The Murder of Aliza Sherman /// Part 1 /// 167 | Forensic Files

[Music] [Applause] thank you 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 refuses to leave Santa milk and cookies instead
it's a cigar and bourbon he is the captain ho ho ho and a bottle of rum it's good to be seen and it's good to
see you thanks for listening thanks for telling my friend [Music] tonight tonight we are drinking
Christmas Ale by the Jolly Folks up at Great Lakes Brewing Company garage grade four candy canes out of five Christmas
Ale has an ABV of 7.5 and a yuletide's worth of holiday spices including cinnamon and ginger and it's got quite a
bit of fresh honey as well to keep you awassling all night long and Christmas Ale was brought to us by these happy
little elves first up we have Courtney and New York who says she loves the captain's music it sets the mood and
makes the show very polished and another wassler we have Barbara an Oak Ridge North Carolina next up we have Evelyn in
Ypsilanti Michigan also in that state up north we have Becky in Charlotte Michigan happy holidays to all the
bastards up north and all the way over in Sweden we give a long distance cheers to Oliver oh Oliver did you eat all your
porridge next up we have Nick in Norwell Massachusetts and last but not least we
have Deborah who says she listens while being stuck in cubicle jail down in San Antonio Texas if you can't do the time
then don't do the crime so a big cheers and happy holidays to everyone and remember to check out True Crime
garage.com we have our blog we have our store Page and we have our beer fun there as well make sure you tell a
friend make sure you subscribe make sure you leave a five star review on iTunes all right everybody gather around grab a
chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] thank you foreign [Music] following all new developments in the
murder of a Beechwood woman we just spoke with Cleveland Police who tell us they are still looking for a suspect
Elisa Sherman was stabbed to death behind the Galleria in downtown Cleveland on Sunday the coroner's office
said today she was stabbed 11 times we know that surveillance cameras in the area captured the attack that video is
now in the hands of Cleveland Police Sherman was the mother of four and a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic she was
stabbed to death after leaving her divorce attorney's office foreign [Music] 24 2013 Cleveland Ohio Jennifer Sherman was
at the end of a long Sunday study session when she received a text message from her 17 year old brother Jeremy the text
read are you with Mom or do you know where she is Jeremy is asking his older sister
Jennifer about their mother Eliza Eliza had gone out hours ago she stated before
leaving that she had errands to run and when she came home she promised to bring
back pizza and now Jeremy was hungry and he is still waiting for his mother to return for most of the day Jennifer had
silenced her phone while cramming for an exam she's a college student Jennifer's mother Elisa had in fact sent
a text message to her earlier that day this would be around 2 55 P.M to say that she was meeting with her attorney
Gregory Moore at his downtown Cleveland office and her son Jeremy he's 17 at the
time and why would Elisa be going to see an attorney well this is because she's going to meet with him to discuss the
final preparations for her divorce proceedings the proceedings were going to take place that same week in just a
couple of days in fact so the date in question the date that we're discussing here is March 24th it's a Sunday it's my
understanding that these proceedings were supposed to start on Tuesday on that Tuesday so just two
days later now at this point it's 7 45 p.m that's when Jennifer received the text from her little brother
so this is late this according to Jennifer this is late for there to be a concern from her brother about her
mother's whereabouts Jennifer as we said is older than Jeremy so she does not live at home with Jeremy and their
mother Elisa and she gets this text and so now she's worried about her mother Jennifer's extremely close with her
mother they spoke or they hung out nearly every day so at a little after 7 45 PM Jennifer
called Eliza's cell phone trying to get a hold of her no matter when Jennifer had called her in the past Eliza would
always pick up the phone but this time was different the mother her mother did not answer her
phone Jennifer tried a second time again nothing so she called Jeremy she called to try
to figure out where Elisa could be maybe you know where did Mother where could she have gone right well their their
mother also was a nurse so maybe they're thinking that it's possible she got called into work
possibility uh the the information that she gets from Jeremy is that before she had left Eliza told Jeremy that she was
heading to their grandmother's house the grandmother lived in Cleveland Heights uh and Elisa was going there to get some
medicine and then she was going to run errands and then we remember we said return home with the pizza for her and
Jeremy for dinner now the grandmother her name is Doris sorry Doris their grandmother had a home in Cleveland
Heights but she also lived in Florida on this day on March 24 2013 Doris is at her Florida home so
after getting this information from her younger brother Jeremy Jennifer called her mother one more time
and right well let's let's think about that for a second she could be still checking on the house or something right
she she might not be visiting her mom but she might be checking on her mother's house
yeah well okay so there's there's a lot of thought that that you should probably
put into this and and I know these are probably things that we're going through Jennifer's mind at the time right you
know so we have you know there there's this moment when someone you love and someone you care about they're they're
essentially missing even though it's just for an hour or two or a couple of hours and it's starting to get later and
you're starting to get concerned it does get very concerning when you're trying to call them and they're not responding
