MURDERED: The Feeney Family

Hi, crime junkies. I'm Ashley Flowers and I'm Britt and back by popular demand. We have Chuck in the studio today for our YouTube audience who apparently he's their favorite. Like, of course, it's a good thing he can't talk or we'd be at a job. But the story I have for you today is one that honestly has me twisted up in knots because like one minute it's like fetch me a pitch fork and like rally the troops this guy needs to be buried under the courthouse. And like the very next minute, I'm like, oh my God, maybe he's a victim too. And then I feel bad for ever thinking such a thing. So pitch forks or no pitch forks that will be for crime junkies to decide. This is the story of the Fini family. So when John Fini gets back to his room at Tantara Resort around 9 a.m. on the morning of Monday, February 27, 1995, he sees that he missed a call from the high school where he teaches science in Springfield, Missouri. Now, he's been up here at this Lake of the Ozarks Resort for a teacher's conference since Saturday. Wait, can we as millennials just real quick acknowledge that this is a teacher named Mr. Fini. Oh, my leg. I can't even swear I'll mark you. I honestly, I didn't think about that the whole time I was working on this story. It's all I can think about. I had to say something. Mr. Fini, not that Mr. Fini got it. Anyways, the school knows where he's at and why, so it's strange that they're calling. So immediate bad vibes that just get worse when he calls them back and finds out that they called because they had gotten a call that morning from a medical center where his wife Cheryl works as an RN. She's the team lead for the gynecological surgical division, which is like an important role, but she just hadn't shown up for work that day. So by the time John's on the phone, people had already called over to the kids babysitter, but they apparently never got dropped off there. And no matter how many times or who called the Fini house, no one has picked up there either. John is rattled by this because he hadn't talked to Cheryl since Saturday night. He had called a few times on Sunday, even left a couple of messages when he couldn't get through, mostly chalking that up to the craziness of taking care of their six-year-old son Tyler, their 18-month-old daughter Jennifer, but she's doing this on her own. But now he's not so sure that something isn't wrong. So he hangs up, calls the Green County Sheriff's Office, asking them to perform a welfare check. What John doesn't know is that he's not the only person raising the alarm. Around the same time that he calls, the Sheriff's Office is also feeling a call from a woman named Teresa, and she's calling from the Fini's house. Because she is a coworker of Cheryl's and she had volunteered to like swing by, check things out, and she says that when she approached the house, she noticed that it's so strange. The pain of glass in the door on like the front door had been painted over from the inside. Which is odd because Teresa and Cheryl are friends, like she's been there before, and that hasn't been like that. No, and even more concerning was the fact that the door was unlocked. So fearing something was wrong, she let herself in only to find that the house had been totally ransacked. But like in the weirdest way imaginable, so like example, on the first floor where she's at, the Fini's kitchen has this door that leads into the attached garage. Well, that door was like wide open, so she could see Cheryl's car in the garage. And the car hood was popped, and there was all this random stuff piled on top of it, including like a TV. So stuff doesn't just feel taken, like run of the mill burglary, it also feels moved. I mean, it's weird, like full body chills weird, so she's not going to snoop around. She knows that police are in route, so she's just going to like wait for them. Now season two of the podcast Ozark's True Crime is about this case. And Teresa actually tells journalists and Roderick Jones that it takes like 20 minutes for a solo cop to show up. Now FYI, some reporting indicates that John's mom got there around the same time, but it's a little bit confusing because Teresa doesn't mention her at all. But either way, Teresa gives the officer a quick rundown, and then follows him in pointing out all the alarming things that she had noticed before. Items that aren't where they should be, or are where they shouldn't be, drawers and cabinets that have been left wide open. I mean Cheryl's purse is on the kitchen table looking rifle through. And then in the living room, I didn't mention this, but there are shoe prints all over the carpet, seemingly like made from some kind of light colored liquid. So this cop, what he does is he pulls out his radio, he knows that he's going to need some backup, like this is as weird as she thinks it is. And Teresa kind of hangs back a little while this officer heads to the primary bedroom. And when he turns on the bedroom light, she asks him a question, but he is just like staring straight forward in stunned shock. Doesn't even hear her, so she has to repeat herself. She's dead, isn't she? And the best answer that this guy can muster is, look and see. Not his finest moment, no question, but part of me feels sorry for the guy because what he sees is horrific. There's a woman, presumably Cheryl, lying face down on the bed and her head and neck are just covered in wounds. Her face is aimed away from the door, kind of like almost hidden by her hair in a way that looks unnatural, maybe intentional, because Teresa she looks posed. And then it gets worse, because in the next bedroom is a little boy laying in the bed on his back with a pillow covering his face and blood visible around him. And then in the third bedroom, there is a toddler in a crib like curled up tight, her face buried in the mattress and a cord wrapped tight around her neck. So within minutes, the house is crawling with officers from the Sheriff's Office, considering the magnitude of this crime, a multi-agency task force called the South Central Missouri Major K-Squad Steps-In. But it's up to the Sheriff's Office to preserve the crime scene till they can get up to speed. And to do that, the Major K-Squad investigators converge at the Missouri State Highway Patrol outpost. And as they shuffle into the conference room, someone mentions that the victims are the family of a Springfield teacher. And there are well over 1,000 teachers in Springfield, okay, so like no one mentions any names, it could be any of those families. But in that instant, an investigator named Rita turns to the person next to her and almost casually says, "Wasn't John Fini's family, was it?" And needless to say, the question practically knocks the wind out of the other investigator who's like, "Well, yeah, actually he was." Yeah, that feels like weird. Like wouldn't even believe it if it was a movie on the nose weird. Why are they dropping his name immediately? Well, so Springfield may be the third largest city in Missouri, but it does have major small town vibes, like a six degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of thing. Apparently, Rita and John actually have a history, so they went to high school together, and then she took a chemistry night class that he taught at a local university, and that was like just the prior fall. So it's someone she knows when she goes and takes this class, it's not weird that they got to talking, things even non-chemistry related. And somehow, like a recent high-profile crime became the topic of conversation during one of these classes or after or whatever. And probably because it happened like mid semester, and Rita was working the investigation. You see, in September of '94, a 37-year-old woman named Lisa Revell was killed in her home south of Springfield. Now, investigators, Rita included quickly put Lisa's husband under the microscope as their prime suspect. Like, tail is old as time, right? Yeah. But Rita says that