Murder of Karyn Hearn Slover

Last updated
Murder of Karyn Hearn Slover
DateSeptember 27, 1996 (1996-09-27)
Location Decatur, Illinois
CauseMultiple gunshot wounds
ParticipantsJeannette Slover
Michael Slover Sr.
Michael Slover Jr.
DeathsKaryn Hearn Slover

The murder of Karyn Hearn Slover occurred on September 27, 1996 in Decatur, Illinois, when Karyn Slover, a 23-year-old mother of one, disappeared shortly after leaving her job as an advertising sales representative. Two days later, authorities discovered Slover's dismembered remains, wrapped in plastic bags, in and near Lake Shelbyville.

Contents

In 2002, Slover's ex-husband, Michael Slover Jr., his mother Jeannette Slover, and his father Michael Slover Sr. were convicted of Karyn Slover's murder and all three were sentenced to 60 years in prison. [1] The case is notable for being one of the first instances of dog DNA used as evidence in a murder trial. [2]

At 5:00 p.m. on September 27, 1996, Karyn Slover left her job in the advertising sales department of the Decatur Herald & Review newspaper, with the intent to pick up her son Kolten and then shop for a dress at the Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth, Illinois. [3] Later that night a black Pontiac Bonneville was discovered in central Illinois on westbound I-72 with its engine still running, its headlights on, and the driver's side door open. [4] The car was registered to David Swann, Slover's boyfriend, but contained some of Slover's personal effects including her purse and driver's license. At this time it was theorized that Slover could have been the victim of a car-jacking, as investigators did not view her as likely to have voluntarily left the area due to her recently signing with a modeling agency for a job. [4]

On October 1, 1996 the remains of an unidentified female body were discovered in Lake Shelbyville, wrapped in plastic bags that were weighed down with concrete blocks. The remains were confirmed to be those of Karyn Slover through her dental records and physical evidence such as a blood droplet and fingerprint were recovered from a bridge that overlooked the lake.

Murder investigation

Slover's autopsy revealed that she had been shot seven times in the head [5] and dismembered using a power saw before being placed into the plastic bags that were sealed using duct tape. [6] Police found several strands of dog hair on the duct tape and remnants of cinders and tall grass. [7] David Swann was an early suspect because of an imperfect alibi. Investigators were also suspicious of several actions that Swann had performed during the initial search for Slover and because he owned a handgun matching the type that had been used to shoot her.[ citation needed ] Swann participated with police during a search and was eventually cleared of suspicion after footage from an ATM surveillance video cleared him for the missing 40 minutes of his alibi.[ citation needed ] Alibis for other suspects such as Michael Jr. and Slover's ex-boyfriend also ruled them out as suspects.

A break in the case came in 1998, when police noticed that broken concrete at Miracle Motors, a business owned by Slover's ex-father-in-law Michael Slover Sr., were similar to concrete blocks used to weigh down Karyn Slover's body. A forensic geologist was brought in to see if anything on the Slovers' business matched evidence found at the scene of the crime. The geologist found that not only was the concrete consistent with that found at Miracle Motors, but that evidence found in the abandoned car was also likely from the Slovers' business. The task force sifted through dirt at Miracle Motors and eventually discovered a metal rivet that matched Paris Club jeans and a button that matched to a white shirt, both of which Karyn Slover had been wearing the day of her murder. [4] [ unreliable source? ] Police also reported finding bones at the scene, but these were not introduced at trial and were believed to have been animal meat bones that came from food fed to two dogs that Slover Sr. used to secure the property. [4] [ unreliable source? ]

Police then began to suspect that Michael Slover Sr. and his wife Jeannette had committed the murder over custody issues, as Karyn Slover had expressed interest in moving away to pursue her modelling career and intended to take her son Kolten with her without the father's permission, thus denying him equal parenting rights, while still collecting child support payments. [8] Before arresting the Slovers the investigators had a veterinary geneticist perform a DNA analysis on the animal hairs found on the duct tape, which was matched to hairs retrieved from an animal brush that had been used on the dogs Slover Sr. kept on his business property. [9] The police used this evidence to arrest the Slovers. It was later thrown out due to a court appeal by the Slovers. [4] In January 2000, Michael and Jeannette Slover and their son Michael Slover Jr. were arrested and charged with first degree murder; Michael Sr. and Michael Jr. were each given the additional charge of attempting to conceal a crime. The latter had been confirmed to be at work but he had repeatedly called his parents that day, which made him a suspect in concealing the crime. [10]

