Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Pregnant teen held captive, tortured and killed, boyfriend beheaded by man they met online

Episode Date: May 7, 2019

Pregnant 18-year-old, Brooke Slocumb and her boyfriend, Charles Oppenneer, meet a man at a park to exchange sex for cash...after meeting on Craigslist.Slocumb was kidnapped and held captive for days, ...before police find her body in the trunk of a car.Nancy's expert panel weighs in:Heather Walker:  Investigative reporter with WOOD-TV Dr. Bethany Marshall: Psychoanalyst and family therapistSteven Lampley: former detectiveDr. Brian Russell: Psychologist and lawyer Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A pregnant woman tortured for days on end, then murdered. Is it connected to online dating? And I hate to say that because, for instance, my nephew, you know him, Jackie, met a beautiful, wonderful, brilliant woman online. They're married. They have a son. They're perfectly happy together.
Starting point is 00:00:44 They just built a house. They're just happy together. They just built a house. They're just, you know, thrilled to be together. So it does work. Then there is the dark side of online dating. A pregnant woman tortured for days, then murdered. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
Starting point is 00:01:02 I'm talking about a beautiful young woman, Brooke Slocum, dead. Joining me, an all-star panel, Heather Walker, investigative reporter with Wood TV in Grand Rapids. Dr. Bethany Marshall, renowned California psychoanalyst. You can find her at drbethanymarshall.com. Out of South Carolina, Dr. Michelle Dupree, Homicide Investigation Field Guide is her book. She's a medical examiner. And Stephen Lampley, detective at StephenLampley.com. First to you, Heather Walker.
Starting point is 00:01:33 This is what I find, and I'm just writing about this in a book. I just turned in the manuscript, Don't Be a Victim. And I'm writing about online dating. You know, Heather, people kind of have a stigma and they shouldn't when they online date. I try to meet people. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't. But Heather, I want to know about this beautiful woman, Brooke Slocum, because somehow she's getting dragged through the mud. She's a dead pregnant lady. And I don't like that. Yeah, I mean, this is definitely a case. I mean, I've
Starting point is 00:02:11 after all of this unfolded, we did speak with her family and we read her diary. They shared some passages from there. She just seemed like this innocent young girl who was in love and she happened to be pregnant and she was just trying to do the best she could. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Heather Walker, you're like music to my ears because I would go visit victims' families or crime scenes. If I had found a diary or a journal, I would have just said, okay, we're going to pick this up tomorrow and just sit right down on the floor and read that because I want to know everything there is about my victim that I can find out. You read Brooke Slocum's diary. What did you find out?
Starting point is 00:02:50 It was heartbreaking. She was clearly very much in love with Charles Appanier, this 25-year-old. She was 18 at the time. He was 25. They met about a year before all this unfolded at an I Own Your Free fair. It's a very popular fair here in West Michigan. Everyone knows about it. She was a junior going into her senior year at Saranac High School,
Starting point is 00:03:12 and that's when they started dating and fell in love and became pregnant. Dating, fell in love, got pregnant. Now, you heard Heather Walker joining us, investigative reporter with Wood, WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids. And typically to Dr. Bethany Marshall, California psychoanalyst extraordinaire. Dr. Bethany, when you hear boyfriend, husband, lover, ex, you immediately think, well, they did it. But the boyfriend, Charles Oppenier, did not do it. He is not responsible for Brooke's murder. So let me ask
Starting point is 00:03:47 you this. Why do we always assume it's the boyfriend-husband ex? Nancy, we always look first to the boyfriend or to the most intimate partner because I'm sure everyone on the panel will agree with this. It is in the context of our most intimate relationships that we sometimes have the most hostile or negative of feelings. I mean, in my field, we know that hate and love lie side by side. They coexist in our attachment system. So the feelings that lead to homicide, resentment, fear, anguish, envy, hatred are all derived from intimate attachment systems and that's why we cast a very
Starting point is 00:04:27 narrow net and then we go wider and wider whenever there's a homicide especially of a young woman you know she's just so vulnerable dr bethany and dr michelle dupree you two on our panel today knew me when i was pregnant and you would very frequently be on with me at HLN and you know I was so ill there at the end I was in a wheelchair of course the viewers didn't know that and I was coughing so badly I'd have a series of hand signals to my line producer Liz and my executive producer Dean to tell them we got to go to break or play sound or just something. I had a hand signals like, you know, a baseball coach because I was so sick and I couldn't speak out because my mic was hot. And I'm just thinking about this young girl at just
Starting point is 00:05:18 18, pregnant, sadistically, sadistically murdered to Stephen Lampley, former detective, you can find him at stephenlampley.com. Why do we always think it's the boyfriend or husband? Well, Angie, that's the place we start. The boyfriend or husband or wife or girlfriend is not always obviously the person who committed the crime, but that's where we start. And like she was saying a while ago, we start with the inner circle. We start with those that are closest because those are the most feelings. And then when we eliminate, because part of the process is not necessarily finding the suspect, it's eliminating. So as we eliminate suspects, we broaden our scope outward. That's the way most homicide or kidnap investigations work heather walker is
Starting point is 00:06:06 with me here today investigative reporter from wood tv in grand rapids tell me about the area where they're from i want to get an idea because you know very often when you hear for instance um new york chicago detroit atlanta san francisco la you think big city, lots of crime. Wow. You ask for it. That's absolutely not true. I've lived in many of those cities, and people are not asking to be crime victims. What can you tell me, Heather, about this location, where she was abducted? Yeah, that's absolutely not the case here. This is West Michigan.
