B (12:20)

And pointed a gun.

A (12:22)

The officers fired and when the dust settled, they found Troy motionless, lying on the ground, barely clinging to life. He'd suffered a single gunshot wound to his buttocks area and a self inflicted gunshot wound to his head, which appeared to have come from the Glock handgun he'd stolen from Officer Jason Crisp's body. Not long after that, Troi died on scene and it was later confirmed that the firearm which had caused his fatal injury was in fact Jason's service weapon. When news of Jason's as well as Rhonda and Levi Wisnit's murders reached people in the community, folks were shocked and devastated. On the evening of the crime, a family friend of the Crisp visited Jason's wife Amanda at home and notified her of what had happened. Meanwhile, relatives and friends of the Wisnits were horrified to hear how they'd been found. Rhonda's nephew told WSOC tv, quote, they didn't deserve to go through this. They just had their dream house built a few years ago. They built it all by hand and paid for it all by cash. They worked for what they got, end quote. One of the couple's neighbors told the News Herald via the Hickory Daily Record that he'd known Troy for all his life and did not think the 38 year old was an upstanding citizen. The neighbor stated, quote, he's a dangerous man, let's put it like that. He later continued, his daddy and stepmom are two of the greatest people in the world. They didn't deserve this.

B (13:47)

End quote.

A (13:48)

According to the couple's obituary, Levi was retired and usually spent his mornings with Rhonda, puttering around the house, drinking coffee while watching birds and wildlife. Rhonda was still working as a nurse, but they both shared a dream of one day opening a petting farm on their property. Jason's partner and fellow Forest Service law enforcement officer Wade Keener, was not in North Carolina when the murders happened. He'd been sent to Virginia earlier in the week to assist with a timber audit at another district office. It wasn't until around 3 o' clock on the day of the crime that he began hearing reports of an officer involved shooting in Burke county. And by 6pm he learned the sad news that Jason was gone. He described that moment to me as a gut punch and said that Jason was truly like a brother to him. As he asked questions and learned more information, he had a bit of a you've gotta be kidding me moment when he heard the name of the man who was responsible for Jason's death. Turns out Wade had put Troy Wisna in handcuffs once before. About two or three years earlier, Wade had received a request from Burke County Sheriff's Office to assist in serving a warrant on Troy. At the time, the sheriff's office couldn't find Troy, but they wanted him for an offense related to breaking and entering. So they asked Wade to keep an eye out for him in the Pisgah National Forest. Wade told me that this kind of request was normal because oftentimes fugitives would use the National Forest to evade capture. So while out on routine patrol, Wade happened upon a remote campsite and found two men there who eventually provided him with their IDs. One of those guys was Troy Wisnet, and because he had an outstanding warrant for his arrest, Wade took him into custody. At the time, though, Wade had no idea what Troy was capable of or that just a few years later, the young man would be back out in society and responsible for a series of murders. Wade told me he still feels a lot of regret about not being in North Carolina when his partner Jason was killed. His hands were tied because he was required to be out of state for work. But he still can't help but wonder if maybe he had been on the call, he could have done something to save his friend. A frequent characterization I heard from Wade about Jason was how fiercely dedicated he was to training Moros and becoming the best dog handler he could be. It's not surprising to Wade to know that even until Jason's final breath, he was doggedly pursuing a suspect. But even as much as Jason loved his job, he always made time for his family. He was a husband and father to two boys, Garrett and Logan. In 2014, Garrett was a teenager, and Logan, who is 10 years younger, was just a kid. Their dad was described as soft spoken, understanding, a conversationalist, a prankster, and a dedicated Christian. Garrett told me that his father loved the outdoors and would frequently take him fishing and camping at different spots he'd discovered while working in the woods. In addition to being co workers, Jason and his partner Wade were literal neighbors. Several years prior to the murder, Jason and his family moved into a home next door to Wade and his wife. But that wasn't where the Crisps wanted to be forever. In 2009, Jason and his wife had purchased a 30 acre tract of land in McDowell county near Mount Mitchell. The plan was to eventually build a forever home there, but until they could save up enough money to pay down the mortgage on their current home as well as the acreage, their dream of having a homestead was a work in progress. In the interim, Jason bought a mobile home and kept it on their acreage and worked diligently to make the structure livable so his family would at least have a place to stay when they visited. In early 2012, Amanda had discovered she had breast cancer and underwent treatment. She ultimately went into remission, and by late 2013, the crisps had sold their house next to the Keeners and were kind of in between relatives places until they could get their mobile home up and running. On the day of the crime, Jason had been on that property with his family and a plumber who'd come to help them with an issue. Right in the middle of working beneath the mobile home with his son Garrett is when Jason, who was off duty, got the call to assist in the manhunt for Troy Wisnit. On March 17, about five days after the crime, Jason's colleagues and loved ones held a funeral service for him at a local high school and then buried him at his home church in Marion, North Carolina. His son Garrett told me that his dad's casket processional wound through several city streets and was a very public event as a symbol of Jason's bond and companionship. With his four legged partner Morrows. The dog's cremated remains were buried with him at the time of Jason's passing. Tributes to the slain officer poured in online and his family released a statement that read in part, jason was a loving father, loving husband, and a great friend. He was his wife's best friend and the love of her life. He loved the Lord and was an honest Christian man who gave his life protecting his friends. He loved doing his job with a passion. The only thing he loved more than his job was his family and friends. He died a hero, however. He was a hero well before Moros was also our family member and he was loved like a child.

