Murder In America - EP. 110 KILLER HUSBANDS: Hans Walters & Michael Parks

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

In today's episode, we explore the stories of two marriages gone wrong, love stories that ended with bloody, tragic bangs. - Head to https://www.hellofresh.com/state16 and use code "STATE16" at checkout to get 16 FREE MEALS and FREE SHIPPING with HELLOFRESH! - Stay Connected: Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel - SOURCES: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2008/03/05/i-didnt-tell-him-enough-dad-says-of-love-for-son/61625319007/ https://www.newschannel10.com/story/4796891/funeral-held-for-10-year-old-murder-victim/ https://archive.org/stream/UnderwoodVideotapeTranscript/Underwood%20Videotape%20Transcript_djvu.txt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5N3GhLNH70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3TJm-BY8IQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Ray_Underwood#cite_note-7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0bskPLMgLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIGPR5cqstM&t=1098s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-QrxEP2KKc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtdCzkIjCEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkbNh8JOi-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3TJm-BY8IQ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash America for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash America. Following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover

may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. Two murder stories, one episode. Hey guys, it's Colin here. And Courtney. So this week's episode is going to be a bit different.

This week, Courtney and I had to fly out to Houston, Texas from Philadelphia to do something really, really cool for you guys, an interview that we had talked about in the past that we actually finished this week. Yeah, there's a story from my hometown that I've wanted to tell since we started this podcast. And I reached out to the victim's mother and she agreed to do an interview with us. And we just did it yesterday. It was such an amazing interview. And honestly, one of the craziest true crime stories I've ever heard.

And I just can't wait to tell you guys. You're going to love it. Yeah. So that's why this week's episode is a bit different. We had to schedule and shift everything in our lives around. But we've been talking for a while about starting these mini episodes here on the podcast. Yeah, there are so many stories out there that I've been dying to tell. But there's not a lot of information out there about it.

And you guys know the way we do it at Murder in America. We like to do as much information as possible. We love the really long episodes. But there are a lot of stories out there that are shorter, and they deserve to be told too. So this will be kind of a preview of what we plan to do in the next few months. So Courtney and I have both selected a story that we'd like to tell today. And I guess I'm just going to get started with this.

So yeah, let's do this. In 2014, Sally Gray was excited to see an excavator, the former home of Las Vegas police lieutenant Hans Walters. It was a great feeling for Sally to see the house demolished, shredded to pieces, no longer existed. Every time the wind would blow, I'd end up with burnt debris on my driveway, she said at the time. It was really the smell of the old burnt house that bothered Sally.

But even after the smell had gone away, she stated that it was still tough to look at the ruined property. At the time, the burnt rubble of the house still had personal items from its former tenants strewn about, items that were still visible in the front entryway and backyard. Back in 2014, Sally stated, quote, it's just hard to live here and look at this every day. When you see it, you're reminded of what took place here, end quote. But what exactly took place at that property in Las Vegas at the home at 1313 Nestor Drive? Let's take a look, and you're listening to murder in America. On January 21st, 2014, the city of

Las Vegas issued a demolition permit to top-notch services, a local demo company, coincidentally, on the one-year anniversary of the horrific crime that took place on the property. One year prior, on January 21, 2013, a man named Hans Walters had shot his wife and son, killing them both, set the family's house on fire, and then turned the gun on himself. It was a tragic event for the community, one that truly nobody had seen coming. But why had this happened? but it compelled a normal father, a police lieutenant at that, to commit such a horrific crime. Well, to figure out exactly what happened, we have to go back to that tragic night, January 21st, 2013, and start out with a phone call.

On that evening, the police dispatcher with the Las Vegas Police Department received a random phone call from Lieutenant Hans Walters, a co-worker. The call began like any other 911 call, a call for distress, a call for help. But quickly, as the dispatcher listened in, she was able to determine that this conversation was truly like no other. 911, what's the address of your emergency? Hi, 1313-13-Ester Drive, Boulder City, Nevada. Okay, and what phone number are you calling from? 259-8-9-79.

And what's the problem? Tell me exactly what happened. My name is Hans Walters. I worked for Las Vegas, much Pawna Police Department. I just shot and killed my son, Max, and my wife Michelle. And I killed her because she's in such chronic pain from her neck and back. And on more medicines than she's not going to survive. And we were both seeing psychologists in Boulder City. His name is Jay Summers.

