Cold Case Files - The Bow Hunter

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

In 1993, Charles Murray, an experienced hunter, went missing on the first day of bow hunting season. His family fears that something terrible had happened were quickly realized. But who was it that found Charles out in the middle of the woods? And why did this hunter become someone else's prey?

Thank you for listening to this Podcast One production, available on Apple Podcasts and Podcast One. one of the most notorious figures in American history. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts, and stay tuned to the end of this episode for a special preview of the trailer for the podcast. Just a quick warning. Some of the interviews in this episode contain mature language. What I did is I took my chair, I put it right close to his so our knees were almost touching. And when they brought him in the room,

you could see the fire in his eyes, their eyes of anger. I don't know what set him off, but he screamed at me, You want it? You f***ing want it? Get your tape recorder out. It was early October 1993, and in Michigan, that meant bow hunting season. 33-year-old Charles Murray was an avid hunter. A rifle had been his weapon of choice up to that point. But that year, he decided to venture into bow hunting. Excited to try out his new bow and this new sport, Charles left his home in Pontiac, which

is just outside of Detroit. He headed up to the northern part of the state for the very first day of bowhunting season. A few days went by, and Charles didn't come home. Then, a few more days. Then a week. Until finally, Charles' mother, Sandy, decided something must be wrong. So she filed a missing persons report, got in her car, and headed north in search of her son. The hunt for the hunter was on.

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. I'm Brooke, and this story, adapted from a classic episode of Cold Case Files, is told by the amazing Bill Curtis. He loved to go deer hunting, rifle season, and he'd never ventured into bow hunting until that year. That had been his first time. Sandy Murray is worried about her son, 33-year-old Charles. And that's when I bought him the bow.

Charles Murray had traveled up to northern Michigan for the first day of bow hunting season. That was more than a week ago. On a weekend, I know it can go by, but a whole week and then him not showing up at work, and that wasn't like him. And I thought, well, something's wrong. That evening, Sandy Murray contacts authorities. Then she gets into her car and heads north. A bird hit my window. You know, it's this old superstition, and I thought, it's a bad sign. And I thought, no, no, don't let it happen.

But I knew it did. I knew something was afoul. I overheard some radio traffic that the state police had on the air, something about they were with the family and the mother and the brother, and I heard something about a missing hunter. Theo Helms responds to the radio call. He meets Sandy and Matthew Murray, Charles Murray's half-brother.

I found out that the brother had actually been into this hunting area with him. And in talking to him, I said, well, if you went with me in my car, could you find that area where he normally punts? And he said, yeah, I think so. Helms and Matthew drive around and around. Before Matthew finally settles on an area he says looks familiar. This area is northeast of the intersection of Bissonnette Road and M65. I guess the address here would probably be Glenny.

It was odd to me that he couldn't direct me right to the spot. I had the distinct feeling that he wanted me to find his brother, but he was being evasive enough to make me think, well, he doesn't really want me to know that he knows where exactly it is following a trail 600 feet into the woods Helms stumbles upon a corpse it's the body of Charles Murray he had a perfectly round hole in his forehead and there's only one way a hole could get there. It looked like a bullet hole.

Helms walks through the woods, back to where the dead man's brother, Matthew, waits. He didn't even ask me if he was dead or not. He just went down to one knee like this, and he just shook his head and he said, don't let Mom and Dad see him. So he didn't even question me, is he all right? Is he okay? And so it was a strange behavior.

Helms' suspicions are relayed to the Michigan State Police, who take a hard look at Matthew Murray. Matthew, however, has a solid alibi, passes a polygraph, and is cleared as a suspect. Meanwhile, detectives canvass the area and happen upon a hunter named Daniel Fair. and is cleared as a suspect. Meanwhile, detectives canvass the area and happen upon a hunter named Daniel Fair. My father and I were hunting on opening morning,

and shortly as the morning progressed, I heard three loud gunshots. It didn't happen very far away. We knew it would startle the game, and the hunting wouldn't be any good that morning. So we started to pack up and leave. As father and son drive down the road, they are approached by someone who looks out of place in these woods.

They slow down to get a better look. Well, he was large. He had a leather sleeveless vest on at the time, real bushy hair. He kind of hawked down and kind of gazed into the window of the car, like looking at me like this, trying to spook us or scare us. And it worked. I was intimidated at the time. And he just looked out of place. That's not what you find on opening day of bow season. That's just not the type of character of a person

that would be out there in the woods. The following day, Fair hears about the bow hunter shot in the head and calls police. This is a sketch of the man that I saw opening day bow season in escoda standing on the side of biznet road the sketch is distributed among law enforcement but fails to generate a suspect in time the image fades and the case of the bow hunter goes cold. I love the woods. I'm in the woods a lot. I love to hike.

