Criminology - Who Shot Terry Nero?

Episode Date: September 14, 2019

In 2010, Terry Nero was shot in the face through his kitchen window. He was shot while talking to his mother by someone using a rifle while standing in Terry's backyard. Terry suffered massive injuries but doctors managed to save his life. The question, in this case, is who wanted Terry dead and why. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Terry Nero's case. Terry had been embroiled in a court battle and he believes that he knows who was behind the attempt on his life. Terry joined us for this episode to help shed light on his attack and the circumstances that surrounded it. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. I'd like to welcome everyone to episode 78 of criminology. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Morph. Morph, how are you this week? I'm doing good. I got the kids off to school today, first time this fall, and I'm ready to get to work.

How about you? No, I'm doing great. I'm surprised that your kids started so late. And maybe it's just based on, you know, what we go through here in Ohio. I mean, my kids have been back for three weeks, at least. I think it works out pretty well because it's still pretty warm. They're up there swimming. They're going to summer camp and stuff like that.

So for me, it works out perfectly. You get the cooler weather and that's when school starts. I like the schedule. No, I like it too. I think school, and I think this was more true, you know, back when we were in school, I think school should always start after Labor Day. But in a lot of places anymore, that is pushed up two or three weeks before. Yeah, I remember hearing something about people talking about going to school year round,

which I couldn't imagine that. And we have some schools here that do that. And so they get these big, you know, kind of chunk breaks, but they are essentially going to school year round. They don't get the big summer. Yeah, that's no fun in my opinion. All right. Morph, we had some new Patreon supporters. So let's give those shoutouts. We had Dominique LaFaber,

Jessica Hawker, Rina Jackson jumped out at our highest level, Holly Freer, and Lori Brownfield. So a big thanks to all the new Patreon supporters. It makes a big difference. It goes a long way towards helping Morph and I put out this podcast. Thanks so much as always for that Patreon support. it means a lot and it really goes a long way. And if you'd like to help support criminology on Patreon, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. So we have a very different kind of episode for everyone. You know, in a lot of the cases that we cover,

we sometimes talk to family members of murder victims who are trying to help solve their loved ones murder. But in this episode, we are going to talk to the victim of an attempted murder. murder, someone that has been asking the question for almost a decade. Who tried to murder me? In 2010, Terry Niro was shot in the face while talking with his mother in the kitchen of his home in Glenn Allen, Virginia. This was a possible murder for higher plot. Now, he miraculously survived the shooting, but it left him disfigured, requiring numerous surgeries to repair the damage.

Terry has spent the last nine years seeking justice for the crime committed against him. And while Terry believes that he knows the motive as well as the person behind the shooting, there has never been an arrest in the case and it remains unsolved. This is a fascinating and frustrating mystery that Terry has been trying to solve. And he joined us for this episode to help break down his case. And you'll hear from him throughout the episode. Glen Allen, Virginia is a small community about 20 miles northwest of Richmond in Henrico County, Virginia. It's part of the Richmond metropolitan area, established in 1634 as one of the eight original shires or counties.

Henrico County was the site of the second settlement in the colony and is named after the oldest son of King James I, Henry, Prince of Wales. Many battles of the American Revolution and Civil War were fought in this area. But a different kind of battle has been raging here since 2010, the battle for justice. In 2010, Terrence or Terry Nero was 53 years old and was working as the property manager for Highwoods properties in Tidewater and the Richmond area. Prior to that, he held the same position with DeVaris Property Management based out of Virginia Beach. Terry also worked some in New Orleans. He resided in the 4,900 block of Park Meadows Lane and Glen Allen with one of his sons.

The home sits on a cul-de-sac with several other houses in a quiet, upscale area of Glen Allen. Terry and his wife of 24 years had separated in July of 2009, and the couple's then teenage daughter lived with his wife, while their other son lived in Northern Virginia. Terry and his family had lived on Park Meadows Lane for several years, and life there was uneventful. Quiet. Nothing out of the ordinary happened there during all that time. This wasn't the type of area where any shocking crimes occurred.

