September 14, 2025 • 44 mins
Join hosts Dani and Stephanie on The Lethal Library as they dive into the intricate true crime tales of Marilyn Hickey and Cheryle Barratt. These chilling cases, spanning Washington and Idaho, remained unsolved for decades until advancements in DNA technology and the perseverance of investigators brought justice. Listen in as the story unfolds—complete with false leads, wrongful accusations, and the ultimate breakthrough that connected the dots. Delve into the frustrations and triumphs of cold case investigations and find out how one discarded cigarette butt led to the arrest of a long-elusive killer.
Contact The Lethal Library at TheLethalLibrary@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok!
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Episode Transcript
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Stephanie (00:30):
Hello and welcome back to The Lethal Library.
I am your host Stephanie.
And I'm Danny.
And today we're back again totell you another story of True
crime in Idaho.
we are a True Crime podcast.
We like to focus on cases inIdaho, in the Pacific Northwest.
if you're hearing this after ourbreak, thank you for.
(00:52):
Letting us have a little bitmore summer.
we're so excited to be back andwe hope you had a great summer
too, and now it's the start ofspooky season, so let's cheers
to that.
Hell yeah.
Sis love us some spooky season.
Yes.
So Danny, what are we in storefor today in 1992, police in
(01:16):
Bremerton, Washington, werecalled to check on 57-year-old
Marilyn Hickey.
Friends hadn't seen her in a fewdays, and when officers entered
her apartment, they found herdead.
She had been murdered andinvestigators believed she was
last seen leading a local tavernwith a man that nobody could
(01:37):
identify.
Nearly two years later on April21st, 1994.
In Boise, Idaho, 49-year-oldCheryl Sherry Barratt was found
stabbed to death inside herNorth End home.
Oh my God, like Marilyn's caseinvestigators struggled with
(01:57):
limited evidence.
Shifting witnesses and no clearsuspect.
For decades, both cases wentcold.
It wasn't until advances in DNAtechnology and a lucky break
that detectives would finallyconnect the murders of two
women, hundreds of miles apartto the same man.
(02:19):
Oh my gosh.
And you know what?
Yeah, that's what, I don't knowif you guys are like me, but I
love Datelines.
Even the classic ones.
You know, I'm sure we all haveour little podcasts that we like
to listen to, but when it's inthis time period before DNA and,
and before cell phones, it just,you can see how difficult some
(02:39):
of these cases were.
Without those advancements.
'cause I all the time, sometimesthey'll, they'll go into like
their intro and not say whatyear it is and I'm like, oh, if
you just got DNA it would be soeasy.
Or just get people's phonerecords and you're like, oh,
it's 92.
It wasn't that time.
And so I feel like these onestook a lot more police work.
(03:01):
Not to say that it doesn't, evenwith DNA and phones.
But to catch someone, if there,if it was obscure or someone
that wasn't a suspect, you cansee how much more difficult it
was.
So I really like these cases andI love when the technological
advancements come to fruition.
(03:21):
Yeah.
And so people that thought theygot away with something, Nope,
we're coming back to get you.
So I'm excited to hear,hopefully, about some justice in
this case.
resources used in today'sepisode are the Idaho Statesmen,
my Gal Thank You, and the KitSun on September 10th, 1992 in
(03:45):
Bremerton, Washington.
Police were contacted at 4 25 inthe afternoon.
Friends of Marilyn Hickey wereconcerned they hadn't seen her
in days.
And something didn't feel right.
When officers arrived atMarilyn's apartment, they
knocked and there was no answer.
Eventually, they entered theunit and discovered Marilyn.
(04:07):
Age 57 dead investigatorsdetermined that Marilyn had
likely been murdered theprevious day between 10:00 AM
and noon on September 9th.
There was no forced entry intoher apartment, which suggested
she had either let her killer inor had known them right the same
(04:29):
day.
Police learned that Marilyn hadlast been seen at the Drift in
Tavern.
That sounds like my jam.
It sounds like a place I'd liketo go.
Yeah, the drift in.
I'd love to drift in.
Let me just drift in.
I would be a drifter for theday.
Yeah.
We love a good dive.
I, I heart a good dive.
Dive bars, let's go.
(04:51):
Witnesses reported she had beenwith a young man.
Mm-hmm.
Believe bet to be between 22 and25 years old.
Get it Cougar.
Right.
he was about 5 8, 5 10 with amedium build weighing
approximately 160 pounds.
He's a skinny dude, and he had,color length, reddish brown
(05:14):
hair.
A cab driver later confirmedthat he had driven Marilyn and
this man back to her apartmentafter the Bard closed.
Wow.
So confirmed.
Yeah.
The cabby days.
Remember those?
Honestly, I've had some greatUbers and some bad Ubers.
(05:34):
I've never had a bad cabexperience.
Maybe'cause it was more rare.
I don't know.
I had a bad Uber this weekend.
No shit.
Yeah.
What happened?
well, I was ready to go home.
Mm-hmm.
Jared wasn't.
Yeah.
Okay.
Beep, beep, beep.
Let's, it's not even beep, beep,beep.
(05:56):
It's tap, tap, tap.
Or to my Uber.
I could have written my name inthe dust.
Look, I'm not expecting.
Perfect.
Literally could have written myname in the dust.
Mm-hmm.
On on the dash.
There was some, I even took apicture of it.
(06:17):
I am thinking it's Buffalosauce.
I just want to show you, youdidn't taste it to check.
No, I did not lick.
It was just not even forscience.
No, not even for science.
Here you go.
That could be anything,honestly.
Okay.
And then, the guy was just kindof aggressive and, His window
(06:39):
was down.
I look, I, I'm a smoker.
I can smell smoke.
I don't think as an Uber you'reallowed to smoke in your car.
So when he picked me up, thewindow was down.
So if the wound bothers you, letme know.
Yeah, dude, the wind isbothering me'cause I'm Well, and
you know how it blasts you inthe backseat.
(07:00):
Yeah.
It always literally was blastingme.
But I knew his car stunk, so I'mlike, I'm down, I'm cool.
At least there's some fresh airI guess I'll deal, deal with
like the wind turbine.
It was in my face.
We've had some good Uber ridestogether.
Yes, we have.
It was just that.
And we also for the record, havegreat Uber ratings ourselves, so
we know that we're goodpassengers.
(07:21):
Yeah.
So, um, anyway, it was not justspeaking of that anyway,
sidetracked.
But, but yeah, I never had a badcab experience.
And it was literally, I feellike they're the professionals
and they just are the don't fuckaround.
I'm doing my job.
I'm gonna get you there as fastas I can.
This guy just seemed veryunprofessional.
(07:42):
Yeah, that's, no, I want, youwanna have a little bit more
clean dude, if this is yourpart-time job.
I mean, some people do itfull-time.
Mm-hmm.
Cool.
If this is a little effort.
Can you dash your dad?
Yeah.
If anything do DoorDash then noone sees your car.
No one's the wiser, right?
Maybe that's how we got thebuffalo sauce on the back door.
Alright, here we go.
(08:02):
Buffalo sauce.
Questionable.
We don't know what thatsubstance was, Witnesses also
stated they had seen Marilynwith him before.
Oh, but no one knew his name.
(08:25):
Fingerprints were found in herapartment, but investigators
when were unable to match them,and Marilyn's case soon went
cold.
Oh, that sucks.
Getting a fingerprint is such agood sign.
But even back then, there wereso many things that people even
didn't get.
Fingerprinted for at all or no,DNA.
(08:45):
Mm-hmm.
And so, mm-hmm.
It's nice that people's stuff,if you start getting in trouble,
you're probably going some formof identification.
Fingerprints.
DNA is gonna be saved.
Yeah.
Herman should have thought aboutbefore he bit that pizza crust
and threw it away.
Exactly.
I'm glad they found that fucker.
(09:06):
He is a dirty bitch.
Such a motherfucker.
Almost two years later in Boise,there is another brutal murder.
On April 21st, 1994, just after10:00 PM 49-year-old, Cheryl
Sherry Barrett was found dead inher north end home on sixth
(09:28):
Street only blocks from theBoise co-op.
Do you know the area?
I do, yes, I do.
Cool old houses.
I love It was a cottage.
It was so, it's cute justdriving around this area of
Boise, there's several of them.
Pockets of just historical homesand they're, so, it's just so,
they're all different.
So fun to drive by them anddream and just be like, they're
(09:49):
not cookie cutter.
No, they're all different.
I love the character.
an acquaintance discovered herbody upstairs in a bedroom.
Oh no.
Sherry had been stabbed throughthe heart and her throat had
been slashed.
Brutal.
Brutal.
It was a brutal murder.
(10:09):
Court records later revealedthat Sherry had a history of
run-ins with the law.
And let me, I'm gonna tell youall this stuff because I just
feel like this.
You're gonna see this play out,okay?
Right.
