This Story Will Give You Chills! No Movie Can Top This Story! True Crime Documentary With a Case So Disturbing It Feels Unreal

Hello everyone and welcome back to True Crime Stories. I know many of you use these episodes to fall asleep. So before you drift off, I'd love it if you could leave a comment letting me know where you're listening from around the world. Also don't forget to like and subscribe if you're enjoying the episodes. He was the friend everyone adored. He was present at every family celebration. A little girl had grown up knowing him as her uncle, even though they were not related by blood. Then on the afternoon of August 2nd, 2017, he sent his final text message. Just two words referring to a surprise he had prepared. He never had the chance to explain what he meant. A few hours later he was found shot to death inside his own home in the quiet community of West Bell Arrow, Ohio. At first almost any explanation seemed possible. A burglar, an unknown intruder, someone with an old score to settle. But as investigators dug deeper, they began to understand that the answer lay inside that home, inside a marriage, inside a friendship everyone had believed in. A secret had been hiding in plain sight all along, concealed in family photographs for approximately six years, and one man would change his story four times when speaking to police before the truth finally came to light. This is the story of Brad McGarry and the best friend nobody suspected. Brad McGarry grew up in Louisville, a small Ohio community with socially conservative views. From a very young age he was openly gay in a town where being so outspoken had consequences. Being who he was had never been his way of doing things, those who had known him as a child that he fully embraced his identity, almost as though he were daring the town to object. He studied cosmetology at Swiss Hills vocational school and began earning a living as a hairstylist in the Ohio Valley. He enjoyed the work, he also enjoyed the people he met through it, however the pay was not enough. Eventually he made a radical change. He left hairstyling behind to work in the coal mines, the transition was considerable. Mining required physical strength, involved danger, and belonged to a culture as far removed from that of a hair salon as anyone could imagine. Brad did not change who he was to fit in there. He wore cologne into the mine, wore gold chains, and kept his work clothes looking neat. He joked with his fellow miners and openly expressed whom he found attractive. For time he rose to the position of foreman. Even so that environment was not always welcoming. He had recently transferred to another mining operation. His friend Wendy Newbauer said Brad had confided in her that some of his new co-workers were treating him badly. That detail would become important later. At the time it remained a possible threat in the background of a life that was otherwise filled with people and activity. A childhood friend Dan Ignatius also said Brad had survived a violent assault earlier in his life. Public records do not identify the attacker, establish when the incident occurred, or reveal whether charges were ever filed. Therefore that account deserves to be treated with caution rather than present it as a verified fact. Nevertheless, it offers another indication that being openly himself had come at a considerable cost to Brad long before he entered a coal mine. He lived alone in West Belair in a house filled with antiques and rustic country-style decorations. His friend's joke that the place looked like a cracker barrel. His affection for his animals was such an important part of his life that his obituary specifically mentioned it. Brad was loud, cheerful, and had a presence nobody could overlook. He enjoyed harmless practical jokes and seemed to have an endless supply of energy. By all accounts he was also someone younger, ill GBTQ people in his community turned to for guidance. Abby Milliken, a family friend, described him as a role model. After she came out during her teenage years and experienced bullying, he encouraged her to continue being proud of herself. She had already been calling him Uncle Brad long before that name became associated with the Kinney family. Brad also maintained close ties with his own family. His mother, Tralus Irene McGarry, his grandmother Dolores, and his many uncles, aunts, and cousins. During the weekend before his death he attended a family wedding. The following morning he had breakfast with his relatives at his grandmother's house. Before David Kinney Brad had been involved with a younger man, approximately 22 years old, named Scott a known as Scottie Butler. They had met through Scottie's father, who also worked as a minor. Just described the relationship as unstable, and said Brad had developed an unusually intense fixation on the young man. They never consistently established themselves as a stable couple. However, those close to Brad could see how that relationship came and went, unlike the other relationship he was hiding from them. When detectives later questioned Scottie, his alibi was irrefutable. On the day Brad died, Scottie was incarcerated for violating the conditions of his probation. According to reports he seemed genuinely distraught when police informed him of the murder. His relationship with Brad would soon become relevant again. David Kinney would direct investigators towards Scottie, describing him as Brad's most recent romantic partner, while omitting any mention of his own relationship with Brad over the previous years. David Kinney was born on October 1, 1986. On October 1, 2007, the day he turned 21, he met Sherry. His mother, Kathy Klein, remembered how quickly the relationship progressed. Approximately one day after meeting Sherry, David told his mother he had found the woman he loved. Sherry already had three young children, and according to friends, David readily accepted the situation. He wandered a large family. Rather than treating the children as