to your calls people that that live with this person they're wondering where she could be for
a few hours now and so for some of us your mind starts to race for others you know you start to play a little head
detective what are the possibilities where could this person be where do I go first to look for her
and that's what you have to look into here we have Doris the grandmother like you said even though she's out of town
she could still need to stop by the house she could still need to check on the place pick up the mail who knows
but the but what Jennifer is thinking about here when she goes through these possibilities is she's remembering the
text that she got from her mother at 2 55 that afternoon stating that her mother was going to see her attorney
Gregory Moore at his downtown Cleveland office from my understanding that's about as
much information as what Eliza provided her daughter in that text Jennifer's thoughts are this
she may have used Doris's home may have used the grandmother's home as an excuse
to leave stating hey I gotta drop my grandmother's house I'm also going to run some errands pick up a pizza
the reason being is that she's very close to her mother and she knew that Elisa was keeping
kind of keeping the information regarding the divorce a little a little quiet a little on the hush and hush with
inside the house and especially with Jeremy he's the youngest of four children right and he's pretty sensitive
about the parents splitting up so she may have just simply used this as you know this is this is why I'm going
to be gone but I'm actually going to my attorneys uh for a meeting so after Jennifer gets off the phone with her
younger brother Jeremy she gets that information from him now she's going to try to call her mother one more time and
now she got no answer this time she hung up the phone and she called Gregory Moore's office Eliza's
attorney there was no answer at the attorney's office as well I think the issue here Captain is is
more of not so much where could she be you know because it's a little vague when someone says hey I'm I'm going out
and running some errands or you know I have this one meeting to go to but then you talk to your brother and it seems
like there's a possibility if she had several other places to go to as well I think that's not so much the concern I
think the concern for Jennifer and probably for Jeremy as well is anytime we called our mother in the past
she picked up the phone or text her right yeah yeah so so I think that's the big concern there is why is our mother
not answering her phone so that's when I think that and also you know sometimes when something bad
happens to a family member that you just have an intuition about you that you just kind of feel something yeah I I can
agree with that wholeheartedly at this point Jennifer very concerned she decides to run out to her car and she's
going to take off in search of her mother now there's a lot of things that are probably going through her head maybe
maybe Eliza was in some kind of accident some kind of car accident never made it
downtown to see her attorney maybe her maybe it was something as simple as her phone is dead broken or
lost uh the only trouble with that it doesn't fully explain Elisa's absence you know if her phone were dead or lost
you would think she would return home at some time while she's out looking for her mother
while Jennifer's out looking for Elisa she gets a phone call finally she thought her mother had returned home
but that turns out not to be the case this is Doris calling Jennifer's phone Doris is the grandmother she had been
trying to reach Elisa for hours that day doors told Jennifer that Elisa's brother
Harry had tried calling Elisa a couple times that day as well but Elisa never answered her phone
so Jennifer drove around frantically by this point looking for her mother after a while her phone rang again this time
it was Jeremy calling her back Jeremy had had some troubling and disturbing news
the Cleveland Police Department had called him they called the house and they were on their way to the Sherman
household and they wanted to talk to the family now Jeremy Eliza and Sanford live at
this home Sanford is Eliza's husband who she's working on splitting up with you know getting separated from permanently
right and so seems like he was out of town a lot on business and then well personal business
yeah yeah with us there's some question marks there but it seems like he's out of town a lot and then possibly that he
was staying like somewhere else here and there or like staying with a friend so because
anybody that's been through a divorce hears that they're living together all the way to the end of the divorce uh
sometimes that happens but most of the time it doesn't I mean and and normally you're fighting so much that you don't
want to be under the same roof Yeah well yeah I think that um he was often at the home I think for
the purpose of as far as the postal service is concerned he lived there but I think I think you're right male
there I think Samford was not required to be there nor did he at times choose to be there yeah
so now after getting this phone call from her younger brother Jennifer raced to the her mother's home she called her
boyfriend while she was on the way and asked if he could meet her at her parents place well this is never a good
sign I mean no okay the police department is saying hey we'd like to talk to you
uh but we're not going to tell you what it is until we get there you know somebody's dead well that phone
call would be bad enough but let's top that off with you've spent now time looking trying to track down your mother
so not only do you have concern that something bad has happened as to a loved one you might have a good idea which
loved one it is at this point well right and but if she was in a car accident you
would assume that the police would just say hey your mother was in an accident and she's at such and such hospital or
unless she passed away in that car accident I I guess yeah well I I only say that from experience I know somebody