B (19:00)

End quote.

A (19:01)

Rhonda and Levi Wisnett's funeral took place at a church in Burke county, and they were later buried in Morganton. A brief obituary for Troy indicated a private funeral service was held for him after the murders as well, but it's unclear who attended at the time of his suicide. He had a surviving sister, grandmother, and a son and daughter, I imagine. Even though he'd made some terrible homicidal decisions in his final days, Troy's family members still grieved his death in their own way. But there was another family connected to his violent history who felt a strange sense of deja vu about everything that had unfolded in March 2014. And those folks had not kept silent about how they felt. According to the coverage in this case, in early February 1996, so 18 years before Jason Crisp and Levi and Rhonda Wisnit's murders, Troy, who was just 20 years old, walked into the Burke County Sheriff's Office with his dad and stepmom and confessed to murdering a man. He claimed that he'd shot his best friend, 21 year old William Shane Newton, in the head the night before while the two of them had been hanging out inside William's trailer. Now, from what I read in the source material, William seemed to go by his middle name, Shane most often, so that's what I'll be referring to him as from here on out. Anyway, after confessing to Shane's slaying and turning himself in, Troy was charged with murder. But at his arraignment in late May 1996, he pleaded not guilty. In February 1997, after the one year anniversary of the crime came and went, the case had still not gone to trial, and Shane's mother, Shirley, was frustrated by that. She took it upon herself to gather nearly 800 signatures, petitioning the District Attorney's office for the case to move forward to trial. She specifically did not want Troy to be offered a plea deal because she was worried he would receive a very low prison sentence. She and the rest of Shane's family could not understand why Troy had done what he did. According to Shirley, Shane had sort of taken Troy under his wing and been a person who'd stood up for him when others wouldn't. There had been times when Troy had stolen from Shane, but Shane didn't make a big deal of those incidents because he believed Troy had no one else in his life to turn to. Shirley never got a good vibe, though, from Troy, and she'd asked Shane to stay away from him. But Shane voiced that he thought abandoning Troy as a friend wasn't the right move. Shirley described her son as a very friendly, loyal, and kind person, at one point, stating, quote, if you just knew Shane, he was so wonderful. Everybody claimed him. He made friends with everybody. He never turned up his nose to nobody. If he saw somebody he knew, he'd grab them around the neck and hug them.

B (21:55)

End quote.

