige. Like, you can see the words, but they definitely blend in. I don't even know
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if you can see them. Maybe because they're still wet or something. I have a feeling, I don't know this for a fact,
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but like knowing that they were in the garage, knowing we have that puddle in the garage, that maybe it was like some
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kind of touch-up paint for the house that was like already there. So again, potentially not even something that the
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killer brought with them. We tried to verify all that, by the way, but like our records request was denied by law
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enforcement. Cool. Now, I could spend the entire episode discussing the paint because there is this other weird part.
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So the prints that are like saturated the whole way through, they follow a pretty clear path. So the house is one
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story, but has a basement with its own entrance. The prints start at that puddle in the garage. They go through
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the living room, lead to the primary bedroom, and then they just stop. Like, there's no return path. And again, it's
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not like they fade away. The ones in the bedroom are just as clear as the ones in
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the garage. So, whoever did this like took the shoes off in the bedroom, maybe. Like, so were they wearing them?
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Were they holding them on their hands and not wearing because they're like just making this path? However, they had
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these shoes. What I do know is that they had to have taken those shoes with them
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when they left because police don't find any shoes in the house that are covered
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in beige paint or that even match the size and tread patterns of these prints. Oh,
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that's an option. Come on, Bubba. No interest. [Music] Come on. You can lay on the floor if you
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want or you can go upstairs. I like it. Weekly. [Music] So, I'm guessing that they to they like
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took them off or like stopped using them in the bedroom because again, we never see the prints fading the way they
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should have. We never see them going anywhere else. It It's like almost like this arrow beacon. Like it feels too
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simple. Like it's someone trying to say, "Hey, go from the garage to the bedroom,
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but it's not a big house. Like people would have made it to the bedroom." Well, I was going to say maybe they ran
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out of paint with the wall art, but the print should be there and be faded. Like
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all the freaking alarm bells are going off in my brain. This is 1,000% staged. It is. And like no matter anyway you cut
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it, this is staged. And the rest of the house is starting to give staged as well. So everywhere investigators turn,
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it is like torn apart, right? Like almost theatrically. So think less real life robbery and more like over-the-top
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Hollywood movie. Even the cabinets under the kitchen are like open, which like why even open those? There would be
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nothing there to find but like cleaning supplies. 100%. Especially because there
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were actually some things to find that seemingly weren't found. Like they weren't taken. So, for example, like
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there was cash in a dresser drawer in the primary bedroom. I mean, not a ton, like 40 bucks. But how are you literally
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like rifling through dishwashing supplies but leaving behind cold hard cash? Robert Keys of the Springfield
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News Leader speaks to a source who basically says that someone or someone went to great lengths to make it look
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like this was done by a group of criminals, but it's like they tried so hard that it backfired. Even what at
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first blush appears to be evidence of forced entry is a little sketch. So, the front door is fine. I mean, minus the
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like painted window and the fact that it was unlocked, but it's not like damaged
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or anything. It is actually the walkout basement door that looks like it's been kicked in. Reporting at the time
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describes it as splintered and there is even a visible shoe print, not in paint.
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That might have been too obvious, but it's like kicked in. But even this kicked in door is sus because when a
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door is forced open, normally you find wood pulp on the screws from being forcibly dislodged, right? They're being
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pulled out of the wood, right? But Rita tells Anne that there was no pulp to be found. Not a ton of damage to the door
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frame either. Instead, it is almost like the door had been ever so carefully unscrewed from the hinges. And to do
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that, it would have had to have already been open for that to work. Yeah. And are you ready for the actual full body
00:17:11
chills moment of this story? So this house is chaos, but there is one thing that makes even the most hardened
00:17:19
homicide investigators shiver. [Music] Two branches of the same tree, two pieces of a soul.
00:17:40
Where one sister goes, the other will be. For she is but half of the whole. The missing half. Pre-order your copy at
00:17:52
ashleyflowers.com. A family might have inhabited this home just a day or two earlier, but you would
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never know it from the cold, barren walls. Because every last family photo, every baby picture, every school
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picture, every wedding photo has been taken down and turned inward, hiding the smiling faces from sight. I'm sorry,
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what? Between this and all the victim's faces either being covered or turned away,
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that feels really intentional and like important. Like whoever did this didn't actually want to see their faces, who
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they were doing this to, right? It's it's personal. Yeah. It feels like someone they know, which you can see why
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investigators are pretty eager to speak with John. Now, when he initially phoned
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that welfare check in, they didn't know yet what they had on their hands. They basically just told him like, "Hold
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please." Like, not literally, but they had to like send someone out to the house, check things out, whatever. So
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Jon was left to his own devices for the next few hours while the deputies made it to the scene. Investigators tried to
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figure out what they were dealing with. And Jon later tells investigators that in that time he was frantically calling
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and fielding calls from his and Cheryl's loved ones. But the bottom really fell out, he says at noon because that's when
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a friend of his, this fellow science teacher showed up at his hotel door looking like all kinds of shook. And the
