Serialously with Annie Elise - 418: Man Obsessed with Sister-in-Law, GF Kills BF w/ Her Parents?, Mom & Son Kill & Dismember Husband

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

This week on Headline Highlights: An Oklahoma stepfather who impregnated his 11-year-old stepdaughter has been sentenced to life in prison. New court documents allege that three women attacked and fa...tally stabbed Texas mother of five Caroline Peña, and all three now face murder charges. More than six months after 20-year-old Ethan Vernon was found dead in a burned truck in Ohio, his girlfriend and her parents have been indicted in connection with his death. After a shocking discovery in an Illinois lake, a man’s brother and sister-in-law were arrested after investigators uncovered disturbing details about his death. And a shocking New York murder case has taken a disturbing turn after a beloved teacher was accused of killing his young sister-in-law inside their family home….If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow the show for weekly deep dives into the darkest true crime cases! To watch the video version of this episode, head over to youtube.com/@annieelise. .🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks..🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to both of my weekly true crime series 10 to Life & Serialously with Annie Elise wherever you get your podcasts on the Annie Elise Channel!🍎 Apple Podcasts | Where you can also unlock access to 100+ and growing extra exclusive deep dives.💚 Spotify🔴 YouTube🎙️ All Other Platforms.🚩 Announcements 🖤 Want more Annie? Check out our Summer deals on our Subscription plans today!🖤🔎 Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/annieelise🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3WpfSP8.📸 Follow Annie on Socials Instagram: @_annieeliseTikTok: @_annieeliseSubstack: @annieeliseFacebook: @10toLife.⭐SponsorsHelix: Go to http://helixsleep.com/serialously for 20% off sitewide, 25% off Luxe mattresses, and 30% off Elite mattresses.Our Place: Visit http://fromourplace.com/SERIALOUSLY and use code SERIALOUSLY for 10% off sitewide..👗 Shop Annie’s Must-Haves! ShopMY: bit.ly/AnnieElise_ShopMy Amazon: bit.ly/AnnieElise_Amazon.🫵🏻 Get Involved or Recommend a CaseAbout Annie: www.annieelise.comFor Business Inquiries: 10toLife@WMEAgency.com.📚 Episode Sources Abby Blabby | ABC New York | Help Honor Dalewayne Turner - GoFundMe | Illinois State Police | Justice for Ethan Vernon - GoFundMe | KATV | KBTX | KENS5 | KJRH - TV | KTUL | New York Post | People | WCIA | WV News••••••••••••••••••🚨Disclaimers1️⃣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me. 2️⃣ Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. 3️⃣ The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

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Starting point is 00:00:01 Hey, true crime besties, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialessly. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialessly with me, your host, Annie Elise. Happy Thursday. I hope all of you had a nice weekend, long weekend, if you celebrate the 4th of July and having a good week so far. Coming to you from New York once again, joined. No surprise.
Starting point is 00:00:47 Surprise, surprise. Amy of Arundale is here with us today. And if you're watching the video version of this, you've already known for about 45 seconds because it's one camera angle. And that's all we're working with back. I know. Yeah. Could you just get out of the frame and then scoot in?
Starting point is 00:01:05 So welcome back. Today we are going through everything breaking this week in the true crime world. As a reminder for any of you new listeners, the way it works over here on Serialistly is on Monday. day I do a full deep dive with you guys, pick a singular case, we go to the trenches of hell and research every single corner of it, do the full deep dive. And then on Thursdays, we come in, headline highlights together where we're breaking down everything happening in true crime. And let me just start by saying this before we get into today's cases. I have been receiving
Starting point is 00:01:41 thousands of tags, DMs, emails, messages, wanting my take on what's going on in Ohio right now, the House of Horrors. Here's what I will say. It is coming. It's not going to be today, but it might be tomorrow or it might be the next day. It's coming very, very soon. The thing is, because there are so many miners involved and because of the graphic nature of what happened there, and many of you may not be familiar with this, some of you might be, but I don't want to go off on a tangent too hard. But because of how sensitive this situation is, there is a lot of information that is not available to the public, such as body cam footage, certain not police reports, but certain affidavits. We'll leave it there.
