Morbid - Episode 321: The Murder of Leith Von Stein

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

In 1988 three college students came up with a plan to murder one of those students entire family in order to get money from a life insurance policy. Chris Pritchard, James “Bart” Upchurch and Neal Henderson all sat around for weeks on end trying to figure out the best way to kill Chris’s family and get away with it, all so that they could spend their days loafing around and not have to get real jobs or continue on with college. In the end, after multiple plans that didn’t work, only one member of Chris’s family members would end up dead; his stepfather Leith Von Stein. But who would take the fall? A list of verified Go Fund Me pages for Uvalde shooting victims and their families  A list of verified Go Fund Me pages for Buffalo shooting victims and their families  As always, thank you to our sponsors: BetterHelp: Morbid listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/morbid Brickhouse Nutrition: Join me and take Field of Greens too to help get you started, I got you 15% off your first order. And another 10% off when you subscribe for recurring orders. Visit FieldofGreens.com and use promo code MORBID Everlane: Go to everlane.com/MORBID and sign up for 10% off your first order Little Spoon: Get 50% OFF your first order with the code MORBID50 at checkout American Home Shield: Right now, MORBID listeners can take $50 off their most comprehensive plans ever See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's ANGI, or download the app today. Hey, Weirdos. I'm Melina. I'm Ash. And this is morbid in the morning. It sure is, so we might sound a little froggy, but we're gonna get out of it, don't worry. Just a little ribbit, ribbit.

I'm coming out of my bronchitis, turned walking pneumonia, you know, feeling good, taking the antibiotics that I have to take. You're a wild girl. I'm doing it, I feel much better. I don't sound as sultry, but you know. You still do. You still do. You still do. Thank you. I appreciate that.

You have a sultry natural voice, Lisa. I appreciate that. Get it. But I think we wanted to start this episode out. Just chatting really quick about like some pretty heavy shit. Yeah. We're not going to talk about it for too long, just because like, it's, Yeah. We're not gonna talk about it for too long,

just because it's like really just the saddest thing that we've all been living the last couple of weeks or a few weeks that you'll be, I mean, for years, we're a very long time. But the last few weeks, I think, there's been a couple of things that have just been like, what the fuck? I mean, the first one that's been like on my mind for weeks and I've just been

like holy shit, was the top grocery store store like racist massacre in Buffalo. That was shocking and unfortunately it was one of those things where it's like, oh, another one. That's another one. That's the thing with all of these lately. I'm like, oh, yeah. Oh, we haven't learned anything yet. Oh, okay. Okay. But then this one was like mostly elderly.

Right. Just grocery shopping. And it was just like most of them were just like, just, and they, all of them were just at the fucking grocery store. Because that's the thing. Everywhere you go now, you have to think about that in the back of your head. Like 10 people killed just going to the grocery and killed by a racist piece of shit. Literally had racial slurs written on his gun and

Like now all this shit is coming out the like, you know, I always like It's hard to like get into with like, when people will say like, oh, he was radicalized online during the pandemic. And it's like, you have to have something in you. Yeah, of course you do. You don't just get turned to that like, no, you're an evil person if you're a lot, if you're able to be radicalized into that, into being that racist and evil of a human that you're just going to go kill a bunch of elderly black people who are shopping for fucking groceries.

Like, if you're capable of doing that, then something has always come around. Something's wrong with you, always. But then it's like, and also, this whole like during the pandemic, he was bored. It's not the pandemic at all. It's like, no, and you know what, you're a piece of shit. And you know what? Yeah, the internet is shit. It really is. And people are shit on the internet. It's true. Yeah. I think we're all seeing that. Like, it's just like getting worse and worse. And I mean, the only thing. And now this community has to struggle to figure out what they do

with top grocery store. Right. And it's such an important place. It's important and people need it for food. It's a place like with a community like fought to get open to begin with. Right. And then it's like, there's something called like a food desert that can happen when like these stores go away. Right.

And it's like people don't want to have access to food. And it's like the things they need. And it's like, but now they're trying to figure out, do we reopen? When do we reopen when do we reopen? What happened here? And these people that own this grocery store and work for this grocery store shouldn't have to be faced with that

because of one racist piece of shit who just ruined everything. Yeah, and it's like the whole, he wrote a manifesto, get fucked with your manifesto. He's like, these stupid, and it's like, God, it's not making, the word manifesto makes it seem like so much more dramatic and cool. You wrote in his journal about his hatred.

It's not fucking the manifesto. Stop using the word manifesto. He wrote just like, he spewed hate. That's what he did. He just spewed hate moment all over the place. And it sounds like though the community is like a really great community. And it's like, it sounds like though the community is like a really great community. And it looks like they're trying to find a way to make this instead of like a place of

sadness now and loss, which isn't around. That's hard. Because it is a place of sadness and loss right now. I mean, somebody, I mean, people lost their grandparents. Like one lady was 86 years old, she just left her husband at the nursing home and was stopping on her way home just a grocery shop. That's heartbreaking. Like, somebody else found out that their loved one had died by seeing them shot on social media. Like, what the... Like, when and where are we?

Where are we? What's happening? Like, where are we at? Yeah, we need a huge overhaul of so many things. And that's like, I can't even get into it. But it looks like the community is trying to figure out, you know, do we open scholarships in their names? Like, I think they're thinking so great. And they're thinking about doing like murals of their faces.

They should. They want the walls to make it a place of like remembrance and like honoring them. It's going to be so hard. Like, it's going to be really hard, but like, I'm glad they're looking to do something like that because it's just such really hard, but like, I'm glad they're looking to do something like that because it's just such a necessary thing, of course. But like, I can't stop thinking them and I can't stop thinking of all their families.

Like, their loved one just went to the grocery store. Like, I can't get over it. You live to be 87 or like, however old. And this is how your life ends. That's the thing. It's like you're 86 years old, you're however old, and you've lived this long, and some piece of shit takes you out all your groceries. You claim that he got bored on the internet, and it like comes in and takes you out.

Like that's insane. And then, of course, the newest thing that has happened that made us want to like talk about all of this, because it just just like these two things just really hit was the youvalde in elementary school shooting in Texas that happened. 21 kids and adults. I never thought we would see another elementary school shooting after Sandy Hook. Like what? But when nothing was done after Sandy Hook. Yeah. I like what? But when nothing was done after Sandy Hook, yeah, what, I mean, it's,

this one I can't even like, I feel like I'm just like, at a loss with this one because it's like, I have six year olds who are in kindergarten, you know what I mean? Like I have a two and a half year old that's gonna be entering school. I don't know how to.

I don't know if anybody sends their kid to school right now. I don't want to. I don't know how to. I don't know if you sends their kid to school right now. I don't want to. I don't know how to. I don't know what you do. And parents shouldn't have to think about that. Well, in teachers shouldn't have to think about that. This is my thing. Teachers took their jobs

because they love children and they love teaching children. They do a job that no matter what, 99% of us can't do. And we all learn that during the pandemic when we had to do some homeschool and everybody figured out, holy shit, why the fuck aren't teachers being paid a billion dollars

because it's hard. Legit. They have the fucking hardest job anyways. And then now they are expected to take the place of police and expected to be bulletproof vests for our children. Like these teachers are jumping on top of kids to take bullets for them, which I,

it's like I shouldn't, the teacher should not have to do that. It should not be expected, I'm sorry. And on top of that, they're paid shit, and they're forced to buy everything for their own classroom. Classrooms buy their own security shit now, because now they have to make sure that they have bats available on shit

to make sure that they can hide kids. And on top of that, we're putting kids into such stressful situations with like immersive trauma basically with these drills. Like I understand that these drills need to be done now because what's going on, but what if, because of what is going on, excuse me. But what the fuck, like where do we live everyone?

Well, that's the thing. It's like, okay, so we're gonna teach seven year olds to be reactive to an assault rifle instead of being proactive and making it that that doesn't need to be. Yeah, instead of the adult speed we're relying on the kids here. Right, I remember we didn't start doing those kind of drills until high school, because really there weren't that many school shootings at that point,

but then they started happening more and more, and I think I started maybe like sophomore year, and I was as a 16, 17-year-old terrified. Of course. Even during the drills, I can't imagine a fucking six year old, a five year old, hiding under their desk, and like, how do you explain that to that?

