Cold Case Files - Abandoned House / A Son's Memory

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Detectives are baffled when two young girls are raped, murdered, and dumped in an abandoned house in Akron, Ohio. And a 26-year-old mother of three disappears on Christmas Eve in 1995, but the missing persons case goes cold when police can find few clues to her whereabouts.Hers: Start your free online visit at forhers.com/CCF for your personalized weight loss treatment options.Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.Rosetta Stone - Cold Case Files listeners can get for 20% off their Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when you go to RosettaStone.com/coldcaseThrive Market: Go to ThriveMarket.com/coldcase for $30 off your first two orders!Vinted - See what’s hiding in your closet. Download the Vinted app for free to start listing with no seller fees!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode contains stories involving violence against children. Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. When she made me that promise in the look in her eyes to tell me that she would be back before it got dark, I believed her. On January 20th, 1995 in Akron, Ohio,

13-year-old Melissa Thomas promises her mother, Sonia Merchant, she'll be home before dark. Darkness falls and there's no sign of Melissa. Family and friends take to the streets of West Akron. Just searching, looking, you know, asking questions, stopping people on the street and, you know, doing whatever we could to try to find her. After hours of searching, Sonia calls police. The next day, Officer Bertina King gets the case and recognizes the name immediately. She stops first at the home of Melissa's sister, the last person to see Melissa. We're at 710, West Rilly Road, Apartment F.

This is where I took the missing persons report on Melissa Thomas. Went all through here, knocking on some doors, asking anybody I see, do you know who Melissa is? We're looking for telling people what she had on. And we put out, like, a bolo. We put it out on all the channels, what she looked like, who we're looking for. And I stopped at all the businesses up Ooster Avenue and let them know she was missing. For days, there is no sign of Melissa. I was trying to think that nothing bad was happening.

I was hoping that maybe she was with somebody and hoping that she would just come back. Me and my partner were working on the house, and I went to the second floor. Six days later on January 26th, John Red is cleaning up an abandoned house on East Avenue. I was walking down that hallway and I discovered a body. It was a dead 13-year-old girl. Red runs next door for help. And moments later, Detective Washington Lacey is on the scene. The first thing on my mind was, we're in trouble.

That was the first thing we're in trouble because that type of thing just doesn't happen every day. in Akron. She was bound both hands and feet. You can see just from looking at her, she had material in her mouth, and like I said, it was obvious that she was pulling. She had pulled this material away from her bindings. A teenager trying to bite herself free is an image that touches even the toughest of detectives. There was a little tear coming out of her right eye, and that didn't help a situation either. The body is IDed as Melissa Thomas. A short time later, her mother's phone rings. They identified the body, and I lost it.

I lost it. You see this type stuff happen to everybody else. You see it on TV. You see it everywhere else, and you never think that it would hit home. I can't believe this. I couldn't believe it. You know, why? Melissa Thomas was strangled to death.

Seaman is also recovered from her body. Despite the forensic leads, no suspects are developed. We just didn't know. Jess kept running into dead even. Melissa's case falls into the cold files, and a child killer remains free on the streets of West Akron.

I had to go to traffic court that night, and she was going to go with me. It's February 26, 1996, and Pat Huffman has a 7 p.m. date in traffic court. Pat's 12-year-old stepdaughter, Rosie, plans to join her. Rosie promises to be home. by six. And she says, I'll be back.

I want to go to court with him. She was all excited about going to traffic court. So it comes six o'clock and no Rosie. 615, still no Rosie. 6.30, no Rosie. Pat and Rosie's father, Jerry, searched the neighborhood for hours. We had a big picture window in the apartment and he sat there looking out that window saying, Rosie's going to be kept here any minute now.

We're going to see Rosie any minute. And he sat there looking out that window all night. and still no Rosie. The family files a missing persons report, then considers the worst. I knew in my heart then. I just told me she wasn't coming home anymore because it wasn't like Rosie to do that. And I told Jerry, I said, you know, I said, hope for the best, but I says, I have a bad feeling. And he says, what do you mean?

