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Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 27 - In the Bag - Full Episode

January 28, 2022 / 21:45

This episode covers the murder of Jack and Linda Myers, the investigation led by law enforcement, and the eventual arrest of their son Greg Myers.

The episode begins with the chilling account of four-year-old Johnny Huffman, who discovers his great-grandparents dead in their home in Bradford, Ohio. The investigation reveals that the couple was shot with a 12-gauge shotgun, and the crime scene showed signs of a planned attack rather than a robbery.

As police investigate, they consider various suspects, including Johnny's biological father, Andrew Huffman, and Jack's son, Greg Myers. Greg is found to have a motive due to financial troubles and the potential inheritance of his father's property.

Evidence begins to mount against Greg when investigators recover a shotgun and other items from the Stillwater River, including a latex glove with a partial fingerprint matching Greg. Surveillance footage shows him purchasing ammunition just days before the murders.

Ultimately, Greg Myers is arrested and convicted of two counts of aggravated murder, receiving two life sentences. The episode highlights the complexities of the investigation and the tragic impact on young Johnny.

TLDR

Four-year-old Johnny discovers his great-grandparents murdered; investigation leads to his uncle Greg, who is ultimately convicted of the crime.

Episode

21:45
00:00:05
up next a young boy is the only witness to murder but he didn't see the man's face
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whoever came there came there with a specific purpose to kill the killer did almost everything right the serial
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number on this weapon was obliterated until he made one small mistake that masking tape was of the same color as
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the masking tape that was wrapped around the homemade silencer it was a crime that defied a simple explanation
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the goriest crime scene i've ever witnessed in my 17 years in law enforcement if they had not found the
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big bag of evidence this crime may never have been solved [Music] four-year-old johnny huffman was usually
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driven to preschool by a family member on this morning he ran to school wearing only his pajamas and a pair of boots
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[Music] when he got to his classroom an hour late he was covered in blood and told his teachers some horrible news
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about his great grandparents police were immediately called to johnny's home
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i ended up entering into the myers bedroom where i found jack and linda myers lying in bed and both were
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deceased as a result of gunshot wounds to their heads apparently the killer used some sort of silencer it was
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quilting material used to make quilts or baby blankets had masking tape on one end and some black powder on it it was
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shaped in the form of a cone-shaped thing the murder weapon was a 12-gauge shotgun and it was apparent
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that jack was killed before linda because her injuries were not just to her head but also to her hands so she
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may have started to wake up and raise her hand because it showed an injury to the hand as well as to her her face
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this raised the possibility that jack myers was the primary target the motive didn't appear to be robbery
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no money or valuables were missing there was a deposit bag in plain view in the kitchen it was the money from the
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pizza business that they ran there was a significant amount of cash in that deposit bag hadn't been disturbed hadn't
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been taken the medical examiner estimated that the time of death was between 4 and 6 a.m
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police canvassed the area and one of the neighbors saw a minivan in the myers driveway as she left for
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work around 4 30 in the morning she wasn't familiar with either jack or linda having a minivan so it struck her
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as very odd that a minivan would be backing out of the residence at that time of the morning
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the neighbor could not provide a detailed description of the van or the driver outside the meyer's home
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the phone lines had been cut and the basement window had been removed investigators also found shoe
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impressions in the dirt casts were made for later analysis it was a partial print of the shoe we did
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not find a complete full impression of the entire shoe just a partial print four-year-old johnny was the only other
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person living in the house his great-grandparents had custody because his mother was a teenager and
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too young to care for him when questioned johnny told police he didn't hear any loud noises like
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gunshots during the night only that he found his great-grandparents in a pool of blood
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when he woke up he had taken a kleenex and he tried to wipe the blood and he reported to us that the blood was just
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too much and he couldn't do anything about it but johnny was able to tell investigators one important thing
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he said sometime during the night he saw a green monster in his bedroom did this
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mean that johnny saw the killer just before dawn an unidentified gunman broke into a
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farmhouse in bradford ohio and killed the owners jack and linda myers it was clear to investigators that the
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double homicide had nothing to do with robbery nobody appeared to have ransacked
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through drawers or closets or anything looking for anything so it appeared to the investigators that whoever had
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entered the home had obviously done it because they intended to kill jack and linda myers
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the couple had been married for seven years and each had children from previous marriages
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even though my mom met jack at a later time in her life that was her soulmate that was her
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night in shining armor investigators knew that the couple ran a pizza shop but they found no indication
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they had problems with business associates however jack's side businesses raised concerns
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jack started a car business he would buy cars repair them and sell them to people
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and a majority of these vehicles would be sold on payments you know to help people out
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not surprisingly some of these people were unable to make the payments we had learned that if people weren't paying
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their car payment on time he had no problem going and seizing that vehicle repossessing it and taking it back
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the myers also owned some rental properties and had recently evicted tenants who were behind in their rent
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and we had to look at that as a motive for the murder when investigators asked family members
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if there were any relatives who wanted to do jack and linda harm they all identified the same person
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andrew huffman andrew huffman is the biological father of the four-year-old little boy that
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jack and linda have custody of linda and andrew huffman's relationship was strained from the beginning
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huffman had refused to pay child support for johnny andrew did not like my mother
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she made him very angry because she would not let him be around johnny it escalated to
