Christy Mirack /// Part 1 /// 224 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that believes that unicorns fart glitter he is the
captain it's not a belief it's just science my friend it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
listening thanks for telling a friend this week we are drinking gold star pilsner by the fine fine people of
Lancaster Brewing Company in beautiful and might I add well-kept Lancaster Pennsylvania garage grade three and a
half bottle caps out of five this is a classic Bohemian style pilsner that brings Noble hop flavor and traditional
maltiness into perfect union it's July it's hot outside why not drink a beer that is crisp and refreshing and gold
star pilsner was brought to us by these Cool Cats first up we have Michelle and pickles in Kent Ohio and also a shout
out to Rebecca in Columbus Ohio next up we have Melissa in Grangeville Idaho I'm
big we like your jib to truck in Johnny in Superior Wisconsin let's give a cheers to Richard and Baton Rouge
Louisiana and the big cheers mates to Canadian nurse Barbara and it cheers to all the nurses and last but not least a
shout out to Mike in New Jersey and thanks to everybody for helping us out with this week's beer fun if you want to
help us out with next week go to True Crime garage.com and click on the Donate button and you want to check out True
Crime garage.com right now go to the store Page we got a couple more fancy items for you we have a beer koozie
finally and we have a little tumbler a little beer tumbler or I guess you could whiskey out of it and we also have
coffee mugs finally finally after 20 years of being on the air all right that's enough of the business everybody
gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign
[Music] case 25 years in the making and the family of former Rohrerstown Elementary
School teacher Christie mirak is staying positive on the case news 11's Holly hair met with Christy's brother and has
more from the emotional day holly Shannon emotional is just skimming the surface you can imagine today is a
difficult one to face for the mirac family but Christy's brother Vince met with me outside of the apartment where
she was killed and is speaking out in hopes that this might bring the case to a close it's been a long time it's
foreign it all looks the same the trees have gotten bigger but the building still
looks the same and it's it's hard it's really hard whole thing right here just is just it's just it's Eerie it's been
years since he stood within sight of his sister's apartment but the pain of what
happened there on this day 25 years ago Remains the Same there's good days and there's bad days and today's not a good
day despite his sorrow it's Vince's mission to keep Christy's story at the Forefront that's my whole point here I'm
here to give you know keep her face out there keep her name out there keep it alive that hopefully in somewhere
somebody comes out and gives us that bit of information that we need to get the soul and he doesn't have to do it alone
you know it's hard to believe it's been almost 25 years in November the Lancaster County DA's office sent DNA
from the case to parabon Labs a company specializing in DNA phenotyping the investigators got tips that they're
following up on so hopefully we get some information on this and you know move forward the results brought the mirac
family New Hope for finding Christie's killer hopefully you know somebody had jog somebody's memory somebody looks
like somebody I mean it's around the holidays where people are coming back to this area maybe somebody recognizes the
person patience persistence and a Brother's unconditional love I've never really given up hope good three things
keeping the name Christy murak in the spotlight although still positive Vince is hoping for a righteous end to this
quarter Century long Saga that's closure in my eyes you know she's never going to come back
we understand that but as long as we can get someone that paid you know serve Justice for this that would be good
enough for us at this point [Music] today's case takes place in beautiful Lancaster County Pennsylvania
Lancaster County has six suburbs located within its borders East Lampeter Township is one of those suburbs the
township covers 21 square miles and has a population of approximately 16 000 people East Lampeter is in what they
call Amish Country the picturesque landscape has Rolling Hills and lush green grasses and crops there are farms
with windmills and horse and Buggies sharing the roads with Cadillacs and Camrys East Lampeter Township rate of
violent crimes was and it is extremely low here you have a better chance of colliding with a horse and buggy than
getting robbed this is a perfect combination of a little bit of City living with the landscape in the feel of
country living this most certainly is an ideal place to live work and raise a family
Christy Merrick decided this would be the perfect location for a young woman to start her professional life Christy
was lucky enough to find a nice three-bedroom townhouse and what she saw is a perfect location this is the Green
Field Estates luck struck a second time when she found the perfect roommate to share her
townhouse with as well as the bills Christy Merrick and her female roommate lived in a quiet development of town
homes located near a business park with a barn and a grain silo just steps away this place could only be described as
peaceful and quiet if she steered clear of the horse and the buggies she would be safe at least that is what she
