November 3, 2025 • 42 mins
Wandsworth Homes is a quiet military housing complex in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Children rode bikes along its streets, neighbours looked out for one another, and life seemed ordinary. But one March evening in 1991, two boys left home to play, and never returned…
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Virginia Beach has always been a city caught between worlds.
Since the English colonists first landed at Cape Henry in
April of sixteen oh seven, this stretch of Atlantic coastline
has been a witness to history, rivals, departures, wars, and reinvention.
By the late nineteenth century, the city was marketed as
(01:06):
a seaside escape. A single hotel linked by railroad to Norfolk,
transformed the quiet stretch of shoreline into a bustling resort.
But Virginia Beach was never just about tourism. Over the decades,
it grew into a sprawling community, a place where vacationers
mingled with longtime residents, and where military families arrived in
(01:28):
steady waves carried by the shifting tides of deployment orders.
By nineteen ninety one, Virginia Beach was home to one
of the largest naval air stations on the East Coast.
Military housing dotted the city like small, self contained villages,
each with its own heartbeat. Rows of near identical homes,
(01:49):
front yards with bicycles left on the grass, and the
constant hum of aircraft overhead defined these neighborhoods. They were
places where children formed fast friendship, and parents leaned on
each other when deployments pulled one spoue far from home.
One such community was Wandsworth Homes, perched near the quaint
waters of Birdneck Lake. The lake itself was unremarkable on
(02:13):
a map, but for the families who lived nearby, it
was a familiar backdrop. Kids fished for bass on hot
summer afternoons, skipping stones across the still waters, while the
smell of barbecues drifted from backyards. Birdneck Lake felt safe, ordinary,
a place where children could roam without their parents worrying
(02:34):
too much. But safety is sometimes only an illusion. On
a humid March evening in nineteen ninety one, that illusion
shattered to young boys from Wandsworth Homes didn't make it
home for dinner. Nine year old Daniel Geyer was born
(03:07):
in Anniston to Gary and Valerie Geyer. He was part
of a large and lively family with three daughters and
another son. The Gyers had moved to Virginia Beach three
years earlier, when Gary's posting with the Navy brought them
to Burneck Lake. Like many military families, they knew the
rhythm of constant change new cities new schools, new friends.
(03:31):
It was a lifestyle that required resilience, especially from children,
but it also came with a ready made support network.
In military housing, neighbors often become standing family. A nine
year old Daniel thrived in that environment. Neighbors recalled him
as a bride outgoing boy, always quick to smile. He
(03:52):
was constantly in motion, peddling his bicycle through the complex,
stopping to chat, or joining in a pickup game with friends.
His presence was one of those constants you barely noticed
until it wasn't there. One friend, Kenneth Lester, remembered Don
was a real good little kid. He was always happy.
(04:12):
You could tell he had a real nice family. He
was always happy, and he always had a smile on
his face. He was just a real good kid. Wherever
Daniel went, another boy was usually close behind. Seven year
old Ashley Christopher Weaver, known to everybody as Scott, lived
just a few doors down. His nickname had come from
his birthplace, Scotland, though Virginia Beage was the only home
(04:35):
he really remembered. Like Daniel, Scott was part of a
Navy family. He was the eldest of five children born
to Robert and Tomorrow. Weaver. His mother Tomorrow was serving
as an electrician's mate aboard a navy's ship in the
Persian Gulf at the time. His father was holding downe
the Ford at home with the children, but he too
(04:55):
was in the military. Scott missed his mother deeply when
she was deployed, but he wrote to her faithfully, filling
his letters with updates from home. Reverend D. R. Statton,
who knew the family, described him simply. He loved people,
he loved to explore. Seldom was he still together. Daniel
and Scott made the most of their freedom. The military
(05:18):
housing complex was their playground, and bird Neck Lake was
the backdrop for their adventures. They fished, rode bikes, and
explored the wooded areas of the neighborhood. For boys their age,
it was the kind of childhood that felt both bondless
and secure. But one evening in nineteen ninety one would
prove that even in place is built on structure and community,
(05:39):
tragedy can arrive quietly without warning. It was the fourth
of March nineteen ninety one for nine year old Daniel
Geyer and seven year old Scott Weaver the dead. They
(06:00):
began like any other Monday, they spent the morning at school,
and once release, did what they loved most, racing through
the neighborhood on their bicycles side by side. By late afternoon,
around four thirty p m. The boys were seen pedaling
up and down the familiar straits of Wandsworth homes. Their
parents gave them the same rule every evening, be home
(06:23):
when the sun goes down. But as daylight began to
fade and the sky shifted from pale orange to gray,
Daniel and Scott still hadn't returned home. At first, Daniel's mother, Valerie,
wasn't alarmed. Children in Birdneck Lake often lingered a little
too long at play, But once darkness settled in and
(06:43):
there was still no sign of her son on A's
crept in, Valerie stepped outside, calling her son's name into
the dim streets. Somewhere near by, another voice echoed into
the night. It was Scott's grandmother searching for him as well.
Valery hurried over, explaining that Daniel hadn't come home either.
(07:06):
The grandmother's response was heavy with worry. I hope to
God they didn't go where they went last week over
to the lake. Birdneck Lake wasn't far. The children had
been warned not to play there. It was too deep,
too unpredictable, a place of hidden dangers. But warnings don't
always stick in young adventurous minds. Valery and her husband
(07:30):
Gary grabbed their flashlights and headed over to the lake.
They swept their beams across the water's edge, calling out
the boys' names. The beams caught on nothing but trees
and murky water. The silence that followed was crushing. By
seven thirty PM, with the boys still missing, police were called.
(07:51):
The search began almost immediately, and words spread through Virginia
Beach with urgency. Neighbors poured from their homes, and soon
more than sixty p people, including police officers, firefighters, Navy personnel,
and volunteers were coming through the neighborhood. They searched house
to house, straight to straight, and pressed further outward towards
(08:12):
the dark woods and the waters of Birdneck Lake. The lake,
which was really just a flooded borrow pit, sat just
south of the Navy amphibious space, encircled by thick woods
and dotted with smaller bodies of water. It was treacherous,
tern still, the searchers pressed forward as they neared the
(08:32):
water line, something called the bam of a flashlight just
beneath the surface. It was a small bicycle, its wheale
bent at a strange angle. It was carefully pulled from
the lake. It belonged to Scott, hoped that the boys
had simply wandered off began to shrink. Searchers turned their
(08:53):
focus deeper into the woods and around the swampy edges
of the lake. Divers entered the water despite the hazards.
Submerged trees, debris, and jagged construction material made every step uncertain,
and in those depths anything could remain hidden. Around thirty
to forty yards away, another discovery surfaced, Daniel's bicycle, half
(09:18):
submerged in swamp water, its frame caked in mud. By
eleven PM, the dangers of night diving forced police to
suspend the water search. The darkness was far too consuming
and the risk was too great. But on land the
hunt continued. Volunteers with flashlights swept through the woods in lines,
(09:39):
calling out the boys' names into the night air. At
three forty five am, searchers briefly stopped to regroup before
pressing on again. Karen Lincoln, a dispatcher for Virginia Beach Police,
Fire and Rescue recalled how the k strew people farm wide.
