Catching a Killer

 Happy True Crime Thursday!

The case I chose for today....man it sent me through a roller coaster of emotions. The woman I’m about to talk about is the definition of a survivor and her instincts helped save her life in the end. This is the kidnapping of Lisa McVey. 

17 year old Lisa went through a rough upbringing, all of her childhood she was abused and was in and out of foster care for 5 years. Eventually she went and lived with her grandmother. Here she sadly was sexually abused by her grandmothers boyfriend, for 3 years. He would put a gun to her head every time he molested her. Lisa had a job at a Krispy Kreme donut shop that she would ride her bike to. On November 3, 1984 Lisa had had enough, she wrote out a suicide note and had plans to kill herself. But she said God had other plans for her.

The night of the 3rd Lisa hopped on her bike and was heading home from work when she was hit off her bike, blindfolded and abducted. The assailant brought her to an apartment where he brutally sexually assaulted her. McVey went into survival mode right from the start and knew she needed to gather as much information as she could. She remained mentally alert through the entire brutal ordeal. For 26 hours she was held captive. During this time Lisa used mental manipulation and reverse psychology to outsmart her abducter. Saying things like “Listen, it’s unfortunate how we met, but I can be your girlfriend. I could take care of you, and no one ever had to know.” She spoke to him in ways that would seduce him into letting her go. Later she stated “I had to take all of the abuse I had incurred as a child and just reach down one more time, into the pit of my stomach, and tap into those survivor skills to overcome him psychologically.” And her techniques worked, he let her go.

Once she was freed she went to the local police department, this is where she had trouble convincing the authorities of the events that took place. Even her own family doesn’t believe her. It wasn’t until a veteran detective heard the details of her story and knew she was telling the truth. Her memory was amazing. She was able to estimate the amount of time she spent in the abducters car, able to establish a radius for the apartment she was kept in, the amount of stairs there were leading up to the apartment, she was able to estimate when the abducter used an ATM by recalling the television show music she heard playing faintly in the background and she was able to provide details of the make and model of the vehicle that she was able to just see under her blindfold. She told them that she had touched his face at one point and was able to provide a description. And just in case she didn’t make it she had placed fingerprints all over his bathroom.

With these details police were able to locate and arrest one Bobby Joe Long on November 10th. 

Amazing right?!

Well there’s more....Lisa didn’t just save herself, but probably saved countless others because Bobby Long was a serial killer that police had been looking for. After his arrest he confessed to 10 murders!

Robert Joseph Long was born on October 14, 1953 to his parents Louella and Joe in Kenova, West Virgina. His parents split when he was young and he spent most of his childhood in Florida with his mom. Now this might not come as a surprise to you, but Long developed a hatred for women, beginning with his mother. His mom worked at a bar and would often wear  racy clothing to work and would bring different men home with her....the thing is that Bobby shared a bed with his mom until he was about 13. Yikes. Long was also injured in a couple accidents in his early years. 

Bobby met his wife Cynthia at age 13 and in 1974 the 2 got married and soon after had 2 children. Around this time he was hit by a vehicle while riding his motorcycle and was hospitalized for weeks. Cynthia later claimed that Bobby was different after this and he became short tempered and was physically violent towards her. He also developed a strangely overt, compulsive and often dangerous sex drive (Later he was labeled a sexual sadist.) His wife divorced him in 1980. 

Bobby moved in with a female friend named Sharon Richards, she later accused him of battery and rape. In Fall 1983 Bobby was charged with sending an inappropriate letter and photographs to a 12 year old girl. He spent a short time in jail and was put on probation. 

Long started scouting for victims by looking for “For Sale” signs on houses and looking through the classifieds. Which would lead to an opportunity where he could enter an unsuspecting woman’s home and force himself on her. He committed more than 50 rapes.  

It was in spring of 1984 that he killed for the 1st time, after sexually assaulting his victim wasn’t fulfilling enough. He killed 8 before Lisa and 2 after her, below are their names, ages and when they were killed. 