Police are victim blaming here.
Oh yeah, not we've seen, we'veseen that yes.
(10:30):
Before.
So she'd had, a history ofrun-in with run-ins with the
law.
She had been charged in 1986with a felony drug possession.
She had been charged with threeDUIs and a marijuana charge.
The marijuana, god forbid.
at the time of her death, shewas wanted for failing to appear
(10:51):
on her 1992 DUI charge.
Sis, I don't blame you.
Right.
No.
And these are things that,although important in an
investigation, sometimes, Imean, I don't know if this is
where this is going, but we, wehave seen it before where it's
like people lose their care forit.
Or like, well, clearly they gotbusted for pot one time for
(11:14):
possession of a tiny amount, sothey must be in a drug ring with
the cartels and doing dangerousthings.
So who knows what happened?
We just can't figure it out.
And I, I feel the same way thatthis was even, reported on in
the papers.
it's like, yeah.
And especially this, this time,like why would you even mention
(11:39):
it?
Like she's still a murdervictim.
Yeah.
So does it really fucking matterwhat she was?
Charged with before.
Oh, she had a DUI.
So it's okay for her to getmurdered, like, that's so
asinine.
Yeah.
So, police begin searching forsuspects and focused on two men,
(12:00):
seeing, leaving the area in alight yellow four door, 1979
Ford.
Pretty specific.
Yeah.
The light yellow, not a commoncolor, witnesses described them
as white males in their forties,one with a full beard,
pockmarked face and mediumlength brown hair.
(12:22):
The other clean shaven andpossibly armed with a knife.
Around eight 30 to 10 o'clockthat night, a dark blue, silver,
full-size van was also seen inthe area with two men entering
it.
That's a lot of detail.
(12:44):
I'm just telling you I've beenwatching, is that the innocent
files, I think I've heard onNetflix, look at, I don't care
how good you are, they have donestudies on this.
I eyewitnesses suck.
They can be extremely un likethey've done those studies where
they'll have like 20 people atdifferent vantage point.
(13:06):
Observe a staged crash andpeople yelling or an officer
screaming, put the gun down,blah, blah, blah.
And the eyewitness accounts varyso strongly.
There's some, some people willsay, well, the officer shot four
times and then said, put the gundown and the other four say it
the other way and it's just ourminds.
(13:31):
you would like to think thatyou, your memory.
Mm-hmm.
I saw this because it's yourreality.
but it's so heavily influencedthe, the one on, I wish I had
the episode.
A guy was, It was a, go, not aluxury.
(13:51):
What?
I know these words hung jury.
Thank you.
Jeez.
A hung jury because thewitnesses had contradicting
stories.
Mm-hmm.
And all this stuff.
So by the time, the second timeit came around, those witnesses
were so well prepped that, sothey made sure they had their
(14:14):
ducks in a row.
Yeah.
Not by the prosecutors Exactly.
Telling them what they need tosay, but they were molded in
such a way that the second trialwas way different than the
first.
Mm-hmm.
And then.
Years later.
Everybody recanted.
I wish I had that written down,but yeah, eyewitnesses, gimme
(14:37):
some, I want some science.
People are influenced and howyou remember things.
Your brain tries to rationalizethings and, and say, oh, it
certainly happened this way.
It definitely, that's why wehave bystander effect that's not
happening in front of me.
You could have heard yourneighbor say, oh yeah, did you
see that yellow Ford?
Yep, that's what I saw.
(14:58):
There was a yellow Ford in thisneighborhood and it could have
been a red one.
Mm-hmm.
Like that's how easily your mindcan be.
Yeah.
Just, you just need aconfirmation.
So I think eyewitness is animportant part.
Yeah.
But especially cases where it'sthe only part and there's no
other factors.
That's tough.
Even for me.
And back in the day that.
Really?
(15:19):
Yes.
A lot of what they had.
And there's been wrongful deathsentence convictions overturned
because of it.
Yes.
so Sherry's, murder drewimmediate suspicion toward Floyd
Edwin Parker.
43.
A man with violent history inboth Idaho and North Carolina.
(15:43):
Damn.
On April 24th, 94 police, BoisePolice arrested Parker at the
Boulevard Motel on CapitolBoulevard.
This is a cutie Petie hotel.
Oh.
I'm like, it seems a littleseedy, but what is it?
It's cute now.
No, it's like a cottage style.
(16:03):
It's all brick.
Anyways, it, it's, I looked itup.
I'm like.
That's good.
It's by Boise State.
It might've been seedy back inthe day.
I'm sure it's very nice now, butit's cute.
Yeah, it's it's a very cutelittle hotel.
it's all brick.
Anyway, I was like, I'm downwith that.
Parker's record was extensiveoriginally from North Carolina.
(16:26):
He had been incarcerated asearly as 1974.
After attacking a man with aparing knife.
A pairing knife, an assault thatrequired 1500 stitches.
Oh my God.
He got to work with that.
Pairing knife is one of thesmaller knives there are.
(16:46):
It's just for a potato.
Yes.
Or for like getting a peel offof an orange.
You know, like some of them havea little curve to them for like
cocktail decoration, a pairingknife.
1500 stitch.
I cannot even imagine.
(17:08):
That's, you wanna know.
Catastrophic.
He was sentenced to three tofive years.
Again, so many things only'causehe lived.
I do not look even in a seconddegree.
Degree murder.
In some states he might have gotfive.
(17:29):
Like what?
I think the attempted murdercharge is so under sentenced.
Mm-hmm.
Because, oh, they were a fighterand they fucking lived.
Yes.
So you get rewarded for three tofive years.
Mm-hmm.
(17:50):
Oh, we have first respondersthat saved this person's life,
or Yeah, their roommate camehome.
And called 9 1 1.
Or even if someone is living,but they might be paralyzed.
Yeah.
Or even in a coma.
And still 10 years later,they're not dead.
Didn't kill him.
(18:11):
No.
This shit is crazy to thinkabout.
So he was sentenced three tofive years, only a year later on
Christmas day.
What a present He was paroled.
Merry Christmas.
but just two days later afterthat, he attacked another man in
a pool hall with a pool cueknocking out eight of his teeth.
(18:38):
This is brutal, like a pool cueis a very effective weapon, but
eight teeth.
Eight teeth, yeah.
Uhhuh.
And this is two days afteryou're out where you're, listen,
your butt hole should beclenched.
Of I'm out.
I got out on Christmas.
I should be good.
Let me just do the right thing.
No, you're beating people with apool stick in a bar.
(18:58):
Pool cue.
What?
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I wrote pool cue.
It's a pool stick.
It's Q is the technical term,I'm sure.
Parker went to prison for threemore years for that at least
they were like, okay.
So if you were supposed to getthree to five and we gave you
one shame on you.
(19:22):
I bet his parole officer waspissed.
I wonder if he served these fullthree years or were they like,
we kind of like you.
How's six months?
No, he did do those three years,in 1979 after relocating to
Boise.
To be near his bro.
Like I was like, how?
How did he end up here?
Yeah.
His brother was here and he'sprobably like, I gotta jet outta
(19:44):
here because I'm just gonna gobeat another man.
I'm beating everyone up in barsand causing stitches and teeth
gone.
I gotta try to go somewherewhere nobody lives.
Let's go to Idaho.
Because, especially back then,no one was moving to Idaho for
fun.
No, no.
For the most part.
In 1979, Parker stabbed andkilled a man named Stewart
(20:06):
Hannah.
After a bar fight at the BlackPalomino, he needed to move
somewhere off grid with no barsand no pool cues, and no pairing
knives, or maybe just a prisonreally was the best place for
this.
Isolation.
(20:27):
Yeah, it was.
I'm ready for a Mike Shake.
Ready.
He was convicted of seconddegree murder and was sentenced
to 20 years in prison.
Despite his violent past prison,social workers claimed Parker
(20:48):
deserved another chance, and hewas paroled in 1984.
See for me that quote that hedeserved another chance.
Are they just, are they goingoff vibes?
They're like, he's chill.
(21:09):
Like we talk about race carssometimes.
Like he always asks about mykids.
He was horrible though, so hewas paroled, paroled in 84.
He violated parole twice.
And by December, 1991, he wasreleased.
Once again, where is the line?
Where are we?
Like, listen, if you killedsomeone this time, not to
(21:33):
mention the 1500 stitches, theeight missing teeth.
Now there's a human lifeactually lost plus all the
trauma of the previous people.
Imagine getting attacked in sucha way.
You have to get 1500 stitches orget eight of your teeth
replaced.
That's a lifelong injury Andwe're just like, but you know,
he's kind of a chill dude.
(21:55):
He's kind of, everyone here sayshe is chill and he deserves
another chance.
So let's, let's do that.
But yeah, second degree murder.
I was surprised at the 20 year,'cause usually it's like, eh,
give him five.
But can you believe, so he wasparoled in 84.
