My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 137

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

This week’s hometowns include a triple homicide and death by a snail. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And welcome. To my favorite murder mini-show. That's George a hard start. That's Karen Coguera. Yeah, we haven't done that in a while. We don't ever do it. We stopped doing it. Why do we not do that?

Because we've only had a couple of shows since Vacation came back, so we're super rusty. We forget how to be professionals. It's... You have no idea who's talking. It's like... And we don't help you. No.

It's just like you're on your own with our voices. One's in your right ear, one's in your left ear. Is that how it works? Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. And you're roller skating the whole time. So there's a great chance you'll fall over. This is where we read you your stories.

Your hometowns. Whatever they may be, yeah. Whatever you lie about. Hey listen, creepypasta, deliverers, we're on to you. Yeah, kind of. But this one's very real. Okay. Oh, can I go first?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. This... Just the subject line of this is an OG hometown. Hi, I'm FM crew and assorted adorable pets. My name is Lauren and I hail from Erie, Pennsylvania. And believe me, the Pizza Bomber isn't the only reason this place is fucked. Those are Lauren's words, everybody.

It's a good one, though. Okay. So, on June 11, 2017, at about 1.30 p.m., Christopher LeClaire, 49, put out a distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard claiming that his wife, Karen LeClaire, 51, had fallen overboard. He told investigators that he and his wife had gone out on Lake Erie on their commercial fishing boat, the Doris M. And that Karen had been sitting on a bucket near the side of the boat because she was experiencing motion sickness. When he looked back to check on her, she had disappeared, and when he realized she wasn't

on the boat, the first thing he did was call the Coast Guard. They did a massive search, but the Coast Guard was not able to find Karen. But here's the thing. The surveillance video from the lake showed Christopher and Karen boarding their boat together and going out on the lake on June 10, the day before he reported her overboard. The boat returned about three hours later, but docked in a different location away from the Doris M's assigned slip. A single person got off the boat and drove away in the vehicle that the LeClaires had

arrived in earlier that day. The next day, June 11, 2017, the vehicle returned and a single person boarded the boat and went out on the lake again around noon. It was an hour and a half later that LeClaire called the Coast Guard. Fuck, dude. So, that is basically when everybody figured out that Christopher LeClaire sits on the Throne of Lies and they charged him with her murder on June 13, 2017. As it turns out, he was leading a double life, been having an affair, and had a girlfriend

on the side. They think... An affair and a girlfriend? The sentence goes, had been having an affair and had a girlfriend on the side. This guy is busy and a fucking asshole. He's a great at organizing his time, though. They think he had been preparing to do something like this for a while, and had even been telling friends that Karen had terminal cancer and did not have much time to live.

Dude. Three weeks later, a boater found Karen's body about six miles off the coast of Dunkirk, New York on July 4, 2017. She was tied to an anchor. Police searched the Doris M on July 5th and found ropes which had been cut that matched those found on the body. An autopsy was done in Erie County, New York on July 5th and determined that Karen LeClaire had died of a gunshot wound to the head and her death was ruled a homicide.

LeClaire then claimed that his wife knew he was having an affair, and it asked him to stop talking to his girlfriend three weeks before her death. He says that Karen committed suicide on the boat that day because she was still upset about the affair. His lawyer argued that Christopher LeClaire was overwhelmed by what had occurred and he did not know what to do and just reacted and did not want people to know that Karen had taken her life, and that's why he tied her up and threw her overboard. Cool story, Christopher.

Oh, my God. Early in October of 2018, he was convicted of all charges and then in December, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. At least there's some justice for Karen and this monster is behind bars forever. So yes, the Pizza Bomber case was crazy and made national headlines, but don't you worry, we still have plenty of fucked up shit going on around here. I'd stay saved and do God's missions, but that's not really my jam, so I'll go with the classic, stay sexy and don't get murdered, Lauren.

Wow, those pesky security cameras. I mean, that is such a classic OG hometown. I can't believe it. Yeah, that's a good one. What a monster. Like, he just, what a cocky, oh, there he is. Truly. Disgusting.

Not cool looking at all. No, scary. He looks like the Cowardly Lion, what, had a boat. You know what I mean? Yeah, a boat lion. But like, Cowardly boat lion. Totally. All right.

That was fucked up. Yeah. Okay, here's one. This one's called Triple Homicide in Blanchardville, Wisconsin. And I'm taking out the last names that she put in here just because I don't want to get good idea. In trouble. Okay.

