True Crime Campfire - You Have One (1) New Message: The Murders of Lynn Stellers and Ronnie King

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Obsession is one of humanity’s greatest boons… and curses. Obsession can fuel a scientist’s entire career in trying to solve a singular problem. An athlete’s obsession can pull them to physics bending heights, a politician’s obsession with a cause can push a world changing bill forward. People can be obsessed over all sorts of great and mundane things: books, trading cards, cars, art without any kind of harm… But when that obsession is about controlling or possessing another person? Things can take a sinister turn. In today’s story, 7 people’s lives are ruined by a single woman’s obsession. Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets go on sale February 7: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRESources:Court papers: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ct-supreme-court/1131876.html https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ct-court-of-appeals/1456321.htmlCourant.com: https://www.courant.com/1997/07/16/vermont-man-receives-30-year-sentence-for-manslaughter/  https://patch.com/connecticut/middletown-ct/middletown-double-murder-case-be-featured-crime-documentaryInvestigation Discovery's "Diabolical," episode "Recording Evil"Follow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enTwitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. Obsession is one of humanity's greatest boons and curses. Obsession can fuel a scientist's entire career and trying to solve a singular problem. An athlete's obsession can pull them to physics bending heights. A politician's obsession with the cause can push a world-changing bill forward.

People can be obsessed over all sorts of great and mundane things, books, trading cards, cars, art, without any kind of harm. But when that obsession is about controlling or possessing another person, things can take a sinister turn. In today's story, seven people's lives are ruined by a single woman's obsession. This is You Have One New Message, the murders of Lynn Stellar and Ronnie King. So, campers, for this one, we're in Middletown, Connecticut, November 1, 1993. 25-year-old Gina Kochi was just getting home from her housekeeping shift at the local ski resort and hotel just after 5 p.m. Immediately, she could tell something was wrong.

Her girlfriend, 43-year-old Lynn Stellar, and their 25-year-old roommate, Lynn's nephew, Ronnie King, were supposed to be home by then, but the house was completely dark. She called out in the darkness, expecting one of them to answer, but there was no reply. As she felt her way into the dark house, she kept expecting Lynn or Ronnie to pop out and greet her, but no one did. Finally, at the end of the hallway, in the doorway to the kitchen, she tripped over. something soft but solid on the floor. As she pawed at the wall to turn on the light, she saw with a shock of horror that the floor and the walls were covered in blood, and that the object she'd tripped over was in fact Lynn's prone body. Lying next to Lynn was Ronnie. Her first reaction was that it was the day after Halloween,

that surely this was some sort of unfunny prank pulled on her by her girlfriend and roommate using discount fake blood or something, right? She yelled at him, Get the hell up, what is wrong with you people? It took several seconds for her to realize this wasn't a prank. The silence of the house was only broken by her breathing. Gina fell to her knees and gathered Lynn into her arms, begging her to get up. Gina later said in an interview that she wasn't sure how long she stayed in the house,

holding on to Lynn, waiting for her to wake up. Eventually, she tried the telephone, but there was no dial tone, so Gina had to run to a neighbor's house to call the police. This is a sad little detail. When she initially called 911, she told them that her roommates were hurt because presumably she didn't want to out herself. Oh, bless her heart. I bet you're right about that, and that's so sad that she'd have to think about that at such an awful time, but, yeah. When investigators arrived, they immediately declared it a double homicide. detectives Bob Barone and Kevin Gino were assigned to the case. Barone said the scene looked like all hell broke loose. There were signs of an extreme struggle, but no signs of forced entry.

Notably, both Ronnie and Lynn had their winter coats on, so it looked like they'd been ambushed right as they came inside the house. Both victims were shot and stabbed and bludgeoned, one with a mason jar and the other with a ceramic lamp. They'd been stabbed with several different knives. multiple times. The knives used were from the victim's own kitchen, as well as the mason jar and lamp. And what does that sound like, campers? Perhaps a killer that was not prepared for their victims to fight back, or maybe had one target and suddenly had to deal with two. The level of overkill

certainly indicated there was a lot of rage behind the killing, which probably ruled out a random home invasion or a stranger. This killer knew one or both of the victims, and they likely hated them or what they represented. The medical examiner later found that Ronnie's cause of death was the combination of the gunshot and stab wounds, while the gunshots or stab wounds were each sufficient to have killed Lynn. Crime scene texts quickly noticed a trail of blood leaving the scene, and Tess would later find that it didn't belong to either Lynn or Ronnie. This is a common occurrence with stabbings or killings where there's a lot of struggle.

