June 18, 2025 • 25 mins
Join CJ from Rainbow Crimes as she tells the story of the Highs Ice Cream Store Murders.
On April 11, 1967, in Staunton, Virginia, Sisters-in-law Constance Smootz Hevener and Carolyn Hevener Perry were shot and killed while working at the Highs Ice Cream Store. While a prime suspect was arrested, charged, and tried, he was ultimately acquitted, and the mystery of who killed these young women went unsoled for over 4 decades. Finally, after the case had long gone cold, someone came forward with the answer as to who the killer really was.
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On April 11, 1967, in Staunton, Virginia, Sisters-in-law Constance Smootz Hevener and Carolyn Hevener Perry were shot and killed while working at the Highs Ice Cream Store. While a prime suspect was arrested, charged, and tried, he was ultimately acquitted, and the mystery of who killed these young women went unsoled for over 4 decades. Finally, after the case had long gone cold, someone came forward with the answer as to who the killer really was.
Find CJ and more information about her podcast here
Connect with us on Social Media!
You can find us at:
Instagram: @bookofthedeadpod
X: @bkofthedeadpod
Facebook: The Book of the Dead Podcast
TikTok: Bookofthedeadpod
Or visit our website at www.botdpod.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dark Cast Network, the best in indie podcasts. I'm Griffin
and you're listening to Beyond the Rainbow True Crimes of
the LGBTQ Plus.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, this is a true crime show with adult content. No,
I'm not recording well naked. I just mean that I
sometimes drop swear words. Hey, they're Rainbow Warriors and welcome
to Beyond the Rainbow True Crimes of the LGBTQ Plus.
I'm your host, CJ. There will not be a new
(00:43):
episode next week is I'll be on the road to
the True Crime Paranormal Festival in Denver, and it's actually
an eight day road trip, so I'm not one hundred
percent sure if there'll be an episode the week after
or not. We'll just have to see how the trip goes.
So far, the trip's been kind of rocky for me,
and I haven't even left. But that's because the breeder
(01:05):
who said she'd deliver me a Multese puppy in Denver,
she went and promised out all her puppies to other people,
and she did not save one for me. She didn't
take deposits, and I made the mistake of thinking our
texting back and forth would solidify her bringing me a puppy,
So that's gonna be a bummer for me. You know,
(01:29):
I have this huge hole in my heart that Nilah
held and I just can't seem to get it filled
even a little bit. I did rent a van out
for our road trip to haul me, my daughter, her boyfriend,
and their two big dogs along. Oh yepie, that should
be an interesting trip. But at least with the van,
I don't have to strap my totes of merch on
(01:51):
top of the vehicle just to lose it all over
the highway somewhere. Are missing but not forgotten LGBTQ per
in this episode is forty one year old Taylor Casey
from Chicago, Illinois. Taylor went missing from a yoga retreat
in the Bahamas, to be more specific, Paradise Islin and
(02:13):
Nassau on June nineteenth, twenty twenty four. Exactly a week later,
on Wednesday, June twenty sixth her phone was found in
the ocean, but all of her other belongings were still
at the retreat. The organizers of the retreat have asked
the Bahama Police to investigate into Taylor's disappearance. These same
(02:36):
people learned of her being missing when Taylor failed to
show up for her classes on June twentieth. She was
last seen late the night of June nineteenth. Bahama police
seemed to be keeping whatever information they have close, and
they're sharing very little of it. This generally means we
(02:57):
don't know if it's because they don't have anything to share,
or if they believe foul play is involved. They're not
even saying if Taylor's phone in the ocean was found
close to the retreat or not, although they are saying
they've conducted an intensive investigation into Taylor's disappearance. I hate
feeling doubtful that the Bahama police are competent, but I
(03:20):
remember on the case of Rebecca Quorium on the Disney ship,
law enforcement from the Bahamas was lackluster at best. Oddly,
just after Taylor disappeared, the US issued a Level two
travel advisory to the island due to crime, to which
I say, damn. It'd be nice to know these things
(03:41):
before a person actually travels to the place. Right. Taylor's
family and friends are extremely worried about her. If you
or anyone you might know was on this retreat, lives
in the Bahamas, or may have information on finding Taylor,
please contact the Bahama Police. Taylor is a light skinned
(04:02):
black woman, standing five ten and weighing one hundred and
forty five pounds and Taylor, we hope you're found safe.
My friend. I'd like to preface this case by telling
you it's an oldie. It's a double murder that occurred
in nineteen sixty seven and remained a cold case until
(04:23):
the killer confessed on their deathbed in two thousand and nine.
She was a simple girl at the age of eighteen, tomboyish,
really short hair, no makeup, sort of slouched when she walked.
