288. The Addiction That Went To Far - The Murder of Ernest and Charlene Scherer

Summary

Podcast Summary: Murder With My Husband

Episode 288: The Addiction That Went Too Far - The Murder of Ernest and Charlene Scherer
Date: September 29, 2025
Hosts: Peyton Moreland and Garrett Moreland

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Overview

This episode explores the tragic murders of Ernest (“Ernie”) Shearer and Charlene (“Sherry”) Abendroth Shearer in Pleasanton, California, in 2008. Hosts Peyton and Garrett Moreland unpack how a seemingly loving and successful family was violently torn apart, delving into issues of addiction, betrayal, and the devastating consequences of unchecked escapism. The episode traces the Shearers’ family history, the gruesome discovery of their murders, the baffling investigation, and the shocking revelation that their own son, Skip Shearer, orchestrated the crime for financial gain and to fuel an out-of-control gambling addiction.

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Episode Structure & Key Segments

• [03:20] - [06:14]: Introduction to the Shearer Family & Their Background
• [07:39] - [11:17]: The Crime Scene & Early Investigation
• [13:56] - [16:39]: Motive Theories: Poker, Politics, & Enemies
• [18:10] - [23:58]: Spotlight on Skip Shearer - The Son’s Secret Life
• [26:42] - [31:09]: Skip’s Double Life, Debt, and Crumbling Finances
• [32:35] - [34:19]: Break in the Case: Surveillance & Crucial Mistakes
• [36:59] - [40:45]: Skip on the Run & Wife’s Pivotal Cooperation
• [41:54] - [43:44]: The Arrest, Charges, and Trial
• [45:02] - End: Aftermath & Emotional Impact on Surviving Family

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Detailed Breakdown

The Shearer Family: A Loving Legacy

• Pleasanton, 2008: Charlene (Sherry) Abendroth Shearer, 57, a dedicated accounting lecturer and devout Mormon, and her husband Ernest (Ernie) Shearer, 60, a real estate investor active in local politics, are planning retirement and a big family vacation to Hawaii.
• The couple, described as generous and energetic, had two adult children: Ernest III (“Skip,” 29) and Catherine.

“All of us have our escapes... but when you’re not careful, some escapes can be all consuming. They can lead us down a dark path.” – Peyton Moreland [03:20]

Discovery of the Murders

• When the couple stops answering calls ahead of the trip ([07:39]), daughter Catherine becomes worried and requests a wellness check.
• The grisly discovery: Both parents are found bludgeoned and with their throats and wrists slit, in a staged, ransacked home.
• No weapons are left at the scene, but methodically placed bloody Nike shoe prints are found, alerting detectives to a possible setup ([10:59]).

“It almost looks like someone had methodically placed these bloody shoe prints... almost stamped on the tile floor.” – Peyton [10:59]

Early Investigation & Motive Theories

• No money appears to be stolen—$9,000 in cash and Ernie’s wallet are untouched.
• Possible motives:
  • Ernie’s poker hobby (he was known to be flashy about winnings, but games were low stakes).
  • Political grudges from his time on a divisive school board ([13:56]).
  • Real estate rivalries.

Garrett’s skepticism:

“It would seem weird for someone to kill over $5,000, whatever it might be.” – Garrett [13:27]

Shifting Focus: The Son, Skip Shearer

• Skip, a former mortgage broker, had gone full-time into high-stakes poker, despite his mother’s objections ([21:06]).
• After the murders, his behavior is noticeably cold and self-interested:
  • He’s eager to access his parents’ will just hours after their deaths.
  • He attends an expensive meal in San Francisco instead of mourning.
• Alibi gaps:
  • He claims to have been sleeping 7 hours away, but with no one to verify.
  • There’s a suspicious 17-hour phone and transaction inactivity window matching the estimated time of death ([22:04]).

“Oh no, what are we gonna do now?” – Skip’s first words on hearing of his parents’ deaths, quoted by Peyton [22:04]

The Secret Life of Skip

• Multiple affairs, hidden finances, false identities (used the alias “Bill Franks”), and secret PO boxes ([28:19]).
• Borrowed $600,000 from his parents for a house, was $40,000 in credit card debt and $90,000 in gambling debt at the time of the murders ([29:56]).
• Sherry had deeply objected to both the lifestyle and the loan.

“There’s so many layers to that. I can’t even imagine.” – Garrett, on Robin discovering Skip’s double life [28:37]

Evidence Mounts: Surveillance & Circumstantial Proof

• Surveillance captures Skip’s red convertible in the neighborhood at the time of the murder ([32:35]).
• He cleans the car thoroughly afterward.
• Footprints at the scene are size 12 (Skip wears 10), suggesting deliberate planting of evidence leading to a sword closet only a family member would know about.
• Skip inexplicably tells his wife one of the swords is missing from the closet soon after the killings ([34:19]).