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guy said that like, "Listen, I'm not sure, but I think I just saw your house on the news." And this guy offered to
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stay with John while he waited for more information. And before long, the phone rang, and it was John's father with the
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worst news possible. Now, when John heard that his family was gone, he says he just fell to pieces. And he later
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tells reporters with the Springfield news leader that he remembers reciting prayers. And the teacher friend tells
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Anne Rodrik Jones that John kept saying over and over again like this can't be. This can't be. And another friend who
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joined them in the hotel room had to remind him to just like take deep breaths, like breathe. So once they find
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out, the men immediately hit the road for Springfield. And when they get to the local highway patrol outpost for
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John's first interview, his mom meets him outside for this like tear soaked hug and then walks him in where
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investigators question him about his weekend. Now they know he was out of town, but they only have the
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broadstrokes. They need details. So John says that Saturday, this is the last day
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he was with his family. It was uneventful. He didn't have to leave for the conference until later that day. So
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he hung out with the kids in the morning while show like ran some errands. They had lunch together when she got home and
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then he did yard work before hitting the road in his red Mustang convertible. Now, when he got to town, he says that
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he and a fellow teacher that he sees at these conferences a lot named Pam grabbed dinner together, just somewhere
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within like driving distance of the resort. Dinner was dinner, nothing wild. And after they were going to go to this
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like pre-conference party at the resort, but on the way back he got into a little
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trouble. As 30-something men who drive red Mustang convertibles are want to do. Seems that John had a little bit of a
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lead foot because he and Pam got pulled over and he got a ticket. Now, because of weird laws that I'd actually never
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heard of before, the patrol officer actually confiscated his driver's license, like the physical thing. And
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apparently it's something that they can do with drivers who live more than 50 m away. So like being your license until
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you've paid your fine. So by the time they're done with this cop, John says he's got a headache. Plus he's got to
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deal with this whole ticket thing now. So like no party for him. He parts ways with Pam. He heads back to his hotel
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room and when he got there he called Cheryl which he says was their routine. He'll call home like the first day he
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gets anywhere to confirm, you know, he's arrived safely, just like chat, see how
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the day was. And she even picked up, they spoke, normal conversation, but that would be the last time he gets her
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on the phone. When they hung up, he left the resort again. He headed to the Oage
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Beach Police Department to pay for the ticket. And according to the police, he was there around 10:30 p.m. or so. So,
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he forks over the money, gets his license back, and then he went back for good this time to go to bed at his hotel
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room. and he was there all night. Slept there, didn't leave until late Sunday morning when he played golf with some
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colleagues sometime before noon. After that, there was a conference session followed by lunch, another session at
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4:00. John actually led that one. He called home around 5 just to check in. No one answered. Again, hadn't worried
00:22:29
him too much at the time. Cheryl was solo managing two kids. One of them was sick, by the way, so like extra
00:22:35
handsful. And John went to a conference social event Sunday night and then worked with some colleagues on a
00:22:41
presentation that they were giving Monday morning. He tried to reach Cheryl again around 11:00 p.m. Sunday. Again,
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no answer. Also, very late. Knew Cheryl had work early the next morning. Everyone was probably in bed. And then
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Monday rolled around and before he knew it, he was getting a call from his school. So investigators know his
00:23:00
timeline now and they kind of shift their questioning and they ask about his and Cheryl's marriage, how it started,
00:23:05
how is it now, like that kind of thing. So they met in 1978 at a trauma center. Cheryl was in nursing school and worked
00:23:12
there as a receptionist and John worked there as an attendant on the weekends. And according to John, they kind of made
00:23:18
eyes at each other for a while, but their romance really began when Cheryl asked him to dance at a co-orker's
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party. And for John, this was a big deal. uh like the dancing part because his dad was a preacher in the church of
00:23:30
Christ which had a strict no dancing policy in those days. I mean I've seen Foot Loose, right? So you know feeling a
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little rebellious, John said yes and the rest was history. They married in 1981 they had Tyler in 1988. In 1990 they
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bought their house and according to the Springfield news leader, Jon was named Missouri's best science teacher of the
00:23:53
year. And at the same time, Cheryl was working her way up the ladder at the medical center. And then Jennifer came
00:23:59
in 1993. John tells investigators their marriage was strong. There was no infidelity like on either person's part.
00:24:07
And he's adamant about that. And that's kind of what they all say though, right?
00:24:11
Like what about money problems? None of those either. Like they are one of those
00:24:17
rare couples that had been financially responsible from the start. I mean, they built themselves a nice little nest egg.
00:24:22
They don't have much debt. Like, you know, on paper, they've done everything right. And Jon can't think of a single
00:24:29
person who would want to hurt his family. Like, this just makes no sense. There's no motive. And for what it's
00:24:36
worth, Jon appears to be completely shocked and griefstricken. Like, if he is putting on an act right now, it is
00:24:42
Oscar worthy. But as the husband, he is still firmly at the top of their list of
00:24:47
persons of interest, even as they let him go. I mean, we're still day one here, but a lot can happen in one day,
00:24:56
like the autopsies, for example. And the findings are awful. They're also revealing.
00:25:08
While baby Jennifer died from strangulation with a cord from the blinds in her bedroom, Cheryl and Tyler
00:25:15
both died as a result of blunt force trauma to their heads. Is it just me or is it odd that the baby's cause of death
00:25:21
is different? I don't Yeah, I don't know because like in my minds like I feel like the way she died was worse. Like
00:25:28
the medical examiner notes that the way she was strangled would have taken minutes and she likely suffered. Say
00:25:33
it's like a longer process. Like who picks the worst way for a baby to go? Like what kind of evil do you have to
