Crime Junkie - MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Sherese Walker Bingham Part 1

Episode Date: December 13, 2021

A woman takes her dogs for their nightly walk and is shot and killed with her own gun in a downtown Indianapolis state park. Is it a tragic accident or cold-blooded murder?If you have any information regarding this case, regardless of how insignificant it may seem, please contact Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS (8477). For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/mysterious-death-sherese-walker-bingham-part-1/ 

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And we have a special episode for you guys today that was made possible because of our listeners. Whether you're in the fan club or you listen with ads, you made this episode possible. And listen, I hear some of you who leave reviews or make comments about ads in the show. But our sponsors are the way that we're able to make a real difference. Not only did I start a nonprofit with that funding that does advanced DNA testing to solve cold cases, but back in May, Audio Check decided to set aside money from ads in fan club each month to hire a reporter.

So we can tell the stories that don't get nearly enough attention. This is the first one of those stories. So thank you to everyone who supports us and our sponsors. And just a reminder, if you ever get tired of ads, you can still support our work and listen ad-free by joining the fan club. The free episode ad free that we've ever done and you get up to three extra episodes a month depending on which level you sign up for. So the very first case our reporter Nina dug into is from right here in Indianapolis. It's a case of a woman who died nearly a decade ago while out on a walk with her dogs, but there still hasn't been justice. Our team spent months tracking down public records, researching and interviewing people so we could bring you this story in a whole new meaningful way.

This is the story of the mysterious death of Cherise Walker Bingham. In the early evening of Wednesday, December 12, 2012, a bicyclist is out on White River Trail here in Indianapolis. And it's in the heart of downtown and is usually a popular spot to walk or jog or ride bikes. But the trail is pretty quiet on this particular evening. At around 6.40pm, the bicyclist sees something so out of place that they think their mind must be playing tricks on them, except it's not. They see the body of a woman lying on the asphalt trail and she's not moving. The cyclist calls 911 right away and EMS and Indiana State Police respond. They see the woman just as the 911 caller had described.

She's on the ground, face down in a pool of blood, and around her body, standing guard, are two big German shepherds. They're not wearing leashes and they won't let anyone near the victim, including first responders. But if they're being aggressive, it's because all they want to do is protect this woman on the ground. Oh my God, that is so sad. Indianapolis Animal Care is called to the scene to help get the shepherds out of the first responders way. And in order to do that, they have to sedate both of them with tranquilizer darts and then take them away from the trail. That's like, again, how fiercely they are guarding this woman. Only then is it safe for medics to check the unresponsive woman for signs of life, which they quickly determine aren't there.

She's fully clothed and wearing sneakers, so medics roll her onto her back and they see blood on her face. But according to court records, they can't figure out what's causing the bleeding because they can't even tell what her injuries are. Why not? Because all of the blood? I'm not sure. There aren't many details about that in the record I just mentioned, which is an affidavit for probable cause. It might be because the woman is wearing several layers of clothing, including a pair of coveralls. I mean, again, this is like, Indiana in the winter, she's out for a walk, so maybe they can't determine where the bleeding is coming from because of that. Right. But there is a big clue on the ground right near her body. A 25 caliber handgun.

And that's not all. There's also a driver's license, an Indiana firearm open carry permit, a pair of black winter gloves, and an open flip style cell phone, which has a low battery alert going off. So thankfully, at least one task is really easy, identifying the victim. The driver's license belongs to 51 year old Indianapolis resident, Sharice Walker Bingham. According to the coroner's report, Sharice is officially declared dead at 7.15 p.m. Emergency medics now have a potential crime scene to secure, and they don't want to disturb it any more than they already have. They also don't want to move Sharice again, so they leave her laying on her back. So that's how Indiana state police detective Lester Norvell finds her when he gets to the trail at around 8.30 p.m.

He sees the blood and a white foamy substance around Sharice's face and mouth, and he can't help but feel somewhat overwhelmed as he takes in the scene. Normally, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department would handle a death investigation like this in the city, but the trail is actually part of the White River State Park, which means that the investigation falls onto the Indiana state police's jurisdiction. And as Detective Norvell told Nina, this sort of thing happening on state property is not like an everyday thing. So he tries to take everything in as he's brought up to speed by other law enforcement. Police process the area around Sharice's body and canvas for witnesses, but unfortunately, they don't find any eyewitnesses to interview.