The Net Closes: Skip on the Run & Wife’s Role

• Skip flees post-funeral, abandoning wife and child, traveling cross-country and posting Craigslist personals along the way ([36:59]).
• His wife Robin cooperates with police, recording calls and sharing emails.
• In a pivotal recorded call, Skip, confronted with the existence of surveillance footage, neither denies nor reacts with innocence:

“Could you see my face in the car?” – Skip, confronted by his wife Robin about the security footage [40:24]

The Arrest, Trial, and Conviction

• A Nike store records show Skip bought a baseball bat (suspected murder weapon), size 12 shoes, and gloves on the murder date ([41:54]).
• He used the bat to bludgeon, the sword for stabbing, and staged the scene to mislead investigators.
• At trial:
  • Prosecution presents a timeline, spending, will motive ($2 million inheritance at age 30), and physical evidence.
  • Defense claims DNA in a shoeprint wasn’t Skip’s—prosecution counters it was likely from a first responder.
  • After 3 months of trial, jury deliberates just 11 hours:
    • Skip is found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, murder for financial gain, and multiple murders.
    • Sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole ([44:37]).

Aftermath: Family Shattered

• Skip’s wife Robin divorces him; his sister Catherine’s family is deeply traumatized.

“The murder of my parents has effectively left me without an immediate family. Dreams were lost, promises were broken. Our lives will never be the same.” – Catherine Shearer (victim impact statement) [45:15]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “All of us have our escapes... but when you’re not careful, some escapes can be all consuming. They can lead us down a dark path.” – Peyton [03:20]
• “It almost looks like someone had methodically placed these bloody shoe prints... almost stamped on the tile floor.” – Peyton [10:59]
• “Oh no, what are we gonna do now?” – Skip’s reaction, via Peyton [22:04]
• “I can’t even imagine.” – Garrett, responding to the depth of Skip’s betrayal [28:37]
• “Could you see my face in the car?” – Skip, in a recorded call with Robin [40:24]
• “The murder of my parents has effectively left me without an immediate family…” – Catherine, during sentencing [45:15]
• “To murder your own parents. I just cannot.” – Garrett [46:18]

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Analysis & Reflections

• The case is a chilling example of how escapism, when uncontained, can lead not just to personal downfall but to catastrophic consequences for an entire family.
• The episode is punctuated by the hosts’ trademark back-and-forth—Peyton narrates with a true crime aficionado’s rigor, while Garrett reacts with incredulous, honest emotion.
• Both hosts express horror at the scale of deception and the ultimate betrayal at the crime’s core.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:20] - Introduction to the Shearers’ life and family dynamics
• [07:39] - Discovery of the bodies and crime scene description
• [13:56] - Motive hunting: poker, politics, and past grudges
• [22:04] - Skip’s suspicious reactions and alibi issues
  • “Oh no, what are we gonna do now?”
• [28:19] - Double life and betrayals (affairs, debts, false identities)
• [32:35] - Surveillance evidence & cleaning of the car
• [40:24] - Taped confession implication: “Could you see my face in the car?”
• [41:54] - Evidence from Nike store: bat, shoes, and gloves purchase
• [45:15] - Sister’s heartbreaking impact statement
• [46:18] - Concluding reflections

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Tone & Style

Peyton’s meticulous, story-driven narration anchors the episode, while Garrett’s skepticism and open emotional responses provide a relatable “outsider” perspective. Their conversational interjections add empathy and accessibility to an otherwise grim topic.

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Summary prepared for listeners seeking a vivid, structured retelling with core details and emotional context, true to the original hosts’ voices.

Transcript

[Ad Host]

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[Peyton Moreland]

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[Garrett Moreland]

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[Peyton Moreland]

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[Peyton Moreland]

You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland.

[Garrett Moreland]

And I'm Garrett Moreland.

[Peyton Moreland]

And he's the husband.

[Garrett Moreland]

I'm the husband. Welcome back. Another Monday, another episode, and here we are.

[Peyton Moreland]

Thank you for everyone who checked out the Halloween merch. It's available right now. Again. It is so cute. Just in time for spooky season.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah, there's still some more merch so go and check it out if you are curious. Don't have anything too crazy for my 10 seconds, but there are a lot of mousetraps in our house. Probably around, I don't know, 50 mousetraps. We had a couple mice last year. Just is what it is. We're making sure those things don't come back. Sorry, no mice in this house. We actually have a lot of wasp nests as well so we're getting that taken care of. Don't worry. They are not bees. They are wasps. I love bees. Bees are good. Wasps are not. That's kind of all I got for my 10 seconds. Nothing too crazy going on. Kind of hanging out. Been working bagels like always. Yeah. So on that note, let's get into today's episode and hope everyone enjoys it.

