9. The End… For Now

Previously on Ice Cold Case 

It kind of wakes up some stuff which we might have wanted to forget.

Omar has done nothing but lie.

But somebody organized it.

But a lot of theories isn’t a good thing.

And we were about to go to court the next morning after dad’s death.

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

Someone who didn’t know anything that happened identified that Omar knew something.

‘Cause I saw him several years ago and haven’t seen him since.

He used to tell me it all the time that he was gonna get killed.

I heard that he was a snitch.

This man died for no reason at all.

Part 0: A Lasting Legacy

Each day since my dad was murdered, I’ve felt the distance between us grow. As my memories started to fade and everything became a blur, I didn’t feel a strong connection to my dad like I did when he was alive. But now … as I get closer and closer to the truth of this case – as I learn more about who my dad was – I feel more attached than ever to his memory. And on a deeper level – I feel responsible for his legacy.

I laid out all the facts. I told you everything that lies in the police report, what the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department thinks happened, and what the local rumors have been saying for twenty-one years about who killed J.C. McGhee

I’ve been dissecting everything for years – and as I played investigator, I didn’t want things to get skewed. I had to look at this objectively, but in a lot of ways I was already on the outside. I didn’t grow up with my dad’s side of the family. To me, they were acquaintances at best. And even though I felt a connection to my dad, I still felt like an outsider to the family. That point of view made it easier to push through the conflicting feelings. But the longer I spent diving into this case, the more I realized I wasn’t an outsider at all. I was at the center of this. Because of that, I started to feel the weight of the responsibility I held – this had to be detailed, accurate, and objective.

But this is my unfiltered episode – the one where I tell you how this has all impacted me and what I really think happened to my dad. I’ll be taking into account all the facts but also adding in a sprinkle of intuition. This is not a court of law, and I am not outright saying this IS one hundred percent what happened. But this is the direction I’m heading in as I try to close this case. 

So the people who want me to sit down and shut up because I’m not getting this right – I have one thing to say to you –

If I’m wrong, prove it.

Part 1: Tangled Web

Let’s recap what the police believe happened to my dad — the main storyline in the reports.

This was treated as a home invasion gone wrong. At around six in the morning, possibly four men wearing masks and gloves entered Pearl Foston’s house where Pearl, Omar, and Kim Smith were sleeping. They were carrying shotguns. They threw the three of them on the floor face down and put blankets over them. After pouring rubbing alcohol on them and threatening to light them on fire, they ransacked the house looking for a safe.

A safe that allege dly belonged to Richard Foston, Omar’s brother. Richard lived in Columbus, but Kim remembers them specifically asking where Richard’s safe was. When they didn’t find it, they took Omar outside and went over to my dad’s house. They were loud and arguing outside before one of the men with a size ten shoe kicked in the door. My dad was standing in the doorway reaching for a gun when one of the men shot him at point blank range — a single kill shot. Without stealing anything, they ran. 

Omar ended up down the street at a brake shop where he made his 9-1-1 call. A call that raises a lot of questions.

Alyssa, my sister was inside the house where my dad was shot. She was asleep in her room. She ran out of the living room and found our dad dead on the floor. Alyssa called 9-1-1 from inside the house. 

Kim Smith was still in the house next door and she hit the home alarm system which made its way to the police station. They got three notifications — from the home alarm, Alyssa’s call, and Omar’s call.

Eventually the police used the witness testimony of Omar and Kim to identify Daryl Smith as a suspect. They arrested him and began Grand Jury proceedings. Confident that they had the trigger man, the Belmont County Prosecutor’s Office started forming their case. Unfortunately, any storyline will involve Omar Foston – as he is the key witness in this. He is the only person that would have seen these guys, spent enough time to identify what they looked like, what they were wearing, their voices, and their getaway car. But he continued to change his story. And doing so on the stand, created a problem for the prosecutors.

The Belmont County Prosecutors didn’t feel their case, with Omar as a key witness, was strong enough to take to trial so they dropped the charges on Daryl Smith and let him walk.

The police file had many other names redacted of people they never felt they had enough evidence to take to trial, but it’s clear no one thought Daryl was the only person there that day. 

Now whether or not Omar had direct involvement – his testimony butchered this case and significantly delayed justice. He could possibly prevent this case from ever getting solved if he doesn’t tell the truth. 

