Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast

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196. Looks Like A Crooked Blue Line - The Muzzled Murder Of Catherine Braley Jun 15, 2021

Show notes

On January 15, 1988 in a semi-residential pocket in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, 25 year-old Catherine Braley – just recently relocated to Southern California from Iowa – was walking home from her job at a local specialty retail outlet when she decided to drop in to a local bar called The Hunter. There she encountered three L.A. County Sheriff’s detectives – off-duty and out of their jurisdiction (this was LAPD territory) after attending a memorial service for a fallen colleague nearby. After several hours of what all witnesses agreed was heavy drinking, Catherine and the three detectives departed the bar at around 11 pm. Employees at the bar who peered through the windows at the foursome saw Catherine sitting in puddle in the parking lot, laughing. Soon thereafter, the witnesses saw two of the detectives leave, leaving Catherine alone with one man – Detective Robert Mallen of the LA County Sheriff’s Department. That was the last time anyone saw Catherine Braley alive. Her battered body was found the next morning in the parking lot of an apartment complex just blocks from The Hunter. Her head had apparently been crushed with a hammer and/or a cement block found next to the body. Detective Mallen, who had left town with his wife for a camping trip in Arizona that very same morning Catherine’s body was found, was tracked down by LAPD investigators at the campground – and Mallen’s story was yes, he had met Catherine at The Hunter and yes. he had left with her in his car, where they had consensual sex, and that mid-way through a second round of intercourse, she broke it off, got out of the car and said she would walk home. Despite this rather incredulous tale, and problems with the timeline provided, case went cold – quickly – and remains unsolved to this day. A lawsuit brought by Catherine’s family resulted in a hung jury. And there appears to be no interest in the law enforcement community to attempt to solve the case. Worst of all is the fact that the LAPD detective most qualified to investigate Catherine’s murder – the one brave cop with the guts to have solved a 20 year-old murder committed by a fellow officer (and thereby violating the silent “blue code” that holds that cops don’t rat on cops) was handed Catherine’s case and had it taken away from him just as he was starting to investigate. Join Melissa as she asks the tough questions – could it be that the LAPD is preventing the investigation of Catherine Braley’s murder to save the skin of a law enforcement colleague? Is the “blue wall” stifling justice?

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195. Looks Like An Organized Massacre - The Slaughter Of Cyle VanKomen And Kevin Nelson Jun 08, 2021

Show notes

By all accounts Cyle VanKomen was more than just a good kid. He was the kind of young man that drew others to him. Kind, friendly and generous to a fault, the 24 year-old lived with his older brother and several other young men in what was known as a “party house” in a quiet neighborhood in South Ogden Utah. Neither Cyle, his brother nor anyone else in the house had any known enemies or connection to any criminal activity. He and his roommates lived simply – none of them were wealthy or had much in the way of valuable belonging – least of all Cyle. So it defies belief that on the night of December 9, 2016 – when Cyle’s brother and another roommate left the house to buy some snacks to take with them to go bowling – that one of the most bizarre home invasions ever committed took place – leaving Cyle and his neighbor Kevin Nelson dead and a third remaining victim critically wounded. And it all happened in the span of ten minutes – the time it took for Cyle’s brother and his friend to walk to the store and back But it all gets weirder and worse. And that’s because the other murder victim – next door neighbor Kevin Nelson – who just happened to be the wrong place at the wrong time – had security cameras installed on the side of his house. And those cameras caught and recorded – for more than an hour before the assault – three masked, armed men surrounding the perimeter of the VanKomen house…peering in windows…jumping fences…running what looked like paramilitary drills. Ski masks cover their faces, but the body images of all three attackers – including one very tall man – are clearly visible in the video footage. So why hasn’t this case been solved? With Kevin Nelson’s security camera video now available for public viewing, is it really possible that no one can identify even one of the perpetrators of this horrific crime? Listen as Melissa details the known facts of this tragically unsolved case, and wonders aloud why some law enforcement agencies that continually ask the public for help don’t actually seem to want it even when it’s offered up on a silver platter…

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194. Looks Like Ten Years Is Too Long - Stephenson Murders Update With Special Guest Det. Coy Cox Jun 01, 2021