that died in a car accident and I was notified face to face from a police officer I I was actually I had no clue
why the police officer wanted anything to talk to me about and the drug is in your basement and I found out that that
somebody that I knew had had died that day in a car accident anyway so we have Jennifer she's racing to her parents
home she's called her boyfriend asking him to meet her there she gets they're about 10 minutes after receiving the
call from Jeremy when she got there she asked Jeremy to join her outside it was cold that night but she and Jeremy were
going to wait for the police inside her car they did this because they this was of
Jennifer's choosing let's say she wanted to do this leaving her father their father Samford inside the home by
himself Jennifer's boyfriend arrived at the Sherman home shortly after and waited with Jeremy and Jennifer for the
police it took a while for the police to arrive and it was too detected hold on a
second because you'd assume that the daughter would want to be with her father um but that's not the case that's
definitely not the case here okay so maybe a little foreshadowing of family Dynamics well the three of them waited
outside and when the police arrived it was two detectives and they did not have good news the detectives told the two
members of the Sherman family that their mother had been attacked earlier that day the detectives told Jennifer and
Jeremy that that just after 5 30 p.m the police along with an ambulance and EMTs
they had responded to a 9-1-1 call their mother had been attacked and she had been stabbed repeatedly and was found
clinging to life just about 25 to 30 feet from the entryway to the building that housed her attorney's law firm's
office an employee that was on the fourth floor of 75 Erie View Plaza now from my understanding this is not the
same building that Eliza was attempting to go into so this man sorry his name is Kenny
Shepard he says he heard screams and when he heard screams he rushed downstairs and outside by the time he
had arrived to Eliza she was struggling to stand she's she's falling over blood was coming out of her mouth
Kenny Shepard immediately called 9-1-1 the dispatch answered 9-1-1 what is your emergency Kenny
yelled into his phone Cleveland Ohio hurry it's bad the dispatcher asked what's bad Kenny
says this lady she's been attacked I don't know if it was gunshots I don't know if if she was stabbed she's
bleeding yeah pretty bad yeah the operator could hear Kenny shouting at Eliza as he tried to help her right and
Eliza is not just laying there well he's he can be heard Kenny can be heard telling her to stay on the ground right
he's saying don't move stay on the ground don't get on your feet stay on the ground so she's trying to get up she
Yeah by this point she had fallen and she's trying to get up he's I mean she's in horrible shape by this point to the
point where you hear Kenny saying he's begging her stay with me okay stay with me please stay with me
at that point Eliza tried to cry out but he couldn't understand anything she was
was saying right when she when Eliza tried to talk again this time Elisa coughed up blood instead of making an
audible sound or putting together words right Kenny rolled Eliza onto her stomach trying to get the blood out of
her her throat and mouth he's telling the dispatcher there is blood everywhere I've never seen this
much blood then he can be heard then he could hear the sirens coming and he shouted lady stay with me all right they
are coming they are coming then back to the operator the operator he's he's telling the operator she's
going fast this lady's going fast right Eliza was eventually taken by ambulance to the emergency room of Metro Health
Medical Center where at 6 14 p.m on March 24th 2013 Eliza Sherman a devoted mother of four was pronounced dead
[Music] all right we're back cheers and happy holidays to everybody I'm sure at this
point Captain the detectives have plenty of questions for elise's family even you know I'm sure that elise's
family have even more questions for the detectives unfortunately when the detectives show
up they don't have many answers for elise's family they they show up with the Arsenal full of questions of Their
Own the probably the first question I would have and I'm sure most people on the uh
in the public had as well is you know because this could be a big situation this could be a big question
to answer this could eliminate a lot of potential suspects and was this a random
attack or was this a planned attack because at first glance you have the elements here that could lead you or
lead one to conclude either so an attack on the streets downtown downtown Cleveland big city would point
to a very random attack killed on the way to a scheduled agreed-upon appointment right maybe not random
because others know you are going to be in that location at that time and why are you gone there
going there to basically finalize your divorce you know because you have a hearing in two days
the divorce process starts or the hearings start in two days yes and this from my understanding has
been a very long drawn out and messy divorce so was this a random attack or was it a
planned attack now I remember when this case first broke that they were interviewing a lot of people especially
women who had to walk around in the downtown area that walked to work uh that that took their lunches outside and
that was the big panic at the time was this a totally random attack could anybody in that location be attacked
well that could happen in any City in any major city there could be some yahoo walking around with a knife or a gun
attacking people all willy-nilly so what does the crime scene tell us Captain well first off the first thing
we should notice is it's about 5 30 p.m when Eliza was attacked so slide out it's still light out that's a very risky
attack it's very cold out but when they transported Elisa to the hospital they sent with her her purse
so no purse was taken during the course of this attack Eliza also wore a sapphire ring on her right hand
she wore a necklace with the Star of David and her grandfather's wedding ring on this necklace around her neck all of
