Scott Weinberger (8:58)

How could popular Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke end up being convicted for child abuse? The answer to that question is Jody Hildebrandt. But Jody's manipulation extended far beyond the Frankie family, seemingly leaving a trail of victims in her wake. Documentary event features never before seen interviews from survivors who found the courage to expose her systematic abuse. Ruby and Jody A Cult of Sin and Influence premieres September 1st at 9pm Eastern on ID.

Narrator (Arsonist Next Door promo) (9:28)

For a brief moment in the year 2000, the City of Phoenix was on fire.

Scott Weinberger (9:33)

You could see a glow in the sky.

Narrator (Arsonist Next Door promo) (9:35)

An arsonist was on the loose.

Scott Weinberger (9:36)

How many more ways can we fuck this thing up?

Narrator (Arsonist Next Door promo) (9:38)

The culprit will shock you.

Delia d'Ambra (9:40)

I had several dreams about that house.

Scott Weinberger (9:42)

Behind me, or dreams about setting Jedi Flyer one night I did.

Narrator (Arsonist Next Door promo) (9:47)

From Novel and Sony Music Entertainment Listen to the Arsonist next Door. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes now or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts.

Delia d'Ambra (10:05)

Not long after Cynthia and Steven were found dead, authorities learned that her vehicle had been spotted near west beach before their bodies were found. So like two days after they were last seen? Turns out, according to coverage by Ran Rock Hill for the Times, sometime on Tuesday. So the day after Cynthia was initially reported missing, residents living on County Line Road, very close to the eventual crime scene, had noticed a small white car parked in front of a house and it appeared to be abandoned. The car had stood out like a sore thumb because when neighbors spotted it, it was on fire. They'd called the Gary Police Department to report the incident and officers did respond, but all they did was put out the flames and slap a sticker on it to, I guess notify the owner that they needed to come and get it. According to the source material, the officers who extinguished the fire didn't tow the vehicle away or look up who it belonged to. They just left it on the street, I assume, hoping that whoever it belonged to would return and collect it. I will say, though, it's a little unclear from the coverage whether or not the Gary Pedy officers did or did not check the license plate number to see who it was registered to. Some sources say they didn't do that, while others say they might have but nothing came up to let them know that it was associated with Cynthia and that Cynthia was a missing person. One possible reason for that is there could have been a delay between when the Maryville Police Department put Cynthia's name and information into the statewide missing persons database and when the officers in Gary, which was a different jurisdiction, found her car. Basically just a miscommunication or lack of communication between the different law enforcement agencies during those first few days of Cynthia and Stephen being missing. Anyway, on October 17, the day after Cynthia and Steven's bodies were found, they were sent down to Indianapolis for autopsies. But the results of those examinations weren't going to be available for a day or two. So while investigators waited, an FBI evidence response team combed through Cynthia's car looking for clues. There was some fire damage in it, but overall, the interior was still intact. The FBI team went through it with a fine tooth comb, looking for trace evidence, fibers, and fingerprints that they hoped a possible suspect or suspects had left behind. Not long after that, the preliminary results of the autopsies came in. And according to Daniel Jovich's reporting for the Times, the examiner determined that neither Stephen or Cynthia had any defensive wounds on their bodies or anything that suggested they'd struggled with their killer. The couple's official cause of death was determined to be single gunshot wounds to the head. Their wallets had been found in Cynthia's charred car, and jewelry they'd both been wearing was still on their bodies. So it didn't appear as if robbery was the motive for the crime, which only made the case that much more puzzling to investigators. Stephen was still fully dressed when he was found, but Cynthia was discovered nude, which prompted investigators to speculate if perhaps she'd been sexually assaulted. To get to the bottom of that question, they made sure to conduct additional lab tests. But none of the available source material goes into detail about what the results of those tests were. Still, it's not like investigators were working with nothing. All of the forensic evidence the FBI's response team collected from Cynthia's car and the crime scene was then sent to the National Crime Lab in Washington, D.C. for analysis, and behavioral profilers there began developing a suspect profile. Meanwhile, back in Indiana, the police chief in Portage told reporter Raeanne Rockhill that it was unsettling. Just how much about the double murder remained unknown. As far as all the investigators could tell, there appeared to be no logical motive for the crime and very few leads pointing toward a suspect. Based on all the interviews authorities had done so far with the victim's Loved ones and friends. There was no indication that Stephen and Cynthia were involved in illegal activities or kept company with bad people. The police chief remarked, quote, our worst fear is that it's a random situation, but we really don't know. We don't have any concrete information to suggest anything at this point. End