Murder in the Heartland: Book Three

Harry Spiller

Description

In a place where murder isn’t supposed to happen—rural Missouri and Southern Illinois—deputy sheriff and investigator Harry Spiller learned the hard reality: murder is all around us. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a big city or small county with farms and churches—murder is swift and can happen to anyone, anywhere, and anytime. All too often, victims fall prey in places we think are safe to raise our families, where we take walks on hot summer nights, where our children play in the park or yard without concern, and where we leave our doors unlocked at night. Murder in the Heartland, Book 3 tells the stories of innocent victims in these seemingly innocent places. From his research and investigations of twelve murder cases, Spiller recounts the gruesome details of a homicidal nurse, a murder instigated by the devil, and the “death of the machine.” Each account includes chilling mug shots, crime scene photos, and interviews from the murderers themselves. As much as we like to think we’re safe, murder can happen even in rural America—and it does. Join Spiller in the last installment of his three-book series of these horrifying murders in the heartland.

Sujets

• Murder in the Heartland
• True Crime
• Southern Illinois
• Murder
• Serial Killers

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 07 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781596529625
• Langue: English

Extrait

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This book is dedicated to all the victims
of crime and their families.



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Turner Publishing Company
445 Park Avenue, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone]
200 4th Avenue North, Suite 950
Nashville, TN 37219
Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.turnerpublishing.com
Copyright © 2003 Harry Spiller. All Rights Reserved
Publishing Rights: Turner Publishing Company
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the
written consent of the author and the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-59652-962-5
Printed in the United States of America.
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17—0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1



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Contents
Prologue
Case 1
A Lethal Lesson
Case 2
The IRS Murder
Case 3
The Homicidal Nurse
Case 4
I Didn’t Mean to Kill Her, But I Did 69
Case 5
Take the Money and Run 85
Case 6
The Shotgun Slaying 107
Case 7
Drug Deal Gone Bad 137
Case 8
The Devil Kept Saying Do It 159
Case 9
I’m Reporting the Death of the Machine 179
Case 10
The Fake Gangster 191
Case 11
Mom Never Raised No Bitches 201
Case 12
Murder of the Assistant State’s Attorney 217



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Acknowledgment
I would like to thank the city and county police departments and the prosecutor’s offices in Illinois and Missouri for their cooperation in researching these cases. A special thanks to Candice Lahr, owner of Cata’s Books in West Frankfort, Illinois for her editorial assistance. Without their help this book would not have been possible.



