Criminology - Wendy Camp, Cynthia Britto, and Lisa Kreger

Episode Date: April 10, 2022

In this episode, we are discussing the mysterious 1992 disappearance, of 3 people: 23-year-old Wendy Camp, her 6-year-old daughter Cynthia Britto, and Wendy's 22-year-old sister-in-law Lisa Kreger. Their disappearance would eventually become a murder case. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss this case which is filled with twists and turns. Wendy Camp met a man named Chad Noe in 1987 and they eventually married. Wendy became pregnant but fell into a coma after giving birth to a son named Jonathan. She was in the hospital, unconscious, for months and was eventually diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Members of Chad Noe's family were determined to keep Jonathan away from Wendy and they were willing to go to any length to ensure that happened. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello everyone and welcome to episode 202 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, what's going on with you, man? Not too much. Just relaxing down here, enjoying the Florida sun. I just saw a bald eagle in my backyard and that was awesome. And now I'm on here, talk with you. A bald eagle. Bald eagle. Yeah, it makes me feel patronage. triotic when a bald eagle lands in my backyard.

Did, did you salute? Because I think you're supposed to salute the bald eagle. No, my wife and I sort of, you know, bumped into each other, racing to get our phones to take pictures and stuff. No, that's really cool, though. Yeah, really cool. All right, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Sammy, Sun Tzu, Tracy Baxley, and Trevor Lindberg.

So that's a lot of great new support. We really appreciate it. Thank you everyone so much for that support. It means a lot. And for anyone out there that would like to help support criminology, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, Morif, you ready to get into this episode? Yeah, this is one that I remember watching on Unself Mysteries from a long time ago.

So exciting to cover it. And I think people are going to find it fascinating. So this week's episode is about a case that somehow went unsolved for over two decades, even though everyone, including law enforcement, seem to know what happened. But as we know, sometimes the wheels of justice can turn slowly. And it can take decades for answers to be revealed and for killers to be unmasked. In this episode, we're discussing the mysterious 1992 disappearance of three people, 23-year-old Wendy Camp, her six-year-old daughter, Cynthia Brito, and Wendy's

22-year-old sister-in-law, Lisa Krieger. Their disappearance would eventually become a murder case. Wendy Camp met Chad No in 1987. They were both working at the same ice cream shop in Edmond, Oklahoma at the time. They seemed to hit it off and they started dating. Wendy was excited to be with someone new after getting out of a relationship with an ex named Christopher Brito. Wendy and Chris had a daughter together, Cynthia Brito, who was born in 1986. Cynthia was the apple of her mother's eye, but raising a very young child alone was tough, and she looked forward to spending time with Chad No. It wasn't long before Wendy got pregnant with Chad's baby, and the two got married. Wendy gave birth to their son, Jonathan, but before she could enjoy her new son,

she suddenly fell into a coma. She was in the hospital unconscious for months, and eventually was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The MS Wendy was diagnosed with is a debilitating central nervous system disease that causes the body's immune system to attack the protective protein around our nerve fibers. In our research, we found some people who claimed to have MS, but couldn't understand how Wendy would have been in a coma from it. We did find something called comatose and fulminate multiple sclerosis, fulminate meaning sudden and severe. So this appears to be something that can happen to people who don't even know they have MS, and it may be what Wendy was suffering from. Multiple sclerosis can cause lesions on the brain, basically a change

in brain tissue, which block signals from getting through that area of the brain properly. Some lesions can cause problems with the movement of both internal and external muscles, sometimes leaving a person unable to even open their eyes. These lesions can also cause the two hemispheres of the brain to be unable to communicate, basically leaving a person practically comatose. After Wendy woke up from her coma and was released from the hospital, her left arm was still drawn up, held close to her body, and she had a lot of physical difficulties. When Wendy was out of the hospital. Her sister Aisha was trying to help out when she could by watching Cynthia, but she couldn't watch Jonathan because she was pregnant herself and watching two kids was just

too hard. So Wendy's mother-in-law, Chad knows mom, Beverly know, was asked to watch Jonathan instead. Chad made comments openly to acquaintances, saying he didn't want to care for two children. He could have been talking about his son Jonathan and Wendy's daughter Cynthia, but some people thought he was actually talking about baby Jonathan and Wendy. So, you know, more if you hear a comment like that and you think, wow,

man, that's, that's pretty rough. Either way, you know, whether he's talking about his new son, Jonathan and Wendy's daughter, Cynthia,

but also, you know, really rough if he's talking about Jonathan and then his wife, Wendy. You go into marriage. And I get it. They weren't married. all that long, but you go into it basically saying for better or for worse.

