Man scalps girlfriend, orders pit bull to attack her - Crime Watch Daily Full Episode

I'm Chris Hanson right now on crime watch Daily from here in New York [Music] pretty single mother rushed to the ER with gruesome wounds to her head can you believe that you're actually alive after all of this her boyfriend says she was attacked by his Pitbull it was the work of an animal but not a dog our theory was this was more than just a random dog attack Sleeping with the Enemy is one of the most Savage cases you can ever imagine what's up look at you you're bald now nobody's gonna want you Anna Garcia with a Survivor story every victim of domestic violence needs to see he hasn't gotten my pride and I won't let him then a Suburban Iowa mom arrested as a police body cam roles put your hands behind your bathroom why this girl says she was adopted into hell I told her you're gonna kill me if you don't stop right now Andrea Isom Sir with crime watch Daily Jason Mattel with crime watch Daily this I'm Elizabeth I'm here with crime watch I'm Michelle from crime watch Daily Anna Garcia from crime watch is crime watch deal stay off my property we'll find you again we always do foreign welcome to crime watch Daily everyone I'm Chris Hanson start today with a warning oftentimes we let you know if the details you're about to hear are graphic and disturbing well today I've got to tell you you got to be prepared for all new investigation into a gruesome attack in Kentucky the level of depravity involved in this case well no human should ever have to endure anything remotely like it that's for sure Anna Garcia is here now with the details I tried to find similar cases and I really couldn't find many that were similar factually to this and what she had to go through an atrocity of rare brutality and cruelty in my 20 years in law enforcement this is the first scalping case that I have been involved in the horrific scalping of Marilyn Stanley a pretty young single mother left grotesquely mutilated beaten beyond recognition and bleeding to death can you believe it you're actually alive after all of this no I think I should be dead now investigators have to determine just who committed this heinous act was it Maryland's insanely jealous boyfriend Zachary gross look at you you're bald now nobody's gonna want you or was it some other animal the news said I held a girl down and Scout their hair off but it's been proven now that my dog did that Maryland 27 always wears a cap now so nobody including her can see the disfiguring scars of her ordeal I don't look at myself in the mirror with my head uncovered have a full full blonde hair and was living a happy life raising a young son on her own in Burlington Kentucky [Music] that is until she met 31 year old Zachary gross I would talk to him on Facebook sometimes and casually seeing each other within months it had turned into a serious relationship it got more like exclusive or I'm supposed to go see anybody else but Maryland's mother Linda didn't approve there was something I didn't like about him I didn't trust him I didn't think he was any good and sure enough Marilyn says Zach would soon reveal himself to be jealous possessive and controlling the first time it was getting put outside of his house as he grew greasingly more violent and abusive it went from that to being actually pushed down like front porch steps soon Zach was beating Marilyn regularly she says I got a broken nose and two black eyes mom Linda was horrified she tried to make excuses but then kind of admitted that she'd been beat up were you worried for your daughter oh yeah she had good reason to worry and then after that I got choked out did you say to yourself that's it I'm done with you after I was choked out I didn't I told him dude you're you said you're gonna kill me like I'm I'm done but Zach wasn't about to let Marilyn go without a fight texting her repeatedly just before the scalping he writes in part to My Love BFF soulmate lover I hate hate hate that you are scared of me cause you shouldn't have to be scared of the one you love then he goes on in a text writing I am here to protect you and give you all that you need and everything you need and then some I love you with all my heart he'd been telling me for like days of her text that he wanted to talk to me and when Marilyn refused she says an obsessed Zach started stalking her following her everywhere she went and even getting a job at the same book Warehouse where she worked what could you do to stop him a lot of times you don't feel like you can do anything Carolyn says Zach got so crazy over her rejection of him that he turned up on her doorstep at six o'clock in the morning so I opened the door and just get punched in the face and when Marilyn screamed for help she says he got even crazier he jumped on the roof of my car until it caved in he got his tire iron and smashed out my windshield and my back window Marilyn says she was afraid Zack might kill her if she called the police it didn't seem like he was going to stop Marilyn finally agreed to meet Zach in a desperate attempt to calm him down and you felt like you had to give in I literally didn't know what else to do but the moment