Well, that's the thing, and it's like, my kids are six. They don't even know what a gun is, really. No, they really don't. They don't have any kind of real conception of what it is. We literally don't even have like water guns. No, like, we just don't. And it's like not like, you know,

it's just been a thing that like, I've never had to tell them what a gun is because we don't watch things, like they don't watch things with it, like people getting shot. And stuff's really not a thing that needed to be said. And now it's like they're gonna go to school and come home one day and be like,

Mom, what is a gun? And why is a bad guy gonna come into my classroom and I have to hide from them? Like they're gonna be like, what the fuck? They're gonna be scared to go to school and then how are they gonna learn? Like all of these kids are gonna have crazy anxiety all the time when they start realizing how often this is happening. And also, I hate that I can't tell them that it won't happen. No, I can't.

How could you? And I can't, if I tell them this isn't going to happen, how can I be sure? I can't. And I'll lie to my kids. And if anything, all we've seen throughout the like history of all this is it's going to happen. And it's going to keep happening again and again and again, because no one is doing anything to stop it. We're all just saying, wow, that was really sad. And everybody gets up in arms for a week. And then we just let it go. And these 9, 10, and 11 year olds that all just got shot in their fourth grade classroom while watching Lilo and the Stitch are just gonna be names that we talk about every once in a while

like later down the line. Like yeah, remember that was really sad. Right. But it's like in these teachers that sacrifice themselves and tried their damnedest to protect those kids when the police in Texas sat outside for 40 plus minutes. And that's inexcusable. I don't know anybody who could ever defend that kind of shit.

No, and actually I said, and I just said did nothing. I shouldn't say did nothing. They were arresting parents that were begging them to go in there and save their children. And it's like the parents are willing to go in there. They did. And also, it's one guy, everybody. You're an entire police force.

Go in there. I know that's what it is. Like I was talking about it with John and John was like, yeah, nobody wanted to be that one guy that went in there. Nobody wanted to be the first one when that's their job. And like cool. Because they're scared because he has an assault rifle. It's just like the police don't even have those.

The whole thing is infuriating, but and it's just like my brain starts to hurt thinking about it and I just want to scream about it all the time. I get so fucking angry about it. It's just just shouldn't be happening and we really got to, like we got to do something in this country

because like about a lot of things. So a lot of things, but that is top of the list. And it all kind of trickles down like, you know, this kid was being a fucking creep online and he was posting a bunch of threats and shit online and nothing got caught. There needs to be a big overhaul of a bunch of threats and shit online and nothing got caught. There needs to be a big overhaul of a lot of things here and many different areas but it's okay.

So very frustrating, very, very frustrating but again, nothing like I don't want to be, I can't even say like my thoughts are what these families they are, but like that doesn't matter. It doesn't do anything. It doesn't matter. It doesn't bring you back to spend. And I don't want to be the person sitting here saying thoughts and prayers. No, because I don't want to do that. I want something to happen.

So that like these kids didn't die in vain. No, and it's like, oh God. It's like this is just, it's really sucks. It sucks. And seeing like one of the fathers was on and like, just breaking down, being like, I just want my little girl back. Just want my baby back. And like, I couldn't protect her.

Like, I'm about to cry. So it's like, it's like, you're thinking about it. Because you're thinking about your own daughter. You can't protect them. You're not there. No. Sorry. It's just like, no, it's in skin.

I can't. I can't, every day, that I drop them off at school. I'm like, I can't be there to protect you. And it sucks. And it's like, we shouldn't be feeling this one. And you know what, really fucking sucks is people will talk about this for a little bit. And then the next thing will happen

and people will start talking about something else like this never happened and nothing will come of it. And I know it's hard. With the way things are going right now. I know it's hard because I, we're at the same place. I don't know what to do. I'm just, we feel like we're screaming into the void

at this point, but like, something's gotta be done. And if something comes about that we can pass along to like spur some action, we'll do it, but like, we're just all trying here. And I know there's some go-fun mes and stuff, so we'll try to like wrangle those, definitely. And throw them in the show notes, and we'll try to wrangle those, definitely. And throw them in the show notes, and we'll try to let you guys know where you can,

because we're in the same boat, we're just trying to figure out where we can help. We wanna do something. How we can help, we're just trying to figure it out with you guys. So, I mean, we'll all kinda do this together. Hopefully, we'll all figure it out together. Right.

And we just had to talk about it, because we were like, how could we not? How could we sit here on a tree? Like, it's like, how could we sit here not say something about it? And it's like hard because it's like so many things happen in the world. Like we can't touch upon everything that happens in true crime news because that would be the entire show. Of course. Seven days a week. Like we'd be doing 12 hours a day of just being like, and this happened and this happened. But there's some things that just like need to be at least mentioned here and talked about just so

we can all go like, yeah, fuck, like, what can we do? And these were two things that have been like weighing heavily on my brain for weeks here, of course. So yeah, with that, you know, we're all in this together. Hopefully and we'll figure it out together and hopefully something will come out of it. I really hope something will come out of it. After every school shooting that's happened, like, come on. And just like mass shooting.

I was going to say mass shooting, exactly, because we were just talking about a more mature story shooting. And now it's like, all these hate inspired shootings that are happening and it's like getting worse and worse. But something's got to happen. Something's got to give here. So we'll share whatever we can share. If you guys have anything you want to share with us that you want us to share, we'll try to share too. Like go fun, knees and all that for the families, but yeah, we just had to touch upon it. And we'll go into our episode now, but that was just something we just had to get off our chest, you guys.

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So you don't have to see anybody on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Morbid listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash morbid. That's better-h-e-l-p.com slash morbid. And unfortunately there's no really good way to segue out of that. No, but it was necessary to talk about it. There's not. We're going to talk about another terrible thing today, and it is the murder of a man named

Leith von Stein, and it is incredibly senseless as most pretty much all murders are pretty much. So Leith von Stein was born in Queens, New York on March 16, 1946. His parents were Howard and Marie von Stein. That's a great last name. I was literally just going to say, you know how I feel about a von last name. von Stein.

von or van, I'm into it. Now, both Howard and Marie were from pretty well off families. So, when Howard's brother Richard started his own dry cleaning company, it wasn't a shocker that the company automatically started doing great business. So Richard ended up convincing his brother Howard to join forces. And he was like, come on, move on out to Winston Salem to help me grow camel city dry cleaners. Yeah. Why wouldn't you? Absolutely. So after talking it over Howard and Maria agreed, they were like, I think this would be

a good choice for our small family or cute little fam here, and it would set them up for a good future. So with that, they packed up their car, little baby leaf, and they headed out to North Carolina. And over the years, I'm sure they were very happy that they did so because the business did incredibly well. Good. It ended up being one of the most successful dry cleaning businesses in America.

Damn. Which like, oh go. So there were multiple branches. There was close to 150 employees between all of them. And that meant that someday, literally Thonstein would inherit a good amount of money. And with that comes not good things. Yes. Great responsibility. But before that, not good things. Yes, great responsibility.

But before that, he had a lot to get through in life. He had a pretty typical high school experience. He played football, had a great group of friends. He was said to be super kind, somebody who was just easy to get along with, like very talkative. Everyone thought he had a great sense of humor and that he was very quick-witted. So after he graduated high school, he tried out college,

and he decided upon entering the School of Engineering at North Carolina State University. But it was all very overwhelming, and he really wasn't doing so well. But this was right around the time of the Vietnam War. So instead of finishing up college, he actually ended up getting drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. Okay, so he was sent over to Germany and luckily he was mostly able to do administrative work until he was honorably discharged in 1970. Now after that, he went back to college this time

He went to Gilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina and while he was there He realized that he had a knack for computers. So once he finished his degree, he got a job at this insurance company called Intagon. And it was there that he met a fellow computer lover, Bonnie Bates Pritchard, love it, a single mother of two. Now Bonnie was also from North Carolina. She grew up in a town called Welcome. Like how cute is that? Welcome. Welcome. It's a very cute is that? Welcome. It's a very rural part of North Carolina, filled with rural jurors and a lot of farmland.

Now growing up, Bonnie really loved animals. She loved reading. She loved computers. So she had been with Intagon for a while. She got hired two years after she finished high school. So pretty much right out of high school. She dove into adulthood really quickly after she graduated. She got married pretty young to a man named Steve Pritchard. He was actually still a senior when they decided to get married.

Unless the near and a half later, Bonnie was pregnant with their first child, a boy that they decided to name Christopher. Now about two years later, they had a daughter named Angela. But things were already headed downhill as far as the marriage was concerned at this point. And right around the time Chris turned four, Bonnie and Steve called it quits. And they were officially divorced around the time that he turned five. Okay. Now it would be about three more years, give or take, before Bonnie would meet Leith and working together.

