#6 - Jesse L. Matthew
Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington accompanied 3 of her friends to a Metallica
concert at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville on October the 17th of
2009. During the opening act’s performance, 20-year-old Harrington reportedly left to
use the restroom, but somehow got outside of the arena and was subsequently denied re-entry
by security. She contacted her friends and told them not to worry, stating that she’d simply make
her way back home. The young woman was last seen alive hitchhiking on a nearby bridge at about
9:30 pm, according to eyewitness testimony. The following day, Harrington’s purse, containing her
ID card and cell phone, was found in the RV lot at the University of Virginia’s athletic field.
Following an extensive police investigation, her skeletal remains were ultimately discovered
in January of 2010 roughly 10 miles from the arena in a remote area of the 742-acre
Anchorage Farm complex. Although the authorities didn’t release the details of Harrington’s death,
her parents later revealed that it was extremely violent in nature and that several of her bones
had been broken. The case remained unsolved until the fall of 2014, when Hannah Graham,
a second-year student at the University of Virginia, was abducted and later found
dead on an abandoned property in Albemarle County. Investigators were able to use forensic evidence
to link the 2 cases to the same perpetrator, Jesse L. Matthew. The latter, who’d faced
2 previous assault accusations in the early 2000s, had attempted to reinvent himself,
working periodically as a taxi driver and hospital porter. However, he’d been leading a double life,
regularly stalking young women at bars during the night time hours. In March of 2016,
Matthew pleaded guilty to the abduction and murder of both Graham and Harrington,
and he consequently received 4 life sentences with no possibility of parole.
#5 - William Hernando Usma Acosta
In June of 1994, Colombian man William Hernando Usma Acosta gunned down his wife during a
domestic violence incident before firing at his daughter when she tried to intervene.
Shortly thereafter, the man fled the country and, according to the FBI, became the subject of an
Interpol Red Notice. Sometime in 1995, Usma Acosta entered the United States illegally and
began living in the town of Belmont, Massachusetts under the alias Carlos Alberto Rendon. While his
whereabouts remained unknown to the authorities, Usma Acosta was sentenced to 45 years in prison
after being convicted in absentia to charges of aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder,
and illegal possession of a firearm. In June of 2020, the FBI received a tip that the fugitive
might have been residing in the greater Boston area, and the agency’s Violent Crimes Task Force
ultimately tracked him down to his home in Belmont. According to subsequent reports,
Usma Costa had married a United States citizen in 1998 and had begun leading a double life with his
American wife and son. He later applied for naturalization to the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services, allegedly submitting a fraudulent Colombian birth certificate
and fingerprints to cover up his criminal past. In April of 2022, the FBI
and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement announced that Usma Acosta had finally
been arrested. It was reported that he’d be relinquished to the custody of Colombian
authorities, after which he’d begin the prison sentence associated with his wife’s murder.
#4 - Paige Birgfeld
On June the 28th of 2007, Colorado woman Paige Birgfeld left her 3 children with their live-in
nanny at her Grand Junction residence, indicating that she’d return later that evening. However,
having never come back home as she promised, 34-year-old Birgfeld was soon reported missing
to the police. A few days later, her vehicle was discovered, set ablaze, in a Grand Junction
parking lot. Birgfeld herself was nowhere to be found, but many of her belongings had reportedly
been strewn along the side of Highway 50. As the police continued their effort to track down the
missing woman, they uncovered that she’d secretly been leading a double life running an escort
business called Models Inc. While interviewing her acquaintances, investigators learned that
the twice-divorced woman was known in online advertisements as “Carrie”, a high-priced escort.
Although her family was unaware of her scandalous double life, it was believed that Birgfeld had
started her secret enterprise to help pay off her debts, which included a huge mortgage. In 2012,
the woman’s skeletal remains were found by hikers in Delta County. Birgfeld’s bones reportedly
suggested that she’d sustained a badly fractured cheekbone “at or near the time of her death”.
Lester Ralph Jones, who’d solicited the victim’s escort services the day before she went missing,
was identified as a suspect in her disappearance and was later arrested for her murder.
Jones’ first criminal trial ended in a hung jury. However, following a retrial in 2016,
he was convicted of each count levied against him, including first-degree murder and
kidnapping. He was consequently sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
#3 - Ernest Scherer III
The decomposed bodies of Ernest Scherer Jr. and Charlene Abendroth were found at their Castlewood
Country Club home in Pleasanton, California on March the 14th of 2008. As was subsequently
gathered by investigators, the couple had been brutally beaten with a baseball bat
before having their throats slashed. A few weeks after the Alameda County Sheriff's Office launched
an official investigation into the slayings, a pair of detectives traveled to Las Vegas to
speak with Bill Kraus, a nightclub musician and friend of the victims’ son, Ernest Scherer III.
