Evil Sidekick (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

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[2] At 4 a .m. on a winter day in 1993, a 50 -year -old man named Joe walked down a dark hallway inside of his farmhouse in Kentucky.

[3] As he moved, he did his best to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake up his wife or son who were sleeping nearby.

[4] But when Joe got about halfway down the hall, he happened to look inside the fan.

[5] family room and he thought he saw something moving.

[6] He strained his eyes to see who it was, thinking maybe it was his wife or son who had gotten up for some reason, but he just couldn't tell.

[7] However, as Joe stared into the darkness, he heard the sound of floorboards creaking inside the family room and then before Joe could do anything, the thing he had seen moving was now rushing straight towards him.

[8] Hours later, Kentucky State Police would arrive at Joe's house and what they would discover there was a monstrous crime that literally had never been committed before in this part of Kentucky.

[9] But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[10] So, if that's of interest to you, please hire a mariachi band to wake the Amazon music follow button up every morning at 3 a .m. Okay, let's get into today's story.

[11] I'm Dan Taberski.

[12] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[13] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[14] What's the answer?

[15] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[16] Hysterical.

[17] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[18] Binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[19] On the evening of Thursday, February 25, 1993, 50 -year -old veterinarian, Dr. Joe Wellnitz, and his 39 -year -old wife, Beth, were closing up their veterinary clinic in Columbia.

[20] Kentucky.

[21] Joe and Beth walked outside of the clinic and said goodbye to a couple of young employees who were on their way out and heading to their cars.

[22] And then after turning around and making sure no one else was inside the building, Beth pulled a key out of her pocket and she locked the door.

[23] Joe was tall with gray hair and he wore glasses with large lenses.

[24] Beth had short light hair and she almost always had a smile on her face.

[25] It was cold outside, right around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, so just about freezing, and the winter wind made it feel even colder.

[26] But luckily, Joe and Beth only had a quick walk from their clinic to their house.

[27] Years earlier, they had bought acres of land in the small rural town of Columbia, a place where everybody knew everybody, and people went out of their way to look out for their neighbors.

[28] And when Joe and Beth had bought the property, they converted an old barn on the land into their vet clinic, and it was right next door to their large two -story red brick farmhouse.

[29] And in the time since they'd opened that clinic, Joe and Beth had become a beloved part of their small rural community.

[30] Beth managed the veterinary business, and Joe treated people's pets and farm and ranch animals from all around the area.

[31] But it wasn't just the love and care they put into their work that had made them such an important part of Columbia.

[32] Joe and Beth were both religious, and they believed the most important teaching of their faith was that people should always take care of others who needed their help.

[33] And so the more successful Joe and Beth became, the more they gave back.

[34] They donated to charities, they volunteered their time, and they would often just sit and talk to their clients about things that had nothing to do with their clients' animals.

[35] So Joe and Beth's veterinary clinic had become more than just a place where people got their pets looked after.

[36] It had become a place where people felt like they were treated like family.

[37] Outside the clinic, Beth took Joe's hand and they walked across the yard to the front of their house.

[38] They had been married for 13 years, but they still held hands and looked at each other like they did when they were newlyweds.

[39] Joe and Beth walked past the driveway on the way to their front door, and when they did, Beth glanced over at the two Ford Mustangs that were parked there.

[40] The cars belonged to Joe and Beth's children, Meg and Dennis.

[41] Meg was about to turn 19, and she was off studying at a community college in Lexington, Kentucky, about two hours away, and she'd left her car behind when she moved.

[42] Dennis was 20, and he was going to classes at a nearby community college and working in Columbia.

[43] So if his car was there, Beth figured he was probably watching movies or playing video games in his bedroom.

[44] Beth opened the front door of the house, and then she and Joe walked inside.

[45] The big farmhouse was drafty in winter, but it still felt warm and welcoming.

[46] Beth headed to the kitchen, and Joe went to the family room and sat down on the couch.

[47] Then Joe heard footsteps on the stairs, and he turned to see his son, Dennis, coming into the room.

[48] room.

[49] Dennis and his younger sister Meg were actually Beth's children from a previous marriage.

[50] But when Beth had met and married Joe, the kids had loved him almost immediately.

[51] And when they had gotten a little older, Joe had adopted them, and they had taken his last name.

[52] And Dennis had even changed his middle name to Joe to honor the man who had raised him.

[53] Joe and Dennis talked a little about Dennis' schoolwork and his plans for the weekend, and then Dennis headed back upstairs to his bedroom, and Joe turned on the TV.

[54] And while Joe watched TV in the family room, Beth grabbed the phone that hung on the wall above the kitchen counter, and she called her daughter, Meg.

