48 Hours - Good Cop/Bad Cop: Solving the Murder of Heather Bogle

Episode Date: October 20, 2019

An Ohio mom is brutally murdered. A detective pursues the wrong suspects, while the real killer walked free. It would take a dedicated sheriff to find a real suspect. Were there other victims? CBS News' Jim Axelrod reports. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Sandusky County is the kind of place where you would want to raise your kids. It's very warm, it's very welcoming, it's very rural. My name is Chris Hilton. I am the sheriff of Sandusky County in Northwest Ohio.

This is not the kind of place where a crime like this occurs. It's the place that something like this is a shock. In April of 2015, Heather Bogle went to work at the Whirlpool Corporation located in Clyde, Ohio. My name is Sean O'Connell. I was the lead investigator of the Heather Bogle investigation. She worked midnights, which means she would clock in roughly at 10, 10.30 in the evening. She worked her shift and she clocked out at approximately 6.17 that following morning. She was last seen leaving the parking lot of the Whirlpool Corporation and then she disappeared.

She failed to pick up her daughter from school. And this was like clockwork. She never failed to pick up her daughter. The Sandusky County Sheriff's Department tonight is working to solve a mystery. Where is 28-year-old Heather Bogle? Her family is the one that they, within hours, they were posting signs, putting things on Facebook and all other types of social media. I think somebody has her and they need to bring her home.

Why would they want to kidnap her? I don't know. And as the minutes and the hours went by, people became more and more worried because they could not find her. She doesn't have any enemies that we know of. We just have no idea how this could happen. She had a lot of chaos going on. A lot of things were going on in her personal life.

She was vulnerable at that point. She's an amazing woman, and she's always there for me. And we want her to know we're here for her. This is solved the old-fashioned way, bit by bit, tracking down every potential lead, because you never know when that lead turns into a break. The day after she disappeared, I get a phone call from the sheriff's office that Heather's vehicle had been located. I had road patrol unlock the vehicle, and then we popped the trunk, and we saw something that we did not expect to see.

something that we did not expect to see. I don't think anybody had a clue about the mystery, the intrigue, and the story that was going to come out of the opening of that trunk. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder?

Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret

was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X.

In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus.

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad free right now. A lot of times in law enforcement, we look at things and we try not to see them for what they are. It's almost as if it's not real. But this one was different, says Sheriff Chris Hilton. What they found inside the trunk of Heather Bogle's car was painfully real. What did they find in the trunk? They found a beautiful young woman who had been savagely beaten and murdered. That beautiful young woman was Heather Bogle.

When you know what she looked like when you saw the pictures of her and to see what was in the trunk of the car, it was as if they were two completely different things. And when you look at that kind of stuff, it sinks in. It's home. Her wounds told a harrowing story of torture... Unbelievably awful. ...and grit, says prosecutor Tim Braun. A lot of defensive wounds on the hand for blocking,

bringing your hands up, protecting. What did that tell you? It told me she'd fought, that she was physically overpowered by someone, beaten down and then handcuffed. Cause of death? Two shots to the back, penetrating vital organs in her chest. Heather's body was placed in the trunk of her car,

curled up in a semi-fetal position, wearing an oversized Mickey Mouse T-shirt. It looked like it had been posed to create a certain effect. Her hands were coiled up. It looked like a child sleeping to some degree. Heather's hair had been chopped off at the scalp. Imagine taking, like, a pocket knife and just going like this with it, just picking it up and chopping it off. And her fingernails cut down to the cuticles possibly her

murderer's attempt to destroy dna says braun so somebody had cleaned her up extremely carefully after she died who would want to do this to her a psychopath To her? A psychopath. Lord, we're praying for wisdom and understanding, Lord God, and I pray for the family of Heather this evening. Father, I pray for her friends. Shocked, frightened, and grief-struck, the locals turned out in droves,

demanding justice for Heather Bogle and holding benefits for her five-year-old daughter, Mackenzie. The woman who walks out of the Whirlpool factory at 6.17 a.m., Heather Bogle, who is she? A 28-year-old single mother who worked hard at that factory to provide a wonderful life for her daughter. She was well-liked. With dreams for a better life, Heather had just finished nursing school.

