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business further at T-Mobile.com/now. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever
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you are, whatever you're doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is a man who says,
00:01:34
"Watch out because card sharks and street preachers want your soul." Here is the captain. And don't you forget it.
00:01:41
It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
00:01:46
[Music] Today in the garage, we are drinking Moth Man Hazy Double India Pale Ale by
00:01:54
the Cool Cats over at Ogo Pogo Brewing. So hazy typically means that the beer is
00:02:00
unfiltered, which I love. I think it unfiltered beer has much more character. And while he is
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a creature of few, maybe even no words at all, few have more character than the Moth Man himself. You'll like this one.
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It has enough citrus in it that you'll want to order up another garage grade four out of five bottle caps. And let's
00:02:23
give some thanks and praise to our good garage friends that certainly have a lot
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of character themselves. First up, a cheers to Alicia Han in my not North Dakota. And a big we like a jib goes out
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to Amy in the big apple hole. New York City, New York. Here's a cheers to Rocky, a retired teacher of forensic
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science living in Fondulock, Wisconsin. And a big cheers goes out to Sher D in Atlanta. And last, but certainly not
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least, we have a longd distanceance cheers to Rosie and Sierra Madre, California. Everybody we mentioned went
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to true crimegar.com and helped us out with this week's beer run for the beer fund and for that we thank you. Yeah.
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BWR beer run. Make sure you get some TCG swag. Everybody needs a new t-shirt. Everybody needs a new coffee mug.
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Everybody needs a great pair of TCG sunglasses. So check those out at trueimeg.com.
00:03:22
And Colonel, that's enough of the be, isn't it? All right, everybody gather around. Grab a chair. Grab a beer. Let's
00:03:27
talk some true crime. [Music] This week we are very excited because we get to do something different that we
00:03:42
don't always get to do here in the garage. We can check in and do this from time to time, but today we are loaded
00:03:48
with some case updates for you. These are cases that were previously covered here in the garage and they are making
00:03:55
their way making some movements and in all three cases we have arrests that have been made and with some of them we
00:04:04
even have some trial dates upon us. So this is the rare occurrence where we are bringing you good news. Usually our news
00:04:12
is not the kind you want to have to hear. It's somebody was a victim. Somebody was victimized and we're
00:04:18
looking for the perpetrator. Today we are proud and happy to present to you cases that have been covered here. They
00:04:26
have significant updates and hopefully some of these folks will be getting justice and let's let it be sooner
00:04:34
rather than later. Let's start with Amber Sprradlin. Amber Sprdlin was 38 years old. She was found dead in the
00:04:44
home of a prominent Prestonburg dentist, Michael McKenna II. This was back in June of 2023.
00:04:54
This is in the state of Kentucky. Now, our coverage on this case was episode 687 on your True Crime Garage radio
00:05:02
dial. That was from July of 2023. And unfortunately, she was killed in June of 2023. So, we were pretty quick
00:05:11
on this one. There was a lot of this that stood out to us as a case that needed to be covered right away, even
00:05:18
though we were still sifting through the facts and learning a lot more about the
00:05:22
case as it kind of the investigation kind of drug on. And and the reason why it drugg on, I believe, is because there
00:05:29
are multiple people that seem to have some involvement in this homicide. There are multiple people that wanted to
00:05:36
confuse the crime scene and cons confuse the sequence of events for the investigators in this one. Now, from our
00:05:45
show notes, we wrote on June 18, 2023, first responders arrived at the scene of a residence on Arkansas Creek in Martin,
00:05:56
Kentucky. Martin is a tiny community near Prestonburg. Later, the KSP, that's the Kentucky
00:06:03
State Police, announced that they had found Amber Sprdlin dead at the scene due to a knife attack. The initial
00:06:10
reports coming out were that Amber had been stabbed at least 11 times. This in her head, her neck, and her throat. The
00:06:17
community, rightfully so, was in an uproar right out the gate with this one, right from Jump Street, because there
00:06:24
was more than one 911 call that was made before anyone showed up at the scene. And we pondered right away, just like
00:06:32
the community did, could Amber's life had possibly been saved that night had first responders been able to arrive
00:06:39
sooner. Preston interim police chief at the time was Ross Shortlift. He said that the 911 center didn't receive any
00:06:48
calls from Amber Sprdlin on June 18th. He said all the calls from that day had been forwarded to the Kentucky State
00:06:57
Police for their investigation. So you have one group saying, "Hey, multiple 911 calls and the interim police chief
00:07:07
at the time who from my understanding from the interim police chief at that time his statement was that they didn't
00:07:14
receive any. They were all being forwarded to the Kentucky State Police. Regardless what we do know of this
00:07:20
situation beyond the 911 call center and the mishaps that took place there, this
00:07:25
lady, Amber Sprdlin, was a very nice woman and it seemed like it it had to be her family, as it is in most cases, to
00:07:36
come to her defense, to raise the alarm, not with a disappearance or finding her body. They are raising
00:07:45
the alarm saying, "Hey, something's going on here." Because that night she was supposed to be with people that she
00:07:50
considered to be friends and co-workers and something horrific happened to this woman. The short of it here, Captain, as
00:07:58
you remember, is that she was at work. She worked at this place. It's a restaurant that is called The Seasons
00:08:05
Restaurant. The Seasons in and Restaurant is the name of the business. She's essentially at an after hours
00:08:12
party, an afterwork party with some people that she works with and some others that happen to be at this after
00:08:19
hours party there that night. But it's at the home of a prominent dentist of a wellto-do individual. His name Michael
00:08:27
McKenna I also the owner of said business. Now, by the time, regardless of whatever
00:08:36
happened with the 911 stuff, by the time that the first responders are on the scene, they find her lifeless body there
00:08:43
at that party at the home of that dentist. There was a lot of speculation in this case. Some of it that made its
00:08:49
way to the internet and made its way to the different news outlets. And really, it the speculation was pretty spot-on
00:08:57
here in this case. And I don't think you have to be a Sherlock Holmes to figure out that obviously somebody there at
00:09:04
that party was responsible for what happened to Amber. This there's no arguing this was a homicide. She was
00:09:10
stabbed multiple times. Somebody was aware and likely more than one person was aware of what happened that night.