Thursday, March 11, 2010, started out uneventfully, like many other days before. And by that evening, Terry was looking forward to a visit from his mother, who was a retired nurse. As I recall, it was a typical day for me. I went to I went to a meeting that morning or midday. I was at work the entire day,

which involved me being very mobile. In other words, within one square mile, my job requires me to engage and meet with people pretty regularly. And I completed that and came home for the day on that very day. My mother was with me because I had asked her to come two weeks before because the son, my younger son, who was living with me, had just had his second or third knee surgery in like a matter of six months or less. and so because she's a nurse, I asked her to come to assist because I was going off to work each day.

And he was bedridden. Started discussing with my son and my mother out and things were going relevant to his surgery and care. And we ate dinner and talked so late in the evening. It was unusual for me other than I took the trash out. At around 11 p.m. as Terry and his mother were talking in the kitchen, their casual conversation was shattered by an explosion. Someone had fired a gunshot through the window from the backyard of Terry's home, striking Terry in the face. The bullet entered one side of Terry's face and exited out the other side, shattering his jaw. Terry was still alert, but he didn't immediately know what had just happened.

to him. Terry's mother, being a retired nurse, jumped into action. She turned his face and compressed the wound so that it would limit the amount of blood loss. She saved her son's life. But had the bullet been even just one millimeter higher, it would have killed him. I was shot, but I didn't know it at the time. Again, this was while I was talking to my mother five feet away from me in the middle of my kitchen with somebody shooting a high-powered rifle from about 40 feet out from the window in obviously a picked black backyard we could not see out there when I was shot I couldn't know what happened neither did my mother because it all happens instantly I did not grow up with guns neither did she so

Knowing what a gunshot sounded like was not something familiar to her. Of course, I didn't hear it because Ebola instantly, you know, pierced my face, and I blacked out for about 30 seconds. When I came to him, I just remember her screaming on the phone to 911. That she met somebody there right now in repeatedly saying, I don't know. His face blew up. I don't know. I don't know. Just get somebody here.

And within minutes, the police and EMP were there. And what I recall was them all trying to figure out what was going on by, you know, assisting me, talking to each other. And finally, this all happened within a matter of ten minutes, someone, I guess, asked for silence, and somebody asked me or told me, you've been shot. Or maybe they asked me, do you know what happened? And I shook my head, no, because I could not talk. And they said, you've been shot.

And then they asked me, do you know anybody that would have done this? And I believe I shook my head, yes. but I knew I couldn't communicate. And so I was sitting on the floor with probably a 16- or 18-inch diameter pool of blood next to me and pushed my finger on the blood and started writing on a clean part of the floor. And when I was finished, they read it to me. And I just simply looked at them and shook my head, yes. The paramedics were trying to be patient because they knew the police were.

because I was, you know, I guess you would call a viable source of information to proceed with. They wanted an answer. I gave it to them, and paramedics were kind of feverish trying to get me out there, because obviously I was bleeding out, and they grabbed me and tried to flip me on my back on the board, and I was on all fours at the time because somehow it was. instinctively knew I was surviving that way. I mean, I could see the blood flowing, but I also knew I'm surviving. I can't tell you how I knew it, but I must have experienced some level of trauma at the time,

because as soon as I kind of flipped me over, I felt myself grounding on my own blood because of all the stray tissue and the bleeding, and I grabbed the counter and wouldn't let them flip me over because I could tell I was choking and they said okay okay um and let me um maybe with some assistants mount the board on all fours because I had to have my head down from my abdomen so the blood would blow out and not back into my throat and they took me out and took me to the emergency of my brain emergency room in that position. And I remember just looking at the floor in the ambulance, which was one of those chrome

diamond plate floors and just poaching the blood just switching back and forth on the floor of the ambulance. And morph these kind of stories, you know, these are the ones that really get to me. I think in large part because when you're standing in your. kitchen, you're in your home, you're in your castle, right? That's the place where you are safe, or at least you feel safe. So to have that shattered, to have someone shoot a gun from your backyard through the window and hit you in the face, that's a scary thought. Because, you know, let's face it, it's not like you were, you know, on some seedy downtown street trying to buy crack.