[55] Meg answered in a cheery voice that was a lot like her mom's, and then Beth asked her how school was going.

[56] Meg said classes were going great, and she had recently been studying really hard for a test, so she was going to reward herself by playing cards that night with her new boyfriend, Randy Appleton, and another couple she'd met at school.

[57] Beth said that sounded great.

[58] But in truth, she was not a big fan of Meg's boyfriend Randy.

[59] Beth had only met him briefly when Meg had brought him to the house, but there was something about him that Beth just didn't like.

[60] Beth felt like Randy was lazy and that he didn't have any goals, and she didn't want that to rub off on her daughter.

[61] Still, Beth was happy that Meg had made close friends in Lexington.

[62] Meg loved reading, role -playing games, and playing cards.

[63] And so back in Columbia, it had not always been easy for Meg to find people who shared her interest, and so having friends was always a challenge for her.

[64] So, Beth decided to keep her thoughts to herself about Randy, and she told Meg that she was so happy she was having such a great time at school.

[65] Then Beth told her that her new contact lenses had arrived at the house, and she asked if she needed to mail them to her.

[66] But Meg said, don't worry about it.

[67] She was going to get a ride home that weekend, and she would pick up her contacts then, and that way it would also allow her to spend some time with her family.

[68] Beth told Meg that Dennis would be really happy to hear that because he missed having his little sister around.

[69] Then Beth said goodnight to her daughter, hung up the phone, walked into the family room, and sat down on the couch with Joe.

[70] She told him that Meg was coming home that weekend, and Joe lit up.

[71] He was happy Meg was making her own way in Lexington, but he was happiest when the family was all together.

[72] Then, a little later that night, Joe, Beth, and Dennis ate dinner.

[73] And sitting at the kitchen table, Joe just kept smiling, because he got to wake up in the morning and take care of animals, which he had loved doing since he was young, and then that weekend, he would get to relax with his wife, his son, and his daughter by his side.

[74] A little before 4 a .m. the following morning, so February 26, 1993, Joe stepped out of the downstairs bathroom onto the cold hardwood floors.

[75] He was wearing gray sweatpants and a white t -shirt.

[76] The house was dark, but Joe could find his way to his and Beth's bedroom without any light.

[77] So, Joe walked down the hallway as slowly and quietly as he could, being careful not to make any noise that would wake up Beth or Dennis.

[78] But when Joe walked by the family room, he thought he heard something.

[79] So he froze and then squinted his eyes and tried to see into the darkness of the family room, but it was no use.

[80] He couldn't see anything.

[81] Then Joe heard the floor creek, and he thought he saw someone moving towards him.

[82] So he called out to see who was there.

[83] In the main bedroom down the hall, Beth suddenly woke up, startled.

[84] She thought she'd just heard Joe shouting, but for all, she knew she might have just been having a dream.

[85] But Beth looked over in the bed and saw that Joe wasn't there.

[86] And so Beth rubbed her eyes and kind of shook the sleep off.

[87] She sat up in her bed and she looked around and her eyes hadn't adjusted yet so the room was just totally dark and out of focus.

[88] And then she stood up and began walking towards the door to see if Joe was maybe out in the hall or something.

[89] And as she was reaching for the door, she heard something outside in the hall moving around.

[90] And then before she could actually open the door, the door burst open.

[91] And And Beth just stood there in total shock.

[92] And then as she realized what was standing in front of her, she screamed.

[93] Just before 8 a .m., so about four hours after Beth had seen something in her bedroom, Beth and Joe's two younger employees that they had walked out of the clinic with the night before arrived at the veterinary clinic.

[94] The young man and woman said good morning to each other and walked to the door and then when they got there, the man took a set of keys out of his pocket, he unlocked the door, and they both stepped inside.

[95] Beth and Joe rarely locked the door to their house, but they always locked up the clinic because they had other people's personal information on file inside.

[96] The clinic was dark so the young woman flipped on the lights and both employees started getting the clinic ready for the day.

[97] But then the man stopped in his tracks and just stared at the wall.

[98] The woman asked him what was going on but he just leaned in closer to the wall and his eyes went wide.

[99] He couldn't believe it but he was sure he was staring at a bullet hole in the wall.

[100] He showed it to the young woman, and she started to panic.

[101] Then she looked at her watch, and she saw that it was already several minutes after 8 a .m. And Beth and Joe were almost always at the clinic by 8 a .m. So the two young employees ran out of the clinic and crossed the yard to the main house.

[102] The door was unlocked, so they walked right inside and began calling out for Beth and Joe.

[103] But nobody answered.

