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You know that thing where you get an amazing pair of shoes at a really great price and want to tell everyone about it?
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Yeah.
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So do we here at Designer Shoe Warehouse. We'll give you something to brag about, like the latest styles from brands you love, or the trends everyone's obsessing over, or shoes that make you feel like, well, you. So go ahead, show off a little. Buying shoes that get you at prices that get your budget. Head to your DSW store or dsw.com today. DSW. Let us surprise you.
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You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of 90 dol $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary.
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You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hi everyone and welcome back to the into the Dark podcast. I'm your host, Peyton Moreland. I'm so glad you are here watching or listening. If you can please interact with this episode, that would mean so much to me. Now, before we get into today's episode, I have to start with my 10 seconds. Well, I woke up today and it was snowing. Yeah, I thought it was summer almost, but it was snowing this morning and me and Daisy had to go get our pup cup in the snow and it was a little scary, but so yeah, that was a bit of a shock. A little, A little surprise. I also went to Chili's last week. I got the Triple Dipper. I got the like Texas hot chicken crispers, the Southwest egg rolls and the mozzarella sticks, but not the hot mozzarella sticks, just the regular mozzarella sticks. And then I got some Texas cheese fries on the side. And okay, when I was ordering I was like, yeah, and then can I also just get some Texas cheese fries? And the guy who worked there, he was new, but he goes, texas cheese. And I was like, yeah. Oh, I've never heard of that. So I'll just have to put it in manually. Which I'm like, okay, totally. Yeah, he might not heard of it. But like, are no one else ordering those? Because I thought those were real good. They're like French fries with cheese and bacon and jalapeno. And you dip them in ranch. I don't know, I just thought those were like, probably more popular. They're an appetizer, but I guess not. I guess it's just me, my lone wolf, just me and my Texas cheese fries against the world. But yeah, it was real good. I hadn't been to Chili's in a minute, but I've been seeing a lot of triple dippers pop up on my social media, you know, just tempting me. So I went. It was good. If you want to go. If you have Chili's near you, go ahead and do the triple dipper. You know what, it just, it doesn't let you down, okay? It just won't let you down. And in today's world, I think we could all use a little bit of that. All right, that being said, let's jump into today's case. A quick trigger warning. This episode includes discussions of suicide, so please listen with care. Now, these days, any other day, more than the rest of my life, it can be hard to tell what's real and what's not. Because if you see a cool photo or video online, you may have to wonder, did the events in that footage actually happen? Or is this AI generated? Or if you see a shocking headline on social media, you might have to double check to see if it's accurate or if it's been completely made up. Even our own memories can be wrong. I mean, we've all forgotten or misremembered something at some point. And people can misinterpret information or exaggerate or fall for optical illusions. So you might hear a story from someone you trust and believe everything that they say. And then later you realize that nothing they told you was really accurate. It's safe to assume we've all believed something that wasn't true at some point. But it is worth remembering. Reality is objective. You can misremember or fall for a hoax, but that doesn't change the truth. It exists, even if it's difficult for you to tell what it is. And unfortunately, today's episode is about someone who couldn't tell reality from fiction. And it ended up having tragic consequences. See, on the morning of October 24, 1988, an 18 year old girl named Cheryl Gregory was at her home in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Now, Cheryl lived with her parents and her sister. And it was very early. It was that eerie time period between midnight and dawn. She'd just gotten home after a night out, and her parents weren't back yet. But presumably Cheryl was tired and getting ready for bed. So just like any other night, she walked into her bathroom, and it was then that she saw something horrifying in her tub. There was a woman lying there dead, her body covered in stab wounds and slashes, and her face looked exactly like Cheryl's. And that's because this was her identical twin sister, Sharon. Now, unfortunately, it was too late to save her. Cheryl called the police. They showed up, they declared her dead. They launched a murder investigation. Her parents eventually get home, and the investigators learned that earlier that evening, Sharon had been home alone, or at least she'd believed she was. Her parents went out. Cheryl went out. But at some point after midnight, someone had obviously snuck into her house. When Sharon had realized there was an intruder with her, she had most likely run to the bathroom to hide. Except the attacker had followed her in, and that's where they had stabbed her repeatedly. There were countless cut marks on her back, her chest and torso. And the murderer had sliced open her heart, which was the injury that had killed her. Once Sharon was dead, the intruder obviously fled the scene. They had left her remains to be discovered by her