A (21:57)

The thought of the DA potentially offering Troy a plea deal was incomprehensible to the Newton family. They wanted Troi to answer for his crime and face the penalty of his actions, plain and simple. Initially, detectives told the press that drugs and alcohol may have been a factor in the crime, stating that Troy was possibly drunk when he killed Shane and that he'd claimed to have consumed a mixture of hard liquor, Xanax, and a dozen beers before the shooting. But inebriation had not been an issue for Shane because his autopsy revealed there were no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death. And on top of that, his autopsy also showed he'd been shot point blank in the back of his head, which to me points to a scenario that Shane probably never saw the attack coming. Or if he did, he had no chance to fight back. In the nearly 13 months after the crime, Shirley, Shane's mom, said her life had been made unbearable thanks to strangers taunting her about Shane's death. For example, she told the News Herald that on Shane's birthday in October 1996, someone had phoned her home three times and never spoken a word. They just played funeral music on the line. I know how horrible and creepy to do to a person who'd already been through so much. But the big sticking point with the case hinged on the DA's opinion that Troy had been unaware of his actions at the time of Shane's murder due to being under the influence of substances. So by early 1997, prosecutors were very much leaning towards letting Troy plead down to manslaughter. But in a letter to the editor of the news Herald, the Newton family contested the state's theory that Troy was so inebriated that he couldn't be held criminally liable for his actions. The family pointed to the fact that Troy had used Shane's own gun to commit the crime, that he'd stolen the firearm and Shane's car and taken it joyriding for several hours without damaging it. Then, after all that, he'd traded Shane's gun for money and brought his car back to the crime scene, which to Shane's family did not sound like behavior someone who was unaware of his actions would be capable of. They wrote in part in their letter to the newspaper, quote, the family feels that wisnet needs to do his time and be punished for his actions. The loss of Shane has left an empty place in our hearts and all we have are our memories of Shane. We have less than one week to try to prevent this injustice from happening. Who can say that Wisnett won't go out and take another innocent life? Who knows? It could be a family member friend of yours. We must try to prevent this from happening.

B (24:36)

End quote.

A (24:38)

On February 28, 1997, the Newtons presented their petition, which by that point had garnered more than 2,100 signatures, to the district attorney's office. All of the supporters who'd signed it were opposed to Troy getting a plea deal, but the effort did not sway the DA's mind. At the end of April, Troy was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to just 11 months in prison after being given credit for time served. Attorneys for the state presented in court the high level sequence of events that they said law enforcement believed had occurred between Troy and Shane. On the night of the crime, Shane and Troy were hanging out by themselves at Shane's place after he'd just run off a group of friends who'd gotten into a fight. While Shane reached into a drawer inside his trailer to grab something, Troy saw a.38 revolver sitting inside the drawer and for reasons unknown to anyone, picked the gun up and shot Shane in the back of his head. Then he stole the weapon, took Shane's car and drove around for a while before eventually trading the gun for money and then returning Shane's vehicle back to the trailer. After that, Troy hitchhiked to his sister's home and fell asleep until the following afternoon. The court's decision to give leniency to Troy was heart wrenching to Shane's family. It seemed that everything Shirley Newton had initially feared would happen did. In response to the court's decision and Troy's actions, Shane's father stated, quote, nothing can be done to bring Shane back. It has been a hard 14 and a half months for us. He had sense enough to drive a vehicle. He should have had sense enough to get help. For Shane, it seems the system is more for the defendant than the victim and the family.

B (26:22)

End quote.

A (26:24)

Shane's mom surely emphasized that in her opinion, Troy knew exactly what he was doing when he shot her son and that drugs and alcohol use could not excuse his behavior. The state's main rationale, though, as to why they offered Troy a plea bargain was because a clinical psychologist who'd been working with Troy since the murder concluded that he'd had an extensive history with substance use disorder starting at the age of 12. Levi, Troy's dad, who would eventually become a murder victim at the hands of his own son, told the psychologist back in 1996 that he expected Troy to commit a crime as violent as murder, given his history with alcohol and drug use. Despite the psychologist stating that the nature of Troy's drug and alcohol use disorder could, as the News Herald put it, cause a person to become suicidal or homicidal, the court in 1997 did not agree that he was criminally liable for taking a life. Fast forward almost two decades, though, and Troy had racked up additional criminal convictions and been in and out of prison several times when he killed his parents in March 2014. He'd just recently been let out of prison after serving time for receiving stolen property, and there were outstanding charges against him for hit and run, traffic violations and breaking and entering. To this day, no one has been able to understand his motive for killing his dad and stepmom. According to the coverage in this case, at the time of the crime, Troy was not living with Levi and Rhonda, though at least one article I saw did mention he might have recently moved back in. Apparently, he'd moved out prior to March, but then perhaps came and went periodically. One of his aunts told the Charlotte observer that on Sunday, March 9, Levi had asked Troy to join him and Rhonda for church, but Troy declined. Then, when the couple returned from the service, he shot them both. Most officials who were involved in the case chalk Troy's homicidal actions up to his violent nature as a person and his long history with substance use disorders. According to investigative reports and my interviews with Wade Keener and Jason's son Garrett, authorities determined that after murdering Levi and Rhonda Troy stayed at their home with their bodies still in the basement and made a phone call to a relative as well as went on a bit of a bender. He'd also left intermittently, used his parents credit cards and accessed their checkbook. It was documented in some court records related to his prior convictions that he had a history of mental health issues for which the court system recommended he be given help. It's not stated in the available source material, though, if he ever received the care he needed. In the weeks before his violent crime spree, Troy wrote on social media that he was struggling typing quote. Why is it that you take everything that you love for granted? I have nothing left and am not in a good place. Please keep me in your prayers.