But when they did, they hit it off right away. Like, they were constantly chatting with each other. They kind of started with like a friendship, which is so important. And adorable. And then they started dating in October of 1976, and they were married by August of 79. So they did it for a little while. I was going to say that's like a perfect little, like, jump into that. Yeah, I thought so too. Now in the beginning of things, Leith took on a father role for Chris and Angela because their biological father

had pretty much fallen out of the picture after the divorce. But as the kids got older and they moved to their teenage years, they didn't really like their stepdad, even though he had been around until like pretty much forever. Both of them started drinking and smoking in high school. They were dabbling in other things, like psychedelics.

And in Chris's case, he was doing cocaine like the right out of high school. Which obviously only led to further tension between them and their parents. Yeah. Your parents aren't going to be stoked when you're 18 and rip in lines of coke and drop in tabs of acid.

No, I can safely say no. Same. And especially, Leith, like he's the father role in this house. Yeah, and he's trying, and I'm sure it's like a step parent, you're trying to like, have a handle on the whole situation. Right. You're like, man, this is not working out.

And it's hard, I'm sure too, because it's like you wanna have a handle on the situation, and you have been around since they were a little, but technically you're not their dad, so it's like they have that in their back pocket to you. And you know they can pull it out whenever. Yeah. So Chris goes off to college at North Carolina State

and he only dives way more into drinking and doing drugs with his friends. But he also finds a newfound love for the game Dungeons and Dragons. All right. He had played when he was younger, but when he got to college, he met other people that would play and they just like loved it. That was, that like, I'm sorry, I mean, you know you're good, but I was just gonna say I was watching Stranger Things like the New Season.

Oh, and Dungeons and Dragons is stoked. Yeah, it's really good so far, but Dungeons and Dragons is like a big part of it. Oh, is it really? It's a big portion of it. Yeah, it's like a very big part of it. I didn't know that. And when you watch it, you're just like, damn, that is a very intricate game. I have never played Dungeons and Dragons. But you know, what's funny is my dad, I don't know if he still is, but he used to be a Dungeons and Dragons head.

That's, it's like very intense. It looks fun too. And it looks like you have to be like extraordinarily creative. And like, because you're making up your own world. Yeah, and like quick on your feet, like with your decision making and all that. It's just watching it, I was like, wow, like this takes a lot. I feel like people who play Dungeons and Dragons

don't get that kind of credit for actually being, like that's a very intense thing to do. It's not just a board game. And a lot of people treat it that way and they treat it like it's like, that's a very intense thing to do. It's not just a board game. And a lot of people treat it that way, and they treat it like it's like, oh, that's so nerdy. And it's pretending to be like elves or something. It's like, you have to come up with like,

George R.R. Martin style backstories and new stories. I would know. Literally, you're writing, you're basically writing your own script in your head. You're writing like an epic fantasy novel every time for these things. It's just like wild. So if you play Dungeons & Dragons, writing your own script in your head. You're writing like an epic fantasy novel every day for these things. It's just like wild.

So if you play Dungeons & Dragons, like hats off to you, man. That sounds rad. And it sounds like you're a pretty intense person like in a good way. Shout out to you, dad. Shout out to D&Ders, that thing. D&D heads everywhere.

So yeah, not these ones though, not these ones. I mean, there's bad eggs in every, yeah, of course. But I just wanted to clarify, like hats off not to you guys. Not to these guys. So he and his friends, Chris these ones though, not these. I mean, there's bad eggs in every, yeah, of course. But I just wanted to clarify, like, hats off not to you guys. Not to these guys. So he and his friends, Chris and his friends, they would get baked, they'd drop some acid, and they'd spend hours in their fantasy world,

which also, I'm like, well, you would drop acid and then play this game? Yeah, that sounds intense. I don't know. I don't know about that. I understand getting baked before playing. Like, that'd be a great experience. I guess that.

I feel like I would get really freaked out if I drop acid and played Dungeons and Dragons. I feel like that's a recipe for a bad trip. Yeah, like I'd be like, oh no, am I actually dead? Like, did you really kill my character? No, that actually abysse, that's laid me out. Right, they've got abysse over there. Look, over there.

Over there. So scary, but they really loved it. Now, because he was so involved though in like everything except his academic career, Chris's grades started to suffer. Yeah. And they got so bad within his first semester or first year at college that he ended up having to do summer school.

Oh, like your first year, I'm like, that's a bad hit. Yeah, that's a bad beginning. So Bonnie and Leith, they were less than pleased. Yeah. Especially because they were not only paying for Chris's entire tuitionith, they were less than pleased. Yeah, especially because they were not only paying for Chris's entire tuition, but they were also giving him $50 a week for spending money.

Oh, come on, man. And like, I'm sorry, when I got to college, my it was in fucking high school. I wasn't getting spending money. As soon as I had a job of my own, it was like, cool, that's how you make your money. You make your money. You make that money.

Like that, there you go. Yeah. But Chris, not so much. So when he got home on break, tension in the house was obviously at an all time high. Bonnie and Leith wanted to talk to him about what the fuck he was doing at school. And at some point, their conversation escalated. And things actually ended up getting so heated that Leith and Chris almost wound up getting physical with each other.

Oh damn. Like this was a big fight this night. Oh, that's not good. Now luckily Bonnie was able to step in before anything did get physical or escalate. But then later on at dinner, the fight broke out again. And actually according to the court documents in state versus up church, and we'll get into who up churches, Leith quote unquote challenged Chris to a fight, but he refused. Stop it. And I was like, that's not great. That's not great. I'm not sure if I'm not sure who's testing.

Yeah, that's based on, but whoof. That's not good. Yeah. Now that weekend kind of wrapped itself up. Chris was like, yeah, I'm going to go back to school quicker than I thought I was because this house sucks, but I understand why that house sucked because you've got to do good in school if I'm paying for it. But physical fights know no. Yeah. So Bonnie and Leith, they agreed that she should be the one to handle any ongoing school issues with Chris. Yeah. She was like, you know, she's like, you know what?

We give it a shot. Didn't work out. Yeah. Let's stop. Let's try something else. But that wasn't going to be the only trouble that Chris would run into during summer school. Because later on around July 4th, his sister Angela went out to North Carolina State, because they had plans for her to visit for that weekend.

But when she got there, she couldn't find Chris anywhere, couldn't get into contact with him. None of his friends knew where he was, or they just wouldn't tell her. Bonnie and Leith kept calling him over and over again, getting no answer. So they got so scared thinking something happened to him and tell her, Bonnie and Leith kept calling him over and over again, getting no answer. So they got so scared thinking something happened to him that they ended up filing a missing persons report and Leith was the one to file it.

Oh wow. Only for Chris to just show back up was a no explanation as to where he had been. Okay, he was like, I'm fine. What? And they were like, where were you? And he was like, I don't know, just hang it out. I was just around.

Okay. So it was at that point that Bonnie was like, if I'm gonna And he was like, I was hanging out. I was just around. Okay. So it was at that point that Bonnie was like, if I'm gonna continue to give you $50 a week for spending money, I'm gonna need a breakdown of every last thing you're spending that money on. Because I'm sending it to you to get things like groceries and maybe a coffee here or there. I'm not sending it to you so you can buy cocaine and drugs

and not do good at school. That's the thing It's like you are not getting that spending money just to buy drugs Right and come on and she obviously knew that he was like yeah into something and she's like I'm not gonna be funding that exactly so You know she's catching on to what he's doing and she's like yeah, and it's not for me and Chris was pissed about that obviously. Yeah. Yeah. So validated. Yeah.

Exactly. So he's mad about this. He's mad at his family. He fucking hates leaf all of a sudden. And sometime in his freshman year of college, he finds out that Leith's father has passed away, which meant that Leith was going to get a pretty large sum of money somewhere in the land of $2 million. Whoa. Yeah. Okay. Because he also knew Chris knew that Leith had some kind of insurance policy in place,

in case of his own death, and Chris knew that he and Angela, his sister, were named as beneficiary somewhere in that whole policy. Oh, this is getting messy whenever there's a policy involved. And somebody knows that there are benefits here. Yeah. I'm not telling anyone who's the benefit. No. No. My life insurance just kill me and you'll find out.