So let's just say that In 1979,it was early in 79, he was sent
(22:19):
to prison, you know, convictedin 79, sent to prison still five
years, and then disgusted.
A convicted murderer violatedparole twice, but he was
released again.
How are, how is your paroleofficer being like, bro, you are
on parole for second degreemurder, so any.
(22:42):
Sniffing of violating, you'regoing back.
is that not your job, especiallyknowing the criminal history?
Did he have a lot of money topay people off or was he just
No, the vibes must have been sofucking immaculate because how
in the hell l When Sherry waskilled in 1994, Parker quickly
(23:06):
became a suspect, not onlybecause of his history.
But also because he had datedher a few years earlier.
Oh, so she liked the bad boys.
Dani (23:19):
So Parker was arrested and he was charged with first degree
murder.
Stephanie (23:25):
Okay?
Dani (23:27):
Which fair?
You're already a murderer.
You dated this lady and now shedead at his preliminary hearing.
Magistrate Charles Hay dismissedthe case against Parker.
Wow.
prosecutors explained they didnot yet have DNA evidence.
(23:50):
And the key eyewitnesses hadrecanted their statement.
Oh, identifying another man.
Instead, prosecutors requestedadditional time to pursue DNA
testing, but magistrate hayrefused dismissing the case.
So this is early days of DNA.
Yes.
(24:11):
also the prosecution.
This is Idaho.
They're banking on other thingsthan DA.
We didn't even have a place totest DNA in Idaho, at the time.
but they didn't send off theshit.
Anyway, I'm gonna tell you aboutit,
Stephanie (24:32):
which I can appreciate that from a judge
being like, if you don't havesomething more to give me.
Then we're not holding this.
Try again when you've got itright, because people, we've
talked about the cash bailsystem.
Mm-hmm.
How you can be, if you don'thave the bail, you're sitting
there forever, you're
Dani (24:50):
losing your whole fucking life.
Your life.
You literally are losing yourjob, your apartment, your house,
your wife, your girlfriend, yourkids, because you're sitting in
jail for nine months and youhaven't done shit.
Stephanie (25:04):
And it has happened multiple times.
So I mean, this guy is, if itwas a open and shut, if someone
saw him, physically murder her,that's a different story than
saying, I saw her leave withsomeone maybe and I recanted it
and maybe she left with someoneelse.
So holding someone.
It's the, it is the job and theduty of prosecution to have
(25:27):
enough to hold someone andenough reasons for a judge to
not say, you don't have enough,try again.
And even
Dani (25:34):
sadly enough, even if they are previously a convicted
murderer.
Stephanie (25:40):
True.
Because that doesn't mean by theyou murdered again.
Yeah.
So I just, and it's just.
I know that people get stickyabout this and sometimes,
sometimes this happens wheneveryone knows what's going on.
So to, for an example, theEmmanuel case that's in the
news, which we all know now thatthe child is deceased.
(26:03):
and all of us could tell by theinterview that it was fake that
isn't necessarily enough to holdsomeone.
And what it will do if a judge.
Bows to the will of the peoplethat are screaming.
It's so clear.
Is that that's just gonna openit up for appeals.
Yep.
And mistrials.
(26:24):
Yep.
And so it just, we've gotta justfollow what we can to not have
problems in the future.
So it sucks sometimes.
But in this time, I can totallysee why the judge was like,
yeah, give another shot.
You don't even have
Dani (26:38):
the dna.
N backes are not Yeah.
Picking this guy.
also wanted to let you know afun fact.
Ooh.
Because I really, and maybe I'mjust not intelligent,'cause I
looked this up, so I wanted toknow, most of our cases that we
(26:59):
talk about have judges.
Mm-hmm.
This was a magistrate.
Do you know the differencebetween a magistrate?
I do not.
Okay.
I feel so much better aboutmyself.
Stephanie (27:09):
Yeah.
Why would you feel not smart?
Okay.
For those of you that do propsto you, props to you true crime
girls.
So
Dani (27:16):
I looked it up and our fun fact for this episode is that
magistrates often handlepreliminary hearings and decide
if there's enough evidence for atrial.
While judges generally overseemore serious and complex cases.
In this instance, the dismissalwas made by a magistrate because
(27:38):
he's like, you don't even haveenough to go see a judge.
Stop.
I did bring this to the judge.
Stephanie (27:43):
I'm, I will be.
So, he's almost like theunderwriter for the judge.
Like, yeah, I gotta see somemore documentation.
No, we're
Dani (27:50):
not even gonna bother the judge with this.
Yeah.
So, okay.
Okay.
I was
Stephanie (27:57):
like, what is the 'cause a lot of, a lot of my, I
thought it was just a semanticthing and they both meant the
same thing.
Dani (28:04):
Mo Wow.
Yeah, two.
so I was like, what is the deal?
Because I haven't seen that comeup.
So anyways, fun fact, we'realways learning here.
Always open
Stephanie (28:15):
to learning.
Dani (28:16):
I'm like, I don't know what this, let, let just really,
and you guys, if
Stephanie (28:19):
you hear us, if you were to hear us saying.
referring to a magistrate, likea judge and you're like, I
wonder if they know, do you evenemail?
Do you even understand whatyou're talking about?
We'll go research it further.
'cause I truly thought it wasjust this two words meant the
same thing
Dani (28:36):
I did too.
So anyways, the more you know,ding, we
Stephanie (28:43):
need the shooting.
I know.
Dani (28:45):
Can you put that graphic in?
Okay.
I'll do my best.
Without DNA, the case falteredsamples taken from beneath
Sherry's fingernails were toosmall for reliable testing at
the time.
Mm-hmm.
And evidence took weeks to
Stephanie (29:03):
even reach the lab in Nevada.
Yes.
This was a common thing wheresamples were too small or you
could send it to a DNA for onetype of testing and you wouldn't
be able to reuse it.
So for some cases.
This one specific sample thatthey got is their only sample.
And if you choose the wrongtest, you, it's burnt.
(29:24):
You're, you can never review itfor ever and ever.
It's done.
And so it's just crazy to thinkof that decision, if it was on
your shoulders, what you woulddo.
Dani (29:33):
And one of the big things, with this is that the
prosecution, by the time thatthat magistrate had dismissed
it, the charges.
They hadn't even sent the DNAoff, so someone's not doing the
pro their job here.
Prosecution was not prosecuting,they were not doing their job.
(29:55):
So, by August of 94, prosecutorsadmitted they would not be able
to use DNA to build a caseagainst Parker because they
didn't have it.
Oh, Sherry's daughter, Maria.
Openly criticized theinvestigation.
She pointed out that policefailed to test a club found next
(30:19):
to her mother's body forfingerprints.
Hello, failed to properly searchthe home and failed to keep her
informed.
So one of the things that, in myresearch that I found.
Two or three months after policehad went in and did the
investigation, she found a boxin her mother's home that
(30:41):
contained all of the gloves.
It was like a cardboard box fullof gloves and stuff that
investigators would use togather, evidence.
Evidence.
And.
She just felt like that was veryuncouth.
Stephanie (30:57):
They left a box there of their leftover gloves.
Dani (31:01):
Yeah.
Of bloody gloves and stuff.
And she was just like, who is,that's
Stephanie (31:06):
incredibly disappointing.
And also just like she was,she's, they might
Dani (31:10):
have to come back.
Like it was very hurtful to herto go in and see like it was, it
felt sloppy to her.
And that is fair.
Stephanie (31:19):
Sloppy.
Why would you leave anything?
You should be.
Listen, I think about respectfuland also a bit terrified to
touch anything.
And so you glove up.
Mm-hmm.
But then you should be mindfulof where you're putting the
gloves because you don't want toput evidence somewhere else by
brushing up or dropping ordripping or, and so if a box is
(31:40):
just left there that screams, wedon't know what we're doing,
Dani (31:46):
or we don't care because yes, Maria believed.
The police dismissed the casebecause of her mother's past,
labeling it as drug related andtherefore not a priority.
In her own words, quote, she wasmy mother.
She went into her house and wasmurdered.
(32:09):
It could happen to anyone.
Fair sis.
Very fair and respect her.
I can't even.
Stephanie (32:20):
And she has a good point of this could happen to
anyone.
Just because someone murdered mymother who had issues with the
law doesn't mean that the nextvictim will have issues with the
law and it doesn't matterregardless.
Like,
Dani (32:37):
no.
did she like to have somecocktails and smoke a little
marijuana?
Fuck yeah.
Let's get down.
Yeah.
That doesn't make her a horribleperson.
You're not murder able for it.
No.
And to just completely dismissher, drug related.
And the sloppiness is drugrelated.
So you know, we'll do what wecan, but to me it views
Stephanie (32:58):
as laziness.
Yeah, because, and complacencyin your position.
'cause listen, I know that wecan all get complacent in our
own jobs.