or trolling for sex workers. This is not what this guy was doing. He was talking to his mother standing in his kitchen. Not that it would make it right if he was shot on a downtown street. I guess the point I'm making is he was not putting himself in a situation where there was a great amount of risk. I guess that's what I'm getting at. And to hear that kind of detail about what it felt like what he was experiencing. You can tell it's just embedded in his mind after all this time that he can recount those painful details and memories of, you know, something just simple as blood splashing back and forth on the ambulance floor and having to look down at that as he's trying to

breathe and not choke on his own blood is just horrible and just it really paints a picture. Yeah, no, I agree. It's interesting when you talk to people that have gone. through something horrific, the details that they remember, and some that they don't. You know, the detail of the floor of the ambulance is something that has stuck with Terry. But you mentioned the pain, and I don't think I can even process what it would be like. I mean, I think to get shot anywhere would hurt. But when you're talking about the face and how many bones.

are in your face, man, that is cringe-worthy. And to somehow stay conscious and stay alert and try and communicate with these people that are at the scene by writing in your own blood is just, it's mind-boggling that he was able to stay awake and do that. Terry was rushed to the VCU Medical Center in Richmond. When he got there, doctors worked feverishly for hours to save his life and stabilize him. When they got me to the hospital, um, They rushed me right in to, I guess it's a trauma exam room.

And I looked up because I was still on all fours. And it was, I don't know, 15 or 20 people medical personnel standing in front of me, I guess. And I just looked at them and I went, okay, this is, this is the next level. And I want to communicate to them because somehow I knew I might die. And so I made a writing motion with my hand, and somebody said, do you want to write something? And I shook my head, yes. There's somebody handed me a pen.

And I wrote on the sheet in front of me. I have three pins, exclamation point. And they said, we understand. And moments later I was out. and I didn't find out until the next day. I was in surgery for, I don't know, 10 or 12 hours for them to kind of stabilize stuff. Obviously, they had to try to stop the bleeding, of course, but they had to figure out what tissue was going to make it

or what was left in that cavity because it was just a huge open cavity of flesh and tissue and bones, some of it not attached, and they had to pull out what wasn't going to make it and try to show back a lot of tissue internally, externally. My upper jaw was completely gone, half my tongue, about half my lower jaw was gone, being no longer there. So it was a lot of shredded tissues that they had to try to clean and get rid of the dead stuff

and pull out debris, bullet fragments, broken bones, left over teeth, whatever. They had to try to assemble my face again and stop the bleeding. Terry Underwent one round of reconstructive surgery that night, but at least half a dozen surgery soon followed. After the initial surgery, Terry was in critical but stable condition. The road to Terry improving and healing would be a long and hard one for him. When I woke up from that surgery, I remember looking up, and there was my four brothers and sister standing in front of me that had come from all corners of the world.

And I thought, oh, my God, what has happened? You know, I did not know. And I knew I felt okay, but of course I was on heavy morphine. But I was alert enough to recognize, you know, something was going on. And I just started to recall what I could, but I did not know the story until. Later on, the end of I really really. wanted to talk about it on my condition or you know I couldn't talk all I could do was write and I wrote journals daily for days and days and days and communicated that way in the

hospital until I could figure out how to make sounds and communicate some way not particularly effective but I could make sounds I was in the hospital for 10 days. I believe nine of it was in intensive care and maybe the last day I was out of that.

I recall exactly, but I knew I was in intensive care for quite some time. And Morph, you mentioned that the road to recovery for Terry was tough. This was an extremely horrific wound. This is the type of wound that you

would see on a battlefield, back in the day, right? Someone being shot in the face, I think for most of us, I know for you and I and probably the listeners, this is tough to imagine something like this happening to us. So I wonder, even though these medical personnel are trained to deal with those kind of injuries, it makes me wonder how often do they actually see those, those kind of catastrophic injuries? Well, I think we would probably be surprised. My assumption is, is that they see these types of things much more often than we believe that they do. I don't know how much phases an ER doctor, an ER nurse.

