Sword and Scale - Episode 253

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

In June of 2013, the dead body of 29-year-old Melinda Schaefer was found inside the leasing office of the Harvest View apartments in Baltimore County, Maryland. The murder scene was a complete blood bath, and due to the communal nature of the office, homicide detectives were not able to rely on DNA or other forensic evidence to solve this crime. They needed to use old-fashioned police work to find out who had murdered Melinda Schaefer and why.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5895676/advertisement

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised She's trying to do her job that makes sense what doesn't make sense is That attack on her that attack you decide your mind to go in her own shoes with such force and vengeance that that much blood is produced. Hello and welcome. This is season 10 episode 253 of Sword and Scale. A show that continues to reveal that the worst possible monsters are real. If you still have not downloaded our app available on iOS and Android, it's available, but we're working on a new one, which will be coming out really, really soon.

We got lots of stuff planned for 2024, in fact. Stay tuned. Music Music If you've ever accepted a moderate or high-paying job, then you've probably had people work for you or under you. While it might not always feel like it, this can be a really powerful position to be in. To a boss or supervisor having employees is just part of the job, but to the employees themselves, the supervisor is pretty much the gatekeeper of their livelihoods. An employee's necessities of life are dependent

on what their supervisor thinks of them, and their work performance. In many cases, the relationship between a boss and employee is at minimum, tenable. There is this baked in, understanding that the boss gives an order or direction and the employee follows that direction. There are, of course, many, many exceptions to this, but generally speaking, that is usually

how it works, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. Up until the moment of becoming co-workers or colleagues, or whatever you want to call them, a boss and an employee are usually just strangers. It very well might have never associated with each other. Had it not been for their chosen place of work, that is. They may have personalities that clash and completely different perspectives on life. They may come from completely different backgrounds

have different cultural ideals. They may even have completely different opinions on how a particular job should be done, or if a particular job should be done at all. And that is where things can go wrong, and the relationship can break down. This is when the employee's livelihood can be put at risk, and when someone's livelihood comes under threat, well, there's no telling how they might respond, and what they might do. On the morning of June 14, 2013, a young man in Baltimore County, Maryland, finished making arrangements to have his car towed from his apartment complex.

His car had recently broken down and he needed it taken to a repair shop. After the car was carted off, the young man returned to his apartment. But he wasn't there for long before someone began banging on his front door. Startled and confused, the man answered the door and saw the apartment complex's cleaning lady. She was in tears, completely hysterical, and it looked like she had just seen a ghost. Bottom of our county, 911. What is the address of your emergency?

I'm actually at 2 Augusta Ridge Road in Marjor Sound Ground. I have a cleaning lady who cleans the rental office. They're in my door. I have not walked into the rental office, but she office, and to my door, I have not walked into the rental office, but she said that the girl that's inside, thinks that she's our child. Just off the northern edge of Maryland City of Baltimore is the towns of Harvestview, a townhouse-style apartment complex. Often referred to simply as Harvestview, Often referred to simply as Harvest View, this complex is owned by its parent company, Bizzudo, and it offers potential residents a fairly standard package when it comes to

apartment living. Naturally, their website adds a few bells and whistles to exaggerate what they provide. Spread out and relax and town-home-style comfort in our spacious two and three bedroom apartments Experience the joy of gas cooking in an exceptionally appointed kitchen You can find room to breathe and open layouts Relax on your private balcony and cozy up by your living room fireplace all in the same day Yes, don't we all just love to experience the joy of... gas cooking?

Don't get me wrong, harvest views seems like a perfectly fine place to live. According to most of the online reviews the apartments are clean, there's lots of space. The grounds are well maintained, and management is typically helpful and prompt when addressing any issues that the tenants may have. But on June 14, 2013, not all was well at Harvest View. A crying and hysterical cleaning lady had alerted one of the tenants that she found something horrible in the leasing office. According to the cleaning woman, a bloody body was lying on the floor in the leasing office. According to the cleaning woman, a bloody body was lying on the floor in the office, and they appeared to have been shot. Well, she knocked on your door to clean and lady.

She just knocked on my door. She must have just gotten back. And then she leaves, cleaned other places. It was just banging on my door, and I'm like, who is this? You know, if I ran off there, then she's there. She's crying, and I could watch. That the girl's hurt, or she got shot.

I'm not a serious clean lady, it's almost every day. So, always here. I don't know where the maintenance guy is, he's always here too, and I don't see him either. Oh my God, I can't believe this happened. Oh my God. Okay, just stay on the line with me, I have them on their way, okay?

Okay, okay. As the line with me. I have them one day away, okay? Okay, okay. As the 911 operator worked to get emergency services dispatched to the scene, she also attempted to get as much information as possible. This wasn't exactly easy because the caller hadn't actually been inside the leasing office, and they hadn't witnessed anything. I have not walked in. She actually cleaned your browns, and and she had left and she'd come back and she said that she walked in the return of Agcleaner and she said that she's the girl's son. I haven't walked in. I don't want to walk in.

Okay, I understand that. Is the female still standing there with you, Mr. Lee? Okay, now ask her why does she say that? What happened for her to say that? Let me ask her real quick. Okay. The reason the caller didn't just hand the phone over to the cleaning woman was because she was completely hysterical. And well, she wasn't fluent in English. If that's a surprise to you. So a kind of telephone game had to be played. make it. And she believes she's been shot. Is that correct? Is she, did she see anyone? Did you see anybody? Did you see anybody coming go? The thing is, I was just outside, maybe 20 minutes ago, with this strange. I didn't see anything. And you didn't hear anything? Why haven't you had my car code? I just went out here at this old time.