[Peyton Moreland]

Our sources for this episode are pleasantenweekly.com sfgate.com, thecinemaholicoxygen.com CBS news.com and pokertube.com all of us have our scapes. Something that takes our mind off the real world and allows us to be somewhere or someone else for a little while. For me, that's Fortnite. For others, it's golf, painting, going out with friends. Most of the time, those escapes can be a healthy reset, a way to recharge and find some peace, especially in the mundane routines of everyday life. But when you're not careful, some escapes can be all consuming. They can lead us down a dark path with no way to see the light. And when a person is that far gone, there's usually collateral damage. And sometimes those standing in the blast zone don't even see it coming. So today we are headed to Pleasanton, California, about a 50 minute drive east from San Francisco. It is the year 2008 and that is where 57 year old Charlene Abendroth and her husband, 60 year old Ernest Shearer, are slowing down their lives and getting ready for retirement. Now, 57 year old Sherry and 60 year old Ernie, as their friends called them, met back in the 1970s and actually married in 1976. Now people described this couple, Sherry and Ernie, as having big personalities, a lot of energy. Friends said Sherry was well spoken and well educated, which made sense considering that she was actually a respected accounting lecturer at Cal State East Bay for three decades. And at the same time in her life she dedicated a lot of her time to the Mormon Church, which she was a member of. However, Ernie, her husband, was not a Mormon, but he supported Sherry's passion for the Church and would often go with her and their kids to church anyways.

[Garrett Moreland]

Okay.

[Peyton Moreland]

But Ernie seemed to focus mainly on the kids and work. He actually made good money in the real estate business and at the same time he was heavily involved in local politics and had actually become a member of the school board where the couple raised their children in the earlier years before for moving to Pleasanton. Now as they're older, they were living in a community called Castlewood. It's an exclusive neighborhood with its own country club and golf course full of basically multi million dollar homes.

[Garrett Moreland]

I was gonna say it sounds nice. Castlewood.

[Peyton Moreland]

So by 2008, the couple's two children are now grown and adults. 29 year old Ernest Jr. Who everyone called Skip and his younger sister Catherine, both of whom now actually had families of their own. And while Sherry definitely worked hard to instill a lot of the Mormon values in her kids, friends and family said they were also a very tight knit family. Sherry and Ernie were very generous and supportive whenever it came to what the kids wanted to do. Ernie encouraged them to follow their passions, even coached Skip's soccer team and Catherine's basketball team. Also, this family of four loved to travel together. Sheri was really big into the outdoors. She loved hiking. So the family spent every Memorial Day going to Yosemite and would take lavish vacations for three weeks every summer. Now this is something that even continued when the family expanded with spouses and grandchildren. In fact, In March of 2008, the couple was planning to go with their kids, Skip and Catherine and their families on a big family trip to Hawaii. And they were locking in last minute details with a flight out on March 15, 2008.

[Garrett Moreland]

Okay.

[Peyton Moreland]

Now a few days before that, on March 7, Ernie and Sherry, the parents, went out and met another couple for dinner at the country club's restaurant in their neighborhood. They left around 6:30pm from dinner and headed home, getting into their pajamas, ready to call it an early night. But the following morning, Catherine called her parents and there was no answer. So Catherine calls again the day after that, March 9, and there's still no answer or call back. The same goes for the following day. And now their daughter is starting to get worried because this family is due to leave for Hawaii in just a few days and her parents aren't answering anyone's calls.

[Garrett Moreland]

Okay, a little strange. Yeah.

[Peyton Moreland]

So she calls her brother Skip, she's like, hey, have you heard from mom and dad? And Skip says no. So by March 14, a day before everyone is supposed to leave with still no answer from Ernie or Sherry, Catherine calls someone over at their local country club. She says, hey, can you just drive over to my parents house and do a wellness check? They're not answering our calls. So the employee heads over to the house. They knock on the door. No one answers. And then the employee is like, well, let me just peek inside the windows. And that's when he sees Ernie lying face down on the floor in a pool of blood.

[Garrett Moreland]

Oh, my gosh. Imagine being that employee.

[Peyton Moreland]

Right? So he looks through the window. He's like, oh, okay. So he calls the police. And when they arrive, obviously they find it is not just Ernie. Sherry. His wife has been killed as well. And both of their bodies had already started the decomposition process, which means they had been dead for a few days now.

[Garrett Moreland]

Okay.

[Peyton Moreland]

Investigators realized pretty quickly that the Shearers were bludgeoned dead to death in their own home. And then whoever had killed them used a different weapon to slit their throats.

