Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - DNA cracks case of two women brutally murdered in Mississippi. WHO’S NEXT?

Episode Date: December 6, 2018

Newly-developed DNA technology has helped solve two Mississippi murders that were unsolvable for nearly three decades. Investigators had few leads in the Labor Day murders of two elderly women in Starkville, Mississippi. But now Michael DeVaughn, 51, is jailed on capital murder and sexual battery charges in connection with the 1990 murders of Betty Jones, 65, and Katherine Crigler, 81. Nancy Grace looks at the case with experts including Dr. Michelle Dupre, a South Carolina medical examiner, North Carolina family lawyer Kathleen Murphy,  DNA expert George Schiro, and reporter Robyn Walensky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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burst in attacked her and betty was trying to keep him away from her friend, and he killed her, Betty, and then got to her friend and for some reason left before he killed her. And then her friend called the police, lit it up. That's what I remember. You are hearing a report from Knock Knock, the unsolved murders of Betty Jones and Catherine Kreigler. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Straight out to Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter and author of an incredible book, It's a Beautiful Life, the crime scene investigation behind the Casey Anthony murder case. Robin Walensky, let's start at the beginning. These two ladies living together, how were they killed?

Oh, this is a horrendous story. So Betty Jones is 65 years old, taking care of her friend, Catherine Krigler, I believe it is. She was an 81-year-old woman, and she had a leg, Nancy, that was amputated. So they're watching television. They're hanging out, doing what elderly people do, relaxing, and they get a knock on the door, and this man comes, and immediately, immediately when she opens the door, Betty's throat is splashed. So she's down on the floor and he goes into the back bedroom and he raped the 81 year old woman with only one leg. And she manages somewhat, I don't know how. Robin, I've got to ask you a question. How do you even say that? How do you even say that? Because I recall when I first started prosecuting, I would not curse when I first started prosecuting.

And I remember the first time I had to stand in front of a jury and it was, I guess, a rape and murder. And I had to read a statement. And it had every filthy word that you can imagine. The F word, the P as in Peter word, the every word, every word was in there. And you know what, Robin? That time I actually faltered in front of the jury and I kept going. Guess what? The next time I had to read it, it wasn't so hard.

The next time I had to say it all, it wasn't hard at all. Pretty soon I was just saying it all on my own. I wasn't even reading it anymore. Now that all came to a screeching halt when I had the twins, John, David, and Lucy. Because I do not want to hear that coming out of their mouth. But Robin Walensky, I always want to slow down because you and I are in the crime business. Guys, with me is awesome reporter Robin Walensky, investigative reporter with CrimeOnline.com, a renowned DNA expert in forensic science, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family lawyer, she knows her stuff,

and Dr. Michelle Dupree, renowned medical examiner out of South Carolina and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. My point that I'm getting at, Robin, is you gave me so much information right there, just rolled off your tongue. Can you just slow it down for me? We're used to it. We live in it every day. But for those joining us, say that again, please. So there are two women. One is 65 years old, taking care of her 81-year-old friend. The 81-year-old, unfortunately, only has one leg. She had one leg that was amputated for a medical reason. And they are home watching TV. The 65 year old is, and she, there's a knock on the door in their home in Mississippi. And unfortunately for her,

for Betty Jones, Nancy, she answers the door and a guy is there standing there with a knife and slips her throat. And she collapses on the floor and dies. And this animal goes and rapes an 81-year-old woman. I have an 81-year-old mother. Your mom, Nancy, who I've met is in her 80s. You cannot even put yourself in this horror of this guy raping your 81-year-old mother. And she struggles and manages after he leaves and takes off with one leg. Think about that. One leg. Hop hopping along on one leg after being raped at 81 years old and manages and has a presence of mind to get to her, in those days, rotary phone on the wall.

This is 28 years ago and has the presence of mind to call 911. You know what it brings to mind, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina lawyer as a prosecutor you have to go well as a lawyer you have to go to CLE continuing legal education every year and if you don't go and especially if you don't pay your bar dues they're about three inches up here you know what okay they would love to disbar you over technicality. Oh yeah, yeah. Forget all the lawyers that are like stealing money or as they like to say, co-mingling accounts or all these men lawyers that force their domestic clients to have sex before they'll finish the divorce. Yeah, don't worry about that. But if you don't pay your dues or you miss CLE, honey, you're out. You cannot make

a living. So as one, I would always go to prosecutorial continuing legal educations because the CLEs can last for days and you have to leave work. You have to leave home. You're there all day getting CLE. Well, I remember this when it was a PAC. Prosecuting Attorneys Council CLE. I'm getting to my point. Just stick with me, people. This was about the Columbus Strangler. The Columbus, Georgia Strangler. And as I'm hearing Robin Walensky.

