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Man Kills Estranged Wife and Her Parents in New Jersey Murder-Suicide | Crime House 24/7
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Hi, it's Vanessa. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, there's a new Crime House original you should check out. It's called the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Sarah's an advocate for missing and murdered victims whose own sister disappeared in 2001. And Courtney is a true crime storyteller who's seen firsthand how crime can change a family forever. Together, they bring lived experience to every case, examining the moments just before a person disappears. The routines, the timelines, the small details that often get overlooked because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal. Until it doesn't. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday. Foreign. This is Crime House. Good morning everyone. We have multiple breaking true crime cases this morning that you need to know about, and we're starting with the biggest one. Before dawn in New Jersey, a man went to his estranged wife's parents home and shot and killed her mother and father, then chased his wife into the street and killed her. Minutes later. As police arrived and his three children slept inside the house, he turned the gun on himself. This is crime house 24 7, your non stop source for the biggest crime cases developing right now. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Vanessa Richardson and we have quite a lineup for you today. Here's what you need to know. Hey, Sal. Hank. What's going on? We haven't worked a case in years. I just bought my car at Carvana and it was so easy. Too easy. Think something's up? You tell me. They got thousands of options, found a great car at a great price, and it got delivered the next day. It sounds like Carvana just makes it easy to buy your car, Hank. Yeah, you're right. Case closed. Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. We're leading this morning with a devastating story out of New Jersey that unfolded in the early morning hours of March 10th in a quiet residential neighborhood near the Jersey Shore. Four people are dead and three young children have lost both of their parents in what the Ocean County Prosecutor's office is calling a triple murder suicide. According to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billheimer, office officers with the Berkeley Township Police Department were dispatched to a home on Fairwood Drive in the Bayville section of the township at approximately 5am after receiving reports of shots fired. When they arrived at the scene, officers observed a man entering the residence. Within moments, they heard additional gunfire coming from Inside the home, the situation was immediately classified as an active threat. Authorities quickly secured the area and called in additional resources. The Ocean County Regional SWAT team was dispatched and made entry into the home to secure the scene and search for any additional victims or suspects. Inside the residence, officers found two people dead from apparent gunshot wounds. They were later identified as 61 year old Alan Russell and 60 year old Michelle Russell. The homeowners both had been shot inside their own home in what investigators say appears to have been a targeted attack. Also inside the home were three minor children. Remarkably, none of the children were physically harmed during the violence. As officers continued to clear the rest of the house, they located a man later identified as 37 year old Von Stewart of Maplewood, New Jersey. Stewart had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Emergency medical personnel transported him to Community Medical center in Toms river in critical condition, but he was later pronounced dead. But investigators soon realized the violence had not been confined to the house itself. As officers expanded the perimeter of the investigation beyond the residence, they discovered discovered multiple shell casings scattered on the street outside. Approximately 50 yards from the home along the side of Fairwood Drive, officers located the body of 38 year old Diona Stewart. Diona Stewart was the daughter of Allen and Michelle Russell and the estranged wife of Vaughn Stewart. Authorities say she'd been shot multiple times. Prosecutors believe she was attempting to escape when she was chased down and killed in the street. Diona had been living at the Fairwood Drive home with her parents and her children since separating from Vaugh. The couple shared the children but had been living apart. Prosecutors have not yet disclosed how long the couple had been separated or whether there had been prior domestic incidents reported between them. What investigators have been able to reconstruct, however, is the timeline of what happened that morning. Sometime before 5am Von Stewart arrived at the house on Fairwood Drive. Investigators say he entered the residence and shot Allan and Michelle Russell inside the home. When Diona Stewart attempted to flee, authorities believed he chased her down the street, firing multiple shots before killing her. After that, prosecutors say Stewart returned to the home where the three children were still inside and turned the gun on himself. The entire sequence appears to have unfolded in just a matter of minutes. By the time officers arrived and the SWAT team made entry into the residence, the violence had already come to an end. For neighbors, the morning began with the sound of gunfire shattering the quiet of the neighborhood. Several residents told local media they were jolted awake by the shots. One woman told ABC 7 New York that she heard approximately six gunshots at around 4:45am and later reviewed footage from her doorbell camera that captured the sound. Others described the scene as surreal. Fairwood Drive sits inside the Mill Creek community of Berkeley Township, a suburban neighborhood made up largely of single family home where residents say the streets are typically quiet and safe. Authorities have not yet disclosed what type of firearm was used in the attack, and officials have not released information about whether Vaughn Stewart had any prior arrests or documented history of domestic violence as of March 10. Prosecutors say the investigation