[Garrett Moreland]

Oh, my gosh.

[Peyton Moreland]

And their wrists. Now, Ernie had suffered multiple blunt force trauma wounds to his head, while Sherry had more than 20 wounds to her head.

[Garrett Moreland]

Holy crap.

[Peyton Moreland]

Her face was nearly unrecognizable. I want you to remember, this couple is almost 60.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah.

[Peyton Moreland]

Okay. Ernie had appeared to fight so hard against his attacker that his wedding ring had flew off. However, there was no weapon left behind at the scene, and there also didn't appear to be any signs of forced entry. But there was one unusual detail at the crime scene that was left by the killer. It was a few sets of bloody shoe prints. But something about them sounds the alarm for detectives right away because they don't look natural. It almost looks like someone had almost, like, methodically placed these bloody shoe prints. They're almost stamped on the tile floor.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah. They're almost like, too perfect.

[Peyton Moreland]

Yeah. There's no sign of smearing or, like, if you're walking, you know. But police do discover It's a size 12 Nike shoe. And one set actually leads to a linen closet that has a collection of decorative swords.

[Garrett Moreland]

Okay, so obviously set up.

[Peyton Moreland]

I mean, I assume police actually, though, quickly rule out that any of these swords were used in the murders.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah.

[Peyton Moreland]

However, they do learn later that there is one sword missing from the collection. That's really the only thing that appears to have been taken from the house. Now, the home had definitely been sifted through. It was a mess. There were things all over the place, but there wasn't really anything of value missing, including the $750 in Ernie's wallet and the $9,000 in cash that Ernie kept in his Bedroom. And the objects that had been thrown about in the house, again, almost appeared staged, like things were purposely knocked over. But then the thing next to it was standing, which wouldn't make sense if everything had been hit. Like someone intentionally tried to make this look like a break in robbery when it wasn't. Which is why police quickly rule this out and instead wonder, was this someone that the couple knew? Like, there obviously has to be a different motive. And that's when the police learn that Ernie had a little hobby he had picked up over the years, One that had helped him unwind and sort of escape daily life. Ernie was a pretty big poker player. It wasn't anything too serious. The games mostly rotated around some other local dad's homes, other guys he met while coaching Skip's soccer team back in the day. And apparently, he did have a tendency to brag about his winnings and be flashy with his cash from the winnings from time to time. In fact, the day police think he died on March 17, Ernie had played poker and won that cash that was in his wallet. He had also had a game planned for the night of March 14th. This is the night he was actually found, which was supposed to be hosted at his house.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah, I was going to say, though, I mean, it can't be that much money. Can't be like he's winning hundreds of thousands of dollars. He's just playing with friends and. Yeah, yeah, so it would seem. It would seem. Yeah, it would seem weird for someone to kill him over, I don't know, $5,000, whatever it might be.

[Peyton Moreland]

Right. Actually, the night that they are found dead, one of the other poker players shows up to Ernie's house. He hadn't heard the news about the murders.

[Garrett Moreland]

That's sad.

[Peyton Moreland]

And he's like, oh, my gosh, this place is covered in police. There's police tape. So investigators begin to wonder, okay, if. If the. If the motive wasn't robbery, maybe there was like, gambling debt or something. Did someone follow him home after that last game? Well, it turns out this wasn't the only thing in Ernie's life that might have earned him an enemy. Earlier, I mentioned how Ernie was on the school board back at his kid's old district in a completely different place. Well, apparently he was not very well liked during his time on the school board. He was kind of the outcast of the group in a way that he was one of the outliers who always voted against the majority on things. In fact, he was apparently so confrontational that he was eventually kicked off the school board in 1990. Some said that it was because he refused to negotiate with the teachers union when they went on strike. Whether or not that was true, it was something Ernie never let go of. He was bitter about it, Feeling defeated and embarrassed. He continued to fight the school board on things after being kicked off. Okay, and he was scheduling a meeting back then to speak with the local mayor, H. Abram Wilson, about corruption on the school board right before he died. So he was still involved in this.

[Garrett Moreland]

That would be wild. If he was killed over a school board issue. That would be insane.

[Peyton Moreland]

Well, that meeting was set to take place that March 2008, but just a few days before that meeting, Ernie was found dead.

[Garrett Moreland]

Especially so gruesome like there's no way. There's no way.

[Peyton Moreland]

So police also wondered if perhaps Ernie had made an enemy through his real estate investment business. They're basically combing through Ernie's life and saying, where could he have met someone who wanted to murder him? Maybe also wondering if he met someone with his backing of the Republic political party. When he was involved in politics, he did financially support some of those candidates. So for the next few weeks, police follow every single one of these leads. The poker, the politics, the school board, his real estate business. But they don't turn up a single person of interest. Which is when investigators start pursuing a new angle. One no one really ever imagined that maybe Sherry and Ernie's killer was someone much closer to home.

