The Misery Machine - The Case of Suzette Marie Penton

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

On a quiet afternoon in Polk City, Florida, a teenage breakup spiraled into unimaginable violence. What began as a dispute between 17-year-old Hunter Penton and his ex-girlfriend quickly escalated into a brutal attack inside his own home... an assault carried out by multiple teenagers and captured on video. But the violence didn’t end there. As Hunter’s mother, Suzette Marie Penton, rushed to protect her son, she was struck and killed by a church van driven by 18-year-old Elijah Paul Stansell. This week, Drewby and Yergy examine the tragic chain of events that led to Suzette’s death, and how youthful anger, peer involvement, and reckless decisions destroyed a family forever.Support Our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PayPal: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join Our Facebook Group: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: miserymachinepodcastTwitter: misery_podcastDiscord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#themiserymachine #podcast #truecrimeSource Materials Available Upon Request.

Susette Marie Penton was born on May 20th, 1968 in South Bend, Indiana to parents Pete Green and Carol Reeves. As a child, she relocated to Florida where she made... Marvel Television's Wonder Man, an eight-episode series, now streaming on Disney Plus. A superhero remake, not exactly what we'd expect from an Oscar winning director. Action! Simon Williams, audition for Wonder Man. I'm going to need you to sign this. Assuming you don't have superpowers.

I'll never work at Kenne if anyone found out. My lips are sealed. Marvel Television's Wonder Man. All eight episodes now streaming, only on Disney Plus. She'd at her home for the next 46 years. Suzette eventually had four sons and five grandchildren, all of whom she loved very much. Susette lived in the quiet town of Polk City,

located in central Florida, just 30 or so minutes southwest of Walt Disney World. There, 52-year-old Suzette worked as the local, librarian and shared her home with her then 15-year-old son, Hunter, will become a major part of the events of today's story. On November 9th at about 250 p.m., deputies with the Polk County Sheriff's Department responded to a call to a home for a report of a middle-aged woman who had been run over by a church van and was critically injured. That woman was Suzette. According to a press release issued by the responding agency, the known suspects fled the scene, but the suspect vehicle information

was quickly bollowed and located by responding deputies in Auburndale police officers. Suzette was rushed to the Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, where, according to an affidavit, she suffered a traumatic brain injury involving a skull fracture and severe bleeding in her brain. She also had a broken leg and fluid in her lungs. Despite life-saving efforts, Suzette Marie Penton later died as a result of her injuries. On December 1st, 2020, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a press conference to provide an update on the case. He first started by describing Suzette, her community of Polk City, in the lives that she touched in her role as a librarian. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being with me today as we update you on a horrific event that happened on November the 9th.

First off, I want to introduce you to Suzette Penton. She has two sons. One of them's named Hunter. By the way, we're only using their names because they gave us permission. That's the only way we can use their names because of the new Marcy's Law. But Suzette is the librarian for the city of Polk City. For those of you who aren't from this area, Polk City is a community of about 1,000, 500 people. It's quaint, it's quiet, it's almost crime-free. It's a wonderful community.

And Suzanne Penton helped make it a wonderful community with the work she did with the children at the library. She always went above and beyond. You can see here, and if you go on the Facebook pages, her different faces as she would dress up and paint up as she had programs for the young children in and around Polk City. She was known and loved by the people of Polk City. He then went on to describe the actual incident that claimed the life of this beloved librarian. She was also known as a protective mother. And here's what happened on November 9th. She left with her youngest son to run to the store for a few minutes. Little did she realize at that moment and time

that directly across the street in a park there were four people in a van. They were there waiting to go beat up, Hunter. Now you say, why did all that occur? Well, here's what the rendition is, as we understand at this point, investigation. Kimberly Stone, who was 15 on that day, by the way, she turned 16 while locked up in juvenile detention. That was our birthday present to her. She got to serve it locked up.

I hope your birthday sucked Kimberly. It's the ex-girlfriend to Hunter Penton. They hadn't dated for about six months. Her new boyfriend is Elijah Stansell. He's 18 years of age. Well, Kimberly and had been communicating back and forth online with Hunter and with other people and also having, I would call it, a post-dating disagreement, ongoing disagreement, where they were yeah-ya and threatened and then talked and trashed each other. It was so bad that the school system had warned Kim, Kimberly, and in fact, on that very day, the ninth, had brought her in.