They've had people volunteering from all over the state with
tracking dogs to out in help. Through the night, the
(10:02):
search pressed forward, every passing r weighed with dread. The
next morning the search resumed. By now the effort had
swelled to nearly two hundred people. Volunteers came from all
across Virginia Beage and beyond, Shaken by the disappearance of
(10:24):
two young boys in a community where children were supposed
to fail. Safe searchers spread out across the woodland surrounding
Birdneck Lake, about one hundred yards ace of General Booth Boulevard.
A group moved slowly through thick undergrowth. On one side
was a residential street, on the other a public camp ground.
(10:47):
One searcher, James McKinsey, was watching the ground as he
picked his way over branches and fallen leaves. Then something
in the distance caught his eye, a shape, too small,
too out of place among the angled brush. He stepped closer,
heart pounding as he neared, he froze. A tiny hand
(11:09):
was sticking out from beneath a pile of leaves and branches.
Blonde hair glinted faintly beneath the debris. James staggered back
in horror before calling the police over. The area was
quickly sailed off. Officers saw what James had seen, a
crude pile of tree limbs, branches, and forest DeBras. Many
(11:31):
of the branches bore fresh cup marks, as though they
had been deliberately sawn down with a knife to create
this makeshift cover. One by one, the atoms were carefully
removed beneath them, Lying side by side with the bodies
of Daniel Gear and Scott Weaver. Both boys were fully clothed,
(11:54):
but their clothes were saturated in blood. Their throats had
been slacked. The search was finally over as the boys
remains were prepared for transport to the medical Examiner's office.
The unimaginable task of notifying their families fell to Navy personnel.
None of the parents had slept through the night they'd
(12:17):
waited by the phone. Joined the searches clung to the
hope that the boys were hiding somewhere safe. Gary and
Valerie Gear were standing outside when the officers approached. The
moment Valerie realized what they were there to say her
body crumpled. She sobbed, No, it can't be. They've got
(12:38):
to be okay. A short distance away, Robert Weaver was
told of his son's death. Scott's mother, Tomorrow, was serving
aboard the USS Yellowstone in the Persian Gulf. Word was
sent to her immediately. She was flown back home at once,
a military mother summoned back to face the most devastating
(12:59):
news imaginable. Over the medical Examiner's office, the fathers were
asked to do what no parent should ever be asked
to do. They had to identify their son's bodies. Afterwards,
Gary slammed his fists against the canopy of a pickup
truck and shouted, get that, son of a bitch. Autopsies
(13:21):
then revealed the brutality of the attack. Both boys had
bled to death. Seven year old Scott suffered three stab
wounds delivered in rapid succession. The injuries would have incapacitated
him quickly, but the killer didn't stop. Scott's throat was
slashed over and over until he was nearly decapitated. Nan
(13:46):
year old Daniel had been struck with such force that
his neck was broken before his throat was slashed. He
too had been slashed multiple times. The autopsies also brought
an unexpected revelation. Despite initial fears that the boys might
have been killed by a sexual predator, there was no
sign of sexual assault. This wasn't a crime of sexual gratification.
(14:12):
It was something else, something fueled by raw violence and rage.
And now in Virginia Beach, the search for two missing
boys transformed into a hunt for their killer. The woodland
(14:37):
where Daniel and Scott had been found was sealed off,
crime scene tape fluttering in the wind as detectives and
forensics teams combed the ground inch by inch. News of
the murders spread like wildfire through Virginia Beach. Parents who
had tuck their children into bed the night before now
faced an unbearable truth. A child killer was in their mids.
(15:00):
It's the sense of safety that military housing and close
knit neighborhoods once offered had vanished overnight. Be At Stea,
who lived nearby, captured the raw fear that gripped parents
everywhere when she said, this is every mother's worst nightmare.
For children in the community, the shock was just as profound.
(15:21):
The woods where the boys' bodies were found wasn't just
any patch of land. It was their playground. Generations of
kids had built forts there, hammered to gather, treehouse, and
carved skateboard ramps into the clearings. It was a place
where imagination ran free, but that innocence was now gone.
(15:41):
One boy told reporters were scared. We used to play
in those woods all the time, but not anymore. Adults too,
had long been uneasy about the area. Some had warned
that the woods were no longer safe for children, pointing
to signs of trouble that had cropped up regularly discarded
(16:01):
beer bottles scattered across the floor, evidence of late night parties,
and what neighbors described as rough looking kids emerging from
the tree line. Others claimed they had seen youths carrying
crow bars and tire irons. There's all kinds of stuff
that goes on in those woods, recalled James McKinsey, the
(16:23):
searcher who had made the grim discovery. He then added,
the children play in there, but you can tell from
what's in there that there's other things that go on too.
A local mother who didn't want to be named, put
it more bluntly. There's beer cans and wine bottles all
over that woods. You can look around and see where
they have had parties in there, and police knew that
(16:46):
these weren't just harmless gatherings. The summer before, children reported
being chased through the trees by a man who was
holding a knife. Around the same time, a grocery store
clerk was robbed, dragged into the woods, and then raped.
Lieutenant Denis Free of the Virginia Beach Police admitted grimly,
I'll guarantee you there'll be people living there during the summer.
(17:09):
For detectives, the picture was complex. The woods were a
place of play but also of menace, a shadowy space
where predators could hide in play in sight. Detectives were
cautious in their early statements. They couldn't yet say whether
Daniel and Scott had been killed by somebody they knew
or by a stranger, but they were certain of one thing.
(17:31):
The boys had been murdered where their bodies were found.
Moving two children such a distance through thick brush would
have been nearly impossible without leaving clear signs behind. A
special tip line was set up, and within days hundreds
of calls flooded in, but each lead ended in frustration.
Nothing yet pointed clearly to the killer. Detectives began retracing
(17:55):
the boy's final steps, piecing together a timeline. Rose Campbell,
who worked at the seven eleven near Wandsworth Homes, recalled
seeing Daniel around five point thirty that evening. He'd come
in to buy candy and play video games, but he
wasn't with Scott. He was with another boy, she said,
but she was certain it wasn't his best friend. Another neighbor, Bennett,
(18:19):
said she too had spotted the boys around the same time,
between five pm and five thirty pm. She saw them
near the edge of the woods, but they weren't alone
with them with a teenage boy. At the local schools,
(18:43):
the tragedy of Scott and Daniel was all anybody could
talk about, But at First Colonial High School, one student
seemed to know more than he should. Sixteen year old
Sean Novak lived in Wandsworth Homes with his parents. Neighbors
knew him well. He often mowed their lawns for extra cash,
including the waivers. His family was deeply religious and regulars
(19:07):
at church. On the surface, Jean looked like any other
teenager in the neighborhood, but in the days after the murders.
He began boasting to classmates that he had discovered the
boy's bodies. That claim was false, James mackenzie had found them,
but Novak consisted he was the one. He said he
(19:28):
had seen their throats slashed, even touched their bloodied bodies.
These were details that hadn't been released to the public.
For those who knew him, this wasn't entirely out of character.
Joan Novac had always seemed strange, prone to shocking others
with bizarre behavior. One classmate explained, sometimes it was like
(19:50):
he was trying to stick out, like he wanted to
do anything that looked weird, and weird he was. John
had a habit of flaunting macab trophies. He carried a
sack of animal boons, wore dead bird's head strung around
his neck, and once waved around the severed leg of
a cat to discuss his classmates. When they stopped reacting,
(20:14):
he escalated. He bragged about killing a dog next. It
was always something bigger, just to freak you. One friend recalled.