Her confidence and herself seemed to be lacking. She was
a hard worker, though she had two jobs. One was
(04:46):
at a hospital as a nurse's assistant, and the other
she worked part time at Hyge's ice cream store in Stanton, Virginia.
Her name was Sharon Diane Crawford, but she went bire
middle names of Diane. At High's ice cream store, she
worked with two girls, two girls she had actually went
(05:07):
to high school with, but were a little bit older
than her. One was nineteen year old Connie Smoot's Heavener,
who was a twin having a twin brother. The other
girl was twenty year old Caroline Hevner Perry, whose parents
owned that particular ice cream shop. Still on her teens,
Connie was already married, but then again, it was nineteen
(05:30):
sixty seven. Marriage and babies as teenagers it was pretty
common stuff. Connie had married the brother of her best
friend and co worker, Carolyne. The two girls had been
cheerleaders together in high school, and since Carolyne's parents owned
the shop, she too worked there. Carolyn also was married
(05:51):
and she had a two year old daughter. It was
uncharacteristically hot April eleventh of nineteen sixty seven of people
had visited the ice cream shop for their favorite treats.
Diane had called out sick that day and one of
the other two girls was filling in for her. But
Diane had problems with her two co workers of Connie
(06:14):
and Carolyn. Mostly with Connie. Connie had taken to teasing
and name calling Diane for her appearance. Lesbian, dyke and
other names were meant to be derogatory. They were her
go to insults. Diane very well could have been a lesbian,
but she had no experience in dating girls. She didn't
(06:37):
have any experience in dating boys, so Connie's jabs were
solely based on Diane's looks, and that stung Diane to
her core. Prior to the evening of April eleventh, Diane
had called up an acquaintance, someone she worked at the
hospital with, actually, and she asked this girl, Joyce Bradshaw,
(06:58):
she wanted to go grab a burger with her. Joyce
said sure. Diane picked Joyce up, and once they got
to the burger joint, Diane had Joyce open her glove
compartment and no, that's not a sexual innuendo. When Joyce
opened the glove box, a twenty five caliber pistol was revealed.
(07:19):
Diane called the gun her baby, and she said, there's
two bullets in it. When is for my stepdad who
had allegedly molested Diane? And when is for the girl
I work with? We now know that Diane was referring
to Connie. Well, Joyce had no clue who the girl
she worked with was, nor did she ask who it
(07:41):
might be or why Diane wanted to use the bullets
on the two people she named, because actually, right now
she was kind of terrified of this Roague girl that
she was with. And to be honest, Joyce couldn't get
home and away from Diane fast enough. Back to April eleventh,
nineteen sixty seven. At the ice cream shop. It was
(08:03):
eleven PM closing time. Hys had extended their hours until
eleven due to the warmer weather that was occurring. Connie
and Carolyn were starting there closing the store procedures. In
the back door of the shop, a figure had opened
the door and they had popped in. It was Diane.
(08:23):
She had come to tell Connie she wouldn't be able
to cover Connie's shift the following day. For some reason.
This started a verbal altercation between the two girls. In
a fit of rage, Diane grabbed her baby that she'd
been hiding somewhere on her body, perhaps in a pocket
or tucked into the waistban of the pants she was wearing.
(08:46):
She held the gun and she shot Connie, who immediately
slumped to the ground. Carolyn was startled and she saw
what Diane had done. She rushed over to Connie and
she knelt over her protectively. That's when Diane took the
gun to Caroline and shot her too. As the girls
(09:08):
lay one on top of another on the ground in
a pool of their own blood, Diane grabbed the money
the girls had collected from the register and were going
to drop into a security box. The total amount was
a hundred and thirty eight dollars. I know that doesn't
sound like a bunch of money now, but in nineteen
sixty seven money, it was a good lot of pocket change.
(09:32):
Diane fled out the back door to her car and
she drove around aimlessly, wondering what she was going to do.
She was hoping no one had seen her go into
the shopp or leave, but she was nervous. After hours
of driving around in a daze, the answers suddenly came
to her and she drove to a farm that she
(09:54):
had been to dozens of times. The farm was owned
by Dave Bocock, who just so happened to be the
detective in charge of criminal investigations for the Stanton Police Department.
Dave was Diane's friend, and he was the one who
taught her how to use her gun, which is why
she had spent so much time at his farm. When
(10:16):
she got to the farm, Dave, who was actually the
first law enforcement at the crime scene, was home now,
and Diane told Dave exactly what had happened. He told
her not to worry, and he made Diane give him
her gun. He then put it in a metal box
and buried it somewhere on his property. The girls in
(10:38):
the ice cream shop were discovered by a passerby who
had used a payphone. This man called in saying he
believed that there were injured people in the Highs ice
cream store. He stated his name is Bill Thomas. Bill
was a twenty four year old school teacher. Again, Detective
(10:59):
Dave was the first law enforcement at the scene, and
Detective Dave didn't yet know what had happened. But then
more police in the ambulance arrived. Connie had already succumbed
to her injury, but Carolyn was hanging on by a
thin thread. She ended up passing away on the way
to the hospital. To start their investigation that appeared to
(11:24):
be a robbery gone wrong with money missing, police called
upon Bill Thomas, the one who phoned the crime in.