I said, I don't think Rosie's coming back anymore. Well, right now we're standing beside property 154 South Maple heading back to 156. On March 5, 1996, Michael Johnson cleans up his latest purchase, a duplex on South Maple Street. I had a trash bag with me, and I reached down and grabbed a handful of clothes. It was just trash everywhere. That's when I turned around, and that's when I saw her leg. Well, I ran upstairs, called 911 and told them, I think I found a dead body. We were dispatched to 156 South Maple.

Police Officer Mike Stover drives up minutes after the call. We're outside of 156 South Maple, which was the scene of the homicide. We get to the bottom of the stairs, and they said that underneath some clothing, they had found her. I looked over, and as you can see there, immediately there's a red line across the throat of the young lady. That was the first thing that jumped out at me. Stover tapes off the crime scene and calls homicide. Police suspect the victim may be Rosie Davenport. A knock on Pat Huffman's door confirms it.

I knew it was the police. I opened the door and he showed me a badge. And he says, did you report a little girl missing? I said, yeah. He said, could you tell me was she wearing a Garfield watch? And I said, yes. I knew then that they had found her. He said, well, he just found her body.

I mean, that was heartbreaking. Okay, I just transferred to the unit, the Crimes Against Persons Unit, and this was my second day on the job. Jerry Kelly takes the lead on the case and works with a team of detectives. They attend the autopsy on what would have been Rosie Davenport's 13th birthday. The evidence from the sexual assault was that it was very brutal, very painful. Detective Rod Smith is also present at the autopsy. Very strong.

memories from this one because the victim was so terrorized was so innocent was a victim with a capital V you know this girl should have been out roller skating the next day with her friends she shouldn't have been lying in the basement mutilated strangled raped and murdered we knew we were dealing with a monster so what we need to do is you know to get busy and do our homework and get out there beat the streets and find out who did it we're on South Maple Street. Actually, one of our last spottings of Rosie on Saturday was in this area. Detectives find their first lead at the last place Rosie was seen, the home of Michelle Lindsay

and her live-in boyfriend, Donnie Craig. She was visiting Michelle Lindsay, who had several daughters of Rosie's age, and it was sort of a gathering place for a lot of the kids there. I didn't like her walking home because she was too little. At that time, Michelle Lindsay told us that Donnie Craig and his brother, Duane, was going to offer Rosie a ride because they didn't like her walking down the street after dark. It was too dark for her to walk home by herself. So that's why offered her a cab. Michelle said that Rosie declined the offer, said she'd be fine and left.

A few moments later, Michelle said that Dondie, her living boyfriend, uh, left the house as well and she hadn't seen him since. The next thing we did was, of course, talked to Dondy Craig. He denied any knowledge of knowing Rosie Davenport, said he never saw the girl, doesn't know of her, never had any contact with her. Donnie said that, but Donnie seen her, Donnie met her. She was in the same house with Donnie. He stayed with us, so I don't know why he want to sit and say he never met her because he was in the same house. When Don D. Craig refuses a polygraph, police dig a little deeper and find suspicious activity in Craig's

criminal history. There were very similar cases where it involved abandoned houses and involved being tied up in sexual assaults. That's kind of like the old ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you know, the red flags come up, you know, the pointers start pointing. Like I said, he goes right to the top of the list. Smith returns to Craig's apartment looking to prove his case. We wanted to have a sample of his blood for DNA testing.

said he would do that, then he changed his mind. So now we were at the point where Dondy Craig was really looking as a strong suspect. Dondy Craig is arrested after refusing to provide his DNA. After a night in the lockup, he consents to a blood draw. Craig's DNA samples and the evidence are shipped to the DNA lab. But before testing begins, a problem arises. The problem that we had is the delay in finding Rosie. You know, we were talking 48 hours, maybe up to 72 hours. At the time she had died and the time she had been found, the sperm evidence had already started to break down or deteriorate.

Lab analysts are unable to develop a DNA profile from the semen evidence. With no physical evidence tying Don D. Craig to the crime, police are unable to press charges. We did not have enough evidence to make charges against them. We had our police instinct, but that won't win you a case in court. As the months pass, little develops on Rosie Davenport's case. Detectives reluctantly set the case aside. Forgetting it, however, is another matter.

There's some cases that just won't ever leave. Well, to me, this was the case. I'll never forget Rosie. I'll never forget that autopsy. We've had a lot of cold cases in our city that's been around for a lot of years. The one that we wanted to solve real bad was this one. The initial step was to come down here and locate the evidence with Rosie. Everything down this row is like murderer's row.