Neighbors had noticed his oddities as well. Melita Canover remembered
simply he was kind of strange. He carried weird things.
Sean also talked to himself, or rather to objects. He
(20:38):
could be seen muttering to tennis balls, golf balls, and
even blades of grass. At school, Kerrie Duprey remembered him
stopping her on the stairway, warning solemnly that she had
nearly stepped on a cander. The word kender came from
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In Shawn's mind, the dense woodland near bird Neck Lake
wasn't just a neighborhood playground, it was his kingdom. He
(22:50):
created a role for the younger children who followed him,
calling them his Kendors, named after a mischiefous, fearless race
of creatures from the game. Local teenager John Cleepoor explained,
Sean had like this little group of Candors, and the
little kids would be in it. They'd run around just
goofing off. Daniel was in that group. It was pretty
(23:14):
much normal everyday life, but he gave a name to
it and made it more interesting. Despite his eccentracies, not
everybody viewed Sean in a negative light. Some neighbors said
that he was harmless, even kind. He was known to
babysit younger children and often spoke about wanting kids of
his own one day. Others described him as shy, a
(23:37):
quiet loner, more focused on passing grades than causing trouble
his classmates Thereing the Hindman put it simply, he was
basically a loner at school. He was always trying to
keep his grades up and make sure he passes. To
some Sean Novak was just an awkward teenager with strange
habits to others, he was unsettling. Sean Novak didn't just
(24:08):
make up stories for his classmates. He also told his
friend Donald Williamson's mother that he had seen Scott and
Daniel around five pm on the day they disappeared, that
he was the last person to see them alive. Alarmed,
she immediately called police. That afternoon, a detective found Novak's mother, Jenny,
(24:28):
at work. He explained that he was canvassing the neighborhood
for clues and asked if he could speak with her son.
Jenny wanted to be present, and she rushed home from work,
but by the time she arrived, the detective had already
been and spoken briefly with Sean. Later that evening, detective
Sean Hoffman arrived at the Novak home and asked Jenny
(24:50):
if he could question Sean privately. He reassured her that
Sean wasn't a suspect, just a possible witness. Jenny agreed,
and soon she and her some were on their way
to the police station. For two hours, detectives questioned Sean.
He denied knowing anything about the murders, but stuck to
his claim that he had been present when the bodies
(25:12):
were discovered. Investigators knew that this was false. James had
made it clear that he and his wife were the
only ones there. Suspicion sharpened even further when a witness
confirmed that the teenager last seeing with Scott and Daniel
was none other than Sean Novak. The next day, detectives
asked Sean to return. This time, detective Hoffman asked Janny
(25:36):
to step outside the interrogation room. Left alone with Sean,
he shifted tactics. He told the teenager falsely that investigators
had found his fingerprints on one of the victim's clothing
and that a police officer had seen him in the
woods before the bodies were discovered. Then he pressed harder,
suggesting that maybe Sean had stumbled upon the boys first,
(25:59):
maybe even try to cover them with branches. Sean admitted
he had. Hoffman pushed further, maybe something had happened in
the woods, maybe by accident. Sean hesitated and then nodded.
Did you kill them? Hoffman asked. Sean nodded again. Yes.
(26:33):
After Sean Novak admitted to the murderers, detectives read him
his miranda rights. What followed was strange, unsettling, and chilling.
Novak began talking about Kender, the mischievous creatures from dungeons
and dragons, but his description was distorted. He said that
they were four inch tall green beings that killed others
(26:55):
by planting parasitic worms in their paths. He laughed as
he spoke about them. Woments later, he broke into sobs
and began describing what happened that day. It had started
like any other. Novak went to school, then hurried home,
grabbed his buck knife, bought cigarettes at seven eleven, and
(27:16):
headed into the woods, where he often spent hours throwing
his knife at trees. On his way, he bumped into
Scott and Daniel. He already knew Daniel, his younger brother's
best friend. Scott, however, he'd never met The boys asked
him to show them a new ford in the woods,
and he agreed. As they walked, Daniel kept asking to
(27:38):
see his knife. Near the fort, they began playfully wrestling,
and Sean said he grew concerned somebody might get hurt
with the blade. He said, he took it from his
belt and set it up against a tree mooment Slater.
Daniel picked it up I freaked out. Sean told detectives
(27:58):
he didn't elaborate on what triggered his panic or exactly
how the events unfolded. He only admitted that he killed
both boys, then cut branches and piled them over the
bodies to conceal them. When police searched the Novak home afterward,
they found in his bedroom a knife, a book on
serial killers, and newspaper clippings about violent crimes in the area.
(28:23):
The day that Sean Novak was formally charged with capital murder,
the courtroom and the community felt the sense of shock, horror,
and for some relief. Almost immediately, prosecutors requested that he
be tried as an adult, a decision that would profoundly
shape the trajectory of the case. Prosecutor Robert Humphrey addressed
(28:44):
the medias, starting, it may well be that we will
seek the death penalty. It may well be that we won't,
but I think it's premature at this point to make
that decision. Word of the arrests spread quickly throughout the
Wandsworth Home neighborhood. Families who had spent long, sleepless nights
searching for answers, felt the cautious relief twelve year old
(29:06):
Michael Swagger, a friend of the victims, put the feeling
into words, I feel better that they called someone. My
dad said, whoever could kill those kids must believe in
the devil. On the eleventh of March, Novak appeared in
court for the first time. His parents sat beside him,
his mother clutching his cuffed hands tightly. The judge then
(29:29):
ordered that he beheld without bond, and a psychological examination
was mandated to determine whether he was competent to stand trial.
The results confirmed that Novak was fully able to understand
the proceedings and assist in his defense. By the end
of March, the stakes had been set. Novak would face
the death penalty if convicted. Humphrey addressed reporters, starting, my
(29:54):
interest is in getting the kid a fair trial. I'm
not all that concerned about what the public news. We
have a distinct possibility of putting a sixteen year old
kid in the electric chair. I don't want it sent
back on appeal. Novak's defense team, however, pushed back. They
appealed the decision to try him as an adult, arguing
that the juvenile court system would better provide counseling and
(30:17):
protections appropriate for a youthful defendant. That appeal was denied,
and Judge Jerome Friedman ruled that the case would remain
in adult court. Without ruling, Novak's attorneys requested in another
psychiatric examination, signaling their plan to mount an insanity defense.
The prosecution, who were anticipating this strategy, also arranged for
(30:39):
psychiatric evaluation. Humphreys explained the rationale plainly and said, since
that's the case, we're now entitled to have him evaluated
by our psychologists and psychiatrists. Nearly a year after the murders,
on the fifth of March nineteen ninety two, the trial
of Sean Novak began. He was escorted into the court
(30:59):
room and seated beside his defensed him, his expression unreadable.
During opening statements, Novak's attorney, Richard Bridges, led out the
defense's strategy. It was unusual, unsettling, and immediately drew attention.
