November 11, 2022 • 24 mins
This month we're rolling back the clock to May 1985 and discussing the kidnappings of Shari Smith and Debra Hemlick. FBI Files- Cat and Mouse S2 E3 Murder Calls- The Devil's Voice S3 E6 https://law.justia.com/cases/south-carolina/supreme-court/1987/22773-1.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hello, Hello everyone, and welcomeback to Murder Squared. If you are
on this episode, then that meansthat you are a Patreon member, so
welcome. I cannot thank you enoughfor joining at the five dollars level.
If you're listening to this, Ihave so many cases that I have saved
(00:27):
just for Patreon, because sometimes Ifeel like if the case is a little
too intense on the regular feed forthe podcast, that it just might be
too much for some people. Butif you are on Patreon and you're paying
for these extra episodes, I feellike you can disassociate from the cases and
(00:48):
that you are probably a really bigtrue crime fan. So I cannot thank
you enough for being here today withme and for going home this little journey
with me. So today, casethat we are going to talk about is
one that happened in nineteen eighty fivein Lexington, South Carolina. So if
(01:08):
you're ready, get squared away andlet's talk murder. Let me introduce you
to the Smith family. So youhave Bob who is the dad, Hilda
is the mom, and then theirthree children down Sherry and Robert. So
(01:33):
we have it rolled back the clockto May thirty, first of nineteen eighty
five where Sherry, her name isactually Sharon, but she goes by.
Sherry is seventeen years old and she'sjust gotten back home from a pool party.
So it's in May. Graduation isalmost there. They can see it.
(01:55):
There is a light at the endof this tunnel for them, so
she just got back from this pointparty. And when she comes up the
driveway, she stops to check themail, which was normal for Sherry.
So her dad is sitting in hisstudy. Her dad is actually a pastor
of their local church, so he'ssitting in his study and he looks out
the window and he can see Sherry'scar at the end of their driveway.
(02:15):
The driveway is a little long,so he sees her car and he can
see she's check in the mailbox,and he goes back to looking at his
reading, and then he looks backup and he knows it's been a couple
of minutes. He hasn't heard Sherrycome in. He looks up and her
car is still there, but nowhe can't see Sherry. So Sherry is
actually diabetic and sometimes she has troublecontrolling her sugar and in slim levels.
(02:40):
So he immediately thinks that something hashappened, maybe she's passed out, maybe
she needs help of some kind.So he goes to the bottom of the
driveway and when he gets there,her blue Chevy car is left to running,
There's a mail on the ground,and Sherry is nowhere in site.
(03:00):
He looks around for more clues towhere Sherry might be and he spots her
red bandanna that was tied in herhair lying on the ground, So Bob
knows that something is wrong. Heruns inside and he calls nine to one
and police make it to his houseimmediately. When they get there, they
(03:21):
talk about Sherry's day, what itlooked like, while her state of mind
has been recently, and it's veryquickly determined that Sherry did not run away.
After all, when you run away, you don't really just leave your
car sitting at the bottom of thedriveway running. So they begin looking everywhere
for Sherry. They have hundreds ofvolunteers scouring Lexington, South Carolina, looking
(03:45):
for her. They have contacted theSBI, and like I said, this
is on May thirty first. Soon June third, three days after Sherry
had went missing, it's two amand her mom and her sister and brother
and dad are all in the parentsroom, and it's been three days,
(04:05):
three days since they've seen their sisterand their daughter, and they haven't slept,
they haven't had a moment of peaceor rest. It's two am.
They're all together in this giant roomand they're just trying to get a little
bit of shady. The police arestationed at their house in case there's any
word from Sherry or anything like that. When the phone rings at two am,
(04:28):
this phone call wakes them up immediately, and the person on the phone
has something to say. When Hilda, Sherry's mom, answers the phone,
the caller says, this is nota hoax. Your daughter was taken by
the mailbox on May thirty first.She had on a black and white top
with white shorts over her polka dottedbikini. So this is when Hilda obviously
(04:55):
knows that this is Sherry's abductor thatshe's talking to. It had been suspected
at this point that Sherry had beenabducted, obviously, but they hadn't received
any ransom calls. There hadn't beenany clues to what happened to Sherry until
the phone rang on June third,so the caller also instruct Hilda to call
(05:17):
off the police searches that if sheever wants to see Sherry again, that
they'll call off the police. Inthe call, the person also says that
there will be a letter coming tothe Smith's house and it will be a
letter from Sherry that way, sothey know that this is not a joke,
(05:39):
this is not someone pretending. Thisis the real deal. And police
officers are unable to get a traceon this phone call. They had set
up some equipment, but it malfunctionedand they weren't able to get it.
