Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Did brutal killer and his mistress stab teen girl MacKenna Milhon dead, then burn her bloody clothes?

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

A 19-year-old woman is last seen at a convenience store. More than a week later, her body is found in a yard outside a home in Springfield, Missouri. She has been stabbed multiple times.What happened to Mackenna Milhon?Joining Nancy Grace today: Rayne Mariee Davis- Dated suspect Lonnie Williams, has a 5-month-old son with Williams. Darryl Cohen- Former Assistant District Attorney, Fulton County, Georgia, defense attorney  Cloyd Steiger - 36 years with Seattle Police Department, 22 years homicide detective & author of "Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer: Gary Gene Grant"  Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Beverly Hills  Dr. Michelle Dupre - South Carolina Medical Examiner & author of “Homicide Investigation Field Guide” Jason Wert - Journalist, owner of Ozarks Independent.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Nancy Grace is coming to Fox Nation. I want justice. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace premieres March 9th only on Fox Nation. A 19-year-old girl hops in her car and goes to the gas station, the come and go, the 7-Eleven, and that's it. She's just gone. And the dichotomy of a seemingly normal day just is blown to H-E-double-L and back. What happened, and where was the last time McKenna Milhahn was seen alive?

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On December 22nd, Milhahn was reported missing by her mother. The Springfield Police Department had been investigating her disappearance since she was reported missing. McKenna Milhan's mother reported her daughter missing two days after receiving a text from McKenna that she had been raped. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Endangered Person Advisory for her, Milhan was last seen on December 20th. She was seen getting into a black vehicle at the come and go at National and Norton in Springfield. I'm Nancy Grace. What happened to McKenna Milhan? Have you ever heard the phrase disappeared into thin air? Well, think about it.

What if that was your loved one? They went off to work that morning or they went about their business and you just very simply never saw them again. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. With me, Jason Wirt, journalist, owner, OzarksIndependent.com. Renowned medical examiner out of South Carolina, Dr. Michelle Dupree, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, joining us from Beverly Hills at drbethanymarshall.com. Cloyd Steiger, 36 years Seattle PD, 22 years homicide, author Seattle's Forgotten Serial

Killer, Gary Jean Grant, cloydsteiger.com, defense attorney, former prosecutor out of Atlanta, Daryl Cohen, and special guest joining us, Rain Marie Davis. First of all, let's figure out what happened and where was the last time McKenna Milhahn was seen alive. We understand that she was last seen getting into a vehicle at the come and go. Okay, I assume that that is like a 7-Eleven. Jason Wert, owner, OzarksIndependent.com, tell me about the last time this beautiful young 19-year-old seen alive seen alive witnesses said that she was seen at location she was talking to people everything seemed fine she climbed into the vehicle with somebody that they said she appeared to know there was nothing that indicated she was scared or she was afraid to be there climbed into the vehicle they pulled out into

the night and that was the last she was seen in the night. Okay, what exactly is a come and go? It's your typical convenience store, gas pumps, you know, like a 7-Eleven. You're pretty accurate in describing it. I call everything a 7-Eleven, and apparently that's not correct. Jason Wirtz, you're a journalist. I'm sure you have an eye for detail. Okay, let me ask you this, Jason Wirtz.

Were there surveillance videos? There were surveillance videos that did catch her getting into the vehicle, but there wasn't anything on the video that was released to the public that really gave any indication as to who she had gone with. And so that was part of the problem is nobody really seemed to know who she had disappeared with at the time. They just knew that she had gotten into a vehicle and it appeared that she was on friendly terms with the person that she got into the vehicle with. She wasn't forced into it, willingly got into the vehicle. Let me understand something, Jason. She got into her own vehicle or someone else's vehicle? Someone else's vehicle. She was the passenger in the vehicle, but nobody was forcing her to get into the vehicle.

Do we have any idea what she bought inside the come and go? I have not been able to find out what she had bought inside the store. That would be interesting to me. I don't know why, but, you know, to Daryl Cohen, former prosecutor, former felony prosecutor, now defense attorney, Atlanta. Daryl Cohen, it's little details like that. I don't know why. I just loved finding out every tiny detail about a case I prosecuted or a story, as you well know, because sometimes those details matter. For instance, what if she bought a map? What if? I mean, of course, you can look up Waze or Google Maps, but what if she bought a map? What if she bought gloves and it's hot outside? I mean, what if she bought beer?

