Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Speed Freak Killers Pt. 2

Episode Date: February 10, 2022

Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog went from hunting animals to preying on humans. Even as they grew older and settled down, they continued their spree. When they finally faced justice years later, their killer instincts would lead them to turn on one another. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of these killers' crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, rape, sexual assault, and drug use. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On a mild November morning in rural California, the leaves of the sycamore trees dotted the road with striking yellows and reds. But John Vanderheiden wasn't paying attention to the foliage. He was looking for any sign of his daughter, Cindy. As he drove by the town cemetery, something caught his eye. Along the rows of graves was a single car.

He recognized it instantly. It was Cindy's. John made a sharp turn into the parking lot and came to an abrupt stop. He hopped out of his car and walked towards the familiar vehicle. Distressingly, there was no sign of Cindy. He tried the door handle and realized it was unlocked. Her purse lay on the driver's seat. He felt dread curl in his stomach.

At 25, Cindy had just turned her life around. After a few years of drug use and too much partying, she moved back in with her parents, gotten clean, and started a new job. She'd been saving up for months to buy this car. It represented her fresh start. There was no way she'd leave it unlocked like this. As he stood there, his worry curdled into fear.

He could feel it, something terrible. It's terrible it happened to his daughter. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is serial killers, a Spotify original from Parkast. Every episode, we delve into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're finishing our look at the murderous duo, known as The Speed Freak Killers. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone.

You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Last time, we explored how Lauren Herzog and Wesley Shermantyne bonded during childhood hunting trips and became increasingly violent as they started using methamphetamine. We saw how they escalated from killing animals to killing humans. Today, we'll follow Shermantyne and Herzog's continued killing spree and examine how these best friends turned on each other when it was time to fess up. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify.

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Sign up for your website. $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash killers. That's Shopify.com slash killers. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for, like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State Killer, the unit bomber, it's tedious work to find what you're looking for. So if you're hiring, I've got news, for you. You can skip the lengthy investigation and the tiresome process of sorting through hundreds of resumes. Just use ZipRecruiter. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. Because not only

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has four-way stretch fabric for all over smoothing, soft lightly lined cups for a natural shape, and no wire comfort that lasts all day. All over smooth, all-day comfort, vanity fair lingerie. Find yours at Target today. In the fall of 1985, 19-year-old's Wesley Sherman Tine and Lauren Herzog had just found a brand new stalking ground.

As kids, they loved hunting deer and elk, but perhaps they'd grown bored of the defenseless animals. Maybe they wanted something who'd fight back, so they'd turn their focus to human prey. There was a problem, though. Linden, California, the tiny rural community where they'd grown up, had a population of less than 2,000. It was too small. Everybody knew each other. They needed a bigger pool of victims. So they looked to the nearby town of Stockton. It was there that they lured 16-year-old girl Joanne Hobson to her death that August. Before she was murdered, Joanne may have mentioned to the teens that she and her friends often hung out at Delmar Park on the east side of town.

As the pair searched for their next victim that September, they recalled the park and headed straight for it. And soon enough, they crossed paths with 24-year-old Robin Armtrout. Prosecutor Thomas Testa theorized that, by this time, the men had a well-honed technique for picking up girls. Herzog would likely have approached them first. Using his amiable vibe and rock and roll good looks, he'd charmed their victim. Then Sherman Tyne might swoop in to close the deal. Perhaps he'd ask the girl if she wanted to party with them, pulling out drugs to entice them. It seems this is what happened with Robin, who willingly got into Shermantyne's truck and went back with them to Linden. The predators drove Robin to a field just east of their houses on the bank

of a creek. In a confession, years later, Herzog claimed that in the darkened field, Shermantyne demanded sex from Robin. When she refused, Herzog said Shermantyne forced her onto the ground and raped her, then stabbed her more than 40 times. Herzog painted himself as a bystander in this murder. But in an interview with the podcast Foul Play, Robin's relatives told a different story. They described Robin as a fighter who wasn't afraid to get physical.