They see a lot. 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.

As Terry struggled in the hospital to recover from his wounds, police had been hard at work, combing over the crime scene at Terry's house. The bullet hole was clearly visible in the kitchen bay window. and authorities determined that the weapon used was a high-powered rifle. They had a good idea where the shot was fired from, and after questioning neighbors, they found out that some of these neighbors said that they heard what sounded like a small explosion. Another neighbor said she was watching television when she heard a loud bang.

But at the start of the investigation, police couldn't find any nearby residents that saw anyone or anything unusual. And I think the biggest problem they had morph was that they didn't have an eyewitness description of the shooter. But I want to go back and talk about these neighbors, hearing explosions, hearing bangs. I'll be honest with you, man, I hear it all the time. You know, my wife and I will be sitting on the couch watching television when all of a sudden there is a sound that to me sounds like a good.

gunshot. Now, it might be far away. And I'll be honest with you. My first reaction is not to jump up and call the police. It's not because I hear stuff all the time. I don't know what it is. I think part of it depends on what area you live in. Obviously, if you live in a crowded city where there's lots of residences around, you wouldn't think you're going to hear these kind of shots or things that sound like shots coming from close by. Maybe if you're in an open area where people do a lot of shooting, haunting, stuff like that, maybe those noises are a little bit more common. But I think part of it also depends on, are you hearing it right outside your back door or is it somewhere in the distance? Maybe you're not as concerned. But if it's right outside

your back door and your neighbor's yard, that would get your attention, I would think. No, I agree with you there, but, you know, sometimes it's hard to tell how far away a sound is. Police were confident that the gunman had been hiding in Terry's backyard prior to the shooting and had spent some amount of time there. This was no random attack or accidental shooting. Someone targeted and deliberately shot Terry Nero. As police continued to canvas the neighborhood, they got a break. They found a witness who saw a man run from Terry's yard seconds after Terry was shot.

The witness described the man as having a medium build and being around 20 to 30 years of age. he stood about six feet tall and had short hair. The witness believed that the man was moving so quickly and with such agility that they felt he was on the younger side. Another area resident came forward to say that a blue Ford Taurus was seen parked on the side of the road on old school road near Terry's home. It was facing the direction of Twin Hickory Lake Drive. By the time the police were searching this area, the tourist was

gone. It is believed that the killer fled from behind Terry's home towards Park Meadow Lane, crossed the street, then ran between two houses before making it to old school road, possibly using the Ford Taurus as a getaway car. But police couldn't prove that the shooter was the same person operating the Ford Taurus. The next day, police searched a nearby pond east of Terry's home, thinking that the killer may have disposed of the gun there, but nothing was found. Police couldn't determine a motive for the shooting. They were stumped. Everyone police talked to described Terry as being nice and friendly and a good neighbor. In fact, those that knew Terry and his family in their neighborhood only had good things to say about them. These neighbors also had

good things to say about Terry's ex-wife. Terry and his wife had separated, but neighbors said there were no major fights, and there was nothing that had spilled out publicly. In fact, Terry was on pretty good terms with his ex-wife. He was paying hundreds of dollars in child support each month. He was also making health insurance payments for his wife and daughter. The Richmond Times Dispatch reported that two and a half years before Terry Niro was shot, authorities had searched his home for drugs. In October 2007, police armed with a search warrant,

searched the Nero home for drugs. They were looking for what was described as a cardboard container that had been shipped to Terry's home from Connecticut through an undisclosed delivery service. This was apparently the result of a drug sniffing dog, hitting on something on the container at the delivery services distribution center in Richmond. But when police searched the Nero home in 2007,

there were no signs of drugs, there were no signs of drug use and definitely no signs of drug dealing. It seemed unlikely that drugs were the motive for the shooting. While police were stumped on a motive, Terry Nero had a pretty good idea of why he was shot and who might be behind it. And he shared it with police who were interested in what Terry had to say. They referenced back to what I had written on the floor. They had researched that with numerous people and found extremely validating and ask me more about it and what was going on in my life and why and who and where and when and how long.

significantly relating to similar question you asked me, but obviously most of it is, or all of it, was related to how they could solve the case and get the answers with evidence from who and where. And so they were asking all those kinds of questions. I mean, you know, obviously a significant amount of them, I can't answer openly because the case is ongoing. I'll be it nine years later.