[104] So the young woman ran upstairs, while the young man made his way across the first house.

[105] floor.

[106] And almost at the same time, the two employees started screaming.

[107] Then the young woman came flying down the stairs.

[108] She ran to the kitchen, grabbed the phone, and dialed 911.

[109] A few minutes later, Officer Jeff Hancock of the Kentucky State Police slammed his foot on the gas pedal in his cruiser and sped down a country road in Columbia.

[110] He whipped past farm and ranchland on either side.

[111] Then he peeled off the main road and followed a small winding road for a few more miles until he finally arrived at the Wellnitz property.

[112] Hancock parked his cruiser in the driveway behind the two Ford Mustangs and he stepped outside.

[113] Right away he saw Joe and Beth's two young employees just standing out front looking totally dazed.

[114] Hancock was in his early 30s with short brown hair and broad shoulders and he spoke with a strong southern accent.

[115] It was still cold outside but Hancock couldn't feel it.

[116] His heart was pounding and he felt sweat on his forehead.

[117] He had grown up not far from where he was standing, and he had known the Wellnitz family for years, and he could not believe the call that had just come into the station.

[118] Hancock took a deep breath, and as he did, he heard all the other state police cruisers that were rushing in this direction.

[119] And just a couple of seconds later, those cars were arriving at the property and officers were streaming out of their vehicles.

[120] Some stayed back with Joe and Beth's employees outside to figure out what they knew, and others began going into the house to make sure it was safe.

[121] Hancock took a deep breath and then followed the group of officers into the main house.

[122] Once he was inside, he made his way down the hall, but when he got near the family room, he stopped cold.

[123] He looked down at the floor, and he felt like he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him.

[124] On the floor, just a few feet away from him, was the body of Joe Wellnitz, and Joe's white t -shirt was stained with blood.

[125] Hancock knew Joe well, and he admired how much Joe gave back to the community and how Joe always tried his best to help others whenever he could.

[126] And Hancock could just not imagine how anybody could have done this to such a good man. But Hancock told himself that he had to put his personal feelings aside for the time being and just do his job.

[127] So he moved away from Joe's broken body and walked down the hall towards the main bedroom.

[128] He saw the door was cracked open and through the crack he could see something on the floor inside the room.

[129] So Hancock walked the rest of the way down the hall.

[130] He opened the bedroom door and stepped inside.

[131] And again, he felt like he got the wind knocked out of him.

[132] Joe's wife, Beth, was lying dead in her pajamas, faced down on the floor in a pool of blood.

[133] Hancock could hear his heart pounding in his ears, and none of this made any sense to him.

[134] Beth was one of the kindest people he'd ever met, and he wondered how this could even be real.

[135] Then he snapped out of it and heard noises coming from upstairs, so he stepped out of the bedroom and called a couple of other officers to where he was.

[136] And while those officers stayed with Beth's body, Hancock headed down the hall and walked upstairs.

[137] On the second floor, he could hear officers talking in one of the rooms.

[138] So Hancock walked down a long hallway towards those voices, and then he stepped into Dennis' bedroom.

[139] And then once he was inside, Hancock's shoulders slumped, and he shook his head at what he was seeing.

[140] Like his parents, Dennis was dead, face down on the floor.

[141] Hancock had known Dennis since Dennis was a kid, and so this was almost too much for Hancock to bear.

[142] But he told himself again that he had a job to do.

[143] And now that job was going to be investigating the first triple homicide ever reported in Columbia, Kentucky.

[144] Hancock left the bedroom and headed downstairs again, where ballistics experts were already hard at work.

[145] And they had found multiple 9mm bullet casings near Joe's body.

[146] Then Hancock spotted the lead investigator, Detective Roy Wheat of the Kentucky State Police.

[147] So Hancock walked over to him to see what Wheat needed him to do.

[148] Detective Wheat had been in law enforcement a lot longer than Hancock.

[149] In fact, he was getting closer and closer to his retirement.

[150] But still, in all his time as a cop, Wheat had never encountered anything like this in such a small, close -knit community.

[151] And while ballistics experts did their jobs and other officers searched the house for signs of forced entry, Wheat's thoughts were somewhere else because he was worried that the Wellnitz family had been targeted, which meant he needed to make sure their daughter, Meg, was alive and safe.

[152] The state police were quickly able to locate Meg's address in Lexington.

[153] So Detective Wheat contacted the Lexington Police and state troopers in the area, and not long after that, Wheat got word from Lexington authorities that Meg had been found safe in her apartment.

[154] Officer Hancock breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this news, because just like with Dennis, he'd known Meg since she was a kid.

