Monday, July 22, 2019

List Series: 8 Moments Captured Right Before a Kidnapping/Murder

A list that provides eight photographs taken hours, or even minutes, before a kidnapping or murder occurred. 

8. The Murder of Alisha Bromfield
Brian Cooper (36) and Alisha Bromfield (21) at Brian’s sister’s wedding on August 18th, 2012. Just hours after this photograph was taken, Brian savagely murdered Alisha inside the hotel room they shared in Door County, Wisconsin.
Despite their...
21 year-old Alisha Bromfield (pictured right) with Brian Cooper (36)
Alisha Bromfield and her boss/sometime friend Brian Cooper are all smiles in the above picture, which was taken at Brian's sister's wedding on August 18th, 2012. Despite their smiles, though, a lot of drama was happening between the pair behind the scenes. Alisha and Brian were not a couple--in fact, Brian was Alisha's boss at Home Depot and Alisha was six months pregnant with another man's baby. However, those closest to Alisha stated that Brian had an odd obsession with her, and Alisha often was kind to him in hopes of staying in good graces at her job. For this reason, Alisha agreed to be Brian's date to his sister's wedding--despite the fact that she did not want to go. However, while en route to their hotel in Door County, Wisconsin, Alisha and Brian got into an argument that resulted in Alisha deciding to end her friendship with him. She agreed to act as his date for the evening at his sister’s wedding, but insisted that their friendship would be over once they returned home.

Brian was enraged by the thought of not being in her life anymore, and that rage continued to build as he grew gradually more intoxicated at the wedding. Once Brian and Alisha were back at their hotel room, they were laying in their respective beds when Brian attempted to make plans with Alisha that coming Sunday. Alisha reminded Brian that they would no longer be friends once they returned home. Brian then snapped and attacked Alisha on her bed. A struggle ensued, and Brian strangled Alisha—killing both her and her unborn baby. Hours later, Brian stumbled into a gas station and used the clerk’s phone to call 911 and turn himself in. He is currently serving two life sentences. [read more]


7. The Murder of Tayler Harsch
The last photo of 23 year old Tayler Harsch, posted around 9:30pm on September 4th, 2015. Just a few hours later, she was stabbed to death by her husband, Franklin Lee Burress.
Tayler and Franklin apparently began their relationship years earlier,...

Tayler Harsch (23) took this selfie and posted it to her Facebook page around 9:30pm on September 4th, 2015. Just a few hours later, she was stabbed to death by her husband, Franklin Lee Burress.

Tayler and Franklin apparently began their relationship years earlier, when Tayler was only 14 and Franklin was 25. According to family and friends, they had a rocky on-again, off-again relationship that often turned physically violent. Still, Tayler and Franklin married in 2014. Their relationship continued to have issues throughout their marriage. In fact, Franklin apparently moved in and out of their Lake Monticello, Virginia home several times in the days leading up to Tayler’s murder. On the evening of September 4th, Tayler left work around 9pm with plans to go out with a group of friends later that night. When she arrived home, she posted the above picture to Facebook and texted with her friends about what she was going to wear that night. However, around 10pm, Tayler was texting her friends and telling them that she wasn’t feeling well enough to go out. Nobody heard from Tayler or Franklin again until 3am, when Franklin called his parents hysterically crying, saying that he “snapped” and killed Tayler. Franklin’s parents called the police. When they arrived at the couple’s home, police found Tayler’s body in their hot tub, and Franklin covered in her blood. He was arrested and charged with murder.

On July 7th, 2016, Franklin accepted a plea deal and plead guilty to second degree murder. He was sentenced to 40 years—the maximum sentence for murder in the second degree. [also on: Deadly Age Gaps]


6. The Kidnapping of Heather Elvis

20 year-old Heather Elvis disappeared after going on a first date with an old acquaintance from high school on the evening of December 17th, 2013. During the date, Heather sent the above to her father, Terry Elvis, of her driving her date’s stick shift car. According to Heather's friends, she was feeling optimistic about her date with this young man, and she was finally getting over the affair she was having with a 38 year-old man named Sidney Moorer. However, just hours after the above photograph was taken, Heather was allegedly abducted by Sidney and his wife, 42 year-old Tammy Moorer.  It is believed that after Heather returned to her Myrtle Beach, South Carolina apartment following her date, she received numerous phone calls from Sidney Moorer. At some point, Sidney got Heather to agree to meeting up with him at Peachtree Landing. It is believed that once Heather arrived at the landing, she was kidnapped. She has never been seen or heard from again. 