So the police actually intercept this letterat the local post office and it's labeled
(05:59):
last Will and Testament and it's signedon June first, ten am. They
confirmed with Sherry's parents that it isin her handwriting. It did have a
little bit of weird verbiage in it, and she talked about her loved ones.
She said that she was with herfather now and that her family shouldn't
(06:19):
weep for her, and that theyshouldn't let this tragedy ruin their lives.
So there's a couple of things Iwant to point out here. First,
the letter was written on June first, which is the day after Sherry had
been taken. The time stamp thatshe put on the letter said ten am,
so it was about twelve hours actuallyfrom the point where she went missing.
(06:41):
Well, this ransom call wasn't untilJune third, two days later.
At first they think the verbiage isvery strange in it, but then they
realized, well, her dad isa pastor, and maybe this is the
way that Sherry talked. And itwasn't until June the fourth that a second
call came in and once again Sherry'smom answers, and the caller says,
(07:06):
our souls are now one. Andthis caller, Hilda notices this time that
it almost sounds like his voice isa little disorted, and she doesn't know
if this is the way he talksor if maybe he's using something to make
his voice sound like that. Butthis call lasted for ten seconds, and
(07:27):
they were able to get a traceon this call, and they were able
to trace it twenty miles away ata phone booth, and the callers said
on this call, also, you'llknow in two to three days what happened.
Call the search off. There areFBI profilers that are working on this
case now, and one in particularI want to talk about is John Douglas.
(07:49):
He was a pioneer profiler and hekind of set the foundation for a
lot of profilers to come that camethrough the Federal Bureau of Investigation. So
he says that to catch a killer, you have to think like a killer.
So they're looking at what type ofperson is this predator, and the
FBI suspect it is a white malethirties, has above average intelligence, is
(08:13):
single, and they think he's bluecollar and possibly works as an electrician.
They also believe this person has aprior record and is a local, and
he has obsessive compulsive disorder and verylow self esteem. The third call came
in on June fifth, and theabductor gave directions to find Sherry. He
(08:33):
said, take Highway three one hundredand seventy eight west to Traffic Circle,
then left at the white frame buildingsix feet beyond. We're waiting. God
chose us. And this is veryweird the way that he gave instructions,
which was clue to the FBI andthe local PD that this guy is very
(08:54):
local. The SBI also wanted thefamily to stay at home because they were
unaware of what Sherry's condition would belike. So the family were waiting together
in their parents room once again whenthey heard the officers arrive back at the
home. Their steps were loud andheavy as they made their way into the
(09:16):
room, and then they informed theSmith family that Sherry was deceased. They
believed that she died the day thatshe wrote the letter, on June first.
So what Sherry's body was found onthe fifth in Saulta County. This
was seventeen miles away from her home, and her body was very decomposed.
(09:37):
It had been over a hundred degreesthat week, and with the heat and
the elements, they were unable toofficially rule cause of death in her autopsy.
They were unable to even see ifshe had any signs of sexual assault
or anything like that. They dobelieve that her death, however, was
by dehydration or suffocation. They geta fourth phone call the night of Sherry's
(10:03):
funeral, and this is on Juneninth. Sherry's body was laid to rest
at Lexington Memorial Cemetery, and whenthe caller calls again this time, Sherry's
aunt, Beverly is actually the onethat answers the phone and then the caller
specifically asked to talk to Sherry's mom, Hilda, and she says, well,
(10:24):
hold on a minute, I can'tfind her. And this was an
attempt to stall the call that wasso the police could trace the call and
go get him. On the call, he tells her mother the most awful
things. He says, I justwanted to make love to Don, I
mean Sherry. I gave her achoice when she died, and she chose
(10:46):
suffocation. He also alludes to alot of other sexual assaults and things that
he did to Sherry. At theend of the phone call, he tells
them that she chose suffocation and hewrapped duct tape around her head. They
were able to trace the call,but before he ended it, he said,
only God knows why I killed her. They get to the booth and
(11:07):
once again this guy is gone andit's a completely different phone booth from what
he used last time. So investigatorsare now really afraid for Don Smith.