Oftentimes the killer will hurt themselves in the attack, too. Of course, as the person who found the bodies and the girlfriend of one of the victims, Gina was immediately the first person the detectives wanted to talk to. They tested her clothes for gunshot residue and blood. They impounded and tested her car for the same, and they questioned her for hours. Lynn's family suspected her, but it was really less about actual suspicion and more about the fact that they were having a hard time accepting Lynn's new relationship with a woman. Meanwhile, the police checked Gina's alibi, and they ruled her out pretty quick.

Now out from under the suspicious eyes of law enforcement, Gina was able to leave the state so she could finally visit somebody to comfort her, somebody who could understand how much she was grieving, who knew Gina possibly better than she knew herself. She drove to Rutland, Vermont, her hometown, and called up Janet Griffin. Janet Griffin had known Gina Cochie her entire life. She babysat Gina as a kid. Gina would later tell investigation discovery that Janet was the mother she never had. When Gina got to her house, Janet was there waiting for her and just held her as she sobbed.

Janet told her, why would someone want to do that to you? Huh. What odd phrasing. Why would someone want to do that to you? Yeah. What Gina was too consumed with grief to notice is that Janet had seen. seemed to have injured her hand. It was wrapped in a bandage. Let's put a pin in that for a moment, though, and rewind a couple of years. It was 1990, and Gina was on her grind. She was working

80 hours a week at a local ski resort while taking on a full course load at St. Joseph's College. She had saved so much that she was able to buy her own house at just 22 years old. Damn. I know. That's when Gina bumped into Janet at the Dunkin' Donuts. This is a very East Coast story. There's ski lodges. There's Dunkin' Donuts. They were reminiscing about the old times when Jana revealed that she'd been going through some tough things, specifically that she'd been going through a divorce from her husband and was living in her car. This was unacceptable to Gina, who had three empty bedrooms. She offered Janet a room. Their relationship deepened. Janet was so grateful for Gina's generosity and took care of Gina, making her meals, doing

her housework, stuff that Gina didn't really have time to do herself. Gina even got Janet a job at the ski resort because she was head of the housekeeping department. Like this girl was working. I got to respect Gina. Holy shit. Absolutely. There they made a tight little click of friends in the housekeeping department. Natalie Juergen, Janet's daughter, Melody Jasmine, and Gordon Butch Fruin. Janet and Gina's relationship was weird. They quickly became closer than roommates, and then their relationship crossed into romantic territory, which is gross, to say the least. I mean, this woman saw Gina in diapers and then moved into her house and started a relationship with her.

That's bizarre. That is really weird. I can't imagine looking at a kid that I babysat and, like, held in my arms and thinking, hey, baby. It's just, I don't know. It's weird. There's a mental block against that for me. Like, I want a piece of that. That's disgusting. I can't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. Their relationship ended in June of 1992. Janet was deeply unhappy about it and begged Gina to take her back, but Gina refused.

Like, we couldn't find exactly why the relationship ended just that it ended, and Janet was devastated. But they kept living together and even shared a room. But Gina later testified that they were no longer her intimate at that point. Well, that's weird as hell. I definitely could not have stood for one second to share an apartment, let alone a freaking bedroom, for God's sake, with any of my exes. I mean, once you're out, you want to be out, especially if one of you has really been out of shape about the break-up, so that's just wild to me. It's super, it's super weird. By January of 1993, Gina was a little sick of living and sharing a bed with her ex. So she told Janet that she had to move out. I mean, they were still working together, so they were basically around each other 24 hours a day.

For people with a functional romantic relationship, that's too much, let alone X's. Janet did not take it well. She insisted that she was still in love with Gina, and she still wanted to make it work. Gina was not taking this bullshit, which good for her, and told her to move out. She wanted to remain friends, but this was all too much for her. Janet moved. in with her daughter, Melody. Then, in April of 1993, Gina met Patricia Lynn Stellar when she went to visit her Aunt Margaret. Lynn owned an upholstering and was re-upholstering Gina's aunt's couch. There was an immediate connection between the two.