He, Justin. Okay. So, I just was turned on to your podcast and I wanted to share my hometown's Triple Homicide story. That's a great, that's a great thought. I remember the story when it happened. I grew up in Blanchardville, Wisconsin, but at this point I had moved to Madison. I heard about this through my mother that there was a triple homicide that took place

in the county. Blanchardville has a population of under 800, according to the sign entering the town, which has never changed since I was a child, so it's always been 800. Most of the story unfolded from articles I read, rumors I heard, and from someone who knew one of the investigators who was there that night and started with a plan formed by four to five people. The people that are definitely involved are Jason, Eddie, and Erin, and Erin's a female, all in their 20s.

Very early on, there was a rumor that at least one other person was involved, someone I knew from high school, but it was always a rumor. The group came up with this plan. In the country between Blanchardville and Argyle lived Bradley and his wife, I'm not saying her name either. Bradley was known to these kids as a local drug dealer, and they saw an opportunity to rob him and the potential to either make money selling the drugs or taking the drugs themselves. Bad plan.

Always a bad idea. The group would pretend to be DEA agents, and they would raid the house and rob Bradley. So they're on drugs themselves? Seems like bad drugs. Yeah, hallucinogenic. Not the fun kind of, let's hold hands and do a drum circle. No. No.

When the night came to pull the plan off, one or two additional people were in no show. For whatever reason, the trio decided to continue on with the plan anyways. They brought two vehicles. One was left over a mile away as a backup, and the other was driven to the home. Bradley's home was previously a cheese factory converted into a residence. That? Wisconsin. Okay.

Cheese factory, like in the countryside of Petaluma, that we'd always take people to, you have a nice picnic by a lake with geese and stuff like that. Love it. The inside of the cheese factory was the smelliest place I've ever been in my life. The idea that you would live inside, imagine it, it's like all cement. Is it? Yeah. I've never been in a cheese factory.

Because they're dealing with dairy things, like there can't be a ton of moisture. It's so gross. Okay. Let's make sure the smell. Oh. You're there. Feet. Feet smell.

So, previously a cheese factory converted into a residence, and Bradley was also not only a drug dealer, but a gun collector, so we're going to go rob a drug dealing. A cheese connoisseur. So, he's the worst person anyone could rob. You should not rob this person as a rule in your life. You should know that in your 20s. This is going to be a bad experience, whether it be a factory experience or just getting shot in the gut.

Well, it gets bad. Okay. It is unknown if the trio knew this detail about the guns. It is also unclear if they knew that Bradley had an extensive security system around his home, which alerted him of their arrival, which is like he's a drug dealer, of course he does. He's a drug dealer. So, what went down exactly is unclear, spoiler, as accounts were limited to the survivors.

But the trio ran into the house and caught Brad. Brad's dog was barking at the commotion, which woke Jenna up, who came to see what was going on and was then taken hostage herself. Brad at one point got away and got a weapon from his bedroom. Brad then came back and shot Eddie three times. I bet. Jason and Aaron ran, with Jason getting shot in the head as he attempted to escape. Oh, Jesus.

Aaron, the female, would make it back to the car and escape successfully. Oh, my God. Aaron drove back to one of the nearby towns and struggled to make a decision on what to do. And I had heard she contacted someone, told them what happened, and then they were like, you should call the fucking police. Yeah. Meanwhile, back at the crime scene, Jenna called the local authorities to report a home intrusion.

This speculated that had Aaron not escaped, Brad and Jenna wouldn't have involved the police and instead handled the cleanup themselves, but with a witness out there, they wanted to get ahead of the story. But having the police at the house where Bradley dealt drugs from made him trip up his story. He surrendered the gun he had used to kill the two kids to the police on arrival. When asked, what do you think the motive for robbing you was, he shared that he had a gun collection. While showing his guns, the police saw his pill staff.

So an officer was stationed with the drugs and guns, which Bradley may have seen that things were going to get only more complicated from there. Now, keep in mind, Bradley was initially being treated as a victim of home invasion. With these new items and development, the police asked if he had any additional weapons on him and then began to pat him down. The following detail he heard from another person who knew the officer that performed the pat down. Starting at Brad's ankles, there came a boom and what the officer said felt like rain,

which made him think to himself in the moment, why is it raining inside the house? Brad had a gun in his waistband and figuring the situation was only going to get worse from here on out, drew the gun and shot himself in the chin. Oh my God. Because now the local authorities were now witnesses to a new crime, state authorities had to take over the case. This brought the death toll to three with two surviving witnesses, Jenna and Aaron. Now the police had only the pills as drugs and for quite a while that was the only angle

they worked with. A few days later, a relative of Jenna and Brad recalled them, recalled while helping them move into the house, a room in the basement and tipped the police to its existence. This led the police to a hidden room where they had a marijuana growing room. Oh. Yeah, which isn't that big of a thing. It's not. I know.