Sherry's older sister. Did you noticethe little mix up? He said,
I just wanted to make love toDon, I mean Sherry. So they'd
even think that maybe from the beginning, what if Don was the person that
(11:30):
he meant to abduct. Don andher sister look very similar to one another,
and for the next two weeks everythinggoes quiet until June fourteenth. So
on June fourteenth, this little girl, her name is Deborah Mayhelmlock, was
outside playing with her brother. Herfamily had actually only lived in this area
(11:50):
for about two weeks. This wasa little outside of Lexington. This was
in Richland County, and this littlegirl's outside playing with her brother in the
front yard. All of a sudden, someone pulls up, grabs her from
behind, and pulls her into theircar. A neighbor actually sees this happen
and it calls nine one one andhe tells them that the license plate started
(12:13):
with a D. So the neighborand the dad they try to find the
car. They hop in the dad'scar and drive and drive, and they
try to find this car, butthey're unable to. This was twenty five
miles away from Sherry's abduction and whereSherry lived, so at first they didn't
connect these cases. After all,Sherry was seventeen, she was older and
(12:37):
this is a little nine year oldgirl. Now, while the abductions may
sound similar them just being grabbed attheir home I mean, the victimology is
very different. And the SBI hadactually already said that if Dawn was not
available for him to grab, thathe would end up grabbing whoever he could,
(12:58):
that this was a very impulsive person, and unfortunately they were right.
So nine year old little Deborah hasnow been taken. Eight days after her
abduction, the Smiths received a phonecall and in this phone call, the
man tells down that she is next. He says, God wants you to
(13:18):
join Sherry Faye, and this iswhen they connect Deborah Helmleck to Sherry's abductor.
So the FBI profilers want to setup a trap. They want to
put Don's life in jeopardy. They'reasking the Smiths to put their only surviving
daughter at risk. So at thememorial service for Sherry, police hope that
(13:39):
this would get the man to calldown again and maybe they could have them
keep him on the phone for alittle longer. They have this memorial service
set up for Sherry and their undercoveragents everywhere. They are swarming the cemetery
in hopes to finding this guy.The FBI had down place a koala with
(14:00):
flowers on Sherry's grave, So they'recoaching down on these phone calls. They
know that this guy's watching and theyknow that he's seen her. They tell
her on the phone, do notbe harsh with him. Don't sound threatening.
You need to sound very maternal,very understanding. You need to make
him feel like he isn't charged.And sure enough, after midnight, the
(14:20):
phone rings, and when she answers, he says, you can't be protected
all the time. It might bethis month, might be next month,
might be next year, but youcan't be protected all the time. He
then gives instructions to Deborah's body,just like he did Sherry's. He said,
turn one left, turn left onPeach Festival Road. Go at three
(14:41):
and a half miles down Gilbert Way, go through the chain, past the
no trespassing son. Deborah May iswaiting God forgive us all. And when
they look, they find Deborah's littlebody right where the man said it would
be. It appeared that she hadbeen strangled or suffocated. She was wearing
a pink tank top and women's silkyunderwear, and these underwear were actually over
(15:05):
her own underwear. And they believethat she was killed the same day as
she was abducted. And they wereunable to determine if she was sexually assaulted
or not. When they tried totrace the call that he had made giving
the instructions to Deborah's body, theywere able to trace it once again to
a phone booth. Every time they'vetraced it to a phone booth, there
(15:28):
are no signs of anyone. There'sno fingerprints, no anything. There are
no leads at all, or soit would seem. So they have to
look at existing evidence. What dothey have. They have two girls that
are dead because of this guy.There is little to no evidence left on
their bodies. Sherry was so decomposedby the time they found her. What
(15:50):
do they have? So they lookat this last will and testament that Sherry
had written, and they're able toput it through this machine. It's called
an electrostatic detection apparatus, and itcan pick up images that aren't visible to
the naked eye. So what they'relooking for is if Sherry wrote this on
(16:11):
a pad of paper, what elsewas written on the pad of paper beforehand?
So the ESDA it fills in indicationsmade on the document with graphite and
they're able to look at this tolook at other documents that were held with
the one that they're examining. Soin the writing, they pick up a
(16:32):
name and a number, but theydon't have all of the numbers in this
phone number. The middle number andthe fourth number they're not able to see.
But they can see a name andit is Joe Shepherd and it is
an Alabama area code that they candetect. So investigators call every number combo
(16:53):
that they can think of until theyreach this man named Joe. They checked
his call records and he had beentalking with someone outside of Lexington in Lake
Murray, South Carolina. So policego to Alabama to interview Joe Shepherd because
he didn't match the killer's profile thatthey had. They had that he was
(17:17):
local, that he was still intown. So they asked Joe who he's
been calling and talking to in Murray, South Carolina, and he says,
well, my parents live in Murray, South Carolina. So they asked him
about his parents and he tells themhis dad is an electrician and his mom's
name is Sharon. And this wasout of all the number combos they called
(17:37):
and the people named Joe Shepherd thatthey could look up, this was the
only one that had any ties whatsoeverto South Carolina if you didn't notice,
it kind of fits the profiler's description. Ellis is a blue collar worker.