They were sure there was no way only one person could have subdued her without help. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. In a 1990 paper on joint murders for the Journal of Crime and Justice, Professor Philip Jenkins proposed two distinct types of killer duos, the dominant submissive pair and the equally dominant team.

Most of the available research on the former discusses heterosexual couples where the man is dominant and the woman is submissive. Even though Sherman Tine and Herzog were a platonic male duo, this dynamic may still apply. According to people who knew them both, Herzog was more of a follower than a leader. It seems he was the affable lure and Sherman Tine was the brawler who did the dirty work. We'll never know the exact nature of each man's role in Robin's murder. What we do know is that once she was dead, they left her body in the bank of the creek, drove away and carried on with her lives as though nothing had happened.

Unsurprisingly, given its exposed location, Robin's body was discovered within the week. Investigators determined that she'd last been seen at Delmar Park, getting into a red pickup truck. However, they weren't able to pin down any details beyond that, and no suspects were arrested. Shermantyne and Herzog had taken the time to bury their last two victims, but for some reason with Robin, they threw caution to the wind.

It's possible that their drug use was interfering with their judgment, leading them to make even riskier choices. A case in point, despite knowing that Robin's body had been found, they went right back to Stockton about six weeks later, and this time their target wasn't random. 16-year-old Cheval Chevy Wheeler had met Shermantyne through a mutual acquaintance earlier that year, and they'd become close friends. Recently, Chevy's grades had been slipping, and her parents felt Shermantyne was to blame.

They wanted Chevy to stop spending time with the no-good 19-year-old, but she was a teenage girl. Telling her not to hang out with Shermantyne probably only made her want to do it more. Her parents encouraged Chevy to focus on her own future and her dream, of going to college. They hoped she'd naturally lose interest in Shermantyne before he could do too much damage. They were wrong. On the morning of October 7th, Shermantyne called Chevy's house. She was probably flattered by the attention and was excited to hear him on the line. Exactly what they talked about, we don't know. But given what Chevy told friends later that day, it seems they made a

plan to go to his family's cabin about 40 miles northeast of Stockton. Chevy's parents had hadn't heard the phone ring, but her younger sister Marnie had. Now she just had to make sure Marnie wouldn't snitch on her. Chevy swore Marnie to secrecy and played it cool as her mom dropped her off at school. After lunch, Chevy cut class and met Shermantyne in the parking lot. She jumped into his truck and they drove to the cabin in San Andreas. It was an idyllic setting, surrounded by sun-dappled trees and rolling mountains. The vista offered no clue to the nightmare that was a about to unfold. At this point in the day, the details get fuzzy.

We know almost nothing about what took place inside that cabin, and crucially, it's unclear if Herzog was a part of this outing or not. It's likely that Shermantyne and Chevy party together, probably drinking alcohol and doing drugs. Eventually, things took a violent turn, and Shermantyne, possibly aided by Herzog, stabbed Chevy to death. Later, Herzog claimed he wasn't. wasn't there for Chevy's murder and said that Shermantyne only told him about it afterwards.

For his part, Shermantyne insisted that Herzog was the one who killed her. But given his history with Chevy and her parents, this is hard to believe. Either way, young Chevy was dead, leaving another body to be covered up. Shermantyne or Herzog, or maybe both of them, buried the girl in a shallow grave close to the hunting cabin. They were careful to cover their tracks, using leaves and sticks to discreet. the freshly turned earth. Meanwhile, back in Stockton, Chevy's parents, Raymond and Paula,

were getting worried. Chevy hadn't come home from school that day, and nobody in town had seen her. Finally, her younger sister Marnie broke down. She admitted that Chevy had skipped class to drive into the mountains with Wesley Shermantyne. Hearing this, Raymond and Paula felt a chill go down their spines,

fearing the worst they called the police. and told them that Chevy was missing, possibly hurt. But they claimed that the officer they spoke with initially brushed off their concerns and said she'd probably just run away. Chevy may have cut school, but her parents knew she wouldn't skip town without telling them. Frustrated by the police's in action, they decided to take matters into their own hands. They were convinced Shermantyne had something to do with their daughter's disappearance, so they drove all over Stockton looking for him.