She wanted something better than working at Whirlpool. Not that Whirlpool's bad, but she wanted some more for herself and for her daughter. But the days leading up to her death were fraught with tension. She had just failed her nursing board exams and was in the midst of an ugly breakup. For the past year, Heather had been involved in her first same-sex relationship with a woman she met at Whirlpool, Carmela Bedillo, but they'd just had a big blow-up. There'd been threats made, hadn't there? Yeah, there had been, yes, the text messages and the phone calls and some of the exchanges were very, very nasty.

and the phone calls and some of the exchanges were very, very nasty. Lead detective Sean O'Connell says Carmela was one of the first people he looked at. There was some type of a verbal altercation between Heather and her girlfriend Carmela that Wednesday. Heather goes in to work on Wednesday evening and leaves work Thursday morning not to be seen. But after examining Carmela's phone records and speaking to her several times, O'Connell determined Carmela was not the killer. You were comfortable ruling her out? Absolutely. He was not so quick to rule out this woman, Kiana Boer,

a single mother who lived in the apartment complex where Heather's car and body were discovered. Is it fair to say that your interactions with Kiana Boer early on raised your suspicion about her? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, from her demeanor, from her reluctancy and wanting to talk to us. Yeah, absolutely.

But even more than that, it was that Mickey Mouse shirt on Heather Bogle's body. There was some speculation that the shirt that was found on Heather Bogle, again, it's a red XL Mickey Mouse type T-shirt. Kiana Boer was seen to be wearing that same type of T-shirt. Andy says her Facebook postings read like a confession, referenced here in the police report. Kiana's making statements on her Facebook page that I can't believe what happened just happened. O'Connell says she also makes mention in another post about doing eight to ten years for murder and pleading insanity.

about doing eight to ten years for murder and pleading insanity. The day Heather disappears? The day that she disappeared, yes. April 9th of 2015. He says he became even more suspicious when he learned that Omar Satchel, a man who served time on home invasion and firearms charges, was in Kiona's apartment the night Heather's body was found. Omar Satchel very quickly becomes a person of interest to you. He did.

Why? Because of his involvement as far as being in the vicinity of the time of her body being discovered. O'Connell believed Omar knew Heather, that he sometimes sold her pot. But even more importantly, O'Connell says he found a link between Omar's satchel and what possibly could have been the gun used to kill Heather. During the course of my investigation, I find out that Omar may have stolen a small caliber type firearm. Neither the gun nor the bullets were ever found, but O'Connell claims a source told him that a third accomplice, a friend of Omar's named K.R. Jeffrey, dumped the murder weapon.

So according to my source, who was standing next to K.R., K.R. walked up along the riverbanks and tossed this black bag containing the firearm using the homicide into the river, which ultimately prompted us to launch a dive team into the riverbanks and tossed this black bag containing the firearm using the homicide into the river, which ultimately prompted us to launch a dive team into the river in hopes to recover the bag. Came up empty. Came up empty. So what would the three of these people have as a motive

to kill Heather Bogle? I don't know what their motive would have been. O'Connell didn't have enough to arrest them, but continued building his murder case against the three. A case newspaperman, Matt Westerhold, was watching with interest. He and his paper had a long history reporting on the detective.

We were concerned because we didn't believe Detective O'Connell could conduct a legitimate investigation. Westerhold had just found his next big story. Was this bad police work or was he a bad cop? It was both. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island.

It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy. About the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. And the bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time,

only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. There was Kiana Boer before Heather Bogle's murder.

Got a house for me and my kids, got a good job at a nursing home, and everything was going real smooth. And then there's Kiana Bourne now. So it's like the dark cloud that's always over my head. And who put that dark cloud over your head? Sean O'Connell. Kiana says Detective O'Connell targeted her from the night Heather's body was found.

I lived in this apartment right over here. Raiding her apartment. They went out of their way to throw all of our pictures in the trash. And storming the nursing home where she worked with a warrant for her DNA. I'm wheeling a resident out the dining room to go get him ready for bed. And the whole, all the detectives, the police come in there, guns out. And they had their guns drawn? Yes.

