Her Dark Obsession that Led to Murder: Shirley Goodnight

hello everyone my name is haley elizabeth and if you don't know who i am this is my true crime podcast called behind you where essentially once a week i sit down and i discuss all things true crimes such as murders disappearances cults or even like the biggest drug bust in history the biggest bank heist in history all true crimes so if you're interested in any of that you can go to my youtube channel haley elizabeth to subscribe and watch the visual version every wednesday or you can go to spotify apple or wherever you can find podcasts every tuesday and listen to the audio version and if you know that's not really your jam you don't really want to do that completely fine like i am just glad you're here with us today and for today's case we are going to be talking about the case of shirley goodnight there is a lot to get through so i'm just going to hop right into it shirley goodnight was born on august 11 1950 in mooresville north carolina was described to be very loving and outgoing she loved to be surrounded by people and people loved to be around her she was very active in her church as well she went every sunday with her family and she also was an administrative executive at charlotte motor speedway which is like a car racing track she spent most of her free time and days off from work at heinz feet farm to provide help to adults with traumatic brain injuries so overall she was an absolute angel on earth like not only did she actively go to church she was super nice to everyone that she met she was super outgoing and loving and accepting of everyone she worked at a race car track which i think is really really cool and on her days off instead of you know relaxing or something she dedicated her time to giving back to others and like volunteering 1970 that is when shirley met a man by the name of randall pierce and the couple got married and shortly after they got married they had a daughter named tracy and then in 1981 after 11 years of marriage randall and shirley's marriage started to go a little downhill they were fighting all the time they were arguing over small things big things and the arguments just got way too much to the point where they ended up divorcing so now without the financial support of randall shirley tried to figure out a way that she could make up that extra money in order to support herself and tracy tracy and shirley just grew so much closer they became best friends they did everything together especially as tracy got older if you guys have ever seen the show gilmore girls lorelai and rory that was essentially like tracy and shirley's relationship so unfortunately in mooresville there were no big job opportunities that could support herself and tracy so that is when she decided to move to cannapolis north carolina which is a small upper middle class town where everyone knows everyone it was said to be like on the outskirts of greensboro and it was there where she got a job as the owner and ceo's administrative assistant at tuscora yarn factory at this job she was said to be very very professional very well dressed she again just had this very bright personality that made everyone love her and in kannapolis same thing with mooresville even though she had a job she would basically take all of her days off in free time to dedicate herself to giving back to her community so all of her days off even now in a different town would consist of her organizing golf tournaments and gala dinners for local charities and then way way later down the road tracy eventually got older she moved out of the house and it was just shirley and you know shirley just felt kind of lonely in this house all by herself and so she actually attempted at being in a relationship in 2003 with a guy named richard but richard turned out to be very very abusive and that relationship ended it was said that during this relationship shirley had actually put a restraining order on richard because he had attempted to break into uh shirley's mom's house asking for shirley although shirley just got out of this really tough relationship tracy actually had a son and so with her being a grandmother now it seemed like things were really really starting to kind of look up for her you know she just got out of this really abusive relationship but now she's going to be a grandmother she's like you know moving up in work she has her own house she funds for everything herself you know she's just she doesn't need a man essentially and so she starts to kind of realize this and starts to heal herself as time goes on she absolutely loves her grandson just as much as she loves tracy she was always showing pictures of her grandson to strangers and friends and then at the age of 58 years old in 2009 six years after her richard relationship shirley finally feels like she's ready to get back out there again and start dating again because she feels like you know she had an abusive relationship but there's still hope for her there's still someone to love out there so shirley just tries to get back out in the dating scene and then that is when she meets a man by the name of chuck reeves who worked at the yarn factory that she worked at but as a salesman so the couple started you know just casually dating at first and then that later turned into serious dating and they were in a full relationship for a whole four years and during those four years although they were together they never actually moved in with one another until the spring of 2013 that is when chuck reeves had proposed to shirley and shirley said yes at this time shirley was 62 years old her life was like really looking good for her she had a good paying job she was a grandmother she had a daughter that she loved she was in a good relationship she was gonna get married like she had finally have found love again a lot of her friends say that shirley