these items were still on Elisa's person right doesn't mean it wasn't an attempted robbery sometimes people try
to rob somebody that doesn't get their way then they're attacking them and then they got you know caught up in the
attack and now that's like well I need to get out of here I mean this is daylight we don't want somebody seeing
me um I however I would I would lean towards the side of no robbery I mean right right me too this would be the
most bungled possible this would be an extremely bungled uh robbery so no robbery uh that's not the motive in my
opinion I know that uh I'm quick to remind everyone that uh you know you can't easily predict crazy violent
Behavior so someone attacked and stabbed on the street could just simply be a violent
mentally Disturbed individual who attacked that person but a lot of times in cases that involve such an attack uh
where the purpose so far gone so Disturbed and out of control that they're often found still with the
person that they attacked and obviously this is not the situation when when Kenny Shepard found Eliza
there was nobody present with her she was attacked and she was falling to the ground
the other thing that's curious here one thing that I think the 9-1-1 call reveals
and I find this very interesting the 911 call that Kenny makes correct okay that Elisa is trying to communicate
something to Kenny he you know the young man the Good Samaritan Samaritan who heard her
screams and responded and called for help she seems to be trying to tell him something or communicate something to
him now what she was trying to say we may never know however there is a chance she was trying to communicate to him
that maybe she knew who her attacker was right or maybe there could have been something that she recognized about her
attacker an article of clothing or something he or she may have said to her as she was being attacked yeah and also
she's a nurse so there's a possibility she was trying to give him some instructions on maybe how to help her
that's that is that's interesting that you say that I did not think of that and that that could be a very likely
possibility here as far as the investigation goes we do have it took a couple days
um but you know shortly after we have the police on record saying in interviews asking the public for help
stating that they firmly believe this was some form of planned attack that someone that knew Eliza had attacked her
that day and killed her that day right and so motive we start I mean you're gonna start finger-pointing right away
to the husband because where she heading to she's heading to her attorney's office to talk about the divorce where
she's separating she's cutting off ties with you yeah and then I believe it was about two days after the murder
there's Rumblings in the media that there may be surveillance footage from the attack itself you know as we stated
this is a busy downtown area there are foot there's cameras posted on a lot of these buildings and parking garages
and that's just the thing it took a while for the police to come out and outwardly say it but uh the huge break
that they get in the case comes when they get a grainy surveillance video that showed someone running away from
the scene just moments after the attack on Elisa now I kind of compiled some of the
thoughts uh reported in several Publications after they released this footage the footage that was released
was about 10 seconds long and the the footage itself it was retrieved from a surveillance camera
mounted outside of a nearby parking garage yeah but it's 10 seconds long in in total length but they actually have
multiple angles so I think the official clip that the police released was like 53 seconds or something like that but
I'll I'll actually copy that and put that on uh truecrime garage.com so you can check it out there and I'll try to
post um most of the clip or at least parts of the clip on Instagram as well and that's
at True Crime garage the video showed a hooded figure wearing jeans and a green jacket
several Publications reported the person may have had a limp the per this person appears to not only
be in a hurry but also trying to disguise themselves to the point where it's difficult to even make out the
individual's gender or race well let's uh take a look at this video because you know video stuff always makes for good
podcasting so some of the initial thoughts about this video to me is one it's coming from
like a parking garage and there's a couple problems with this camera angle anyways is there's a sign
on the top left it's an entrance sign and then you have a pillar in front which has a big Park sign you know often
parking garage has those things but that's really kind of distorting the focus so when you look at the video you
can see the entrance sign that's really close to the camera that's in Focus the first pillar isn't is in good Focus as
well everything else after that is a little fuzzy or out of focus so it's not a good quality of camera anyways but
they're focusing on things that aren't moving so it's well not top-notch quality on the camera but the the thing
that really makes it tough is that it's the angle like you said this camera appears to me to be positioned to catch
something going on in the street itself and this individual who's fleeing the scene of the crime is running on the
sidewalk and it is to the right of of what the camera is angled at to actually pick up yeah maybe not but like I said
maybe not the angle but how the camera is actually focusing you know so it's like yeah the angle is set up
you know not great for what we're trying to look at but because of the angle everything else is out of focus yeah so
to give you an idea for those of you who have not seen this video before when you
blow it up on your computer screen or TV screen the individual that you see fleeing they're basically in the bottom
right hand corner of your screen and very pixelated exactly and the thing is the things that we stated earlier were
all things that were stated in the local media at the time and one of the things