Uh-oh, here come the chill bumps up my arm. As I'm hearing Robin Walensky. Oh, here they come on the legs. Recount what happened to these two lovely ladies. They sound like the ladies at my hometown church, Liberty United Methodist Church in Macon, Georgia, that have taken care of me and my family for years. Anyway, at this PAC seminar, we were talking about the Columbus Strangler. This was a guy that would pick out little old ladies, LOLs.

He would go into their home at night, rape them, and strangle them. And I remember I had gotten up to go get some coffee in the seminar. I was walking back in, and it was all dark. And the one minute I was gone, the whole room went dark, and there was a screen up and there were the crime scene photos. And there was a little old lady on her bed, splayed on her bed, dead. And I will never forget seeing that photo and thinking, who would do this to this little old lady, this sweet little old lady. And it was to the point that when the grandmas that lived alone,

their children would come check on them at 11 o'clock at night and lock all their doors. And sure enough, that would be the one that would die that night. It was like a horror movie. And hearing this reminds me of that. Kathleen, one of the points Robin Walensky made is who would prey on an 81 year old lady this way? Somebody who is obviously, obviously has a brain that has dysfunctioned or disconnected from the real world. Somebody who clearly has no remorse, clearly has no sense of right and wrong. This was the grisly murder. I remember this murder because my mother, too, lived alone.

I remember this murder in 1990. What in the world is wrong with these people? I still feel bad. I can remember it. I had to be in the second or first grade pushing a little girl or get, I didn't push her. I got in front of her to go across the monkey bars and she just looked at me like she was hurt. I still remember that moment. I feel like doo-doo. I can remember the one time, one time I hit my sister in the arm and she just looked at me. Yeah, one time, Jackie.

Jackie's laughing her rear end off. One time I hit her in the arm and she just looked at me. I never hit her again. I can remember those and they bother me. Who would do this thing? Listen. I remember the coroner and the sheriff was there too and some others uh the police that i said it was one of the worst uh crime scenes that some of us had ever seen and it was and i think one of the words i

used was horrific and uh and they had told me how this person, whoever had done it, had really, you know, been very brutal against her in every way he could be brutal. And had cut her throat and that she, you know, that she had been a very, that she had struggled. Hi, Nancy Grace here. Have you ever Googled yourself, your neighbors, somebody at work, a crush? 57% of Americans admit to keeping an eye on their own online reputation. 46%

admit to using the internet to look up somebody from their past. But Google and Facebook, the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding personal information. There's an innovative new website called Truthfinder. It's now revealing the full scoop on millions of Americans. Truthfinder can search through hundreds of millions of public records in a matter of minutes. Truthfinder members can literally begin searching in seconds for sensitive data like criminal, traffic, arrest records.

Before you bring someone new into your life and around the people you care for, your children, consider using Truthfinder. What you find may astound you. Go to truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy right away to start searching. Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy right away to start searching truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy find the truth. I'm tired of the hearsay of the folklore of what happened and I want to know for real I want to talk with people that were there I want to know what happened that night what happened on September 3rd 1990 and why haven't we figured out who did this you had to think about how you were going to tell me that my grandmother had been taken away

you sure you really want to hear i do because you sure i do listen dude this is pretty this is as bad as it gets. I'm just surprised at what this town really is compared to what I thought it was. The fact that it was a violent death and those things just don't happen and start with Mississippi. So many pieces of so many people that I don't know with information that contributes itself in all these articles. And so it's hard to know where to start. You are hearing Knock Knock, a podcast by the grandson of Betty. It's Jason Jones using the podcast medium to try and find answers as to who killed his grandmother.

Listen. I don't ever want to, you know, I still, you know, I still don't want to go in the house. But her throat was slashed and there was just a lot of blood. I don't know if Betty ever would have thought that I would have, I mean, that I would have been here, that I would be here right now. I understand how scary that would have been. I'm going to arm myself with a couple of microphones and a recorder and go and try to meet people that can get me a step closer,

not only to my grandmother, but also to her killer. I have no idea where this is going to go, and it kind of scares the hell out of me. But I don't think I'm going to emerge from this without some scars. The only thing that lasts are the stories that we tell. And in order for me to tell the story, I've got to do it now. You are hearing from Knock Knock. It's a serialized true crime podcast and that was jason jones trying to solve the murder of his grandmother betty jones who died along with her roommate katherine kriegler and to you robin walensky investigative investigative reporter with CrimeOnline.com, I know that the moment one of them answered the door, the perp slashed her throat. He then went to the back of the home and he raped the 81-year-old grandmother and killed her.