It matters what you buy. Every detail matters, Daryl Cohen. When somebody goes missing, explain. Well, Nancy, the more you know, the less you don't know. And you start taking clue by clue, piece by piece, and discarding it or saying, well, you know what? As you point out, Nancy, maybe she bought gloves. It was 95 degrees on that crazy day in December. Why would she do that? Why would she buy a map when she has Google or she has Waze? Maybe she didn't want her cell phone to be tracked. There's so many little tiny things that appear to be nothing that when you put them all

together, they are major and they give you a trail that you can follow to see what happens. Daryl Cohen, you're a true defense attorney, I'm sorry to say, because your first statement, the more you know, the more you don't know, is not exactly what I was looking for. But, you know, that said, Bethany Marshall joining me, psychoanalyst out of Beverly Hills. Dr. Bethany, I want you to get your head out of Rodeo Drive, as they call it. Get your head into the real world. Dr. Bethany, of course, no offense to you and your high-priced clients. Bethany, I found it very interesting what Jason Wirt from the OzarksIndependent.com said, that she got into the car of her own volition, that she didn't seem forced. What does that tell you, Dr. Bethany? This is right here is very important.

We know Nancy as a psychoanalyst. I am always interested in the behavioral evidence, not just what she might have been been buying in the come and go. But what was the nature of the relationship between the driver of that vehicle and her? And the surveillance did not show that she was forced into the car. So did they have a relationship that began in the come and go? For instance, did they strike up a conversation? Did they decide to go party? And then it would be important if they bought alcohol or tobacco or vaping supplies, if there were any such thing in the come and go. Did the driver of this vehicle, did they ever get the person's license plate?

Was that linked back to any online communication she had with that particular individual? Who were McKenna's friends? Who did she know? Was this person linked to anybody else she knew? This kind of behavioral evidence can be shown not only in what she purchased in the come and go, but how she might have chatted with that person, what her online presence was, if that online presence linked back to that person. And also I would want to know from the parents, you know, how extensive were her friendships in

this small town? Did she know, was she a part of a community where one person might know another? I mean, maybe the person with whom she entered, uh, who the vehicle she entered was a stranger. Well, not based on what Jason Wirtz telling me, the person in the car was not a stranger. And because she's seeing like normal, got in the car talking, maybe smiling. But what, what is what is bothering me, Claude Steiger, among so many things, is that if you could tell, as Jason Wirt from OzarksIndependent.com says,

that she got in willingly, she was fine, she was smiling or talking. If you can tell all that, why the heck can't you tell who was in the car? Well, I would think you might be able to tell who's in the car. There are probably other video of that car before she had the interaction. Maybe the guy got out of the car. He did it.

Was he in the store? He did. Oh, he didn't get out of the car. Well, then you got the car. And Springfield, Missouri is not a huge town. Maybe they talked to her close friends and said, do you know who drives this car? Again, like Dr. Bethany said, you go through her online presence or Facebook or, you know, they didn't have her phone, obviously, but all those things, you can get her phone records

to see who she's been calling, who she's been talking to. Well, I'm still hung up on the fact that even in this day and age, we can't enhance video because that would be a prosecution's best friend. Who was she with last? That is so, so critical in a case like this. All we know now is that this young 19-year-old teen girl in a small town goes to the come and goes like a 7-Eleven. She goes in. She comes out. She gets in her car. She drives off. And she's never seen alive again. What happened to McKenna Milhaw?

Just 19. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She was always fun to be around. She was a very, very jovial individual. She's my red-headed Missouri mule. But this isn't the only time McKenna had been in the news. She was actually the first baby born in this millennium in Springfield and was featured in the Springfield Newsleaders Millennium Babies feature on January 3rd, 2000. She was born January 1st, 2000. So she and she was the first one, so she was on the front page of the paper and everything.