He works as an electrician, andthis house is two miles from where Deborah
Helmleck's body was actually found. Sothey go straight over to Ellison Sharon Shepherd's
(18:04):
house and link Mary South Carolina knockon the door and their guns are pulled
and they are ready to take himin because they think that they have found
the man who has caused all ofthis chaos in their community. So they
began talking to him and they findout very quickly Ellison Sharon Shepherd have not
been home in six weeks. Theyquestion him, They ask him everything that
(18:26):
they can think of because they wantto know why their son's number would have
been on this paper in the samepad that this letter was written from Cherry
her last will and testament. They'relike, well, you know, I'm
not sure, and they say,well, before you leave, I want
to play this clip for you,and I want to tell me if you
recognize this voice. So they playthe clip of the nine on one call
(18:52):
and he says that dirty son ofa bitch, I know exactly who that
is. His name is Larry JeanBell. So it turns out while they
were gone, they had a housesitter. Larry lived with his parents.
He worked some odd jobs for Ellisand Sharon sometimes even worked with him as
an electrician. When they look fartherinto Larry, he fits the profile exactly.
(19:18):
He is in his thirties, he'sa white male, lives with his
parents, worked as an electrician,blue collar worker with Ellis, and he
had previously been arrested get this,for making threatening phone calls to a ten
year old girl. So Larry hadactually picked up Ellis and Sharon at the
(19:38):
airport when they came back, andhe would not stop talking about these two
cases of Deborah Helmlick and Sherry Smith. He had saved newspaper clippings for them
to look at when they got back, and they found it really weird.
But at the same time, Elliswas like well. And the detectives look
inside the Shepherd's house for clues beforethey can make an arrest, they have
(20:00):
to make sure that this is theguy. They don't want anything get in
the way of them as sending thismonster away forever. So when they're looking
at the house, they find thatEllis is missing his thirty eight pistol.
They find blonde hair samples. Theyfind a pack of underwear that matched the
underwear that was found on Deborah's bodyin the guest room where he stayed.
(20:23):
When they lifted the mattress, theyfound the missing thirty eight of Ellis's under
his mattress with a bunch of porn. So here's what they do. They
talk to Ellis and he says,well, he's supposed to come back over
here in the morning about seven o'clockto work, and they say, perfect,
have him come over at seven.We'll be waiting. So there's an
unmarked car that goes by Larry's houseand he parks outside until Larry leaves,
(20:48):
and he follows behind him. Andwhen Larry pulls up to the Shepherd's home
there is an entire police department waitingfor him. They arrest him on the
charges of a kidnapping and murder inharassment. When he is arrested and they
search his car, they actually findthat he has two license plates and his
car matches the description that Deborah's neighborhad given them when he saw her being
(21:14):
abducted in the car. The twolicense plates that he has. One starts
with a deed just like described before. However, they only had circumstantial evidence
linking him to Deborah May because noneof her DNA or anything was found in
the room. When forensics come backfrom processing the Shepherd's home, they find
that there are victim's fingerprints, herhair, and other things that indicated that
(21:41):
Sherry Smith had been in that guestroom with Larry Jean Bell, but he
denied all allegations. So on Junetwenty seventh, he is charged with two
counts of kidnapping and two counts ofmurder. He goes to trial and they
pursue the death nalty and they win. On October sixth of nineteen ninety six,
(22:04):
Larry Gene Bell is executed for themurders of Deborah Helmleck and Sherry Smith.
All Right, you guys, thankyou for coming along with that wild
story. Like I said, thatis one I kind of saved just for
(22:27):
Patreon. There are a lot ofdocumentaries on that case, a few podcast
episodes, but I just found itabsolutely crazy and it was a very good
police work, and especially for nineteeneighty five. So I just want to
say bravo to the police in Lexington, South Carolina for that that was very
(22:52):
good police work that they did.I still feel so incredibly sorry for the
family. Don Smith has done numerousinterviews with different TV shows and podcast and
news outlets and things like that tokind of bring awareness to Sherry's case.
I mean, even though it issolved and her abductor is deceased and he
(23:18):
was punished to the full extent ofthe law, I still could not imagine
losing your sister like that and thenbeing taunted. I will not play the
nine one calls for you, butthey were horrendous. The things that he
said that he did to those girls, it was absolutely awful. And I
guess he thought because he was livingin someone else's house that he was never
(23:40):
going to be caught, and hejust thought he was so smart. But
I will be linking the sources fortoday's episode and I can't wait to bring
you all of this nice extra contenthere on a Patreon. So, as
always, stay square and I'll seeyou next. Murder five
Hello, Hello everyone, and welcomeback to Murder Squared. If you are
on this episode, then that meansthat you are a Patreon member, so
welcome. I cannot thank you enoughfor joining at the five dollars level.