He was kind of a witness and it seemed like
a good place for them to start, especially since DNA
testing wasn't really a thing back then. They most likely
dusted for fingerprints as well, but with so many people
(11:46):
in and out of the ice cream shop, It kind
of seemed like a daunting task. Once investigators had built
down at the station, he told them he saw two
men run off. One of the men was black and
the other was white. The black man was big, he
was six feet tall, and the white man he was
(12:06):
even bigger. It soon came out that Bill was lying
about seeing the two men. No one really knows why
he decided to lie about a story, but you can
bet it put him to the head of the murder
suspect list. For someone to make up a story and
try to involve themselves even more into a case, it's
(12:29):
a little suspect for sure, and that's what the police
thought as well, well, almost all of them, with the
exception of Detective Dave Bocock, of course. But Dave was
ready to let Bill take the fall for the crime
with no guilt on his conscience whatsoever. Since Detective Dave
(12:50):
was the lead on the case, very minimal was done.
He didn't even interview the victim's family for leads because
Dave didn't need to. He knew what had happened. It
wasn't too long after the murders that Joyce Bradshaw remember her,
She's the nursing coworker of Diane's who went out for
(13:13):
burgers with her. Joyce went to see Detective Dave to
tell him about seeing a gun in Diane's car and
relaying the chilling statement that Diane had made about her
gun having two bullets and who they were four. What
Dave told Joyce was that he knew about Diane's gun.
(13:34):
In fact, he's the one who taught her how to
use it in Diane's a crack shot. Joyce somehow felt
very intimidated and frightened by Dave's words, and this fear
made her decide to just drop it and not pursue
her knowledge of Diane's gun and the ominous threats any further.
(13:56):
A couple of days later, Detective Dave got a hold
of Joyce. He told her that he gave Diane a
polygraph test in which she passed, and that the bullets
that shot the ice cream shop girls didn't match the
bullets in Diane's gun. He told Joyce this to ease
her mind and to get her off of his back.
(14:18):
You're probably getting the idea now that either Dave is
a dirty cop or he for some reason has a
strong need to protect Diane, or maybe both. Some sources
have said that the answer is both, with Dave being
heard telling someone how easy it is as an officer
to manipulate the system. There's speculation also that Dave might
(14:43):
have been Diane's birth father. Her birth certificate only list
her mother on it, but he might have taken a
keen fascination in Diane because perhaps he was her birthdad.
More and more suspicion was cast it a upon Bill Thomas,
the alleged witness. He was arrested a year later in
(15:05):
nineteen sixty eight, and he was charged with the murder
of only Connie. What CJ Why only one of the girls? Well, warriors,
This was actually a very smart move by the prosecution,
and the reason they went after Bill for only one
of the murders was just in case he was acquitted.
(15:27):
If the prosecution lost the case against Bill for Connie's murder,
they could still go after him for Carolyn's murder. Otherwise,
if the prosecution went after him for both and lost,
they couldn't read try Bill due to double jeopardy laws, which,
as you probably know, is when a person who's been
accused is acquitted by a jury and they cannot be
(15:49):
prosecuted for the same crime twice. Now. Bill was kind
of his own worst enemy, and he was doing stupid
ass things like going around town and telling people he
killed the two girls. People thought he was crazy, and
to be honest, with continually inserting himself into the crime,
(16:10):
Bill must have been a little off culter. I mean,
it's pretty dumb to first lie to the police with
a bogus story of two guys fleeing, and then to
go on and tell everyone he did the crime. Something
must have been going on with him. Maybe he felt
he lived a meager existence and needed to feel important somehow.
(16:32):
I just don't know. He was twenty four years old
and a school teacher, that in itself was a wonderful accomplishment.
I don't know why he kept trying to sabotage himself.
So Bill goes to trial and the evidence against him
is not enough for the jury to substantiate that he
go to prison. There wasn't even a murder weapon found,
(16:57):
His fingerprints were nowhere in the eyece scream shop. How
could they possibly find him guilty in spite of the
hearsay about him bragging to people he murdered these girls.
In spite of him initially lying to the police with
the fabricated story of who did it, there was nothing
to prove his involvement. Back in those days, innocent until
(17:20):
proven guilty seemed to hold more weight than it does today.