The next morning, Raymond and Paula were stunned when Shermantyne himself showed up on their doorstep. He said he heard they were looking for him and wanted to set the record straight. Shermantyne insisted that he didn't know anything about Chevy's whereabouts. He claimed he'd been out deer hunting the previous day and had returned home to Lyndon after dark. More to the point, he said Chevy was his friend. He'd never do her any harm. The Wheelers didn't believe him. Neither did the detective. who took over the case, Steve Keneef. Keneath got a search warrant for Shermantyne's cabin

and sent a forensic team north to examine the scene. There, investigators found traces of human blood throughout the building. Despite the overwhelming evidence, forensic testing at the time wasn't sophisticated enough to link the sample to a specific person. The blood type A-negative matched Chevys. But as it so happened, the Sherman-Tine family were also A-negative. This made it more difficult to prove Shermantyne's connection to Chevy's disappearance,

and the case wasn't strong enough to take to trial without hard evidence. The wheelers were left in anguish, with no answers about their daughter's fate. And despite their best efforts, the trail went cold. It would stay that way for more than a decade. In a moment, Shermantyne descends further into violence, while Herzog takes a step back. Love. It's been the subject of poems, novels, music, and film. It's also been the driving force behind some of the most horrendous crimes in history. Hi, I'm Vanessa Richardson. Join me for Season 2 of Criminal Couples and meet the lovers who took their passion to perilous lengths.

Featuring standout episodes from female criminals, serial killers, solved murders, and crimes of passion. This season of criminal couples gets to the heart of what makes Turned to a life of murderous crime. Some couples were set off by revenge or greed. Others were fueled by sex and drugs. All acted in the name of love. Discover the darker side of desire in season two of the Spotify original from Parcast, Criminal Couples.

Follow for free and tune in every Monday only on Spotify. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigue. Ask your doctor about Zincolns. Zepbound, Terseptite, the first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection.

Zetbound contains terseptit, and should not be used with other terseptide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pins or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction.

Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder. problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. If you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepbound with a sulfonel urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99 or visit Zepbound.lily.com. Now back to the story. By the end of 1985, 19-year-old Wesley Shermantyne and 20-year-old Lauren Herzog are believed to have murdered at least seven people. Sixteen-year-old Chevy Wheeler was the latest. Although Shermantyne was a suspect in her

disappearance, the authorities didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial. Still, it seems that both men decided to lay low after the incident. But if Shermanty did kill Chevy on its own, it speaks to a schism between the duo that only grew over the next few years. Having been inseparable since childhood. They drifted apart during their early 20s. Sherman Tyne married his longtime girlfriend, Sherry. Herzog also got married at some point during the late 1980s or early 1990s to a woman named Christine. Both couples had children together. To an outsider, it might look like the two were finally settling down. On the inside, though, nothing much had changed. They were still using meth heavily. And before long, it seems

Shermantyne lost any ability to contain his worst impulses. In 1993, he reportedly had an affair with a woman named Anita Shaw, but Anita ended things with Shermantyne when she realized he was married. Despite their history, the two stayed friends and would sometimes run errands for each other. According to Anita, in February of 1994, Shermantyne gave her $100 to pay his energy bill for him. But when she came back from the PG&E office, he accused her of stealing the money. Even when she gave him proof that she'd paid the bill, he refused to back off. If Anita's accusation is true, it's very likely that Sherman Tine's meth use played a role

in his irrational behavior here. Using methamphetamine, particularly over an extended period, can cause psychosis. The two most common symptoms reported by users are auditory hallucinations and delusions of persecution. That is, the belief that someone is conspiring against you or deceiving you. Shermantyne's supposed assertion that Anita was trying to steal from him could have been delusional. Whatever was going on in his head, Anita maintains that nothing she said or did could calm him down. According to her version of events, Shermantyne proceeded to beat her and hold her captive in his house. If this event took place, we don't know whether Shermanty's family was around to witness it or what they made of the situation. Sherry knew that her husband

was erratic and volatile, and she may have been afraid to question him. In any case, Anita claimed that Chermantine agreed to let her go after two days, but warned that he would kill her if she got the police involved. She said she was too scared to disobey him and stayed silent. And so, Shermantyne was left unchecked. That same year, a woman named Fazia said that Shermantyne forced her off the road with his truck. According to Fazia, he held a knife to her throat. and tried to kidnap her, but she escaped by jumping out of the moving truck.