He said, some person with whom he was possessed, whom
he didn't know, erupted and caused him to commit this
(31:22):
violent act. Jean Novac didn't kill those boys. Somebody, something
inside of him did. Before the trial, Sean Novac had
undergone a five day evaluation by doctor C. R. Showalter,
hired by the defense, sho Walter had diagnosed him with
the FOURM of schizophrenia. According to the doctor, Novak had
(31:44):
experienced a dissociative episode during the murders. He felt as
if it was him watching himself from above, detached from
his own body, as he carried out the murders. Defense
Bridges argued that the schizophrenia had emerged approximately six months
before the killings. He emphasized that moments before the murders,
(32:05):
Novak had even set aside his knife during play with
the boys to avoid an accidental injury. The prosecution countered
with equal force they had enlisted two other psychiatrists, both
of whom found no evidence of mental illness. Prosecutor Humphrey
stated Sean Novak butchered Daniel Gere and Scott Weaver in
(32:27):
the coldest cold blood. The trial focused less on the
murders themselves and more on Novak's state of mind at
the time. Bennett Stayed, the mother of one of Novak's friends,
was among the first to testify. She described how Sean
had spent nights at her house until June of nineteen ninety,
when his behavior became more concerning. She recalled an incident
(32:51):
where he threw a tantrum after being denied permission to
watch a movie about Charles Manson. When asked why he
was so upset, he told he idolized Manson. She also
testified about seeing Novak with Scott and Daniel on the
evening of the fourth of March nineteen ninety one. She'd
even offered them a ride home, which they declined. Daniel
(33:14):
mentioned he needed to swing by the nearby woods to
grab his bicycle. Perhaps the most damning evidence of all
was Novak's own confession, which was play to the jury
in its entirety. Even though the defense conceded that Novak
had committed the murders, they continued to argue that his
confession had been coerced. The defense opened their case with
(33:36):
doctor Robert Showalter to the stand. He testified he did not,
as Sean Novak, understand what he was doing. The driving
force was the Kender character. He went on to explain
that the Kender sometimes fused with Novak taking control in
moments of stress or obsession. According to the doctor, nova
(34:00):
Vax immersion in fantasy wasn't typical adolescence, play, his writings, drawings,
and the ars he spent alone in the woods revealed
somebody deeply entrenched in a private world of imagination. He
testified he was unusually preoccupied with fantasy to the point
of being mentally ill. This form of schizophrenia occurs in
(34:22):
only about three percent of the population. Only a small
fraction of those ever turned violent. He then described the
events of March fourth, nineteen ninety one, in the woodland,
as Novak played with Daniel and Scott. Showalter claimed the
Kender character emerged in Novak's mind. The children were no
(34:43):
longer real. They were a fantasy, evil force, an obstacle
to the character's imagined golds. Shewald's testimony painted a picture
of a boy who had lost the boundary between reality
and imagination, but the prosecution countered to decisively. Doctor Donald mcgoone,
another psychiatrist, testified that Novak demonstrated no impairment in his
(35:08):
grasp of reality. He said, Jean Novac exhibited only the
usual struggles of adolescence in security, low self esteem, a
desire to feel appreciated. These are all normal. I saw
no evidence that he believed he was a Kender. The
doctor added that Novak expressed genuine remorse. He often cried
(35:29):
himself to sleep in jail. He testified he didn't know
why he killed the boys, but he was fully aware
of what he was doing. Doctor Paul Manshium corroborated this view.
While he acknowledged that Novak had reacted violently when one
of the boys touched his knife, he described this as
part of ordinary magical thinking, a human tendency to ascribe
(35:53):
significance to objects or events, such as buying a lottery ticket.
I never saw any clue that Sean had eened, ever
thought he was a candor or that candor was him.
He said. The closing arguments brought the emotional weight of
the case to its peaque. Defense attorney Richard Bridges implored
the jury to focus on the core question. Was Jean
(36:14):
Novak legally insane at the time of the murders. He
painted the picture of a boy overwhelmed by his inner world,
a young man whose bizarre behavior such as talking to
unanimate objects obsessing over fantasy, was a cry for help.
He said, this young man was out of control, and
there was no reason for him to be out of control.
(36:37):
Look at the evidence look at the life of a
boy crying silently in his bedroom, isolated and struggling, yet
living in a reality he couldn't fully grasp. Prosecutor Robert
Humphries rose to read, but his voice was sharp as
he firmly said, this is psychobabble. These weren't mistakes, These
(36:58):
weren't accidents. The boy his bodies were carefully hidden. They
were methodically killed. Someone who's not in control does not
take the time to conceal what they've done. This was deliberate,
calculated and cruel. After deliberating for just ninety minutes, the
jury reached a decision. John Novak was found guilty of
(37:19):
the murders of Scott Weaver and Daniel Gear. There was
no visible reaction from him, no tears, no flinching, no apology.
After he was escorted from the courtroom, his defense attorney
said he had seen in the juror's eyes during closing
arguments that they had no sympathy for anybody but the
victims and their families. He said, it's sad I think
(37:42):
the case is full of victims. The sentencing phase of
the trial began on the fourth of May. It was
decided that the sentence would be up to Circuit Judge
(38:03):
John mure As opposed to the jury. Novak's defense attorney
said of his client, he's extremely disoriented about all of
this because it makes no sense to him. He's not
sure how it happened, or how it erupted, or even
that it really did. He doesn't know completely that it did.
The defense called on some of Novak's family to plead
(38:24):
for leniency. His mother, Jenny said, I think someone needs
to find out what's going on inside of Shaan. She
started to cry as she said. Sean has tried to
protect us. He puts a smile on his face and
tries to say anything that will be encouraging and uplifting
the prosecution. We're seeking a death sentence. Prosecutor Humphreys compared
(38:47):
Novak to Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. He called the
murders absolutely vile, disgusting. Defense attorney Bridges argued that sentencing
him to death would only compound what is a tragedy.
He said, I don't want this court to create more
victims and more funerals. The defense attorney asked rhetorically whether
(39:08):
the Gears and Weavers would find solace in Novak's execution
in the public gallery. Daniel's father, Gary nodded. Judge Murr
referred to the murders as probably one of the most
horrible crimes this city has ever seen. He said that
the absence of any clear motive suggested that Novak was
a threat to kill again. While the jury rejected the
(39:32):
insanity defense, the judge stated, I do believe he suffers
from some severe psychiatric problems. This case was primarily the
product of a very young, very immature, and very disturbed
young man. The judge ultimately spared novaka death sentence and
sentenced him to life in prison. He would become eligible
(39:54):
for parole in twenty five years when he turned forty two.
It was compromise between justice and recognition of Novak's youth
and mental instability. Yet, decades later, the question that haunted
the families and the community remains unanswered. Why John Novak
never fully explained why he killed Scott and Daniel. His
(40:18):
defense attorney reflected on the chilling silence that followed any
attempts to broach the subject. He recalled John never really
communicated with us. He talked about TV shows, juggling, and
what books he was reading in jail, but when we
changed the subject to the case, he would just stop
talking and shrug. The prosecution had their own theory. They
(40:41):
believed that Novak was simply obsessed with murder and driven
by a desperate need for attention. Daniel's father, Gary captured
the enduring pain of a father who would never really
know the full story when he said I kept thinking
he would say something. I wanted the guy to turn
around to the families and say I'm sorry, or even
(41:05):
go to hell anything. I've searched my mind from the
back to the front, and I can't find a reason
for this. I'll probably spend the rest of my life
trying to figure it out. Well, that is it for
(41:41):
this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so much
for listening, and I'd like to say a massive thank
you to my new supporter up on Patreon, Ali. You
can join Morbidology up on Patreon for as little as
one dollar a month and there are no obligations. You're
free to cancel your subscription at any point. Morbidology is
also now up on Apple Subscriptions, where you get odd
(42:02):
free early release and bonus episodes of Morbidology, plus that
aren't on the regular podcast platforms. Remember to check us
out at morbidology dot com for more information about this
episode and to read some true crime articles. Until next time,
take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.