And for her to have a child and then go into a coma and suffer all these difficulties, that's when she would need him the most to help. And it seems like from what people were saying that he was sort of cold and that was too much for him and he wasn't going to be a part of it, which is had to be really difficult for Wendy. Well, and Chad and Wendy were actually divorced while she was still. in a coma. There are some reports that say Chad filed and some that say Wendy's parents had filed on her behalf due to how things were going with Chad in discussions that they'd had with

Wendy before she gave birth without telling anyone. Beverly petition the court for custody of Jonathan due to Wendy being incapacitated and apparently due to Chad having a substance abuse issue and multiple children with different women to who he was not married, some that were reported to be underage. Beverly stated that she could provide, and she was providing a stable home for Jonathan. And I think when you see this kind of fraction in the family, some kind of splintering in a family, you start to think, okay, this could be a problem. You've got one side of the family trying to take a child from a mother who's sick, that could cause some hard feelings. Yeah, no doubt, there's going to be some hard feelings, but I also look back on

it and kind of examine what Beverly know is saying about her own son. He's got substance abuse issues. He has multiple children with a bunch of different women. Okay, that happens. what really grabbed me was that some that were reported to be underage. Some, not one, multiple girls that he had children with were reported to be underage. So I guess my point is, you know, Beverly's not painting a great picture here of her son. And I wonder if that's all to get custody of Jonathan just to make her look more stable in like the person that Jonathan should be with or if she really believed that stuff. Yeah, so it's either that or Chad really did have all these issues because, you know, Chad could have petitioned for custody, but it really seems as though it was Beverly that was pushing for it and was doing or saying whatever she had to to get custody of Jonathan.

And I think a lot of people may be listening and wondering how a young mother with MS could lose custody of her son simply because she has a medical condition. and a lot of people that discussed this case online were also confused. It seems like the no family thought that Wendy wouldn't recover, but with medication and time, her condition did improve. She also found love again and married a man named Leon Camp in 1990. The whole time she was recovering, after she woke up from her coma, she was fighting to see her son Jonathan, who she didn't willingly give up custody of.

Courts did grant Wendy the right to visit Jonathan, but after a month of visitations, Beverly accused Leon of molesting Jonathan during their visits. After this, visitation became difficult, even though it seems like supervised visitation was court-ordered. Once, when Wendy showed up to see Jonathan, she showed up to find an empty home. Beverly had moved without telling Wendy she was moving or providing her new address to the court. At the next scheduled visit a week later, Beverly and Jonathan didn't show up. Beverly later claimed that she had mixed up her weekends and taken Jonathan to six flags over Texas. Even though Beverly was there for every visit, she again claimed that Leon was molesting Jonathan during the visits.

Ginger Lido, a therapist appointed by the court, deemed these accusations unfounded. Chad and his mother Beverly were charged with contempt, but still refused to allow Wendy her court-ordered visitations with Jonathan. I mean, there's no doubt. This was a very ugly situation. You know, in my mind, you have a woman in Beverly who was going out of her way to circumvent the court-ordered visitations. Oh, I messed up my weekends. oh, you know, I took him to six flags in Texas. She was doing everything she could to not let Wendy see her son.

Yeah, and I think the accusations of Wendy's new husband molesting Jonathan, you know, there's a whole new level of things she's doing to try and make it so that Wendy couldn't see her own son. And that's, as you mentioned, it just seemed like it was getting really ugly and out of control. Well, and that's a good point, right? not showing up, not being there, that's one thing. But when you accuse someone of the sexual molestation of a child, that's an entirely different realm.