Mike says McKenna had a great sense of humor. She's a teenager that was enjoying life with her friends, and that's what got cut short. She was just a fun-loving person that liked people, and people liked her. My other son, he and her could almost verbatim quote all of the dialogue around the dinner table from the movie Talladega Nights and her nickname became Shake and Bake. Okay, that's funny. You're hearing Mike Milhahn talking about his granddaughter, but the context is no laughing matter because that granddaughter, McKenna Milhahn, goes missing after just an innocent trip to the convenience store. You know, that's really troubling. Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, joining me out of Beverly Hills at drbethanymarshall.com. Dr. Bethany, I learned after the murder of my fiance that life is just

going along as normal, right? As you think, what you think normal is. That day, I was finishing an exam, the last one of the quarter at Mercer University. I finished a statistics exam and walked out. The hallway was dark inside the building, the math building, and I walked out, and I remember thinking, wow, it is so bright and sunny and beautiful, and started walking, and walked across campus to my job, which was in the library, and I stopped halfway at the student union. There were no cell phones. And used a pay phone to call the library and tell them I had been in the exam, and I went like 15, 20 minutes late, and I was coming as fast as I could,

and they told me to call Keith's family. And I knew at that moment that Keith was dead. And everything had just been completely normal. I saw him just that morning. Everything was fine. And here, a 19-year-old girl hops in her car and goes to the gas station, the come and go, the 7-Eleven, and that's it. She's just gone. And the dichotomy of a seemingly normal day just is blown to H-E-double-L and back.

I think that's part of the shock when someone goes missing. Nancy, there is a dichotomy because life is fragile. I mean, I listen to what the family members are saying. They're talking about her personality, her life, her friendships, what she meant to them. And now she is not around and they don't know where she is. And that's how danger happens, Nancy. We don't necessarily see somebody stalking us across the parking lot. We don't really know that somebody could be stalking us online or maybe an old boyfriend is preoccupied

and planning some danger. Mostly danger is outside of awareness. That's why it's so important to be aware of our surroundings, to know about stranger danger, to be careful about our attachment systems, to not put ourselves in vulnerable situations. I know your fiance, Keith, did not put himself in a vulnerable situation. I think if I recall, he was going to get food for a crew that he was working with. Right, right. He was studying. We met at Valdosta State where he was on baseball scholarship. He was studying geology and he had to transfer to complete his degree. And when he

transferred, I transferred to a nearby university. My dad wouldn't let me go where he was going because he said it was too big of a university for a little girl from Macon. He was paying the bill, he and my mom, so I had to go along with that. I sure as heck didn't have enough money to pay tuition. So that's how the whole thing happened. And he was working on a construction crew that summer and left to go get, they were out in the middle of nowhere, a very rural area building, I guess, some sort of an industrial complex. So he left at lunchtime to go get everyone soft drinks to go with their lunch that they brought. He was pulling back in, and it's been misstated many, many times, but a guy, at least this is what the prosecutor told me back at the time, that had been fired the week before, I believe,

was standing there angry. And the week before Keith had been hired, Keith pulls in in the company truck and the guy just goes berserk, starts shooting. He had enough sense to steal Keith's wallet. I know that much. But that's, you're right. He was, I hate to say this, it's so cliche, in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that is exactly what happened. So he was within the normal scope of his daily activity. Go ahead, Beth. I was just saying that because of that abrupt quality with which we can all be victims, we cannot always forestall danger, right? We cannot always see what's coming, even though we have to. But as much as possible, what I'm saying, as much as possible, we have to be aware of what's going on around us. And I think

the best way to be aware is to always just check your surroundings when you're leaving your car or you're entering your car, you're in a strange place, you're in a parking lot. If you're working for a company like Keith did, if somebody's been fired or there's some imminent danger, be aware of the stats on workplace shootings. One in four workplace shootings are because somebody has recently been fired or they experienced that they're not making as much money as somebody else or there's a power differential. You can just go online and read about danger and at least fortify yourself with knowledge so at least you have a little bit of an advantage in life. Joining me, Jason Wirt from the Ozarks Independent. Jason, tell me something. Tell me about the area right now, because obviously the first person you look at is whoever is in that vehicle with her. But what time of the day or night was it? And tell me about the area where the evening. I mean, we're talking late at night. She got there. She was actually dropped off there by a friend.