Starting point is 00:02:29 So before I speak on it, we have been wanting to gather everything. So that's what we've been working on behind the scenes for over a week now. Sourcing interviews with people connected to the case, getting a lot of that information that is not public yet and going through it with a fine-tooth comb so that when I do speak on it, I can give you the whole story. And if you're like, Annie, I have no idea what case you're even talking about. Ohio, what, what are you even saying? Just wait. It's horrific. It's horrific. A few more days and it'll be ready for you. Okay. Now, before we jump in, I did want to share some exciting news with you guys because it's that time of year. I've already seen the messages start trickling in, but our annual subscription sale is
Starting point is 00:03:12 officially here. So if you've been on the fence or you've been thinking about joining our crime club, whether that's on Patreon because you're a video watcher. You want the episodes add free. You want more access. You want behind the scenes. You want vlogs, giveaways, our 24-7 group chat, all of the things. Now is the time. Also, if you are an Apple podcast listener and you just want every single episode completely ad-free plus bonus episodes, this is also for you. We only run this promotion once a year and it gives you our lowest pricing of the year, which is why I think so many people are asking like, when's it coming back? When's it coming back? well now it is and for my patreon users like i said you can choose the tier that's right for you
Starting point is 00:03:48 depending on which tier you join you'll get access to things like bt s content bonus content extra episodes our 24-7 group chat giveaways merch discount so much more and for all of my apple podcast listeners you can subscribe through one click of a button on annie elise plus right in the apple podcast app just open up the show page click the button and you will get all the bonus content over there the extra episodes which we have like over a hundred right now plus every episode ad-free, which I know you guys hate ads, so this is the way to get around all of that. However, the deal will not last for long. We only offer this discount once a year, and it expires very soon. So if you've been on the fence, now is the time to, you know, jump in
Starting point is 00:04:29 head first. Head to patreon.com slash Annie Elise to join on Patreon, especially if you are more of a video consumer. Or if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, simply open the show page and tap the Annie Elise Plus subscribe button. More content, more access. and no ads. Sounds pretty good, right? So go sign up. It's ending soon. You're welcome. I want to start with this because this first case that we're going to talk about is actually a quick little update to a case that I already have talked with you about. It's been a little bit of time. I first discussed it back in, gosh, September of 2025. So some of you are OGs and may be familiar. Some of you who are brand new listeners may not know the backstory. So I'll give you a little bit
Starting point is 00:05:12 of a recap, but it's an update that I know a lot of you have been waiting for, and so I wanted to just at least touch on it because this case was absolutely devastating from the very beginning. So like I said, I originally covered this back in September of last year, but it all started in August of 2025 in Oklahoma, and this was after an 11-year-old little girl had been rushed to the hospital because she had just given birth. She had delivered a baby at home with absolutely no medical care, no support, nothing. And when the investigator started looking into what happened, not only how did this 11-year-old little girl get pregnant, but why did she deliver this baby at home? Why did she not have access to a health care team to anything to protect not only herself,
Starting point is 00:05:56 but the baby as well? What they found was that this entire time she had been living in what they described as, quote, horrific conditions. The home had no running water. It had animal feces all throughout it. And then six children living there ranging from two years old to 11 years old. All of them living there under those conditions, most without clothes and without basic necessities. Now, at first, the girl's parents tried to claim that they had no idea that she was even pregnant. They had no idea how she got pregnant, they had no idea who the father was, they, you know, just neglectful and had no insight into anything. She hadn't seen a doctor in over a year. She had no prenatal care, nothing. However, as investigators started looking into what was happening, as it always does,
Starting point is 00:06:44 the truth started coming to light. A DNA test was done, and it showed that there was a 99.9% chance that 35-year-old Dustin Walker, who, by the way, was this little girl's step. was the biological father of this child. Investigators also said that the girl's mother, Sherry and her grandmother, Michelle, either knew about this pregnancy or should have known about the pregnancy and more than that, what was happening inside that home. The grooming, the assault, everything happening at the hands of the stepfather against this 11-year-old little girl, which when you do the math and break that down, who knows how far back it truly started, but even just the pregnancy itself, she would have most likely been 10 years old when she conceived. And I say
Starting point is 00:07:33 conceived as, you know, just the medical term, but you guys get what I mean. So prosecutor said that they later even learned that her grandmother was telling people that the baby's father was supposedly a 12-year-old boy that she used to babysit, saying, oh, no, this other little 12-year-old boy used to come to the house. We would babysit them together. They must have been exploring and, you know, what's the word I'm looking for. Not exploring. I'm experimenting. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:08:02 And, you know, he's the father. But obviously, in those declarations, knowing that her granddaughter was pregnant. So once investigators pieced everything together, the arrests, of course, came pretty quickly. Dustin, her mom and the grandmother were all arrested on August 23, 2025. Dustin was charged with child sexual abuse. child neglect. Her mother was charged with child neglect and her grandmother was charged with six counts of child neglect. Now, as if that wasn't shocking enough, her mother was also pregnant with
Starting point is 00:08:38 her seventh child at the time when all of this came to light. And now, the reason I'm doing the update now is because 10 months later, we finally have a major update. On June 29th, Dustin was sentenced to life in prison. This is after he pleaded guilty back in March, to the charges that he was facing and more than that, the abuse of a child under the age of 12. Walker faces one count of felony sexual abuse and six counts of felony child neglect. His attorney, Ben Hillfiger,
Starting point is 00:09:08 says they entered a blind plea, meaning there was no agreement beforehand with the state. Normally we will have a plea agreement when we go to plea our clients, but in this case, I didn't feel there was one that we could get that would be useful or helpful in any way. So Dustin took, what is called a blind plea.