I hike all over. But I'm not a hunter. Detective Sergeant Robert Bronco Lesneski works for the Michigan State Police. I have nothing against hunters, but I'm not a hunter. While he may not be a hunter in the traditional sense, Bronco knows how to stalk a criminal. Ten years after Charles Murray was shot and killed, Bronco picks up the old file and begins to work. I was convinced that there was somebody out there that knew something.

You know, someone somewhere knew something. So I used the media a lot and I thought what better way than to call up the TV stations and the bigger newspapers and say, hey, I need your help. Greg Potts is a sergeant in nearby Bay County when he sees news reports on the bow hunter and calls in. I felt that a guy by the name of Ronald Brown had been the person that had murdered his bow hunter out there. In 1993 Potts helped Ty Brown, a convicted killer recently out on parole, to a murder in a neighboring

county. That murder took place the same day Charles Murray's body was found. In my mind he's a serial killer that got out for about three months or two months, whatever he was out for, and, you know, committed two murders. And so that's what kind of sparked the chain of events for that investigation. That's huge. That's monumental. I mean, it's like, this has got to be my guy. Bronco's first step, compare Ron Brown's mugshot to a sketch of his murder

suspects created in 1993. When I saw that I'm like oh my goodness I couldn't believe it just couldn't believe it and then I took it one step further and I took a I got on the Michigan Department Corrections website and got a better picture of Mr. Brown, and it's just amazing. The detective believes Brown to be his killer. To get the suspect talking, however, Bronco must go one step beyond the normal call of duty. The advice, metaphorically speaking, you know,

look at it as a love relationship, and you start playing hard to get. Hey, everyone, it's Brennan Taylor. You may have seen me on YouTube or even your television. Well, I'm starting a podcast called Suss. Share your scare on Podcast One. Have you ever been in a suspicious, crazy, or wild situation? Well, on Suss, we're going to dive into firsthand accounts of all things terrifyingly thrilling, intense, and paranormal. From myself,

from you the listener, and from some of my friends. You may actually know them. Don't miss Suss. Share your scare. Dropping every Wednesday on Apple Podcasts, Podcast One, and Spotify. If you've never heard a shotgun blast, it is loud. A 12-gauge shotgun measures at 140 decibels. That's louder than a jackhammer, louder than a rock concert, and even louder than a jet engine at a distance of 100 feet. You wouldn't expect a shotgun blast ringing out through the quiet woods to go unnoticed, especially on the first day of bowhunting season. Those woods were filled with hunters, most of whom were sporting much quieter weapons. So the sound of a shotgun would really stand out.

And yet, only two people, a father and a son, heard or saw anything useful to police. They were able to produce a sketch for the police of a suspicious person. But the sketch didn't police of a suspicious person, but the sketch didn't lead to a suspect. Ten years later, Detective Sergeant Robert Bronco Lesneski thinks he may have found the person in the sketch, a convicted killer and possible serial killer named Ronald Brown. Brown had been connected to another murder, also in 1993, on the same day Charles Murray's body was found. He was already in prison and unmotivated to talk. So in order to get a confession, Bronco had to think outside the box.

From a perpetrator's perspective, it's probably a target-rich area. Detective Robert Bronco Lesneski is a hunter of sorts. I think it probably was looked at as a serial killer's playground, without a doubt. Bronco's latest target, a twice-convicted killer named Ron Brown. He's a bad dude. He's a scary dude, and he's a bad dude. He's psychotic. He's the kind of guy that you certainly would not want to cross paths with anywhere. Bronco believes Brown killed 33-year-old Charles Murray 10 years earlier.

So I'm putting together this circumstantial case, and I'm cooking it. I got it going. Bronco knows he needs more, a lot more. What it would need to put the case over the top would clearly be a confession. Ideally, I think most old cases, that's what it takes. Ron Brown is serving a life sentence at the Freeland Correctional Facility. Bronco pays him a visit. We'd start off that he'd be really contentious,

almost like he'd want to fight. He just, you know, just despised me. And then as time progressed, you know, he would accept me and we'd start talking. And by the time I left, we were shaking hands. I'm breaking the ice with this guy a little bit. I know I'm making some headway with him. Bronco has taken the first critical step, establishing a rapport with the suspect.

