0:00

This show is sponsored by Better Help.

0:02

This holiday season, do something for a special

0:04

person in your life.

0:05

You. Give

0:06

yourself a gift to raise your spirits

0:08

and not just for the day. Better help

0:10

connects you with a licensed therapist one hundred

0:13

percent online via video, phone,

0:15

and live chat sessions. And the holiday

0:17

season is the perfect time to try it. and

0:19

see if therapy is for you. After

0:21

all, the holidays are a notoriously tough

0:23

time between managing family dynamics,

0:25

racing from thing to thing, and braving

0:27

the cold and dark weather, it's normal to

0:30

feel down. Having someone to talk to

0:32

about how you're feeling and what you can do about

0:34

it is truly a gift. When you're

0:36

armed with more information about what you're experiencing,

0:38

struggles can feel a little easier to manage.

0:41

Betterhelp is much more affordable than in person

0:43

therapy, and you can do it from the comfort of your

0:45

home on a schedule that works for you.

0:47

So this holiday season, give yourself

0:49

the gift of better mental health, gift

0:51

that really does keep on giving. Visit

0:54

better help dot com to see if therapy

0:56

is for you. That's better, HELP

0:59

dot com.

1:03

My dad did say that she had

1:05

been acting strange for the past

1:07

two weeks. Something

1:10

was off with her. It

1:12

makes me think there was something really

1:15

wrong going on. because

1:17

I feel she knew something bad

1:19

about someone whether it would ruin repetition

1:22

or money

1:25

she knew something that someone

1:27

didn't want to get out.

1:36

It's early in the morning, the Friday after

1:38

Thanksgiving nineteen ninety nine in

1:40

Lansing Illinois. Forty

1:42

four year old Sharon Miller arrives

1:44

at a local dry cleaners where she's worked

1:47

for several years. Sharon

1:49

talks on the phone for about twenty minutes with an

1:51

employee at another dry cleaners in neighboring

1:53

Indiana until she has to hang up.

1:56

Her first customer of the day has just arrived.

1:58

A short time later,

1:59

a frantic nine eleven call

2:02

comes into the Lansing Police Department.

2:03

A body has been found

2:05

at the dry cleaners,

2:06

sprawled on bathroom floor.

2:08

It's Sharon, and she's been

2:10

shot execution style. with

2:12

two bullets at close range.

2:21

I'm Steve French, and this is

2:23

unsolved mysteries,

2:25

Black Friday.

2:37

Lensing Illinois, a small

2:39

town of just under thirty thousand people,

2:42

is located about a half hour south of

2:44

Chicago. But we

2:46

average for many, many years, one homicide

2:48

a year. We're probably around three

2:50

or four right now at this time. Chuck

2:54

Wheaton is a sergeant with the Lansing Police.

2:56

Back in nineteen ninety nine, he was a

2:58

rookie detective and vividly remembers

3:01

the homicide case. that would hunt the department

3:03

for nearly a quarter century. The

3:07

call came in approximately eight

3:09

fifty two AM was the time of the

3:11

assignment for the officer that arrived first on

3:13

scene. This was very unusual

3:15

for the area downtown Lansing

3:18

very quiet. This is the day after Thanksgiving.

3:22

The murder victim is Sharon Miller,

3:24

an employee at a local dry cleaners

3:26

who was just starting

3:27

her shift that morning. When

3:33

I first walked into the dry cleaners, it was

3:35

a normal entry way with

3:37

several counters and racks for clothes.

3:40

I was surprised I did not know that they don't

3:43

clean anything at this facility. They

3:45

take things and ship them elsewhere. But when

3:47

I walked into the back area, It

3:49

looked normal. It looked very clean. Nothing

3:51

was really out of place. There certainly

3:53

wasn't any type of a struggle. And

3:56

when I walked around the corner to see the bathroom,

3:58

I saw Sharon on the floor

3:59

of the bathroom,

4:01

obviously deceased. Detective

4:04

Wheaton immediately begins

4:06

making notes about every detail he

4:08

observes. He's not sure what

4:10

is or is not a clue to what has

4:12

occurred. It

4:13

certainly wasn't ransacked. I

4:16

couldn't tell by looking at the cash register,

4:18

it was not forced to open there was

4:20

not any debris or anything scattered

4:22

around. At first,

4:24

it looked like it could

4:26

have been suicide side that

4:28

they had found a weapon underneath her. She

4:30

wasn't moved until the corner arrived.

4:34

When they roll the body over, no

4:36

weapon is found. and they see that Sharon

4:38

has actually been shot twice.