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be? Most people I mean how many cases have we seen where like the youngest one who won't recognize anyone is is left
00:25:46
alone? Now, the medical examiner also confirms that all three were attacked in their
00:25:53
sleep blitz, which to me is all the more reason to think that the door wasn't kicked in. I mean, you'd think that
00:26:00
Cheryl would have heard that, especially like her husband's out of town, you know, like she might be feeling super
00:26:06
like aware, waking at every little sound, let alone the sound of her door being kicked in. Right. And like again,
00:26:12
I said this before, but this isn't a big house. You just have the main story in the basement. So, I mean, the thing I
00:26:19
don't know is like how hard of a sleeper she was. I like I've got my like earplugs in, my eye mask on. I don't
00:26:24
know that I would wake up, but to your point, like maybe she was more alert because she was alone. I don't know. But
00:26:29
it does seem like she was asleep when someone came at her. Cheryl was struck in the head 10 times with what Ron Davis
00:26:36
describes as some kind of metal pipe or a rod that would have been like a half inch in diameter. and Tyler was struck
00:26:44
seven times with the same object, including three blows to the head. Whatever they had been bludgeoned with,
00:26:51
there was no sign of that at the scene. But according to Rita, that doesn't mean
00:26:55
that there weren't any weapons found there, because I guess Cheryl had superficial puncture wounds to her face
00:27:02
and a knife was found near her body. Now, the medical examiner determines that the murders took place in the
00:27:10
overnight hours from Saturday into Sunday. Although, there are signs that the killer maybe tried to confuse things
00:27:17
because I guess Cheryl and John, you know, there is nothing more '9s than a water bed. And they had a water bed that
00:27:24
where the heat had been turned all the way up to the highest possible temperature, which caused her body to
00:27:29
decompose even faster than it would have otherwise. And I realized this was, like
00:27:33
you said, the '9s. Basic forensics were probably a little less common knowledge back then, but this guy's a science
00:27:40
teacher. Like, he might have had like a little deeper knowledge on all that stuff than a normal lay person. But
00:27:48
what's confusing is the kids weren't messed with. So, like, yeah, that why try to throw things off with the water
00:27:53
bed with her? That's what I'm saying. Like, everyone talks about this water bed as being something that like, oh,
00:27:58
the killer was trying to like like speed up demp. And I'm like, "Yeah, but just for Cheryl, like it wouldn't it doesn't
00:28:04
change anything about like the the demp for the kids the timeline." Again, if you're trying to confuse the scene,
00:28:10
which everything in this this house feels confusing, if you are trying to make it appear as though she died before
00:28:18
the kids, I don't know what that would mean. Or again, I like I'm I'm just spiraling. Or you just have the other
00:28:24
option that it just got turned on. means nothing and it's just this additional weird thing in scene. Now, there's
00:28:33
something else interesting that's found on the bed. So, when they process the crime scene, they actually take samples
00:28:38
of what looks like semen on the comforter of the couple's water bed, although reporting never mentions
00:28:44
evidence that Cheryl was sexually assaulted. And we know that she was found in her night gown. They also
00:28:51
collect a hair from Cheryl's night gown that they can tell was recently dyed reddish brown as well as a couple of
00:29:00
gray hairs from the garage. One of which was on the paintbrush used by the killer. And for what it's worth, John
00:29:08
and Cheryl both have brown hair. Tyler was more of like a dark blonde. I haven't seen any pictures that show
00:29:13
Jennifer's hair color. Whatever it was, none of the family matched these hairs that are found. And as far as I can
00:29:20
tell, there's never any mention of like of other biologics or hairs or anything being found in any of the kids'
00:29:25
bedrooms. But that's not to say that there aren't other clues. One clue they find is just disguised a little. You
00:29:33
see, a Charorse reports for the Kansas City Star that during Tyler's autopsy, the medical examiner finds that he had
00:29:41
liver damage, which doesn't make sense in a healthy six-year-old kid. Like, the Emmy doesn't know what it means yet.
00:29:48
won't know what it means for a while because he has to order some additional tests that are going to take time. But
00:29:53
it's just like this thing that everyone's like, "We've we got to figure this out, right?" And while they wait,
00:29:59
over the next few days, investigators interview Jon's friends, family, co-workers, and basically the consensus
00:30:07
is like there is no way that Jon did this. He would just never do something so heinous. John and Cheryl were happy.
00:30:14
Jon's a good guy. Friends and colleagues from the conference say that he was his
00:30:19
usual self all weekend long. Like heck, the guy teed up for a casual round of golf within hours of the murders and not
00:30:26
a hint of stress or distress or distraction or even a bad mood was anywhere to be found on him. Though to
00:30:34
investigators, that doesn't mean a whole lot. I mean, I've told you about the scene. You got to be a special kind of
00:30:40
inhumane monster to do what this killer did. Whoever did this would probably act
00:30:46
fine after. So, if they're gonna rule Jon out, it's got to be using cold hard facts, not feelings about how he acted.
00:30:54
Oage Beach Police Department confirms for investigators that Jon was there paying the ticket, getting his license
00:31:01
back at 10:30 Saturday night. So, that part of his story checks out. But when they process John's car, they discover
00:31:08
the first crack in his story. No incriminating forensics or anything like that. Like in his car, they don't find
00:31:15
any traces of blood. There's no weapons. There is no bloody clothing. Any beige paint? There is no beige paint to be
00:31:21
found. No shoes matching the prints from the scene either. Which actually, speaking of the shoes, investigators had
00:31:27
determined that those were men's size 11, but at least one source reports that John wears a men's size 12 for what it's
00:31:34
worth. And depending on the store in the cut, I'm like seven different pant sizes. You feel like he could probably
00:31:39
have squeezed his feet in his size 11 shoes. He also could have like not even been wearing shoes and just like right
00:31:44
we keep going back to this May the prince. Anyways, back to the car. So nothing tying him to the crime scene
00:31:50
physically, but what they find is something interesting. So there is a receipt from a McDonald's near the
00:31:57
resort timestamped at 6:59 a.m. on Sunday the 26th. But John's story was that he didn't even leave the hotel
00:32:06
until late that morning to go golfing. Yeah. And like McDonald's never played a leading role in his story. So when they
00:32:14
bring him back in and question him about this, all he can say is like, "Oh my god, I totally forgot that I left to get
00:32:21
breakfast that morning." Like just slipped my mind. If this was like months, even weeks ago, I'd be like,
00:32:28
"Okay, little mixup." But we're not asking about a month ago, John. We're literally talking like 24 hours ago. I
00:32:35
know. I think about serial when like the way Serial season 1 starts where it's like where was the teenager 6 weeks ago.
00:32:40
Like it's John like where were you this like yesterday morning? I know. So we've
00:32:45
got this timeline now. And in this timeline he is unaccounted for for maybe 8 and 1/2 hours. Although unaccounted
00:32:54
for maybe isn't the right phrase because I mean per his story he's sleeping in his hotel room by himself like he should
00:33:00
have been. But we know that the round trip home and back would have taken right around 3 hours give or take. Like
00:33:07
it's 90 minutes each way. Okay, which would leave him a minimum of 5 to 5 and 1/2 hours to theoretically wipe out his
00:33:15
family, do some careful staging and then get breakfast. Was it all truly staging
00:33:22
though? I mean, the photos being turned around feel like a very real part. That part feels real, right? Wow. And it
00:33:29
would take time to do, but it it more makes me think it was someone who, like you said, who knew the family, who
00:33:35
couldn't bear to look at all these photos. Like, it's it's the only real thing here. That feels super personal.
