Crime Weekly - S3 Ep197: Crime Weekly News: Family Found Dead in Possible Murder-Suicide

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

Police in Kansas City found three family members dead inside a home following a welfare check just after 9:45 AM on April 1st. The victims were 12-year-old Jerel McGeachy Jr, his mother Dominique McGeachy, and his father, Jerel McGeachy Sr. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod   

Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're going to get right into it tonight. It's a really sad story with a not so great outcome. And it's really unfortunate because this isn't the first time we've heard a story like this. So let's get right into it. Police in Kansas City found three family members dead inside a home following a welfare check just after 9.45 a.m. on April 1st. The victims were 12-year-old Gerald Magrici Jr., his mother Dominique Magrici, and his father, Joe Magrici Sr. I know a little bit about this story now after reading this script, but I'll let Stephanie fill you in on the details, and then we will talk about it. So police found the 12-year-old boy first with a fatal gunshot wound, and then further into the home, they found his mother with the same fatal gunshot wound. And then they found his father with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Now, both Monique and her husband, Jarrell Magrici Sr.,

were employed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where Monique worked as a nurse and Jarrell worked as a police officer. ABC 11 actually featured Dominique during the pandemic in a segment about pandemic heroes. She had served seven years in the Army before becoming a nurse for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Jarrell Jr., her son, was well-known in the area of Cumberland County, North Carolina, where the family had lived previously because he was surprisingly mature, intelligent, and well-spoken for his young age. Apparently, he was able to recite entire speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and when he moved to Kansas City, he performed MLK's I've Been to

the Mountaintop speech during a January event. Jarrell Sr. worked as a Spring Lake police officer and elementary school teacher in Cumberland County, and he was featured in the Fayetteville Observer's 40 Under 40 list in 2021. Now, during an interview for that piece, Jarrell Sr. was asked what had helped him achieve success, not only in his career, but in his life, and he answered, quote, my son. Seeing my son interact in so many positive things in the community has allowed me to become more active than ever before. If, as a father, I cannot teach my child and guide him to the difference between right and wrong and direct him to positive exposure in life, the streets will. And I can't have that.

I just can't have my son be another statistic. End quote. Which is sad because it appears that Jarrell Jr. has become another statistic because they're looking into this. I mean, clearly, the police believe that this was a murder-suicide. Right. And that Jarrell McGreechie Sr. killed his wife and his son, making them just another statistic at this point,

which is exactly what he claimed he didn't want. And this was just a few years ago that he said this. Now, hours before law enforcement arrived to the McGreechie's Kansas City home, Jarrell Jr., the 12-year-old, he posted something on social media. And apparently this was referencing discipline at the hands of his father and his mother's decision to keep Jarrell Jr. and Jarrell Sr. separate from each other. Now, People Magazine did reach out to the police about this post. And in a set of emails,

Sergeant Phil DiMartino said that law enforcement was looking into every aspect of this case. And like I said, they're looking into it as a murder-suicide. It's an ongoing investigation, but they don't believe anybody else was at the house. Like I said, Jarrell Sr.'s wound appeared to be self-inflicted, and we're not exactly sure why. We don't know what happened yet, but this is a story that we've seen far too many times. We have. And we actually had an incident here in Rhode Island not too long ago involving a firefighter, longtime firefighter, and it was a murder-suicide situation. But as far as these cases are concerned, from an investigator's perspective, yes, they're probably treating it because, you know, the way it looks as a murder-suicide, but that doesn't mean they're not exploring all options.

So when you come into a case like this, as horrific as it is, to walk in on that as a patrolman and then as an investigator who's got to do the back-end work on it, you got to look at it and say, okay, I see what it looks like. I can tell what it appears to be. However, I have to still treat it as maybe it's something else. At least that's what they should be doing. So they'll go in there and they'll do all the ballistics. They'll use trajectory rods. They'll use GSR gunshot residue testing. They're also going to look into the history of Gerald Sr. and also Gerald Jr. and see what their relationship was like. They're going to look at any friends and family who knew Dominique to see if she was disclosing anything to them about incidents leading up to this event to try and confirm that there maybe was some signs or

some incidences that would have suggested that something like this was on the horizon? Because, you know, you just read that quote from Gerald a couple of years ago. I think we can all agree a lot can happen in two years as far as the family dynamic and also your mental wellbeing. So police first and foremost have to go in and try to figure out why. Why did this happen? What's the motive behind this? Why would Gerald Sr. presumably do something like this? What transpired in the