In February of 2014, both Sidney and Tammy were arrested for kidnapping and murdering Heather. They were also booked on charges of obstruction of justice in the case. However, by March 2016, the murder charges against the two were dropped. They were both still charged with Heather’s kidnapping. The obstruction of justice charges were dropped for Tammy, but remained for Sidney. Sidney finally went to trial for Heather’s kidnapping in June 2016, but the jury was hung and a mistrial was declared. In August of 2017, Sidney went to trial for the obstruction of justice charges in this case and was found guilty.

Tammy went to trial for kidnapping during the fall of 2018. She was ultimately found guilty. Tammy was sentenced to 30 years for both kidnapping and obstruction of justice. Sidney was sentenced to 10 years for obstruction of justice. The prosecution plans to re-try him for kidnapping in the future. Heather has never been found. [read more] [also on: Love Triangles with Tragic Endings]


5. The Murder of Lisa-Marie Naegle
Lisa Marie Naegle (36) and Jackie Jerome Rogers (34) pictured together at a party just hours before Jackie murdered Lisa-Marie and buried her in a shallow grave in his backyard.
At the tail-end of 2016, Lisa-Marie had a lot going on in her life....

Lisa-Marie Naegle (36) attended a party with 34 year-old Jackie Jerome Rogers (pictured above on the right) in Torrance, California on the evening of December 18th, 2016. Lisa-Marie was married to another man at the time, but she had been having an affair with Rogers for quite some time. The two posed together for a photograph at the party and then returned to Rogers' home afterwards. While there, Lisa-Marie reportedly told Rogers that she wanted to resume a monogamous relationship with her husband. This caused Rogers to snap, and he then attacked Lisa-Marie inside his home and struck her in the head with a hammer numerous times. Then, he buried her body on his property.

After Lisa-Marie failed to return home or show up for work during the following days, she was reported missing. Lisa-Marie's sister knew about the affair with Rogers, so she immediately questioned him about Lisa-Marie's whereabouts. Rogers reportedly told Lisa-Marie's family members that they attended the party together that evening, but that he ended up leaving the party alone. Surveillance footage from the bar revealed that this was untrue, though--as Rogers and Lisa-Marie were captured leaving the bar together that evening. Once police confronted Rogers with this information, he cracked and led investigators to her remains.

Rogers pleaded not guilty to murdering Lisa-Marie. He went to trial in September 2018, and was ultimately found guilty. In April 2019, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison. He remains behind bars today. [read more] [also on: Love Triangles With Tragic Endings]


4. The Murder of Brittney Gargol
21 year-old Cheyenne Rose Antoine(left) and 18 year-old Brittney Gargol(right) pictured together on the evening of March 24th, 2015. Later on that night, Cheyenne allegedly used the same black belt she is seen wearing in this selfie to strangle...
Cheyenne Antoine (left), Brittney Gargol (right)
Brittney Gargol and Cheyenne Antoine were both 18 years old when Cheyenne strangled Brittney to death on March 24th, 2015. The two girls snapped the above selfie together that evening before going out to a few bars in Saskatoon, Canada. The following morning, police found Brittney's body on the side of the road in the outskirts of town. She had been strangled to death. Cheyenne denied involvement in Brittney's death, and claimed that the two of them separated that night after Brittney left the bar with an unidentified man. 

Two years into the investigation, detectives came across the above image that both Brittney and Cheyenne posted in Facebook on March 24th, 2015. At this post, the detectives noticed that Cheyenne was wearing the same belt that found near Brittney's body--and was ultimately used to strangle Brittney to death. Cheyenne was arrested and charged with Brittney's murder at that point, though she maintained that she had no memory of the event. However, a friend of Cheyenne's told police that Cheyenne admitted that she snapped at hit/strangled Brittney just days after it occurred. She accepted a plea deal, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Cheyenne is currently serving a seven-year sentence. [read more] [also on: Friendships Turned Fatal]


3. The Kidnapping & Presumed Murder of Sierra Lamar
Sierra Lamar’s final photo, taken March 16th, 2012.
That morning, 15 year old Sierra snapped this selfie on her computer’s webcam before leaving her house in Morgan Hill, CA, to head to her bus stop. Unfortunately, Sierra never made it to the bus...