Starting point is 00:09:27 And we don't really hear about these too often, but they do happen. Usually when someone takes a plea, it's in exchange for something, whether that's the death penalty being removed from the table, a lighter sentence, whatever it may be. However, a blind plea is not that. It means that there is no plea agreement in place when he pleaded guilty. And on top of the life sentence that he received, he was also sentenced to an additional 27 years for the other six charges that involved the other children who were living. in this horrific home and under these conditions. And the judge ordered that each of these sentences
Starting point is 00:10:00 run consecutively, which means that Dustin will serve the 27 years for all of the child neglect charges first before his life sentence even begins. Now, as for the mom and the grandmother, they each pleaded not guilty back when this case first started. So their cases, they're still moving slowly through the court system. So I will definitely keep an eye on those, let you know where all of that shakes out. But at least this monster is locked up. put away. I'm hopeful that the mom and the grandmother are also going to be equally held accountable when their time comes because, I mean, when you think about it too, obviously this was something, in my opinion, that was ongoing for years. And the fact that there were also so many other
Starting point is 00:10:43 children living in the home, who's to say that there were not actions like that against those children and that that may have even been the goal? And we've, like, I'm so, and I get it, he's the stepdaddies, not the biological father. But I am so sick of these, like, incestual cases that we have been talking about lately. Not only the incestual cases, but also these people around that are watching this happen and are aware of it and not saying anything. I know. It's disgusting. I know. I don't understand. I know. It's bad. All right, this next one is actually an update to a case that I covered last week during headline highlights regarding the murder of Caroline Peña. And Caroline, if you remember, was a mother of five from Del Rio, Texas, which is a small town outside the border of Mexico, who was stabbed to death in broad daylight, originally was thought to have happened in this intersection near a sonic drive-through.
Starting point is 00:11:37 Police had arrested three women in connection with the attack, 21-year-old Kitty Mia Diaz, her 19-year-old sister Amaya Cookie Diaz, and 21-year-old Keandra Renee Fazz. And at the time, though, if you remember, there were a lot of unanswered questions regarding what actually happened and what the motive was and how this all kind of came to be. Well, some new details have come out in a probable cause affidavit, and it's giving us a much clear picture of what actually unfolded that day. According to the newly released information, officers were dispatched around 2.10 p.m. on June 25th after Caroline had shown up to the Valverde Regional Medical Center, suffering from multiple states. dab wounds. Witnesses had told police that she had been attacked at a home just five minutes away from the hospital, and that's where this investigation took a major turn. Investigators went to the home, and there they actually found surveillance from a camera that had captured the entire attack. And on this surveillance footage, Caroline was seen driving up to the house in a black Dodge pickup truck.
Starting point is 00:12:43 Then just a few minutes later, Kitty and Amaya pulled up in a black Chrysler 300. Police say that Amaya got out of the passenger seat holding what they believe was a knife before confronting Caroline. Investigators allege that she then stabbed Caroline in the back and almost immediately there was blood on the back of her shirt. Now from there, police say the surveillance footage shows Kitty and Keandra getting out of the car, rushing over and beating Caroline before all three women got back into the car and then drove away. After the attack, Caroline was then taken to the hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries and passed away. Now, investigators were able to track that car that Kitty, Amaya, and Keandra were in back to a home about two miles away. And by the time the officers got there, they say that Kitty and Amaya had already changed their clothes.
Starting point is 00:13:36 And in fact, one of the shirts was found inside of a washer. Both women had appeared to have just showered as well because their hair was still wet when the police got there. So obviously they were trying to clean something up. They were both arrested and Kandra was arrested shortly after. All three were charged with murder and held on a $5 million bond. Now, investigators believe Amaya was the one that was holding the knife, but all three women were facing charges because under Texas law, which I actually love this law,
Starting point is 00:14:05 someone who helps encourages or participates in a deadly crime can be charged as the same person who's accused of actually causing those fatal injuries, which we've heard this before. After getting a search warrant for the home, investigators say they found Kitty's pink halter-style crop top sitting inside the washing machine. Real clever. It actually reminds me of someone which I want to talk to you about.
Starting point is 00:14:28 Yes, exactly. Say less. Exactly. And because of that, Kitty has now been hit with an additional charge of tampering with physical evidence. But still, for the motive, they still don't understand. That is the missing piece and they don't understand. The affidavit says that Keandra told investigators that Caroline showed up her house looking for a fight,
Starting point is 00:14:50 but police haven't confirmed exactly what led up to that confrontation or how these women, in fact, knew each other if all three did know her. According to the Del Rio police chief, investigators are working through a good amount of possible motives and are making sure every lead is fully investigated before drawing any formal conclusions. but at this point, the police don't expect any other additional arrests. Kitty, Cookie, and Kandra are still each being held on those $5 million bonds. And Kitty is also facing that additional $50,000 bond on the tampering with evidence charge. So while investigators now know how this attack happened, they still don't exactly understand why or, again, any of the additional details. But it does sound like there's quite a bit of information out there and that they're going through it.
Starting point is 00:15:39 So the answers will come about. my question was who took her to the hospital. Like, was there another fourth person? Did she have time to call or? Right, because then witnesses at the hospital say they saw what happened. Yeah. I want to know who owns the house that they pulled up in front of or was it a random house. Do they know each other? Or was this road rage where then Caroline say followed them, not making it okay, obviously. But like, because how they're saying she was looking to start a fight, like got pissed because of road rage and then like pulled over. at a house or I don't know, like, which maybe that's not it at all. Maybe they do know each other and maybe at the time of this episode releasing, even more information will be out. But I do, like, I'm curious what that connection is if they really knew each other or not. And I actually don't think, I don't stand by my theory from last week. What was your theory? That it was maybe a gang thing. Oh, yeah. It doesn't really sound like that. Yeah. It does sound like they were kind of, I don't know if the word hunting is the right word, but it's like you get out of the car with a knife already.