remains active as detectives work to determine what may have led up to the violence. Meanwhile, the three children who survived the attack are now in the care of the New Jersey Department of Child Protection and Permanency officials say they're working to ensure the children receive support and assistance in the aftermath of the tragedy. And now we turn to a courtroom in Tennessee where prosecutors laid out how a former NFL star allegedly turned to artificial intelligence for help covering up a murder. On March 10, Hamilton county prosecutors in Tennessee presented disturbing new evidence during the preliminary hearing for 31 year old Darren Lee, the former New York jets first round draft pick now charged with the first degree murder of his girlfriend, 29 year old Gabriella Carvelo Perpetuo. A judge found probable cause to send both charges, first degree murder and tampering with or fabricating evidence, to the grand jury. Perpetuo was found dead on February 5, 2026 inside the couple's rented home on Snow Cone Way in Ulta, a community near Chattanooga. The couple had moved in just 10 days earlier. Body camera footage played in court showed Lee wearing a Kansas City Chiefs hoodie, telling responding deputies that he had been asleep for a long time, came downstairs and found his girlfriend lying on the couch unresponsive. He told officers he did not know what had happened and suggested she may have fallen in the shower. He also claimed the broken glass found throughout the home was the result of a rapid temperature change from leaving a window open, saying the glass just exploded. When the house was reheated, investigators painted a very different picture. Detective Brian Lockhart testified that Blue Star testing revealed blood in virtually every room of the house. He told the court there was blood going up the staircase, on the handrailing, on the walls and on the floor in the living room. In just about every room except one. Perpetuo's injuries were devastating. Severe brain and facial trauma, a broken neck, stab wounds to her legs, black eyes, circular bite marks on her shoulder and thigh and blood coming from her nose and mouth. The cause of death was ruled blunt force trauma. Then prosecutors revealed the chat GPT messages Late on the night of February 4, a full 24 hours before Lee ever called 911, he began sending messages to the chatbot. In one, he wrote that his fiance did her crazy thing again, that she had two swollen eyes he claimed were self inflicted, that she appeared to have stabbed her herself, and that she was not waking up or responding. He created a fictional standin named Ally and asked the chatbot what to tell a friend who was dealing with an unresponsive person and wanted to call the police. He also asked whether a fall could produce what he described as two stabby looking wounds. District Attorney Cody Wamp told the court that Lee had dozens of conversations with the chatbot over a two day span asking how to cover it up and what to say to 911. WAP called it using Chat GPT as a legal advisor and defense attorney. She added that she had never seen a local homicide case in which Chat GPT was used as a key piece of evidence. Bleach wipes and spray bottles were also found in the home, which led to the additional charge of tampering with evidence. Lee's public defender, Mike Little argued that the evidence is circumstantial and that no one knows what happened inside that house. General Sessions Judge Tori Smith found probable cause stating she was even more convinced the off was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel. Lee remains in custody without bond. Prosecutors have identified two aggravating factors that could make him eligible for the death penalty. Perpetuo's mother has filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit. From a case built on digital evidence to one built on years of investigation. A Michigan farmer was convicted this week of killing his wife and hiding her body in a place while no one was supposed to find. Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter? Right. And the best part? They accept Discover. Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh yeah, huh. Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on baby, get with the times. Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report. On March 10, a Lenaway county jury found 58 year old Dale Warner guilty of second degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of his wife, 52 year old Dee Warner. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for approximately nine hours over two days before returning the verd. Warner was charged with open murder, meaning the Jury also had the option of first degree premeditated murder, but ultimately settled on second degree. D Warner was last seen on April 25, 2021 at the couple's home near Tecumseh, Michigan. Her family reported her missing, but the investigation initially struggled. Michigan State Police took over the case from the Lenaway County Sheriff's office in August 2022. Dale was arrested and charged in November 2020, three, months before De body had even been found. Prosecutors believed they could prove she was dead based on circumstantial evidence alone. Then on August 16, 2024, state police discovered human remains sealed inside a fertilizer tank on property belonging to Dale in the rural community of Tipton. The tank had been re welded shut and repainted. Dental records confirmed the remains were de. A medical examiner testified she died from strangulation and blunt force trauma with BR bruises on her temples and the back of her head. Over a five week trial featuring 12 days of testimony from 35 witnesses, prosecutors laid out a picture of a marriage in collapse. D wanted a divorce and to sell the family's farming and trucking businesses. Dale did not. Evidence showed he had tracked D's Cadillac Escalade more than 2100 times using a mobile phone app between January 2020 and April 2021. He also had an employee clone her and another by a GPS tracker for her vehicle. When Dale learned investigators planned to bring cadaver dogs to the property, drone footage captured him using a front end loader to move a rusted fertilizer tank from a burn pile. His fingerprint was found on the tank that held her body. One of the last things Dee told her daughter was that she watched