Virginia Beach has always been a city caught between worlds.
Since the English colonists first landed at Cape Henry in
April of sixteen oh seven, this stretch of Atlantic coastline
has been a witness to history, rivals, departures, wars, and reinvention.
By the late nineteenth century, the city was marketed as
(01:06):
a seaside escape. A single hotel linked by railroad to Norfolk,
transformed the quiet stretch of shoreline into a bustling resort.
But Virginia Beach was never just about tourism. Over the decades,
it grew into a sprawling community, a place where vacationers
mingled with longtime residents, and where military families arrived in
(01:28):
steady waves carried by the shifting tides of deployment orders.
By nineteen ninety one, Virginia Beach was home to one
of the largest naval air stations on the East Coast.
Military housing dotted the city like small, self contained villages,
each with its own heartbeat. Rows of near identical homes,
(01:49):
front yards with bicycles left on the grass, and the
constant hum of aircraft overhead defined these neighborhoods. They were
places where children formed fast friendship, and parents leaned on
each other when deployments pulled one spoue far from home.
One such community was Wandsworth Homes, perched near the quaint
waters of Birdneck Lake. The lake itself was unremarkable on
(02:13):
a map, but for the families who lived nearby, it
was a familiar backdrop. Kids fished for bass on hot
summer afternoons, skipping stones across the still waters, while the
smell of barbecues drifted from backyards. Birdneck Lake felt safe, ordinary,
a place where children could roam without their parents worrying
(02:34):
too much. But safety is sometimes only an illusion. On
a humid March evening in nineteen ninety one, that illusion
shattered to young boys from Wandsworth Homes didn't make it
home for dinner. Nine year old Daniel Geyer was born
(03:07):
in Anniston to Gary and Valerie Geyer. He was part
of a large and lively family with three daughters and
another son. The Gyers had moved to Virginia Beach three
years earlier, when Gary's posting with the Navy brought them
to Burneck Lake. Like many military families, they knew the
rhythm of constant change new cities new schools, new friends.
(03:31):
It was a lifestyle that required resilience, especially from children,
but it also came with a ready made support network.
In military housing, neighbors often become standing family. A nine
year old Daniel thrived in that environment. Neighbors recalled him
as a bride outgoing boy, always quick to smile. He
(03:52):
was constantly in motion, peddling his bicycle through the complex,
stopping to chat, or joining in a pickup game with friends.
His presence was one of those constants you barely noticed
until it wasn't there. One friend, Kenneth Lester, remembered Don
was a real good little kid. He was always happy.
(04:12):
You could tell he had a real nice family. He
was always happy, and he always had a smile on
his face. He was just a real good kid. Wherever
Daniel went, another boy was usually close behind. Seven year
old Ashley Christopher Weaver, known to everybody as Scott, lived
just a few doors down. His nickname had come from
his birthplace, Scotland, though Virginia Beage was the only home
(04:35):
he really remembered. Like Daniel, Scott was part of a
Navy family. He was the eldest of five children born
to Robert and Tomorrow. Weaver. His mother Tomorrow was serving
as an electrician's mate aboard a navy's ship in the
Persian Gulf at the time. His father was holding downe
the Ford at home with the children, but he too
(04:55):
was in the military. Scott missed his mother deeply when
she was deployed, but he wrote to her faithfully, filling
his letters with updates from home. Reverend D. R. Statton,
who knew the family, described him simply. He loved people,
he loved to explore. Seldom was he still together. Daniel
and Scott made the most of their freedom. The military
(05:18):
housing complex was their playground, and bird Neck Lake was
the backdrop for their adventures. They fished, rode bikes, and
explored the wooded areas of the neighborhood. For boys their age,
it was the kind of childhood that felt both bondless
and secure. But one evening in nineteen ninety one would
prove that even in place is built on structure and community,
(05:39):
tragedy can arrive quietly without warning. It was the fourth
of March nineteen ninety one for nine year old Daniel
Geyer and seven year old Scott Weaver the dead. They
(06:00):
began like any other Monday, they spent the morning at school,
and once release, did what they loved most, racing through
the neighborhood on their bicycles side by side. By late afternoon,
around four thirty p m. The boys were seen pedaling
up and down the familiar straits of Wandsworth homes. Their
parents gave them the same rule every evening, be home
(06:23):
when the sun goes down. But as daylight began to
fade and the sky shifted from pale orange to gray,
Daniel and Scott still hadn't returned home. At first, Daniel's mother, Valerie,
wasn't alarmed. Children in Birdneck Lake often lingered a little
too long at play, But once darkness settled in and
(06:43):
there was still no sign of her son on A's
crept in, Valerie stepped outside, calling her son's name into
the dim streets. Somewhere near by, another voice echoed into
the night. It was Scott's grandmother searching for him as well.
Valery hurried over, explaining that Daniel hadn't come home either.
(07:06):
The grandmother's response was heavy with worry. I hope to
God they didn't go where they went last week over
to the lake. Birdneck Lake wasn't far. The children had
been warned not to play there. It was too deep,
too unpredictable, a place of hidden dangers. But warnings don't
always stick in young adventurous minds. Valery and her husband
(07:30):
Gary grabbed their flashlights and headed over to the lake.
They swept their beams across the water's edge, calling out
the boys' names. The beams caught on nothing but trees
and murky water. The silence that followed was crushing. By
seven thirty PM, with the boys still missing, police were called.
(07:51):
The search began almost immediately, and words spread through Virginia
Beach with urgency. Neighbors poured from their homes, and soon
more than sixty p people, including police officers, firefighters, Navy personnel,
and volunteers were coming through the neighborhood. They searched house
to house, straight to straight, and pressed further outward towards
(08:12):
the dark woods and the waters of Birdneck Lake. The lake,
which was really just a flooded borrow pit, sat just
south of the Navy amphibious space, encircled by thick woods
and dotted with smaller bodies of water. It was treacherous,
tern still, the searchers pressed forward as they neared the
(08:32):
water line, something called the bam of a flashlight just
beneath the surface. It was a small bicycle, its wheale
bent at a strange angle. It was carefully pulled from
the lake. It belonged to Scott, hoped that the boys
had simply wandered off began to shrink. Searchers turned their
(08:53):
focus deeper into the woods and around the swampy edges
of the lake. Divers entered the water despite the hazards.
Submerged trees, debris, and jagged construction material made every step uncertain,
and in those depths anything could remain hidden. Around thirty
to forty yards away, another discovery surfaced, Daniel's bicycle, half
(09:18):
submerged in swamp water, its frame caked in mud. By
eleven PM, the dangers of night diving forced police to
suspend the water search. The darkness was far too consuming
and the risk was too great. But on land the
hunt continued. Volunteers with flashlights swept through the woods in lines,
(09:39):
calling out the boys' names into the night air. At
three forty five am, searchers briefly stopped to regroup before
pressing on again. Karen Lincoln, a dispatcher for Virginia Beach Police,
Fire and Rescue recalled how the k strew people farm wide.
They've had people volunteering from all over the state with
tracking dogs to out in help. Through the night, the
(10:02):
search pressed forward, every passing r weighed with dread. The
next morning the search resumed. By now the effort had
swelled to nearly two hundred people. Volunteers came from all
across Virginia Beage and beyond, Shaken by the disappearance of
(10:24):
two young boys in a community where children were supposed
to fail. Safe searchers spread out across the woodland surrounding
Birdneck Lake, about one hundred yards ace of General Booth Boulevard.
