Unsolved Mystery

Happy True Crime Thursday and A Happy Thanksgiving Guys! 

Now, I don't know about you, but I absolutely loved watching the show Unsolved Mysteries. Still do.

When I was a kid I used to binge watch it whenever I got the chance. Maybe that's where it all got started for me. 

The story I'm talking about today was featured in an Episode of Unsolved Mysteries in 1997, Season 3, Episode 6. 

It's the mysterious death of Blair Adams.

Let me tell you a little bit about Blair, he was a 31 year old well liked man that worked as a foreman for a local construction company in  Surrey, British Columbia. Nobody ever had anything bad to say about him, he always carried a smile and had a friendly, outgoing attitude. By the Summer of 1996 his whole demeanor would change and soon people were left with nothing, but confusion.  He started to have these crazy frequent mood swings, and very apparent paranoia and anxiety, he was barely sleeping. He was claiming that people were trying to kill him. When his mom asked him what was going on he said "I don't think I should tell you about it."

On July 5, 1996 Blair withdrew all of the money from his bank account and removed the contents of a safety deposit box that contained thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, gold and platinum. Two days later on July 7th he went to the Canadian-US border to attempt entry into the US. Because of the amount of cash he was carrying and him being a single man they denied him entry, they thought he fit the profile of a drug trafficker trying to cross. The next day, Blair came to his work, quit and left. He ended up buying a plane ticket that afternoon to Frankfurt, Germany that would leave the next day. He went to a friends house shortly after and said that he needed to get across the border because somebody was trying to kill him. His friend told him that unfortunately they wouldn't be able to help. 

On July 9th, he went to the airport where he got a refund on his ticket to Germany, he instead rented a car and made his way back to the border. This time he was able to cross, from there he went to Seattle, WA. When he arrived there he purchased a plane ticket to Washington D.C on the first flight he could. After he arrived in Washington D.C he rented a car and drove to Knoxville, Tennessee. Confused yet? Just wait...

When tracking his movements they discovered that he had stopped at a gas station in Knoxville with car problems. With an attendants help they discovered that the key Blair was attempting to use wasn't the correct one for the car he was driving. The 2 of them searched the car and the surrounding area for the right key, but no luck. Blair set up for the car to be towed to the nearest motel, he would stay there while he waited on another key from the rental company. 

When he arrived the motel cameras picked up on some weird behavior, if you watch the Unsolved Mysteries episode it will show that footage. The person who helped Blair at the motel described him as "paranoid, nervous, agitated, expecting someone to come in on him even, there wasn't anybody there. I don't know who he was waiting for, but he was waiting for somebody to walk in for him."

In the time frame of an hour Blair entered and left the lobby fives times, he finally asked the receptionist for a room. Perhaps his constant in and out was him trying to decide whether or not to get a room. It was evident to all that he was in a state of agitation. After he booked a room, he left the motel, never using the room. This was the last that anyone saw Blair...alive. 

About a half mile from the motel, Blair's body was found in a parking lot the following morning on July 11th.. He had quite a few bruises and cuts on his body. He put up a fight, the killer had ripped locks of his hair out and he had several defensive wounds on his hands. Police also found a long strand of hair in Blair's hand. To make his whole situation even more mysterious his body was found with his shirt ripped open, his pants were removed and his socks were inside-out. Around his body was $4,000 of Canadian, American and German currency, nearby there was a bag of gold and jewels. The car keys he needed to drive were laying on the ground about 10 feet away from him. His official cause of death was due to a ruptured stomach from a hard blow to the abdomen. Certain injuries also seemed to indicate that he was sexually assaulted. Police believe he was killed around 3:30 am that morning, a construction worker claimed to have heard a scream coming from the parking lot at that time, but since we are on the topic of strange...the man also claimed that it was a woman.  . 