absolutely loved chuck she would constantly say that she feels like she had finally met her twin flame shirley was just overall in a really good place in her life right now that is unfortunately until the morning of july 23rd 2013 at 9 40 am 59 year old chuck reeves calls the police on his 62 year old fiance shirley pierce he tells the police on the phone that he had went into shirley's home heard the shower running from upstairs so when he went upstairs to go into the bathroom he had found shirley lying in the bathtub all bloody and stabbed there was blood and powder all over the floors the shower was still running so the bathtub was kind of overflowing he tried everything that he could to revive shirley but shirley was completely motionless and not breathing when police arrived they were led to the bathroom that was connected to her bedroom and they noticed quite quickly when they walked into the bedroom that it smelled heavily of bleach and they look on the floor and they see that there are blood stains on the floor but there are patchy bleach stains all over the place as if someone was trying to clean up specific blood stains because it is widely known that bleach can absolutely destroy dna so they don't really like further investigate on this they just kind of take a mental note of it and then pursue shirley that's in the bathtub right now when they see shirley they notice that she has stab wounds all over her face and neck confirming that this was indeed a murder with this horrendous of a crime scene they take chuck out of the room in order to calm him down and they say that chuck's demeanor was very devastated but he was extremely cooperative with the police he answered all the questions that the police had he answered them truthfully so they took shirley to the hospital and at the hospital they noticed a couple things about her body they noticed that she had stab wounds all over her neck and face meaning that this was definitely a passionate crime this was someone that knew shirley that wanted to see her dead as well as defensive wounds all over her body as if she was fighting off her attacker they labeled shirley's murder as an overkill and an overkill is where a killer will deliver more blows than needed to kill a person out of anger jealousy passion and an example of overkill would be the lizzie borden axe murderer lizzie borden was a murderer that killed both of her parents with an axe and to her mother she delivered 41 blows to the head and that would be considered an overkill because if you have an axe you would probably only need to do like three to kill a person but instead she did 41 out of passion and anger and that is exactly whoever this killer was that is exactly what they did to shirley later on that is when tracy receives the news of her mother and so she rushes to the home and tracy is just in disbelief and she shows up crying because as i said tracy and shirley were best friends they did everything together they told each other everything it was just so a sudden and it was so unbelievable so when you just kind of lay out this crime scene the killer has to have a personal connection with shirley because it's a very passionate crime they had to have access to the home because there was no forced entry the first person they think of is chuck her fiance because chuck he has access to the home he was the one who made the 9-1-1 call and he has a personal connection with shirley so that is the first person that they think of so they take chuck in for questioning chuck said that the last time he had ever talked to shirley was the night before at 8 15 pm they were on the phone shirley was actually dog sitting for chuck at this time because chuck was out on a business trip so that's basically what they were talking about on the phone call just about his business trip and how he was going to come over the next morning to pick up the dogs and he says that in the middle of their conversation the phone line just dies but chuck didn't really think too much of this because in that area of kanopolis the service is very spotty it's not really like good wi-fi or service out there so the fact of like the phone line cutting off really wasn't that big of a deal to him she knows i'm coming by tomorrow i'm not even gonna bother to call back that morning he says that he showed up to shirley's house to pick up the dogs and he noticed that her garage door was open but her front door was locked and this was pretty odd but he just kind of assumed that maybe shirley had just gotten back from the store or something he takes a spare key that's underneath a vase in front of the house he unlocks the door and he hears upstairs the shower running so when he goes upstairs to see you know if shirley is in the shower yet that is when he discovered shirley's body while chuck is saying his story the police realize that chuck's story matches up perfectly with the crime scene so it seemed like he was telling the truth but they didn't want to immediately clear chuck yet so instead of clearing him they were just kind of treading lightly so the police just flat out asked chuck if he had anything to do with it and chuck was very offended he was like no of course not how could i do something like this and he actually did have an alibi for the time of the crime as well he said that he was out on a business trip so the police had called chuck's employers and employees and all of them did confirm that chuck was indeed at work and at his hotel during the time of the crime they also found highway footage as well to clear chuck of the crime they noticed that chuck was in his car on the highway at the time of the crime usually in knife crimes uh you have cuts all over your hands and arms sometimes small cuts big cuts so they asked to look at chuck's hands and arms and he had absolutely no cuts they clear chuck because they know that he wasn't there at the time