Transcript
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Hi listeners, it's Vanessa Richardson. Real quick, before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love. America's Most Infamous Crimes. Hosted by Katie Ring. Each week, Katie takes on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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This is Crime House.
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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. A man already serving multiple life sentences for murder is now on trial for killing another woman. And this time, prosecutors want the death penalty. 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. On this show, we dig deeper, we look closer, because understanding comes from paying attention. And when you travel solo, you're doing the same thing. Choosing to see the world for yourself. You're stepping outside your routine, following your curiosity and experiencing places on your own terms. But going solo doesn't mean doing everything alone. 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On April 6, opening statements are underway in the murder trial of Demoris Hunter, a 59 year old man already serving time for killings in California who now faces the possibility of a death sentence in Florida for a 2002 cold case that took more than 20 years to reach a courtroom. The case centers on the death of 38 year old Teresa Ann Green, a nurse from the College park neighborhood of Orlando. On the night of May 26, 2002, Green and Hunter were both attending a party at an apartment building where they both lived, hosted by their neighbors, Joyce and Joseph Butler. Witnesses told police they saw both Green and Hunter fall down the stairs together as they were leaving the party that night, and that the two got up and went into Green's apartment. Several hours later, Hunter returned to the Butler's apartment and asked Joseph Butler for a favor. According to police, Hunter handed Butler the keys to a white van and asked him to follow behind as Hunter drove Green's car. Green was reported missing the following day, May 27th. That same evening, her body was found in the trunk of her car, which had been abandoned in a parking lot in Sanford, Florida. She had been strangled to death. One detail from that night stands out. After Hunter allegedly drove Green's car away from the apartment complex, Joseph Butler never once saw Teresa Green. Hunter parked a car at a Walgreens, got into the van with Butler, and that was that. What Butler made of that night and what he told investigators is among the testimony jurors will hear as this trial gets underway. Investigators quickly identified Hunter as their primary suspect. By that point, he had already left Florida. But that wasn't all. When police interviewed the owner of that white van, Henry Fields, Fields told them something chilling. Hunter had come to Orlando from Oakland, California, and had confided in Fields that he had committed a murder there before making his way to Florida. It's also worth noting that at the time, Hunter wasn't going by his own name. He'd been living in the apartment complex under the alias Michael Barry. The victim in that California killing was described as a longtime friend of Hunter's girlfriend. And that murder had occurred just months before green's death in 2002. In 2004, Hunter was arrested in Texas and extradited back to California to face charges in that Oakland case. He was convicted and sentenced to a combined 110 years and by other accounts, four life sentences. Sentences in California prison. And that was not his first conviction. Hunter had also been convicted of a separate murder in California dating back to 1985, making the Florida case his third known killing. All told, prosecutors have tied him to three murders in California alone. For years, the Florida case sat in limbo. Then, in 2014, an Orange county grand jury indicted Hunter for Greene's murder. In 2015, he was extradited to Florida to face the charge and prosecuted, wasted no time filing a notice of intent to seek the death penalty if he was convicted. What followed was more than a decade of extraordinary delays. Hunter has cycled through at least six different public defenders since arriving at the Orange County Jail. The case was postponed repeatedly for a range of reasons, including complications tied to the COVID 19 pandemic and at one point a heart attack Hunter suffered. All told, he's been incarcerated for roughly 25 years across both states. More than 11 of those years spent sitting in the Orange County Jail waiting for his trial to begin. Jury selection got underway on March 30 and concluded April 2, with opening statements now beginning Monday, April 6. Hunter is charged with first degree murder and theft in connection with Greene's death. The theft charge is a reflection of the fact that Green's car was taken and used in the commission of the crime as prosecutors alleged that Hunter drove her car from the apartment complex that night in Even though he's already serving multiple life sentences in California, he faces a potential death sentence if convicted. His defense team has filed motions to take the death penalty off the table, but so far those efforts have been unsuccessful. Now a jury is finally seated and opening statements are underway. Whether this trial ultimately delivers the justice prosecutors are seeking remains to be seen. But after more than two decades and the case against Damoris Hunter is finally being heard from Florida, we head next to Australia where a man was grabbed at the airport just moments before he could board an international flight and the story of what police believe he was trying to leave behind is deeply disturbing. Authorities in Victoria, Australia made a dramatic arrest on April 3, stopping a 67 year old man at Melbourne airport just before he boarded an international flight out of the country. That man, Alan Keys, is now charged with murder in connection with the death of his estranged former partner, 53 year old Ava Lasserini, whose body was discovered the following day on April 4th. Reports have noted that Keys and Laerini had a turbulent history, one that involved repeatedly separating and reuniting over the years. The timeline here starts on April 2. Laerini, a mother who lived in the suburb of Dandenong, was last seen around noon that day. Her phone was later switched off and she stopped responding to calls and messages from her family, behavior that, according to her family, was highly out of character. She'd been planning to board a flight to Bali to visit her daughters who live there, and when she never arrived and couldn't be reached, her family raised the alarm with police on Thursday, April 3. Victoria Police quickly deemed the circumstances suspicious and detectives from the Missing Person Squad launched an investigation. Investigators moved fast. Keys, who's from the suburb of Patterson Lakes, was intercepted at Melbourne International Airport on the afternoon of April 3rd, the very same day police received the missing persons report as he was in the process of boarding an overseas bound plane, reportedly to Bali as well. Police arrested him before he could step onto that flight and charged him with one count of murder. His social media activity in the days leading up to La Serini's disappearance painted a troubling picture more broadly. According to reporting by seven News Australia, Keys had recently posted a photo of himself with another woman on social media with the caption new girl, new life. A post that appeared to show him already in Indonesia surfaced on April 3, but police believe it was staged. Laerini's daughter also wrote on social media that her mother had told her she was meeting her ex husband before she disappeared. In addition to this, posts on Keys accounts included comments belittling Western women while praising relationships with Asian women. In one public post, Keys wrote that in his words, quote, western girls see an old perv while while Asian girls see opportunity, end quote. It's the kind of language that in hindsight offers a window into how he saw the women in his Life. On Saturday, April 4, detectives located a body in the vicinity of Little River Road and the Prince's Freeway in the town of Little River, a small community roughly 44 km southwest of Melbourne. Major Crime officers spent much of the night examining the scene. While the body had not yet been formally identified at the time of reporting, police said they believed it was Laerini. Keys was remanded in custody and appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court. He's next due in court. On August 10, one of Lacerini's daughters told the Sydney Morning Herald that her mother had such a beautiful, innocent heart. A friend of Lasserini's, Galley Porter, has since launched a FundRaiser to support Eva's two daughters, Evendra and Vanya, who remain in Indonesia. Porter described Lasserini as someone who had shown incredible strength in leaving her relationship with Keys and said she'd been looking forward to spending time with her girls. This case is still developing and the body has not yet been officially identified as of this recording. We'll continue to monitor it. As more information becomes available from Australia, we stay with a story that is equally devastating but much closer to home. A Colorado community is in shock after a double homicide and connected suicide left three members of the same family dead in the early hours of Saturday morning.