John was super interested in the investigation as it played out in real time. Maybe too interested, because Rita tells Anne on her podcast that one particular question stands out in her mind, especially in hindsight. John was obsessed with knowing one thing. What was the husband's big mistake? What fate don't misstep did he make that allowed police to zero in on him? What got him? Right, which is like, why do you ask, sir? But she gave him an answer. She said that he talked to police, and he shouldn't have. No potential suspect or person of interest or whatever, she said. Should ever talk to the police, because that is how many of them wind up in prison. So, that is what is at the back of her mind when she brings up the fiendies. And it probably stays on her mind after they get briefed and head to the fiendy house and walk this bizarre scene. And truly, I mean, bizarre. Like, on the surface, it's strange, but when you drill in close and look at the details of this thing, it gets really, really weird. Like, those shoe prints in the living room. What they find out is the liquid that those are in is beige paint. The prints themselves have dried, but they find a still wet puddle in the garage. Wait, like, the same paint used to maybe paint the glass on the front door? You know, I'm not sure that they ever. That's ever verified or reported on I couldn't find anything about that, but I think that's the working assumption But again, that's not even like the strange part These prints that they have they don't make sense because they don't fade like you would expect them to I mean like think about it if you walk through a puddle of pain like the first step should leave the clearest prints Right and then like the more steps you take the dryer it gets especially on carpet, right? Like they're gonna start to fade but the ones that they're seeing like they don't fade all of them are like equally saturated Like someone is painting the bottom of their shoes like every step or two, which just like why? Yeah, like that doesn't make sense for a crime if it happened this way And these are the the killers prints. Yeah, but the paint was used for something else too So investigators find a cryptic message painted on the wall of Cheryl and John's bedroom and it's painted in the same beige paint The message says in all caps bit die Now everyone seems to agree that two letters are missing from the end of that first word like B.I.T is what it says and they think that it's missing the C.H. So Die is what they think but maybe they ran out of paint because they use it all on their freaking shoes like My knee jerk reaction is no because here's the thing when you actually like see a photo of this I saw a glimpse of it in like coverage from like the trial like old old coverage Bit is written above the word die So in my mind, it's like the first word right. So like running out doesn't make sense Neither does the writer getting spooked mid-message like because then we shouldn't have the word die Right, I mean, it's possible that die was written first and then like maybe they had some paint left over I was like, oh, how can I add insult to injury here? Like oh, I'll like call her names too But but then they only got through the first three letters and I don't know why you still write it above the word die So none this doesn't make sense to me, but again so much of this crime scene defies Explanation so when I hear beige paint I'm gonna be honest. It's not like the flashiest color or you would expect like red or something Yeah, like would this even stand out on their walls like what color are there walls also a shade of beige like you can See the words, but they definitely blend and I don't even know if you can see them maybe because they're so wet or something I have a feeling I don't know this for a fact But like knowing that they were in the garage knowing we have that puddle in the garage that maybe it was like some kind of touch-up paint for the house That was like already there so again Potentially not even something that the killer brought with them We tried to verify all that by the way, but like our records request was denied by law enforcement Cool now I can spend the entire episode discussing the paint because there is this other weird part So the prints that are like saturated the whole way through they follow a pretty clear path So the house is one story but has a basement with its own entrance the prints start at that puddle in the garage They go through the living room lead to the primary bedroom and then they just stop like there's no return path And again, it's not like they fade away the ones in the bedroom are just as clear as the ones in the garage So whoever did this like took the shoes off in the bedroom maybe like so were they wearing them? Were they holding them on their hands and not wearing them because they're like just making this path However, they had these shoes what I do know is that they had to have taken those shoes with them when they left Because police don't find any shoes in the house that are covered in beige paint or that even match the size and tread patterns of these prints So I'm guessing that they like took them off or like stopped using them in the bedroom because again We never see the prints fading the way they should have we never see them going anywhere else It's like almost like this arrow beacon like it feels too simple like it's someone trying to say hey go from the garage to the bedroom But it's not a big house like people would have made it to the bedroom Well, I was gonna say maybe they ran out of paint with the wall art But the print should be there and be Faded like all the freaking alarm bells are going off in my brain. This is 1,000 percent stage It is and like no matter any way you cut it This is stage and the rest of the house is starting to give staged as well So everywhere investigators turn it is like torn apart, right? Like almost theatrically so think less real-life robbery and more like over-the-top Hollywood movie Even the cabinets under the kitchen are like open, which like why even open those there'd be nothing there to find but like cleaning supplies 100% especially because there were actually some things to find that seemingly weren't found like they weren't taken So for example like there was cash in a dresser drawer in the primary bedroom I mean not a ton like 40 bucks, but how are you literally like rifling through dish washing supplies with eating behind cold hard cash Robert Keys of the Springfield news leader speaks to a source who basically says that someone or someone's went to great lengths to make it look Like this was done by a group of criminals But it's like they tried so hard that it backfired Even what at first blush appears to be evidence of forced entry is a little sketch So the front door is fine. I mean minus the like painted window and the fact that it was unlocked But it's not like damaged or anything. It is actually the walkout basement door that looks like it's been kicked in Reporting at the time describes it as splintered and there is even a visible shoe print Not in paint that might have been too obvious but it's like kicked in But even as kicked in door is suss because when a door is forced open normally you find wood pulp on the screws from being Forcibly dislawed right they're being pulled out of the wood right, but Rita tells Anne that there was no pulp to be found Not a ton of damage to the door frame either Instead it is almost like the door had been ever so carefully unscrewed from the hinges And to do that it would have had to have already been open for that to work Yeah, and are you ready for the actual full body chills moment for story So this house is chaos, but there is one thing that makes even the most hardened homicide investigators shiver A family might have inhabited this home just a day or two earlier But you would never know it from the cold barren walls because every last family photo Every baby picture