And what's interesting to me, Nancy, if you look at the probable cause statements from the sheriff's office, they described the person she got into the vehicle with as a friend. And so the people connected to her, there was that established relationship. So she knew him ahead of time before getting into the vehicle with him. And so I think that's pretty telling that, you know, you talk about somebody who just disappears without a trace. This is somebody that she knew she had established a relationship with. She trusted, she had no idea she might be in danger when she got into that vehicle. Green County Sheriff Jim Arnott says McKenna Milhan's body was found outside this house earlier today. He says deputies don't think the 19-year-old had a connection with the home. The Springfield Police Department had been investigating her disappearance since she was reported missing. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Endangered Person Advisory for her, Milhan was last seen on December 20th. She was seen getting into

a black vehicle at the come-and-go at National and Norton in Springfield. Sheriff Jim Arnott says right now authorities don't know what caused her death but says it is being considered suspicious. Right now we're investigating it as a homicide as we do with any suspicious death. We'll work backwards from there and hopefully have some answers here shortly. And right now this house is occupied and we're still conducting an investigation a little early on at this point. If we feel that we need to extend it, we'll extend it. But right now we think we have the scene contained in just this small area. What started as a disappearance ends when this 19-year-old girl, McKenna Milhahn's body, is found dead outside the home.

This is after she had been missing for 10 days. Getting into a car at a local convenience store, perfectly happy, everything fine, no sign of distress whatsoever. You're hearing our friends at KY3 Springfield. That was Nikki Ogle speaking. What happened? How was the body found? How are people inside the home and they don't know what happened? How did a body end up in their yard? Are they the reported it. Guys, Nancy Grace here. We are heading straight into breaking crime and justice news. But first, how can you keep yourself and your children safe? I have investigated and prosecuted literally thousands of felony cases. I have covered literally thousands of cases of missing people, adults, and children, unsolved homicides, violent crimes. After all the cases, after speaking to all the victims, all the police, all the witnesses over years. What can we do about it?

I don't want to just sit back and report on it. I want to take action. And I know you must feel the same way. You don't want to just hear about crime. You want to do something about it and do something to stop it. And here is the news. Don't Be a Victim, Fighting Back Against America's Crime Wave, a brand new book. After interviewing literally hundreds of crime victims and police, we put our knowledge into Don't Be a Victim. This book is for everyone who wants to stay safe or who wants to keep your loved one safe. CrimeOnline.com. Pre-order now and know that portions of our proceeds goes to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Another young girl gone missing ends up dead. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories straight out to Jason. We're journalist OzarksIndependent.com. How was she killed? Do we know the cause of death yet, Jason?

And how did this family or whoever lived in that home not know there was a dead body in the yard? Well, what we've been told is there was nobody in the home at the time. And the cause of death, Nancy, was stab wounds to her neck. The report that came in from the coroner is that she was stabbed three or four times in the neck with a sharp object. Stab wounds to the neck. To Dr. Michelle Dupree, a renowned medical examiner joining us out of South Carolina, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. Dr. Dupree, when you're not joining us on Crime Stories, you got to get busy. I need another book. I've already been through Homicide Investigation Field Guide, and now I need Part 2. There have been a lot of changes and advances since you wrote that.

I need you to update that. I don't trust anybody else. Dr. Dupree, let's talk about a stab wound to the neck, three stabs to the neck, three stabs to the neck. Because you know, when that first stab happened, there had to be extensive bleeding. I'm not talking about a trickle of blood. I'm talking about spurting geyser of blood from a stab in the neck. Yes, Nancy, especially if that stab wouldn't hit an artery. Arteries are under pressure, and there would be a significant amount of spurting blood. If by chance it did hit a vein, it would still be a lot of blood,

but it wouldn't be spurting quite so much. We know that December 20, about 10 o'clock at night, McKenna was seen getting into a black vehicle at the 7-Eleven there on Norton Road, North Springville. Perfectly good neighborhood, low crime rate. We know also a very unusual, unusual fact. Milhan contacted her mother by phone to say she had been assaulted, raped, and was possibly in blue eye or a lampy. The call disconnected after about four minutes. Now, according to my timeline, that call to her mom was made the next day, December 21. To Jason Wirt, OzarksIndependent.com, what do you know about that phone call? Well, the thing about the phone call is Lampy and Blue Eye is about 65 miles away from Springfield.

So they were well over an hour, hour and a half away from Springfield. And that area is very rural. So the fact you had a cell phone signal with all to make a four and a half minute call is surprising in and of itself. So I'm not surprised the call dropped. And that was information that really wasn't released to the public until after arrest remain and everything. So we had no idea that that had actually taken place at the point. We just knew she was missing. We didn't have any other information being.