she walked through the door of his home she says she's greeted with a sucker punch to the face bam just like that yeah I asked him what that was for and he brought up pictures of me and my son taken at a park and what did that matter it was because another guy taking the picture and posted it and tagged me on Facebook and I remember so he was mad or he was jealous or what was he both and she says Zach continue beat her up I turned my back to him so he would be punching me in the back of the head and not in the face and then I ran for the door but he picked me up and I was like midair trying to throw myself down to the ground so that I couldn't be dragged into his room Marilyn says she feared she might not get out of that room alive I grabbed onto the door frame next Marilyn endures an unthinkable horror cause I could just see blood and like my hair was wet we cover a lot of tragic domestic violence stories here on crime watch Daily but what happened to Marilyn Stanley goes beyond violence it's absolutely barbaric but Maryland wants you to hear the almost too disturbing to tell details because she hopes it can serve as a warning to other women watching this show let's head back to our Anna Garcia thank you Marilyn Stanley was about to be plunged into an unspeakable living nightmare I can't imagine the pain that she was in and what a human being would be going through at that point in time gross debate stop stalking her it was a an obsession and anger that he had and Maryland says gross an abusive boyfriend she dumped was in no mood to talk next thing I know I'm on the ground in front of the closet on being straddled across my waist and my arms are pinned down directly at my side Marilyn says that as gross continued to hit her she managed to grab a knife she'd brought with her in case she had to defend herself against him but before she could use it Marilyn says she suddenly had a second attacker on top of her grosses pet pitbull Capone so the dog was on you already and you're holding on to the knife yes the dog would then bite off most of her right ear a bit off the top part up here and gross continued to hit her Marilyn was suddenly unconscious now what happens the next thing I remember is sitting up the dog was gone and Zach was kneeling in front of me kind of like smirking he said look at you you're bald now nobody's gonna want you go look at yourself in the mirror Marilyn was too afraid to look I didn't look in the mirror when he told me to I looked kind of in the direction of it but past myself you know enough that you don't want to see right I could just see blood and like my hair was wet and I didn't really think that my scalp was completely gone because I don't remember it being cut off I thought maybe some of my hair just got like maybe in splotches ripped out or something but Maryland says gross wasn't finished with her yet he kicked me in the stomach and he told me to lay on my side and he goes I'm going to break your ribs and he stomped down on my ribs and they didn't break he still down on my ribs again and I heard them crack but I didn't feel it at that point Marilyn how long did you endure this torture two hours Marilyn says gross's brutal bloodlust was finally satisfied he helped me wipe the blood off my face and told me it's okay he's done he's not gonna hurt me anymore did you want to go to the hospital what did you want to do I asked him to call an ambulance and he told me no because they would take his dog instead Maryland says gross gave her a t-shirt to cover her wounds and a hoodie to put over her head and then handed her a plastic shopping bag then I said I don't want this what am I going to do with this Marilyn could have never imagined what was in the bag I didn't know it was my scalp you thought it was just clumps of hair yeah wow it doesn't even sound real no it doesn't so he didn't take you to the hospital no he drove me to the street past my mom's house and it was there where Maryland's attacker would add the ultimate insult to her injuries he even asked me if he could have a kiss when he dropped me off what a piece of work this guy her mother will never forget Marilyn turning up at the house that day and I heard this voice say help me but I wasn't sure where it was coming from or who it was and Marilyn's sister Ashley thought it was some kind of ghoulish prank but then she saw the blood drip down my forehead and she knew that it was real and um sorry I always get upset at this point it's okay and that's when Ashley hollered to me to call 9-1-1 that it was Maryland and that she was hurt real bad all I felt was the weight of my ear so I was propping it up my hand I didn't feel like I had cracked ribs I didn't feel like my scalp was gone I didn't feel like my face was three times its size she held the back up when she came into the yard and said my hair's in this bag it wasn't until the EMTs got Marilyn to the hospital that her mother learned to her horror that nearly half of her daughter's scalp was in that bag that's when it's like oh my God you know because you picture in your head when somebody says that somebody was scalped I mean it was like unheard of in this day and age really when you saw her