There were rumblings that there was a girl in the house that night. My sister heard that it was possibly Tiffany Lufft. When the police searched the house, they found women’s clothing downstairs that made them believe it’s very likely someone else was in the house. If it was Tiffany Lufft, she had a connection to another suspect – Dan Banks.

Dan was listed early on in the police report by Omar. Omar said Dan was watching the house and was there that morning. Dan Banks is a self-proclaimed friend of Rico’s.

Rico is my dad’s nephew that was in jail at the time of the murder. But he was in jail because my dad testified against him in court nearly twelve years earlier. This relationship is complicated. Rico and my dad were close at one point so my dad being part of the prosecution’s case against Rico really upset him. And I think he has hated my dad ever since. There could be a connection between the guys that were there that day and Rico but the police never looked into this possibility.

Another person the police kind of considered early on was Butchie Griffin. He was a recurring character in my dad’s story – breaking up my dad’s marriage to Alyssa’s mom, Barb, and dating Shane’s mom, Daneen, at the time of my dad’s murder. My dad was due in court for the final custody hearing for Shane the day after he was murdered. I never believed that was a coincidence and the police interviewed Daneen and Butchie because of that association. What the police didn’t really seem to point out was that my dad had testified against Butchie in a hearing several years earlier that got Butchie some jail time. The list of reasons Butchie would have wanted my dad dead was very, very long. But for whatever reason, when Butchie said that didn’t do it, the police never questioned it further and Butchie walked without serious consideration as a suspect.

Duncan Wa itts is a name I believe was redacted from the police reports. Multiple people have said he was there, but he has remained radio silent. There were no interviews with him on record and no one that I spoke to besides my sister was willing to discuss him further. Sometimes, silence speaks louder than words.

The police files hold some truth. But how much truth is a question I have been trying to answer from day one. Those slices of accuracy will inform the paths to explore to get to the real story. But it’s been so long – and there have been moments of silence, and moments of subtle rumblings. Overtime names continued to get thrown into the mix. For the last twenty-one years, the rumors have grown exponentially.

But as it stands, the murder of my dad – John Cornelius McGhee – is an ice cold case.

Part 2: The Emotional Side

I grew up a fan of true crime, so I assumed getting into the case files and diving deeper into this story would feel exciting and in the beginning – it kind of was. But when it finally hit me, it hit hard – I wasn’t looking at random case files of someone I didn’t know or had no attachment to. This was my dad’s story, his life, who he really was – and it was all according to people who had no connection to him at all. 

I spend a lot of time introspectively thinking about what my life will mean when I’m gone. To know that for my dad, his legacy is now tied to a murder – a cold case – sends me into a spiral. This is all people will talk about when they talk about J.C. McGhee. Any accolade, or fond memory, or story will always be paired with a note about his murder. That’s how it all ended for him. And that’s what will be said for as long as people talk about him. 

With that in mind, justice was the only way to make that legacy mean something. Naturally, I have leaned on humor and that helped me work through this. I usually talk about my dad, even the dark parts of this story, with a smile and will throw in a joke to keep things light so that I don’t make other people – or myself – feel too uncomfortable. But you can’t shove these emotions down forever and after a while, I started to feel the weight of it all. 

I wasn’t just looking into what happened. I started this podcast which required me to call people out, and do deep investigative work. Along the way I burned some bridges. I told parts of this story that people thought I would never find, and I went to lengths that people thought I would never go. 

It’s been interesting to read the comments online – many people have a lot of varying opinions about how I have handled this. It’s been hard to hear the thoughts of people who don’t know me at all. And to be honest, I’m exhausted. I didn’t want to do this and I shouldn’t have to.

But if I want to know what happened to J.C. McGhee – if I want to know who killed my dad, what other option did I have? My family keeps calling me out saying I got it all wrong, but they never offered up any other information. What was the right way to do this? How do you solve your dad’s murder? I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all answer to it. But this was a very difficult, yet seemingly necessary way to do it.

The emotional side and my close connection to the dark details of this case are hard to ignore. But I finally form a solid opinion that incorporates the facts but also logic and common sense.

I pushed through the guilt and the shame and the sadness and the anger – and I’ve formed my own theory of what happened that day, who was involved, and why they did it.

Part 2.5: Intermission

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.