00:09:16
So the difficulty becomes sifting through who at this party had knowledge of the attack, who participated in the
00:09:24
attack and who participated in ways to cover up what happened that night. Now, I do know that early on in this
00:09:31
investigation, one of the problems that they were having was simply getting these folks that were there to talk and
00:09:37
then being able to confirm that what they were being told is the truth because they were getting conflicting
00:09:43
stories from the individuals that were at this party. And it was a difficult case to cover because obviously the the
00:09:50
misinformation coming out, then law enforcement trying to keep everything close to the the chest so then they can
00:09:58
sift through this information and then also the the rumors coming out from this uh community. One of the first updates
00:10:05
that we do get in this case was a a complaint that was filed in Floyd Circuit County by Melissa Sammons. She
00:10:16
was the and is the administrator of Amber's estate. So, this was a wrongful death. A civil lawsuit was filed in
00:10:26
connection with Amber's murder in Floyd County. This was June of 2024, so last year. And the Floyd County Chronicle
00:10:37
listed the persons that were named in that lawsuit. Now, we we got to be perfectly clear here. Don't make the
00:10:44
hop, skip, and jump leap to assuming that every person named in this lawsuit was present at this party. That's not
00:10:54
the case at all. What this lawsuit is doing is it's saying that in some form or fashion, this individual, any
00:11:01
individual named here, has some accountability in this and is responsible in some way for the wrongful
00:11:11
death of Amber Sprdlin. Yeah. Now, people that are familiar with lawsuits are aware that typically what you do
00:11:20
early in a lawsuit is you cast a wide wide net. Mhm. Right. If you if let's say that you have a situation where uh a
00:11:31
trucker spills, there's an oil spill on a thoroughare and civilian A is driving their vehicle and loses control because
00:11:42
they slide on the oil and they smash into a lamp post and unfortunately they died at the scene in this horrible
00:11:50
accident. Well, if there were a lawsuit in that regard, you would sue the trucker, this the company that he works
00:12:01
for, any of the companies involved in the delivery, right? The pickup, the receiving of said products, you would
00:12:08
maybe even attempt to sue the city because they they have some responsibility with the lamp post, maybe
00:12:14
even the electrician or electric company that put in the lamp post. So you can see where this can snowball very
00:12:21
quickly. In this case, what we have is the persons named as defendants in this lawsuit. One was the city of
00:12:29
Prestonburg. The Preston Police Department, the Prestonburg Police Chief, they named Randy Woods here. And
00:12:38
again, we had an interim police chief at the time. So I'm a little confused as to
00:12:43
who was the chief of police at that time. The Prestonburg mayor is named. A Floyd County judge executive is named. A
00:12:53
Floyd County magistrate. Two of them are named. One is Mark Critter and the other
00:12:58
is George Osley or Oley. And then of course you have the local dentist Michael K. McKini individually and in
00:13:07
his capacity as the owner of the seasons in and restaurant and of course the owner of the house. You have Michael
00:13:14
McKini Jr. And you have Roy Kid and Chris McKini who was the had some involvement of course with the seasons
00:13:24
in motel and restaurant as well. All of those persons named in that that lawsuit
00:13:29
and then the next update we get is a little bit of so part of it is we get updated information about the crime
00:13:38
scene and what took place that night. So later investigators would update their information that was released to the
00:13:43
public to state that Amber had in fact been stabbed 12 times. This in the head, neck, and torso. And then later we have
00:13:51
suspects that were arrested. So the the persons that were arrested in connection
00:13:57
with Amber's death were Michael McKenna III and Michael McKenna II and Josh Mullins. So, this next part here,
00:14:07
Captain, is from Leex 18 News. And the summary of it is stating that more than a year after the murder of Amber, police
00:14:17
charged McKinn's son, Michael McKenna III, with murder and multiple counts of evidence tampering in the case. Michael
00:14:25
McKini II and family friend Josh Mullins were also charged with multiple counts of complicity to tampering with
00:14:32
evidence. early court proceedings were three motions by Michael McKenny's attorneys.