A group moved slowly through thick undergrowth. On one side
was a residential street, on the other a public camp ground.
(10:47):
One searcher, James McKinsey, was watching the ground as he
picked his way over branches and fallen leaves. Then something
in the distance caught his eye, a shape, too small,
too out of place among the angled brush. He stepped closer,
heart pounding as he neared, he froze. A tiny hand
(11:09):
was sticking out from beneath a pile of leaves and branches.
Blonde hair glinted faintly beneath the debris. James staggered back
in horror before calling the police over. The area was
quickly sailed off. Officers saw what James had seen, a
crude pile of tree limbs, branches, and forest DeBras. Many
(11:31):
of the branches bore fresh cup marks, as though they
had been deliberately sawn down with a knife to create
this makeshift cover. One by one, the atoms were carefully
removed beneath them, Lying side by side with the bodies
of Daniel Gear and Scott Weaver. Both boys were fully clothed,
(11:54):
but their clothes were saturated in blood. Their throats had
been slacked. The search was finally over as the boys
remains were prepared for transport to the medical Examiner's office.
The unimaginable task of notifying their families fell to Navy personnel.
None of the parents had slept through the night they'd
(12:17):
waited by the phone. Joined the searches clung to the
hope that the boys were hiding somewhere safe. Gary and
Valerie Gear were standing outside when the officers approached. The
moment Valerie realized what they were there to say her
body crumpled. She sobbed, No, it can't be. They've got
(12:38):
to be okay. A short distance away, Robert Weaver was
told of his son's death. Scott's mother, Tomorrow, was serving
aboard the USS Yellowstone in the Persian Gulf. Word was
sent to her immediately. She was flown back home at once,
a military mother summoned back to face the most devastating
(12:59):
news imaginable. Over the medical Examiner's office, the fathers were
asked to do what no parent should ever be asked
to do. They had to identify their son's bodies. Afterwards,
Gary slammed his fists against the canopy of a pickup
truck and shouted, get that, son of a bitch. Autopsies
(13:21):
then revealed the brutality of the attack. Both boys had
bled to death. Seven year old Scott suffered three stab
wounds delivered in rapid succession. The injuries would have incapacitated
him quickly, but the killer didn't stop. Scott's throat was
slashed over and over until he was nearly decapitated. Nan
(13:46):
year old Daniel had been struck with such force that
his neck was broken before his throat was slashed. He
too had been slashed multiple times. The autopsies also brought
an unexpected revelation. Despite initial fears that the boys might
have been killed by a sexual predator, there was no
sign of sexual assault. This wasn't a crime of sexual gratification.
(14:12):
It was something else, something fueled by raw violence and rage.
And now in Virginia Beach, the search for two missing
boys transformed into a hunt for their killer. The woodland
(14:37):
where Daniel and Scott had been found was sealed off,
crime scene tape fluttering in the wind as detectives and
forensics teams combed the ground inch by inch. News of
the murders spread like wildfire through Virginia Beach. Parents who
had tuck their children into bed the night before now
faced an unbearable truth. A child killer was in their mids.
(15:00):
It's the sense of safety that military housing and close
knit neighborhoods once offered had vanished overnight. Be At Stea,
who lived nearby, captured the raw fear that gripped parents
everywhere when she said, this is every mother's worst nightmare.
For children in the community, the shock was just as profound.
(15:21):
The woods where the boys' bodies were found wasn't just
any patch of land. It was their playground. Generations of
kids had built forts there, hammered to gather, treehouse, and
carved skateboard ramps into the clearings. It was a place
where imagination ran free, but that innocence was now gone.
(15:41):
One boy told reporters were scared. We used to play
in those woods all the time, but not anymore. Adults too,
had long been uneasy about the area. Some had warned
that the woods were no longer safe for children, pointing
to signs of trouble that had cropped up regularly discarded
(16:01):
beer bottles scattered across the floor, evidence of late night parties,
and what neighbors described as rough looking kids emerging from
the tree line. Others claimed they had seen youths carrying
crow bars and tire irons. There's all kinds of stuff
that goes on in those woods, recalled James McKinsey, the
(16:23):
searcher who had made the grim discovery. He then added,
the children play in there, but you can tell from
what's in there that there's other things that go on too.
A local mother who didn't want to be named, put
it more bluntly. There's beer cans and wine bottles all
over that woods. You can look around and see where
they have had parties in there, and police knew that
(16:46):
these weren't just harmless gatherings. The summer before, children reported
being chased through the trees by a man who was
holding a knife. Around the same time, a grocery store
clerk was robbed, dragged into the woods, and then raped.
Lieutenant Denis Free of the Virginia Beach Police admitted grimly,
I'll guarantee you there'll be people living there during the summer.
(17:09):
For detectives, the picture was complex. The woods were a
place of play but also of menace, a shadowy space
where predators could hide in play in sight. Detectives were
cautious in their early statements. They couldn't yet say whether
Daniel and Scott had been killed by somebody they knew
or by a stranger, but they were certain of one thing.
(17:31):
The boys had been murdered where their bodies were found.
Moving two children such a distance through thick brush would
have been nearly impossible without leaving clear signs behind. A
special tip line was set up, and within days hundreds
of calls flooded in, but each lead ended in frustration.
Nothing yet pointed clearly to the killer. Detectives began retracing
(17:55):
the boy's final steps, piecing together a timeline. Rose Campbell,
who worked at the seven eleven near Wandsworth Homes, recalled
seeing Daniel around five point thirty that evening. He'd come
in to buy candy and play video games, but he
wasn't with Scott. He was with another boy, she said,
but she was certain it wasn't his best friend. Another neighbor, Bennett,
(18:19):
said she too had spotted the boys around the same time,
between five pm and five thirty pm. She saw them
near the edge of the woods, but they weren't alone
with them with a teenage boy. At the local schools,
(18:43):
the tragedy of Scott and Daniel was all anybody could
talk about, But at First Colonial High School, one student
seemed to know more than he should. Sixteen year old
Sean Novak lived in Wandsworth Homes with his parents. Neighbors
knew him well. He often mowed their lawns for extra cash,
including the waivers. His family was deeply religious and regulars
(19:07):
at church. On the surface, Jean looked like any other
teenager in the neighborhood, but in the days after the murders.
He began boasting to classmates that he had discovered the
boy's bodies. That claim was false, James mackenzie had found them,
but Novak consisted he was the one. He said he
(19:28):
had seen their throats slashed, even touched their bloodied bodies.
These were details that hadn't been released to the public.
For those who knew him, this wasn't entirely out of character.
Joan Novac had always seemed strange, prone to shocking others
with bizarre behavior. One classmate explained, sometimes it was like
(19:50):
he was trying to stick out, like he wanted to
do anything that looked weird, and weird he was. John
had a habit of flaunting macab trophies. He carried a
sack of animal boons, wore dead bird's head strung around
his neck, and once waved around the severed leg of
a cat to discuss his classmates. When they stopped reacting,
(20:14):
he escalated. He bragged about killing a dog next. It
was always something bigger, just to freak you. One friend recalled.
Neighbors had noticed his oddities as well. Melita Canover remembered
simply he was kind of strange. He carried weird things.
