17. Corruption in the county

Previously On Ice Cold Case

Yeah. So what are you looking for? The truth from Omar would be the biggest thing.

We’re passed the point of caring about his feelings, because it’s very clear he doesn’t care about what we’re doing here or your dad. 

Just based on what Omar says is not enough because his credibility is shot to shit. 

The lawyers that were involved in Rico’s case and the judges had died. And Uncle J.C. was the last one.

I really don’t feel that comfortable talking about Rico. 

Where is he now? I’m not sure that’s what I’m trying to – trying to dig out.

The United States Attorney’s office and other prosecutors that we work very well and very closely together in the interest of making our communities a safer place.

Part 0: Time Stands Still

I was reflecting with my audio mixer, Cody recently, about our first trip together to Belmont County in 2022. Cody is from Oregon and had never been to West Virginia or the Ohio Valley. Appalachia was nothing more than a region on a map to him. When I asked him what he thought about the Greater Wheeling Area – the first thing he mentioned was the unique energy… 

If you’ve ever been there, I don’t even need to go into detail. You know exactly what he’s talking about. There’s a strange feeling when you’re in this area of the country that is really difficult to put into words. It’s part dark, tugging on your mind in a way that makes you feel like you need to get out of there as soon as possible, but it’s strangely mixed with the endearing sense of small town homeliness. If I didn’t know better the tagline for the town would be “the way we’ve done things is the way we’ll always do them.”

As I’m walking around, going to places my dad used to go, tracing the steps of his final days alive – it’s almost like I’m watching a movie and holograms of him are running around this town. That’s how little things have changed around here. It looks the same as it did back then. In these moments, if I didn’t know better, I’d think it was still 2002 and my dad is driving his Cadillac picking up Alyssa from high school. In an eerie way, when you go back to a place like Belmont County, it kind of feels like time stands still. But the days are continuing to pass… now it’s been over twenty-two years since my dad was murdered and apart from the buildings and the people, another thing that’s stayed the same? J.C. McGhee’s case still isn’t solved.

Part 1: Small Town, USA

Small town, USA comes with a certain connotation. When you think of a small town, you think of a quaint community where people wave to each other at the grocery store and generations of families stay in the same neighborhood and attend the same school. It’s a place that is meant to inspire you – picturesque white picket fences. As a kid, I would probably say “small towns are safe” – physically and emotionally. Bad things don’t happen there. 

But Belmont County, Ohio has evolved from small town to ghost town. And the history of this area, and the surrounding areas, is dark.

If you take the county and divide it down the middle – to the west is more rural and there’s less people. And it’s kind of, you know, country-type people. Then you get on the other end of the county and it’s still, some rural areas there but you get more of the river towns. Some of these towns I guess used to be I hear stories like Bel-Air. Apparently she was just like a wonderful town 30-40 years ago. It’s not now. High amounts of drug abuse. Everything’s falling apart. That’s where you get a lot of crime there. You got the river there and Wheeling – there’s a lot of drugs coming from Cleveland and Columbus. It’s quiet til it’s not. 

But see Wheeling was in a great proximity for drug dealing because it’s… Columbus is only a few hours away and Pittsburgh is a few hours away so you get a lot of drugs coming in from uh bigger cities and you know at that time you know crack was super cheap and you could cut that shit up in a small little town like Wheeling and Bridgeport and quadruple your money.

Belmont County is made up of many little towns – the biggest, and most popular, is St. Clairsville. That’s where the Sheriff’s Department and the Prosecutors Office are located. Bellaire, Martins Ferry, and Bridgeport are important towns in my dad’s story. The Ohio side of the Ohio River has a different feeling than the West Virginia side. Ohio is not a place you want to get caught for murder. They have a broader range of penalties – mainly the death penalty which was abolished in West Virginia in 1965. Even career criminals know, don’t get caught in Ohio.

The streets are different than real life. There’s no code of ethics out there.

Daryl talks about a time that he dodged trouble with Belmont County because he was on the West Virginia side.

We couldn’t do anything to you because you was on the other side of the bridge. We have our own thing that comes, we do on this side of the bridge.

While that makes it seem like the police are working hard over in Belmont County to lock up drug dealers, I can’t help but notice how selective their efforts feel. In society as a whole, the idea that the police will protect you is challenged more and more each day. There is no shortage of examples to explain the overstep of police across the country and around the world. To the people who say I shouldn’t be so hard on the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department let me ask you this: where are they now? In the midst of me investigating this case and drumming up leads and doing their job for them… What are they doing to solve my dad’s murder? If you can point to their actions, I will stop my criticism.

In the meantime, I still have to find answers.

Part 2: Cold Case County

My dad’s case isn’t the only one that has been mishandled by Belmont County officials. Their reputation rings throughout the county – and beyond. Almost every message from a local, everyone I have spoken to in person, and every tip that has come in talks about it.

In that valley down there. They’re so fucking crooked. It’s out of sight.

The police… didn’t investigate very good.