But being a detective or a firstresponder that is tasked with
doing these things, you cannotbe complacent.
Dani (33:13):
And I also think this reflects the attitude in the
nineties about whether, theywere a sex worker or a drug
addict.
Yeah.
Are they worthy of our time?
Yeah.
I really do think that thatreflects So, I am, I feel so bad
for her daughter.
Well, good on her for speakingup and doing what she could
because Yeah.
Say something.
(33:34):
Say something.
Put up a fight.
Mm-hmm.
Because she was like, it is mymother.
She was a human being.
Stephanie (33:40):
Yeah.
Dani (33:41):
Like, what the fuck is wrong with you people?
Because you got confused.
I know.
That's what she wanted to say,sis.
Yeah.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Stephanie (33:47):
Well, yeah, and someone has a few red checks on
the record that like, doesn'tmean that you're murder able
without any consequences.
Dani (34:07):
the investigation into Sherry's case stalled for years.
Understandable.
Yeah.
2006.
Marilyn Hickey's unsolved, 1992Murder was reopened in
Bremerton, Washington.
Let's fucking go.
(34:28):
Let's go.
That was when unknown DNAevidence from Sherry's murder
was reexamined and it matched tothe evidence found in Marilyn's
apartment in Boise.
I
Stephanie (34:43):
love when this happens.
Not the murder, but just theevolution to where they're like,
we can test it this way, andthen they can run it through an
actual interconnected database.
Because that was another thing.
Technology.
Oh
Dani (34:56):
yeah.
Stephanie (34:56):
They did not have.
Unless you were F-B-I-C-I-Alevel, there was nothing barely
though that shit.
There was nothing that you couldview other departments and just
have a big ass database.
So props two, everyone that
Dani (35:13):
fucking made this shit happen.
The link between the two womenwas undeniable.
Boom, they got it.
Mm-hmm.
It would take over a decadebefore that DNA evidence was
connected to a suspect
Stephanie (35:32):
10 years over.
Yeah.
Dani (35:37):
They, it wasn't in the system.
They, they, so you're
Stephanie (35:39):
basically waiting for someone to fuck up Yeah.
Or some other piece of evidenceto come from a deck.
What, what else are you gonnaget at that point?
In another eyewitness, which isnot that reliable.
A note or a, if a weapon isfound somewhere, the gun that
like if, if a gun was used, ifthat was found somewhere, but
they have to fuck up usually tocome up on the database.
Dani (36:06):
In February, 2018, Boise police collected a discarded
cigarette butt from Robert LeeMiller.
The DNA matched both murderscenes.
Sherry Barrett in Boise andMarilyn Hickey in Bremerton got
him on January 2nd, 2019.
(36:28):
Miller was arrested by BoisePolice and charged in both
cases,
Stephanie (36:34):
so over a, well, almost a year later,
Dani (36:36):
and a completely different dude.
Completely different.
Stephanie (36:41):
Yeah.
Dani (36:41):
Like he was not even on the radar.
So I mean, fuck Parker, you're amurderer, but.
Stephanie (36:48):
But Parker is the type of suspect or person of
interest that has been convictedof other crimes because of their
past.
And I'm not saying everyonethat's, that's done something
before is, but you hear thesedeath penalty cases or even
sometimes someone's already beenexecuted and they know you then
(37:10):
find out that there's no waythey could have done this.
And here's the other person.
So.
Thank goodness to the magistratethat was like, if he could bring
me a little more, we'll considerit, but no, not as it is
because, which
Dani (37:23):
is surprising because I'm just, I mean, we've watched the
legal system in this state anddeice, he should have been
fucking pro.
I mean, he should have went totrial.
It's surprising that therewasn't a trial.
Yeah, because
Stephanie (37:37):
look it.
Level heads prevailing.
Thank goodness, because that'sbeen needed for decades in
Idaho.
And someone,
Dani (37:47):
this guy could have spent 20 or 30 years in prison.
He could have spent 10 yearsjust waiting.
In April, 2019, Miller enteredan Alfred plea in Washington.
Good oldford admitting the statehad enough evidence to convict
him of second degree murder inMaryland, hickey's death, he was
(38:08):
sentenced to 17 years, themaximum penalty for second
degree murder in Washington.
So lemme just tell you.
Stephanie (38:18):
Okay.
Dani (38:20):
Washington was like, yeah, just bring'em over here.
Let's get this done.
Stephanie (38:25):
Hey Idaho, can you really seal the deal on this?
And Idaho says, hold my bear.
Very common occurrence.
Well, especially in multi-statecases involving the Pacific
Northwest.
It doesn't say that in the courtrecords or papers, but it's
clear what's
Dani (38:46):
happening.
And they were gonna pay forIdaho.
They're like, we don't care.
You need some funding?
Yeah, we'll pay for it.
Let's go.
That's crazy.
Later that August, Millerpleaded guilty in Idaho to the
murder of Sherry Barrett.
Wow.
He was sentenced to 25 years tolife Judge Steven Hipler during
(39:10):
sentencing.
Noted Miller's lack of remorse,stating quote.
For 20 years, you were allowedto live the life you wanted.
You have not demonstrated thatyou have the capacity for
empathy.
Wow.
When asked if Marilyn and Sherrywere his only victims, Miller
Chillingly responded, I don'tknow.
Stephanie (39:36):
Okay.
Dani (39:37):
So 2025 Robert Lee Miller, now 60 years old, resides in the
Idaho Maximum SecurityInstitution in Boise
Stephanie (39:49):
with many other infamous killers.
Dani (39:53):
I didn't look up his block.
I should have, yeah,'cause Imean, he's, he's a DBA too, so
he should be getting the samebrutal treatment as.
Stephanie (40:04):
Coberg Andree and everyone, so Wow.
But what a case of justice thathas to like
Dani (40:14):
had to that they actually listen, this is what intrigued
me.
Like they had a guy and if theywould, and he was already a
murderer, so they had the guy.
but that there was some, like Isaid, level minded.
Stephanie (40:33):
If that wouldn't have happened and that guy would've
gotten convicted, nobody wastesting D'cause I feel he could
have gotten convicted.
Oh, sure.
The jury, a murderer that datedher and eyewitnesses, supposedly
he's already a
Dani (40:46):
murderer.
Yeah,
Stephanie (40:47):
yeah.
Supposedly some people thoughtthey saw him and then said they
didn't.
That wouldn't be.
Like that would be enough forsome juries Yep.
To convict, especially in thatnineties.
Yeah.
And then once someone isconvicted to get the state to
investigate something else,because that's admitting they're
wrong.
Mm-hmm.
You would be hard pressed tofind an avenue, no matter how
(41:10):
active and persistent you are,if you believe that something
else happened.
Which, if you're the family andyou think justice has been
served, are you even, you know?
So thank goodness, like yousaid, there was a levelheaded
voice in it to wait for thesetechnological and DNA advances
(41:33):
to get the right person thatthat pled guilty.
So it
Dani (41:36):
is a done deal.
Well, these cases serve as areminder that even when the
evidence is thin and justice isdelayed, persistence in science.
Can finally bring the answers.
Stephanie (41:49):
Yes.
They come through a hundredpercent.
So what a relief.
It's we hear, because I thought
Dani (41:57):
I was gonna be Parker like all day long.
Stephanie (41:59):
I did too.
I'm like, this guy sounds like awoman beater.
You were you dated her.
Yeah, sure.
Mm-hmm.
Easy peasy.
What are the chances, like justsame.
What are the chances of datingtwo people that could murder?
Okay.
One of them was a murderer, andthen
Dani (42:20):
the other one, who knows there was, but I, I didn't see
anything about, for Marilyn.
She was hanging out with him.
Mm-hmm.
But there was, I not sure theconnection, For Sherry.
Sherry.
Stephanie (42:37):
Okay.
Dani (42:38):
and it could have just been maybe a friend of a friend
of a friend.
Like, you know, when you'rehanging out, running, went to
some parties together, you know?
Yeah.
I, I'm not sure that directcorrelation, for that, but
anyway, I was, I was intrigued.
That they, A, had somebody Bsaid, you don't have enough
(42:58):
evidence.
And C, they found that guylater.
The right guy.
Yes.
DNA, science.
Let's go.
Science
Stephanie (43:08):
bitch.
Are you breaking bad fans?
thank you everyone for joiningus yet again, for interacting on
our social posts.
I wanna know what you thinkabout our TikTok, new segment
with the guy that looks like aserial killer.
Dani (43:29):
It's all a good fun.
It, I think he's taken it ingood fun too, I think.
Yeah.
it's been fun.
So, we enjoy doing that.
We enjoy interactions.
We enjoy.
Emails, any feedback, or anycase ideas,
Stephanie (43:44):
super appreciate.
Yes.
If you especially are in theIdaho area, we try to stick to
Idaho or cases that touch Idahoeven.