[Garrett Moreland]

I was just thinking I would not be surprised if for some reason. Don't know the reason yet. It's someone in the family.

[Peyton Moreland]

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[Garrett Moreland]

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[Peyton Moreland]

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[Garrett Moreland]

Insane.

[Peyton Moreland]

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[Garrett Moreland]

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[Peyton Moreland]

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[Garrett Moreland]

Good for him.

[Peyton Moreland]

He also played in the World Series of Poker, so this was very serious for Skip. He was even traveling around the country playing in tournaments. But that obviously meant leaving his wife, Robin and their young son behind where they had moved to California a lot. Now, playing poker isn't grounds to think that someone's a murderer, obviously. So police don't exactly see this as a red flag when they're looking into him. But they do find Skip's behavior suspicious after the murders. Apparently when his sister called him that day to say, hey, I know you said you hadn't heard from mom and dad. Well, I sent someone over to the house to check on them and they were murdered. Apparently, according to his sister, he acted a bit strange. He sort of paused and then said, oh no, what are we gonna do now?

[Garrett Moreland]

Oh, oh no, what are we gonna do?

[Peyton Moreland]

Obviously he might be in shock.

[Garrett Moreland]

So no, that's, that's wild behavior.

[Peyton Moreland]

Take it with a grain of salt. Odd. But it didn't end there. Less than 24 hours after the murders, Skip was asking to get inside of his parents home, like in the crime scene, so he could find their will. And then, gosh, that same evening, instead of mourning his parents with his family, Skip actually went to San Francisco to have a very expensive meal at a fancy restaurant. So he's like, oh yeah, let's go out to eat. The whole thing is pretty alarming to police. Not to mention everyone else in the family. Pretty much everyone they had looked into so far in the family had solid alibis, except for Skip. He said at the time of the murders, he was at his house in Brea, California, which is about seven hours away from his parents home in California. He's like, no, I was way far away, fast asleep. And his wife Robin was actually away visiting family with their son. So he wasn't asleep in bed with his wife, who could vouch for him, he was asleep alone at his house. So four days after the murders, police decide to bring Skip in for questioning. And he seems pretty cooperative, happy to answer their questions. He even offers to let them look at his cell and credit card data so they could see his movements. Problem is there's a big 17 hour gap of time where there is absolutely no activity on any of his accounts or his cell phone. 17 hours. A 17 hour window that the police believe actually matches the time his parents were murdered.

[Garrett Moreland]

Still trying to figure out, I mean, I know we'll get to it, like why he's got to be in some gambling debt or something. It's got to be something around that has to be murder your parents murdering your parents is to pay for gambling. One of the craziest things there's. I mean, this every episode we do is crazy, but murdering your parents has got to be up there is just downright evil. Like we, I think we've covered a couple other cases where kids or, yeah, kids have murdered their parents. It always shocks me. It's mind blowing that you could do that.

[Peyton Moreland]

So despite all of this, police still let Skip go that day. And they're like, we're just going to keep looking into him. Meanwhile, other people are starting to notice Skip's odd behavior around this time. For example, at the funeral, Skip was one of the pallbearers, so he was carrying one of the caskets. And despite that, he doesn't show any emotion during the ceremony. And while that's happening, police end up finding something else that proves Skip might not be the person everyone thinks he is. Because apparently he's not just playing poker when he goes out of town. He's also having multiple extramarital affairs. They're not just one night stands. Like, no, he has women in different cities that he plays poker in that he's having full blown relationships with. Gosh, okay, so it turns out two years prior, back in 2006, Skip had met a woman named Adrian Solomon while they were both in Vegas. And Adrienne was visiting from North Carolina and was there on business trip when she sat down at a craps table next to Skip. Now noticing that he didn't have a wedding ring on his finger, despite the fact he was married at the time, Adrian entertained the flirtatious conversation and the two ended up spending the next few days together. Now, when Adrian went back to North Carolina, the two stay in touch, often meeting back up in Vegas whenever Skip was going there to play poker. She claimed Skip never mentioned he had a wife or a son. And it was certainly alluring that he was getting all types of comped rooms and perks at the casino for being a professional poker Player. But things get even more serious from there. They start talking about a future together. Skip even took her to Tiffany's to look at engagement rings.

[Garrett Moreland]

Tiffany's.

[Peyton Moreland]

And keep in mind, she says she has no idea he's already married. They begin taking exotic vacations, where they would be away for weeks at a time.

[Garrett Moreland]

Crap, dude.