[155] But then, Hancock realized Meg was about to find out what had happened, and his heart broke for her, because he didn't know how anybody would ever get over losing their entire family in a single night of violence.

[156] Soon after Detective Wheat knew Meg was safe, he sent Hancock and a few other officers outside to canvass the area and to talk to the Wellnitz's closest neighbors.

[157] Then Wheat heard someone call his name from the main bedroom.

[158] So he headed that way, and when he stepped inside the room, he just stood there for a second, stunned.

[159] By the bed, not far from Beth's body, an officer was holding up an evidence bag that had a book with a strange symbol on its cover.

[160] It was a book of the occult.

[161] Then another officer walked in and he said he'd found black candles in a different room.

[162] And Detective Wheat didn't want to say it out loud because he knew how fast gossip could spread in a small town like Columbia, but he couldn't help but wonder if he had a ritualistic or even a satanic triple murder on his hands.

[163] Hours after they had arrived, Detective Wheat and his investigative team were still searching the Wellnitz House for evidence.

[164] They had found bullet casings from a 9mm pistol near all three bodies, but they hadn't found.

[165] found a murder weapon.

[166] They also hadn't found any sign of forced entry, but that wasn't surprising because so many people in Columbia didn't lock their doors, including Joe and Beth.

[167] The investigators had not found any evidence that the Wellnitz's house had been ransacked either.

[168] In fact, several pieces of Beth's expensive jewelry had been found in the house untouched, so Detective Wheat did not think this had been a robbery.

[169] All the investigators really had in terms of, you know, who could have been behind this was the Book of the Occult and the Black candles.

[170] And so there was this early kind of running theory that these murders could be connected to Satanists.

[171] In the 1980s in the United States, members of the media and some politicians had fueled rumors that led to thousands of unsubstantiated cases of satanic ritualistic abuse and murder throughout the country.

[172] This cultural event would come to be known as the satanic panic.

[173] And some of that panic kept going into the early 1990s, so law enforcement often wouldn't rule out the possibility of satanic ritual when evidence like a book about the occult was found at a crime scene.

[174] Now, Detective Wheat wasn't quick to jump to that conclusion, but he didn't want to ignore any potential leads.

[175] So Wheat would have members of his team look into possible occult connections in the area.

[176] But while they did that, he wanted to stay focused on more traditional motives as well.

[177] And it seemed to him that somebody must have had it out for the entire Wellnitz family.

[178] So he knew he had to talk to the only member of the immediate Wellnett's family who had survived.

[179] Joe and Beth's daughter, Meg.

[180] I'm Dan Tversky.

[181] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[182] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[183] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[184] She's like, I can't.

[185] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[186] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[187] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[188] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[189] Well, you were holding something back intentionally.

[190] Yeah, yeah, well, yeah.

[191] No, it's hysteria.

[192] It's all in your head.

[193] It's not physical.

[194] You're, oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[195] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem?

[196] Or is it something else entirely?

[197] Something's wrong here.

[198] Something's not right.

[199] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[200] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[201] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[202] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free right now.

[203] by joining Wondry Plus.

[204] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good.

[205] You are a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious.

[206] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[207] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[208] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome.

[209] In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[210] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[211] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[212] In early March, about a week after the murders, Detective Wheat headed to Lexington, Kentucky to meet with Meg.

[213] No connections to occult groups or Satanists had surfaced.

[214] and Wheat believed the book they had found had probably just been used by Dennis or Meg as research for a school paper.

[215] But like Wheat had feared, rumors had already begun to spread in Colombia, and now the whole town was on edge.

[216] People were scared that some fringe occult group was stalking their streets and that they could be their next victim.

[217] And the fear in town led directly to added pressure on the police to solve the murders quickly and to bring the killer to justice.

[218] And so Wheat hoped that Meg could give him some information about her family that would set his investigation on the right path.

[219] In Lexington, Wheat followed Meg into a small apartment that belonged to her boyfriend, Randy.

[220] She had been staying there most nights since the murders because she didn't want to be alone.

[221] Meg was five foot six inches tall with short dark hair and she wore jeans and a light sweater over a t -shirt.

[222] Other members of the investigation team had already spoken to Meg, but this was Wheat's first chance to meet with her face -to -face.

[223] and when Meg led him into the apartment, Wheat was taken aback by how young she looked.

[224] He knew Meg was only about to turn 19, but seeing her in person, it just hit Wheat that this was a child who had just lost everything and whose whole life had been turned upside down.

[225] Wheat sat down on a chair inside the living room and Meg sat across from him on the couch.

[226] He thanked her for meeting with him and then he told her how sorry he was for her loss.

[227] Then we'd asked Meg if she knew of anybody who might have been angry at her parents or her brother, or even at her.