It's still ongoing. At that point in my life, I was involved in a court case trying to protect somebody. That didn't work, even though I was in the court house, in a court of law, dispensing with information relevant to what I ultimately, trying to achieve, which was kept an individual. That didn't happen, and then I got shot. I don't know the connection, if any. I simply have let the public know what was going on in my life.

And from there, the police or anybody can conclude what they may. But other than what I have told people or has been put out there, directly or indirectly by me. It's simply what was going on in my life that was abnormal. There was issues that I can tell you were brought up in court that I was involved in that would make an individual that was part of it become very concerned. And to me, Morph, this is a very tough situation for a victim. to have a belief that you know exactly who was behind the shooting that happened to you,

but not be able to prove it and really not be able to do anything about it. That would be very, very tough. And he's got to be frustrated that there's been no arrest and that the person he believes played some kind of role in his shooting, whether it was the actual trigger man or someone that hired a trigger man, not having. that arrest come, it's got to be very frustrating. In 2009, Terry was involved in a court case centered around a man that will call Mr. X. This court case was based on someone that Terry was trying to protect by the court system. The reason we're referring to this individual as Mr. X

is to protect the identity of the person that Terry was trying to protect. In 2013, Mr. X was arrested in charge with taking indecent liberties with a minor between late 2008 and early 2011. This was a felony offense. The alleged incidents included sexual intercourse and other activities involving a minor. Mr. X was indicted by the Richmond metropolitan multi-jurisdictional grand jury in August 2013. At the time, Mr. X was in his 40s. He's now in his late 50s. Mr. X comes from a prominent family. and was the son of a former area politician. He grew up in the Richmond area, and his family is well known there. The family has lived there for many generations. His family owned a local

business for decades. The business's history goes all the way back to the late 1700s. Mr. X's grandfather managed it in the 1940s before buying the company in the mid-1950s. Then in the early 80s, the building that housed this business caught fire, causing roughly half a million dollars and damages. Mr. X's grandfather drew up the plans and oversaw construction of a new building. And the construction on that new building finished two years later. Mr. X's grandfather retired in the mid-1980s, and then Mr. X's father took over the business. In the mid-2000s, he handed the reins over to Mr. X. who then became the fifth generation CEO of the company.

Mr. X was wealthy and had a lot of connections through his business and the community. At the time of his arrest, Mr. X faced nine counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor. Prosecutors told the judge that Mr. X and the victim had exchanged 22,000 text messages between 2008 and 2011. A majority of the text sent to the teen were graphic and sexual in nature. the severity of the charges against him. Mr. X had a good amount of supporters show up in court on his behalf. This included his wife and children. His supporter said that he was a model citizen. He was a pillar of the community who often donated money to local charities and people in need. The judge received more than 100 letters of support for Mr. X. Witnesses for both the prosecution and

And the defense testified that the underage victim had some personal problems and longed to be part of Mr. X's family. Initially, it was said that this victim looked up to Mr. X as a father figure. And according to his wife, the family welcomed the victim with open arms. Witnesses for the defense described this underage victim as someone who sought out drama and crave the family. and crave the family's attention. But Deputy Commonwealth Attorney Nancy Oglesby called Mr. X a wolf and sheep's clothing, saying that the victim was not stable, and that Mr. X used that to gain the victim's trust.