In January of 2002, Detective Jim Passalich is working overtime in Akron's Evidence Locker. Grant money is paying for DNA testing on unsolved cases. This is where these cases are won or lost. This is what we're looking for is how good a job did we do? back then at collecting storage-wise? Is it still good? Can we still use it? The first case he pulls is one of only two unsolved child murders in Akron.

The victim's name is Rosie Davenport. Six years earlier, the 12-year-old was found raped and strangled. There was something we were looking for for that seaman, what was present and left behind by the person that both kidnapped her raped and killed her. Up on a shelf, Passallich finds Rosie's rape kit. Inside it, he hopes, is a DNA profile. The swabs, the swabs that were obtained at the medical examiner's office in 1996. If you can get that DNA and get them to try to explain how that DNA got there,

and in this case, there's no good reason. You got a 12-year-old girl, how did your DNA get inside of her? There's no good reason. Passalich sends the swabs to the DNA lab, along with samples from several identified suspects. Of special interest to Passalich is an uncooperative suspect named Donald Dondy Craig. Dondy was the number one suspect from day one. It just wasn't enough to charge him with back at that time. When we start the DNA extraction process, we'll take a tube and open it and cut a portion of the sample.

Seven months later, in August of 2002, forensic scientist Linda Eveleth tests evidence from Rosie Davenport's rape kit and isolates two distinct DNA profiles. Two DNA profiles. It was consistent with Rosanna Davenport and Donald Craig. We're happy. The arrest is coming. It's not a matter of if it is. It's only when. Donnie Craig is easy to find. He's in prison on an unrelated charge. Before approaching him, cold case detectives work up a background on their suspect. We start looking back through police reports. We find a case in 1991 where he was arrested for raping a 17-year-old girl. The 17-year-old is LaVale Calhoun.

Her case file reads like a blueprint for the attack on Rosie Davenport. The only apparent difference is LaVale lived to tell her story. That's a face. I never forget. In 1991, Dondy Craig visits LaVale Calhoun's house with some friends. LaVale agrees to drive with him for fast food. He wanted to make a stop. He said he was house sitting for somebody.

And he wanted to make a stop and check on the house. So we get through the front door. He was like, wait right here. I said, why is it dark? You know? And as I turned to grab the doorknob, he threw a sheet over me. Me and I was just screaming. I started screaming.

And he was like, shut up. Be quieter. I'm gonna kill you. He picked me up, carried me up the steps. He threw me down on this bed. He got up on my back and pint me down. Tied both of my hands to the bed. Bet not move.

I couldn't scream no more. Had tape on my mom. After he tied my hands to the bed, he took my clothes off. And he raped me there. it seemed like hours. It really did. I really thought I was going to die. I really did.

I really did. LaVale is eventually untied and allowed to dress. Donald Craig then drives his victim home, but not before making one more stop. He went through the drive then before he took me home. And then he dropped me off. I jumped out of that car so fast. And I ran house and I told my mother,

what happened. Craig is charged with rape and goes to jail, only to be released a short time later. I thought he was in jail. I went to court twice, testified, and I thought he was in jail. The ball got dropped at the grand jury level. Somebody dropped the ball for LeVale Cahoon. The detective who was assigned the case was on vacation, so they never heard from the detective in this case. It should have been picked up by the next great year. injury. I mean, that's what it comes down to. It fell through the cracks. LeVale Calhoun might have fallen through the cracks, but she will get her day in court, on the witness stand, in Rosie Davenport's murder trial. Before detectives take the case to court,

they take it to prison, where Dondy Craig is finishing up a seven-year sentence for arson. I know that he had no idea that we were looking into this case. This episode is sponsored by Vinted. I've been doing that thing where I open my closet, see clothes I genuinely like, and still reach for the same pieces every week. Meanwhile, there are jackets, jeans, and seasonal things taking up space that I keep telling myself I'll wear someday. So I finally started clearing it out with Vinted. It's a secondhand marketplace app that makes it easy for everyday sellers like us to sell pre-loved fashion, giving it a second life, which clears a closet space and helps earn a little extra money. Listing is quick and simple. Take a few photos, add the details, and put it up.