twin sister and later examined by the police. After one investigator looked over her remains, he told a reporter, quote, I've been a cop for 25 years, and this was the grossest killing I've ever seen. She received a lot of stab wounds, and there was a lot of blood. It was a gruesome scene. So clearly 1988, Massachusetts. This is shocking and upsetting, but there were a few details the police couldn't figure out yet. Of course, they didn't know who had killed Sharon while she was home alone. And they also didn't know why. It was clear this wasn't random. Nothing of value was missing from the home. So the crime hadn't been like a break in or robbery gone wrong. It was clear the murderer had intentionally broken into her home and sought her out. However, early on in the investigation, the police naturally wonder if maybe twin sister Cheryl was the real target. I mean, the sisters were very hard to tell apart. So some detectives speculated that we don't only need to look into Sharon's enemies. We need to see if anyone wanted to kill Cheryl. Maybe they had attacked Sharon because they had mistaken her for her twin. And I can only imagine how chilling that theory must have sounded to Cheryl. To lose the sister you love and have to grieve her, all while wondering if someone you know actually wanted you dead. But I should be clear, this theory was only a theory. Nobody knew for sure what the murderer had wanted or why they had killed Sharon. And this filled the people of Greenfield with fear. They all wondered when or if the killer might strike again or if any of them were truly safe. I mean, a young teenager slaughtered in her home. Now, Sharon's death was about a week before Halloween. So as Halloween comes, there's a lot of people who didn't feel like celebrating. Usually every year, the town of Greenfield threw a big Halloween parade to, but they actually canceled it that year. And parents refused to take their kids trick or treating during the last few days of October. Or those who did actually went out during the daylight. As soon as the sun set, everyone kind of seemed to just rush home. And town officials announced curfews to stop everyone from going to costume parties or getting into danger. And they also warned the locals to keep their doors locked and to turn off their porch lights at night. That way no one would be able to tell if anyone was home. So if a killer was looking to strike again, they would have to guess which houses were empty and which actually had people in them. Now, officials also thought that if people's homes were dark, kids wouldn't be as willing to trick or treat. And this would discourage any parents who may have wanted to take the risk otherwise. So the weekend after Sharon's death, this town is reeling. But a new scary movie was supposed to be released. It was the fourth film in the Halloween franchise, but the local theater here actually decided not to screen it out of respect for Sharon's memory. I mean, she was just stabbed to death in her home. And that's what Michael Myers uses. The town only threw one holiday event that year. It was a city sponsored Halloween party for children. And the planners took every precaution. They actually asked the Army National Guard to send soldiers to the party. They provided security and kept an eye out on all of the guests to make sure they were safe. And in spite of this, only 150 children showed up. Now, given that Greenfield at this time had a population of 19,000 people, this was an incredibly low turnout. The good news was is that nothing dangerous or alarming happened at this party. The kids got their candy, had fun. They watched jugglers, they listened to live music and listened while other performers told them scary stories. Many of them were actually too young to sense the tension among the adults, at least not until the party was over. That was when every family went straight home, turned off the lights and locked the doors Police ended up working long shifts patrolling the streets to see if anyone was ignoring curfew. They spotted anyone out after dark, they would give them a warning. Hey, we just had a murder last week. There's a killer on the loose. So basically everybody was talking about this case and gossip was flying. And there were regular reports about each new break in the investigation on the news. And naturally, with all the rumors and the attention and it being around Halloween, tipsters started coming forward to the police and. And a bunch of people claimed they had seen a young man who looked to be in his late teens or early 20s in town. And these reports were all fairly consistent. They described this young man as wearing blood stained clothes. From the sound of it, he hadn't left Greenfield yet. He was kind of just stalking around. However, the most shocking tips came from a group of young people who all said the same thing. They actually didn't know who killed Sharon. But they were all friends with a particular person who had been behaving in a disturbing way recently. His name was Mark Branch, and he was 19 years old. Now, Mark was a huge film buff who worked part time at a grocery store. He had an active social life. Mark's friends didn't have any hard evidence to prove he was responsible, but they had been noticing some red flags, enough that many of them go to the police. First of all, Mark loved violent movies. Now, there's nothing wrong with enjoying a slasher film or an action flick with lots of fighting and death. They were both actually pretty popular genres, particularly in the 80s. Lots of people liked these kinds of movies. It didn't mean they were dangerous or aggressive. But according to his friends, Mark took things to an extreme. There was a video rental store that he liked to go to, and the employees there