Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
Happy fucking Halloween. We made it, and what a ride
it has been. Welcome back to Nature versus Narcissism. As always,
I'm your host, Heather, and today for Halloween, I am
rolling solo. Many of our longtime listeners know that each
spooky season we'd like to throw a bit of a
curveball and share a series with you that doesn't quite
follow the main Feed format, and as you've noticed, this
(00:42):
year is no different. This year we aimed to bring
you at least one main Feed episode per day in October,
plus some Patreon episodes sprinkled throughout. Yes, there were some
episodes that were posted late. I apologize. October is always hectic,
very busy for our family, and I guess I didn't
take that into account when I decided to do this,
(01:04):
But we did it right. So you got all of
the episodes for October. You got all the Patreon episodes
for October as well, and they all released within October.
So that's a win in my book. So, as you know,
this year, we wanted to bring you guys a story
about a crime that occurred on or had a connection with,
each day in October, and today we're talking about October
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thirty first Halloween. So why don't we get started for
the last time of this series. In today's episode, I
want to discuss what sixteen year old Devin Griffin walked
into after a what would be considered a fun Halloween.
Devin Griffin returned home to Martin, Ohio on October thirty first,
(01:48):
after singing in his Sunday morning church service and just
enjoying the day, the sixteen year old trudged up to
his room to play video games, and at about one
thirty PM, he began to wonder why what he was around.
His mother, Susan Lisk, forty six, would normally be out
of bed by then, and where was the rest of
his family. It was one thirty in the afternoon, it
(02:11):
was Halloween. Something was up. Devin went downstairs to the
master bedroom and found his mom in bed next to
his stepfather, William E. Or Bill Lisk, who was fifty three.
The maroon comforter was pulled up over their heads. Devin
started talking to wake his mom. He walked around to
her side of the bed and saw her foot jetting
(02:32):
out from beneath the covers. He tapped on her leg,
but no response. Devin continued to talk to Susan, pulling
the covers down a little, and that's when he saw
her pillow soaked with blood. For a moment, he thought, well,
this must be a Halloween prank. There's no way something's
actually wrong here. But slowly he realized it wasn't. The
(02:56):
young man wept as he ran from the room and
out of the house. Now the investigative documents show that
there's a little bit of a glimpse into the family
struggles with Bjlisk and his father's attempts to love him
despite the boy's moody and violent behavior toward the family.
Bj Lisk is accused of murdering his father, stepmother, and stepbrother,
(03:18):
Dereck Griffin, who was twenty three. So let's talk about
him a bit. The black Swan, the troubled son. As
early as two thousand and two, Bill Lisk called law
enforcement because the then sixteen year old Bjay threatened to
harm himself. The boy was on house arrest at the time,
so the family was very familiar with law enforcement and
(03:41):
different programs to try and change his behavior. According to
police records, bj Lisk attacked the officers when they arrived
and faced charges in juvenile court of assaulting a peace officer.
And fast forward a little bit to October of two
thousand and four and bj list got into a fight
with his stepmother and struck her hard in the chest.
(04:04):
Two months later, police charged him with felonious assault and
robbery for allegedly hitting Susan Lisk with a coffee cup
and stealing her car keys. He was found incompetent to
stand trial on those charges, which were eventually dropped. Bj
Lisk had at least three encounters with police after he
moved to a Sandusky group home for mental health patients,
(04:26):
and among those incidents was a physical fight between bj
Lisk and his dad after Bill Lisk picked him up
from the group home. After the triple homicide, friends and
family members told authorities about other violent outbursts. And I've
talked about this before on the show, but I think
it's a good time to put a reminder out there.
(04:48):
If something is going on, if something seems off, somebody's
mood is not stable, you see violent and frequent outbursts
by an individual, please report that to somebody. It doesn't
help if it's not reported until after something tragic occurs.
If you're reporting it when you're seeing it happen, chances
(05:08):
are that person can get help, and these tragic events
may not even happen. So please report if you see something,
say something. That's the common phrase, but I feel like
a lot of people think that somebody else will do it,
like the bystander effect. If you see it, say something,
(05:30):
All right, off my soapbox. Okay, So the next part is,
you know people reported other violent outbursts over the years.