every school picture every wedding photo Has been taken down and turned inward hiding the smiling faces from sight. I'm sorry. What? Between this and all the victims faces either being covered or turned away That feels really intentional and like important like whoever did this didn't actually want to see their faces Who they were doing this too right? It's it's personal. Yeah, it feels like someone they know Which you can see why investigators are pretty eager to speak with John Now when he'd initially phone that welfare check in they didn't know yet what they had on their hands They basically just told him like hold please like not literally But they had to like sense them went out to the house check things out whatever So John was left to his own devices for the next few hours while the deputies made it to the scene Investigators tried to figure out what they were dealing with and John later tells investigators that in that time He was frantically calling and fielding calls from his and Cheryl's loved ones But the bottom really fell out he says at noon because that's when a friend of his this fellow science teacher showed up at his hotel door Looking like all kinds of shook and the guy said that like listen I'm not sure But I think I just saw your house on the news and this guy offered to stay with John while he waited for more information And before long the phone rang and it was John's father with the worst news possible Now when John heard that his family was gone He says he just fell to pieces and he later tells reporters with the Springfield news leader that he remembers reciting prayers And the teacher friend tells Anne Roderick Jones that John kept saying over and over again like this can't be this can't be And another friend who joined them in the hotel room had to remind him to just like Take deep breaths like breathe So once they find out the men immediately hit the road for Springfield And when they get to the local highway patrol outpost for John's first interview His mom meets him outside for this like tier-so-tug and then walks him in where investigators question him about his weekend Now they know he was out of town, but they only have the broad strokes. They need details So John says that Saturday this is the last day he was with his family It was uneventful. He didn't have to leave for the conference until later that day So he hung out with the kids in the morning while show like ran some errands They had lunch together when she got home and then he did yard work before hitting the road in his red Mustang convertible Now when he got to town He says that he and a fellow teacher that he sees at these conferences a lot named Pam grabbed dinner together Just somewhere within like driving distance of the resort dinner was dinner nothing wild And after they were going to go to this like pre-conference party at the resort, but on the way back he got into a little trouble As 30-something men who drive red Mustang convertibles are want to do Seems that John had a little bit of a lead foot because he and Pam got pulled over and he got a ticket Now because of weird laws that I'd actually never heard of before the patrol officer actually confiscated his driver's license Like the physical thing and apparently it's something that they can do with drivers who live more than 50 miles away So like point being you don't get your license back until you've paid your fine So by the time they're done with this cop John John says he's got a headache, plus he's got to deal with this whole ticket thing now, so like no party for him. He parts ways with Pam, he heads back to his hotel room, and when he got there he called Cheryl, which he says was their routine. He'll call home like the first day he gets anywhere to confirm that he's arrived safely, just like chats he had the day was. And she even picked up, they spoke, "normal conversation." That would be the last time he gets her on the phone. When they hung up, he left the resort again, he headed to the Osage Beach Police Department to pay for the ticket, and according to the police he was there around 10-30 pm or so. So he forks over the money, gets his license back, and then he went back for good this time to go to bed at his hotel room. And he says he was in his room all night, slept there, didn't leave until late Sunday morning when he played golf with some colleagues sometime before noon. After that, there was a conference session followed by lunch, another session at 4, John actually led that one, he called home around 5 just to check in, no one answered. Again, hadn't worried him too much at the time, Cheryl was so low-managing two kids, one of them was sick by the way, so like extra-hands full. And John went to a conference social event Sunday night, and then worked with some colleagues on a presentation that they were giving Monday morning. He tried to reach Cheryl again, around 11 pm Sunday, again no answer, also very late, new Cheryl had work early the next morning, everyone was probably in bed, and then Monday rolled around, and before he knew it, he was getting a call from his school. So investigators like know his timeline now, and they kind of shift their questioning, and they ask about his and Cheryl's marriage, how it started, how is it now, like that kind of thing. So they met in 1978 at a trauma center, Cheryl was in nursing school, and worked there as a receptionist, and John worked there as an attendant on the weekends, and according to John, they kind of made eyes at each other for a while, but their romance really began when Cheryl asked him to dance at a coworker's party. And for John, this was a big deal, like the dancing part, because his dad was a preacher in the Church of Christ, which had a strict no dancing policy in those days. I mean, I've seen furloughs. Right, so, you know, feeling a little rebellious, John said yes, and the rest was history. They married in 1981, they had Tyler in 1988. In 1990, they bought their house, and according to the Springfield News Leader, John was named Missouri's best science teacher of the year, and at the same time, Cheryl was working her way up the ladder at the medical center, and then Jennifer came in 1993. When tells investigators their marriage was strong, there was no infidelity, like on either person's part, and he's adamant about that. And that's kind of what they all say, though, right? Like, what about money problems? None of those, either. Like, they are one of those rare couples that had been financially responsible from the start. I mean, they built themselves a nice little nest egg. They don't have much debt. Like, you know, on paper, they've done everything right, and John can't think of a single person who would want to hurt his family. Like, this just makes no sense. There's no motive. And for what it's worth, John appears to be completely shocked and grief-stricken. Like, if he is putting on an act right now, it is Oscar worthy. But as the husband, he is still firmly at the top of their list of persons of interest, even as they let him go. I mean, we're still day one here, but a lot can happen in one day, like the autopsies, for example. And the findings are awful, they're also revealing. While baby Jennifer died from strangulation with a cord from the blinds in her bedroom, Cheryl and Tyler both died as a result of blunt force trauma to their heads. Is it just me or is it odd that the baby's cause of death is different? Yeah, I don't know, because like, in my mind, I feel like the way she died was worse. Like the medical examiner notes that the way she was strangled would have taken minutes. And she likely suffered. I'd say it's like a longer process. Like who picks the worst way for a baby to go? Like what kind of evil do you have to be? Most people, I mean, how many cases have we seen where like the youngest one who won't recognize anyone is left alone, you know what I mean? Now the medical examiner also confirms that all three were attacked in their