Sword and Scale - Episode 225

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Throughout the year of 2017, the police in Strongsville, Ohio were called to the home of The Pleskovic family several times. For months, this kind-hearted and well-liked family had seemingly been victims of repeated thefts, harassment, vandalism, and an attempted break-in. Meanwhile, there were no other reports of similar crimes in the area, which suggested that The Pleskovics were being targeted. But by who? And why? Then, in late October of that year, the police were called to the home for the last time, and when they arrived, they found one of the most gruesome and bloody murder scenes that the city of Strongsville had ever seen.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised I think someone killed my wife He thinks someone killed your wife her face at the ground and says blood There's a pool of blood. I don't know what's going on in this city sir. Can you just take it? The breath is there any? The full city is getting freaking taken over. Hello, and welcome to season 9, Episode 25 of Sword and Scale, with El Host Don Boudais On a show that reveals that the worst among us

is the son of a dad I just practicing my ispanol there. How do you like it? Nice huh? Sexy. I'm just practicing my ispanyol there. And you like it. Nice huh? Sexy. Anyway, we got a great show coming up. It's got some murder in it and stuff, which I think you kids like these days.

If you like the show, sign up for plus. It's still only five bucks. Just go to swordenscale.com slash plus. Check it out I'm gonna be a good girl I'm gonna be a good girl I'm gonna be a good girl I'm gonna be a good girl I'm gonna be a good girl Hi, my name is Mike. It's nice to meet you. When you meet a new person, would you say you give them the benefit of the doubt and Assume the best of them? Or are you more like me? Defensive and you reserve your kindness only to those who earn it

More than likely you're not like me more than likely you're part of that first group. You lean towards that first category where you're kind of nice. Most people, unless they've recently been burned, are unless they host a true crime podcast for almost 10 years. Do subconsciously or even consciously assume that the new people they meet in their life have good intentions? The reason for this is that the majority of people truly are well-intended. The majority of people are good.

Unfortunately, and to state the obvious, this isn't always the case. Some people are just plain old pieces of shit, that won't give a second thought to taking advantage of another person's good nature, no matter who they hurt along the way. You know who you are, out there. As much as we might wanna be kind and trusting towards everyone we meet, the sad fact is that allowing a new person into our lives can be pretty dangerous. And this raises a difficult

question. Should we automatically assume the best of others, or for our own protection, of others, or for our own protection, should we always assume the worst. After all, you never know what dark intentions someone might have. At someone might be lying to you. They might want to hurt you. They might even take pleasure in your pain and suffering. They might just truly be a monster. About 20 miles south of Cleveland sits the vibrant city of Strongsville, Ohio,

known as the Crossroads of the Nation because of the intersection of the Ohio Turnpike in Interstate 71. Strongville covers 25 square miles making it the largest of Cleveland suburbs. Generally, the mostly upper-class residents of Strongville consider their city to be safe, peaceful, and the perfect place to settle down and raise a family. But on the night of October 23, 2017, all wasn't well in the city of Strongesville. When a 20-year-old man placed a frantic call to 911. Somebody somebody's been attacked in my house somebody's been what a Tad

The attack to who was attacked no plus He was attacked by home, do you know you choose no, we just came home. She's on a kitchen floor her husband is inside with her now So the husband a tank door? No, no, no, we just came home. We just came home. You came home and found her injured on the floor We found her in the kitchen. She's not moving. She looked like she was beaten a lot. She had blood all around her. I didn't look. I just got... I grabbed the child's blood.

All right, I need to get... There's a lot of blood. There's a lot of blood? Okay. How do you know this woman? Is she... I live here. I live here. She's my fiancee's mother. The man that made this call is Jeffrey Scullin Jr. And he described to the 911 operator

that when he and his soon to be father-in-law returned home, they found his soon to be mother-in-law lying on the kitchen floor, surrounded by a pool of blood. Hey. She said she was multiple stab wounds. That's where he just came out in the moment. That's her husband? That's her husband, yes.

Does he think she's alive or he doesn't know? I don't know. She said she's like sad. That's what he's been right here. Okay, anyone back in? She ran out and then ran back in? No, no. Okay, do you see any like fourth entry or anything to the house? I'm outside. The door was locked. The door was locked? The home that Jeffrey had called from belonged to 52-year-old Bruce Plaskevik and his wife,

49-year-old Melinda Pleskavic. They shared the home with several members of their family, including their 22-year-old daughter and college student, Megan. I've got a dorm that I stay in. I can't finish. They provide some housing so I can come home every other week for a good day or two here there. Okay.

And we understand that Kyle, who I have, and Jeff, and your sister, Hannah, over there, right? Yeah. Okay. Also, sharing the home was Bruce and Melinda's 18-year-old special needs and nonverbal son, Kyle. I know Kyle has a thousand drumming. He's not verbal. Does he, does he say any words? Does he have people saying anything? He can say like Mama and Bruce and Sam Pave says Brucey from my dad's name. If somebody came in the home that he didn't know,

I would hear you. I'm not like he's pretty like just chill, I guess, the star with. So if somebody were in the house, like I don't think he would do anything. Also living in the basement of the home was Bruce and Melinda's other daughter, 20-year-old Anna, Interfiance Jeff,

and their baby. From what I hear, Santa, tell me if I'm correct living in the home, Jeff was your fiance? Yes. And the baby. And the baby. And you guys are. There's like an apartment style basement.

It's sitting there. Okay, that was down there. So... It's kind of messy, sorry. You know, I understand you work at Apple Bees. And are you full of time? Yes. Needless to say, the Plesska Vic home was a bit busy and sometimes a chaotic place.