00:14:40
His attorneys were asking for a bond reduction for additional discovery and for prosecutors to produce polygraph
00:14:47
results in the case. So let's ignore for the sake of today and the sake of brevity, let's ignore this bond
00:14:54
reduction and the additional discovery because that's pretty typical stuff, right? And that stuff all worked itself
00:15:02
out. The the portion here that I think would be of interest to the listeners, and thank you for joining us here in the
00:15:08
garage today, you beautiful, beautiful listeners, would be this polygraph results because the polygraph results
00:15:15
request is the defendant's attorneys requesting that the prosecutors turn over the results from this polygraph
00:15:23
exam that was conducted on Roy Kid. So Roy Kidd is one of he's not being charged from my understanding. He's not
00:15:33
one of the three people being named as one one person's being named as the person responsible for the murder and
00:15:41
two others being named as complicity complicit in tampering with evidence. So Roy Kid, who is he? He according to this
00:15:51
is the person who claims to be the one that found Amber Spradlin's body. There was also some allegations of his royal
00:15:59
kids quote violent and out of control behavior prior to Amber Sprdlin's death. So my guess here is that what the
00:16:10
defense wants the opportunity to do once this thing gets to trial is to say, look, we have statements that were given
00:16:18
to police and police at least seem to run these statements down, right? So they they believed them or at least
00:16:26
believed that they had some credibility at the time that this other guy who's not been charged was violent and out of
00:16:33
control before Amber was killed. Right. This implying that there might be either
00:16:40
another person involved or maybe somebody else is completely responsible for this, not the person charged. What
00:16:49
is interesting to note is that the prosecutors in response to that motion and that request, they state that Roy
00:16:58
Kid passed the polygraph exam on the question of whether he stabbed or cut Amber, but the results would not be
00:17:07
admissible at trial. Still, the prosecution wrote that they would provide the results to the defense.
00:17:14
Normally you see the defense kicking out anybody trying to put polygraph results
00:17:19
in a trial. Here you have them requesting them. We know that they will not be admissible at trial, but the
00:17:26
prosecution willing to pass this along because it it seems to be with this short kind of vague statement about what
00:17:34
took place is that yes, Roy Kid was given a polygraph examination. And when asked if he was responsible for killing
00:17:43
Amber or stabbed her or cut her any way, his answer was truthful. And and he's not the person that's being charged with
00:17:50
her murder. And do we have a set date for this trial? No. That's what's a little puzzling about this, but because
00:17:57
part of that is that they are either having trouble with or still sifting through the evidence. Okay. Depending on
00:18:06
who you talk to, which side of of the aisle for this trial depends on what is the delay. So part of this though that
00:18:16
we know that took place that would slow this down a bit is after these charges are brought, we later get more charges
00:18:25
of tampering that were brought forward. And this is something that we do not get
00:18:29
much of here in the garage. We get, for a lack of better term, we get a fake murder weapon charge. Fake murder weapon
00:18:39
charge. The prosecutors say this is due to quote fabricating physical evidence end quote. That indictment, this was
00:18:48
brought forth late last year, suggests that a knife had been planted on the couch where the act of murder, the
00:18:57
attack took place. So, they're saying that somebody went out of their way to go and find another knife that was not
00:19:04
the murder weapon and place it on the couch where the attack happened to suggest to investigators that this was
00:19:12
the weapon. This was the murder weapon. They state, the prosecutors state that the knife that was used to kill Amber
00:19:18
Sprdlin was actually broken during the attack. They believe that they have evidence that will show, this is part of
00:19:26
that u tampering with evidence and complicity to tamper with evidence charges. They're stating they have
00:19:33
evidence to show that this the actual murder weapon was broken in the attack and then later destroyed, concealed, and
00:19:40
or removed from the scene to hinder the investigation. Now, you asked about a trial date there, Captain. The latest
00:19:47
update that we get was from very recent. This is from April of this year. Good coverage coming from the folks at WWK.
00:19:57
They say the case of three men facing charges in the death of 38-year-old Amber Sprdlin is officially being moved
00:20:04
to another county. So in March, the defense for Michael McKenna III filed a motion to have the trial moved out of
00:20:11
Floyd County. Does make sense because this has been in the news a lot. We've seen the community in an uproar right
00:20:17
from Jump Street here. So if you live in this county, very difficult to not have
00:20:22
any prior knowledge. All parties agreed that it should be moved. They all approved with the judge then
00:20:28
recommending Pike County for the location. That motion was not on that day but was later granted. Now what
00:20:37
remains up for some debate is the trial date as we said. So we have Judge Edy Coleman who is serving as a special
00:20:46
judge for the case. The judge said ideally the trial would begin December 1st, 2025 and will wrap
00:20:54
up by the end of the year. So the Commonwealth attorney says suspect's DNA was found under Amber Sprdland's
00:21:03
fingernails. Right. But there's a debate between the prosecution and the defense
00:21:09
that took place in court over the progress of the DNA testing. So this is one of the reasons for the delay in
00:21:16
setting the trial date. The prosecuting attorney's office says that there were around 25 pieces of evidence submitted
00:21:23
for testing, but many allegedly showed signs of being tampered with, which is making it difficult to get the actual
00:21:32
results. To put it short and sweet, they're saying, "We have all this evidence saying that they were tampering
00:21:37
with evidence. That is why it's slowing down the testing process to get these results.