If you're listening to this, Ihave so many cases that I have saved
(00:27):
just for Patreon, because sometimes Ifeel like if the case is a little
too intense on the regular feed forthe podcast, that it just might be
too much for some people. Butif you are on Patreon and you're paying
for these extra episodes, I feellike you can disassociate from the cases and
(00:48):
that you are probably a really bigtrue crime fan. So I cannot thank
you enough for being here today withme and for going home this little journey
with me. So today, casethat we are going to talk about is
one that happened in nineteen eighty fivein Lexington, South Carolina. So if
(01:08):
you're ready, get squared away andlet's talk murder. Let me introduce you
to the Smith family. So youhave Bob who is the dad, Hilda
is the mom, and then theirthree children down Sherry and Robert. So
(01:33):
we have it rolled back the clockto May thirty, first of nineteen eighty
five where Sherry, her name isactually Sharon, but she goes by.
Sherry is seventeen years old and she'sjust gotten back home from a pool party.
So it's in May. Graduation isalmost there. They can see it.
(01:55):
There is a light at the endof this tunnel for them, so
she just got back from this pointparty. And when she comes up the
driveway, she stops to check themail, which was normal for Sherry.
So her dad is sitting in hisstudy. Her dad is actually a pastor
of their local church, so he'ssitting in his study and he looks out
the window and he can see Sherry'scar at the end of their driveway.
(02:15):
The driveway is a little long,so he sees her car and he can
see she's check in the mailbox,and he goes back to looking at his
reading, and then he looks backup and he knows it's been a couple
of minutes. He hasn't heard Sherrycome in. He looks up and her
car is still there, but nowhe can't see Sherry. So Sherry is
actually diabetic and sometimes she has troublecontrolling her sugar and in slim levels.
(02:40):
So he immediately thinks that something hashappened, maybe she's passed out, maybe
she needs help of some kind.So he goes to the bottom of the
driveway and when he gets there,her blue Chevy car is left to running,
There's a mail on the ground,and Sherry is nowhere in site.
(03:00):
He looks around for more clues towhere Sherry might be and he spots her
red bandanna that was tied in herhair lying on the ground, So Bob
knows that something is wrong. Heruns inside and he calls nine to one
and police make it to his houseimmediately. When they get there, they
(03:21):
talk about Sherry's day, what itlooked like, while her state of mind
has been recently, and it's veryquickly determined that Sherry did not run away.
After all, when you run away, you don't really just leave your
car sitting at the bottom of thedriveway running. So they begin looking everywhere
for Sherry. They have hundreds ofvolunteers scouring Lexington, South Carolina, looking
(03:45):
for her. They have contacted theSBI, and like I said, this
is on May thirty first. Soon June third, three days after Sherry
had went missing, it's two amand her mom and her sister and brother
and dad are all in the parentsroom, and it's been three days,
(04:05):
three days since they've seen their sisterand their daughter, and they haven't slept,
they haven't had a moment of peaceor rest. It's two am.
They're all together in this giant roomand they're just trying to get a little
bit of shady. The police arestationed at their house in case there's any
word from Sherry or anything like that. When the phone rings at two am,
(04:28):
this phone call wakes them up immediately, and the person on the phone
has something to say. When Hilda, Sherry's mom, answers the phone,
the caller says, this is nota hoax. Your daughter was taken by
the mailbox on May thirty first.She had on a black and white top
with white shorts over her polka dottedbikini. So this is when Hilda obviously
(04:55):
knows that this is Sherry's abductor thatshe's talking to. It had been suspected
at this point that Sherry had beenabducted, obviously, but they hadn't received
any ransom calls. There hadn't beenany clues to what happened to Sherry until
the phone rang on June third,so the caller also instruct Hilda to call
(05:17):
off the police searches that if sheever wants to see Sherry again, that
they'll call off the police. Inthe call, the person also says that
there will be a letter coming tothe Smith's house and it will be a
letter from Sherry that way, sothey know that this is not a joke,
(05:39):
this is not someone pretending. Thisis the real deal. And police
officers are unable to get a traceon this phone call. They had set
up some equipment, but it malfunctionedand they weren't able to get it.