Beverly actually took Jonathan and hid him from Wendy and her family. Wendy's family hired a private detective to try and find any trace of Beverly or Jonathan's whereabouts, but they ran out of money. Eventually, and it's unclear how, they did turn up, and a judge ordered Beverly to allow Wendy to visit with Jonathan. It's unknown why a judge wouldn't order someone who had basically kidnapped a child from their mother in order to hide them to surrender custody of the child, rather than just allow visits. Remember, Wendy had a medical emergency. She never willingly gave up custody of her son. It's not like she was some abusive parent.

Yeah, and, you know, these are the kind of things that really tipped. kick people off as they listen to cases and, you know, the facts of cases. I get it. When you're talking about judges and, and family court and things like that, the water is often very muddy. We don't have every single fact, but, you know, the facts that we do have kind of suggest that Beverly was was definitely in the wrong here. And I, I think you're right more if it's, it's kind of strange why a judge would just say, oh, yep, you got to give the visits rather than, you know, maybe trying to figure out a different situation. Yeah, and I've never been through obviously a custody battle like this.

You know, it's somewhat common, unfortunately, but it can get ugly. And when accusations are made that are proven not to be true and you take a child from their mother and hide them. I don't know why a judge wouldn't give custody back to Wendy. It seemed like she was doing a good job. She was recovering. She wanted Jonathan. She made efforts to see him.

So, again, I don't understand the law and how judges make decisions. But it seemed like Wendy was a, you know, a capable and fit mother that was trying to see her son. I don't know why she couldn't. On May 29, 1992, Beverly No, asked Chad to call Wendy. and ask her if she wanted to visit with Jonathan. To Wendy, the offer was too good to be true, but she wasn't asking questions.

She was just very excited to see her son. Wendy didn't drive due to her MS, but Beverly offered to pick her up and take her to see four-year-old Jonathan at his dad's house in Shamrock, Oklahoma. The only condition given by Beverly was that Wendy's new husband, Leon, was not allowed to go

because he and Chad were not on good terms. Wendy was a little bit hesitant, but again, she just really wanted to see Jonathan. She and Leon discussed the decision. He told Wendy it should be fine. She should just take his sister Lisa with her so that she wasn't alone. Cynthia wanted to come along too to see her little brother.

So Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa got ready for the trip to go see Jonathan. At around 11.30 a.m. Beverly got to Wendy's house to pick her up. She didn't seem happy that Beverly and Cynthia were coming along, but they all headed off to Shamrock anyway. It was a 115 mile drive. At around 140 p.m., Wendy called Leon from a gas station to tell him that they had made it to Shamrock safely. Chad no arrived at the gas station to take Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa back to his house, while Beverly, her mother Ida, and little Jonathan followed in a second car. Wendy and Chad asked Beverly,

to let them visit privately, but to come back at 4.30 p.m. and pick up Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa, and take them back home. In the afternoon, after the visit, Beverly and I had picked up the group to take them back home to Oklahoma City. At 4.42 p.m., Wendy called Leon, who was home in Oklahoma City, and told him that they would all be home soon. She called from a payphone at the Shamrock Cafe in Shamrock, Oklahoma, which was verified by the phone company's records.

During the trip home, Ida apparently got tired of being around Wendy. So Beverly took her to her home in Bristow and dropped her off at 5.15 p.m. Before continuing on the way to Oklahoma City. During the ride home, Wendy and Beverly had a disagreement over Jonathan's upbringing. According to Beverly, it turned nasty.

And she dropped Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa off a Walmart in Chandler, Oklahoma, instead of taking them the rest of the way home. When Leon had not heard from Wendy or Lisa by the late evening, he started to worry. He waited impatiently all night for the trio to arrive home or to even call, but they never did. The next day, May 30th, Leon called the Oklahoma City Police Department and filed a missing person's report for Wendy, Lisa, and Cynthia. And that had to be a real difficult time for Leon because he's already worried about the situation. There's some tension.

He sent his sister Lisa along with Wendy just to make her comfortable. And then here all of a sudden they don't come home. They don't call. He's got to be in a panic at that point. Well, let's not forget. He knows that this group is with Beverly. This is a woman who had done some pretty nasty things specifically to him. had made, you know, very nasty accusations that were said to have been, you know, unfounded.