Bizarrely, nobody heard any gunshots, and neither the caller nor the cleaning lady saw anyone come and go from the leasing office. If someone fired a gun, surely someone would have heard it. Something wasn't making sense. She said it was blood everywhere. Okay, let me ask her. Is blood everywhere? Is blood everywhere? A lot of blood? Blood? Yes, it is. It's just something in here.

She said there's something in her back. Okay, so is the bleeding serious? Is she bleeding a lot? No, it's no. She said there's blood over the window and everything. Okay. I'm not walking in there. Okay, that's fine.

Ask the cleaning lady. Did she see anybody leaving from there? Or does she know who's responsible for doing this? Okay. I'm not walking in there. Okay, that's fine. Ask the cleaning lady. Did she see anybody leaving from there or does she know who's responsible for doing this? Did she see anybody leave? I mean, I just think I was just outside. Ask her, did she hear any gunshots or anything? I don't think she was here. Okay, okay, okay.

You said she was okay. And then when I was getting raised in my car toad, she was just left. And then I guess she must have come back just now. At this point, nobody knew who the supposed victim was. But everyone that lived at Harvest View knew who worked in the leasing office. It was really only one person that it could be. About how old is this female?

The girl I know that worked here. I think she's about 30. About 30? Okay. Now, ask her is she awake? No, she says she's... Is she moving or no? Is she moving? No, no.

She's just laying on the floor. Okay. Is she breathing? I don't know. Is she breathing? Is she breathing? No. Hello, God. No, she's... Okay. Is she breathing? I don't know. Is she breathing? Is she breathing? No, no.

Okay. Okay. That's fine. I don't know if she has any kind of cameras in there. I hope they do. Yeah. Wow. Oh my God.

Oh my God. This is crazy. I know this girl too, because she's the only sign of the love for this place. The person in the rental office? Yeah her name is Melinda Something. I think it's your car out here. 29-year-old Melinda Schaefer was born in August 1983.

She grew up and spent most of her life in San Diego, California. But at some point in her mid-20ies, Melinda decided that she wanted to move to the east coast. Melinda settled on moving to the Baltimore, Maryland area, because some of her extended family also lived there. Not long after Melinda made this move, she landed a job as the assistant property manager at Harvestview. She also met and married her husband, Mike Schaeffer, who was welcomed into Melinda's family with open arms. Michael Maltese says his daughter grew up in California, but wanted to live on the east coast. Her extended family is in Baltimore.

Maltese says Melinda just got married. The best guy you could ever imagine, and they just got married a year ago. Around the time that she got married, Melinda was also promoted from assistant property manager to property manager. This promotion came as no surprise because Melinda was good at her job, like really good. Melinda oversaw every aspect of the harvest view property. Melinda oversaw every aspect of the Harvest View property. This included maintenance, grounds upkeep, dealing with tenant concerns, marketing, and more. She excelled on all fronts. But that wasn't all. Melinda was working on having a private website built just for her tenants and organizing gatherings and events so that the tenants could meet each other. Melinda wanted Harvest View to be more than just the run of the mill apartment complex.

She wanted it to be the community. Unfortunately, she didn't have many hands to help her, with much of anything. Aside from the cleaning lady, the only other regular employee at Harvest View was the maintenance supervisor. For a time, Melinda did have an assistant helper with daily office operations, but that assistant had recently been fired for repeatedly coming into work late, among other reasons. So Melinda was left on her own to run the leasing office which had an open door policy. During normal working hours, anyone could walk in for any reason at all. Now that rental office, did you keep the door locked or anything,

or is it always open, so that for time, the customer should come in? Yeah. Always open. But the door's open front-end. Well, we keep the tower locked. Top of state locked.

Yeah. Basically, it's just a front box door for a room. That would come. Yeah, even like the residents, even if they live on that side, they only even come through there. No. Just like any apartment complex, Harvest View had its fair share of complainers. Some tenants, no matter what anyone does for them, will always find something to mone about. They're similar to Sword and Scale listeners, in that regard. But even so, unlike me, Melinda was extremely well liked by all of her tenants. She apparently had this way of talking with people that made them feel like their concerns or issues were truly important.

And she wanted to help. Melinda wasn't all talk either. She wasn't one of these fake fucks. She always went out of her way to make sure the Harvest View residents were well taken care of. Melinda was personable and friendly. And she genuinely cared about people. According to the maintenance man there wasn't anyone at Harvest View that would have any

reason to hurt her. that's really hurt even with the company. No? Anybody calls for issues? I didn't know you always went ahead, I'm tired of that. We all got to complain and stuff. Yeah, the wound was blown too hard or something. Yeah, basically, I don't know what I mean, but... No, for the most part, everybody is pretty cool. You know, she usually tell me when stuff goes down. On June 14, 2013 at about 11 a.m., the Leeson Baltimore County arrived at the Leeson office where Melinda worked.

When they walked inside, they found a chaotic and bloody scene. When police arrived at the scene, we found evidence of an extremely violent confrontation. Police say Schaefer fought for her life. There was blood all over the walls and blinds. The office was in shambles, furniture and files everywhere, and detectives responding to a call from a cleaning lady found Schaefer lying face down in her own blood. The police found that Melinda's office was a complete mess.