[228] Could she think of anyone who might have wanted to take some kind of revenge on her family?

[229] But Meg just shook her head and sort of stared off into space.

[230] She said everyone in Columbia loved her family and she couldn't imagine who would want to do something like this.

[231] Then, in a soft, calm voice, we'd asked her if anything out of the ordinary had happened to her on the night before the murders, had she gotten any strange phone calls or anything like that.

[232] Meg thought for a moment and then said, no, the night had been pretty routine.

[233] She and Randy had gone to play cards at the apartment of two of their friends, a young married couple named Bill and Regina Meese.

[234] She said after a few hours Randy was tired, so he left, and the card game had kind of ended earlier than any of them had expected.

[235] So Meg said that she and Bill Meese, one of the people who owned this apartment, went to a diner to grab coffee and to study a little for an upcoming test that they had in a class they were both taking at the community college.

[236] And then after that, she said she went to her apartment and went to bed.

[237] Detective Wheat thanked Meg again for talking to him and he said several members of his team back in Columbia knew her family well and they would find the person who had done this and make sure they paid for their crimes.

[238] Then Wheat headed back to Columbia and met with other members of the team and he told them that even though he had not said anything to Meg at the time something about her story had really jumped out at him.

[239] Her boyfriend Randy had left their card game early on his own and Meg hadn't seen him for the rest of the night.

[240] But that week, just as Detective Wheat was shifting his focus to Randy, he got a call from Beth's mother.

[241] And she asked if police had found a small firebox, which is a type of safe, inside of Beth and Joe's closet.

[242] She hadn't thought about it in the aftermath of her daughter's murderer, but she had recently remembered the safe and thought police should know about it.

[243] Wheat said they had not found a safe of any kind on the premises, and he thanked her for the information, and said police would look into it immediately.

[244] And when officers returned to the scene of the crime to look for this firebox, they discovered these light markings on the carpet that was inside of Beth and Joe's closet, marks that definitely could have been made by a small safe that had been sitting there for a long time that was no longer there.

[245] Police had ruled out a robbery at the Wellnitz House, but now all of a sudden, with this firebox missing, things had changed.

[246] And this totally looked like a robbery.

[247] And when Wheat and other members of the state police started delving into the Wellnets financial records, they would make a discovery that stunned them and that would send the investigation in an entirely new direction.

[248] In the spring of 1993, about a month after the murders, Officer Hancock stood in Detective Wheat's office with a look of shock on his face.

[249] After police had discovered that a small safe had gone missing from Joe and Beth's house, they had started looking into the Wellnitz's financial records, and they found someone who stood to inherit $250 ,000 from a life insurance policy if Joe died.

[250] That person was Eric Wellnitz, a third child of Joe's who nobody at the state police had even known existed.

[251] Hancock told Wheat that in all the time he had known Joe and Beth, they had never mentioned this third child, Eric Wellnitz.

[252] But now Eric shot to the top of Wheat's suspect list.

[253] It turned out Eric was the son of Joe's previous wife.

[254] And so like Dennis and Meg, Joe had adopted Eric when he married the boy's mother.

[255] But unlike Dennis and Meg, Eric did not feel any love for his adoptive father.

[256] Wheat tracked down the 19 -year -old Eric at an apartment in Lexington where he had been staying with a friend.

[257] And when they sat down at the kitchen table, wheat didn't waste any time.

[258] He wanted to know how Eric felt about Joe.

[259] And Eric didn't hold back.

[260] He said when Joe had left him and his mother to go be with Beth and her kids, he was angry.

[261] And not long after that, Eric felt like he had been completely.

[262] completely replaced by Dennis and Meg in his adopted father's eyes.

[263] And so Eric had decided to cut Joe completely out of his life.

[264] And he told Wheat that he hadn't seen or talked to Joe in years.

[265] Then Wheat leaned in a bit and asked Eric where he had been on the night of the murders.

[266] And Eric said he'd been in Lexington with friends.

[267] Wheat nodded, took a brief pause, and then looked Eric right in the eyes and asked him how he felt about inheriting $250 ,000 from Joe.

[268] and immediately a confused look came across Eric's face, and he asked what Wheat meant.

[269] And Wheat told him, police had learned that Joe left $250 ,000 to Eric through a life insurance policy.

[270] Eric stared at Wheat.

[271] Then he asked if Wheat was telling the truth.

[272] Had Joe really left him all that money?

[273] Wheat said yes, and Eric just looks stunned.

[274] He said he thought Joe had totally forgotten about him once he had his other two kids, and he was surprised Joe had left anything at all for him.