stepchildren, he considered them his own. Sherry would later tell the court that for approximately ten years, he had fulfilled every important aspect of the role of a father. Those who knew David saw a hardworking man, a reliable person, and someone deeply committed to his family. He had no criminal record. His relatives remembered the devoted husband he appeared to be in public, and the genuine fatherly role he had assumed in the lives of Sherry's three children. To them, he was not a substitute father, or simply a stepfather. In the everyday reality of their lives, he was their father. When the allegations against him finally became public, those same relatives said they could barely accept them. Very little has been publicly established about David's earlier life. Details about his upbringing, education, and father do not appear in public records. Therefore, online accounts that attempt to fill in that unknown history should be approached with caution. In 2011, David enrolled in a coal mining course. There he met Brad McGarry. Their connection developed simultaneously along two paths. A genuine friendship and a relationship that Brad's friends would know only through the name DJ, an abbreviation for David Jr. Brad and David worked on home improvement projects together, shared celebrations, and played practical jokes on each other. Brad reportedly paid David for work on his property, although some of the projects were left unfinished. When the version everyone could see, David was Brad's closest friend, and Brad had become almost another member of the Kinney household. He was even planning a vacation with them for August 2017. Behind that family image was an intimate relationship that had been going on for years. Brad had spoken about it with trusted friends without ever revealing his partner's true identity. His closest circle knew several things. DJ had a wife. The relationship had lasted a long time. Brad was deeply emotionally attached to him and believed his feelings were reciprocated, and he hoped DJ would eventually leave his marriage to be with him. What they did not know was that DJ was David Kinney. The same man Brad introduced to everyone as his best friend. By late 2016, the situation had begun to deteriorate. Sherry was questioning the closeness between her husband and Brad. David began distancing himself. Brad responded by complaining that David was deceiving him and devoting too little time to their relationship. At one point Brad talked about sending Sherry their intimate photographs and messages. Reportedly under that pressure, David spoke about taking his own life. A mutual friend advised Brad to recognize the limitations of the relationship and stop applying so much pressure. Investigators later examined messages recovered from David's phone. The exchanges revealed frustration as well as intimacy. What they never found was even one written message in which Brad threatened to physically harm David. His final day began in an ordinary way. At approximately 1.31 pm, Brad sent David a brief greeting. Hello? Shortly afterward, David called him three times. At 1.45 pm, Brad sent another message, reminding David about the surprise he had prepared for him. David McGarry was murdered after sending that message. Investigators later established that he had suffered two gunshot wounds, both from behind. The first bullet grazed the upper back portion of his scalp. A doctor would conclude that timely medical attention probably could have saved him from that incident. injury. The second bullet entered the back left side of his head and passed through his brain. That wound killed him. The fatal shot had been fired from a distance of no more than a few inches. David left the house and returned to his family. At home he helped his wife die her hair. At 3.13 pm he sent a message to Brad's phone about bringing the family over to his house. At 3.26 pm he texted again claiming he had stopped by and had not found Brad. He also called Brad's number. By then David knew perfectly well that Brad would never respond to any of those attempts to contact him. Later that same day David took his wife and daughter to Brad's house. He claimed they were going to pick up a weed trimmer. His daughter discovered Brad's body. David remained outside. In the basement officers found a scene that had been disturbed with a peculiar neatness. Drawers were open while money and valuables remained clearly visible. It did not look like a genuine robbery. Investigators came to believe that someone had deliberately staged the scene to suggest a burglary, a hate crime, or trouble connected to one of Brad's previous relationships. Any explanation that would direct attention away from David. At first detectives pursued the obvious lead pointing towards Scotty Butler. The former boyfriend David had readily mentioned. But Scotty was behind bars when the murder occurred. That investigative avenue was quickly closed. A nickname ultimately opened new possibilities in the investigation. Over the years Brad had spoken about DJ to enough people that, after his death, his cousin Skyler Strouser was able to identify David Kinney through social media. Once detectives could follow that connection, David's claim that he was simply Brad's best friend took on an entirely different meaning. David voluntarily went to the police station. He provided a DNA sample and handed over both his phone and its passcode. During approximately five hours of questioning, his story changed on four occasions. At first he described Brad as nothing more than a friend. Then he denied having visited the house before arriving there with his family that day. And later acknowledged that he had been there earlier. After that he admitted their relationship had continued for years. Finally he confessed to shooting Brad, although he insisted that he had acted in self-defense. Before making a direct confession, David physically demonstrated the positions and movements of the encounter for detectives. Investigators later