of the crime and the police kind of come up on a dead end because they're like wow you know we really thought that this was chuck but it turns out chuck was not there so who else could have done this and so that is when they point their you know suspicion from chuck onto tracy so they bring tracy into questioning same thing with chuck she was super you know cooperative with the police she answered any questions that they had for her they asked her if she knew of anyone that could do this to shirley and tracy just said the whole time that everyone loved shirley there was no one that she could really think of that hated her except for one person in particular and that was her ex-boyfriend richard so tracy starts to tell the police about richard and shirley's history back in 2003 when they had this relationship richard was very abusive towards shirley physically mentally emotionally tracy also told the police that at one point in the relationship richard had threatened to stab shirley with a screwdriver and so after they broke up officially she put a restraining order on him richard had actually moved to a different town and he had been gone for about 10 years at this point but six months prior he attempted to get back in contact with shirley meaning that he was indeed back in town so they also take tracy's statement as well and tracy has alibis to where she was that night so they clear tracy they start doing a little bit of digging on richard and they find out that richard was back in town and he actually worked 15 minutes away from shirley's house at a pawn shop so they show up to richard's work and they interview him right on the spot they also ask him about the abuse to shirley and richard said quote it was all a misunderstanding so the charges were dropped and surely apologized for having me arrested as richard's alibi that night he said that the day before he had worked from 9am to 6pm and then after work he just went straight home and then he fell asleep around 9pm he does live alone so there was no physical alibi for him so the police asked richard if they could check his hands and arms and so when he shows his hands and arms they find that there are no cuts on richard's arms whatsoever but there were a lot of sores and when they looked at richard's physical state they noticed that richard most likely had some sort of medical condition i believe richard was in his mid to late 60s at this point he seemed very weak very fragile like it took him a long time to walk to places and they just kind of took this physical appearance into consideration for a vicious crime like this they just don't foresee richard having the strength to do something like this and then on top of it get away with it so the police then clear richard please find themselves at yet again another dead end because it wasn't chuck it wasn't tracy and it isn't richard maybe it was a burglary and the burglar had went through the garage door because the garage door was open but again the police investigated the area and found that nothing was stolen so whoever went in with this crime went in with the intention to kill shirley that is until later on that day shirley's co-worker by the name of ervin johnson calls the police and says that he believes his wife 61 year old marlene johnson had killed shirley and he requests an interview with a detective the police take him in for questioning and they learn a little bit about marlene johnson she was born in 1952 in castonia north carolina she was born into a very wealthy family as well she growing up was very spoiled and she would throw fits if someone didn't give her what she wanted she tended to just you know expect that everything was gonna go her way that she was going to get everything that she wanted she had a really tough time if someone told her no just by looking at marlene you could tell very quickly that she had money just because she always had very expensive clothing a designer bag designer shoe she always had her hair done her nails done she just looked like she had a lot of money and then on may 15 of 1983 that is when 31 year old marlene married 36 year old irvin johnson irvin was a very quiet and reserved sort of person while marlene was very outgoing and outspoken and so the couple complimented each other quite nicely irvin just was the type of guy that would wake up go to work come home and love spending time with his family the couple actually had a daughter together a really big difference between irvin and marlene was the financials ervin made a lot of money but it was because he worked really hard for his money while marlene since she came from a wealthy family most of her money didn't come from work it was all from inheritance and ervin described marlene to be a very sweet woman she was just such a amazing girl and a great mother but that is until 2003 when marlene had a mental breakdown and it happened quite quickly and quite randomly and so she visited a bunch of psychiatrists for what was causing her mental breakdowns and unfortunately in 2003 marlene had actually attempted at suicide irvin said that after this incident she was given treatment but even after the treatment marlene was never the same she grew very aggressive erratic and even threatened to kill irvin as well as physically abusing him during the interrogation he actually showed the police a scar on his hand from a time that marlene had stabbed him as time went on things just got worse between the two to the point where marlene had this really big idea in her head that ervin was cheating even though ervin wasn't cheating he confirmed to her many many times that he loved her he was loyal to her but for some reason marlene was just fixated on the idea that he was cheating on her and no matter how many times he tried to alleviate her suspicions she just kind of saw that as ervin deflecting sort of heightened her suspicions and made it