Yeah, there you go. And guess what? If you kill me, it's probably not you. Probably been nothing. And you won't get it because the slayer rule never went over that. Yeah, we did. Yeah. But anyways, what Chris didn't realize was that Leith's $700,000 life Insurance Policy came with some contingencies,

which literally all Life Insurance Policies come with some kind of contingency that people always forget about. They're always like, oh, I thought it was just freeing clear they would hand made check as soon as you died. Right, and to be able to never happen. I think people always think that they're gonna get like, they're just gonna get a check for $700,000.

And like, in most cases, you're gonna get like, a portion of that. Like, you're not gonna get the whole thing right away. Of course not. And that was not the case here, because first, Bonnie would get access to the spousal trust. I'm also like, did you just not think your mom was gonna get anything?

Like, what? They always forget the mom too. I'm like, yeah, there's a marriage there. I'm like, yeah, you know she married that. And that's the only reason why you're even a fucking beneficiary in the mom too. I'm like, yeah, there's a marriage there. I'm like, yeah, you know she married that. And that's the only reason why you're even a fucking beneficiary in the first place. So Bonnie would get a spousal trust. And then when she died, $600,000 from his policy

would go into a trust for the kids, but they wouldn't even get access to that money until Angela turned 35. And Chris was older. So I was like, you're not actually getting anything. Yeah. But not knowing about these contingencies about his trust fund money and piss that his stepfather

didn't seem to be interested in the spending any of the inheritance money on him and pissed in general about his stepdad. Chris started thinking about Leith's death and what he would do with all the money that he would be left with him if Leith were to die. Oh my God, where does it come to this? Where do these people come from?

It's always wild to me when people are like, yeah, you know what? I think I'll just murder someone for this money. It's like, when does that ever, first of all, when does that ever work out? Never. And to what the fuck is wrong with you? Like, what, Jesus. I'm like, your dad abandoned you and this man stepped into that role

and like took care of you for a little while and this is what you're gonna do. And it's just like nothing's worth that man. Like, even if he did suck. Yeah, and it's like he was not like like this viciously abusive man or something. At least I couldn't find anything much about that.

And even then it's like, dude, you can't murder someone. Like that's just like, It's a no-no. You just can't. But since he pretty much hated school, Chris started to fantasize about what it would be like to have all that money, not have to finish college, not have to get a job, and he became obsessed.

So most of the time that he was playing dungeons and dragons with his friends, he would bring up how angry he was with his stepdad, he would get into how he had a right to this money and what he would do with it if he had it. And then things just took a dark turn. Where Chris actually decided to act out his frustrations. Oh boy. So he and two of his close friends, Neil Henderson and James Bart Up Church, they were sitting around getting high, talking about who other than Leith and Chris is hatred toward the guy.

And then the topic came up about actually killing him. Oh my God, and then when more people get involved, it's even worse. And like three people are sitting together talking about killing a man for his money. Like the three college students that usually just like hang out together. That's just wild to me.

Like none of my friends even did the thing. Like you'll hear something where like a case where somebody's like, oh well you know how teenagers will just say, like I wish they would die. I'm like I'd never said that. I'm being honest with you. None of my friends ever said to me

that they wish their parents would die. That just never happened. Maybe I just happen to have a friend group that didn't have apparently these parents that people wish would die. But like, yeah, I never that people wish would die, but like, yeah, I never wished my parents would die. I never set it out loud.

Right. My friends didn't, that would concern me. So the fact that like these grown-ass people are sitting around being like, and like that they feel comfortable enough with each other to just bring that up as like a possibility, like just being like, you know what, like, what if he just, what if he just murdered him and that they don't think that the other person's gonna be like, what the fuck? I'm gonna call the police. Like don't say that to me. That's even scarier. Right. I also just can't imagine being there for a conversation where people were like, yeah, let's just kill him. I'd be like, I have to get out of here.

Yeah, I'd be like, please swallow me up, Earth. Please. Now, as the conversation progressed, it was more than Leith who was going to have to die, but also Bonnie and Angela if she was home. My God, yeah. When James brought up Angela, Chris just said, well, if she's there, then I guess her too.

But if she's not, that's fine too. Wow. Like, that is his sister. It's his sister. It's his sister for me. That is his whole last sister. Wow. If she's is his sister. It's his sister. It's his sister. That is his whole ass sister. Wow. If she's there, like, yeah, she can be collateral damage.

If not, that works too. If not, don't really care. Like that human who is my literal sister, that's the zero feeling. Insane. That's not even a feel. That's zero, like, just I lit it. No fuck's given.

No fuck's. Now, I'm sure that he knew to some degree that obviously some of his inheritance would be shared among the three of them, but he wanted all of it to himself, but to share with his friends. Because as the three of them sat there coming up with different ways

to kill his entire fucking family, Chris told his friends about all the things that he would say things. Yes, seriously, right? I'm like, you know what? You had to write the first time. That was actually a 40-in-sla. But he was telling them all about like what he would do for them with the money.

And he promised James Up Church that he would open a rush stront with him and buy a nice house in Raleigh. Also, how much do you think this... How much money do you think you're getting, bro? Well, that's the other thing. I'm like, you're gonna... oh, and we're at the beginning. Please just wait. James Up Church was also promised $50,000 and a Porsche.

Oh, I know Porsche. Get out of here. Get fucked. And Neil Henderson was gonna get the same amount. Only he would actually be more keen about getting a Ferrari out of the deal. If possible, please. Yes, I see. And Chris was like, oh my God, dude.

Yeah, no problem. He's like, I'm about class. Yeah, let's go. Wow. Unreal. So talking about the different possibilities and what methods of murder they thought would be best, uh, Chris and James decided that it would be a good idea

to start some kind of fire within the home, but have everybody drugged beforehand so that they would sleep through it and obviously not be able to escape. He sat there with his friend and said, yeah, let me sedate my mom who brought me into the world. My sister, who I've known my entire life and my stepdad who's been around since I was a kid,

let's sedate all of them and then leave them to die in a house fire so that you and me together can have nice cars and not finish school. What? Wow, are you fucking kidding me? I have no words, I really have no words. When these things I can't. Like I didn't understand killing Leith. I especially don't understand killing Leith,

your mom and your sister. Like whoa, this escalated so quickly. None of it makes sense. And when it's like a kid doing this to their parents, it's just like a 19 year old kid. Whoa. What the fuck? Like what the fuck happened here?

That's your mom, dude. Man, crazy. But that was the plan that they settled on. Wow. So Friday, July 22nd, Chris left school to make it seem like he was coming home for the weekend to get in some good family quality time. Jesus. And after that, he spent, or excuse me, and after he spent the night with them on Friday, he said, on Saturday,

he was going to be hanging out with some friends for most of the day, that he would come back and see them, and then he was going to head back to school. So he wasn't just hanging out with friends that day or anything like that. Instead, he was making his way back to campus so that he could scoop James up church, and the two of them could get going on their plan. So Friday night he spends the night at home, and then Saturday he drives back to school, gets James, and then drives back to the family's house. So he spends time with his family? Yes. The night before.

Like hung out with his family on Friday night, knowing full well that his plan the next day was for all of them to die in a house foul of fire after being sedated. Which is also like one of the most gruesome ways to die. That's the other thing. Like that is torture. There's no good way, but that's what you go with. So somehow James had gotten his hands on some sleeping pills, and when Chris pulled up at school, James just got in the car, hands them over. They make their way back to Washington, Washington, North Carolina. And before he went home to dose his entire family, Chris just dropped James off somewhere and was like, wait here until I get back. Okay. So this kid's just going to like hang out somewhere. Just waiting for him to kill his family. Yeah, totally. So would that Chris goes home? And he says,

oh, you guys want to have like a little cookout tonight? You guys want to do a little barbecue? I don't want to do a little barbecue. You want to do a little barbecue? I'd love to make you guys some hamburgers hot dogs maybe. I don't know about the hot dogs, but he definitely made hamburgers. He is about to kill them in a house fire. And he said, do you want to do some barbecue tonight?

You want to do a little barbecue tonight? Like, I don't know if he said that word for word, but he was like, you want to have a burger tonight? But he had a burger tonight. Cooked out tonight? Yeah, because he got to work making hamburgers for his entire family, but he laced the hamburgers with the sleeping pills. And then once he was done grilling them up,

he handed them out to his family members, knowing full well that he was subdating them for a fucking house fire. Wow. No over dinner, he explained, you know. I'm actually gonna head back to school tonight instead of tomorrow. I got a lot of stuff to do. So everybody finishes up dinner, Chris says his goodbyes, and then he goes to pick James up church back up. Now we can assume that Bonnie, Leith and Angela went to bed pretty quickly after he left.