quote. Some of Cynthia's high school classmates told the Times that the west beach area of the national park was a spot young people visited often. Cynthia and her friends had been there several times in the past, and no one in her friend group viewed it as unsafe or somewhere you shouldn't go after dark. Most people who were interviewed by the press said Cynthia and Stephen weren't involved romantically. They were just friends. One scenario folks speculated could have happened was that Cynthia and Stephen had decided at the last minute to walk the beach at night before going home. It was free to do that, and it could have just been a split second spontaneous decision. But there was also the possibility that they'd been intercepted by someone and taken to the beach under duress. No one knew for sure. The one thing investigators did keep hearing over and over, though, was what good people Cynthia and Steven were. Stephen was described as a smart, athletic guy who'd played football and wrestled in high school and graduated from Indiana University in 1995 with a degree in political science. His sister in law told the Times that he enjoyed playing guitar and regularly ran three miles every day. Overall, he was known for being an upbeat, extroverted person and at the time of his death, had just taken a new job for a decorating company in Chicago. Cynthia was a former homecoming queen who'd graduated from high school in 1995. At the time of her death, she was just a few days away from turning 20 years old. She came from a big family and had two sisters and a brother, plus both sets of grandparents and many other aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews in her extended family. She was earning a degree at Purdue University Calumet, and worked as a physical therapy assistant at a medical clinic not far from her home. Her mother later told reporter Susan Ehrler that Cynthia loved working with people and wanted to have a career in health care. On October 20, four days after her body was found and one week after she was reported missing, her family held her funeral and laid her to rest at Ridgeline Cemetery in Gary. The reverend, who spoke at her memorial service, alternated between Spanish and English while delivering Cynthia's eulogy, and at one point said, quote, cynthia was an innocent who became a victim in many ways. Cynthia touched the lives of so many people. She left a trail of goodness and love. I can almost hear Cynthia where she is close to God. I want people that knew me to be at peace. All of you have been thrown into a real trial of faith. Because of what has happened. We are not going to be able to understand completely what the Lord's plans are. And the Lord knows that. And yet in the middle of this, God is begging us to trust in him. Entrust Cynthia to God's tender care. The next day, Stephen's family, which included his parents, six brothers and two sisters, held his memorial service in Crown Point. He was eventually buried at Calumet Park Cemetery in Merrillville. During his memorial service, one of his brothers played a guitar and sang over his casket and his mother spoke briefly, saying, quote, thank you, Jesus for sharing him with us. Goodbye, my love. End quote. Sadly, Stephen was the second child in the Jimenez family who died in what many people would consider the prime of his life. According to multiple news sources, one of his older brothers, Bernard, was murdered during a random robbery in February 1992. Reporting by the Times stated that Bernard and his fiance were walking up to his house in Gary when a guy came up to them and robbed them at gunpoint. The suspect shot Bernard in his chest and killed him. The suspect, a man named Willie Donald, fled the scene, but was eventually caught and later convicted of murder and robbery. Bernard's fiance wasn't harmed in the attack, but she and three children witnessed the horrific incident and I imagine had to deal with the difficult after effects, as did the rest of the members of the Jimenez family. And Steven's murder only compounded their pain. One of his older sisters told reporter Erica Harrington that the family was shocked to be experiencing another tragic loss that involved such brutal violence. She said her brother Stephen had big dreams of maybe getting into the entertainment industry one day and pursuing a career in music. He was very laid back, easy to hang out with, and loved exercising. Above all, though, he loved, and I mean loved music. He played guitar for seven years and enjoyed listening to bands like the Beatles and Pearl Jam. But he also liked jazz music, too. After both victims families said their goodbyes, they waited to hear from law enforcement about what was going on with the case or if there were any suspects. But those answers didn't immediately come, which I imagine had to be frustrating because by that point There was a $9,000 reward for information up for grabs, $2,000 of which had come from the FBI and another $2,000 which came from the Gomez family. According to Susan Ehler's piece for the Times, Cynthia's family remained hopeful that justice would be served. Her father implored anyone who might have information about the case to come forward. He said that he and his wife and the rest of Cynthia's loved ones weren't fixated on punishing the killer because that wasn't what they thought Cynthia would want. He emphasized that they simply wanted answers and for the responsible party to be held accountable for the crime. Behind the scenes, authorities continued to diligently work the case and they were about to receive a piece of information that would reignite the investigation and take it from being at risk of going stagnant to red hot.