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just a heated argument and he threatened to kill her that's why he was a suspect
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because that is motive right there after an exhaustive search investigators found andrew huffman in
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another state we were able to put a timeline together he was placed at his own residence in kentucky would not give
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him enough time to get up to greenville ohio so huffman was eliminated as a suspect
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another family member holding a grudge was jack meyer's 25 year old son greg
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greg was divorced and going through some financial difficulties he was missing work due to some drug and
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alcohol problems his house was about to be foreclosed so he asked his father for help
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he didn't come out and say no i'm not helping you it's like greg stay off the
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drugs and alcohol go to work every day pay your bills and you can save your house
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and police learned that greg stood to inherit his father's farmhouse in the event of his death
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greg myers denied having any involvement in the murder of his father or stepmother
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he worked 30 miles away at a local car parts factory and punched in at 5 23 a.m we spent a considerable amount of time
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at his place of employment searching a number of dumpsters there but a search of those dumpsters at that manufacturing
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plant revealed nothing police obtained a warrant to search greg's house and came up empty we were never able to
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locate a 12-gauge shotgun at greg's residence we were also looking for any 12-gauge ammunition slugs or that sort
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of thing we never found any of those items at his residence and they also learned that greg wore
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shoes two sizes bigger than the shoe impressions found at the crime scene the inability to find a matching shoe at
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greg's residence was extremely frustrating to the investigators and police found
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no green overalls or hunting outfit like the one johnny described seeing on the night of the murders
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with no other viable suspects police were starting to worry that the murders might never be solved
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the medical examiner estimated that jack and linda meyers were murdered sometime
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between four and six a.m the prime suspect jack's 25-year-old son greg had an alibi for at least part of that time
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he said he was at work 30 miles away and had a stamped time sheet to prove it i remember specifically i think 5 23 a.m
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do you remember the exact time he supposedly clocked in on that day other than that
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you know he denied going near his father's house but greg myers did have a motive he was
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in financial trouble and he would inherit his father's farmhouse in the event of his death
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basically everybody's a suspect i've seen that this stuff that as far as like law and order stuff clear
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tv that family is always good first suspect there wasn't a significant amount of
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cash that was going to come to greg it was mostly assets that he would receive and that asset was
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in the form of property on a hunch investigators and volunteers searched all known traffic routes between the
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crime scene and greg's workplace systematically we're going to all the bridges along all the known routes
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there's only so many you can take in and get in there in a reasonable amount of
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time it took five days to search the 30 miles of roads and bridges and they had come
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up empty but they still had one more place to look the suggestion was made by a deputy
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and a division of wildlife officer that there was another location that they felt might have been used or
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another bridge that crossed the stillwater river and it was there in the shallow portion
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of the stillwater river that investigators got their first break there's a 12 gauge winchester pump
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shotgun it had masking tape around the barrel that masking tape was of the same color and the same width as the masking
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tape that was wrapped around on the homemade silencer device left at the crime scene
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it also had the serial numbers scratched off my initial impression was we're never
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going to get these numbers up and if we do we might get one or two at best the stillwater river bridge was just
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nine miles from the crime scene about a half mile downstream police discovered a black plastic bag that had
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floated down the river and become caught in some overhanging branches it only makes sense if a guy was going
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to throw the shotgun in the river he's also going to show the other forensic
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evidence in the river inside police found a pair of latex gloves two spent shotgun shells a green
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hunting jumpsuit and quilting material similar to the stuffing for the homemade silencer we also found other items of
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clothing in addition to a stocking mask that appeared to have been used they also
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found tennis shoes which were compared to the shoe impressions found at the crime scene
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examination of the cast taken at the scene and comparison of those with the shoes revealed that they were consistent
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in tread design but the ten issues were two sizes smaller than the shoe size of their
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prime suspect greg myers so again there was nothing in the bag which linked greg myers directly to the
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murders they were certainly concerned that a murderer could go free unless they did a lot of work to put the case
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together after that point since the serial number on the shotgun had been ground off
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investigators sent the gun to forensic scientist timothy door he knew that scratch marks usually weren't as deep as
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the original engraving the serial number may only be a few thousands of an inch but the compressed metal goes a lot
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deeper into the metal to restore the serial number doer applied an acid solution which only
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works at one level and goes no deeper it'll actually eat away and you can actually burn past the point of
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compression reacts differently between the compressed and uncompressed metal the compressed being the serial number
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the acid solution removed the top surface leaving the bottom or compressed metal
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virtually untouched upon utilizing the restoration techniques on this shotgun i was able to
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restore five of the eight digits in the serial number those restored were l three
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one four five but there was no shotgun with those serial numbers registered to greg myers
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was this another dead end [Music] investigators had no proof that the shotgun and clothes dumped in the