Trial

On May 18, 2002, the three Slovers were all found guilty of first-degree murder and were later sentenced to 60 years in prison, with both Michael Jr. and his father receiving an extra five years for the charge of concealing a crime. [1]

Custody battle

The following year in August 2003, there were concerns raised over the custody of Karyn Slover's son Kolten, who had been adopted by Mary Slover, Karyn's former sister-in-law. Authorities argued that Mary had been aware of the murder and could have potentially helped in concealing the crime. [11] A judge later ruled that Mary was unfit as an adoptive parent and that she should not retain custody. [12] Mary contested the ruling, which she claimed influenced a case worker to change her report, which initially contained a recommendation that Kolten be returned to Mary. [13] Despite this, Mary Slover officially lost custody of Kolten in October 2003. [8] Kolten was later raised by his maternal grandparents, Larry and Donna Hearn, of Mt. Zion, Illinois. [14]

Appeal

The Slovers appealed their murder sentences, stating that media coverage preceding the trial had tainted the potential jury pool and prevented them from receiving a fair trial. [15] Concerns were also raised about other elements such as the animal DNA testing, [16] as well as evidence that the murder could have been committed by one of several alternative suspects. [17] A judge ruled against opening a second trial for the Slovers, stating that he found no evidence of misconduct or prejudice. [4] [ unreliable source? ]

Illinois Innocence Project

The Illinois Innocence Project expressed interest in the Slovers, and conducted an investigation into the case. [18] The group circulated a petition to have the Slovers' case re-examined as well as examining evidence to find potential proof that the Slovers did not commit Karyn's murder. [19] [20] The group requested that the fingerprint found at the Lake Shelbyville bridge be tested as evidence, but the move was rejected in 2010 by Associate Judge Timothy Steadman, [21] who stated: "Because the latent print is not suitable for the requested testing, there is no potential to produce new evidence materially relevant to the defendants' assertion of actual innocence". [22]

On Feb. 13, 2024, the Illinois Innocence Project filed a petition for post-conviction relief in Macon County Circuit Court, seeking to introduce new DNA evidence that the attorneys argue would exonerate the Slovers. “The new evidence ... has now demonstrated that at least three unknown male perpetrators murdered Karyn Hearn Slover and that Michael Slover Sr., Jeannette Slover and Michael Slover Jr. are innocent,” wrote Innocence Project attorney Leanne Beyer in the 77-page document. [23]

Media

The murder and the subsequent investigation have been the focus of several episodes of investigative true crime shows. The case was examined in a 2006 episode of the truTV television series Forensic Files , the 2005 premiere episode of the Discovery Channel series Guilty or Innocent?, a 2010 episode of the Investigation Discovery show Cold Blood, and in August 2021 it featured in an episode of the Anatomy of Murder podcast series. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne Williams</span> American murderer and serial killer

Wayne Bertram Williams is an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who is serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killings of two men in Atlanta, Georgia. Although never tried for the additional murders, he is also believed to be responsible for at least 24 of the 30 Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, also known as the Atlanta Child Murders.

Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The group cites various studies estimating that in the United States between 1% and 10% of all prisoners are innocent. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who gained national attention in the mid-1990s as part of the "Dream Team" of lawyers who formed part of the defense in the O. J. Simpson murder case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bain family murders</span> 1994 multiple homicide in New Zealand

On 20 June 1994, Robin and Margaret Bain and three of their four children – Arawa, Laniet, and Stephen – were shot to death in Dunedin, New Zealand. The only suspects were David Cullen Bain, the eldest son and only survivor, and Robin Bain, the father. David Bain, aged 22, was charged with five counts of murder. In May 1995, he was convicted on each of the five counts and sentenced to mandatory life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of sixteen years.

A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit. Although such confessions seem counterintuitive, they can be made voluntarily, perhaps to protect a third party, or induced through coercive interrogation techniques. When some degree of coercion is involved, studies have found that subjects with highly sophisticated intelligence or manipulated by their so-called "friends" are more likely to make such confessions. Young people are particularly vulnerable to confessing, especially when stressed, tired, or traumatized, and have a significantly higher rate of false confessions than adults. Hundreds of innocent people have been convicted, imprisoned, and sometimes sentenced to death after confessing to crimes they did not commit—but years later, have been exonerated. It was not until several shocking false confession cases were publicized in the late 1980s, combined with the introduction of DNA evidence, that the extent of wrongful convictions began to emerge—and how often false confessions played a role in these.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Keith Coleman</span> American murderer

Roger Keith Coleman was an American convicted murderer and rapist who was executed on May 20, 1992, for the rape and murder of his 19-year-old sister-in-law, Wanda Faye McCoy, at her home in Grundy, Virginia on the night of March 10, 1981. A lifelong resident of Grundy, Coleman had worked as a coal miner.