Even the cyclist who found Sharice didn't actually see anything happen. They just rode up and found her like that. And despite there being lights in different spots along the trail, it was still fairly dark in the area where Sharice had been walking. And Sharice's body was found far enough down the path that anyone driving on nearby New York Street probably wouldn't have been able to see her. So does Sharice live downtown or did she just like going there just for walks or what? Well, so she didn't live downtown, but her house, which was on Kessler Boulevard North Drive, is really close to downtown. It's about maybe an eight minute drive from her home to the part of the trail that she was on,

which is like right next to IUPUI, which is like a university campus. And in fact, police actually found her Ford Explorer Park nearby alongside North White River Parkway West Drive. Now, the parkway and the trail are parallel to each other, separated by the river that runs through downtown Indy. So to get from her parking spot to the trail, Sharice would have walked across the New York Street Bridge. And that takes five or six minutes, depending on how fast you're going. And listen, it's kind of hard to understand the layout without seeing it. So we actually have some photos and maps on our blog post for this website or in the app if you're listening there to help you kind of get a better sense of it. Now, obviously, police have an address for Sharice and they know that they're going to have to go to her house and notify her next of kin.

But as it turns out, they don't need to make the trip. Just before 1130 p.m., another ISP detective named Wayne Billings is securing the area around Sharice's car when a man in a pickup truck pulls up near the spot and announces that he's looking for his wife. He says that his name is Eugene Bingham Jr. And he's worried because his wife, Sharice, never came home from walking their dogs. Right then and there, police break the news to Eugene that Sharice is gone. And they immediately ask if he can help them retrace Sharice's last movements. So Eugene tells detectives that he last saw Sharice when she left the house with her German shepherds, Mayday and Tsunami, at 730 p.m. He says he stayed home and dozed off while watching a basketball game on TV.

And then when he woke up around 930 p.m., he realized Sharice and the dogs weren't there. And Eugene says that that was unusual because she should have been home by then, getting ready for work. Because Sharice actually worked an overnight shift at the PepsiCo Gatorade plant and she had to clock in by 1030 p.m. So Eugene says that he tried to call her cell phone right away and when she didn't answer, he left the house to go look for her. He goes on to tell detectives that there are really only three places that they ever walk the dogs. And all of them are close by, so he checked all three and White River State Park was his last stop. Now, right away, Eugene's story seems off to investigators. Not so much because of what he said, but when he said things happened.

Right. I mean, I was just thinking, didn't you say that her body was found by the cyclist at like 640 p.m.? So how could she have? Exactly, exactly. Eugene is saying that she left the house almost a full hour after we know her body was found and 15 minutes after she was officially declared dead. Right, which is a little bit bizarre, but to be fair, he had just gotten some really traumatic news about his wife and, you know, maybe it was shock or the details of the night were kind of all mixed up in his head. Fair. So was there anyone at the house with him that could back up or, I don't know, maybe correct his story?

I guess what I'm asking is, does he have an alibi? No, so he and Cherise didn't have any kids and Eugene says that he was home alone and, like, no friends came over or anything like that. But really, police aren't looking for an alibi just yet. According to the affidavit, which was written by Detective Norvell, in the early stages of this investigation, based on everything found at the scene, especially the gun right near Cherise, police were actually under the impression that she might have intentionally shot herself. I mean, a killer could have just dropped the gun, which I realize is not super likely, but... Well, that's not the only thing, though.

Detective Norvell told Nina that another huge reason that they thought it might be self-inflicted was because Cherise was with her dogs. Police thought that made a random stranger attack or mugging very unlikely. I mean, if you're picking out someone to rob or assault, are you really going to go for the person who's got two big protective German shepherds by her side? Like, literally so protective they won't leave her side after something happened to her? Yeah, that's a really good point. And remember, I mean, along with the gun was her pistol permit. And kind of to what you just said, like, the detective said it's not common for shooters to just leave the murder weapon right there at the scene of a crime if they're trying to hide what they've done.

But never judge a book by its cover, because despite these two pretty convincing pieces of evidence that seem to point towards suicide, it doesn't take long for police to start leaning away from that theory. One of the very first things that detectives learn about Cherise is that she loved her dogs. I mean, literally everyone who knew Cherise knew how much she loved her dogs. So if she wanted to kill herself, why would she do it while she was walking them in a public park knowing that they would be left out there with no one to watch them? Yeah, like, those are her babies. I mean, I would imagine it'd be incredibly difficult for someone who, like, adored their dogs the way, you know, everyone's saying she did to do something like that in front of them. Right, like, in my mind, even if the walk was some kind of ruse and you didn't want to be at home with your husband and you use the dogs as, like, an excuse to get out,

you leave the dogs in the car so they're safe and they don't freeze. Again, dead of winter in Indianapolis. Oh, and that's the other thing? Cherise had put on layers of clothes to keep warm. She had brought snacks. She locked her car and even took the time to put on one of those anti-theft devices on the steering wheel. So a lot of things that was saying she was coming back and wanted to have an enjoyable walk with her dogs. Yeah, police are, like, looking at all of this and thinking that her actions just aren't lining up with someone planning to take their own life. And Eugene, by the way, is adamant that Cherise would never intentionally shoot herself.