'cause some start in one stateand go to another.
But I mean, if you have a superinteresting one, especially that
hasn't been covered by a lot ofdifferent podcasts, let us know.
Yeah.
it helps us a lot so.
(44:05):
Thank you again for tuning inand all I gotta say is ten four
rubber ducky.
Dani (44:10):
Fuck yeah,
Hello and welcome back to The Lethal Library.
I am your host Stephanie.
And I'm Danny.
And today we're back again totell you another story of True
crime in Idaho.
we are a True Crime podcast.
We like to focus on cases inIdaho, in the Pacific Northwest.
if you're hearing this after ourbreak, thank you for.
(00:52):
Letting us have a little bitmore summer.
we're so excited to be back andwe hope you had a great summer
too, and now it's the start ofspooky season, so let's cheers
to that.
Hell yeah.
Sis love us some spooky season.
Yes.
So Danny, what are we in storefor today in 1992, police in
(01:16):
Bremerton, Washington, werecalled to check on 57-year-old
Marilyn Hickey.
Friends hadn't seen her in a fewdays, and when officers entered
her apartment, they found herdead.
She had been murdered andinvestigators believed she was
last seen leading a local tavernwith a man that nobody could
(01:37):
identify.
Nearly two years later on April21st, 1994.
In Boise, Idaho, 49-year-oldCheryl Sherry Barratt was found
stabbed to death inside herNorth End home.
Oh my God, like Marilyn's caseinvestigators struggled with
(01:57):
limited evidence.
Shifting witnesses and no clearsuspect.
For decades, both cases wentcold.
It wasn't until advances in DNAtechnology and a lucky break
that detectives would finallyconnect the murders of two
women, hundreds of miles apartto the same man.
(02:19):
Oh my gosh.
And you know what?
Yeah, that's what, I don't knowif you guys are like me, but I
love Datelines.
Even the classic ones.
You know, I'm sure we all haveour little podcasts that we like
to listen to, but when it's inthis time period before DNA and,
and before cell phones, it just,you can see how difficult some
(02:39):
of these cases were.
Without those advancements.
'cause I all the time, sometimesthey'll, they'll go into like
their intro and not say whatyear it is and I'm like, oh, if
you just got DNA it would be soeasy.
Or just get people's phonerecords and you're like, oh,
it's 92.
It wasn't that time.
And so I feel like these onestook a lot more police work.
(03:01):
Not to say that it doesn't, evenwith DNA and phones.
But to catch someone, if there,if it was obscure or someone
that wasn't a suspect, you cansee how much more difficult it
was.
So I really like these cases andI love when the technological
advancements come to fruition.
(03:21):
Yeah.
And so people that thought theygot away with something, Nope,
we're coming back to get you.
So I'm excited to hear,hopefully, about some justice in
this case.
resources used in today'sepisode are the Idaho Statesmen,
my Gal Thank You, and the KitSun on September 10th, 1992 in
(03:45):
Bremerton, Washington.
Police were contacted at 4 25 inthe afternoon.
Friends of Marilyn Hickey wereconcerned they hadn't seen her
in days.
And something didn't feel right.
When officers arrived atMarilyn's apartment, they
knocked and there was no answer.
Eventually, they entered theunit and discovered Marilyn.
(04:07):
Age 57 dead investigatorsdetermined that Marilyn had
likely been murdered theprevious day between 10:00 AM
and noon on September 9th.
There was no forced entry intoher apartment, which suggested
she had either let her killer inor had known them right the same
(04:29):
day.
Police learned that Marilyn hadlast been seen at the Drift in
Tavern.
That sounds like my jam.
It sounds like a place I'd liketo go.
Yeah, the drift in.
I'd love to drift in.
Let me just drift in.
I would be a drifter for theday.
Yeah.
We love a good dive.
I, I heart a good dive.
Dive bars, let's go.
(04:51):
Witnesses reported she had beenwith a young man.
Mm-hmm.
Believe bet to be between 22 and25 years old.
Get it Cougar.
Right.
he was about 5 8, 5 10 with amedium build weighing
approximately 160 pounds.
He's a skinny dude, and he had,color length, reddish brown
(05:14):
hair.
A cab driver later confirmedthat he had driven Marilyn and
this man back to her apartmentafter the Bard closed.
Wow.
So confirmed.
Yeah.
The cabby days.
Remember those?
Honestly, I've had some greatUbers and some bad Ubers.
(05:34):
I've never had a bad cabexperience.
Maybe'cause it was more rare.
I don't know.
I had a bad Uber this weekend.
No shit.
Yeah.
What happened?
well, I was ready to go home.
Mm-hmm.
Jared wasn't.
Yeah.
Okay.
Beep, beep, beep.
Let's, it's not even beep, beep,beep.
(05:56):
It's tap, tap, tap.
Or to my Uber.
I could have written my name inthe dust.
Look, I'm not expecting.
Perfect.
Literally could have written myname in the dust.
Mm-hmm.
On on the dash.
There was some, I even took apicture of it.
(06:17):
I am thinking it's Buffalosauce.
I just want to show you, youdidn't taste it to check.
No, I did not lick.
It was just not even forscience.
No, not even for science.
Here you go.
That could be anything,honestly.
Okay.
And then, the guy was just kindof aggressive and, His window
(06:39):
was down.
I look, I, I'm a smoker.
I can smell smoke.
I don't think as an Uber you'reallowed to smoke in your car.
So when he picked me up, thewindow was down.
So if the wound bothers you, letme know.
Yeah, dude, the wind isbothering me'cause I'm Well, and
you know how it blasts you inthe backseat.
(07:00):
Yeah.
It always literally was blastingme.
But I knew his car stunk, so I'mlike, I'm down, I'm cool.
At least there's some fresh airI guess I'll deal, deal with
like the wind turbine.
It was in my face.
We've had some good Uber ridestogether.
Yes, we have.
It was just that.
And we also for the record, havegreat Uber ratings ourselves, so
we know that we're goodpassengers.
(07:21):
Yeah.
So, um, anyway, it was not justspeaking of that anyway,
sidetracked.
But, but yeah, I never had a badcab experience.
And it was literally, I feellike they're the professionals
and they just are the don't fuckaround.
I'm doing my job.
I'm gonna get you there as fastas I can.
This guy just seemed veryunprofessional.
(07:42):
Yeah, that's, no, I want, youwanna have a little bit more
clean dude, if this is yourpart-time job.
I mean, some people do itfull-time.
Mm-hmm.
Cool.
If this is a little effort.
Can you dash your dad?
Yeah.
If anything do DoorDash then noone sees your car.
No one's the wiser, right?
Maybe that's how we got thebuffalo sauce on the back door.
Alright, here we go.
(08:02):
Buffalo sauce.
Questionable.
We don't know what thatsubstance was, Witnesses also
stated they had seen Marilynwith him before.
Oh, but no one knew his name.
(08:25):
Fingerprints were found in herapartment, but investigators
when were unable to match them,and Marilyn's case soon went
cold.
Oh, that sucks.
Getting a fingerprint is such agood sign.
But even back then, there wereso many things that people even
didn't get.
Fingerprinted for at all or no,DNA.
(08:45):
Mm-hmm.
And so, mm-hmm.
It's nice that people's stuff,if you start getting in trouble,
you're probably going some formof identification.
Fingerprints.
DNA is gonna be saved.
Yeah.
Herman should have thought aboutbefore he bit that pizza crust
and threw it away.
Exactly.
I'm glad they found that fucker.
(09:06):
He is a dirty bitch.
Such a motherfucker.
Almost two years later in Boise,there is another brutal murder.
On April 21st, 1994, just after10:00 PM 49-year-old, Cheryl
Sherry Barrett was found dead inher north end home on sixth
(09:28):
Street only blocks from theBoise co-op.
Do you know the area?
I do, yes, I do.
Cool old houses.
I love It was a cottage.
It was so, it's cute justdriving around this area of
Boise, there's several of them.
Pockets of just historical homesand they're, so, it's just so,
they're all different.
So fun to drive by them anddream and just be like, they're
(09:49):
not cookie cutter.
No, they're all different.
I love the character.
an acquaintance discovered herbody upstairs in a bedroom.
Oh no.
Sherry had been stabbed throughthe heart and her throat had
been slashed.
Brutal.
Brutal.
It was a brutal murder.
(10:09):
Court records later revealedthat Sherry had a history of
run-ins with the law.
And let me, I'm gonna tell youall this stuff because I just
feel like this.
You're gonna see this play out,okay?
Right.
Police are victim blaming here.
Oh yeah, not we've seen, we'veseen that yes.
(10:30):
Before.
So she'd had, a history ofrun-in with run-ins with the
law.
She had been charged in 1986with a felony drug possession.
She had been charged with threeDUIs and a marijuana charge.
The marijuana, god forbid.
at the time of her death, shewas wanted for failing to appear
(10:51):
on her 1992 DUI charge.