The parents of the home Bruce and Melinda both had full-time jobs, and under their care was a daughter in college, another daughter that was planning a wedding, a one-year-old grandchild, a soon-to-be son-in-law, and a special-need son with Down syndrome. For one set of parents, that's a lot to juggle. But the Plesskovics seem to have things mostly under control. According to the friends and relatives that were close to the family, the glue that held everything together was the mother of the household. Malinda or Mal, as she was known to many, was mother to three children,

Megan, Anna, and Kyle. She was a teacher for 27 years. The words used to describe, Mal include awesome teacher, amazing friend. The rock that held her family together, selfless, beautiful with a caring spirit, and inspiration to others. Always welcoming, patient,

a mentor, a motivator, supportive. She opened her home to others. She was warm hearted. She deeply cared about others. She was always prepared, never afraid to set you straight, the heart of her family, and caretaker." Melinda Plesschovick was a sixth grade teacher at Strongesville Middle School, and she'd been a teacher for nearly 30 years. For anyone that's made their way through the American

public school system, you can probably recall at least one teacher that you really liked. The one teacher that seemed to genuinely care about their students, obviously loved their job, and even made a significant and positive impact on your life. That was Melinda Pleskivik. Mel was absolutely beloved by her students and colleagues. And if you're still not convinced that she was the mom of all moms and some kind of maternal superwoman, even her soon to be son-in Wherever we went to dinner, there was always someone there, you know, oh, well, hey, Melinda or You know, I even even been a part of not even really a part of the family that long and you should share your mom Yeah, I mean I never called it mom, but she basically was she helped me with a lot of stuff as for Melinda's marriage all seemed well at least

As for Melinda's marriage, all seemed well, at least from the outside. According to her husband Bruce, his and Melinda's relationship was about what you'd expect from two people that had maintained a solid marriage for over 20 years. Your marriage was strong? Yes, she's my best friend. We's my best. We started together. We both came from really, you know, part-back rounds. We split all the bills and three kids. And we just have a routine. We just have a plan and just live in the together for the rest of our lives.

According to Bruce, he and Mel were at a point in their marriage where most, if not all, of the bedroom passion was gone. In fact, they didn't even sleep together in the same bed anymore. Instead, Bruce and Mel saw themselves as best friends and lifelong partners, working towards what they hoped would be a comfortable retirement forless relics. I mean, as an accountant, Bruce was months away from being laid off. At the same time, his daughter Anna was just days away from getting married.

According to Bruce, his and Mel's plan was to sell their home, downsize, and curtail their living expenses after Anna and her new husband Jeff moved out. There was a wedding this weekend. How was that going to planning everything going fine? They tell you. It was an actic last minute. They had some issues with the reservation of the space.

Jeff had said that he was trying to pay in cash or he was just card, but they ran out houses and one of them is something broken one of the houses, so he had to pay to fix that instead of put the money down, so my parents ended up helping out. Leading up to the wedding, Anna's fiance Jeff had struggled to make the payment to secure the wedding venue. And being the kindhearted person that she was, wedding venue and being the kindhearted person that she was, Melinda Pleskavic offered to loan Jeff and Anna the money. This loan of about $6,500 would ultimately be reimbursed by Jeff's parents before the wedding took place.

We were going to go to Applebee's and then we were all being introduced to all. Me, Mel, Bruce, Anna's gonna be serving us, Kyle's gonna be there. And then she asked, if my mom could be there, because I talked about trying to get them all together. And then who, uh, who gets to Applebees first, you were me. I was there probably 35 minutes by myself waiting for him. According to Jeff, this family gathering at Applebees was when and where his mom would pay Melinda back for the wedding loan.

That night, Jeff arrived at Applebees with his baby and greeted his fiance Anna, who was working and waiting tables. A short while later, Melinda's husband Bruce arrived there as well. He was alone and joined Jeff at a table. The two of them waited for Melinda, but Melinda never showed up. Did you, were you trying to get a hold of your mom?

Yeah, I got caught in the bag between tables of Collar. It's just weird that she wouldn't show up to collect money. So I tried Collar and it was just ringing and ringing and going to voicemail after a few times it was just going to voicemail. I got a little worried. I didn't think something horrible happened because she runs into people she knows all the time. Thinking that Melinda got hung up or simply forgot about the family gathering, Jeff and Bruce ordered their food, eight, and then left Applebees. Driving separate vehicles, Jeff and Bruce headed home. And when they arrived there, they saw that Melinda's car was parked in the driveway.

And then when I pulled in the driveway, he was already waiting by the door. We talked for a minute by, he's like, that's our car, she's here. He was like, oh, she's being done or whatever. He was simply like a few other things. You know, he's getting pissed because he thought that, she's being done or whatever. He's simply like a few other things. You know, he's getting pissed because he thought that she blew her mom off or whatever. You know, Kyle, in the dorm of the lights were all on. Nothing seemed out of place, just looking in. When Jeff and Bruce approached the home, Melinda's special needs son Kyle opened the front door and let them in, which was somewhat typical. As Jeff and Bruce entered the home, all seemed normal, that is,

until they made their way into the kitchen. It was there that they found Melinda on the floor, unresponsive, face down in a large pool of blood. I didn't even realize she was there at first, and then he started screaming, she's bleeding, and she's bleeding, she's bleeding. of blood. and then he came out and he was on the phone. I think he was on the phone 911. He was yelling into the phone and said, I don't know. After grabbing Kyle and his baby, Jeff raced out of the house and called 911. As he was speaking with the 911 operator, Jeff noticed that Bruce had also walked out of the home

and had also placed a 911 call. So city of your emergency? Strong, so high up. We have people on the way already. I think someone killed my wife. You think someone killed your wife? Yeah, there it looks like she has stabliens on her back. We think people trying to break in our house all year.