There’s a paper trail on all that stuff… or there should be.

They was looking for Bae which is Richard. That’s what they called him. They was looking for his safe with money.

Is Butchie Griffin listed in that? I know Tone is but I thought… Isn’t Tone… Is Tone Butchie Griffin? I don’t think we.. I don’t think those reports ever say who Tone is.

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

Part 3: My Theory 

Here’s what I loosely think happened to my dad on July 11, 2002 – the circumstances and people surrounding the murder. This is all based on my research – interviews I conducted, witness testimony that I read, and tips that have come in. I recognize this could not be 100% accurate and want you to know that this is just my very educated guess. I am not the judge, jury, and executioner – I’m not convicting anyone. Just coming to a conclusion based on what I know and hoping it helps lead to the truth. 

I believe that my dad was the target of an orchestrated plan with one purpose – to kill him.

With the amount of power, money, and access Rico had from jail. The only thing that makes sense to me is that Rico offered a significant amount of money to anyone who would kill my dad.

He was the only person locked up for life because of my dad’s testimony. Everyone else only got a few years, and with their criminal history, a lot of them were used to that. Daryl Smith has been in and out of jail, so it wouldn’t make sense that his grudge against my dad was strong enough to kill him over a few years behind bars.

But money is motivating and if you tie in the fact that my dad was an enemy of Daryl Smith’s, it would be even more appealing to take the job.

I believe Richard and Dwight were aware of what was going on and the implications it would have on the family, and it was their job to mitigate the risk of anyone suspecting that family was involved. They were related to Rico, so their connection to him could be more obvious. And because I can’t find any record of Rico being in federal prison for the twenty plus years he was in, I am having a hard time locating any communication records – who visited him, who called him, how often, transcripts of those conversations. This is where I think the police at potentially a federal level, are protecting Rico and those records for reasons I still don’t know.

I’m going to stop saying “the guys” when referring to who broke into Pearl and Omar’s house and start using the names of the people I believe were there. But again, this is my educated guess. 

I believe Daryl and Duncan were there that night and when they broke into Pearl’s house, they referenced Richard’s safe. I believe that Kim and Pearl were not aware of what was going on in order to make this feel real to them and so that their statements would feel authentic. It’s interesting they not only referenced Richard’s safe but called Richard by his nickname – Bae. They knew him. And since the safe was not there, it’s an easy out to go next door. I think that safe was not there on purpose. And Richard knew to move it. 

In the timeline when Omar goes outside with Daryl and Duncan and “Tone” who is more than likely Butchie, based on the Belmont County Prosecutors slip up – I think that they went to my dad’s house and used Omar to lure my dad to the door without a gun. The size of the shoe print that kicked in the door was a size 10, and I’ve been told by family members that Omar wears around a 10 - 10 and a half shoe. This is why I believe my dad didn’t grab a gun on his way to the door – where he would have passed several. And it wasn’t until he approached the doorway that he heard other voices and was reaching for the shotgun by the front door, but by then it was too late.

I don’t believe that Omar killed my dad. I think he either was blindly following along, or thought the intention was not to kill my dad. I think that’s part of the reason why he’s so flustered still to this day and why his story constantly changes. He didn’t realize what he was really going to be a part of. But at the end of the day, he was still there.

I also believe Dan Banks was there. Omar names him when he was first brought into the police station and his connection to Tiffany Lufft is incredibly suspicious. If Tiffany, the mother of Dan Banks’s baby was inside my dad’s house as a distraction – Dan’s involvement seems obvious.

Butchie and Daneen’s motive is clear, but their logistical involvement is harder to comprehend. Even then, it’s possible that Daneen was the woman in the house that morning and Butchie said it himself – he really hated my dad. His involvement or lack thereof is a piece to this puzzle that I am still actively trying to prove.

But as far as the murder goes, there was only one gun shot – so there could only be one person who pulled the trigger. And as it stands right now, my best guess based on the police files, all the witness testimony, and everything I gathered as I did my own investigation is that Daryl Smith or Duncan Waitts pulled the trigger and killed my dad.

Daryl Smith is the obvious choice because he went to Grand Jury and even the officials in Belmont County at the time thought they had their guy. Daryl has been in and out of jail since my dad’s murder. Even right now, as I record this, he’s serving a seven year sentence for drug related crimes. His criminal record and known anger issues make him a prime suspect. But is it ever really the obvious choice?