saying the video showed a hooded figure um I've heard some talks is this a hoodie that this individual is wearing
this appears to me to look more like a coat um almost a a light winter coat right so
let's just talk about the suspect's dress what do you see them dressed in so the newspapers said wearing jeans and I
found one article that says a green jacket I agree with the jeans that looks to me very much like some some a hue of
blue some Dad or Mom jeans you know what I mean like the they're not super stylish jeans they're just the kind of a
straight leg dark blue jeans traditional as far as the coat goes where it says where this publication called it a green
coat or green jacket I don't know that I see green it looks to me like the parking sign that you talked about
is probably a blue color a painted on blue color and if if that's the case when this individual walks past
or runs past this sign his coat is significantly darker than that blue parking sign right well on the trouble
with this video footage too is that everything that's out of focus on the right hand side of the screen
it's out of focus and it should just be black right like that's what a camera should pick that up because it's going
into the parking garage so that's where it get darker so it should be a tent of black for whatever reason
um it's a tank of green so from further back you see this suspect and you go okay blue jeans
black hoodie or coat okay then when it runs past this tinted area the the coat looks like a hint of green
like it's a really dark green maybe a forest green dark green right but I think that tint is coming from you know
this Distortion of the camera so I believe that this individual is wearing black shoes
probably blue jeans um and a black or a very dark jacket or coat right and this person has the hood
up as we stated long sleeve coat and when the when the individual gets closer to the camera it almost looks to me like
the face is concealed with something as well yeah I think um let's just watch it again real quick
so it's weird like uh there's two angles they're gonna show you the suspect coming at the camera running towards the
camera and then they also show you the reverse angle of the suspect running away from a different camera because you
can actually you can see the uh the second camera that's going to show the the suspect right that's on the pillar
with the the park sign so and it's weird because like when the suspect's running towards you if we want
to talk about is this male or female when the suspect's running towards you to me I go Ah that's uh that's a dude
right that's dude running that's first my first thought as well and then on the second angle when it's when the
suspect's running away from you to me I go that's a chick all day long like instantly okay so I to describe the
person this person appears to be I'm not saying male or female I'm saying dude dude or chick this this person appears
to be of of average weight like I don't see somebody that's super thin I don't see somebody that's overweight
the problem I have and do you do you want to hear Captain do you want to hear Colonel Christmas get angry right here
okay I hate when they release these videos I mean I know that it's necessary but when you release them please
give us some information I mean okay first of all we you can't give us any kind of General
thought as to the height of this person and maybe they just don't know but come out no it's not that hard to find this
stuff out and that's what I'm pointing that's why I'm pointing at this portion of the video right here Captain you see
where this individual is running past these signs to their left okay well you could use those signs to give us a
general idea of the height of this person this coat is too big for this individual yes it's long it hangs past
the waistline but not even long I mean you can even see that there's excess on the sides almost like maybe this is a
guy's jacket but a girl is wearing it and you know when we talked about when we covered the Missy beavers case a long
time ago uh there was video footage of the believed assailant of her and they were able to give us a general
description of of height now mind you it probably varied by what six or seven inches
that didn't vary by that much I mean it was enough that they could rule out the husband because his height was like six
three or something especially there look the individual just walks just runs past
that Valvoline sign and it is very close to the Valvoline this is a small person
this is this person's not six foot I bet and that's what this person is not even
five five and I know that there's things like um with graphic uh designers and stuff they can measure you know if they
know the height of this wall right then they could measure the person I I don't know how to do that
um and also you have this car here that car parked there I didn't realize there was a vehicle there you're right that is
a vehicle oh so that makes sense because a small person five under five five which again like I said the when the
suspect's coming towards you my gut feeling is that's a dude but when you watch them from the back it's a
chick it's I mean you can almost see the hips as they're running and and like I said we're talking about small person if
this if this individual is under five four then I mean what are the chances that
that's a guy there's uh you know like our Australian friends say I don't know that I would go full on to to believe
yeah to believe that the person's shorter than five what did you say five five yeah I think I easily I think this
person's probably five two five three and I don't know that I would go full on to say that it's a female but I'm
leaning that way I agree with you it's it doesn't the person is not tall I would not describe the person as tall
see how it's more of an hourglass figure there and I agree with you it does look
more like a female especially when we see the back side when we see them running from the camera yeah I mean not
toward the camera but here no Christmas has seen a lot of females from the back side
all right so the thing is though what about the motion of this individual running