And as they were sleeping, Chris and James went back to the house and tried to crush a fuse in the fuse box, so as to start a fire. Now, by some grace, they were not able to get the fuse crushed, so they decided to give up on this plan. They were like, that's not gonna work. Wow. So, like, not the overall plan of murder. They weren't, they were not giving up on that. Oh, absolutely. Just this specific means of carrying out multiple murders. Of course.

Now, James actually said, Chris, I have a better idea. Why don't we head to the Army surplus store? I'll get a machete and we can cut their heads off. Your whole family. Wow. First of all, in second of all, you went from like a very hands-off approach to a fully hands-off.

To the most hands-on approach. And like, I'm glad you're this stupid, but how are you going to make 3B headings look like an accidental death? Wow. How you gonna do that? The escalation that just occurred there? Yeah.

Is mind numbing. Now luckily they were deterred from this plan, but only because the army surplus store wasn't open. Wow. Thank goodness. Fortunate. So they'd have to come up with plan numero. Oh, Trace.

You think at some point they'd take something as a sign like this is not supposed to happen. Thank you. You're two plans in here and it's not happening. I feel like this happened so often too. Like we definitely talked about this happening in the past where the first couple of plans did it work and you're like, why didn't you just listen to that?

Nobody listened to that inner voice that said, like, hello, maybe this is happening for a reason, but I feel like they don't have that. No, they don't. It's because they don't want it. I was gonna say conscience. Conscious. Conscious, yeah.

Because consciousness is like being conscious. Yeah. But conscience, I know it's hard to like, it's so close. It's so close. I guess man. It's like specific and specific. It's hard.

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me. Visit fieldsofgreens.com and use promo code morbid. That's fieldofgreens.com, promo code morbid, field of greens, promo code morbid. [♪ music and gone wrong, James and Chris went to Kmart and bought a huge hunting knife. And it was now decided that James was going to be the one to kill both leave, excuse me, leave and Bonnie, and if Angela was home then maybe her too. Of course, remember that part. Yeah, totally. They planned to make the murders look like they were just the result of a robbery gone wrong. So we've gone from house fire, accidental house fire, quote unquote, to cutting their heads off with

machetes, to now killing them with a knife and making it look like a robbery gone wrong. This is a lot. This is a lot. Now the problem with James going out there by himself, though, was that he didn't have a license. That's a problem. Yeah, no license. If he were to drive somebody else's car and get pulled over, that would obviously deter the entire plan because he would get in trouble for driving without a license and it wouldn't be the first time that he'd gotten in trouble for that. So like he'd be fucked.

Yeah. So they were like, okay, that's where Neil comes in. Remember Neil Henderson? Yeah, let's not take this as a sign, another sign. No, no, no. Neil can drive Chris's Mustang and drop James off at the scene. Apparently none of them thought about the possibility that Chris's car might get spotted in his own fucking neighborhood and race some eyebrows.

And you know what, for kids who play Dungeons and Dragons, so we were just saying,, we were just saying, like we were just saying in very complex problem solving skills, at least I feel that way about Dungeons and Dragons people. Same. I feel like you must have that. They don't have any of that. No. There's none of that. I think it's the drugs. Yeah, I think it's that they're just idiots. The drugs of it all. And like the drugs and the idiot. Yeah. And the psychopathy of it all. Yeah. So and the idiot. Yeah, of it all. And the psychopathy of it all. Ooh, yeah.

So with the plan laid out, Chris would put together a map of his own neighborhood, like draw a map of his neighborhood, putting an X where his house was. And he told James where Bonnie's purse would be so that he could, and also he told James where they kept extra cash in the house so that he could take that cash and make it look like a robbery that way.

Yeah, and then just like sent his friends off. It was like, hey, let me know when my family steps. Let me know when you've massacred my family. Yes, let me out. Yeah, so that Sunday night, July 24th, 1988, Chris stayed back at school while Neil Henderson drove James up church from North Carolina State to Chris' family home in Washington.

So North Carolina State is in Raleigh, and it's about a two-hour drive, give or take. Okay. So they had two hours to drive there and decide that this was not a good plan. And I wonder if one of them ever had the idea that the way this is all set up makes it very likely that if Christopher decides he does not want to be part of this anymore, that all he has to do is start crying and say my friends went crazy and they killed

my entire family. Like no one thought of that. That like you are now the sole perpetrators here and he can step back and say I had no idea they were really going to do that. And Niels probably not going to get much. He's just driving. Yeah, but he's still going gonna do that. And Neal's probably not gonna get much. He's just driving. Yeah, but he's still gonna get that at least. And he's gonna get that at least. But like, no one thought of that. No, that was never.

I'm sure one person thought of that. Oh, of course. Chris. I honestly, maybe that's why he came up with this whole plan the way that he did, because he wasn't too keen on sharing his money with his sister and his mother. He's removing himself completely from this situation. Maybe that was like the one ounce of like, smartness that he had, but like, problem solving skills, I suppose.

I think. Yeah, it is. So they got to the Von Stein's neighborhood around two in the morning, technically now on July 25th, following the map that Chris had laid out for them. They were like, oh, there's the house. But they either felt that it was too early to go in or they were like nervous, so they ended up driving around for a little bit before returning. More time in which you would think that they would have decided this entire thing was insane, but no. They get back to the neighborhood, Neil parks the car away from the house, so there's no suspicion raised.

And James creeps into the house, carrying a baseball bat and his hunting knife, wearing dark clothing, Reebok shoes, and a ski mask. Wow. Like, go, like, going for it. Terrifying. So scary. So he immediately went upstairs to Leith and Bonnie's bedroom and just started attacking Leith. Bonnie woke up to the sound of Leith screaming next to her in bed, but she couldn't see what was going on because she didn't have her glasses on. Oh my God, that's horrifying. Exactly.

And before she could figure out what to do, because she had a phone next to her, but she couldn't get it in time, because the figure came over to her side of the bed and started attacking her too. She was hit over the head multiple times until she slipped into unconsciousness. And then when she finally regained consciousness, she heard the door of the bedroom close.

And the intruder obviously had thought that he finished the job in that room, but then Bonnie heard noises outside of the door and she was terrified that her daughter, Angela, was now being attacked. Oh my God. But before she could do anything about it, she slipped back unconscious. Now, when she came about it, she slipped back on gorgeous. Now when she came to again, she immediately calls the police department and she explains that what's gone on, that they've been attacked, and she knew that she was beaten brutally,

but she thought maybe she heard Leith still breathing. So she was like, please come as quickly as you can. And she's like, I don't even know where my daughter is. Like, she couldn't get up. She had been attacked brutally. So unfortunately, when the police arrived on scene, it was clear that Leith was not going to make it. She was like, basically dead on arrival. Bonnie had been stabbed in the chest as well as beaten over the head. And when they walked into the room, she still had the phone grasped in her hand. And they said that when they walked into this room,

it was like blood stained every single wall. There was blood on the ceiling, on the walls, there was huge pools of blood on the carpeting around them. Like it was a naughty scene. It's in bed. Just sleeping. Yeah.

Both of them were just sleeping next to each other. Oh. So luckily, Bonnie survived the attack and so did her daughter, Angela. So the police talked with Angela. They were like, did you hear anything? Cause she was home when this happened. She said she had slept through the entire thing. Her room was about 10 to 12 feet from her parents.

Hmm, not very far. It was interesting that she didn't hear a peep of anything. Yeah. But she did have a fan going, so they were like, I guess. Maybe. But they were like, this whole thing just feels weird. Like talking to Angela felt weird,

because not only did she not hear anything, but they said that she seemed incredibly unemotional, giving that her mom was being rushed to the hospital with serious injuries, like life-threatening injuries. They didn't know it first if Bonnie was going to make it. Wow. And a man who had played a fatherly role in her life since she'd been a child was just stabbed and bludgeoned to death in his own bed ten feet away from her.

Yeah. A little scary. You think there'd be some emotions. Some. I mean, we always say we can't judge how people react to things, but it's hard, you know, your natural instinct is to be like, ah, I don't know if what's going on there. Yeah, exactly. So Angela calls Chris right away that morning.

She tells them what happens and she's like, you have to come home right away. So Chris, knowing full well where his keys are, started ransacking his room, causing a scene trying to find his keys. But obviously we know where his keys are. Neil has them obviously. So he wasn't going to find them. So he ran to one of those emergency call boxes on campus to see if there was some way the police could get him home.