in the hospital did you think you were gonna lose your daughter I didn't know and Maryland was barely conscious when she was told she'd been scalped alive I honestly don't remember them telling me but I remember the doctor coming in to tell me that my hair is never going to grow back when do you believe it actually hit you the impact of what he had done to you I don't think he still has not yet what is it that you think you haven't permitted yourself to accept or feel most all of it Maryland's life had hung in the balance as she underwent emergency surgery to repair a severed artery and she would undergo several more operations before doctors finally succeeded in patching her mutilated head back together with skin grafts from her leg so are you disfigured on your leg yeah the whole thing's a scar my whole upper thigh next the Beast accused of committing this sickening atrocity on Maryland tries to blame it all on another animal our theory was this was more than just a random dog attack we return now with more of our story on the vicious attack on a Kentucky Woman once again we want to warn you the details are quite graphic here's Anna Garcia Chris it was a miracle that Marilyn Stanley was still alive beaten mauled by a pit bull and in the Final Act of horror scalped by the man she once called her boyfriend but despite a mountain of evidence against Him Zachary gross would deny he scalped and disfigured the pretty blonde blaming the Hideous crime on his Pitbull the news said I held a girl down and Scout their hair off but it's been proven now that my dog did that gross actually called a nationally syndicated radio show from jail after his arrest to declare his innocence they arrested me before they ever got a statement Marilyn's reaction is so stupid I just can't even think response to it and detective Brian Cochran says the evidence immediately spoke for itself right out of the gate we had suspicions that it wasn't just a dog bite case investigators who searched gross's home found a trail of blood leading from his bedroom where Marilyn was scalped to the bathroom where he had tried to force her to look in the mirror it was on the floor it was on the walls it was in the bathtub it was on the towel rack but the most incriminating of evidence was dresser drawer and what condition was that pink knife in it was covered in blood this sounds awful but were there any pieces of hair or flesh that you found there were indeed there was on the knife blood and hair so our argument was that he was hiding the knife it is the same knife that Marilyn had put in her pocket for protection when she went to her abusive ex-boyfriend's home the day she was attacked but that she dropped while he had her pinned on his bedroom floor beating her it becomes more and more horrific as we come to believe that the knife played a larger role in the assault and that it wasn't just a case of a dog biting someone our theory was that when Zachary gross got possession of the knife he used it on her investigators would also learn that gross had a lengthy rap sheet of violent crimes committed against other women including two assault in the fourth degrees one domestic violence the other one's spouse abuse assistant prosecutor Leanne Beck says the only hole in the case against gross was that Maryland was unconscious during her actual scalping that's the the part that she does not remember last thing Marilyn recalls is lying on the floor with both gross and his Pitbull Capone on top of her him punching her and the dog tearing off part of her right ear other than that the dog didn't do anything else and investigators say Maryland's other injuries have been inflicted by a dog's teeth the scalp injury was more consistent with a knife than with a dog that finding would be sucrose's trial by Dr William Kitzmiller the multiple injuries to the scalp were so severe that replantation was not a reasonable option Dr kits Miller is the plastic surgeon who operated on Maryland's scalp that because of the straight nature of the edges it seems to me more favoring a sharp object rather than a dog bite defense's Theory the entire trial that it was a dog attack and Marilyn herself would take the stand at gross's trial did he tell the dog to get off of you no did he push the dog no why didn't you drop the knife at that point why did you still have the knife because I didn't want him to get it Marilyn would also step down from the stand to show the jury her horrific scalping wounds I think this was really hard for her but I think it had a huge impact on the jury to see the permanent disfigurement he caused the only one apparently unmoved by Maryland's testimony was gross he did not seem very remorseful about what he did to Maryland and didn't he act out during the trial he made an up a gesture with his hand that was not appropriate for court the judge held him in contempt for that action Maryland says gross also contemptuously winked at her in court what do you think his wink meant It's Not Over but it was finally over when the jury quickly returned a verdict of guilty of assault in the first degree ultimately whenever a jury makes a decision like that they make the right one because that's