00:33:41
And maybe it is the only real thing. Like and especially when you think about the fact that Cheryl and Tyler's faces
00:33:48
were covered and like Jennifer is like curled up in a ball face down. All of this to me says that it's someone who
00:33:56
was familiar with them. Someone who felt some sort of way after they did what they did during Yeah. and like couldn't
00:34:04
bear to look at the faces of the people that they killed. But the question is, was that someone John? Because even
00:34:12
though the McDonald's receipt is definitely sketch, like the fact that he left it out and it looks really bad for
00:34:18
him, there was something else in the car that actually plays in his favor. John was known to keep a written travel log
00:34:26
in his car where he records all of his mileage. I don't know why. I don't know if the school district like reimbures
00:34:32
for travel or what or like I've truly also my friend's dad does this for like no reason other than his own records.
00:34:38
Just for fun. Cool. Yeah. So, he's got this like detailed log. And when investigators compare the mileage on the
00:34:44
car to the travel log, it matches perfectly for him not making the extra drive home and back. Like, there's no
00:34:53
unaccounted for miles for an extra trip home to kill your family. Per the log, there were just enough miles for him to
00:35:00
have gone on the trip, but not to have made another trip home and back. Listen, I am admittedly not a math girly. But
00:35:11
how hard would that be to fake though? Especially if this was like planned well in advance. Just pad your mileage log
00:35:18
here and there for days, weeks. So when it all comes down to it, those extra miles in your murder your family road
00:35:24
trip are already quote unquote accounted for. Totally possible. But I mean, when you look at everything
00:35:31
as a whole, we have no physical evidence. you have a matching mileage log no matter how you got there. So,
00:35:37
police don't have a lot to work with if they think that John's their guy. Now, for the first week following the
00:35:42
murders, John and Cheryl's family present a really united front. They even go to the funeral home to pick out
00:35:49
caskets together for the funeral, which is held the following Friday. But then the united front becomes a little less
00:35:56
so. And it's because of what happens when John sits for another interview, which will turn out to be his last
00:36:03
interview. This is on Saturday, the day after the funeral and almost a week after the murders. By now, his family
00:36:10
has caught on that investigators are looking at him closely, which like, yes, duh. We said he's the husband. So, they
00:36:16
hire him, this hot shot local defense lawyer, to represent him like mid-in quite literally. Which life rule number
00:36:23
nine, always get a lawyer, for sure. But so this attorney h high tails it to the
00:36:27
station and is like knock you're talking to my client there like I need to speak
00:36:32
with him. But investigators are like sorry sir I can't let you in on account of John hasn't personally invoked his
00:36:39
rights. So the lawyer asked them to pass along a message to his client which I can truly only imagine is just do not
00:36:46
talk, shut the hell up. Shut up. Yeah. What whatever it is. Investigators also declined that request too. So the
00:36:53
interview continues. At some point they ask him to take a polygraph but he says no thank you and they don't have
00:37:00
anything to hold him on. So after a couple of hours John scadaddles and from that point forward he declines further
00:37:06
interview requests at the advice of his new lawyer. So is the hiring a lawyer or
00:37:11
not taking a polygraph what causes a rift between the families? The polygraph is what plants the first seeds of doubt
00:37:18
with Cheryl's family. And I mean investigators don't like it either. They tell the press that it'll be really hard
00:37:24
to rule him out until he agrees to sit for one. John's lawyer points out that like, listen, he's been super
00:37:31
cooperative. He has turned over whatever financial documents they've asked for. He's given them samples of his blood,
00:37:36
his hair. He they like he's let them hold on to his car, and he points out that duh, polygraphs are BS, right?
00:37:44
Also, investigators wanted him to take the test with their polygrapher, like not even like a third party or someone
00:37:50
they picked. So, like double no. Yeah, but in the end like there's nothing investigators can do to like make him
00:37:57
take it, right? Mhm. And so the show or the investigation must go on. Consistent
00:38:03
with what John told them about Saturday night, which the Oage PD mostly already confirmed. Anyway, investigators are
00:38:08
able to get footage from John's traffic stop. And this is what year exactly? This 95. I was surprised. Yeah. Uh, and
00:38:17
if we have footage of this traffic stop, do we have like other footage, hotels, businesses? I guess none that makes a
00:38:25
difference. None that John ends up being on. Like there's footage from a few gas
00:38:31
stations where they like there may or may not have been sightings of him. Although like none that really pan out
00:38:36
to me. It's like the hotel footage that I spiral on. I'm like in this entire resort there's nothing showing like was
00:38:42
his car there? Did he leave? Like I would say even like an entrance exit camera showing like if he did or did not
00:38:50
leave. But like nobody talks about that. The police said they looked for footage,
00:38:54
got footage, but like I'm like dying to know specifically about the hotel and I've never seen anything about that. So
00:39:01
the only relevant footage is from the traffic stop, which doesn't clear Jon by any means, but it puts him by the resort
00:39:08
just like he said. So maybe they've got this all wrong. Maybe Rita was reading too much into his interest in the other
00:39:14
case and like it never crossed his mind since. Say he's just a grieving husband.
00:39:19
Except something in the footage catches their eye. Rita swears that she has seen
00:39:26
the belt that Jon is wearing in that footage before. Specifically, she thinks she's seen that belt at the crime scene.