even worse and this situation caused problems at every single place that irvin worked at 2006 that is when irvin started working at the yarn factory and when marlene you know assuming that he was having an affair she assumed that he was having an affair with shirley there was one instance in particular where ervin had introduced marlene to shirley for the very first time and there was at one point in the conversation where shirley as i said she was just such a friendly southern girl like she just you know everybody loved her and she loved everyone so there was one point in the conversation where shirley had called irvin honey and kind of like slapped his arm just like in a friendly joking way but marlene did not take this as a friendly joke she more took it as ervin is cheating on me with shirley and so that is when marlene's obsession then turned to shirley and so then from that moment in 2006 into the next several years marlene would continue to heavily harass and stalk shirley on september 12th of 2010 four years into marlene's obsession with shirley marlene had actually hired a private investigator and after a month of surveilling shirley and ervin the private investigators just told marlene that they aren't doing anything suspicious there's no affair going on and as i said earlier marlene hates when she's told no so marlene although the private investigators had told her that nothing was going on marlene didn't take no for an answer so she basically just fired those private investigators and hired a new private investigator and with this new private investigator they actually flew drones over shirley's home so with this marlene knew everything about shirley she knew about her daughter what day she saw her grandson what time she left and got home from work her grocery trips as well as how far her garage door opened now although marlene was intensifying her obsession with shirley and hardcore stalking shirley shirley knew that marlene thought that her and ervin were having an affair but shirley didn't really care she just thought you know i'm not having an affair with ervin so nothing's gonna come of this i have nothing to worry about shirley just kind of saw it as marlene having a grudge against her but what shirley didn't know was the dangerous extent that marlene was taking it to in 2011 shirley was going out to a brunch with a bunch of her co-workers including irvin marlene knew that shirley and ervin were going out to brunch with a bunch of their co-workers so marlene decided to go undercover at this restaurant so she showed up with a black hat and all black workout clothes she also had a menu covering her face she was basically spying on irvin and shirley trying to see if they would do anything that was flirtatious one of the waitresses actually noticed that marlene was there because marlene and ervin would come in there quite frequently just to have like lunch or dinner so she noticed how odd marlene was acting towards the table that ervin was at so the waitress had told ervin's table like hey marlene is over there just so you guys know she's acting very suspicious and all of the coworkers knew about marlene's weird obsession with shirley and that marlene was obsessed with the idea that arvin was having an affair with shirley even though ervin was not so the co-workers just got very very uncomfortable that they were being watched so all of them got up and they like kind of created a circle around shirley so that she could get safely to her car but unfortunately that did not work because as they were leaving into the parking lot marlene had came up behind shirley pulled her hair and pulled her to the ground and started punching her repeatedly in the face she started screaming at shirley quote that's what you get for effing my husband marlene was later arrested for assault but nothing really came of this because afterwards you know shirley was going to press charges for this irvin pleaded with shirley not to press charges he was like you know i got this under control please don't do anything and so shirley decided to drop the charges and not do anything so going back to where we are now shirley is dead and ervin is in the interrogation room telling the police this whole story ervin says that shortly after this happened he moved out of the house of with marlene but they never officially left each other like legally they were still married but they were separated he told the police that he called the police because he has a very deep feeling that if she killed shirley he's afraid that he might be next and so he's fearing for his own life the police did uh have surveillance around irvin's house to make sure that marlene wasn't going to do anything but ervin actually said that marlene recently had a new boyfriend and his name was tim connor and so they should probably talk to him and see if he has any information on marlene during the search for this tim guy the police actually got a search warrant for marlene's home as well as a be on the lookout for her car wasn't that long at all until they found marlene's car and marlene inside of her car they found her parked in the parking lot of her attorney's office and right then and there marlene was arrested and taken into questioning so while marlene was at the police station they searched marlene's car and home in her car they found a bunch of cleaning supplies in her trunk the main thing was bleach because remember how i said at the crime scene they found weird splotches of bleach in her home on her dining room table there were aerial photos of shirley's home surveillance footage and photos of shirley right on like her dining room table there were clear signs of obsession over shirley years and years of compiling all of this you know information upon shirley her childhood everything about shirley and marlene just became so obsessed with shirley as if she was trying to figure out why