because one many of the Publications has has said possibly with a limp um this is another thing I get a little
bit angry about what I mean let's can we get a a legitimate opinion of the police
that you know are we looking with somebody for a limp because here's where I question the limp I can see what
they're talking about there is a little hitch in this person's get along right right but their Giddy Up has a little
bit of a hitch but the problem with it is I can't tell if that's a camera trick or not and what I mean by that is this
camera it's it doesn't seem to be a full motion camera right it seems like it's a
slower frames yeah so where it almost looks uh like there's little glitches while
they're running yeah like it the the image it doesn't bounce that's not the right word but it jumps from from frame
to frame to frame to frame right right I'm I'm just guessing this person's not an avid Runner
and that's why I wonder if there's actually any kind of limp or if it's just uh something that the camera is
putting off with that right but I would just argue hey everybody that hasn't run
in the last year go outside and run the block so tell me how smooth you feel while
you're running yeah I mean so the limp or whatever the little hitch and the giddy up
a little hitch in the giddy up partner um maybe what they're seeing is just again it's either a glitch or they're
seeing somebody that it's just not an avid Runner that just doesn't have a comfortable smooth stride and you know
what that that leads me to believe something I felt every time I've watched this I don't know that I agree that
there's a limp there I'm with you I see somebody that's not comfortable running at that speed has probably not run that
distance or that speed in some time therefore I'm think I'm looking at someone older and and I don't want you
know nobody panic uh you know don't freak out that I'm calling anybody old but what I mean is I feel like I'm
looking at somebody that's similar in age to our victim our victim was 53 years old on this day I think that I'm
seeing somebody just by that movement Captain almost looks to me like somebody like mid 40s
to to late 50s no no this person's younger you think younger yeah yeah and the the weird thing too is when you
watch the video where the suspect's coming towards you you're gonna see the the left arm the the the right arm is
just swinging all willy-nilly looks like Steven Seagal running you know if you've
ever seen those videos have you seen those the videos of Steven Seagal running yeah I've seen Steven Seagal
movies okay he has run in some of those movies yeah but when you watch them run it's
awful he's the worst runner ever that's because he's a fighter man yeah I don't know what he is he stands there
and fights you he doesn't run yeah okay he runs in a lot of his movies and he's not good at running but so the arm is
just kind of flailing away the right arm the left arm is kind of tucked almost like it's holding a football you think
that they're concealing the knife that was used to kill Eliza yeah but it doesn't seem like there's
you know well what are those things in Star Wars because that's the thing that gets me is even as the perpetrator gets
closer it's like there's something over the face oh there's definitely something
there is no there's not even a shadow where you could even you don't see a nose at all yeah this we are looking for
an individual with no nose right no nose no eyes it's almost like the hoodie is like
zipped up over their head now it looks to me like they're they're wearing some kind of um
no I'm just saying because of the pixelation oh yeah yeah that it's just like it's just a black blob on there
yeah the face is the same color as the hood and the jacket in the face uh so me it's the Ghost of Christmas future yeah
I don't know about that but yeah but see there there's gloves on that person too
yeah and then also when the when you see the back side of the individual is when
you see more of the tent that maybe the coat is gray right at the first part when you see the back side and you one
thing that you this is making great podcasts one thing that we didn't point out though
um as far as the clothing goes and I know that usually logos and things like that tend to be small but you don't see
anything that would distinguish what type of brand or clothing any of this is it's it's like this person picked out
the most plain Jane outfit that they could um to not be recognized by any thing I
mean it's dark shoes jeans dark coat and something covering the the face and gloves on the hands but even the pants
look too big that's why I think on some level it's like you know pants for men or a jacket for a
man but a chick's wearing it well well I ask if you think that with that left hand that they're trying to conceal the
murder weapon because police searched for the murder weapon at the scene of the crime they searched all over the
area they even checked the rooftops of nearby buildings and this turned up nothing they found they never found a
knife uh that they believe was used in this attack they also better believe they definitely definitely know that she
was stabbed with a knife I mean I just want to be clear about that they've just never found the weapon yeah and they
also searched the Sherman residence as well for knives and none of the knives that they found in that household
matched uh what they believed the knife to have been used now one thing they did
not um they did they released that she was stabbed 11 times but they did not release the size or
what type of knife that they believed to have been used right you'd assume that it's
you know this is an attack that you know is going to happen outside your lawyer's
building her lawyer's building like we said is this random I mean there is a possibility but everything kind of
points to the fact that somebody knew that should be there and knew that should be there at that time
and that's when the attack is going to go down so I don't know and then the difficult
thing here is then okay so you go okay well if it's not a random attack well then who's the number one suspect here