00:39:34
See, when the scene was processed, investigators had found a belt just like the one in the video rolled up on the
00:39:42
counter in the house, which is like weird. Not a place for a belt, whatever. But again, what about the scene isn't
00:39:47
weird, right? And at the time, they didn't know like what to make of that without context. Also, like I leave like
00:39:53
my shoes on the counter, so like whatever. But now seeing this, Rita starts to think, what if John came in,
00:40:02
undressed completely so that you wouldn't get blood on you, rolled up his belt for like some unknown reason,
00:40:08
whatever, took out his family, and then like when he got redressed, left the belt behind, which like you said might
00:40:15
explain why there wasn't any blood on John's clothes or in his car or anywhere on him. Yeah, it might. And like what's
00:40:22
extra interesting is that as far as like anything that's been reported or we've seen like no belt was found in John's
00:40:29
room at the resort, but it's on the footage of his traffic stop at 10:30. Where' the belt go? Right. So Rita can't
00:40:37
shake this feeling, right? Like it's like just when just when you're about to say like was it wrong? Like am I reading
00:40:43
into things? Like you get these like little things. And what really seals the deal for her is this next thing. So, Jon
00:40:50
is posted up in a hotel room near Springfield while his house is sealed off as a crime scene. And there's this
00:40:57
time or this point in time when investigators, Rita included, show up with a search warrant. And she talks
00:41:02
about this on the Ozarks podcast that, you know, when they show up, John's a good sport about this, like not that he
00:41:06
has a choice. And while investigators are doing their thing, one of them is like, "Man, John, like I really wish
00:41:12
that you would talk to us some more." And Rita says at this point, this like smug smile takes over John's face and he
00:41:22
looks her dead in the eye and says, quote, "Well, you know, I once had a very wise person tell me that the best
00:41:30
way to stay out of prison is to never talk to the police." I can't say he's wrong. Again, always
00:41:40
get a lawyer. Mhm. But woof. Yeah. In that moment, Rita says any doubt that she had about his guilt just evaporates.
00:41:50
And she's hit with the realization that John may well have been plotting to kill
00:41:55
his family even back when she was in his night class and he had all those questions about the case that she was
00:42:01
investigating. But you don't have to be a crime junkie to know that you can't arrest a guy based on a snarky comment.
00:42:06
and whatever they were looking for when they issued that search warrant, it doesn't seem like they find it because
00:42:11
Jon is still a free man who does something that again turns a lot of heads when they finally do end up
00:42:19
releasing his house back to him. Jon just like moves back in. What? Yeah. And like so many people have issue with this
00:42:27
because they're like this is where your entire family in all three bedrooms like
00:42:31
your family was taken out. There's signs of this everywhere and sure it gets cleaned up or whatever, but like he you
00:42:38
know he said that that's just where he had the memories of his family. It's like where he remembers the good times
00:42:42
and that's what he's choosing to remember. I don't think I could I don't I couldn't
00:42:48
I couldn't do it. Yeah, I couldn't sleep at night there. But like also could you
00:42:51
sleep at night if you were the one who did it? I mean again you have to be a true monster to have I don't know. It's
00:42:57
just like it's something that everyone had takes issue with. But he says like the other thing I'll say is like again
00:43:03
they weren't like in debt or anything but like I don't know their financial situation. I don't know if he could
00:43:08
afford to Yeah. like just getting another house or like living in a hotel like that's not a financial option for
00:43:15
like most of the world. So there's that. But while he moves back in and everyone's looking at him like
00:43:21
investigators are losing it because they feel like the truth is right in front of
00:43:25
them. They just can't prove it. Again, they still don't even have a motive. They can't go to a jury with no what and
00:43:33
how and no why. But sometime in March, investigators received a bombshell report involving those additional tests
00:43:43
that the medical examiner ordered on Tyler. And they think that this is the thing that is finally going to give them
00:43:50
a Y. The cause of Tyler's liver damage was hepatitis B. What? That is not at all
00:44:00
what I was expecting. I thought I know. Isn't he happy usually transmitted through like sexual activity or IV drug
00:44:07
use? Like it's kind of rare to see it in a kid, right? It's it's very unusual to
00:44:13
see in a kid, but it's not unheard of. So, there are other ways for children to contract it. Like, it can be passed from
00:44:19
mother to child. It's also spread through bodily fluids, which means in theory he could have picked it up at
00:44:26
school or something like that, but it is unlikely. So, this is when investigators start to
00:44:33
form a theory. What if Jon had been sexually abusing his son and Cheryl found out and threatened to turn him in?
00:44:42
Maybe this would be enough to make him do something desperate. So, the next step obviously is to test both Jon and
00:44:50
Cheryl for the disease. And they're like fully expecting Jon's results to come back positive, but they don't. And
00:44:58
neither do Cheryl's. Neither of them has ever had hepatitis B. Okay. So, what does that even mean?
00:45:09
Like, was someone else abusing Tyler? Maybe. Probably. I mean, they don't know. All they do know is that Tyler's
00:45:17
infection didn't come from either of his parents. And listen, police were right.
00:45:21
This would be a strong motive to kill the family, but it's a motive that now points to it being someone other than
00:45:28
John. And as they get more test results from other stuff back, more and more continues to point away from John. While
00:45:37
the hairs found on Cheryl's night gown and the garage and paintbrush don't yield a full DNA profile, the lab is
00:45:44
able to confirm that they are not consistent with John or Cheryl's hair more than just like color like
00:45:50
genetically. And when you say hair, like what are we talking about? Like strands,
00:45:55
a clump, like what are we dealing with here? You can count like you can count them on one hand. Like the reddish brown
00:46:00
hair, there was like I think there's one of them on the night gown. There was like a few of the gray ones. So barely
00:46:05
any. Okay. Now, they do end up getting a hit with the seaman on the bedspread that belongs to John, but like it's his
00:46:15
bed. His seam in his bed. Yet, it certainly doesn't prove anything. Investigators though would tell you
00:46:19
context is everything because investigators say that they end up learning Cheryl had a habit of washing
00:46:25
the comforter on Saturdays. So if she was killed Saturday night, they allege that this puts him in the house when he
00:46:35
says he wasn't. Does it though? If he was home Saturday and all of this could have happened
00:46:42
after she washed the comforter, but before he left. Like that doesn't it doesn't feel definitive to me. It's well
00:46:48
um them being like intimate or or anything h like that's never part of his story. And do we know for sure she even
00:46:54
washed the comforter that week though? Like she's running errands. She has a sick kid. Her husband's going out of
00:46:59
town for a conference. Like, I could see that being something that doesn't happen
00:47:02
this week. I I agree. And we don't know. There's nobody that I've seen that's been able to confirm like she for sure
00:47:08
watched it that day. No. And like another thing I'm having trouble wrapping my head around is the motive.