[Peyton Moreland]

Now, eventually a freakman Adrian begins noticing things about Skip that do seem like red flags. The more she's able to spend time in person with him. When they started dating, his bedding was small. 50 or 75 bucks. But as time went on, she watched him betting more and losing more. $500 a bet. And that just, like, didn't sit right with Adrian. I'm not totally sure how their love story came to an end, but I do know eventually, Skip moves on to another woman, including someone named Pamela Nichols, who he also met in Vegas, although this time through Craigslist. In fact, she was about to go on her third date with Skip the night his parents were found. And he had called her to say his parents bodies were just found after a violent break in, and he needed to cancel their dinner.

[Garrett Moreland]

Okay.

[Peyton Moreland]

Pamela thought this was strange because Skip didn't sound that upset that his parents were murdered.

[Garrett Moreland]

Also, Craigslist. Come on.

[Peyton Moreland]

And she wondered why he was so worried about canceling their dinner when his parents had just died. What police? What police?

[Garrett Moreland]

What police?

[Peyton Moreland]

What police later learned was like, I had just said Skip had called Pamela before he had even called his own wife, Robin, to tell her about his parents.

[Garrett Moreland]

No, this guy is. This guy murdered. This guy murdered his parents.

[Peyton Moreland]

Apparently, Robin was actually pretty in the dark about her husband's secret affairs, believing every time he left, it was to go to poker tournaments.

[Garrett Moreland]

Oh, man. Dude.

[Peyton Moreland]

It wasn't until police actually informed her of this that she learned Skip had been hiding a lot of things during their marriage. Secret credit cards, P.O. boxes. He was actually sometimes going by an alternate identity of Bill Franks.

[Garrett Moreland]

Bro, how could you being this betrayed? I don't know how you could ever trust someone again that would be so hard like that. There's so many layers to that. I can't even imagine.

[Peyton Moreland]

So detectives start digging deeper into Skip's finances once they learn about this secret life he's been living. Because they're looking for a motive. And this is what they learn. Skip had recently borrowed about $600,000 from his dad to help pay for a new house. Okay, well, 600,000 for the new house, some gambling debts, and expensive gifts for his side girlfriends. He was love bombing. Now his wife, Robin knew about the loan. She said the plan was to pay her in laws back close to $4,000 every month until they could settle up. And while Ernie Senior was happy to hand over the money, Sherry felt differently. She already hated that Skip had quit his stable job to play poker. And she felt like her husband giving him the loan was just enabling him.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah, I feel like I don't know if I could. That's a lot of money to borrow. First of all, $600,000 is a ton of money, and borrowing it from your parents would be hard. Like, I don't know, family and money just doesn't mix well.

[Peyton Moreland]

Sheri was very, very vocal about her disdain for Skip's current profession. He was aware of it, but it didn't seem like the loan actually helped him much. Because when police looked into Skip's current finances, she they found that he owed more than $40,000 in credit card debt and $90,000 in gambling debt.

[Garrett Moreland]

What did he do with all the money?

[Peyton Moreland]

Robin also told police that they were having a hard time making ends meet, which means Skip probably had spent the entirety of gambling.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah, I bet you majority of it just wasted away gambling.

[Peyton Moreland]

Now. Then 2008 rolls along, the housing market starts to take a downturn. Suddenly Skip's parents want their money back. Because if you remember, Skip's father is in real estate. And police suspected that's when Skip panicked. And maybe that's when he began looking for an alternate solution.

[Garrett Moreland]

Why so brutal though? Like why? The way he did it, the brutality doesn't make sense. I can comprehend the motive behind, like, the killing part, but the way he did it, that part I don't comprehend. There must have been a lot of anger, like, what's going on?

[Peyton Moreland]

So police look to see if there's anything besides getting out of debt that he could gain from killing his parents. And they discovered that in the will that Skip was looking for, there was a line that said Skip would get $2 million in the event of his parents death.

[Garrett Moreland]

Wow.

[Peyton Moreland]

This is a payout that wouldn't be given to him until he turned 30, which at this point is just a few months away. So now the police have motive to get out of debt and motive to make money. But the evidence itself is mostly circumstantial. That was until about a week after the murders, when they find some surveillance footage that kicks the investigation into high gear. So the country club in the Shearers community has plenty of security cameras, and there is one that actually points out towards the street leading to their home. So police get this footage, and after hours of watching it, they spot a red convertible with a black soft top entering the community around 8:27pm on March 7. This is the night the couple was killed. And then it left that street four hours later. And do you know who owns a red convertible Camaro?

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah, I do.

[Peyton Moreland]

Skip. Which is why the police go scrambling at this point to get a search warrant for that vehicle. Because they're like, if he killed them and then got in the vehicle, maybe there's blood or evidence or something. They get the search warrant, they go through the vehicle and they find nothing. Because Skip had cleaned it thoroughly a day or two after the murders.

