The Fifth Marriage
Stacey met Richard Shoeck shortly after getting divorced to her fourth husband. The couple tied the knot after dating for a year, and they were both so in love that Richard adopted two of Stacey's three kids.
According to Stacey's cousin, Connie Heane, Richard was the most loving and stable out of all of Stacy's five husbands. On top of that, everyone agreed that he was a great father to the kids. Everyone saw them as the perfect couple... but was that so?
Valentine's Day
While Richard was currently unemployed and volunteered as a boy scout leader, Stacey was the breadwinner of the family. She worked for a famous medical center in Dekalb County, Georgia, and she worked so hard that she barely had any time for leisure. However, as people always say, there's always time for love!
On Valentine's Day of 2010, Richard planned a perfect dinner for Stacey and her grandparents, an aged couple who demanded constant care. He wanted his Valentine to be perfect and hoped to spend some intimate time together with his wife before dinner. Destiny, however, had other plans...
Change Of Plans
Stacey and Richard had initially agreed to meet up a few hours before dinner. They were hoping to enjoy some privacy, which was never an option at home because of Stacey's kids and grandparents were always around. A few moments before their rendezvous, however, Richard received a message from his wife.
Apparently, the nurse that was supposed to relieve Stacey was late, which meant that she wouldn't be able to meet up with Richard on time. Therefore, she suggested they both meet at a park near the hospital to exchange gifts and valentine cards right before the family dinner. So far, so good...
An Eerie Place
They both headed to the park in separate cars. Richard showed up first, but he never knew he wasn't alone. For some reason, there was a stranger hiding in the shadows patiently waiting for him.
"It's a very secluded place, there was no pavement, there were no lights, so it's a very eerie place, especially at night", Lt. Franklin pointed out. One could even say that it was the perfect spot to commit a murder while going unnoticed.
Bloodbath At The Park
It wasn't until thirty minutes later that Stacey arrived at their meeting place. However, by the time she showed up, Richard's body was soaked in blood and covered in dirt in the middle of the park.
The cops were already at the scene, too. According to Lt. Franklin, Richard had received two shots to the abdomen, one to the chest, and two to the face. Stacey looked horrified. What on earth had happened?
Was It A Robbery?
Even though there had been no witnesses, the cops immediately ruled out the possibility of a robbery. To begin with, when they searched his truck, they found 40 grand right in the middle of the driver's seat.
According to Lt. Franklin, "His watch was on, his wedding ring, his wallet was on him. If it were a robbery then there was about a $40,000 truck sitting there idling that they could have jumped in and taken". But if he hadn't been robbed, why had he been shot?
Premeditated Murder
After scouring the scene, the detectives realized that something didn't quite add up. "Richard's just a regular guy who's unarmed and he gets there and he's comfortable enough to get out of this truck and approach the person who ultimately shot him to death", Franklin pointed out.
After giving it some thought, they all came to believe that the murder had been carefully planned. However, not only had the mystery killer fled just in time before the police arrived, but he hadn't left any evidence, either. There were no leads, except for this small clue...
Tire Tracks
The soil surrounding Richard's body was soft and muddy, and it wasn't long before the detective realized there were three sets of tire tracks engraved on the wet dirt. The first two belonged to Richard's and Stacey's cars, but what about the third?
As one of the officers pointed out, "There was a third set of impressions that came in from the park you could follow them from the road. So that told us that the vehicle that left those impressions were there before Richard got there and then left presumably after he was dead". But would they ever manage to match the tire tracks to the car of the alleged killer?
A Shocking Confession
Before they could even worry about how they would trace the car of the murderer, Stacey – who appeared to be in a state of shock – made a baffling confession. Out of nowhere, she admitted that she had been having an affair with a man named Juan Reyes.
Obviously, this piece of information changed the whole picture. "That affair had been going on for several years. Immediately that sparked our attention and got us looking at Juan as a prime suspect", Lt. Franklin said. But who was Juan?
Stacey's Lover
It happens to be that Juan Reyes, a former security guard, had recently been hired as a surgical assistant at Stacey's clinic, in spite of the fact that he lacked medical experience. The police also discovered that Stacey had been paying for his truck and that they would often sneak out and go romantic getaways.
On top of that, it turns out that Juan had recently been living in one of Stacey's apartments. Bearing this in mind, the detectives figured that it had been another case of a jealous boyfriend trying to get his lover's husband out of the picture. But was there any proof against him?
No Evidence Against Him
Being the main suspect of Richard's assassination, the police went looking for him at the office the next day and took him to the sheriff's station. Convinced of his innocence, Juan agreed to make a statement without any lawyer present and he firmly denied being involved with the murder.
Juan also told the cops that in spite of his affair with Stacey and his recent divorce, he was actually trying to patch things up with his ex-wife. Once witnesses confirmed his whereabouts on the night of the murder, Juan was finally cleared. In other words, the detectives where back to square one.
An Unexpected Tip
The investigators were left with only one clue: the tire tracks printed on the mud. They finally figured out that the car had Goodyear Infinity tires, but that was hardly a clue. Were they really supposed to track down every car in town having Goodyear tires?
Just when the investigators were about to lose all hopes, an unexpected tip put them back in the game. To everyone's surprise, an IT technician that worked at Stacey's medical clinic called the police and made a startling revelation.
An Intriguing Lead
An IT technician whose job was to delete junk email from the employees' accounts revealed a valuable piece of information. "When I went through Stacey's computer I went to go ahead and empty her spam out of her inbox, but her inbox was completely empty for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the day of the murder", he said.
The investigators felt that this was hardly a coincidence. Besides, according to the IT worker, it was highly unusual for anyone's inbox to be empty for over 12 hours. With no time to waste, the detectives obtained a warrant to access Stacey's mails as well as the backup to the deleted messages. You won't believe what they found...