• Artiss Ann Wick, 20 – killed on March 27, 1984
• Ngeun Thi Long, 19 – killed on May 13, 1984
• Michelle Denise Simms, 22 – killed on May 27, 1984
• Elizabeth Loudenback, 22 – killed on June 8, 1984
• Vicky Marie Elliott, 21 – killed on September 7, 1984
• Chanel Devoun Williams, 18 – killed on October 7, 1984
• Karen Beth Dinsfriend, 28 – killed on October 14, 1984
• Kimberly Kyle Hopps, 22 – killed on October 31, 1984
• Virginia Lee Johnson, 18 – killed on November 6, 1984
• Kim Marie Swann, 21 – killed on November 11, 1984

In the end it was red carpet fibers from Bobby’s car they connected them all. While he confessed to committing 10 murders he alluded to the possibility of others during police interviews. 

He was given several life in prison sentences along with the death penalty. In May of 2019, Bobby Joe Long went bye bye by lethal injection, and sitting there to witness his departure was Lisa.  

Lisa today is a Hillsborough County Sheriffs Deputy, she works as a school resource officer not far from where it all happened.  Amazing right?! 

Resources:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.biography.com/.amp/crime-figure/bobby-joe-long

https://murderpedia.org/male.L/l/long-bobby-joe.htm

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fox13news.com/news/escaping-a-serial-killer-im-a-survivor.amp

 

Murder in Greenwich

 Happy True Crime Thursday! 

This weeks case is that of a young woman who was murdered, found close to home and was possibibly killed by the hands of a Kennedy family member? 

On the night of October 30, 1975, 15 year old Martha Moxley went out for a night of pulling pranks with friends on what’s known as mischief night in Greenwich, Connecticut. She didn't make it back inside her home that evening. She was found early the next afternoon, her body was discovered in her own backyard.  

She had been stabbed and bludgeoned to death, her jeans and underwear were pulled down around her knees. Even with the way she was found there was no evidence of sexual assault. The murder weapon was a golf club, the head of the club was found just 50 feet away from the portion of her drive way where they believe she was approached. It’s believed that a portion of the shaft of the golf club was used as a weapon later to stab her. Her estimated time of death was between 9:45-10:00pm. 

The broken club led investigators to a prominent local family, the Skakel family. They lived across the street from the Moxleys. They discovered that Michael Skakel (15)  and Thomas Skakel (17) both had been with Martha that night. Michael told police that at 9:30 he went with his other brothers, John and Rush Jr. to give their cousin a ride home. Thomas told them that he went inside his home at 9:30 to work on a report for school after briefly flirting with Martha. He saw her walk towards her house, 150 yards away from his own.  Was one of them lying to police? Oh and the Skakel boys were the nephews of someone we all know as Robert F. Kennedy. 

Michael and Thomas Skakel

There was one other person that was on the radar of police. 24 year Kenneth Littleton, he was a live-in tutor for the Skakel children who had been hired just a short time before the murder. He told police that he heard noises outside the house sometime between 9:30-10:00pm. Before he went outside he stated that he went to check on the 7 Skakel children, according to him the 4 oldest boys (John, Rush Jr., Thomas and Michael) were not at home. He said he didn’t see Thomas until 10:25 when he came in and joined him to watch a tv show, the other boys came home within half an hour. 

I should also mention that Martha had a boyfriend, Peter Ziluca. He had last seen Martha earlier in the day on the 30th, the 2 of them discussed their Halloween plans. While home that night his mom asked if he would like to borrow the car to see Martha, he had smoked pot earlier and didn’t have a license so he thought better to stay at home. He was cleared by police after given a polygraph. Several others were given polygraphs as well.

Kenneth Littleton, the tutor had been dismissed by the Skakels after 6 months. According to police he did fail his polygraph when questioned about the murder. There wasn’t any evidence to make an arrest and as you guys know a polygraph cannot be used in court. The more they spoke with other staff and family members they pretty much were able to say that he had been accounted for the whole evening. 

Thomas Skakel was given 2 polygraphs, the 1st was inconclusive and the 2nd he passed. Then all of a sudden months after being cooperative with authorities the Skakel family refused to answer anymore questions. 