00:47:16
Like, does one actually exist? I know murdering your wife and kids like doesn't feel like a sexually motivated
00:47:25
crime. So, like where does that play into like this theory? And it's strange. I mean, again, they they've never said
00:47:32
that she was sexually assaulted. I don't think she was. So, it's more that like they're just saying like his semen is
00:47:40
there. It shouldn't be there based on his story, so it puts him there. Case closed. Even though like again, if they
00:47:47
want to say context is everything, like okay, what's the context of it being there? Like it does not make sense. But
00:47:52
I think the details matter less because they think they've got their guy. And you know this gets like I think this
00:48:00
feeling gets bolstered a little bit when investigators start realizing that John
00:48:05
Feny the teacher dad husband may be more of a mask than an identity because he is
00:48:12
a man with a lot of needs surrounding sex and female attention almost like to a compulsive degree and not always
00:48:20
within his marriage it turns out. Here we go. Yes. Okay. I thought it was weird that he was driving around going dinner
00:48:27
with another woman solo while he's out of town and his wife and kids are back at home. Dude, I like I was like, I
00:48:32
don't know. Maybe it's me. I know. No, that's kind of weird, right? I thought so, too. And I was like, yes. Yeah, I
00:48:38
thought so, too. Actually, believe it or not, though, Pam tells investigators what like that dinner thing wasn't a
00:48:43
date. And like again, remember this whole time Jon has been adamant to investigators that he was faithful to
00:48:49
Cheryl, which of course is a big fat lie because date or no date this time, like
00:48:55
this night. It turns out Pam and John definitely had an affair. Like she eventually admits to that, but she said
00:49:03
it was very brief, happened like three or four times. They ended things the prior November. And when they were doing
00:49:09
this, like their rendevous were always at, you guessed it, teachers conferences. And interestingly, Pam
00:49:17
makes sure to clarify that it hadn't even involved sex sex, just what she calls like intimate relations, which
00:49:25
like I don't know, it sounds the same to me. Like it it sounds like when like super conservative people are like,
00:49:30
"Well, it didn't go in there." And I'm like, my friends like a hole is a hole. Like Jesus made our bodies. A hole is a
00:49:37
hole. You know, that's how I feel. Truly. Truly. Anyways, so it's not just Pam that they find. Another one of the
00:49:45
affairs that they find out about was with this woman who claims that John used quote unquote mind control on her,
00:49:51
which is like what your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea what it means. Like I there's nobody else out there
00:49:57
saying that John like does witchcraft or anything wild like that. Like so I don't
00:50:02
know. But she goes into detail about some of their encounters, including an especially racy one that took place on a
00:50:08
boat involving John and her and two other men. And this was also at a teachers conference. No, no, no, no. So,
00:50:15
it seems like teachers conferences are his like hunting grounds, but what happens at teachers conferences does not
00:50:20
always stay at teachers conferences. So, he takes that stuff right on home with him and like continues to act in some
00:50:28
pretty objectionable ways. See, it turns out that John, who was put on administrative leave after the murders,
00:50:34
has always tried really, really hard to seem cool to his students. No. Nope. No way. No. No. No. No. No. Some of it was
00:50:44
in the category of like gross but seemingly innocuous. Chris Bentley and Robert Keys report in the Springfield
00:50:51
news leader that I guess he had a thing for Cindy Crawford and he like made a point to joke around about it in class
00:50:57
especially with like the other male students which like I know he said seemingly innocuous but like this is not
00:51:03
good. Red flag to anyone whose teachers is like having conversations with them like this. Like a teacher should never
00:51:09
be talking about who they have a thing for. Like it is completely and totally inappropriate type of conversation for
00:51:16
an adult and a minor to have, especially for an adult teacher and their minor student. Like these are the little
00:51:22
things that you do have to watch out for like the boundary testers. Like if you write off the little ones, it makes room
00:51:28
for more and more. Like, oh, you're not just like teacher and student, you're friends. Like he gets you. So maybe it
00:51:36
wasn't weird. It was just cool to the kids when there's this time when he buys them alcohol, which is a tip that does
00:51:44
come in about him. Like I guess he was at a bar and some students were there who like who he would clearly know were
00:51:50
underage. Like duh, they're his students. Yeah. And he bought them some drinks. And when this came out, John
00:51:56
actually tried to sue the investigators to get them to stop sharing further information to the press, but like all
00:52:01
of it ends up getting dropped. Then there are other former students who had weird experiences with Jon that they
00:52:06
with the benefit of hindsight feel like were Jon's attempts to put them in inappropriate situations like to hang
00:52:12
out socially, maybe even one-on-one, that kind of thing. Which takes me back to my point about like boundary testing,
00:52:19
what you would call grooming. John was for sure testing his boundaries there. But there are no reports of him coming
00:52:28
on to or doing anything physical with a student technically. So there is one super
00:52:35
disturbing story from a former student and she actually tells Ann Rodri Jones about this in the podcast. So apparently
00:52:42
there was this post-graduation camping trip that John went on with some recent grads like ostensibly. I would assume
00:52:49
he's there as a chaperone. I otherwise I don't know why he would be there. But he
00:52:55
apparently saw this as a prime opportunity to cozy up to one of the girls. And according to the former
00:53:00
student, they eventually slept together. Now to be clear, everyone involved was 18 at the time. Like this is after
00:53:07
graduation, but she was a former student. Barely former. Yeah. And it is wildly inappropriate and manipulative
00:53:14
and abusive power dynamics, like all the things. Yeah. So, all of that to say, if
00:53:21
there is a motive, police believe it's Jon's philandering. Did Cheryl know, not know? We don't know. But whether she did
00:53:30
or not, they think Jon just wanted to wipe the slate clean, start over, minus the wife and kids, and plus a cool
00:53:39
quarter of a million. Cuz guess what? They find out that John took out an additional life insurance policy on
00:53:46
Cheryl for $250,000 just months before the murders, which like well, of course he did, like they
00:53:55
always do. And though handwriting experts believe Cheryl filled out one part of the application, they're pretty
00:54:03
sure that the final signature is not hers. They can't prove it's John's either, but probably not Cheryl's. So,
00:54:11
like that's not that's confusing. Like everything. Now, it's important to note um there was some sort of promotion
00:54:20
thing going on that the insurance company was doing for teachers in the area at the time when Cheryl's life
00:54:26
insurance was upped. And we know this because the podcaster Ann Rodri Jones, she says her own aunt was a teacher in
00:54:32
the area around this time and she remembers it. So maybe that's the reason that the coverage got up at that time.