sleep, like blitz style. But to me is all the more reason to think that the door wasn't kicked in. I mean, you'd think that Cheryl would have heard that her husband's out of town, you know, like she might be feeling super aware, waking at every little sound, little on the sound of her door being kicked in. Right. And like again, I said this before, but this isn't a big house. You just have the main story and the basement. Right. I mean, the thing I don't know is like how hard of a sleeper she was. I like, I've got my like ear plugs in my eye mask on. I don't know that I would wake up. But to your point, like, maybe she was more alert because she was alone. I don't know. But it does seem like she was asleep when someone came at her. Cheryl was struck in the head ten times with what Ron Davis describes as some kind of metal pipe or a rod that would have been like a half inch in diameter. And Tyler was struck seven times with the same object, including three blows to the head. Whatever they had been bludgeoned with, there was no sign of that at the scene. And according to Rita, that doesn't mean that there weren't any weapons found there. Because I guess Cheryl had superficial puncture wounds to her face and a knife was found near her body. Now, the medical examiner determines that the murders took place in the overnight hours from Saturday into Sunday, although there are signs that the killer may be tried to confuse things because I guess Cheryl and John, you know, there is nothing more 90s than a water bed. But they had a water bed that where the heat had been turned all the way up to the highest possible temperature, which caused her body to decompose even faster than it would have otherwise. And I realized this was, like you said, the 90s, basic friends, eggs were probably a little less common knowledge back then. But this guy's a science teacher, like he might have had like a little deeper knowledge on all that stuff than a normal layperson. But what's confusing is the kids weren't messed with. So like, yeah. Well, I try to throw things off with the water bed with her. That's what I'm saying. Like everyone talks about this water bed as being something that like, oh, the killer was trying to like, like, speed up Decom. And I'm like, yeah, but just for Cheryl, like it wouldn't, it doesn't change anything about like the, the Decom for the kids. I mean, again, if you're trying to confuse the scene, which everything in this, this house feels confusing. If you are trying to make it appear as though she died before the kids, I don't know what that would mean. Again, like, I'm just, I'm just spiraling. Or you just have the other option that it just got turned on, it means nothing. And it's just this additional weird thing in a lot of your things. Yeah. There are some other like small things that they find. So when they process the crime scene, they actually take samples of what looks like semen on the comforter of the couple's water bed. Although reporting never mentions evidence that Cheryl was sexually assaulted. And we know that she was found in her night gown. They also collect a hair from Cheryl's night gown that they can tell was recently died reddish brown, as well as a couple of gray hairs from the garage, one of which was on the paintbrush used by the killer. And for what it's worth, John and Cheryl both have brown hair. Tyler was more of like a dark blonde. I haven't seen any pictures that showed Jennifer's hair color. Where it was, none of the family matched these hairs that are found. And as far as I can tell, there's never any mention of other biologics or hairs or anything being found in any of the kids bedrooms. But that's not to say that there aren't other clues. One clue they find is just disguised a little. You see, A. Scharnhorst reports for the Kansas City star that during Tyler's autopsy, the medical examiner finds that he had liver damage, which doesn't make sense in a healthy six-year-old kid. Like, the Emmy doesn't know what it means yet. Won't know what it means for a while because he has to order some additional tests that are going to take time. But it's just like this thing that everyone's like, we've got another weird thing. Right. And while they wait, over the next few days, investigators interview John's friends, family, co-workers. And basically, the consensus is like, there is no way that John did this. He would just never do something so heinous. Ron and Cheryl were happy, John's a good guy, friends and colleagues from the conference say that he was his usual self all weekend long. Like, heck, the guy teed up for a casual round of golf within hours of the murders and not a hint of stress or distress or distraction or even a bad mood was anywhere to be found on him. Though, two investigators, that doesn't mean a whole lot. I mean, I've told you about the scene. You've got to be a special kind of inhumane monster to do what this killer did. Whoever did this would probably act fine after. So if they're gonna rule John out, it's got to be using cold hard facts, not feelings about how he acted. Osage Beach Police Department confirms for investigators that John was there paying the ticket, getting his license back at 1030 Saturday night. So that part of his story checks out. But when they process John's car, they discover the first crack in his story. No incriminating forensics or anything like that. Like in his car, they don't find any traces of blood, there's no weapons, there's no bloody clothing, there is no beige paint, there is no beige paint to be found, no shoes matching the prints from the scene either, which actually speaking of the shoes, investigators had determined that those were men's size 11, but at least one source reports that John wears a men's size 12. it's worth. And depending on the story in the cut, I'm like seven different pant sizes. I feel like he could probably have squeezed his feet and his size 11 shoes. He also could have like not even been wearing shoes and just like right look, we keep going back to this May the Prince. Anyways, back to the car. So nothing tying him to the crime scene physically. But what they find is something interesting. So there is a receipt from a McDonald's near the resort timestamped at 6.59 am on Sunday. But John's story was that he didn't even leave the hotel until late that morning to go golfing. Yeah, and that my McDonald's never played a leading role in his story. So when they bring him back in and question him about this, all he can say is like, oh my god, I totally forgot that I left to get breakfast that morning, like just slip my mind. If this was like months, even weeks ago, I'd be like, okay, little mix up. But we're not asking about a month ago, John, we're literally talking like 24 hours ago. I know, I think about serial, when like the way serial season one starts where it's like, where was the teenager six weeks ago? Like it's John, like where were you this like yesterday? Yesterday. Yeah, I know. So we've got this timeline now. And in this timeline, he is unaccounted for for maybe eight and a half hours. Although unaccounted for maybe isn't the right phrase because I mean, per his story, he's sleeping in his hotel room by himself like he should have been. But we know that the round trip home and back would have taken right around three hours, give or take, like it's 90 minutes each way. Okay. Which would leave him a minimum of five to five and a half hours to theoretically wipe out his family, do some careful staging and then get breakfast. Was it all truly staging though? I mean, the photos being turned around feel like a very real part of that part of you all, right? And it would take time to do, but it more makes me think it was someone like you said who knew the family who couldn't bear to look at all these photos. Like it's it's the only real thing that feels super personal. And maybe it is the only real thing. Like and especially when you think about the fact that Cheryl and Tyler's faces were