Because he just has to get home, of course. So the police came to the call box where he had called from and they, I guess they found him in there like hysterically crying. Now I don't know if maybe the weight of what he had called from and they, I guess they found him in there like, hysterically crying. Now, I don't know if maybe the weight of what he had planned this whole time was finally hitting him or if this was an act. It could be either. It could be either because once he got into the cop car, he fell asleep for the entire ride back to Little Washington. Yeah.

Two-hour ride. You've just been told that your whole family has been attacked and your mom literally might not make it and you're snoozing. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that. I know grief can cause like I'm not saying him because he playing this entire thing. Of course. I but like I know grief can like obviously cause like like crazy exhaustion and yeah Screaming crying can do that your brain your body will just like shut down just to survive all mode but I don't believe that with him not even a little bit I see I see I see just boredom I see

just callousness literally just like I don't care yeah didn't care at all so the officers working the crime scene they were pretty suspicious They definitely wanted to talk to Chris, especially they were like, I feel like he might know more than he's saying. Because the entire crime scene looked staged. Things were overturned and seemed to have been ransacked, but there was pretty much nothing missing. There was $20 still sitting on the dresser in the master bedroom where Bonnie and Leith had been attacked.

Yeah. Whenever it's a botched, like a fake robbery, like set up, they never do, it never looks like a real robbery. No, it's what you see on TV. Exactly. That's what people do. Yeah, $20 still sitting on the dresser.

There's multiple handbags on the counter in the kitchen, I guess. Leith's wallet was left seemingly untouched. There was like nothing missing. And there was a ton of jewelry that Bonnie had in her jewelry box in her bedroom that definitely would have been stolen if this were a robbery. And they also found a backpack, knapsack. They called it a knapsack, knapsack.

Because it isn't one of those drawstring bags usually. I think so, I don't know what the difference is, but I've heard it called both. Yeah, I think it's like interchangeable. And that was left near one of the garbage cans outside. Okay. So one of the officers processing the scene was like, that feels like it's out of place. Like what the fuck is that?

Like what the fuck? It would later be identified as James Up Church's bag. He literally left it behind. What the fuck? And like didn't even bother to put it in the garbage can? Like, I mean, I guess I would be stupid too. That would still be dumb, but you just put it next to it to just be identified.

Like, boom. Wow. And then another note about the clearly staged scene was that, so the front door was locked. So they were like, what, like how'd they get in? But the back door leading to the back porch, it was left wide open. And there was a window next to that door

that had been broken and there was like glass laying all about. But it didn't make any sense that the window would have been broken because like the robbers wouldn't have been able to gain entry that way. Like they wouldn't have been able to climb through the window. And if they were trying to make it look like they broke the window and then reached in to unlock the door, that also made no sense because they wouldn't have been able to get to the handle that way. Yeah

And if that was like their plan in the first place They would have just broken one of the glass panes on the actual door. Yeah, if that's where you were Didn't unlock it. That's how you were trying to make it look because really we'll find out later about James had a key He got him with a key. Yeah, of course And so he was just trying to make it look some really we'll find out later about James had a key. He got him with a key. Yeah, of course. And so he was just trying to make it look some type of way, but it's like, why would you not, and I'm happy that you did it because you're fucking idiot. Yeah, I do.

Yeah, I do. But why wouldn't you just punch out the glass on the door? Because I think they were probably trying to make it look like they broke the window, climbed through, did what they did, and then on their way out they used the door. Right. But it's like if they weren't able to climb through that window, then all is lost. Like, if you didn't, yeah.

You couldn't fit through there, then, then it just doesn't make sense. No, and it was just beyond clear, every minute. Everybody that the real motivation here was murder, especially because of how they were killed. Yeah. A robber's not gonna sit there and like,

bludge in somebody and stab them and come around to another side of the bed and bludge in another person. And then go like, find like the daughter and go like, bludge in somebody and stab them and come around to another side of the bed and bludge in another person. And then go find the daughter and know, it's like, and not take anything. Well, that's the thing. And it's like an end for the motive of just taking literally nothing.

Right. It doesn't make it clear. Clearly, then the motivation would simply be murder, which it was. And luckily, they were trained enough to realize that. Yeah. But before they could talk to Chris about the scene, he was like, can I go see my mom at the hospital?

And technically they had no reason not to let him. So they were like, okay. So Bonnie had some serious injuries, but she was, we're expected to recover from them, luckily. So this little fuck face, who had actually expected his mother to be dead too, sat next to her in the ICU, holding her hand while she recounted this entire series of events

to him that happened earlier that morning. And he is sitting there probably picturing it and picturing the person who carried out these acts because he is the one who set them up to do it in the first place. Like he planned this entire thing. Sat there and waited for it to happen. Yeah.

And then listened to his ailing mother, who's beyond to life, talking about it. It's like, what the fuck? And he's sitting there with her in the ICU, holding her hand as she goes through all of this, and he's crying. Like he's not the one who fucking set up the entire plan in the first place.

No, he was crying because he knew that he was about to get caught. One. Like that was one hundred. He was like, this is gonna fall apart, and this was a botched plan. Botched as fuck. Yeah.

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I did it. I never want to see that much blood again for the rest of my life. Let's get out of here. Okay. I did it. I can't believe I did it. I can't believe I don't want to see that again. It's like that maybe you shouldn't murder people. Right. It's really easy not to see that much blood. And like, I can't believe I really did it. Like, you didn't just like beat level 1000 in best fiends. Like I couldn't believe I did that either. And you just slaughtered an entire family.

That's nothing to be proud of. Wow. Like, we all know that, but. That's so gallous though. It's unreal. So they got on to the highway and they pulled over at some point so that James could change his clothes. And then they pulled over again and drove into the woods so that he could dispose of those clothes.

And the way they decided to do that was he wrangled up all his bloody clothes, the map that Chris had drawn, and the knife that he had literally used to murder Leith, and they set all of that on fire in the woods. I feel like this is going to end really smoothly. Did you think that the knife was going on fire in the woods. I feel like this is gonna end really smoothly. Did you think that the knife was gonna burn in the fire? I need to know if you stop that. Oh for sure. It's gonna happen.

For sure. So then they stopped another time because they had to wash the mud from the previous stop off of the car and have to get gas obviously. And they paid for that gas using the 60 to 80 bucks that James had taken from the house. My God. Didn't take anything else.

Took 60 to 80 bucks to make it look like a robbery. Yeah. Just put gas in the car. Oh, key, dokey. So luckily for the police, a pig farmer in the area contacted them to let them know that around the time these murders took place, he had seen a fire in the woods. And he said, I wonder if those two instances could be related. They were.

Yeah. So the police follow up on the tip, they go out to the woods where he said he had seen the smoke, and they were able to track down the area. Sure enough, there was an entire heap of evidence to collect. My God. They found clothing, what was left of the map that Chris had drawn up for his friends. A rubber soul belonging to a re-box shoe, imagine, why did you leave the sole?

I was just gonna say what the fuck? And a hunting knife sitting in a pile of ash. So through more detective work, they also found out that Leith and his two stepkids were not necessarily on the best of terms, and they also found out that Leith had just fallen into a pretty large sum of money. So it was like pretty easy for them to establish a motive

here for this crime, finding up like Domino's. And luckily, like a lot of this stuff is kind of just falling right into the app, which is great. So Bonnie, Angela and Chris were all asked to take polygraph tests, because at first, they wondered like, because Bonnie and Angela were like alive still, they were like, were they in on this?

Yeah, you have to at least, you know? Yeah. Luckily, they were quickly ruled out, Bonnie, obviously. And they both agreed to take a polygraph test, but Chris wouldn't take one. Hmm. I wonder why? Yeah, it's crazy.

So that obviously only made the police want to look further into him and in doing so, they heard from a lot of people that Chris had just been talking about getting rid of his stepfather so that he could acquire his inheritance for like months. They always do. They've been talking about it for months. They always talk to everyone they know about the fact that they're gonna murder someone. It's like always. This is a campus.

Yeah. Everyone, and then like, like Stacy's gonna tell Sally. Sally's gonna tell Joe. Joe's gonna tell Schmo, and we're all gonna fucking know. It's the tea. It's the tea. It's the disgusting, horrible, horrific. And they're probably all sharing it being like,

this guy's like, what? Like he's a weirdo. No, what is he doing? I bet he's not gonna do that. Yeah, he's talking about killing his stepdad. Like this guy's weird. It's also like guys, if anybody tells you that they're gonna kill somebody, just take it seriously and tell someone.