It's not clear if Fazia reported the incident at the time, but even if she had, she wouldn't have been able to identify Sherman Tine by name. According to the podcast Foul Play, there were reports that a year later, in 1995, he escalated to targeting women right in his own neighborhood. 22-year-old Vicki Wendell lived next door to Sherman Tine and Cherry, and sometimes babysat for them. One day, Vicky reportedly went to pick up her paycheck from their house while Sherry was out. Shermantyne greeted her at the door and invited her inside to grab the money. After chatting for a while, he leaned in to kiss Vicky.

Caught off guard, she resisted. Sherman Tine wasn't happy with her refusal and blew up. Vicky claimed he forced her onto the bed and raped her. A few days later, Vicky told her husband what had happened. He immediately called the police and filed a police and filed a child. report. However, the couple said that they were told it was, quote, pointless to take the case any further because of the time that had passed since the incident and the lack of physical evidence. If Vicky's allegation had been taken more seriously, this story might have ended much sooner.

As it was, though, Sherman Tine remained at large. At that point, he and Herzog were still friends, albeit less close than they'd once been. It seems that Herzog had rehabilitated himself to some people. degree, staying out of trouble and focusing on family life. But that was easier said than done. Around this same time, the pair went on an expedition to Utah, where they ran into another hunter. According to Herzog's account, Sherman Tyne abruptly pulled out his rifle and shot the man, killing him. There aren't many other details about this incident, except that Utah authorities did indeed investigate a hunter being shot to death during this period. The murder was never solved,

and the men returned to their families in Linden. Over the next few years, life carried on uneventfully. But on Valentine's Day in 1998, just a couple of weeks before his 32nd birthday, it's alleged that Shermantyne carried out another horrific attack. Instead of spending the day with his wife, Sherry, he was out drinking at a local bar. After a long night of boozing, he called up an old friend, Lisa Pisano. He explained that he was too drunk to get home and asked if she could give him a ride. Lisa agreed and headed over.

When she arrived at the bar, Sherman Tine seemed out of it, slurring his words a little as he clambered into her car. But as soon as he was inside, the mood shifted. According to Lisa, Sherman Tine forced his way into the driver's seat and shoved her aside. He locked the doors and drove to a remote area east of London. There, Lisa says he pulled over and pushed her out of the vehicle. Then he allegedly forced her onto the ground and raped her. Afterwards, he slammed her head to the ground and uttered a sentence that would haunt her for years to come.

He told her, Here the heartbeats of the families I buried here. Despite this horrifying threat, Lisa said Shermantyne let her go home. There's not much rhyme or reason to his decision-making, but maybe he thought too many people had seen her leaving the bar with him. According to her version of events, Lisa was too traumatized to tell anyone about what he'd done until the following day. Her family pushed her to press charges, but Lisa couldn't bear the idea of reliving what had happened. Besides, she was certain that reporting it wouldn't do any good.

Eventually, though, she went to the police. They seemed to take her complaint seriously, and later that year, the case went to trial with Lisa. set to take the stand. During the trial, Lisa pleaded with the jury and insisted that if Shermantyne wasn't punished, more victims would suffer. Heartbreakingly, they didn't listen. The jury acquitted Shermantyne, and he walked away a free man. Yet again, another woman who claimed that Shermantyne raped her was cast aside.