4:41

She did have two holes,

4:44

small caliber bullet holes in the side

4:46

of her head. so that made it

4:48

likely not to be a suicide, although I

4:50

have seen suicides were subject

4:52

to shot themselves twice. she

4:55

did have wound to her hand,

4:57

her finger, which is probably a defensive

4:59

holding her hand above her head, and that

5:01

oh, it had gone through her finger and into

5:04

her head. We believe

5:06

that the offender was within three

5:08

feet of her when he shot her.

5:11

She was probably to the

5:13

side of him judging by the

5:15

entrance to the bathroom

5:17

doorway and the way she

5:19

fell and the fact that the wounds were

5:21

in the side of her head, she

5:23

was probably facing sideways.

5:28

As police begin their investigation, They

5:31

find evidence that this homicide may

5:33

have been a robbery that took a fatal

5:35

turn. We

5:37

had learned later that she had a

5:39

gold purse that would have contained her

5:41

wallet credit cards, a little bit of

5:43

cash, and her cell phone. That

5:45

was not located inside the cleaners,

5:48

We had learned later

5:50

that money from inside the register, approximately

5:52

a hundred and thirty dollars was taken

5:54

from register only paper so

5:56

it appears to be a robbery. There

5:59

was a lot of change to left in the register

6:01

and there was a deposit bag

6:03

that was next to the register in counter,

6:06

not obvious, but if you were looking

6:08

for it, you could have found it that

6:10

was not taken so that deposit

6:12

from two days before was still left

6:14

there. I did

6:16

observe that she had not a

6:18

ton of jewelry, but she had several chains

6:20

and she had gold rings and bracelets.

6:23

at that time, probably a thousand

6:25

dollars worth of jewelry on her.

6:28

If it was a robbery, Why

6:30

didn't the perpetrator take cash and

6:32

other valuables that were in plain sight?

6:34

Was

6:35

he in a panic to escape quickly after killing

6:37

a lone witness? or could there

6:39

be some other explanation for

6:41

Sharon's missing purse than the rated

6:43

cash register? I

6:45

don't know who would rob a dry cleaners

6:47

think that there's any sum of money. A

6:50

lot of people pay in checks back then

6:52

there was cash more than debit cards, but

6:54

still you're not gonna find a whole lot of cash

6:56

at a dry cleaners as opposed

6:59

to a bigger retail store that's gonna be

7:01

open with a lot more money. It

7:03

kinda says that the motive there was not

7:05

robbery. that it could be staged.

7:07

It could be made to look like a robbery,

7:09

and the real motive is to kill the victim.

7:11

If this is just for a robbery, or

7:14

maybe a possible sexual assault.

7:16

There's no reason to shoot twice. This

7:19

seems like judging by the caliber weapon,

7:21

which is a twenty five, which a small

7:23

caliber to shoot someone twice

7:25

your intention is to kill.

7:28

The notion that someone would target forty

7:30

four year old Sharon Miller for a

7:32

point blank assassination seems

7:34

unlikely to detectives. Her

7:36

only daughter, Nicole, was twenty

7:39

one at the time of the murder. It

7:42

was a Friday morning. I

7:44

had a full day booked at

7:47

the salon

7:47

where I worked.

7:49

And the phone rang,

7:51

it was my grandmother. I

7:54

said, hello. She said, Hi Nicole.

7:56

This is Graham. Are you gonna be

7:58

home? And I said, yes.

8:00

She said, okay, I need to come talk

8:02

to you, and she hung up. And

8:04

I thought, Bam, that was the weirdest

8:06

thing. About

8:08

fifteen minutes later, the

8:10

doorbell rang, and it was a glass front door,

8:12

and I saw her standing outside the door.

8:14

with one of the detectives from the Lansing

8:16

Police Department that I knew and recognized

8:19

because he had gone to the

8:21

same church as our family did growing

8:23

up. So I immediately

8:25

opened the door and said, what is going

8:27

on? And then he just

8:29

goes right out and says, I'm sorry to tell

8:31

you that your mother is deceased.

8:33

So obviously,

8:37

I was in complete

8:39

shot.

8:41

Nicole immediately flashes back to one

8:43

of the last times she saw her mother

8:45

alive. It was just six weeks

8:47

earlier at Nicole's wedding. The

8:50

wedding was so close to when she

8:53

died. Those are the

8:55

pictures that we have of

8:57

her you know, the most recent

8:59

and that's the dress that we

9:01

buried her in. She

9:03

was about five six blue

9:06

eyes, short one hair, very

9:08

pretty. Of course, I'm biased, but

9:11

just medium build. She likes to

9:13

dress nice, like to have her hair done, her nails

9:15

done, jewelry, and

9:17

such. She cared about her appearance.

