8. The Fallout

Thank You

To everyone who has been part of this journey for these eight episodes – thank you. I am overwhelmed in the best way with the love and support I have received throughout this process. To support this show and my mission to solve my dad’s murder, please consider following, rating, and reviewing this podcast wherever you are listening. If you resonate, please share this show with your corner of the world. You can also stay up to date in between episodes on social media. I’ve started adding research materials and episode transcripts to our website icecoldcase.com. If you have any tips you can email them to icecoldcasepodcast@gmail.com. 

Part 0: Too Close for Comfort

Since the release of this show, family members have reached out directly or made commentary online about my handling of this case. They don’t like that I’m dragging people into this story – people who put themselves in this story by being involved or withholding information. So many stories have flooded my inbox about what really happened. Some of those stories align with the police reports and my own theories, but others… are not even close. 

Some of my family, specifically the ones with more information than the rest, have been very vocal that I’ve missed a lot of details or am completely off track. But their defensiveness is all but confirming my thoughts. I’m getting a lot of pushback and even threats from distant relatives that I’ve never heard of or met before. 

My biggest question is: why is my family so upset that I’m trying to solve my dad’s murder? This is their brother, uncle, cousin… But I guess that answer directly correlates to why it hasn’t already been solved. 

I think I’ve surprised a lot of people, including myself, with how far I’m willing to go to find answers. If you’re listening to this and you know something… it’s time to speak up before I find out on my own. 

I knew that this is what I wanted, but I feel uneasy knowing that I might not like what I find.  If this was a relative or someone close to my dad or something is revealed about my dad, it could rip my family apart. 

As far away as the answers seemed in the beginning, they are within reach now. But now that I’m here, it’s a little too close for comfort…

Part 1: Family Tree

I’ve got a big family — there’s a lot of moving parts. So let me break it down for you.

Did you ever have to make a family tree when you were a kid? I’m sure I did, but I don’t remember. And there certainly wouldn’t have been enough branches to cover even just my immediate family. Apart from the five siblings I have and their four moms, there are so many McGhee’s…

There are some interesting characters on my dad’s side that I recently met for the first time and some that I am learning more about. My dad had seven siblings – Percy also known as Buck, is the oldest. Pauline is the oldest sister. Then there’s Pearl, who was my dad’s next door neighbor. Curtis, who was pretty close with my dad, looks just like him. When I met Curtis in person I was shocked at the similarities. He lived down the street from my dad. Alice was the youngest sister. There’s also George who passed away when he was in early 20’s. My dad’s youngest brother Charles mysteriously passed away in June of 2022. From there, each sibling had multiple children who now have their own children. And my family tree looks more like a family forest. 

Part 2: The Guns + Insurance Papers

I’ve heard from several different people that my family was *sound effect: footsteps* allowed to walk in and out of my dad’s house very shortly after the murder. I’m talking within an hour or so. The police didn’t *sound effect: tape* tape off the scene to prevent people from going in and out.  Because of this, they couldn’t swipe for unique fingerprints or gather DNA. 

The police… didn’t investigate very good.

I don’t really know what kind of evidence the police got but it wasn’t very good and I’ve been told over the years that they think they know who did it but they don’t have enough evidence to ever prosecute anyone.

The family going in and out of the house is interesting for multiple reasons. The first being, they should have had the wherewithal to understand this was an active crime scene. My dad’s body was still laying on the floor while they were going inside. And what were they looking for? *sound effect: papers shuffling* Insurance papers.

I came back from the police station after being questioned to the whole house full of our family looking for insurance papers they said and I’m like what do you mean and they’re like so we can pay for the funeral like this is what y’all are worried about? His blood is still in the floor. They didn’t even clean it up. They put a tablecloth over it and said you need to find these papers Alyssa.

My dad was shot in the middle of the doorway. They would have had to walk over his body to look for these papers. I am having a hard time grasping that the paperwork they were looking for was more important than finding out what really happened. But in this story, the priorities never seemed to make sense. 