covered and like Jennifer is like curled up in a ball face down, all of this to me says that it's someone who was familiar with them, someone who felt some sort of way after they did what they did during. Yeah, and like couldn't bear to look at the faces of the people that they killed. But the question is, was that someone? John, because even though the McDonald's receipt is definitely sketch, like the fact that he left it out and it looks really bad for him, there was something else in the car that actually plays in his favor. John was known to keep a written travel log in his car where he records all of his mileage. I don't know why, I don't know if the school districts like Reimburses for travel or what or like I've truly also my friends dad does this for like no reason other than his own records for fun. Cool. Yeah, so he's got this like detailed log and when investigators compare the mileage on the car to the travel log, it matches perfectly for him not making the extra drive home and back like there's no unaccounted four miles for an extra trip home to kill your family. Per the log, there were just enough miles for him to have gone on the trip, but not to have made another trip home and back. Listen, I am admittedly not a math girl, but how hard would that be to fake though, especially if this was like planned well in advance, just pad your mileage log here and therefore days, weeks, so when I'll come down to it, those extra miles in your murder of your family road trip are already quote unquote accounted for, totally possible. But I mean when you look at everything as a whole, we have no physical evidence, you have a matching mileage log no matter how you got there, so please don't have a lot to work with if they think that John's their guy. Now for the first week following the murders, John and Cheryl's family present a really united front. They even go to the funeral home to pick out caskets together for the funeral, which is held the following Friday, but then the united front becomes a little less so. And it's because of what happens when John sits for another interview, which will turn out to be his last interview. This is on Saturday the day after the funeral and almost a week after the murders. By now, his family has caught on that investigators are looking at him closely, which like, yes, we said he's the husband. So they hire him, this hot shot local defense lawyer to represent him, like, mid interview quite literally, which life rule number nine always get a lawyer, for sure. So this attorney high tails it to the station and is like, knock knock knock, you're talking to my client there, like I need to speak with him, but investigators are like, sorry sir, I can't let you in on account of John hasn't personally invoked his rights. So the lawyer asks them to pass along a message to his clients, which I can truly only imagine is just, do not talk, shut the hell up, shut up. Yeah, whatever it is, the investigators decline that request too. So the interview continues. At some point, they ask him to take a polygraph, but he says, no, thank you. And they don't have anything to hold him on. So after a couple of hours, John Skidattles, and from that point forward, he declines further interview requests at the advice of his new lawyer. So is the hiring a lawyer or not taking a polygraph? What causes a riff between the families? The polygraph is what plants the first seeds of doubt with Cheryl's family. And I mean, investigators don't like it either. They tell the press that it'll be really hard to rule him out until he agrees to sit for one. John's lawyer points out that like, listen, he's been super cooperative. He has turned over whatever financial documents they've asked for. He's given them samples of his blood, his hair. He let them hold onto his car. And he points out that the polygraphs are BS. Right. Also, investigators wanted him to take the test with their polygrapher, like not even like a third party or someone they pick. So like double no. Yeah. But in the end, like, there's nothing investigators can do to like make him take it, right? And so the show or the investigation must go on. Consistent with what John told them about Saturday night, which the Osage Beach PD mostly already confirmed anyway. Investigators are able to get footage from John's traffic stop. And this is what you're exactly? 95. I was surprised. Yeah. And if we have footage of this traffic stop, do we have like other footage, the hotels, businesses? I guess none that makes a difference. None that John ends up being on. Like, there's footage from a few gas stations where they like, their may or may not have been sightings of him, although like none that really pan out. To me, it's like the hotel footage that I spiral on. I'm like, in this entire resort, there's nothing showing like what's his car there? Did he leave like even like an entrance exit camera? I know. I know. Like if he did or did not leave. But like nobody talks about that. The police said they looked for footage, got footage. But like, I'm like dying to know specifically about the hotel. And I've never seen anything about that. So the only relevant footage is from the traffic stop, which doesn't clear John by any means. But it puts him by the resort just like he said. So maybe they've got this all wrong. Maybe Rita was reading too much into his interest in the other case. And like, it never crosses mine since he's just a grieving husband. Except, there's something in the one piece of footage they have that catches her eye. Rita swears that she has seen the belt that John is wearing in that footage before. Specifically, she thinks she's seen that belt at the crime scene. See, when the scene was processed, investigators had found a belt just like the one in the video rolled up on the counter in the house, which is like weird not a place for a belt, whatever. But again, what about the scene isn't weird, right? And at the time, they didn't know like what to make of that without context. Also like I leave like my shoes on the counter. So like, yeah, whatever. But now seeing this Rita starts to think, what if John came in undressed completely so that you wouldn't get blood on you rolled up his belt for like some unknown reason, whatever took out his family. And then like when he got redressed left the belt behind, which like you said, might explain why there wasn't any blood on John's clothes or in his car or anywhere on it. Yeah, it might and like what's extra interesting is that as far as like anything that's been reported we've seen, like no belt was found in John's room at the resort. But it's on the footage of his traffic stop. I can't where the belt go. Right. So Rita can't shake this feeling, right? Like just when you're about to say like, was it wrong? Like, am I reading into things? Like you get these like little things. And what really seals the deal for her is this next thing. So John is posted up in a hotel room near Springfield while his house is sealed off as a crime scene. And there's this time or this point in time when investigators Rita included show up with a search warrant. And she talks about this on the Ozarks podcast that, you know, when they show up, John's a good sport about this, like not that he has a choice. And while investigators are doing their thing, one of them is like, man, John, like I really wish that you would talk to us some more. And Rita says at this point, this like smug smile takes over John's face and he looks her dead in the eye and says quote, well, you know, I once had a very wise person. Tell me that the best way to stay out of prison is to never talk to the police. I can't say he's wrong. Again, always a lawyer, but yeah, in that moment, Rita says any doubt that she had about his guilt just evaporates. And she is hit with the realization that John may well have applauding to kill his family even back when she was in his night class and he had all those questions about the case that she was