9:20

She wasn't, like, completely

9:22

outgoing, but if you talk to her, she

9:24

would talk to you. So I'd say she was a

9:26

little shy at first,

9:28

but not once you got to know her. She

9:31

loved to laugh, loved to have fun,

9:33

played a lot of cards. We

9:35

didn't do a lot of stuff. out

9:37

of the house all the time because we always didn't have

9:39

the money for that kind of stuff.

9:42

Sharon's romantic life had its share of

9:45

ups and downs. She was married

9:47

three times, but

9:48

everything seemed to change when she met

9:50

Charles, her third husband. My

9:53

mom really was I would

9:56

say the happiest I had ever seen her

9:58

and a lot of that had

9:59

to do with Charlie.

10:02

She met Charlie at

10:05

the bowling alley, I believe.

10:07

They were on bowling

10:09

leagues together. and

10:11

he definitely was the

10:13

first real father

10:15

figure I had come into my life. He

10:17

was great. He was always great.

10:19

she finally had found someone

10:21

to spend the rest of her life with. And

10:24

he came into the picture when

10:26

I was ten. And

10:28

they were actually about to

10:30

celebrate their ten year

10:32

wedding anniversary on December

10:34

first. So they had

10:36

missed that

10:37

by about four or five days when she

10:39

was

10:39

killed. In

10:41

the

10:41

quiet community of Lansing, Sharon's

10:44

homicide is a bracing shock.

10:46

Michael

10:46

Rodriguez was assigned to work the

10:48

cold case with detective Wheaton in twenty

10:51

thirteen. At the time of the murder,

10:53

he was a seventeen year old police

10:55

cadet. So

10:56

I grew up actually in Lansing,

10:58

Illinois, and I was in high school when this

11:00

happened, and actually a friend

11:02

of mine was related to

11:05

her ex husband from high school. So that's

11:07

kinda how I heard about this case. So

11:09

it was very impactful at that

11:11

time because There wasn't lot of violent

11:13

crime in Lansing, especially homicides,

11:15

sulfur, something like that that happened

11:17

the day after Thanksgiving, especially in the

11:19

morning, was just very

11:21

shocking to the community. Sharon

11:25

Miller, she was killed the morning of

11:27

November twenty six, nineteen ninety nine,

11:29

the day after Thanksgiving. from

11:31

our timeline, I'm seeing that at approximately six

11:33

fifty AM, she left her home in

11:35

Lansing to go to work at

11:37

the dry cleaners. It was less than five

11:39

minutes away. She signed in at

11:41

the computer at six

11:43

fifty four AM. And then she actually

11:45

printed out a receipt from her computer at

11:47

six fifty eight And then at

11:49

about 706

11:52

AM, she called a fellow

11:54

employee at a different branch. to speak

11:56

about a dry cleaning jacket.

11:59

They talked about how

12:01

their holiday was and whatnot. And

12:03

according to her, it was of just normal

12:05

conversation. They were talking for a good

12:07

fifteen to twenty minutes. There were no

12:09

customers in there. It's early in the morning. She just

12:11

opened up Again, it's the day after

12:13

Thanksgiving. There's not a whole lot of business.

12:15

And she stated, I have a

12:17

customer. I'll call you back. and

12:19

that's the last she heard from her.

12:22

What happened

12:23

after Sharon hangs up the phone

12:25

is the central mystery of this

12:27

case. Investigators learned

12:29

that a customer entered the dry cleaners

12:31

around eight forty AM. He

12:33

found the shop empty and was going to

12:35

leave a note but instead decided to

12:38

inquire at the hair salon next door.

12:41

He

12:41

walked into the hair salon and he spoke with the employees

12:43

and said, hey, do you guys happen to know

12:46

where the lady is that works next door.

12:48

Nobody's there. So the

12:50

employees walked over to

12:52

the dry cleaners. along with the

12:54

customer looking for Sharon. When

12:56

they went in there, they discovered Sharon's

12:59

body in the bathroom of

13:01

the dry cleaners.

13:03

They freaked out because

13:05

they didn't know if the offender was

13:07

possibly this man who

13:09

notified them They immediately ran out.

13:11

They ran into the beauty salon.

13:13

They locked the door, and there was a

13:15

woman that was already there to get her

13:17

hair done because she was getting married

13:19

that morning. She immediately

13:21

ran into the closet and

13:23

she used her cell phone to contact

13:25

her father and one of

13:27

the most bizarre things in this whole case

13:29

is that her father was a

13:31

past lover of the victim.