00:54:40
like a lot of teachers were doing the same thing. But all of this just has me even more upside down on what to think
00:54:46
about this one. There is like a lot of not great stuff here. But like nothing is flashing lights guilty to me. On the
00:54:57
other hand, nothing is like totally innocent either. I truly don't know where I stand. It's all circumstantial,
00:55:05
right? Which is why it is a huge deal when months into the investigation, investigators find a witness or maybe
00:55:14
settle on a witness. It's this gas station worker from near Springfield who says that he remembers John stopping to
00:55:22
get gas in the wee hours of that Sunday morning after the murders. And this guy's actually been on investigators
00:55:29
radar for a while, but his original stories to police weren't super helpful timing wise because they placed John in
00:55:36
Springfield at a time that he couldn't have been there, which investigators knew because of the McDonald's receipt
00:55:42
that they found in his car. But then the worker's time changed by like a good 3 or 4 hours and like presto changenjo,
00:55:50
we've got ourselves an eyewitness who's going to be like the star of the show. Cool. Cool. Cool. So, he's kind of
00:55:56
useless. a halfway decent defense attorney will rip his story to shreds. They're willing to take the chance
00:56:02
because in January of 1996, they put this case before a grand jury, which John pleaded the fifth before, FYI. And
00:56:12
by April, the grand jury has returned three indictments for first-degree murder. So, while there might be some
00:56:18
holes to fill in their story and their theory and their case, clearly these grand jurors see what the police see.
00:56:25
And the police are thinking that they're going to have time to like shore things
00:56:28
up before the trial. They'll like, you know, just take their time, push it out, maybe even years.
00:56:33
Problem is, we have this little thing called a right to a speedy trial. And John's lawyers take full advantage. You
00:56:41
want to charge him? Let's go and let's go now. So all of a sudden, the prosecution finds itself scrambling. And
00:56:48
it sure doesn't help that the one eyewitness they have doesn't just have a questionable story that's going to leave
00:56:55
the jury wondering, you know, was it right the first time or the second time. The defense is not playing those games.
00:57:01
They get their hands on the gas station attendants time cards. And guess who wasn't even working the night that this
00:57:08
went down. So his story is completely useless. Yeah. It's not real. They cannot use him. So when they go to trial
00:57:17
in September of 1996, it is without their key witness cuz they don't have one. Nope. And that's just the beginning
00:57:24
of the unraveling. Over time, they had found a few friends of Cheryl's who were prepared to testify that she had
00:57:31
confided in them about wanting a divorce. Even said maybe she was scared of John. But they end up being
00:57:37
prohibited from testifying based on case law that get this actually stemmed from
00:57:42
that case that Rita was investigating while she was in like John's night class. So the husband in that case was
00:57:49
convicted but actually like big twist not long before John's trial. His conviction was vacated based on hearsay
00:57:56
violations. He later got retrieded and acquitted by the way. But the judge in John's case decides that this decision,
00:58:04
the one about the hearsay violations, prevents him from allowing Cheryl's friends from testifying to things that
00:58:09
she said about their marriage. And Cheryl possibly wanting a divorce is a big deal. Remember, John's dad is a
00:58:18
minister in the ultraconservative church of Christ, which at the time is like, "Oh, the shame about divorce." So if
00:58:26
Cheryl divorced him, the thinking goes it could have been super embarrassing to his family. And like it sounds wild, but
00:58:35
we have seen this play out before. Like, oh, divorce is awful, so let me just like go with the lesser crime of murder
00:58:41
in the eyes of God, right? Like obviously sarcasm, but like that's their argument. He wanted out. He wanted to be
00:58:48
free, but like divorce was not an option. Mhm. The thing is, and this is what the defense argues, is like John
00:58:55
was already free. He was out sewing his wild oats. He was living his best life. But this thing actually still goes to
00:59:03
trial. And this did he didn't he plays out in court. Now, up to a point, I could see jurors leaning in either
00:59:10
direction. But where the prosecution starts to lose them, I suspect, is when they bring up vampires. I'm sorry,
00:59:16
Ashley. You have not brought up vampires. I know. Why would the prosecutors What? So, okay.
00:59:25
Investigators had apparently learned that John maybe sometimes plays a role- playinging game called Vampires of the
00:59:32
Masquerade. And I say maybe sometimes, by the way, because some of the reporting just says he knows about the
00:59:38
game through his students. So, it's like not even 100% that he plays this game at
00:59:42
all. Either way, think like we talked about Dungeons and Dragons before, right? Like it's that with vampires.
00:59:48
Okay. Per the prosecution, when John, a man with no history of violence, set out
00:59:54
with the unenviable task of decimating his entire family, he just pretended he was a vampire and was killing them in
01:00:02
his game. And I would love to say that I'm oversimplifying this, but I'm really not. Like that's that's what they put
01:00:09
forward. And I'm thinking all of this is happening while the US is still like peak satanic panic era. Yeah. So,
01:00:18
they're like I mean I don't know. I don't know what they thought that they were going to gain by this or whatever,
01:00:24
but like I think that they're it's it's why we've seen the Dungeons and Dragons thing play out before, right? Where it's
01:00:29
just like a game that's like a little weird like and like if people don't understand it, they're afraid of it.