I need to ask you questions, okay? Are you there right now? I just got in the door with my new son and my son with you. Oh, she's there. What I want you to do is walk outside and stay in the front. Okay, so she's stabbed in the back? If you remember Jeff's 911 call was frantic, but it was pretty much what you'd expect from someone that just came upon the aftermath of a violent the police attack. He was attacked by home, do you know? You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, we just came home, she's on a kitchen floor. In comparison, Bruce's 911 call was noticeably

matter of fact, bizarrely angry. And he seemed quick to direct blame towards the city he lived in before even knowing any of the details of what happened. We've had people trying to break in our house all like a lot. We've had people attempt to break in just this week. I don't know what's going on in this city. Just getting done.

You understand you're upset, but can you give me your name? No, you've seen people drop them. Sir, can you just take a deep breath? Is there any? The full city is getting freaking taken over. I can't believe this. We've had a break in all year. In the hours following these 911 calls, the police arrived at the Plesska Vic home, processed the scene, and 49-year-old Melinda was pronounced dead. Not only had she been viciously stabbed many times, all over her chest and back, but she had also been shot three times. In the days following the

murder of this beloved mother and Strongesville Middle School teacher, the police would learn that her killer was not only someone that Melinda had known for years, but also someone that she had treated with the same generosity and overwhelming kindness that she had shared with everyone she had ever met. In late October of 2017, homicide detectives were called to the home of the Plesskavic family. It was there that they found one of the most brutal and gruesome murder scenes that the city of Strongesville, Ohio, had ever seen. Lying on her kitchen floor and a pool of her own blood, was 49-year-old Strong'sville Middle School teacher, Melinda Pluskivik.

Melinda had been brutally stabbed and shot to death, and when the news of her murder went public, the sorrow caused by her passing rippled far beyond her immediate family and throughout the city of Strongesville. Melinda was a pillar of her community and beloved by so many. I think the whole city just like knows her as a good and genuine person. She was just there for so many people and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and I had never met anyone who did like Melinda. Everybody liked Melinda. You know, she just so loved the, just a good, good woman. She was a great model.

And she had Kyle who's a Down syndrome and she was awesome. She just accepted Kyle as a gift. I just... I... I... I'm sorry. Following the discovery of Melinda's body and her funeral, the Pluskivic family and countless residents in Strong'sville

anxiously waited for answers. Who could be so cruel to viciously murder such a sweet, kindhearted and well-liked mother of three children. Do a lot of cases like this get solved because I know it's obviously a case. We do our best. It's definitely a good done it. But somebody did it.

The Strongesville Police Department was tasked with investigating Melinda's murder, and one of the first things they looked into was the strange happenings that occurred at the Pluskivic home before the murder. For months, the Pluskivics were seemingly victims of petty theft, harassment, and random acts of vandalism. According to Melinda's daughter Anna, large amounts of cash and expensive electronics had been stolen from their home. They started going missing and this happened a lot. A wallets go missing. I had to cancel my

credit card and order them one a bunch of times. I really started with my dad's money and below that he left with a bunch of money. I'm the counter. I've never saw it, but they said it was missing. We tore the house apart looking for it. And his bag and his laptop and his car, Jeff had a bunch of tools going missing. Not only had things gone missing, but someone also seemed to be taunting the family. On more than one occasion after the family's car keys had been stolen, someone was using those keys to set off

their car alarms in the middle of the night. Me, Jeff, my mom, and Kyle, we were all in the front room, and the car alarm would go off. We'd all run out, look around, see nothing, it would, we'd get it to stop by and lock it up with the manual key.

We'd come back inside, as soon as we got back in the house. Again, it was happened like eight times, and then a police officer came and we called and it happened in front of him too. Finally, just days before the murder, someone had reportedly attempted to break into the pleska Vic home.

The attempted break in. Tell me about that. So I was in the kitchen doing dishes. And we made a big noise and the dog ran over and started barking like crazy and when I rounded that banister thing I saw the guy's hand and I realized someone was trying to do it. Okay, and then you went to the door and I saw the person's hand and it was a white hairy hand that was being at that side pulling the door or it was inside like they were reaching

for a lock or something. According to Jeff, after this assumed burglar realized that Jeff was in the home, they ran. And Jeff never got a good look at them. After which, Jeff called police and filed a police report. The strange thing about these thefts, harassment, and attempted break-ins is that nobody else in the neighborhood was having any kind of similar problems. Residents we spoke with on Belazing Star Drive in Strongesville haven't had any issues living here, but numerous police reports show otherwise at the Plesska Vic home starting

earlier this year, a series of pranks and crimes these reports show played out here, a laptop stolen from the family car. In September, Melinda Plesska Vic called police to say someone had taken her car keys and was setting off her alarm. And on October 19th, reports show a door was found open with someone attempting to break into the home. Given that nobody else in the neighborhood had reported any issues of theft, harassment, or burglary, this suggested that the Plesskivik family had been targeted, but by whom? And why?

In an attempt to catch the culprit or culprits of the act, the Pluskoviks installed two cameras on their house. Where are the cameras? The one in the back, there's only two. The one in the back has always been in the same spot right underneath the top of the stairs, the first step. It's just taped on it, but soon after we did that, they cut the cord on it. Unfortunately, not long after these cameras were installed, someone sliced the power cord leaving these cameras useless. While police looked into these isolated and quite frankly, pretty frightening crimes committed against the Pluskivics, they also started digging into the family's overall affinity

for one another. And the whole, make it a long. Yeah, we had a little bit of fight the other day. Who's we? Bruce, Bruce drinks a lot when he does. Sometimes he gets a little tickish. He kind of came after me a little bit because he was upset because I said I would help him with stuff around the house.

And apparently it wasn't. It's his schedule. What do you mean you came at you? How do you come at me, Commandy Lake? For a really, just a very, very, really, three texts. The next day, it was kind of like, you saw a few texts, I said, saying, you saw anything, it was kind of water out of the bridge.