So the police actually intercept this letterat the local post office and it's labeled
(05:59):
last Will and Testament and it's signedon June first, ten am. They
confirmed with Sherry's parents that it isin her handwriting. It did have a
little bit of weird verbiage in it, and she talked about her loved ones.
She said that she was with herfather now and that her family shouldn't
(06:19):
weep for her, and that theyshouldn't let this tragedy ruin their lives.
So there's a couple of things Iwant to point out here. First,
the letter was written on June first, which is the day after Sherry had
been taken. The time stamp thatshe put on the letter said ten am,
so it was about twelve hours actuallyfrom the point where she went missing.
(06:41):
Well, this ransom call wasn't untilJune third, two days later.
At first they think the verbiage isvery strange in it, but then they
realized, well, her dad isa pastor, and maybe this is the
way that Sherry talked. And itwasn't until June the fourth that a second
call came in and once again Sherry'smom answers, and the caller says,
(07:06):
our souls are now one. Andthis caller, Hilda notices this time that
it almost sounds like his voice isa little disorted, and she doesn't know
if this is the way he talksor if maybe he's using something to make
his voice sound like that. Butthis call lasted for ten seconds, and
(07:27):
they were able to get a traceon this call, and they were able
to trace it twenty miles away ata phone booth, and the callers said
on this call, also, you'llknow in two to three days what happened.
Call the search off. There areFBI profilers that are working on this
case now, and one in particularI want to talk about is John Douglas.
(07:49):
He was a pioneer profiler and hekind of set the foundation for a
lot of profilers to come that camethrough the Federal Bureau of Investigation. So
he says that to catch a killer, you have to think like a killer.
So they're looking at what type ofperson is this predator, and the
FBI suspect it is a white malethirties, has above average intelligence, is
(08:13):
single, and they think he's bluecollar and possibly works as an electrician.
They also believe this person has aprior record and is a local, and
he has obsessive compulsive disorder and verylow self esteem. The third call came
in on June fifth, and theabductor gave directions to find Sherry. He
(08:33):
said, take Highway three one hundredand seventy eight west to Traffic Circle,
then left at the white frame buildingsix feet beyond. We're waiting. God
chose us. And this is veryweird the way that he gave instructions,
which was clue to the FBI andthe local PD that this guy is very
(08:54):
local. The SBI also wanted thefamily to stay at home because they were
unaware of what Sherry's condition would belike. So the family were waiting together
in their parents room once again whenthey heard the officers arrive back at the
home. Their steps were loud andheavy as they made their way into the
(09:16):
room, and then they informed theSmith family that Sherry was deceased. They
believed that she died the day thatshe wrote the letter, on June first.
So what Sherry's body was found onthe fifth in Saulta County. This
was seventeen miles away from her home, and her body was very decomposed.
(09:37):
It had been over a hundred degreesthat week, and with the heat and
the elements, they were unable toofficially rule cause of death in her autopsy.
They were unable to even see ifshe had any signs of sexual assault
or anything like that. They dobelieve that her death, however, was
by dehydration or suffocation. They geta fourth phone call the night of Sherry's
(10:03):
funeral, and this is on Juneninth. Sherry's body was laid to rest
at Lexington Memorial Cemetery, and whenthe caller calls again this time, Sherry's
aunt, Beverly is actually the onethat answers the phone and then the caller
specifically asked to talk to Sherry's mom, Hilda, and she says, well,
(10:24):
hold on a minute, I can'tfind her. And this was an
attempt to stall the call that wasso the police could trace the call and
go get him. On the call, he tells her mother the most awful
things. He says, I justwanted to make love to Don, I
mean Sherry. I gave her achoice when she died, and she chose
(10:46):
suffocation. He also alludes to alot of other sexual assaults and things that
he did to Sherry. At theend of the phone call, he tells
them that she chose suffocation and hewrapped duct tape around her head. They
were able to trace the call,but before he ended it, he said,
only God knows why I killed her. They get to the booth and
(11:07):
once again this guy is gone andit's a completely different phone booth from what
he used last time. So investigatorsare now really afraid for Don Smith.
