decades old cold cases that were finally solved

sisters lily and wylene Kennedy lived together in a small blue and white house in the heights neighborhood of Houston Texas in 1984 33 year-old wylene worked as an interior decorator and specialized in stained glass decor she also sold vintage clothing and antique jewelry 23 year-old Lily had previously worked as a data processor but was unemployed at the time she had moved into her sister's home on East 12th Street following a bitter divorce not wanting her ex-husband to know where she was staying on March 5th 1984 just a few days after Lily moved into the home the girl 63 year old father Jack was waiting for them to pick him up to drive him to a doctor's appointment at 8 a.m. when neither of them had arrived at his house by 8:30 he became worried and decided to walk over to their home when Jack arrived at the small house the door was slightly ajar when he went inside he made a terrible discovery the bodies of his daughters were on the floor of the living room lying head to foot in a row Lily had been shot once in the head wylene however had been raped and stabbed four times in the neck which led the police to believe that wylene had been the killer's intended target the murders did not seem like a typical random act of violence there were no signs of forced entry and nothing aside from Lily's wallet had been stolen from the house while eenz wallet which contained several hundred dollars along with her valuable jewelry inventory had all been left behind the house had been ransacked as though the killer had been looking for something police found unknown shoe prints at the scene but no fingerprints that could lead them to a suspect a neighbor reported to the police that she had been awoken at 6 a.m. by two loud noises that may have been gunshots shortly after 6:00 a.m. another man who lived in the area was getting ready to leave for work when he saw a man walking down this street carrying a bundle meat out of a quilt he confronted the man thinking that he might be a burglar the man claimed that he had just gotten into a fight with his girlfriend and he had just gotten kicked out of the house he had hastily shoved his belongings into the quilt on the way out the neighbor accepted the story and the man walked off the neighbor met with a sketch artist and helped develop a composite image of the man he had seen given the fact that Lily's divorce had just been finalized the Friday before she died and she was afraid of her ex-husband he seems like a viable suspect however at the time of the murders he had been in the hospital recovering from back surgery wylene also had been threatened by an on-again off-again boyfriend but he passed a polygraph and was not identified by the neighbor who had seen the man near the crime scene in a lineup he was eventually cleared as a suspect the case eventually went cold in 2009 the Houston Police Department homicide divisions cold case unit re-examined the evidence from the case hoping that modern technology would provide a lead from while Ian's rape kit they were able to develop a DNA profile unfortunately there was no match to the profile in CODIS so police were still unable to identify the killer in 2014 Houston Police Sergeant Paul motard received a phone call from a defense attorney who told him that he had a client with information about the murder the informant was in prison in Indiana at the time and refused to give his information over the phone so motard traveled to Indiana to meet with him according to the informant shortly after wylene and Lily's murders a friend had shown up at his home in an agitated state going on about two sisters and how hard it was to kill someone he pulled a bundle meet up in a quilt like the one the witness had seen a man carrying near the scene of the crime out of his car the man then smashed a gun with a hammer in the informants yard and started a fire in which he threw a woman's wallet a knife and other items the informant went with the man as he buried the remnants from the fire in the quill in a drainage ditch the man who had come to the informants home that day was named Edmund Beauregard Deegan Deegan had a criminal record mainly consisting of aggravated robbery and still lived in the Houston area outside of the times he had spent in state prison it was largely unclear how he spent the thirty years since the murders has he mainly worked odd jobs in construction that did not leave an employment record pictures of him from 1984 closely resembled a sketch of the strange man seen near the crime scene the morning of the murders Deegan met with sergeant motard and admitted to knowing why lien kennedy he had a wholesale used clothing business in the early 80s and had crossed paths with her in connection with her own clothing business he said that he had last seen her a week before her death he denied ever having any sort of sexual relationship with her he voluntarily provided a DNA sample which turned out to be a match to the profile extracted from Wyland's rape kit On January 14th 2015 more than 30 years after the Kenedy sisters were killed Deacon was arrested and charged with capital murder prosecutors were concerned about going to trial however even with the DNA evidence they did not have physical evidence tying Deegan to Lilly's murder and fear the trying him for both murders together would create reasonable doubt they decided to offer him a plea deal in which she would only have to plead guilty to why liens murder on February 20th 2017 Deegan pled guilty to why liens murder and received a sentence of 15 years while this seems like a short sentence for such a serious crime the actual time Deegan will spend in prison