At least, that's what he tells detectives when he sits down with them for a formal interview at the station the day after the shooting on December 13th. Eugene says that Cherise was a very routine person. She had her daily schedule. She stuck to it like clockwork and she had been working overnight as a machine operator at the Gatorade Plant since June of that year. So just a little over six months. On work days, she would do some stuff around the house. She would exercise, walk the dogs and then go to her job. And even on her days off, her habits didn't change much in terms of what she liked to do.

And he tells detectives that up until the point when Cherise didn't come home, Wednesday night was like any other night. He says sometimes he would join Cherise when she walked the dogs, but that night he wanted to stay home and watch the NBA game. It was the Miami Heat versus the Golden State Warriors. And is he still saying that Cherise left their house at 7.30 that night? Actually, and this is strange, according to Detective Norville's affidavit, Eugene now says that she left even later at like 7.45. He says that Cherise was getting ready to leave the house at 7.30 and he's not just guessing. He tells detectives that he's sure of the timing because he was watching pregame coverage while she got the dogs ready. And she left with them around tip-off, he says.

Now, he didn't know which of her three usual walking spots she was planning to go to because he says that when he asked, she told him she's going, quote, wherever my car takes me. So Eugene says that he was down in the basement of their house where he watched the basketball game and dozed off. And as soon as he woke up from his nap around 9.15, 9.30, he knew something wasn't right because the landing of the basement stairs was empty. If Cherise was back, which she should have been, Mayday or Tsunami would have been laying on the landing. This is like what they do. So a little concern, he called Cherise's cell phone from their landline. She didn't pick up, which wasn't a huge surprise to him because he said that she almost never had her cell powered on.

But he's still concerned enough about the whole situation that he got dressed and went out looking for her. He said that at that point he left the house, he tried to call her again this time from his own cell phone and again got no answer. Wait, why is he trying to call her a second time if she never had her cell phone on? He doesn't address that specifically. And as far as I can tell from the affidavit, but I mean, if it were me, if I thought something was wrong with Eric, even if like, I know he doesn't pick up often, I still think I would keep calling anyways, just like, I don't know, in a panic kind of. Right. Eugene also tells detectives that it's his and Cherise's 28th wedding anniversary.

It's actually coming up the next day on December 14th. And he says that the two of them were kind of joking around about it the night before. He told her that, you know, after this many years together, anniversaries were just another day to him, but he'd make a reservation if she wanted to go somewhere special. And she said something like, okay, I'm going to make you pay a whole lot of money for that or whatever. But Eugene describes their conversation as somewhat playful, like not an argument or anything. Now, obviously, police have a lot of questions about this period of time leading up to Cherise's death. But that's not the only thing they want to speak with Eugene about.

Because earlier that day, an anonymous caller had contacted state police with a bombshell of a tip. The anonymous caller told detectives that Eugene had been having an affair and not just like a one night stand. The caller told police that Eugene had been carrying on this affair for 14 years. Oh my God, that's like half of his marriage. Right? Detective Norvel told Nina that it's incredibly unusual to get a tip like that so early on in an investigation. But obviously, they jump on it right away. So literally, while the police still have Eugene at the station for his interview on December 13th,

they start asking him about this affair. And at first, he plays it down like, oh, that was just a fling. It ended four years ago because Cherise found out. And he says that their marriage went through a rough patch after the affair came to light, but that they'd worked through it. And he decided that he was going to be committed to Cherise. According to the affidavit, Eugene describes Cherise as his, quote, buddy. And he said that they had a good relationship. But police push him on his infidelity.

And eventually he admits that the affair, okay, it was more than just a fling. And, like the caller implied, it was still going on. Ooh, that is not a good look. Yeah, you think? Eugene reluctantly tells investigators about his longtime girlfriend, who we are going to call Jane. He says that they hooked up as recently as Jane's birthday in late September. And of course, police ask him for her info. Like, they're definitely going to want to talk to her too. But Eugene's like, actually, you know, I don't want to give you her info until I have a chance to speak with her

and kind of give her a heads up that you'll be reaching out. Okay, I reiterate, definitely not a good look. Yeah, and obviously that's not going to fly. So eventually Eugene gives investigators Jane's phone number. And before they wrap up the interview, he also agrees to let them take a quick look at his cell phone so they can basically screenshot his recent texts and call history stuff like that. And they specifically ask him if he had deleted anything from his phone activity and he says no. Meanwhile, the Marion County Coroner's office has performed Cherise's autopsy and the preliminary results are in.

The cause of death is a gunshot wound to the right side of her chest. And what police learn from Eugene is that Cherise actually did own a gun, specifically a 25 caliber sterling semi-automatic handgun, which is the firearm that was found at the scene. In fact, according to Detective Norvell, Cherise's gun used to belong to Eugene. He told police that he gave it to her after he went out and bought a new gun just like it for himself. So just to clarify there, Cherise and Eugene had identical guns and not only that, he makes it known to police that it was his job to clean both of them. So basically he's saying that he handled it on a regular basis.