O'Connell publicly named Kiana a suspect. She lost her job, her apartment, and her reputation. I had to keep my son out of school. I have people in my inbox telling me I'm a monster, and me and my kids deserve to die, and all that type of stuff, because what he told the newspaper and the newspaper put out there. Kiana says she was an easy target, poor, black, and voiceless. She says O'Connell never even asked her if she had an alibi. He never did that because he wasn't interested in ruling me out. He was just interested in making me guilty. He was trying to find facts that would

fit his theory that you were involved. Kiana had several run-ins with Sean O'Connell before. He helped put her ex-boyfriend in prison for a mandatory 10 years on a drug charge. She says that's what she was talking about in her Facebook post that O'Connell found so incriminating. The only reason why I would have posted about the 8 to 10 years is because I was upset that my child's father just got 10 years mandatory for his first drug offense. Here he is doing 10 years for a drug offense, and there are people who get 8 to 10 for murder by pleading insanity. That's what you were posting?

Correct. And it didn't have anything to do with Heather Bogle? No. And that Mickey Mouse shirt found on Heather's body, the one he insinuated belonged to Kiana, was it your shirt? No. I only owned one Mickey Mouse hoodie,

well, sweatshirt, in my life. So it's a sweatshirt, not a T-shirt. You don't own a T-shirt? No. Were you involved in the death of Heather Bogle? No. Did you cover up, have any role in covering up Heather Bogle's death? No.

Desperate to clear her name, Kiana contacted Matt Westerhold, managing editor of the Sandusky Register. I've never had a criminal suspect come to me and say, hey, I'm being targeted by police for a murder I didn't commit. That's never happened. He quickly came to believe O'Connell was framing her. If you interview Keona Boers, she's very believable, and it seemed obvious that, you know, she didn't know anything about this. Westerhold had been covering Sean O'Connell and his then-boss, former Sheriff Eric Overmeyer, for years, publishing numerous reports accusing them of corruption and incompetence.

One headline that the paper ran, the headline is, Sheriff Overmeyer and Detective O'Connell have a history botching high-profile cases. Fair headline? Yeah, absolutely. We probably documented a half dozen different cases where the families involved, you know, were complaining bitterly about how they were treated by law enforcement. And there was no doubt in my mind that they were botching these investigations. My guest today is Kiona Boer. Westerhold featured Keona's story on his webcast several times.

Do you consider yourself a victim of Detective O'Connell's? I very much do. He was determined to keep the pressure on O'Connell. We like to say that's who we are, that's what we do. In this case, we turned out to be a consistent, persistent watchdog that didn't give up. to be a consistent, persistent watchdog that didn't give up. Despite the public scrutiny, O'Connell spent a year and two months pursuing his theory that Kiana, Omar, and K. Ree acted together to kill Heather Bogle, even in the face of strong scientific evidence to the contrary.

Authorities found DNA under Heather's cuticle they believed left by her killer. But it didn't come back as Omar Satchel's. It did not. It didn't come back as Kiana Boer's. It did not. It didn't come back as K. Reed Jeffries. It did not. So the fact that the DNA under her fingernails does not belong to any of those three doesn't rule them out in your mind. It does not. does not belong to any of those three doesn't rule them out in your mind. It does not. But in his report to the prosecutor seeking an indictment, O'Connell didn't even mention that the DNA did not match,

an omission that would soon come out in the open. Just one week later, Detective O'Connell was taken off the case and placed on leave. I knew the end was coming. He was forced to resign. He wasn't the only one in trouble. I take full responsibility today. Sheriff Overmeyer was arrested and sent to prison for stealing drugs. Sounds to me like law enforcement in the Sandusky County Sheriff's Department.

Not in tip-top shape between Obermeyer and O'Connell? Well, yeah, if your sheriff, who is the lead officer of your criminal drug task force, has an addiction problem, you got problems. O'Connell's Bogle file was handed over to the State Bureau of Investigations. What they discovered was not only shocking, says Chris Hilton, who took over as sheriff, it was criminal. He attempted to indict people for murder that had absolutely nothing to do with it. Is this a case of a cop being overly ambitious?