Gina acknowledged that she knew their age difference was odd, but it was hard to meet women her own age. Rowland, Vermont is a small town, so it makes sense that she'd be cautious with her identity, especially in the early 90s. And it's not like Lynn knew her whole life and babysat her and was like a mom to her before their romantic relationship in this instance. So I'm not side-eyeing their relationship whatsoever. Yeah, there's an obvious, like, glaring difference between Gina's relationship with Lynn and Gina's relationship with Janet. One has shades of grooming and the other

is just some age differences. Right. In fact, it seemed like a sweet relationship. Because Lynn lived three hours away in Middletown, their relationship was long distance, but they both traded weekends visiting each other. Lynn cared about Gina so much that she decided to ask Gina to be her date to a family member's wedding. Lynn's family was certainly not accepting, so this was a huge step for Lynn. Lynn deserved good things. Her seven-year-old son, Howie, had gotten hit by a car when he was crossing in front of a school bus and passed away, and Lynn saw it happen. Ugh. After that, Lynn began to truly struggle with her identity. Her second son, said that it was always clear to him that his father and mother were best friends. The only

problem was his mom was gay. They got a divorce, but their friendship continued. Her nephew Ronnie was like a third son to her. Matthew said he looked at Ronnie like an in-house Tom Cruise. He was a little shy, but in that secretly funny kind of way that always takes people by surprise. When Lynn got a job at Wesleyan University, she helped Ronnie get a job there doing maintenance. Ronnie felt like Lynn understood him. She had a way of getting through to him that no one else could. When Lynn found Gina, things finally seemed to settle with her. She finally found someone she cared for and cared for her back. There was just one little wrench in those gears. A wrench called Janet. Gina and Janet were friends, and Janet was still around TM, and Janet was not a fan of Lynn. Gina, sweet summer

child that she is didn't notice, but Lynn did in the way only the partner of an oblivious person whose friend is obviously a jealous psychopath can. Gina takes Lynn and Janet to bingo and to dancing and to the movies, and as far as she's concerned, they're besties for the resties. Once Gina graduated from college in the spring of 1993, she decided it was time to move in with Lynn. In a last-ditch effort to win her back, Janet, who was still driving with Gina to work, told her she wanted her back, that they could be together again, that she didn't want Gina to move away. But most importantly, that it was all or nothing. She didn't want to be friends with Gina if she couldn't have a romantic relationship with her.

Gina, whose spine must be made a titanium and who must have really, really loved Lynn, said, I'm sorry, I choose nothing. Good for her. Set those boundaries, babe. Later, Janet would come back to Gina with her tail between her legs, telling her that she did want to be friends with her. How selfless of her. When it came time for Gina to move, Janet threw her a going away party at work and told her that if she ever needed to come back, her door would always be open. It didn't take long for things to take a strange turn at Lynn and Gina's home. One day a strange letter arrived addressed to Gina. It accused Lynn of being a drug dealer and that things were going to get real fucking ugly if Gina didn't get out now. The letter scared

Lynn, but Gina brushed it off. She'd fired a troubled young woman a few days earlier and she was sure that it was this woman that sent the letter. They had nothing to worry about. Gina and Ronnie got on like a house on fire. They'd hang out when Lynn wasn't around and go out and learn country dancing. Meanwhile, back in Vermont, Janet was calling the Cochie Stellar household

two or three times a day. If Ronnie or Lynn answered, she'd chat with them for five, ten, even twenty minutes before asking to be handed over to Gina. To Gina, it seemed like they were all becoming friends. Wasn't that wonderful? But in truth, Janet was coming unglued.

Gina belonged to her, and the longer she hung around that woman, the more and more impatient she was getting. Her letter didn't work. Her threats of ending the friendship hadn't worked. Her begging hadn't worked. It was time to do something drastic. Because God forbid you move on with your life. Janet approached her new roomie, Natalie Juergen, to ask for a favor. Remember, Natalie Juergen. She was part of that little ski lodge friend group. Mm-hmm. She wanted to ride to Middletown, Connecticut, for a quick shopping trip, and wouldn't you know it, their old friend Gina Cochie was living there with her old girlfriend.

Shouldn't they stop by and pay her a visit? She confided in Natalie. I want to see where she's living now. I also want to maybe play a prank. Uh-oh. So the terrible two drove on out to Middletown and stopped by Gina's house. On the way there, Janet had told Natalie the plan. She was going to use purse. permanent marker to write slurs and insults all over Lynn's car. Nice. She slunk out of the car approaching Lynn's vehicle, but when she got back in Natalie's car, Lynn's vehicle was untouched. Natalie and Janet repeated these little excursions a few more times, and as summer drew to a close, their trips changed in tone. Janet started directing Natalie

to drive to Wesleyan University, where Lynn was working, so they could follow Lynn home. She'd take pictures of her car, draw maps of possible routes. to and from the university. According to court documents, Janet told Natalie that she planned to kill Lynn using all this juicy info they were gathering. Jesus. She was either going to stab her or pour ether all over her in her car and light her on fire. Jiminy fucking Christmas. Holy shit.