their job that's how our system works and assistant prosecutor Marilyn Beck asked the judge to give gross the maximum sentence 20 years is what's appropriate for de-scalping a human alive but gross remained unrepentant at his sentencing hearing still proclaiming his innocence I wanted to go to trial so that everybody could hear that Marilyn never said I cut her hair off Marilyn never said it I told my dog to attack and and I feel horrible for what happened I feel that the verdict was wrong the judge didn't sentencing Zachary gross to the maximum 20 years behind bars plus another 34 days for contempt of court after sentencing gross called crime watch Daily from behind bars still echoing his defense claiming his dog did it the Maryland has never once ever said that I cut her hair off that was just a doctor's belief that I told her hair off did you or did you not Scout Marilyn Stanley with a knife well absolutely not Maryland's mom Linda still isn't buying it claiming she would have handed down a much harsher sentence I just wish it wouldn't be life because I don't want him to ever get out what's it going to take for you to not be afraid anymore I don't think it anything could make somebody not afraid he's a sociopath he doesn't feel remorse for anything that he's done to anybody Marilyn is reminded of what Zachary gross did to her every day but she still stands tall Zach gross has taken a lot of things from you but what hasn't he gotten he hasn't gotten he hasn't gotten me and he won't he hasn't gotten my pride he hasn't got my life and I won't let him she's an amazingly strong woman that's for sure gross has already filed an appeal as for Capone the pit bull who was ordered to be euthanized by the judge he remains in an animal shelter awaiting the outcome of that appeal with me now to go inside the mind of a guy like gross's forensic psychologist Dr Lou Schlessinger doctor thank you people have called gross everything from a psychopath to a narcissist you haven't worked on this case but you've reviewed it what do you say about it from a distance I don't think the label whether he's a psychopath or narcissistic really is the important Point as I look at this the level of sadism the level of Cruelty is just extraordinary in this case and you don't see that at that level very often keep in mind also that this entire incident was triggered by jealousy and what he did tells me psychologically he must have felt so humiliated and belittled that he overreacted in this way and what about the scalping thing human scalping cases are extremely rare you just get one case every several years he could have easily taken the knife and stabbed her and killed her he didn't want to do that he wanted to disfigure her in some way so that she's always humiliated the way he felt when he saw that picture is there any chance that Marilyn Stanley can retrieve her memories and then get past them well with respect to retrieving her memories that is best understood as a defense mechanism the mind is pushing that out because experiencing it would just be too overwhelming so in the course of her treatment someone therapist or psychologist should not try to retrieve these memories the defense mechanism is there for a purpose what I observed of her she seems to be a fairly strong person but she's going to be need a lot of help over the years Dr Lou as always thank you very much for your insights for more in this story go to crimewatchdaily.com [Music] up next adopted into a house of horrors when she was choking me that day I told her you're gonna kill me if you don't stop and I was so scared her daring escape from the woman who was supposed to take care of her I was just crying and I was like hey I can't live like this anymore I feel like I'm going to die coming up all right now a story we followed very closely here at crime watch video a 16 year old teen is found dead inside her adopted parents home and the conditions inside the house according to reports could only be described as inhumane we're teaming up with our affiliate who for the very latest here's Reed grinsell two girls adopted into a life of hell when she was choking me that day I told her you're gonna kill me if you don't stop and I was so scared their stories are similar but where one girl got out all right put your hands behind your back Wendy the other you have a charge of Murder in the First Degree she was only 16 years old when Emergency Services found her Natalie Finn wasting away on a linoleum floor next to urine soaked sheets she would die soon after from a heart attack brought on by extreme starvation authorities learned that under the pretext of being homeschooled Natalie along with two of her other siblings had been locked inside this house then prosecutors say systematically tortured and starved by their adoptive parents Nicole and Joseph Finn after Natalie's death both parents were arrested and pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping child endangerment and neglect and for Nicole Finn even more you have a charge of Murder in the First Degree your bond is one one million dollars cash the maximum sentence on that charge is life without parole sadly Natalie's story is not an