For example, Bill Lisk kicked a son out of the
house after Bja Lisk, who was eighteen at the time,
attempted to attack Susan Lisk as she showered. Now that
that's some escalating behavior. Had a strained relationship with his
(05:53):
stepmother from the start. After his parents' divorce, bj Lisk
started skipping school and mis behaving, and this was reported
by the neighbors. So it was very prevalent in and
outside of the home. When Bill and Susan Lisk married
in two thousand and one, Susan attempted to impose order
in the house. Her stepson resented her for these new
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rules and just wasn't having it. Investigators who interviewed family
friend Mark Gradle wrote in a report that Bill often
called Mark to help if BJ caused problems. He said,
quote Bill would say, hey, come over, it's BJ or
Bjay's getting goofy. But on at least one occasion, Derek
called Mark because BJ and Bill were physically fighting. But
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as a parent, Bill couldn't not love his son, right.
That's the role of a parent to have unconditional love
despite any type of problems that arise. The parent is
supposed to be there to support and love and help
them through those problems. Despite the fights, Bill Lisk never
gave up on a son. In February of two thousand
(07:01):
and six, he filed for guardianship over BJ. List. According
to court records, the eighteen year old had been hospitalized
in two thousand and seven for schizo effective disorder bipolar type. Quote.
Mister Lisk wants to protect William and to get him
the help that he needs. End quote. And this is
what was written on the guardianship application. It also goes
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on to say, quote, he would eventually like to see
him in a halfway house or a group home. When
William is on his medication, he does really good. After
a while, he'll stop taking it because he thinks he's okay,
and then he starts drinking and smoking pot end quote.
After bj Lisk moved into the halfway house in Sandusky,
Bill Lisk visited him often. The week before the murders,
(07:46):
a great old told investigators Bill Lisk took some vacation
time and went deer hunting with his son. They went
to the family's hunting cabin in Carroll County and returned
home to Ottawa, Counting less than twenty four hours before
the murders took place. Gradel said he had a serious
talk with Bill Lisk on a few occasions about the
family safety being jeopardized by Bj Lisk. So he sees
(08:09):
this from the outside. He sees these violent outbursts, his behavior,
his reactions to things, and he tried to warn Bill
that he thought that this something was going to explode eventually.
Neighbors suspected Lisk of killing and torturing their pets as well.
The Gradls' dog was shot twice with a twenty two
caliber pistol. And honestly, this is really scary again, escalating behavior,
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and we see this all the time with serial killers,
and it used to be part of this now defunct
way of looking at things with the McDonald triad that
you know, there's arson, bed wedding and animal cruelty. I mean,
if he's torturing and killing other people's pets like that's
that's something to be alarmed about. And I'm not sure
(08:57):
why people didn't report that they suspected him of that sooner.
But again, it's all in hindsight at this point. But
Bill Lisk would go on to tell Gradle BJ won't
hurt us. Quote from investigators quote Mark said it was
a hard conversation have because bj was Bill's only son
and Bill would never see the bad even though Bill
(09:19):
had received physical injuries from bj. End quote. Now we're
at the point in the timeline where the murders happened.
After Bill Lisk and his son returned home from the
hunting trip on that Saturday before Halloween, they got together
for a few beers with friends. Gradel, who was at
(09:42):
the gathering, told investigators everyone had a good time. He
didn't see Derrick Griffin, Susan's twenty three year old son,
but that wasn't unusual because he and bj Lisk didn't
get along. Bj Lisk rarely spent the night at the
house because of past violent fights between him and the
rest of the family, but Bill Lisk had been drinking, however,
(10:03):
and didn't think it was a good idea to drive
his son back to Sandusky. The party broke up at
about midnight, according to investigators' reports, and when investigators searched
the house, they found a bed made up on the
living room sofa, apparently for Bjaylisk. Grado's wife, Michelle, told
investigators she heard what sounded like gunshots at about six
(10:24):
thirty am on October thirty first. Investigators were still determining
the time of the murders when this article was written,
but according to phone records, Derrick Griffin last spoke to
someone at two o two pm on October thirtiethx brother
Devin Griffin spent the weekend with his dad and came
home at about nine thirty am on October thirty first
(10:45):
to change his shirt for church. He told investigators he
encountered only Bjaylsk when he came home the first time
that morning. He changed and then left in about five minutes.