It's better to be overreactive than underreactive. Just, no one's gonna make funny a Fabian too much. No. We're gonna be like, you're a shitty person if you're like, not enough. Exactly. Just go overboard. Exactly. So of course, Neil Henderson and James Uptritch's names were

the ones that were most brought up in these talks because they were two of Chris's best friends, and they had always been around when Chris was talking about killing Leith. So the other kids that sometimes played D&D, they were like with Chris and James and Neil. They said that they had heard the three friends talking about what would happen when Leith died, but not specifically anything about murdering him. Just what they would do with the money and everything. I'm like, so you knew that they were gonna do that. I'm like, come on. So the police get James and Neal's names, and they're like, let's pay them a visit.

So first, they talk to Neal, which was great, because he cracked right away. I knew it. Yeah, Neal, bitch boy. I'm glad he cracked, but you're a bitch boy. I had Neal's number from the beginning. I was like, it's Neal. It's gonna be the one that's like, I did it. cracked, but you're a bitch boy. I had Neil's number from the beginning. I was like, it's Neil. Yeah, it's gonna be the one that's like,

I did it. Yeah, 100%. He tells the investigators everything he knows in an exchange, he gets a deal. Of course. So then they decided, okay, we're gonna have to make Chris a similar deal in which he would plead guilty to a lesser charge

of aiding in a betting, because they're not gonna be able to get him really on much else. He didn't, he wasn't there. He was in there. He's hands and do it. Right. So they were like, let's give him a deal. Convict him or hopefully convict him with aiding in a bedding and then we'll get me along

like something, but we'll give him a deal so that we can get to the big guy here, James Upchurch, who had literally used his two hands to bludgeon and stop me to death and try to do the same for Bonnie They were like, let's get him on first degree murder. Yeah So when the medical examiner was able to put together an autopsy report on 42 year old leaf funds time 42 years old it showed that they're and this is horrible This is pretty graphic just so you know if you want to skip ahead There were five lacerations to his scalp that had been caused from blunt force trauma. Oh my god. There were seven stab wounds to his back and there was one that went through the left side of his chest that stabbed

directly through his heart. Oh so the only good like for lack of a better word thing that happened was that luckily he died quickly. Because he would have been like, he would have just blood out with her. Yeah. And it showed that his body had put quite a fight up. He was covered in bruises and scrapes as defensive wounds. Now the knife that was found in the fire was, that was reported by the pig farmer. According to the prosecution, most definitely could have caused the injuries, not only found on Mr. Vonstein, but also found on Mrs. Vonstein,

Bonnie. She was stabbed once in the chest. Wow. She and that stab actually had caused her lung to collapse and caused internal bleeding. My God. It's like insane that she had to do this. She too had multiple cuts all over her head. And I don't know why this freaked me out as much as it did, but she fractured her thumb in the beginning of the attack when she reached over for her husband. Because what was most likely a baseball bat

came crashing down on her thumb. Oh, yeah. Oh my God. This was brutal. That's like savagery. It's insane. So James's trial starts in January of 1990 and both Neil and Chris had taken their plea deals,

which meant that they were going to be the ones to testify against James' up church. So Chris testified that he was the one behind the entire plan that he said he had drawn up the map of the neighborhood for James. He had also given him a spare key to the home. Like, he testifies all of this. He's like, yep, did it.

He's like, because he has to, because he had his deal. Neil testified that his only role in the murder was to be the getaway driver and the lookout. And it seems like most of the people in James' up church's life were shocked that he was wrapped up in a murder trial and even more so that he was the one to carry out the actual murder. One of his teachers from high school was called to testify, and she just testified that

he had been a really great student. She's actually used the word gifted, like he was in gifted classes, and she named a bunch of clubs that he was a part of. He was a part of like all these great clubs at school. You see that coming? But it's a ecologist who evaluated James testified that they found he had an absence of violent tendencies, which I was like, that's a weird excuse. Look how big so. But no. But that his primary mode of dealing with things that happened to him through his life was

to deny any of his thoughts or feelings about the situation and just to like detach. Okay, so you can kind of see, especially when he came back in and he said, like, I can't believe I did that, right? I did it. And then it was like, I don't wanna see that again. Exactly. Let's move on. Like, that's total detachment for me.

Right. It's just, I don't know how you could detach from something like that, but his psychologist was like, yeah, he can, crazy. This guy can do it. Now his own mother said that he was raised on a farm and that he came from a good family who all went to church on Sundays.

It's like picturing this little farmhand boy going to church with his family and this is what he does. Yeah. And she's the only thing that she could really point to that may have disrupted him was when his parents divorced when he was 18. Now to be fair though, he did have a bit of a past

when it came to the law. Like all these people are very surprised and obviously you're gonna be surprised when somebody you know it turns out to be fair though, he did have a bit of a past when it came to the law. Like all these people are very surprised and obviously you're gonna be surprised when somebody, you know, it turns out to be a murderer. That's a surprising thing. But it's also like he was doing a lot of drugs. Yeah. Seems like he wasn't like, you know, the super polished student that was not doing anything wrong here. No, and by the way, he did have a past after he graduated high school, and this is like insane.

He and some of his friends went back to the school, back to the high school in the winter of 86, and broken to steal a computer. And they didn't end their break in there. They actually broke into a home. What? And that's the thing. Like if you can break into a home, like you've always set home invaders are the craziest fucking people. One of my criminal justice teachers who was a detective always told us, home invasions, those people are the scariest fucking people. Yes. Anybody that can walk into a house in the middle of the night

not knowing what the fuck they're walking into, you don't wanna tango with them. No, you do not. You do not. So he and his friends literally did that. Yeah. And they stole alcohol, a TV, some clocks, and a set of binoculars.

OK. So they got caught. And James obviously found out that he was going to, he could probably be convicted of these charges. And the charges that he faced could, he could spend up to 20 years in prison, just from this robbery. Now he was scared about that part of it, but his parents did notice that he actually didn't seem to care

or really feel sorry about the crime itself. He was just more worried about going to jail for a long time. But he didn't show any more retina. None. Wow. No, I guess that psychologist was onto something when they said that he denied thoughts and feelings. I was going to say detachment.

Yeah. So eventually his charges for the break-ins were actually merged and he only had to pay restitution and do community service. That's wild. He didn't get around to doing either of those things, though. And he actually ended up getting arrested a couple more times for things like reckless driving and like I mentioned in the beginning,

driving without a license. Wow. So like he was getting into trouble left and right. What do you mean? Like, I know you could never see something like this coming, but like, don't act like crazy, shocked. Well, nobody's being like, yeah, you know what? After high school, it seems like he just started going down

a bad path. Right. Like, couldn't see this coming. Of course. Bad path. Right. Someone say there was a bad path. He don't just think there's like a farm boy.

He's just a gifted student. He was a part of a lot of clubs. I'm like, and a home invader. Yeah, it's like that he's a pretty bad kid. Yeah. Now in this case, James Upchurch would not plead guilty to murder and he denied any involvement in the crime whatsoever. He said he wasn't even there.

His defense did argue that there was not one piece of physical evidence that belonged to him to tie him to that scene. Because that knapsack was only identified to him through Neal and Chris, so they were like, we don't know that it's his. I mean, that's defense team. Yeah. And they said, actually, he couldn't have been the one to carry out the murders. Really?

Because the medical examiner had testified that whoever had wielded this bat was most likely right-handed because of the logistics of how everything lines up. What is that called? It's trajectory of the hands. It's trajectory of the hands. Yes, yes. But James, so he says this has to have been a right-handed person. Most likely, James is left-handed.

Oh, I'm like, he could, like, people bat both sides. Switch it. Switch it. Switch itter. So the defense though, they were like, maybe I think it was Neil who did this and James was actually just the getaway driver. They were like, Neil must have swung and killed Leith and attacked Bonnie. Now obviously Neil denied this.

And when he was shown a picture of Leith after the attack, he started crying on the stand, like, sobbing. And he told the courtroom that he simply could have never done that to another person. Wow. I was like, yeah, you could just drive the person who was gonna do it there. That's the thing. It's like, you're not innocent, man. You're not a good person. You knew what was happening in there and you agreed to do it.

He just sat there and like stew mockered it. He was like, you're pressure and you need to fit it. I'm very sensitive. He literally sat there. He was like, I just needed to fit in and like, they pressured me into it. I'm like, I wanted to fit into, but like I would never want to fit in with two people that were planning a murder.