Sherry's older sister. Did you noticethe little mix up? He said,
I just wanted to make love toDon, I mean Sherry. So they'd
even think that maybe from the beginning, what if Don was the person that
(11:30):
he meant to abduct. Don andher sister look very similar to one another,
and for the next two weeks everythinggoes quiet until June fourteenth. So
on June fourteenth, this little girl, her name is Deborah Mayhelmlock, was
outside playing with her brother. Herfamily had actually only lived in this area
(11:50):
for about two weeks. This wasa little outside of Lexington. This was
in Richland County, and this littlegirl's outside playing with her brother in the
front yard. All of a sudden, someone pulls up, grabs her from
behind, and pulls her into theircar. A neighbor actually sees this happen
and it calls nine one one andhe tells them that the license plate started
(12:13):
with a D. So the neighborand the dad they try to find the
car. They hop in the dad'scar and drive and drive, and they
try to find this car, butthey're unable to. This was twenty five
miles away from Sherry's abduction and whereSherry lived, so at first they didn't
connect these cases. After all,Sherry was seventeen, she was older and
(12:37):
this is a little nine year oldgirl. Now, while the abductions may
sound similar them just being grabbed attheir home I mean, the victimology is
very different. And the SBI hadactually already said that if Dawn was not
available for him to grab, thathe would end up grabbing whoever he could,
(12:58):
that this was a very impulsive person, and unfortunately they were right.
So nine year old little Deborah hasnow been taken. Eight days after her
abduction, the Smiths received a phonecall and in this phone call, the
man tells down that she is next. He says, God wants you to
(13:18):
join Sherry Faye, and this iswhen they connect Deborah Helmleck to Sherry's abductor.
So the FBI profilers want to setup a trap. They want to
put Don's life in jeopardy. They'reasking the Smiths to put their only surviving
daughter at risk. So at thememorial service for Sherry, police hope that
(13:39):
this would get the man to calldown again and maybe they could have them
keep him on the phone for alittle longer. They have this memorial service
set up for Sherry and their undercoveragents everywhere. They are swarming the cemetery
in hopes to finding this guy.The FBI had down place a koala with
(14:00):
flowers on Sherry's grave, So they'recoaching down on these phone calls. They
know that this guy's watching and theyknow that he's seen her. They tell
her on the phone, do notbe harsh with him. Don't sound threatening.
You need to sound very maternal,very understanding. You need to make
him feel like he isn't charged.And sure enough, after midnight, the
(14:20):
phone rings, and when she answers, he says, you can't be protected
all the time. It might bethis month, might be next month,
might be next year, but youcan't be protected all the time. He
then gives instructions to Deborah's body,just like he did Sherry's. He said,
turn one left, turn left onPeach Festival Road. Go at three
(14:41):
and a half miles down Gilbert Way, go through the chain, past the
no trespassing son. Deborah May iswaiting God forgive us all. And when
they look, they find Deborah's littlebody right where the man said it would
be. It appeared that she hadbeen strangled or suffocated. She was wearing
a pink tank top and women's silkyunderwear, and these underwear were actually over
(15:05):
her own underwear. And they believethat she was killed the same day as
she was abducted. And they wereunable to determine if she was sexually assaulted
or not. When they tried totrace the call that he had made giving
the instructions to Deborah's body, theywere able to trace it once again to
a phone booth. Every time they'vetraced it to a phone booth, there
(15:28):
are no signs of anyone. There'sno fingerprints, no anything. There are
no leads at all, or soit would seem. So they have to
look at existing evidence. What dothey have. They have two girls that
are dead because of this guy.There is little to no evidence left on
their bodies. Sherry was so decomposedby the time they found her. What
(15:50):
do they have? So they lookat this last will and testament that Sherry
had written, and they're able toput it through this machine. It's called
an electrostatic detection apparatus, and itcan pick up images that aren't visible to
the naked eye. So what they'relooking for is if Sherry wrote this on
(16:11):
a pad of paper, what elsewas written on the pad of paper beforehand?
So the ESDA it fills in indicationsmade on the document with graphite and
they're able to look at this tolook at other documents that were held with
the one that they're examining. Soin the writing, they pick up a
(16:32):
name and a number, but theydon't have all of the numbers in this
phone number. The middle number andthe fourth number they're not able to see.
But they can see a name andit is Joe Shepherd and it is
an Alabama area code that they candetect. So investigators call every number combo
(16:53):
that they can think of until theyreach this man named Joe. They checked
his call records and he had beentalking with someone outside of Lexington in Lake
Murray, South Carolina. So policego to Alabama to interview Joe Shepherd because
he didn't match the killer's profile thatthey had. They had that he was
(17:17):
local, that he was still intown. So they asked Joe who he's
been calling and talking to in Murray, South Carolina, and he says,
well, my parents live in Murray, South Carolina. So they asked him
about his parents and he tells themhis dad is an electrician and his mom's
name is Sharon. And this wasout of all the number combos they called
(17:37):
and the people named Joe Shepherd thatthey could look up, this was the
only one that had any ties whatsoeverto South Carolina if you didn't notice,
it kind of fits the profiler's description. Ellis is a blue collar worker.