In 2014, Mr. X entered an Alford plea, a guilty plea where the defendant admits there's enough evidence to get a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, but does not admit to the crime and declares his innocence. Mr. X claimed in court that a conviction on the eight other charges would have been too devastating for his wife and children. He would have faced up the 45 years in prison had he gone to trial and been convicted. In 2015, Mr. X stood up in court, apologized to his family, and pleaded for mercy. Mr. X's lawyer emphasized to the judge that the results of a psychosexual evaluation of his defecisive, determined that he was not a danger or threat to other people and did not have any suppressed

impulses to abuse children. Okay, so he doesn't have any suppressed impulses. Well, they're not suppressed because we already know that he has them. I don't get that at all, Morve. And this man is standing up in court. It seems like they had a pretty good amount of evidence to show that he committed criminal acts against a minor. So again, to my thinking, the impulses are not suppressed. They're right out there in the open. Mr. X was sentenced to five years in prison with three of those years suspended. He was also able to do work release during his sentence. After he got out of prison, Mr. X had to register as a sex offender in the state of Virginia and was not allowed to have any contact with children other than his own. The underage victim did not testify in court,

but a victim statement was read. However, the contents of that statement have not been disclosed. Mr. X's victim is now in their mid-20s. And we mentioned it more of, right? This victim is the person that Terry Nero was trying to protect back in 2009. Terry had some damaging evidence against Mr. X that pointed to his involvement with the minor. When Terry presented this information to the court, police didn't investigate the evidence. And then just less than a year later, he was shot. Terry believes that this was a murder for hire plot to keep him from testifying at trial.

After Terry was shot, police did investigate the information that he provided to the court in 2009, but police have been pretty tight-lipped. about what, if any, connection there may have been between Mr. X and Terry's shooting. As a result of being shot in the face, Terry is disfigured for life. Since the shooting, he's undergone over 40 reconstructive surgeries and procedures, and will endure a few more before it's all said and done. Luckily, Terry survived the attempt on his life, but for the rest of his days, he'll be forever scarred.

Every time that he looks into the mirror, he'll be reminded that someone, brutally and savagely tried to assassinate him, almost succeeding. Terry has made it his life's mission to get those responsible for nearly killing him. It's Terry's belief that the attempt on his life was part of a well-thought-out plan and that whoever shot him had experience using a rifle. Maybe that shooter was a hunter or had military experience. And Morph, I think that's one thing we didn't talk about back when we were covering the shooting, horrible, right, to be shot in the face. by any type of gun, by any type of bullet. But when you get to talking about a rifle, that makes it even more horrific.

This is a much bigger bullet. It's traveling much faster out of a rifle barrel. It's going to do a lot more damage than, you know, even a pistol round would. Now, it depends on the distance. But when you think about a hunting rifle, it is designed. to take down sometimes very large animals. And to Terry's point, a rifle might take a little bit more skill than, say, a shotgun, because a shotgun you're just aiming or pointing at something and pulling the trigger

and you're getting a whole bunch of pellets that come out and you've got several chances to hit a target. Whereas a rifle, you've got one bullet coming out. So that might take a little bit more precision. Yeah, it does. It does take a little bit more precision. but I will say because this case is not that old. Scopes today, even 10 years ago, we're not talking about a 1950s, you know, one two-time magnification scope.

Scopes today are extremely elaborate. You do not have to be an expert marksman. I'll put it that way. To use some of the scopes, as long as they're zeroed in, on someone that is standing in their kitchen, essentially, you know, standing still. It's not, this is not a deer that is running across the open field. This is a person that's standing in their kitchen talking to their mother.

Early in 2019, friends and family of Terry Nero, along with Hughes Outdoor Media, raised money to set up billboards around the Richmond area. the billboards contained a message. Henrico Murder for Hire, question mark. No arrests. How come? Question mark. This makes me think of that movie more of three billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri.

It was a good movie. It was strange, but great at the same time. The goal for these billboards is to keep them up as long as possible with the hope that someone will finally come forward with information. There really have not been much in the way of updates in this case, but there is a $65,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. More recently, I have been, let's say, pushed and assisted by friends with a billboard on the interstate trying to make some excitement in somebody's mind to. come forward and do something to bring resolution to the case. If you read it, it was rather concerning to people because it was a 14-foot high by 48-foot-long digital billboard in downtown Richmond, Virginia on either state.