last couple of weeks, months, years that caused their family dynamic to take this approach, this direction? And maybe they'll find something after speaking to family members that is going to confirm that there was in fact something going on within the family or more specifically Gerald Sr. to say, hey, he was having some mental health issues. He was going through a tough time at work. Him and Dominique were fighting a lot or him and Gerald Jr. were fighting a lot. Because as you said, there was a social media post that was what, that day or the day before? The same day. So the check done by law enforcement was, you know, in the 9 o'clock hour.

And I believe that Gerald Jr. posted these around 5.30 a.m., which is crazy to be up that early. So you have to wonder what was happening. Were his parents arguing in the house? Was there some sort of divorce or separation happening? When we see men do this, it's usually because they, in my opinion, and from my experience, it's usually because they're feeling like they're losing control. They're losing their grip on their family, their image, their home, what they're projecting to the outside world that threatens them.

They have some sort of ego wound, and then they lash out in this way. Yeah, it's possible. So, you know, you said that the social media post referenced something regarding discipline at the hands of his father. And so that initially would say something like maybe there was an issue between the two of them. Maybe Dominique got involved to defend Gerald Jr. Gerald Sr. probably didn't like that. Maybe this mantra that he had as far as, hey, listen, I have to discipline my son so that he doesn't become a statistic. Maybe he felt disrespected by the fact that she was impeding on what he considered the right way of disciplining his son. And maybe an argument ensued between them and then maybe Gerald Jr. steps back in to defend his mom. Who knows? There's a lot of things that

could have happened inside that home. And I will say ballistics can, to a certain degree, tell the story. Because if you have a situation where, depending on where they were and how they're positioned, does it look like Gerald went in and just killed them in their sleep? No, it doesn't sound like that's the case, right? Based on the timeframe, 5.30 in the morning, Gerald's writing a Facebook post or a social media post, and then nine o'clock in the morning, they're doing a wellbeing check and that happens.

So that's one thing I'd like to know, right? Because the Facebook post would not automatically ignite or involve police coming out to conduct a wellbeing check. And it's only 9.45 in the morning. So I really, and they'll probably disclose this at some point. I'd love to know why that wellbeing check was pursued, why it was enacted because someone clearly called and said, Hey, I heard gunshots or, Hey, my family member called me earlier. You know, Dominique called me earlier, said there was a fight. We don't know yet, but we more than likely will. And that may be contributing to why they're treating this as a murder suicide, but nevertheless, they got to go in there. They got to do the GSR. They got to make

sure everything lines up because although it may look like a murder-suicide and based on what we're hearing, it sounds like it's that way without knowing all the details. There is another possibility where what was going on in Gerald's life and in Dominique's life and did they have any enemies? That's also an angle you have to explore. So they're going to dot their I's. They're going to cross their T's. You want to make sure you get it right. And there's no rush to coming out and saying something without knowing definitively what happened. And we'll see where it goes. I think what I wanted to touch on is from the outside, this family looked like the perfect family. They were well-respected in their community, both in North Carolina and then also in Kansas City, Missouri.

They were well-liked. Jarrell's teachers, his elders, people who knew him, especially adults, would marvel about how smart he was, how completely in tune with life he seemed, just very mature, well-spoken. It's so sad because he was 12 and he had a very bright future ahead of him just based on where he was. And they respected Jarrell Sr., Dominique. And inside, what's going on behind closed doors doesn't always or honestly doesn't usually match up to what the world is seeing. And so we get the idea of what a victim looks like or, you know, what somebody who's in a bad situation looks like. And it doesn't look like the Magrici family. But in this situation, it appears that

it was that Jarrell Jr. and his mother, Dominique, were maybe in a situation that wasn't so positive, wasn't so healthy for them. And nobody in the outside would have known. Correct. And we see that all the time as police officers where you'll have the baseball coaches or the politicians or prominent members of the community who on the surface to everyone around them, they're just such like a pillar of the community and everyone loves them and everyone wants to hang out with them. And they're, they're always the life of the party at the events, the local events. But then I become a patrolman and I'm getting dispatched to their home at three, four in the morning because that same individual is an intoxicating, just slapped his wife, you know, and it's, it's, I've seen it a lot. And,