On the morning of March 16th, 2012, 15 year-old Sierra Lamar snapped the above selfie on her laptop's webcam before leaving her house in Morgan Hill, CA, to head to her bus stop. Unfortunately, Sierra never made it to the bus stop or to school that day, and nobody has seen or heard from her since she sent her final text to a friend at 7:11am that morning. Days later, her cell phone was found in a nearby field. Her school bag, with the clothes she had worn that morning folded neatly inside, were found behind a shed in separate nearby location.

In May 2012, two months after Sierra disappeared, authorities arrested Antolin Garcia-Torres for Sierra’s kidnap and murder. Garcia-Torres was 21 years old at the time. Authorities were able to link him to Sierra after finding her fingerprints inside Garcia-Torres’ car, and her hair on a rope found in Garcia-Torres’ trunk.

After years of delays, Garcia-Torres finally went to trial in February 2017. Despite Sierra’s body never being found, the jury still found him guilty on all counts of kidnapping and murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. Garcia-Torres still maintains his innocence and has not revealed the location of Sierra’s body. [read more]

2. The Murder of Sarah Goode
Sarah Goode (pictured above in a purple sweatshirt and sweatpants) with friends at a party
On the evening of June 6th, 2014, Sarah Goode (21) left her 4 year-old daughter with her mother so she could attend a party in Medford, New York. While there, she posted a picture (seen above) of her smiling and enjoying the party with her friends. Shortly after this picture was taken, Sarah was brutally attacked and murdered by 19 year-old Dante Taylor. 

It is believed that Sarah’s untimely death was the result of a sexually-motivated attack. At Taylor's trial, the prosecution said that Taylor was angry that night because Sarah had rejected his sexual advances. As a result, Taylor dragged Sarah out the the woods, raped her, beat her so hard that a piece of metal was found lodged in her skull, and stabbed her to death. The jury found Taylor guilty on all counts and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In October 2017, he was found dead in his jail cell. His cause of death has not been released. [read more]

1. The Kidnapping (and presumed murder) of Christina Morris

23 year-old Christina Morris smiled in the above photo, which was taken at the apartment of her friend Paulina Petrosky in Plano, Texas. A few hours after this picture was taken, Christina and 24 year-old Enrique Arochi left Paulina’s apartment at the same time to walk to their respective cars that were parked in a nearby garage. The two were caught by surveillance cameras walking together towards the parking garage. A couple minutes later, surveillance cameras captured Enrique’s car exiting the garage, but Christina’s remained inside. Christina never made it home after that and has not been seen or heard from since. She was reported missing by her father a few days later on September 2nd, 2014.

When questioned by police, Enrique said that he and Christina walked into separate garages after leaving Paulina’s apartment. However, the surveillance footage proved that was not true. The police interviewed Enrique several times over the next few months, and they brought his vehicle in for forensic testing. Finally, on December 9th, 2014, the test results on his car came back, and it was determined that a significant amount of Christina’s DNA was present on the edge of the vehicle’s trunk opening. Enrique was subsequently arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping. Prosecutors would later reveal that they believed Enrique had murdered Christina as well, however they decided not to pursue murder charges without a body. 

Enrique went to trial in September 2016. He was ultimately found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison. After his sentencing, Enrique continued to maintain his innocence and even proclaimed that he hoped Christina was still alive. Then, in March 2018, Christina's remains were found in a field in Anna, Texas--an area close to her final cell phone ping. It was also revealed that Enrique's cell phone pinged in that area around the same time as Christina's. 

At this point, Enrique was already sentenced to life in prison before the body was even found, however he was never charged with Christina's murder. At this point, it is unclear if prosecutors will pursue murder charges. Enrique remains incarcerated on the kidnapping charges. [read more] [also on: No Body Convictions]

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