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Deepa where taste recognizes taste. And suspended her from school, which was to start the next day for her outrageous conduct. It really sounds like Kimberly is just a mean girl that needs better parenting at this juncture. So she and some of her rants in arguing back and forth in person and on social media just said, well, I'll get my boyfriend and we'll come beat you up. Her 18 year old adult boyfriend. Just a reminder, she's 15 years old at the time of the crime. So after school, that very day that she was suspended and it was to start like the next day, she gets with her best friend, Hannah Eubank and another friend by the name of Raven Sutton, Hannah's 14 and Ravens 16. And then they get

with Elijah, and Elijah drives a van up to Hunter Penton's house, Suzette's son. Understand that Elijah didn't even know where Hunter lived, Kimberly had to direct them to the Polk City house. Now wait until you hear this next part. Now it might interest you to know that the van that he was driving, that he had permission to use and apparently used frequently belonged to the Westwood missionary Baptist Church, where his father was not the lead pastor, but was one of the pastors at the church. So Elijah, who likes hanging out with younger girls, is also plotting assaults with church property. That's awfully godly of him, and I'm sure his daddy is quite proud. So they all pile in the church van from Westward Missionary Baptist, and they go,

and they're actually parked across the street and watch Suzette leave to go to the store. We have a video clip for you to see that really tells the rest of the story. They go up to the front door being Elijah, Raven, and Hannah. The instigator of all this stays in the van. Kimberly stays inside the van. Because of course she does. They knock on the front door. well at the penton house their man main ingress and egress is the side door so hunter comes out the side door to see what's happening

hunter has no idea that they're coming up there to fight him when he comes out the side door elijah immediately confronts him in the carport and starts beating him up where a fight ensues if you take a look to your right they actually have the footage of said fight we see that hunter tried to or either was forced. All right, everyone. Welcome to ARCO rewards orientation. I'm Hannah. Whoa.

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Elijah is fighting with Hunter. Raven gets a couple of shots in during the fight, the best we can tell with the pieces of video we have. And Hannah is taking photographs or video in this. But what the four weren't expecting was that Mama was on her way back home. That same camera that captured the fight also came. captured Suzette's final moments alive. About that time unexpectedly, Susette comes back.

She arrives. When she comes back, we see that our ringleader here, along with the other two, just kind of hurry off back to the event. Susette actually sees the fight. She gets out and goes to the van in her car. Suzette is trying to take photographs of the getaway van. Elijah standstill, Elijah Stansell runs over her, completely over her. She has tire tracks on her body,

where he runs totally. over her. Sheriff Judd then announced to the press his department's intention to charge Elijah, which was occurring quite literally as the press conference was taking place. He also discussed the fates of Elijah's three accomplices, Raven, Hannah, and Kimberly. As we speak today, Detective Fulcher from our homicide team is on his way to the South County Jail where he's still locked up to charge him with murder. Interestingly enough, the three juveniles have been waived over by the state attorney's office from juvenile court to adult court.

They're still locked up in juvenile detention, but are now facing adult charges of attempted murder that were originally filed and as well as there was a burglary to an occupied residence and a battery. All of those are serious felonies. They now have a bond. So under the juvenile system, they would have had to have been released at 21 days, or they would have had to negotiate a program. Our team has been working hand in glove with the state attorney's office. The state attorney Brian Haas and I have talked, and we're all exceptionally up. upset for a lot of reasons.

I'm quite upset, too, to be honest, and I hope you throw the book at them. As a bunch of kids going to go up there and be a thug, going to be a tough person, going to beat up a guy over because he used to date Kimberly turned into a murder. They thought they were hard and now look at them. A murder. A murder indeed. Now, apparently a lot of people witnessed the incident. and one person did exactly what we've been begging you all to do for six and a half years now.

He saw something and he said something. In fact, he actually got in his vehicle and did something about it. County employee Jeff Gouldsby followed the van and called 911 where he told dispatchers, and I quote, I'm trying to stay back. I don't know if these people have a gun. They just mowed that poor lady down. Due to his quick work, police were able to pull the van over,

seven miles down the road where Elijah claimed that he had just hit Suzette with the side mirror. Allegedly, when Hannah was told that Suzette might die, she became flippant and claimed that she didn't want to hear that anymore. This was witnessed by a lot of people. One of them worked for county utilities. He did what the people of Polk County are expected to do. He followed the suspect vehicle, the van, south on Berkeley Road, and called 911 and continued to follow the van and give updates until the Auburndale Police Department and the Sheriff's Office could intercept the vehicle as it was traveling southbound into Auburndale. Sheriff Judd discussed each of the suspects and the corresponding high schools each attended.