Starting point is 00:06:41 It's very conservative. It's very Christian. It's very safe. This is a place where people come. they move here to raise their families. And, you know, these types of things don't happen every day. And they don't even happen in big cities, let alone right here in West Michigan. Now it's Wyoming, Michigan, correct? Is that the area? That's where the first crime scene is in Wyoming, Michigan. It's a small town.
Starting point is 00:07:06 It's a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Where is that? It's a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Grand Rapids is the second largest city in the state of Michigan, Detroit being the first, Grand Rapids being the second. We're right by Lake Michigan. We're about 45 minutes away. And it's just a small suburb of Grand Rapids where there's affordable housing.
Starting point is 00:07:26 And like I said, it's safe, a good place to raise your kids. So this young girl looking for love online had a boyfriend who I think was on and off, Charles Oppenier. Can I tell you how I know he's not the one who sadistically tortured and murdered Brooks Locum? Because his severed head was found. He also a victim. But I want you to take a listen to what Brooks' dad told my friend, Dr. Drew. Is it true your daughter did have a history of meeting people online? Yes, she did. She has got numerous letters to her unborn children that state that she has met men online looking for love. But all she really found was that it made her feel cheap, dirty, and used.
Starting point is 00:08:15 And love is not manipulation. Love is unconditional. And she realized that. And she didn't want to do it anymore. But she also wants to stay with the man that's the father of her child. And she would do whatever it took to do that, even if it meant sacrificing herself in this sort of manner. Brooks-Sulcombe was likely held there for days. Pictures show what police found after they finally got into O-Strike's home, a very dirty home with clutter
Starting point is 00:08:40 that had weapons like guns, knives, swords, and ammunition sprinkled in every room, closet, and shelf. They found restraints and other items in his basement like a dog kennel, women's clothing, half-eaten food, and ropes hanging from the ceiling, showing Brooks Locum was likely held there for days. Surveillance video from cameras that O-Strike installed in his own home shows him on July 7th putting up ropes and cleaning out that same room in video showing him the night before this all went down those who knew o strike described him as a tormented man they feared could eventually snap you are hearing from our friend cassandra arsenault at fox 17 news snap i don't think he snapped to prepare a dungeon a torture chamber like that that takes some doing um I want to go to Dr. Bethany Marshall Dr. Bethany to prepare a torture chamber a sadistic
Starting point is 00:09:37 torture chamber that's got to take months to do Nancy not only did this take months this perpetrator has been a statist his whole life. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the kind of guy who tortured animals as a child, as we know so often happens with these severe sociopaths and psychopaths. This guy had a severe sexual perversion. He enjoyed inflicting cruelty and pain for his sexual pleasure. And Nancy, did you see the picture of that torture chamber? He had like chains bolted into the wall. He had a dog kennel. Okay, hold on just a moment.