[Garrett Moreland]

Wow.

[Peyton Moreland]

And remember how I mentioned Skip had given the police his phone to look at the data and that there was 17 hours of time that nothing happened on it?

[Garrett Moreland]

He deleted a bunch of stuff.

[Peyton Moreland]

Well, police made the drive from the Shearers back to Ernie's house in Brea. Now it's both California, but it is very far away. They leave at the exact same time that his car pulled out. And they found Skip's phone turned back on at exactly the amount of time it took for the police to make that drive back to his house.

[Garrett Moreland]

Dedication to make that drive. Because that sucks.

[Peyton Moreland]

But there was one other detail that police were looking for. If you recall at the crime scene, there were those footprints that belong to a size 12 Nike shoe. Skip is a size 10.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah, I mean that was obviously planted and fake.

[Peyton Moreland]

Again, police don't believe these footprints. So they wonder, did Skip buy a pair of size 12 shoes and then like purposely stamp these? Especially because they led to that linen closet. And that's where Skip may have made his biggest mistake in these murders. Who would know that there was a linen closet full of swords in the house? And the footprints lead directly there.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

[Peyton Moreland]

Apparently, right after the crimes were committed, Skip actually told his wife Robin something pretty interesting. He muttered to her that one of the swords was missing from his parents closet. How could he possibly have known that unless he was the one who took it?

[Garrett Moreland]

Granted, this is all circumstantial evidence, right? Nothing. Not saying he didn't do it because I mean, obviously I think he did it. But just thinking of the the court and the jury, this is all circumstantial.

[Peyton Moreland]

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[Garrett Moreland]

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[Peyton Moreland]

Like they have enough circumstantial evidence to zero in on Skip, make him their prime suspect. There's just one little problem. Skip has skipped town just days after his parents funeral. Skip had gotten in a car, left his wife and child behind and went on a cross country road trip.

[Garrett Moreland]

So I wonder people like this, like are they like trying to diagnose them? Which I don't have a degree to do that. So warning, like I wouldn't necessarily consider them a psychopath. I don't know, you know, because but like who does that? Who just goes I don't care about my wife and family. I don't care about my kids. It is a level I kill my parents. Like at what point are you a Psychopath, like does that seems like it should almost classify as.

[Peyton Moreland]

I mean, I wouldn't go as far to say he's a psychopath, but I think I'm not gonna diagnose anything. But it's definitely a far step away from a normal person who gets himself in a bad situation, is very hurt, has a lot of trauma.

[Garrett Moreland]

We're past that.

[Peyton Moreland]

And then ends up murdering someone for a motive. Yeah, we're past, you know what I mean?

[Garrett Moreland]

You kill your own parents. Like we're past that.

[Peyton Moreland]

All the lying, the secret life, the mult, multiple women, debt.

[Garrett Moreland]

It's insanity.

[Peyton Moreland]

It's definitely a little heartless and emotionless. So he tells his wife, I need to go on this cross country trip to grave. But he didn't take his red Camaro, he took his dad's car. And he isn't shy about saying where he is because he's posting Craigslist ads along the way.

[Garrett Moreland]

This guy in Craigslist, I don't know.

[Peyton Moreland]

Why he's so dumb to think that the cops haven't found out that he had used Craigslist before. So they're obviously like following this. He's looking to meet up with women whenever he stops on this road trip. Now, luckily, the police do have a little extra help from someone, and it's Skip's wife, Robin. At this point, she's actually just as convinced as the police that her husband killed his own parents. She wants nothing more than to get him in handcuffs and away from her child. So she agrees to let the police record her phone calls with Skip and read the emails they're sending as she pretends to be the supportive wife. Still, by mid April, police tell the rest of the Shearer family, including Skip's sister, that Skip is their number one suspect. And it might be best if even the sister goes into hiding for a bit. With him on the run, who knows what he's capable of if he feels like police are, you know, zeroing in. And even Robin was afraid that he would find out that she was working with police. Until Skip was caught, those close to him were kind of living in fear. Meanwhile, Robin kept playing the role of the concerned wife as she checked in on her husband. But one particular call felt like the nail in the coffin. During one recorded conversation, Robyn told Skip that the police told her they had a video of his car leaving his parents neighborhood the night of the murder. And she's like, this isn't good because you told me and the police that you were home hours and hours away the night of the murder. And then he says, robyn, did you watch the video? Could you see my face in the car?

[Garrett Moreland]

Oh, my gosh.

[Peyton Moreland]

And Robin lies and says, yes, I watched it. Your face. It's you. It's you in the car.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah. Smart. That's smart.