Sis, I don't blame you.
Right.
No.
And these are things that,although important in an
investigation, sometimes, Imean, I don't know if this is
where this is going, but we, wehave seen it before where it's
like people lose their care forit.
Or like, well, clearly they gotbusted for pot one time for
(11:14):
possession of a tiny amount, sothey must be in a drug ring with
the cartels and doing dangerousthings.
So who knows what happened?
We just can't figure it out.
And I, I feel the same way thatthis was even, reported on in
the papers.
it's like, yeah.
And especially this, this time,like why would you even mention
(11:39):
it?
Like she's still a murdervictim.
Yeah.
So does it really fucking matterwhat she was?
Charged with before.
Oh, she had a DUI.
So it's okay for her to getmurdered, like, that's so
asinine.
Yeah.
So, police begin searching forsuspects and focused on two men,
(12:00):
seeing, leaving the area in alight yellow four door, 1979
Ford.
Pretty specific.
Yeah.
The light yellow, not a commoncolor, witnesses described them
as white males in their forties,one with a full beard,
pockmarked face and mediumlength brown hair.
(12:22):
The other clean shaven andpossibly armed with a knife.
Around eight 30 to 10 o'clockthat night, a dark blue, silver,
full-size van was also seen inthe area with two men entering
it.
That's a lot of detail.
(12:44):
I'm just telling you I've beenwatching, is that the innocent
files, I think I've heard onNetflix, look at, I don't care
how good you are, they have donestudies on this.
I eyewitnesses suck.
They can be extremely un likethey've done those studies where
they'll have like 20 people atdifferent vantage point.
(13:06):
Observe a staged crash andpeople yelling or an officer
screaming, put the gun down,blah, blah, blah.
And the eyewitness accounts varyso strongly.
There's some, some people willsay, well, the officer shot four
times and then said, put the gundown and the other four say it
the other way and it's just ourminds.
(13:31):
you would like to think thatyou, your memory.
Mm-hmm.
I saw this because it's yourreality.
but it's so heavily influencedthe, the one on, I wish I had
the episode.
A guy was, It was a, go, not aluxury.
(13:51):
What?
I know these words hung jury.
Thank you.
Jeez.
A hung jury because thewitnesses had contradicting
stories.
Mm-hmm.
And all this stuff.
So by the time, the second timeit came around, those witnesses
were so well prepped that, sothey made sure they had their
(14:14):
ducks in a row.
Yeah.
Not by the prosecutors Exactly.
Telling them what they need tosay, but they were molded in
such a way that the second trialwas way different than the
first.
Mm-hmm.
And then.
Years later.
Everybody recanted.
I wish I had that written down,but yeah, eyewitnesses, gimme
(14:37):
some, I want some science.
People are influenced and howyou remember things.
Your brain tries to rationalizethings and, and say, oh, it
certainly happened this way.
It definitely, that's why wehave bystander effect that's not
happening in front of me.
You could have heard yourneighbor say, oh yeah, did you
see that yellow Ford?
Yep, that's what I saw.
(14:58):
There was a yellow Ford in thisneighborhood and it could have
been a red one.
Mm-hmm.
Like that's how easily your mindcan be.
Yeah.
Just, you just need aconfirmation.
So I think eyewitness is animportant part.
Yeah.
But especially cases where it'sthe only part and there's no
other factors.
That's tough.
Even for me.
And back in the day that.
Really?
(15:19):
Yes.
A lot of what they had.
And there's been wrongful deathsentence convictions overturned
because of it.
Yes.
so Sherry's, murder drewimmediate suspicion toward Floyd
Edwin Parker.
43.
A man with violent history inboth Idaho and North Carolina.
(15:43):
Damn.
On April 24th, 94 police, BoisePolice arrested Parker at the
Boulevard Motel on CapitolBoulevard.
This is a cutie Petie hotel.
Oh.
I'm like, it seems a littleseedy, but what is it?
It's cute now.
No, it's like a cottage style.
(16:03):
It's all brick.
Anyways, it, it's, I looked itup.
I'm like.
That's good.
It's by Boise State.
It might've been seedy back inthe day.
I'm sure it's very nice now, butit's cute.
Yeah, it's it's a very cutelittle hotel.
it's all brick.
Anyway, I was like, I'm downwith that.
Parker's record was extensiveoriginally from North Carolina.
(16:26):
He had been incarcerated asearly as 1974.
After attacking a man with aparing knife.
A pairing knife, an assault thatrequired 1500 stitches.
Oh my God.
He got to work with that.
Pairing knife is one of thesmaller knives there are.
(16:46):
It's just for a potato.
Yes.
Or for like getting a peel offof an orange.
You know, like some of them havea little curve to them for like
cocktail decoration, a pairingknife.
1500 stitch.
I cannot even imagine.
(17:08):
That's, you wanna know.
Catastrophic.
He was sentenced to three tofive years.
Again, so many things only'causehe lived.
I do not look even in a seconddegree.
Degree murder.
In some states he might have gotfive.
(17:29):
Like what?
I think the attempted murdercharge is so under sentenced.
Mm-hmm.
Because, oh, they were a fighterand they fucking lived.
Yes.
So you get rewarded for three tofive years.
Mm-hmm.
(17:50):
Oh, we have first respondersthat saved this person's life,
or Yeah, their roommate camehome.
And called 9 1 1.
Or even if someone is living,but they might be paralyzed.
Yeah.
Or even in a coma.
And still 10 years later,they're not dead.
Didn't kill him.
(18:11):
No.
This shit is crazy to thinkabout.
So he was sentenced three tofive years, only a year later on
Christmas day.
What a present He was paroled.
Merry Christmas.
but just two days later afterthat, he attacked another man in
a pool hall with a pool cueknocking out eight of his teeth.
(18:38):
This is brutal, like a pool cueis a very effective weapon, but
eight teeth.
Eight teeth, yeah.
Uhhuh.
And this is two days afteryou're out where you're, listen,
your butt hole should beclenched.
Of I'm out.
I got out on Christmas.
I should be good.
Let me just do the right thing.
No, you're beating people with apool stick in a bar.
(18:58):
Pool cue.
What?
Yeah, I'm sorry.
I wrote pool cue.
It's a pool stick.
It's Q is the technical term,I'm sure.
Parker went to prison for threemore years for that at least
they were like, okay.
So if you were supposed to getthree to five and we gave you
one shame on you.
(19:22):
I bet his parole officer waspissed.
I wonder if he served these fullthree years or were they like,
we kind of like you.
How's six months?
No, he did do those three years,in 1979 after relocating to
Boise.
To be near his bro.
Like I was like, how?
How did he end up here?
Yeah.
His brother was here and he'sprobably like, I gotta jet outta
(19:44):
here because I'm just gonna gobeat another man.
I'm beating everyone up in barsand causing stitches and teeth
gone.
I gotta try to go somewherewhere nobody lives.
Let's go to Idaho.
Because, especially back then,no one was moving to Idaho for
fun.
No, no.
For the most part.
In 1979, Parker stabbed andkilled a man named Stewart
(20:06):
Hannah.
After a bar fight at the BlackPalomino, he needed to move
somewhere off grid with no barsand no pool cues, and no pairing
knives, or maybe just a prisonreally was the best place for
this.
Isolation.
(20:27):
Yeah, it was.
I'm ready for a Mike Shake.
Ready.
He was convicted of seconddegree murder and was sentenced
to 20 years in prison.
Despite his violent past prison,social workers claimed Parker
(20:48):
deserved another chance, and hewas paroled in 1984.
See for me that quote that hedeserved another chance.
Are they just, are they goingoff vibes?
They're like, he's chill.
(21:09):
Like we talk about race carssometimes.
Like he always asks about mykids.
He was horrible though, so hewas paroled, paroled in 84.
He violated parole twice.
And by December, 1991, he wasreleased.
Once again, where is the line?
Where are we?
Like, listen, if you killedsomeone this time, not to
(21:33):
mention the 1500 stitches, theeight missing teeth.
Now there's a human lifeactually lost plus all the
trauma of the previous people.
Imagine getting attacked in sucha way.
You have to get 1500 stitches orget eight of your teeth
replaced.
That's a lifelong injury Andwe're just like, but you know,
he's kind of a chill dude.
(21:55):
He's kind of, everyone here sayshe is chill and he deserves
another chance.
So let's, let's do that.
But yeah, second degree murder.
I was surprised at the 20 year,'cause usually it's like, eh,
give him five.
But can you believe, so he wasparoled in 84.
So let's just say that In 1979,it was early in 79, he was sent
(22:19):
to prison, you know, convictedin 79, sent to prison still five
years, and then disgusted.
A convicted murderer violatedparole twice, but he was
released again.
How are, how is your paroleofficer being like, bro, you are
on parole for second degreemurder, so any.