Narrator (Arsonist Next Door promo) (19:51)

For a brief moment in the year 2000, the City of Phoenix was on fire.

Scott Weinberger (19:56)

You could see a glow in the sky.

Narrator (Arsonist Next Door promo) (19:58)

An arsonist was on the loose.

Scott Weinberger (19:59)

How many more ways can we fuck this thing up?

Narrator (Arsonist Next Door promo) (20:01)

The culprit will shock you.

Delia d'Ambra (20:03)

I had several dreams about that house behind me.

Scott Weinberger (20:06)

Dreams about setting dead on fire. One night I did.

Narrator (Arsonist Next Door promo) (20:10)

From Novel and Sony Music Entertainment, listen to the Arsonist Next Door. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes now or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts.

Delia d'Ambra (20:28)

On Wednesday, October 22, a week after Cynthia and Steven were found dead, investigators learned that the night that they were overdue, a suspicious car had been seen in the general area of west beach right in the timeframe officials believed the murders had occurred. The witness who saw this car also got a good look at the man who'd been driving it. And wouldn't you know it, his description was a dead ringer for the guy who knocked on Mr. Murphy's door back on October 16th. You know, the young man who'd first reported finding Cynthia and Stephen's bodies. Now I know we haven't talked a lot about that guy yet because honestly not much was really known about him until well after the murders. But I think in investigators minds at the time it didn't make a lot of sense that he'd reportedly been seen near the crime scene on Sunday the 12th and then again four days later on Thursday the 16th when he said he'd found the bodies. That just seemed very suspicious. So with this information in hand, authorities realized they needed to ask this guy a few more questions and brought him in for an interview. He was identified as a 20 year old named Dewan Cease who lived in Gary. He'd been enlisted in the Marines for a little while but was administratively discharged in August 1997 for unknown reasons. It seems from the source material that he did initially provide a statement or statements to a park investigator after he found Cynthia and Steven's bodies. But it doesn't appear that the information he gave was very in depth. However, Fast forward to October 24th, and now Homicide investigators had a lot more reasons to question him, so they drilled down. What fueled authorities growing suspicions about Dewan were one his vehicle was a match for the car that witnesses had seen near the crime scene On Sunday the 12th two, he closely resembled the driver of that car. Three, two additional witnesses had come forward and positively identified him as a man they'd seen walking in the direction Stephen and Cynthia had gone shortly before hearing two gunshots. Four, he lived with his father, twin brother and sister in a house about three miles away from the crime scene and five, he'd been arrested earlier that summer for a shooting that involved someone else using a gun he owned to commit a crime. In that incident, Dewan was never actually charged with anything and ended up cooperating with authorities. But I think the fact that he owned guns and had previously been detained was just another reason why investigators working the homicide case felt he was worth taking a closer look at. According to the National Park Service, On Friday evening, October 24, law enforcement questioned him at length and identified several discrepancies in his story. Still, he denied killing Cynthia and Stephen. Investigators eventually asked him to take a polygraph, which he did, but the results indicated he was deceptive. The whole time they'd been talking to him, FBI agents had been scouring his house, looking for anything that might physically connect him to the crime. They'd seized his car and went through his personal belongings, which included finding several rounds of 9 millimeter ammunition, the same kind of rounds that authorities suspected had been used in Cynthia and Steven's murders, though that wasn't a detail anyone but investigators knew. Unfortunately, though, even with the circumstantial evidence piling up and dejuan agreeing to submit hair samples, authorities didn't have enough evidence or probable cause to arrest him. So they ended his interrogation around 9:30pm and then a detective drove him home two hours later, around 11:40pm he called the Portage Police Department and spoke with the detective who'd driven him to his house. He told the detective that he was at his grandmother's house in Gary and wanted to know how long it would take authorities to get to him before he took his own life. Over the phone, he confessed to killing Cynthia and Stephen and told the detective that the pistol he'd used to carry out the crime was still hidden in his car. The longer the phone call went the more dejuan became increasingly distraught and repeatedly told the detective that he was so afraid of going to prison that he wanted to die by suicide. For a brief few minutes, the investigator patched in dejuan's pregnant girlfriend to try and help talk him