complained to the police that Mark was always asking about which films were the goriest or the most disturbing. He didn't even really seem to care about the plot, the character, the theme. He just wanted to see lots of blood and people suffering on his screen. Plus, Mark had a history of disturbing behavior. When he had been in high school, he. He'd had a pattern of becoming obsessed with some of his female classmates. Anytime he developed a crush on someone, he would write her a letter with graphic descriptions of the sex acts that he wanted to perform on her. Understandably, this made girls in his school uncomfortable, but no one knew how to make him stop harassing them. In fact, some of his classmates were honestly afraid of him. Especially because, at least on one documented occasion, he pulled a knife on a girl he knew. Now the good news was is that he didn't physically harm her. It sounds like he was just trying to scare this girl. And sure enough, she was very shaken. It was after this that gossip spread through the school. Mark was dangerously unstable. The older he got, the weirder he was getting. And now his friends are turning him in as a possible suspect in a local murder. Now in Mark's life. Eventually his parents decided he needed mental health treatment. So they forced him to check into a facility where he could get professional help. Mark stayed there for a while and then he was released. But he really wasn't any better. He still behaved violently and threatened the people around him. So next his parents sent him to another clinic and sadly, once again, it just didn't seem to help. And all through his teenage years, he was bouncing back and forth from one hospital to the next without ever getting any better. Now, as a last ditch effort, his parents got him enrolled in a six week program in Boston. He had to live in the hospital during it, which meant he couldn't come home or attend school. And sadly, it seems like after he finished this program, Mark was still disturbed. But by this point, his 18th birthday was either coming up or had just passed. Timeline isn't entirely clear. All I can say is that Mark decided not to go to school or finish his degree at this point. And he was like, also, I'm done with any treatment. And since he was now an adult, his parents couldn't technically force him to go back to school or keep seeing doctors. Sadly, he obviously wasn't on a path to recovery. If anything, he became even more obsessed with blood and violence. And he wasn't keeping it a secret. All right, I'm getting into an ad and finding a therapist is hard enough, but finding one that actually takes your insurance, that's where most online therapy platforms can fall short. Many don't work with insurance at all, which means you're stuck paying the full cost out of pocket or paying for an expensive monthly subscription. But Rula does things differently. They partner with over 100 insurance plans, making the average CO pay just $15 per session. That is real therapy from licensed professionals at a price that actually makes sense. And Rula isn't just affordable. The experience is tailored around you. Other online therapy platforms might match you with the first available provider. Whether or not they're a good fit, Rula considers your goals, preferences and background to provide you a curated list of licensed in network therapists who are actually aligned with what you need, which I think is huge. Sometimes you hear People say that finding a therapist is literally finding, like finding a boyfriend. And it is so true. You, you kind of have to mesh with them. And that is why Rula taking these extra steps is so beneficial. I also think, you know, right now online therapy is just so it can be accessible for more people. And so if you've been wanting to give therapy a try and don't know where to start, start here with rula. Go to rula.com Payton spelled P a Y T O N to get started. That's Rula. R u l a.com Payton for Quality Therapy that's covered by insurance. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high quality therapy that's actually covered by Insurance. Visit rula.com Payton to get started. That's rula.com Peyton you deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. If you've listened to this podcast for a while, you know I love Quint. If you don't know what quints is, it is the place you go to for the staples in your closet. I have so many quint items in my closet. Not just clothing either. I have a makeup bag. I have shoes from Quince. They have everything that you need at quality, quality products. Okay? I'm telling you, you can trust me on this. When you purchase from Quince, you are gonna get a quality product that is going to last long, which is why I'm telling you, they're the staples in my closet. Quince makes it easy to refresh your everyday this spring with pieces that feel as good as they look. They use premium materials like 100 European linen, organic cotton, ultra soft denim. Their lightweight linen pants, dresses and tops start at $30. It's priced so well, 50 to 80% less than similar brands because they work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality and craftsmanship and not brand markup. I tell you guys all the time I love my silk skirts from Quints and as spring and summer are rounding the corner, I will be wearing them on repeat. Refresh your everyday with luxury. You'll actually use head to quince.comdark for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. It's actually now available in Canada too. You guys. That's quince. Q-U-I-N-C-E.com dark for free shipping and 365 day returns. Please slash dark. Great way to support the show. Quince.com Dark when he wasn't at work, Mark spent All day, every day, watching the goriest movies he could find and. And then