you know, I, I think personally as a child, you know, and it's, it's, I've seen it a lot. And, you know, I, I think personally as a child, you know, we have all experienced trauma where there's things where part of the reason I became a police officer is at certain times, law enforcement had to come to my home and they got to see me play sports during the day. Some of them knew me from the community as an athlete who me and my brother, and then they're coming to my house at night. And I would recognize some of them because a lot of the police officers coached in local rec leagues and stuff. And I remember one of the DARE officers who was like really well known in the community was working a, an overtime shift. He wasn't normal. He was like a school resource officer, but he happened to be working overtime. He was teaching me DARE that morning and he was at my house in the middle of

the night. Hey, Derek, what's up? You know, like, so we see a lot of things as patrolmen that the normal, the public doesn't necessarily see. And there could have been things going on for a very long time, but Gerald and Dominique or whoever, they just did a good job of hiding it from outside, outside people who were not in their close knit circle. And that's why it's going to be so important to talk to friends and family and to also look into, uh, Gerald and Dominique's search history. Do they have any journals or diaries? What were they, you know, the different things that they were doing on their own time that may have suggested some type of trouble going on in their lives. And I, I, if I have to speculate and I don't want to go too far down this path. I would imagine if everything's on the up and up, we're probably going to find that there was some

issues outside of Gerald's maybe work or personal life where he was going through a tough time. And I don't say to take this lightly, but clearly there's a mental health component to it as well. I feel like there has to be, right? When you kill your child and your wife, like the people who love you, like mentally well people don't do that. You don't do that. So there's something going on there. And it's, you know, obviously the firearm, I'm assuming it was a pistol. He probably was his, I don't know if he still had his job. We're assuming he did.

He was a police officer, like you had said, at the U.S. Department of Veterans. So he was obviously legally allowed to have a firearm, especially in his own home. So I'm assuming the gun was legally purchased and owned, or maybe it was a department-issued weapon if he was still on the force. But either way, there's a component to it where you have to start to evaluate, was he seeing anybody? Was he seeking medical help to try to treat an underlying issue? He he's he's always been strict, but he's being aggressive with our son now. And 12 is that age for fathers and sons when when the sons can start pushing back, developing autonomy, having their own opinion, authoritative or authoritarian type of parents do have an issue with that. It's like a shock. And it sounds like Dominique, Jarrell Jr.'s mother, had noticed this and was trying to create some distance between father and son to protect her son. And that probably pissed Jarrell Sr. off as well, because this once again took away some of his control over the people in his life. Completely agree. Completely agree. So we have to really

wait and see what law enforcement finds after interviewing everyone close to the McGreecheys to see if there's something obvious that maybe the public wasn't aware of. And then again, if he has a medical history or something, they can look into that as well. And if everything's what it appears to be, then it'll probably all line up. And, you know, my thoughts are with, uh, our thoughts are with the family is the extended family. It's obviously you lost three lives and I don't, I'm not going to villainize McGreechy senior the same way we villainize some people, although you and I, I think, are on the same page where we can't comprehend how someone would do this. I think most people can't comprehend how someone would do this. It's one of those situations where I don't

know the details yet. The reason I'm choosing not to villainize him is because we don't know 100% that he did, in fact, kill his wife and son, although it does look that way. It does look that way based on does look that way based on how they're treating it. But if we find out down the road after this comes out, that this is in fact the way it happened, obviously, which is where I was going with this, I don't understand for the life of me, if you're mentally unwell and you're feeling depressed, I haven't heard of a mental illness yet that completely takes over your bodily function. There's definitely mental illnesses that trick your mind into believing that there are things going on that are not going on. case, I would hope that I would choose at worst, if I didn't go seek the help or I did try to get the medical help that I needed

and I just, it just didn't work. I would choose a different route. I would choose a different route and we'll leave it. We'll leave it at that. But again, we don't know all the details. So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm refraining from going too far. But like you said, if everything works out to be what it is, I don't understand the rationale of, Hey, I'm going through something. I got to take everyone with me. I just, I just don't get it. And I don't, we'll never agree with that. Would you villainize him then? don't understand it. You're killing a 12 year old boy for no reason whatsoever. And if there was dissension, it could make it even worse where it's a situation where he may have done it,

not being under the medical, the mental stress that some people are under, where it might've just been a, I don't know, like an ego thing to a certain degree where he was trying to, you know, flex his muscles, so to speak inside that house and show his dominance as the, as the head of the household, quote unquote, right? The man of the house. And maybe he didn't get the, that's what we could potentially be looking at here where he really wanted to get his point across. And then after doing so, realizing what he did, he could have taken the coward's way out. Again, we don't know all the details, but if that's what it worked out to be, well then, yeah, he, then, then I think he's right to I think we're right to judge him. I think that that's definitely what happened here.