will in fact be even shorter under a Texas mandatory release law that applies to anyone convicted of murders that occurred between 1977 and 1987 Deegan will automatically be released from prison in 2024 instead of 2030 since he had remained in custody since his arrest in 2015 he was eligible for parole just five months after his sentencing Billy and why leans nice Jackie Elliott launched a media campaign urging members of the community to write to the parole board just diggins release he was not granted parole and remains incarcerated Timothy Coggins was a fun-loving and outgoing 23 year old in 1983 he was known to be a good dancer and he was very close with his five siblings he could strike up a conversation with almost anyone he met he was last seen alive on the night of October 7th when he went out dancing at the People's Choice Club in Griffin Georgia on October 9th hunters discovered Timothy's disfigured body discarded near some power lines in the nearby town of Sunnyside Timothy had been stabbed 30 times and dragged down the rural dirt road behind a vehicle his injuries were so extensive that police couldn't identify him based on his appearance and his family had to give him a closed casket funeral the overkill involved in his murder led to fears that Timothy's death was meant to send a message Tim had recently begun dating a white woman and had reportedly been socializing with another way woman at the People's Choice Club the night he was last seen these were so dangerous things for a black man like Tim to do in that area of suburban Georgia at the time something his ride to the club that night had warned him about there were a few leads discovered Tim had reportedly been last seen with wait men in a gold compact car and a potential suspect was identified however Tim's case was not a high priority to Sheriff James Freeman and resources were quickly diverted to more trivial crimes like vandalism and stolen mailboxes Clint Phillips who was the lead investigator on the case in 1983 described these attitudes and actions in court under oath in 2018 Tim's case had gone cold almost immediately and Phillips had to close it after just a few months over half of the evidence collected at the scene would eventually disappear it will be 34 years and four days before any arrest was made in Tim's case on October 13 2017 five people were arrested in connection to the case bill more senior 58 and Frankie Gephardt 59 were charged with murder felony murder aggravated assault aggravated battery and concealing a death Gregory Huffman 47 was charged with obstruction in violation of oath of office Lamar bun 32 and Sandra Bunn 58 for both charged with obstruction more and Gebhardt were brothers-in-law in Sandra bun was Gephardt sister Lamar Vaughn was Sandra's son Inga parts nephew more in Gib Hart were the only two individuals charged with crimes directly tied to Tim's death the other three individuals were accused of crimes committed long after the murder carried out to help cover it up Lamar bun was a part-time police officer who previously worked for the Lamar County Sheriff's Office and who according to his arrest warrant instructed Gebhardt on how to prevent having his DNA collected and met with other members of law enforcement in an attempt to prevent the collection of evidence in the case sandy bond was alleged to have instructed her brother on how to obstruct and prevent the collection of evidence Gregory Huffman was a Spalding County Sheriff's Office detention officer accused of revealing the name of a confidential informant being used against Gephardt following their arrests Lamar bun was placed on unpaid administrative leave pending an investigation and Huffman was fired the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had reopened the case based on reports that Gebhardt who was the one potential suspect identified in 1983 was bragging about the murder in prison he was boasting to other inmates about how he and his brother-in-law had protected the white race from black people by killing a black man although he exclusively used a racial slur that will not be repeated here to describe him Gabe Hart has numerous white supremacist symbols tattooed on his body and was an outspoken supporter of a Jim Crow era law that limited the rights of African Americans that the local government was trying to have taken off the books in the early 1980s the white woman Tim had been socializing with on the night of October 7th 1983 turned out to be gephardt's girlfriend the report of keyboard statements in prison prompted GBI agents to re-interview witnesses many of whom said that they had been threatened into silence by Gebhardt in 1983 the renewed interest in the case in turn spurred even more eye witnesses to come forward and over 60 people were eventually interviewed by authorities Gabe Hart had apparently been very proud of his crime and his involvement in the murder was apparently common knowledge although few have Gebhardt and his threats of violence kept the community quiet one of the witnesses had been just 10 years old when he heard Gebhardt described the gruesome crime in detail physical evidence including a chain a knife and a shoe was found thrown inside a well on Gabe Mart's property On June 26 2018 a Spalding County jury found Frankie Gabe park guilty of malice murder felony murder aggravated battery aggravated assault and concealing the death of another he was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years bill Moore was scheduled to go to trial later in 2018 on the exact same charges but after get parts conviction he agreed to a plea deal the Coggins family was consulted about the deal and agreed to its terms on August 16th