(22:42):
Sniffing of violating, you'regoing back.
is that not your job, especiallyknowing the criminal history?
Did he have a lot of money topay people off or was he just
No, the vibes must have been sofucking immaculate because how
in the hell l When Sherry waskilled in 1994, Parker quickly
(23:06):
became a suspect, not onlybecause of his history.
But also because he had datedher a few years earlier.
Oh, so she liked the bad boys.
Dani (23:19):
So Parker was arrested and he was charged with first degree
murder.
Stephanie (23:25):
Okay?
Dani (23:27):
Which fair?
You're already a murderer.
You dated this lady and now shedead at his preliminary hearing.
Magistrate Charles Hay dismissedthe case against Parker.
Wow.
prosecutors explained they didnot yet have DNA evidence.
(23:50):
And the key eyewitnesses hadrecanted their statement.
Oh, identifying another man.
Instead, prosecutors requestedadditional time to pursue DNA
testing, but magistrate hayrefused dismissing the case.
So this is early days of DNA.
Yes.
(24:11):
also the prosecution.
This is Idaho.
They're banking on other thingsthan DA.
We didn't even have a place totest DNA in Idaho, at the time.
but they didn't send off theshit.
Anyway, I'm gonna tell you aboutit,
Stephanie (24:32):
which I can appreciate that from a judge
being like, if you don't havesomething more to give me.
Then we're not holding this.
Try again when you've got itright, because people, we've
talked about the cash bailsystem.
Mm-hmm.
How you can be, if you don'thave the bail, you're sitting
there forever, you're
Dani (24:50):
losing your whole fucking life.
Your life.
You literally are losing yourjob, your apartment, your house,
your wife, your girlfriend, yourkids, because you're sitting in
jail for nine months and youhaven't done shit.
Stephanie (25:04):
And it has happened multiple times.
So I mean, this guy is, if itwas a open and shut, if someone
saw him, physically murder her,that's a different story than
saying, I saw her leave withsomeone maybe and I recanted it
and maybe she left with someoneelse.
So holding someone.
It's the, it is the job and theduty of prosecution to have
(25:27):
enough to hold someone andenough reasons for a judge to
not say, you don't have enough,try again.
And even
Dani (25:34):
sadly enough, even if they are previously a convicted
murderer.
Stephanie (25:40):
True.
Because that doesn't mean by theyou murdered again.
Yeah.
So I just, and it's just.
I know that people get stickyabout this and sometimes,
sometimes this happens wheneveryone knows what's going on.
So to, for an example, theEmmanuel case that's in the
news, which we all know now thatthe child is deceased.
(26:03):
and all of us could tell by theinterview that it was fake that
isn't necessarily enough to holdsomeone.
And what it will do if a judge.
Bows to the will of the peoplethat are screaming.
It's so clear.
Is that that's just gonna openit up for appeals.
Yep.
And mistrials.
(26:24):
Yep.
And so it just, we've gotta justfollow what we can to not have
problems in the future.
So it sucks sometimes.
But in this time, I can totallysee why the judge was like,
yeah, give another shot.
You don't even have
Dani (26:38):
the dna.
N backes are not Yeah.
Picking this guy.
also wanted to let you know afun fact.
Ooh.
Because I really, and maybe I'mjust not intelligent,'cause I
looked this up, so I wanted toknow, most of our cases that we
(26:59):
talk about have judges.
Mm-hmm.
This was a magistrate.
Do you know the differencebetween a magistrate?
I do not.
Okay.
I feel so much better aboutmyself.
Stephanie (27:09):
Yeah.
Why would you feel not smart?
Okay.
For those of you that do propsto you, props to you true crime
girls.
So
Dani (27:16):
I looked it up and our fun fact for this episode is that
magistrates often handlepreliminary hearings and decide
if there's enough evidence for atrial.
While judges generally overseemore serious and complex cases.
In this instance, the dismissalwas made by a magistrate because
(27:38):
he's like, you don't even haveenough to go see a judge.
Stop.
I did bring this to the judge.
Stephanie (27:43):
I'm, I will be.
So, he's almost like theunderwriter for the judge.
Like, yeah, I gotta see somemore documentation.
No, we're
Dani (27:50):
not even gonna bother the judge with this.
Yeah.
So, okay.
Okay.
I was
Stephanie (27:57):
like, what is the 'cause a lot of, a lot of my, I
thought it was just a semanticthing and they both meant the
same thing.
Dani (28:04):
Mo Wow.
Yeah, two.
so I was like, what is the deal?
Because I haven't seen that comeup.
So anyways, fun fact, we'realways learning here.
Always open
Stephanie (28:15):
to learning.
Dani (28:16):
I'm like, I don't know what this, let, let just really,
and you guys, if
Stephanie (28:19):
you hear us, if you were to hear us saying.
referring to a magistrate, likea judge and you're like, I
wonder if they know, do you evenemail?
Do you even understand whatyou're talking about?
We'll go research it further.
'cause I truly thought it wasjust this two words meant the
same thing
Dani (28:36):
I did too.
So anyways, the more you know,ding, we
Stephanie (28:43):
need the shooting.
I know.
Dani (28:45):
Can you put that graphic in?
Okay.
I'll do my best.
Without DNA, the case falteredsamples taken from beneath
Sherry's fingernails were toosmall for reliable testing at
the time.
Mm-hmm.
And evidence took weeks to
Stephanie (29:03):
even reach the lab in Nevada.
Yes.
This was a common thing wheresamples were too small or you
could send it to a DNA for onetype of testing and you wouldn't
be able to reuse it.
So for some cases.
This one specific sample thatthey got is their only sample.
And if you choose the wrongtest, you, it's burnt.
(29:24):
You're, you can never review itfor ever and ever.
It's done.
And so it's just crazy to thinkof that decision, if it was on
your shoulders, what you woulddo.
Dani (29:33):
And one of the big things, with this is that the
prosecution, by the time thatthat magistrate had dismissed
it, the charges.
They hadn't even sent the DNAoff, so someone's not doing the
pro their job here.
Prosecution was not prosecuting,they were not doing their job.
(29:55):
So, by August of 94, prosecutorsadmitted they would not be able
to use DNA to build a caseagainst Parker because they
didn't have it.
Oh, Sherry's daughter, Maria.
Openly criticized theinvestigation.
She pointed out that policefailed to test a club found next
(30:19):
to her mother's body forfingerprints.
Hello, failed to properly searchthe home and failed to keep her
informed.
So one of the things that, in myresearch that I found.
Two or three months after policehad went in and did the
investigation, she found a boxin her mother's home that
(30:41):
contained all of the gloves.
It was like a cardboard box fullof gloves and stuff that
investigators would use togather, evidence.
Evidence.
And.
She just felt like that was veryuncouth.
Stephanie (30:57):
They left a box there of their leftover gloves.
Dani (31:01):
Yeah.
Of bloody gloves and stuff.
And she was just like, who is,that's
Stephanie (31:06):
incredibly disappointing.
And also just like she was,she's, they might
Dani (31:10):
have to come back.
Like it was very hurtful to herto go in and see like it was, it
felt sloppy to her.
And that is fair.
Stephanie (31:19):
Sloppy.
Why would you leave anything?
You should be.
Listen, I think about respectfuland also a bit terrified to
touch anything.
And so you glove up.
Mm-hmm.
But then you should be mindfulof where you're putting the
gloves because you don't want toput evidence somewhere else by
brushing up or dropping ordripping or, and so if a box is
(31:40):
just left there that screams, wedon't know what we're doing,
Dani (31:46):
or we don't care because yes, Maria believed.
The police dismissed the casebecause of her mother's past,
labeling it as drug related andtherefore not a priority.
In her own words, quote, she wasmy mother.
She went into her house and wasmurdered.
(32:09):
It could happen to anyone.
Fair sis.
Very fair and respect her.
I can't even.
Stephanie (32:20):
And she has a good point of this could happen to
anyone.
Just because someone murdered mymother who had issues with the
law doesn't mean that the nextvictim will have issues with the
law and it doesn't matterregardless.
Like,
Dani (32:37):
no.
did she like to have somecocktails and smoke a little
marijuana?
Fuck yeah.
Let's get down.
Yeah.
That doesn't make her a horribleperson.
You're not murder able for it.
No.
And to just completely dismissher, drug related.
And the sloppiness is drugrelated.
So you know, we'll do what wecan, but to me it views
Stephanie (32:58):
as laziness.
Yeah, because, and complacencyin your position.
'cause listen, I know that wecan all get complacent in our
own jobs.
But being a detective or a firstresponder that is tasked with
doing these things, you cannotbe complacent.
Dani (33:13):
And I also think this reflects the attitude in the
nineties about whether, theywere a sex worker or a drug
addict.
Yeah.
Are they worthy of our time?
Yeah.
I really do think that thatreflects So, I am, I feel so bad
for her daughter.