thought 25 year old Christy Merrick had wanted to be a school teacher for as long as
anyone could remember hex she had practically been rehearsing her whole life for her dream job when she was
little she would play pretend school and Christy's brother and sister were her first group of students and Christy
would always end up playing the role of the teacher at school Christy was the perfect student she worked hard and
received great grades her hard work paid off when she was accepted into Millersville University now she didn't
want to burden her parents with the cost of college so she worked as a part-time
waitress at a local Country Club she also did some work as an assistant to a pharmacist at the neffsville pharmacy
this of course to help pay her way Christie was a very positive person with a beautiful personality now she worked
these part-time jobs with the same great attitude that she applied in life friends and co-workers would say that
Christy was always happy and could easily make her surroundings better than before she had arrived kind of opposite
of Captain grumpy pants well I think you're battling through something over there
today yeah it's it's either a cocaine addiction or allergies the cat the captain is uh what they would refer to
in sports is he he's playing but he's about 75 yeah maybe 65. after graduating from Millersville University Christie
set out to make a difference her Dream came true when she was hired as a sixth grade teacher at Rohrerstown Elementary
School located in Lancaster County Pennsylvania she loved her students and the feeling was Mutual her enthusiasm
was contagious and she quickly became a favorite not only with her students but with the parents and other teachers as
well now she was living her dream the pay allowed her to do what 25 year old women want to do she like to have
fun and this included hitting some of the local night spots with her girlfriends never to excess though she
was not that kind of person she was very concerned about safety as well a young lady walking around drunk could be
dangerous so Christy knew better her father had advised her on ways that she could keep herself safe and she followed
his advice she would have her keys out and ready right when she was ready to leave you know she would park in
different parking spaces at the townhouses where she lived she would drive different routes home from time to
time and she would never answer the door without asking several people or sorry several times who was knocking who's
there right um little safety tip here Captain go with a peephole instead of just shouting
through the door yeah so these were all practice precautions to keep her safe in
her controlled environment on Sunday December 20th 1992 Christy spent the evening preparing gifts for her students
I think this kind of shows what kind of purse percent what kind of teacher she was she was giving each child a copy of
the book miracles on Maple Hill this is by by Virginia Swanson inside the front cover Christy wrote the
same message inside each book and it stated something to the effect of wishing you a very merry Christmas and a
great 1993 love Miss Merrick you know like in one of the students she wrote like I hope you're not in my class
next year or something like you know just one of them don't talk to me in 93. yeah 93 we're not on speaking terms
anymore well she tied a little candy cane to each book to add a little Christmas decoration flavor this this
being described as very much in typical Christie fashion after a good night's sleep Christy was ready for the new week
she woke up started her date her day and got ready to go off to work now I want to kind of bring something up here
studying this case and looking into this case brought back some memories for me for grade school middle school and that
week you know this is the week before you leave to go on on Christmas vacation one of the best weeks of school it's
like it's the best school week you don't really there's am I crazy or is there like the the work
is a little less it works a lot less it seems a very relaxed and this is very similar to the week before spring break
as well same and the end of the year so it's like those are the three best I think times to be in elementary school
or middle school well and even if you have a teacher that you disagree with um the teacher's always in a very good
mood that week because they know they're going to be off and not have to see you
the following week right and then and then you're in a good mood too as well because you're like hey I'm going on
break and when you're when you're a child Christmas is like waking up in Disney World so Christy woke up probably
very excited for the week ahead and she got ready to go off to work now Christy's roommate had left for work
first on this day and was already gone by the time Christy had put on her brown leather jacket and winter gloves do we
know what her roommate did for a living I do not know what she did for a living um but the roommate is gone and at this
point Christy is preparing the gifts remember she has all these gifts to bring to school that day for her
students and she's preparing the gifts to be loaded into her car placing them near the front door she grabbed her keys
and she started out the door and into the cold Lancaster County air but just as soon as she felt the rush of cold air
someone had grabbed the door and pushed Christy back inside the man entered her home closed the door
behind him and tackled her to the ground after Christy's roommate had left for work Christy's attacker was just outside