Starting point is 00:16:38 and then you have like backup? Well, I mean, backup, they could have all three, but it was in the middle of the day. They could have all three to spend like not joyriding, but like even if they went to Sonic to pick up food or something, not like intentionally having backup. But yeah, I wonder what the connection is. That's interesting.
Starting point is 00:16:55 And who took her to the hospital? Yeah. You guys know that I am such a creature of habit, literally routine, habit, all the things. And when I find something that actually works, I stick with it. That's why I've been eating turkey sandwiches my whole life. But that's also exactly how it's been with Helix because we have had our Helix mattress for years now.
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Starting point is 00:18:21 That's helixsleep.com slash serialously. And don't forget to enter our show name after checkout so that they know we sent you. You guys know that I am constantly juggling work, the kids, recording, and trying to get an actual dinner on the table without creating a mountain of dishes is basically not the vibe and impossible. So lately, I discovered and have been reaching for are place products. You may have heard of them, you may have seen them on your feed, and let me just tell you the truth, because they really make life so much easier. The always pan is probably their
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Starting point is 00:19:31 today. Visit from our place.com slash serialously and use code serialously for 10% offsite wide. That's F-R-R-M-O-U-R-P-L-A-C-E dot com slash S-E-R-I-A-L-O-U-S-L-Y and use code seriulously for 10% off-site-wide. Plus, with a 100-day trial, you can try it completely risk-free. Okay, so this next case, it's one that isn't brand new. However, it is making a ton of headlines right now because there has been a very big turn of events. And when I first read about these updates, I almost couldn't believe it, but I'm so happy that they finally have some like forward momentum going. But back on December 11th, 2025, 20-year-old Ethan Vernon left work to go visit his girlfriend, 24-year-old Sarah Haining. This was at her home in Athens, Ohio. Now, it wasn't supposed to be anything out of the ordinary. However, later that night, Ethan never made it back home. By the next morning, his mom, Glenna, knew that something just was not right. So she started calling hospital. law enforcement agencies, friends, people that they knew just trying to figure out where her son was. Then, while searching online, she came across a Facebook post about a pickup truck that had been found
Starting point is 00:20:55 burned on the side of the road about 12 miles from his girlfriend Sarah's house. So the authorities went out. They wanted to check out this truck, see where it was, see what was going on, and when they started looking a little bit closer, they made a heartbreaking discovery because there was a body inside this truck. The body was so badly burned that it couldn't be identified at the scene. So because of that, DNA testing was done. And after 11 weeks, the testing confirmed that the burned remains belonged to Ethan. Now, his family had said at the time that they already knew,
Starting point is 00:21:27 or at least had that gut feeling that it was Ethan, just heartbreaking, kind of that feeling of losing hope and just knowing in your gut that that is your loved one. And his mom even said, we knew, but we didn't want to believe it. According to investigators, Ethan's body was found in the backseat of the truck, and there was a gun in the front seat of the truck.
Starting point is 00:21:48 Now, unfortunately, because this fire had caused so much damage, the medical examiner could not determine exactly how Ethan died. Investigators said that the circumstances were suspicious, yes, but at the time, there wasn't enough evidence to officially call it a homicide. With a gun in the front seat, it could have possibly been self-harm. It could have been something else. it was too difficult to get the manner of death, cause of death, everything just kind of rolling into one. So the detectives got to work. And over the next several months, they served more than 50 search warrants.
Starting point is 00:22:21 They also collected cell phones, online account records, went door to door talking with people in the area, looking through as much CCTV footage as they could find in the area, and just really trying to build not only a timeline, but figure out who was he last with, where was he last seen, is there anything suspicious on survey? and try to piece together what truly happened to Ethan. Meanwhile, Ethan's family never stopped believing that somebody was responsible for this, that this was a homicide. They knew that this wasn't an accident. They knew that this wasn't self-harm.
Starting point is 00:22:53 It just wasn't possible. Well, now, more than six months later, police say that they have finally reached a huge turning point in their investigation. And this is what I had to, like, go back and double check because I couldn't even believe that I was reading this right. But on July 1st, authorities executed a search warrant at a home in Athens. And when they did, they took three people into custody. Ethan's girlfriend, Sarah, her dad, 65-year-old Randy, and her 63-year-old mother, Beverly.
Starting point is 00:23:25 Wow. I know. A grand jury indicted all three of them on multiple felony charges, including murder, arson, tampering with evidence, gross abuse of a corpse, and obstructing. justice. Now, according to prosecutors, Sarah, his 24-year-old girlfriend, she was indicted on 49 counts in total. 44 of those were for repeatedly giving false information to the investigators so that she could hinder the investigation. She was also charged with destroying or concealing physical evidence, tampering with evidence, arson, gross abuse of a corpse, and murder. Her dad, Randy, was indicted on 11 counts, while her mom Beverly was indicted on 9. So like I said,
Starting point is 00:24:08 they were charged with a slew of things, all three of them. Investigators, I will say this, though, still haven't said exactly what they believe happened to Ethan or what evidence led them to these indictments. So there's still, while there is forward movement, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered. But after months of waiting, Ethan's family is finally one step closer to getting those answers and hopefully getting the justice that they've been looking for. It's just figuring out what happened. How did, why would his girlfriend be involved? How did she enlist her parents to potentially help her with this and help with the cover up?