And he's losing his job. He got a little bit overwhelmed, he said. According to Jeff, the entire family mostly got along. But the household wasn't always peaceful. Melinda's husband Bruce had a bit of a drinking problem, and on rare occasions would go off the deep end. Melinda's daughter Anna also confirmed that Bruce was a drinker, and after having a few

too many, he would occasionally become belligerent and angry. Naturally, as the husband of the murder victim, Bruce was considered a person of interest. And the police wanted to know where Bruce was on the day that Melinda was killed. According to him, that morning was pretty much like any other weekday morning. He woke up, took a shower, had breakfast, and went to work.

That worked till 4., where he was sitting. But it was kind of weird, I said, my desk, and that's when I get the test to meet me at the broom kettle. And that doesn't send a text like that. We always, you know, our thing is, we go out, since we both work, we go out to eat a lot. You know, we beat up. But it's always about, hey, where do you want to go out to eat? You know, I go out to eat at home.

In hindsight, I realize that's the thing that makes no sense, and I don't think she typed that to me. Bruce told police that just as he was about to finish up his work day, he got a text message from Melinda, telling him to meet her at the local pub for dinner. He claimed that, in hindsight, that text seemed very out of character for Melinda to send, but at the time he didn't think much of it. So after finishing his work shift, Bruce headed towards the Blue Kettle. Once there, he waited for Melinda, but Melinda never showed up. Bruce claimed that at about 5.30pm, he decided to leave the pub and go to Walmart. After buying a few miscellaneous items, Bruce headed home. But before he got there, he changed his mind and decided to go work out at the local

Rec Center. All the while he kept texting Melinda, updating her on what he was doing. and I said, you know, I'm just going to go to the rec center. And that's when I said, hey, I'm going to go to the rec center instead. I said, no, that's not. It's on the phone. According to Bruce, he wasn't at the rec center for long before he received a phone call from his daughter, Anna, asking him to come to Applebees. Change real quick, jumped in the hot tub, the sauna for about 10 minutes.

And Anna called me, she went to me to come to Applebees. And she said, just go to Applebees, you're going to make me an Applebees. It's like, OK. If you remember, Jeff and Anna were set to be married in just a few days, and the purpose of this family dinner at Applebees, aside from getting the whole family together before the wedding, was for Jeff's mom to repay Melinda the money she owed them to secure the wedding venue. The bizarre thing about Bruce's account of that evening is that if he knew that the entire family was going to have dinner at Applebees, why would he just blindly accept that Melindo

wanted to meet and have dinner at the Brue Kettle beforehand? When pressed about this contradiction, Brue's explained that he often took a back seat when it came to coordinating the family's social affairs. For the most part, when family gatherings were planned, Brue's usually didn't question anything and simply did, as he was told. I thought we were just kind of as get together thing before the wedding, but I'm again, I'm on the outside of these game plans. You know, what's going on here? I understand that, but initially the plan was for...

That's my father to be there. That was the initial... To be there, now... I'll change plans on the... I'm the one on the elsewhere, so these plans are. I just followed the close. Did you ask him? I thought she was meeting up with his mom to get the money, the $65.

That's what I thought the game plan was. Bruce claimed that when he arrived at Applebee's that evening, he was expecting to meet up with Melinda and the rest of the family. But when he arrived, Melinda was not there. Only Jeff and Jeff's baby were seated at the table while Anna was busy working and waiting tables. And Jeff was already there. You see, you got the Apple Bees early.

Just talk about that all. Yeah, we were concerned about, yeah, we talked a lot about why he's answering the phone, like I said before, and why's impingates his texts. There was also something else about Bruce's story that required an explanation. He claimed that when he walked into Apple Bay's, he had forgotten to bring his cell phone inside. It wasn't until about 15 minutes later that he decided to go out to his car and grab it. It just, that seems like a long time, especially when things are already seem kind of funny.

You would think, right away, like, why don't I have my phone or if she calls, but why would you let so much time go by before he go out to get your phone? I don't know if I, I don't know if it's 15 minutes, I don't know. But you never texted her or tried to call her to tell her that you were at Applebee's. I would think that you would, like come up and meet us, where are you? Or up here, I'm up here with Jeff, the baby, and Anna.

I should have, I thought Anna said she called in textitor too. According to Bruce, since Anna was already attempting to make contact with Melinda, he didn't feel like he needed to make any attempt himself. And after waiting for some time with no response from Melinda, Bruce and Jeff decided to just order food and eat, after which they both had at home. Bruce and Jeff arrived there at around the same time and found Melinda's car parked in the driveway.

Then, as soon as they approached the house, Melinda's special needs and nonverbal sun Kyle opened the front door and let them in. And that's what I had there. I walked in and I was like, that's kind of, that's what I looked over the left and I, I couldn't believe the picture had happened. the men. Bruce claimed that when he walked into the kitchen, he found his wife Melinda on the floor. She was faced down, unresponsive and lying in a pool of her own blood. I remember asking you if she was okay,

because I thought maybe she just fell down or something. Then I noticed there was blood by her face. She was face first. I just kind of leaned down there. I didn't know what to do. And I said, Melody, okay, I wanted to hold her. There's a puddle here, there's a bottom right here, I faced down. And then I saw her back and there were there's chunks.

And I thought, that's when I realized, you know, I just realized someone did some doer. For Bruce, it didn't take long for him to realize that Mel hadn't simply slipped and fallen down. Instead, after a quick inspection of Mel's body, it was clear that someone had brutally attacked her. Let me ask you this and help me out a little bit. If you don't think that she sent you that tactic or the brew kettle, then I know that I don't think she did. And I don't think that she sent you that text to go to the brew kettle, then I know I don't think she did and I

Incited I don't think so. Okay, I like to wear the other phone. Okay, and fair enough and but It would have to be somebody That knows her knows you to come up with that location Exactly. I agree with you. If Bruce was telling the truth, and if he was right that someone had used Malinda's cell phone to send Bruce to the Bruchetto after work, that meant that whoever was responsible for the murder must have been well acquainted with the family, or maybe even in the family. I know one of my family's people. even in the family. Bruce maintained that nobody in his family

could be capable of committing such a horrific and brutal murder. And there was an important characteristic about the Pluscavic family that suggested he was right. In addition to being stabbed several times, Melinda had also been shot three times. And nobody in the family owned a gun or had any interest or much experience with handling guns at all. We don't have any guns or anything. I'm not about to have like our firearm certification. Right. Your dad ever shoot? No. Never. No. Jeff and his dad go shooting quite a bit.