People were trampling around. J.C.’s family was going in the house taking his stuff. He had gold jewelry, coins, all kinds of stuff and everything was gone by the next day. The family and people were coming in and out – it was a crime scene.

While the family was inside of the house looking for those papers, you might remember a couple of them were rounding up all of the guns. At the advice of Detective Nippert, some of the family were taking all of the guns out of the house. There’s still no real explanation why this happened or what the motive was but once those guns were gone – IF any of them had been the murder weapon – no one would ever know.

Curt, is sitting in the back of the truck and there’s this big blanket covering all this stuff in the truck.

There weren’t hidden. They were just in the closet and there was one at the head of his bed.

I’ve heard different things, that it was his own gun. I’ve heard that.

One thing I am absolutely certain of – family protects family. But it seems like, in this situation, they are very selective of which family members they are willing to cover for. But eventually, everything finds its way to the surface.

‘Cause I feel like it’s going to come out eventually anyways.

Part 3: The Estate

My dad didn’t have a will, so a family member was assigned to be executor of his estate. That family member was Percy McGhee also known as Uncle Buck. Buck is my dad’s brother and Rico McGhee’s dad.

At that time the McGhee family was pretty close when all this went down with J.C. and his bar and Rico. Now it’s just different.

I’ve been told a lot of things about Percy. Ever since my dad testified against Rico, it was obvious that there was tension between the entire family. The rules are strict and final: You don’t rat out anyone – especially not your nephew. 

And because of that, Percy hated my dad.

Percy absolutely hated JC for putting his son in prison for life. And it’s very interesting that he was the executor of JC’s estate along with this shady lawyer and they pretty much squandered all of JC’s assets for their own personal gain.

People have told me that Buck and his wife, Mel, never speak about my dad’s murder. They told me if my dad gets brought up at all, they go silent. And sometimes Buck will throw out… “I loved my brother, but damn…”

When I called to get the records of what happened to my dad’s estate, I was told to call probate court. Probate court is the part of the judicial system that handles wills, estates, and guardianship. I gave the secretary my dad’s name. When she looked it up, she was very surprised. She asked me if my dad was wealthy because this was one of the largest probate records she had ever seen. It’s 283 pages. Even the Belmont County prosecutors were surprised by the probate records. 

How many pages? 283… I’m trying to figure out why there’s 283 pages in a probate estate.

There are a few things that stand out immediately upon reviewing the probate court records. The first being that David Liberati the current assistant prosecuting attorney for Belmont County, the one shocked that the file is so large, is listed on some of the pages of the probate record. He never brought that up when we met in person in 2021.

People didn’t like him because he had money and apartment buildings.

My dad’s lawyer was Ed Sustersic. He was hired to be my dad‘s estate attorney. The file shows the original inventory value of my dad‘s estate was $125,700. The real estate deletion was $26,760, leaving the total value of his estate at $98,940. Ed Suserstic took 4%. He made almost $4000 off of handling my dad’s estate. 

A few pages later you find out that Percy also made almost $4000 just from being the fiduciary for his brother's affairs.

But I think that was a way for Percy to get back at his brother for putting his son in prison.

The probate records are extensive and complex and I can’t fully understand everything within these 283 pages. I know that while the real estate value is listed at almost $40,000 neither myself nor my sister inherited any real estate. 

And nothing was really given to his children and he was very adamant about certain things being given to certain child, you know pieces of property and stuff.

But near the end of the records, the balance remaining in the fiduciary’s hands was that same $40,000 as of August 6th 2008. On September 23, 2009 Ed Sustersic filed with the probate judge that the estate has been fully and lawfully administered.

My grandmother was my legal guardian at the time. And I found paperwork where she signed away all of my rights to my dad’s estate. I asked her about this decision she made nearly twenty years ago. She wasn’t ever fully aware of what she was signing, but thought she was doing the right thing. I don’t fault her for any of this, but I do blame the people handling my dad’s affairs for not being more careful and considerate during this process.

