The Blotter Presents

[cmahorror]

My suggestion is actually a hometown case that has a book, Reasonable Doubt by Steve Vogel, and a television special on Investigation Discovery's Homicide 20/20 earlier this year.

Here are the case basics: On Wednesday, November 7, 1983,  David Hendricks had left his family for a business trip out of town after taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese for dinner while his wife attended a baby shower. He tried calling them from the road and hotel and did not get an answer. He called the police on November 8 and asked for a wellness check on his wife and children. That evening, the bodies of Susan Hendricks and her three children, Rebekah, 9, Grace, 7, and Benjamin, 5, were discovered in their home by the police officers sent to check on them. All had been slain with an ax and a kitchen knife while lying in their beds.

David Hendricks was eventually tried and convicted of the murders in 1988. The case was overturned on appeal in 1991 and a subsequent re-trial resulted in a not guilty verdict but many, including the police and prosecuting attorney in the case, believe that he got away with murder.

In another interesting twist, Hendricks wrote a true crime book himself about Tom Henry which you can find on Amazon.

I was 10 years old when these murders happened in my hometown of Bloomington-Normal Illinois. My parents encouraged us to know what was going on in the world and rarely sheltered us from the harsh realities of it.  The thing that really made this incident stick in my head was that the day the bodies were found, my mom took off work early to come and get me from school. I had a Brownie meeting and was walking home alone and my mom didn't want me out alone. I remember getting in the van and asking her why she was picking me up and she said it was because someone had murdered some kids near our school. Trust me, that is something you just don't forget.

Hendricks is now married a fourth time and is either about to and has become a father for the first time since the deaths of his three children in 1983.

Edited July 19, 2018 by cmahorror

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Dang, this sounds fascinating. On the list!

[MCMLXXVII]

Just started The Teacher’s Pet podcast, and it’s quite good. There are elements of The Keepers (male teachers dating teen girl students in the late 70s/early 80s), and the disappearance/murder mystery of of Lyn Dawson ( former rugby star/gym teacher’s wife).

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/the-teachers-pet

Edited August 6, 2018 by MCMLXXVII