Kraus would later testify in court that Scherer had approached him and inquired about obtaining a
firearm a couple of weeks before the murders were committed. Although the two did go to a gun store
in Pahrump to shop around, Kraus indicated that they didn’t ultimately purchase anything. On the
day the bodies were discovered, Scherer allegedly called Kraus to tell him that he had to go to
California because of a family emergency. However, Kraus claimed that 31-year-old Scherer had sounded
“so well put-together”, despite having supposedly just learned that his parents had been brutally
murdered. It subsequently emerged that Scherer had been leading a double life in Las Vegas,
one characterized by casual dating and a career as a professional poker player.
He’d kept it a secret from his family back in Brea, California, where he was a married father of
one. Scherer was eventually arrested in early 2009 after Alameda County authorities had collected
enough circumstantial evidence to pursue criminal charges against him in connection to his parents’
deaths. In March of 2011, the man was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder as
well as three special-circumstances allegations: two counts of murder for financial gain and one
count of committing multiple murders. Prosecutors contended that Scherer had killed his parents in
order to gain access to his sizable inheritance, which he’d intended to use to pay off the gambling
debts he’d accrued as part of his secret life in Las Vegas. As a consequence for his conviction,
Scherer was sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Today's topic was requested by Sneaky Black, Sheila Salpietra and Celestial Star.
If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about subscribe & let us know in the
comments section below. #2 - Kathleen West
On the morning of January the 13th of 2018, a resident of Calera, Alabama found the lifeless
body of her neighbor, Kathleen West, lying face down across the street from her home.
Upon inspecting the scene further, the neighbor discovered that the woman,
a wife and mother of 1, was only partially clothed and had a bloody wound on her head. Her cell phone
had been placed on the ground next to her body along with an empty bottle of the plant-based
spirit absinthe. Local authorities subsequently launched an official probe into the matter,
during which they interviewed dozens of witnesses and submitted several volumes of
evidence for testing. As the murder investigation progressed over the course of the next 5 weeks,
it publicly emerged that West, whose social media presence suggested that she’d been an
average suburban housewife, had actually been leading a double life as an online model. She
reportedly operated a subscription-only adult website where she posted extremely suggestive
photographs of herself in scantily clad outfits under the alias “Kitty Kat West”. On the morning
of February the 22nd, Calera police formally charged the victim’s husband, William “Jeff” West,
a former US military policeman and campus security guard, with her murder. Police records indicated
that, while William claimed to have never had a problem with his wife’s online alter ego,
he’d carried out her killing nevertheless, perhaps as a form of retribution for her
titillating exhibitionism. Prosecutors contended that William had fatally struck the victim over
the head with a liquor bottle before discarding her body in the street. Following a 4-day trial,
he was convicted of manslaughter, and consequently sentenced to 16 years in prison.
#1 - Brandon Woodruff
A 19-year-old student at Abilene Christian University in Texas was arrested for the
murder of both of his parents at their home in Royse City in October of 2005. The suspect,
Brandon Woodruff, had reportedly visited his parents’ house on the night of October the 16th.
The teen later told investigators that he left after the family had dinner together, but,
2 days later, his parents, Dennis and Norma Woodruff, were found brutally murdered in
their home. Brandon was named as the prime suspect given that he’d been the last known
person to see the victims alive. Royse City police later detailed how Dennis had been
shot once and stabbed nine times, while Norma had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and had her neck
slashed. Although the medical examiner wasn’t able to confirm the victims’ time of death,
investigators concluded that the murder must have been committed between 9 and 11 pm on
the night of Brandon’s visit. Despite vehemently maintaining his innocence, Brandon was ultimately
taken into custody on a charge of capital murder. It subsequently emerged that the teen had secretly
been leading a double life as a gay man. He reportedly had a steady girlfriend at the time,
however, it was determined that he’d been dating other men, regularly danced at gay nightclubs,
and had even traveled out of state to appear in adult films. Brandon was ultimately found guilty
of his parents’ murder and sentenced to spend the remainder of his life behind bars. In May of 2022,
Brandon was featured in an episode of ABC’s investigative journalism series “20/20”. In it,
he claimed that he hadn’t been given a fair trial, and that the jury had only convicted him because
he’d been portrayed as a “wild gay man” leading a crazed double life. Brandon further indicated
that he would never stop fighting to prove his innocence and finally obtain exoneration.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather discover that your parents moonlighted as exotic dancers
or find a squatter who’s secretly been living in your house for
months? Let us know in the comments section below!