The Murder of Adrianne Reynolds

Left: Adrianne Reynolds (16), top right: Sarah Kolb (16),  bottom right: Cory Gregory (17). Images taken circa 2004

Sarah Kolb and Cory Gregory met in East Moline, Illinois in 2003. Both were enrolled in a GED program at the Outreach Center in the nearby town of Milan. Sarah and Cory struck up conversation after sharing a joint together at the local mall, and the pair reportedly grew inseparable after that.

In fact, it was common knowledge that Cory had romantic feelings for Sarah. Those feelings were not returned, though—Sarah identified as a lesbian and had been quite clear about her sexuality. Still, Cory adored Sarah and reportedly followed everything she did. When Sarah began hanging out with a local group of Juggalos, Cory joined as well. Over time, Sarah climbed the group’s social hierarchy and came to be known as the “alpha female.”

In November 2004, Adrianne Reynolds moved to East Moline to live with her father. She enrolled in the same GED program as Sarah and Cory at the Outreach Center. It did not take long for Adrianne to catch Sarah’s attention. When she saw her for the first time, Sarah reportedly said, “Look at her. She’s hot.” Adrianne returned the feelings and the two teens struck up a flirtatious relationship. 

For weeks, Adrianne and Sarah wrote several love notes to each other before they finally decided to meet up outside of school. The two attended a party together, and many thought that they would finally take their relationship to the next level. However, Adrianne apparently left the party for a few hours, and when she returned, she told Sarah that she had slept with two other guys. Sarah decided she was no longer interested in Adrianne after this, but Adrianne wasn’t ready to give up on their relationship.

What began as a high school flirtatious relationship/friendship soon escalated into something fatal. The events that followed this party ultimately led to Adrianne's demise.

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Adrianne pursuing Sarah.

Over the next two months, Adrianne continued to pursue Sarah and repeatedly asked her for a second chance. Sarah rejected Adrianne’s frequent requests and began to tell people that she was going to “kick her ass.” Still, Adrianne wanted to repair the relationship and did not take the threats seriously.

Meanwhile, Adrianne was also striking up a friendship with Cory, and began to write notes to him as well. At some point, Sarah found one of the notes that Adrianne wrote to Cory. This infuriated Sarah, and she began to fear that Adrianne was going to steal all of her friends.

A lunch invite turned deadly.

On January 21st, 2005, Sarah finally spoke to Adrianne. She asked if Adrianne wanted to go with her and Cory to Taco Bell for lunch. Excited about potentially repairing their relationship, Adrianne agreed. However, on the way there, Sarah confronted Adrianne about the note she wrote to Cory, and an intense argument ensued. 

Once they got to the parking lot, Sarah and Adrianne got into a physical fight. Cory ended up intervening, but only to help Sarah. He held Adrianne down while Sarah ultimately strangled Adrianne to death. Sarah and Cory then enlisted their friend Nathan Gaudet to help them dismember and dispose of Adrianne’s body.

The group ultimately dumped Adrianne’s remains at Black Hawk Historic Site in Rock Island. Authorities found her there just a few days later on January 26th, 2005.

Murder charges and convictions.

On February 1st, 2005, Sarah and Cory were arrested and charged as adults with two counts of first-degree murder and concealment of homicide. Nathan was arrested as well; he was charged as a juvenile with concealment of a homicide.

Sarah pleaded not guilty and went to trial on October 31st, 2005. A jury deliberated for over 15 hours before announcing they were deadlocked, and the judge declared a mistrial. Sarah had a retrial just a few months later, and this time around she was found guilty of all charges. She was ultimately sentenced to 53 years in prison. 

On July 10th, 2006, Cory pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Nathan pleaded guilty as well and was given a juvenile sentence of 5 years. He died a few years after his release in a car accident.

Sarah is currently serving her sentence at the Logan Correctional Center in Logan County, Illinois, while Cory is serving his sentence at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill.

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Sources:
Murderpedia
Quad-City Times

The Murder of Joshua Hilberling

Joshua Hilberling (23) and his wife Amber Hilberling (19) pictured together in 2011

Joshua Hilberling (pictured left) was only 23 years old when his life was tragically taken on June 7th, 2011. Joshua had been married to his wife Amber Hilberling (pictured right) for about a year at the time. Though they had only had been married for a short amount of time, their relationship had turned quite volatile. On the day of his death, Joshua and Amber got into an altercation that resulted in Joshua being pushed out the window of their Tulsa, Oklahoma apartment, which was located on the 25th floor of their building, and falling to his death. Amber, who was 19 years old and 7 months pregnant at the time, was arrested and charged with second degree murder.