This time, the consequences were swift and dire. After his acquittal, it seems. seems that Shermantyne's mindset changed. It's possible he felt he was above the law. With another alleged victim silenced, he was ready to strike again. This time Herzog was on board, or at the very least he was keen to hang out with his friend again. Maybe he'd never really been reformed at all. He just needed the right push, and it seems that Sherman time gave it to him. On Friday, November 13, 1998, Shermantyne and Herzog headed to the Linden Inn, a popular

local bar owned by John Vanderheiden. John knew the pair well and had learned to keep a watchful eye in them, especially Shermantyne, who had a reputation as a brawler. He even overheard the pair bragging about killing a man years earlier. John wasn't working that night, but his daughter, Cindy, was there with some friends. Like many people in their town, she'd used drugs fairly regularly after leaving high school, and her parents were worried about the 25-year-old. But over the past year or so, Cindy had turned things around. That evening, she wanted to let off some steam and went to the bar. When she saw Shermantyne and Herzog, she greeted them warmly.

Cindy had known the men for years. Herzog had once dated her older sister and was still on good terms with their family. She trusted them. At some point during the night, the pair offered her drugs. As it happened, Cindy was going through a rough patch with her sobriety. After some back and forth, it seems she decided. sided against it and headed home with a friend. But back at her parents' house, Herzog and Shermantyne's proposal weighed heavy on Cindy's

mind. In the end, the temptation was too much. At some point, she hopped in her car and made her way to the local cemetery where Herzog and Shermantyne were waiting. Once there, she got into Shermantyne's truck, and the three of them got high on meth together. The following account is largely based on Herzog's confession. later on. According to him, after taking the drugs, Shermantyne demanded sex from Cindy. Taken aback, she refused and tried to get out of the vehicle. Incensed by her defiance, Herzog claimed that Shermantine grabbed hold of Cindy,

dragged her out of the car, and threw her onto the ground. Then in a rage, Herzog said he pulled out a knife and raped her. And when he was finished, he stabbed her to death. While this was happening, Herzog claimed he stayed in the back of the car, doing nothing to intervene. However, he did admit that after Cindy was dead, he helped get her body into the trunk. Afterwards, the pair decided to drive Cindy out to Shermantyne's family cabin in San Andreas. There they dug a shallow grave and buried her next to Chevy Wheeler. The 16-year-old Stockton girl, one or both of them had murdered 13 years before. Meanwhile in Linden, the Vanderheightens woke up on Saturday morning to find Cindy gone.

They didn't immediately worry. They assumed she'd come home late and left early. But later that day, as John was driving past the local cemetery, he noticed Cindy's brand new car in the lot. He slowed to a stop and walked over to the vehicle. It was unlocked and she was nowhere to be found. When they found out that Cindy never made it to work that morning, Her parents knew something was terribly wrong.

John and his wife alerted the police and put up flyers all around London. Over the next few days, the Vanderheidens asked the public for information about Cindy. The community came together and formed a search party to look for the missing woman. Despite combing a 50-mile radius around the town, they came up empty. But the police seemed to have a lead. After interviewing locals, they determined that two of the last people Cindy had been seen talking to were Shermantyne and Herzog. Given Shermantyne's recent history of violence against Lisa Pisano and the duo's reputation as brawlers, the authorities were likely suspicious.

They honed in on the pair and began gathering evidence against them. Meanwhile, police officers a few miles west were also on the offensive. By the summer of 1998, DNA technology had come a long way. Many police departments around the country were reopening unsolved cases in the hopes of using existing DNA evidence to secure prosecutions. One of these departments was in Stockton, California, where Detective Steve Keneef had never quite given up on cracking Chevy Wheeler's 1985 disappearance. When the authorities agreed to take another look at the case, Keney submitted the blood evidence from Shermantyne's cabin for more definitive testing. He was sure Wesley Shermanty had done something to Chevy.

Just as Keneath was waiting for the results, Cindy was killed. But at last, the wheels of justice were slowly grinding into action. Up next, the killers are backed into a corner and lash out at one another. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activya yogurt today for two weeks and see if you feel a difference. With billions of probiotics and 20 years of scientific expertise, Activia is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to start your gut health ritual. Try Activia today.