Exactly. Just making sure that they know that. Now, of course, Eugene isn't the only person police interview in the days following Cherise's death. They need to get a full picture of who she was outside of her husband's perspective. So they talk to her family members, her friends, her pastor, anyone who can give them some insight. Everyone describes Cherise, whose nickname is Reese, as a generous, hard-working woman who had a great sense of style and a way of carrying herself. She was the furthest thing from haughty or self-obsessed, though. Loved ones say that she was actually kind of shy and kept to herself most of the time, which meant she didn't really have many close friends.

But she also wasn't the type to make enemies. And everyone that police interviewed is shocked, not just by the fact that she died, but by the way she died. No one understands how this could have happened. And they all insist Cherise never would have killed herself. And listen, I know we've talked about a lot of potential suicide deaths on this show, and we know how quickly that decision can be made. Yeah, I think I remember from a past episode it's something like within five minutes or something. Right, so, you know, planning events or being happy the day before that doesn't rule out suicide. But remember, one of the main reasons that it was so unlikely in this case is that her dogs would have been left unattended.

Right. So we actually sent Nina to speak with some of the people that investigators interviewed, and here's Cherise's older brother, Keith Walker. She was tall and beautiful. She was a lovely, caring sister. She helped people without them even asking. Keith and Cherise were pretty tight while growing up. They didn't come from a huge family, and in total there were only three siblings. Keith, another brother named Malcolm, and Cherise was the youngest. Their mother, Carol, died in 1988 when Cherise was 27, and Keith says that they weren't really close with their father, Leon.

In high school, Cherise's skills on the basketball court got her mentioned in a local paper, the Indianapolis News, but it doesn't look like she pursued it in terms of like a college career, and she later earned a bachelor's degree in telecommunications. Over the years, there were periods of time when she and her family didn't speak much. They all had kind of gone their separate ways, like a lot of siblings do, but in the time leading up to her death, she'd reconnected with Keith and his wife, Linda, along with her aunt, a woman named Deborah McMurray. According to Keith, Cherise had always wanted to have children with Eugene, and they'd actually tried in vitro fertilization, but it didn't work. So she put all of her care and energy into spoiling her nieces and nephews, and of course, Mayday and Tsunami. Deborah says that Cherise had a gift for training and understanding dogs, especially German shepherds.

She loves her dog, honey. Everybody knew that about Cherise. We've been knowing that ever since she was a little girl. They loved her, and she loved him. Every day, they walked. Wait, speaking of the dogs, what ever happened to Mayday and Tsunami after animal control took them away? Of course, you and I like think the exact same way. Yeah, like that's like, wait, we got off track. Where are the dogs? Yeah, this question actually comes up about the dogs in, like, every internet form on the case, and there really wasn't much concrete information available. But again, like, Nina, like, got to the bottom of it. She actually got a hold of some public records from animal control, and she spoke with Cherise's former vet. Basically, to sum it up, again, once they were, like, tranquilized and taken away from the scene, one of the dogs was taken to an emergency vet hospital.

He doesn't say why, but Detective Norval said that the dogs were regurgitating blood, which police assumed they had gotten into at the scene. So that might have had something to do with it, whatever. Wait, do police know for sure, though, whose blood the dogs had gotten into at the scene? Like, how do we know the blood was Cherise's and didn't come from, I don't know, say, someone that attacked that night? We don't know for sure, but police are pretty confident that the blood Tsunami and Mayday got into belonged to Cherise. And the detective says that there's no indication the dogs did get into a fight with a killer or anyone else. And this is actually important, too. Actually, investigators checked local hospitals. There were no reports of, like, any kind of dog bite type injuries at the time of the shooting.

So basically, long story short, both dogs spent the night of the 12th at animal control recovering and sleeping off the tranquilizers. And then the next day, around 11 o'clock in the morning, Eugene came to claim them. But he didn't take them home right then and there. You see, police had actually put a hold on the dogs because they were considered evidence in Cherise's death investigation. This might be the first time I've ever heard of a prophet becoming a part of probable cause. Yeah. Now, the Kennel staff told Eugene that they couldn't release Mayday and Tsunami until police gave the okay. That afternoon, investigators went to the Kennel, took the dog's callers for evidence, and then the dogs were free to go. What's super interesting is that according to animal care records, a woman called the Kennel on December 14th to ask about the dogs.

She told staff there that she wanted to see if she could adopt them because she was a friend of Cherise's and they'd grown up together. She also told them that she, quote, just found out as of today that Cherise was killed by her husband, end quote. Wait, what? Did I miss something? Had police named Eugene as a suspect? Police have not made any announcements about Eugene being a suspect. But I think she said it because by this point, some people, including some of Cherise's own family members, are thinking that Eugene could have been involved. Well, I mean, he is the husband, so... Right, but that's not the only reason. Cherise had been spending more time with her family in the weeks leading up to her death. And according to her aunt, Deborah, Cherise had recently opened up about her issues, issues she had with Eugene, whose nickname was Bopit.