So, yeah, I get it. He had to have been a little apprehensive about the trip in general. And then I think would have started to panic, you know, as, as the night went on. And then obviously the next morning, he made the decision to file a report. Police were able to track down Beverly No pretty quickly. And they talked to her. She said that the last time she had seen the three was when she dropped them off outside the Walmart in Chandler, Oklahoma. After the trio got out of her car, Beverly went to meet Chad at a restaurant in Cushing, Oklahoma.

She got to Cushing at around 7 p.m. Investigators interviewed every single employee working at the Chandler Walmart on May 29, 1992, as well as employees working at nearby businesses that day, and no one remembered seeing either of the women or young Cynthia. Two women and a young girl being stranded with no way to get home would have been desperate. Certainly, in a time before cell phone use was widespread and before social media, they would have appealed to someone, some business to use their phone. Wendy especially may have been memorable as she walked slowly with difficulty and held her arm close to her chest.

The fact that no one in the area reported seeing the three was troubling for investigators. Well, so much so that investigators immediately suspect. foul play. Wendy did not have her medication with her. She took it daily and it was necessary for her to function. She had tried to stop taking her medication in the past and had started slipping back towards a comatose state. So, I mean, I think what this points out is that she definitely would not have any reason to not return home for it. She needed it. They also didn't believe that Beverly could have physically made it from the Chandler Walmart to the restaurant in Cushing by the time she claimed. A woman named Coila Parks was interviewed on June 2nd the same day that Beverly was first

interviewed by authorities regarding the disappearances of Wendy, Lisa, and Cynthia. Coila was Beverly's former sister-in-law, the sister of Gary Noe, who was Chad No's father. She told investigators that around two or three weeks earlier, Beverly had actually told her that she would kill Wendy if it was between that and losing custody of Jonathan. Coyla knew that Beverly had a 357 caliber revolver in her purse during the custody hearings for Jonathan. This is something that Gary told her after the fact. Now, hearing something like that in the case of three missing women, and had to perk up investigators' ears.

So I'm sure they took that very seriously and wanted to investigate that angle. Well, first of all, you've got a granny who's carrying around a pretty high-powered 357 caliber revolver in her purrs, not just around town, but from what I understood, actually taking it into the courtroom for the custody hearings. I mean, what would be the reason there? If things go bad, she's going to start blasting. But I think the biggest thing, Morph, would be the statement that she would kill Wendy. I mean, that's a direct threat if that's what she had to do to retain custody of Jonathan. Yeah, when you take that on top of the bad blood, the friction that's already going on,

then you have these three missing. And then you find out she made that statement that had to put her at the top of the radar for police. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Two locals also claimed that Chad had admitted killing the three, and bragging they would never be found. Despite this chilling bit of information, there was only hearsay and no evidence to arrest Beverly, Chad, or anyone else. Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa were still officially missing persons. On October 20, 1993, Unsolved Mysteries featured the disappearances of Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa on an episode. Wendy's family participated, but Beverly declined to participate in the show's taping. Authorities hoped that the episode would help to bring someone forward who had more information, but it didn't. Although police were highly suspicious that Beverly or Chadneau, or even both had something to do with the missing trio, they had no solid evidence and the case went cold. Ida Pruitt died of esophageal cancer in 2011 at the age of 82.

At the time, she was serving a suspended sentence for a 2006 conviction for arson and insurance for arms. her partner in that crime was none other than Beverly no. Ida helped back up Beverly's account of what happened the day Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa went missing, but there was no proof that Ida was ever dropped off at home that day, as she told police, and as she later told unsolved mysteries. On March 28, 2013,

50-year-old Grover Pruitt, Beverly's brother, was interviewed by two Creek County District Attorney's investigation. He told them that back in 1992, he owned about 40 acres of land in Turleton, Oklahoma. Ida, his and Beverly's mother, purchased five of his acres from him and moved the trailer onto her part of the property. Ida requested that Grover dig a hole behind the trailer so she could put in a septic tank, so he hired a backhoe operator to start the digging. However, Ida never moved into the trailer, and she never actually installed a septic tank. but she did tell Grover to fill the hole back in shortly after Wendy, Lisa, and Cynthia disappeared.

