April 30: Mother of two disappears the day she evicts her husband
Plus: murder victim's father points out Green River Killer, Navy vet murdered in house fire, and more.
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Today in True Crime
5 years ago: Two students died and four were injured when a gunman opened fire on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus. One of the deceased, 21-year-old Riley C. Howell, was considered a hero for tackling the gunman and pinning “him down until police officers arrived.”
10 years ago: A 36-year-old Kansas City man running naked through the streets and covered in blood was later found to have killed his girlfriend; in December 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison.
20 years ago: Jeremy Alex, 28, of Northport, Maine, went missing after a woman reported seeing him “running down a rural road” in distress. Alex is still missing to this day.
1983: Marie Malvar, a Green River Killer victim, disappears
There are two especially painful details about Marie Malvar’s disappearance that haunt her father.
The first is that her body wasn’t found for 20 years. The second was that her killer wasn’t found for 18 years—even though Mr. Malvar had already led police right to him.
Marie’s boyfriend watched the 17-year-old Marie—who was working as a sex worker at the time —get into a truck, argue with the man inside, and then speed away. When she never came home, her boyfriend and father went searching for that same truck, and found it—parked right in front of Gary Ridgway’s house, the as-yet-unknown Green River Killer.
If police had arrested Ridgway then, they would have prevented countless killings. Ridgway eventually confessed to killing forty-nine women, and is suspected in many more deaths. But back in 1983, police questioned him and felt that they didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him at the time.
It wasn’t until Ridgway’s arrest in 2001—and subsequent confession in 2003—that he admitted to killing Marie (and countless others), and led police to her body.
Dive Deeper
Short read: A father led police to Ridgway in 1983, Seattlepi.com
Long read: Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer—America's Deadliest Serial Murderer, Ann Rule
Listen: Green River Killer Part 1: Victims of Opportunity, Murder In The Rain
Watch: This Interview Strategy Led a Serial Killer to Confess, Smithsonian Channel
1997: Four members of the same family are killed in South Florida
The crime scene was staged to make it look like a drug-related killing. But the arrangement was amateur, and it didn’t fool anyone.
“I want my $100,000 drug money,” said a note scrawled on the wall. “They stole my drugs.” Detectives knew this wasn’t an impersonal drug killing. This was clearly a crime fueled by rage and emotion—a personal crime.
Three generations of women lay slaughtered in the home in Miramar, Florida: 29-year-old Marie Altidore, who lived there; her mother, 68-year-old Theresa Laverne, who’d just arrived from Haiti to help Altidore with her newborn; and Altidore’s two children: Samantha, 2, and newborn Sabrina. The adults had been beaten, stabbed, and shot. The children had been beaten to death.
Who was responsible for this horror? Was it the husband? It was a natural question. But George Altidor was “visibly distraught” after the murders were discovered, according to a local journalist, and has never been named as a suspect.
That said, according to the same journalist, Altidor was never cleared as a possible suspect. After the killings, he hid out at his sister’s house for a while. He lost weight and stopped going to his church. Is this the behavior of a grieving husband—or a guilty conscience? It could be interpreted either way.
The case is still unsolved. Police believe DNA might eventually solve the murders, but only time will tell.
Dive Deeper
Read: Family marks 25th anniversary of 4 unsolved murders in Miramar, WPLG
Listen: Jistis Bondye (Altidor Family), Anatomy of Murder
Watch: Haitian Immigrant Family Massacred at Home, Oxygen
2007: Mom of two vanishes after starting divorce process
On this day in 2007, Lisa Stebic, a mother of two living in Plainfield, Illinois, left home to work out and never came back.
At least, that’s what her estranged husband Craig said. Just that day, Lisa had received eviction papers to kick Craig out of their home in the early days of their pending divorce.
But instead of kicking Craig out, Lisa “vanished from the earth,” according to her husband.
There were other signs that all was not well at the Stebic home. Four months earlier, police had been called to their home because of a “domestic disturbance.” Police showed up, but no one was arrested.
After Lisa went missing, Craig refused to speak to police, but a controversial video was released that showed him hanging out at home with a local reporter who was there in a swimsuit. The video ignited a lot of controversy—and resulted in the reporter, Amy Jacobson, losing her job.
She claimed it had been edited to make it look like she and Craig were having an illicit relationship. Others interpreted it as unprofessionalism on Jacobson’s part or suspicious behavior on Craig’s.
As of today, Lisa is still considered a missing person.
Dive Deeper
Read: Family Of Lisa Stebic, Who's Been Missing For 10 Years, Still Without Answers, CBS News
Listen: The NAMUS-45: Lisa Michelle Stebic, True Crime Bullsh**
Watch: Mom Vanishes While Kids go to the 'Candy Store', HLN
2008: Navy vet discovered dead inside burned-down home
It was early in the morning when a scene of horror was discovered in Port Orchard, Washington: a burned house with a body inside.
The body belonged to Navy vet Linda Malcom, a 40-something who was looking for a job, planning a move, and who liked to drink a lot of red wine. She’d been stabbed 17 times before her house was burned down around her.
The case has been cold for years—but it’s warming up. It’s been taken over by American Military University’s cold case team, who has been producing a podcast about it as they investigate. Were there perhaps two murderers, the team asks?
The stabbing was “disorganized” while the arson was “very well planned,” according to former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent Jennifer Bucholtz.
She’s even speculated that the stabber could have been a man while the arsonist could have been a woman. And Malcolm may have known her killer, as there were no signs of forced entry to her house.
The team does have a DNA sample from the crime scene, though they report that testing is taking longer than expected. Still, they’ve been narrowing down a list of suspects, and feel confident that the case won’t be unsolved forever.
Dive Deeper
Read: Search for cold case killer heating up after 15 years, Kitsap Daily News
Listen: Break the Case, American Military University
Newspaper Throwback: 1939
On April 30, 1939, The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported on the disappearance of Earl Steele, a man from Maryville, Tennessee—about 15 miles south of Knoxville.
His whereabouts remained a mystery through most of 1939, but in October, a body found tied and bound in a nearby lake was identified by its false teeth as Steele. At least three individuals were questioned in the investigation, but in January 1940, one newspaper reported that there were no leads and the case had been dropped.
That same month, more bones identified as Steele’s were found in the lake; they had been weighed down by a large rock near where the rest of his remains were discovered.
From the Headlines
8 Officers Are Shot, 4 Fatally, While Serving Warrant in Charlotte, The New York Times
Livestream: Testimony continues in second day of Karen Read’s murder trial, Boston.com
Prosecutor in Delphi murders case wants Odinism testimony left out of trial, IndyStar
Photos of a 3-year friendship that ended with an unsolved murder in New Mexico, NPR
A Colorado woman was reported missing on Mother's Day 2020. Her death was just ruled a homicide, ABC News
‘Potential serial killer' arrested in murders of two Florida women: Sheriff, NBC 6 South Florida
Unsolved TN: Tabitha Tuders’ disappearance still a mystery 21 years later, WKRN
Accused Serial Killer Goes On Trial In Canada For Indigenous Murders, Barron's
Murder suspect accused of eating victim’s face near Las Vegas Strip, KLAS
What to Read & Stream
Crime Novels with a Sense of Place and Manners, CrimeReads
Book Review: Don’t Turn Around, by Harry Dolan, Criminal Element
Crack the Case: True-Crime Podcast Challenge Features £10,000 Prize, Cold Tapes
How do true crime podcasts impact public interest in criminal cases?, Fox News
True crime podcasts offer new possibilities for in-depth journalism. Just read the labels first, Courthouse News Service
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As always very informative! This is my go to source on True Crime.