Well, I don't get that. Cloyd Steiger, you know, 36 years Seattle PD, 22 years homicide detective and author. Why would police sit on that if we know she's calling from an area, Lampy or Blue Eye, 65 miles away? I mean, why not put it out there that that's where she's last seen? Get the public working. Well, you know, that's a tough call sometimes, what to release and what not to release. I always want to see some things. I'm sure they were in contact with the police or sheriff or whoever it is out in that area and centered their investigation into that neighborhood. But, you know, you never know.

Sometimes you put stuff out and then you worry about getting worry about getting false confessions and stuff from people. If you have stuff that only the killer knows, and then he tells you that, and you know he couldn't have gotten it anywhere else. Well, Chloe Steiger, I normally agree with you, but under these exigent circumstances, I would be more interested in finding the girl alive. A 19-year-old girl, for Pete's sake, that's just a few years older than my twins that are 12. And here is a girl, and there's something so heartbreaking to me, Dr. Bethany Marshall, that she gets raped, and she calls her mommy. She calls her mother to tell her what's happened, and then the phone call gets cut off abruptly. Nancy, it is so heartbreaking. That was her first call. You know, a lot of women who are assaulted become so ashamed and so frightened

that they tell no one. But McKenna had the type of trusting, dependent relationship with her mother that that was her first call. I cannot imagine the mother receiving a call like this, the call being broken off, and then the police not wanting to put out like an all-point bulletin to find out where she is. I mean, the heartbreak and the not knowing. And, you know, we talk about the body being found in the ditch. When the mother received that call, she did not know that her daughter was going to be murdered. She just was desperate to find her daughter and terrified that her daughter had been raped. Maybe I'm not understanding the timeline correctly, but to

you, Jason Wirt, Ozarks Independent, explain to me, she calls her mom to say she's been raped, but then everything just drops. Isn't it like two days later before police put out the alert? Well, her mother actually didn't go to the police until the next day. So there was a little bit of a time delay between that call and her actually going and filing the report with the police. As soon as the police did get that report that that had happened, they immediately sent something out to the local media with the information of where she had been taken,

that she was last seen to come and go. They did not include the information about Lampy and what we received at Ozarks Independent, but they made it very clear who they were looking for, the vehicle she was in, and so they released pretty much the information they usually release when someone goes missing. To Daryl Cohen, former prosecutor, now defense attorney,

joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Daryl, you know, I've worked with Mark Klass for so many years. You know, his daughter Polly went missing and was actually kidnapped from her own home. She was having a sleepover. He is, you know, the ultimate, the gold standard in what to do if someone goes missing. But in my mind, this should have been her photo on TV, on radio, on billboards, on if you can't get a billboard, then flyers. And I'm getting the sense that none of that happened in this case. Nancy, the more I hear, the more questions I have. Will you quit saying that for Pete's sake?

More information, the more you know you, the more you don't know. The more I know, the more questions I have. I'm not a jury. Don't try to muddy the water. I may have gone semi-dark side, but not completely. I'm concerned. We have a four-minute phone call. I was raped.

Mom does not report it immediately to the police. What does that tell me? It tells me that McKenna was with somebody that her mom knew, and her mom may have been upset that she was raped, according to her daughter, but didn't report it, which means mom is familiar with the person that McKenna was with. That is likely, in my view, why she did not report it to the police until she didn't hear back from her daughter. I gotta find out who was in that car. You're absolutely right, but before we go into forensics

and the stab wounds and how many stab wounds, let me tell you something. McKenna Milhahn was born January 1, 2000, Springfield. And she was the millennial baby for Springfield, the first baby born in 2000 at 1.08 a.m. She graduated from Reed Spring High School. She went to Ozark Technical College. She was studying to be a nurse. She wanted to become a pediatrician, a baby doctor. According to her family, she had the most

beautiful smile that could light up your soul. Mom says she tried to see the best in everyone and never met a stranger. She had a huge heart. She loved animals, loved her brothers. It hurts me to read this young girl's obituary as we try to hash out forensic evidence and video surveillance and wound patterns and timelines. This little girl, McKenna Milhoun, was kidnapped and murdered. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Looking into the past of Lonnie Williams, who also goes by Leon.