waiting for the sound of the door to open so he could push her in by 9 am Christy's sixth grade classroom was full
with the exception of Christy the teacher this was extremely unlike the young hard-working professional rarely
was she late to work and rarely did she ever miss work even more strange Christie had not called into the
school's office to say that she would be late or absent that day so her boss the
principal of the school this is Harry Goodman calls Christy's home and looking for her now the phone rings but rather
than Christy or her roommate picking up the phone just rings and rings at first principal Goodman just assumed maybe
Christy was not picking up the phone because she had already left and on her way to work and was still on her way to
the school but we have to keep in mind here I have a feeling that even though her class is waiting for her at 9 00 a.m
that they've been waiting for some time and maybe Christy had obligations before
this 9 A.M time when he starts calling for her right so he gives it another few minutes and he tries calling Christy
again but receives the same result nobody picks up the phone Goodman opened up Christie's file and
retrieved a phone number for Christy's mother Goodman called Christy's mother and informed her that she had not
arrived at school that morning and was asking if Christy had visited Shamokin I believe that's how you pronounce that
that's where the mother lived that weekend that is where Christy's parents lived
right right so Mrs Merrick informed the principal that Christy had not visited her in Shamokin that weekend and that
the mother started to become very worried at this point yeah but good for the principal for calling you know the
emergency contact number yeah so Mrs Jerry Merrick is her mother she started calling Christie's uh East Lampeter
Township townhouse and just like when the principal had called her daughter never answered right so shortly after 9
A.M principal Goodman drives to Christie's townhouse he arrives at approximately 9 15 A.M he
parked his car and he made his way up the sidewalk to her townhouse when he gets to the front porch he notices that
the front door is slightly ajar he lightly pushes with his hand and the door swings all the way open this is not
a good sign no and inside Goodman finds Christy's motionless body lying on the living room floor and the students gifts
are they're scattered throughout the room Christy still had her jacket and her gloves on but her underwear pants and
shoes had been removed and the clothing on her torso was pushed up the police were called and arrived very quickly now
principal Goodman had to call 9-1-1 from a neighbor's house and when he ran out of Christy's townhouse he closed the
door behind him and when the police arrived on the scene they found the front door locked so they were forced to
break in to to get to Christy okay so Christy unfortunately was reported dead on police arrival well it might have
been one of those things where you locked the door from the inside and then she went to leave and that that's when
she was attacked bring her back into the to the apartment and then when the perpetrator left they didn't shut the
door and the door is still locked yeah so that's probably what happened well detectives begin to scour the scene for
Clues immediately they noticed that there was uh no signs of forced entry into the home here we have some options
as to what may have happened here and earlier I said that the the attacker waited outside waiting to hear the door
open to push her in well that's one option that's kind of a bit of a creative Avenue you have to go down to
to tell a bit of a story right but here we're at the point where we have to wonder how this individual may have got
to Christy that morning um possibly she knew the the perpetration exactly did she let her
attack her in was it someone she knew or was this someone she thought she knew maybe mistaken identity right
um did someone knock and she just opened up the door which seems maybe unlikely when we have the brother and her father
later saying that she would often call through the door who's there you know who who is it multiple times to kind of
confirm who it may be on the other side of the door well it's such a weird time for attack too I mean
you know before 9 A.M in the morning I mean early on a Monday morning yeah very very odd started the work week for most
people and as we said earlier was this a situation where someone had seen Christy's roommate
leaving for work and then the attacker decides to make a move because of either a believing that Christy is now alone
inside the home and B knowing she will go out the front door and walk out to her vehicle how much did
this attacker know about this situation right but with without the force entry it seems like the perpetrator knew
Christie either knew her routine or knew her personally yes right so from what detectives could see it looked as if she
was assaulted almost instantly at the doorway they found a shoe they found shoe scuff
marks on the inside portion of the front door they found scuffs and scrapes on the entryway floor suggesting that
Christy was dragged from the front entrance way to back inside of the the home into that front room so she was hit
with something well let's go through this it appears that she would have been dragged I don't
know if she would have been tackled or hit before the dragging took place there was a slash
um in the sofa slipcover and it was also noted that no furniture was overturned so this was a scuffle but it seemed