Starting point is 00:24:46 What truly went on? And you know what? There's going to be a digital trail no matter what. Because I think that young kids are stupid enough to where they're going to Google things. Her search history, I'm sure is probably riddled with things. Text history, who knows. But also, I would imagine, while some adults are, savvy and smart. If this was a quick cover-up because it's not a calculated murder,
Starting point is 00:25:09 they're boomers, you know, they're not going to be savvy enough to not know to, like, do a single Google search. So I'd imagine, especially with this many charges, that they have a lot of evidence, it's just a matter now of piecing together. Why, not even what happened, but like, why did this happen? Was he lured there? Was it an accident? Then they tried to cover it up to protect their daughter so that she didn't, like, lose the rest of her life, you know? But, my point is I'm happy that Ethan's family finally has some answers, although that's got to be a devastating blow to know that this was, yeah, that this was so close to home. And it was his own girlfriend and her parents involved. But I will definitely be following this closely. And I'll let you know
Starting point is 00:25:50 as soon as we have updates. I'm curious to know because it took a while for them to make that arrest. And if there's all this, these charges and perhaps evidence, like what took so long was, were they not even, do she not on the radar at all? And then something came forward or have they been looking at her the whole time? I'm sure they've been looking at her for a while because the fact that they're saying so many of those charges are from multiple false statements and lying to the police to hinder the investigation. I'd imagine she had been interviewed probably multiple times. And conflicting stories maybe. Yeah. And in the grand scheme of things, what, that's six or seven months. It's long, but it's not like a crazy amount of time when you
Starting point is 00:26:29 think about it because they are gathering evidence and they want a rock solid case and to charge three people. It's like you want to make sure that your stuff is like concrete. But I guess we'll figure out the why soon. What are these family coverups? Family ties. Yeah. Okay. This next one, I'm not just saying this.
Starting point is 00:26:49 This is like out of a horror movie. It doesn't even feel real. And it's one that we saw a lot of DMs coming in. And actually we have a team member that lives very close to this area and has said this is unfortunately not the first case of this happening. This all started as one family's relaxing summer vacation and like I said ended in what feels like a horror movie. On the evening of June 28th, people enjoying a summer day at Lake Matun in Illinois spotted what looked like part of a human arm floating in the water. Now, at first they thought it was maybe a dead fish and they were going to move it away from their boat. But as they got closer, they saw that it was actually a man's arm.
Starting point is 00:27:31 I'm like getting the visual right now of looking over the boat and thinking it's like, what's that fish? Like a bass, like a big fish floating. Well, wait until you hear how they figured out it was an arm. Okay. Oh, my dad handed me an oar from the boat and he said, hey, there's some dead fish coming by. Why don't you get those away from us? I said, okay. But after getting a closer look, I was like, I don't, something's not right.
Starting point is 00:27:53 And I got looking closer and I saw the tattoo. One of the boaters, Sammy Flynn, immediately called 911 and the marina. dispatchers told her to use an or to keep the arm from floating away until the authorities arrived. So imagine you're with your family on a boat and those are the instructions given all while this is probably very shocking. Sammy later said that that whole thing felt unreal like something you would have seen in a movie that you could never even imagine happening and listen to her account here. Unreal. You see it in movies, you see it happen to other places, but not this close and not to you. or your family and friends that are with you.
Starting point is 00:28:33 I don't know if, you know, it'll be a while before we come back to this lake, because this is one of the lakes that my mom and her friend, they take this boat out on the lake, this lake a lot. So it may be a while before that happens. Investigators found Sammy and her group on the water and quickly noticed two distinctive tattoos on the arm, one showing a skeleton holding a Green Bay Packers helmet and another, which was made up.
Starting point is 00:29:01 of either letters or numbers. The next day, Illinois State Police released photos of these tattoos, hoping that somebody would recognize them and they would be able to help identify the victim. And amazingly, it did not take long. Within just a couple of days, the authorities confirmed that the remains belonged to 38-year-old Del Wayne Turner of Plainfield, Illinois. Then almost as soon as they figured out who the victim was,
Starting point is 00:29:26 the investigation took another shocking turn. On July 1st, authorities arrived, arrested 26-year-old James Adam and 62-year-old Robin Turner, and they were both formally charged with concealment of a homicide and dismembering of a human body. And investigators have already said they're expecting additional charges to be filed as this investigation continues. Now, first, a lot of people were wondering how these two suspects were connected to Delwain, and some early reports even say that Robin was his mother. But on July 4th, James' cousin, Chris tried to clear up the rumors in a Facebook post.
Starting point is 00:30:04 And actually, there's a lot of stuff on Facebook in these community posts. According to Crystal, James was Del Wain's younger brother. She said that after their own mother was murdered 12 years ago, Del Wain became James' legal guardian. She also made it clear that Robin was not Delwain's mother, but was actually, get this, his wife, despite their significant age difference.