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In January of 2003, Don D. Craig is in prison when he gets an unexpected visit from detectives Jim Pissalich and Russ McFarland. Make a mistake, you try to befriend him when you first go in there. I mean, the easy question you start with, you know, do you even know who Rosie is? You never stay at that house over there? I think it was on Maple Street. Yeah, I remember the incident that we're talking about, Rosie Dad, before? Yeah, quite a year. After 45 minutes of easy back and forth, detectives begin to tighten up on their suspect.

There was a certain point in time where you have to hit him with the science and says, we know you did it. And then that's when it really escalated. Okay, point blank questions, because you know we have to ask. Did you kill Rosie? Did you rape him? Did you rape him? You're going to have sex with Rose. No. After the expected denials, detectives confront Don with some science. Here's my question to you, Donnie. Is there any reason your DNA should be inside of?

If my DNA was in there, they would have found that out. It's a whole reason we're hearing on. Yeah. Your DNA is inside a road down. How can I ever get to do that? But I ain't got no knowledge of it again. Donnie. Again, he still denies everything.

He knows now why we're down there. He knows we have DNA. We're coming down there for a reason. He still denies it. Straight up, your DNA was inside Rosie. Okay. That's the case? Let's go to court. Okay.

And that's what we did. We went to court with it. This was the courtroom that Rosie Davenport's case was tried in. In June of 2004, Donnie Craig goes on trial for kidnapping, rape, and aggravated murder. Dondy Craig was the last person to see her, and his face was the last face that Rosie Davenport saw. DNA evidence coupled with LaVale Calhoun's testimony. makes for a compelling case. We, the jury in this case, find the defendant, Donald Levelle, Craig, guilty of the offense.

He was found guilty in all charges, the kidnapping, in the rape, and the murder of Rosie Davenport. There's still, it goes through my mind all the time. Why? Why a baby? Because that's all Rosie was. He didn't even give her a chance for life. He's the devil. He's the devil.

They ought to bring back the electric chair just for him. July 22nd, 2004, Dondy Craig is sentenced to death by lethal injection. Rosie Davenport's homicide is officially closed, and her file is packed away. The investigation into Craig, however, continues. I think back in the back of our minds, we thought we'd be talking to Dondy again. I brought him here to a room to this one, and he and I, we talked for about an hour. In 2004, Detective Gary Shady interviews a jailhouse informant. who says a fellow inmate might be responsible for an unsolved murder from 1995.

He specifically told me that the young girl was killed in the west side of Akron, that she had been raped, that she was tied up, and that she had been strangled manually. Shady asks around about the case and is quickly handed the file of Melissa Thomas, a 13-year-old raped and murdered in 1995. So I started putting pieces together and said, well, someone is giving him some information that's pretty reliable. The informant refuses to give up the name of the suspect, and instead he leaves the detective work to Shady. Once I ran him in the Summary County Jail, pulled up his housing, I realized Donald Craig was also in his unit. Shady heads straight to the desk of the man who put Craig away for another child murder.

I came to you because you were working on Roseanne and I'm like, hey man, this sounds like the same person. You're right, they're exactly the same. You just change the names of the victims. You change Rosie and Melissa. You can interchange them. They're exactly the same. In December of 2005, semen evidence recovered during Melissa Thomas's autopsy is compared with Dondy Craig's DNA. The result is a perfect match.

I was jumping out of my chair. I really was. With that, Dondy Craig is charged and eight months later, he goes to trial. In the summer of 2006, Donald Craig is found guilty of a second crime against a child, the rape and murder of Melissa Thomas. On August 16th, Craig returns to court for sentencing. Craig's sentencing begins with statements from Melissa's mother, Sonia. To you, Donald Craig, just want you to know that you cause us a lot of sleepless nights.

You caused me a lot of painful days. And I miss my baby that you took from me. And you sit there and you don't make amends and you don't act like you did anything to anybody. But I just want you to know that God bless you. And may he bless your soul, but I am so glad that you can't hurt everybody else's child. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Reverend. Mr. Craig, please stand hereby sentenced you to be taken to the Ohio Department of Corrections

and be put to death for that murder. No emotion crosses Dondy Craig's face as he receives his second death sentence. Behind him, however, Melissa Thomas's family is overjoyed. Outside the courtroom, a grateful mother offers open arms to the detectives who worked the case. There's one last stop for Sonia Merchant and her family, a visit to Melissa's memorial on East Avenue, across the street from where Melissa's body was found. It's a place to remember and to pray.