00:21:44
And we, the prosecution, don't want to take this thing to trial until we have all the evidence that was collected at
00:21:50
the scene. And look, if if they can prove that any of the defendants on any of these charges did in fact tamper with
00:22:00
evidence, then they should absolutely have the right to not go to trial. delay the trial as long as you can, hoping for
00:22:07
that you do get these results for the evidence and for the DNA and such to be presented at trial. These guys shouldn't
00:22:15
be rewarded for contaminating the scene, contaminating the victim, contaminating
00:22:19
physical evidence. And but the argument you have is that they are in fact due to
00:22:25
the right of a speedy trial which they may not get because the defense's rebuttal in this is that Amber was
00:22:36
killed 2 years prior to this even this argument about the DNA evidence and they're saying look the lab workers have
00:22:44
had plenty of time to figure out the results by now. So, they're saying, the defense is saying, "We're ready to move
00:22:51
forward with the trial," which of course, no duh, because they want as little evidence to be presented at that
00:22:58
trial as possible. And right now, they know that the prosecution doesn't have what the prosecution wants for that
00:23:05
trial. Yeah, smart play by the defense, but I think smart play by the prosecution to have those charges of
00:23:12
tampering because then you have chips and maybe you could negotiate or use those chips as leverage to get somebody
00:23:21
to turn and and stop trying to tamper and and and stop trying to hold back information. And if he can't can get
00:23:30
more of these individuals that have charges that aren't the murder charges for them to just come forward and then
00:23:36
maybe they'll just make a deal with everybody in this case. Well, and I think that the way that this is playing
00:23:42
out with the judge and with the courts and the different arguments that are going on, I really think that this is
00:23:50
playing out the way that it should. And good for the judge because the the judge
00:23:54
is keeping an eye and keeping tabs on the situation. The judge isn't just simply saying, "Nope, not going to
00:24:00
happen till December." No, they're keeping an eye on it because that judge can set that trial date. And what the
00:24:05
judge knows is that the defense is pushing for a trial sooner rather than later. And the prosecution is pu pushing
00:24:11
for a trial once they have the results from the lab, which may not be until late this year. So the next step here in
00:24:21
the courts and in getting justice for this young woman is all three suspects are due to appear in Pike County Court.
00:24:32
This will take place. It's scheduled for July 24th of 2025. So just next month. This will be for
00:24:41
another hearing. And Judge Coleman says that on that date, he would like to hear
00:24:45
updates on the evidence, the DNA testing, and set the starting date for this trial.
00:24:55
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returns. quint.com/g. [Music] All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. To the windows, to the walls. Cheers to
00:28:11
you, Colonel. He's back. I'm back. We're all back. And cheers to you all for being back as well. Cheers to you,
00:28:17
Captain. Our next update comes from a case that is, you know, many people think that we live in Cleveland. I think
00:28:25
it's because, you know, we talk we talk about Cleveland. We've covered a lot of Cleveland cases. Cleveland rocks. Yeah.
00:28:32
We will get emails from people or or when people are uh when we request their information so we can give them a beer
00:28:41
shout out, they'll say, "Oh, I live here now, but I I'm from Cleveland." And it's
00:28:46
like, "That's awesome. We do love Cleveland, but but the captain, Congratulations. We're not from
00:28:52
Cleveland." So, there's many other cities you could say that you're actually from that we would also be
00:28:56
like, "That's awesome because we love that city as well." Yeah. So, the we're going to go back to March of 2013
00:29:04
when 53-year-old Eliza Sherman was she's supposed to be arriving for a meeting with her divorce attorney in downtown
00:29:14
Cleveland. Now, while she's outside of the building, she's later found stabbed lying on the sidewalk. And the person
00:29:22
that finds her, this witness didn't witness the attack, but finds her, says that Eliza was trying to speak, but the
00:29:32
only thing that the witness could make out was hearing her say, quote, "I'm dying." The
00:29:39
witness called for medical assistance, and Eliza was transported to Metro Health Medical Center where she she
00:29:47
sadly passed away. Crimestoppers was at one time offering a reward of $100,000 for information leading to an arrest.
00:30:00
Well, well, this attack was also caught on CCTV footage, right? The fleeing the whoever attacked her was seen running
00:30:09
from the scene and that was something that we analyzed to a great deal to a great degree when we covered the case in
00:30:17
episodes. It was a four-part series, episodes 167 to 170 way back when when we were
00:30:24
still figuring out how to turn on the microphones. This was in December of 2017. Well,
00:30:31
the thing is we we figured out how to turn them on. We've not figured out how to turn them off. Now, right, many of
00:30:38
you longtime listeners will remember that on that episode I predicted that the Chiefs would win three Super Bowls
00:30:43
in the next seven years. I also predicted a global pandemic was just two or so years away and that Sherman's own
00:30:50
divorce attorney likely killed her because he was not prepared to go to trial. Turns out the colonel, as crispy
00:30:58
as he is, three for three, baby. Yeah. Now, crystal ball. Yeah. So, our show notes for that episode and we recommend
00:31:08
if you want to do a deep dive on any of these and you've not heard those episodes on any of these cases,
00:31:13
fascinating case, go back and listen. There is some YouTube stuff that we have on this case as well that you can view.