Is this racism or is this incompetence? Anything I could say would be pure speculation. Nobody knows the case better than you. What do you think? I'm going to say it's a little combination of everything you just said. Newly elected Sandusky County prosecutor Tim Braun agreed. He opened a criminal investigation that led to O'Connell's arrest and indictment on four felony charges. He lied. He falsified police reports. He tampered with evidence. He tried to make a case that he didn't have and he tried to push it through. O'Connell was charged with misleading a public official and destroying, concealing, and tampering with evidence.

You're looking at some serious charges. I'm looking at some very serious charges. Did you mishandle evidence? Absolutely not. Did you knowingly make false statements? Absolutely not. Alter, destroy, conceal, remove evidence? Of course not.

So where are they getting it from? They're getting it from speculation. That's not how Chris Hilton sees it. Was there any reason to focus on Kiana Boer? After the first day or two, I would say no. She had nothing to do with it. And neither, he says, did Omar Satchel or Keri Jeffrey. The BCI investigation showed the three suspects never knew Heather,

never met Heather, never sold her pot. But Sean O'Connell still stands behind his investigation, right or wrong. So you can be wrong, but that doesn't mean you had tunnel vision. I could be. Detectives are wrong all the time. You were just wrong. I'm not even here to say that I'm wrong because the investigation, I never had the opportunity to close out. That job fell to the new sheriff, and he wasn't going to stop until he got it right. I knew it was a solvable case. I just knew it had to be done right.

I said, we're going to open this up to the point where it just happened. Every lead, every person, everybody is a suspect until we can eliminate them. And that's what we did. Heather Bogle had been dead for nearly two years when Sheriff Hilton and his team took over the investigation. They had no clue who killed her, but were positive it was not a random killing. We felt that whoever did this had something personal against Heather. Someone she

just had a huge fight with. Someone who'd written her an angry note, found in the car where she lay dead in the trunk. Someone like Heather's ex-girlfriend, Carmela Bedillo. To me, she would be a logical person to investigate. I mean, again, when you look at the condition with which Heather was found, there was passion and anger in whoever did that. Carmela, who'd been quickly cleared by O'Connell, went straight to the top of Hilton's suspect list. So you guys are basically... I was done.

It sounds like she was done, too. She was brought in for questioning. The last month, I'll agree with everybody, it was f***ing horrible. It was rocky. You didn't know what was going to happen next. But the sheriff would soon rule out Carmela when he found a new suspect. Investigators started digging through Heather's social media and Gmail accounts. And suddenly, there it was.

Stored in Heather's GPS records by Google, an electronic trail of coordinates showing Heather's exact movements from the moment she left work at 6.17 a.m. Is this your aha moment? Absolutely. We knew we had something. We could at least say definitively this is where she went after she left work that morning. At 6.30 a.m., 13 minutes after leaving work, Heather's phone GPS places her in a trailer home a few miles from the Whirlpool plant.

And we find out later that day it belongs to Daniel Myers. Well, who was Daniel Myers? We had no idea at the time. We find out very quickly that Daniel Myers worked with Heather. We find out that he worked with her that night. We find out that he left approximately the same time that morning. That's when we went, aha, we got something. Investigators knocked on Daniel Myers' door.

He was cooperative, but not overly. He kind of distanced himself from knowing Heather. They recorded their conversation. Did you know her at all? Very, very little. Very little. Just more. I mean, very limited conversation. Did you know her at all? Very, very little. Very little. Just more, very, I mean, very limited conversation. One of the things he says that really makes the hair stand up, like, why are you still investigating us, is what he's asking. Like, this is, this is done, it's over with, it's been two years. I guess it's a little odd that, you know, you guys are,

I know it's cold case and you guys are just, you know, grasping at straws trying to figure out. When I listened to it, I was like, oh, my God, this might be our guy. This might be our guy. And then the clincher was, at the end of that interview, they asked for a DNA sample. I'm going to pass on that.