investigating. But you don't have to be a crime junkie to know that you can't arrest a guy based on a snarky comment. And whatever they were looking for when they issued that search warrant, it doesn't seem like they find it because John is still a free man. Who does something that again turns a lot of heads when they finally do end up releasing his house back to him? John just like moves back in. What? Yeah. And like so many people have issue with this because they're like, this is where your entire family in all three bedrooms, like your family was taken out. There's signs of this everywhere. And sure it gets cleaned up or whatever. But like, you know, he said that that's just where he had the memories of his family. It's like where he remembers the good times. And that's what he's choosing to remember. I don't think I could. I don't. I couldn't do it. Yeah. I couldn't sleep at night there. But like also, could you sleep at night if you were the one who did it? I mean, again, you had to be a true monster too. I don't know. It's just like, it's something that everyone takes issue with. But he says, the other thing I'll say is like, again, they weren't like in debt or anything. But like, I don't know their financial situation. I don't know if he could. Of course. If he could have. Yeah. Just getting another house or like living in a hotel, like, that's not a financial option for like most of the world. Right. So there's that. But while he moves back in and everyone's looking at him, like investigators are losing it because they feel like the truth is right in front of them, they just can't prove it. Again, they still don't even have a motive. They can't go to a jury with no what and how and no why. But sometime in March, investigators receive a bombshell report involving those additional tests that the medical examiner ordered on Tyler. And they think that this is the thing that is finally going to give them a why. The cause of Tyler's liver damage was hepatitis B. What? That is not at all what I was expecting. I know. It isn't happy, usually transmitted through like sexual activity or IV drug use. Like, it's kind of rare to see it in a kid, right? It's it's very unusual to see in a kid, but it's not unheard of. So there are other ways for children to contract it like it can be passed from mother to child. It's also spread through bodily fluids, which means in theory, he could have picked it up at school or something like that. But it is unlikely. So this is when investigators start to form a theory. What if John had been sexually abusing his son and Cheryl found out and threatened to turn him in? Maybe this would be enough to make him do something desperate. So the next step, obviously, is to test both John and Cheryl for the disease. And they're like fully expecting John's results to come back positive, but they don't. And neither do Cheryl's. Neither of them has ever had hepatitis B. Okay, so what does that even mean? Like was someone else abusing Tyler? Maybe? Probably. I mean, they don't know. All they do know is that Tyler's infection didn't come from either of his parents. And listen, police were right. This would be a strong motive to kill the family, but it's a motive that now points to it being someone other than John. Yeah. And as they get more test results from other stuff back, more and more continues to point away from John. So while the hairs found on Cheryl's nightgown and the garage and paintbrush don't yield a full DNA profile, the lab is able to confirm that they are not consistent with John or Cheryl's hair. More than just like color, like genetically. And when you say hair, like what are we talking about? Like strands, a clump, like what are we dealing with here? You can count them on one hand. Like the reddish brown hair, there was like, I think there's one of them on the nightgown. There was like a few of the gray ones, so barely any. Okay. Now they do end up getting a hit with the semen on the bed spread that belongs to John. But like, it's his bed. His semen, his bed, yet certainly doesn't prove anything. Investigators though would tell you context is everything, because investigators say that they end up learning Cheryl had a habit of washing the comforter on Saturdays. So if she was killed Saturday night, they alleged that this puts him in the house when he says he wasn't. Does it though? If he was home Saturday, and all of this could have happened after she washed the comforter, but before he left, like that doesn't, it doesn't feel definitive to me. It's well, um, then being like intimate or or anything, like that's never part of his story. And do we know for sure she even washed the comforter that week though? Like she's running errands, she has a sick kid, her husband's going out of town for a conference, like I could see that being something that doesn't happen this week. No, I agree. And we don't know. There's nobody that I've seen that's been able to confirm, like she for sure washed it that day. No. And like another thing I'm having trouble wrapping my head around is the motive. Like does one actually exist? I know. Murdering your wife and kids like doesn't feel like a sexually motivated crime. So like where does that play into like, right? This theory. In it's straight, I mean, again, they they've never said that she was sexually assaulted. I don't think she was. So it's more that like they're just saying like his semen is there. It shouldn't be there based on his story. So it puts him there. Case closed, even though like, again, if they want to say context is everything like, okay, what's the context of it being there? Like it does not make sense. But I think the details matter less because they think they've got their guy. And you know, this gets like, I think this feeling gets bolstered a little bit when investigators start realizing that John Fini, the teacher, dad, husband, may be more of a mask than an identity because he is a man with a lot of needs surrounding sex and female attention almost like to a compulsive degree and not always within his marriage. It turns out here we go. Yes. Okay. I thought it was weird that he was driving around going dinner with another woman solo while he's out of town and his wife and kids are back at home. Dude. I was like, I don't know. Maybe it's me. I know. No, that's kind of weird, right? I thought so too. And I was like, yes. Yeah. I thought so too. Actually, believe it or not, though, Pam tells investigators like that dinner thing wasn't a date. And like, again, remember this whole time, John has been adamant to investigators that he was faithful to Cheryl, which of course is a big fat lie because date or no date this time, like this night, it turns out Pam and John definitely had an affair. Like, she eventually admits to that, but she said it was very brief. Happened like three or four times. They ended things the prior November. And when they were doing this, like, there are rendezvouses were always at, you guessed it, teacher's conferences. And interestingly, Pam makes sure to clarify that it hadn't even involved sex sex, just what she calls like intimate relations, which like, I don't know, it sounds the same to me. Like, it's not like when like super conservative people are like, well, it didn't go in there. And I'm like, my friend's like, a hole is a hole. Like, Jesus made our bodies a hole is a hole. Yeah, that's how I get truly, truly. Anyways, so it's not just Pam that they find. Another one of the affairs that they find out about was with this woman who claims that John used quote unquote mind control on her, which is like, what? Your guess is as good as mine. I don't know if she means literally figuratively or what? Like, there's no one else who's saying that John like does witchcraft or anything wild like that. Like, so I don't know. But she goes into detail about some of their encounters, including an especially racy one that took place on a boat involving John and her and two other men. And this