Show notes

Ten years is a long time no matter how you look at it. But for the Stephenson family of Northern Kentucky, ten years is just simply too long. Because that’s how long it’s been since their family patriarch and matriarch Bill and Peggy Stephenson were murdered – brutally – in their Florence Kentucky townhome on Memorial Day weekend in 2011. And the devoted minister and his wife – both beloved members of the community known for their kindness and generosity – were killed in a most unusual – evil way. The killer (or killers) murdered the Stephensons late at night – and took their time. They not only completely re-arranged the murder scene – they staged the bodies in different rooms of the condo – and staged the rest of the home as well, leaving seeming clues everywhere that to this day no one has deciphered. Melissa covered this devastating unsolved double murder in Episode 147 of Just The Tip-Sters, when she interviewed lead case detective Coy Cox of the Boone County Kentucky Sheriff’s Department. Det. Cox has been on this case since Day 1, and he, his partner and the entire department have never converted it to “cold” status. It is, and always will be until the murders are solved, an active investigation. Since Episode 147 aired last year, some important tips have come in to Det. Cox’s team. Melissa thought it might be a good idea to have him back to provide an update on the Stephenson murder investigation and to continue to encourage anyone who might even provide a sliver of a clue to speak up. Join Melissa as she gets that update, and also asks Det. Cox some questions she and many of our listeners have asked about the case. And take the time to really listen to a man whose life is the very definition of a great police officer – smart, savvy, dedicated – and caring about his job and his duty to bring justice to these victims and their family. If you know ANYTHING or ANYONE that might help solve this case – even if you think it’s not important – contact Det. Cox and his team via email at stephensontip@boonecountyky.org or call (859) 334-8496d or toll-free at (844) 210-1111.

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193. Looks Like A Long Walk To The Store - The Evil That Stole Avery "Peaches" Shorts May 25, 2021

Show notes

For the second time this month we feature the troubling, tragic, SAD murder of a young girl during the Christmas holiday season a long time ago. This one is incredibly tragic because it’s pretty clear who the killer is and he was never arrested. On December 26, 1980 six year-old Avery "Peaches" Shorts left her home in Knoxville, Tennessee with 58 cents in her pocket, bundled up by her mother Hazel, who asked her youngest daughter to walk to the local store to buy her a bottle of Coke. It was a fifteen-minute round trip. Little Peaches never returned. When 50 minutes had passed with no sign of her daughter, Hazel called the police – and immediately – before the night was through – dozens of law enforcement personnel were searching for Peaches. And in the coming months the number of police and private citizens searching for her grew into the hundreds. No success. It wasn’t until 13 months later, in January 1982, that the body of Peaches Shorts was found – by hunters on an old farm buried under a cattle chute. Her neck had been broken. A wire was wrapped around her neck. Her body was mostly decomposed, but her hair remained – still in pigtails with the ribbons Hazel had placed in it before she left the house still in a bow. She still wore her jacket, buttoned to the top, just as it was when the little girl left to buy her mom a soft drink. No evidence of sexual assault was present. Peaches had simply been brutally strangled – with no evident motive. No motive, that is, other than pure anger and spite. And the police had a perfect suspect to fill that bill – a longtime drifter and con man named Mitchell Reed. Seems Reed, who was more than twice the age of Hazel, had been dating Peaches’ mom (along with at least two other local women), and had been nagging Hazel to let him move in with Hazel and her three kids. Hazel didn’t want that, and had continually put Reed off. On the day of Peaches’ disappearance, Reed had yet again visited Hazel and had yet again pressured her to let him moved in – and once again Hazel had told Reed she’d “think about it.” That did not sit well with Reed, who left in a rage. A witness saw Reed in the local store where Peaches was buying her mom’s Coke. Reed later denied ever seeing her there. And through all the questioning, all the investigations – no matter what the police did to break him, Mitchell Reed never did – he simply lit another cigarette and flashed a smile. And there has never been enough evidence to arrest him or conclusively peg him as the murderer. Could someone be so cold and selfish as to brutally kill a beautiful young girl for no reason other than revenge at her mother for refusing his selfish request? Join Melissa as she tells this horrific tale of justice denied, possibly forever, and the toll it’s taken on the family and the law enforcement personnel who, even to this day, can’t – and won’t – let it go. If you think you may be able to help provide conclusive evidence of Mitchell Reed’s (or anyone else’s) involvement in the murder of Peaches Shorts, please contact Knoxville Police at (865) 215-7317.