Starting point is 00:10:14 Guys, if you want to follow along with what we're talking about, you can go to crimeonline.com where these pictures are featured. Go ahead, Dr. Bethany. Well, I think it's important for the viewers to know that there are five perversions, voyeurism, frauderism, sadism, exhibitionism, and pedophilia. And usually when a person has one perversion, they have multiple perversions. And if you have a sociopath, psychopath who has a perversion, you have somebody who's going to want to put together a torture chamber like this. Because sadly, what they like to do, the MO for this kind of a crime,
Starting point is 00:10:52 is that they want to inflict cruelty upon a victim for their sexual pleasure. That is the entire MO behind this. And Nancy, when you look at the picture, I mean, it looks like he put her in a dog cage. He put a steel collar around her neck. He chained her arms to the wall. I mean, this was a prolonged attack over the course of many, many days and all motivated by sex. That's what it was, motivated by sex. You know, Dr. Bethany, I'm certainly not a shrink, but I don't think any act of violence is motivated by sex, okay? I think that it's motivated by evil or desire for power or rage, and I think all that manifests through sex. But, you know, you say tomato, I say tomato. Bottom line, Brooks Locum is dead, and Charles Opineer as well, her young boyfriend, Heather Walker, investigative reporter, WOOD TV. How does the boyfriend fit into this picture?
Starting point is 00:11:54 Let me understand this. So she, Brooke, goes missing and she's held in a torture chamber and ultimately murdered. But what about Charles Alpeneer? Where does he fit into this scenario? Okay, so Charles Alpeneer was found, his body was found in Gazan Park. It's a quiet park inside the suburb of Wyoming. And unfortunately, though, that's all that was found, his body. His head was missing. It was covered in a few sticks in this wooded area of
Starting point is 00:12:26 the park and nothing else around it. Brooke was nowhere to be found. His car was found in the parking lot and it was only because a couple reported to police that they saw a man peering into their car with a white mask that the police went there and found his car and that's where the search began for Charles Appanier. To Dr. Michelle Dupree, a renowned medical examiner out of South Carolina, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. Dr. Michelle, how often in your line of business where you perform autopsies for a living, do you see a head actually severed from the victim's body? Well, Nancy, maybe more often than you would suspect. I've probably had five or six in my career. Okay, that is more than I thought you would say. Although, you know, in the big scheme of homicides, five or six is not a lot. But when
Starting point is 00:13:12 you think about what it takes to actually sever someone's head physically, I mean, it's one thing to see it on a scary TV show or on some alleged crime show or a legal show the reality of severing someone's head or dismembering them is very very different dr dupree it is and it's very difficult it actually takes a lot of strength to do that and a very long time now you know if you remember um um dexter okay um that's the only thing that in Mystery Woman on Hallmark got me through my pregnancy and Dexter would go through you know hours and hours and hours he was serial killer dismembering getting rid of hiding evidence of homicides right he'd track down a bad guy and kill them and get rid of the body nobody Nobody would ever know what happened. Not that typical killers go through all of that,
Starting point is 00:14:07 not to get caught because they don't, but it is a very, very long process. Steven Lampley, detective, at stevenlampley.com, to actually dismember somebody, it takes a long time. It's gruesome and messy. It is messy. It's horrible.
Starting point is 00:14:24 It's a horrible act to be doing this, but it's not easy. You know, Jeffrey Dahmer, it took him hours by his own confession to dismember and dispose of a body. It's a very difficult process. And I don't understand that. You know, Dahmer's a good example, Steve Lampley. To Dr. Bethany, what is, you don't just kill somebody, but you want to sever their head and dismember them. What's that about? Well, we were talking about the torture chamber, right?
Starting point is 00:14:49 So we already know that he's a sadist. He likes to inflict pain and cruelty. He gets gratification out of it. We know that he tortured Brooke polyperverse, meaning he wasn't just deriving sick, twisted sexual satisfaction from torturing Brooke, but there was some sort of satisfaction that he derived from separating the head from the body. I mean, that took some time. What did you call that? What is that? Poly perverse?
Starting point is 00:15:38 Poly perverse, almost like polysexual, that his sexual aims were not just towards Brooke, but were towards the male victim as well. That he didn't just want female victims. He wanted male victims. You know what? It's always an experience talking to Dr. Bethany Marshall, you know,
Starting point is 00:15:56 and I've just got to say, no offense, LA, but LA is just the perfect place for you, Dr. Bethany, because I bet you have people lined up outside the door. Like Heather Walker is telling us, this is outside of Grand Rapids, this Wyoming, Michigan,
Starting point is 00:16:10 and this is completely unheard of in that area. And to Heather Walker, investigative reporter, WOOD-TV, so Brady O'Strike meets Brooks Locum and Charles Aupernier through a Craigslist ad. Okay, Craigslist ad. And this takes me back to the online dating issue. It was a dating ad. And that is how he finds Brooke in a park along with Charles Oppenier. So it's my understanding, Heather Walker, that he decapitates Charles right there in the park
Starting point is 00:16:50 and handcuffs Brooke and takes her away. Is that correct? That's right. I mean, honestly, this is like something from the movies, and it is very much real. He decapitated Charles Oppenier, took the head with him, and then also took Brooke Slocum with him.