He was charged today with first-degree murder in the death of McKenna Milhan. So a first-degree murder is committed when someone knowingly kills another person after deliberation. As we looked at the elements of the offense and the facts as we know from the investigation currently, the facts of this case met those standards. McKenna Milhine's mother reported her daughter missing on December 22nd, two days after receiving a text from McKenna that she had been raped. Then on Monday, eight days later, her body was found outside a home along Highway H north of Springfield. The investigation led detectives to Lonnie Williams, who they say admitted to being with Milhan in December, but claimed the two had consensual sex before he dropped her off.

You are hearing our friends at KY3 Springfield. That's Christine Morton. This reminds me so much of the cheerleader in Alabama that was burned alive. And then the claim by the perp who killed another woman in New Orleans, another young woman woman claimed consensual sex. Now, how does that always get into it? Why is it always that the victim is somehow blamed that they had sex? That is not what happened. Because this little girl calls her mom and says, Mom, I've been raped.

She says after she's been last seen at this convenience store, the call is cut off abruptly. I don't think they lost signal. I think the call was cut off. Now, we hear this guy claiming they had consensual sex. Really? We also know that this guy, Lonnie Williams' girlfriend, Olivia Vega, is charged with burning, burning clothing, Lonnie Williams' clothes after the crime. Why would you burn his clothes if he didn't do anything wrong? How did this young girl, completely innocent, end up stabbed three times in the neck

after a visit to the 7-Eleven. Joining me right now is a very special guest who alerted me via Facebook to this crime, Rainn Marie Davis. She actually dated Lonnie Williams and has a five-month-old son with the suspect suspect Lonnie Williams. Rain, first, tell me what led you to contact me on Facebook. I've always, you know, wanted to speak out and be a voice for young girls who are, have been sexually abused and things like that, you know, and knowing this person that I thought I knew you know it just gave me hopes that I could at least you know speak out on that you don't really know a person fully whether you think you know that person or not and meeting people on the internet and things of that nature is just

not so good because this is the outcome of things like that, you know? Tell me what you know about this case, Rainn. I kind of have learned a lot of details about Lonnie from this case. You know, I talked to him after he was charged with the murder. I didn't know that he was, you know, at first he was in jail on a probation violation. I was like, okay, you know, whatever. So we were talking and, you know, whenever they had linked him to this murder, he called me on the phone that day and was like, I'm being charged with murder. And I was like, what do you mean? You know, wrong place, wrong time type of situation or what? And he was like, no, I was

drugged by somebody, you know, things like that. And wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So he says he Lonnie Williams was drugged. He's claiming he was drugged, but he told me two different stories in the same sentence. One was someone slipped something in his drink, and the next one was someone shot drugs into his arm. But you wouldn't remember that, you know what I'm saying? Actually, what he first told police is that he picked her up and that they drove around for a while and that he stopped to have sex with this young girl in an alleyway before dropping her off at Atlantic in Maine at 1 a.m. And that was his last contact with her. That's what he first told police. And, you know, to Cloyd Steiger, 36 years Seattle PD, 22 years homicide, author of Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer, Gary Jean Grant at cloydsteiger.com. Cloyd,

I have prosecuted. And, you know, Daryl Cohen, for all I know, you were the defense lawyer on some of these, where you get a witness and they are in the car, let's just say, and they're doing a robbery, and then their testimony goes, and then I looked out the window, and bam! Why is it that they always look the other way just at the time of the homicide? And in this case, Lonnie Williams, 32 years old, out with a 19-year-old girl, says, the night she's killed, oh, I pulled over and had consensual sex with her in an alley, in a car, and then I dropped her off. What a coinkydink. Then she's killed.

Yeah, you know, these guys, yeah. Well, these guys, they know that he said they're thinking they're going to find my dna on her and i have to think of a reason why it's there and so he comes up with this ridiculous story but i gotta tell you having someone tell a ridiculous story that could be easily disproved such as the statements he made to uh ms uh rain marie there that that uh is as good as confession. When it's so ridiculous, you just say, you go with that one. Now you're locked into a story.