Bjaylisk uncharacteristically asked him what he was doing and how
long he'd be gone. Quote. Devon said he couldn't think
of anything else that was said, but stated that BJ
(11:07):
was acting happier. To explain, Devon stated that normally BJ
is gloomy. I asked Devin what made him think that
BJ was acting happier. Devon stated it was because he
was happier, more upbeat, and more talkative. Devon stated that
BJ is normally slow and darkish. End quote, and that
was taken directly from the investigator's report. After Devin Griffin
(11:30):
left the house for church, Bj Lisk took the family's
forward f one point fifty and drove it to the
hunting cabin in Carroll County. He was there less than
an hour when Carroll County Sheriff's deputies descended upon the
camp and took him into custody. Back home, Ottawa County
authorities discovered the extent of the Grizzly crime scene. Devin
(11:51):
Griffin's aunt, Lourie Morris, called them to the rural home
that sits on about one hundred acres. Her nephew had
called her in a panic about what he had just saw,
and she went to the house to console him and
call the police. Investigators found Bill and Susan Lisk shot
to death in their bed. According to coroner records, Bill
Lisk was shot five times in the head and face
(12:11):
at a range of about one to two feet. He
was lying in a natural sleeping position and had the
covers pulled up over him. Susan was sprawled more awkwardly,
as if she might have been moved. Investigators wrote. She
was shot three times, again at what investigators suspect was
close range. The bullets were similar a small caliber, likely
(12:31):
a twenty two. Upstairs, they found Derrick Griffin's room locked,
so police kicked in the door and found him curled
up in bed facing the wall. According to the coroner's findings,
he suffered blunt force trauma to the head and most
likely died within a few minutes of the first blow.
Investigators found a bloody claw hammer in the house, which
(12:52):
Corners found to be consistent with Derrick Griffin's wounds. The
weapon and other evidence from around the home were sent
to the Ohio Bureau of Terminal Identification and Investigation for
forensic testing. Devin Griffin told investigators that the family owned
lots of guns, many of which authorities ceased for testing.
They found muddy footprints along a deck near the family's
(13:13):
pond suggesting that the suspect may have disposed of the
murder weapon in the pond. Authorities drained the pond but
found no gun weapons. Sniffing dogs tracked much of the
property and also found nothing. When detectives from the Ottawa
County Sheriff's Office went to the Carroll County cabin to
look for evidence, they found an uneaten subway sandwich on
(13:34):
the counter. Bj Lisk apparently didn't have time to eat
before deputies came in that October thirty. First, the detectives
obtained security video footage from a subway restaurant near the
camp showing Lisk purchasing the sandwich. They know that it
was his quote. I love dad very much and it
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makes me feel sick every time I think about what
I did. I can't really explain why all this had
to happen, but I think most of it had to
do with my mental illness. End quote. This is what
bj Lisk said in court at twenty five years old
when he was being tried for this. Lisk ended up
committing suicide while in prison in twenty fifteen. Well that's
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what I have for you guys this Halloween. I hope
you enjoyed the series, and I hope to get more
creative and fun with next year's Spooky Time series. I
plan to start recording October's episodes in July or August
of next year to avoid these late releases and hopefully
have more content for you guys. So if you have
any suggestions for the series and or any case suggestions,
(14:44):
please please please reach out to us. We want to
make content that you guys want to hear, so we
really really enjoy your opinions and your constructive criticism and
your suggestions. Also, I can't believe that env just past
our seven year anniversary. It's wild to think about. We
released our very first episode on October twenty seventh, twenty seventeen,
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and what a wild ride it has been. I cannot
wait to continue this journey with all of our listeners
and our supporters. I know the last few years have
been rocky with content releases, but just know that we
are doing our best and continue striving to do better
and get on a solid schedule. A lot of things
have happened in the last couple of years, and we
(15:29):
are finally at a point where things can be more scheduled,
more relaxed, and you guys will receive regular content. We
appreciate your love, dedication, support and encouragement, and we can't
wait to show you what next year has in store
for everyone. So please please please stay up to date
with us, you know, reach out to us, send us suggestions,
(15:51):
all the things. Happy Halloween, Yes, today is Halloween. Please
send us photos of your costumes and your pets costumes.
We love that shit. We will post that shit everywhere.
We love how creative you guys are, so please share
that with us. And until next time, stay inside, stay alive,
and don't call the cops. Unless someone gives you a
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toothbrush or an apple while you're tricker treating, then definitely
call the fucking cops. It's Halloween for crying out loud.
Get some goddamn candy. Okay, love you bye,