Yeah, I never went to murder for it. Never. So ultimately, it was James Upchurch, who was found guilty of first degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, with intent to kill or seriously injure, conspiracy to commit murder, and burglary in the first degree,

because though he hadn't taken that $20 off the dresser, he had taken money from Bonnie's purse to make it look like a robbery. So he was at first sentenced to death. Whoa. But two years later in October, his death sentence was taken away and commuted to life in prison.

Okay. Because of like constitutional stuff. Yeah. Now, you know, that's the only constitution. You know, the constitution and shit. Yeah. So originally when he was sentenced, he told the court and the judge that he was shocked and appalled by the verdict.

Of course. And that the jury, like the jury would have believed two confessed murderers over him. What is it? I'm like, okay, you're all just a bunch of idiots anyway. Bluesers. So when it was announced that they had voted for the death penalty and that James was going

to face that, he told the judge and the courtroom, I intend to take my own life by fasting. I want to die with as much honor and dignity as I can scrape together. And you're going to have to do a lot of scraping. That much scraping. A lot of scraping. Much scraping, because there's nothing. Yeah, you have no dignity. I love that you think you have dignity.

That's an honor. That's a farce. Yeah, that truly is. I love that word. So he didn't, obviously, because the death penalty ended up getting converted. But he will be up for parole this year. Stop.

2022. I couldn't find anything about, like, when his parole date is or anything like that. But he is up for parole this year. Hate that. Hate that. So Neil Henderson was convicted of second degree murder for eating in a bedding and also eating in a bedding assault with a deadly weapon with a tent to kill or seriously injured.

He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the former charge and six for the latter. So 46 years total. But he was purled in December of 2000, only having served eight years. I was gonna say, I know he's not serving all of that. No, of course not. No. For 50 years, American HomeShield has protected household budgets

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Service fees, limitations, and exclusions do apply. So see your plan for details. But American home shield, be sure with the shield. I love plants. I love plants. Chris Pritchard was convicted of the aiding in a betting charge, more specifically aiding in a betting in second degree murder.

And he was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years for the assault on money. Whoa. So during his trial, he testified that it was all about getting the money and that his plan, if it had gone off without a hitch, was to buy a house, continue to do drugs, and just play dungeons and dragons all day.

Yeah, well, he just thought about the fact that he killed his whole family. That's all I want. So his mother would visit him in prison as much as she could after she recovered from all her injuries. Once she was healthy enough, she visited him every single weekend in prison. That's some mom shit.

And ended up forgiving him. That is some mom shit. She later said, I visited with Chris for a long, long time in prison. I've watched him grow, I've watched him change. You know what, she's a mom. I can't even like, when it comes to your kids, like, I would never

dane to say how I would react in that situation, but something is your kids. All I can say is like, ooh, that sets a mom. That's a big person. That is a big person. Now, when he first got to prison, Chris was really on his fuck shit.

At first, he said, you know, I found God and like, I'm a Christian now. But really, he was only using that for the purpose of keeping him safe in prison while he was there. Most of them do. Yeah. And then once he learned that the other inmates were actually terrified of him, he jumped

right off that religious wagon and actually just started using drugs in prison and like getting into fights with people and being on his fuck shit. Cool. Yeah. But at some point, he started reading more and more about philosophy and atheism and just like a bunch of different religions and stuff like that. And the more and more he read, the more that religion actually did resonate with him. So one day he said he woke up and he just had this feeling that he had to get clean from the drugs he was doing in prison.

So he actually joined a 12 step program in prison. Okay. And while he was finishing the program, he actually did become actually a truthfully religious, and he said that he realized God had been with him all along. I don't know if God was with you when you were playing the murder of your entire family, but who am I to say? Yeah, I don't know about that. I was in there, but like, yeah, that didn't see God there. But so he did get parole in June of 2007. And since then, he's become a born again Christian

and like does speeches and stuff to other kids. Okay. He says, don't murder your whole family. No, he said in his dispatch speech that his mom was the one who pushed him forward along with God. And he knows that he is one of the worst sinners but that he was put on this earth

to teach other people how to be a good person. Call me Kuku Nutskrizy, but I don't know if the reason he was put on earth was to be involved in an innocent man's murder and then teach people not to do that. I kind of feel like most people know not to do that anyway. Ooh, yikes. That's a lot.

That's a lot. He's teaching church classes these days. Okay, well, you know what, I hope he is truly turned around. I also hope he is truly believing what he is saying. Yeah, me too. I hope that people are hearing it. Yeah. When they hear him and they choose not to murder people, I do hope that.

I hope all of that. Totally. I hope Bonnie is doing great. I know, I hope so too. And I hope she hope Angela is. I hope Angela is doing great. I hope they were able to move forward. Yeah. As people, and you know what, they're big people for being able to choose forgiveness and to move forward. That's really impressive. Agreed, but wow, wow Yikes, wow That's a lot. Yeah, it was so much in fact It was so much that it inspired two books cruel dealt by Joe McInnes. I haven't read either That book was adapted into a mini series in 1992. And another book was written that same year.

It's called Blood Games by Jerry Bloodsoe. And that one also got adapted this time into a TV movie called Honor Thy Mother. I was just seeing that. Were you? Yeah. So I didn't read either of them because I heard that they kind of like,

they became more theatrical. Like they take some artistic license. Yes, thank you. So I didn't want to get something that maybe like, you know, with a little, a little much. Yeah, you don't want to take any TV movie for real facts. No, I didn't, I didn't read either of the books because I heard the same thing.

Yeah. So I was, and apparently both of the books were like very different, like they had like very different telling. So I didn't want to confuse myself either. Yeah. No. But I might read them now that I'm finished. Yeah.

So yeah, also, a lot of, apparently, both of these like movies and the TV show, lean really heavily into the fact that Dungeons and Dragons like had something to do with this. I hate that shit. But I think that's really stupid because the game is not the person that's responsible here because it's not a person, it's a game,

and the people playing the game are actually the ones responsible. And Dungeons it's not a person, it's a game and the people playing the game are actually the ones responsible. And Dungeons and Dragons isn't teaching you to murder people for money. No. That's what that game is about. I'm sure of that. I've never heard that.

I'm sure. And there was like this whole like debate over it and like I think people get very into it, but I didn't want to because I'm not even gonna like, no, and people bring in like the whole like, Satanic panic. I think what it is. It's just how people bring in like the whole, like, satanic panic, right? It's just how people are like, you know, like this band caused this horrible massacre

and it's like, no, they didn't. And it's like any fantasy or magic thing they always turn into like Satan. Right, it's just ridiculous. It's stupid. Yeah. It's just people making bad decisions. That's the thing.

Stop taking the blame from the people who do it. We are human beings. We make our own decisions. Like, we don't need to blame from the people who do it. We are human beings, we make our own decisions. Exactly. We don't need to blame games and movies and shows and music. No. But that is the murder of Leith Funstein incredibly senseless and just like, I can't imagine what Bonnie went through losing her husband and then having to go through the process of

forgiving her child. Like, she's an amazing woman. Yeah. She's been through that. She's been through it. She's been through it. That is a lot and good for her for turning it around to a positive place. Like, damn.

Yeah. Wow. That is a, I just, that poor leith. Like, I'm just like, that's really sad. I know. It sounds like there was absolutely no justification here, not that there ever is, but it sounds like there was nothing you could point to to be like, even point to that kind of rage.

Exactly. It was just money, money motivated. That's so sad. I feel like so many of my cases lately are like, inheritance. Life insurance. Life insurance. I know. And I'm not doing it on purpose.

No, it's not the fee I look for. They're just drawn to you. That's terrifying. I don't know. So with that, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not to worry that you go off to college and you start doing a bunch of drugs

and you throw your whole future away and you and your friends just side to kill your entire family. But you don't go along and then you think, oh, wow, I'm gonna get away with this because I didn't go along. Because what, you're not gonna get away with it. You can never kill people or be involved in the process of killing people and get away with it.

Don't. You can't. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to morbid, early, and ad-free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in

US history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we look at the Kids for Cash scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile justice. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, residents had begun noticing an alarming trend. Children were being sent away to jail in high numbers, and often for committing only minor offenses. The FBI began looking at two local judges, and when the full picture emerged, it made national headlines. The judges were earning a fortune, carrying out a brazen criminal scheme, one that would shatter the lives of countless children and force a heated debate about punishment and America's criminal justice system.

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