00:31:20
in it. In fact, it was so early into our YouTube career that has paid us a whole
00:31:26
$19 uh that I saw I saw some of the comments when I went back to look at some of our
00:31:32
old coverage of the Sherman case. And there was several people that were very nice and kind that said, "You guys are
00:31:39
doing an awesome podcast. I wish you would do more on YouTube." Um, but yeah, as said, that was 2017, so we were we
00:31:46
were somewhat new to it. We can't afford the plastic surgery. No. And and you know how many episodes it would take us
00:31:53
to figure out how to turn on the camera? So, our show notes read as follows. Cleveland, Ohio, Sunday, March 24th,
00:32:02
2013. Elijah Sherman, a 53-year-old mother of four. Mother of four, stepped out into the cold to run some errands.
00:32:10
She promised her youngest son she would not be gone very long and she would return home with dinner that evening.
00:32:18
But hours and hours go by. Her son Jeremy tried calling his mother's cell phone, but she did not answer. Then he
00:32:25
called his older sister. Her name is Jennifer. Jeremy explained to Jennifer that their mother had gone had been gone
00:32:31
far too long and he could not reach her. Jennifer tried many times to get her mother on the phone to no avail.
00:32:37
Jennifer decided to take the search to the streets and look for her mother. But before she could locate her mother, the
00:32:44
Cleveland Police Department notified her that they would like to speak with everybody in the Sherman family. It was
00:32:50
then that detectives notified the family that Eliza had been killed in downtown Cleveland, Ohio in broad daylight. This
00:32:59
was a case and it was certainly something that we circled around when we talked about it and it was something
00:33:05
that was should be considered by all. Right. The the husband was a longtime suspect in this case of having some kind
00:33:16
of involvement in the death of his wife who he was soon to be divorced. One thing we stated, we took a a look at the
00:33:24
physique of the individual fleeing the murder scene and the physique of the husband and we said, "Well, if if the
00:33:32
husband had involvement, he hired somebody because that's not the husband in that puffy winter coat that is seen
00:33:40
fleeing from the scene." Looked like a small individual. Yeah. Yes, it did. The coroner's office went on to say that uh
00:33:49
the victim had been stabbed 11 times. We know that surveillance cameras in the area captured.
00:33:56
You might be right there, Captain, because there are statements that say captured the attack. I've not witnessed
00:34:01
that that the footage of that. I've only witnessed the fleeing portion. They might not have released the full video.
00:34:09
That video is in the hands of the Cleveland Police Department, which once this thing does go to trial, now that
00:34:15
there is an arrest and has been an arrest, it will go to trial eventually unless this guy pleads guilty. Yeah. But
00:34:23
do you think it's actually this guy or do you think he actually hired somebody? That's a great question. Um I I
00:34:31
personally thought that it was him. Um, I remember I'm thinking back to our coverage and I thought at the time that
00:34:40
it was him or at the very least he had some involvement and that that is exactly what he's being charged with. So
00:34:48
the extra sad layers of this case is that she beloved mother of four, she was a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic and
00:34:56
again this was in broad daylight in Cleveland, Ohio. And just last month Mr. Gregory Douche Canoe Moore, former
00:35:07
divorce attorney for Eliza Sherman, was arrested for her 2013 murder. He was indicted on a number of charges,
00:35:18
including aggravated murder and conspiracy. With the update, we have a brilliant
00:35:24
article by Tracy Carlos and Courtney Shaw titled, "How technology led to an indictment in the Eliza Sherman cold
00:35:35
case." This is from the good people at News5 in Cleveland. And News 5 used to be my go-to for Cleveland Browns news.