The apartment building where Joshua & Amber lived

According to Joshua’s parents, he had been abused by Amber throughout their relationship. In fact, a month before his death, he had visited Domestic Violence Intervention services to get help. Joshua filed a protective order against Amber as well, alleging that she had hit him over the head with a lamp, causing him to need 21 stitches. However, Joshua ultimately decided to stay with Amber because she was pregnant with his child. The protective order was never finalized after the couple failed to show up in court.

Amber’s lawyers acknowledge that Amber and Joshua were in an abusive relationship, however they listed Joshua as the abuser, not Amber. Her defense claimed that, during the June 7th altercation, Amber pushed Joshua away from her because she was trying to protect her unborn child, and that she did not intend to push him out the window. The prosecutor agreed that Amber likely did not intend to kill Joshua that day, but that her actions did ultimately cause his death. As a result, they offered Amber an alternative charge: first-degree manslaughter involving an allegation that the death occurred while she was committing a misdemeanor domestic assault and battery. If Amber accepted this plea deal, she would only have had to serve five years in prison plus 15 years of probation.

Still, Amber refused to accept the plea deal. She claimed that she acted only out of self-defense, and that Joshua was killed while she was trying to defend herself, rather than him being killed as a result of her abuse. Due to her refusal to accept the plea deal, Amber was ultimately put on trial for second degree murder. A jury ruled in favor of the prosecution and found her guilty as charged. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Three years into her sentence, on October 26th, 2016, Amber was found dead in her prison cell. A coroner ruled her death as a suicide.

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For further reading: Pushed: State of Oklahoma vs. Amber Hilberling: The Inside Story of the Murder Case That Riveted the Bible Belt

The Disappearance and Presumed Murder of Joleen Cummings

Joleen Cummings vanished on May 12th, 2018. The 33 year-old mother was last seen at Tangles Salon in Fernandina Beach, Florida, where she worked as a hairstylist. Joleen’s shift was supposed to end at 5pm that evening, and afterwards she planned to meet up with her ex-husband in Hilliard to pick up her children. She never showed up as planned, and has never been seen or heard from again. Joleen’s mother reported her missing on May 14th, 2018.

While investigating Joleen's disappearance, detectives determined that the last known person to have seen Joleen was a woman named Jennifer Marie Sybert, who also worked as a hairstylist at Tangles. Detectives went to the salon on May 14th to question Jennifer, but upon their arrival, they were told that she had not shown up for her shift that day. The salon owner provided detectives with an address that Jennifer has listed as her home address, however when police looked it up, it turned out to be fake. 

The Tangles Salon where Joleen and Jennifer worked

The fake address obviously raised suspicions about Jennifer. These suspicions were further solidified once detectives learned from both clients and other employees at the salon that there was some tension between Jennifer and Joleen. Jennifer had only worked at the salon for about a month, but Joleen felt she was hiding something. In fact, Joleen reportedly told another co-worker that she felt Jennifer was "not the person that she says she is" and that she intended to start looking into her background. As it turned out, Joleen was absolutely right. Jennifer was not the person she said she was, and as police continued to investigate, they unraveled her true identity. 

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Evidence against Jennifer continued to build when Joleen's car was located on May 15th, at a parking lot of a Home Depot store. Surveillance footage revealed it being parked there around 1:15am on May 13th--just hours after Joleen was supposed to end her shift at Tangles. The footage also revealed that the driver of the car was not Joleen, but Jennifer Sybert. 

Joleen's car being parked hours after her disappearance

After seeing the surveillance footage, police rushed to locate Jennifer. She was eventually found sleeping in her car at a rest stop off interstate 95. Jennifer was arrested and charged with grand theft auto. Once in custody, police noticed Jennifer had a patch of hair missing from her head, in addition to injuries on her arms, thighs, and hands. 

'Jennifer Sybert' mugshot

Authorities quickly learned that Jennifer Sybert was a fake identity. The woman's real name was Kimberly Kessler. Kimberly has taken the name 'Jennifer Marie Sybert' from a gravestone at a cemetery in Butler, Pennsylvania. The real Jennifer Sybert was a young girl who died in a car accident in Germany during 1987, and she was buried in Butler. Kimberly Kessler lived in Butler and vanished from there in 2004. She was not reported missing until 2012. A further look into Kimberly's past revealed that Kimberly had used at least seventeen different alias names and had lived in 14 states and 33 cities since 1996. She often drew names from the name Butler cemetery where she learned Jennifer Sybert's name.

The real Jennifer Marie Sybert's gravestone

At this point, police were able to obtain warrants to search all different types of places/items in relation to Joleen's disappearance. Thorough testing at the Tangles salon revealed that bloodstains were present on numerous surfaces all over the salon--and it appeared that somebody had tried to clean the stains up with bleach and a mop. Testing revealed that the blood belong to both Joleen and Kimberly. Police also were able to search the contents on Kimberly's phone, which revealed that she conducted numerous online searches on various methods of murder and disposing of bodies. 