01:00:34
Sure. Yeah. So, again, he's acting as a vampire. This is the prosecution's story. Cool. Meanwhile, the defense
01:00:42
argues a much more believable theory than that one. that someone had been abusing Tyler, had suddenly decided that
01:00:51
they didn't want to risk anyone finding out. And in support of this theory, they
01:00:55
point to the hairs that don't belong to Cheryl or John, found on Cheryl and on a
01:01:01
paintbrush used by presumably the killer. Yeah. And it's very freaking possible that there might have been more
01:01:08
physical evidence pointing to an outside intruder that just wasn't collected. So,
01:01:14
come to find out, some super important crime scene surfaces, like I mean, we're talking Tyler's headboard, Jennifer's
01:01:21
crib, for instance. Like, those were never dusted for Prince. So, like the lowest of the lowhanging fruit that
01:01:28
investigators just totally dismissed, like botched. And again, let's go to how did he contract hep B? Ann Rodrik Jones
01:01:37
notes in her podcast that the official who tracks infectious disease cases for the county was given like a list of 155
01:01:46
names of people who had potential contact with Tyler. And when they compared that to the people being
01:01:52
tracked, like none of those names were on the list. But does that mean it's someone they didn't know had contact
01:01:59
with him or someone who wasn't being tracked? like there's there's still like a hole potentially in that either I I
01:02:06
it's very likely that it's the second because he B isn't something routinely tested for without a specific reason but
01:02:13
this is what's wild to me like they do this like comparison with the list and as far as I can tell that's about where
01:02:19
the efforts to figure out how he got he like stopped. So it's not like they went
01:02:24
back and started testing people who had contact with Tyler. It's like the second
01:02:29
they found out it wasn't John, they're just like, "Oh, well, that doesn't fit our theory, so let's not investigate. We
01:02:36
don't need to find out how he got it." Like, no longer relevant. So when the jury goes to deliberate on October 5th,
01:02:41
1996, they are sent to do so with no forensics, no witnesses, no murder weapon, no nothing other than vampires
01:02:51
and a bad husband with an arguably predatory past and like this bad investigation to look at. So everyone is
01:03:00
on pins and needles until the jurors come back less than 5 hours later with their verdict. Not guilty. Not guilty.
01:03:10
Not guilty. Which to be clear is not a vote of confidence in the innocence of John Feny. Most of the town jurors
01:03:18
included very much think he is guilty AF. No one is more disappointed in the verdict than Rita who told Anne Rodri
01:03:26
Jones that there was evidence that the prosecution just didn't introduce. Like example would be the belt thing. So,
01:03:34
it's like doubly frustrating when jurors explain in interviews that they just weren't given the evidence to prove the
01:03:40
case. Like there was reasonable doubt. And when an interviews the judge who presided over the case, even he says
01:03:48
that he wasn't surprised by the verdict. In the weeks following Jon's acquitt, Cheryl's family sues to prevent him from
01:03:55
collecting on her insurance policies. Although the suit doesn't really go anywhere and it is eventually dropped.
01:04:01
John gets the proceeds, but he pledges to dedicate $50,000 to funding a private investigation into who really did kill
01:04:08
his family. If he did, though, I couldn't find any evidence for it. Now, he sticks around in Springfield for a
01:04:14
while, but at some point, he moves away, eventually landing in Ecuador, where he
01:04:19
resumes his career. He even remarries and builds a new family. And that's pretty much the end of the story until
01:04:28
an released that season of her podcast on this case in 2022, which by the way, I'm going to plug it again, Ozark's True
01:04:36
Crime. It is a really great podcast by a team of like really great folks. I'll link to it in the show notes. Anyway,
01:04:41
after it comes out, Ann hears from a kid who was a neighbor of John's at the time
01:04:47
of the murders. And it turns out that this kid could have been the witness that the prosecution needed was just
01:04:58
overlooked. Someone who placed John at his house in the wee hours of the morning the night of the murders. So
01:05:06
this neighbor, I think she said she was like 9 or 10 at the time, tells Anne that she was up that night with a
01:05:12
stomach ache. She woke up her parents sometime between 2 and 4:00 a.m. and they told her just like go take some
01:05:17
Pepto. And on her way back to bed, she looked out her window and saw John's bright red Mustang sitting in the
01:05:25
freaking driveway. She even thought to herself like, "Oh, weird. Mr. Finey never parks his bright red Mustang in
01:05:31
his driveway." And then she went back to bed. Now, as soon as she heard about the
01:05:36
murders a few days later, she told her dad what she'd seen. And her dad, who could corroborate that she'd been awake
01:05:42
that night at that time, made sure she repeated the whole story to investigators.
01:05:47
But somehow her sighting got like misplaced or overlooked or whatever because when an interviews the
01:05:55
prosecutor, he says that that's the first time he's hearing anything of this. Same goes for Rita. And because of
01:06:01
double jeopardy laws, John can't be tried again with this information or not. No. And I mean like this is the
01:06:08
part of the episode where I would normally say like if you have any tips or know anything, please call X Y andZ
01:06:13
agency at whatever number. But like this officially at least is a closed case. But in my opinion, it's a closed case
01:06:20
with way too many unanswered questions. Like have those hairs from the crime scene ever been analyzed with more
01:06:27
advanced technology? Like how did Tyler contract he be? If I were law enforcement in Springfield, I don't
01:06:33
know. I'd want to be sure. No, you can't try John Feny again. But what if? What if it wasn't him? Police might not be
01:06:43
listening anymore, but I don't know. I guess I am. So, if you're in Springfield and you know anything, the line's open.
01:06:51
Send me an email. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website,
01:06:57
crimejunkkeyodcast.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkkeyodcast. We'll be back next
01:07:03
week with a brand new episode. [Music]