Thank you. It's been known for years. Reading the article reminded me of some details and clarified others. For years when I would tell people I was from Blanchardville, people usually didn't know where that was. So I would say it's a small town known for a triple homicide, a bank scandal, and our high school girls basketball team making it to state three years in a row. Way to go, Blanchard, Wolverine, it's.

Blanchard. Anyway, I hope this sounded interesting. Let me know if you have any questions. So many questions. Or need anything clarified. I need life clarified. This need, yeah. Justin S.

Justin, I don't know who's side to be on. I don't know who's in the wrong. It's all victims in this one. There's no. Yes. Or it's all bad guys in this one. I can't figure it out. Yeah.

But I feel like if the, if the, him being a drug dealer, quote, unquote, was because he was growing a bunch of pot. As I drive down the street in Los Angeles and every other storefront is a weed store. It's tragic that anybody had to be killed or kill them or feel like they had to kill themselves. No, it's, it's a fucking hometown right there. Yeah. Great job.

Even though it was a bummer, it's a hometown. That's all we require. You're going to like this one. I think. Okay. Well, qualified. Okay. The subject line is an Epstein connection that goes all the way to the top.

Yes. An Epstein connection. I fucking love it. Let's do this. And could have put my dad in jail. Send us your Epstein connections. We'll do it anonymous. We won't tell anyone, like we won't say your name, make up any story you want about.

Okay. Ready? Hello, friends, both with and without fur ain't none of us here. Yeah. Really. It says mustaches included at the end of that, but I'm a massive fan of the show. I have a ton of creepy hometown stories because I spent most of my life in a pretty crime ridden city state.

I just, what, Florida, Baltimore. I also just recently got my master's in forensic psychology in Edinburgh, Scotland. So crime has kind of my thing to study not to do for the first time. I have direct connection to a current criminal case and it goes all the way to the top. All caps, exclamation point. It's a little long, but I promise it's worth it. My hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico has recently come into the media thanks to a literal piece of flaming garbage, Jeffrey Epstein, may he rot in hell if it exists.

This is all on the page. His massive ranch in the desert has been revealed as a place where he wanted to, quote, seed the human race by impregnating a bunch of women and doing fuck knows what. The other people you need to know about are the, for those who don't know, the family are one of the wealthiest in America and their patriarch grew his money in a lot of the family is estranged, but one of them was named in the court documents released about Epstein. Okay. So back in 2001, my dad who works in the spa and hotel industry was asked to do a, quote,

special favor for a personal friend of the family. He was asked to design a, quote, private spa with multiple, quote, treatment rooms and amenities at the New Mexico Ranch. Holy shit. He was told to work directly with, I don't know how to pronounce her name, Gizlaine Maxwell. And then parentheses Epstein's nightmarish partner and crime and ex-girlfriend to create a space where, quote, special friends could receive massages. There's so many quoted phrases in this email.

He was also asked to recommend female massage therapists to, quote, work special events at the ranch. Oh, pass. Hard pass. Yeah. Thankfully, after a lot of back and forth questioning, the project fizzled out. He then found out, I believe her dad, found out that the therapist had initially, he had initially recommended were rejected because they were, quote, not the type of therapist

they were looking for and, quote, Miss Maxmel wanted younger and more attractive women. The whole project never sat easy with my dad, but he had little to go off of other than a gut feeling until a few years later when he found out what Epstein had really been up to. Yes. All of this information has been available for over a decade and nothing has been done about it until now. My dad said he's so thankful he never contributed anything meaningful to the project or completed

any work, but of course he felt sick to have associated with these trash cans in any way. Had he not listened to his gut and asked questions, he potentially could have been witness to something horrific and I'm sure our lives would be very different. Stay sexy and don't build a spa for the leader of a pedophile ring, Jay. Holy shit. Yeah. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping and prepping handled, HelloFresh has you covered.

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That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast Killer Psyche Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds, psychopaths and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news.

