Most of us have a preconceived notion of what a killer looks like.
As kids, we're taught to watch out for sinister, disheveled men waiting to snatch us from the
playground.
We hear stories about the likes of Charles Manson and John Wayne Gacy, and assume that
a person's look is a clue into their psyche.
But the truth is that a killer can be anyone, they can sometimes even be a child themselves,
like 15 year-old Chyrel Jolls who lured children with candy in Buffalo, NY in the early 1960s.
But why would a young girl commit such heinous crimes and more importantly, why did she get
away with it?
It's June 22nd, 1961 in Buffalo, NY and 5-year-old Ritchie Edgington is playing hide and seek
with his friends.
He's off on his own looking for a place to hide when he's approached by a young woman.
He thinks she looks like someone old enough to be his mother but she's actually only 15.
Her name is Chyrel Jolls, and she tells the young boy that she's a family friend who's
come to take him away.
When he hesitates and backs away, she grabs him by the wrist.
Ritchie is confused but does as he's told.
She takes him by the hand and leads him toward the zoo.
On the way there, she collects a piece of rope and a plastic bag from the ground.
They walk through the zoo and eventually make their way through Delaware Park and on to
an old railroad track.
She leads the young boy to a small body of water.
For an unknown reason she changes her mind, gives the boy a piece of candy and tells him
that they're going to play 'cowboys and indians'.
She strips him down to his underwear, wraps the plastic bag over his head, gags him with
a piece of cloth and ties him to the railroad tracks.
She walks away, leaving Ritchie alone and terrified.
The boy manages to untie himself and runs for help.
When he tells the police of his ordeal, they realize that the circumstances of his abduction
are identical to what occurred to a five year old girl named Susan Benedict only a couple
of months before.
Susan's abduction had occurred not far from where the boy was taken and like Ritchie,
she had been found abandoned and tied to the same railroad tracks.
Ritchie and Susan both describe Chyrel as being much older than she actually is so she
is able to escape capture as the police look for a woman in her late twenties to mid thirties.
Investigating deeper into Chyrel Jolls' past offers some clues as to what would lead her
to such despicable acts.
Chyrel didn't grow up with a stable family and had spent much of her childhood in an
out of mental asylums and foster homes.
She was subjected to barbaric treatments that included shock therapy.
At the age of 12, she was suspected to have set fire to a group home she was living in.
While staying with an aunt, Chyrel had tied up one of her cousins and locked them in a
room, an event that would foreshadow her future kidnappings.
But the crime that she committed the day after Ritchie Edgington was found tied to the railroad
tracks would turn her from a disturbed kidnapper into a cold blooded killer.
At 3:30 PM on Friday, June 23, 3-year-old Andrew Ashley says goodbye to his parents
as he leaves his apartment building to go visit a neighborhood friend who lives nearby.
Several hours pass and Andrew doesn't return, so his parents make their way to their neighbor's
house only to find that the neighbor's aren't home.
They search all evening for the little boy and eventually contact the authorities when
they're unable to find him.
They interview a neighbor named Edwin Ehrne who states that he witnessed Andrew being
led by the hand by a strange woman in her mid-thirties.
She was leading him into the Buffalo Zoo, which is just across the street from Andrew's
home, and is the same place Ritchie Edgington had been forced to walk through.
The police quickly connect the dots and a large-scale search involving 100 policemen
and the FBI is initiated but turns up nothing on the first day.
Remembering how Ritchie Edgington had said that the woman who took him threatened to
drown him, the police search lakes and ponds near Delaware Park on Saturday morning.
That same day Chyrel attempts to abduct two other children by offering them candy but
is caught by the parents and taken into police custody.
The police interrogate her but eventually let her go because they're under the false
impression that the suspect they're looking for is a much older woman.
The next morning, Chyrel calls Andrew's mother and asks her to tell police to call off the
investigation.
The FBI are able to trace the call to a phonebooth in town and when they arrive, Chyrell is still
inside speaking to Mrs. Ashley.
She's taken in by the FBI and claims that she was only calling Mrs. Ashley in an attempt
to console her.
Once again she's released without further investigation.
That afternoon the body of Andrew Ashley is discovered floating in Delaware Park Lake.
His hands and feet are bound and he has a dish rag tied around his neck.
The medical examiner determined that the boy had died only an hour after being abducted.
Because police are searching for a much older woman, Chyrel escapes suspicion for several
days until police receive a more detailed description of the suspect from Ritchie and
are able to put together a sketch that bears a strong resemblance to the teenager.
For the third time, Chyrel is brought in to the police station.
This time Ritchie Edgington identifies Chyrel as his kidnapper and her home is searched.
Police find a diary containing information about Andrew's disappearance as well as a
map of the area he was found in labeled “The way I went last Friday”.
Chyrel confesses to the kidnappings but refuses to admit she tossed Andrew into the lake,
saying that she had only tied him up and he had fallen in on his own.
She's indicted on August 2, 1961 but is found unfit to stand trial and admitted to Matteawan
State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in January of 1962.
Two years later, it's determined that she's become stable enough to stand trial and she's
returned to Buffalo.
Only two weeks into the trial, the judge declares a mistrial because of Chyrel's hostile and
unusual behavior.
She's returned to the mental hospital.
Five years later, she petitions for a release and with the help of testimony from her psychiatrists,
all charges against her are dropped.
She's transferred to a civil mental institution and, according to her medical records, she
is released on January 29, 1971.
After her release, Chyrel disappears from the records.
Her current whereabouts are a mystery.
Now I'd like to know what you think.
How should people with mental health issues who commit murder be treated by the law?
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