Sean also talked to himself, or rather to objects. He
(20:38):
could be seen muttering to tennis balls, golf balls, and
even blades of grass. At school, Kerrie Duprey remembered him
stopping her on the stairway, warning solemnly that she had
nearly stepped on a cander. The word kender came from
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In Shawn's mind, the dense woodland near bird Neck Lake
wasn't just a neighborhood playground, it was his kingdom. He
(22:50):
created a role for the younger children who followed him,
calling them his Kendors, named after a mischiefous, fearless race
of creatures from the game. Local teenager John Cleepoor explained,
Sean had like this little group of Candors, and the
little kids would be in it. They'd run around just
goofing off. Daniel was in that group. It was pretty
(23:14):
much normal everyday life, but he gave a name to
it and made it more interesting. Despite his eccentracies, not
everybody viewed Sean in a negative light. Some neighbors said
that he was harmless, even kind. He was known to
babysit younger children and often spoke about wanting kids of
his own one day. Others described him as shy, a
(23:37):
quiet loner, more focused on passing grades than causing trouble
his classmates Thereing the Hindman put it simply, he was
basically a loner at school. He was always trying to
keep his grades up and make sure he passes. To
some Sean Novak was just an awkward teenager with strange
habits to others, he was unsettling. Sean Novak didn't just
(24:08):
make up stories for his classmates. He also told his
friend Donald Williamson's mother that he had seen Scott and
Daniel around five pm on the day they disappeared, that
he was the last person to see them alive. Alarmed,
she immediately called police. That afternoon, a detective found Novak's mother, Jenny,
(24:28):
at work. He explained that he was canvassing the neighborhood
for clues and asked if he could speak with her son.
Jenny wanted to be present, and she rushed home from work,
but by the time she arrived, the detective had already
been and spoken briefly with Sean. Later that evening, detective
Sean Hoffman arrived at the Novak home and asked Jenny
(24:50):
if he could question Sean privately. He reassured her that
Sean wasn't a suspect, just a possible witness. Jenny agreed,
and soon she and her some were on their way
to the police station. For two hours, detectives questioned Sean.
He denied knowing anything about the murders, but stuck to
his claim that he had been present when the bodies
(25:12):
were discovered. Investigators knew that this was false. James had
made it clear that he and his wife were the
only ones there. Suspicion sharpened even further when a witness
confirmed that the teenager last seeing with Scott and Daniel
was none other than Sean Novak. The next day, detectives
asked Sean to return. This time, detective Hoffman asked Janny
(25:36):
to step outside the interrogation room. Left alone with Sean,
he shifted tactics. He told the teenager falsely that investigators
had found his fingerprints on one of the victim's clothing
and that a police officer had seen him in the
woods before the bodies were discovered. Then he pressed harder,
suggesting that maybe Sean had stumbled upon the boys first,
(25:59):
maybe even try to cover them with branches. Sean admitted
he had. Hoffman pushed further, maybe something had happened in
the woods, maybe by accident. Sean hesitated and then nodded.
Did you kill them? Hoffman asked. Sean nodded again. Yes.
(26:33):
After Sean Novak admitted to the murderers, detectives read him
his miranda rights. What followed was strange, unsettling, and chilling.
Novak began talking about Kender, the mischievous creatures from dungeons
and dragons, but his description was distorted. He said that
they were four inch tall green beings that killed others
(26:55):
by planting parasitic worms in their paths. He laughed as
he spoke about them. Woments later, he broke into sobs
and began describing what happened that day. It had started
like any other. Novak went to school, then hurried home,
grabbed his buck knife, bought cigarettes at seven eleven, and
(27:16):
headed into the woods, where he often spent hours throwing
his knife at trees. On his way, he bumped into
Scott and Daniel. He already knew Daniel, his younger brother's
best friend. Scott, however, he'd never met The boys asked
him to show them a new ford in the woods,
and he agreed. As they walked, Daniel kept asking to
(27:38):
see his knife. Near the fort, they began playfully wrestling,
and Sean said he grew concerned somebody might get hurt
with the blade. He said, he took it from his
belt and set it up against a tree mooment Slater.
Daniel picked it up I freaked out. Sean told detectives
(27:58):
he didn't elaborate on what triggered his panic or exactly
how the events unfolded. He only admitted that he killed
both boys, then cut branches and piled them over the
bodies to conceal them. When police searched the Novak home afterward,
they found in his bedroom a knife, a book on
serial killers, and newspaper clippings about violent crimes in the area.
(28:23):
The day that Sean Novak was formally charged with capital murder,
the courtroom and the community felt the sense of shock, horror,
and for some relief. Almost immediately, prosecutors requested that he
be tried as an adult, a decision that would profoundly
shape the trajectory of the case. Prosecutor Robert Humphrey addressed
(28:44):
the medias, starting, it may well be that we will
seek the death penalty. It may well be that we won't,
but I think it's premature at this point to make
that decision. Word of the arrests spread quickly throughout the
Wandsworth Home neighborhood. Families who had spent long, sleepless nights
searching for answers, felt the cautious relief twelve year old
(29:06):
Michael Swagger, a friend of the victims, put the feeling
into words, I feel better that they called someone. My
dad said, whoever could kill those kids must believe in
the devil. On the eleventh of March, Novak appeared in
court for the first time. His parents sat beside him,
his mother clutching his cuffed hands tightly. The judge then
(29:29):
ordered that he beheld without bond, and a psychological examination
was mandated to determine whether he was competent to stand trial.
The results confirmed that Novak was fully able to understand
the proceedings and assist in his defense. By the end
of March, the stakes had been set. Novak would face
the death penalty if convicted. Humphrey addressed reporters, starting, my
(29:54):
interest is in getting the kid a fair trial. I'm
not all that concerned about what the public news. We
have a distinct possibility of putting a sixteen year old
kid in the electric chair. I don't want it sent
back on appeal. Novak's defense team, however, pushed back. They
appealed the decision to try him as an adult, arguing
that the juvenile court system would better provide counseling and
(30:17):
protections appropriate for a youthful defendant. That appeal was denied,
and Judge Jerome Friedman ruled that the case would remain
in adult court. Without ruling, Novak's attorneys requested in another
psychiatric examination, signaling their plan to mount an insanity defense.
The prosecution, who were anticipating this strategy, also arranged for
(30:39):
psychiatric evaluation. Humphreys explained the rationale plainly and said, since
that's the case, we're now entitled to have him evaluated
by our psychologists and psychiatrists. Nearly a year after the murders,
on the fifth of March nineteen ninety two, the trial
of Sean Novak began. He was escorted into the court
(30:59):
room and seated beside his defensed him, his expression unreadable.
During opening statements, Novak's attorney, Richard Bridges, led out the
defense's strategy. It was unusual, unsettling, and immediately drew attention.