J.C. worked for the Belmont Sheriff’s department for a long, long time. And that they didn’t take any more action to try to solve this is suspicious to me. And I have been told multiple times by the Sheriff’s Department they know exactly who did it, they just don't have enough evidence.

And then you can have the police and shit not doing what they're supposed to do in an investigation.

The suspicion is coming from all directions.

For a place that is small, quiet, and quaint they have a lot of murder – suspicious, unusual, secret-fueled murder. Recently there was a Dateline episode about Brad McGarry, a coal miner found dead in the basement of his home. There are at least seven cold cases from the county just going back to the ‘70s. And another case that is technically solved, but riddled with controversy and speculation.

You just can’t imagine this stuff happens in the world and everybody looks the other way.

Joanna Boughner was 21-years-old when she was murdered in Belmont County, Ohio in 1977. She left a family party on a Friday night and was never heard from again. The next day, the family started looking for her. On New Year's Eve, they found her body in a ravine, covered by branches and debris in Dallas Pike, West Virginia in Ohio County. 

One of Joanna’s family members reached out to talk to me about the corruption involved in her case. Eventually, Edward Dean Richardson was convicted of the murder, after they found him in Mesa, Arizona and he confessed to killing Joanna and committing other murders in California. Some people believe his confession of Joanna’s murder was coerced. Why would someone who is on the west coast wind up in Belmont County, Ohio, only murder this woman, know to leave her body in this secluded ravine, and go back west? 

Two obviously Belmont County and Ohio County involved and there was a lot of back and forth about who gets control. Obviously it went to Belmont which is not what they wanted at the time because we know the Sheriff there was corrupt. That first female Sheriff back in the day. She had been known for drug smuggling and everything else.

He is referring to Katherine Crumbley. She was the first elected female Sheriff in the state of Ohio. In 1976, the New York Times did a piece about her. She passed away in 2011. I found her obituary and at the end I found something so bizarre…

What’s going on?

So I’m looking at the Joanna Boughner case. And Matthew brings up the Sheriff being corrupt. So I’m like well let me look into this before I’m like throwing this into the episode. Right?

Yeah

So I google her. She’s dead. So I click on her obituary. I’m reading. I’m reading. Preceded in death by, insert family members. Survived by insert family members. And then it says “and special friends” which is a weird thing to say and it names people. And then it says special cousins and it names a few people. And then it says “and one very special friend” and it says Ed Sustersic. 

Of course. Unreal. Unreal.

So he was obviously buddies with a Sheriff at some point. Very special friends with

Right. Sheesh

And so I’m looking him up and he’s still alive. And I found a couple phone numbers.

Let’s get after it then. Gotta ring him up.

Because what the fuck.

Nah, it’s wild. Fucking wild.

Cause like that was my dad’s like personal attorney. It wasn’t like he was assigned by the state or whatever. Like he handled my dad’s personal affairs. 

Right. Golly. 

I mean if my dad was randomly murdered, that would be weird. Like this all

Yeah at this point. Right like all these coincidences. It’s starting to add up to something more than a coincidence.

What do I do?

Start calling. You got this.

Yeah. Yeah.

After listing who Katherine Crumbley is survived by, all family members, it then lists what it calls special friends. This is new to me in an obituary but my friends are like family… then it ends with “and one very special friend… Ed Sustersic.” 

Ed Sustersic was my dad’s attorney.

And as far as the handling of Joanna’s case, it sounds a lot like my dad’s…

Belmont County completely mishandled her case, you know. Crime scene was never sealed off, car was left open, evidence went missing.

Where I realized – Oh my god there is so much here. Corrupt cops in both counties.

There is no shortage of cop conspiracies in this town, but this is all getting too coincidental. Before I spoke with anyone from the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department in 2020, I was well aware of what my family thought about them. And the police knew, too. Detective DeVaul told me not to even mention them to my uncle.

If you mention us around your Uncle Curtis and his wife… They don’t like us.

But when I was sitting across from him, even in his moments of off-colored comments, he came off as trustworthy. I believed what he was saying. I left feeling this sense of hope that he was on my side. He was adamant that he wants to solve this case.

I wanna solve this case. I do. I’m not bullshitting you. I’m not sugar coating it. I wanna solve this case. 

In my career, this case right here is one I want to solve.

But I don’t know what I believe now.

I’m not sure the Belmont Sheriff’s don’t care about the case, I feel like they don’t think there’s enough to prosecute so they really don’t want to pursue it. And I’m not sure if they think that the people pursuing are worth the danger involved, I don’t know.

Part 3: Small Town, Small Pockets

In 2002, Belmont County did not have a robust homicide investigation team. They had to outsource my dad’s autopsy to a different county, a different organization ran a lot of the testing, routine traffic cops were responsible during the most important moments of any investigation – the moments immediately after. That alone would cause things to slip through the cracks, but no one can afford that when their loved ones murder investigation is on the line. These circumstances led to a lack of evidence collection and ultimately landed me here. 

Why do you think they didn’t have enough evidence? Because the police didn’t gather it properly at the time of the shooting.

How could they if they didn’t protect the scene?