pretty contained to this to the front door area so other than the books that were to be
to be gifts right having been strewn about there was not a lot of disturbance to the room or to the items inside the
the home where she lived right which makes it lean more towards uh somebody that's physically bigger than her
somebody that could control her pretty easily and less likely somebody her equal size because you think there would
have been more of a struggle right well in a wooden cut a wooden cutting board was found near Christie's head
it was covered in blood and Christy's face was distorted she had been hit with this several times Merrick had suffered
a brutal beating as well and it appeared to detectives that she had fought hard and desperately for her life a cutting
board may sound like an unlikely weapon but it it seems on the surface to be a very unlikely weapon however as weird as
it sounds Captain I've read several cases where a cutting board is used in an attack
right and I think why because of several reasons okay it's this is a heavy object
and usually not always but usually these cutting boards are kept on countertops so I'm assuming this was Christie's
cutting board I believe it to be yes I don't think that that an attacker is is bringing a cutting board as choice of
weapon to the scene that'd be a little strange I feel like you could pick a dozen
better weapons yeah if you ever see somebody walking around with a cutting board call the cops well so here's my
thoughts on this unless they're coming out of Pottery Barn the other cases where I've seen a cutting board used in
the perpetration of a Murder is you know it's readily available to the attacker if it's kept on the
countertop you know if the attacker came into the the scene unprepared or surprised when they could not overtake
the person they they were attacking this is something that they might see on the countertop go for knowing that they
could strike the individual and render them unconscious or knocking them to the ground and maybe kind of gain control of
the situation I think this is actually the latter here though I think it's almost like there was an attack that
happened and the the blunt force trauma would have happened afterwards well this
is my gut feeling and I also this kind of The Cutting Board being used as a weapon almost is is the same reason why
you see a kitchen knife often being used as a weapon because sometimes it's something that's in a knife block
sitting on the countertop and it's just something you see in the in the area that you go and grab and reach for right
during the course of an attack or a scuffle now also sometimes the person that is being attacked you know when
right we'll grab something yeah when they discover someone in their home they grab whatever for defense and maybe she
grabbed the cutting board and the attacker ends up taking it from them and using it against them right regardless
Christy suffered blunt trauma to her neck back upper chest and her jaw was fractured her elbows and knees were very
badly bruised the cause of death was strangulation after investigating the scene for almost three hours the phone
at Christie's home began to ring an officer picked up the phone it was Christy's mother Jerry Merrick She was
That's horrible for the mom you know yeah she well keep in mind she's still worried because she's not heard from her
daughter and she's not heard from Principal Goodman that's the worst case scenario I mean you're trying to call
your daughter at her apartment she's young she's a young professional she seems very dedicated to her job and to
the children she's trying to teach trying to make the world a better place and you're calling just to see if she's
okay and then a police officer answers the phone she's simply calling to to find her daughter to right to see if
Christy is okay to get in touch with her now the officer that picked up the phone told
her that they needed her Mrs Merrick the mother to come to Lancaster Mrs Merrick asked why what is wrong
right you know was Christy okay was she hurt was she involved in you know what was going on and the officer would say
no more other than there was an accident and Christy was dead foreign [Music] [Music]
welcome back cheers mates welcome back to the colonel and Dick knows show all right Captain let's go through the
investigation you sound awful I sound more awful than I normally do you usually sound pretty good not today my
friend not today I said 75 I think you're right 65 I sound like I have a bowl of soup in my nose I have another
cup of coffee and maybe we'll get you get you up up in the percentile a little bit Yeah so let's go through the
investigation because I think most will agree and that it looks like the police did a good job with this one and our
murderer well he left evidence he was not super stealthy when committing these crimes so shall we start with
eyewitnesses first or move to the physical evidence well am I right in saying that it seems like the motive was
the rape yes it seems I don't know that I would say 100 that the motive was the rape but
um it's looking that way it certainly looks like this is a personal crime but we're gonna have we're gonna have
evidence we're gonna have at least evidence of semen yeah the victim okay all right so let's go through eyewitness
uh evidence first and then we'll get into the physical stuff so neighbors say that they saw a car pull into a lot
directly across from Christy's home this was shortly after Christy's roommate left for work at approximately 7 00 a.m