At the end of the day, my sister and I both got life insurance money from a policy that my mom allegedly signed us up for. She says she did it, but I don’t know if that’s 100%  true. My dad could have signed up for it on his own, maybe out of paranoia that someone was going to get him. And maybe those were the papers my family was looking for. 

But he knew somebody was gonna get him. He just felt it. He used to tell me it all the time that he was going to get killed.

This is the part where I'd like to point out the racial disparities in life insurance - how my dad's life was assigned a value that was much less than his white counterpart. The point is not how much money I got in life insurance, this life insurance shouldn’t have been the focus. You can’t put a price on someone’s life and no amount of money will bring him back. Solving my dad’s murder should have taken precedent because if it had, I wouldn’t be doing this. 

Part 4: The Loose Ends

There are a few witnesses I haven’t brought up because their information was a carbon copy of someone else’s and it didn’t seem necessary. There are so many voluntary witness statements and even more official witness interviews that occurred during the first few months after the murder. One in particular is a cousin of the Foston’s – she might be my cousin as well, but it’s possible she is related to the other side of their family. 

I don’t need to mention her name. She mentions that she was threatened multiple times and believes that Richard and Dwight were involved. She knows neither of them lived in the area but the circumstances surrounding that morning are too unusual and point back to them. She talks about the safe, citing that Richard and Dwight both knew about it. She tells police that Omar gave her a lot of information about what happened that day. 

So much similar information is told by different people in their statements, it’s hard to ignore the possibility of its validity. 

Whether or not the family is directly involved, I’m not completely sure at this point. But one thing I know for sure is that there are family members who definitely know something. One of them is Omar.

He was right there. He was right there. How do you not see these people? He knows who they are.

Omar knows something. There’s no doubt about it.

For obvious reasons, Omar knows at the very least who was there, and when he goes in to give his statements those statements change so now I’m going to tell you a few of the names that are listed in the police reports that I haven’t mentioned yet.

There are a few names that have been floating around for several years now – and we’ve gone over them – Daryl, Duncan, Butchie, and even Rico. But there’s one name that comes up in the early days of the investigation – a name that has been brought to my attention through multiple anonymous tips since the release of this show. 

I’m a little bit concerned because there are some shady characters involved and the streets are different than real life. There’s no code of ethics out there.

In one of his first statements, Omar names Dan Banks as one of the men allegedly there during the home invasion. He says Dan was watching them. Well, several years ago Dan Banks messaged my sister, Alyssa telling her that he was our cousin. But he’s not our cousin… at least to our knowledge.

At the time, Alyssa had never seen the police report. But knowing what she knows now, those messages are even stranger.

Remember the possibility that there was a girl inside the house that night? Some people suspected that Tiffany Lufft was that woman. Well, Dan Banks had a baby with Tiffany. And after the release of episode six an anonymous tip came in saying “If Tiffany was there – that was set up. Danny Banks ran her.” 

I think somebody might have been downstairs – a female. Because I did hear stories about there was a girl there. But what I can remember from that night, he was awake all night which is not like him. The fact that he came into my room and checked on me three or four times that night alerted me that he was awake. And he kept going downstairs so I do think that there was a female there.

I am taking any description from Omar with a grain of salt, but objectively speaking one of his accounts could be more accurate than others and if he was threatened, maybe his first few accounts are more accurate in some ways than others. He said one of the men had cornrows. My sources tell me that Dan Banks – had cornrows.

Another person I hadn’t really considered suspicious was my brother Joel McGhee. He was also in prison at the time of my dad’s murder. So as far as his direct involvement or otherwise, I don’t think he has any. I’ve been speaking with Joel on and off through Facebook and texting since before I started seriously investigating this case. 