Now, I suspect that Natalie thought she was joking or too much of a coward to go through with it. Well, yeah, I mean, she didn't even draw on the car, for God's sakes. Very true. But either way, you'd think she would have called up her old pal, Gina Cochie, and been like, yo, your Psycho-X is taking a one-way train to stalker town, and I've accidentally been the conductor. But alas, no, Natalie was happy to go on two additional trips with Janet after this little confession. Wow.

In the first two weeks of October, Janet brought along a dark cap, gloves, and a 32-cali caliber handgun in her bag. She got out of Natalie's car and waited in an intersection that Lynn would be driving by on her way home from work. Fortunately, Lynn didn't show up that evening. She had a doctor's appointment and took a different route home. This was the turning point. The whole thing got a little too real for Natalie, and she didn't go on any more recon missions with Janet. She still didn't call Gina or the cops. She just kept the whole thing to herself.

I will say that one of our sources insinuated that Janet threatened Natalie's children, but we didn't find other sources that mentioned it, so it's hard to really pinpoint her actual level of culpability here. Either way, the police absolutely could have. help protect her and her children. And you're not any safer. If somebody tells you, if you say anything, I'll kill your children. Those children are going to be in danger if you don't say anything because you can't trust this person.

They're going to know you know. So you're a liability for them. So it's just better a hundred times out of a hundred to tell. Yep. Yep. And she was allowed to not no longer be involved after this point. So, again, she's still in danger because she was, again, Janet let her not be a driver anymore, which would scare me if I was involved and then suddenly I'm like, she's like, okay, you don't have to drive me anymore. What do you mean? What do you mean? Not one to be discouraged, though, Janet decides that she should do the next logical thing. Involve her 24-year-old daughter, Melody.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Lynn was on the phone with Gina when she was at work when a car with her. Vermont plates stopped in their driveway. Lynn was confused for a moment before saying, oh, it's Janet and Melody. Gina and Lynn's guest policy was pretty much let yourself in, which is a foreign concept to me, because if you show up at my house unannounced, I will pretend I'm not there while making eye contact with you through a window until you leave. I'll just army crawl through my living room, you know, just so you can't see me through the damn window. Yeah, same way. But, you know, it takes all kinds.

Gina was just delighted, and so was Janet, for the record, but for an entirely different reason. She wanted to see how the house was laid out. Oh, so creepy. That evening, while chatting over dinner, Gina told a story that caught Janet's ear. She was laughing about having forgotten her keys on the counter the other day and getting home before anybody else. She'd tried to squeeze herself through the house's doggy door to get herself inside, but to no avail. And while she was laughing, Janet's mind. started concocting a plan. Her other friend Butch Fruin from work was a pretty small guy.

The dog door was medium-largeish, and it seemed like Butch could easily fit through it. As soon as Janet asked, Butch agreed to help her kill Lynn Stellar, which is astonishing to me. It would be no problem, he told her. In fact, he was the one who lent her his father's gun she was going to use on the failed attempt on Lynn's life earlier that same month. Now, we've said this before on this show, but we tend to not believe in this fengali type. But what the fuck was happening in this friend group? What, like, seriously, what kind of hold did Janet have on these people that she could just say jump and they'd say, how high? Or in a, in a butch's case, how short. I mean, I'm pretty loyal to my friends, but if one of them asked me to help

him commit murder because their ex-situation ship had moved on, I'd probably be dropping their happy ass off at the nearest police station, not aiding and abetting. Not trying to virtue signal over here, but it genuinely seems like both Natalie Juergen and Butch Fruin made their lives significantly harder by agreeing to Janet's little scheme. It's just bizarre. Either they're the second and third worst people in the world right behind Janet, or she's got some serious powers of persuasion, which we've seen before. We know some people do.