It took the jury three hours to come back with
Bill's acquittal. Now, the prosecutors, disappointed that they didn't get
their man, had to wait to see if more evidence
would crop up so that way they could go after
Bill for Carolyn's murder. In the meantime, Diane moved away
(17:44):
from Stanton, Virginia. She decided to not live her truth
because the burden was way too much at that time,
so she married a man and they had two children together.
The man she married, his last name was Smith. She
chose the ditch going by her middle name and to
(18:05):
go by Sharon instead. She was now Sharon Smith instead
of Diane Crawford. In two thousand and six, detective Dave
Bocock passed away. He took Diane's secret to the grave
with them. Other detectives who had taken over would look
at this case with perplexity, wondering who could have killed
(18:28):
these girls. Not one of them could figure it out.
Or even come up with another viable suspect other than
Bill Thomas for yours. The families of the victims continued
to hound the police, asking them why they could not
find out who murdered their daughters. Even with advancements in
(18:49):
DNA technology and ballistic evidence, police had no answers for
them as to why. One detective commented that a typical
murder case would normally have a three inch thick folder
on it, where the file on Connie and Carolyn was
only half an inch thick. There just wasn't much to
(19:11):
go on. In two thousand and eight, the case had
some life pumped back into it. That's when Joyce Bradshaw,
who had been holding on to what transpired the night
she went with Diane for burgers and saw the gun
in Diane's glove compartment and had heard Diane's ominous threats
(19:31):
of killing two people. This information had to still be
laying really heavy on Joyce's mind for her to bring
it back up. She made a call to crime Stoppers.
Also in two thousand and eight, a cousin of one
of the victims, whose name is loll Sheets, he had
been looking into who murdered his cousin, Joyce goot winted
(19:55):
this and she went to him with her information. This
this information resurrected the memory of the long forgotten part
time ice cream shop worker who had called in sick
the night of the murders. Moel Sheets is the one
who got the police active again on this case. The
case was over forty years old. Sharon Smith aka Diane
(20:21):
Crawford was no longer married and I'm not positive if
her husband passed away or if they divorced, but her
children were grown by now and she was ailing, so
she moved back to Stanton. Their female partner. Sharon was
now finally comfortable enough to deliver truth without worrying about
(20:43):
being teased for it. But her health was so bad
she was admitted to a nursing home. She was dying
from kidney and heart failure. When detectives went to question
Sharon Smith in August of two thousand and eight, she
did not want to tell him the truth, but she
finally relented that she was the one who shot both
(21:05):
Connie and Carolyne in the head. After she drove around
for a while, she went to Detective Dave's ranch and
she gave him the gun which he buried somewhere on
his property. In November of two thousand and eight, Sharon
was arrested. Anna mugshot of her was taken in her
bed at the hospital she was in. She remained at
(21:26):
that hospital facility until she passed away just a few
months later on January nineteenth, two thousand and nine. Family
members of the victims were still none too pleased with
the police, even after Sharon confessed. They felt the police
were dragging their feet so Sharon could leave the world
peacefully without having any consequence for her actions in nineteen
(21:50):
sixty seven, although it must be said that the families
have felt some comfort in finally finding out who really
killed their loved ones. Rest in power, Connie and Carolyn.
Our true crime quickie was sent to me by my
buddy Jamie b. This case is from Utah and it
(22:11):
just happened March of this year, so unfortunately there's no
final resolution yet, but one is being worked on, so
they're getting close. The story is about a twenty one
year old trans man named Alex Franco. Alex had his
life quickly taken from him. It was fairly soon after
(22:31):
he willingly climbed into a white jeep Liberty. This was
in front of his girlfriend's home in a Taylorsville neighborhood
of Salt Lake County, Utah. Also in the white jeep
Liberty were a fifteen year old boy and two seventeen
year old boys. These miners whose names are being withheld
(22:51):
because of their rage. At least one of these three
were known by Alex. Alex had arranged for these teens
to pick him up so he could buy himself a gun,
but it would seem that these teens had other plans
for Alex. My assumption in this case is that the
gun Alex was set to buy is the same gun
(23:13):
that murdered him. The three teens knew Alex had money
on him enough to buy a gun, and that's when
the whole situation turned on Alex and became a robbery instead.
The fifteen year old held the gun on Alex and
one of the three teens pepper sprayed Alex's eyes, and
(23:33):
then Alex was shot once in his head, which killed him.
The car then sped away with Alex's body still in it.
The three teenagers drove to a remote location in a
nearby desert and they dropped Alex's remains there. One of
the seventeen year old kids actually turned himself into the
(23:54):
police and he led authorities to Alex's body that was
dumped in the desert. His name is now public record,
but it's really not important in the telling of Alex's story.