I know that Melissa can rest in peace. She will never be forgotten. Never. She will always be here. But we can go on with our lives now. This is the missing persons unit of the Pope County Sheriff's Office. These are some of my old cases. It's April 2002, Ruth Hodges works for Polk County, Florida.

And she was 24 years of age when she disappeared. Her specialty is missing persons everyone else has forgotten. Fred Wright was 76 years of age. Cynthia Robinson disappeared. Clifton Patrick Leonard. No one knows what has happened to him. Among the hundreds of names and hundreds of faces, one in particular catches Hodges' eye, the missing persons file on Andrea Boyette.

She was reported missing around Christmas Eve of 94. She allegedly just up and disappeared because there was some argument or something, and then allegedly, according to her husband, she walked away. What woman that cares for her children is going to go away? off right on Christmas Eve and never come back again. Ruth Hodges suspects Andrea Boyette was murdered, and Andrea's grandmother, Mary Jan, believes she knows exactly who did it. I said, my God, he's killed her, because we knew she wouldn't go off and leave the children.

She couldn't wait for them to see those presents, you know. Mary tells Hodges that Andrea's husband, John, killed her and recalls conversations the family had with Andrea, shortly before she. disappeared. Well, to me, she said, Grandma, you was right. I think I did make a mistake, which she told my daughter she was afraid of him. That was the day she'd come up missing. For seven years, Mary Yon has told anyone who would listen. Her granddaughter's missing person case is, in reality, a murder. Now, Ruth Hodges and her supervisor, Sergeant Gary Klinger, believe her. Somebody finally cared. Up until then,

seemed like nobody cared. Even my own family, I guess, got tired of me talking about it. And this Miss Hodges and Ham was the only ones that ever seemed to. It was really important that we go down and talk with the children. Hodges asked Sergeant Klinger to speak with Dustin Cunningham, Andrea's eldest child, who was never questioned by police in 1994. They were there the night that she disappeared, and I felt like that was really important that we needed to get down there

and to talk to him. Klinger heads to the Florida prison where Dustin is currently serving some time to see what he remembers about his mother. She had these beautiful eyes, you know, and beautiful face. And it's like she felt for the bad guys all the time, you know. On February 12th, 2004, Dustin Cunningham sits down with Sergeant Klinger, ready to share a memory that has haunted him since he was a nine-year-old boy looking out the window on Christmas Eve.

I didn't go to sleep because I wanted to see Santa Claus, you know, I was going to stay up all night. Dustin's excitement, however, dissolved into fear when his mom pulled into the driveway with Dustin's stepfather, John Boyette. He seemed so angry. I mean, I don't know what they was arguing about or why or what. I don't know nothing, but they was arguing. And whenever he got out of the car, he just, it was like he was a different person, you know. Like the person inside of him was just like the devil or something.

He saw John put his hands around and his neck and started strangling her. He just wouldn't stop and just kept choking her and was cussing at her and telling her he hopes she died. He hopes she dies and crazy stuff, you know. She was trying to scream, but she couldn't. And then she was just gagging. And he just kept hitting her. Every time he let go of her throat, he just hit her in the face. Boom.

Dustin had seen his mom fight with John Boyette before. This, however, was different. She was bleeding from her nose, and all in her mouth was blood, and there was puke on her shirt. She wasn't moving at all. I didn't even think she was breathing, you know. According to Dustin, his mother's body was slumped in the back seat of the car when John and his brother, Robert, pulled back out of the driveway and drove into the night. I kind of knew, like, in my mind and my heart that my mom was never coming back, you know?

The next morning, instead of opening Christmas presents, Dustin was told his mom had left the family. He told us that she ran away and that she needed time by herself to think about the relationship. that, uh, to think about the relationship and all kinds of crazy stuff. Within months, John Boyette abandoned the children and never returned. Leaving Dustin to wonder, what really happened to his mother? I was young and I knew that she didn't leave us like that. I knew that. But after a while of hearing it and hearing it and you kind of, you're young so you want to believe she just ran away, you know? Maybe she will come back.