And I feel terrible for doing it. Okay. And you... Okay. Please don't interrupt me, please. Okay. I've also set the house on fire, and if the fire department comes to my house in front of my house, I'm going to open fire on them, so I have to wait until the house is burning,

and then I'm going to shoot myself, okay? Okay, sir? I don't ask me any question. This is real. This is a joke. The fire alarms in the background is because I set the garage in the bedroom on fire. My wife's in the bedroom. I shot her in the head.

My son, unfortunately, is a more than you're watching Oswald and I shot him in the head too. And I'll forgive me for my sins. Please don't call back. Thank you. Obviously, this call was alarming, and immediately, officers were dispatched to the scene. Upon arriving, they were met with exactly what the caller had described, a flaming house with two corpses inside. Hans Walters, a 52-year-old father, snapped that night and murdered his wife and child. Quickly after arrival, the SWAT team set up base camp at the Martha P. King Elementary School, which sat nearby and attempted to make contact with Hans, but unfortunately it was too late.

And the husband and father had already made his deadly decision. Upon seeing the flashing lights from his own department outside, police lieutenant Hans headed outside of his flaming home, pointed his handgun at the Boulder City police officers who had responded to the call and attempted to force them to retreat. It was almost a standoff, but in reality, Hans had no fort, no property to hold down, for his home was already engulfed in flames, and his family was already dead. You see, Hans had already warned officials that he would shoot anyone who approached his home, and it seemed that he was deadly serious in that threat. Shortly after flashing his gun to the authorities, Hans headed back inside of the flaming building,

and the scene grew quiet, apart from the loud crackle of flames. A short time later, when officers approached the home, they found Hans dead just inside of the entryway, killed from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Immediately, first responders rushed into the fiery home, and upon entry, they came across the corpse of Hans' six-year-old son, Maximilian, and they were able to recover the body before the flames engulfed it. Maximilian had been shot in the back of the head. Unfortunately, though, the flames were already too great for responders to retrieve Hans'

wife Catherine's body. After first responders had quelled the flames, they were able to retrieve Catherine's corpse, but they were only able to identify her through fingerprints. The rest of her body had already been ravaged by the flames. But why had all of this happened? Why had a police lieutenant, a man who was sworn to protect the safety of the general public, turned a gun on his own family and himself. Well, according to neighbors, there were a few factors that may have led to to this murder suicide. After the flames had been extinguished, when neighbors and acquaintances were interviewed,

a clearer picture of the crime began to unfold. According to one neighbor, who frequently took the Walter's son Max to school, Michelle, the matriarch, was on a handful of medications. Michelle, at the time of the murder, had been dealing with both mental and physical issues, including problems with her back and with depression,

and she had been sleeping during the day. According to friends and neighbors, Michelle was at times unable to parent her son while her husband, Hans, was at work. Her medications made her sleepy. And unfortunately, this meant that her son was alone most of the time at home while she slept. And ironically enough, Michelle herself had been previously employed with the Las Vegas Police Department, but had quit her job a few years prior for reasons unknown. This had allegedly left the family with mounting medical bills,

and the pressure to provide had been handed to Hans, the patriarch, and the sole-bred winner. Hans Walters had worked with the Las Vegas Police Department for over 20 years before he decided to commit the ultimate crime himself. In the years prior, Hans had gotten the names of his son and wife, Maximilian and Michelle, tattooed on his right arm. He truly loved his family. And family and friends that knew Michelle and Hans told the authorities and news outlets after the murders that there was nothing wrong on the surface with the couple. According to people that knew the family, after the birth of their son, Max, Michelle and Hans had been living in holy matrimony. There were no red flags, no warning signs in the relationship. Well, from the surface,

at least, when authorities talked to Hans's coworkers. However, red flags began to rise. About a week prior to the murder suicide, in January of 2013, Hans had apparently begun to give away personal items to coworkers while he was in the office and had opened his desk, and just given away objects and mementos to whoever would take them. Friends of Hans and Michelle also told authorities after the murders that the couple had paid handsome amounts of money to have their son Max through in vitro fertilization. Obviously, that whole process and ordeal can put a lot of stress on a couple, but typically,