So with Butch and Toll, all Janet needed now was a getaway driver. Natalie was out. She'd made that much clear. Who could they count on? Well, Melody was already involved, right? In for a penny, in for a pound. Her daughter. Her daughter. She's involving her daughter in this shit. Unreal. Janet told her that they were just going down to visit Gina. She asked Melody to drop them off near the house and then sent her to pick them up some cigarettes in town. Janet and Butch walked holding hands to the house and rang the doorbell in order to make her. sure nobody was home. Once confirming that nobody was, both Janet and Butch crawled through the dog door and sat waiting. At 3.30 p.m., Lynn and Ronnie arrived at the house through the garage and entered the kitchen. There, Janet and Butch were waiting. Janet shot Lynn and Ronnie three times each. When the gun was empty, she realized both victims were still alive and demanded Butch helper. Butch grabbed a butcher knife from the knife block on the counter and handed it to Janet. who stabbed wildly at both Lynn and Ronnie.

In the process of the struggle, the knife severed the phone line and knocked the phone off the hook. She also used a paring knife and a serrated knife to attack the victims, which is a sign of severe overkill. Ronnie and Lynn were still alive, though, so Janet told Butch to hand her something else. He handed her a lamp, which she smashed over Lynn's head, then hit Ronnie with a mason jar. This is what actually injured her hand when the mace. mason jar shattered and cut her. Her blood was found on Ronnie's clothing, on the wall in the hallway leading away from the scene and out the door. They dumped the gun in a pond as they drove away. And whether Melody saw this, we don't know. So a few days after the murder, how was the investigation

going? Pretty good, honestly, at least by TCC standards. Three days after it started, the detectives got an anonymous phone call telling them that they should look into Janet in Vermont, because she had an injured hand. They didn't know what Janet looked like or even where she lived, so they decided to make an appearance at the funeral to see who showed up with a bandaged hand. Detective Bob Barone

took Gina to a separate room and asked her if she knew anyone named Janet. She said, yeah, of course. And when he asked if he could speak to her, Gina freaked out a little. She called him an asshole and told him he was wasting time chasing this lead and they needed to go find the real killer, bless her heart.

Bob would later tell ID that he found this to be a very authentic reaction. She was defensive over her friend, and he thought she was just protecting her own mind from the horrific thought that someone so close to her could betray her like this. Absolutely. Despite her initial reaction, Gina did manage to arrange a meeting between the detectives and Janet, though. They met at Gina's home in Rutland Falls. Janet was strikingly calm throughout the interview. She told them that on the day of the murder, she'd been with Butch in a different town, picking something up for her grandson.

Janet did indeed have a cut in her hand. When asked about it, she told the detectives that on November 2nd, she'd been changing a light globe at work when it shattered. She immediately filed an injury report with her boss and started the process for a workman's comp claim. The detectives, though, were about 157 steps ahead at this point, because for narrative purposes, we haven't told you something. Like we said, during the murder, Janet's knife cut the phone line and knocked the phone off the hook, which activated the answering machine. By some miracle, it recorded everything that was happening in the room.

And the recording is one of the most chilling things I've ever heard in my life. Oh, Lord. The tape starts with Janet snapping at Bush. I thought you were going to help me. Butch, hold her. Oh, my God. In the background, Lynn is begging for her life. No, please.

No, don't. Don't. No, don't. Come on, please. I've got a son. Come on, Janet. Oh, God. Butch, struggling, tells Janet, do it.

And Lynn yells, Janet, no, as we hear an ineffectual clicking noise. Janet huffson says, oh, great, I can't. Then Stellar calls out, Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie, no, no. No. Oh, Lord. There's more struggling, more yelling, than Janet orders Bush. Give me something. Anything.

He must hand her the ceramic lamp because a few moments later, there's the sound of glass shattering. She then says, Butch, here. Here, he's not done. He's not done. No, hand me something. And there's more glass breaking. Then Butch says, let's go. Janet agrees.

He's done. Let's go. The tape then. records the eerie silence of the house until the tape runs out. The cops heard the tape that morning before they interviewed Janet. And naturally, it was a goddamn bombshell. It's as good as a taped confession. The victim was reaching out from beyond the grave and sending a message, telling the detectives who had done this to her and her nephew. There was still quite a bit that the police didn't know. They didn't know who the man on the tape was. They didn't know if there

was any other accomplices, if anyone knew about this murder, they needed to put the screws to her in a more controlled environment. So they asked if she could come meet them at the Rutland PD the next day for an interview. She agreed easily. She had told them she had been with Butch Fruin in town all day on the day of the murder. So they did pay Butch a visit to confirm her alibi. Butch's story matched Janitz, but like in a suspicious rehearsed way, they asked him to visit the police department the next day as well for a formal interview, and he set up a time. They talked to Butch first, and when he started in on the alibi story again, the detective stopped him. We already know you're lying, they told him. And then they popped the answering