Not long after the trio went missing, Grover went to the property to get rid of an old couch, and he ran into Ida, who was there. Grover asked Ida why she wanted the hole filled in. And according to court documents, she said to him bluntly, because there's a couple of dead bodies in there. Not sure if she was serious and not really wanting to get involved. Grover simply called another backhoe operator to come out and fill in the hole. A few months later, Grover sprinkled black pepper over the filled-in hole.

According to the Tulsa World News, this was apparently done to deter dog sense and was done at the request of Ida. He admitted that he refused to look in the hole before it was filled in because he was afraid of what he might end up seeing if he did. He began to believe that his mother and his sister had murdered three people, including a child. At some point later, Ida sold the five-acre piece of land. More if we got to analyze, you know, this situation a little bit, this series of conversations and requests. I get it.

Your mom asked you to do something. Okay. Doesn't seem like that big a deal. It doesn't seem out of the ordinary. right she's going to move it into a trailer on the property she needs a septic tank right to put in a septic tank you need to dig a hole so you reach out you hire a uh a guy to drive the the backhoe to dig but at a certain point when you ask your mom about the hole there's no septic tank and she says to you well there's a couple of dead bodies in there are you telling me that you're not going to

look in that hole at some point. You're just going to assume that your mom is making a, what, a sick joke? I don't get that at all. Well, if she was trying to hide the fact that there were bodies there, she wasn't being very stealthy, just casually mentioning to Grover. And I agree with you. I don't know why he wouldn't have looked in there just to, you know, curiosity. Is he serious?

Is she joking? But obviously with the history of the friction and the, the, the, supposed the threat to kill Wendy rather than giving her custody of Jonathan, now you've got this mysterious hole in this piece of property. If police found out about this property, they'd no doubt be interested in it. Grover handed over to investigators a salt off Stevens double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun that the entire Pruitt family called Baby. He also took authorities to the property near Jennings, Oklahoma, 30 miles from the Walmart and Chandler, and pointed out the location of the covered a septic tank hole. On April 2nd, 2013, Grover was interviewed again, this time by an agent

with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations, as well as the two investigators from the District Attorney's Office. He said he didn't know for sure what had happened to Wendy, Lisa, or Cynthia, but that he suspected Beverly and Ida were involved in their disappearance. He hadn't talked to them much in years. He made it very clear to investigators that day that they needed to look inside the septic tank hole. Two days later on April 4th, Gary Noe was interviewed by the same three investigators who had spoken to Grover two days earlier. According to the Tulsa World News, he told them that Beverly had wanted custody of Jonathan and had even said getting custody would have been a piece of cake if that little bitch wasn't involved. He also told them that

Beverly had recently claimed to have gone to church and was now saved. She had confessed each of her sins except for one, which she planned to take to the grave. So I don't know more if I mean, you've got family members who are coming out and really giving what you'd have to say is very damaging information to authorities. Yeah. If this was, any of this is true, it's, it's all, it's obviously. obviously troubling and it's leaving a very clear trail of who might be responsible here. On April 15, 2013, investigators from the Creek County District Attorney's Office, as well as

the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, went back to the property, formerly owned by Ida, which Grover had shown them. The property was searched and the remains of three human bodies were discovered, buried about six to eight feet deep. DNA testing was ordered on the remains as a formality, but investigators were already confident that the three bodies found buried on the property were Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa. A backpack with the name Cynthia Brito written inside of it was found. A black purse with a medical card for Wendy Camp was also found in the hole. A Ruger Security 6, 357 caliber revolver, and two filet knives were found buried as well. Following the gruesome find, authorities devised a plan to have Grover go under.

cover and talk to Beverly. On April 24th, 2013 in Bristol, Oklahoma, investigators planted an audio recording device, a bug in his shirt pocket. Grover then visited Beverly at 315 East 9th Street in Bristol, while investigators listened to their conversation from a location nearby. The Tulsa World News detailed how Beverly told Grover about how she would always warn, their mother Ida against bragging, saying, I told her before more than one time,

loose lips sink ships, mama, shut your damn mouth. At this time, Beverly was still on probation after serving time in prison for what Newson6.com reported was intentionally burning down the home that she and Ida shared in Bristow in order to collect more than $83,000 from an insurance company. She and Ida were both convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and arson for that crime. Beverly denied being involved with the arson or the insurance fraud, but said that instead of avoiding prison and fighting the charges, she accepted the sentence.