telling his friends about them. He was becoming obsessed. In fact, Mark seemed particularly obsessed with one franchise, Friday the 13th. Now, the first Friday the 13th movie had come out eight years earlier in 1980. Obviously, it had been a massive hit. Mark loved the killer from those movies, Jason Voorhees. And if you know The Friday the 13th films, you know Jason wears a hockey mask and basically goes on killing sprees in most of the installments. And according to Mark's friends, he didn't seem to realize Jason was a fictional character. Like, he sometimes talked as though he believed he was Jason or Jason was real. Like he really wasn't telling the difference between reality and fiction. And if he was, he wasn't acting like he knew the difference. Now, I don't know if his friends at this point knew about his history of mental health struggles or that he had been committed before, but they were certainly worried now that he may have been experiencing delusions. However, even his friends don't really do anything about it besides, like, talk amongst themselves because, again, Mark is an adult. Nobody could force him to talk to a therapist or get help. So instead, everyone kind of just like, starts distancing themselves from him. Whenever Mark would meet someone new, one of his older friends would pull that new person aside and they'd warn the new friend and explain, hey, Mark's just a little weird, and he's, like, obsessed with some really scary things. Now, eventually, at some point in mid to late 1988, Sharon, the victim in this case, heard the rumors about Mark. So she is aware of him. Let me be clear. She barely knew Mark. They'd met in passing a few times, but they weren't good friends. However, Sharon was a freshman at the local Greenfield Community College, and she wanted to major in psychology for one of her classes. She had an assignment to complete. She was supposed to write a full psychological profile for on somebody she knew in real life. This meant spending a lot of time with this person, asking them questions about their history, the way they saw the world, and then writing multiple pages about how they saw themselves, how they processed their emotions, and what kinds of therapies might be effective for them. So basically, it's around this time that Sharon learns this random guy, Mark, has an unusual way of viewing things. And she decides, despite the warnings, that he is the perfect person to profile for her class. So with his permission, Sharon began spending a lot of time with Mark in the weeks before her death. And she was really honest with him about what she was doing. She was like, listen, I want to get to know you so I can analyze your psychology and then write a paper about it. And at first, mark agreed to this. He was okay with sharon studying him, Being around him, writing papers on him. At least he was fine with it up until early october. So by this time, the project was almost done. The due date was coming up. So sharon approached mark and said, hey, this is what I concluded about you, and this is what I'm going to put in my report. Now, unfortunately, it's impossible to say what her findings were. All I know for sure is that mark did not like what she had to say. It really hurt his ego. It made him furious. And he told sharon he didn't like her analysis. And more importantly, he didn't want anyone to ever see this profile she had written about him. He said, this is personal. This is private. Mark didn't want sharon to turn it in or for her professors to read it. He didn't even want her to have a copy of the profile. He was like, you need to just get rid of this altogether. Apparently, he asked her to give it to him. Basically, give me your project. She refused. I mean, she'd worked very hard on it. Her grades were important to her. Sharon probably didn't have enough time to start over With a different person before the assignment was due. Except after sharon told him no, Mark began obsessing, Always talking about the different ways he could get this project observed away from her. He openly fantasized about breaking into sharon's home, Stealing her notes and paperwork, Finding some way to force her to destroy it all. And sure enough, after weeks of mark talking about robbing sharon or breaking into her home, Someone managed to get into her house and murder her. So the timing was strange enough, obviously, for mark's friends to all go to the police and be like, hey, this is what was going on. And this is a very important lead in the investigation, Especially because of this detail. When the investigators had first searched sharon's home for evidence after the murder, they'd found her books, her papers, and all of her other class materials. Except there was no sign of a psychological profile that she had written on mark. They also couldn't find early drafts, rough notes. There was no mention of mark, the assignment, or her profile anywhere with her things. And all the signs suggested that the murderer had taken it. And since mark was the only person with the motive to want this paperwork, this was just one more piece of evidence against him. And worst of all, nobody had seen or heard from Mark. Since Sharon's murder, he had stopped coming to work. He hadn't showed up at social events with his friends or picked up the phone when they tried to call him. This was all very suspicious, of course. So on October 25, 1988, which this is actually just one day after Sharon's murder, the police publicly announced that they have a suspect they're interested in and that it's Mark. They went to his home to arrest him. He wasn't there. However, their warrant gave them permission to search it. So they put all of this together really quickly. Obviously, they scoured his place from top to bottom. And