People were trampling around. J.C.’s family was going in the house taking his stuff. When he went to the hospital he had a gold cross he always wore. And when he got the hospital, it was gone.

My frustrations are growing and I don’t know what else to do but continue to spin my wheels until I think of something. 

Whether they know who does it or not, if they’ll ever spend one day behind bars for it… It’s so convoluted you don’t know what’s true.

I’m really torn because I just feel like people expect me to work with the police which is sort of my only option but obviously I’m critical of them because they haven’t been able to solve the case for 22 years. But then it’s this weird, I’m supposed to trust them but how am I supposed to trust their ability to get this job done, when their track record really gives me no reason to trust them at all. 

Yeah, I know.

And then now that I have been so openly critical of them, like how am I supposed to approach them because at  the end of the day if I’m going to get this to go to court, like I need their help . Like whether I agree with them or disagree with them, or whether or not they’ve done their best, like they're the only people that can really do anything about this

Yeah.

Like where does that leave me and what am I supposed to do? I’m torn because they haven’t solved it. So there’s some level of like – they aren’t solving it. It’s been 22 years. What do you want me to do about that? Am I just supposed to praise them for like nothing? But if I wasn’t doing this, no one would be doing this. I mean he seemed so adamant and believable that he was like looking into this but then it’s still not solved so then like – I like it’s just – I don’t know.

It’s almost like they just wanted you to leave it and be happy with what they did.

Yeah, leave it alone which I didn’t do and now they aren’t talking to me. But like even like regular people in this town think that they are corrupt. They can’t all be paranoid or making it up.

It sounds like it’s pretty well known.

But can everything be true at the same time? Can it be that they displayed negligence partially because of their natural bias that we all have, but combined with lack of resources. But then also could they have done everything that they could do which maybe just isn’t a lot. I don’t know. I just can’t wrap my head around… if  they wanted to solve it, why they wouldn’t want to work with me as I’m looking into this?

Yeah. it seems like they’d be willing to jump in.

But they’re not. 

It’s a super unsettling feeling because I'm at a point where now I just don’t know where to go from here. What more can I do for this case without the police on my side?

Part 4: Loose Ends

It’s impossible to tie up all the loose ends and rule out certain motives while focusing on others without the assistance of people with more information than what I have. My friend and mentor, Josh Mankiewicz is skeptical of this custody battle and the possible motive for murder. But Daneen has passed away. I can’t live knowing that I might never know. There has to be another way to find out what she was really thinking at the time. 

The entire Foston family is a big question mark. Between Omar, Pearl, and Richard – the truth is somewhere in between the lies. That safe holds more meaning than anyone is letting on, but why it is being fiercely protected is still a mystery. 

And then there’s Daryl Smith, Duncan Waitts, Danny Banks, and Tone. This motley crew that could have absolutely been at Pearl and Omar’s house that morning and were very capable of shooting my dad in the doorway. It’s clear that Daryl will maintain his innocence, but what about the other three?

While I feel like I am hitting a wall, I might be mistaking that wall for a mountain. There is still room to dig deeper and investigate but it’s not going to be easy. This was never really easy.

Part 5: Out of My Hands

There’s so much about this case that is completely out of my control. In some ways, I feel like my dad – I’m at the mercy of the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department. As a Confidential Informant, your life is owned by the police. Whether you get away with a drug deal or get implicated in the arrest, is based on how valuable you are to them.

But if you do the right things in prison, you can get your own network and you can be running stuff straight out of prison. It’s a vicious cycle.

And as much as I want to believe the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department wasn’t lying when they said they want this case solved, it doesn’t seem like they deem me and my efforts “valuable.”

So I need to shift my focus to what I can control. I know a lot of people are on the edges of their seats waiting to see what I will do next. I see, and appreciate, all the messages. But let me play these cards close to my chest. Because even the people who hate what I’m doing are lurking and listening. And I’d like to keep them on their toes. Some of them might be hearing from me as soon as I wrap up part two of this show and dive deeper into this investigation.

But believe me when I say, I’ve never felt closer to the truth. It’s been nearly a year since I gave you my theory. The one that puts Daryl Smith at my dad’s front door that morning. A lot has happened since then. People have tried to change my mind. People have tried to convince me it was them. I like to check in with myself every so often to really see what I am thinking and theorizing at this point in my investigation. I started this second installment to see if I got it all wrong – if I missed the mark. So what do I think now?

Next time on Ice Cold Case

I mean, there’s some people who are probably key factors in this and they probably have a great story to tell.

So I had to put life in perspective and shit and get accustomed to living like an average person.

But somebody did it and I just want you to find that person. 

Credits:

Ice Cold Case is brought to you by Yes!
It is written, hosted, and produced by Madison McGhee
Also produced by Jeremy Benbow
Mixed by Cody Campbell 
Original music by Matt Bettinson
Creative direction by AJ Christianson
Creative consulting by Hoff

A video version of this episode is available on our YouTube Channel and a transcript is available at icecoldcase.com To submit any tips or information please email us at icecoldcasepodcast@gmail.com.