Jeffrey Mark Deskovic is an American attorney from Peekskill, New York known for freeing the wrongly convicted. In 1990, at the age of 17, he was convicted of raping, beating, and strangling his Peekskill High School classmate, Angela Correa, who was 15 at the time of the murder.

Richard Alexander is an Indiana man who was wrongfully convicted of rape and later exonerated by DNA evidence. Years later, on September 17, 2020, Alexander was charged with the murder of Catherine Minix, who was found stabbed to death. Minix had previously filed a protective order against Alexander for domestic violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Stinney</span> African-American death row victim (1929–1944)

George Junius Stinney Jr. was an African American boy who, at the age of 14, was convicted and then executed in a proceeding later vacated as an unfair trial for the murders of two young white girls in March 1944 – Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 8 – in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed by electric chair in June 1944, thus becoming the youngest American with an exact birth date confirmed to be both sentenced to death and executed in the 20th century.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Dugan</span> American rapist & serial killer

Brian James Dugan is an American convicted rapist and serial killer active between 1983 and 1985 in Chicago's western suburbs. He was known for having informally confessed in 1985 to the February 1983 abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville, Illinois, which was a highly publicized case. He was already in custody for two other rapes and murders, one of a woman in July 1984 and the other an 8-year-old girl in May 1985. He was sentenced to life after pleading guilty to the latter two crimes.

Rolando Cruz is an American man known for having been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, along with co-defendant Alejandro Hernandez, for the 1983 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico in DuPage County, Illinois. The police had no substantive physical evidence linking the two men to the crime. Their first trial was jointly in 1987, and their statements were used against each other and a third defendant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Linda Cook</span> 1986 murder in Portsmouth, England

The murder of Linda Cook was committed in Portsmouth on 9 December 1986. The subsequent trial led to a miscarriage of justice when Michael Shirley, an 18-year-old Royal Navy sailor, was wrongly convicted of the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1992 his case was highlighted as one of 110 possible miscarriages of justice in a report presented to the Home Office by the National Association of Probation Officers and justice groups Liberty and Conviction. His conviction was eventually quashed in 2003 by the Court of Appeal after the DNA profile extracted from semen samples recovered from the victim's body was proven not to be his. Cook's murder took place shortly after six sexual assaults had been committed in the Buckland area of the city, and the killer was initially dubbed the Beast of Buckland by the news media. When police revealed that footprint evidence had been recovered and launched a search for matching shoes, the case became known as the "Cinderella murder". Because of the brutal nature of the murder and the preceding sex attacks, Hampshire police were under public pressure to quickly make an arrest.

The Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin—known as the Kaufman Commission or the Morin Inquiry—was a 1996 royal commission appointed by the Government of Ontario to address the wrongful conviction in 1992 of Guy Paul Morin for the murder of Christine Jessop on 3 October 1984, for which he was exonerated by DNA evidence on 23 January 1995.

The Illinois Innocence Project, a member of the national Innocence Project network, is a non-profit legal organization that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people and reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Innocence Project</span> American legal non-profit founded 1999

The California Innocence Project is a non-profit based at California Western School of Law in San Diego, California, United States, which provides pro bono legal services to individuals who maintain their factual innocence of crime(s) for which they have been convicted. It is an independent chapter of the Innocence Project. Its mission is to exonerate wrongly convicted inmates through the use of DNA and other evidences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Investigating Innocence</span>

Investigating Innocence is a nonprofit wrongful conviction advocacy organization that provides criminal defense investigations for inmates in the United States. Investigating Innocence was founded in 2013 by private investigator Bill Clutter to assist nationwide Innocence Project groups in investigating innocence claims. "Once we have a case that meets our criteria, we'll put private investigators to work on it. A lot of these cases need investigators," said Kelly Thompson, executive director of Investigating Innocence. Prior to his work on Investigating Innocence, Clutter was one of the founders of the Illinois Innocence Project. Investigating Innocence also has a board composed of exonerees that reviews incoming cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Heaton case</span> 1991 murder case