13:39

holiday

13:40

gift giving. It's something we all have

13:42

to do, so you might

13:43

as well earn cash back while you're doing

13:46

it. Rakuten is the

13:48

platform you can use to shop for everyone on

13:50

your list, earning cash back no matter

13:52

what you're buying. Get

13:53

cash back for everything on your gift

13:55

shopping list. clothing and shoes for the fashionista,

13:57

toys and games for the little ones,

13:59

electronics for

13:59

the tech connoisseur, and kitchen or

14:02

home essentials for the ultimate hostess

14:04

of your life. Get cash back when you

14:06

use these brands during the holiday season.

14:08

Shop Macy's Adidas, American

14:10

Eagle, Brooks Brothers, GameStop, finish

14:12

line, Bobby Brown, lucky brand,

14:14

Nike, Ray ban, and more. Rakuten

14:16

is the smartest and most rewarding way

14:18

to shop and save. Earned cash back

14:20

at over thirty five hundred stores. Membership

14:22

is free and it's easy to sign

14:25

up. Rakuten deposits your cash back

14:27

directly into your Paypal account or they can

14:29

send you a check. It's a no brainer.

14:31

Again, you can earn cash back for what you're

14:33

already shopping for. Visit

14:35

rakuten dot com or download

14:37

the app to earn cash back when you shop

14:39

at thousands of stores. You can start

14:41

saving today. Throughout

14:43

the sixties and seventies, cops hunted

14:45

down key figures of the Nixie

14:47

mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader,

14:50

Kirksey Nicks. I'm interested in making money.

14:52

I'm not interested in her heartbeat.

14:54

Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence,

14:56

the Dixie mafia was practically folklore,

14:58

but that would soon change.

15:00

I'm Jed Lopinski. This is

15:02

Gone South, a documentary

15:04

podcast from c thirteen originals, a

15:06

cadence thirteen studio, season

15:08

two, the Dixie mafia, available

15:10

now on the Odyssey app or wherever you

15:12

get your podcasts.

15:15

During her second marriage, Sharon had been

15:18

involved in a brief affair with another

15:20

man. After

15:20

getting the call from his daughter about Sharon's

15:23

body being found, detectors

15:24

learned that the man responded in a

15:26

surprising way. We

15:29

were able to get his information and we talked

15:31

to him And he said that,

15:33

well, she called and said there's a dead

15:35

woman next door at the dry

15:37

cleaners, and she's in a closet.

15:39

And he decides to go to Ace

15:41

Hardware, which is about a block

15:43

away from the crime scene and

15:46

get a repair kit to repair his

15:48

glasses. And he never went over by

15:50

his daughter he went home and fixed

15:52

his glasses. I don't

15:54

know why he would react like that. There's so

15:56

many things you can try to

15:58

put together on why he did that.

16:00

But it was checked out. He did actually

16:02

go to the hardware store, was on video. It

16:04

was after a murder occurred,

16:06

and he went to the hardware store. So,

16:09

yeah, we we don't exactly know why why

16:11

he did that. Obviously,

16:13

it's very interesting. Then

16:15

detectives uncover another suspicious

16:18

detail about the former lover.

16:20

Sharon had mentioned to her husband

16:23

that she saw this man

16:25

drive by her house a couple times

16:27

slowly? When questioned the man

16:29

claims it was just a coincidence, He

16:31

says that one of his daughters worked at a

16:33

school near Sharon's home, so he was

16:35

often driving in that area. He

16:37

did however have a large amount

16:39

of guns at his residence.

16:41

Those

16:41

guns were looked at by the detectives

16:43

at that time and none of them were found to

16:45

be the weapon that killed

16:47

Sharon. With

16:48

no evidence tying the man to Sharon's

16:50

murder, detectives focus on other suspects,

16:53

including Sharon's current husband, Charles.

16:55

While Charles appears to be a

16:57

grieving spouse, detectives find it suspicious

16:59

that he arrived at the crime scene at

17:01

about the same time as police

17:03

even though he was never notified about the murder.

17:06

Was this just a coincidence? Later

17:09

when

17:09

interviewing him about that

17:12

day, he said he had stayed home

17:14

that day, because of a health

17:16

disability due to hernia surgery.

17:18

He took a shower and then watched the

17:20

movie at seven AM. It

17:22

was a two hour movie it finished at nine AM. He

17:24

then realized

17:25

that Sharon had not called him.