You can't change it later. This is what you got to go with. And I'm sure that people like Mr. Cohen hate it when their clients wrap themselves up like that and give themselves no outs. But that's what he was thinking. How am I going to explain that being there? When they find the body, if they find the body? And they certainly would because he didn't do a very good job of covering it up, it sounds like. So this guy gives

multiple statements, multiple statements. But take a listen to our friends at KOLR10. This is Jesse Inman. 32-year-old Lonnie Williams is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He's accused of stabbing Milhan multiple times. And his girlfriend, 23-year-old Olivia Vega, she is charged with evidence tampering after allegedly burning Williams' bloody clothes and hiding the knife used to kill Milhan. Now, we know that on December 22nd, Milhan was reported missing by her mother and on Monday, December 30th, her body was found north of Springfield

after a tip was received by police. Now, initially Williams told deputies that he had no involvement in her death after picking her up from come and go on North Kansas Expressway in Norton Rd. But investigators interviewed Williams again and he confessed to killing McKenna. Now Williams is accused of stabbing on North Kansas Expressway and Norton Road, but investigators interviewed Williams again,

and he confessed to killing McKenna. Now, Williams is accused of stabbing Milhan to death after picking her up at the gas station on December 19th, and according to the probable cause statement, Williams confessed to driving around with Milhan, then stabbing her in the neck inside the vehicle, and then stabbing her three or four more times outside of the vehicle. Wow. Okay, there's another version of what happened to Dr. Michelle Dupree, South Carolina medical examiner, author, homicide investigation field guide. Dr. Dupree, you know why he came up with that consensual sex story in an alley? Part of that's probably true. They probably were in an alley when he killed her because he knew he raped her and he knew that there's DNA evidence, that there's going to be sperm. How long can sperm reveal DNA evidence inside a body? I know,

I think I know, after about 76 hours, first the head of the sperm breaks off, then the tail breaks off, then you've got just the body part. Let's just pretend the torso of the spermatozoa still there, but you can still get DNA from it. How long will sperm last inside a body regardless of the elements around the body? Nancy, you're absolutely right. It's approximately 72 hours. And that was a wonderful rendition of what happened. But I think I want to hear it from you. You're the MD. I'm just a JD. You tell it. So it is about 72 hours that we can actually get viable DNA from sperm that is found inside a body.

How do you do it? How do you get the DNA from sperm? And what's the difference in semen and sperm? I've always wanted to know that but didn't know who to ask. Well, semen is a lot of sperm together. Sperm is usually the individual sperm. Actually, Jackie wanted to know, and so she put me up to asking. Okay.

Now, so how do you extract DNA from that? We do a DNA test. We can do many different ways. Typically, we will do swabs of the vaginal area or wherever we think the sperm may be and then we actually run that through for DNA and see if we can get a match to someone in CODIS or not. So to Rain Marie Davis who actually has a son with the alleged perp Lonnie Williams what can you tell me about this guy, Lonnie Williams? Well, you know, from what I knew of him, he had some behaviors that were, you know, kind of sketchy, you know, make you wonder.

I mean, he never was violent towards me. We always, you know, we got along real good. Everything was good between us. He didn't seem like that kind of person to me anyways. You know what I mean? No, I don't. I don't. Tell me what you mean by that.

Like, he never showed no aggression towards me. It was never, you know, he was real hands-on. I have two little girls, too. He was around my kids. You know, he was real good with my kids he seemed to be a decent person from what I thought I knew of him well what was he doing having even by his account having sex with a 19 year old girl in a car in an alleyway while you have the baby how'd that happen I mean that's a big red flag to me but that's just me yeah I honestly have no idea

about any of that you know he hasn't really been there much for my child and I'm only finding out that he's got like three other kids that were born a month apart from mine like a kid born in August mine September one in October. All these things that are coming out about him are just pointing him to being a womanizer type of guy who uses women to his ability. You know what? I know that's got to hurt so badly to go through having a child, which is hard enough. Now you're supporting the baby, five months old, a little boy, all by yourself,

and you find out not only is he charged with murder, but he's had all these other children. These are the ones you know of. You know, I've got to go to a shrink. Dr. Bethany Marshall at drbethanymarshall.com. This is making my head hurt. Let me ask you something. Not only did Rain Marie Davis,

who contacted us via Facebook about this case, get taken in by this guy. She knows of three other women that did. But what about this other girlfriend in Quotees? Olivia Vega, just 23, charged with tampering with evidence. I mean, probably was a normal person then get sucked in by this guy. I'm looking at him. He's not all that. He's not all that at all. He ain't that in a bag of chips, I can tell you that much. He's,

you know, okay looking, but I mean, why? How can a man be a Svengali or woman, but I always see cases with men, and get women to do all sorts of things they wouldn't normally do? Nancy, I did the same thing you did. I looked at his mugshot, and I kept thinking, who is this man? He's only 32 years old. These women are being taken in by him. He is not all that. He's just –

You know who he looks like he looks a little bit like jesse smollett yes a little bit a little bit except i think probably a little bit more handsome because smollett is handsome to some people now that i know he's pulled a big scam i don't find him handsome at all but i understand what other people seen him i felt the same way about scott pet Everybody said, oh, he's so handsome. I never thought he looked good ever. Anyway, but back to this guy. Let me get off Scott Peterson and Jesse Smollett who have nothing to do with this.

