by Mike Riley
He was currently in federal custody in Carswell, Texas. He had been arrested after a retired detective saw Perry buying ammunition and a pistol magazine at a White Elephant store in the Spokane Valley. The detective knew that Perry was a convicted felon and was not allowed to have any firearms in his possession.
Then came the kicker. Douglas Perry was no longer Douglas Perry. In 2000, after the murders of the three women, Perry had traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, where he had undergone gender reassignment surgery. Now calling herself Donna Perry, Perry lived as a woman.
Perry’s home was searched, and it was there that federal agents found more than twelve other firearms, and 12,000 rounds of ammunition. They also found a box of women’s panties in the closet, in sizes that were too small to fit Perry. Right away, ATF Special Agent Todd Smith thought that this was a classic case of ‘trophies’ taken from victims.
Then, a second discovery would confirm Perry’s involvement for investigators. In October, latent fingerprints were found on items that had been recovered from a dumpster in Lowe’s murder case. When lifted and compared to Perry’s, there was a match. Investigators could now link Perry to both women’s deaths.
As well as his alleged involvement in the murders of Sapp, Lowe, and Brisbois, Perry’s history includes convictions for reckless endangerment, assault, patronizing a prostitute, and possession of a pipe bomb and firearms.
Inmates from when Perry had been incarcerated also said that Perry had acted very strangely in jail. He had talked about taking prostitutes home and feeding them. A cellmate of Perry’s claimed that he had confessed to him that he had killed a total of nine women, all prostitutes. Perhaps linked to his reasons for undergoing gender reassignment surgery, Perry allegedly killed the victims because they had the ability to have children but were “wasting it on pond scum”.
When Perry appeared in court, she claimed that it was her male persona who had committed the murders, and the woman who she was now was innocent. She claimed that becoming a woman stopped the murders, and that gender treatments were a cure for men who were violent towards women. She claims to be unaware if Douglas Perry ever killed anyone.
Current Status:
The case against Perry remains ongoing.
Originally, investigators believed that the three women were likely victims of the serial killer Robert L. Yates, who was convicted of killing thirteen women in Spokane County, and two others in Pierce County, the majority of which were killed in the late 1990’s. Yates was convicted of those murders and remains on death row.
An Inmate Points The Way
Victim: Rayna L. Rison
Location: La Porte, Indiana
Suspect: Jason Tibbs
Date of Crime: March 26, 1993
Date of Conviction: November 7, 2014
Backstory:
Rayna L. Rison was born in La Porte, Indiana on May 6, 1976 to Ben and Karen Rison. She had two sisters, Lori, and Wendy who was one year younger than Rayna.
In 1993, Rayna Rison was just sixteen years old. She worked at the Pine Lake Animal Hospital in La Porte, Indiana, and was a junior in high school.
La Porte is in the northern tip of Indiana with a current population of a little over 22,000 and was about that size in 1993.
On The Day In Question:
On March 26, 1993, Rison was working at the Animal Hospital. Her boyfriend, Matt Elser, arrived at her house at 5:15pm to wait for her. She was supposed to return home after finishing work at 6:00pm, and the couple would then go to dinner and a movie.
When Rison didn’t return home by 7:00pm, Elser drove to the animal hospital. Her car was not in the parking lot. Rison’s father, Ben Rison, then reported her missing. She would not be seen alive again.
Investigation:
The day after Rison was reported missing, investigators located her car in a rural area, several miles north of her hometown. Witnesses had reported seeing it in that location as early as 6:45pm the night before.
Police found a varsity athletic jacket hanging in a tree about six miles south of where Rison’s car was found. It belonged to Jason Tibbs, an ex-boyfriend of Rison’s. A ring belonging to Tibbs was also found in Rison’s car.
Several witnesses reported two men in a car hanging around near Rison’s work, but the lead did not result in any further information. Rison remained missing.
A month later, on April 27, 1993, a fisherman found Rison’s body in a pond near Range Road, La Porte County.
Following an autopsy, Rison’s death was ruled a homicide. The cause of death was ‘asphyxia due to cervical compression’. She had been strangled.
Despite investigators efforts, the case remained unsolved.
Early in the case, some believed that Rison was a victim of serial killer Larry DeWayne Hall. Hall is serving a life sentence from a federal charge of kidnapping. However, he was never charged in relation to Rison’s case.
In May of 1998, Rison’s brother-in-law, Raymond McCarty, was charged and indicted with her murder. He spent fifteen months in jail awaiting trial, where he pled not guilty. When a new county prosecutor was elected, he dropped the charges against McCarty in August of 1999, citing lack of evidence.
McCarty had a sexual relationship with Rison when she was just thirteen years old, and she became pregnant. He received a three year suspended sentence in 1990. He had visited Rison at her job on the day she went missing.