I don't know why, so I think my sister might have gone a little months, but we don't keep anything in the house. The Pluscubic family simply weren't gun people. And as Viance Jeff, however, did come from a family that liked to go shooting and owned many guns. At the same time, the police also realized that all the strange thefts and harassment that were occurring at the Pluskivic home

didn't start happening until Jeff moved in. You know, I don't mean to make this sound accusatory or anything, but I would like to know, when this stuff started happening, would you say it correlated with Jeff moving in at all to the time Frank's calling? Yeah, and that's something that I have to talk to my parents about and stuff. But like we don't want to like sit there and play the blame game and see that. Yeah, so fine line, you don't want to accuse him of something.

Yeah, sure. But then there's no explanation other than this new person that entered your home when prior to that, there's nothing going on. 20-year-old Jeffrey Scullin moved into the pleska-vik home around the same time that Anna gave birth to their child. And it was certainly odd that the family didn't have any issues with crime until after he started living under their roof. While still keeping an eye on Bruce and leaving him as a person of interest, the police also began looking into the kind of man that Jeffrey Scullin was, and what they found wasn't only suspicious, it was downright disturbing.

Before long, it became clear that the Plesskovics hadn't simply offered to share their house with a young man. Instead, this kind-hearted and generous family had unknowingly invited a monster into their home. In late October of 2011, homicide detectives at the Strongesville, Ohio Police Department questioned several family members of the Plesschovic family about the brutal, vicious murder of 49-year-old middle school teacher and mother of three, Melinda Pluskivik. Melinda's husband Bruce was questioned for several hours, as were both of Melinda's daughters Megan and Anna. Also questioned was Anna's fiance, 20-year-old Jeffrey Scullin Jr. During these interviews, the police learned that Jeff had moved into the Pluskivic home around the same time that Anna gave birth to hers and Jeff's

baby. And after Jeff moved in, it wasn't of what caused a lot of the rift because my parents are like, when you help around like cleaning and all that kind of stuff, then you offer to do things and then wouldn't do on self-work. That's kind of just, it's also 19 or so. Putting it mildly, Jeff was pretty lazy, often irresponsible, and not beg on cleaning up after himself. For the most part, everyone in the Pluskovik family mostly chalked this up to Jeff being young and immature. But after living in the home for nearly two years, his behavior, dirty habits, and lack

of contribution had become and issue. There's one thing you have one to do a lot more stuff around the house. Like, you're in there, you're says you can do this, that's a nasty, but you can do this, you'll fix this, like, and then it doesn't get done. It's that kind of stuff all the time. And when the house is in that, where they live, it's a mess. We start to get the every shower as you do. It doesn't really just kind of throw stuff.

It's kind of a little lazy at times. We're not charging them rent. We're doing like that. We find help them to the times of the baby being a baby. It's as if they're young, they're in the 20s. And we get into a little bit of a argument. You'll see a text on Thursday night. And it's just a buildup of everything that's being at our house for two years.

And I kind of let them have it a little bit. The day before Melinda was killed, Bruce had gotten drunk and let Jeff have it. Having had just about enough of Jeff's laziness, Bruce sent him several angry text messages. The next day, Bruce's apologised to Jeff. Perhaps Bruce's approach wasn't the best way to go about things, but his frustrations were more than justified. Not only was Jeff dirty, lazy, and spending most of his time loafing around the house, but he was also unemployed and wasn't doing anything to help prepare for his own upcoming

wedding. with no job. Jeff was basically being supported by his Applebee's waitress fiance Anna. And as far as Jeff's job hunt went, well, it was pretty much nonexistent. To help support his soon-to-be-wife and newborn baby, Jeff was spending his time playing video games at night and sleeping all day. Nothing says he's a keeper, like a guy with no income and an addiction to Xbox. To sum it up, Jeffrey Scullin was a freeloader and was taking full advantage of the generous and kindhearted nature of the Pluscovic family. For police, there wasn't much they could do about that.

After all, being a lazy piece of shit isn't illegal. If it was, half of America would be behind bars. But just like they did with Melinda's husband Bruce, the police did question Jeff. And they wanted to know where he was and what he did on the day that Melinda was murdered. According to Jeff, that morning Anna woke him up as she was getting ready for work.

Then Jeff loathed around the house until about 1 o'clock when Anna's mom Melinda unexpectedly came home from work. Right off the bat and everything. And I was like, okay, well, I'll do that and I'm going to get some." Right off the bat, Jeff's story didn't make any sense. Because he'd already told police that when he was at Applebees with Bruce, the two of them had talked about how strange it was that Melinda hadn't shown up. At no point in that conversation, did Jeff explain to Bruce that Melinda had previously canceled the family's dinner plans. Demel leave. Yeah, she went to the doctor's office so excited she leave.

Not too long after that. She was only at home for maybe 20-30 minutes if that. And then I had the baby ready to go because I was going to my Aunt Jeanne's, but I was going there. I helped with her in the lawn and her house and stuff. She can't do stuff like that. Jeff claimed that after Melinda came home that afternoon and canceled the dinner plans, she left, saying that she was going to a doctor's appointment. Then Jeff also left home, and his plan was to go to his aunt's house to do yard work. But on the way there, Jeff ran out of gas. You ran out of gas on a drain road? Yeah, I had my two gas tanks in the back, but they're empty. I was supposed to go walk the plane was, but someone stopped and asked if I needed help.