it's not too much stress for two people to handle. And that brings us back to the fateful night of January 21, 2013. On that evening, Hans had apparently told himself that he was, was ready to die. The medical bills from his wife had begun to add up. She had quit her job, which forced him to become the sole breadwinner, and he was sick of his existence. Obviously, this isn't a reason why someone should ever hurt a spouse or child, but ultimately, and unfortunately, it is a motive for a crime like this. On that evening, according to authorities, Hans snapped and shot his wife Catherine right in front of their six-year-old son, Max. Obviously, this was shot

for young Max, watching his own mother get murdered by his father. And after realizing that his own son had witnessed him murder his wife, Hans had then turned the gun on his child and killed him as well. And that's when the 911 call was placed and that chilling interaction with the dispatcher was made. To this day, it's not known exactly why Hans decided to end it all that night, as the details behind this crime are very sparse. But the facts and the 911 call are all there. That story goes to show that sometimes you can't even trust those in positions of authority who are sworn to protect the public, because sometimes they can be a danger to others and even

themselves. Law enforcement responded to a crime involving one of their own this morning, a Metro Lieutenant allegedly killing his family, then setting his home on fire and eventually killing himself. I'm behind your house. It's crazy. I mean, if it's supposed to be a Metro officer, this is kind of, you know, it's kind of, you're those are the ones you're supposed to be protecting us, you know what I mean?

It's stunning when it happens anywhere. It's horribly sad and tragic when it happens anywhere. But then it happens out here in Boulder City and it's that much more astonishing. Boulder City police were first on scene around 820. But several agencies also responded, including a Metro SWAT team. It was a very fragile situation. The suspect had made threats against police. He had claimed on the 911 tape that he would injure any officer.

that attempted to come to the scene. Neighbors, including this man who lives just four doors down, were evacuated. Not new, but it was a high-and-by type of a thing walking the dogs up and down the street. They're pretty quiet. Outside, they'd wave all the time. They would wave. Police say the suspect had a handgun, but they haven't said if he used that weapon to kill himself and his family. You don't take your family with you.

And if you want to go, go just don't take your kid and your wife. That is ridiculous. And now I'm going to pass the mic to Courtney so that she can tell us her story for today. My story starts in the early morning hours of August 20th, 2020, in Crawfordville, Indiana. A woman is driving on the Sugar Creek Bridge when she suddenly sees something up ahead. At first, she assumes its road kill. But just to make sure she pulls off to the side and goes to take another look, and upon approaching, she realizes that it's...

far more disturbing. 911, where is your emergency? I'm on North-225 West Road. There's a body hanging off the bridge, no head. There's a car coming.

Okay. There's a dead body. That's a deer. Are you sure? Yeah, but all back up and all that. I'm on the phone with the dog now. Okay, she thinks it's a deer?

No, it's a body. It's a body. What I do tell looks like in arm. Yeah, that's what I've seen with no head. I'm freaking out. Okay? I've never seen some like this. As the police pull up to the Sugar Creek Bridge, they find the body of a woman.

You would think that maybe she was involved in a hit and run, but that clearly wasn't the case here. The middle-aged woman had been shoved under the guardrail. The top half of her body was laying out. in the road and the bottom half was dangling off the bridge. The woman was covered in bruises and blood and she didn't have a head. It was clear that this was no accident and that this woman had been murdered. The town of Crawfordville, Indiana had never seen anything quite like this before. And like any investigation, the first step they need to take is identifying their victim, which was just around the corner

with a 911 call from a man named Michael Parks. Hi, my name is Michael Parks and me and my wife we kind of got into an argument Tuesday and I haven't seen her and I'm getting worried. Okay, what's her name?