Her desk was slid across the room. Paper documents and broken office equipment were strewn all over the floor. The vertical window blinds were lopsided, and an office chair was tipped over. Clearly, a violent struggle had taken place. The police also found that the office was a gory bloodbath. There was blood spatter and blood smears everywhere, and the apparent source of blood was the dead body

lying face down on the floor. 29-year-old property manager Melinda Schaeffer was found unresponsive in a large pool of her own blood. When medical responders arrived, they pronounced her dead on the scene. Baltimore County homicide detectives were assigned to the case and to them. It was obvious that Melinda had been brutally murdered during a very violent attack. But what they didn't immediately know was that this was going to be a very difficult case to solve. Due to the communal nature of the crime scene and the fact that many people would frequently walk in and out of the office, the detectives weren't going to be able to rely on DNA or forensic evidence to solve this. They were going to have to use old-fashioned police work to find out who murdered Melinda

Schaeffer and why. If the stories we tell don't keep you up at night, then congratulations. I don't know how you do it. For me, I need a little sleep, and the anxiety of modern day, life, and all the hustle and bustle of running a business, and all the other things I gotta do every day, it's exhausting. Yet somehow I still can't get a good night's sleep. Probably because my mind will just not shut down for a little while.

You know, losing sleep can cause weight gain, mood issues, poor mental health, and definitely lower productivity. Sleeping less than six to seven hours per night is linked to reduced white blood cell count, and white blood cells protect your body against illness and disease, fighting viruses, bacteria, and all sorts of other nasty stuff.

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or just grow a beautiful garden, Lomi is perfect for you. Head to lomi.com slash monsters and use the promo code Monsters to get $50 off your Lomi. That's $50 off when you head on over to lomni.com slash monsters and use promo code Monsters at checkout. Thank you, Lomi, for sponsoring this episode. at checkout. Thank you, Lomi, for sponsoring this episode. On June 14, 2013, the dead body of 29-year-old Melinda Schaeffer was found in the leasing office of the Harvest View Apartments in Baltimore County, Maryland.

Melinda was the property manager at Harvest View, and shortly after Melinda's body was found, a 911 call was placed. The cleaning lady had told one of the apartment residents that Melinda had been shot. But when police examined the scene, they found that no shots had been fired. Police say Melinda Schaefer was stabbed over and over again in the leasing office of the town that Harvestview apartments in Westerstan. The 29-year-old was the property manager.

The leasing office was a wreck with chairs, the desks, with strung everywhere, and there was blood all over the walls and the blinds. The cleaning woman was wrong. Melinda had not been shot. She had been stabbed, a total of 79 times in her upper body and her head. Her murder was vicious and bloody. The killer were killers and seemingly made a brief attempt to clean up, as there were

several areas in the office where blood was smeared with some kind of rag or cloth. Melinda had clearly fought for her life. Leasing office was a disaster. The documents and office equipment all over the place. The office chair was turned over, the desk was pushed to the other side of the room, the blood-spattered window blinds were lopsided and nearly torn off the window frame.

Notably, nothing appeared to be stolen. Melinda had bank cards and a signed check still in her purse. For police, whatever happened in the office that morning, it clearly wasn't a robbery. After Melinda was pronounced dead, her family was made aware of what happened. This included her father. What kills me the most is that my poor daughter would never hurt a person in her life and to have something as brutal and senseless as this to her drives me insane. Melinda's parents lived in California over 3,000 miles from where Melinda was living in Baltimore County, Maryland.

Even so, Melinda communicated with them almost daily. When Melinda's dad was interviewed by the media, his reaction to his daughter's murder appeared to be, rage. Well, Melinda's mom responded with a broken heart, and indesernable sadness. I'll ever get over this. As Melinda's family mourned, detectives at the Baltimore County Police Department worked the case. But for several weeks, there appeared to be no new developments at all.

Baltimore County Police tell 11 news they are aggressively working on the murder case of 29 year old Melinda Schaefer. She's the property manager of the towns at Harvest the U-Town Home Complex in Reisters Town, who police say died from multiple stab wounds while she was working in the leasing office. Two weeks to the day and no word on who did this or why. As far as potential suspects were concerned, the detectives started where you might expect, with our husband, of course.

According to the maintenance supervisor at Harvestview, Melinda's husband Mike Schaefer had visited Melinda at her office on a few occasions before she was killed. Come there. Did you know? I'm not your daddy. I'm all the time. I know I see a husband come too. Right. When Melinda's husband was questioned by detectives, he was especially cooperative and appeared willing to do anything and everything he could to help the police find out who had murdered his wife. He explained that the last time he saw Melinda was on the morning

of the murder, just before they both headed off to work, and his last communication with her was a text message. Melinda had told him to have a good day. When detectives looked into Mike's shaffer's story, they found that he was working around the time of the murder, and they couldn't make any timeline fit that placed him at Melinda's office. With the husband pretty much eliminated as a potential suspect, the detectives turned their attention toward the Harvest View tenants and Melinda's co-workers. Maybe someone at Harvest View had an axe to grind.

Maybe Melinda, or the company she worked for, made someone very, very angry, unable to control their own emotions, type angry. The process of looking into all of these people took a lot of time, which is why the case appeared to drag. Still, the media and public kept asking questions and the police department assured them that they were working very hard to deliver answers. Police say Melinda was the only one working in the leasing office at the time and sources say this appears to be an isolated incident and that shaffer was targeted. Our detectives continue to work this case very aggressively. They do have some leads that was targeted. In researching Melinda's work life, detectives learned that Melinda had, until very recently,

been working alongside an assistant. But that assistant was let go just two days before Melinda was murdered. 20 year old Vanessa Coats worked in the Harvest View leasing office for a short time. She didn't so much work with Melinda as she filled in for her when needed. Harvest View's district management preferred to have the leasing office open and available to tenants, and potential residences often as possible. So on weekends and whenever Melinda needed to be out of the office, Vanessa filled in for her. Unfortunately, Vanessa was either unwilling or unable to live up to the requirements of