while they were there, they found a white hockey mask which looked exactly like the one Jason wore in the Friday the 13th movies. They also found some black boots, which, again, matched Jason's costume. Now, there's a logical explanation for these items. It's Halloween Market told all of his friends he was planning on dressing like Jason for an upcoming Halloween party. So he might have bought the boots and mask as part of a costume. Except, of course, Mark had never gone to this Halloween party because he's now on the run. He's disappeared. So instead, the officers speculated that he may have actually worn these things while he was murdering Sharon. Because again, this is almost part of a fantasy for him being Jason. Maybe this outfit helped him feel like he really was the movie monster while he was committing this murder with personal motive. And on top of that, Mark also had a large book and video collection. And as you might guess, it is full of gory, violent titles. There were 75 horror movies and 64 true crime books on his shelves. Plus, the police found Mark's huge collection of knives and machetes. None of them matched the murder weapon that had killed Sharon. But clearly this guy is obsessed with violence. But again, the problem was that despite thinking they have their number one suspect, there is no sign of Mark or where he could have gone. And Halloween's coming up. The authorities openly called for more tips, asking the people of Greenfield if anyone had seen from him. They heard from people all across the state of Massachusetts and even in New York and Connecticut. There were reports of Mark popping up in all sorts of towns. But these tips couldn't possibly be all true. They were just too far apart from one another. And the timeline didn't give him enough time to travel to all of these places where he had been seen. Allegedly, investigators assumed people were spotting men who resembled Mark and mistaking them for the killer. But there was always a chance that one of these tips could have been true. So the police had to treat every single one as legitimate. Detectives traveled all through the northeastern United States hoping one of these reports would pan out. Except they never tracked Mark down or even managed to confirm that they were on the right trail. Officers brought in dogs to try and track him by scent, but they weren't able to find a trace of him anywhere near his home or Sharon's. Helicopters crisscross the state, canvassing cities and wooded areas. They also don't find any sign of him. They have no idea if he has fled, if he is hiding, waiting to murder again. So in the meantime, like I said, Mark still wasn't showing up for work. He wasn't meeting up with his friends. His home had also apparently been abandoned. Police officers monitored it constantly, and they were ready to rush in and arrest Mark if he ever came back home. But he never showed up. The officers were only able to find one clue about Mark's disappearance. All right, you guys, I'm getting into an ad. And thanks to HomeServe for sponsoring this episode. Owning a home is amazing until it's not. One minute you're sipping coffee and the next you are ankle deep in water from a burst pipe. Repairs don't really care about timing, and they definitely don't care about your budget. I mean, you protect your health, your car, even your phone. But what about your home? 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which was the day after Sharon's murder. The same day the officials named him as their suspect. They found his car. It was parked at the side of the road, honestly, in the middle of nowhere. There was a dense wooded area nearby, but police couldn't find anything else. There were no houses. There were no businesses. It certainly wasn't near a bus station or even a major road where he could hitchhike. It just didn't really make like where would he have gone from here? Search teams marched through the nearby woods but didn't find any sign of him. Nobody had any idea what had happened to Mark after he had abandoned his car in the middle of nowhere. But the police weren't giving up. They knew Mark's 19th birthday was on October 30, fitting one day before Halloween and six days after Sharon's murder. The officials figured, okay, Mark has a relationship with his family. He would never miss a big celebration where he was the guest of honor. So on his birthday, they stationed a ton of officers around Mark's parents home. And they waited for hours for Mark to show up so they could arrest him. But he doesn't show. Halloween came the day after that. Again, I've already told you. But the town of Greenfield was still terrified as they waited for this murderer to be caught. Except the holiday passed without any news. There were no new attacks, but also no leads either. Did they have the right guy? Did they have the wrong guy? Where is he? Is he going to kill again? No one knows. However, the police did get a possible break the following week. So on November 3rd that day, some locals reported a break in. Now, they didn't live in Greenfield. They were actually in the town like the next town over and just three miles from the place where Mark's car had been found. Now, these homeowners said they had recently come home after being gone. And while they were gone, someone had broken in and stolen a bunch of food from their kitchen. In particular, the thief had taken items that didn't need to be refrigerated or prepared, like cookies, canned goods. They'd also taken a bunch of meat. I'm not sure if it was like pre cooked or not, but the person had also stolen a hunting knife and a heavy winter coat. But this was weird because there were a ton of valuables in the house. Electronics, jewelry, cash, other things that were sitting out in the