Apparently, Beverly was making it very clear in the record. courted conversation with Grover that she wasn't going to incriminate herself on tape, unlike perhaps Ida would have done. There are a few online rumors that we can't find verification for that imply that Beverly said something to the effect of being able to see the wires without actually saying the words, are you wearing a wire? Apparently, the rumors were true, because on May 10, 2013, Grover Pruitt pleaded not guilty to three charges of accessory to murder after the fact, and he was also accused of sabotage.

the undercover operation by basically exposing the wires of his device, giving away the fact that he was wearing a recording device, so that Beverly No wouldn't say something incriminating. And Grover was shown no leniency. He had betrayed prosecutors. Apparently, any sale of land between Grover and Ida was a verbal exchange only because, according to Pawnee County land records, available at the local courthouse, there was never a five-acre sale between Grover,

Pruitt, and his mother. The land had officially been owned by Grover and his wife from 1987 until 1995 when the deed was put in Ida's name. The possibility came to light that perhaps Grover was lying, and Ida had nothing to do with the land until he gave or sold it to her in 1995. Later, Beverly's name was added to the deep. After police found the remains of the three victims, Wendy's son Jonathan Noe, who was now 25 years old, actually spoke out about the case to Tulsa News World. He said he was just trying to not focus on it at the moment.

He didn't seem to believe that his grandmother, Beverly No, who he called Mama Beverly, was involved in the murders of his mother, half-sister, and his aunt by marriage. Beverly Noe stuck to her story that because Wendy was acting so hateful and snoddy toured her during the drive that she stopped at the Walmart and Chandler and made them all get out of the car.

She also insisted that she wasn't the last one to see the three alive, even though there were no reports of any witness sightings after she said she dropped them off. Beverly said, it's not like I saw them last, because apparently somebody did, because I wasn't the one to put them there. As to how they got back on to the property, owned by herself and her brother,

Beverly no, told the Tulsa World News, it is odd. I'd agree to that. I figure somebody picked them up. Beverly seemed more angry at her brother Grover than anything else, saying, there ain't no way he should have dragged me in. She also said to news9.com that it was odd, that if Grover had killed them,

he would have buried them in that hole, asking, if you're going to get rid of someone, somebody, why would you take them to your property? Regardless, she was angry, almost indignant, stating, that's what gets me, is I had nothing to do with it, and now they may take me away from my kid. More likely, she was referring to Jonathan than to chat. On July 26, 2013, Grover provided investigators with a sworn statement. He admitted that toward the end of April that year, he had run into Beverly at a casino in Bristow, and she had, asked him where a baby the family shotgun was. Grover told her that he gave it to the OSBI investigators

and that they also wanted his 357 caliber revolver. Beverly told Grover she wasn't concerned, and he shouldn't be either because she used a man named Eddie Bishop's 357, and she was sure that it couldn't be traced back to her. On January 10th, 2014, the remains found on the property were positively identified as Wendy Camp, Cynthia Brito, and Lisa Krieger. By Chief Medical Examiner, Anthropologist Angela Burke. On March 7th of that year, the causes of death were revealed. As reported by the medical examiner, Dr. Joshua Lanter, Cynthia's cause of death was homicidal violence by unspecified means,

while Lisa Krieger had been shot in the torso. Wendy Camp had gunshot wounds and sharp force injuries. Wendy's sister Aisha Hashmi revealed to Tulsa World News that Cynthia was suffocated due to tape being found around her ankles, wrists, and face. I think it's pretty clear from the evidence of what was done to these victims that they died a horrible death. And it seems pretty cold-blooded. and the fact that this little girl was murdered. You know, I can't imagine how frightened she was at the time. Maybe she watched as her own mom was killed first

and to know what was happening to her and just have to deal with that. It must have been unbearable. But the fact that someone would do this to a little girl on top of doing it to an adult in the first place, it just, it's frightening. On March 25th, 2014, a warrant was issued. for the arrest of 65-year-old Beverly No. She was taken into custody on March 28th during a traffic stop and charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

