Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Has a Secret Boyfriend // The David Kinney Murder Story

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

David Carl Kinney fatally shot his best friend and secret romantic partner, Brad McGarry, twice inside McGarry’s West Bellaire, Ohio home. To conceal their long-term homosexual affair.

So this guy is gay, or buy however you want to look at it. And it's about to cause him some problems. Now the guy's name is David, and David's around 23 when the story starts, and he's living in Ohio. And like a lot of us, David wants a good job with stable income. And that is when he decides he wants to work in the Ohio coal mines. Apparently, they pay, all right. So he enrolls in coal mining training classes. And he works really hard, like he shows up every day, and he like does.

all the training stuff, but then in 2011, his life changes forever. Because one day he's in class and that's when he meets this guy, Brad. Brad is about 10 years older than him, but David thinks he's a really cool dude. And pretty quickly they become friends and they like grab food together, they hang out after class, you know, just doing normal bro stuff. But the more time he spends with Brad, the more he starts thinking, Brad kind of fine. And it turns out,

Brad also thinks David kind of foin, and before long, they start smashing. Here's the thing about all this, though. David is actually married. He even has some young kids and some stepkids. Regardless, they keep smashing on the DL. And eventually, they both become full-blown coal miners, and they even end up working together. So sometimes after work, whenever they get the chance, David will head over to Brad's house, and they'll, like, hang out or hook up or whatever.

it is that coal miners do in their spare time. And this goes on for a while. But after some time, David starts running into a problem. He's spending so much time with Brad that his wife starts wondering where he keeps disappearing to. Like is he seeing other women or something? Well, David comes up with a way to get around that. He straight up introduces Brad to his family and he tells his wife that Brad is his co-worker and that they've become best friends and that they're going to be spending a lot of time together. And this works. David's wife welcomes Brad into their lives and so do their kids and before long Brad becomes a regular part of the family. He's like eating dinner with them a lot and they go on vacations together. They even celebrate holidays at each other's

houses. And so from that point on, David has the perfect excuse. Whenever he wants to see Brad, all he has to do is tell his wife that he's hanging out with his best friend and no one a thing. And this sneaky arrangement goes on for years. But then, over time, Brad starts to fall in love with David, and it starts weighing on him. And he decides he doesn't want to keep being a secret side chick anymore. He wants a real relationship with him. So he goes to David, and he tells him exactly how he feels, that he wants him to leave his wife and family and start a new life with him instead. Now, David does care about Brad, a lot, but not enough to give up his marriage or the heterosexual life that he's built and come out as gay or by, but at the same time, he doesn't

want Brad to leave him. So he tells him what he wants to hear. And he tells Brad that he loves him too, and that he's working toward leaving his wife. He says it'll happen one day in the future, don't you worry, and then we can finally be together. But of course, that day doesn't come. And David keeps making the same promise over and over and over again without ever following through. And eventually Brad reaches his breaking point. He's had enough. He can't keep waiting for this guy forever? So one day in 2017, after years of having this secret affair, he finally goes to David and he gives him an ultimatum. Either tell your wife the truth or I will expose this affair. And the moment he hears that, David starts freaking out. I mean, he knows if this secret gets out, it could

destroy his marriage and his reputation. I mean, what would the other coal miners think? And he's not about to let that happen. So he comes up with an idea to get rid of Brad for good. His plan is to invite Brad to hang out as usual and then just murder him and make it look like a burglary gone wrong. So he gets to work on this plan. And here is where the story gets dark. So David, he sends Brad a text telling him that he misses him and that they should meet at Brad's house the following day. And Brad is like sweet, because you know, he really wants to see him. So the next day, David shows up to Brad's house and we don't know a ton of the exact details, but at some point he pulls out a pistol and blam, blam, he shoots Brad and this, unfortunately, kills him. Then he moves on to the second part of his

plan. Make it look like Brad was killed during a burglary gone wrong. So he starts disorganizing the whole house and messing it up and he opens drawers and closet. and he makes it look as though someone had been searching through the place for valuables, but he doesn't actually steal anything. After that, he leaves and he goes home. Hours later, David gets this idea to return to Brad's house and pretend like he found the body. So he gets a weed eater,

and he tells his wife and daughter that they should all take a trip over to Brad's house and return this weed eater that he borrowed. So they all get into the car and they drive over to Brad's house, and when they arrive, they go inside and there they find Brad's body. And of course, David pretends to be all shocked and his wife calls 911. And pretty soon, police arrive and they start investigating. And from the looks of the crime scene, it looks like Brad was killed during a burglary gone wrong. But then,

as the investigation moves on, police realize something doesn't add up. Like the house looks all torn up and ransacked, but nothing valuable was taken. And that's when they conclude that this burglary was staged and that Brad's murder was likely planned. So they keep investigating, and they basically question everyone in Brad's life. They interview his friends and his co-workers and his family members, but no one knows anything. So police are still no closer to getting the killer, and it's starting to look like David really did just get away with murder. Until. Until this woman comes into the picture, Brad's cousin. So Brad's cousin is obviously devastated by his sudden death, and she's determined to figure out who killed him. And she remembers

something that turns out to be really important. The day Brad had died earlier that same day, he had told her and the rest of the family that he was going to spend the next day with his romantic partner, one he had been with for several years. But he never told them it was David. He simply referred to this partner as DJ. So Cousin starts thinking about who this DJ person might be. And she can't shake the feeling that whoever this DJ person is, he might have had something to do with Brad's murder. So she starts looking through Brad's social media, trying to figure out who DJ is. And eventually she discovers that DJ is actually David Jr., aka Brad's best friend David. And she immediately goes and she reports this to the police. And police start taking a much

closer look at David. And they start looking at his phone records, which place him at Brad's house around the time of the murder. Plus, they comb through all his messages, and that's when they discover the secret relationship that he had with Brad. And so, They arrest David. Here's his mugshot. And ultimately, he goes to trial, and he's found guilty, and he gets sentenced to life in prison.