17:27

She usually calls him at

17:29

about eight AM to wake him up

17:31

and then asks him to bring her coffee.

17:33

So he attempted to call Sharon

17:35

twice but got no answer. And at that

17:37

time, he drove to the cleaners and saw

17:39

the police.

17:40

When they try

17:42

to confirm Charles' story,

17:45

investigators discover some

17:47

troubling inconsistencies He

17:49

had stated he was watching some type of a

17:52

movie. They named what the movie

17:54

was, but they could not find that in

17:56

any television guide back then. that

17:58

showed that movie was playing. Based

18:00

on phone records, he said he had

18:03

called the cleaners a couple times, but there was

18:05

no records of those calls.

18:07

But that

18:07

could be because they were connected, you know, she

18:09

never answered. But, yeah, she was dead at that

18:12

time. We talked to her

18:14

close

18:14

friends. We talked to Nicole, her

18:17

daughter and everybody

18:19

thought that they had a great relationship.

18:21

The only thing we had was one

18:23

friend of Sharon who jokingly said

18:26

that if anybody was gonna kill anybody, it'd be her

18:28

killing him and just

18:30

ingest. So we had no

18:32

reason nobody suspected

18:34

that Charlie had any involvement.

18:37

There's

18:37

nothing in me that would

18:40

ever think that he would ever do

18:42

anything like that. He loved my

18:44

mom. He was devastated without

18:46

her. Detectives

18:48

delve into Sharon's life.

18:50

looking for any secrets that may have led to a

18:52

murder. We looked into financials,

18:54

obviously, that they weren't rich,

18:56

but they certainly weren't struggling We

18:59

had no knowledge of any vices at all.

19:01

She was a social drinker. The

19:03

gambling was very minimal.

19:05

They weren't in debt. Police also set

19:06

up a roadblock on the street in front of the

19:09

cleaners, the question motorists

19:11

hoping that one of them might have passed by the

19:13

business that Friday morning and

19:15

perhaps saw something that could help the investigation. We

19:18

had a couple

19:19

of witnesses that identified

19:22

her car identified the owner of the

19:24

beauty salon's car, and then there was a

19:26

blue boxy style we believe would be

19:28

something similar to a Chevy celebrity back

19:30

then late eighties. that

19:32

was described driving away from the senior parking front

19:34

for a short time. We

19:36

had received leads later on with

19:38

people that had a similar car. The person

19:40

that gave the prescription of the car

19:42

was not really a car person. And if, you

19:44

know, obviously, we didn't have any type of plate.

19:46

A second witness provides a

19:49

more detailed new clue.

19:51

He saw

19:52

a male subject walking out

19:55

of the cleaners that

19:57

morning wearing a leather jacket

19:59

and had dry

19:59

cleaning clothes draped over his

20:02

arm, which we found interesting

20:03

given that there were some dry cleaning clothes

20:05

missing from the cleaners that day.

20:08

we theorized that perhaps if

20:10

that was the suspect,

20:12

perhaps he was using the dry clean

20:14

clothes to hide a large gold

20:16

purse that he removed. I think that he

20:18

knew that

20:18

it would be really strange to see a man walking

20:20

out with a large gold purse.

20:23

The

20:23

black leather jacket triggers a closer look

20:25

at Sharon's second husband. The

20:29

description they

20:29

gave was very similar to her

20:32

second husband. And when he

20:34

was interviewed and came in on station,

20:36

he had a unique black leather jacket.

20:38

It was never positively identified

20:40

but that was something of interest because

20:43

that second husband really had

20:45

no alibi. He was not

20:47

working that day and claimed that he was just

20:49

driving around that day.

20:53

As

20:53

police exhaust their list of suspects,

20:55

they identify another person of

20:57

interest who was right in front of them on the

20:59

day of the murder. When Sharon's body

21:01

was found, the owner of the dry

21:03

cleaners was called and arrived at the shop

21:05

right away

21:06

just as detectives were processing the

21:09

scene. He assisted with

21:11

determining what time phone calls from me,

21:13

determining what time she punched in for the

21:15

day, and determining how much money was missing

21:17

out of the register. He was also able

21:19

to tell us exactly who she spoke to

21:21

at what store so that we can contact

21:23

them and interview them. He was

21:25

very cooperative. He was

21:28

saddened. and he was willing to do whatever he could to help us find

21:30

the offender. But a

21:32

prominent member

21:33

of the Lensing community later

21:35

comes forward with a strange tip.

21:38

So he went up

21:39

to my grandparents and said,

21:41

have they ever solved your daughter's case?