[275] Wheat would talk a little bit longer with Eric, and then afterwards, he would walk back outside to his car and head back to Columbia.

[276] And he wasn't going to cross Eric off his suspect list, but he did think Eric's reaction to hearing about the money was one of the most genuine responses of shock he'd ever seen.

[277] So as Wheat made the drive back to Columbia, he thought about other potential suspects, and one person in particular kept coming to mind, Meg's boyfriend, Randy.

[278] Randy had left that card game early, hours before the murders, and Wheat knew Meg had taken Randy to her parents' house before, so he might have seen the safe inside of their closet.

[279] Also, in recent weeks, Wheat had learned from some of Beth's friends that Beth didn't really like Randy.

[280] And now, Wheat thought that, you know, maybe Randy knew that Beth didn't like him, and maybe Randy had gotten mad about it.

[281] In late spring of 1993, a couple of months after the murders, Detective Wheat and other members of the investigative team led Randy through the basement of the Lexington Police Department and into a small interrogation room.

[282] Randy sat down at a table, and Wheat sat across from him.

[283] The interrogation room was bright and cramped like a lot of rooms of that kind, but something about it being in the basement made the room feel even more claustrophobic to Randy, and so he started fidgeting and moving back and forth in his chair right away.

[284] In Wheat's mind, Randy made perfect sense as a suspect, but Randy was still a young man in his early 20s, and Wheat wasn't going to essentially end a young man's life based on a hunch.

[285] So Wheat remained calm and clear when he spoke to Randy, and he gave Randy every chance to tell his side of things.

[286] Wheat started by asking Randy to talk him through the events of the night when he and Meg had gone to play cards with their friends, Bill and Regina.

[287] And Randy explained it a lot like Meg had.

[288] He said they had a good time, but he was feeling tired, so he had left early and gone back to his apartment.

[289] Then, Weed asked if anybody could vouch for him actually going home after he left the card game.

[290] And Randy began to shift in his seat a bit more.

[291] He squinted his eyes like he was trying to remember something.

[292] And then he said he was pretty sure he had called a friend from his apartment that night.

[293] We thought Randy looked nervous, but that wasn't uncommon in interrogations.

[294] Also, we knew some people could remember everything they had done months ago and others could barely remember what they had done the day before.

[295] So Randy not having a totally clear picture of what he did that night didn't mean he was guilty.

[296] But there was another angle Wheat wanted to play because he knew something else about Randy.

[297] So Wheat leaned forward and asked Randy what kind of guns Randy owned.

[298] And Randy sat back in his chair and a look of surprise came across his face, like he had not been expecting that question at all.

[299] But Randy recovered and then told Wheat he did own a handgun and that he just liked to go to the shooting range to practice with it.

[300] Wheat's face didn't change and his voice stayed totally calm and he asked Randy if he knew that Beth had not liked the fact that he was dating her daughter.

[301] And Randy looked confused again.

[302] He said Beth had been really nice to him when he met her at the house and that Meg hadn't said anything about her mom not liking him.

[303] Then Randy said he was trying to help and he understood that being at home by himself when the murders took place was not a great explanation but it really was the truth.

[304] Wheat and Randy would speak a bit longer, then Wheat told Randy he was free to go, but that he shouldn't leave town.

[305] And after Randy left, Wheat still believed there was a real possibility that Randy was the killer they were looking for.

[306] And so not long after talking to Randy, Wheat reached out to Meg and Randy's friends, Bill and Regina Meese, and they quickly volunteered to come talk to Wheat in the Lexington Police Station.

[307] Bill was a big presence.

[308] He was six foot tall and almost 250 pounds and he talked and smiled a lot.

[309] Regina was much quieter and she seemed nervous from the moment they arrived.

[310] But Weed assured her that police were just following up on a few leads and they only wanted some basic information.

[311] Bill and Regina told Wheat that they had been married for almost two years and they had a baby and Bill said he was going to community college to get more of an education and he said he'd met Randy and Meg at school and they had all quickly become friends.

[312] Then, Weed asked about the night of the card game and Bill told the same story that Meg and Randy had told, and so Wheat figured he wasn't going to get any new information.

[313] But when Wheat asked if they were sure Randy had gone home that night, Regina sat up and looked like she was about to say something, but then she cut herself off.

[314] Wheat got an excited look in his eyes and he leaned forward and said, Regina, do you have any more information you want to add?

[315] But Regina ultimately just sat back and shook her head and said, nope, there wasn't anything else she wanted to say.

[316] So ultimately, Wheat let Bill and Regina go, but Wheat was convinced Regina had wanted to tell him something and had just stopped herself.