You know, I think he felt in his heart his mother was probably dead. Dustin says he tried telling people what he saw that Christmas Eve, but as a child, he was never taken seriously. That was the key that opened everything up. What he saw was obviously his father in the process of killing his mother. It was obviously after talking to Dustin that we were looking at a homicide case versus a missing person's case. And this would have been the bedroom on Christmas.

Miss Eve of 1994 that he would have looked out of when he saw his stepfather, John Boyette, strangle his mother. Detective Louis Jampavolo, otherwise known as Detective G., picks up the cold case, which now hinges on a young boy's memory and no physical evidence. The biggest challenge would have been one, we don't have a body, but that does not preclude the state of Florida from charging someone with murder without a body, but it makes the case a whole lot tougher. Detective G's case will soon get a boost when another family member shares some memories of a body, some chains, and a midnight drive. I've always loved the idea of being able to travel, walk into a neighborhood cafe or bookstore, and actually have a full conversation.

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Wagovi is the registered trademark of Nova Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wagovi clinical study information and restrictions, visit for hers.com. In 2004, the Polk County Cold Case team gets a lead in the case of Andrea Boyette. A 26-year-old mother reported missing nine years earlier. The tip comes from Andrea's son, Dustin. December, he saw her vomit, and then he saw John push his mother in the vehicle and drive off with her. According to Dustin, John Boyette's brother Robert was in the car with John as they drove away with Andrea's body.

Detective G. locates Robert and asks him to come down to the station to talk. We said we were with the Sheriff's Office homicide unit and we wanted to speak to him about the disappearance of Andrea Boyette. So he agreed to come and while we were there, He said, you know, she's alive. I've seen her before. Detective G. doesn't buy it, but saves his questions for the interrogation room. We basically told him that Dustin had come forward. Dustin said he saw from the bedroom window that night his mother being strangled.

And he pretty much quickly came off on it and said it's been bothering him for a long time and he wanted to tell the truth. I went back in the house and he came in there and asked me if I'd go with him to dump the body. You know, the real story is John choked her that night. You know, I went out to the car and saw her body in the car and helped dispose of her body. Robert Boyette takes Detective G. back to Christmas Eve 1994. The night his brother had a fight with his wife, and she ended up dead in the backseat of their car. We asked him, how do you know she was dead? And he said, well, one with the eyes open and two with, he could see she wasn't breathing.

Robert says his brother then asks him for the favor of all favors. So he asked you to go with him to dump the body. Is that exactly what he said? That's his words. He asked me if I'd go with him to help get rid of the body. And you said no at first. Not first. Yes, I did. And then what?

He threatened me, told me to kill me. Robert says the two made a midnight drive out to the mines where John Boyette worked. They arrive out there and John direct him. John directs them to a lake, which is near a plant on the property. And once they're there, they find some chains and some cinder blocks. Where did you wrap it? Around the legs. Arms and around the legs.

Okay. I locked it with padlocks around the blocks. He said that he did help wrap her up with the chains and the cinder blocks and put her in the water. I helped him dump the body into the water. And you just roll the right there. Just he'd tossed around. And he told me if I ever told anybody he'd kill me. Robert says the two then drove back home

and never spoke of the favor again. According to Robert, he told the police that he saw her and John would do the same thing. That way, if anyone came asking questions, they would just say, we saw her recently and leave it at that. Robert's story picks up where Dustin's leaves off, filling in the missing pieces for police. If she was placed in a lady,

as Robert has said she was, and the companies have come out here and mine the area, there's basically no telling where she could be. She could be moved 100 feet away. She could be moved a mile away from the location where they placed her body. In other words, the chances of recovering a body at this point are nearly impossible. And here's a picture of John? Correct. Detective G. connects with Sergeant Britt Williams to discuss the next step,

talking to their suspect John Boyette. We all kind of came to a group decision that it was best to go ahead and see what John was going to say. He came outside of the house or the trailer and it was me and you standing there looking at him and his wife was on one side and he was on the other.