Starting point is 00:17:07 And we're not sure all of the details, but at some point, he took Brooke back to his home, down to the basement, which that house has been called the House of Horrors by police, down to the basement to what can be considered a sex chamber, I don't know what else to call it, where there was chains and whips and cameras recording all of these terrible things. And then at some point, he also hid the head, Charles Appadere's head. Today, for the first time, we're hearing from a close friend of killer Brady Oestreich, who said Oestreich called her in the midst of the crime. TODAY FOR THE FIRST TIME WE'RE HEARING FROM A CLOSE FRIEND OF KILLER BRADY OSTREICH WHO SAID OSTREICH CALLED HER IN THE MIDST OF THE CRIME. KEN KOLKER SPOKE WITH HER TODAY. KEN JOINS US IN STUDIO CONTROL. SHE SAYS HE CALLED HER TWO SUNDAYS AGO, APPARENTLY THE SAME DAY HE STARTED HOLDING BROOKS SLOCUM CAPTIVE BUT ACTED AS IF NOTHING WAS WRONG.
Starting point is 00:18:02 HE CALLED WITH THE NORMAL, YEAH, HEY CHICA HOW ARE YOU DOING? BUT ACTED AS IF NOTHING WAS WRONG. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Starting point is 00:18:12 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Starting point is 00:18:20 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 I THOUGHT ABOUT IT A LOT. AND HIS ACTIONS AND ATTITUDE OF THE FALL WERE NO DIFFERENT THAN NORMAL. AND THAT'S WHAT BOTHERS ME." SHE HAD MET OSTRIK SEVEN YEARS
Starting point is 00:18:32 AGO, SOMETIMES WENT TO MEDIEVAL RENAISSANCE FAIRS WITH HIM, SAID HE OWNED HIS OWN SUIT OF ART. HE SAID HE WAS A VERY GOOD FRIEND OF HIS. HE SAID HE WAS A VERY GOOD FRIEND OF HIS. THAT'S WHAT BOTHERS ME. SHE HAD MET OSTRIK SEVEN YEARS AGO, SOMETIMES WENT TO MEDIEVAL RENAISSANCE FAIRS WITH
Starting point is 00:18:48 HIM, SAID HE OWNED HIS OWN SUIT OF ARMOR. HE HAD TAUGHT HER 11-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER HOW TO SHOOT A GUN. BUT SHE SAID HE HAD BEEN QUOTE-UNQUOTE SERIOUSLY DEPRESSED SINCE BREAKING UP WITH HIS FIANCEE. SHE WONDERS IF THAT SOMEHOW LED TO THIS.
Starting point is 00:19:04 HE DIDN'T SMILE AS MUCH. HE DIDN'T LAUGH AS MUCH. HE SAID A COUPLE OF TIMES THAT HE FELT WORTHLESS. DURING THAT PHONE CALL TWO SUNDAYS AGO, APPARENTLY IN THE MIDST OF THOSE CRIMES, THEY TALKED ABOUT WORK AND MADE PLANS FOR A VISIT TOGETHER. SHE SAYS SHE CAN'T EXPLAIN THE KILLINGS OR WHY HER FRIEND WOULD DECAPITATE APANIR. They talked about work and made plans for a visit together. She says she can't explain the killings or why her friend would decapitate Aponir. You're hearing from our friend Ken Calker at WOOD TV 8, speaking to one of O-Strike's friends who said he was seemingly normal while he had captives.
Starting point is 00:19:43 You know, I don't get it. Dr. Bethany, because everyone seems to be acting like, oh, he was a little sad and he had a breakup. So maybe he kidnapped two people, severed a head and tortured a young girl for a week before murdering her. Well, I don't get that connection. He was sad. He had a breakup. So he committed double murdering her. Well, I don't get that connection. He was sad he had a breakup, so he committed double murder, Dr. Bethany. Nancy, I heard the same thing you did
Starting point is 00:20:14 in this interview when she says, you know, he taught my 11-year-old daughter how to shoot a gun. Well, I was a little more hung up by him having his own suit of armor for the Medieval Renaissance Festival. But, I mean, ladies, if you're listening, you went into a guy that owns his own suit of armor. Run the other way as if you had seen a monster. Please, listen to me on this. Had a huge gun collection. Not that there's anything wrong with that. A filthy home covered in surveillance cameras.