her husband was cheating on her with shirley like what was so special about shirley but in reality he wasn't even cheating on her at all this is just something that marlene had always thought of but for some reason with shirley it intensified you know contrary to all of the other women that she had suspected the police say that marlene was very uncooperative with the police she had her feet propped up she kept rolling her eye she was sighing really loudly as if she was completely unbothered as i said just like spoiled brat energy like she just could not be bothered to be there and she was acting as if the police were stupid and that they didn't know what they were talking about and when the police actually did sit down to talk to marlene every single question that the police had asked marlene she would just say no to every single question even if it wasn't a yes or no question she would say i don't want to answer it or no she also demanded an attorney repeatedly she had a very snappy attitude again as if she just could not be bothered to be there and the whole time whilst the police were asking her all of these questions about shirley's murder like you're talking about someone dying the whole time she had her feet propped up and the palm of her hand sitting on her chin as if she was bored after she wasn't answering any of their questions that is when the police asked to look at marlene's hands and arms and so they took pictures of both sides of her hands and her arms and on her hands and arms they did find five small cuts on her arms and hands and as i said marlene is the type of girl that always has to have her nails done they always have to look good she always has to look good and so they noticed that on her hand she had a french manicure that looked pretty fresh but yet a lot of the fingers were either chipped off or just taken off completely they knew that if you know marlene had chipped nails or if she had a nail taken off she would definitely get it redone immediately so they assumed that these breaking of nails most likely happened quite recently to where she didn't have time to get them redone so with all of the clear signs of obsession found at marlene's household as well as marlene's cuts on her hands and arms they also found cleaning supplies more specifically bleach in the trunk of marlene's car so with all of this combined they were able to get just enough evidence to arrest marlene so all while this interrogation is going on and marlene is being put into custody that is when they find tim connor and question him at his house and the police say that he is very calm and collected and had no bad things to say about marlene said only good things about how she was a great friend and a kind person tim connor also had a pretty nice job as a published author and a motivational speaker he said that they both met at one of his book signings and hid it off but they were only best friends there was no relationship connection whatsoever he said that there was also never any sexual contact as well they were just really really good friends tim connor also said that the night before so on july 23rd he actually had a very big medical procedure done to where he needed someone to look after him so he had marlene spend the night last night to take care of him and he said that he woke up around two to three times in the middle of the night and marlene was there all throughout the night thus giving marlene an alibi later on that day shirley's autopsy comes back and the examiners found a piece of stainless steel knife in shirley's neck so that means the crime was so brutal that a piece of knife had gotten stuck in her neck the police looked in shirley's kitchen hoping that maybe there was a missing knife in her knife block to connect that missing knife to the knife that was found in shirley's neck but shirley did not have any missing knives in her kitchen but when they did go into tim's home one of the police officers actually took a note that tim had a knife block but only three out of the four knives in the knife block were in there so the police do a test and they find that although the knife was not the same exact knife that was found in shirley's neck it was very very similar to where it could have been from the same knife block so they go back to tim's house to do a little bit more questioning and they tell tim that we found that the murder weapon was a knife there was a piece of knife found in shirley's neck and we also found that the piece of knife that was found in shirley's neck is very very similar to the knife that is missing from your knife block we're going to give you one last chance to tell us the truth and tell us what happened so the police say that in this moment tim leaned back in his chair he stared at the ceiling for a couple of minutes and then he said the words i haven't been quite honest with you guys tim says that he hung out with marlene on july 22nd the day before shirley's murder they actually never spent the night together on the night of july 23rd but he truthfully doesn't know where that knife is or why the knife is missing from the knife block he tells the police that the only reason he made up that lie is because the morning of the murder on july 23rd marlene had told tim that her friend talking about shirley had been murdered that morning and the police are seeing her marlene as a suspect so if the police come by just tell them that i was at your house all night so he said yes and that he would cover for marlene because he was like you know marlene is my best friend marlene wouldn't do anything like this like of course i'd cover for her but now that since the police are telling him all of this evidence that they have against marlene he instantly feels extremely sick to his stomach he starts to feel extremely guilty that he might have you know lied for a murderer potentially but that his best friend