The next step, let the convicted murderer talk about how he kills. He'd make statements like, well, shotguns are my weapon of choice. You can easily make a kill from a long distance off. And, quote, I'd generally just leave the body there anyway, unquote. So, I mean, he's given me all this information that is consistent with what happened to this bow hunter. Brown is giving up a lot of information, none of which gets Detective Bronco Lesneski any closer to a confession. Keep in mind, I'm looking at a guy that's been twice convicted of murder

who's doing natural life in the prison. What incentive is there for him to confess to me? Bronco is going to need some help and turns to a couple of experts in the human psyche. Bronco, I think, was looking for insight as to what kind of made this individual tick. Doctors Robert Wolford and Michael Comer are psychologists for the Michigan State Police and represent a last best hope for Bronco. I felt like I was kind of stymied in the investigation. Without a doubt, I felt that the focus was at that point with Ron Brown,

and I was looking for some kind of a way that I could maneuver myself a little bit closer to him to get him to talk to me. The doctors begin by reviewing Brown's criminal history, his conversations with Bronco, and conversations with his own family. Dr. Wolford, I think you said, you know, get me some intelligence information on this guy, and what I ended up doing was, unbeknownst to him, I was copying phone conversations between he and his family from his prison cell. I love you.

I love you, too. And I'm sorry to put everything on you, but... Where else can you go, right? In analyzing those tapes and just basically listening to those tapes, what came through very strongly was the need for Mr. Brown to make sure that family members and I suspect even other individuals thought that he was a very important person. I needed someone I could talk to outside, you know? But don't lose faith in me.

I don't, Maria, I don't. According to the doctors, Mother Brown wasn't the only one making her son feel important. So was Bronco. He was really feeling superior to Bronco because Bronco would come to visit him. He would tease Bronco with part of the story, but not give Bronco enough to get a conviction or a confession. And so Mr. Brown could walk away saying, I'm beating the cop.

Control is something Ron Brown craves. And the convicted killer doesn't have many people on such a short leash. I can remember you guys saying, hey, listen, Bronco, the most important person in his life is his mother. And I can remember sitting in this room when you said, and the second most important person in his life may be you. And I mean, I was completely taken back by it. It just didn't seem right to me at the time.

You were giving him lots and lots of attention, which he craved because he thought he was really very hot stuff. But he didn't have to give anything up to get that attention. To turn this around and put Bronco back in control, the doctors take a page from the book of romance. I think the phrase Bob used was, you need to play hard to get. Exactly. You've got to start playing hard to get. That's exactly it. The psychologists tell Bronco to stop the visits to Brown, stop the phone calls, stop the correspondence, and wait. We've used as kind of metaphorically is he establishes an extremely close, almost like a love-type

relationship. That's how important he was to this individual, and then he just disappears out of the picture. He's gone. It's like somebody being involved with a partner for a year or so, building a relationship, and then all of a sudden, they don't call him anymore. The doctors believe Ron Brown might actually offer up a confession to Charles Murray's murder, all in the hopes of winning Bronco back. And I can remember sitting in this room when we're talking about it, and they're actually, my colleagues are laughing at me, you know, like, well, that's crazy, you know. But that's what I did.

He's sending me letters, and he's telling the inspector that he wants to talk to me. On June 1st, Bronco cuts off all communication with Brown. The convict takes it hard. I will talk to you without a lawyer. I have nothing to hide. I waive all my rights. I mean, it was really hard to be disciplined and not go down there and talk to him. Bronco resists the urge. A month later, his patience pays off. Ron Brown sends a letter to the prosecutor that says, this damn detective won't come and talk to me. Get an attorney down here. I want to confess. When the prosecutor called me

at home and told me that, I'm like, oh my gosh, I just can't believe it. On July 20, 2004, Bronco prepares to break the silence and talk with Ron Brown. I sat Ron Brown's chair right here in this exact location, and I had his head against the back of the control center. I wanted him focused on me the whole time, so putting his head at the back of his control center he's not watching people

he's not seeing any movement nothing at all it's just he and I in this great big room and what I did is I took my chair and I put it right close to his so our knees were almost touching just like this and when they brought him in the room if you could see the fire in his eyes, he's got some deep-set eyes anyway, and they're just eyes of anger. And he's coming in, and he's walking, and his arms are tight, and he's pulling up. He's got a belly band attached to the irons on his hands, and he's pulling up on it so hard that I can see it,

and it's cutting the circulation off in his arms. I mean, he is so mad that I can just see it. Brown is chained, cuffed, and Bronco hopes, ready to talk. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen right here and now. It's either going to happen or our relationship's going to be severed, and I could potentially lose any relationship that I ever had with him for later on down the road in the future. So for me, it was like, it's like do or die. I don't know what set him off, and I really don't know what it was, but he screamed at me,