Starting point is 00:20:45 As a matter of fact, isn't it true, Heather Walker, WOOD TV, that he actually videoed through the home security system all of his torture of Brooke? That's correct. He set up a camera. I mean, this took a lot of planning. We have video that police have released of him preparing this basement for Brooke. So he had this all planned. He set up the camera so it would capture all of this. Now, of course, those
Starting point is 00:21:16 videos will never be released and thank goodness. But yeah, he was... You talk about that friend, there's also police were told that a one-time girlfriend told him there were pins in his basement of locations where he stored food and supplies an event of apocalypse i mean he had chains handcuffs he had written on tape to one mirror with a poem plain pain helps us learn pleasure helps us forget he had other uh writings on the walls obey and pleasure my master pleasure i must earn it about a lot of mentions of master and apparently she actually brooks locum had to sign this okay uh i don't think there's i know that police recovered an alleged slave master contract but the the girl was in handcuffs with a choke around her neck
Starting point is 00:22:07 and in one of the videos just before he murders opineer and kidnaps brooke you see him on the video walking around with a chain and a padlock in his hand laying out ladies underwear um apparently he kept her in a dog kennel it's a big dog cage about the size i have for a fat boy to sleep in at night he's a dachshund but i got him the really big one but it's certainly a human would have to be in there crouched in a ball. There were suitcases full of bloodstained women's clothing and other undergarments in his home. There were maps dotted with pins from coast to coast. And an ex-girlfriend tells police
Starting point is 00:23:08 they were markers where he had dumped food in case of an apocalypse. Okay, again, when you run into a guy that is planning for the apocalypse, run the other way to heather walker wood tv tell me that about the discovery of charles opineer's head this was just unbelievable we didn't think we didn't know if we were ever going to find the head. A lot of times, killers, they keep some kind of souvenir from their killings, and we thought
Starting point is 00:23:53 we may never know where this is. But more than four years later, a farmer was taking a walk on his land out in the country, more than 17 miles away from where Apaneer's body was found at Gazan Park. And he found a head and he immediately called police and they came out there. And of course, that was everyone's thought was, is this Charles Apaneer's head? Did they finally find his head? And the medical examiner came back and it was indeed his head. So how long it's been there, how it got there, why it was there, why he chose that location is unclear because police say there's no known connection between that piece of land and the killer Brady Osher. Medical examiner out of South Carolina, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide.
Starting point is 00:24:51 Dr. Dupree, how do you go about identifying a skeletonized skull, and how well does it take a skull to skeletonize? Nancy, those are all very good questions. First of all, we can identify the skull by using a different type of DNA. There is something called mitochondrial DNA, which will last a lot longer, and we are able to get that from a skull without the tissue remains. Secondly, it really depends on the weather and the environment that the skull is in. Certainly, it could be several months.
Starting point is 00:25:26 It could be even longer than that for it to completely deteriorate to a skeleton. Take a listen to our friends at WOOD-TVA. I don't want to say Brady was the kind of guy that just wanted to kill people, but at the same time, I think he just kind of wanted to kill people. 23-year-old Brittany Zimitas, who says she regularly hung out with Brady Oestreich,
Starting point is 00:25:44 signed her name on a wall on his basement, illuminated by a black light, next to the names of other friends who had visited. And it's not the hellish environment everyone's making it out to be. Oh my gosh, that bugged me so much. It's been described as a dungeon where Oestreich held Brooke Slocum captive for five days before strangling her. The way I described his house was like a naughty drawer. Lots of restraints, handcuffed sex toys, she says. HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A
Starting point is 00:26:07 FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A
Starting point is 00:26:15 FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A
Starting point is 00:26:23 FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A FRIEND OF HIS. SHE DESCRIBED HIM AS A GOOD FRIEND WHO SPENT TIME WITH HER, WATCHING MOVIES, PLAYING VIDEO GAMES, ALWAYS BOUGHT DINNER, EVEN GAVE HER $1,000 ON HER 22ND BIRTHDAY.