Well, good on her for speakingup and doing what she could
because Yeah.
Say something.
(33:34):
Say something.
Put up a fight.
Mm-hmm.
Because she was like, it is mymother.
She was a human being.
Stephanie (33:40):
Yeah.
Dani (33:41):
Like, what the fuck is wrong with you people?
Because you got confused.
I know.
That's what she wanted to say,sis.
Yeah.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Stephanie (33:47):
Well, yeah, and someone has a few red checks on
the record that like, doesn'tmean that you're murder able
without any consequences.
Dani (34:07):
the investigation into Sherry's case stalled for years.
Understandable.
Yeah.
2006.
Marilyn Hickey's unsolved, 1992Murder was reopened in
Bremerton, Washington.
Let's fucking go.
(34:28):
Let's go.
That was when unknown DNAevidence from Sherry's murder
was reexamined and it matched tothe evidence found in Marilyn's
apartment in Boise.
I
Stephanie (34:43):
love when this happens.
Not the murder, but just theevolution to where they're like,
we can test it this way, andthen they can run it through an
actual interconnected database.
Because that was another thing.
Technology.
Oh
Dani (34:56):
yeah.
Stephanie (34:56):
They did not have.
Unless you were F-B-I-C-I-Alevel, there was nothing barely
though that shit.
There was nothing that you couldview other departments and just
have a big ass database.
So props two, everyone that
Dani (35:13):
fucking made this shit happen.
The link between the two womenwas undeniable.
Boom, they got it.
Mm-hmm.
It would take over a decadebefore that DNA evidence was
connected to a suspect
Stephanie (35:32):
10 years over.
Yeah.
Dani (35:37):
They, it wasn't in the system.
They, they, so you're
Stephanie (35:39):
basically waiting for someone to fuck up Yeah.
Or some other piece of evidenceto come from a deck.
What, what else are you gonnaget at that point?
In another eyewitness, which isnot that reliable.
A note or a, if a weapon isfound somewhere, the gun that
like if, if a gun was used, ifthat was found somewhere, but
they have to fuck up usually tocome up on the database.
Dani (36:06):
In February, 2018, Boise police collected a discarded
cigarette butt from Robert LeeMiller.
The DNA matched both murderscenes.
Sherry Barrett in Boise andMarilyn Hickey in Bremerton got
him on January 2nd, 2019.
(36:28):
Miller was arrested by BoisePolice and charged in both
cases,
Stephanie (36:34):
so over a, well, almost a year later,
Dani (36:36):
and a completely different dude.
Completely different.
Stephanie (36:41):
Yeah.
Dani (36:41):
Like he was not even on the radar.
So I mean, fuck Parker, you're amurderer, but.
Stephanie (36:48):
But Parker is the type of suspect or person of
interest that has been convictedof other crimes because of their
past.
And I'm not saying everyonethat's, that's done something
before is, but you hear thesedeath penalty cases or even
sometimes someone's already beenexecuted and they know you then
(37:10):
find out that there's no waythey could have done this.
And here's the other person.
So.
Thank goodness to the magistratethat was like, if he could bring
me a little more, we'll considerit, but no, not as it is
because, which
Dani (37:23):
is surprising because I'm just, I mean, we've watched the
legal system in this state anddeice, he should have been
fucking pro.
I mean, he should have went totrial.
It's surprising that therewasn't a trial.
Yeah, because
Stephanie (37:37):
look it.
Level heads prevailing.
Thank goodness, because that'sbeen needed for decades in
Idaho.
And someone,
Dani (37:47):
this guy could have spent 20 or 30 years in prison.
He could have spent 10 yearsjust waiting.
In April, 2019, Miller enteredan Alfred plea in Washington.
Good oldford admitting the statehad enough evidence to convict
him of second degree murder inMaryland, hickey's death, he was
(38:08):
sentenced to 17 years, themaximum penalty for second
degree murder in Washington.
So lemme just tell you.
Stephanie (38:18):
Okay.
Dani (38:20):
Washington was like, yeah, just bring'em over here.
Let's get this done.
Stephanie (38:25):
Hey Idaho, can you really seal the deal on this?
And Idaho says, hold my bear.
Very common occurrence.
Well, especially in multi-statecases involving the Pacific
Northwest.
It doesn't say that in the courtrecords or papers, but it's
clear what's
Dani (38:46):
happening.
And they were gonna pay forIdaho.
They're like, we don't care.
You need some funding?
Yeah, we'll pay for it.
Let's go.
That's crazy.
Later that August, Millerpleaded guilty in Idaho to the
murder of Sherry Barrett.
Wow.
He was sentenced to 25 years tolife Judge Steven Hipler during
(39:10):
sentencing.
Noted Miller's lack of remorse,stating quote.
For 20 years, you were allowedto live the life you wanted.
You have not demonstrated thatyou have the capacity for
empathy.
Wow.
When asked if Marilyn and Sherrywere his only victims, Miller
Chillingly responded, I don'tknow.
Stephanie (39:36):
Okay.
Dani (39:37):
So 2025 Robert Lee Miller, now 60 years old, resides in the
Idaho Maximum SecurityInstitution in Boise
Stephanie (39:49):
with many other infamous killers.
Dani (39:53):
I didn't look up his block.
I should have, yeah,'cause Imean, he's, he's a DBA too, so
he should be getting the samebrutal treatment as.
Stephanie (40:04):
Coberg Andree and everyone, so Wow.
But what a case of justice thathas to like
Dani (40:14):
had to that they actually listen, this is what intrigued
me.
Like they had a guy and if theywould, and he was already a
murderer, so they had the guy.
but that there was some, like Isaid, level minded.
Stephanie (40:33):
If that wouldn't have happened and that guy would've
gotten convicted, nobody wastesting D'cause I feel he could
have gotten convicted.
Oh, sure.
The jury, a murderer that datedher and eyewitnesses, supposedly
he's already a
Dani (40:46):
murderer.
Yeah,
Stephanie (40:47):
yeah.
Supposedly some people thoughtthey saw him and then said they
didn't.
That wouldn't be.
Like that would be enough forsome juries Yep.
To convict, especially in thatnineties.
Yeah.
And then once someone isconvicted to get the state to
investigate something else,because that's admitting they're
wrong.
Mm-hmm.
You would be hard pressed tofind an avenue, no matter how
(41:10):
active and persistent you are,if you believe that something
else happened.
Which, if you're the family andyou think justice has been
served, are you even, you know?
So thank goodness, like yousaid, there was a levelheaded
voice in it to wait for thesetechnological and DNA advances
(41:33):
to get the right person thatthat pled guilty.
So it
Dani (41:36):
is a done deal.
Well, these cases serve as areminder that even when the
evidence is thin and justice isdelayed, persistence in science.
Can finally bring the answers.
Stephanie (41:49):
Yes.
They come through a hundredpercent.
So what a relief.
It's we hear, because I thought
Dani (41:57):
I was gonna be Parker like all day long.
Stephanie (41:59):
I did too.
I'm like, this guy sounds like awoman beater.
You were you dated her.
Yeah, sure.
Mm-hmm.
Easy peasy.
What are the chances, like justsame.
What are the chances of datingtwo people that could murder?
Okay.
One of them was a murderer, andthen
Dani (42:20):
the other one, who knows there was, but I, I didn't see
anything about, for Marilyn.
She was hanging out with him.
Mm-hmm.
But there was, I not sure theconnection, For Sherry.
Sherry.
Stephanie (42:37):
Okay.
Dani (42:38):
and it could have just been maybe a friend of a friend
of a friend.
Like, you know, when you'rehanging out, running, went to
some parties together, you know?
Yeah.
I, I'm not sure that directcorrelation, for that, but
anyway, I was, I was intrigued.
That they, A, had somebody Bsaid, you don't have enough
(42:58):
evidence.
And C, they found that guylater.
The right guy.
Yes.
DNA, science.
Let's go.
Science
Stephanie (43:08):
bitch.
Are you breaking bad fans?
thank you everyone for joiningus yet again, for interacting on
our social posts.
I wanna know what you thinkabout our TikTok, new segment
with the guy that looks like aserial killer.
Dani (43:29):
It's all a good fun.
It, I think he's taken it ingood fun too, I think.
Yeah.
it's been fun.
So, we enjoy doing that.
We enjoy interactions.
We enjoy.
Emails, any feedback, or anycase ideas,
Stephanie (43:44):
super appreciate.
Yes.
If you especially are in theIdaho area, we try to stick to
Idaho or cases that touch Idahoeven.
'cause some start in one stateand go to another.
But I mean, if you have a superinteresting one, especially that
hasn't been covered by a lot ofdifferent podcasts, let us know.
Yeah.
it helps us a lot so.
(44:05):
Thank you again for tuning inand all I gotta say is ten four
rubber ducky.
Dani (44:10):
Fuck yeah,
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