Starting point is 00:30:27 So, Del Wain is a reminder, 38, Robin, 60. Okay, let me make sure I'm following this. James is the 26-year-old. So it was James 26 and Robin 62 who murdered and dismembered him. Del Wayne was James, yeah, but it was James's older brother and legal guardian because their mother was murdered years ago. And then his, so it was basically his wife and his son brother. Son brother. Wow.
Starting point is 00:30:57 Is that because there was a relationship with the son brother and the mom? Well, well, well, 26 and 62, come on. No, I know. It's wild. I like an older man, but like, and Jared's younger than me. Have you seen the photos? No. You need to see the photos. I'm going to Google the photos.
Starting point is 00:31:13 Keep going. I talk while I Google the photos. So Crystal, Del Wayne's cousin, said that Delwain was last seen during the first week of June and that the family still has no idea how his remains ended up in Lake Matoon. Investigators also recovered additional evidence from the first. the home where Robin lived that they believe is connected to the case, although they haven't said exactly what it is that they found. I don't like it. I got the pictures. Okay. No, I know. Here's the thing, though. I will say this, and we'll obviously have the photos on screen for
Starting point is 00:31:43 those of you watching YouTube. Let me describe it for the audio listeners. It's not as bad as I thought. Really? I mean, it's not good. It's not good. But it's not as bad as I thought. The 62-year-old woman, She has what looks to be platinum blonde hair right around to like her mid chest area. She looks 62, but not like a hard 62. Are we looking at the same photo? Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm just being a little nice, I guess. And then he looks kind of just like. No, he looks like an average guy.
Starting point is 00:32:12 Your average Doug Dynasty kind of guy. Right? Yeah, I mean, yeah, he doesn't. You think she looks like a rough 62? Maybe because I've been looking at all the photos from the Ohio House of Horace. Maybe that is a rough. evil to me. She does look a little evil and like trying to be young, I guess.
Starting point is 00:32:26 Mean people look older. They do. That's why we look so nice. Okay. It's the Botox. I still think 26 and 62 is crazy. No, I know. I can't even imagine.
Starting point is 00:32:40 Yeah. So for now, both Robin and James are in custody while investigators are continuing to piece together what happened to Delwain. And like I said, authorities are expecting there to be more charges based on the evidence. Del Wayne's family has since made a statement saying that he was somebody with a huge personality and an even bigger love for the Chicago Bears. They said he was always the loudest person cheering the games and making people laugh and was the kind of person that would always go out of his way to help people who needed it. Hey guys. Okay, I'm recording this after we filmed the
Starting point is 00:33:15 episode for this week, but wanted to give you an update that just came out in this case because it is truly wild and unbelievable. So court documents have now been released and they give us a much clear picture of what investigators believe happened to Del Wayne. According to those documents, police made the biggest break in this case on the night of June 30th when a man called into the Illinois State Police and told them that his half-brother James Adams and his sister-in-law, Robin Turner, had just confessed to killing and dismembering Del Wayne. He told investigators that James admitted, quote, I killed Dale. He is in the freezer. And when detectives interviewed him, he said that James and Robin claimed Delwain had been
Starting point is 00:33:52 physically violent a couple of weeks earlier. James allegedly said that he grabbed a knife and stabbed Delwain multiple times killing him. And according to the witness, James and Robin then decided to dismember Delwain's body, put it in a freezer, and later dumped most of the body parts in Lake Matune. So it was that 911 call that is what actually set everything in motion on that case. Now, as we talked about earlier, investigators had already started looking into this case after Delwain's arm was found floating in Lake Mattoon, but these new court documents say that it wasn't just the arm that was recovered from the water. Over the next couple of days after that, authorities actually found several black trash bags full of human remains in the lake, as well as weights and concrete
Starting point is 00:34:38 that investigators believe were used to keep those bags underwater. So as investigators were working on trying to figure out how these body parts ended up there, it was actually surveillance footage and license plate reader cameras that helped them piece together what happened. Police say that James was caught on surveillance at a Walmart in Mattoon buying weights, duct tape, and a change of clothes before putting on those new clothes in the store bathroom and throwing the old ones away in a dumpster. Detectives also say surveillance from a Menards showed James and Robin buying 20 bags of concrete just a few days earlier and license plate reader cameras track their truck heading towards
Starting point is 00:35:17 Lake Matoon with large tote bins in the bed. Those bins were later found abandoned in a ditch less than a mile from the lake. Then, get this, when investigators searched the family's home, they found Delwain's head, neck, and torso still inside a freezer that had allegedly been sealed shut with duct tape, covered with a blanket, and weighed down with cinder blocks. They also said they found blood-like stains throughout the entire home, Delwain's cell phone inside the truck, and it looked like parts of the home had even been recently remodeled. Police also searched Robin's phone, where investigators say they found text messages
Starting point is 00:35:54 between her and James talking about cleaning supplies. According to these court documents, one message from Robin said, Be sure to fully delete everything. Detectives also said they found Google searches dating back to as early as June, including things like, asking if you can die from different kinds of overdoses.