[317] But when police followed up with Regina and Bill weeks later, the couple did not come forward with any more new information.

[318] Weeks after talking to Bill and Regina, investigators were desperate to find something that would break this case open, but it was like evidence of any kind had just dried up.

[319] The missing safe and the murder weapons still had not been found.

[320] Eric Wellnitz, Joe's third child, had several people corroborate the fact that he was in Lexington at the time of the murders.

[321] And even though Wheat still saw Randy as a primary suspect, there was nothing tying him directly to the scene of the crime.

[322] And so, a case that Kentucky State Police and everyone in Columbia hoped would be solved quickly went cold.

[323] The investigation would kind of limp forward, months would go by with no new leads and then months dragged out into years and almost everyone connected to the case just began to move on with their lives.

[324] Meg would go on to finish school and she and Randy would get married and then they would get divorced.

[325] Regina and Bill would have two more kids together and Detective Wheat would retire from law enforcement.

[326] But even as the Wellnitz murders faded from the spotlight, Officer Hancock, who had known the family, refused to let the case go.

[327] He said he owed it to Joe, Beth, and Dennis.

[328] to see their murders solved.

[329] And he found support from the new lead investigator who had been assigned to the case after Weed's retirement.

[330] And together, they did keep the case open and they kept searching for any new evidence that might lead them to the killer, but it was very slow going and every possible lead turned into a dead end.

[331] And after a while, the Wellnitz's friends and family pretty much gave up on ever -finding justice for the three people they had loved dearly.

[332] But fast forward to October of 2002, almost 10 years after the murder.

[333] Officer Hancock sat at his desk going over the facts of the Wellnitz case, like he had done regularly for almost a decade.

[334] He just wanted to see if their investigation had missed something.

[335] And this time, as he went over all the facts of the case, Hancock did find a new piece of information.

[336] And that information led investigators to interview someone they had not spoken to in years.

[337] And by the end of that interview, Kentucky State Police would finally learn who had killed the Wellniz family and how they had done it.

[338] Based on information from that interview in 2002, evidence found at the crime scene and interviews conducted throughout the investigation, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened on the morning someone murdered Joe, Beth, and Dennis, February 26, 1993.

[339] On that day, just before 4 a .m., the killer parked their car in the driveway in front of the Wellnott's house.

[340] Then the killer stepped out of the car, closed the door, and felt the cold wind whip across their face.

[341] The killer was wearing all black.

[342] The killer scanned the area and everything was quiet.

[343] And this is exactly why they had chosen the early morning to carry out this plan.

[344] They wanted to take out the family when everyone in town was asleep.

[345] The killer took a breath, drew a 9mm pistol from their waistband, walked up to the front door of the house and went inside.

[346] It was dark, but the killer had been to the house before, so they knew where they were going.

[347] And they walked down a hall towards the main bedroom on the first floor, but when the killer passed by the family room, they heard footsteps.

[348] Then they saw someone moving.

[349] It was Joe.

[350] And Joe had heard something himself, and so he called out, and the killer in response, raised their gun and fired.

[351] But the bullet went way off course.

[352] It did not hit Joe.

[353] It shot through the side door of the house, and it hit a wall of the clinic next door.

[354] Near the family room, Joe screamed and began rushing towards the sound of the gunfire, knowing there was an attacker in the house, but the killer was able to steady themselves and fire off multiple shots into Joe, dropping him right onto the ground.

[355] Joe had thrown the killer's plan off, but, acting on instinct, the killer just forgot about Joe and rushed down the hall towards the main bedroom.

[356] There, they threw open the door and stepped inside, and there was just enough light coming from the window for the killer to see Beth standing right there in front of them.

[357] The killer raised their gun, Beth screamed, but before she could move, the killer fired, and it hit Beth right in the chest.

[358] Beth staggered and blood covered her pajamas, and then the killer squeezed the trigger again and the bullet hit Beth in the forehead.

[359] Beth fell to the ground and died in a pool of blood.

[360] Once Beth was down, the killer turned and ran back down the hall and up the stairs to Dennis's room on the second floor.

[361] The killer opened Dennis's door and saw Dennis getting out of bed, so the killer shouted for Dennis to get on the ground.

[362] Dennis was so confused and scared and he didn't know what was happening, but he laid on the floor face down while the killer kept shouting.

[363] crowding at him.

[364] Then the killer reloaded their weapon, walked across the room, stood over Dennis, and shot him multiple times in the back.

[365] The killer waited to make sure Dennis was dead, and then afterward they ran downstairs to make sure Joe was dead, and then after that they ran back to the main bedroom where they checked to make sure Beth was dead.