So Cherise started calling Deborah pretty much every day, and they talked for hours. And during their marathon phone session, Cherise said Eugene had been keeping secrets from her. Now, the details are a little hazy on this because obviously we can't talk to Cherise. But Deborah says that the first major thing to come to light was that Cherise found out that Eugene had lost his job. He'd been employed at the Indianapolis Water Company for years while also working part-time at UPS. Wait, so two jobs, a wife and a girlfriend on the side, like, when did this guy even sleep? Right? Now, what's important is actually Cherise's family says Eugene and Jane, remember his girlfriend, that's what we're calling her, worked together at UPS, and that's how they met. So he actually probably managed to see her while working there.

Anyway, the water company that he worked at was sold to a new company in 2011. And when the ownership changed, Eugene was required to take a drug test to keep his job. He couldn't pass the drug test and is not clear if he got fired or quit, but either way, he was no longer working there by the winter of 2012. But according to Deborah, Eugene never informed Cherise about that whole situation. But at some point, Cherise had found a letter or a document about him losing his job, and that was the catalyst for her to really start digging around and learning more about what he'd been up to. Because again, if you think someone's going to work, like, what are you doing all day? Right.

And moreover, it's like, hey, if you're lying about this, what else are you hiding? Yeah, is this some sort of domino effect? Right. Deborah says Cherise also found out about some property that Eugene and Jane owned together. Plus, Eugene had retired from UPS by then. But apparently, again, he's still leaving the house every day acting like he was going to work. So from there. You said that in the days leading up to her death that she absolutely knew that he was having an affair?

Oh, yes. Definitely. Yeah. She found out every time. Deborah even says Cherise was planning to leave Eugene. She says she was sleeping with the enemy. And she was ready to go. She pined the ring and everything. It was gone. She didn't want to be with him.

Serious. Wow. OK, so back up. Had Cherise actually found out about Jane years ago, like Eugene said? Or did she just find out about her, like, right before she died? So we're not sure about that. It is possible Cherise found out years before and maybe thought the affair was over only to find out right before she died that it was still going on. But it's also possible that she didn't know anything about it until right before she died.

I mean, with all that tension, Eugene's explanation about how he and Cherise were buddies just doesn't seem to add up to me. Like, this doesn't sound like a couple who would want to be joking around about their anniversary coming up. Definitely not. Although Deborah isn't sure if Cherise ever got the chance to confront Eugene about everything. So maybe Cherise hadn't said anything yet. Or maybe she brought up some issues, but, like, not other issues. I don't know.

Maybe Eugene lied about the whole conversation. We just don't know the exact timing of who found out what, when, and exactly what point it was addressed between Cherise and Eugene. Or if it ever was addressed before Cherise died. Here's what's wild, though. The state of her marriage wasn't the only thing bothering Cherise in the time leading up to her death. She was actually telling other people that she felt like her life was in danger. When Cherise and her brother's wife, Linda, went to vote together on Election Day in November 2012,

Cherise told Linda that she felt unsafe going out in public. She felt like somebody was following her at one point. So that's why whenever she went walking, she always had her gun. She always had it in a pouch. She said she never left home without it. Cherise told Deborah that she thought someone driving a blue blazer with dark tinted windows was following her. She said she didn't know if she was being paranoid or not, but she was freaked out. So did police ever look for the blazer after Cherise's death?

Detective Norvell said that they did give it some attention, but the vehicle never turned up and pretty much the lead died there. Now, obviously, Cherise had some pretty heavy stuff on her mind. But there were also really positive things going on in her life. Like, she was very devoted to her faith and had recently become a member of the New Haven Missionary Baptist Church. Bishop Charles McLean Jr. is a pastor of the church, and he remembers when he first met Cherise about a year and a half before her death. She heard about us by word of mouth and visited a Bible study and then a Sunday morning she said she just couldn't get enough. She was hooked, so to speak, and she continued to be faithful up until the very end.