Hope. Somebody picked her up. She got into a car with somebody and they left. It was either a silver or a white like Honda Civic. Michael tells the police that the two got an argument and afterwards Hope stormed out of the house, threw her wedding ring at him,

and hopped into a Honda Civic with someone he didn't recognize. He said that over the last few days he had been calling her but she wasn't answering and he said he was going to wait until Friday to report her missing. The police luckily would take Hope's disappearance seriously, especially since they found a middle-aged woman's body earlier that morning. Michael Park tells the police that Hope was 44 years old. She had short dark hair and a couple tattoos, one of which was a heart with his name inside of it. And as soon as he says this,

the detectives know the identity of the woman on the bridge. Although they didn't have her head, the tattoos confirmed that she was Hope Anne Hamilton Park. Hope was born on November 20th, 1975, to her parents Carol and Terry. They were soon going to learn that they outlived their child, something no parent should ever have to face. And from what I could find, Hope was a sweet woman who loved her children, Katie and John. And she didn't have any enemies. Crawfordsville, Indiana is a small town.

crimes like this are not common at all. And as you probably know by now, crimes of this severity are usually committed by people close to the victim. So the police want to talk to Michael. They inform him that they did find a body that morning that matched his wife's description. And they want to bring him to the station for an interview. But when he gets there, they bring him into this office-looking space. There are comfy couches, a nice little lamp, and plants in the corner. Definitely not your typical interrogation room.

In fact, this type of room is usually where they bring grieving family members. Michael was being treated as if he was a victim, maybe to make him feel more comfortable so he's willing to talk. One thing I do, I record everything to my notes suck. I can't believe, sir. My purse. You help these partners out? I'm worried about her.

You're worried about your wife? Yes. Okay. I'm going to my son. You can't keep a job. Drug is into the house. I kicked him out. I don't want him there.

She wants him there. It got to the point where I told her to choose between me where one of us has got to go. She's been wanting him to come home. I say no. He got a speeding ticket and it and the proof of no insurance or insurance or her. no insurance or whatever, whatever they call that. He has the car, it's his car. It's in my wife's name.

Oh, okay. But he paid her for the car. He never took the time. I told her to get to cancel the insurance. She never did. So that's how he argued. After telling the detectives about the arguments he and Hope had gotten into, they asked him about his wife's alcohol and drug use,

hoping that that could give them some answers. But Michael avoids the question entirely, and he starts going on and on about how controlling she is. Your son has the drug issues or any? Does your wife have any alcohol or drug issues? No. No. She's very controlling. As far as... Self-control or controlling for everybody?

Controlling on everybody. I'm used to it. They don't bother me. Yeah, after 25 years. You find your niche. I've gotten used to it. I take medication. I do have anger issues, but I take medication for it. But I've never done anything.

Natural stuff, no same anger or anything like that. It's what all families do as well, especially if you're arguing over a kid and stuff. I hate to say this doesn't have it on the recording, but I do. I want to hurt him. That's why he had to go. Would she confide him, him or your daughter? Him. Okay.

Me, and my daughter are real close. Her and John are real close. She'll do anything for it, which that's what makes me mad. Now, if he's trying to take the suspicion off of him, he's not doing the best job. Michael admits to the detectives that he has some anger issues and that he wants to hurt his own son. He also talks about their dysfunctional family dynamic. He may be trying to come across as relatable. But he keeps avoiding the questions, and his body language is raising some red flags.

Even further, there are only about 10 minutes into the interview. And Michael hasn't had anything nice to say about his deceased wife. When she left, you started getting in the car right. Did you have to see the driver at all? Couldn't tell male and female, anything. Has she ever been known to kind of step outside the marriage at all? Is there nothing? No, no.

We're past that she could run to. You're still living in Illinois. Me and my daughter talked about that. I said anything. At this point, Michael's daughter calls him, and he's visibly nervous. He hadn't yet told her that her mom was found murdered that morning. It's my daughter. I haven't told her yet.

Well, and we're still, I mean, they're still doing some stuff somewhere else, So that's why we're just talking you to get information. And I actually don't even know it all. He just told me the tattoos that I described to him, which I do have pictures of him. The tattoos matched to description. You said earlier you were going to give her until Friday. What made you decide to go ahead and call today? My emotions.

I am a very word. I miss you. We may have found her. What made you think of something was? I think it's a stress. I didn't think anything happened to her. It's just worried. I wanted to know where she was.

Next, the detectives talk with Michael about searching his house and car, and he becomes visibly nervous. He's going to go over a couple of paper with you as far as the consent and just consent to search your house in the car because there's some things we need to find out. Search car car?