He claims to have been the driver of the white
jeep Liberty. The three teens have been arrested and they're
being charged as adults. Their trials have not happened yet,
(24:18):
but it does look like the state of Utah is
taking the case very seriously since these teens will be
tried as adults. Rest in power, Alex. I love your
Rainbow Warriors, You matter and I'll catch you in a
couple of weeks after the True Crime Paranormal Festival in Denver,
(24:39):
and my road trip is over fingers crossed in good
Jujus in the universe for me, Please that it's going
to be a safe trip in that maybe I'll be
able to find myself a little Maltese puppy to bring
home with me. Remember, it's not a crime to be
gay or to live your truth unless sure murderer
Dark Cast Network, the best in indie podcasts. I'm Griffin
and you're listening to Beyond the Rainbow True Crimes of
the LGBTQ Plus.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, this is a true crime show with adult content. No,
I'm not recording well naked. I just mean that I
sometimes drop swear words. Hey, they're Rainbow Warriors and welcome
to Beyond the Rainbow True Crimes of the LGBTQ Plus.
I'm your host, CJ. There will not be a new
(00:43):
episode next week is I'll be on the road to
the True Crime Paranormal Festival in Denver, and it's actually
an eight day road trip, so I'm not one hundred
percent sure if there'll be an episode the week after
or not. We'll just have to see how the trip goes.
So far, the trip's been kind of rocky for me,
and I haven't even left. But that's because the breeder
(01:05):
who said she'd deliver me a Multese puppy in Denver,
she went and promised out all her puppies to other people,
and she did not save one for me. She didn't
take deposits, and I made the mistake of thinking our
texting back and forth would solidify her bringing me a puppy,
So that's gonna be a bummer for me. You know,
(01:29):
I have this huge hole in my heart that Nilah
held and I just can't seem to get it filled
even a little bit. I did rent a van out
for our road trip to haul me, my daughter, her boyfriend,
and their two big dogs along. Oh yepie, that should
be an interesting trip. But at least with the van,
I don't have to strap my totes of merch on
(01:51):
top of the vehicle just to lose it all over
the highway somewhere. Are missing but not forgotten LGBTQ per
in this episode is forty one year old Taylor Casey
from Chicago, Illinois. Taylor went missing from a yoga retreat
in the Bahamas, to be more specific, Paradise Islin and
(02:13):
Nassau on June nineteenth, twenty twenty four. Exactly a week later,
on Wednesday, June twenty sixth her phone was found in
the ocean, but all of her other belongings were still
at the retreat. The organizers of the retreat have asked
the Bahama Police to investigate into Taylor's disappearance. These same
(02:36):
people learned of her being missing when Taylor failed to
show up for her classes on June twentieth. She was
last seen late the night of June nineteenth. Bahama police
seemed to be keeping whatever information they have close, and
they're sharing very little of it. This generally means we
(02:57):
don't know if it's because they don't have anything to share,
or if they believe foul play is involved. They're not
even saying if Taylor's phone in the ocean was found
close to the retreat or not, although they are saying
they've conducted an intensive investigation into Taylor's disappearance. I hate
feeling doubtful that the Bahama police are competent, but I
(03:20):
remember on the case of Rebecca Quorium on the Disney ship,
law enforcement from the Bahamas was lackluster at best. Oddly,
just after Taylor disappeared, the US issued a Level two
travel advisory to the island due to crime, to which
I say, damn. It'd be nice to know these things
(03:41):
before a person actually travels to the place. Right. Taylor's
family and friends are extremely worried about her. If you
or anyone you might know was on this retreat, lives
in the Bahamas, or may have information on finding Taylor,
please contact the Bahama Police. Taylor is a light skinned
(04:02):
black woman, standing five ten and weighing one hundred and
forty five pounds and Taylor, we hope you're found safe.
My friend. I'd like to preface this case by telling
you it's an oldie. It's a double murder that occurred
in nineteen sixty seven and remained a cold case until
(04:23):
the killer confessed on their deathbed in two thousand and nine.
She was a simple girl at the age of eighteen, tomboyish,
really short hair, no makeup, sort of slouched when she walked.
Her confidence and herself seemed to be lacking. She was
a hard worker, though she had two jobs. One was
(04:46):
at a hospital as a nurse's assistant, and the other
she worked part time at Hyge's ice cream store in Stanton, Virginia.