said some of his tears during the interrogation had seemed theatrical to them. It was their interpretation of his behavior, not an established fact. In David's account of the shooting, Brad had pulled out a small darenger pistol and pointed at him. A struggle followed in the gun discharged during the fight. The physical findings pointed toward a different version. Officers found no darenger in Brad's house, no holster, and no ammunition of the corresponding caliber anywhere on his property. However, inside Brad's nightstand, they discovered a 9-millimeter high-point pistol. That weapon could not have fired the 22 caliber bullets that caused his death. According to testimony, the 9-millimeter pistol was the first firearm Brad had purchased. He had also asked a police officer how to obtain a concealed carry permit. Meanwhile investigators found a box of 22 caliber ammunition inside David's trunk. He had claimed he had thrown the murder weapon from his vehicle while driving home. Police searched the stretch of road he identified and found nothing. Several months later, an inmate work crew discovered a small 22 caliber darenger along another stretch of road near Shadyside. Forensic examination ruled it out as the weapon used in the murder. The gun that took Brad McGarry's life has never been recovered. David's attorneys attempted to have his police interview excluded. They argued that in practice he had already become a suspect before receiving his Miranda warnings. The courts rejected that position. They determined that the initial interview had been voluntary and that he was not in custody, and that officers had given him the warnings before his admission and his physical reenactment of the events. The trial lasted five days. Although David Kinney was expected to testify, he never took the stand. Equally, the recorded interrogation gave jurors their only substantial opportunity to hear his version of events. His defense emphasized a violent confrontation, unusual bullet angles, the lack of usable DNA linking him to the open drawers, and a diagnosis of acute stress disorder after the shooting. Prosecutors responded that experiencing stress after taking someone's life says nothing about whether the killing was justified. They argued that David's own sequence of actions, including the fake text messages and the staged discovery of Brad's body, revealed what had really happened. After approximately four hours of deliberation, the jury found David Kinney guilty of murder. During sentencing, he offered an apology to the McGarry family. He provided no explanation for the killing and continued to maintain that he had acted in self-defense. The judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional mandatory three years for the firearm. Earlier, the court had refused to reduce his $1 million bond. In doing so, it expressly cited his decision to bring his own wife and daughter to the murder scene under a fabricated pretext. David filed an appeal based on ten different grounds. He challenged the use of his statements to police, a recorded exchange with his wife, and jury material, several rulings concerning evidence and expert testimony and jury selection. He also challenged the refusal to give the jury an instruction on voluntary manslaughter, the weight and sufficiency of the evidence as a whole, and the constitutionality of sentencing an adult offender to life without parole. The appellate court rejected every ground. The argument concerning voluntary manslaughter was considered particularly unconvincing. But lesser offense requires sudden emotional rage, a passionate loss of self-control. However, David's descriptions, from his first account to his final version, consistently centered on fear and protecting himself. Passion had never been the basis of his explanation. The Ohio Supreme Court subsequently sent the constitutional question concerning his sentence back for reconsideration in light of a separate decision. On reviewing it again, the court once more upheld the sentence of life without parole. His conviction and sentence remain in effect today. From a forensic perspective, the investigation depended more on what was missing than on what officers recovered. The murder weapon was never located. David said he had thrown it from his car, but nothing was found at the location he indicated. A deranger discovered months later in the surrounding area was ruled out through forensic testing. Therefore, two questions remain unanswered. Where that weapon originally came from and where it is now. The wounds weakened the claim of self-defense. Both bullets entered from behind, a patterning compatible with the image of two people struggling face to face. The first injury, a grazing wound to the back of the scalp, probably would have been survivable on its own. The second shot fired from a distance of barely three inches, passed through the brain and caused death. Scientific examination could not establish the order in which the shots were fired. Nevertheless, their trajectories in the extremely short distance of the fatal shot suggested control over the encounter, rather than a chaotic fight. The traces found at the scene were more difficult to interpret. Brad's hat, recovered from the hot tub, contained gunshot residue and tissue. Their fragment of tissue was located near a washing machine, approximately 10 to 15 feet away. The state laboratory emphasized that lightweight biological material can move unpredictably after a gunshot. Therefore neither the prosecution nor the defense could reconstruct Brad's exact movements between the two shots. The bruises on his face did not provide a clear answer either. They could have been consistent with a fall after being shot or with blood pooling after death. They did not constitute unequivocal proof of a prolonged physical struggle. Then there was the apparent staging, open drawers and valuables that had not been taken. The defense emphasized that David's DNA had not been recovered from those drawers. Prosecutors