It's 11 p.m. when John Boyett gets a surprise visit from Polk County investigators. We asked him, you know, we're detectives from Polk County with the homicide unit. We want to talk to him about Andrea. He kind of looked at us with that blank stare and we said again, Andrea. He's like, who? And I said, your wife Andrea, the one that's missing from 1994.

Oh, you mean Andrea or, you know, acted like we mispronounced her name. Short of him confessing, I mean, that was a huge thing to me. I think to both of us it was. You know, the normal reaction would be, oh my gosh, have you found her? Or is she okay? But instead he acted like he completely did not know who she was. John Boyette agrees to talk with detectives at a local police station. There, he gives the same story he told detectives 10 years ago

that Andrea walked out on the family on Christmas Eve of 1994. Detectives decide it's time to show Boyette their evidence. They pull out a VCR, insert an evidence tape, and press play. During the time he watched the video, he just progressively became more and more angry. And there were a couple points you could hear him outside of the room yelling at the TV. But what insights, Boyette, aren't the details of murder? You just watch this whole admission that your brother has admitted that y'all have dumped your wife's body in a lake. And he says that, you know, you just choked her.

And he just kind of sat there and shook his head during that point. But when they talk about drugs, he stands up and starts yelling and saying that's bullshit. He missed the whole point. The point is his brother saying, you killed Andrea. Sergeant Williams decides to spell it out for John Boyette. I said, you know you choked and killed Nikki. And he kind of shook his head and he goes, I didn't choke and kill her. I just, and he made his hand in a choking motion.

And he said something to the effect of, you know, you didn't offer me an attorney. And I think I want one before I answer any more questions. The interview ends, but detectives can't arrest John Boyette. yet. The decision was that we were going to take everything to a grand jury. We did not have a body. That, you know, we would take all these statements and have these people come in and tell a grand jury exactly what had occurred.

And that was the decision. We decided that we were going to let John go on home. Boyette is released. Meanwhile, Detective G. begins digging up additional witnesses. Women who, like Andrea, were abused at the hands of John Boyette. favorite thing to do was to grab me by the throat. Rhonda Price is a former girlfriend who tells Detective G about one particular beating that almost ended her life.

It went from me telling him no, leave me alone, casually, to him hand on the throat and me begging him to let go, just that fast. It happened so fast. I knew I couldn't breathe. I was trying to get his arm off, his hand out from around my throat. And now the last thing I remember before I went out was my oldest son hollering and let my mama go, let go with my mama. It could have been me. It could have been my kids being raised without their mother.

In all, Detective G. locates four women who say they were abused, often choked by Boyette. I think that just made the case stronger against John. Not only did we believe Andrea was strangled, but you could go back and say his previous girlfriends and wife were strangled, as well as his current wife. In August of 2004, a grand jury indicts John Boyette for the murder of Andrea Boyette. It was going to be interesting to see if a jury was going to be able to convict somebody on basically very, on no physical evidence and really just the testimony of, you know, of two people. Newspaper reporter Jason Geary attends Boyette's murder trial. The defendant, however, pleads guilty to manslaughter and is sentenced to eight years in prison. I spoke with John afterward. He had spoke with his lawyer.

He accepted a plea because he didn't know whether or not he really could be successful at trial. John was emphatic that he did nothing wrong. He gets away with murdering my mother and ruining my life, my brother's life, my sister's life. The plea isn't good enough for Dustin Cunningham, who finds himself in police custody on an unrelated offense, and then in the same holding area as his stepfather. Polk County Sheriff put me in the dorm with him in the county jail. I pulled a shank on him. I had a knife in there, pulled a knife on him, tried to kill him.

I was going to kill him, but his roommate stopped him. Dustin is never charged with the attack against his stepfather. She's gone, and I'm stuck in here, and I can't feel like I'll never get out. Boyette's brother, Robert, is never charged in connection with Andrea's murder. The victim's grandmother lives with him. at all. Well, I'm not happy at all about it, but there's nothing I can do. I just feel like if you take a life, you should pay, and eight years is not even half enough.

I hope he, one day, he will feel just like she felt that he will pay for what he did, because he didn't only take a life. He ruined three children's lives, too, and all the people that loves her. Pluto phone. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV. Where all your blockbuster favorites are landing all summer long. Catch Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgundy. Fantastic. The Matrix Trilogy.

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