Her name was Sharon Diane Crawford, but she went bire
middle names of Diane. At High's ice cream store, she
worked with two girls, two girls she had actually went
(05:07):
to high school with, but were a little bit older
than her. One was nineteen year old Connie Smoot's Heavener,
who was a twin having a twin brother. The other
girl was twenty year old Caroline Hevner Perry, whose parents
owned that particular ice cream shop. Still on her teens,
Connie was already married, but then again, it was nineteen
(05:30):
sixty seven. Marriage and babies as teenagers it was pretty
common stuff. Connie had married the brother of her best
friend and co worker, Carolyne. The two girls had been
cheerleaders together in high school, and since Carolyne's parents owned
the shop, she too worked there. Carolyn also was married
(05:51):
and she had a two year old daughter. It was
uncharacteristically hot April eleventh of nineteen sixty seven of people
had visited the ice cream shop for their favorite treats.
Diane had called out sick that day and one of
the other two girls was filling in for her. But
Diane had problems with her two co workers of Connie
(06:14):
and Carolyn. Mostly with Connie. Connie had taken to teasing
and name calling Diane for her appearance. Lesbian, dyke and
other names were meant to be derogatory. They were her
go to insults. Diane very well could have been a lesbian,
but she had no experience in dating girls. She didn't
(06:37):
have any experience in dating boys, so Connie's jabs were
solely based on Diane's looks, and that stung Diane to
her core. Prior to the evening of April eleventh, Diane
had called up an acquaintance, someone she worked at the
hospital with, actually, and she asked this girl, Joyce Bradshaw,
(06:58):
she wanted to go grab a burger with her. Joyce
said sure. Diane picked Joyce up, and once they got
to the burger joint, Diane had Joyce open her glove
compartment and no, that's not a sexual innuendo. When Joyce
opened the glove box, a twenty five caliber pistol was revealed.
(07:19):
Diane called the gun her baby, and she said, there's
two bullets in it. When is for my stepdad who
had allegedly molested Diane? And when is for the girl
I work with? We now know that Diane was referring
to Connie. Well, Joyce had no clue who the girl
she worked with was, nor did she ask who it
(07:41):
might be or why Diane wanted to use the bullets
on the two people she named, because actually, right now
she was kind of terrified of this Roague girl that
she was with. And to be honest, Joyce couldn't get
home and away from Diane fast enough. Back to April eleventh,
nineteen sixty seven. At the ice cream shop. It was
(08:03):
eleven PM closing time. Hys had extended their hours until
eleven due to the warmer weather that was occurring. Connie
and Carolyn were starting there closing the store procedures. In
the back door of the shop, a figure had opened
the door and they had popped in. It was Diane.
(08:23):
She had come to tell Connie she wouldn't be able
to cover Connie's shift the following day. For some reason.
This started a verbal altercation between the two girls. In
a fit of rage, Diane grabbed her baby that she'd
been hiding somewhere on her body, perhaps in a pocket
or tucked into the waistban of the pants she was wearing.
(08:46):
She held the gun and she shot Connie, who immediately
slumped to the ground. Carolyn was startled and she saw
what Diane had done. She rushed over to Connie and
she knelt over her protectively. That's when Diane took the
gun to Caroline and shot her too. As the girls
(09:08):
lay one on top of another on the ground in
a pool of their own blood, Diane grabbed the money
the girls had collected from the register and were going
to drop into a security box. The total amount was
a hundred and thirty eight dollars. I know that doesn't
sound like a bunch of money now, but in nineteen
sixty seven money, it was a good lot of pocket change.
(09:32):
Diane fled out the back door to her car and
she drove around aimlessly, wondering what she was going to do.
She was hoping no one had seen her go into
the shopp or leave, but she was nervous. After hours
of driving around in a daze, the answers suddenly came
to her and she drove to a farm that she
(09:54):
had been to dozens of times. The farm was owned
by Dave Bocock, who just so happened to be the
detective in charge of criminal investigations for the Stanton Police Department.
Dave was Diane's friend, and he was the one who
taught her how to use her gun, which is why
she had spent so much time at his farm. When
(10:16):
she got to the farm, Dave, who was actually the
first law enforcement at the crime scene, was home now,
and Diane told Dave exactly what had happened. He told
her not to worry, and he made Diane give him
her gun. He then put it in a metal box
and buried it somewhere on his property. The girls in
(10:38):
the ice cream shop were discovered by a passerby who
had used a payphone. This man called in saying he
believed that there were injured people in the Highs ice
cream store. He stated his name is Bill Thomas. Bill
was a twenty four year old school teacher. Again, Detective
(10:59):
Dave was the first law enforcement at the scene, and
Detective Dave didn't yet know what had happened. But then
more police in the ambulance arrived. Connie had already succumbed
to her injury, but Carolyn was hanging on by a
thin thread. She ended up passing away on the way
to the hospital. To start their investigation that appeared to
(11:24):
be a robbery gone wrong with money missing, police called
upon Bill Thomas, the one who phoned the crime in.