00:35:44
and they state, "Attorney General Dave Yos said his office was called in 2021 to help Cleveland solve Eliza Sherman's
00:35:52
cold case. BCI, that's the Bureau of Criminal Identification here in Ohio. Their cold
00:36:01
case unit has extra tools," Yos said. Technology and the bandwidth to help bring a fresh set of eyes to the case
00:36:08
and new insights. The article continues 12 years after Elijah Sherman's murder after she was
00:36:15
brutally stabbed to death in broad daylight. The attorney representing her in a divorce case, Gregory Moore has
00:36:22
been indicted for her death. When it came to this case, Yos said new technology and fresh eyes help unlock
00:36:29
this mystery. quote, "The analytics on the digital fingerprints, so to speak, from the electronic devices and a number
00:36:37
of transmissions gave us the keys." End quote. Yos said, Yos said that anytime a
00:36:43
person uses their cell phone, it leaves a fingerprint. Anytime a cell phone connects to the nearest Wi-Fi, there is
00:36:50
a record that can help police with their investigations. According to Yoast, more
00:36:54
in-depth information will be released at the trial. And that was part of the reason why we were circling around the
00:37:02
possibility of this divorce attorney being involved because he's the one that schedules this meeting and it's on a
00:37:09
Sunday. Look, no offense to any lawyers out there. No offense to anybody in any career out there. Most people don't like
00:37:15
to work on Sundays. From my understanding, lawyers, if they're worth their salt, they're they're doing
00:37:21
everything they can not to work on Sundays. They got everything wrapped up so they can be with their families on
00:37:27
Sundays. He's calling this meeting on a Sunday. The divorce proceedings are supposed to
00:37:32
take place the very next morning. He has he's MIA. He's got some some a blank window of time on his cell phone
00:37:43
information. Yeah. So, according to the Kyhoga County Prosecutor's Office, this is still from the the good folks over at
00:37:50
News5. 51-year-old Gregory Moore was charged with one count of aggravated murder, one count of conspiracy, six
00:37:58
counts of murder, and two counts of kidnapping. According to the secret indictment, so he was there was a secret
00:38:05
indictment that was then very quickly made public. This was they indicted him, I think, because they were convinced
00:38:14
they did the secret indictment because I believe they were convinced he would flee. And now you hear that those words
00:38:21
put together and it sounds like it's something so very special. It's not. It's not that special. It it happens
00:38:27
very often. Now, it's made public after he was apprehended. But according to this indictment, they state that he
00:38:35
allegedly lured her to where he worked, saying that he needed to meet with her, but they're saying he never intended to
00:38:44
meet with her at all. The indictment states this was part of a plan that was hatched months earlier. That's the
00:38:51
strange part. That's the part that that we need that the the door that we need to unlock. Yeah, cuz the motive of just
00:38:59
not being prepared never made a lot of sense to me. This would seem like there was something else at play if there if
00:39:06
if they have evidence that's suggesting to them that a plan was hatched months earlier to kidnap her. All right, this
00:39:15
is this is their word. This is the words of News 5 reporting on the situation from the indictment. They are stating
00:39:22
that a plan was hatched months earlier to kidnap her to avoid having her try her divorce case in court.
00:39:32
H that makes you really start to think. And we do know I not trying to just float this out here. This has certainly
00:39:40
been talked about many times. And this is one of those horrific situations, horrible situations where
00:39:48
mom is murdered, mom and dad are in a the process of a divorce and we said there were four kids. There are four
00:39:58
kids and it was a house divided on a house divided on if they thought their dad was up to anything shady or or do we
00:40:07
stand by dad? Do we do we stand by dad and defend him here against the eyes of the public? Now, unfortunately,
00:40:15
regardless of what happened, that man has passed away. Her her husband has passed away. Uh we reported on that on
00:40:22
off the record about a week or so after he he had died. The indictment goes on to say that as Eliza Sherman waited for
00:40:31
someone to unlock the doors at Moore's office building air quotes well I'm reading from paper so it's actual
00:40:40
quotations. quote, "An individual who was either Moore or an unknown co-conspirator,"
00:40:48
end quote, "approached Sherman on East 12th Street, circled behind her, chased her, and then stabbed her more than 10
00:40:57
times," the indictment states. It also states that Moore allegedly disconnected his phone from the cell phone network
00:41:03
for 3 hours around the time of Sherman's death in an attempt to avoid creating cell tower location evidence. He later
00:41:11
turned on his phone and made several calls to Sherman's phone, Eliza Sherman's phone to cover his track. So,
00:41:19
he's he's calling saying, "Where are you? We were supposed to meet. You know, you never showed up." According to uh
00:41:26
the paperwork now, they also state that he he went out and purchased a new phone
00:41:31
just a few days after her death. The prosecutor, this is Michael Ali, said through the diligent work of the
00:41:42
Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, new evidence was obtained after meeting with these
00:41:49
investigators and reviewing this evidence. A decision was made to present the case to a grand jury. We look
00:41:54
forward to presenting all of the evidence in this case at trial. We are confident the jurors will come to the
00:42:00
same conclusion as to Gregory Moore's orchestration and participation in the murder of Eliza Sherman. Our thoughts
00:42:09
and prayers remain with the Sherman family who have never given up hope that the truth would be uncovered. The Ohio
00:42:18
AG Yoast does say when being interviewed by News 5 that this is not a traditional
00:42:27
open and shut kind of DNA case. So, right, that means we're going to have to see how this will play out at trial. The
00:42:35
bond was set at $2 million. Moore was arrested in Austin, Texas. Remember one thing we discussed when we covered it
00:42:44
twice? Twice he called in bomb threats to the courts. Now was that because something else was
00:42:53
going on or because he wasn't prepared or or what? Hard to say, right? But we do know that that happened. So his
00:43:02
defense team or attorneys are saying they're pushing back. They're like, "Look, you guys don't have any evidence
00:43:10
that's any different than the evidence you had 12 years ago when you didn't charge him with the murder. So,
00:43:17
we don't understand why he's being charged now." Well, they're going to find out. And that's one of the things
00:43:23
about these all these case updates. These cases are bizarre and uh the individuals involved are are bizarre.