who should we look into first the husband they're getting divorce this thing could get messy
and we kind of know from uh some more research that there was some stuff before the divorce that was kind of
messy anyways but as far as size wise if this is the husband what we see on this camera
to me absolutely not I don't see it so to to be clear though Sanford her husband
elise's husband is described as six foot to six foot one and heavy set yeah this
person is definitely not heavy set like I said I see a very small individual uh I would even argue on some level like
the body is somewhat petite you know and then and it's hard to decipher for that because you have like
I said this jacket is way too big for this individual okay so it's it's a jacket that's meant to be our coat it's
a jacket or coat it's meant to hang below the waist anyway but I don't think it is I don't know if it is or if that's
just the size of this you know it's well no and I'm going to agree with you but but
like okay so the coat that I wore today is very similar to that coat it has a hood long sleeves and it's cut to be uh
lower than the waist now my coat though it's many people have coats like this it's intended to be cut to drop just
below where your pockets would be on your pants right but this individual it almost appears like they're wearing that
style of coat but because the coat does not fit them that the goes down further it almost goes to the knees yeah it goes
It goes to the point where you know that this code is not meant for this and individual this size
but again was it was this coat used just for cover-up possibly also used for protection you
know that you're attacking somebody with a knife right so you're gonna use padded
you know just in case it turns against you you got padded jacket on I guess not only padded jacket for protection but
okay so it it's planned picking a dark colored coat a dark colored jacket and almost
all dark colored um outfit right that's going to your the blood that would be on this individual
would not be as noticeable right when when fleeing the scene this this person exactly right this person
could run away at full speed and if they had to continue walking somewhat in the
area they could they could turn a couple corners and then just start walking normally and and probably fit in as long
as they didn't have that mask on well let's watch the back side one more time because that left arm see how the right
arm just kind of you know runs yeah I mean look I'm going to say this and somebody's gonna write me
it kind of like runs like a girl and the right arm when you see the right arm it's just flailing away again I
think this person's running at a speed that they've not run in a long time they're using that arm to uh help right
help with a little momentum help with a little balance but look at the left arm when when you see no I know back side of
this individual that left arm doesn't move at all that's what I'm saying I'm saying they're over compensating with
their right arm because they have to tuck the murder weapon and keep it close to their vest or it's in a pocket and
they you know what I mean they're kind of hugging it to them so they got hurt themselves
and they're holding wherever they're hurt that's a possibility I do want to talk
about this though Captain um while we're on the the video footage itself it has been reported several times that
the actual attack is on footage as well now I don't know if that's just a general misconception that something
that the media got wrong yeah but we see this all the time with different cases where it's like uh look at the Delphi
murders case for for example I mean there's all the speculation that there's audio of it there's video of it but
anytime they get a suspect they can't seem to pin down the suspect you'd think if there's all this information or all
this evidence that'd be pretty easy to find the right person and lock them down so well not in this situation but not in
this situation though right I agree with you but it's different here because this first this person's face is looks
like it's completely covered almost as if they're wearing like a mask oh yeah they're definitely wearing a mask but
this is not but they're wearing they're wearing a ski mask or something I don't even think it's a ski mask because you
can't even see like Eyes eye holes or anything you can't even see like you because even if there was and maybe
even if you put like let's say makeup on you'd see the whites of the eyes or something this almost looks like you
know some Halloween mask or or something that you know you know almost like a sheet that
they put over their face but they could see through it enough maybe also a reason why the person is a
little wobbly when they're running because they can't see perfectly there's a decent chance that Eliza was
attacked from behind of course because whoever did this as a coward a piece of [ __ ]
um but you know she was stabbed in the neck stabbed in the arm the right arm and then I believe the rest of the stab
wounds were to the back so that would be nine of them now um what I'm getting at and the reason
why I bring that up we keep talking about how this person's covered head to toe and my suspicion earlier that Elisa was
trying to communicate something to the man that found her do you think that with this individual
being covered head to toe that there's any chance that she may have recognized anything about this person and and
potential that she was trying to communicate who she believed may have attacked her
yeah that's a possibility I think the other possibility too is if this let's say for example that this
suspect person running from the scene they're the murderer but they might not have known her
this might have been let's say like a hired operation okay but if this person was hired by somebody
then were they instructed to hey before you stab her say whatever does that make sense well I
could see that out of anger and I know that sounds very Hollywood but it also sounds incredibly stupid and
I know that most criminals are not you know they do make mistakes and that's why