was also at a teacher's conference? No, no, no, no. So it seems like teacher's conferences are his like hunting grounds. But what happens at teacher's conferences does not always stay at teachers conferences. So he takes that stuff right on home with him and like continues to act in some pretty objectionable ways. See, it turns out that John who was put on administrative leave after the murders has always tried really, really hard to seem cool to his students. No, no way. No, no, no, no. Some of it was in the category of like gross but seemingly innocuous. Chris Bentley and Robert Keys report in the Springfield news leader that I guess he had a thing for Cindy Crawford and he like made a point to joke around about it in class, especially with like the other male students, which like I know he said seemingly innocuous, but like this is not good. Red flag to anyone whose teachers is like having conversations with them like this. Like a teacher should never be talking about who they have a thing for like it is completely and totally inappropriate type of conversation for an adult and a minor to have, especially for an adult teacher and their minor students. Like these are the little things that you do have to watch out for like the boundary testers. Like if you write off the little ones, it makes room for more and more. Like, oh, you're not just like teacher and student your friends. Like he gets you. So maybe it wasn't weird. It was just cool to the kids when there's this time when he buys them alcohol, which is a tip that does come in about him. Like I guess he was at a bar in some students were there like who he would clearly know were underage like other students. Yeah. And he bought them some drinks. And when this came out, John actually tried to sue the investigators to get them to stop sharing further information to the press, but like all of it ends up getting dropped. And then there are other former students who had weird experiences with John that they with the benefit of hindsight feel like we're John's attempts to put them inappropriate situations, like to hang out socially, maybe even one-on-one, that kind of thing. Which takes me back to my point about, like, boundary testing, what you'd call grooming. John was, for sure, testing his boundaries there. But there are no reports of him coming onto or doing anything physical with a student, technically. So there is one super-disturbing story from a former student, and she actually tells Anne Rodger Jones about this in the podcast. So, apparently, there was this post-graduation camping trip that John went on with some recent grads. Like, ostensibly, I would assume he's there as a chaperone. Otherwise, I don't know why he would be there. But he apparently saw this as a prime opportunity to cozy up to one of the girls. And according to the former student, they eventually slept together. Now to be clear, everyone involved was 18 at the time, like, this is after graduation. But she was a former student. Barely former. Yeah, and it is wildly inappropriate and manipulative and abusive power dynamics, like all the things. Yeah. So, all of that to say, if there is a motive, please believe it's John's philandering. Did Cheryl know? Not know? We don't know, but whether she did or not, they think John just wanted to wipe the slate clean, start over, minus the wife and kids, and plus a cool quarter of a million. Because guess what? They find out that John took out an additional life insurance policy on Cheryl for $250,000 just months before the murders, which, like, well, of course, he did. Right. They always do. And though handwriting experts believe Cheryl filled out one part of the application, they're pretty sure that the final signature is not hers. They can't prove it's John's either, but probably not Cheryl's. So, like, that's not that's confusing. Like everything. Now, it's important to note, there was some sort of promotion thing going on that the insurance company was doing for teachers in the area at the time when Cheryl's life insurance was up. And we know this because the podcaster Anne Roddrick Jones, she says her own aunt was a teacher in the area around this time, and she remembers it. So maybe that's the reason that the coverage got up at that time. Like, a lot of teachers were doing the same thing. But all of this just has been even more upside down on what to think about this one. There is like a lot of not great stuff here. But like, nothing is flashing lights guilty to me. On the other hand, nothing is like totally innocent. I know. Either I truly don't know where I stand. It's all circumstantial, right? Which is why it is a huge deal when months into the investigation, investigators find a witness or maybe settle on a witness. It's this gas station worker from near Springfield who says that he remembers John stopping to get gas in the wee hours of that Sunday morning after the murders. And this guy's actually been on investigators radar for a while. But his original stories to police weren't super helpful timing-wise because they placed John in Springfield at a time that he couldn't have been there, which investigators knew because of the McDonald's receipt that they found in his car. But then the workers time changed by like a good three or four hours. And like presto-changer, we've got ourselves an eyewitness who's going to be like the star of the show. Cool. Cool. So he's kind of useless. A halfway decent defense attorney will rip his story to shreds. They're willing to take the chance because in January of 1996, they put this case before a grand jury. Which John pleaded the fifth before FYI. By April, the grand jury has returned three indictments for first-degree murder. So while there might be some holes to fill in their story and their theory and their case, clearly, these grand jurors see what the police see. And the police are thinking that they're going to have time to like shore things up before the trial. They'll like, you know, just take their time, push it out, maybe even years. Problem is, we have this little thing called a right to a speedy trial. And John's lawyers take full advantage. You want to charge him? Let's go and let's go now. So all of a sudden, the prosecution finds itself scrambling. And it sure doesn't help that the one eyewitness they have doesn't just have a questionable story that's going to leave the jury wondering, you know, was it right the first time or the second time? The defense is not playing those games. They get their hands on the gas station attendance time cards. And guess who wasn't even working the night that this went down? So his story is completely useless. Yeah, it's not real. They cannot use him. So when they go to trial in September of 1996, it is without their key witness. Because they don't have one. Nope. And that's just the beginning of the unraveling. Over time, they had found a few friends of Cheryl's who were prepared to testify that she had confided in them about wanting a divorce. Even said maybe she was scared of John. But they end up being prohibited from testifying based on case law that get this actually stemmed from that case that Rita was investigating while she was in like John's night class. So the husband in that case was convicted. But actually like big twist, not long before John's trial, his conviction was vacated based on hearsay violations. He later got retried and acquitted by the way. But the judge in John's case decides that this decision, the one about the hearsay violations, prevents him from allowing Cheryl's friends from testifying to things that she said about their marriage. And Cheryl possibly wanting a divorce is a big deal. Remember, John's dad is a minister in the ultra conservative church of Christ, which at the time is like, oh, the shame about divorce. So if Cheryl divorced him, the thinking goes, it could have been super embarrassing to his family. And like, it sounds wild. But we have seen this play out before. Like, oh, divorce