Dateline every night and that Dale could do something like that to her. After five years of fighting for answers, Dee's family is finally seeing a measure of justice. Her brother Greg Hardy, who led the public campaign justice for Dee, became emotional after the verdict, saying the long fight for validation was often difficult. Warner will be sentenced May 7 and faces up to life in prison. And our final story today is the sentencing of a Nevada woman whose own prosecutor called her a master manipulator and whose crime shocked even veteran investigators. On March 11, a Las Vegas woman apologized in court as she was sentenced to decades in prison for the brutal killing of her on and off again boyfriend, 47 year old former adult film star Devin Michaels received 28 years to life for the first degree murder of 46 year old Jonathan Willette. A Clark county jury convicted Michaels in November after a two week trial that prosecutors described as disturbing and bizarre. The case drew national attention not only for the brutality of the killing, but for the complicated relationships surrounding it. Willette's body was discovered on August 6, 2023, inside his mother's home in Henderson, Nevada. He'd been beaten to death and decapitated. His body was wrapped in blankets and doused with chemicals, and investigators believe his head was discarded in the trash near Michael's home in Northwest Las Vegas. It has never been recovered. During the investigation, Michaels told police she had been giving Willette a massage when she struck him in the head with what she described as a candlestick like object, causing him to go limp. Officers later found Willette's phone, wallet, keys and Social Security card among her belongings. Prosecutors described Michaels as manipulative and pointed to her relationship with Willette's own son, Deir. Michaels had previously been married to Jonathan Willette and had two daughters with him. But after their divorce, she later married his adult son, 29 year old Deir Willett. Testimony revealed the relationship began years earlier while Michaels was still involved with Jonathan Willette, creating what prosecutors described as a tangled love triangle inside the same family. According to investigators, Jonathan Willette had reached recently gained custody of the couple's daughters and was preparing to move back into Michael's home to help care for them. But that home was also where Michaels was living with Willette's son, De Vere. Prosecutors argued that Willette's return threatened the life Michaels had built with Deere and the children. Michaels had initially accepted a plea deal for second degree murder that would have made her eligible for parole after 15 years. But during a 2025 sentencing hearing, she withdrew the plea and proclaimed her innocence, sending the case to TR trial, where jurors ultimately found her guilty of first degree murder with a deadly weapon. At the hearing, Willette's father told the court that Michael's daughters will grow up knowing their mother killed their father. Judge Tierra Jones sentenced Michaels to 20 years to life for the murder, plus an additional eight to 20 years for the deadly weapon enhancement. The sentence means she will not be eligible for parole until she served at least 28 years. After years of investigation and court proceedings, the sentence brings a measure of accountability in Willette's killing. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, there's a new Crime House show for you to check out. It's the new Crime House original series, the Final Hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Sarah is an advocate for missing and murdered victims whose own sister disappeared in 2001. And Courtney is a true crime storyteller and investigator who witnessed firsthand how crime can change a family forever. Together, they bring lived experience to every case, looking not only at what happened, but what led up to it. Each episode examines the moments just before a person disappears, the routines, the timelines, and the small details that often get overlooked. Because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal. A text that doesn't raise concern, a routine that goes unchanged, a door that closes just like it always has. Until it doesn't. The final hours puts those moments under a microscope, because when it comes to justice, there's no such thing as overanalyzing. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen. New episodes every Monday. Before you go, let me tell you what else is happening at Crime House. Today on Serial Killers and Murderous Minds, we examine a case where violence unfolded inside a home that appeared from the outside, completely ordinary. The street was quiet. The neighbors kept their routines. Nothing suggested that something catastrophic was happening just beyond the walls. After cases like this break, a familiar phrase emerges. We had no idea. It's not always denial. Often it's genuine shock. The rhythms of daily life mail delivery, lawn care, weekend errands create a sense of predictability. People assume that extreme violence would be visible, that it would make noise, that it would disrupt the pattern. But many of the most disturbing crimes do not announce themselves. They unfold in silence in private spaces sustained by architecture of domestic life and the social boundaries that keep neighbors from looking too closely. Here are five cases where neighbors truly did not know what was happening next door, where horror coexisted with routine. Number one Dennis Raider, the man known as BTK for decades, Dennis Raider lived in Witchita, Kansas, in a modest home that gave no outward indication of the crimes tied to his name. He worked as a compliance officer. He attended church regularly and eventually served as president of his congregation. He participated in community life behind that structured exterior. Raider was responsible for 10 murders committed between 1974 and 1991. He bound, tortured, and killed his victims, then returned to his family life after a long period of silence. He reinitiated contact with media and law enforcement in the early 2000s. In 2005, he was arrested after digital forensic evidence linked him to communications he believed were untraceable. Neighbors later described him as particular, sometimes stern, but not threatening. He