Without anything further to go on Martha’s case went quiet for years. 16 years to be exact. 

William Kennedy Smith was arrested in 1991 on sexual assault charges. What does this have to do with Martha you might ask? There was a claim that William might have been at the Skakel house the night of her murder. The tip was unfounded and he was acquitted of his charges. This claim was originally told to journalist Dominick Dunne, even though it was a false claims his interest in Martha’s case peaked. The police also made the decision to reopen her case.

In 91’ they brought in Dr. Henry Lee, a forensic pathologist, hoping he would be able to bring something new to the case using the technology that wasn’t available in 1975. Among the items examined were clothes that were found discarded after Martha’s murder in the Skakel’s garbage. He was able to find some hairs and fibers. Some of the hair microscopically was similar to Martha’s while others were not. He determined that the hair belonged to a Caucasian male. Road block was that he didn’t have a hair sample from any suspects for a match. Dr. Lee also studied the crime scene photos “The blood smear on her body indicates somebody tried to use force. It suggests a sexually motivated homicide."

No matter what the Skakel boys (now men) were always the ones to come back to. In November of 1995 Leonard Levitt reported in Newsday that Thomas and Michael had made some startling admissions to police. “Both Thomas and Michael told the investigators that they had lied to the police about their accounts the night of the murder. Thomas said to them that after 9:30 he went inside his house then came out and spent another 20 minutes with Martha. Claiming that he and Martha engaged in a sexual act.”  Meaning he would have left her around 9:50ish. Remember her estimated time of death is between 9:45-10:00pm.

For Michael he said after he got home he went straight to bed, but that was not all he did that night. Around midnight, Michael said he was drunk and wanted to see Martha. He went out, climbed a tree outside Martha's window, threw stones at the window and then masturbated in a tree. While climbing down, he said he heard voices right around where the crime scene took place, and ran home. Even though this places him at the scene of the crime, it doesn’t place him there at the time she was murdered. For that time frame is alibi is pretty air tight. 

So if you’re like me in reading about this case you’re probably thinking man this Thomas guy is the one. 

Well new information came forth implicating someone for the murder of Martha, this someone was Michael Skakel. 4 years after her murder Michael was sent to the Elan School for troubled teens in Maine. Several of his classmates had heard him confess to the killing. Based on the new information a 42 year old Michael was charged with murder. Prosecutors argued that the motive was sibling rivalry over Martha’s affections. Also even though it wasn’t able to be used in court here are some writings from Martha’s diary a month before her murder.

In a passage from September 12, 1975, “Dear Diary, Today was nothing extra special at school. Peter was being his usual self ... Me, Jackie, Michael, Tom, Hope, Maureen & Andra went driving in Tom's car. I drove a little then & I was practically sitting on Tom's lap 'cause I was only steering. He kept putting his hand on my knee ... I drove some more & Margie & I kept yelling out the sunroof & then we went to Friendly's & Michael treated me & he got me a double but I only wanted a single so I threw the top scoop out the window. The I was driving again & Tom put his arm around me. He kept doing stuff like that. Jesus if Peter ever found out I would be dead! I think Jackie really likes Michael & I think maybe he likes her (maybe because he was drunk, but I don't know).”

On September 15, 1975, Moxley recalled hanging out in an RV on the Skakel property with Jackie and Michael. She wrote that Michael told her he “doesn’t like Jackie but he leads her on so much I can’t believe it!”

A few days later, Moxley journaled about a confrontation she had with Michael about her interactions with Tommy:

“Michael was so totally out of it that he was being a real asshole in his actions & words. He kept telling me that I was leading Tom on when I don't like him (except as a friend). I said, well how about you and Jackie? You keep telling me that you don't like her & you're all over her. He doesn't understand that he can be nice to her without hanging all over her. Michael jumps to conclusions. I can't be friends w/ Tom, just because I talk to him, it doesn't mean I like him. I really have to stop going over there."

Michael Skakel was convicted and sentenced 20 years to life. The family appealed the conviction and in May 2018 the conviction was overturned. He maintains his innocence to this day. 