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192. Looks Like All Angels Go To Heaven - Judith Barsi's Sad Farewell May 18, 2021

Show notes

Ten year-old Judith Barsi was a bona fide, in-demand child actor in the 1980s. Between her fifth and tenth birthdays she appeared in 72 commercials and dozens of television movies and series. And her acting abilities and professional demeanor, even at such a young age, made it clear to everyone who worked with her that young Judith was destined for even greater things as she grew up. Sadly, Judith’s life ended not even one month past her tenth birthday. And the circumstances were nothing short of tragic. The only child of Maria and Joseph – immigrant parents who came to the United States from Hungary – Judith’s talents were noticed by Maria early on. Joseph, who worked as a plumbing contractor, never encouraged Judith’s career the way Maria did, even though by 1988 it had been Judith’s income that had enabled the family to purchase – for cash – a lovely home in the San Fernando Valley suburbs of Los Angeles. And by that time Joseph’s non-support had turned dark. He was now drinking heavily, and had begun verbally and emotionally abusing Maria and Judith. The more successful Judith became, it seemed, the more twisted and verbally violent her father became. It all ended on July 25, 1988 when Joseph became one of a tragically long line of family annihilators – shooting young Judith in the head as she slept, then Maria as she rushed in to see what was going on. He then lit the house on fire, walked into the garage, where he shot and killed himself. And all of that is awful enough – but what really fueled Melissa’s ire about this case is what happened 29 years after Joseph Barsi’s murder/suicide rampage: A 2017 article in, of all places, a home design magazine. Listen in as Melissa details the short lives and crushing deaths of two beautiful souls – a mother and daughter who did not deserve their fate – and the strange era in which we live that somehow diminishes everything to the level of kitsch.

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191. Looks Like Murder Without A Motive - The Illogical Tragedy Of Bonnie Neighbors May 11, 2021

Show notes

The holiday season was in full bloom in the small North Carolina town of Benson on Thursday December 14, 1972 when 33 year old Bonnie Neighbors was planning to pick up her oldest son Ken from school, taking her three-month old baby boy Glenn along with her. A witness even saw Bonnie’s car leave her driveway that afternoon – although, strangely, she seemed to be driving erratically and at a high rate of speed – and in the opposite direction of Ken’s school. When Bonnie’s husband (Ken, Senior) got a call from young Ken’s school telling him that no one had come to pick up the young Ken, and when it was later discovered that both Bonnie and baby Glen were missing – and that Bonnie had obviously packed diapers and baby formula – and that her favorite green pantsuit was missing from the closet – an intense search began that got the entire community involved. v First found was Bonnie’s station wagon – parked near her home – virtually untouched. Then, three days after she and the baby disappeared, Bonnie’s body was found lying on a cot inside the concrete walls of an abandoned migrant labor camp in nearby Meadow Township. She had suffered a severe blow to the back of the head and had been shot twice, through her coat and her pantsuit. She was fully-clothed and there was no evidence of sexual assault. There was no blood anywhere, indicating that she had been killed elsewhere and then moved. Next to Bonnie’s body, crying and cold, was baby Glen. Nearby were several dirty diapers, leading investigators to believe that Bonnie had been alive and taking care of her baby for at least a short while before she was murdered. Glen was rushed to the hospital, where he fully recovered. A single bullet casing and a number of cigarette butts were on the floor near a bench next to the cot. That was the extent of evidence of the existence of a perpetrator – and all that police had to work with. Until 2019 – when the absolutely heroic foresight of the investigating officers 47 years earlier who had preserved those cigarette butts and bullet casing long before DNA testing was even dreamed of – yielded enough of the perpetrator’s DNA to finally arrest one Larry Scott, a drifter with a small-time police record who was 18 years old at the time of Bonnie Neighbors’ disappearance and who was living in Bradenton Florida. After initially fighting extradition, Scott finally agreed and was indicted back in North Carolina in May 2019. But here’s where the story gets odd – and where Tip-Sters everywhere can dig in and help out: After the 2019 arraignment, Melissa has not been able to find out what happened to Scott – she hasn’t found evidence of a trial – or of Scott’s death – or his connection, if any, to Bonnie Neighbors – or anything at all. Get ready for Melissa’s rendering of an engrossing tale of awful and seemingly illogical murder – and the mystery still surrounding the outcome of this seemingly never-ending case.

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190. Looks Like Injustice In San Antonio - The Obvious Unsolved Murder Of Monika Rizzo May 04, 2021