His family was notified and they just couldn't come up with a reason why Blair would have been in Tennessee, there wasn't any family there and they didn't know of any friends of his in that area. His bizarre behavior and frantic movements definitely made it seem like he was running from someone, but who? Or could it be he was having some sort of paranoid episode? Police could not find anything in his past to help them. The only lead they possibly had was an unidentified man that was seen with Blair the night before his death at several restaurants in Knoxville, a sketch was made. The man remains a mystery. Police could not find a clear motive for killing Blair. All the cash and jewels at the scene ruled out a robbery or drug deal gone bad. They couldn't find anyone with a grievances against him. Investigators have exhausted all their resources.

Well as you may have guessed, so many questions remain unknown. Blair Adam's case remains an unsolved mystery to this day. The one shred of hope his family has is that maybe someday there will be a DNA match on the hair found in Blair's hand. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Resources: 

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Blair_Adams

https://www.historicmysteries.com/blair-adams-unsolved-mystery/

http://unsolved.com/gallery/blair-adams/

Killer Kids

Happy True Crime Thursday Guys!

I'm not going to lie to you, this weeks research was a bit rough.

It's hard enough to wrap your head around how a person can take another persons life, but when the killer is a child...it takes it to a whole other level.

This week I am discussing 3 cases, cases that involve Killer Kids. 

Our first story absolutely broke my heart, it's the murder of James Bulger. James was with his mom at the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, England on the afternoon of February 12th, 1993. 

At the same time Jon Venables and Robert Thompson both 10 years old, had decided to skip school that day and go to the same shopping mall. Surveillance videos show the 2 kids stealing various items like candy, a troll doll, some batteries and a can of blue paint. At some point the petty shoplifting wasn't enough and the 2 of them decided they wanted to abduct a child.  

Soon they would find their victim. James' mother became temporarily distracted while inside a butcher shop, the boys took this opportunity to walk up to James, grab his hand and lead him out of the shopping center. This was all caught on camera as well. The boys walked 2.5 miles, and were seen by 38 people. Even though James was visually upset and crying most bystanders did nothing to intervene. And if they did confront them they were told that James was their younger brother. 

They eventually reached the village of Walton, they were close to the police station so they decided to go up a steep bank instead, this led them to Walton & Anfield railway station, this is where they started torturing poor James. Some of the items that they had stolen earlier were used, they threw the blue paint into his eyes, put batteries into his mouth, kicked him, stomped on him, threw bricks and stones at him all leading up to them dropping a 22 lb iron bar on James. They then laid James' body across the railroad tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, they were hoping that when a train hit him it would make it look like an accident. They left the scene and 2 days later James' severed body was found. A forensic pathologist stated that he had died before he was struck by the train and that he suffered around 42 injuries total so it was difficult to determine which was the fatal one. 

The 2 boys were caught after being recognized in the videos when they were released to the public. They were found guilty on November 24, 1993 and became the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. They were released in 2001 after a parole board stated the boys were no longer a threat to society. After being released they were given new identities, moved to secret locations and were given strict guidelines. Never to be heard of by the public again. 

On November 3, 1998, Maddie Clifton, age 8 was reported missing by her mother from their Lakewood neighborhood near Jacksonville Florida's south side. She had gone outside to play when she up and disappeared. The entire community came together in the hopes of finding Maddie, but she was never seen again. 

The search ended a week later when the Mother of a boy named Josh Phillips (Age 14) went to clean his room when she noticed that his waterbed was leaking. Upon further examination she discovered Maddie's body hidden inside the base of the waterbed. She quickly ran outside and went across the street to get the police. He was arrested that day at school. Side note- could you imagine being his mom and coming across a body in your teenage sons room?! 

According to Josh's account of what happened he stated that Maddie had come over to play some baseball outside. He agreed to this even though he wasn't allowed to have anyone over when his parents weren't there. He said Maddie had thrown the ball, he hit it and then the ball hit her in the eye. She started to bleed which caused her to start screaming and crying. Josh began to panic, he couldn't stand the thought of what his father would do to him if he found out about this. You see Josh's father was very abusive and would beat Josh if he did anything at all to upset him. Josh drug Maddie into his house and then into his room, he strangled her with a phone cord for about 15 minutes. Soon after that he hit her with the baseball bat and hid her under his bed. Soon after that Josh's father came home, Josh went and greeted him, the 2 interacted for a short while before Josh went back into his room. He discovered that Maddie was moaning under his bed, she was still alive. He removed the mattress and stabbed her 11 times, which this time killed her. He then stored her body in the base of his bed. 