Additionally, police obtained even more incriminating surveillance footage: Kimberly was seen disposing of a large white trash bag in a dumpster near the Tangles' salon shortly after Joleen's disappearance. After this discovery, police searched a nearby landfill for Joleen's remains. It was reported that 'items of interest' were found during said search, but Joleen's remains were not found. 

In September 2018, Kimberly Kessler was arrested and charged with the murder of Joleen Cummings. She is currently behind bars awaiting trial. Both her defense attorneys and psychiatrists state that she is unfit to stand trial at this time, but prosecutors are still seeking charges. 

The Murder of Anthony Hall

Jim ‘Anthony’ Hall (23) was brutally murdered by his on-again, off-again girlfriend Samantha Stansifer (20) on June 14th, 2015. Anthony and Samantha had been together on-and-off for about 3 years at the time of the murder. According to Anthony’s family members, their relationship was toxic—however they never imagined it would escalate to murder, as it did that tragic evening in June 2015. 

At that point, Anthony and Samantha had broken up yet again, but Samantha was still living with Anthony at his Henryetta, Oklahoma residence. The two of them attended a party together on the evening of June 14th, and while at the party, Samantha noticed that Anthony had text messages from another girl on his phone. The two then began to argue and ended up returning to Anthony’s house.

Once there, things appeared to calm down briefly. In fact, Samantha and Anthony had almost fallen asleep when Samantha noticed more text messages from the same girl on Anthony’s phone. Samantha then told Anthony she was going to the kitchen to get a drink of water, but instead she grabbed two knives. She then returned and began to stab and mutilate Anthony’s body until he died.

Afterwards, Samantha seemingly confessed on Facebook, posting, “I did it. He deserved it.” Then, Samantha called the police and told them, “I killed my boyfriend and now I can’t kill myself.” Officers quickly showed up on the scene and Samantha was arrested shortly thereafter. 

In April 2016, Samantha pleaded guilty to murdering Anthony. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Samantha currently remains behind bars in Okmulgee County.

Today in True Crime: The Murder of Tory Minnick

Left: Erin Everett (25), who murdered her fiance Tory Minnick (21) in March 2010

Erin Everett and Tory Minnick lived in the conservative town of Jerome, Pennsylvania and had a whirlwind romance that turned fatal on March 25th, 2011. Shortly before they met, Erin had come out to her family members, who were initially quite reluctant to accept her sexuality. Tory, on the other hand, had recently broken off her engagement to a man named Kody Donaldson (24). The two reportedly fell fast for each other, and Erin ended up proposing to Tory early into their relationship. Tory accepted, and Erin’s parents eventually agreed to allow Tory to move into their family’s home. The girls appeared to be a happy couple to their family and friends, however behind closed doors things were beginning to fall apart.

The couple began to fight more often after Tory moved into the Everett family home. Erin’s mother had suspicions that Tory was physically abusive towards Erin. Despite this, Erin told others that Tory was the love of her life and she wanted to make their relationship work. In the following months, their fights escalated as Tory began to spend more and more weekends away from Erin—opting to visit her hometown in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania instead. Erin eventually learned that Tory had rekindled her relationship with her ex-fiancé Kody, and she had been spending her weekends in Meyersdale with him.

This realization caused Erin to snap. While Tory slept on the evening of March 25th, 2011, Erin used her father’s gun to shoot Tory twice in the head. Then, she hit Tory twice in the head with a hammer. After a failed attempt to remove Tory’s body from her family’s home, Erin called her mother and told her that an intruder had broken into their home and attacked Tory. The police were called as well, and when they arrived, they found Tory’s body amongst the bloody crime scene inside the home.

Erin told police the same story she told her mother—that a masked intruder entered their home and attacked/killed Tory. She specifically told police that the intruder told her he was there for Tory and not her. It is believed that Erin said this in attempt to point the finger at Tory’s ex, Kody Donaldson. However, police were quickly able to get in touch with him, and he had an airtight alibi that proves he was not at the home when the murder occurred. Police then brought Erin back to the station for questioning, where she eventually admitted to killing Tory after finding out she had been unfaithful.