witnesses witnesses describe the vehicle as a 1984 to 1991 Dodge Daytona or Turismo hatchback
it was either faded silver doll gray or faded white in color the vehicle's distinguishing features
included roll-up headlamps and black sun shades on the back window now A man jumped out from the car and
according to these Witnesses was seen jumping out of the car and heading toward Christie's door police would
later describe this man as Caucasian in his 20s tall with an athletic build and sandy blonde or light brown hair
possibly in a crew cut this of course according to the eyewitness statements that they gathered when talking to
neighbors and canvassing the area Okay police theorized at the time that Christy either knew the man or opened
the door expecting to see someone else when he then forced his way inside as we discussed earlier the possibilities of
how did this individual mean to manage to get inside the home or get a hold of Christy at least
a neighbor heard a single scream at approximately 7 15 a.m now no one claims to have seen this man leave
and I'm guessing you know leaving either Christie's home the the front door front
porch area or even leaving the lot across the way and also these Town Homes they're in a row so there's multiple
units so you could see a man walking towards a unit but you don't know exactly which unit that he went into but
now that you have uh unknown a male heading towards those row of Townhouses then we could assume that this guy is
probably the one that was the perpetrator in this crime yes and although police initially proceeded
under the assumption that Christie may have known her killer they also didn't want to rule out the possibility of a
random killing now the medical examiner's findings were that Christie had been beaten sexually assaulted and
strangled sometime between 6 and 8 A.M that morning now remember the roommate said that she had left the townhouse for
work right around 7 A.M okay so unless you suspect the roommate was involved in any way
um we gotta set now it makes the windows seven to eight yes we've we've narrowed
this attack in the murder to a very small window of about 60 minutes all right let's go over the physical
evidence well you were exactly right my friend as you had stated earlier the police did recover and catalog DNA from
the murder scene this was DNA from sperm found on several areas of her body and clothing and also on a piece of the
carpet immediately underneath of her now for the investigation as for tracking this guy down for that portion
of the investigation the Merrick family offered up a ten thousand dollar reward for information in the case yeah from
what I could find in the reports it looks like initially three men were considered to be suspects by the police
so right away we have some Persons of Interest which we don't see that in every case that we cover so this is this
is good news if you're you know but again the law enforcement was leaning towards the fact that she knew yes you
know her attacker so therefore that kind of makes the you know we we narrowed down the time frame but we're now we're
narrowing down this pool of individuals yes so three men were considered to be suspects by the police initially we
believe and this may have actually included principal Goodman really and the thought here is okay so and I want
to be clear about this the we know from the reports that they had suspected three individuals three
you know possibility that one of these three individuals had killed Christie Mayer we have three Deuce canoes in the
canoe I can't say with certainty that law enforcement considered principal Goodman to be one of these but what I
can say is in the public eye and in the media it certainly looked like some people suspected he might be one of
these possible suspects yeah in all fairness you know he yeah he called people uh that's possibly to establish a
alibi but he he also found her so therefore that that's going to just you know create some red flags and some
questioning whether you know whether or not he was involved at all the person who finds the murdered victim should
always be looked at as as a suspect in my opinion and furthermore through that effect I think the public and the media
were questioning why uh he was so quick to go over to her home right um and then the other thing was the
police show up and all of a sudden the door is locked right and you kind of went over the logistics of that that
possibly it may have been set to be locked before the principal even went into the apartment right and then the
act of closing the door behind him when he runs over to get a phone to call 9-1-1 I actually find that to be an
honorable act on two levels one if I'm a detective I'm like cool this dude helped
preserve the crime scene in a small manner by closing the door and and furthermore
it it's you know the way that her body was left it's not something that you know
it's she was left in a way that was that was degrading to her and for her for him
to close the door to have the the forethought to close the door as a sign of respect to his colleague I think was
a simple nice gesture well and one of them oh what a mensch of a guy because he's at work he's a principal and she's
young she yeah she has a roommate but she lives with another female and he probably felt protected of protective of
her on some level and so yeah you call at nine o'clock and then by 9 15 no he could have just had a gut feeling that
something's not right and I I just think what what a good what a guy for going over and and you know caring about his