Okay, and then you go to your, your aunt and you love shortly after three. What time do you think you got to her house? Probably 430. It's a long time. I was stuck there for whatever. I didn't know what to do. I can't find my phone. Just used golf for a long time to be sitting there in Trayc Road. There's a big gap in time. I don't know how bad of the car with people zooming by me. I didn't want to walk out and try to walk to the gas station holding gas saying, hey, the baby, That's what was my predicament. Who runs out of gas?

I mean, I know it happens from time to time, but good lord. What kind of bullshit made up alibi is that? Is that really the best you can do, Jeff? According to Jeff, after his truck ran out of gas, he sat on the side of the road for about an hour and a half, until a good Samaritan offered to take him to a gas station, where Jeff was able to put $6 worth of gas into a canister

and then return it to his truck. Needless to say, Jeff's account of where he was during the time of the murder was pretty hard to believe. And that wasn't the only thing that raised some suspicions about him. While Jeff was being questioned, there were noticeable scratch marks on his face, almost as if he had recently gotten

into a fight with someone that had very long fingernails. How did you get those scratches on your face? I had a little bumper with the truck. I got tapped. finger nails. No, place your part. No, there's no damage on either the cars. But I mean, yeah, that you decently for you to hit your forehead. Just barely though, it wasn't like anything bad. It's just the seam of the wheel sticks out, and that's what cut me. During the interview, Jeff seemed to have a story

for everything. But unfortunately for him, the Strongesville police were pretty good at poking holes in nearly every lie that Jeff told them. GPS data from the defendant's cell phone showed that he was in the vicinity of the Pluska de Colche until 5.37 p.m. on the day of the murder. The phone did not ping to the cell tower near us to dance home until between 555 and 622 p.m. and this contradicted the defendant's initial statement to police that he left for his dance home shortly after 3 o'clock. He claimed that he stopped at a get-go gas station on Drake and Pearl Roads and got a $6 work of gas for a good Samaritan. Detective Stolz reviewed surveillance

video from that get-go gas station and where the defendant was never there on anything. Not only did the police completely dismantle Jeff's lies about where he was when Melinda was murdered, but they also found something very interesting when they searched his truck. very interesting when they searched his truck. Now I'm not advocating for anyone to get away with murder. But how stupid can you be? Between leaving the murder weapon in his own truck and his easily debunked Iran out of gas story, it seems pretty obvious that Jeff isn't the smartest killer. Far from it. Having gathered more than enough evidence to charge him with murder, the police arrested Jeff on October 31, 2017, Halloween. Just one week after Melinda was killed.

Following his arrest, Jeff was interviewed by a special agent with the FBI. touch those nice those nice are just there I've never ever lost them that one knife was used to was used to stab her the DNA is on it and it's your knife once never used it right and it was in your truck that you had control over so confused what are you confused about I don't remember doing that. Okay. Throughout this interview, when confronted with the irrefutable evidence of his guilt,

Jeff acted like a child who had just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Conveniently, he simply couldn't remember brutally killing Melinda Pluskivik. All of a sudden, it's amnesia, like on Bugs Bunny. Remarkably, the FBI agent that questioned him had the patience of a saint. And after a very painful three hours of questioning, this giant baby was ultimately coddled into a confession.

You don't have any psychological issues. You've never had any blackouts in your life. What do you think Anna's gonna say in a reaction then? I was probably gonna call you later. Right. Right. I told you. Yeah.

You do. You do remember. You're the only person who does. Tell me what happened. You do. She came into the house with no stab wounds or not being wounded with a gunshot. When you left the house, she had stab wounds and she had a gunshots. Obviously you're angry. I get it. What is it that caused the reaction? I don't remember. How many times do you think you stabbed her?

I don't know. Okay. What do you do recall stabbing her? I think so. Okay. According to Jeff, Melinda's murder was not pre-meditated. On the afternoon that she was killed, According to Jeff, Melinda's murder was not pre-meditated. On the afternoon that she was killed, as Jeff was sitting at home with his baby, Melinda

came home from work and confronted Jeff about something that she had found in the house. And she like, said all that stuff down on the counter, the way she sat down on the counter. The gun on the knife and she asked what it was and where did she get that knife and gun from or was it. I think it was downstairs. It was downstairs in the bag. She asked me if there's anything I need to tell her. I was like, what do you mean? I guess she met the paternity test that we took from. Jeff claimed that Melinda found a bag of guns and knives in the basement where he and Anna lived, and Melinda was pretty upset to find those items in her house. At the same time, she also found a paternity test, which Jeff had previously asked Anna

to take to prove that the baby was his. The test confirmed that Jeff was the father, but Melinda seemed to have read it wrong and was furious that Jeff wasn't the father. Again, this is all coming from Jeff, so we don't know if any of it is true. I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't be part of her life. It all makes sense now. If you set aside the details of the paternity test and the bag of guns and knives, what seemed to have happened that afternoon is that Melinda decided to confront Jeff. Between living at the Pluska Vic Home rent-free for nearly two years, not having a job, not helping around the house

and not helping with the wedding, and just being an overall dirty, freeloading scumbag, Melinda had every reason to call Jeff out on his bullshit. According to Jeff, during Melinda's angry tirade, she picked up one of the guns and pointed it towards him. Sounds totes believable. way from where I kind of just laugh after that. That's where it was. Everything's all like blurry. It's kind of just like a lost control, I think. Why did you continue to share? You can kind of just go, you worry about things. Because I can't even remember. Jeff, why did you transition from the gun to the knife?

So I don't know, I don't know. She's still alive after you shot her. I don't understand that part. So you don't know why you reacted that way? Do you recall how many times you may have stabbed her? No. Check you stabbed her... a lot. Do I not know how many times she has stabbed?