responded that Brad's DNA was also absent from most of those same surfaces. DNA is not always transferred when an object is touched, nor does it necessarily remain in a condition that allows it to be recovered. Its absence proved nothing. Ultimately no single physical finding supported the case on its own. The crucial sequence was digitally recorded. Messages sent to a phone whose owner, as David knew, would never be able to respond. Beyond the forensic findings those messages formed a documented trail of premeditation. The height difference between the two men was also part of the picture. It was approximately 10 inches taller than Brad. That fact alone could not rule out a genuine struggle. However, together with the close-range shots that entered from behind, it reinforced the prosecution's explanation. Their version described one man positioned behind the other, rather than two men fighting for control of a firearm. The case presented two opposing psychological interpretations that were never fully reconciled. defense psychiatrist diagnosed David with acute stress disorder. order after the shooting. A genuine clinical reaction to trauma. The prosecution's expert rejected that diagnosis entirely. However, even if the diagnosis were accepted, it would address a different question. Distress after a homicide concerns the person's mental state afterward. It does not establish whether the act was legally justified when it occurred. The most striking pattern was the concealment that had preceded Brad's death for years. David maintained two separate identities. The publicly admired husband and father, and the partner Brad's friends knew only as DJ. Maintaining a double life for that long requires continuous and intentional effort. During 2016 and 2017, signs that he was struggling to bear that burden became increasingly visible. Brad wanted greater acknowledgment of the relationship. Sherry was beginning to question what was happening. David was pulling away and according to his own words, talking about suicide because of the pressure. Investigators also highlighted his behavior during the interrogation. He physically acted out the movements before admitting anything and cried in a way they considered theatrical. Neither observation proves anything on its own. Their reading was an interpretation made by people whose work teaches them to be skeptical. Even so, it matched a broader pattern throughout the investigation. David repeatedly took control of the narrative before confronting the truth. First, he directed detectives towards Scotty Butler. He sent messages to a dead man's phone in an attempt to construct an alibi. He brought his own daughter to the scene so she would discover the body. Each action appears more calculated than driven by panic. The behavior of someone trying to stay several steps ahead of a revelation capable of destroying the entire life he had built. Brad, by contrast, appears in the records as someone who responded to conflict through emotion rather than physical aggression. A witness who knew him well said he might shout or gesture with his phone when frustrated, then withdrawn cry. The witness did not describe a man who escalated from disagreement to violence. That account is a personal impression, not a clinical evaluation. Even so, it aligns with the other evidence. Two shots entering from behind. Tissue scattered in a pattern nobody could fully reconstruct. And a man who was still planning a family vacation with the person who would ultimately kill him right up until the day of his death. There is also the gap between Brad's hopes and what actually happened. By all accounts he wanted David to finally choose him, leave his wife and openly acknowledge their relationship. He wanted to stop hiding that part of his life and live it as publicly as he had always lived everything else. Instead, the collision between those hopes and David's determination to maintain the secret created the very circumstances in which everything came to an end. The aftermath. Brad McGarry's relatives lost much more than a son and a nephew. They lost the person who had quietly become the emotional heart of their side of the family. He continued to show up. He maintained his connections. He did not allow distance to separate him from his relatives. Even as his own circumstances became more complicated. His mother, his grandmother, and his many cousins were left grieving someone whose fuller story became public only because of his death. The hidden relationship. The years he spent keeping its secret. Those parts of his life were revealed through the manner in which his life was taken from him. For David Kinney's family, the devastation came from the opposite direction. Sherry had devoted approximately a decade to a life with a man she believed was completely committed to her. Her husband, the father of her children. A dependable presence in her home. The trial dismantled the image she had of him. She and the children who had considered him their father for years now had to reconcile the David they knew with the person described by the evidence. A man capable of concealing an intimate relationship for years and ultimately killing the person with whom he had shared it. In legal terms, the case is concluded. David Kinney is imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole, and Ohio's appellate courts have repeatedly upheld both the verdict and the sentence. However, when it comes to the full account of what happened, gaps remain. The murder weapon is still missing. Nobody reconstructed the exact word spoken inside the house, because the only surviving witness chose not to testify. And Brad's surprise mentioned in his final message to David less than an hour before his death remains unexplained. Whatever he had planned, only David Kinney knows what it was. If this case caught your attention, subscribe to the channel. New true crime investigations are published every week. Tell me in the comments which parts stayed with you the most. [BLANK_AUDIO]