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or caps her sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora. Now back to the story. In November of 1998, 32-year-old's Wesley Sherman-Tine and Lauren Herzog

had just brutally murdered another young woman. 25-year-old Cindy van der Heiden had known the pair for years, and like so many victims before her, she'd made the mistake of trusting them. Shermantyne and Herzog had stayed under the radar for nearly 15 years and assumed they'd stay that way. But finally, after years of lackluster investigations and injustices, their luck was running out.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department was looking into Cindy's disappearance and had identified Shermantyne and Herzog as the last two people to see her alive. Detective Deborah Sheffel was working on the case and noticed that Shermantyne was the lead suspect in the disappearance of Chevy Wheeler who'd gone missing in 1985. Though Herzog didn't have the same kind of rap sheet as his buddy, his long association with Shermantyne was worth exploring too. So on November 16th, two days after Cindy's parents realized she was gone,

Detective Sheffel interviewed the men separately. They both admitted to being at the Linden Inn on the night in question, but Sherman Tine said they didn't talk to Cindy while they were there. He suggested that the bargoers who'd seen them with her must have been confused. Detective Sheffel didn't buy this, but had nothing to back up her hunch. Over the next month, the Vanderheiden's continued their desperate search for their daughter. They made an emotional public appeal for her safe return, and offered a cash reward for any information on her.

But as Christmas came and went with no sign of Cindy, their hopes began to dwindle. Finally, in the new year, there was a break in the case, and Shermantyne's own sloppiness was to blame. He'd fallen behind on his car payments that winter, and as a result, his vehicle was repossessed, the same car he'd been driving on the night he killed Cindy. The police seized the vehicle as evidence,

and conducted a thorough forensic search. What they found inside was damning. There was blood on the passenger headrest and in the trunk. What's more, a preliminary DNA test showed it most likely belonged to Cindy Vanderheiden. Before they could arrest Sherman time, though, they had to wait for a definitive DNA match. In the meantime, investigators shifted their focus to Herzog. Unlike his friend, he was known as a generally agreeable and polite guy, so investigators thought he was more likely to be cooperative.

During questioning, officers told Herzog they had evidence linking him to Cindy's murder. Though this wasn't actually true, he buckled under the pressure. Through his tears, Herzog asked how he could get out of this mess. He agreed to give the police a statement and submitted blood and hair samples for DNA testing. In his statement, Herzog gave a detailed account of Cindy's murder. He said that he'd waited in the back of the car while Shermantyne assaulted Cindy, then watched as he stabbed her to death. But Herzog didn't stop there.

Over the next few hours, he described four additional murders he'd witnessed Shermantyne commit, the 1984 slaying of Henry Howell, the double homicide on Daggett Road that same year, and the 1985 killing of Robin Armtrout. Even with these admissions, the cops had a feeling that Herzog was still, holding back. They pushed him further. Eventually, he said Sherman-Tine had admitted to killing as many as 24 people. The officers were astonished by the scope of his crimes, but without any evidence, they

couldn't actually verify that Chermintine's body count was that high. They had to proceed with the charges they could prove. In March of 1999, four months after Cindy's death, Shermantyne and Herzog were arrested and charged with her murder. They were also charged with the double murder of Paul Raymond Kavanaugh and Howard Michael King III. At this point, police in Stockton had an update on the Chevy Wheeler case. Their results were in, and based on the DNA evidence found at his family's cabin, Shermantyne was charged with Chevy's death. The following November, 34-year-old Shermantyne's trial began. Throughout the proceedings, he maintained his innocence, and his attorneys insisted that the

evidence against him was circumstantial. What's more, they tried to shift the blame to Herzog. Given how long Shermantyne and Herzog had been friends, it's striking how quickly they jumped at the chance to turn on one another. According to University of Illinois, Assistant Social Psychology Professor Sean Michael LaRae, blame shifting is a common knee-jerk reaction to an impending consequence. Laura says this behavior is probably learned at an early age. Some people develop the ability to accept responsibility as children, while others are taught that attributing their mistakes to others is the best survival tactic. He also notes that those who lack empathy are more likely to engage in this kind of behavior.