the job. Frankly, she kind of sucked at being an assistant property manager. At least, that's what Melinda seemed to think. Think. Melinda and Vanessa ended their work partnership on bad terms. Perhaps this disgruntled ex-employee was angry enough to attack and murder Melinda. When detectives tracked Vanessa Cotes down and questioned her, she admitted that Melinda wasn't her favorite person. But Vanessa also explained that on the morning of the murder she was sleeping at her boyfriend's

house. Several towns away from the Harvest View Leasing Office. Using Vanessa's cell phone records, detectives were able to confirm this. And just like Melissa's husband, Vanessa Coats was eliminated as a suspect. As far as co-workers went, there were really only two other people left that could be considered potential suspects. The cleaning lady that was hysterically crying when she found Melinda's dead body or the maintenance supervisor. How long you been employed by the company there?

I've been in the position for about two years now. Is that the only property that you worked at a rail ride before I went to Harvard? You're making a supervisor there? Yeah. How many guys are there for people around me? Just you? Okay. And I assume you work day work?

Yeah. Like eight to four, nine to five? That was nine to six. And then eight to five on five. Okay. 27-year-old Rashad Williams was hired to work at Harvest View in 2011. And as the maintenance man, he worked closely with Melinda almost every day. What is it about maintenance men and murder?

What do you call her? Melinda. Okay. Has she been there the whole time you've been there? Yeah, she was the eighty-foot mate. Okay. She has read that. and murder. According to Roshan, his relationship with Melinda was all business, and he had nothing against her. To him, she was just his boss, and they would usually meet every weekday morning to discuss anything that needed to get done. On the morning of the murder, Melinda was preparing for new tenants to move into Harvestview,

and she tasked the cleaning lady with some touch-up cleaning that needed to be done to their apartment. According to Roshan, during this typical morning meeting, Melinda talked about the new residents while Roshan collected everything he needed for the day's work. So after your... You mean you said you pick up the take-off stuff to your room? Yeah, it took these keys and my needy... Did I just get to work? Okay.

So how long did that needy take today? Maybe 20 minutes to get the take? Okay. Roshan claimed that he left the leasing office and delivered keys to the cleaning lady so that she could get into the apartment that needed some touch-ups. He then returned to the leasing office to get the company debit card. After you get for the key, then you're ready to go from there. Thanks to the office, I had to go get some, uh, a few, uh, a few, uh, a few, uh, a few

barriers for the remote, for those remote. Okay. So I'm going to get the, uh, a car firm, a lender for that. Some of the garage remotes at Harvest View needed their batteries replaced, so Melinda gave her Sean the company debit card and tasked him with going to the nearby dollar store to buy some fresh batteries, which he did. When that the batteries came back, did you return the double card tour?

Yeah. Was anybody there with her? No, no, by herself. You stick around and have more conversation with her, do you? Yeah, low conversation here. Because she, um, she had told me to fix the door. The closet door hit came off. So I put that fix that real quick.

And then we talked about going home depot looking for that. Lewine for the um, garage. Rashan explained that after he returned from the dollar store, Melinda tasked him with going to Home Depot to get supplies for some other garage repairs that needed to be done, and Rashan left the office again to do exactly that. But when he returned from Home Depot, he found a swarm of cops around the leasing office. If Rashan's story was accurate, it meant that he was the last person to have seen Melinda alive.

After Detective spoke to Rashan, they began looking for ways to either verify his story or discredit it. After a few days, they questioned him again. You guys had a little discussion. they question him again. So why you are right in there, you said you fixed the door of the screwdriver, right? Yeah. Okay. And then you guys have a little conversation, and the conversations were about what you're going to do.

Yeah, basically just now. During this second interview, Rashan's story was consistent with the first time he told it, but now the detectives had new information that contradicted when he was telling them. Where is anybody in there besides you in here? No, okay. So you're the last, so what was the last time that you asked to meet? Maybe you saw her a while.

Let me see. I need to meet the man. I don't know if we have 930 tickets. Somewhere 930 give or say. Okay. On the morning of the murder, Melinda's last known contact with anyone was at about 8.50 a.m. when she sent an email to a tenant. About an hour later at 9.50 a.m., a different tenant called the leasing office, but the call

went unanswered, as did all the other calls made the leasing office, but the call went unanswered, as did all the other calls made to the leasing office after that one. Then, one more hour later at 10.50am, the cleaning lady discovered Melinda's body. The cops believed that Melinda was murdered between the one-hour window of 8.50am and 9.50am. According to Rashan, he left the leasing office to go to Home Depot around 9.30am. And then you go to Home Depot? Yep. What route did you take to Home Depot?

Highway. Highway? Like, can you give me that? 75. And where'd you go for 795? Uh, 795, 695. Get off a little girl, just go straight up to me. And nowhere else, you stuck on the way. Okay.

The route that Rashan described would take him about 20 minutes to get from Harvest View to Home Depot, placing him there around 950 or 10 AM. So you go there and when you were in there anything? No, I wouldn't look wrong for the lawn then see it. It's the guy about it. He said he didn't take it down there. That's that the day he came back here. And what it was about? Well, one he said he didn't take it down too. I forgot to go to the car.

Okay. Get the car back from there. And then you came back here and the time you sent a baby back here. Oh, maybe. Ten minutes later, something great. Twenty minutes later. So now we're maybe like ten-thirty. Give her tea.