This development wasn't any surprise to Wendy Camp's family. Wendy's mother, Jackie Camp, told News9.com, I knew the day she picked them up and took them and didn't bring them back. She knew that every other weekend when she interacted with Beverly on visits with Jonathan, too, for her to come to my house and pick up my grandson knowing that she had murdered his mother and sister. It's like opening me up and pouring salt on open wounds.

Investigators had long been looking at Beverly, no, for the crime, but there had never been any solid proof without their bodies being found. Astonishingly, investigators weren't worried that Beverly would flee in all those years, even after her brother had been arrested. She truly thought she had gotten away with at least assisting in the murder of three people, including a child. Grover Pruitt pleaded not guilty to the charge of accessory to murder after the fact. Eventually, prosecutors offered Beverly a plea deal. Grover was ill, and they weren't sure how long he would live, so they didn't want to risk waiting for a trial. If Beverly pleaded guilty to all three murders,

she would only face 15 years in prison and spend 15 years on parole when she was released. On January 21st, 2015, 68-year-old Beverly pleaded no contest to three counts of accessory to first-degree murder. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In September of that year, Grover's accessory charge was dropped by a judge, but he was still charged with possession of a sought-off shotgun, the one he handed over to police named Baby, which was a felony. In August 2016, Wendy, Lisa, and Cynthia were each buried in white caskets at a cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Mike Krieger, Lisa's widower, traveled from Michigan to attend the memorial service, as did Leon Camp, who now lived in Kansas. The families had wanted to wait to hold the services until the cases had been completely resolved in court,

and they also needed time for everyone who loved the three and who had moved away in the last 24 years, to have the time to save up enough money and make arrangements to travel back to Oklahoma. Leon told the Oklahoman, It's just been hard for all of us because none of us have very much money. Both widowers were glad that they could finally hold these services, with Mike Krieger stating, the service was relief, and Leon Camp saying he was finally glad they could get this all settled. Thankfully, the Oklahoma Crime Victims' Compensation Board

assisted the families, paying the funeral home over 17,000. $500 for their services. Leon never remarried. He had a very difficult time after Wendy, Cynthia, and Lisa disappeared. Leon reflected on his relationship with the victims to Newson6.com saying, Cynthia called me daddy. I wasn't her real daddy,

but I was the only daddy she ever knew. He knew that something must have happened to Wendy, saying she relied on me to help her through so much because she had multiple sclerosis, kissing her and hearing her tell him she loved him, were Leon's final memories of Wendy. After they disappeared, Leon stopped attending church. He eventually started taking antidepressants. In 2000, he went blind in one eye after suffering a heart attack. Tragically, he lost every photo he had of Wendy because he couldn't afford to keep paying for his storage Junet and Texas where these photos of Wendy were stored.

Grover Pruitt passed away in 2017 at 64 years old. He still lived in Bristow, Oklahoma at the time of his death. Tragically, Jonathan Noe seems to have grown up and ended up with a bit of a criminal history. In late April 2021, a man named Jonathan Noe was arrested for threatening an officer who was responding to an assault, trying to steal a police car, and biting the officer in the face when he tried to stop him from stealing the car. The officer and Jonathan wrestled on the ground, and the officer pepper sprayed him.

He was charged with assault and battery and a police officer, attempted auto theft, assault and battery, and knowingly concealing stolen property, after a hundred thousand dollars worth of stolen checks, a computer, and other stolen electronic items were found in his bag. The articles don't list the man's age, but people speculate that the man arrested appears to resemble Jonathan. According to Wendy's sister Aisha Hashmi, Beverly No has already been released from prison. She was released on January 6th, 2020, after serving less than five years of her 15-year sentence for the murders of 23-year-old Wendy Camp,