But two people died because the LOL, the little old lady that answered the door, went to such a deep depression after the murder and her own rape. She died as well. Isn't that true, Robin Walensky? It is. Betty Jones, the 65-year-old woman who opened the door, was slashed in the throat and was dead there at the scene by the time the police arrived. The 81-year-old woman, Catherine, who was raped, who was able to call 911, she was treated and they did a rape kit and sealed it at the hospital. And then she later went to a home.

She could no longer live alone. That's why she was living with this woman. And she went to a home and just two months later, passed away. You know, I've been listening to this guy's podcast, and it is incredible. You know, it shows me that, you know, in my own life, after I became a victim of violent crime, you never, this is her grandson, Jason Jones. This is Betty's grandson. He didn't get over it. He kept looking for answers. To Robin Walensky, what is it that made him keep going?

We've seen it so many times with crime victims' families. I think that there's this very deep, very, very deep, what I call the need to know. And you love someone so much and you have all these scenarios in your mind as to what happened. And, you know, the movie of all these different ways that the person could have died and suffered just go. It goes through your mind over and over like an old VHS tape that's stuck in a machine, Nancy, right? And it keeps going and going in a loop, but they really want to get to the truth. And so the relatives of the deceased never stop looking, never stop until they get the answer. With me now, George Skiro, DNA expert and forensic scientist. What would you make of this crime scene, George Skiro?

Well, Nancy, it was a very brutal crime scene from what I've heard. I've worked closely with the Starkville Police Department on this case for a number of years. back in 2005 was the first one to develop a profile from a semen stain that was associated with Ms. Kriegler. What do you mean by a profile? A profile is a DNA profile. It's essentially a series of numbers that show various locations on the DNA molecule that will allow us to identify an individual. In this case, we had a semen stain from an unknown individual. Dr. Bo Scales, who was then director, had developed that profile, and that profile was here.

And throughout the years, the Starkville Police Department was submitting samples of potential suspects throughout the years to see if they matched this particular profile. And throughout the years leading up until 2018, there were no identifications to this profile. This profile was in CODIS. There were no hits in CODIS. So this profile remained unknown for at least 13 years. Now, when you say CODIS, explain. CODIS is the Combined DNA Index System, and that is a database program that houses DNA profiles from, typically from convicted offenders, from crime scene samples, and from arrestees. That is used, crime labs use that database to search for unknown DNA profiles found at crime

scenes to see if they can get a match to an individual within that database. Two elderly women dead, one brutally murdered, the other alert to dial 911, and the gruesome killer still remains unknown. And although this happened almost three decades ago, investigators and family of the victims are not letting this case go unsolved. I just opened a case file today in like several years. I need help. Do you know who's Crigler? Yeah. There's one single lower, young man.

I just feel like a failure sometimes for not being able to solve it. Labor Day in 1990. A man entered the home of 65-year-old Catherine Crigler. She was raped and strangled. She passed out with broken bones. But when she woke up, she was able to call 911. Crigler died from her injuries and deep depression months later. Her friend, though, 81-year-old Betty Jones, did not have much time to think.

The killer immediately stabbed her several times in the neck. You are hearing reports from our friend Simone Woolridge at WREG-TV reporting on the murders of Betty Jones and Katherine Kreigler. Betty's grandson launches a podcast, Knock Knock, to try to revive interest in his grandmother's death. Take a listen to Simone Woolridge. Who is this person responsible for this horrendous murder? And why were Crickler and Jones the chosen ones?

The man walked away with just a couple of bucks and a memento. He got in the house and he asked a question like where's the silver and like he's there to rob. He immediately kills the victim and he doesn't take anything but $20. Police say sexual homicides of the elderly only occur in three percent of homicide cases and scary enough statistics show that most suspects know their victim. You kind of feel like you're walking through a dream and you're going to wake up and everything's going to be fine. I remember telling my mom, get dressed, let's go get her, she's okay. Way back in 2015 was to Sergeant Bill Lott of the Starkville Police Department. I had randomly set up a Google alert for the keywords

Betty Jones, Labor Day murders, and Starkville, Mississippi. And out of the blue one day, I received a notification that there was a brand new press release from the Starkville Police Department. A few days later, I called Sergeant Lott, and he was gracious enough to take my call. And since then, he has been so helpful to me, my family, and the Krigler family, providing information on the work both he and the SPD are doing to help solve this crime. You're hearing Betty's grandson, Jason Jones, and then a break in the case. Listen. I was absolutely floored and just stunned. This has been a taboo story in my life since I was 10. Jason B. Jones has been looking for answers for much of his life after the death of his step-grandmother, Betty Jones. The parents didn't want to talk to me about it because there was nothing really to tell.