In March of 2008, police received a tip regarding a friend of Jason Tibbs. An inmate at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, Rickey Hammons, told police to focus on Tibbs, who was an ex-boyfriend of Rison’s at the time of her death. He also told police to look for his own sister’s ex, a man named Eric Freeman.
Hammons told police that in March of 1993, he had been in his family’s barn preparing a marijuana joint when both Freeman and Tibbs pulled up in his sister’s car. When Freeman opened the trunk, Hammon saw someone lying in it, face up. At the time, he claimed he did not know it was Rison, but recognized her after seeing her photo in the paper.
Police spoke to Freeman, but he denied Hammon’s account. It would then take six more years for investigators to gather any further information from Freeman. In July of 2013, Freeman was offered immunity from prosecution in Rison’s case. He then started talking.
Freeman admitted that he drove Tibbs to Rison’s workplace on that day. He then witnessed an argument between the pair. He drove both Rison and Tibbs to another location, where they got out of the car and continued to argue. Freeman told investigators that the fight became physical, and Tibbs strangled Rison until she was dead. Freeman then helped Tibbs to dispose of her body.
Current Status:
Twenty-one years after her death, on November 7, 2014, Jason Tibbs was convicted of murdering Rayna Rison. He choked her to death because she refused to be his girlfriend.
On December 12, Tibbs was sentenced to forty years in prison. Because of Indiana’s sentencing guidelines, he will receive a day of freedom for each day served, and so will ultimately be in prison for just less than twenty years.
In return for his testimony against Tibbs, Eric Freeman received full immunity and was not charged.
The Power of Touch DNA
Victim: Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Suspect: Joseph Michael Simpson
Date of Crime: December 1995
Date of Identification: 2013
Backstory:
Krystal Lynn Beslanowitch was born in Spokane, Washington on June 5, 1978 and was 17 years old in 1995. Her mother, Linde Toreson, has told newspapers that by age 15, Beslanowitch was already involved in drugs and prostitution. She had recently moved to Salt Lake City with her boyfriend, from her hometown of Spokane, Washington.
Despite her lifestyle, whenever she saw her, Beslanowitch’s mother always welcomed her with open arms. Her mother reports that she was always happy, and Beslanowitch thought that being able to live as she did was more important than having a
‘normal’ life.
On The Day In Question:
One day Beslanowitch failed to return home after a late night trip to a convenience store. It took a further two days for her boyfriend to report her missing.
Then, on the early morning of December 6, 1995, her naked body was found along the Provo River. She had been bludgeoned, and her body was broken and bloody. She was lying face down over the rocks.
Investigation:
Despite an investigation that covered the whole state and ran for two years, no significant leads or suspects were ever uncovered.
The case went cold, but for one investigator the murder of Beslanowitch had become personal. County Sheriff Todd Bonner couldn’t let the case go. He has since told the Associated Press that her story haunted him, and he kept investigating himself.
Without his efforts, it’s possible the case may never have been solved. As a deputy, Bonner had been one of the first investigators to arrive on the scene the day Beslanowitch’s body was discovered. In 2009 he was elected as Wasatch County Sheriff, but he never forgot her case and regularly checked in on any progress.
In 2006, Beslanowitch’s case was reopened. New DNA technology meant that cold cases were now generating new leads. In 2008, two full time detectives were assigned to the case. Technology had improved again, and more DNA was extracted from crime scene evidence in the Beslanowitch murder. Despite the efforts of Bonner and others however, no significant progress was made.
In 2013 a forensics lab was able to extract what’s called “touch DNA” from granite rocks used to crush Beslanowitch’s skull. This is DNA left behind from when someone simply touches an object at the crime scene. The DNA was run against databases and a match came back.
It matched a man named Joseph Michael Simpson, who had previously been convicted of an unrelated murder and was on parole just months before Beslanowitch’s murder. In 2013 he was forty-six, unemployed, and living with his mother in Sarasota, Florida.
Until DNA identified him, Simpson had not even been on investigator’s radar. The technology used to identify his DNA profile had not existed at the time of Beslanowitch’s murder. It was collected using a forensic vacuum, and took a full day to collect the sample.
Originally invented to remove bacteria from food, the inventor’s son shared the invention with a friend who worked for the FBI. When they tested it, they discovered that it could recover 40% more DNA from a saliva stain on a shirt than the traditional swab method. It could also retrieve 88% more DNA from a blood stain on fabric. The vacuum recovered Simpson’s full DNA profile from a rock he touched at the crime scene.
Despite the match, prosecutors insisted that investigators retrieve a fresh sample. Bonner and another detective then flew to Sarasota and followed Simpson around for multiple days, before they were able to recover a DNA sample from a discarded cigarette. They ran it and the DNA was a match. Simpson was arrested for Beslanowitch’s murder. Todd Bonner was the one to handcuff him and place him under arrest.
Current Status:
Prosecutors announced in April of 2014 that they would not be seeking the death penalty in the trial. At the time of writing, Simpson is being held without bail.