Josh had no prior history of violence or mental instability. The 14 year old was tried as an adult and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.   

This next story I'm going to give you more of a background story of what led up to this child's violence. Mary Bell's entry into the world wasn't an ideal one in May of 1957, her mother Betty was a 16 year old prostitute that told doctors to "take that thing away from me" when she saw her daughter. 

Things only continued to get worse for Mary, when her mother was present (which wasn't very often) she would inflict mental and physical abuse upon Mary. Mary's Aunt witnessed Betty trying to give Mary away to a woman who had been unsuccessfully trying to adopt, she quickly got Mary back. According to later accounts by Mary, she said her mother began to pimp her out when she was just 4 years old, although there is nothing that proves this. Mary also witnessed at a young age her friend get run over and killed by a bus. With all of this happening to such a young girl would it be a surprise to anyone that by the age of 10 she became a very withdrawn child, and soon her behavior would turn much more sinister.

On May 11, 1968, Mary was playing with a 3 year old boy when he became badly injured from a fall. His parents just assumed it was an accident, kids get hurt all the time...no biggie right? Well it turned out that on the day following the incident 3 mothers came forward to tell the police that Mary had attempted to choke their young daughters. There was a brief interview and lecture, but nothing really came of it.

Then (pardon my language here) shit gets real weird with Mary. On May 25th, the day before her 11th birthday, Mary strangles a 4 year old boy by the name of Martin Brown to death in an abandoned home. She later returned with her friend Norma, but when they arrived there were 2 local boys that had been playing in the home when they came across Martins body. The police were troubled by the crime scene, there were no obvious signs of violence, just a small amount of blood and saliva found on Martins face. They found an empty bottle of painkillers near his body, they assumed that he swallowed those pills and ruled his death an accident. Days after Martin's death Mary showed up at his grieving families doorstep and asked to see him. Martins mom softly told Mary that Martin was dead, and you know what Mary friggin said?! That she already knew that, she just wanted to see his dead body in the coffin. Like I would do in this moment, Martin's mom slammed the door in her face. 

Then shortly after this Mary and her little friend Norma decided to break into a nursery school, they vandalized it with notes claiming responsibility for the death of Martin Brown and saying it would happen again. Police decided this was nothing more than a sick prank. The nursery school decided to install an alarm system after this, it was a couple nights later that it caught Mary and Norma at the scene of the crime. When the police arrived they caught the girls loitering outside, they were let off the hook. Mary just couldn't help herself, she started bragging to her classmates that she was the one that killed Martin Brown. No one believed her since she had a history of being a pathological liar and a show off. 

2 months after Martins death Mary and Norma killed 3 year old Brian Howe by strangulation, but this time it wasn't enough for Mary. She mutilated his body with scissors, scratching his thighs and butchering his penis. When the search was on to find Brian of course Mary and Norma offered to help look for the boy. Mary pointed out concrete blocks that hid his body, but Norma said he wouldn't be in there to Brian's sister, so the search moved on without checking it out. 

When Brian's body was eventually discovered an autopsy was performed, the coroner noticed that someone had used a razor blade to carve the letter "M" onto his torso. What was most disturbing to them was that due to the lack of force the killer most likely would have been a child. Police soon discovered that the girls had been with Brian that day and when they questioned them about it their behavior was very odd. To add to their suspicions Mary was seen on the day of Brian's burial outside of his house, laughing and rubbing her hands together when she saw his coffin. 

Soon the girls started to break down after further questioning. Norma said that yes she was present, but the murder was all Mary. While Mary said that the blame was all on Norma. 