machine tape into the cassette player. And when he heard what was on it, Butch folded like an origami crane. He looked like he'd seen a ghost, and it was almost like he had. I can only imagine and the panic when he realized what he was listening to. Butch said he'd gone to Middletown with Janet, but he had no idea that the murders were going to happen. He said that Janet held him at gunpoint and forced him to crawl through the dog door and let her in the house. Then she made him wait in the house with her,

which he did without putting up a fight, and when Ronnie and Lynn came home, he sat back and watched as she violently put an end to two people's lives. What an interesting story, right? In my opinion, there's just, one gaping hole in it. Can you guess what that is? Do it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. While he was restraining Lynn Stellar while she was fighting for her life,

Butch Fruin told Janet, do it while she was holding a gun. That doesn't seem very scared or threatened to me, does it? Well, anyway, that half confession was enough to put some pressure on our Ice Queen Janet, who, upon hearing about Butch's confession, in her first display of real emotion since speaking to investigators simply laid her head in her hands. But then she lifted her head up and made eye contact with the detective and said, Cool as a fridge full of cucumbers, I couldn't have done this. I couldn't kill anybody. The detective just shrugged and said, tell you what, Janet, it's starting to look like we

might be getting a warrant for your arrest here in a couple of days, so you sit tight. Janet told him she would be staying with her daughter and they could find her there if they needed On November 9, 1993, just a week and a half after the murders of Lynn Stellar and Ronnie King, police put the habeas grabbous on Janet Griffin. Gina Cochie was shaken to her core. It was a betrayal she almost couldn't comprehend. These people were her friends. She considered them to be the closest people in her life,

and they ripped her world apart for no reason at all. Janet fought extradition to Connecticut for three years, but her trial finally began in March of 1996. She was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. She's found guilty on both counts and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Excellent.

Gina Cochie now says that Janet ruined her life and that she deserves to die the way my lover and her nephew did. But we put that woman behind bars where she belongs and that's the best we could do. A year later, Butch went on trial for manslaughter and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. detective gino acknowledges that butch may very well have been frightened of janet i mean janet's a scary person she stalked a woman for having the audacity to say no to her and brutally murdered two people over it it's clear from the recording that he was the assistant in the room not the primary assailant but at the end of the day life is made up a choices butch chose to give janet his father's gun he chose to go with her to connecticut he chose to help her kill two people and he chose to try and help her get away

with it. The thing I keep coming back to is the two lines on that audio tape. Butch telling Janet to do it as he handed her a knife when the gun ran out of bullets and Butch simply saying, let's go, as Ronnie King took his last breaths on this earth. Butch is out of prison by now and we hope to God he's keeping his nose clean. Natalie Juergen was granted immunity for her frankly valuable testimony about Janet's stalking an initial attempt on Len's life. She passed away in 27 We hope her family and loved ones find peace. As far as Janet's daughter, Melody, the police couldn't prove that she knew anything at all about the murders. It seems like Janet really did keep her out of it.

To Janet, her friends were expendable, her daughter, possibly not. This is just a sad, sad case. Janet's whole shtick is the kick dog aesthetic, isn't it? It's all just kind of pathetic. Feel bad for me, I'm so down on my luck, I need help. And then she just blasts a crater. in an entire community because she can't take no for an answer. And you know it wouldn't have been enough for her, right?

Like the possession is never enough for this type of person. They never see the object of their desires as a living, breathing human being. They see them as a sort of doll that they can project their fantasies on. You have a young woman, one who grew up without a mom, who Janet practically raised. We haven't talked much about grooming here because there isn't really evidence of that, but it's certainly worth side-eyeing how Janet went from babysitting Gina as a child to moving herself into her bedroom, right? What this case really makes us think about is community. Lynn and Gina and Ronnie had started building their own little community in

Middletown. Everybody who met them adored them. They'd been growing roots, bravely putting themselves out there, loving each other. Isn't that what we're here for? To love each other? And then one sick, obsessive woman decided to tear all that down for her own selfish purposes. So, campers, remember to go out there and love each other this week, for Ronnie and for Lynn. So that was a wild one, right, campers? You know, we'll have another one for you next week. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And if you haven't booked your spot on the Crime Wave True Crime Cruise from November 3rd through November 7th, get on it, y'all. join Katie and me plus last podcast on the left scared to death and sinisterhood for a rock and good time at sea

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