21:44

And they said, no. And

21:46

he said, well, they

21:48

ever investigated the owner of the dry

21:51

cleaners because I think they need to

21:53

investigate him. On

21:55

top

21:55

of that random comment, the owners

21:57

be behavior in the days and months

21:59

after the murder, strike Sharon's daughter

22:01

Nicole as suspicious.

22:03

There were other

22:04

things that went down

22:07

happened in that year after my mother's murder

22:10

in the owner's life that

22:12

just seemed really

22:14

fishy. He

22:16

did not have any security

22:19

cameras in his stores. Obviously,

22:21

when this happened, Otherwise, there would have

22:23

been camera footage. She was

22:26

alone, and he would not change his

22:28

policy to have more than one

22:30

worker at one time. So

22:32

then I just know he closed up shop and

22:34

left town, then he filed for bankruptcy,

22:38

then his wife filed

22:40

for divorce, then it was rumored

22:42

that he was addicted to pornography, and

22:44

then he moved away from the area. Which

22:46

to me was just a whole lot of

22:48

stuff to go down a very short

22:50

amount of time to not

22:52

sit right. One

22:55

thing new that we did learn is

22:57

upon relooking at this case, We interviewed

23:00

one of the employees. At least

23:02

she was a manager at the time of the

23:04

cleaners, and she indicated

23:06

that around the time that

23:08

Sharon was killed, the owner was asking her

23:10

to fire Sharon, and that

23:12

would keep changing his mind. So

23:14

basically, she described it

23:16

as fire her, nodal fire, fire her, nodal fire,

23:18

and she didn't know why. She thought that

23:20

was bizarre. So there

23:22

was

23:22

one instance where after her mom

23:24

had been killed, Charlie ran into

23:26

this lady in the grocery store. And she had made

23:28

some kind of comment about, yeah, well,

23:31

Sharon, never did know how to keep her

23:33

mouth shut. So I thought that was

23:35

kind of an interesting little tidbit.

23:40

Investigators

23:40

hear rumors that the owner of the dry

23:42

cleaners was distributing pornography out

23:44

of the business, a secret that

23:46

Sharon had allegedly learned about.

23:48

It gives the owner a motive

23:51

but there's no evidence to prove it one way or another.

23:54

Detective Wheaton also notes that

23:56

the owner didn't follow-up with police

23:58

to check on the investigation as the years

23:59

went by. I

24:01

think there's a large possibility

24:04

that something illegal could have

24:06

been going on out of the

24:09

dry cleaners. and that she had found out about

24:11

it and that it was something

24:13

really bad that bothered her a

24:15

lot. And I

24:17

feel like she could have possibly said something to someone

24:19

else to have tipped

24:21

off that she knew something. I don't

24:23

know. I mean, I wish she just would

24:25

have quit but that wasn't the

24:27

case.

24:27

Throughout the investigation, there's

24:29

been one clue that detectives have held back

24:31

from the public they call

24:34

guilty knowledge, something only

24:35

the killer would know, and it

24:37

could

24:37

be used to confirm his guilt.

24:39

now

24:40

twenty three years later,

24:42

detective

24:42

Wheaton is ready to reveal the exact

24:44

nature of that clue and the hope that

24:46

it will unlock the mystery of

24:49

Sharon's murder. The clue is a dry

24:51

cleaning ticket that was found

24:53

strategically placed at the

24:55

scene. One part

24:56

of this case that has intrigued

24:59

all of the detectives. There was a ticket

25:01

that Sharon had written who we

25:03

believe was the person that murdered her or

25:05

at least was the name that that person gave.

25:08

And that name was Nick Charles.

25:10

And we certainly looked into every Nick Charles

25:12

that we could possibly look into. And

25:14

there this bizarre coincidence that

25:17

her daughter's name is Nicole

25:19

and her husband's name is Charles.

25:21

We didn't know that had anything to

25:23

do with anything, and and we held that pretty tight

25:25

because that is the piece of evidence

25:27

that really only the actual

25:29

murder would know about, but

25:32

because there's

25:32

been so much time going by,

25:34

we would like to release that at this

25:37

point. And it was kind

25:38

of interesting the positioning of this

25:41

receipt because it was partially off of

25:43

the counter. almost like it was

25:45

to draw your attention to it. Like

25:47

half of the receipt was sticking, like, in the

25:49

air off the counter. And I

25:51

believe it indicated that

25:53

Nick Charles was submitting one

25:55

jacket to the dry cleaners.