Of course in Herzog and Chermintin's case, there was plenty of blame to go around. They enabled one another to carry out the very worst of crimes. After an almost two-month trial, the jury found Shermantyne guilty on all four counts of first-degree murder. Desperate for more information, the prosecutors offered him a deal. They'd take the death penalty off the table if he told them the location of his victim's remains. In a stunning display of ego, Shermantyne said he'd only accept if prosecutors gave him the $20,000 reward they originally offered the public for information. He claimed he wanted the money to support his two young sons.

The DA's office didn't bite and told him the deal was off. Soon afterward, he was sentenced to death. He was held at San Quentin State Prison while he awaited his execution. Later, in 2001, Herzog was found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder and given a 78-year sentence. But in 2004, an appeals court ruled, but detectives may have used coercive tactics to get his videotaped confessions and ordered a retrial. However, Herzog's attorneys later negotiated for a plea bargain instead of an entirely new trial.

In exchange for pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and being an accessory to murder, Herzog was given a reduced sentence of 14 years. After serving time for nearly a decade, he was paroled in 2010. The public was outraged. When several San Joaquin County families issued requests to keep Herzog away from their community, the Department of Corrections opted to keep him on prison grounds. Herzog was released to live in a trailer stationed outside the front gate of High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California. As miserable as this fate may sound, Herzog's semblance of freedom infuriated Chermintine, who was still on death row.

Whatever bond had once existed between the childhood best friends had completely evaporated. Herzog had flipped on Shermantyne as soon as he sensed he was in trouble, and now, more than a decade on, he wanted revenge. In late 2011, his opportunity for retribution finally appeared. A bounty hunter named Leonard Padilla offered Germantine over $30,000 in exchange for the location of their victim's bodies. It's unclear who hired Padilla, but the effect his presence had was enormous. Shermantyne was game and probably eager for the money. He drew up a series of detailed maps for Padilla, showing where he and Herzog had buried remains.

One of the spots was an abandoned well he labeled Herzog's Boneyard. What happened next, no one saw coming. In January of 2012, just hours after being told about Chermintine's map, Herzog died by suicide in his trailer. Based on these actions, it seems likely that he wasn't quite the passive bystander he'd long claimed to be. Spurred on by Herzog's abrupt death, law enforcement began searching a series of sites as outlined by Shermantyne. At Herzog's bone yard, they found more than 1,000 human bone fragments. These remains were eventually identified as those of Kimberly Ann Billy and Joanne Hobson, who'd been missing.

since 1984 and 1985, respectively. Shermantyne also led investigators to his family's property in San Andreas. There they uncovered the bodies of Chevy Wheeler and Cindy van der Heiden. At last, their families had closure. But other loved ones never got this opportunity. The well contained the remains of at least one other victim who couldn't be identified. This information, coupled with Herzog's claim that Shermantyne had killed upwards of 20 people, indicates that the men may have claimed more lives than we know of.

Officially, though, Shermantyne has denied being the one behind these vicious crimes. He remains on death row in San Quentin State Prison to this day. Growing up, Sherman Tine and Herzog were as close as brothers. Perhaps they were even closer because their bond was a chosen one. They were deeply loyal to each other and shared a twisted emotional connection that fueled their deadly spree. But what they really had in common was a profound selfishness and lack of empathy. After all, as boys, they bonded because they loved the thrill of hunting animals. As men, they escalated to human targets.

It should come as no surprise then that their so-called loyalty crumbled under pressure. They were both hunters deep down, primed to attack. After years of stalking their prey side by side, it was inevitable that they pounced on one another. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with another episode. For more information on Wesley Shermantyne and Lauren Herzog, amongst the many sources we used,

we found the Fowl Play podcast series, The Maps, and the 2002 episode of A&E's American Justice called Vanished, extremely helpful in our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you. next time. Have a killer week.

Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Michael Motion, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Emma Dibdin, with writing assistance by Natalie Pritzowski and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Cheyenne Lopez,

and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. It's been said that love is a many-splendered thing. That is, until it's not. In season two of criminal couples, discover true stories of couples who turned their love lives into a life of crime. Lies and deceit are just the beginning. Follow the Spotify original from Parcast, Criminal Couples.

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