He works as an electrician, andthis house is two miles from where Deborah
Helmleck's body was actually found. Sothey go straight over to Ellison Sharon Shepherd's
(18:04):
house and link Mary South Carolina knockon the door and their guns are pulled
and they are ready to take himin because they think that they have found
the man who has caused all ofthis chaos in their community. So they
began talking to him and they findout very quickly Ellison Sharon Shepherd have not
been home in six weeks. Theyquestion him, They ask him everything that
(18:26):
they can think of because they wantto know why their son's number would have
been on this paper in the samepad that this letter was written from Cherry
her last will and testament. They'relike, well, you know, I'm
not sure, and they say,well, before you leave, I want
to play this clip for you,and I want to tell me if you
recognize this voice. So they playthe clip of the nine on one call
(18:52):
and he says that dirty son ofa bitch, I know exactly who that
is. His name is Larry JeanBell. So it turns out while they
were gone, they had a housesitter. Larry lived with his parents.
He worked some odd jobs for Ellisand Sharon sometimes even worked with him as
an electrician. When they look fartherinto Larry, he fits the profile exactly.
(19:18):
He is in his thirties, he'sa white male, lives with his
parents, worked as an electrician,blue collar worker with Ellis, and he
had previously been arrested get this,for making threatening phone calls to a ten
year old girl. So Larry hadactually picked up Ellis and Sharon at the
(19:38):
airport when they came back, andhe would not stop talking about these two
cases of Deborah Helmlick and Sherry Smith. He had saved newspaper clippings for them
to look at when they got back, and they found it really weird.
But at the same time, Elliswas like well. And the detectives look
inside the Shepherd's house for clues beforethey can make an arrest, they have
(20:00):
to make sure that this is theguy. They don't want anything get in
the way of them as sending thismonster away forever. So when they're looking
at the house, they find thatEllis is missing his thirty eight pistol.
They find blonde hair samples. Theyfind a pack of underwear that matched the
underwear that was found on Deborah's bodyin the guest room where he stayed.
(20:23):
When they lifted the mattress, theyfound the missing thirty eight of Ellis's under
his mattress with a bunch of porn. So here's what they do. They
talk to Ellis and he says,well, he's supposed to come back over
here in the morning about seven o'clockto work, and they say, perfect,
have him come over at seven.We'll be waiting. So there's an
unmarked car that goes by Larry's houseand he parks outside until Larry leaves,
(20:48):
and he follows behind him. Andwhen Larry pulls up to the Shepherd's home
there is an entire police department waitingfor him. They arrest him on the
charges of a kidnapping and murder inharassment. When he is arrested and they
search his car, they actually findthat he has two license plates and his
car matches the description that Deborah's neighborhad given them when he saw her being
(21:14):
abducted in the car. The twolicense plates that he has. One starts
with a deed just like described before. However, they only had circumstantial evidence
linking him to Deborah May because noneof her DNA or anything was found in
the room. When forensics come backfrom processing the Shepherd's home, they find
that there are victim's fingerprints, herhair, and other things that indicated that
(21:41):
Sherry Smith had been in that guestroom with Larry Jean Bell, but he
denied all allegations. So on Junetwenty seventh, he is charged with two
counts of kidnapping and two counts ofmurder. He goes to trial and they
pursue the death nalty and they win. On October sixth of nineteen ninety six,
(22:04):
Larry Gene Bell is executed for themurders of Deborah Helmleck and Sherry Smith.
All Right, you guys, thankyou for coming along with that wild
story. Like I said, thatis one I kind of saved just for
(22:27):
Patreon. There are a lot ofdocumentaries on that case, a few podcast
episodes, but I just found itabsolutely crazy and it was a very good
police work, and especially for nineteeneighty five. So I just want to
say bravo to the police in Lexington, South Carolina for that that was very
(22:52):
good police work that they did.I still feel so incredibly sorry for the
family. Don Smith has done numerousinterviews with different TV shows and podcast and
news outlets and things like that tokind of bring awareness to Sherry's case.
I mean, even though it issolved and her abductor is deceased and he
(23:18):
was punished to the full extent ofthe law, I still could not imagine
losing your sister like that and thenbeing taunted. I will not play the
nine one calls for you, butthey were horrendous. The things that he
said that he did to those girls, it was absolutely awful. And I
guess he thought because he was livingin someone else's house that he was never
(23:40):
going to be caught, and hejust thought he was so smart. But
I will be linking the sources fortoday's episode and I can't wait to bring
you all of this nice extra contenthere on a Patreon. So, as
always, stay square and I'll seeyou next. Murder five
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.