Yeah. Roshan claimed that he didn't buy anything at the Home Depot because the supplies he needed weren't ready. And because he forgot to get the Harvest View debit card back from Melinda. If Rashon's story was true, it would have put him arriving at Home Depot at around 10am. And returning to Harvest View 30 minutes later at around 10.30am. But there was a problem. The surveillance camera at Home Depot captured Roshan arriving

there at 10.40am. I realized that all these times I'm throwing at you might make things a little hard to follow. But all you really have to know is that what Rashan told detectives was inconsistent with the surveillance footage that was shown to them. For police, this inconsistency in Rashan's story was pretty important. And there was also something else that happened that morning that made Roshan's story pretty... hmm... suspect.

You're a boss that told us to stay at sister from Tukofan, that was a maintenance firm? Yeah, yeah. I thought I had left in the office, but then they said it maybe got hit by a ticket. What do you think he left it in there? I don't know, that I was in there. Sometimes I set my phone down for a second while I'm doing something, and I thought I might have just leftusted in there. I don't know, the number's in there. Sometimes I set my phone down for a second while I'm doing something and I got a message just after that. So you have no idea that you didn't bring it to see me into your house?

Yeah, I checked all that. You checked all that. But it's there. As the maintenance supervisor, Rashan was issued a work cell phone by Harvest View. This way tenants or Melinda could get in touch with them if there was some kind of repair that needed to be addressed quickly. On the morning of the murder, that cell phone had seemingly vanished. During his first interview with detectives, Rashan didn't mention a lost cell phone at

all. You got a 910, something like that? 910, so 910 that sounds so into possession. Yeah, it's on it. OK. So where did you lose the sound in that time thing? That's what I was saying. I didn't know. I thought, I mean, maybe you might have found on my pocket a something. So I'll give you pocket.

There was one more important thing about Roshan that caught detectives' attention. And it had to do with what Roshan was wearing on the morning of the murder. Did you have one off of those pants? No, I don't think it was the new one. It's a level pair. It's like a straight cake, you go.

Okay. So Friday, when you went to, I don't know, I'm trying to think your Dollar Tree. You had one straight khakis? Have a loose up here. You believe so? Did you have one on a jacket or anything? No, I'm the loose up. You don't believe so? And you have one on a jacket or anything? No, I'm the Lisa.

You're the Lisa. And you didn't change clothes at all. Sorry that you remember I was like paying for anything with that? No. No, you've been there recently. On the morning that Melinda was killed, Roshan purchased batteries at the nearby dollar store at around 9.20 am. And the surveillance camera in the store captured him wearing a

harvest-view-issued black jacket and tan cargo pants. At 10.40am, after Melinda had been killed, the surveillance cameras at Home Depot captured Moshon wearing a black polo shirt and straight white khakis. Yet Moshon claimed that he never changed his clothes that morning and that he would have had no reason to change them at all. When asked about his harvest-view jacket, Rashon did admit that we also have. He's not still doing the truck. Can we check your truck after that? Yeah, check it. It's okay. Conveniently, Rashan was never able to find his harvest-view jacket.

The second interview with Rashan was conducted three days after Melinda was murdered, after which all went quiet for a while. For two more months, detectives continued to work the case, and all the DNA testing relating to the crime scene came back inconclusive, of course. Even so, between the inconsistencies in Rashan's story, the lost cell phone, and his change of clothes, the detectives did have enough evidence to make an arrest. Good evening, everyone. Our big story tonight, and arrests has been made in the murder of a property manager

who was found stabbed to death inside a Reichstrasse town leasing office. And tonight, a maintenance worker is being held without bond charged in that brutal attack. Policing the suspect has not confessed, but a change in clothing was enough to charge him. We have asked this defendant to produce the clothing that he was wearing in the Dollar General video. He has been unable to do that.

Policing that Williams could not explain the discrepancy in what the surveillance video shows and at this point they don't have a motive in the case. Just over two months after Melinda Schaefer was murdered, Rashan Williams was arrested and charged with a crime. While things did look pretty bad for Rashan, all the evidence against him was circumstantial, and there were no witnesses and no forensic evidence to link him to the murder. The detectives could prove that Rashan had the means and opportunity, but if they had

any hope of making the murder charge stick, they were going to need one very important thing, a motive. On August 20, 2013, and Baltimore County, Maryland, the maintenance supervisor at the Harvest View apartment complex was arrested and charged with brutally murdering his boss, Melinda Schaefer. 27-year-old Rashan Williams, the man police say, is behind the brutal killing of 29-year-old Melinda Maltese Schaefer. The leasing agent was found stabbed to death inside her office in June at the towns of Harvest View.

Before Melinda Schaefer was murdered, she was living in Baltimore County with her husband. They had only been married for about a year before she was brutally stabbed at death. On the morning of June 14, 2013, Melinda's body was discovered in her office by the apartment complex's cleaning lady. When police arrived at the scene, they found the office was wrecked. Melinda's chair was overturned, her desk was slid across the room and files, and office equipment were scattered all over the floor. The police also found blood spatter and blood smears everywhere, and they later determined that Melinda had been stabbed 69 times in her upper body and her head. After an exhaustive investigation, Baltimore County homicide detectives determined that the maintenance supervisor 27-year-old Rashan Williams was

the killer. And they arrived at that conclusion based on inconsistencies in Rashan's statements to police. Williams told investigators he'd left a dollar general store around 9.20 a.m. He went to the leasing center from 9.30 to 9.45, the time frame in which detectives believe Shaver was killed. Williams is then seen on a surveillance tape at a home depot at 10.33 a.m. But security cameras here at the Dollar General show Williams wearing a completely different outfit than he was wearing at the home depot just an hour later.