is awful. So let me just like go with the lesser crime of murder in the eyes of God. Right. Like obviously sarcasm. But like, that's their argument. He wanted out. He wanted to be free. But like, divorce was not an option. The thing is, this is what the defense argues is like, John was already free. He was out sowing his wild oats. He was living his best life. But this thing actually still goes to trial. And this did he didn't he think plays out in court. Now up to a point I could see jurors leaning in either direction. But where the prosecution starts to lose them, I suspect, is when they bring up vampires. I'm sorry, actually, you have not brought up vampires. I know. Why would the prosecutors? Why so? Okay. Investigators had apparently learned that John maybe sometimes plays a role playing game called vampires of the masquerade. And I say maybe sometimes, by the way, because some of the reporting just says he knows about the game through his students. So it's like, not even 100% that he plays this game at all. Either way, think like, we talked about Dungeons & Dragons before, right? Like, it's that with vampires. Okay. Per the prosecution, when John, a man with no history of violence, set out with the unenviable task of decimating his entire family, he just pretended he was a vampire and was killing them in his game. And I would love to say that I'm oversimplifying this, but I'm really not. Like, that's what they put forward. And I'm thinking all of this is happening while the US is still like peak, satanic panic era. Yeah. So they're like, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what they thought that they were going to gain by this or whatever, but like, I think that they're, it's why we've seen the Dungeons & Dragons thing play out before, right? Right. It's just like a game that's like a little weird. Like, and like, if people don't understand it, they're afraid of it. Sure. Yeah. So again, he's acting as a vampire. This is the prosecution story. Cool. Meanwhile, the defense argues a much more believable theory than that one that someone had been abusing Tyler had suddenly decided that they didn't want to risk anyone finding out. And in support of this theory, they point to the hairs that don't belong to Cheryl or John found on Cheryl and on a paintbrush used by presumably the killer. Yeah. And it's very freaking possible that there might have been more physical evidence pointing to an outside intruder that just wasn't collected. So come to find out some super important crime scene surfaces. Like, I mean, we're talking Tyler's headboard, Jennifer's crib for instance. Like, those were never dusted for prints. So like, the lowest of the low hanging fruit that investigators just totally dismissed, like botched. And again, let's go to how did he contract hep B and Roger Jones notes in her podcast that the official who tracks infectious disease cases for the county was given like a list of 155 names of people who had potential contact with Tyler. And when they compared that to the people being tracked, like, none of those names were on the list. But does that mean it's someone they didn't know had contact with him or someone who wasn't being tracked? Like, there's still like a whole, I mean, potentially in that either. It's very likely that it's the second because hep B isn't something routinely tested for without a specific reason. But this is what's wild to me. Like, they do this like comparison with the list. And as far as I can tell, that's about where the efforts to figure out how he got hep B like stopped. So it's not like they went back and started testing people who had contact with Tyler. It's like the second they found out it wasn't John. They're just like, oh, well, that. That doesn't fit our theory, so let's not investigate further. We don't need to find out how he got it, no longer relevant. So when the jury goes to deliberate on October 5th, 1996, they are sent to do so with no forensics, no witnesses, no murder weapon, no nothing. Other than vampires and a bad husband with an arguably predatory past, and like this bad investigation to look at, so everyone is on pins and needles until the jurors come back less than five hours later with their verdict. Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. Which to be clear, is not a vote of confidence in the innocence of John Feney. Most of the town jurors included very much think he is guilty AF. No one is more disappointed in the verdict than Rita, who told Anne Roderick Jones that there was evidence that the prosecution just didn't introduce. Like example would be the belt thing. So it's like doubly frustrating when jurors explain in interviews that they just weren't given the evidence to prove the case, like there was reasonable doubt. And when Anne interviews the judge who presided over the case, even he says that he wasn't surprised by the verdict. In the weeks following, John's acquittal Sheryl's family sues to prevent him from collecting on her insurance policies, although the suit doesn't really go anywhere and it is eventually dropped. John gets the proceeds, but he pledges to dedicate $50,000 to funding a private investigation into who really did kill his family. If he did though, I couldn't find any evidence for it. Now he sticks around in Springfield for a while, but at some point he moves away eventually landing in Ecuador where he resumes his career. He then remarries and builds a new family. And that's pretty much the end of the story until Anne released that season of her podcast on this case in 2022, which by the way I'm going to plug it again Ozark's true crime. It is a really great podcast by a team of like really great folks, I'll link to it in the show notes. Anyway, after it comes out and hears from a kid who was a neighbor of John's at the time of the murders, and it turns out that this kid could have been the witness that the prosecution needed was just overlooked. Someone who placed John at his house in the wee hours of the morning the night of the murders. So, this neighbor, I think she said she was like 9 or 10 at the time, tells Anne that she was up that night with a stomach ache. She woke up her parents sometime between 2 and 4 am and they told her just like go take some pep dough. And on her way back to bed, she looked out her window and saw John's bright red Mustang sitting in the frickin driveway. She even thought to herself like oh weird, Mr. Feene never parks his bright red Mustang in his driveway. And then she went back to bed. Now, as soon as she heard about the murders a few days later, she told her dad what she'd seen and her dad who could corroborate that she'd been awake that night at that time made sure she repeated the whole story to investigators. But somehow her sighting got misplaced or overlooked or whatever because when Anne interviews the prosecutor, he says that that's the first time he's hearing anything of this. Same goes for Rita. And because of double jeopardy laws, John can't be tried again with this information or not. No. And I mean, this is the part of the episode where I would normally say like if you have any tips or know anything, please call X, Y and Z agents, whatever number, but like this officially at least is a closed case. But in my opinion, it's a closed case with way too many unanswered questions like have those hairs from the crime scene ever been analyzed with more advanced technology? Like how did Tyler contract have to be if I were law enforcement in Springfield? I don't know. I'd want to be sure. No, you can't try John Feene again, but what if? What if it wasn't him? Police might not be listening anymore, but I guess I am, so if you're in Springfield and you know anything, the line's open, send me an email. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkeypodcast.com. You can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkeypodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. So, what do you think, Chuck, do you approve?