marlene was capable of murdering an innocent woman when they were in shirley's home they took a couple of shirley's things that had blood on them just to take them in for testing and they found that some of the blood on the shower curtain that was found in shirley's bathroom matched exactly to marlene's dna meaning that if marlene's blood was on the shower curtain marlene had to have been there at the time of the murder now that the police point marlene to the exact time of the murder it's going to be very hard for marlene to try to prove innocency or try to just defend herself at all january 24th of 2018 that is when marlene's trial started marlene seemed very calm and again she seemed the same way she did in the interrogation room very bored she's not supposed to be there very untouchable sort of as if she's definitely going to get away with this she preached her innocence but the innocence act that she was trying to keep up was definitely diminished as soon as the court started to lay out all of the brutal brutal things she did to shirley at the time of the crime they pointed that marlene had a very dark obsession with shirley that went back years and years she became obsessed with the thought that shirley had an affair with her husband irvin at this point marlene and ervin had been separated for two to three years so her dark obsession even lingered on after irvin and her were separated it was found in marlene's house that marlene had a bunch of papers that had shirley's work schedule on it so she knew exactly when and where she came home from work she also had pictures of shirley's household so she knew all of the ins and outs of shirley's home and although marlene did not give an official confession this is just what they believe marlene did they believe that marlene knowing the time of when shirley came home from work she waited by shirley's house until shirley got home when shirley got home she opened up the garage to park her car and whilst the garage door was open that's when marlene snuck into the garage door shirley went upstairs to run a shower and get ready for bed and whilst her shower was heating up that is when she called her fiance chuck to discuss her day and what time he was going to pick up the dogs the next morning and as she was talking to chuck the line ended because shirley had seen marlene standing in her hallway with a knife in her hand marlene then attacked shirley with a knife in shirley's room until she eventually passed away and then dragged shirley's body to the tub just to stab her a couple times more after the crime was done marlene looked at her hands and found that she had cut all over herself and assumed that she was bleeding herself as well so she went down to her car to grab some bleach and the reason why the bleach was very splotchy she basically bleached only the spots where she felt like she bled but what she didn't clean up was her blood on the shower curtain this blood on the shower curtain is what essentially pointed marlene to the time of the crime and led to her arrest so the evidence along with the dna match on the shower curtain the cuts on her hands the false alibi and the history of physical harassment towards shirley the jury quickly found guilty of first degree murder against shirley and it was said that when marlene heard the words guilty from the judge she immediately gasped really really loud as if she was extremely surprised that she was guilty or that she didn't get away with it like she thought she would and so when she gasped really really loudly she just fell to the floor the deputies of the courtroom rushed towards her to help but the judge stopped the deputies dead in their tracks as they were trying to run over to marlene and help her up and the judge said quote do not take her out of this courtroom she is going to listen to this verdict so the judge basically made one by one every individual juror on the stand what they thought the verdict of marlene should be and every single one of the jurors said that marlene was guilty and after every single one of the jurors had said marlene was guilty the judge looked back at marlene and said quote it is my order that you will die in prison marlene was later sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole and currently stays at the anson correctional institution in polkton north carolina so as far as the aftermath of all of this uh tracy i couldn't really find anything on tracy i believe she's just living a very quiet and private life today i couldn't really find any information on chuck either a lot of the photos online chuck's face is actually blurred because again chuck just prefers to live a very quiet and private life and doesn't want his identity out there to the public shirley's friends say that they believe marlene deserved the death penalty because now all of their tax dollars are going towards marlene and that's not fair when shirley is dead so as i said this happened in 2013 this happened quite recently so i just really really hope that everyone involved is coping as much as they can i hope chuck is in a better place now i hope that he is living out the final years of his life um as shirley would have wanted him to so that wraps up today's story if you guys found this case interesting make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe if you are on youtube or if you are on apple or spotify wherever you can find podcasts make sure to rate it five stars i also hope you have a beautiful wonderful rest of your morning day night whenever you are listening or watching to this but yeah um with that being said i love you i love you and i will see you guys next week bye [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Hailey Elizabeth

Views: 541,120

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Id: dyVoRGLduRg

Length: 40min 49sec (2449 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 06 2022