Before Rashan was arrested, he had been questioned by police about Melinda's murder on two separate occasions, once on the day of the murder, and again three days later. Two months later he was charged, arrested, and brought in for a third and final interview. calls that we submitted on the half-cation to the commission. So that's how it works. We wrote the warrant. Something information that we have submitted to the commissioner. He'd signed off on the warrant, gets a student, and the guys come down and rest. We're probably cause, yeah, everyone, we come on in. It won't make no sense. This third interview with Roshan ended being mostly a jousting match between him and one of the detectives.

While the detective was trying to get Rashan to confess, Rashan was trying to find out exactly what cops had on him. I'm giving you information between getting me know with me. I can't get information. Who was that? Would you tell me that I was on the cash. Did you do it? Yeah, but that's right.

That's right. I think that's the bank. Yeah, you can, right? Yeah, that's cool. Throughout this interview, Rashan tried to play cool and collected. He also did this really annoying thing where he feigned exhaustion and yawned over and over again. As if to say that being charged with first degree murder was a little boring, and not much more than a small inconvenience for this fine gentleman. I don't have nothing to do, man. You might not have told me anything. I'm talking about something. I'm talking about the death of a young lady.

I'm not a state of whoopie. That's what I'm talking about. I might not be anything to you, but it's something to make me. I don't know. I don't know what you're saying. I didn't know where they were got a chance to know. Would like to, what I hear is a nice lady.

I know I had nothing to do with it. That's why I should. Despite Rashan's performance, the detectives were entirely confident, and he was the killer. But the one thing they didn't know was if Rashan had planned to murder, or if it happened on a moment of unexpected rage. That piece that we're looking for is to whether the person of unexpected rage. And in the day, we got the girl we got to deal with, didn't we? We know to the people besides whether or not it's planned or whether that happened off

the cuffs for every moment. Where's your calm moment? Rashan wasn't willing to provide insight into his final thought process on the day of the murder. So detectives began questioning Rashan about the inconsistencies in his original statements to police. At one point in that morning, did you change your clothes?

You don't know. Remember, change your clothes? No, I don't sleep, don't. Well, one of the times that we talked to you said you didn't change your clothes? No, I didn't sleep down. One of the times that we talked to you said you didn't change your clothes. Like the day... For me, I did. And the following days. I was saying I changed my clothes.

Well, I knew you changed your clothes. Okay. I'm just asking when. I don't know. Again, detectives knew that Rashan changed his clothes on the day of the murder. The dollar store surveillance camera captured him wearing a black jacket and tan cargo pants. About 90 minutes later, the Home Depot surveillance camera captured him wearing a black polo

shirt and straight white khakis. Who wears white khakis, by the way? Because I can tell you that it happened between dollar general and home depot. So why are you asking me, man? Because there's a bit of a window in there. So if you shed some light on when you change them and where you change them, I just say I don't remember changing. I tell me I can't ask the question, right? Yeah, but that's redundant.

It's the same question over and over and over again. Same as that one. Bust and clothes. Mm-hmm. I just told you that already. It's important. I just said I don't remember. Rashan maintained that he had no memory of changing his clothes that morning.

And he also seemed unable to understand why this was important to the case. By the way, he was just pretending that he couldn't understand. You knew I changed my clothes, so far you said you knew I changed my clothes. When you see why that's a change my clothes. Why that can be a bit of an issue in your eyes, right? So the next job is because it's a piece of power calls mine going to lie to you. So you can lie to me if I change the clothes. It's a piece of it.

It's crazy. But when you change your clothes in a timeframe, and that timeframe is also when the person gets killed, it goes towards that proper cost. And then when we talked to you a couple of days after the murder and asked you about changing your clothes, you said you would have no reason to change your clothes. So when you take those two things, couple with the fact that you changed your clothes, it's a bit of a red flag for us. Because Melinda gets brutally murdered in a very bloody scene.

And in that time, you changed your clothes. Something else that the detectives focused on was Roshan's work cell phone, which went missing on the morning of the murder. When Roshan was first questioned, he never mentioned anything about the phone to detectives. One of the other things I wanted to go over with you was the issue I know that you unpacked, talked about, was the work stuff from the Jolalset that I ring about. And the reason you didn't tell us that it was missing? Didn't know? Didn't know what?

I didn't notice you was missing. She called Patrick to tell me it was missing. And I talked to her at the start and the three. I'm saying that you call Patrick to some of them to let him know that the cell phone was messing. But you didn't didn't tell us that it was messing.

Didn't tell police far enough to mess them. But then just a minute ago, you said that's because you didn't realize the missing yet. Clearly did because you call Patrick and told him. You want me to make no sense, man.

Look, look at what Mr. Sain is. On the contrary, what the detective was saying made a lot of sense. There is no doubt that Rashan knew his work phone was missing because he called the company to tell them about it. And he made this call, get this. He made this call while sitting in the police interrogation room as he was waiting to be questioned for the first time. It just can't fix dumb. Hey Patrick.

Hey, hey, Mr. Shum. How you feeling, right? dumb. but I couldn't. I didn't see it. Yeah, I believe so. Might have been. I couldn't tell my mom talking. I'm not sure. For detectives, there was only one reason why Rashan would have changed his clothes and ditched his work phone because they were covered in Melinda's blood. They keep using sheep in your pocket and the cell phone is keeping your pocket. All missing because of the pants were bloody and you had to take them off and get rid of them. I'll get those things. You gotta get rid of them. They got bottom.