isolated incident in fact in another house just a little more than four miles away from the West Des Moines Iowa home where Natalie died a girl named Malaya Knapp was also suffering she is one of nine adopted kids living in what she describes as a House of horse tragically death is part of maliah's story too my sister was hung from her bed overnight her feet at one end in her hands at the other um and if we tried to help her we would get beaten too Malaya never knew Natalie but claims the two shared the same pain Malaya along with five of her other siblings had been adopted then homeschooled and she tells our Iowa affiliate who that like Natalie she and at least one of her other siblings were abused by their adoptive mom she would beat us make us do exercises and dump water on us and make us go without food and water and the walk is in the room if we had any injuries so that she we wouldn't be able to tell anybody or do anything about it Malaya documented the physical abuse as much as possible in photos like these she changed all of her names and all of our social security numbers so no one really knew where we were and then made us think that nobody wanted us or that we had anybody to talk to and in one of the most shocking allegations Malaya claims her adoptive mother Mindy would often Force the children to punish each other while she recorded and that in one documented incident the others quote were instructed to get a confession from their sister physical assaults took place to include punching slapping and kicking a belt was introduced and used to cause pain and injury I was just crying and I was like I can't live like this anymore this is I I feel like I'm going to die I feel like this is I need to get help from me and my siblings then one day Maliah saw her chance she says she was being forced to exercise in the front yard while Mindy watched on I wait for her to turn away and she turns away for a second and I just get on my bike and I start biking straight to the Urbandale police it came to us first we went to DHS to to collaborate with them on the investigation shortly after malaya's daring Escape each other Mindy Knapp is charged with two counts of assault causing bodily injury or mental illness well she's in there we'll just kick the door in so a police body cam was recording the day the arrest was made all right put your hands behind your bathroom later please guilt guilt probation not nearly punishment enough for Malaya who worries about her other eight siblings still living in the home with Mindy and I want them to be able to get help and healing and Recovery like I have and and be able to get away from Mindy but what did maliah's adoptive mom have to say about it all who reporter Mike dasilva went to Mindy's home to get her side someone else answered the door hi looking for Mindy oh um looking to speak with her okay over what allegations that she forced her children to punish each other a voice from somewhere else in the house she was arrested by the Urbandale police department was looking to get her side of the story you just want to be fair okay no official response from Mindy but to date only Malaya and one other sibling have been listed in the reports of abuse [Music] coming up ex-wife of a world famous musician brutally murdered in a quiet California Beach town and the monster responsible got away he was able to slip away like that and vanish crime watch dealing with the big break that could finally give her family closure next we're back here in New York now with a cold case finally cracked the ex-wife of a world famous musician is dead and now police believe they finally know the identity of the killer our nurisha Knight is teaming up with the LA County Sheriff's Department for the all-new investigation Chris Hermosa Beach California is an upscale close-knit Community a place where everyone knows everyone so when Karen class was murdered the town was certainly gripped in fear great strangled with pantyhose and left for dead very brutal this wasn't this guy's first crime it's a mystery that's baffled cops for decades and left a violent killer on the loose was married to rock and roll royalty Bill Medley of the 1960s group The Righteous Brothers their head Unchained Melody featured in the movie Ghost but the haunting music would come to an end when Karen's life was snuffed out by a deranged killer he probably saw Karen she's a very beautiful woman and just decided he was going to do that and he did now her sons are talking telling crime watch Daily about the event that scarred their lives forever what's your fondest memory of you and your mom I was 11 years old when she passed away and she was extremely loving kind full of Vitality unfortunately for me you know she she died when I was very young just right at my fifth birthday what twingeable Clues the away left to collect Dust In The Archives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department then more than 30 years later detectives Larry Brandenburg and Tom Harris took another look at the case once so cold it froze over there were some investigative things that were never done that we wanted to try and find the morning of the grizzly murder started