She carried a light. I haven't seen that in a lot of people, but she stuck out no matter where she was. And I believe that was synonymous to her personality and to the spirit that lived in her. Cherise even decided to get baptized at the church. I baptized her. It was her second baptism, but she stated that she had gone through a few things and had understood that her walk with Christ was a little different than when she was smaller, and she wanted to rededicate her life and be rebaptized, and so we honored that. Eugene knew how much the church meant to Cherise, so when it's time to plan her homegoing, he decides to have it there, and a homegoing is a traditional African-American Christian funeral service

which gives people a chance to be together and mourn while also celebrating their loved one going home to heaven. And was Eugene a member at this church too? Well, I'll let Bishop McLean answer that one. She came on her own. She would come by herself every Sunday. In fact, I didn't know about a spouse or anything until the very end. We never knew she was even married. I'm sorry, what? I know. Honestly, that's a detail that has just stuck with me. I mean, clearly this church and the people there meant a lot to Cherise,

and maybe it just goes back to her being a private person. I don't know, but when I heard that, I just thought it was wild. Bishop McLean says that he never even heard Cherise mention Eugene, like not even in passing. So as you can imagine, this now is a lot for the church to take in. I mean, one day Bishop McLean is getting to know Cherise, baptizing her, and the next day he's helping the husband that he didn't even know existed plan a homegoing service for this vibrant woman who had been totally fine the last time he saw her. It shook me. I've had several tragedies since I was the pastor, but, you know, accidents and things of that nature. But this is the first up until this day, and I've been here 13 years,

that I've ever experienced that pastorally, someone's life being taken in that manner. On December 22nd, one day before Cherise's 52nd birthday, the church is packed with people who wanted to say their goodbyes. Playing close officers are also there so they can see who shows up, who doesn't show up, and how people act. Eugene really goes all out for this homegoing. Cherise's family says that he bought her new jewelry to wear, a program for the service was filled with photos of them together, of Cherise as a kid, of family, their dogs, and there was even a message printed in it that Eugene wrote to his wife telling her how much he loved her and missed her. They even had a joint burial plot.

All the actions you would expect from a devoted grieving husband. But here's the thing, Eugene's behavior at the funeral actually raises more suspicion. Now, you guys all know that we always tell you crime junkies, everyone grieves differently, and you can't judge someone else's grief right or wrong. Totally. But I do think it's relevant how people were perceiving it, people close to Cherise. So I want you to hear what Cherise's pastor has to say about Eugene's demeanor during the funeral. Now, I know everybody does not mourn the same.

I've buried hundreds of people. Before I became the pastor, I used to be the chapel minister at a local funeral home. So I've seen just about every level of grieving and the response to it. But in this instance, it seemed very, I was very unsettled by his response, his body language. He showed no emotion, none. Like he didn't care? Like he wasn't even here. And we have people that didn't know her, but for a year and a half with tears in their eyes.

And he was just kind of, I'm here, but I'm not. And it was that way from the time I met him here to shake his hand until the time we went to the burial site. He didn't say a word. He didn't say, hey man, he didn't nod. He just sat there very stoic and reserved. Bishop McLean remembers Eugene sitting apart from Cherise's family at the church. They were all in the front pew, but Eugene sat at one end, apparently by himself. And there was this like big gap between him and her close relatives.

He was isolated from the very beginning. And we all was kind of like, what's his deal? What's going on? Is that the husband? You know, and it wasn't just me. It was even the leaders and the people that were on the platform, choir stand, looking out. So these aren't just the feelings of one pastor who, by the way, is also a captain with the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Oh, yeah.

Cherise's sister-in-law, Linda, even remembers funeral guests commenting on Eugene's strained, detached attitude to the family. It was unbelievable. He just sat there like it was a big deal. By the time of Cherise's homegoing, police are confident she didn't intentionally shoot herself. But that doesn't mean they can call it homicide either. They still have to consider the option that Cherise died as a result of some kind of tragic accident. And Eugene certainly seems to think that that's the case. On Christmas Eve, he calls Detective Norvell with some news.

He had found Cherise's gun pouch, which he refers to as a fanny pack at their home. And Linda said that Cherise always carried her gun in that pouch, right? Right, but it wasn't found at the scene. And because Cherise didn't have the pouch, Eugene tells the detectives that she must have been carrying the gun in her coveralls. Now, the coveralls she was wearing were actually an old pair of Eugene's. And he says that the hip pockets had holes in them, so Cherise would have had to carry the gun in the breast pocket. And since she was right-handed, he thinks that she would have kept the gun in the right breast pocket. So basically, Eugene is saying that Cherise didn't have her gun pouch.

She couldn't carry her gun in her hip pockets, so she must have had it in this pocket on the right side of her chest. Exactly. And he's even more sure that this is an accident because of something that had happened before. He tells police that Cherise's gun had jammed during a recent trip they'd taken to the shooting range together. And he wasn't sure if she consistently checked to make sure the safety was on. It also goes on to say that Cherise had mentioned wanting to carry her gun with a round chamber, like locked, loaded, and ready to go. But he warned her not to do that because he thought that it was too dangerous. And then he even implies to the detective that Cherise was kind of accident-prone, saying she was, quote, not clumsy, but she had her moments.