I didn't really know the girl or anything like that. He's the first person that said no. Investigators returned two days later with a warrant for his DNA to match it against the DNA found under Heather's cuticle. We're going to search for it for your DNA. Okay. So what we wanted you to do is to be a little more forthcoming to help us narrow this thing down. Because you know what? We're narrowing it down. Okay. So what we wanted you to do is to be a little more forthcoming to help us narrow this thing down.

Because you know what? We're narrowing it down. Okay. Okay? They got their sample, and results came back five days later. My major came into my office, and he says, Sheriff, that DNA belongs to Danny Myers. I think we almost wanted to break into tears. It was like we have him. We got him.

They learned this man who said he barely knew Heather Bogle had contributed $125 and wrote a warm condolence note on her GoFundMe page and made sure people knew he was at Heather's funeral. He signs the registry book at her funeral? Yes. It's a kind of guy who's trying to look normal. He's trying not to do anything that would trigger in anybody's mind

that maybe Danny Myers is just a little different. It turns out Daniel Myers had been hiding in plain sight all along. Shortly after Heather's murder, a Whirlpool employee sent an email to Detective Sean O'Connell saying she knew someone capable of this crime. And she point blank told us, I was going to tell him I thought it was Daniel Myers. But O'Connell, already fixated on his three suspects,

never followed up. If you had worked the whirlpool angle a little harder, do you think Daniel Myers' name might have surfaced? I don't know how we could have worked it any harder. I mean, what more could we have done? It didn't take Sheriff Hilton very long to figure it out. Just five months after opening the new investigation, he and his team arrested the single father at a summer campground. And the only thing that he ever said was, oh, my God, they're here to get me. And then we took him into custody,

and that was pretty much the last thing he said to us. I think you got a story to tell. We'd like to hear it, okay? Searching the trailer, investigators never found the gun or bullets that killed Heather. But they did find damning evidence. New floorboards bought less than a week after her murder. Meaning what?

Meaning we believe we found where she was murdered. In his trailer. And he would have replaced the subflooring because it was covered in blood? Blood, possible bullet holes, any number of reasons. You've got to cover it up. The trailer yielded other secrets. He liked to keep women's underwear in his safe. Slowly, they began piecing together

a disturbing picture of a sexual predator, a man focused on control, domination, and humiliation. He had videos of himself with women and other women. And he was very disturbing when it comes to his sexual fetishes. After Daniel Myers' arrest, 10 women came forward, saying he raped them. None of them went to the police beforehand and said, this guy at the plant sexually attacked me in his trailer. They were all embarrassed and ashamed by it.

Investigators say Myers picked women he thought would stay silent. And what better way to solidify that than to find ones that are vulnerable? And Heather Bogle was vulnerable. She was reeling over her nasty breakup with Carmela. And, they learned from Myers, she was also upset over a text her brother sent calling her too stupid to pass her licensed practical nursing exam. And here's Daniel Myers. Come tell me all about it. That's right.

She went to his trailer, says Braun, expecting a friend, but finding a killer. I think it happened immediately as soon as she came in the door. I think he came out onto her sexually. She probably immediately rejected him. I think he grabbed her. I think she punched on to her sexually. She probably immediately rejected him. I think he grabbed her.

I think she punched him in the face. We know he had one cracked tooth and one broken tooth that he repaired with super glue. And then I think he physically overpowered her, beat her into submission, handcuffed her, beat her some more, stripped her, probably had her on the bed. And we know that because he ended up replacing his mattress at the end of the month after the homicide occurred. And I think he tortured her for a long time, and then I think he shot and killed her.

And I think he tortured her for a long time, and then I think he shot and killed her. Do you think Danny Myers could be a serial killer? I've always considered that a possibility, and a relatively strong one. Prosecutor Tim Braun has made a career of putting violent killers behind bars and says Daniel Myers seems like a pro. Most people, first time they kill somebody, they're overcome with emotion. They do stupid things. Danny Myers rationally and meticulously attempted to cover this case up. That usually takes experience.