Starting point is 00:36:14 Do you have a body? body embalmed and concrete makes her. So when Robin was questioned, she said that on June 30th, James told her that he and Delwain had had a fight about sports cards a few days ago, and Delwain said that he was going to stay with a friend. She told investigators that when she came home, he was gone, but that she did notice a faint smell of bleach throughout the house. James told her that he had stabbed Del Wayne multiple times and put his body in the freezer. And when James was questioned, all he said was, the one thing I'll say is that I did it, but I did it out of self-defense. I will tell you guys that. So at this point, James and Robin are still in custody on charges of
Starting point is 00:36:56 concealment of a homicide and dismembering of a human body. But again, investigators say that more charges are expected to come as the case moves forward. So we will certainly keep you updated as we learn more and hopefully we will get some more answers on the motive to this crazy crime. That's really sad. I mean, Chicago's bear fan, yes, but also he had a Packers tattoo. So pick a team. No, I'm just kidding. Well, so it's interesting because they say they don't know how his remains ended up there.
Starting point is 00:37:27 So I'm sure that's part of the evidence they're collecting is. They probably threw him in the lake. Yeah, but they're not from that area. So like, or he was, he wasn't seen since the first week of June. and this was the end of June. And is it confirmed that son, brother, and wife were romantically connected? Okay, so that's just me speculating. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:48 But still, if they were not romantically connected, what on earth would motivate you both to team up against him and kill him unless... There is a romantic. No. He's what? Money? They're going to split the life insurance. Well, and I was just thinking, yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:04 I mean, once this all uncovers, it'll be interesting to see. what actually happened and what the manner of death is. But I mean, and what an ultimate betrayal it was because if he was aware of what was happening and if there were secrets uncovered, like this could be huge. I know. But so sad.
Starting point is 00:38:21 And who knows, if there's other situations happening in that area, I mean. Well, while we're on the topic of betrayal. Okay. Let me tell you about this next case. Because this next case is right in our backyard,
Starting point is 00:38:36 at the moment, and it's one that has left a family completely shattered. It is so awful and it makes me physically ill thinking about it. So on Monday morning, June 29th, around 8.45 a.m., 9-1-1 dispatchers received a call from a 31-year-old man named Joseph Horner. He was asking for an ambulance for a, quote, dead woman inside his home. Now, when first responders arrived, they found 25-year-old Victoria Castle unresponsive. They immediately started CPR before, then rushing her to the hospital.
Starting point is 00:39:10 Unfortunately, though, she was pronounced dead less than an hour later. Now, Victoria wasn't a stranger. She wasn't a friend. She was Joseph's sister-in-law. And she lived in the downstairs apartment of the house, while Joseph and his wife lived upstairs. Now, I don't know the exact layout of the house, but for anyone who's unfamiliar with New York,
Starting point is 00:39:29 and again, this may not even be logistically the setup. But oftentimes, if you're in a brownstone or a version of, there is like a redone downstairs apartment level in the basement level that you can either rent out mother-in-law quarters things like that when i first moved to new york i rented out the whole bottom floor of like a lovely couple who owned the actual house and so it's not uncommon and this was also family so it's not like they were renting it out to a stranger so i'm just trying to paint the visual of like what the setup could have looked like so anyway as i said joseph and his wife lived upstairs and Victoria, the sister-in-law lived downstairs.
Starting point is 00:40:07 Family and friends described Victoria as incredibly bright, lovely, sweet, beautiful. She was a PhD student at Stony Brook University. She was studying geosciences and just had her entire life ahead of her. And as for Joseph, he was a tenured elementary school music teacher in the Oceanside School District, who, according to the district, he was really well liked by both students, co-workers, faculty, all of the people. He had been married to Victoria's sister for three years, and he seemed like a pretty normal guy. But investigators say that what happened that morning was anything but an accident. According to prosecutors, Joseph told the police that his wife was away on a bachelorette party.
Starting point is 00:40:49 So he had asked Victoria to come up to their level of the house and help him move a piano in the upstairs area of the home. However, once she was there, he allegedly grabbed her from behind, put her in a chokehold until she lost consciousness, took off her clothes, and then sexually assaulted her. Then he called 911 on himself, changed clothes, and waited for the police to arrive. Now, here's where it gets wild as we get into motive and what really transpired, because prosecutors say that Joseph admitted everything at the scene to the investigators. He didn't try to lie. He didn't try to say it was some stranger who came in and burglarized a house or attacked her. He admitted to everything. They also said that this was not something that just was a crime of passion and happened on impulse. Prosecutors allege that Joseph had been obsessed with Victoria since 2017, which that was just a year after meeting her and his now wife. He said that he used the opportunity of his wife being away on that bachelorette party to finally act. on these very sick urges that he felt toward Victoria. And you may have seen this in your feet already being dubbed as the obsessed brother-in-law case.
Starting point is 00:42:04 But think about that. He marries this woman all the while, marries her after becoming fixated on Victoria. After meeting Victoria and his wife still goes forward with marrying Victoria's sister all the while while being fixated and obsessed with Victoria, then offering to have her live in the home with you, probably watching her, stalking her.