down, but it didn't work. About four minutes after he dialed Portage police, dejuan took his own life. He survived briefly before eventually dying at Methodist Hospital in Gary the following morning. I know. Not the ending you were maybe expecting. Well, it wasn't the scenario authorities or the victims families saw coming either. Dewan's death only added more questions to an already complicated and frustrating case. The main question everyone wanted answered was why? Why had he chosen to kill Cynthia and Stephen? Unfortunately, he never revealed the answer. The detective who'd spoken with him on the phone at the time of his suicide told the Times, quote, you could say it was just in a way, but it's a tragic way to end this thing. If he was going to do this, I wish he had told me everything, end quote. That same detective would later tell reporter Ken Koske that he believed dejuan had committed the crime because he was emotionally unstable and had recently had issues in his own relationship. According to police, on Sunday, October 12, shortly before the murders, Dewan had attended a church service with his girlfriend. At some point during that service, she'd publicly accused him of cheating. The detective who last spoke with Dewan told the Times that he believed that incident in the church had deeply embarrassed dejuan and caused him to go into a rage. The detective theorized that later that night, when dejuan saw Cynthia and Stephen at the beach, he randomly lashed out in violence despite having no connection to them. Another investigator who worked the case remarked that no one would likely ever know why dejuan killed Stephen and Cynthia. It would require evaluating his mental state, which wasn't possible in light of his death. A retired FBI profiler who spoke with reporter Daniel Jovich said one possible explanation for Dewan's decisions was that he might have been, quote, mentally unstable based on his actions, end quote. The profiler also suggested another reason could have been that, in Dewan's mind, Cynthia and Steven represented a life he would never have. This profiler surmised that Dewan's suicide could have been related to his religious beliefs and the idea that he felt so overwhelmed with guilt for what he'd done that he saw death as his only recourse. The Portage detective, who was the last person to speak with Dewan, was convinced that Dewan felt bad about the crime. He told Kenkoski that in his opinion, it would explain why Dewan returned to the crime scene with his dog four days after the murders and conveniently discovered Cynthia and Stephen. The detective said, quote, it was bothering him that nobody was finding these bodies. And that's when he went and found them, end quote. The Times did a full breakdown of Dewan's final call with police. But because that part of the story involves death by suicide, I don't want to go into further detail. The main thing you should know is that overall the detective who handled the situation appeared to do everything possible to prevent Dewan from taking his own life. It just didn't go the way anyone wanted. Another after effect of Dewan's suicide was that Cynthia and Steven's families were left with nothing but confusion and sadness. Olga Gomez told reporter John Reed that neither she nor her husband knew anything about how the crime had occurred or what the motive was. They were completely in the dark and couldn't wrap their minds around why this had happened. She told the press that she hoped time would reveal more answers. She stated, quote, maybe then the puzzle will make sense to us as well. Maybe we can answer the questions and let them rest in peace, end quote. From what I gathered reading the source material, it seems Cynthia and Stephen's loved ones really grappled with trying to understand the tidbits of evidence that were publicized as well as the circumstances that had led their children to enter the National Park. Park. Even though west beach was a place that Cynthia and her friends had hung out in the past, her mom told the Times that it wasn't somewhere she would normally visit late at night, especially after just having been out of town all weekend with friends. Stephen's dad expressed similar concerns and said that the couple being at the beach just didn't make sense. He theorized that it was possible they'd been driven there by their attacker. Something I'm hung up on is the fact that Stephen was dressed while Cynthia was reportedly found nude. And police have never elaborated on this detail. We could theorize about why this was the state they were in, but I don't want to speculate on something I can't back up with credible information. People who knew Dewan told the press that his unraveling seemed rather abrupt, starting back in 1995 after the death of his mother from cancer. For most of his youth, he was generally viewed as a well behaved young man with no apparent red flag. But then, after starting to hang around with the wrong crowd and being swiftly discharged from the Marines during his boot camp stage, things seemed to go downhill for him fast. About two months before the crime, one of his neighbors said he'd started causing problems