The Creep One Block Away
Victim: Anna Palmer
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Suspect: Matthew Breck
Date of Crime: September 10, 1998
Date of Conviction: August 2001
Backstory:
Anna Palmer was born on August 8, 1988 to parents Nancy and David Palmer. Her family consisted of brothers Mike and Matthew and sisters Christine and Rachel. Anna was in the fifth grade at Whittier Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Ten-year-old Anna was a friendly child. Her mother has described her as a “little socialite”, often playing with all the other children in the neighborhood.
On The Day In Question:
On September 10, 1998, Palmer phoned her mother around 5:00pm and asked her if she was allowed to go and play with some friends. That was the last time her mother would hear her voice. At 7:00pm her mother returned home and found Palmer’s dead body lying on the porch of their home.
Her body was already cold to the touch, and her mother has reported that her face was a ‘waxy, pale, yellowy color’, as though Palmer’s blood was no longer flowing. She immediately called 911.
She was advised by the operator to start CPR, and although paramedics arrived within minutes, Palmer was pronounced dead when they arrived on the scene.
Investigation:
At first investigators wondered if the injuries could be dog bites. However, an autopsy revealed that Palmer had been stabbed to death on the front porch of her home. She had fought back against her attacker, and been stabbed in the throat five times, and also beaten severely. One of the stab wounds had severed her spinal cord and killed her.
A police search began, and neighbors remember hearing helicopters and seeing searchlights for most of the night.
Despite the murder happening in broad daylight in public and near a busy intersection, witnesses were scarce. The crime scene had little evidence, and what did exist was not much use with the science techniques of the day. Nevertheless, swabs were still taken from Palmer’s body and clothing, and her fingernails were clipped. DNA profiling was not as advanced in 1998 as it is now.
Despite police investigations, no suspects were revealed and the case went cold.
An offered reward of $11,000 turned up some leads, but nothing they uncovered led to an arrest in the case.
Then, in 2009, detectives had the samples analyzed again. Using a new technique, forensic scientists were able to extract DNA that did not belong to Palmer from the swabs and fingernail clippings. Palmer’s attempt to fight back had trapped her attacker’s skin under her nails.
When the DNA was tested, there was a match. It belonged to a man named Matthew Breck. Breck was already serving a ten-year sentence in Idaho for child sex-related crimes. In 1998, he had been nineteen years old and living only one block from Palmer’s house.
Two witnesses, who were children at the time of the crime, testified that they had seen a teenager walking near Palmer’s house that day when she had been heading home. A taped police interview with a then ten-year-old friend of Palmer’s said they had played together on swings in her backyard, and then when it was near 7:00pm, they hugged and went their separate ways on a street corner.
She told police that at that time she’d noticed a man behind them who looked liked he might want to grab them. Palmer let the man pass her, and then yelled at her friend to run home. When her friend looked back, Palmer was on her way home and the man was gone.
Several other witnesses who were children at the time also came forward to report a man that had “creeped” them out. Multiple witnesses reported him as wearing a baseball jersey and having dark stringy hair. Breck was known to regularly wear baseball jerseys.
Current Status:
In August of 2001, Breck pled guilty to aggravated murder. The rest of his life will be spent in prison.
Had the evidence not been found in Palmer’s case, he would have already served the time of his other jail term and would have been again living in society.
A Suicide Unproven
Victim: Pamela J. Shelly
Location: DeWitt County, Texas
Suspect: Ronnie Hendrick
Date of Crime: January 6, 2001
Date of Guilty Plea: September 10, 2013
Backstory:
Pamela Jean Shelly was born on July 25, 1969 in Harris County Texas as Pamela Jean Curlee. Her parents were Pearly Jean Surber and Carl Edward Curlee.
In 2001 she was living with her boyfriend, Ronnie Hendrick, and her two children, Kayla (12) and Dustin (9). They lived in a rural area of DeWitt County, Texas.
Hendrick’s family lived just a mile away, and Shelly’s own family lived eight hundred miles away in Arkansas. Shelly had only lived in Texas for five months.
On Th
e Day In Question:
On January 6, 2001, Pamela Shelly died in the bathroom of her home. The cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head. Hendrick’s stepfather called it in as an attempted suicide, and Shelly was still breathing when she was loaded into an ambulance.
Being a rural area and ‘in the middle of nowhere’, Hendrick volunteered to accompany the ambulance to direct the driver. That meant when the sheriff’s deputies arrived, he was not there to answer any questions, or to be tested for gunshot residue.
When asked, emergency responders who attended the scene did not have any reason to doubt that the gunshot wound had been self-inflicted. The scene didn’t “feel like” a shooting of unknown origin, everyone was relatively calm and there was very little panic.
Apparently the family never considered that this was anything other than self-inflicted. No one was afraid an unknown shooter might be lurking. It was because Shelly’s shooter was very much known and standing right next to them.