So he's essentially giving them, like, a ton of reasons to say, hey, I think she shot herself accidentally. Right. Now, all of what he said could make an accident more plausible. But of course, there are still a lot of questions surrounding Eugene. I mean, you can't ignore the fact that his timeline is way off. He has no solid alibi, and he carried an affair on for years behind his wife's back. Still, while police have their suspicions, they want to avoid tunnel vision. So before Detective Norvel hangs up the phone with Eugene on Christmas Eve, he asks him to take a polygraph exam. And Eugene actually agrees.

On January 9th, 2013, about a month after Cherise's death, Eugene sits down with a state police polygraph examiner for a pre-test interview, which is the first step in the overall exam process. He gives police the same timeline of Cherise's last night. Details don't change, and he also talks a lot about the two dogs. German shepherds are considered to be one of the most loyal dog breeds, and clearly Mayday and Tsunami could be really ferocious when it came to protecting Cherise. Eugene says that that'd been the case since they'd gotten the dogs. Like, they would go bananas even when Cherise wasn't in any danger.

Eugene remembers the dogs getting aggressive when someone tried to give her a hug once. So he's sure there's no way a stranger could have approached Cherise on the trail, disarmed her, and shot her without the dogs mauling that person. Wait, so at the time of this polygraph, does everyone know for a fact that the gun found at the scene was Cherise's? Or is there still a question of that? Well, Eugene thinks it's a proven fact that the gun found at the scene was Cherise's. Again, she owned one that was the exact same kind. And the coroner had already told him that the bullet used in the shooting was recovered during Cherise's autopsy.

So, like, he's under the impression that the police had already matched the bullet to her gun. But actually, at this point, police do not know that for a fact. They're confident the firearm from the scene is Cherise's gun, but they don't actually have any lab reports back yet. So nothing that officially ties that specific gun to the rifling marks on the bullet found in Cherise. So as it stands, Eugene is sure that Cherise didn't intentionally shoot herself. He's sure the dogs would have protected her if a stranger was trying to harm her. And he also can't think of anyone they know who would want to kill her. So the polygraph examiner asked him, okay, what do you think happened?

And Eugene says that he's been going over the possible scenarios in his head, and he has a theory which he felt could help explain everything. And brace yourself, Brett, because it's a doozy. So in this interview before his polygraph exam, Eugene tells investigators that he believes it's possible that their dogs, Mayday and Tsunami, accidentally shot Cherise. Wait, the dogs did it? So we're taking the dogs from evidence to, I'm sorry, suspects? Is that really what he said?

Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too. But in fairness, it's not like he's saying Mayday or Tsunami picked up the gun and aimed at her and fired. His thought is, maybe she had the gun in that breast pocket of the coveralls, the safety wasn't on, and it had around in the chamber, and one of the dogs jumped on her, causing it to fire. And I know it feels like a reach, but believe it or not, dogs have accidentally shot their owners before. It's not like a daily occurrence or anything, but it's not unheard of. Actually, the Washington Post reported that there were at least 10 different cases of dogs shooting their owners from 2004 to 2015. And since then, at least three other people have been shot by their dogs, a guy from New Mexico in 2018,

a woman from Oklahoma in 2019, and just last year, a man from Texas. But the dogs being the accidental shooters isn't Eugene's only theory. He also says maybe Cherise slipped and fell and that caused the gun to go off. Basically, every theory he offers revolves around this being an accident. Eugene tells the test examiner that this whole situation has been a nightmare for him, and he just wants it to be over with. He also says that he really misses his wife, which he admits is a surprise, even to him, because he didn't think he would miss her so much. Is he saying that he thought he wouldn't miss her after she was dead?

Yeah, investigators don't take that as a confession or anything. I guess you had to be there to hear how it sounded, but it did strike some of the detectives as really off. So the polygraph examiner peppers Eugene with a few more questions and asks him hypothetical stuff, like, what should happen to a person who kills their wife? Eugene's responses are all, you know, they should go to jail, and, you know, if someone's unhappy in their relationship, they should just leave, that kind of thing. But as investigators learn, Eugene had a big incentive to stay in his marriage. Because it turns out, Cherise had two life insurance policies, which combined were worth nearly half a million dollars. She had a policy from all state for 200,000, and a policy from Protective Life for 250,000.

Whoa. Yeah, and really, this is a huge surprise to everyone. All in all, Eugene and Cherise didn't seem to be struggling financially, but they weren't out like buying super expensive stuff or living extravagantly either. I mean, they had a modest two bedroom home and they drove older model cars. Cherise made $41,000 a year at Pepsi. And Eugene, remember, is no longer working at either of his previous jobs by December 2012, although he does say that he gets a pension from UPS. And apparently he'd also invested in a couple of small businesses, but he tells detectives that those haven't really been successful. And again, like I mentioned, they don't have any kids, so this really seems like a lot of life insurance money, of which Eugene is the sole beneficiary.