He started a podcast with his brother in hopes of finding out more. He says his family was thrilled to hear that suspect Michael Devon was arrested in the nearly three decade long case. Zero credit goes to our podcast for the apprehension of the suspect. 100% of the credit goes to the Starkville Police Department. Joining me right now, renowned forensic scientist George Skiro, who worked on the case for such a long time. George Skiro, explain what happened and how it was done. First of all, Nancy, credit has to go to the Starkville Police Department for never letting go of this case, in particularly Sergeant Bill Lott, who has always been progressive on this case and was always looking at the science and seeing where things were progressing to. Eventually,

Sergeant Lott partnered up with Parabon, which is a company that does, they do phenotyping of DNA where they look for certain characteristics such as hair color, eye color, facial shape, that sort of thing. And in particularly, they also added a new component to their tests. It's a forensic genealogy component, which Sergeant Lott latched onto that, and we were able to provide the sample from that unknown DNA sample that we had developed in 2005. We were able to provide that to Parabon, and they were then able to generate a lead for Sergeant Lott to follow up. So how does it work, George Kiro? Essentially what they do is Parabon takes the DNA sample,

and they look at many different sites on that DNA molecule to create probably an approximation of what that person might look like. And then what they can do is they can take these forensic genealogy markers that are out there in public accessible databases where people put their genealogy information from where they're trying to find lost relatives or see who they're related to or see their ancestry. And they're able to put this information into those genealogy databases to see if they could come up with perhaps a family member or someone who may have put their DNA profile into this database to see if there's a possibility

of a relative or that particular person being in that database. To Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, explain to me the break in the case. Who is Michael Wayne Devon? Well, he is the 52-year-old man who is being held responsible for this. He's being held, Nancy, on an $11 million bond. And the DNA proves that it's him. The long arm of the law got this guy. What we know about this guy, Michael Wayne Devon, who managed to elude murder charges for over 28 years, but not elude modern technology. The advancements in DNA testing, specifically genetic genealogy, cracked this case. The same thing happened to George Sciro, DNA expert and forensic scientist, in the Golden State Killer case. Explain. Yes, in the Golden State Killer case, very much the same type of analysis was done. What they did was they had a pure DNA sample that they found in storage. They took that.

They ran with a forensic genealogy company. They then searched and they found relatives close to the man who was eventually identified, Joseph James DeAngelo. And they did that, again, through this, you know, looking at locations and doing genealogy research, essentially, to find this person through potential relative. You know, this guy who looks exactly like the composite, I might add, Devon, had never been a suspect until genealogy, and I'm talking about Ancestry.com, things like that, those

public websites, put police onto his trail. Earlier this year, police sent the DNA taken from the murder scene of these two old grandmas, little old ladies, took the evidence, the DNA taken from the murder scene of these two old grandmas, little old ladies, took the evidence, the DNA profile to Parabon, as George Kira was just describing. It's a private genetic company. And they compared the DNA found at the scene, it was semen from the rape, to a public genealogy DNA database. I was recently on Dr. Oz speaking with a detective that did the very same thing in the Golden State Killer case. And it is amazing. The way it works, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family lawyer, is that people send in their DNA to find out their genealogy, where they come from, how much Irish are they, how much African are they? How much this? How much that?

And what that does is it identifies relatives, even distant relatives. Now, I thought what the cops did was they go to those relatives and interview them and isolate who could be a suspect. But what they really do is they go way, way back and they start the family tree based on the DNA at the scene and come up with the killer. It's actually very intricate, but they're getting it off things like Ancestry.com, Kathleen. Thank God for all the scientists that are making this dream come true. Because, again, this was such a grisly murder. And we have so many wonderful people on your panel and so many other wonderful scientists doing the work that needed to be done. Back to George Skiro, DNA expert and forensic scientist.

You know, the law protects you from police intrusion, like the police can't force you to give DNA unless they've got a warrant. But the law doesn't protect you or one of your relatives, maybe a distant relative, from sending in their DNA from a bugle swab, which is a mouth swab, and thereby getting you busted. The announcement came on Betty Jones' birthday, George. Yes, it did. We had actually worked with the Starkville Police Department when they had submitted to the lab, I think it was on Friday afternoon, an item that was discarded by Mr. Devon. And we were able to work it overnight and get them results by Saturday morning, identifying him to the 2005 profile that we had developed here at the lab. Now that Devon has been named a suspect, police are asking anyone who has information about the crime or Devon to contact

Starkville PD. The tip line is 662-323-4131, 662-323-4131. Take a listen to Betty's grandson as he reacts to solving the case of his murdered grandma. I was absolutely floored and just stunned. This has been a taboo story in my life since I was 10. The parents didn't want to talk to me about it because there was nothing really to tell. Zero credit goes to our podcast for the apprehension of this suspect. 100% of the credit goes to the Starkville Police Department.

I'm sorry his life led him to feel like he had to make those types of choices. Always thought of this guy as being a monster. He was the boogeyman behind the closet door, personified. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.