He seemed to have it down to a science, says Braun, cutting down Heather's fingernails and cleaning her body in an apparent attempt to remove DNA evidence. Have I dealt in the past with people who've attempted to destroy genetic material? Absolutely. And usually not their first rodeo, not their first rodeo. And they get good at covering up because they want to do it again. And so when I saw that, yeah, it raised a lot of questions in my mind. raised a lot of questions in my mind.

Lorianne Haley says if Tim Braun is looking for proof Daniel Myers killed before, he doesn't need to look any further than her sister, Leanne Sluder. You think your sister was murdered? Yes. By Danny? Yes. No question? No question.

Leanne was Daniel Myers' ex-girlfriend and the mother of his son. Nearly six years before Heather Bogle's death, Leanne was found with a single gunshot to her chest. This crime scene photograph shows the.22 caliber rifle beside her. Authorities quickly ruled it a suicide. When you heard that word, suicide? No. No way? No. I just talked to her 12 hours prior. There is no indication whatsoever that she was crying for help or giving me any signal. or giving me any signal. Even more alarming, says Laurie Ann, is why Leanne had a gun at all. I knew my sister hated guns.

She was not allowed to have a gun in her house. That's the giant red flag. Yes. He supposedly told investigators it was for her protection. I didn't know myself. Protection from what? Daniel Myers admitted to giving the gun to Leanne for her protection. I'm thinking to myself, protection from what? Daniel Myers admitted to giving the gun to Leanne for her security, but Lorianne was skeptical

of how her sister could use it to shoot herself in the chest with its long barrel and then leave it lying neatly next to her body. How could she do that with a rifle? Yeah. Impossible. How could she do that with a rifle? Yeah. Impossible.

How could she reach the trigger? Well, that's the issue. A lot would remain unanswered, says Tim Braun. Leanne Sluder's suicide, in my opinion, was not a properly processed crime scene in the sense that it was not photographed well, evidence wasn't collected, it wasn't done correctly. So if they had done gun residue tests on Daniel Meyer's hands in that 2009 investigation,

they would know unequivocally whether he had shot that weapon. That sounds like standard operating procedure. Right, well, this is Sandusky County Sheriff's Office, and at that time, it was not a professional agency. I believe the investigators at the time took Daniel at his word that she killed herself. Do you think if your sister's death had been properly investigated, Heather Bogle would be alive? Yes. You didn't hesitate one bit? No.

would be alive. Yes. He didn't hesitate one bit. No. Investigators recently took another look at Leanne's death. They came to the same conclusion of suicide after determining Leanne was physically able to reach the rifle's trigger after all. An undated letter also surfaced. Authorities say this is her handwriting and reads like a suicide note. All I ever wanted was to just die so that the hurt would stop. Daniel Meyer's relatives say they found it in his home after his arrest. I don't believe it was fully authenticated. I don't understand why he had it for so long. And then all of a sudden it pops up, case closed, done. It's just sad that, you know,

the justice system wasn't on our side. I know that he killed her. He knows it. Problem is, you can't prove it. Now, Lorianne is hoping to get justice for her sister through another victim's case. If found guilty of killing Heather Bogle, Daniel Myers could be sentenced to death. And in your view, your sister's killer would be executed?

Yes. Not just Heather Bogle's killer? It would be both, yes. How strong a case do you have? In my experience, we had a very, very good case. Tim Braun has Meyer's DNA under Heather's fingernail, the GPS records placing her at his trailer, and his history of violence against women. But there's one huge obstacle, Sean O'Connell. From a trial lawyer's standpoint, it was a nightmare.