22-year-old Lisa Renee Krieger, and 6-year-old Cynthia Brito. And more of, I think, you know, a lot of people were outraged, are outraged, by, you know, this light sentence. You know, when you think about it, it's less than two years for each murder, served by someone who already had a criminal record when they were arrested for such a severe offense. But, you know, then, you know, you have to factor in the terms of the plea agreement. It's possible that the Oklahoma Department of Corrections could and would release

her after serving just 15% of her. sentence. And, you know, that appears to be what happened here. But it doesn't stop us and others from saying, boy, that just does not seem right. I don't know how you have any role and play a part in the abduction and murder of three people, one, a child. You cover it up, you go through great lengths, and then you wind up doing five years in jail. It just, it's mind-boggling. And I know, obviously, in the justice system, deals are made, plea bargains are accepted just in order to have someone held accountable,

but it seems to me they could have easily made a case against her and gotten a longer sentence without that kind of plea deal. So to me, I'm just sort of upset with it, and I would think that the families would be also very upset that she only served five years. It's just a little crazy to me. And it's understandable that the families of Wendy, Lisa, and Cynthia were beyond saddened to know that the woman who may have played the main role in their deaths was out of prison and walking the streets. They were robbed of a lifetime with their loved ones.

And Jonathan grew up without his mom who was taken away from him by his own family. So, Morph, as we wrap up this case, I mean, you know, it's obviously a very sad but strange case. You know, you have this kind of family dynamic that was obviously beyond dysfunctional. There was real animosity among some of these people. And then, you know, you have the family on Chad's side who seemed to be pretty tight knit. They were pretty much willing to do whatever they had to do, you know, to ensure that Jonathan kind of stayed with their family. I think for me, what is a little hard to figure out is exactly what role each person in the family played. And maybe that had something to do with the plea

agreements. You know, you've got Grover, you've got Beverly, and you've got Ida. It sounds as though all three could have played some role. in the murders and or the cover up of the murders. And maybe it was just that police couldn't fully get to the bottom of it all, right? Who did what? Who pulled the trigger? Who actually committed the murders? And therefore they ended up trying to get what they could out of it.

But, you know, I think for the families of Wendy, Lisa and Cynthia, They didn't get much in the way of justice. I think you'd have to say that. Yeah, to know that the person that did this was walking around free after serving such a sentence, that would weigh on me if I were in their shoes, I think, constantly. What really jumps out to me about this case is the cold bloodness, the matter-of-factness. Okay, we're going to abduct these three women because I want this child. I want custody of him.

We're going to take them away, murder them, drop them in a hole, fill it in. Like, it's no big deal. And we're just going to cover it up like nothing happened and going about our business. It's just very callous and cold-blooded. And I go back to, again, they murdered one child to get custody of that child's sibling. It just, it almost doesn't make sense. Like the rationale behind it, I guess I can't get into their head to know what they were thinking. Well, and it's a good thing you can't because that would make you a monster.

You know, if you could figure it out, if it made sense to you, that would make you a bad person, right? We can't make sense of some of these things that people do because we don't think like them. We would never think that way. But that's part of what makes these cases so interesting and so fascinating is trying to get into the mind of somebody like Beverly No. I get it. You want custody of Jonathan. That part I understand. The part I can't understand is when someone is willing to go to any length, including murdering three people or playing a role, whatever her role,

was that I can't understand. You know, if you want to go through the legal system, spend your money, fight it, pour it on. But they didn't want to do that, right? They wanted to take what they thought was the easy way out. And for them, the easy way out was to get rid of the people standing in their way. Thanks goes out to Sunny Landon for help with research and writing in this episode. As always, if you love the show, but you have a lot of the show,

done so yet go out give us a rating that helps out a lot keep telling your friends that word of mouth about the criminology podcast really goes a long way if you want to find us on social media you can find us on twitter with the handle at criminology pod you can also find us on facebook by searching for criminology podcast or by joining our facebook discussion group criminology podcast discussion and fans so more of that is it for our episode on the murders of wendy camp Cynthia Brito and Lisa Krieger, but we'll be back with everyone next Saturday night with an all-new episode of criminology.

So until then, for Mike... Ed Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone. When was the last time you felt in control of your business finances? Expenses tracked, invoices sent, taxes ready. That's where Found comes in.

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