He said, some person with whom he was possessed, whom
he didn't know, erupted and caused him to commit this
(31:22):
violent act. Jean Novac didn't kill those boys. Somebody, something
inside of him did. Before the trial, Sean Novac had
undergone a five day evaluation by doctor C. R. Showalter,
hired by the defense, sho Walter had diagnosed him with
the FOURM of schizophrenia. According to the doctor, Novak had
(31:44):
experienced a dissociative episode during the murders. He felt as
if it was him watching himself from above, detached from
his own body, as he carried out the murders. Defense
Bridges argued that the schizophrenia had emerged approximately six months
before the killings. He emphasized that moments before the murders,
(32:05):
Novak had even set aside his knife during play with
the boys to avoid an accidental injury. The prosecution countered
with equal force they had enlisted two other psychiatrists, both
of whom found no evidence of mental illness. Prosecutor Humphrey
stated Sean Novak butchered Daniel Gere and Scott Weaver in
(32:27):
the coldest cold blood. The trial focused less on the
murders themselves and more on Novak's state of mind at
the time. Bennett Stayed, the mother of one of Novak's friends,
was among the first to testify. She described how Sean
had spent nights at her house until June of nineteen ninety,
when his behavior became more concerning. She recalled an incident
(32:51):
where he threw a tantrum after being denied permission to
watch a movie about Charles Manson. When asked why he
was so upset, he told he idolized Manson. She also
testified about seeing Novak with Scott and Daniel on the
evening of the fourth of March nineteen ninety one. She'd
even offered them a ride home, which they declined. Daniel
(33:14):
mentioned he needed to swing by the nearby woods to
grab his bicycle. Perhaps the most damning evidence of all
was Novak's own confession, which was play to the jury
in its entirety. Even though the defense conceded that Novak
had committed the murders, they continued to argue that his
confession had been coerced. The defense opened their case with
(33:36):
doctor Robert Showalter to the stand. He testified he did not,
as Sean Novak, understand what he was doing. The driving
force was the Kender character. He went on to explain
that the Kender sometimes fused with Novak taking control in
moments of stress or obsession. According to the doctor, nova
(34:00):
Vax immersion in fantasy wasn't typical adolescence, play, his writings, drawings,
and the ars he spent alone in the woods revealed
somebody deeply entrenched in a private world of imagination. He
testified he was unusually preoccupied with fantasy to the point
of being mentally ill. This form of schizophrenia occurs in
(34:22):
only about three percent of the population. Only a small
fraction of those ever turned violent. He then described the
events of March fourth, nineteen ninety one, in the woodland,
as Novak played with Daniel and Scott. Showalter claimed the
Kender character emerged in Novak's mind. The children were no
(34:43):
longer real. They were a fantasy, evil force, an obstacle
to the character's imagined golds. Shewald's testimony painted a picture
of a boy who had lost the boundary between reality
and imagination, but the prosecution countered to decisively. Doctor Donald mcgoone,
another psychiatrist, testified that Novak demonstrated no impairment in his
(35:08):
grasp of reality. He said, Jean Novac exhibited only the
usual struggles of adolescence in security, low self esteem, a
desire to feel appreciated. These are all normal. I saw
no evidence that he believed he was a Kender. The
doctor added that Novak expressed genuine remorse. He often cried
(35:29):
himself to sleep in jail. He testified he didn't know
why he killed the boys, but he was fully aware
of what he was doing. Doctor Paul Manshium corroborated this view.
While he acknowledged that Novak had reacted violently when one
of the boys touched his knife, he described this as
part of ordinary magical thinking, a human tendency to ascribe
(35:53):
significance to objects or events, such as buying a lottery ticket.
I never saw any clue that Sean had eened, ever
thought he was a candor or that candor was him.
He said. The closing arguments brought the emotional weight of
the case to its peaque. Defense attorney Richard Bridges implored
the jury to focus on the core question. Was Jean
(36:14):
Novak legally insane at the time of the murders. He
painted the picture of a boy overwhelmed by his inner world,
a young man whose bizarre behavior such as talking to
unanimate objects obsessing over fantasy, was a cry for help.
He said, this young man was out of control, and
there was no reason for him to be out of control.
(36:37):
Look at the evidence look at the life of a
boy crying silently in his bedroom, isolated and struggling, yet
living in a reality he couldn't fully grasp. Prosecutor Robert
Humphries rose to read, but his voice was sharp as
he firmly said, this is psychobabble. These weren't mistakes, These
(36:58):
weren't accidents. The boy his bodies were carefully hidden. They
were methodically killed. Someone who's not in control does not
take the time to conceal what they've done. This was deliberate,
calculated and cruel. After deliberating for just ninety minutes, the
jury reached a decision. John Novak was found guilty of
(37:19):
the murders of Scott Weaver and Daniel Gear. There was
no visible reaction from him, no tears, no flinching, no apology.
After he was escorted from the courtroom, his defense attorney
said he had seen in the juror's eyes during closing
arguments that they had no sympathy for anybody but the
victims and their families. He said, it's sad I think
(37:42):
the case is full of victims. The sentencing phase of
the trial began on the fourth of May. It was
decided that the sentence would be up to Circuit Judge
(38:03):
John mure As opposed to the jury. Novak's defense attorney
said of his client, he's extremely disoriented about all of
this because it makes no sense to him. He's not
sure how it happened, or how it erupted, or even
that it really did. He doesn't know completely that it did.
The defense called on some of Novak's family to plead
(38:24):
for leniency. His mother, Jenny said, I think someone needs
to find out what's going on inside of Shaan. She
started to cry as she said. Sean has tried to
protect us. He puts a smile on his face and
tries to say anything that will be encouraging and uplifting
the prosecution. We're seeking a death sentence. Prosecutor Humphreys compared
(38:47):
Novak to Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. He called the
murders absolutely vile, disgusting. Defense attorney Bridges argued that sentencing
him to death would only compound what is a tragedy.
He said, I don't want this court to create more
victims and more funerals. The defense attorney asked rhetorically whether
(39:08):
the Gears and Weavers would find solace in Novak's execution
in the public gallery. Daniel's father, Gary nodded. Judge Murr
referred to the murders as probably one of the most
horrible crimes this city has ever seen. He said that
the absence of any clear motive suggested that Novak was
a threat to kill again. While the jury rejected the
(39:32):
insanity defense, the judge stated, I do believe he suffers
from some severe psychiatric problems. This case was primarily the
product of a very young, very immature, and very disturbed
young man. The judge ultimately spared novaka death sentence and
sentenced him to life in prison. He would become eligible
(39:54):
for parole in twenty five years when he turned forty two.
It was compromise between justice and recognition of Novak's youth
and mental instability. Yet, decades later, the question that haunted
the families and the community remains unanswered. Why John Novak
never fully explained why he killed Scott and Daniel. His
(40:18):
defense attorney reflected on the chilling silence that followed any
attempts to broach the subject. He recalled John never really
communicated with us. He talked about TV shows, juggling, and
what books he was reading in jail, but when we
changed the subject to the case, he would just stop
talking and shrug. The prosecution had their own theory. They
(40:41):
believed that Novak was simply obsessed with murder and driven
by a desperate need for attention. Daniel's father, Gary captured
the enduring pain of a father who would never really
know the full story when he said I kept thinking
he would say something. I wanted the guy to turn
around to the families and say I'm sorry, or even
(41:05):
go to hell anything. I've searched my mind from the
back to the front, and I can't find a reason
for this. I'll probably spend the rest of my life
trying to figure it out. Well, that is it for
(41:41):
this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so much
for listening, and I'd like to say a massive thank
you to my new supporter up on Patreon, Ali. You
can join Morbidology up on Patreon for as little as
one dollar a month and there are no obligations. You're
free to cancel your subscription at any point. Morbidology is
also now up on Apple Subscriptions, where you get odd
(42:02):
free early release and bonus episodes of Morbidology, plus that
aren't on the regular podcast platforms. Remember to check us
out at morbidology dot com for more information about this
episode and to read some true crime articles. Until next time,
take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.
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