I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent and criminal profiler. On Killer Psyche Daily, I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly arrested Stockton serial killer. I'll also bring on expert guests to dive deeper into the details, share what it's like to work with a behavioral assessment unit at Quantico, answer some killer trivia and even host virtual Q&As where I'll answer your burning questions. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast, Killer Psyche Daily in the Amazon Music app.

Download the app today. This is called Murdered by Snail and this one's from Pittsburgh. That's a slow murder. Well, wait till you hear this. This one's from Pittsburgh and you can tell because it says, for Georgia, Karen, Stephen, Feline, Cookie Monster, that's all this is, Yin's guys are so awesome, so Yin's a murderer Reno. That's up Pittsburgh.

Yin's guys are so awesome and I was truly questioning my own mental state being morbid and fucked up until I started listening to your podcast. So thanks for making me feel a bit more normal and a bit extra morbid. So here's my story. I grew up on military bases as my dad was a US Marine. I spent five years of my childhood on Kadina Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan, loving life on the tropical island. I was there from 1996 to 2001, putting me from six years old to 11.

Spending a large chunk of my childhood there was super cool, but also terrifying as islands such as this are home to some of the most fucked up bugs ever. When it would rain there, there would literally hundreds of thousands of these fat worms that would appear all over the streets and sidewalks and the smell of them being crushed under the tires of cars still haunts me today. No. Driving down the streets, you could look up and see monster spider webs and trees accompanied by banana spiders, which are nightmarish and huge and bite.

What, Steven? Steven, photo. Please. One time when we were on our way to a water park, a banana spider fell onto our car, crawled into our sunroof and down my mother's hair. This is, this better be a creepypasta because I'm getting very upset. It's not. I don't get creepypasta from this.

That's right. Her fucking hair. Anyway, to the point, in 2000, these craw, these massive snails appeared on the island. And African snails, to be exact. And let me tell you, these things were everywhere, from trees to cars to houses. If it was a surface, there was a big snail on it. Now, when I say giant, it's no exaggeration. These things were about three inches tall and eight inches or more long.

Oh, wow. Just sick, nasty, fucked up snails that have no business existing. A snail that's almost a foot long. Yeah. Being that I was a badass 10 year old, I didn't know this girl, but a seven year old from my school was walking home with a group of her classmates and neighbors when they began teasing her and dared her to pick up and hold one of these disgusting African snails for several minutes.

This young girl did exactly what any of us badass broads would have. She fiercely picked up that eight inch snail and let it climb from her hand up her arm before releasing it. Bravo, young warrior. But this is where shit gets weird. Later that night, that cute little girl fell into a coma. No one knew what the cause was, but it lasted for several days, ultimately leading to the poor thing's death.

Turns out these snails were infected with a parasite, which was transmitted to the little girl taking her life. We were all then urged strongly not to touch the snails, which I think everyone was comfortable with. I just think it's so fucked up that this sweet little girl who was just proving her bravery to smelly boys had to go in such a sad and unusual fashion. Moral of the story is don't pick up bugs, especially on foreign tropical islands. Stay sexy and don't get murdered by a snail.

P.S. that same year a poisonous Japanese snake killed my cat Arnold, so hold elbows close tonight and keep him away from snakes, please, Maria B. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fuck, Maria, what a bummer hometown. I'm so mad right now. Isn't it? But that's the creepiest thing I've ever heard. It's horrible. But also, I would just like to say this, if somebody dares you to do something, you absolutely

have the right to pick up the snail and throw it at the person daring you. This idea that she had to prove is a fallacy. And look, we're talking about kids, whatever, but I'm just saying that to anybody listening, don't always forget your option of fuck you. It's there and it's important. Stephen, are you going to show us a banana spider? This is a good one. This is the banana spider.

Let me see. Oh, no. There's a hand so you can see the size compared to something. Oh, fuck. There's yellow on it, and the legs are so long. Huge. I was picturing one of those nasty crab spiders, but this is like a spider spider. Oh, the coconut crab?

The coconut crab, but this is a fucking spider spider. This spider is so big, it's as big as a grown man's hand, but its legs are like, this looks like something out of a horror movie. It's awful. Yeah. This is so mad. We're going to need the fucking, this podcast will kill you, gals, to cover this African slug.