I mean, they're reporting it in the media as a murder-suicide. The police have pretty much said, you know, there's no sign of forced entry. There's no sign there was anybody else involved. We have three dead people killed by gunshot wounds. One appears to be self-inflicted. I mean, I'm sure he was, you know, the weapon was within reach of Jarrell Sr. when they found his body. I mean, because at that point, you're not trying to cover anything up, right? You're not, you're going to take yourself out and your kids and your wife and you're not sitting here thinking like, I hope the police don't catch me.

You don't really care. So I think that it all adds up. And honestly, at the end of the day, there's absolutely no reason why you should do this. And we've had a couple of cases, and I've covered cases on my YouTube channel where these men, these family annihilators, will take out their entire families specifically because it's just not going the way they want. And that's disgusting and deplorable. And honestly, there's no justification for it. So it's just a very sad, it's a very sad story. And, you know, once again, we do need to learn something from this.

I don't care if he's your husband or your boyfriend. You've been together for 25 or 30 years and you've got 10 kids together. If you feel like the person you're with is a danger to you or your children who are young and need your help protecting them, get out. Get out. Make moves. And we don't know if Dominique was doing that. I'm sure she was. I mean, this is a military woman. This is a woman who works as a nurse. She's smart. She's sharp. She knows the signs. She knows what's going on. She was clearly being proactive and trying to come between father and son. And I'm sure there was things happening to her too. And even if you do all the right things, you could still be trapped in a terrible situation. And that's, you know,

anybody out there who's in a situation, listen to your gut. And I know that sometimes you're going to be in a position with another person and they're going to make you feel like you're wrong and that you can't trust yourself and that you can only trust them. But please, please keep in mind and remember that you are ultimately at the end of the day, the only person you can trust and your gut is there telling you and screaming at you that there's red flags, that something's not right, something's not adding up, and you need to listen to yourself. Even if the person you think loves you is telling you that you're wrong, because only you can tell when something's feeling off, not right, dangerous, heating up, you know, you

can feel the intensity rising. Listen to yourself. You have a set of instincts. You have your gut screaming at you. And that's biological. That's a protective and a safety mechanism. It's self-preservation. So listen to it and make whatever moves you can to get yourself out of the situation. Yeah. And there's always local resources. You can go to your police department. They'll have the pamphlets. They'll have the contact numbers that you can go to and get in touch with if you'd like to do that. And if you don't feel comfortable doing it, we'll put it on the screen right here. You can always call the National Domestic Violence Hotline. And the number for that is 1-I-N, to 88788. And they'll have all the resources and recommendations that you would need if you're going through something and you're looking for guidance. So again, thinking of the family, the McGreechys and everyone involved, because it doesn't

only affect them, it affects an entire community. And so if there's a major change in this case, something unexpected, we will definitely update you guys. We won't leave you hanging if there's a major change in this case, something unexpected, we will definitely update you guys. We won't leave you hanging if there's a major change. But yeah, that's another sad story. That's usually what Crime Weekly News consists of. But I think there's always a lesson to be learned there. And that's why we're doing this.

That's why we're covering it. Any final words from you, Stephanie? No, it's just really sad. And it's heavy. It's heavy. It is. And there's no bright side, no silver lining to this one. It's just a, it can act as a warning to people out there who are in similar situations. And that's why we tell these stories so that you can see some parallels maybe in your life or in the life, the lives of your loved ones, people you know, you can take proactive steps to remove yourself. You only get one life. Don't let somebody destroy it, harm it, or end it. Well said.

Guys, we appreciate you being here. Everyone stay safe out there. We will see you later this week for part two of Leah Roberts. Audio will be out on Friday. YouTube will be out on Sunday. Have a good night. Take care. Bye. Thank you.