and broken into her house, which had ended with Dewan threatening to shoot her. She speculated that his behavioral evolution could have been related to potential drug use, but she didn't really know what she was certain of about Dewan, though by October 1997, was, quote, he was as cold blooded a man as I ever knew. End quote. In fact, she was so certain he was bad news that she posted two no trespassing signs on her house, one of which specifically cautioned any residents of Dewan's household to stay off her property or else she'd have the police arrest them. Contrary to that characterization of him, though, was a description from another neighbor who told the Times that Dewan was an ideal young man. They remarked, quote, he was really and truly a sweet child. Something must have happened to cause him to snap like this. End quote. Now, how in the world two people can have such vastly different perspectives on or experiences with the same person is wild to me. But that's life, I guess. According to news coverage, law enforcement eventually recovered a 9 millimeter pistol from Dewan's car and compared it to the slugs that the medical examiner had removed from Cynthia and Steven's bodies. But I couldn't find any reporting that definitively stated whether it was a match. But I think it's safe to assume it was because no one else has ever been named as a suspect in this crime other than Duan. Cease. About a week after the case came to a close, the Northwest Indiana Hispanic Coordinating Council in East Chicago held a memorial service for Cynthia and Stephen to show the organization's support for their families. Around the same time, members of a Hispanic fraternity at Indiana University, which is one place Stephen and Cynthia had visited the weekend before they were killed, held a rally in their honor. In early November, something else beautiful happened when hundreds of people showed up at a candlelight ceremony for Stephen and Cynthia and their families. The service took place in a church on All Souls Day and was intended to help bring healing and peace to the victim's loved ones and those in the community who were still grieving. In February 1998, several months after the crime, the Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority at Purdue University, Calumet, where Cynthia was a student, held a benefit dinner to raise money for two annual scholarships in her and Stevens memory. The funds were intended for one full time Hispanic male student and one full time Hispanic female student, and applicants were required to submit an essay and go through an interview process with Cynthia's parents. And that part of the scholarship process was intentional and meant as a way for Olga and Val to really determine if a candidate held the same values as their daughter. I could go on and on because it would be easy to share story after story of how much Cynthia and Steven meant to their communities and families. And that's a good thing. They should be remembered as more than just murder victims. There are lights that I'm sure still shine bright in the hearts of those who were lucky enough to share space with them while they were alive. A harrowing detail I read while researching this episode that I want to leave you with involves Stephen Murphy, the homeowner who Dewan first reported finding the bodies to. He told reporter Daniel Jovich that it wasn't until a few days after dejuan died by suicide that he was informed dejuan was Cynthia and Steven's killer. He'd been at a Notre Dame game, basically living his life with much of the case out of sight, out of mind. It wasn't until he returned that he realized what he'd missed. He told the newspaper that it was unsettling to know that a murderer had been in his home, standing right next to him at one point. But isn't that how it goes? Sometimes killers walk among us. In some cases right up to our front door, and we're none the wiser. If that doesn't make you just a little bit more vigilant, I don't know what will. Park Predators is an Audio Chuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website parkpredators.com and you can also follow park predators on Instagram arcpredators. I think Chuck would approve.

Scott Weinberger (34:15)

Behind every homicide case is a process, an investigation, and people seeking answers.

Anna Sega Nikolai (34:20)

And it takes more than reading the headlines to get to the true heart of these stories. I'm Anna Seka Nicolazi, a former New York City homicide prosecutor.

Scott Weinberger (34:29)

And I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

Anna Sega Nikolai (34:33)

Each week on our podcast Anatomy of Murder, we dissect real homicide cases from the principal perspective of those who have lived them investigators, prosecutors, and the people impacted most.

Scott Weinberger (34:43)

We dive into not just what happened, but why it happened, focusing on the facts. Process the decisions that shaped each case and the pursuit of justice, giving you.

Anna Sega Nikolai (34:54)

A deeper understanding of how each case unfolds.

Scott Weinberger (34:57)

Listen to Anatomy of Murder, available wherever you get your podcasts.