Duncan Waitts has kept things a little cleaner. He’s friends with my dad’s friends. He still lives in the area and has been seen since the release of this show out and about in the town. It’s chilling to imagine that he’s just living his life so casually if he did in fact kill my dad. But why wouldn’t he? No one was looking for the killer… until now.

You want to know what I think happened to my dad, and I really want to tell you with certainty. But I want to be accurate and I want it to be undeniably true. And I believe I am a lot closer to that than I have ever been before. But I’m not quite there yet. 

So that’s what I think: 

There’s family members that definitely know more than they are saying and I think for that, they should be held accountable. But when it comes to the murder, I don’t think most, if any, of them were part of a plan to kill my dad. But once they realized that they held valuable information, they started to squirm. And that is where our morals divide us. They don’t see it as necessary to come forward. Maybe they are afraid or maybe they are considering the consequences. 

I think there are people associated with this case that have gotten off really easy.  And I believe that Daryl Smith, Duncan Waitts, Butchie Griffin, and Dan Banks all should be re-examined and questioned for their possible association with my dad’s murder. I think they should have to prove their alibis and give a strong argument for why it couldn’t have been them.

Part 4: Checks and Balances

Now that I'm getting closer and feel like I’m on the right track, there’s still a lot that needs to be done to bring justice to my dad in a court of law. Mainly – I need evidence. I’m not sure there will ever be enough physical evidence to test DNA that could prove someone was there. But I’m hopeful that the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department searches through everything they have to see what is available to them. The other option is identifying a witness testimony that is accurate and engaging enough that also aligns with what the police already know and can be used to convict someone.

I recognize that this case may not ever be solved in court for things that are completely out of my control. But something that is in my control? Telling my side of the story and putting pressure on the officials in Belmont County, Ohio to go as far as they can with what they have. As of right now, I am not confident they can say that.

But now I need your help to put pressure on the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department and the Belmont County Prosecutor’s office to take a closer look, revisit some of their findings, and see if there is something new in this podcast that they could explore. Without this pressure, there is no system of checks and balances to hold these offices accountable.

Part 5: Help Me Solve My Dad’s Murder

I started this podcast because over the last ten years, I’ve witnessed the power of social media and digital content in the true crime space. Cold cases are getting solved, missing people are being found, and information is spreading quickly all because of public interest. I’ve listened to so many true crime podcasts, watched nearly every documentary – and after years of wondering how I could get anyone to care about my dad, this is where I landed. 

This is not just a show to me. This is my life. The raw emotion you feel listening, I am feeling ten fold. But I knew that even if I didn’t want to do this, I had to do this. There was no other option – if I could make a show that was compelling and well-produced, you might pay attention. And if you’ve made it this far, I think it worked. 

I tried to put this case into the world several times. I would post on the anniversary of my dad’s murder, his birthday, holidays trying to get anyone to care. But here we are, now people are listening and now they are talking.

I am hopeful that with the power of social media, the true crime fans out in the world, and the resources I’ve laid out for you – now the real work can begin. If you have shared any true crime story online, you have been part of a unique form of investigative work. Cold cases are getting solved on TikTok! And to you, those are strangers. You don’t know the in-depth details of the case, you don’t know them at all, and more often than not – the cases that go viral are not from underrepresented communities. 

No one should have to suffer the murder of a relative or friend while also having to deal with the conflict that their case is not solved. It adds an emotionally taxing layer that makes it incredibly difficult to grieve. It’s unsettling and there is no hope for resolution when it feels like no one cares.

I took on the heavy responsibility of showing you every personal detail of my own life and my dad’s to make a very clear point – there is no such thing as a perfect victim. There should be no justification for why we care more about certain victims than others. You saw my dad in his many roles – a loving father, a drug dealer, a friend, a brother, a confidential informant, a shady businessman,  a son – a human. There’s real people involved in these stories that we fixate on. And there’s angles that you don’t see in a documentary or a tiktok or a podcast. I did whatever it took to get you to care – that my dad was murdered and it’s completely unsolved. No answers. No closure. No justice. I broke down those walls to show you everything.

Because to me – it doesn’t get more personal than this. 

And now I need you – Help me solve my dad’s murder.

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