Despite confessing to the crime, Erin ended up pleading not guilty to first degree murder. Before trial, her defense attorney argued that Tory’s murder was triggered by Battered Women’s Syndrome after she had repeatedly abused Erin. Lead defense attorney Bryan Peck explained, “I believe that it was premeditated, but I believe that that premeditation was a result of something outside of Erin Everett’s control.” The judge overseeing the case stated that there was not enough evidence that physical abuse occurred in their relationship for the attorney’s claim to be admitted in court. Due to this, the court ultimately convicted Erin Everett of first degree murder in November 2014. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

[tumblr post] [Love Triangles With Tragic Endings]

Today in True Crime: The Murder of Monica Anderson

 Monica Anderson (left) and Lan Anh Le (right)

Monica Anderson (26) was brutally murdered by her roommate/lover Lan Anh Le (20) inside the apartment they shared on March 13th, 2010. The two young women met through mutual friends and had been living together in Sacramento, California for about six months prior to Monica’s death. The night of the murder, Monica and Lan spent the evening drinking alcohol and snorting lines of cocaine. Around 2:30am, an argument over a cellphone charger broke out inside the girls’ bedroom. Monica attempted to flee the apartment, but Lan chased her with a butcher knife and attacked her. Lan ultimately stabbed Monica 91 times. She then attempted to turn the knife on herself, but a friend was able to intervene until the police arrived.

Lan was ultimately charged with first degree murder. At the trial, prosecutors stated that Monica’s murder was a crime composed of “pettiness and ridiculousness,” and that Monica was “brutally murdered without any just reason at all.” A video was played to jurors of Lan admitting to the crime during police interrogation, during which she admits that she initially was angry with Monica for not handing over her cell phone charger. Lan is also heard saying, “[Monica] started running away from me, and that’s when it happened. I was just really pissed.”

Despite admitting to the crime, Lan plead not guilty to first degree murder. Her defense team argued that the crime occurred in the heat of the moment, and it was fueled by drugs. Lan had apparently been hooked on drugs since she was a teenager—after she suffered through a rough childhood. Lan’s defense attorneys explained that Lan was one of 10 children raised by Vietnamese refugees in Sacramento. Their living conditions were allegedly cramped and dangerous, and the children were trained to not speak to social workers who visited their home. Lan ended up hanging out with a “bad crowd” as she got older, and she got hooked on drugs by time she was 16. Lan eventually entered a group home for young women in an effort to put her life back together, but she unfortunately aged out of the system shortly after entering. Lan met Monica shortly after turning 18. Defense attorneys said that Lan looked up to Monica and they had a very passionate, albeit troubled, relationship. Lan’s lead attorney stated, “[Lan] loved Monica Anderson so much, but on March 13, 2010, when Lan was just 20 years old, she did something while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine and emotion that she is never ever going to be able to take back.”

While prosecutors did not dispute that Lan had suffered through a troubled past, they argued that the murder was unnecessarily vicious and it was not the first known incident of violence between Lan and Monica. Months before Monica’s murder, she allegedly told her parents that Lan had blindly attacked her, which left her with multiple bruises and a black eye. Prosecutors argued that, on the night of the murder, Lan made the decision to chase Monica with a knife and stab her violently nearly 100 times. The jury ultimately agreed with the prosecution and found Lan guilty for first degree murder. She was sentenced to 25 years to life.

[tumblr post][Murder Cases with Ridiculous Motives]

Today in True Crime: The Murder of Michael Howell, at the hands of his 17 year-old daughter Crystal Brooke Howell

Crystal Brooke Howell (pictured right) was only 17 years old when she murdered her father, 50 year-old Michael Howell (pictured left) on February 24th, 2014. 

Crystal's parents got a divorce when she was 12 years-old, and Crystal ended up living with her father. For the next five years, the two lived in a remote cabin on Sheepback Mountain located in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. On the day of the murder, Michael and Crystal went shopping together in Ingles. Crystal allegedly attempted to shoplift, but was caught by Michael. Investigators theorize that after this incident, Crystal began to think about killing her father. 

Crystal Brooke Howell in 2014

When the two returned from shopping that day, Michael took a nap while Crystal took a shower and allegedly continued to think about killing her father. Once she got out of the shower, Crystal grabbed a shotgun and shot her father once in the head as he napped on the couch. She then hid his body in a plastic container inside the family’s storage shed. Then, she dumped the couch he was laying on and sold the shotgun that she used. Life seemed to just continue for Crystal after that–she began to drive her deceased father’s car, spend his money, and damage his house. Her friends moved in, and they often threw parties at the house. Crystal even had a stripper pole installed in the kitchen. When asked about her father’s whereabouts, Crystal told her friends that he moved to Georgia and then killed himself.

Crystal continued her new lifestyle for almost a month before her secrets were uncovered. On March 22nd, 2014, two of Crystal’s house guests decided to move a pinball machine into their storage shed. While doing that, one of the men noticed the plastic container and found Michael’s body inside. The police were called, and Crystal was eventually arrested and charged with murder. 

In October 2016, Crystal pleaded guilty to the murder of her father and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison. She remains behind bars today. 

Lists including this case:

[Betrayed by Blood]
[Murder Cases with Ridiculous Motives]
[Tragic Crimes Committed by Teenagers]