25:58

So there was an exhaustive search for

26:00

Nick Charles did did not come up

26:02

with anything. It could be an

26:04

alias. There's a famous

26:07

character by the name of Nick Charles from

26:09

book series. So it could be a fan

26:11

of that character. but the transaction was never

26:13

completed. There was not a Nick Charles in the

26:15

system anywhere. So we don't

26:17

know exactly who Nick Charles is. We

26:19

don't know if the killer said this

26:21

is name or what? We

26:23

didn't even know definitively if

26:25

Sharon wrote that herself.

26:29

It is believed to be Sharon's handwriting.

26:31

A handwriting

26:32

expert did look at it and

26:34

couldn't confirm absolutely Sharon

26:37

did right in curse of most of the time and part of

26:39

it is in curse of but not all of it.

26:41

It was incomplete according

26:43

to the owner of the dry cleaners.

26:45

She hadn't put the rest of the information, but

26:47

we certainly don't know if that's the point

26:49

maybe a weapon was pulled out or she was pushed

26:51

to the back or something like that. So

26:54

we do believe it was Sharon's handwriting, but

26:56

it's not absolutely

26:58

certain. Could

27:00

the killer be toying with

27:02

investigators by leaving this clue behind.

27:04

No

27:04

one has been able to identify Nick

27:07

Charles or

27:07

figure out why and how that name

27:10

got on the laundry ticket. But police are hoping

27:12

now, with the public's help, it

27:14

might spur a new avenue of leads in the

27:16

case. A lot of

27:18

our

27:18

homicides that I've worked

27:20

can identify a suspect pretty soon and

27:22

there's only one suspect or one

27:24

person of interest. This

27:27

case is different because

27:29

we've got four or five persons of interest.

27:31

We definitely believe that she didn't

27:33

know who the person was that

27:35

killed her, but that doesn't rule out

27:37

fact that it was somebody hired by somebody

27:40

she

27:41

knows.

27:45

With the

27:46

holidays coming up, it can be hard to find

27:48

truly thoughtful gifts for the special people in

27:50

your life no matter how close you are to them.

27:53

Etsy is your solution to

27:55

that problem. There's nothing quite like that satisfying

27:57

warm feeling of finding a perfect thoughtful

27:59

gift for someone that's super unique to

28:01

the person that you're buying for.

28:03

Etsy is

28:03

the place to find gifts just like that.

28:06

Etsy has a

28:06

wide range of extraordinary gifts, so

28:08

you're sure to find the perfect presence.

28:11

Shop Etsy for fashion, decor, personalized gifts,

28:13

and so much more. Discover presence

28:15

that are both meaningful and

28:17

for all budgets. When you shop on

28:19

Etsy, you're shopping directly from the makers, so

28:22

every purchase supports a small

28:24

business. And if you're new to Etsy, use

28:26

code merry ten. That's MERRY

28:29

and the number ten at checkout for

28:31

ten percent off your first purchase.

28:33

That's code mary ten.

28:36

Maximum value of fifty dollars. Offer ends December

28:38

thirty first twenty twenty two. See terms

28:40

at Etsy dot com slash terms.

28:42

For gifts of all kinds, Etsy

28:45

has it. shop Etsy dot

28:47

com. Get ready Ohio,

28:49

FanDuel, America's number one sports book

28:51

is coming to the Buckeye State and it

28:53

kicked things off. You can get started with one hundred dollars in

28:56

free bets as an early sign up bonus.

28:58

Plus, when you sign up today with promo code

29:00

Bet, Ohio, you'll be all

29:02

set for when FanDuel goes live in Ohio. Then

29:04

you can bet on all your favorite teams and all

29:06

your favorite sports with one hundred dollars

29:08

in free bets. just download FanDuel's

29:11

top rated sportsbook app. It's safe,

29:13

secure, and super easy to use.

29:15

Ohio. This is your chance to get in on

29:17

the action. Join today with promo

29:19

code, Bett, Ohio. Make every moment

29:21

more with FanDuel, official sports

29:23

book partner of the NFL. Twenty one

29:25

plus in president, Ohio. Bonus issued

29:27

a non trouble free bets that expire seven days after FanDuel

29:29

accepts its first real money sports wager

29:31

in Ohio. January first twenty twenty three,

29:33

unique user identity verification required.

29:35

Offer ends on the go live date. Restrictions

29:37

apply. See terms at sportsbook dot fan

29:39

tool dot com. Gambling problem, call one-eight

29:41

hundred gambler.

29:42

Was

29:44

Sharon Miller's murder the random act

29:46

of a stranger or a carefully

29:48

planned hit by someone close to her?