Yeah. I'll try to get some more information. From here, the detectives leave him in the room by himself, where he shuffles around on the couch. It's clear that he's very, very nervous. He's touching his face. He takes off his hat a few times, and he shakes his leg uncontrollably. What we'd like to do is be able to get consent, and we'd like to be able to get that from you.

Is that something you'd be willing to do? You can bring me the car right now if you want. Okay. I'm going to go. Okay, sir? Are you able to read and understand that English language? Okay. So, you get the shakes. So do you put you like a bottle of water or anything? As the detective is trying to get Michael to sign off on the search of his car and home, his hands start shaking. He knows if he says no to them searching, he's going to look suspicious,

but he's also terrified at what they will find. Despite this, Michael signs off on the search. and soon enough, law enforcement descends upon their Indiana home, which is eerily located on Elm Street, where horrors are known to occur. But law enforcement begins picking apart the home with a fine-tooth comb, and they find a ton of evidence pointing to foul play. Outside of the home, they find blood smears everywhere. It was in the backyard, on the patio,

a wooden ramp leading to the house, even in the gravel in the front yard. They also find a bullet casing from a 22 in the grass. In the garage there are streaks of blood and bloody finger and shoe prints, and then they make their way inside of the home. There they find a 22 rifle and ammunition. They find a shoe that matches the bloody shoe print in the garage. a blue tarp with blood on it. Inside of the main bedroom, investigators locate a safe,

and inside they find Hope's cell phone, which is never a good sign. Then lastly, they make their way to the basement. Along the steps going down, there were several drops of blood. Now, this is the kind of basement where the floor is concrete, but there's also a lot of dirt and holes in the ground. And up ahead, investigators see drag marks in the dirt. Along the floor, there is plastic and zip ties.

But one thing that is extremely out of place is the pile of air conditioning flex ducts in the corner. There were about a dozen of them all tangled together. The investigators get to work removing them one by one, and once they do, they see an abnormal spot in the ground that's covered in trash and dirt. So they began digging, and soon enough they find what they've been looking for.

Wrapped in plastic shopping bags is the head of 44-year-old Hope Parks. Back at the station, Michael is likely worried sick at the thought of investigators going through his home. But I'm sure there was a part of him that thought that he might get away with it. why else would you agree to let someone search your home? But after finding Hope's head in the basement, detectives invite him back into the comfy interrogation room. Do you know of anybody that would want to hurt?

She wouldn't close to anybody else. I mean, somebody that would be, you know. She knows how to piss people off. She knows how to piss people off or you know that piss people off? No, she knows how. She knows how to piss people off, he says with a smile on his face. A strange response from someone who just found out his wife was found beheaded across town. Next, the detectives tell him that they found blood inside of his home.

Part of what we were looking for, and we found some blood at your house, would there be any reason why there would be blood at the house. Me? I cut myself. I smashed my finger. works some blood located in the garage. That would be when I smashed my finger. Transmission.

You said you saw the motor and stuff in there, didn't you? See the truck? It's a bad-ass truck. So the detectives are bringing up the blood found throughout his home, and he's commenting on his badass truck, clearly trying to divert the conversation away from the crime scene at his house. But the detectives are done playing. nice guy. So this is kind of where you need to kind of step up to the plate. Tell us what happened.

It was at your house. There's something happened to me. There's nobody else that could have been. I don't know what to tell you. Saying I did something. Yeah. And we're just trying to figure out. I mean, obviously, you're not a bad person. You were. You've got two kids with her. You've lived a long life with her. I didn't do anything. I swear to God, I did not do anything. It's clear at At this point, Michael still thinks he can get away with it. He had no idea about the discovery in his home, but they were about to tell him everything. Well, part of it is, I said, we went through the whole house. We found everything. What's everything?

Her. The rest of her. Okay? We found everything. Michael defeatedly leans back on the couch. He lets out a big sigh. and puts his hands up to his face. But in order to keep Michael from calling his attorney, the detectives try to be understanding, even commenting on how good of a person he is, who likely just snapped and killed his wife. But still, he's not willing to confess.

So, and obviously, you're not a bad person you've provided for your family. You've done. So what happened? What's that? I know what you're thinking, but no, it wasn't me. I'm sorry. What else could be?