He was kind of a witness and it seemed like
a good place for them to start, especially since DNA
testing wasn't really a thing back then. They most likely
dusted for fingerprints as well, but with so many people
(11:46):
in and out of the ice cream shop, It kind
of seemed like a daunting task. Once investigators had built
down at the station, he told them he saw two
men run off. One of the men was black and
the other was white. The black man was big, he
was six feet tall, and the white man he was
(12:06):
even bigger. It soon came out that Bill was lying
about seeing the two men. No one really knows why
he decided to lie about a story, but you can
bet it put him to the head of the murder
suspect list. For someone to make up a story and
try to involve themselves even more into a case, it's
(12:29):
a little suspect for sure, and that's what the police
thought as well, well, almost all of them, with the
exception of Detective Dave Bocock, of course. But Dave was
ready to let Bill take the fall for the crime
with no guilt on his conscience whatsoever. Since Detective Dave
(12:50):
was the lead on the case, very minimal was done.
He didn't even interview the victim's family for leads because
Dave didn't need to. He knew what had happened. It
wasn't too long after the murders that Joyce Bradshaw remember her,
She's the nursing coworker of Diane's who went out for
(13:13):
burgers with her. Joyce went to see Detective Dave to
tell him about seeing a gun in Diane's car and
relaying the chilling statement that Diane had made about her
gun having two bullets and who they were four. What
Dave told Joyce was that he knew about Diane's gun.
(13:34):
In fact, he's the one who taught her how to
use it in Diane's a crack shot. Joyce somehow felt
very intimidated and frightened by Dave's words, and this fear
made her decide to just drop it and not pursue
her knowledge of Diane's gun and the ominous threats any further.
(13:56):
A couple of days later, Detective Dave got a hold
of Joyce. He told her that he gave Diane a
polygraph test in which she passed, and that the bullets
that shot the ice cream shop girls didn't match the
bullets in Diane's gun. He told Joyce this to ease
her mind and to get her off of his back.
(14:18):
You're probably getting the idea now that either Dave is
a dirty cop or he for some reason has a
strong need to protect Diane, or maybe both. Some sources
have said that the answer is both, with Dave being
heard telling someone how easy it is as an officer
to manipulate the system. There's speculation also that Dave might
(14:43):
have been Diane's birth father. Her birth certificate only list
her mother on it, but he might have taken a
keen fascination in Diane because perhaps he was her birthdad.
More and more suspicion was cast it a upon Bill Thomas,
the alleged witness. He was arrested a year later in
(15:05):
nineteen sixty eight, and he was charged with the murder
of only Connie. What CJ Why only one of the girls? Well, warriors,
This was actually a very smart move by the prosecution,
and the reason they went after Bill for only one
of the murders was just in case he was acquitted.
(15:27):
If the prosecution lost the case against Bill for Connie's murder,
they could still go after him for Carolyn's murder. Otherwise,
if the prosecution went after him for both and lost,
they couldn't read try Bill due to double jeopardy laws, which,
as you probably know, is when a person who's been
accused is acquitted by a jury and they cannot be
(15:49):
prosecuted for the same crime twice. Now. Bill was kind
of his own worst enemy, and he was doing stupid
ass things like going around town and telling people he
killed the two girls. People thought he was crazy, and
to be honest, with continually inserting himself into the crime,
(16:10):
Bill must have been a little off culter. I mean,
it's pretty dumb to first lie to the police with
a bogus story of two guys fleeing, and then to
go on and tell everyone he did the crime. Something
must have been going on with him. Maybe he felt
he lived a meager existence and needed to feel important somehow.
(16:32):
I just don't know. He was twenty four years old
and a school teacher, that in itself was a wonderful accomplishment.
I don't know why he kept trying to sabotage himself.
So Bill goes to trial and the evidence against him
is not enough for the jury to substantiate that he
go to prison. There wasn't even a murder weapon found,
(16:57):
His fingerprints were nowhere in the eyece scream shop. How
could they possibly find him guilty in spite of the
hearsay about him bragging to people he murdered these girls.
In spite of him initially lying to the police with
the fabricated story of who did it, there was nothing
to prove his involvement. Back in those days, innocent until
(17:20):
proven guilty seemed to hold more weight than it does today.
It took the jury three hours to come back with
Bill's acquittal. Now, the prosecutors, disappointed that they didn't get
their man, had to wait to see if more evidence
would crop up so that way they could go after
Bill for Carolyn's murder. In the meantime, Diane moved away
(17:44):
from Stanton, Virginia. She decided to not live her truth
because the burden was way too much at that time,
so she married a man and they had two children together.
The man she married, his last name was Smith. She
chose the ditch going by her middle name and to
(18:05):
go by Sharon instead. She was now Sharon Smith instead
of Diane Crawford. In two thousand and six, detective Dave
Bocock passed away. He took Diane's secret to the grave
with them. Other detectives who had taken over would look
at this case with perplexity, wondering who could have killed
(18:28):
these girls. Not one of them could figure it out.