Starting point is 00:26:31 HE WAS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST GENEROUS FRIENDS I'VE HAD. SHE SAID HE HAD GROWN DARKER SINCE HIS FIANCE BROKE UP WITH HIM ABOUT A YEAR AGO, BUT TOLD HER HE WAS GOING THROUGH
Starting point is 00:26:39 THERAPY TO GET HELP. BUT HE WAS AT HIS DARKEST WHEN SHE LAST SAW HIM, SHE SAYS, AT A BAR DOWNTOWN ABOUT A MONTH AGO. HE SAID HE WISHED HE COULD GO BACK IN TIME TO AN ERA IN TIME WHERE HE COULD DISTURB HIM. But he was at his darkest when she last saw him, she says, at a bar downtown about a month ago. He said he wished he could go back in time to an era in time where he could just kill people with his bare hands. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Starting point is 00:27:14 A farmer in northern Kent County came across the skull last week while he was out for a walk on his property. Today, Wyoming police confirmed to us that those remains belonged to Charles Oppenier. And the skull was found near Six Mile Road and Kenawa Avenue last Sunday. That's more than 17 miles away from Gazan Park in Wyoming where Opineer's body was found back in 2014. As for Opineer, the medical examiner says it looked like he was shot in the head before he was beheaded. This afternoon his family was notified that their son was found. you know, it's hard to evaluate exactly what they're feeling right now, but I can tell you the hearts and minds of the Wyoming police that put so much time, effort, and emotion into this case are just hurting for them. And I'm sure this brings it all right back up to the surface,
Starting point is 00:27:56 and our heart breaks for them, but we certainly hope that there will be some peace that comes with it. The deaths of two young people, Brooke Slocum, a young girl pregnant, her boyfriend Charles Openeer, also murdered. It was his skull found 17 miles away from the rest of his body. He had been shot before he was then beheaded. To Dr. Bethany Marshall, Dr. Bethany, do you believe that these are radio strikes only victims? I do not. I think that he was doing this for a long, long time. I mean, even you said there was blood-soaked women's underwear in this torture chamber. And I have to go back to this friend for a second. She is so minimizing
Starting point is 00:28:41 his crimes. I mean, did you hear her say that it was just he's like a normal nerdy guy? You know, S&M equipment in one corner, guns in another, as if this is all no big deal. I heard that. It sounds like she's saying, oh, it was just your regular man cave with a dungeon and torture devices. It's amazing to me how people go through their life with blinders on. That's right. It's like she had no idea that there was anything wrong with this. Plus, Heather Walker, WOOD TV, there was apparently a previous, let me just say, girlfriend, in a very, very loose sense of the word, that was tortured and held prisoner by a strike.
Starting point is 00:29:27 And she managed to live. Yes. Yeah. I mean, like I said, this is all so bizarre. And the weirdest thing is that we spoke with multiple family members and said, did you see any signs? Were you concerned at all? And everyone replied, no, no, no. Everything's fine.
Starting point is 00:29:46 He's a normal guy. He's a little quirky, but he would never do this. We never expected this. No sign. So to you, Dr. Bethany, why do you believe these are not his first victims? What leads you to think that? Well, because first of all, I would say he's a psychopath, not a sociopath, because with psychopathy, you have the addition of cruelty. You have all the other traits of the sociopath, because with psychopathy, you have the addition of cruelty. You have all the other traits of the sociopath, but you have cruelty as an overlay. And usually the cruelty starts in early adolescence, late childhood. As you know, these perpetrators often have a history of torturing and mutilating animals. And I believe that for him, this was a compulsion,
Starting point is 00:30:26 and he organized his whole life around the compulsion. There's a very ritualistic quality to gathering the chains, the dog collar, the dog kennel, everything that he used to entrap women. I would have a hard time believing that his fantasy life alone would satisfy his sadistic sexual desires. I would think that this is the kind of guy who would have had to have acted this out a long time before this, especially since he severed the male victim's head. This is a person who's put enormous energy into killing. Why would he have not done it before? He just got caught this time. To Heather Walker, WODTV, are you convinced, do you believe, disbelieve that these are his only victims? You know, I don't know. And I don't know if we will ever know because unfortunately, the only person who knows is dead. I hope it's his only victim, but I do agree with the doctors that once you see this kind of behavior and all planned out, it's hard to believe.