Melinda Plesskovick was stabbed over 35 times and shot three times. And once again, Jeff's story simply wasn't lining up with the evidence. If Melinda was accidentally shot it makes no sense that Jeff would follow up by shooting her two more times and then transition to brutally slaughtering her with a knife, you idiot. Melinda was a machiner,, it was really attacked. I don't believe that it was an accidental shooting at first because that was one thing and that's something where you get

a get-or-hell call, come to us and say, this was a complete accident. But when she's shot multiple times instead, numerous times, that changes things. That's what I don't know. I don't know what I'm up to. I don't remember stabbing her. During his police and FBI interviews, Jeff never gave a clear cut motive or any details about the stabbing. While he did acknowledge that he had stabbed Melinda to death, he claimed that he couldn't remember doing it, and that he wasn't entirely sure

what set him off. To this day, nobody but Jeff really knows the exact details or the exact motive behind what happened in the Pluskivic home that day. But after Melinda was dead, Jeff likely wanted to buy some time to clean himself up, hide any evidence that he could, and get out of the house. Where that Bruce was the next person to do home, Jeff likely used Melinda's phone to text Bruce, telling him to meet Melinda, at the Bruce Kettle. This manipulative text did its job, and Bruce went straight to the pub after work.

Not questioning a thing. Do you remember texting Bruce for him to meet Melinda somewhere? Everything was all blurry for the longest time. I couldn't Still have a trouble trying to figure out what happened What happened was that Jeff Brutally murdered Melinda Plesskovich He shot her three times and stabbed her over 35 times He used her phone to text her husband Bruce then briefly went to his aunt's house in a lousy attempt to establish an alibi. After spending a few minutes at his aunt's house, Jeff then went to Applebee's and told Anna to invite Bruce there. Bruce arrived in Jeff 8 dinner with the husband of the woman he had just killed. After all of this came to light, so did something else.

Remember all those strange things that were happening at the Plusk of a home before Melinda was murdered? The thefts, the harassment, the car alarms going off in the middle of the night and the attempted break-ins? Well, it turns out that Jeff was behind it all. The burglary and the other incidents there, why were you doing those things? Doing what things? I swear, it's also what you can do.

But the Thursday before this happened, when you said that someone tried to break in, like I said, I'm not going to lie to you, that playground in the backyard. It really does have a camera. You know, not that stuff happened. There's nobody at your sliding glass door at 11 o'clock in the morning. So, why do you, why do you do that? There's no one who understands that. I don't understand that.

I can't swore something like that. I can't understand. Essentially Jeff tormented the Pleskivic family for months by stealing their money, property, and fabricating crimes against them. And this adjusted one of two things. Either Jeff had planned to kill Melinda and was putting things in place to mislead police, or he took some kind of perverse

pleasure in making the pleska vix' feel unsafe in their own home. More than likely, it's the latter, because the former gives Jeff entirely too much credit. The pleska family lived peacefully their home without fear for nearly 20 years prior to Jeff moving in. He tormented them for months before murdering her. He stole from them, ran and we set off car alarms, fabricated burglaries, causing them to believe that they were being targeted and make them feel unsafe in their own home. And it's no coincidence that the best the car alarms, reports of burg breweries have completely stopped once Jeff with no longer in the home.

In November of 2017, Jeffrey Scullin went before a judge and entered a not guilty plea. Leading up to the trial, Jeff's lawyers attempted to have his police confession thrown out, but a judge ruled that the confession was admissible. Following that ruling Jeff changed his plea to no contest. Mr. Sbelland, do you understand in general that by pleading no contest to all of these offenses that you are not admitting your guilt, but you are admitting the truth of the facts as alleged in the indictment. In keeping with his childlike behavior, Jeff refused to take responsibility for what he had done.

Instead, he claimed to be innocent, and out of the sheer goodness of his heart, he selfishly decided to accept a no-contest plea to spare the Plusgivic family an embarrassing trial. No contest plea is absolutely not a guilty plea. No way admitted his guilt. So he maintains that he's innocent, but he's willing to serve time for the sake of the family? Well, yes. There is a lot of very sensitive material that would be coming out of trial. A lot of material that could be embarrassing to multiple people, not just my client. He does have a young child with obviously the victim's family and he's not interested in inflicting pain when he believes that he has solid legal issues that will eventually clear him.

In Ohio when a no contest plea is entered in court, the prosecution is afforded the opportunity to present evidence that they would otherwise have presented at trial. The purpose of this is to help a judge determine whether a defendant is guilty or innocent. for the Strongest Police Department, that early on, their attention went towards Mr. Jeffery's gun, because the stories that Mr. Scullin told the police never added up. It was one lie after another, after another. Needless to say, the evidence that the prosecution had, which proved Jeff's guilt, was pretty compelling. Not only did they recover the knife that was used to stab Melinda from Jeff's truck,

but they also found the gun that Jeff used to shoot her and the blood-stained sweatpants he was wearing during the murder. Both of these items were recovered from the buickless saber that was parked in Jeff's parents' driveway. Inside the buickless saber, they found a backpack that contained the revolver and his sweatpants that he wore the night that he killed Melinda Husker. The revolver was tested. This defense DNA was found all over the revolver,

and this revolver was realistically matched to the three more pellets that killed Melinda Husker. His sweatpants and one is blood on them, and his sweatpants had his DNA in other ways, man. and his sweat pants had his DNA on the waistband. After being presented with overwhelming evidence, the judge had no choice but to find Jeff Guilty of several crimes, including aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, and tampering with evidence. Before Jeff's sentence was handed down, the Pluskovik family provided impact statements to the court.