That's where I'd home depot with different pants on. That makes sense. And you can say it doesn't make sense, but that makes sense. You trust me, you can. All those contents of your pockets, miss it, still miss it, miss it, miss it, miss trust me, you know. All those contents of your pockets, Mrs. Still Missed News Day, with the pants. All because my husband was so brutally murdered

that they would blood it everywhere, and all in your pants, and you had to get rid of me. You had to. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that a tap one, that attack you decide your mind to go in her own her on the scene with such force and vengeance that that much blood is produced that ends up on your pants.

Regarding the missing phone, the police were able to obtain two notable phone records that occurred shortly after the murder. At 1028 AM, the phone received a missed call, and at 10.32 a.m., the phone used a cell tower to download some kind of automatic software update. These two events placed the phone, and likely, reshawned, near a shopping plaza, about 10 miles north of the Harvest View Apart apartments, just a few minutes away from the home depot. The detectives believe that Rashan dumped the phone and his bloody clothes into a dumpster around this time and around this area. None of these items were ever recovered. Again, the detectives had a decent case against Rashan, but all their evidence was circumstantial.

A lot of circumstantial cases up there in Baltimore. Doesn't mean the murder didn't happen. Rashan had lied to the police several times. He had the means and opportunity to commit the murder. But if a prosecutor was going to convince 12 people in a jury box that Rashan was guilty, they were going to need a motive. and that catalyst will make it snap, will went off. Like I said, if you blew the planet or it had it spurred the moment. So you're not even thinking on a tip, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, I think a bunch of junk. I'm ready to go.

I'm sorry, I'm on a witch hunt. A witch hunt? Now we're just finding the person to do this. During this interview, Rashon doesn't so much as deny the accusations against him as much as he claims that the cops have nothing on him, which in itself is interesting. I don't know about you, but if I was charged with a murder I didn't commit, I wouldn't be telling the cops they don't have enough evidence.

I'd clearly be telling them I didn't do it. That's not what was happening in this particular circumstance, though. Nonetheless, Rashan was either confident that he would not be convicted of this crime or he was pretending to be confident. And he wasn't about to share his motive. But that was okay because detectives had figured it out. And they had evidence to back it up. our work out in the cheese. Yeah, tough. Hold people accountable for stuff. And I wish you pulled them.

Not the easiest thing, the easiest to work for sometimes. Everybody got their own styles, you know what I mean? I wish you pulled them. Yeah, I mean, that's definitely a something to pull out. Yeah, some people look at it. That's what she's supposed to do. That's her job as a boss, it's the whole people accountable. You know, Vanessa seemed to think that it was made a little over the top.

And she had a little bit the top, and she had a little bit of an issue with her. So, I guess, it's probably part of the reason we love to her being fired. Melinda Schaefer was extremely good at her job, and she always went above and beyond what the job asked of her. She sincerely cared about her tenants and making Harvest View a great place to live. Naturally, any other employee at Harvest View that didn't share that attitude and that goal was going to clash with Melinda.

And that's why her former assistant Vanessa Coats was fired. Unsurprisingly it turned out that Rashon was having a similar issue. with a little bit in somebody's eyes. Maybe not your eyes, I'm up. As detectives investigated this case and began looking into Melinda's work life, they found an interesting text exchange on her cell phone between her and Rashan. Rashan had asked Melinda, quote, are y'all getting rid of me over this?

End quote. This text related to a repair issue on the property that Rashan was supposed to have resolved, but never did. As a result, Melinda ended up needing to hire and pay a third party repairman. Which kinda, you know, defeats the fucking point. On top of that, Rashan was already on thin ice because he'd recently gotten in a trouble for lying and covering for Vanessa Coates when she came into work late. This lie landed Rashan on work probation for 30 days, and he was told that if there were

any more infractions, it would be fired. No matter how minor or major the infraction was. Do you think during good graces with the zoo the entire time? It's always your work performance. You think so? Mm-hmm. Despite the fact that you're put on information after? I was. The detectives knew that Melinda was either about to fire Rashan or was seriously considering

it because she told a regional manager about Rashan's crappy work performance on more than a few occasions. There was also a ledger on her desk that documented his screw-ups. The detectives also discovered that Melinda had edited a personnel action form on her computer the night before she was killed. This form is basically a pack up your shit you're fired notice that is given to an employee when they are let go. Of course, for someone to commit murder just because they are about to be fired is pretty extreme. But Rashan had more to lose than just his job.

Rashan wasn't the only maintenance supervisor at Harvest View. He was also a tenant. And because of his employment, his rent was reduced considerably. Rashan lived with his wife, his eight-year-old daughter and his two-year-old son. The roof he was keeping over their heads was dependent on his harvest-view employment. The employment he seemed to take for granted. Because of this whole thing, you've been suspended. I mean, basically, if you're a fire from there, you lose your job, possible, and lose your place of to live where your family can live, you and your wife and your two kids.

So if you just find out the Vanessa, if you just find out the Vanessa guy laid off, not necessarily no use thinking it's coming to you. You're the next one alive because you know that they don't think that you're doing a good job. They go stretching again. I'm not stretching anything. I know Bob and us got fired and I know that you were on their mark still. If Melinda comes into you with something about needing to get your stuff together, now one little nagging piece of her causes you to snap. She's just trying to do her job. She's just trying to hold you accountable for doing yours. I'll show this to her, I ain't nothing to do with her. Nothing.

You're not doing your job. You're on the verge of being fired. And she's holding you accountable. So she comes at you and she tells you, hey! You gotta get your stuff together. Then you go after her. Crazy. Somehow that turns into this brutal attack. On the morning of Melinda's murder, And then you go after it.