Strange E-Mails
After going through over 4,000 mails, they found two that definitely raised some suspicion. One of them had been sent to Stacey nearly two weeks before the murder. Apparently, a woman named Lynitra Ross had requested Stacey to transfer her $8.902. But who was Lynitra and why was she requested so much money?
Lynitra was a medical assistant that worked at the medical center that Stacey owned. Curiously, two days before the murder, Lynitra had sent Stacey another request for a transfer of $1100, this time to her personal account. But before they could even make out what all of this meant, another clue surfaced.
The Mystery Car
The police received a call from Stacey's cousin, Connie Hearne, asking if they could take a look at her grandparent's Impala car. Hoping to pay off their medical bills, Connie and Stacey's grandparents had asked the girls if they could sell their car for them.
Stacey told her family that she had sold it for $14.000, but her grandparents never saw a dime. To make things even stranger, the police found the Imapla parked at Lynitra's house just a few days after the murder. And guess what? The car had Goodyear Integrity tires! Coincidence?
Phone Records
The police began to suspect that the tire tracks that had been found in the crime scene maybe belonged to Stacey's grandfathers' Impala. But how would they figure out who had driven the car on the night of the murder?
Lt. Franklin concluded that the next logical step was to investigate Stacey's cell phone records. "About an hour into that search I found a number that was in Stacey's phone that had made a call from Belton Bridge Park on the night of the murder, at about 8:40 p.m.", Franklin said. But who had she called?
The Third Man
The number that Stacey had called was listed among her contacts as a man named Reggie, also known as "Mr. Results". Surprisingly, when they searched through Reggie's phone records, they found this...
The very same night of the murder, at 8.40 P.M, Reggie – whoever he was – had called Lynitra Ross! Apparently, there seemed to be some sort of connection between Stacey, Lynitra, and Reggie. But who was this man?
New Hyptohesis
After looking up his name on the Internet, Lt. Franklin discovered that Reggie – whose full name was Reginald Coleman – was a boxer and personal trainer who held boot camp classes at Stacey's office. This is when the investigators finally started tying up loose ends.
"We were already looking at a murder for hire and this really kind of solidified that this was the third part of the triangle. We had suspected Stacey was the linchpin, Lynitra Ross received money in the weeks leading up, and now this was our third person that we felt was involved," Franklin detailed.
All Eyes On Stacey
In other words, everything suggested that Stacey had orchestrated the murder-for-hire of her husband. "Reggie makes a phone call from the park the night of the murder at 9:40 p.m. and we felt that call was to let Lynitra know that it was done," Franklin said.
The only problem was that the detectives still hadn't gathered enough evidence so as to press charges. A few days later, however, Franklin landed on a series of spine-chilling text messages. Are you ready?
Code Word
Exactly three minutes after Reggie's phone call with Lynitra, the latter texted Stacey the following: > "Forgot to tell you I'm coming in late tomorrow. By the way Happy Valentine's Day".
At first sight, there may not seem anything strange about this message. However, the PIs soon revealed that 'Happy Valentine's Day' was the code word meaning that Richard had already been shot. But how did they figure this out?
Suspicious Banking Records
After examining Stacey's, Lynitra's and Reggie's bank accounts, Lt. Franklin identified some extremely suspicious transactions. For some reason, they had sent each other thousands of dollars from different bank accounts.
After carrying out a detailed audit, they concluded that Tracey had paid Reggie $10.000 in cash for perpetuating the murder, while Lynitra's payment for distributing the money had been to live in one of Stacey's apartments rent-free. Now, it was time to capture the culprits...
Operation Tangled Web
The operation launched to catch the three criminals was dubbed Operation Tangled Web. It required a major team effort, as seven search warrants in four different countries had to be issued.
However, the trickiest part was to coordinate the arrests in order to avoid them tipping each other off. At the exact same time, Stacey was arrested inside her office, Lynitra was captured at a traffic stop, while Reggie was tracked down a few blocks from his home.
Mystery Unveiled
After a colossal effort, and three months after Richard's murder, Lynitra, Reggie, and Stacey were finally arrested. At first, the three denied all charges and pleaded innocent, but it was only a matter of time before Stacey finally caved.
Stacey eventually confessed to the murder plot and confirmed that her two friends had gotten on board in exchange for money. But one question remained unanswered: why had Stacey wanted her husband dead?
Doubtful Defense
After confessing to her crimes, Stacey claimed that she had come up with this macabre plan upon discovering that Richard had molested her kids. She actually hadn't witnessed it, but one of her kids had allegedly told her.
Stacey admitted that she had been molested by her parents as a kid, so she had felt the urge of having Richard killed to protect her kids. "I told her [Lynitra] that I didn't want the police, I didn't want a divorce I just wanted him dead if somebody was molesting my kids", she said in the interrogation room. But were these accusations proven?
Truth Came Out
As regards the child abuse story, Stacey later contradicted herself after claiming that she had had his husband killed because she had feared losing the kids in case of a divorce. To make matters worse, Stacey's son admitted that Richard had never molested him in any way.
"Ultimately I think her motive was just to live a life free of Richard, and this was in her eyes the only way to make this happen", Lt. Franklin concluded. What was the judge's ruling once the case reached the court?
Life Behind Bars
With all the evidence against them, Stacey and Reggie ended up pleading guilty and were convicted with malice murder. As to Lynitra, even though she stood trial, she was eventually convicted with the same charges.
Justice was made and the three will spend the rest of their lives in jail. As to Stacey, she has converted to Catholicism and is currently studying to become a minister. What a weird final twist to such a bone-chilling story!