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Prologue
In the series “Murder in the Heartland, Book One,” I wrote a story about serial murderer John Paul Phillips. Phillips was convicted of murdering Joan Weatherall in 1986. In order to get the death penalty for the defendant, the prosecution presented evidence during the sentencing hearing of the trial that proved John Paul had been involved in the murders of Theresa Clark in 1975 and Kathy McSherry in 1976.
However, one murder case was controversial for twenty years. John Paul had been sent to Menard Prison in 1976 for the abduction of a couple at Little Grassy Lake. In 1981, he was paroled on an early release program. Shortly afterward, Susan Schumake, a 21-year-old Southern Illinois University student, was brutally murdered and found on what was then known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail located on the east side of Route 51 on the Southern Illinois University campus in Carbondale, Illinois. The call came into the Carbondale police dispatch at 3:05 a.m. on August 18, 1981. An SIU student reported her roommate, Susan Schumake, missing. She said that Susan had left for a meeting at the SIU Student Center at 4:30 the evening before and had not returned nor had she called. “It wasn’t like Susan to do that,” she insisted.
She described Susan as 21 years old, 5 feet 1 inch tall, with dark brown hair, wearing jeans and a long sleeved, hooded top of rust brown and beige Indian design.
The dispatcher filled out a police service report and checked a box on the form that read, “Attempt to Locate the Subject.” The officer then informed the caller that she would have to wait for 48 hours before she could file a missing person report. If they located Susan they would call; if she returned home, the roommate was to call the police.
That evening at 7:42 p.m. the roommate called the police once again. She told the police that she was wrong about the location of the meeting Susan attended. The meeting was at the campus radio station located at Wright Hall. She said that she had gone to the radio station and found out that Susan had left the building around 5:30 p.m. on August 17. According to the witness she went west up the hill behind the building and that was the last time she was seen.
Police questioned the roommate further and found out that Susan did not have any serious problems, was not depressed, and didn’t have any boyfriends or other friends that she might be staying with. “As far as I know,” the roommate said, “she doesn’t have a bicycle or a car.”
At approximately 8:00 p.m. that same day, police searched the path north of the radio station. The path, nicknamed the Ho Chi Minh Trail, was a shortcut for the students. The trail began north of Wright Hall, ran west across Illinois Central Gulf Railroad tracks, and ended at Route 51 directly in front of the main campus. Detectives checked the brush along the trail and the woods in the immediate area. The search was fruitless.
That evening an officer reported for the third shift at 11:30 p.m. He read the report about Susan Schumake and decided that he would make a search of the path since it was the last place she had been seen. At 11:45 p.m. the lawman began his search down the path. The light beam from the flashlight moved along the dirt path and against the weeds on both sides of the trail. Suddenly, the officer stopped. On the left side of the trail he discovered trampled weeds. A closer look revealed the weeds were trampled for about ten square feet. The officer followed, then discovered another path leading to a small group of trees. He shined the light toward the trees. A partially nude female body was lying under the trees. The officer cautiously approached the body and took a pulse. The victim was obviously dead. Using his pack radio he called for assistance and while waiting, roped off the crime scene.
At about 12:34 a.m. Carbondale police, SIU Security police, and Crime Scene Technicians (CST) from the Illinois State Police arrived and began processing the crime scene.
The victim was lying on her stomach with her feet pointed north and her head pointing southeast. She was wearing a rust, tan and brown multi-colored pullover top and a pair of wedge shoes. Lying near the victim’s head were a pair of blue jeans with legs turned inside out and a pair of pink panties on the legs of the jeans. Her head was covered with congealed blood.
The crime scene was photographed and processed for physical evidence. The investigators collected, packaged, and marked cigarette butts, blue jeans, panties, and miscellaneous items found in the grass near the victim. From the body they collected fingernail scrapings, head and pubic hair standards, and one hair was recovered from the back of the victim’s right hand.
About ten feet southwest of the body, the officers discovered a shallow grave. The police strongly suspected the perpetrator began digging a grave and stopped short of completion for fear of being detected. The officers collected soil samples from the area and completed the crime scene process. At that time the Jackson County Ambulance Service transported the body to the local hospital morgue for an autopsy.
Next, officers interviewed the victim’s roommate. She told the police that she had been friends with Susan for about five years. Police learned that on August 17, Sue had worked on papers dealing with her job at the local radio station. Sue had a 5:00 p.m. meeting at the radio station. She left around 4:30 p.m. wearing a hooded shirt, jeans, and a yellow backpack with black straps. Sue carried sales material from the radio station, a hairbrush, sunglasses, contact lens case and a pair of glasses in the backpack.
The roommate told the police that she knew of no one who would want to kill Susan. “She had never experienced any trouble with anyone in the past,” she said.
Police learned from another friend that she had driven Susan to the Student Center and dropped her off at about 4:40 p.m. on August 17. The friend corroborated Susan’s roommate’s description of the clothing Susan was wearing when she last saw her and said that when she got out of the car she was carrying a yellow and black backpack. That was the last time she saw Susan.
Susan’s work supervisor told the lawmen that she had last seen Susan standing outside the door after a sales meeting at about 5:45 p.m. on August 17. Susan walked west around the building and up the small hill toward the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The supervisor said that she had known Susan since November 1980, when Susan joined the staff at the radio station as a commercial copywriter. Susan had been involved in some sales and promotion work and had been promoted to sales assistant in June 1981.
The radio staff had sales meetings once a month and the meetings were normally held at the Student Center, but the meeting had been changed to the Wright building at the last minute because the Student Center did not have room for the meeting.
After the meeting everyone had stood around and talked. The supervisor thought that Susan had been the first one to leave. She did not make any comments about where she was going.
“She just said goodbye to everyone and walked around the building and up the hill,” the supervisor remembered. Meanwhile, Dr. Steven Nuernberger performed an autopsy on the victim’s body, which was positively identified as that of Susan Schumake. The pathologists found superficial abrasions and bruises on both thighs, the backs of both hands, both knees, and the lower stomach. There were abrasions on the lower lip, left side of the face, and right eye.
The doctor discovered three large hemorrhages on the head. Two wounds, two centimeters by three centimeters, were located on the right of the head. The third wound was two centimeters by one centimeter and was located in the right frontal area of the forehead. The neck had hemorrhages to the right lower sternocleidomastoid muscles, right and left sterno hyoid muscles, left omocyoid muscles, and the soft tissues overlying the trachea. Examination of the vaginal and anal area revealed that the victim had been sexually assaulted.
The doctor did find a lighter colored pubic hair when he did a combing of the pubic hair.
Upon completion of the autopsy the pathologist concl