What was most interesting about what he shared was the lack of criminal history that the teens had. It just goes to show how dangerous a group mindset can be and how important it is not to surround yourself with terrible people, especially as a young person. A celebrated community member has been murdered. A son watched his mother get run over by a church van after being attacked himself. And four teenagers are being tried as adults, all because three of those teenagers couldn't mind their own damn business. I need to point out. that this that this these folks went up Auburndale High School and one of them actually went to another school an academy but Kimberly went to Auburndale

High School Hannah went to Arbondale High School and I believe Raven went to Stepping Stone Academy what's interesting about this With the exception of Hannah Eubanks, which has a really bad attitude. Apparently Hannah is trash. Got it. She was arrested once in October or charged criminally in the juvenile system for giving false identification to the law enforcement. But other than that, none of them have any criminal history. Zero. So they went from being rowdy out of control juveniles on this day to Elijah's child. charge with murder, and certainly we've got attempted murder charges still in place, as well as

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Task performance does not guarantee future results. F-1s. So in the matter of an afternoon, their lives are completely ruined over some petty drama. Why do people do this? It should have never happened. I agree. It's one more example for us to tell our children. When you misbehave, it can get out of hand.

Next, Sheriff Judd goes on to outline the details for Susette's upcoming celebration of life. There's going to be a celebration of life for Suzette on November the 6th at the Bronson Community Center in Polk City at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The community wanted us to put out that everyone, everyone's welcome to attend. And that's important because it's a small, tight-knit community where Suzette was a very important part of developing the young children in the community. You see, she taught people right from wrong. She taught people how to do things the right way. Suzette's funeral arrangements were entrusted to the care of Cursey funeral home in Auburndale, Florida. the Polk City Library where she worked was later renamed in her honor.

According to Suzette's obituary, her family wished to thank the nurses and medical staff at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, the trauma and intensive care unit for their constant care and compassion for Suzette while she was with them. Now, I need you to keep that in mind. Suzette didn't die instantly when Elijah ran her over on November 9th, leaving tire tracks all over her body. She suffered in a hospital for over two weeks passing away on November 25th. So at the end of the day, the case is still under investigation. There's still a lot of follow-up to go. We've not downloaded all of the data off of the cell phones and all of the camera videos.

We have been working diligently to put this together with the state attorney's office, and we will update you. But at this time, only Elijah is charged with the actual murder because he is the one that was driving the vehicle. And he is the one that ran over and feloniously murdered a lady that was doing nothing but trying to gather photographs of suspects who attacked her child at their home. in this quaint, safe little community. So folks, when your toxic new significant other tries to convince you to go fight their ex, this is why you don't do that. You should also find a new love interest as well.

As Sheriff Judd mentioned in the press conference, 18-year-old Elijah Paul Stansell initially was booked into the Polk County Jail on counts of attempted felony murder, burglary with assault, and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was also charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a minor for attacking Hunter. His attempted murder charge was upgraded on December 1st, the day of the press conference, just a week after Suzette succumbed to her injuries. At his trial in 2022, a court was shown a cell phone video taken just moments before,

during, and after the attack. According to reports, people can be heard screaming in the van as Elijah ran over Suzette. One person asked, Elijah, why did you do that? To which Elijah responds, we f-fitting one, though. Let's get our story straight now. Allegedly, at the end of this video, the four teens realized they were still recording and voiced their intentions to delete the video. On Friday, June 17th, 2022, now 20-year-old Elijah was found guilty on all counts and later sentenced to mandatory life in prison. State attorney Brian Haas said in part, I'm very pleased with the verdict. It's a tragic

case, this woman was a pillar in the community and she was doing what any good parent would do, he continued, if you look at this case frame by frame, there were plenty of opportunities for him to do something other than deliberately run her over with the van. Then 16-year-old Raven Cain Sutton, 14-year-old Hannah Sherry Eubank, and 15-year-old Kimberly Nicole Stone were all arrested and initially booked into the Juvenile Assessment Center in Bartow, where they were charged with a attempted felony murder and burglary with assault. On November 26, 2020, all three girls were charged as adults and transferred to the juvenile dorm at the Polk County Jail. As of the date of this recording in December of 2025, it is unclear where the three girls' cases stand. Some of the

accused still have listings with the Polk County Jail while others do not. As many news sources have claimed that they have yet to go to trial, Raven, Hannah, and Kimberly are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. If Suzette's case resonated with you, then please click here to check out the story of the Mont Vernon home invasion. This is a case out of New Hampshire where a gang of boys went into the home of the Kate's family and brutally attacked the mother and daughter in their sleep. It's just another horrible example of when group mindset turns deadly.