employees well and not only that you know time of death was believed to be between six and eight a.m and as we've
discussed several times on this show specifically when we discussed the Aurora Hammer Slayer case you know it's
not just so easy that like you see on TV where they walk up they they stick something in the body they take its
temperature and they go well the time of death was 7 13. right you know it's they
are going off of body temperature they're using other determining factors to come up with that time frame however
a lot of times and and what we see here is what we can infer when we look at these cases is sometimes these
individuals are supposed to meaning the victim were supposed to have been somewhere or been with someone right at
a certain time and when they do not arrive at that location or they do not meet that person well we can assume that
they were either in danger or already dead by that time so here's my guess when they say 6 a.m to 8 A.M is there a
chance that she was supposed to be at school around 8 A.M and because she was not
seen at that time then okay she may have already been in trouble or she was already murdered by that point yeah
because some some teachers have like early morning duties they can sign up for that I think they get paid a little
extra not really for sure but where you will get there why the buses get there so you have to be there probably a half
half an hour to an hour before most of the other teachers so where we see principal Goodman here and people
questioning why he was so quick to go over to Christy's home well my thoughts are two things one Christy lived only
about 10 minutes from the school so we're not talking about like this guy went way out of his way first of all
second of all we're talking about a situation where it's very likely she was supposed to have been there at 8 A.M
right this guy waited an hour it's not like he's sitting there at the front door like what is that uh Back to the
Future where the principal's like right by the front door waiting for Marty McFly to be two seconds late I think
that's Ferris Wheeler's day my bad but you see what I'm saying it's not like this guy is sitting there right by the
front door looking at his watch and and she's two minutes late he hops in his car and drives over to her house right
he doesn't look suspicious to me at all but like like you said the person that finds the body you have to look at you
got to look at him you gotta look at him there were several teachers that had had
a long working relationship with principal Goodman and they just said that's who he was you know he was he was
not just our boss he was like a part of the team he was a friend he was a colleague he was somebody that would go
to bat for the people that worked at his school he considered it a community uh of people working together to educate
these children yeah cheers to all the teachers and my my sisters teacher a lot of family members or teachers I mean
that's a job cheers to the Educators there's other people yeah yeah but you know
I'm sick leave me alone I'm not I'm not actually sick I actually feel fine I just sound like
it well I'll tell you what okay so now we know we do know that there are reports of three possible suspects early
on in this investigation now you and I both agree principal Goodman whether he was considered to be one of those three
or not he doesn't look suspicious to you and I agreed well right and think about
his last name he's good man good man how could he have done it possible bad man the individual
there is an individual that does look very suspicious so this included the of the three suspects we do know that this
included a man that investigators believed was having uh behaving very strangely almost immediately after the
murder okay so the day after Christy was killed a 45 year old man named Ken lock
off showed up at Christie's school now I'm unclear as to his reasoning for being at
the school meaning meaning this what I'm not sure of was did he show up there looking for Christy or asking what had
happened to her right so regardless we do know that he shows up at her work and he's asking about her I don't know if
he's asking for her or if he shows up saying does anybody know what happened to Christy
did they date or something well get this so so here's what's going on this out mother he was he was briefed on
what had happened to her the day before right and shortly after being briefed he
left the school but later he called the school twice that same day later this man was observed at Christie's funeral
when investigators started looking through Christie's private life and digging through her past they discovered
that this man was having an extramarital affair with Christy so this can lock off
was a significantly older married man that Christy Merrick has she was discreetly dating this guy Part-Time
Lover well police round this guy up they go and they get Ken and they bring him in and they talk to him now police would
later say that Ken fully cooperated with the police and their investigation into
Christie's murder this meaning he answered all of their questions he passed two polygraph tests and he
submitted his DNA which later cleared Ken from their suspect list well but that's how you do it right I mean he he
showed up because he cared about her he showed up trying to get answers then when the police come knocking on his
door he's like hey full cooperation I'll answer all your questions oh lie detector I'll take two
I'll take two give me two of those that's funny I tell you what though here's the thing my just just my humble