[366] And then inside of that main bedroom where Beth was, the killer crossed the room to the closet.

[367] They opened the closet door and found the small fire safe in the corner.

[368] They grabbed the safe, which was lighter than they thought it would be, then they walked downstairs with it and headed outside.

[369] The killer got to their car, opened the back driver's side door, slid the safe into the back seat, shut the door, and then climbed into the driver's seat.

[370] Then the killer turned to the passenger seat and smiled.

[371] Then their accomplice, who was sitting in the passenger seat, smiled back, leaned across the seat, and gave the killer a kiss.

[372] Then the killer stripped out of their black clothes and the accomplice grabbed a trash bag from the floorboard and the killer tossed their clothes and the murder weapon into the trash bag then they started the car and the two drove away from the house and out of town once columbia was far behind them the killer pulled into the dark parking lot of a fast food restaurant they drove around to the back and stopped the car then the accomplice got out of the car walked to a dumpster and tossed the trash bag into it and then got back into the killer's car a little Later, the killer dropped off the accomplice at an apartment.

[373] But before the accomplice stepped out of the car, they kissed the killer again and told the killer not to wake up the baby when they got home.

[374] Then the accomplice smiled, stepped out of the car, and headed into the apartment.

[375] And as they walked towards the bathroom to take a shower, they passed by a photo of their mom, dad, and brother.

[376] And the accomplice told herself that at least she had not been the one to actually pull the trigger.

[377] Meg Wellnitz had arranged the murder of her parents and her brother, and she had gotten Bill Meese to carry out the actual killing.

[378] It would turn out that Bill and his wife Regina, the two that had hosted that card game for Meg and Randy, had an open marriage, and Bill had been in a sexual relationship with both Meg and her boyfriend Randy at the time of the murders.

[379] And when Meg would lie in bed with Bill, she would tell him that she needed to get rid of her family.

[380] Because unlike Joe's third son, Eric, Meg knew she would inherit hundreds of thousands of dollars and all of the properties and land her parents owned if her family died.

[381] And Meg wanted to be rich and independent.

[382] And she wanted to be free to have a relationship with Randy or Bill or both of them whenever she wanted and however she wanted.

[383] And she didn't believe her religious parents would ever approve of that kind of relationship.

[384] So Meg had told Bill that she would give him a cut of her inheritance and a cabin that stood on the land her family owned if he killed her family for her, and Bill agreed to do it.

[385] And so Meg had taken Bill to the house a week before the murders when her family was out, so he could see where the safe was in the closet, and also so he could get a clear layout of the floor plan.

[386] Then, after the murders, Bill had told his wife, Regina, everything, and she had remained silent for years.

[387] But in 2002, almost a decade after the murders, the new information that Officer Hancock had discovered was that Regina and Bill had gotten a divorce, and Hancock knew that Detective Wheat had always believed Regina knew more than she had been willing to say, and Hancock hoped maybe Bill had been the one keeping her quiet.

[388] So Hancock and other members of the state police interviewed the newly divorced Regina, and it turned out Hancock was right.

[389] With Bill out of her life, Regina was willing to tell them everything.

[390] Regina gave police a detailed account of Meg and Bill's murder plot, Then she said when she had moved away from Bill, she had kept the safe that Bill had stolen and held on to all those years, and she handed that safe over to the authorities.

[391] There was nothing of any value in the safe when the authorities opened it up, and so we have no idea if at some point there was lots of valuable things in here that were taken out of it after the murders, or if this safe was always empty, we just don't know.

[392] But, with this safe in their possession, and with all of the new evidence Regina had provided them, police were able to get Meg and Bill to confess to their roles in the murders.

[393] Bill Meese, who was in prison for another crime at the time of his murder trial, was given the death penalty.

[394] And as of the summer of 2023, he is still on death row.

[395] As for Meg Wellnitz, she was sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole in 25 years.

[396] But in 2014, Meg was found dead.

[397] dead in her prison cell from an apparent suicide.

[398] She was 39 years old, the same age her mother had been when Meg arranged Beth, Joe, and Dennis's murders.

[399] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

[400] If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, just called Mr. Ballin, where we have hundreds more stories just like this one, many of which are not available on this podcast.

[401] They are only on YouTube.

[402] Again, that channel is just called Mr. Ballin.

[403] So that's going to do it.

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[405] Until next day.

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[412] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[413] She had been under the influence that she left him there.

[414] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[415] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[416] What happens next?

[417] Depends on who you ask.

[418] Was it a crime of passion?

[419] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[420] This was clearly an intentional act.

[421] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[422] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[423] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[424] Everyone had an opinion.

[425] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[426] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[427] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[428] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[429] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.