open. None of those had been taken. So when the homeowners report this break in and the investigators hear about it, they wonder, maybe Mark broke in, got all this stuff, and it's just hiding out in the woods nearby. He may have taken the food and the coat so he could stay warm and well fed during the chilly Massachusetts winter. And of course, if he was living on the run in the woods, he wouldn't have any use for money or other valuables. Now, this is all speculation. There wasn't much to connect the break into Mark. Investigators pulled fingerprints from the scene, but they've never publicly announced if they matched Mark's. But the timing, the location, the details around what was stolen, and it was enough to get police's attention. And once again, they brought in all the search teams they had. Dogs sniffed the property trying to pick up Mark's scent. However, there had been a bad rainstorm recently, and it had washed away all of the scent trails and possible footprints. So once again, the search for Mark cooled down without any new leads. And after that, weeks went by without any new tips or leads. Sharon's case wasn't actually cold yet. The police were confident Mark was the murderer and there was no need for any further investigation. But they couldn't arrest or charge him until they were able to find him. And finally, they got a break on November 28th. This was one full month after Sharon's murder. That day, a group of deer hunters were walking through the woods just about a mile away from where Mark's car had been found back in October. And as they were strolling, they came upon a badly decomposed adult man's body. Right away, the hunters called the police. They investigated the scene and ruled that this deceased man had died by suicide. It was hard to identify him on site because of how deteriorated his remains were. However, his outfit was identical to the one Mark had been wearing the last time he had been seen. It was still blood stained, and the dead man had a wallet nearby with an ID in it. Which is how the police determined this dead man was Mark, their missing suspect. They theorized he must have taken his own life after killing Sharon. Perhaps his guilt had gotten to him. Reality set in. He realized he wasn't in a movie, but an ordinary person who now had blood on his hands. Or perhaps he was just too afraid of spending the rest of his life in prison. He didn't want to be on the run anymore, so he chose to die rather than face justice. However, soon after Mark was found dead, Other rumors began spreading around town. Some Greenfield locals speculated that maybe Mark didn't kill himself. Perhaps someone in the community had found him while he was on the run and killed him. After all, the timing of Mark's death is odd. We still don't know for sure if he had anything to do with the break in on November 3, in which a coat and food was stolen. But if he was the thief, that means Mark survived for at least two weeks after the murder. Now, we know it can be hard to understand another person's psychology, Especially when suicide is involved. However, many people thought it was strange that Mark could avoid capture and live as a free man for weeks Just to give up and take his own life sometime in November. Instead, local gossip said it made a lot more sense that perhaps someone had found Mark in the woods and chose to take justice into their own hands. Maybe they wanted revenge for Sharon, so they murdered him and then staged it to look like a suicide. Now, I want to be clear. There's no evidence that anyone hurt Mark. On top of that, nobody has ever named a suspect who had the means, motive, and opportunity to kill Mark. Sounds like this is just speculation that was based on nothing. Another case where people preferred fiction to the facts that were right in front of them. Either way, the investigators closed the case after they identified Mark's remains. With Mark dead, there would be no trial or conviction. Some officers tested the stains on Mark's clothes To see if they matched Sharon's blood. But beyond that, they really stopped investigating then and there, Even though they were never able to find the murder weapon. On top of that, they never found Sharon's psychological profile Near Mark's body or with his body. So to this day, it's unclear if Mark destroyed it, got rid of the murder weapon, or maybe he didn't take it at all. I mean, it is possible that the whole theory about him killing Sharon was wrong. Maybe he had a different motive. We'll never know for sure, but at least the officials could guarantee he'd never hurt anyone again. And I can only hope that this gave peace to Sharon's family, especially her sister, who had to deal with the loss, the trauma of finding her body, the fear that she might have been the real target, even though she eventually learned that Mark had no reason to want to hurt her. It can be hard to let go of that kind of anxiety. And after everything she had been through, I can only imagine she must have struggled to know what to believe, how to tell reality from rumors, speculation, misinformation. Because the whole case feels like something fictional. It honestly feels like a slasher movie. It has twists and turns, an obsessive killer. However, this story is not a Hollywood horror film. It's real. And it shows why it can be so hard to separate facts from lies. Because sometimes truth might be stranger than fiction. Maybe Mark really did dress up as Jason, murder Sharon, collect all the stuff, get rid of it, only to then take his own life. We just have to go with what is in front of us. Thank you so much for listening or watching today's episode and I will see you next time as we go further into the dark together. Goodbye.
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