Or even come up with another viable suspect other than
Bill Thomas for yours. The families of the victims continued
to hound the police, asking them why they could not
find out who murdered their daughters. Even with advancements in
(18:49):
DNA technology and ballistic evidence, police had no answers for
them as to why. One detective commented that a typical
murder case would normally have a three inch thick folder
on it, where the file on Connie and Carolyn was
only half an inch thick. There just wasn't much to
(19:11):
go on. In two thousand and eight, the case had
some life pumped back into it. That's when Joyce Bradshaw,
who had been holding on to what transpired the night
she went with Diane for burgers and saw the gun
in Diane's glove compartment and had heard Diane's ominous threats
(19:31):
of killing two people. This information had to still be
laying really heavy on Joyce's mind for her to bring
it back up. She made a call to crime Stoppers.
Also in two thousand and eight, a cousin of one
of the victims, whose name is loll Sheets, he had
been looking into who murdered his cousin, Joyce goot winted
(19:55):
this and she went to him with her information. This
this information resurrected the memory of the long forgotten part
time ice cream shop worker who had called in sick
the night of the murders. Moel Sheets is the one
who got the police active again on this case. The
case was over forty years old. Sharon Smith aka Diane
(20:21):
Crawford was no longer married and I'm not positive if
her husband passed away or if they divorced, but her
children were grown by now and she was ailing, so
she moved back to Stanton. Their female partner. Sharon was
now finally comfortable enough to deliver truth without worrying about
(20:43):
being teased for it. But her health was so bad
she was admitted to a nursing home. She was dying
from kidney and heart failure. When detectives went to question
Sharon Smith in August of two thousand and eight, she
did not want to tell him the truth, but she
finally relented that she was the one who shot both
(21:05):
Connie and Carolyne in the head. After she drove around
for a while, she went to Detective Dave's ranch and
she gave him the gun which he buried somewhere on
his property. In November of two thousand and eight, Sharon
was arrested. Anna mugshot of her was taken in her
bed at the hospital she was in. She remained at
(21:26):
that hospital facility until she passed away just a few
months later on January nineteenth, two thousand and nine. Family
members of the victims were still none too pleased with
the police, even after Sharon confessed. They felt the police
were dragging their feet so Sharon could leave the world
peacefully without having any consequence for her actions in nineteen
(21:50):
sixty seven, although it must be said that the families
have felt some comfort in finally finding out who really
killed their loved ones. Rest in power, Connie and Carolyn.
Our true crime quickie was sent to me by my
buddy Jamie b. This case is from Utah and it
(22:11):
just happened March of this year, so unfortunately there's no
final resolution yet, but one is being worked on, so
they're getting close. The story is about a twenty one
year old trans man named Alex Franco. Alex had his
life quickly taken from him. It was fairly soon after
(22:31):
he willingly climbed into a white jeep Liberty. This was
in front of his girlfriend's home in a Taylorsville neighborhood
of Salt Lake County, Utah. Also in the white jeep
Liberty were a fifteen year old boy and two seventeen
year old boys. These miners whose names are being withheld
(22:51):
because of their rage. At least one of these three
were known by Alex. Alex had arranged for these teens
to pick him up so he could buy himself a gun,
but it would seem that these teens had other plans
for Alex. My assumption in this case is that the
gun Alex was set to buy is the same gun
(23:13):
that murdered him. The three teens knew Alex had money
on him enough to buy a gun, and that's when
the whole situation turned on Alex and became a robbery instead.
The fifteen year old held the gun on Alex and
one of the three teens pepper sprayed Alex's eyes, and
(23:33):
then Alex was shot once in his head, which killed him.
The car then sped away with Alex's body still in it.
The three teenagers drove to a remote location in a
nearby desert and they dropped Alex's remains there. One of
the seventeen year old kids actually turned himself into the
(23:54):
police and he led authorities to Alex's body that was
dumped in the desert. His name is now public record,
but it's really not important in the telling of Alex's story.
He claims to have been the driver of the white
jeep Liberty. The three teens have been arrested and they're
being charged as adults. Their trials have not happened yet,
(24:18):
but it does look like the state of Utah is
taking the case very seriously since these teens will be
tried as adults. Rest in power, Alex. I love your
Rainbow Warriors, You matter and I'll catch you in a
couple of weeks after the True Crime Paranormal Festival in Denver,
(24:39):
and my road trip is over fingers crossed in good
Jujus in the universe for me, Please that it's going
to be a safe trip in that maybe I'll be
able to find myself a little Maltese puppy to bring
home with me. Remember, it's not a crime to be
gay or to live your truth unless sure murderer
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