They were both charged. Mary was found guilty of Manslaughter, not murder. The court Psychiatrists stated that Mary showed "classic symptoms of psychopathy" and could not be held fully responsible for her actions. Norma was acquitted. The judge deemed Mary has a dangerous person and sentenced her to be imprisoned indefinitely, basically meaning until the powers feel that it's time for you to be let out. Mary was let out in 1980 under strict probational guidelines and had to live under several different identities. 

Wowzer these sound like they were pulled straight from a horror movie.

See you guys next week! 

Resources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger

https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/killer-kids-notorious-children-murderers-gallery-1.2774675

http://megankee.oucreate.com/murders/josh-phillips-and-the-murder-of-maddie-clifton/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/mary-bell

A Family Disappearance

Happy True Crime Thursday! 

For this weeks story I'm going to take you on a mysterious roller coaster ride. 

Today I'm talking about the bizarre disappearance of the McStay family.  

The McStay family was a family of 4; Dad Joseph (40), Mom Summer (43) and their sons Gianni (4) and Joseph Jr. (3) They lived in San Diego, California and had just recently moved into a new home that they were renovating into their dream house. Joseph had a successful business in designing and installing decorative water fountains and Summer was a licensed real estate agent. On February 4, 2010 the happy family would disappear and their case would soon baffle everyone.

It was around February 9th that some family of the McStays along with a couple of Joseph's business partners grew a bit concerned that they hadn't heard from them in a few days. One of those partners went over to the house to see if the McStays were there. When he arrived there was no trace of the family, but their two dogs were there and they had food and water in their bowls. They figured the family must have just gone out of town and had someone caring for the dogs.

February 13th came around and the family was growing more concerned that it had been 9 days now with no word from Joseph or Summer. Joseph's brother went to the house this time. From the outside nothing looked suspicious and it didn't look like there were any signs of foul play. He found a partially opened window and he used this to go inside. Inside it was about the same, nothing out of the ordinary. The family had just moved in a couple months earlier so it had some boxes and signs of the renovations, he left a note for the person that was watching the dogs to call him because he was concerned. Later that night he received a call...from animal control. They told him that they were planning to take the animals in because they had been left outside for over a week without food. As it turns out there wasn't anyone that was watching the dogs, it had been animal control that had stopped by and fed the dogs, he was in complete shock, it was not like them to leave their dogs like that. Joseph's brother immediately called the police and reported the family missing.

On the 15th, the police conducted a search of the McStay home, to them it was difficult to determine if there was a struggle that had occurred because of the stuff everywhere due to the renovations. There was something that investigators thought was suspicious and that was raw food was left out, to them it either indicated that the family had the intention of coming back home soon or that they left in a hurry. Overall there weren't any signs of forced entry or foul play, and nothing that gave any clues as to why the family had left or where they possibly went.

They started to question family and friends of the McStays to get a better idea of what their activity was leading up to the disappearance. Summer had made plans to visit her sister and her newborn earlier in the week and they also made arrangements for a family friend to come and finish painting their house on February 6th. On February 4th Joseph had attended work meetings that day and then went home, he had made several phone calls after his meetings and into that evening. It was when they checked a neighbors security camera that they saw the McStays' car leaving their home on the evening of February 4th and it never returned.

Soon they discovered that the families car had been towed for a parking violation on February 8th, near the Mexican border. They checked out the security cameras from the parking lot where it was towed and found that the car didn't arrive until the afternoon of February 8th, so that is 4 days where the family was unaccounted for. When they obtained the car they searched it for evidence, they found that everything inside looked pretty normal. There were a number of new toys, the kids car seats were in place and the front seats were in the positions to fit Summer and Josephs sizes. No signs of foul play yet again. It was just bizarre to police why this stuff was left behind and why they had parked near the border. They checked if either one of the family cars had traveled into Mexico and discovered that it had been years since they had traveled in by car. No one could explain why the McStays would have been at the Mexican border, Summer had even said herself that she felt Mexico was too unsafe.