B (29:20)

End quote.

A (29:22)

He'd also posted about how his dad, Levi, was the best father in the world and had always been there for him. But Troy wrote that he believed he'd let his dad down. According to relatives who spoke with the Charlotte observer and wbtv, Levi was the type of parent who would do anything for Troy. So it didn't make sense to family members why the 38 year old would have killed his dad and stepmom and and then remained in the home with their bodies for several days. The fact that that was what had happened, though, cemented for some relatives that Troy likely had to have been inebriated or in some kind of disassociative state and not thinking clearly. These developments brought a sense of justice, though, to Shirley Newton, Shane Newton's mom. She told the Charlotte observer, quote, I've waited 18 years and justice has finally come to me. They didn't give him no time at all. If they'd done something to him, given him a longer sentence, maybe these families wouldn't have to feel what I feel, end quote. She also put it this way to the News Herald. I told them at the courthouse, if he gets off of this, he will hurt someone else. And I thought about it every single day. If we had a justice system back then, all of this could have been avoided. There would have been no more pain like what I had to go through. They should punish somebody for the crimes they've committed or at least get them some help. I believe that if they had given Troy some help after he killed Shane, that this might not have happened. He needed mental help and he needed help getting off the drugs. She later continued. They just slap him on the hand. If they would have given him more time when he killed Shane, I believe it would have straightened him out and none of this would have happened.

B (31:04)

End quote.

A (31:05)

Shirley 100% blamed the former district Attorney's office in Burke county for giving Troy a plea deal back in 1997. She said that her son's blood and the blood of all the victims in 2014 was on the former assistant district attorney's hands. Period. In the wake of the 2014 murders, the community stepped up in a big way to support Jason's widow and two sons. A handful of volunteers and builders donated supplies and pitched in to finish remodeling the family's mobile home. Amanda and her sons remained in that home for a number of years before eventually selling it a couple of years ago. As a gift, the family also received a German shepherd puppy that they named Mara. According to Levi and Rhonda's obituary, their family members asked that memorial contributions made in their honor go to a benefit fund that had been established for Jason's wife and son. Troy's sister told WBTV that she was very sorry her brother's actions had caused the Crisp family so much pain. She pointed to Troy's history with substance use disorders and mental health issues. The District ranger station building that Jason worked out of in western North Carolina was renamed in his honor as the Jason Crisp Forest Service Building. His sacrifice was also memorialized in Washington, D.C. at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Even with all those great things, though, Jason's former partner, Wade Keener, told me that he still finds himself getting upset by the fact that a career criminal like Troy was given so many breaks by the justice system. He told me he feels like a lack of accountability for offenders like Troy who have violent records empowers them to keep reoffending because they perceive there will be no recourse or punishment for their actions. Garrett, Jason's son, told me that the hardest part of this whole ordeal, aside from losing his dad at such a young age, was trying to forgive Troy. He told me that he was eventually able to forgive him, but it wasn't easy. It's now been more than a decade since his dad was murdered, but Garrett still thinks about him all the time. He told me that when he's out in the woods or doing an activity in nature, his father comes to mind. Garrett said that in a way, his dad's love of nature became his love of nature. He ended our interview by saying he never really knew how important his father was to their community until he was gone. And isn't that the way it usually goes? We never know how bright someone's light shines until it goes out. 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 at Park Predators. I think Chuck would approve.