And top line said murder for hire question mark. I believe that's why it read, and it resided a website that gave information about the case in asking for help. And that excited a lot of people with concern, obviously. But I've also decided I would give up some of my retirement 401K to help bring resolution to this, because I can't live on just saying that forget it and find out tomorrow somebody else died because I didn't do anything. The road to recovery has been a long and challenging one for Terry, and almost a decade later, he's still trying to get back as close as possible physically to where he was before he was shot. The actual number of surgeries. Of course, I could look it up, but I've never really looked back.

I would say 20 actual surgeries where I've actually been put out and then another 20 procedures where I've been given a local anesthetic and they've done something or another. But there's been collectively about 40 different times when some procedure or surgery has been performed over the last nine years. There are still things that can be done that I have yet to proceed with to try to accommodate me to be more normal, to have teeth. There was two attempts. The second one was successful, but the first was not where they took almost the entire fibula out of one of my legs to give me an upper jaw. The first time it failed, and the second time, of course, I only had one left in the other leg. They took it out of the other leg, and it survived and gave me an upper jaw. Those were probably just in my memory, the most serious things, although that it weren't the most serious operations,

but most impactful because, of course, you're taking a bone out of my leg. And then you lost it. And then they asked me, what do you want to do? And I said, I want you to try it in. I want a jaw. Obviously, it's not a normal jaw. But it is a configuration that allows me to have bone on the upper part of my mouth that I have had coats installed, just like you might for implants for teeth.

but I have not been able to get to the point where I can have those teeth. I probably only have seven teeth, I think, right now, and they're just on either side of the bottom on my mouth. I do not have any upper teeth. There's no way to actually constructively choose to see. So you heard Terry talk about what it's been like, you know, on his road to recovery. I think for me, Morph, I have to believe that it takes a tremendous amount of fortitude to go through this journey.

I think at the end of the day, you know, you just want to feel like your old self as much as possible. I don't know if Terry will ever be exactly as he was before his injuries, but he's trying to get there, or at least as close as he possibly can. But that's a long journey and a lot of suffering. And again, I'll say I think it takes a lot of mental fortitude to be able to go through that knowing that, okay, once I get this done, you know, six months or a year down the road, I know I'm going to have to go through this other procedure and another procedure and one after that. I think it really goes a long way to show how focused he is on rebuilding his life the best he can

physically and getting back as close as he can to his old self. And I think you add on top of that, that's not all he is doing, right? He's not solely focused on his recovery because at the same time, he is trying to solve his own case. Who shot him? Why did they shoot him? You know, in our discussion with Terry, he talked about the fact that, you know, despite how much he wanted justice for the attempt on his life, he's trying not to let that desire for justice completely take over.

Obviously, I think any victim would want the instrument. and resolution, but I still don't have it. So me being who I am, I have looked or suggested things continuously along the way. I have learned to adjust, or I guess the better word, is a gap mentally, physically, psychologically, to this being a part of my life, but certainly have not forgotten, nor will I ever, but I can't let it interfere with me having a real life again, no matter how altered my entire life is. I still have a life. I'm very lucky to be alive. I do not let it control my life. I can't tell you that I don't have the same feelings as any other

victim. Um, but they don't consume my life because I don't, those feelings don't, I don't let them consume my life. I can't, you can't live with that. But yes, it's a very important component of my life, mainly to make sure that, um, somebody is off the streets that obviously easily could kill somebody if they haven't already. At times, it can be very frustrating, but physically, mentally, psychologically, I've had to adapt to making sure that all pieces of my life, including that, had a place in my life. In other words, it was a piece of my life and it still is that I have got to put back in a box and put on the shelf every once in a while often enough so that I can live a normal life. But it does come up sometimes.

on the time and I just I have to deal with it whether it's with a conversation with the police although obviously not often enough to come to some resolution importantly enough that I realize that those are the times I need to have some intensity integrity but also when the conversations are done I need to put that aside and lead a normal life as much as I can end and go back to it when I have to or what I want to. Because of living through this, not just for myself, I can understand how something like this happening to somebody could consume their life to the point where it can destroy them.