It was when investigators took a look at a new surveillance video that they saw a group of 4 people walking across the border that they believed they found the McStays walking across the border around 7 P.M on February 8th, less than 2 hours after parking the car at the nearby parking lot. The video showed a male adult and a child walking in front of a female adult with anther child. The sizes of the people in the video matched the McStay family. When family members were called in to look at the video and help with identification they received mixed reactions. Overall the general consensus was that it was the McStay family, but some believed that the man in the video wasn't Joseph.

It didn't appear that the family was in distress and it looked like they willingly walked across the border. Even more strange was that they discovered neither child had a passport, Summers passport was expired and Joseph did have a valid passport, but it hadn't been used before or after the disappearance. How would they have been able to cross without the proper paperwork? They also discovered something else about Summer..she had changed her name multiple times throughout her life, while not a crime it did peak their interest as to why she did it. They looked for records of passports under other names she had used and came up empty handed. Their bank accounts remained untouched. Investigators and the family were left with more questions than answers. There were several unconfirmed sightings of the family reported in Mexico and other places in the United States, this left their family hope that they were safe and had just left voluntarily.

It was on November 11, 2013 that the McStays were found, sadly not in the way their families were hoping. Their remains were recovered in the Mojave desert, the deaths were ruled a homicide. Autopsies concluded that all 4 family members had been beaten to death with a blunt object, investigators believed the murder weapon was a 3 pound sledge hammer that was found buried alongside Summer. They believed the victims were tortured before they were killed.

What in the world happened to the McStays?

A year later more information would be brought to light...enter in Chase Merritt.

Chase Merritt was a business associate of Josephs, Joseph would find the customers and Chase whose business was separate from Josephs would build the pieces. In the days leading up to the McStays disappearances Joseph had cut ties with Chase due to poor performance. On February 1st Joseph sent him an email stating he owed him $42,845.00, three days later the family went missing. He was also the last known person to have had contact with Joseph and coincidentally enough was also the first one to notice he was missing. Cell phone records indicated several phone calls between the 2 on the 4th. Mr Merritt had quite the history, according to records he had felony convictions for burglary, receiving stolen property, and the theft of $32,000 worth of welding and drilling equipment. He was the last person that Joseph had called from his cell phone before all activity stopped.

This is where things get even weirder...When Joseph's father Patrick was asked if he thought Chase was a suspect he stated "I have to have faith in Chase because I have to have faith in my son. I believe that he trusted Chase and believed in Chase. Do I think Chase is involved? I don't think so, and I truly hope not." In January of 2014, Chase said that he was interested in writing a book about the McStay family. He claimed he was innocent and that he even passed a lie detector test. He alleged that Summer had anger problems and that Joseph thought Summer might be poisoning him because he had been ill for some time with a mysterious ailment. Joseph's family did in fact confirm that he had an unexplained illness and that Summer could be possessive at times of her husband, but they said Chase's claims were unfounded and that Summer truly loved Joseph.

November 5. 2014 detectives arrested Chase Merritt in connection to the deaths of the McStay family. Chase's DNA was discovered in the family car and according to cellphone records, his cellphone pinged in the area the remains were found around the time they would have been buried. He was charged with 4 counts of murder and the DA was seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors allege that Chase had a gambling problem and he killed the McStay family for financial gain. They stated he had written checks totaling more than $21,000 on Joseph's business account in the days after the family was killed, then went on a gambling binge at local casinos. Where he ended up losing thousands of dollars. His trial was delayed several times due to him firing his attorneys or attempting to represent himself. By February 2016, he had gone through a total of 5 attorneys.

By January 2018, Chase's newest attorney filed a motion arguing that Joseph's business accounting records were hearsay evidence and should be inadmissible. On May 4th the case was scheduled to go to trial in July, but the trial didn't begin until January 7, 2019! By June 10, 2019 he was found guilty of murdering the McStay family. His sentencing is due next month on December 13th.

What a crazy story huh? The details of what happened that night and the days following aren't well known. The one person that could make it known claims he had nothing to do with it.

See you guys next week! 


Resources:

https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/cold-cases/mcstay-family/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McStay_family_murder

https://stephww.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/mcstay-timeline.pdf