00:43:33
there's a bunch of unanswered questions and hopefully those answers uh get answered or those questions get answered
00:43:42
during the trial. Yeah. And I think if you're an investigator, well, more importantly, if you're the prosecutor
00:43:51
in this case, you're probably looking at the other stuff that he did that's illegal to help you get to an indictment
00:44:00
in the murder, right? even if you have evidence suggesting it, but you're just you're you're on the fence of well, do
00:44:07
we charge him and and risk losing the trial, then you you might go, hey, this other stuff that he is accused of,
00:44:19
let's really push hard and apply pressure here. see how this shakes out and see if it leads us to any more
00:44:28
information or a statement or an admission of guilt by the accused. So Moore had been licensed to practice law
00:44:39
starting in 2003. He went to Cleveland State University. According to this article, records are not clear on when
00:44:48
Moore started and ended practicing law at the company. He worked for Stafford Law Company in Cleveland.
00:44:56
But they he says that this article states that he at least worked for Stafford Law Company from 2011 to 2014.
00:45:04
His license to practice law was suspended in 2017 as he was facing felony charges and he resigned.
00:45:14
His legal license in 2018 pending discipline for his crimes. When we covered it, they were he his license had
00:45:22
been suspended and they were threatening to take it away. This is from Cleveland
00:45:26
News 19 where they listed some of this guy's criminal history according to the court records. And this article states
00:45:35
that Gregory Moore has a criminal history dating back to 1998. The offenses started with traffic offenses
00:45:43
in the '9s and early 2000s. Okay, no big deal there. Then the charges escalated in 2013 when Gregory Moore was first
00:45:52
charged with three counts of inducing panic. Those charges are connected to the bomb threats that Gregory Moore
00:45:59
would call into court to avoid court appearances. According to this indictment, the indictment also said
00:46:06
Gregory Moore's company, Stafford Law Company, were aware of the bomb threats as of May 24th of 2013. In the years
00:46:16
after 2013, more charges would come against Gregory Moore, including at least six counts of inducing panic,
00:46:25
three counts of terrorist threats, telecommunications fraud, obstructing official business, falsification, two
00:46:32
counts of forgery, possessing criminal tools. Moore eventually pled down to charges of two counts of felony inducing
00:46:40
panic, and one count of falsification. this in May of 2017. So, the falsification count comes from
00:46:48
lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his whereabouts during the murder of Eliza Sherman. So,
00:46:55
he lied about where he was. He lied about what he was up to that day. We know he's done some just str This is one
00:47:01
of those stranger bizarre fiction stories. I mean, it's not easy to get a license to practice law. No, you usually
00:47:12
have to be a fairly disciplined, smart individual. But I mean, this guy's calling in bomb threats to the court.
00:47:20
Again, I would be surprised based off, you know, I'm re-watching that footage right now and I'm I'm just going to This
00:47:27
does not look like a male to me. You know, this looks just the movements and everything. And so I wonder if there's
00:47:35
going to be more charges brought against other people. Yeah, it's it's it's difficult to say then why so much with
00:47:43
his phone? You get somebody to help you and you're you're the getaway driver, so
00:47:48
you're still involved, right? And and that's where it gets confusing for me and and having experience with those
00:47:55
cameras and those systems. I know that the those videos are not usually great. Uh they usually are coming from weird
00:48:03
angles. It's difficult to determine how high that that's certainly coming from an elevated vantage point. It's
00:48:11
difficult to say how high up that would be. A lot of times those buildings have uh large and high entranceways and
00:48:20
usually those cameras are placed near the entrances uh to those buildings. So, I mean, that camera could be 20 24 ft in
00:48:30
the air, which would give the appearance of a smaller person than what they actually are, right? I agree with that.
00:48:36
But the the what becomes a issue though is you go, "Well, this guy wasn't prepared." Well, calling a bomb threat
00:48:43
makes sense, right? I'm not prepared. If I call in a bomb threat that they'll have to cancel the the hearing,
00:48:50
but that's that's a You know, that's a bad thing. It's a federal building, so that's a bad thing.