As for Jeff, he's calling my mom and dad open their home to him because they're good loyal people. My mom cared for him as a part of our family and bed over backwards for him yet he took her life in one of the most violent ways imaginable. He manipulated my entire family into thinking he could be trusted all while he stole from us and plotted the unthinkable. He is a selfish, sadistic monster that deserves to never again see the light of day. Jeffrey Scholling should never be allowed to walk free again. The extent of his monster's actions has forever crippled the lives of everyone he knows. Because of his heinous crimes, my daughter Aurora lost her cherished granny. The worst part is that someday I will

have to sit her down and explain this horrifying nightmare to her. I'll define the reason as to why her father chose incarceration and lies instead of his baby girl. It'd be honest I have no idea where it even began. Malinda Pleskivik went out of her way to provide Jeff with a home and an opportunity to prepare for life after he, Anna, and their baby moved out. Instead of making the most of that opportunity, Jeff sat on his fat lazy ass, manipulated and stole from the Pluskivic family, and brutally murdered Melinda. brutally murdered Melinda. As a result both of Melinda's daughters lost their cherished mother and Melinda's husband Bruce lost his best friend and soulmate. Melinda and I had a game family downsize and live a little simpler life as the two of us headed towards the next chapter of life's towards retirement. That dream has been taken away as replaced by nightmare, as a lack of sleep, and having to live life at hyper speed.

The loss of Malin will have a rippling effect on the kids and I forever. Kyle is confused as to why his mom is not around and has become more attached to me. Every time we go out to eat, he spends a lot of time looking out the window to see if his mother is going to show up. Perhaps the most heartbreaking aspect of Melinda's murder is that her special needs son, Kyle, who Melinda absolutely adored, does not understand why Melinda is suddenly no longer there to care for him. And he continues to look for her to this day.

Also when Jeff viciously murdered Melinda, both Kyle and Jeff's baby daughter were inside the house. And when Jeff went to meet Bruce at Apple Bees, Kyle was left in the home for hours with his dead mother. The victim Melinda Pascabec just 49 years old was satanjly murdered by you Mr. Sullen in the kitchen of her home which she had generously made your home. You did so while her son Kyle who has Down syndrome must have been or was in the home. You did so with your own daughter close by. Then you had the audacity to sit down for dinner

with her husband Bruce and Applebee's where their daughter and a word. You served as a whole, very rare at the London Plastic Space Room, knowing that you were the person responsible for inflicting upon were loved ones and many friends, all of the pain, shock, sorrow, and heartache they were experiencing. You not shown any remorse to anyone throughout this process. And what I think so threat is that Mell's son Kyle does not understand where she is and continues to look for his mom every day. That is so sad.

And you did, therefore, the court imposes a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Rightfully so, Jeffrey Scullin was sentenced to life in prison, and all of his appeals have since been denied. As for the pleskaviks's life goes on. Given all they've been through, you'd think they would take on the mentality that nobody can be trusted, and that we should always not assume the best of other people. But that's not what happened. Instead the lessons that Melinda handed down to her family remained stronger than the heartache and trauma that Jeff put them through. Perhaps Melinda's daughter Megan says it best.

Bad things happen to good people, but you have to just keep believing in the good and keep trying to make things better. Fundamentally, we all go out into the world and meet new people. There are two different paths we can take. We can assume that everyone is out to get us, or we can look for the good in others, and assume the best of them.

Given that there are people like Jeffrey Scullin in the world, choosing the former might seem like the smartest way to go. But the truth is, assuming the best of other people is not a selfless act, it's actually good for you. Although her life was cut short, Melinda Pleskivik was an extremely happy woman, and a big part of why that was, is because she was so full of generosity, and she shared her good nature with others. Even people she hardly knew. The fact is, the people that wish to hurt others or make problems are generally very minimal,

and assuming the best of others by default and treating them accordingly feels pretty good. It's just the healthier and happier way to go, even though we may be wrong about people sometimes. The best thing we can do is let karma sort it out, which it usually does. that karma sorted out, which it usually does. Karma has certainly found a way of dealing with Jeffrey Scullin, for example. All this is not to say that you shouldn't make smart and educated determinations of people that you've met and spent some time getting to know.

But the next time you find yourself closed off, thinking that you simply can't trust other people, and maybe even need to defend yourself against a world full of selfish and malicious assholes. Ask yourself this question. Would you rather be right? Or would you rather be happy? Be happy. Hey, thank you for joining us. That's another episode. Oh, you liked it. If you did, consider joining plus at sorenscale.com slash plus. Of course, there's other ways to help us if you can.

You can tell your friends. You can leave us a nice review somewhere, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. That'd be nice. Now, if you don't like to show, you can just, uh, go away. It's free, you know. Going away go away. It's free, you know. Going away is free. You can just, you know, mosey along. Go ahead and do that if you like. It's your choice. Freedom of things.

For the rest of you, we'll see you here next week. Stay safe. the rest of the year we'll see you here next week. Stay safe. Hey Mike, my name is Japh Decaf. I'm an out of Atlanta d'Organ. Long time listeners, first time collars. I just finished listening to plus episode 121 and about locked my shit about the caller at the end. A couple months of listening and Bolly Gieesh just wishing it be nicer. Please stop inserting your opinions might you'd be so much more popular if you agreed with everyone like don't you know this? Anyway, um, it's that Darlin, Darlin's sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet girl. Bless her heart. If she was listening, I would like her to know this is Mel PPS.

And, I mean, obviously everybody knows it. We're here to hear about murder. Like, that's fucked up in an oven itself. And you want to be worried about somebody's opinion? It's not honestly. Anyway, Mike, I worried about somebody with the opinion of the honest me. Anyway, Mike, I don't agree with you all the time. I mean, for me to be a whist, which is a thing I do, as a human being.

But it's just an ridiculous thing. How many people seem to think that their delicate ego requires special attention? They just don't. I'm all about peace, love, and understanding, but understand that you're not that damn important. All right. Love you Mike. you