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stillwater river belonged to their prime suspect greg myers one of the things we suspected was that
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he probably sought out a firearm through a classified ad which also means that there's no atf paperwork to connect greg
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to the firearm on a hunch investigators subpoenaed greg's cell phone records and look for
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any unusual numbers detectives basically went through those records on the time period for the week
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or so before the murders first eliminating repetitive calls looking for individual numbers that stand out
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two numbers belong to individuals who advertise shotguns for sale in a local newspaper
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one seller recalled making a sale that week eugene adams had advice of detectives that point that yes someone
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had called his number came and purchased the shotgun from him adams told investigators that a man who
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identified himself as greg myers bought a 12-gauge winchester shotgun adams identified meyer's picture from a photo
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lineup adams also had the serial number of the gun he sold to myers it matched the serial number of the
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shotgun found in the stillwater river but prosecutors needed to find a way to definitively tie greg myers to
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the evidence found in the garbage bag and to do that scientists looked once more
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at the pair of latex gloves most fingerprints are perspiration and perspiration is 99
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water i didn't hold much hope that we were going to get any fingerprints because
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this bag had already been in the water for several days submerged in water so the chance of fingerprints was very
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minimal but just to be sure they used ultraviolet light both inside and out the light will basically reflect off the
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surface and basically i think the light's actually absorbed by the fingerprint itself
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amazingly inside houston found what scientists might call an anomaly but laymen call a miracle
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this is the only case i can remember i've ever had a print to come up to this
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quality that had been in the water for over three four or five days it was a partial print of an index
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finger and it matched greg myers oh man i tell you what i was jumping up and down to be real honest with you i
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was like this is awesome it survived most likely because he touched skin oil first
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it's possible that greg myers wiped his forehead before he put his hand inside
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the glove the oils from the forehead area would maybe transfer to his finger making that more of an oil-based type
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latent print with all the planning that he tried to do to avoid leaving evidence he ends up
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leaving a fingerprint inside the glove with the right index finger which would be his trigger finger
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lastly police canvassed gun stores in the area and found an invaluable piece of surveillance tape
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that videotape conclusively showed greg myers while he was accompanied by his own two small children purchasing the
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ammunition it was federal brand ammunition the same used in the murders and that happened
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just two days before the crimes were committed greg myers was arrested and charged with
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two counts of murder prosecutors believe greg bought undersized shoes overalls to protect his
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clothing and what he believed to be an untraceable shotgun [Music] he fashioned a homemade silencer
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then headed to his father's house around four o'clock in the morning he staged the scene to make it look like
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a break-in and left his shoe impressions evidence he wanted police to find [Music]
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according to the autopsy he shot his father first his stepmother woke up raised her arm to
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protect herself and he shot her too greg then went upstairs to check on johnny who must have pretended he was asleep or
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else he may have been killed too although johnny didn't recognize his uncle's face he certainly remembered the
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green overalls it was greg's van that the neighbor saw leaving the house around 4 30 in the
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morning [Music] his way to work greg threw the shotgun into the stillwater river
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he put everything else in the garbage bag and threw that into the river as well the next morning tragically
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four-year-old johnny woke to find his great-grandparents dead incredibly he ran over a mile to his
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preschool [Music] no one knows how he possibly found it but he did he got there he described the scene in the only way
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he could by simply explaining what he saw i walked into my grandparents room and i
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found the mountain i was very angry very sad he took my mother and my stepfather by murdering
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both of them he was supposed to be my close brother it saddened me sick and me angered me
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a jury found greg myers guilty of two counts of aggravated murder he was sentenced to two life sentences
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with no possibility of parole for all his careful planning he never realized two things
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first that the police could raise the scratched serial number and tie the shotgun to him
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and second that he left his fingerprint inside the latex glove that tied him to everything in the garbage bag
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when we found that shotgun it was just amazing it was it was it was a a sense of relief that
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we had some physical evidence we could get our hands on that i was hoping was going to connect him
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mr myers attempted to commit the perfect crime he planned he schemed he purchased
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he had it all thought out but in the end it didn't it didn't work out in his
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favor thankfully it worked out on the side of justice you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 85
    Biggest twist
  • 80
    Most emotional

Episode Highlights

  • The Only Witness
    A young boy becomes the sole witness to a horrific double murder.
    “A young boy is the only witness to...”
    @ 00m 06s
    January 28, 2022
  • The Crime Scene
    Investigators uncover a gruesome crime scene with no clear motive.
    “The goriest crime scene I've ever witnessed...”
    @ 00m 33s
    January 28, 2022
  • The Arrest of Greg Myers
    Greg Myers is arrested and charged with the murder of his father and stepmother.
    “Greg Myers was arrested and charged with two counts of murder.”
    @ 17m 47s
    January 28, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • I found the mountain.
    Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 27 - In the Bag - Full Episode
  • He was supposed to be my close brother.
    Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 27 - In the Bag - Full Episode
  • It was a sense of relief that we had some physical evidence.
    Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 27 - In the Bag - Full Episode
  • He attempted to commit the perfect crime.
    Forensic Files - Season 12, Episode 27 - In the Bag - Full Episode

Key Moments

  • Witness00:06
  • Gruesome Discovery00:33
  • Arrest17:47

Tension Over Time

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