You want it? You f***ing want it? Get your tape recorder out. Well now my heart is beating so hard that I'm thinking my pen's going to pop out of my chest and hit me in the eye. I mean, I was, it was just, I was really nervous. You know what this is about, correct? Yes. This is a Butterpole Hunter that was shot out of a tree blinded. Yep. You're telling me that you want to confess to that? Yep. He was ready, without a doubt. You know, he was just so matter-of-fact. I mean, he had a story to tell, and I wasn't in charge. He was in charge.

That's what he wanted me to know. How did you do that, Ron? He got shot three times, about 50 yards away. Three times with a 12-gauge double-buck, shells, and he fell out of the tree. What were you doing up in that area in the first place? Just driving around looking for someone to shoot. Why'd you shoot him? For no reason.

Just shot him. You shot him for no reason? I said it. He was there, so I shot him. That's scary. He is a scary man. Ron Brown pleads guilty to manslaughter and gets 20 to 30 years for the murder of Charles Murray.

For Bronco, the case has earned him quite the reputation. I look back at it now and I take some heat for it and, you know, big bad Bronco and the love of relationship with inmate Brown. But to this seasoned detective, it's just another role he needs to play to get the job done. I mean, police officers wear the hat of a social worker. They wear the hat of a clergy person.

They wear the hat of a peacekeeper. They wear the hat of a policeman. And if I've got to wear the hat of some estranged person from a relationship that was started out of prison because of a homicide, then you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to do it. At his trial, Ronald Brown admitted to shooting and killing Charles Murray, who was in a portable hunting blind at the time. Brown mentioned something about an altercation, but didn't elaborate further. Murray was shot three times with buckshot from 50 yards away, so any kind of close-range altercation seems unlikely. What seems more likely is what Brown himself said during his confession,

that he was driving around looking for someone to shoot. It's hard to make sense of any murder, but the seemingly random nature of this one makes it especially scary and difficult to process. And for Charles Murray's family, it's understandable that they feel like the system has let them down. After all, Ronald Brown's guilty plea for manslaughter in the case of Charles Murray amounted to his third murder conviction, the first of which came in 1977 and his early release in September of 1993 was the only thing that allowed him to be in the same vicinity as Charles Murray. Brown had not even been free for two weeks before he killed again. Murray's family was also disappointed with the charge of

manslaughter, which implies there was no intent. They can take some solace, though, in knowing that Brown's second murder conviction, which he was convicted of in 1994, carried a life sentence. A life sentence which Brown is still currently carrying Thank you. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at aetv.com and by downloading the A&E app. Hello again, podcast listeners. As promised, here's a special preview of the new podcast, In the Red Clay. But don't forget, you can listen to episodes right now by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the trailer.

In March of 2019, I stepped foot for the first time into a little farm town just northeast of Atlanta, Georgia, called Winder. A town full of stories, legends, and secrets. It was also home to a man whose name I'd never heard before, but will never forget. While I was initially there to film scenes for an HBO series, my time in this unassuming little town and the people I would meet there would prove to be something I could never have expected. And it would change my life. What I unearthed was a story shrouded in scandal and mystery.

50 years in the making. A story with secrets never before revealed. With one man at the center of it all. A man named Billy Sunday Burt. Dance halls, gambling, excitement. He was just more adventurous. He was the best family man you could ever want to meet. All right, he's kind of a hero, man.

He could drive a hell of a car. He was a good gambler, a good pool player, a womanizer, drove the fastest cars. He was the best of the best at everything he did. But as I would learn, the deeper you dig, the more secrets you're likely to find buried. He'd give you the shirt off his back, and if you turned your back on him for no reason, he'd kill you too. Billy Byrne is without a doubt one of the most prolific killers in the history of our country.

I mean, without a doubt. I mean, he was a bad man. Killed a lot of people. Sonny Bird never cracked a smile. He's stone cold. Billy Sonny Bird was a whiskey man. He was a bank robber.

He was a hitman. He was a bank robber. He was a hitman. He was a murderer. He was the enforcer for the Dixie Mafia. He's also my father. I'm Sean Kipe from Imperative Entertainment. This is In the Red Clay. Listen and subscribe now on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.