So really there was never any hard evidence to that could really lock down a killer. What do you guys think?

Resources:

https://unsolved.com/gallery/martha-moxley/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.oxygen.com/murder-and-justice-the-case-of-martha-moxley/crime-time/martha-moxley-diary-skakel-family%3famp

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eonline.com/amp/news/1050434/the-unrelenting-martha-moxley-murder-saga-old-money-cold-justice-the-kennedy-connection-and-endless-twists

Mystery in the Mountains

 Happy True Crime Thursday! 

You guys know by now I love a good mystery, so today I’m bringing you not only a decades old mystery, but one that comes with a bunch of conspiracy theories as well. It's not technically true crime per say, but its a good one none the less. 

Buckle up because this one is quite the ride.

It all begins in January of 1959, 9 students from the Urals Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk plus one other began their 3 week journey hiking into the Ural Mountains. All ten individuals were experienced hikers. They were set to return from their trip on February 12th. 

February 12th came and went without the group returning, no one was to concerned by this due to the treacherous terrain that they had to go through, they were probably just taking their time. But by February 20th the families started to grow concerned, so a search party was sent out the next day. A few days after that rescuers came across the groups tent...but what they discovered wasn't what they had expected. 

The tent was found with the entrance facing South and the North part of the tent was covered with snow that appeared to come from blowing wind and not from an avalanche. The tent had been cut from the inside out while the door to the tent was still closed, belongings were all still inside. They followed some footprints that lead downhill, now these footprints weren't shoe prints these were the prints of either bare feet or socks. Down this hill they found the remnants of a small fire under a tree that had the branches broken off of it. This was where the first body was found. 

The body was identified as Yuri Doroshenko, he was found with dried blood on his face, minor cuts and bruises, burns to his head and foot, and a gray foam on his cheeks which indicated a pulmonary edema. They marked his cause of death as hypothermia. Just near his body they found another, the body of Yuri Krivonischenko, he was missing the tip of his nose, had similar cuts and bruises, a chunk of his knuckle was missing (they later found it in his mouth) as well as burns to his hands. His death was also marked as hypothermia. 

The leader of the group (That the pass would later be named after) Igor Dyatlov was found up the slope back towards the tent. He had blood on his lips, a missing tooth and minor cuts and bruises. He was wearing a watch that had stopped at 5:31am. His cause of death was put down as hypothermia. Next was Zinaida Kolmogorova, she was found nearest to the tent. She was face down, had a bruise from an unknown object that caused blunt force trauma, along with minor cuts and bruises. As you probably guessed it her cause of death was also hypothermia. 

On March 5th, the body of Rustem Slobodin was found on the hill, he was found wearing one boot and had similar minor cuts and bruises as the others. He had a fractured skull, but this was not marked as the cause of death. Hypothermia was. It wasn't until the snow began to melt in the area about 2 months later that the last 4 hikers were found. They were found in a 6ft ravine. Aleksander Kolevator and Semyon Zolotaryov were found embracing, most likely to preserve body heat. Kolevator had a broken nose and was missing his eyes along with the soft tissue around them. Died of hypothermia. Zolotaryov was found with a pen and paper in his hand, but no message was written down, he died from a crushed chest. Nikolay Thibeaux-Brignolle died due to a blunt impact to his skull. One investigator compared the force required to make this kind of damage to that of an impact of a severe car crash. Lyudmila Dubinina had her tongue and eyes missing, she had blood in her stomach and had died due to a crushing injury to her chest. No one could explain what had caused this trauma, there was nothing in the area that was found.

It was later discovered that both Aleksander Kolevator and Lyudmila Dubinina had signs of radiation on their clothing.We will get more into this later on.

If you were keeping count that leaves one person missing, Yuri Yudin. He had actually left the trip early on January 28th. He had a sciatica flare up, while bummed to have not completed the journey this choice to leave looks like it ended up saving his life. Due to journals and recordings it is believed that the hikers died on the night of February 1st/ early morning of February 2nd.  