[Peyton Moreland]

He takes a long pause at this point and then said, what else do you know about the video? And with the cops listening in, they now know this means that Skip's guilty.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah.

[Peyton Moreland]

So finally, after months of gathering evidence and listening in, listening in on the calls, police feel like it's enough to make an arrest because of how he responded to his wife on the phone.

[Garrett Moreland]

Insane, dude. Insane.

[Peyton Moreland]

On February 23, 2009, 11 months after the murders, Skip was arrested in Las Vegas at an apartment he had been sharing with a new girlfriend. Skip's trial was set for January 4, 2011, but during that time, prosecutors are still trying to compile evidence against him. And they found something that was more than just circumstantial. When looking back over the crime scene photos, they noticed a bloody warranty card for a Nike baseball bat. So they began looking at Nike stores in the areas where Skip was in the days before the murder, including one in Prim, Nevada. And they find that on March 7, the day his parents died, Skip bought a brand new baseball bat.

[Garrett Moreland]

Oh, my gosh.

[Peyton Moreland]

And a pair of size 12 shoes and a pair of soccer gloves from that Nike store. And by the way, that baseball bat, it was believed to be used in the murders to bludgeon the shearers before they were stabbed. It also finally explained those size 12 shoes and confirmed the police's theory that the perpetrator had used these to plant evidence and try to throw the police off their scent. So when the date of Skip's trial finally arrived, the prosecution is feeling good about their case. And here's kind of the quick rundown of what they say at trial. They believe that Skip drove back from Nevada on March 7th and went straight to his parents home around 8pm this is obviously after buying that bat, the shoes, the gloves, and then there, on the lower level of his parents home, he went to confront his mother about her issues with his profession and the debt that they now wanted him to suddenly repay. And according to the prosecution, this turns violent. She goes upstairs in an attempt to flee, but he gets to her. He chases her up the stairs, on the top stair, he attacks her. And then he approaches his father, hitting him six times with the bat before grabbing that sword from the linen closet to inflict the stab wounds on each of his parents.

[Garrett Moreland]

You've gotta be so, so messed up to do that to two people who raised you.

[Peyton Moreland]

Well, also, it's like, sure, an argument might have turned into murder, but I think he instigated that argument. He was planning to murder. Considering the stuff he brought before, it's still first degree murder. Even though they're saying the argument led to it.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah.

[Peyton Moreland]

At 12:42am, Skip got back into his red car, drove home to Brea, and turned his cell phone back on at 6:36am when he arrived. However, when it came time for the defense's case, they had something interesting to present to the jury. They said there was DNA at the crime scene, inside one of the bloody shoe prints that didn't match Skip's DNA. And I will say this was quickly disputed by the prosecution, who argued the DNA sample likely came from one of the first responders who came to the scene and checked on the parents, not a different suspect. Regardless, it takes three whole months to lay out the case for the jury. But they only needed 11 hours to deliberate. In the end, guilty was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder, two counts of murder for financial gain, and one count for committing multiple murders.

[Garrett Moreland]

Good.

[Peyton Moreland]

He was given two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. While Skip is awaiting trial. Robin had actually divorced him. In 2016, he tried to appeal his conviction.

[Garrett Moreland]

What a joke, dude. What? I think that's such a joke when like, murderers that obviously murdered someone are like, I didn't do it. I'm gonna appeal.

[Peyton Moreland]

He was denied.

[Garrett Moreland]

How embarrassing. How embarrassing.

[Peyton Moreland]

He's actually now incarcerated at the High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California. And as for his sister Catherine, she actually seems to have suffered the most in all of this.

[Garrett Moreland]

Poor girl.

[Peyton Moreland]

During her brother's sentencing hearing, she said, quote, the murder of my parents has effectively left me without an immediate family. Dreams were lost, promises were broken. Our lives will never be the same. She said her daughter has since been diagnosed with reactive detachment disorder as a result of the crimes. In the aftermath, her husband had to quit his job to take care of the kids, while Catherine dealt with the trial and everything regarding her parents estate. Yeah, and even with Skip behind bars, their life has been difficult to put back together. Because her brother murdered her parents.

[Garrett Moreland]

Yeah.

[Peyton Moreland]

And all because of a hobby that maybe was supposed to be a temporary escape, one that he bonded with his dad over.

[Garrett Moreland]

Money, man. Money is.

[Peyton Moreland]

Yeah, it ended up becoming a lifetime of irreparable damage for so many more. And that is the case of Ernest Shearer and Charlene Abendroth.

[Garrett Moreland]

That's crazy. To murder your own parents. I just cannot. That's horrible.

[Peyton Moreland]

All right, you guys, that was our episode for this week, and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

[Garrett Moreland]

I hate it.

[Peyton Moreland]

Goodbye.