Hey, for those of you listening, this is what happens at the lunch table when you're in the DA's office. We talk about all the weird sometimes obtuse sometimes unconnect disconnected facts about a case what the point is dr. Bethany I mean he's okay but he's not all that how is he getting all these women under his spell then he's got one 19 year old girl dead after he raped her and now this perfectly attractive young girl Olivia Vega is implicated in murder. Nancy, you know Robert Hare?

He's a leading researcher in sociopathy. He has a 20-point checklist, the Hare 20-point psychopathy checklist. You can Google it. It's on the Internet. It's used in forensic settings. It's 20 characteristics of a sociopath. If anyone out there is curious about... I'm doing it right now. I want to make sure my husband David is not a sociopath if anyone out there is curious about i'm doing it right now i want to make sure

my husband david is not a sociopath okay 20 characteristics of a sociopath hold on okay keep going okay so one one of the characteristics is um promiscuity um they often have multiple relationships why do they have a picture of daryl co here. Okay, go ahead. 20 characteristics. Just kidding. Go ahead. 20 characteristics. Psychopathy is how he has it. 20 point checklist, psychopathy. So I'm looking at it right now. You're absolutely right. The hair psychopathy checklist, 20 most common traits of a psychopath. You need to make sure. Okay, so what about this guy do you think fits in with these traits? And just a point for the listeners, make sure you go to his original list

because there's many people who have made over the list and written articles about it. Go to his list. It is based on robust research, but it describes this perp to a T. First of all, they never follow the conditions of parole. So remember, he was brought in on a probation violation, drug and alcohol abuse. Remember, he says he was drugged, and there are all the stories about drugs, lying, conning, manipulativeness, prom, promise. Yeah. Lie in order to get your own way. Never say you're sorry, charming and persuasive. That's one that may touch on why women fall for him. And the two characteristics that always stand out to me, one is, or three poor behavioral

controls. So that's why they could rape and kill, um, that they have a thin veneer of affability. But when somebody disagrees with them, that veneer snaps and it covers up a cold, calculated interior. That's how he got all these women. He's probably charming and social and promises them everything. But the minute they disagree, he snaps. And I think one of the other ones, Nancy, is parasitic lifestyle. They're parasites. They leech off other people. He has all these babies, but as Rain says, he doesn't even come to visit his own son. I doubt he's

paying child support. I doubt he's paying child support for all these other children he's fathered. So that's the parasitic lifestyle. And also, Hare talked about the mask of sanity, that these guys know that they're different from other people in society. So they put on what he calls the mask of sanity, meaning they pretend to be normal, even though they're not. And that's why Rain got taken in. He acts normal, even though he's not normal. To Jason Wirt, OzarksIndependent.com. Jason, where does the case stand now, and what about this so-called

girlfriend, Olivia Vega? Well, right now everything's pending. Trials are going to be going to court in March. They're still trying to determine whether they're going to go for the death penalty in this case or not. And, you know, Nancy, the interesting thing about this is you talk about the fact that he's spinning all these tails. The thing that jumps out most of all in his statement to police

is he claims he was going north on State Highway H and that he pulled off the road to relieve himself. Nancy, they were less than a mile away from a come and go. So if that was a concern, he would have stopped at the come and go. He would not have pulled off the road where he did. And where he pulled off was a very public location. So it's a situation where he's very clearly lying in his statement. And so I would not be surprised if they go for the death penalty. Well, I mean, with the criminal history and stabbing a young girl three times in the neck after raping her, you know what? If we're going to have the death penalty, and I'm not getting into a death penalty argument, but if we are going to have it, this guy, Lonnie Leon Williams, is the perfect candidate. And number one, I'd get Olivia Vega to turn state's evidence and make that case.

To Rainn Marie Davis, thank you, Rainn, for speaking out. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.