like any other day for Karen who lived in this house in the quaint coastal town of Hermosa Beach California she was supposed to go to coffee with her neighbors after she took her child to school but coffee was not on the menu the 32 year old mom never showed up so they went over to Karen's house to check on her they get to the back sliding door it was open a little bit they called Karen's name and heard a muffled sound frightened her friends ran for help and as they Round the Corner a shocking sight the front door opened and a Gentleman came out with bushy kind of long hair and a beard and he said hi ladies and this really startled frantically the women call 9-1-1 and when cops arrive they find Karen nude lying on the floor in her bedroom one leg of the pantyhose bound her hands and then the other leg of the pantyhose was used along with her bra to strangle her still alive the neighbor ladies actually interrupted the killer he had completed the rape but he hadn't completed strangling her yet Lauren was rushed to the hospital but she never came out of her coma tragically she died a few days later do you remember the moment you heard your mom was murdered what was that like I remember he was he was in tears and explained to me that you know that my mom had passed and that I wouldn't I would never see her again as the boys were hearing the devastating news cops were collecting key evidence Karen's bra and Patio towel laying here hovered with the suspect's DNA the realm yet but Cold Case detect were left with no pictures of the crime Scene 40 years ago investigators didn't take photographs at the scene unless a body was left murdered there we didn't have much to go by but detectives did have a loose description of the mystery man with that forensic artists were able to come up with this composite sketch although at the time it didn't NAB the killer now cops had DNA testing in their Arsenal Karen had remarried and then was divorced again and she had a boyfriend we checked his DNA we also checked her husband's DNA or ex-husband's DNA everybody was cleared the reop so at this point we're getting pretty discouraged and thinking gee you know well I really came to grips with it wasn't going to get solved but the hunt for The elusive killer stays Relentless but every five or six years I get a call from my dad and said hey you know I think they have another lead or they want to look at this and finally a game-changing phone call from the lead forensic biologists who worked the Karen class case for years she goes have you ever thought about doing familial you know I said well not really but you know maybe we should do that that's all we have left familial DNA is a powerful crime fighting tool lab techs look for a possible male relative of the suspect a criminal whose genetic profile is in the database they then try to match the relative's DNA with that of the suspect when she first mentioned it to you what did you think I never used it before but I go this is our last resort so why not the original evidence because I had extracted DNA originated from a towel that had a semen stain on it that was found next to the victim but then they ran it called me and said nothing a few years pass still no answers but dog and cops Won't Give Up and one day out of the blue a call from the familial DNA lab Giselle called me like a month or two later and said are you sitting down I said no why she says they got a hit it was shocking I didn't realize how it was going to hit me um until until a couple days after they let me know after four long decades the LA County Sheriff's Department finally named The elusive suspect I'm proud to be able to announce that the good work of Sheriff's homicide unsolved unit and positively identifying suspect Kenneth Troyer in the cold case of Karen class Kenneth Eugene Troyer of violent California prison escape e a suspect in several other sexual assaults was long dead Troyer was shot and killed in a 1982 standoff with police knowing the identity of his ex-wife suspected killer has brought closure to Bill Medley after years of Anguish there's been a voice in back of my head probably Karen telling me you know since about you know 20 years ago drop it let it go this guy is either dead or he's in prison and uh it's just it's it's closure you know and now thanks to the unrelenting work of the LA County Sheriff's Department they too will be able to close the book on this case you continue to fight for this case in finding this case 40 years after the murder well number one it's our job number two it's the right thing to do and it's all we do here that's our purpose California was the first state to make familial DNA testing legal critics say the practice is a violation of civil rights but it's certainly hard to argue with the results police credit that technology with helping them catch the serial killer known as the Grim sleeper in Los Angeles as well as a serial child abduction suspect recently in Cleveland [Music]

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 1,796,812

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Id: MlhTA27D-Wc

Length: 39min 41sec (2381 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2023