Starting point is 00:42:25 Who knows if he, like, kept tabs on her, watched her shower, went through her underwear drawer. And look, none of this is proven. I'm just saying, like, somebody who like that who's like building up these urges and they're festering to where then he finally acts, clearly there must have been some escalation going on in the last years. When you're such an intimate, when you're living with someone, you're around their laundry, like you said, everything.
Starting point is 00:42:46 So you see all of their behaviors. It's so incredibly sick. And imagine not that she should feel any sort of. of guilt whatsoever, but imagine what her sister is feeling in these moments. Like her sister killed by her own husband because he was sexually fantasizing about her. He couldn't, he wanted to act on these impulses and these urge it. Like, it's so devastating and tragic. So Joseph was arrested on scene and he was charged with second degree murder. He has since pleaded not guilty and he's being held without bail. But if convicted, he is facing 25 years to life in prison. After his arrest,
Starting point is 00:43:23 Oceanside School District announced that he had been placed on administrative leave effective immediately. Meanwhile, Victoria's loved ones are left grieving the loss of this young, beautiful woman whose life, bright future, education, everything was ripped away from her and just tragically cut short, selfishly cut short. That, I mean, there's so many things that are terrible there, but your betrayal is how you started. But yeah, could you imagine you come home from your trip after being with your friends. And then it's like you found out not only that this terrible thing happened, you lost your sister, but that your husband was at his hands.
Starting point is 00:43:58 And he planned this whole thing. And also, you had all this time to like come up with this plan. And your best plan was come help me move a piano. I mean, not that that's relevant, but I just figure like he's so sloppy about it. It feels like this was something he clearly had been thinking about, but just not well thought through. It also doesn't really sound right now, at least, that there's any remorse. The fact that he admitted to it right away said this is something that I was going to act on. It seems like it's like one of those things where like, I hate to sound so crass, but like all he was thinking with was his dick.
Starting point is 00:44:33 And like he was going to do this no matter what. And maybe he didn't intentionally mean to kill her. Maybe he was doing that until she lost consciousness so that he could act out the assault and then it went too far. Who knows? And then that's why he called the police or maybe he did have her intention to kill her. I don't know. it's disgusting. That's wild. Yeah. Okay. So now before we wrap up the episode, we are going to do our phone booth, confess to your BFF slash ask for advice. As a reminder, if you are brand new and you
Starting point is 00:45:04 haven't listened to one of these when we were at crime con a couple of months ago, when we weren't at the booth, we set up a phone where you could leave a message and either leave a confession or ask for advice. And so at the end of each headline highlights episode, we have been playing one of those and responding appropriately. So let's go ahead and play it. Hi, Annie and Amy. This is Shamy. Met you here at CrimeCon. It was amazing. You guys are incredible, of course, beautiful, but incredible and so nice in person. The cases I cannot get over, like unbelievable, are the two Michaela's, the one, of course, with her dad, raping her and torturing and all that stuff. And then how he gets off. Like, how is that possible with her committing suicide? It should be more proof.
Starting point is 00:45:52 Anyway, that just is so heartbreaking and unbelievable. And the other Michaela as well. And I love your information and your whole entire serial usly and tend to life. Bye. I remember this person. She was a volunteer at CrimeCon, super sweet. And she she came out to our booth like during one of her breaks because she was so excited to meet you. Yeah. I'm just going to say this. I agree with all of your sentiments. And I know this isn't an ask advice or confess, but I agree with you.
Starting point is 00:46:28 That is a case that I have not been able to stop thinking about either. We talked about it a little bit last week, how it was basically a slap on the wrist. And for those of you who aren't familiar with this case, go listen to the episode last week, last Thursday. You'll hear all about it. It is disgusting. This father is a predator. he, I don't want to even say had sex. He sexually assaulted his own biological daughter for four hours in such a violent, horrific, and brutal way that she had to be physically carried into the ER by her uncle.
Starting point is 00:46:59 Then he tried to claim that it was consensual. He had been feeding her booze all night that they both agreed to this, which, hi, when you're under the influence and you're underage, you cannot consent. I don't care what anybody says. And the fact that this is like a whole incest thing as well, it's discussed. She ended up taking her own life over it. And now this guy got a slap on the wrist a year in jail, which he'll probably be out in a couple months because of overpopulation in California in the jail system and on the registry for, I believe, 20 years. But like nothing close to a just punishment. And so this is definitely one that keeps me up at night as well. And warning, if you are going to go listen to that episode, I just want to give you like a huge blanket warning right now. It is so incredibly difficult to listen to when you hear all of the details. And so, yeah, we talked about it last Thursday. And I think I did a deep dive on it like a month or so ago when it all happened. So all right, guys, that is it today for headline highlights. Thank you so much for tuning in with us. I will be back on the mic with you. First thing, Monday morning with an all new case, cough cough. You probably know which one it is based on the
Starting point is 00:48:09 beginning of this episode. So make sure you tune in. If you are not following the podcast yet, All you have to do, open your podcast app, press the little follow button. If you're watching on YouTube, press the subscribe button so that you do not miss the new episodes. And other than that, that's a wrap. That's a wrap. Stay safe. Be nice. Don't kill people.
Starting point is 00:48:27 And stop having sex with family. Period. Amen. Why do I even need to say that? Period. All right. Bye.

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