Show notes

This week Melissa brings forth another unnerving “unsolved” murder – this one from May of 1997 - that really isn’t unsolved at all; a case where the search for justice has been unrelenting for nearly a quarter of a century. And despite the fact that the culprit is alive and in plain sight of God and everybody – no arrests have ever been made. The victim – then 44 year-old Monika Luise Rizzo (nee McKinney) – had by all accounts grown up happy, well-adjusted and well-taken care of by her adoptive parents, dad Bill McKinney and mom (also named) Monika McKinney. Because Bill was a career US Army officer, the family moved around a lot when Monika was young. But no matter where she lived, Monika Luise was always known to be enterprising, hard-working and honest to a fault. And Monika Luise maintained those traits for the remainder of her life, even though that life was never easy after she met Leonard “Lenny” Rizzo on a Honolulu beach in 1970 when she was just 17 and a senior in high school. A beach bum, motorcycle enthusiast and overall ne’er-do-well, Lenny convinced Monika Luise to marry him as soon as she turned 18, which is exactly what happened – over the strong objections of the McKinneys and the strong warnings of others familiar with Lenny and his family. And for 26 years, they stayed married. Had two kids – both boys. All seemed reasonably well…except that Lenny never really could hold down a job, drank, used drugs, belonged to a motorcycle gang and even ended up in jail on a narcotics charge for a couple of years. Through all of it, Monika Luise held down the fort, earned the family income and was always known as the most reliable employee wherever she worked. Throughout the marriage, there were signs that domestic violence may have been occurring – a black eye here, a burn or severe scratch there – but no one ever did anything, and Monika Luise never implicated Lenny in any of her injuries. But by Christmastime 1996 and moving into early 1997, the signs were getting unmistakable. Now living in San Antonio Texas, near her parents’ home where Bill McKinney had retired, Monika Luise had become one of the highest-regarded employees at the Texas Dept. of Human Resources – but trouble was obviously afoot. Between January and May 1997, she began to show signs of distraction and lack of personal care – and she lost so much weight that by some accounts she was down to 85 pounds by May 5…when, in the middle of the work day, Lenny Rizzo made an urgent call to Monika Luise at the office. And after she took that call, her coworkers saw her get up from her desk and – leaving all of her personal belongings behind – walk out of the room, never to be seen by them again. To this day no one knows what that conversation was about. But what is known is that completely shredded bone shards and skin and human body fluids found in Lenny Rizzo’s back yard were proven by DNA testing to be that of Moniika Luise McKinney Rizzo. And Lenny? Oh, he spent another few years in the joint for attempted murder of his new girlfriend – but he’s out now and the local DA still unbelievably claim that not enough evidence exists to indict him for the killing of Monika Luise. Prepare yourself for a detailed look into the life and death of a remarkable young woman for whom justice seems to have been permanently denied. That is, of course, unless YOU, brave Tip-Ster, know something that might close the door and result in an indictment – and if you do, call the San Antonio Police Department at (210) 207-7273. Also – recommended reading is The Raw Truth! Bill McKinney’s compelling re-telling of his daughter Monika’s story.

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189. Looks Like It Wasn't Xenu - The Murders Of Penelope Edwards And Troy Dunn Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

Penelope Edwards had all but put her life back together in March 2012. After years of struggling with addiction and psychological problems – so bad that she had turned temporary custody of her two children over to her sister Gloria – Penelope was now sober, working through therapy, had her children back and even had a new boyfriend – Troy Dunn. By all accounts, Penelope, Troy and the two kids were living a happy life in Prescott Valley Arizona. But on March 16, 2012, evil visited that happy home – when Kenneth Thompson, the husband of Penelope’s sister Gloria – after driving 25 miles from his home in Missouri, took a hatchet to both Penelope and Troy in an attempt to “rescue” Penelope’s children from what Thompson believed to be a dangerous environment. Dangerous how? Well. It seems that Penelope not only had herself in therapy – her daughter was also seeing a therapist and her young son, who had been suffering with a severe psychological disorder, was under both therapeutic and medical treatment. And all of that was working – and contributing to the healing and happiness in the Edwardsd/Dunn household. Um. Again: Dangerous how? Turns out it was dangerous solely in the mind of Ken Thompson – who decided on his own that because the niece and nephew of his wife were being exposed to psychiatry and psychotherapy, they were being, effectively, brainwashed and damaged. Because that was Thompson’s interpretation of his religion’s belief. And his religion was The Church of Scientology. Fortunately, both of Penelope’s kids were away from the house when Ken Thompson made his deadly visit, but her murder, and that of Troy Dunn – who had vowed to raise Penelope’s children as his own, changed those kids’ lives forever. Join Melissa as she traverses this difficult case of an evil man fraudulently using his religion as a defense against the horrible act he himself committed – and an examination of Melissa’s own experience as a friend of a Scientologist and the question of religious freedom versus religious advocacy.