opinion I would avoid the lie detector at all cost yeah okay even if I'm innocent I agree except for in this case
you know why because we have DNA that's true so I'd go okay I'm submitting you my DNA let's take the lie detector I get
that makes sense now and also you know how this works when they give you the lie detector
they'll say okay we we ask we ask the colonel 12 questions three of them he was well in a little if
he on right so but I think if there's DNA and you know that you didn't do this submit the DNA
you know well yeah that's the other thing too I don't I don't want to play your your games and do the monkey test
let's here's my DNA and let's get this over with and if there were no DNA uh this is just my opinion I would never
take a polygraph test because it especially if I'm innocent and the reason being is as the suspect you have
nothing to gain because even if you let's say you pass it it's not admissible in the court of law right so
like oh I got an A plus plus on my polygraph test but we can't tell anybody in court that
yeah right I mean if you look at the West Memphis Three case I mean Jesse Miss Kelly
passes a lie detector and then then confesses to the murder well and what I mean and if the cops
even believed in this idea of a polygraph then you'd go oh well here's this guy that clearly told us the truth
now he's telling us to lie he needs to stop telling us to lie so I agree with you there's nothing good that can come
from right you can only lose out of it right and the other thing too especially in a situation like this where like you
said he shows up on the scene caring about her asking questions about her I understand he's having an extramarital
affair that doesn't mean he's not in love with her and furthermore he cooperates in the investigation that
also shows one he's innocent two that he cared about her and what I'm what I'm getting at here is referencing something
that John Douglas educated me on through through his books was stating that sometimes especially with a husband or a
wife when you question them about a child or a loved one you know their their their spouse or another loved
one's death you have there's a certain bit of survivor's guilt there's also especially
with a husband there's this there's kind of this ingrained thing in our DNA where we're supposed to
protect our families right and when a family member dies and probably ingrained in well ingraining everybody
well you know for the children I'm going off of referencing Douglas's words though right where he states that you
know with with a husband in particular that you could get false positives meaning false positives of signs of
deception during the test because even though the the husband had nothing to do with the death of his wife or the murder
of his wife he still feels guilty for not having protected her from what happened right so this is one of those
situations where I feel like it's just a it's a lose but congratulations to Ken for being forthcoming and helping out in
the investigation and like we've said many times Captain with a lot of these cases
when we look at things it's hard to sit down and just just solve something especially you know for the police maybe
for you they can't just sit down and solve something but if they can cross something off their list if they can if
they can strike something from the list from the list of possibilities they can start to
hone in on different things and angle the investigation and maybe it leads you to the answer
[Music] for everything true crime garage check out True Crime garage.com also make sure
you follow us on Instagram Twitter Facebook at True Crime garage and we want to see you right back here in the
garage for the conclusion of the Christy Merrick case until then be good be kind
and don't litter [Music] thank you [Music]

Christy Mirack /// Part 1 /// 224

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

December, 1992 - Inside Christy Mirack's sixth grade classroom, her students waited for her arrival. She was the type of teacher that went above and beyond. Unfortunately, she never made it out the front door of her home. Someone brutally attacked this young woman and left her lifeless body inside her townhouse. The investigation started. The usual suspects were interviewed, and all leads were followed. Then the case went cold as the winter dragged on. This week we discuss the murder of a young and promising woman and the hunt for her killer. Beer of the Week - Gold Star Pilsner by Lancaster Brewing Co.Garage Grade - 3 and a half bottle caps out of 5

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the 25-year-old murder case of teacher Christie Merrick and ongoing efforts to find her killer.

Key points

The Pain of Loss. Vince Mirak shares the emotional weight of losing his sister 25 years ago.
A Teacher's Legacy. Christy Merrick was a beloved teacher who prepared gifts for her students before her tragic fate.
Seeking Justice After Decades. Vince Mirak hopes for closure and justice for his sister after 25 years.
The Tragic Discovery. Christy's mother receives the devastating news of her daughter's death from the police.
A Principal's Concern. Principal Goodman rushes to check on Christy after feeling something was wrong.
The Affair Uncovered. Investigators discover Christy's secret relationship with a married man, Ken Lockoff.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's been a long time.

Vince reflects on the time since his sister's murder.

3:24WatchNov 25, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.