Talk to my son. I've told you we've had people come to the house. My neighbors know about it. Yeah, I've talked to him quite a bit today. But part of it, too, you know, you're telling your son, you know, if you screwing up, you need to step up plate. And if you screw up, you need to step up to play. Yes, I understand.

There's nobody. that's going to hurt your wife like you would hurt her. And that's what happened to her. This entire interview, Michael has talked very negatively about his wife and son. And now he's even going as far as to blame the murder on his own child. In this next part, Michael stands up as if he's going to leave. The next person I can talk to is your daughter. And I'm going to have to take the time to talk to my daughter.

No. What else? You said, sir. Something happened to her that night, and something happened to her at your house. You were the only one there at your house that night. I guess this is the part where I need a lawyer, because I'm not listening to you.

I'll answer your questions. I'm just saying, I didn't do this. And you can ask me this a hundred times, and I'm still going to tell you, I did not do this. You're the only one at the house. You're the only one who could know or what happened to your wife. Okay? You didn't mean to do this to her.

So we're trying to ask you, how does she lose parts of her body in your house? No clue. Do you have a clue? No, I do not. There's nowhere else for us to look. There's nowhere else for us to go. There's nobody else who to talk to about this. I mean, I want a lawyer.

And from here, the detectives have to stop the interview. Michael knows he's in a lot of trouble. He asks for a smoke break, and he even tries to start up a conversation with the detectives who are clearly not very interested. He paces around the room for a few more minutes, but soon enough, a police officer comes into the room and places Michael Park under arrest for the murder of his wife. And as they're placing the handcuffs on him, he says, quote, you guys got this all wrong. You guys got to solve wrong. Can't talk to you anymore, but... Michael Park goes off to jail

while police continue on with their investigation. As word gets out about what happened, the people of Crawfordville, Indiana are shocked. Their quiet little town and the quiet little neighborhood on Elm Street was now filled with police presence, and there were a lot of whispers about what could have gone wrong.

Here are some of their neighbors. To me, it's horrible. That's, I mean, I don't understand it. I mean, it made me sick. It made me feel concerned for my kid safety in the neighborhood that I live in. I was shocked. I was surprised. I was, uh, disgusted.

There's like 10 cop cars over there. Wow. And they were over there for a good 10 hours. I live here with my wife and we have three kids. It's hard to, what do you tell them, you know? They wonder, you know, and they're young. So. You know, how do you comfort your kids from telling them that, you know, there's a murder right down the street?

It's sad. Sad for the neighbors. It's sad for the community. It's not a lot of things like that happen here in Crawford'sville. And it's very, very numbing. The police assumed that they would have to piece together what happened since Michael was still proclaiming his innocence. But surprisingly, four days after their discovery, Michael reaches out to the detectives wanting to come. clean. Sort of. They bring him into an interrogation room. And this time, it's not the cozy one he got

before. He's also traded his clothes for an orange jumpsuit. Hey there, Mr. Parks. You remember me from the other day? It's Tuesday. He's charged a gun. Listener of true crime stories, how many times do you think you've heard that story? I was cleaning my gun, and it accidentally went off and I killed them. And instead of calling the police, I panicked. This excuse is always so strange to me because if you actually did accidentally shoot someone, why wouldn't you call the police? And if you're truly innocent, you definitely wouldn't behead them afterwards. What do you do after that?

I sat there and I cried. I thought about everything that was going on with fighting, with John, with a gun, nobody was going to believe me. I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry. No, that's fine. Now, here's a chance for her. Tell us what happened. So she's on the floor.

You're upset, obviously. What did you do at that point? I wrapped her in a tarp and took her down to the basement. I cleaned everything up. When you took her down, Sarah, you said, you're after open a tar. What are the blue tarp? Michael tells the detectives that he wrapped Hope up in a blue tarp. And as he's saying this, he's really trying to sound sad.

He has his hand. up to his face and the inflection in his voice changes, but the investigators aren't buying these crocodile tears. And they aren't buying his story either. I know about guns and what people tell me, so I'm just regarding information as far as stealing gun I've ever fired. The closer you are to something or somebody, you get more residue than the further away, the less residue you get when you fire the gun. So she seemed to have some residue around the entry wound.