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188. Looks Like It's Good To Be Kind - Vaccines, Nasty Notes And The Unkind Murders Of Gail Moody And Lori Arrowood Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

This time around we have what a 1980s television marketing whiz would call a “Very Special Episode” of the podcast. And that’s because what is normally the intro is actually half the show – and there’s an important reason why. It’s because Melissa has had some things she’s been wanting to say for a while about kindness – being nice – and those things came to the fore this past week in the form of vaccine side effects and a particularly icky email she received from a clearly unhappy person. So in addition to the usual than-yous (and a dynamite discussion on one of America’s longest-operating travel-stop businesses), during the first half of this episode Melissa holds forth on an important fact of life – that kindness is the fuel of any well-lived life. And how much the kindness of you Tip-Sters means to her and Producer Mark. The second half – this week’s case – is about the tragedy of three friends – two of whom were murdered only because they happened to be friends with the third. Gail Moody and Lori Arrowood were both raped, strangled to death and tossed into the woods, three years apart, in two separate but nearby towns in Souhern Georgia. Gail’s body has never been found. But three years later, when Lori was murdered, her body was found. And it didn’t take long for law enforcement to focus on, and arrest, a former corrections officer named Ken Lumpkin, who confessed, was convicted of Lori’s murder and sentenced to Life Without Parole. And during the Lori Arrowood murder investigation, an unexpected connection to Gail Moody’s death was revealed. Turns out that Ken Lumpkin had a wife – Shelly. And Shelly had been friends with both Gail and Lori. And unknown to Shelly, her friendship with the two women cost them their lives – at the hands of a man she never imagined to be a killer. Get ready for a fast-paced, engrossing and downright stirring visit with Melissa as she not only shares some of her most dearly-held thoughts – but relates the ultimate story of a very bad man being very Not Nice.

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187. Looks Like An Ambush At The ATM - Matthew Chase's Final Deposit Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

Matthew Chase was just like a lot of young artists who move to Los Angeles to seek out their creative development and success. Back in 1988, then 22 year-old Matthew and his friends, brother-and-sister Steve and Teresa Dahl, were living together after all moving from their childhood homes near Medford Oregon. And – again, like so many other young transplants to Southern California, Matthew, Steve and Teresa moved into one of the grittier parts of Los Angeles, in the heart of the big city, not fully aware of just how “gritty” gritty really meant. As in: At the time, Los Angeles was plagued by one of the worst gang wars ever to hit an American city. And the area where Matthew Chase and his companions lived was one of that gang war’s hot spots. It was nowhere to be out after dark. And yet, as often happens, Matthew and the Dahl siblings’ youthful sense of invincibility left them largely unaware of the risks all around them. So it was unsurprising that on June 8, 1988, at 11:45 pm, Matthew decided to deposit his paycheck at a local bank ATM. Matthew was going to walk to the bank, but Teresa Dahl lent Matthew her car to run the errand – and to pick up some cat food on the way back. Matt took the car keys, taking with him only his paycheck and his ATM card – leaving his wallet, with his driver’s license in it, behind. After all, it was just a quick trip. Right? Except that was the last time Teresa or Steve Dahl or any of Matthew’s other friends ever saw him alive again. And this is truly a story about the love of friends. Because it was Matthew’s friends – with pretty much no help from the authorities – that finally brought their friend’s case to its uneasy conclusion. As it happens, in 1988 the Los Angeles Police Department was buried under a wave that not only included the impossible task of battling the gangs – but also experiencing its first growing pangs of moving away from a nearly century-long history of abuse, racism and overall corruption. Public attention was finally exposing the LAPD’s bad secrets to the light of day, but in 1988 many of those bad elements remained. And one of those bad elements was the LAPD Rampart Division’s total disinterest in the disappearance of a young artist living in a “bad” part of town – one detective in particular, whose brazen, arrogant and homophobic ignorance prevented a missing person’s report to be filed. It was only after more than a week following Matthew’s disappearance that Teresa Dahl was forced to file a report alleging that Matthew stole her car – which she knew he didn’t do – that finally got LAPD to do anything. Shortly thereafter, Teresa’s abandoned car was found near the bank0 where Matthew had been headed. Through the efforts of Matthew’s friends (not the LAPD), it was discovered that Matthew had attempted to make several large withdrawals at multiple ATMs the night of his disappearance. One of those ATMs had a camera that caught extremely fuzzy footage of – it is believed - the person assumed to be Matthew’s abductor – a gang member who – coincidentally? – was executed by gang members on a Hollywood street corner just two days after Matthew Chase disappeared. In the meantime, a body with two bullet holes in the back of the head, found in a ravine in nearby Pasadena three months after Matthew’s disappearance, sat in the County Morgue unidentified for another six months until dental records finally proved that it belonged to young Matthew Chase. In this episode, Melissa unravels this tragic story with great detail – and in celebration of the love and commitments of friends who would not let their friend be forgotten – and as a question to anyone who was around at the time – was the gang member assumed to be Matthew’s abductor and executioner actually the one responsible for his death? And were there others involved? If anyone knows, call Melissa on the TIP-STER Hotline at (832) 847-7837 or send an email to jttipsters@gmail.com.

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