Starting point is 00:31:34 To Dr. Bethany, Dr. Bethany, why video? What motive would he have to videotape what he was doing and what do you think he planned to do with the tape? I think he was doing something called spectatoring, that while he was torturing, mutilating, having his way with her, he was also fantasizing as if a third party was watching him. And he was also anticipating that he would later use those videos for his own sexual gratification. This was not intended to be a one-time, you know, buying, torture, kill, like the BTK killer. This was intended to become a part of his treasure trove of sex toys. You know how porn addicts will have all these, you know, links on their computer, you know, to different favorite porn sites? This would be a part of his own cache of personalized pornography, so to speak, that he thought
Starting point is 00:32:30 he would be able to use again and again. I also see it as one of his trophies. You know, serial killers keep trophies. It could be underwear. It could be a driver's license. It could be a piece of jewelry. It could be anything from their victim, even a tooth, for instance. And this video, I think, would be one of his trophies. And also, question, what do you make of his use
Starting point is 00:32:54 of Craigslist as a way to catch his victims? Well, sexual predators prey on vulnerable populations. We know that. That's why prostitutes are often killed by serial killers, hikers who are out in the woods alone. So this is the kind of guy who's going to choose the most vulnerable of victims because he's a coward. He's not going to do it with a friend who knows him and might try to, you know, report him to the police. He's not going to grab somebody off the street. He's going to choose an eight-month pregnant 18-year-old young girl who needs $50 of cash so she can get medication. That's his ideal victim because he can have the ultimate power over her. And where better to better to find somebody like
Starting point is 00:33:46 that than on Craigslist? There's anonymity. He controlled the internet. And often, again, like sex addicts or porn addicts may have all their favorite porn videos lined up. And there's kind of a ritualistic quality to categorizing them. There was probably a ritualistic quality to going on Craigslist trolling for victims. I want you to take a listen to what we have learned. This is WOOD-TV's Susan Shaw. This is a story that has been unfolding for nearly a week now. According to police, Charles Opener and Brooke Slocum were last seen Saturday night leaving their apartment in Grand Rapids. On Wednesday, Opener's body was found in a wooded area near Gazan Parkway in Wyoming. And then yesterday, police were considering Slocum as a missing person.
Starting point is 00:34:34 Last night, the situation started unraveling as officers requested a warrant to search Brady Oestreich's home. While they were waiting for the warrant, Oestreich got into his car and he left the house. Police tried pulling him over and he briefly stopped before taking off again. He ended up crashing on the Burton Street Bridge over US 131 overpass. Police say that after the crash, O-Strike shot and killed himself. When police searched his car, they found Slocum's body in the trunk. Wow, driving around with a dead body in your trunk. I mean, the psychopathy behind that is beyond anything I can understand. Stephen Lampley, do you believe these were his first victims? Yes, no. No, I don't, Nancy. And one thing that
Starting point is 00:35:18 concerns me about this is I understand that his profession was a lineman. And my question would be, has he participated in any out-of-town fixes, I guess, for lack of a better word, where linemen go from town to town to work on different cities where they've had a catastrophe or some weather event? I would be interested in looking at that. The family now gets comfort, cold comfort though it is. Radio Strike commits suicide. The story goes on and I only wonder what, if anything, can we learn? Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.
Starting point is 00:36:11 Some moms are into flowers and perfume for Mother's Day. That's just not me. She's an awesome mom. I mean, she's a nurse, so it figures, right? So when he and the kids gave me Blink security cameras last year for Mother's Day, I loved it. Yeah, we're both worriers, and we work odd hours. And with break-ins the next block over, our worst fear was that kids might come home and walk in on someone. Yeah, and that's why we gave her a Blink security camera for Mom's Day. Blink cameras are wireless and motion
Starting point is 00:36:34 activated, so when they detect something moving around, we get an alert on our Blink smartphone app with a video clip of what it spotted. Yeah, and Blink lets us know when our kids get home safe and sound. Best Mom's Day gift ever. Yeah. And now through Mother's Day, May 12th, all indoor Blink cameras and systems are 20% off. Yep, 20% off. Home security just got easier. Get the perfect Mom's Day gift at BlinkProtect.com slash offer. BlinkProtect.com slash offer. That's BlinkProtect.com slash offer. Blink is an Amazon company.. That's Blink Protect dot com slash offer. Blink is an Amazon company. This is an iHeart Podcast.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.