So that would indicate that the gun would be closer, well, four or five feet. So the medical examiner found gunshot residue around Hope's gunshot wound, meaning this story of the gun accidentally going off as he was cleaning it, it just doesn't add up. I need to be able to help. I got to know your side. I don't know how close she was standing. I know that she was getting ready to fix it.

that's not in my hand. That's what it went off. I'm telling I did not do it deliberately. The doctor in the gunshot, he actually put an injury report that it was a contact wound, which means the barrel was close to the skin and it went off. Maybe she was closer than what I thought. So if you're at the table and she's at an angle, could...

It's here where Michael asked, for some water, likely because the detectives are poking holes in his story, and he needs to rethink his answer. There's going to be two schools of thought on this. One, somehow you tragically shot her with the muzzle of the gun touching the back of her head. Or two, there was a disagreement, there was an argument, and a snap, bad, bad judgment. No argument after everybody left No argument Were you still just upset from the argument earlier It's just people out on the outside looking in

I don't care what anybody else thinks The whole thing was shooting her If she was where she was standing I don't know If she was right there I don't know I did not stick the gun to the back of her head And put the trigger I did not do that And all I'm telling is is science proves differently

Then she was closer than what I thought A lot closer That's all I can say You didn't want her to die. No. But circumstances led to her death. What was the mental capacity of you at the time? Were you so enraged from an earlier argument that she smelt off something and you don't know what you did? Kind of a Tasmanian devil kind of event after she's on a dream. You lost it. And it's okay to tell me that because that show motion? Ever been a problem with that rifle's trigger and going off when you didn't want it to?

Or? Nothing. I know, well, no. I didn't even have it that long. Okay. Maybe a week, week and a half. Michael is adamant that he was cleaning his gun when Hope was shot. So next the detectives want to know about the dismemberment. But surprise, surprise, Michael can't remember anything about that part of the story. Conveniently, he says he blacked out during that part. I mean, she's got, none of us are young anymore, so, I mean, your skin doesn't stay like it should.

So each, each drag did like just the muscle and the skin go with it? I don't even remember doing that. I don't remember that part. And that's the brain again, trying to protect you from typically the goryest, most traumatic parts. There is no way that the guy. shot happened the way you're presenting it. So this was like I said, I don't remember exactly how it happened. I'm telling him, I didn't do it. Kill her on purpose or didn't shoot her off it? I didn't shoot her on purpose. It just happened. So in your opinion, would you call that just recklessness?

It was just, I mean, because if you've got it up in the air, nobody's going to say, well, I mean, you couldn't have shot her if it was laying on the table facing down the hallway. Reckless, yes. So now Michael is admitting that he recklessly shot his wife. And in this next part, he will admit that he and Hope were in fact arguing before the murder. Apparently, Hope told Michael that she had canceled her son's insurance. But in reality, she was still making payments on it, which infuriated him. The conversation we were having at the time was over John.

with the insurance, the car insurance, because she lied to me over the car insurance. She told me that she was going to cancel the insurance. Are you a fist-pounding kind of guy when you're mad, you're like, damn it, woman? Just do what I'm asking you to do. And the guy was in your hand, unfortunately, at that time? Squeeze reflex?

Yes. I don't remember everything. But what you said makes sense. Like I said, that it was non-intentional. I just want to know why. Because that's the same thing you're going to want to know. Same thing your daughter wants to know. When your son wisons up, it's the same thing he's going to lie to that.

I can never. I know why it happened. I can never tell him. I can't do that to him because that's the reason why I pulled the trigger. Not intentionally. But the detective says that your daughter and son are going to want to know why you killed their mom. And he says, I can never tell my son why, because that's why I pulled the trigger. which is interesting because just seconds earlier he said it was a reflex, that he didn't do it on purpose.

But by now, detectives pretty much had what they needed. And from here, Michael Parks was taken back to the Montgomery County Jail, where he would sit for two years awaiting trial. Michael made his initial court appearance by video this morning. A not guilty plea was entered. He is held at the Montgomery County Jail without bond. His trial is scheduled for January 12th. But to prepare for trial, the prosecution obviously wanted to look through Michael's search history to see if they could find any clues of premeditation.