It's a nightmare because you have the original investigator pointing the finger at other people. And that would provide a convenient alternate suspect theory for any defense attorney. So before Daniel Myers could stand trial, the prosecutor believed Sean O'Connell would have to be discredited once and for all, officially ruling

out his three suspects, Omar Satchel, Karey Jeffrey, and Kiana Boer. I just hope what O'Connell did to us doesn't affect Heather's justice in convicting Daniel Myers. And they were about to find out. Tomorrow at this time, I could be at a local county jail

getting ready to be booked in. I don't want that to happen. I don't think that should happen. I don't think what I did warrants this to happen. It was a stunning change of fortune. Sean O'Connell, once a detective charged with upholding the law... Hey, buddy. ...is now facing a trial for breaking it. Accused of four felonies in connection to his Heather Bogle murder investigation,

in which he focused on three innocent people, O'Connell remains defiant. Do you feel you owe Omar Satchel, Kiana Boer, and Carrie Jeffries an apology? Why would I apologize? I mean, if you look at... Because they didn't do it? How do we know that for sure? But the day his trial was set to begin, O'Connell finally admitted to a mistake.

He pled guilty to one felony count, tampering with evidence by omitting the DNA results that excluded his three suspects. All I can do now is just kind of hope for the best, not only for me, but for my family when it comes time for sentencing. The former detective arrived at his sentencing hearing with his wife and family by his side, hoping for probation, but preparing for prison. When I took this investigation, as I've done with many other investigations throughout my career... O'Connell addressed the court in a plea for leniency. I wasn't purposely trying to leave out anything. I was just trying to highlight what I had at that point. Judge Patricia Cosgrove zeroed in on his failure to report the DNA results. Why didn't you include that? You're right, Your Honor, I did not include it. And I take full

responsibility for that. And for what it's worth, I apologize for not doing that. But again, I did that because I was simply trying to get the prosecutor a feel on why I thought it was these three people. One of those three people, Kiana Boer, finally got the chance to address the man she says ruined her life. I have lost time with my children, time with my family. I have lost friends. I have lost family. I have pretty much lost every single thing that I've had because of this man, and I'm still trying to get it back. After listening to all the testimony, Judge Cosgrove took a hard line.

I gave him some consideration for his 25 years of service, his military service, his volunteer work. But he has to go to prison. This has to send a message to other law enforcement officers. Hey, when you look at a case, look at all of it. And when you present a case, present all of it. Today's the day of sentencing. Take him into custody. Sean O'Connell was sentenced to two years in state prison. What about O'Connell?

The newspaper man who had covered O'Connell through the years, in this case and several others, was overwhelmed. This hits you deep, huh? The families. It was a moment of vindication for the families that he hurt. Because he hurt them so bad, and he could have, it would have been so easy to just do the right thing. Is Sean O'Connell where he should be?

In prison. Anytime somebody that wears the same badge that I do gets in trouble, breaks the law, convicted of a crime, they need to pay for it. I believe he is where he should be. With the O'nell case now resolved braun was finally ready to take on daniel myers in court we had more than enough to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt but within days of the trial starting myers derailed the proceedings you all right what's going? He was found face down in his cell. One teaspoon.

Dazed and incoherent in what turned out to be a failed suicide attempt. Do I think he was trying to commit suicide? I think he was trying to create a medical emergency. Buy some time? Buy some time. But time finally ran out. Daniel Myers chose to plead guilty

rather than face the possibility of a death sentence. You understand that a plea of guilty is a complete admission of guilt. Yes. I want you to know that you took away a mother and a friend and a loved one that no one can ever get back. One time suspect Carmela Bedillo spoke directly to the man who tortured and killed her former girlfriend. I want you to know, Daniel Miles, I do not forgive you. No one in this room can say that they forgive the devil. People say, Sheriff, how could he do this? Why would he do this to such a young, beautiful woman?

What was he thinking? And I would tell them, this man is a monster. Daniel Myers will have a lot of time to think about what he has done. He'll spend the rest of his days in prison with no chance of parole. After nearly four years, the people of this county finally saw justice. Sandusky County is a great place. I think it's a little better now, and I'm proud of that. Heather Bogle's memory will live on in the hearts and minds of the people of Sandusky County, who are now free to remember the beautiful young mother she was and imagine a life that could have been.

It's still not over in Sandusky County. After we finished reporting on this story, Prosecutor Tim Braun was accused of sexual harassment by at least four women who worked with him. A special prosecutor has been assigned to investigate. No conclusions have been reached. No charges have been filed. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.