On the morning of Melinda's murder, Roshan returned to the leasing office after buying batteries at the nearby dollar store. We don't know and we'll probably never know what conversation he and Melinda had when he got back. But detectives believe that Melinda either warned R Rashan that he was going to be fired, or Rashan saw the personnel action form on Melinda's desk and put two and two together. Either way, this caused Rashan to snap and violently attack Melinda like an animal. There was an intense struggle between them.

Melinda fought for her life, but her shan got the best of her and stabbed her 69 times in the upper body and head with a knife. After Melinda was dead, Roshan attempted to clean up the scene, but it was too much blood. And he had to know that the cleaning lady would be returning to the office at any minute. Rashan fled the office through the back door, taking his work phone and the murder weapon with him, which he later threw away at a nearby shopping plaza dumpster, along with his bloody work jacket and bloody

work pants. Again, none of these items were ever recovered. Detectives believed that after Rishan disposed of the evidence he went to Home Depot, and the real reason why he didn't buy anything was because he was only there to establish an alibi. Only there to get his mug on cam. You asked me if we, if I found the person, yeah, I found the person. You killed it, remorse you didn't you killed it.

So you think? I'm sorry that you think it's funny. I'm sorry that you think it's funny. I'm sorry that you think it's funny. I'm sorry that you think it's funny. I'm sorry that you don't hold a sister's raise for this funny. We don not trying to get you things. I've been saying, you're a whole racist racialist funny. We don't think any of us find it. I've been saying the situation is funny, I mean.

It's not funny, what you say. It's not funny what would happen. I'm not saying that's funny. But I'm saying, which I'll present, it's like, come on, man. Be for real. Like, you don't really want to lock me up there. You never said that one logical thing for a forever. None of this has been logical to you? I don't know if you're just charged somebody. Like I explained to you, we got it.

We ain't got nothing man. We got some old shit about some missing keys and some missing phones. I can't believe you even got a charge for that. Rashan may have been overconfident, but he wasn't entirely wrong. The evidence against him strongly suggested that he was guilty, but it was also circumstantial. The detectives worked hard to solve the crime, but they didn't have anything rock solid, like DNA, fingerprints, or a murder weapon.

A prosecutor was going to have to try to convince 12 American jurors of Rashan's guilt, while defense attorneys challenged all of the circumstantial evidence, trying to poke holes in anything they possibly could as they do. In April 2015, two years after Melinda was killed, her Sean's murder case went to trial. The trial lasted for five days and several members of Melinda's family were in attendance, including her father. She cared about everybody. This is what burns me up. I don't want to see this guy on the face of the surface anymore if you want to know the answer got you. I want this guy to be prosecuted to

the full extent of the law and I hope to God and I pray that he goes away for the rest of his life. I pray that he goes away for the rest of his life. For five, agonizing days, Melinda's family watched and listened as the prosecution laid out their case against Roshan Williams, which included describing Melinda's final horrific moments alive in the painful brutal way that she was killed. My daughter was stabbed 69 times, and when they talk about that, it crushed us. that she was killed. The prosecution's theory was Williams snapped when an appeared shaffer was about to fire him. Documents detailing Williams' poor work performance and a termination form were found on her desk

in the leasing office. The leased-said Williams also couldn't explain why surveillance video at two stores that morning showed him in two different outfits right before and right after Shafers death. In the end, the evidence wasn't enough to convict Rashan of First Degree murder, and the jury returned a not guilty verdict. However, they also returned another verdict. Apparently, after hearing all of the evidence, the jury was convinced that Rashan had committed

the crime, but they believed that it wasn't planned. As a result, Rashan was found guilty of second-degree murder. For that, Melinda's family was grateful. I want to thank first of all the jury for their verdict. And today in Baltimore County Circuit Court Williams was sentenced to 30 years in prison, ending at tough case for Schaefer's family, who came from California to listen to in court. He hasn't said yet what exactly why. One day, maybe he will. Maybe one day he'll reach out and say to me why.

["March 23"] As of March 2023, Rashan Williams has not explained why he did what he did, but it's not difficult to make an educated guess. Melinda Schaeffer was a young woman just doing her job, and it was a job that she did so well. She excelled at that job. She expected people around her to excel at their own jobs as well. Imagine that.

Imagine expecting people to do their fucking job. Imagine what a world it would be. Rashan's shitty work performance clashed with Melinda's exceptional work ethic, and Rashan found himself on the chopping block. His livelihood was threatened, and as an employee and a resident of Harvest View, he had a lot to lose. And when he saw it all slipping away, he didn't work harder to try to keep it. He didn't do any self-reflection and realize how it was kinda his fault to begin with.

Rashan didn't consider that maybe he was the reason for all the bad things that were happening to him, because couldn't be that. Couldn't be personal responsibility. That can't be it. Instead he blamed Melinda, the white girl at the leasing office, and in a fit of blind rage he brutally stabbed her to death. That's reality. You can like it or not, Doesn't change it from being reality.

Sadly, this is another one of those cases where evil is seemingly one. The young wife and beloved daughter lost her life in what was truly a senseless murder. At least thanks to some good police work, Melinda and her family got a little bit of justice, a little bit of peace. And maintenance man, to think about the lives that he destroyed. That's going to do it and as we look forward to Thanksgiving here, I'm very thankful for all of you. So have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Stay safe. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc Hey Mike, last Thanksgiving, it was my first thing's getting by myself. I just went through a divorce over, I guess, kind of the woke crap that's going on. But you talked about how we should all be safe and loved as we should be. We all want that. But then you said that we're all a part of this big family and that meant a lot to me at the time still means a lot to me now so I just want to say thank you for but thank you. You