they get caught thankfully but it almost seems like you're going above and beyond you know hey say this
to her right but if you say this to her she's gonna know who is responsible for this no no I get it
which is right right and I that's my thing where I'm like well that seems totally senseless to do well it sounds
yeah but to have somebody murdered is senseless too well of course but what I'm getting at is it's
senseless on two it's senseless times two and here's what I mean by that okay if you hired me to to do a hit on
somebody and you said hey after you're plunging all right well then I'll change it if somebody else hired me to do a hit
on somebody right and they said oh as you're plunging the knife into their back right tell them this tell them x y
and z do I don't tell them that don't give him a math problem but yeah thumbs up the
the crow strikes at midnight okay but you're butchering my story here what I'm getting at is one it's
extremely stupid for the for the person hiring the person to say hey say this so
that so that by chance they survive well then they can go yeah that dude hired somebody to kill me because he's the
only guy that would say that then furthermore me being the hired Hitman who gives a [ __ ] if I actually say X Y
and Z to that person as I'm plunging the knife in them if they're dead and it's reported on the news I can tell the
idiot that hired me that I said that to them yeah I'm not going to risk that in case that they
survived the attack mind you she was alive when she was found when she's first found she was alive and in my
opinion I believe she was trying to communicate something about the attack itself to the individual that found her
right now I agree the problem is some stupid individual if if this is if this is a murder for hire
then some stupid individual hired this person to kill her they're stupid so therefore I wouldn't put it past them
to say what I'm getting at is that rather it wasn't something it wasn't specific words that were said but maybe
a voice that was recognized by her that this person could have been covered head
to toe and it was somebody that she either knew well or knew somewhat and look this has to be an angry attack
whether you knew her and you and you were doing this yourself or if you were hired to do this to stab somebody 11
times and attack them in broad daylight on the streets this whether you were angry when you started this attack you
were angry at some point during this attack and you may have said something you may have said something out of
frustration maybe she wasn't going down fast enough for you right and this individual may have said something out
of frustration and she may have Elisa may have recognized The Voice [Music] all right and this has been the first
part of a four-part series that we're going to do on the investigation into the murder of Eliza Sherman and we're
giving you four parts this week because well the captain and Colonel Christmas one a week off for Christmas just like
everybody else we want to spend a little time with our friends with the fam fam yep and uh and we appreciate everybody
listening we wanted to give everybody and a lot of people are traveling uh and give give you some time to get into the
garage you know get some eggnog warm your feet by the fire get a little toasty hang out with your
buddies Colonel Christmas and the captain and I wish you a happy holidays and because we love all of you out there we
wanted to make sure that we gave you four episodes before we take off so you can either listen to them as they come
out or save them up and binge them all at once regardless if you subscribe to the show you don't have to keep
refreshing your phone waiting for parts two three and four to come out so join us back here in the garage for part two
until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] thank you [Applause]

The Murder of Aliza Sherman /// Part 1 /// 167

Part 1 of 4 - The Murder

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Cleveland, Ohio - Sunday, March 24, 2013- Aliza Sherman a 53 year old mother of four stepped out into the cold to run some errands. She promised her youngest sons she would not be gone very long and she would return home with dinner. Hours and hours went by. Jeremy tried calling his mother's cell but she did not answer. Then he called his older sister Jennifer. Jeremy explained to Jennifer that their mother had been gone too long and he could not reach her. Jennifer tried many times to get her mother on the phone to no avail. Jennifer decided to take the search to the streets and look for her mother. Before she could locate Aliza the Cleveland Police Department notified Jennifer that they would like to speak with the Sherman family. It was then that detectives notified the family that Aliza Sherman had been killed in downtown Cleveland in broad daylight.

Beer of the Week - Christmas Ale by Great Lakes Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

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

Brief Summary

Eliza Sherman was murdered in Cleveland, leading to an investigation into potential suspects and motives surrounding her divorce.

Key points

Murder of Elisa Sherman. Elisa Sherman was stabbed to death in Cleveland, leaving her family in shock.
Jennifer's Growing Concern. Jennifer receives a troubling text from her brother about their mother’s whereabouts.
The Tragic News. Jennifer learns from police that her mother has been attacked and is in critical condition.
The 911 Call. Kenny Shepard's call reveals Eliza was trying to communicate something before her attack.
Surveillance Footage Breakthrough. Police release grainy footage showing a hooded figure fleeing the scene of the crime.
The Mystery of the Attacker. Discussions about the suspect's appearance and behavior raise questions about their identity.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

If you can't do the time then don't do the crime.

A listener's quote about consequences

2:13WatchNov 27, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High 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.