Okay. This is a short one. Okay. I won't say the subject line. People give it away. Hello, Georgia Karen, Stephen, and assorted fur babies. Just insist upon doing fur babies. I started listening, I just started listening about a month ago, and I love listening to

the stories you share. I've been a murderer in my entire life. I was an early reader, so in first grade, I began reading Nancy Drew, and my obsession with murder and mystery began. Yes. Loved Nancy Drew. So good. Loved those book covers.

Yeah. The best. I knew that I had to write in when a few days ago, my mom told me a new story about my uncle and his time spent in San Quentin. Oh, dear. That's where I'm from. San Quentin? My uncle, Don, moved to California in the late 80s to become a, quote, big star.

Oh, good. Apparently a few months after he arrived, he got into a violent bar fight and killed a man when he hit him with a bar stool. Don was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to three to 10 years in San Quentin. I knew all of this, but evidently he was assigned to the same cell block as the one and only Charles Manson. Charles Manson was transferred to Cochrane. My uncle had a similar hairstyle as Manson and resembled him pretty closely in the face

as well. Close enough that the men asked him if he and Manson were brothers. When asked, Don told my mom he would say, we might be related, but never claimed to be his brother outright due to fear that Manson might hear his claim, get angry, and have him shanked. Jesus. Essentially, he used Manson's prison cred to stay safe while in prison for the three years he served before being released for good behavior and overcrowding.

It's crazy to me that someone from West Virginia would end up using Charles Manson's prison rep to stay safe in prison, stay sexy, and don't murder anyone. Jenny. Yeah. Yeah. That's fucked up. Bar fights, man. Yeah.

Don't get anyone. So intense. You always see in these movies in bar fights, someone breaking a bottle or a chair over someone and it's like, they don't get up and keep fighting after that. Don't do that. You watch Roadhouse and you think it's a documentary and it's not. It's not. Quit kidding yourself.

Okay. First responder hometown. It says, we're all busy, so let's get to it. Hey, yay. I'm a police officer in Canada, not going to say where as we got to protect people's privacy. True. I train a lot of rookies because I'm apparently, quote, calm to the point that I'm not sure

she knows what's going on. That's written by my supervisor on my year end evaluation. Good for you, Kate. Calm to the point where I'm not sure she knows what's going on. I think she meant you're high. You seem high. That's an invaluable ability. Absolutely.

Unshakable just piece. That thing of like, are they paying attention to the paying attention and then they turn and they're like, here's all the attention I've been paying. Here's your Miranda rights recited correctly. I memorized them. I had been with one of my rookies for about a month when we got a call that one of our local bad guys had just shot himself in the head in front of his girlfriend. We got to the house and found the guy face down with the gun next to him and blood on

the floor. I told the rookie to go get the gun and the second he went to go walk over the body, it got up. Basically, it's a really hard way to write that sentence, but basically, because you're not going to say the body got up because that sounds weird, I want to walk over the body. There should be a comma there. It got up. Oh my God.

Kate. I need you to pay more attention and put a comma there. The man yelled, my head hurts. Oh, shit. My head hurts and my rookie was now writing the guy's back as he tried to get up. Turns out the bullet ended up ricocheting off the guy's skull. We managed to get him into an ambulance, which my rookie then got to drive as the medics were both working on the guy and I was holding him down.

Wow. My rookie was excited as he wasn't even allowed to drive the police car yet. After we got to the hospital, I asked my rookie if he was doing okay. He responded, better now. When he got up, I thought the zombie apocalypse had started. I reminded him that when dead people get up, they are not zombies and not to shoot them. Big thanks for the podcast and shining a light on the importance of therapy. Your podcast is greatly loved by all of us first responders.

Much love, Katie B. Wow, Katie. That is a horrifying story. That guy's got a nice survived. He's a nice survived and I'm very interested because that does happen sometimes. Well, yeah. Certain bullets. On I Survived, people get shot in the head and live.

It happens a lot more than I ever thought it would. But I wonder, I'm interested to see if that guy basically has a new lease on life. It's like you're the luckiest human being there is. What are you going to do now? Yeah. Now you have to become a first responder. Yeah. Get in that.

At least drive the ambulance for this poor town. Yeah. They only have two people. They don't want the rookie to do anything, twist and turns. Amazing. Ended with a nice survived. Yeah. Send your stories of survival and crazy shit happening and it doesn't have to be murder

related or crime related. It could be grandparent related. We just like great anecdotes, nice snappy stories about your family, friends, whatnot. Like wow stories that you tell at parties that are not creepypasta. Yeah. That's a real key ingredient. Key. We'll know.

Please. Yeah. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, you want a cookie?