And they would find it. Michael's search history showed that he was watching YouTube videos on the effectiveness of homemade silencers. He watched videos on bottle silencers, which is literally where you put a plastic bottle around a gun. And he also looked into using pillows as silencers. So this was not some spur of the moment, rage-induced murder. Michael had been planning this for a while. So let's go back to August 18th, 2020. We are just months into the pandemic and the world is a pretty scary place.

A lot of America's out of a job, people are stuck at home, and pretty much everyone is struggling. Based on Michael's internet searches, it's safe to say that he was getting pretty fed up with his wife. According to him, she was enabling their son, still paying some of his bills, and he was sick of it.

So he starts looking up ways in which he could kill her without alerting the neighbors, and by August 18th, his mind was made up. He was going to be able to, kill his wife. That day, both of their children had come to visit them, having no idea that this would be the last time they would ever see their mother. It's unclear how the evening went about, whether their fight started before or after the children left. But what we do know is that an argument ensued about their son's insurance. Hope was just trying to be a good mom,

helping her son out in the midst of COVID. But Michael didn't agree with that. And as she was standing in the kitchen cooking them hamburgers, Michael came up behind her with his 22 rifle. He then aimed it at the back of her head and pulled the trigger. Following this, he grabbed a tarp and wrapped her body in it. And then he brought her to the basement, where he dismembered the mother of his children. It's assumed he did that so that he could dispose of her body and the police wouldn't be able to identify her without a head. I guess he didn't realize that fingerprints and identifiable tattoos can also help with identification. But once he removed Hope's head, he buried it in the basement,

cleaned up the blood in the kitchen, and then drove her body out to the Sugar Creek Bridge. It's assumed that his plan was to throw her off the bridge, but he couldn't lift her, so instead he tried shoving her under the guardrail. However, she wouldn't fit. After several minutes of trying to shove her through so she could fall into the water below, Michael gave up, leaving her headless body dangling off the bridge. Now with all of this evidence coming to trial, including the incriminating internet searches, Michael decides to change his plea to guilty. He initially thought he could get a reckless homicide charge. With everything piled against him, he knew he couldn't get away with it. So on May 9th of 2022, he pleaded guilty to the murder

of his wife, and Michael Parks was sentenced to 50 years in prison without the possibility of parole. If Michael makes it to the end of his sentence, he will be released back into the world when he's 94 years old. Good hair days do more than we give them credit for. When your hair feels healthy, you show up differently. You feel more confident, more relaxed, and you're not constantly checking the mirror. Nutraful supports hair health from within and delivers results over time. So your hair becomes something you enjoy, not something you stress about. Nutriful is the number one dermatologist-recommended hair growth supplement brand,

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And clicks. For every nature lover, choose a Lego set. A gift that. always clicks. Wow. That was quite the story, Courtney. I know. I saw it on TikTok a few months ago, and I was like, we have to tell this in our many episodes.

So we hope you guys like that. We're going to start doing that in June on top of our full-length episodes. Yeah, and we're super excited to start doing that for you guys. But I guess that wraps it up today. We don't have a real outro for this episode like we usually do. But I want to shout out our new patrons this week, Tonya Blankenship, Chloe Press. In Angeles Suddy, Kelsey Bassett, Grace Gallagher, Ashley Stillman, Ishi, Sammy Bowen, Victoria Brooks, Cameron Levesque, Vili Corazon, Ashley Arnold, Zach DeGarmo, Cindy Yates,

Carly Ryan, and Gary and Tori, Woodraska. Wow, every single week, I don't think we can have more patrons, but we always do, and Courtney and I cannot thank you all enough. And if you're wondering what Patreon is, we drop each episode of the podcast on our Patreon, the ad-free version. So if you don't like the advertisements in the middle of the show, go sign up on patreon.com. Just head to the website and type in Murder in America. And we'll read your name at the end of next week's episode if you sign up that week.

If you want to see the photos from every single case we cover, make sure you follow us on Instagram at Murder in America and join our Facebook group. And the last thing that we would ask y'all to do for us is head to Apple Podcasts if you have an iPhone and leave us a five-star review on our show. We love hearing from you guys. and that's really one the only places where we can hear from y'all. So yeah, anyways, we hope you all have a great rest of your weekend. We have some really, really good episodes, interviews, everything coming up in the next couple of weeks. And as always, we love y'all. And see you next week.

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