And I don't want that to happen. I still live, I still eat, I still breathe, I have a job, I love life. I survived this. I mean, clearly somebody shooting me in the head with the intent that it would just kick my jaw out. They were on killing me. And I have to find some happiness in that. And I do.

I mean, I'm surprised. How lucky am I. So more if we set it up front, right? This is a different type of case than most of the ones that you and I normally do. This is an unsolved case, which we're no strangers to. We do a number of those. I think what makes this one unique is the fact that number one, we were able to talk with the victim. And number two, you know, Terry has an idea in his mind of who he believes was the mastermind behind his attack.

I think that in and of itself is somewhat unusual. You know, a lot of times with these unsolved cases where someone lives, they have no idea who committed the attack on them or why it was committed. And Terry's mind, he's got a good idea about both of those things. One thing for me that I take away from this episode is the way that Terry was able to recount what happened to him so clearly and vividly. And to share that with us, it really puts it in their perspective. because when we cover these cases a lot of times, you hear about some details or facts, which helps demonstrate what happened,

but it's not quite the same as hearing it directly from the person that went through it. No, I agree with you. I don't think anything comes close to hearing details from the individuals who live through it. The other thing I'll say to that is, I think if you go through something as horrific as Terry Nero did.

That is going to be seared into your memory, right? You heard him talk about some of the very small, minute details, things that he remembered seeing when he was in the ambulance, seared. He'll never forget those things because it was such a traumatic event. As opposed to morph, let's say, you know, you saw a guy running. after you heard some shots. Okay, what's not traumatic to you, let's say? So are you going to a month down the road or six months down the road,

remember every single detail of that incident? Probably not. And I think that would be the same with a lot of people. But if you witness something firsthand or it happened to you, I do think that a lot of those details would be, you know, burned into your memory. So this person that Terry believes was behind his attack. This guy's still alive. We said that we didn't want to mention his name out of respect for Terry and the individual that he was trying to protect. It will be interesting morph to see if anything ever comes

out of this. This case is not that old. It's not brand new, but it's not 30, 40 years old. Who knows what information will come out. You know, unlike a lot of the cases that we do, the participants are still relatively young. You know, when you and I do these cases that go back 30, 40 years, we often find that a lot of the major players have died. I think we just talked about it last week. So the thought is in these unsolved cases that these people, when they pass, if they had any information. They took it with them.

And unless they told somebody else that hasn't come forward yet, this is a little bit different. There are people that may have some involvement in this case. They're still relatively young. And I think some things could come out. I know one thing. After hearing about Terry's ordeal and all that he went through, I'm really rooting for him, as I'm sure you are, to find out the truth, find out what happened and who was involved and to see an arrest and that he can get some kind of justice for everything that he's gone through. Yeah, I think you and I are always rooting, right, for these unsolved cases to be solved, but it does add an element when we have had actual contact with a victim.

There's no doubt about that. Terry Niro has a website, Terry Nero Shooting.com. He also has a Facebook page titled Terry Nero Crime Information. If you have any information regarding the shooting of Terry Nero, please call Crime Stoppers at 804-7801,000. Special thanks goes out to Terry Nero for joining us in this episode to help tell his story. Thanks also goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistants in this episode. As always, if you haven't given us a rating yet. Go out and do that. Doesn't take but a few seconds. Keep telling your friends about the podcast. All of that is very helpful. And as always, you can find us on social media on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. We're also on Facebook. Just search

for Criminology Podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast, discussion and fans. All right. Morph, that is it for another episode of Criminology. We will be back next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, this is Mike Ferguson. And Morp. And we'll talk to you then. Take care, everyone. Security program on spreadsheets, new regulations piling up, and audit dread. It's time for Vanta. Vanta automates security and compliance, brings evidence into one place and cuts audit prep by 82%. Less manual work, clear visibility, faster deals, zero chaos. Call it compliance, or call it Compliance. Get it? Join the 15,000 companies using Vanta to prove trust. Go to VANTA.com

slash calm.