00:48:59
But you go, but nobody's getting physically hurt. And so to call in a bomb threat is quite a bit of a big leap
00:49:09
to become a murderer. And it and what gets me is like you said, well, they have some kind of evidence that
00:49:19
says that that's this has been planned for months. Yeah. The that's the tricky part of it. That's the the part of it
00:49:26
that kind of throws me off a little bit to to saying that that it was absolutely
00:49:34
him that was the murderer wielding the knife. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit. Maybe he's just not smart. I
00:49:42
mean, he's because he's just crazy. If I were, using their word, orchestrating this homicide, this murder,
00:49:53
then my phone being on would be my alibi, right? But again, you know, the prisons
00:50:02
are filled with dumb dumb people, dumb criminals. Maybe he's of that variety. I don't know. But but this one I look this
00:50:11
to be honest with you, Captain, this was one of those cases that seemed so it seemed so clear who the person either
00:50:19
responsible or involved was when we covered it. But as time draw on and with the passing of her husband and with this
00:50:29
guy facing other charges and serving time for those charges and then being released. I mean, we know he was
00:50:36
released because when he was apprehended for the murder charge, he was down in Austin, Texas. Uh, you know, s this is a
00:50:43
sad situation regardless of his level of guilt. His father uh was in the process
00:50:49
of passing away. So, he was down there to to visit with his father from my understanding and he's arrested down
00:50:57
there. So, it we'll see what comes about with this at trial and maybe with I think there's some some evidence and I
00:51:07
think there's some statements that have been released that are suggestive that this is much more complicated than than
00:51:15
at first glance. Well, like I said, selfishly because these cases, some of these cases that are complex and
00:51:23
bizarre and seems like the more you dive in, the more questions you get selfishly
00:51:31
by it going to trial, maybe we'll get some of those answers and I will be glued to figure out those, you know,
00:51:37
what what the heck is the motive here? I mean, was it was there something more going on um uh with his relationship
00:51:47
with the victim or was there just more going on in his life? You know, but that's where it's like normally the
00:51:55
answer is simpler, but you go, okay, well, let's say he was having money problems or whatever. You go, but she
00:52:02
was his client. She'd be paying him. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes. I'm curious to find out what led her to
00:52:10
hiring him. Right. Right. Because who connected these two? Did was it as simple as she
00:52:18
got on the internet or opened up the yellow pages and just called a defense, you know, I keep saying defense
00:52:24
attorney, but divorce attorney and really got unlucky with the random divorce attorney that she picked on that
00:52:34
day? or or is this something larger, right? Did somebody purposely put her in in touch
00:52:42
with this guy who sucks at his job, right? I mean, I there's no way for me I don't know what what his record is in
00:52:50
court. I don't know how successful he was as an attorney, but I'm guessing based off of calling in multiple bomb
00:52:57
threats to the court that you're supposed to be showing up to that you probably suck at your job. So, how did
00:53:04
she get connected? Cuz she wasn't dumb. She was a smart woman. She was a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic. So, yeah,
00:53:12
there's a lot more to uncover and a lot more for at least the public to learn about this very bizarre
00:53:22
murder case that at least thankfully there is an indictment. At least thankfully there is a trial that will be
00:53:30
happening. But this one too, I don't see or could I find um an exact date where we should be learning more. And that's
00:53:41
kind of a good segue into our third and final case update for this week. And as said, it it is it is a a joyous occasion
00:53:51
when we can present to you updates in these cases rather than just more doom and gloom of another case or another
00:53:59
case that's gone cold or another family that can't find justice for their loved one. But this case, there was an arrest.
00:54:07
We've touched on this a little bit on Off the Record and mentioned it kind of here and there. The problem is there's
00:54:13
not a whole lot of details other than it was DNA evidence that led to the arrest.
00:54:18
We don't know a lot of the details of the other evidence in this case, but that is the case of 1992 Columbus
00:54:26
homicide Amy Hooper who was a young woman lived in an apartment. She was attacked and killed in her apartment.
00:54:34
And we did learn late last year that a DNA hit led to an arrest of a man named Bruce Edward Daniels who lived all the
00:54:45
way at the time of the arrest all the way out in Washington state. Later this month, there is going to be there is a
00:54:52
court date. Uh but to be clear here from what I've been told, my sources all say
00:54:57
don't expect a trial to start. Don't expect uh to learn a whole lot about the case or the evidence. This is simply
00:55:05
just another another routine court date that has to take place before this thing
00:55:10
can actually go to trial. So, we know it's a DNA hit that led to the arrest of this man. It's many, many years
00:55:18
obviously after the murder. Curious to see what other evidence they have against this Bruce Edward Daniels and
00:55:25
how this one plays out in court if in fact it does get to court. But whatever happens with the Amy Hooper case, expect
00:55:32
to hear an update on True Crime Garage Off the Record, which is if you're unfamiliar, if you're new to the show,
00:55:40
make sure you subscribe, you like, follow, whatever you have to do to keep hearing us show up on your listening
00:55:46
device, do that. You can sign up for that on Apple subscription and on Patreon. Yeah. Another one that I don't
00:55:53
know if we're going to get a lot more answers because it's pretty vague. And and then also because of the DNA match,
00:56:00
you wonder if there's just going to be a deal made. But either way, those those are three cases. Uh they're fascinating
00:56:07
cases. So go back and listen to the original episodes um which will probably just lend you to have more questions and
00:56:15
and hopefully we get those. Yes. the Amy Hooper episodes. That was a two-parter and that were that was episodes 294 and
00:56:22
295. [Music] All right, we want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage for a
00:56:40
little bit of a different episode. Uh, Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?
00:56:46
recommended listening. Go back and listen to those old episodes that we mentioned here today if you have not
00:56:51
heard them already. Uh that we we'll take you through the case as we knew it at the time in all three situations. And
00:57:00
as we kept repeating, very bizarre cases, each one of them, they're all unique cases. And with the Amy Hooper
00:57:07
one, I really didn't think we would be sitting here having this conversation today. So I'm so that brings me a lot of
00:57:13
joy and it just look these people shouldn't do this to each other. People shouldn't treat each other this way and
00:57:19
they shouldn't hurt other people, right? But unfortunately it's not a perfect world and it does happen. There is evil
00:57:25
out there. There are bad people out there. But at least we are making progress in these three cases which
00:57:32
gives me a lot of hope that we will be getting this kind of movement in other cases that we've covered here in the
00:57:38
garage. And until next week, be good, be kind, and don't litter. [Music]