Moore pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in concealing the death of another he was sentenced to 20 years in prison plus 10 years of probation and will be eligible for parole judge Fletcher Sam's placed an additional condition on the plea deal barring Moore from ever returning to Spalding County or any of its surrounding counties should he ever be released from prison Tim's nice Heather who had been just six years old when her uncle died told CNN that she was close enough to Moore in the courtroom to speak to him at his sentencing I told him that what he did to our family 35 years ago tore our family apart she said our grandmother went to her grave not knowing what happened to her son I said we forgive you I hope that whoever you pray to you ask for forgiveness and are forgiven I also hope that you spend the rest of your natural life behind bars marchia Carter moved from Canton Ohio to California with her husband and three sons in 1979 within a few years however she and her husband divorced by 1983 25-year old Marsha was living in the city of Richmond and had a fourth child I son she did not share with her ex-husband the single mother managed to work as a purchasing agent for a manufacturing company to support her children attend college and sing in a rock band Marcia's oldest sons Dante 11 Travis 9 and Antoine 7 saw their mother for the last time on the night of Tuesday December 6 before they went to bed when they woke up the following morning their mother was not in her bedroom but a large pool of blood was the frightened boys ran to get help from a neighbor who came back to search the apartment the boy's baby brother Andre it was just days away from his first birthday had been hidden under the bed unharmed ten days later Marcia's 1975 mercury monarch was found in the parking lot of a hotel in West Sacramento her body was inside of the car's trunk she had been stabbed to death Marcia's case went cold but was reopened in 2008 blood evidence found on a piece of Marcia's clothing left behind in her bedroom was sent to the Contra Costa County crime lab but there was a severe backlog of evidence that needed to be processed at the lab so the samples from Marcia's case were not tested until 2016 when they were finally tested they revealed a blood DNA profile belonging to the man Marcia's son's had always believed killed their mother in September 2016 Cheryl else mother's was arrested and charged with Marcia's murder Smothers and Marcia had previously dated according to Marcia's son's he did not take the end of their relationship well and leading up to the murder he had been waging a campaign of harassment against the family he would smash windows at their apartment and make threatening phone calls he would show up at the apartment and Marsha would have to tell him to leave them alone and slam the door in his face Marsha warned her sons to run if Smothers ever got close to them when he was arrested Smothers was confined to a wheelchair he had been driving in a Corvette in 1988 when he was rear-ended by a drunk driver he was hit with enough force to flip his car and was left partially paralyzed he filed a lawsuit against General Motors after the accident and was awarded 6 point 1 million dollars he used some of this money to post his 1 million dollar bail and remained out of custody while awaiting his trial in addition to the blood evidence found in Marcia's bedroom Contra Costa County prosecutors also had a witness who ultimately testified at trial that smothers had tried to hire him to kill Marsha for $500 in 1983 he had recorded some of these conversations Smothers had shown the witness a map of Sacramento and pointed out locations where Marcia's body could be dumped one of those locations was the hotel where Marcia's body was eventually located by the time this man came forward he was suffering from stage 4 lung cancer he apologized to Marcia's son's for failing to come forward sooner at the end of Smothers trial it took the jury only three hours of deliberation to reach a verdict the reading of the verdict was delayed when smothers failed to appear in court to hear it a bench warrant was issued and he was arrested and brought to court so that the verdict could be read he was found guilty after Marcia's death her three oldest sons had gone to live in Oakland with their father when he had difficulty supporting them financially they were sent back to Ohio to live with family members they spoke at smothers sentencing about the impact their mother's death had on their lives we definitely wanted to say our piece to the court how this affected us the negative residual effects that have happened Travis Carter told a court we're all doing much better now we've become very successful individuals and business men but it wasn't without a lot of pain a lot of Tears poverty growing up a lot of things that you don't want your kids to go through Marcia's sons grew up sharing her love of music they say it helps them cope with her loss and Dante grew up to be a rapper during his statement at smothers sentencing Travis Carter also attributed their ability to handle Marcia's death to their faith we believe that we'll see her again he said that's the positive part we take of our faith you

Channel: heavy casefiles.

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Keywords: solved cold cases, cold cases solved, cold cases solved after decades, cold cases finally solved, mysteries solved, cold cases, solved cases, recently solved, cold cases solved by dna, unsolved, mysteries, investigation, true crime, solved murders, solved true crime, solved true crime cases

Id: ayctjedm9Cs

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 21 2019