My first message exchange with Joel was on March 30, 2012, when he reached out to ask me how I was doing and wanted to check in. I didn’t even know who he was … let alone that he was my brother. He told me he was my older brother and that he grew up in Indiana but was visiting our Uncle Buck.

Joel wasn’t around us. Joel was in a whole nother state.

I don’t know what month or day Rico got out of jail and his life sentence was commuted, but I know that it was in 2012. If nothing else, it’s coincidental that Joel was visiting Rico’s dad at the time and thought to message me out of the blue for the first time ever. Remember at this point, not only was Joel a complete stranger to me but none of these names meant anything. I was still months away from learning that my dad was murdered. 

By 2015, I not only knew that my dad was murdered but I had started to do a little bit of digging. This was before I really got into this case, but my natural curiosity would peak from time to time. So only June 17, 2015 I reached back out to Joel on Facebook. He gave me his number and we started talking. This is when I learned that Joel was in prison at the time of our dad’s murder so at the very least, he didn’t pull the trigger. But I was really relying on his knowledge of the landscape and the people around at the time to help me find a place to start. We talked on and off but I wasn’t ready to fully take the leap and investigate this case.

But then, on May 13, 2020, we started talking about it again. This time I was ready. I wanted to know everything. A few weeks later I would request the police files, so my conversation with Joel looked a lot different than the one five years earlier. But at this point, he seemed so helpful. I felt like he wanted me to find out what happened – not just for me, but also for him. J.C. is Joel’s dad, too.

After I had gone through all the files, I knew I had more specific questions lined up. Joel and I talked on the phone in the summer of 2022 for a while – several hours. He gave me as much information as he could for someone who really wasn’t around at the time. But one thing he said stood out to me: “Rico couldn’t have done it. He would have told me by now.” He went on to tell me that he and Rico were really close growing up. But Alyssa remembers it differently.

I never knew him and Rico were close.

There could be more than any of us actually see to the relationship Joel has with Rico. And it’s possible that he’s protecting his cousin and good friend.

There’s one other tie that not only connects Joel to Rico, but both of them to Dan Banks.

When Dan messaged Alyssa he made a few odd comments… the first thing he told her was to “say what up to Joel and Rico the next time you see them” and immediately after that he said… “know that you’ve got family everywhere.”

Part 5: The Beginning of the End

I have laid out everything I could possibly find out about this case given my current resources. The police files are full of contradictory witness statements, several shady characters, and a lot of unanswered questions. 

When I first started asking questions – this case seemed complex but very surface level. My dad was shot under very suspicious circumstances. Sure, he was an informant and that seems like the easiest thing to pin this on. He was black so that could be an easy way to justify the police’s mishandling of the case. He was a snitch so it makes sense why the family wasn’t as eager to do their own digging for fear of ratting out another family member. It’s definitely a maze. 

But when you look at this a little bit closer, this case becomes more layered. There are so many people involved on various levels, dynamics to understand, and factors at play. Between having to dissect serious topics from racial injustice – specifically in a small town to the drug landscape in Appalachia to the moral conflicts that come with investigating my own dad’s murder – this has been a lot to sort through to find the little bits of truth and clarity.

But everything I have learned throughout this investigation, I have shared with you. 

I’ve kept this show as factual as possible. Making it very clear what I have heard from secondhand accounts, what is a common theory, and what is proven through the reports. But as I have been digesting information, I have come to my own conclusions about what really happened on July 11, 2002 to my dad John Cornelius McGhee.

Next Time on Ice Cold Case

You know there’s a lot of different angles to this because there’s a lot of people that did not like J.C.

Rico probably had more to do with this than Omar.

Solving this will not bring J.C. back and it could possible impact other family members.

Credits:

Ice Cold Case is brought to you by Yes!
It is written and produced by Madison McGhee
Also produced by Jeremy Benbow
Recorded by Danny Sellers
Mixed by Cody Campbell
Our music is by Matt Bettinson
With creative direction by Austin Christianson