29:50

Everyone involved in the case has their

29:52

own theory about who took Sharon's

29:55

life.

29:56

I believe that it

29:59

wasn't a

29:59

robbery. It was made

30:00

to look like a robbery, but they didn't do a very

30:03

good job of that. And

30:07

believe she was watched for

30:09

weeks for someone to know that she would

30:11

be there by herself very early in

30:13

the morning. And I

30:15

believe that she was

30:17

killed. I believe it was

30:19

a hit. biggest

30:21

person of interest in this would be the man

30:23

that she had an affair with for many years.

30:26

With his daughter being next door and

30:28

her wedding being that day,

30:30

he would have had an excuse to be in the area.

30:33

She's in the closet calling

30:35

him on her cell phone and he doesn't bother

30:37

to even stop by.

30:40

He goes to get his glasses repaired and

30:42

get a repair kit for his glasses.

30:44

It just seemed like he had

30:46

something to hide She was shot with a twenty five

30:49

automatic, and this man had owned

30:51

at least two twenty five

30:53

automatics. He was cooperative with everything,

30:55

but he just seemed like a very

30:57

strange person that to me the biggest person of interest.

31:01

Somebody knows something, you

31:01

know? Somebody said something

31:04

to someone, or someone knows about relationship

31:06

that maybe Sharon had

31:08

with someone that may not have come

31:11

forward. somebody just needs to

31:13

call the police department and just share that

31:15

little bit of information that could lead us

31:17

in the right direction. We

31:20

have a little bit to work with. I think

31:22

if we added just a little bit more, this could be

31:24

solved.

31:26

Twenty

31:27

three years later, Nicole

31:29

comforts herself with memories of her

31:31

mother and still hopes the mystery

31:33

will be solved. We

31:36

had just been day before.

31:37

It was Thanksgiving. We

31:40

had a

31:40

small family gathering at

31:42

my husband's parents' house

31:45

with his parents, my parents,

31:47

and one set of grandparents

31:50

from each side. We had a really

31:52

great day. It was one of the best Thanksgiving I've

31:54

ever had. We laughed and

31:56

ate and just had a really

31:58

good time. I

31:59

actually had fallen asleep on the couch and

32:02

didn't really fully wake up

32:05

to

32:05

say goodbye when they had

32:08

left. Not knowing that that

32:10

would be the last time that I would ever

32:12

see my mom alive. I

32:15

would love for

32:17

justice to be served

32:19

and whoever was responsible for this. To be

32:22

caught, I feel so

32:24

strongly that someone was

32:26

paid to kill her that

32:28

I'm more focused on finding the person that paid

32:31

to have this done and maybe not

32:33

so much even the person that pulled the

32:35

trigger. But somebody

32:36

somebody knows

32:38

something, and they just

32:41

haven't

32:41

come forwards anything.

32:52

If you have any information about

32:55

the murder of Sharon Miller, call

32:57

the Lansing Police Department at

32:59

7088957150

33:03

or submit a tip at unsolved

33:05

dot com.

33:07

Next, on unsolved mysteries. Mia

33:10

ran in the room and

33:12

startled me,

33:12

mama. I'm scared. Somebody's

33:15

much and all the window. And

33:16

I said, Mia, did she say you're daddy?

33:18

She said, no wonder something's wrong, dad

33:20

is not in there. So

33:22

I went to the door and I was, who is

33:25

it? One of the detectives

33:27

broke that news. Stepan

33:30

was dead. and then they

33:32

added murder shot and

33:34

all of that just closed in on me and all I

33:36

could do is just call on

33:38

Jesus. Unsold

33:39

mysteries is a production of Costco Muir

33:41

productions and Cadence thirteen, an

33:43

odyssey company.

33:44

It is executive produced by Terry Dunn

33:46

Muir and Chris Corcoran. produced

33:48

by Christine Lennick, Courtney Ennis, and

33:50

Bill Schultz. The story producer for

33:52

this episode

33:53

was Joanna Brooks, and it was edited

33:55

by Cole Yates. From Cadence

33:58

thirteen, editing, mixing and mastering by

33:59

Chris Basil and Andy Jaskowitz. Production

34:02

support by Sean Cherry, Iain

34:04

Mont and Avofiniburger, hard

34:07

work and design is by Kirk Cordney, publicity by Moore

34:09

Curran, Josephina Francis and Hilary Shuf.

34:11

The original theme music was composed by

34:13

Gary Moncken and

34:16

Michael Boyd. Thanks for listening

34:18

to

34:18

episode sixty two

34:19

of unsolved mysteries.