So right now you might be sitting here thinking...ok while upsetting this seems like nothing but a terrible tragedy caused by the elements. But think about these things...Why was their tent cut from the inside? Why did they leave behind their warm belongings and the comfort of the tent to flee to certain death in the wind and snow? What was up with the blunt force traumas no one can explain? What about the radioactivity found on 2 of the hikers clothing? 

In May of 1959 the investigation was closed, a couple weeks after the last 4 bodies were found. They didn't go back after the snow had melted to find more clues and no radiation testing at the sight was done. They closed the case stating the students were killed by "an elemental force that tourists were not able to overcome." The case was archived as "classified." In the 1990's when the files became accessible, parts of them were missing. 

So with all of these unanswered questions of course there is going to be speculation of what happened. Let's get to the conspiracies shall we? 

Some state that near the campsite was a Soviet nuclear testing sight where they conducted R-7 intercontinental missile launches. Because of the radiation that was found on the clothing there is some speculation that maybe the hikers drank melted contaminated snow. A 12 year old who attended 5 of the hikers funerals claimed that the bodies had a "deep brown tan."  

On the night of February 1st orange spheres were sighted in the sky. There were reports that nearby about 3 kilometers away a 30 mile wide crater was found, it had turned the rock to a red type glass which is caused by high heat. The landing would have created a bright light and a shockwave. This would have been disorienting and scary to the hikers. Was this a meteor or possibly one of those missiles? 

Others believe that the orange spheres might have been a little thing known as Aliens. 

In 1959 the world was in the midst of the Cold War, between the Soviet Union and the United States. A group of authors believe the KGB, the CIA and Soviet counterintelligence were involved in the fatalites. According to their theory the hikers were KGB officers whose mission was disguised as a hiking trip, this mission was designed to derail an operation. The authors also hypothesize that one of the hikers could have actually been a traitor who planned to use the expedition to leak secret information to foreign intelligence. Seems a bit out there right? Well lets go back to those pieces of clothing that were radioactive. 2 of the hikers (Georgy Krivonischenko and Rustem Slobodin) were employed where weapon-grade plutonium was produced during that time. This would explain the contamination, and possibly lay the groundwork for a potential intelligence related operation that resulted in the death of these 9 people and a cover up orchestrated by the KGB. 

One somewhat out there scientific possibility is that a weather phenomenon known as a Karman Vortex Street occured. This is when wind flows around an object, in this case it was the mountain and due to the large scale the winds actually generate a low frequency sound wave that has been blamed for causing physiological and psychological symptoms in humans. Some state that because of the high winds that night and the infrasound waves the hikers probably experienced severe panic caused them to flee the safety of their tent 

There is one theory that the hikers ate some lovely mushrooms they found on the journey, possibly because they were hungry or maybe they were looking for spiritual enlightenment. Regardless they started tripping and this would explain the franticness and bizarre aspects of the scene. 

And my favorite is that their deaths were caused by the Russian Yeti. An American explorer by the name of Mike Libecki followed the trail of evidence and found proof that the hikers were not alone. A photograph. It was a photograph taken by one of the hikers a day before they died that suggests that they encountered a Yeti. For those unfamiliar it has been said that Yeti- like beasts inhabit the wilds of Siberia and the Ural Mountains to the West. Mike stated "When I found out one of the students was missing a tongue immediately I knew this was not caused by an avalanche," "Something ripped out the tongue of this women." 

In 2019, the case was reopened, 60 years later. The conclusion of the new investigation was that the causes of death were due to an avalanche that began as the group slept, they left their tents in order to seek shelter and unfortunately were overcome by the elements. Yet there wasn't proof that an avalanche occurred that night. The bodies were found within 10 days of their deaths and covered only with a very shallow layer of snow. 

Still no explanation for the severe trauma, radiation and bizarre scene in which they were found.

 So case closed or still an unsolved mystery? 

Below are some photos that were taken during the search and rescue mission. 

The Groups Tent

The Footprints Found

If you want to truly go down the rabbit hole check out this website. 

https://dyatlovpass.com/page.php?language_id=1&id=12786&flp=1#beginning