The Stuart Heaton case was a controversial murder investigation that resulted in the conviction of a man named Stuart Heaton for the 1991 murder of a sixteen-year-old, Krystal Naab, in Ramsey, Illinois. Heaton was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The case against him was largely circumstantial, except for a semen sample found on the victim. DNA profiling that was conducted and presented at the trial as evidence against Heaton was disputed by some scientists. In 2001 another DNA test was performed, which proved with 31 billion to 1 accuracy that Heaton was the killer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Semanchik</span> American wrongful conviction advocate

Michael "Mike" Semanchik is the Executive Director of The Innocence Center (TIC) and former Managing Attorney at the California Innocence Project (CIP). As part of his work with CIP, he has been involved in many cases involving the exoneration of previously convicted prisoners, working closely with the organization's director, Justin Brooks, and also preparing petitions for many of CIP's clients. After working at CIP while still a law student at California Western School of Law, following graduation in 2010 he became an investigator and then a staff attorney there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Clutter</span> American wrongful conviction advocate

Bill Clutter is an American private investigator, wrongful conviction advocate, and author. He is the co-founder of the Illinois Innocence Project and founder of the national wrongful conviction organization Investigating Innocence. His work on the Donaldson v. Central Illinois Public Service Company case led him to write the book Coal Tar: How Corrupt Politics and Corporate Greed Are Killing America's Children, which is the story of an epidemic of neuroblastoma in Taylorville, IL caused by exposure to coal tar.

Melvin Johnson was an American serial killer, rapist and sex offender who was posthumously linked to at least four murders committed in Decatur, Illinois from 1984 to 1988, three of which were sexually motivated. He was never convicted of murder during his lifetime, and died before he could be brought to trial for the crimes.

References

  1. 1 2 "3 found guilty in Decatur murder trial". Telegraph-Herald. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  2. ↑ Writer, STEPHANIE POTTER H&R Staff. "Slover defense finds hope in dog DNA ruling in Washington state". Herald-Review.com. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  3. ↑ "Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois on April 19, 2002 · Page 4". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Murder by the Book: The Murder of Karyn Slover". TruTV. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  5. ↑ Writers, Stephanie Potter and Ron Ingram H&R Staff. "2002: Slovers guilty". Herald-Review.com. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  6. ↑ Writer, STEPHANIE POTTER - H&R Staff. "Appeals court affirms Slovers' murder convictions, says they got fair trial". Herald-Review.com. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  7. ↑ "Decatur murder trial gets under way". The Quad-City Times. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  8. 1 2 "Suffer the children" . Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  9. ↑ "Pros look to dog DNA to solve murders". Times Argus. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  10. ↑ "The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois on October 25, 2002 · Page 4". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  11. ↑ "Family Murder Plot in Custody Battle". ABC. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  12. ↑ "Judge finds sister-in-law unfit; She loses custody of child as a result of her connection to a murder case". Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque). August 28, 2003. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  13. ↑ "Slover's parental rights hearing continued; Case worker changed her report after a judge's ruling on adoptive mother". Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  14. ↑ Potter, Stephanie (15 October 2004). "Slover daughter appeals for custody: Woman says she had no role in murder cover-up". herald-review.com. Decatur Herald & Review. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  15. ↑ "Judge denies new trials for trio convicted of murdering Karyn Slover". Herald & Review (Decatur, IL). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  16. ↑ Kiely, Terrence F (2005). Forensic Evidence: Science and the Criminal Law, Second Edition. CRC Press. pp. 472–473. ISBN   0849328586.
  17. ↑ "Ruling in Karyn Slover murder case narrows options for further appeals". Herald-Review. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  18. ↑ "The Slover Case". Innocence Project. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  19. ↑ "Mary McCarthy interview Jan 27 2010" (PDF). Innocence Project. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  20. ↑ "TV show on Slover case produces phone calls to Innocence Project". Herald Review. February 2005. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  21. ↑ ""Innocence Project" Helping Slover Family". Wand TV. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  22. ↑ "Judge rejects fingerprint testing in Slover case presented by Downstate Innocence Project". Herald Review. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  23. ↑ Reid, Tony (2024-02-22). "Mother, son seek to overturn convictions in 1996 murder of Karyn Hearn Slover". Herald-Review.com. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
  24. ↑ Nicolazzi, Anna-Sigga; Weinberger, Scott (11 August 2021). "A Model Mother". Anatomy of Murder. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.