shoveled snow. He maintained his yard. He existed within the expected range of suburban normal. What made the case so destabilizing was not only the brutality of the crimes, but the seamlessness of the dual life. The man seen mowing his lawn was the same man who had terrorized the region for years. There had been no dramatic rupture in the neighborhood that suggested a serial offender lived among them. Number two, Ariel Castro. A house of captivity in Cleveland. Ariel Castro's home in Cleveland, Ohio, stood in a working class neighborhood where residents recognized one another and daily patterns felt familiar. Inside that house, three young women who'd been reported missing years earlier were being held captive. They were confined, abused, used, and prevented from contacting the outside world. For nearly a decade, neighbors recalled seeing Castro coming and going. Some remember unusual behavior, Boarded windows, limited visitors, but nothing that definitively signaled long term imprisonment. The breakthrough came only when one of the captives managed to escape in 2013 and alert authorities. For years, the crimes had existed within a few yards of neighboring homes. Children played nearby. Why? Cars passed daily. The concealment depended less on elaborate deception and more on isolation and the assumption that private homes are private. The proximity did not translate to visibility. Number three. Dennis Nilsson Quiet streets in London in late 1970s London, Dennis Nelson lived in a series of modest residences. He worked in civil service. He rode public transportation. He appeared reserved but functional. Inside his home, he murdered multiple young men. He concealed bodies within the property, sometimes storing them for extended periods before attempting disposal. Complaints about plumbing issues eventually triggered investigation. Human remains were discovered in drains and within the home itself. Neighbors later described him as quiet and unremarkable. There were no public altercations, no visible signs of violence spilling into the street. The horror existed within the walls. The routines of apartment life continued around him uninterrupted. The case illustrates how long term concealment can occur even in densely populated areas. Shared walls and close quarters do not guarantee awareness when crimes are methodical and contained. Number four, Todd Kohlhepp. The successful realtor with a secret. Todd Kohlhepp lived in South Carolina and worked as a real estate agent. He presented as competent, socially functional. He bought and sold property. He communicated professionally. He maintained the outward appearance of stability. In 2016, authorities searching a rural property he owned discovered a woman chained inside a shipping container. She'd been held captive for months. Investigators later connected Khep to multiple murders, including a quadruple homicide at a motorcycle shop years earlier. The property where the captive was found was not an obvious fortress. It was land he owned and used in the course of ordinary business. Those who interacted with him professionally described him as direct, sometimes abrasive, but not overtly dangerous. There was no widespread suspicion that he was capable of Serial violence. Kohlhepp's case demonstrates how perpetrators can embed themselves within professional structures that reinforce legitimacy. His real estate career provided both financial cover and a reason to access isolated locations. The crimes did not announce themselves to neighbors or colleagues. They existed beneath a layer of occupational normaly. Number five, Fred and Rosemary West. A house on Cromwell Street. Fred and Rosemary west lived in Gloucester, England, in a terraced house that blended seamlessly into the surrounding neighborhood. The street was residential and unassuming. Inside and beneath the property. Multiple victims were assaulted and murdered over years. Human remains were later discovered buried in the cellar and garden for an extended period. Nothing outwardly suggested the magnitude of violence concealed within the home. The exterior did not signal catastrophe. The structure did not attract extraordinary attention. When police excavated the property in the 1990s, the revelation stunned the community. The crimes had geographically close to neighbors who moved through daily routines unaware of what lay beneath the floor. The case stands as one of the starkest examples of domestic concealment. The violence was not hidden in distant wilderness. It was embedded within a residential block. Why neighbors often don't see it. There's a persistent cultural assumption that extreme violence must look extreme from the outside, that it leaves visible fractures in daily life. In reality, many perpetrators rely on predictability. They maintain lawns. They pay bills. They attend work. They exchange brief pleasantries. Social norms discourage suspicion without clear cause. Privacy is respected. Curtains remain drawn without comment even when small irregularities arise. Odd smells, unusual schedules, abrupt absences. They rarely assemble into a coherent picture until hindsight rearranges as them. Communities are structured around trust by default. To treat every neighbor as a potential threat would be socially unsustainable. That default trust, however, creates blind spots in cases like these. The statement we had no idea reflects the limits of what proximity can reveal. In today's episode of Serial Killers and Murderous Minds, we examine a case where the truth was concealed inside a home that appeared entirely ordinary from the street. The violence did not erupt in public. It did not announce itself. It remained hidden until it couldn't. For the full case study, listen now, because sometimes the most disturbing crimes are not the ones that happen far away. They are the ones that happen next door, unnoticed. You've been listening to crime house 247 bringing you breaking crime news. I'm Vanessa Richardson. We'll be back with tomorrow morning with more developing stories. Stay safe and thanks for listening. Hi, it's Vanessa. If you're drawn to true crime stories about disappearances, check out the new Crime House original, the Final hours, hosted by Sarah Turney and Courtney Nicole. Listen to and follow the final hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.