And listen, he's not ignorant to the fact that police see the money as a strong motive. Here, but these are some verbatim quotes from Eugene that Detective Norvell included in his affidavit. Can you read them for us? Yeah. Eugene said, quote, if I would have been with her that night. Hmm, this really would have been even more of a nightmare. I'll probably be in jail. I mean, considering everything that y'all got.

I mean, well, I don't know what y'all have. I mean, you know, but it's just wild. Other than the fact that my fingerprints wouldn't have been on the gun. I mean, say, for example, we were walking and she slipped and the gun went off. It's a wild scenario to think about. End quote. He goes on to say that he wishes he could have been there with Cherise that night, but he doesn't elaborate. So his pre-polygraph interview is definitely enlightening to investigators.

But now it's time for the actual polygraph. The examiner asks Eugene three relevant questions. One, did you shoot Cherise? Two, are you the one who shot Cherise? And three, do you know for sure who shot Cherise? Eugene answers no to all three. And when the examiner scores Eugene's test, the results come back as inconclusive and very close to failure. A second examiner analyzes the test just for another opinion.

And that examiner also scores it at near failure. They even check the results a third time using an electronic scoring system as a reference. And that system scores the results as a failure. But ultimately the test is deemed inconclusive. So Eugene didn't straight up fail, but he didn't pass either. Even when he's confronted with this information, he doesn't budge. Eugene says that he didn't kill his wife and he doesn't know who did. And he even agrees to take another polygraph.

True to his word, he's back with investigators on January 22nd for round two. Eugene and the examiner cover a lot of the same ground during his pre-test interview that they did the first time. And his theories haven't changed either. He doesn't think it was suicide. He doesn't think it was another stranger attack because the dogs would have stopped whoever came at Cherise and so on. He still believes the dogs could have done it accidentally. In fact, now he actually has a specific dog in mind. He thinks it's their male dog, Mayday, the one that liked to jump.

So again, if Cherise had her gun in the coveralls pocket, Mayday could have jumped on her, caused it to fire accidentally, so on. Oh wait, back up for a second. I want to bring up something you said earlier that the dogs weren't leashed when the police found them. Why didn't Cherise have the dogs on leashes if they were so aggressive? I don't know, but her brother Keith says that the dogs never went far from Cherise and they always obeyed her. So, I mean, they could have been so well behaved that maybe she figured there wouldn't be any issues with the dogs going after other people or animals because she'd be able to control them. I mean, even the vet told Nina that the dogs were very responsive to Cherise's command. Now, again, in this interview, Eugene and the polygraph examiner also talk about Jane.

Eugene says that she was his, quote, business partner, but that the one thing led to another and they ended up starting an affair. Did they really have a business together or is he just referring to them working together at UPS? There's no elaboration on that in the affidavit, but remember, Deborah said that Cherise had just found out about some property that they like owned together. Now, Nina did find records of two real estate transactions between Eugene and Jane that took place before Cherise's death. One's from 2000, the other's from 2005, so it's possible that whatever business partnership he's referring to has something to do with these real estate transactions. Now, Eugene says that he and Jane kept doing business together after Cherise found out about their affair and they also kept having sex from time to time as well. But according to him, Cherise did not know that he was still romantically involved with Jane. He says that he's sure of that. Cherise thought it had ended.

But her aunt Deborah says that she absolutely knew. Right. The examiner asks Eugene about the life insurance in this interview as well. And Eugene admits that people will do some bizarre things for money. But he insists that wasn't an issue in his marriage, that as long as their bills were paid, they were satisfied. And he goes on to say that, you know, if you think about it, $450,000 really isn't a lot of money. Um, to who? Yeah, I was just saying, we have different ideas of a lot of money. Yeah.

Eugene says that basically after all the expenses, like Cherise's funeral, paying off their debts, that he only had like $75,000, $80,000 left. Only. And after that, yeah, only. And after that, he tells investigators it's not enough money to kill someone over. And how much did her funeral cost? Well, he tells police that it was over $75,000, but they later find out it was like, actually not like, it was exactly $22,241. Which, still, a lot of money don't get me wrong, but like way off from what he said. Yeah, that's kind of a lot to be off by, not just a few bucks. Yeah.

Now ultimately, the second polygraph test is a lot like his first one. The examiner asks Eugene if he shot Cherise, and also if he participated in her shooting. And he gives the same answers, no, all down the line. And once again, the results are inconclusive, close to failure. So even though they're not admissible in court, the polygraph exams are helping to focus the investigation, which is what Detective Norvell hoped they would do. And the focus is steadying right on Eugene. The more police learn about him, the more they suspect that he murdered his wife. But Eugene, he is still keeping secrets.

And this is only the beginning. As investigators pull together phone records and wait for lab reports, they plan for one more polygraph exam. Only this time, it's going to be Jane in the hot seat. I'm going to tell you about that in part two of this episode, which is available right now everywhere you listen.