Ep 24 | Terry Myers Transcript

Ep 24 | Terry Myers Transcript

Before we begin this podcast, please be advised that the following episode contains language that some listeners may find offensive and inappropriate. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the podcast producers. Listener discretion is advised.

And you haven't contacted anybody yet? No, I'm standing here thinking about, you know, I'm going to prison. I'm gone. I'm going to jail. My kids, what about my daughters? You know, I was thinking of them. So what I did was I went in there and I took like a dog leash and I tied it around her neck. And she had a few gurgling noises. How far did you drive from where the murder scene was to where you buried her? Three to four counties away, I don't know. 45 minutes maybe, if that. Did you pack up a shovel and everything with you? Yes, I packed up a shovel. I threw a fishing pole in, because if anybody come by, I figured they would just think that I was fishing. And she'd be like, "Terry, Terry, why did this happen? Why did you do this?" 

You are now listening to the podcast Voices of a Killer. I'm bringing you the stories from the perspective of the people that have taken the life of another human, and their current situation thereafter in prison. You will see that, although these are the folks that we have been programmed to hate, they all have something in common.

They are all humans like us that admit that they made a mistake. Will you forgive them, or will you condemn them? They are currently serving time for their murders, and they give us an inside glimpse of what took place when they killed, and their feelings on the matter now. Here are the voices of those who have killed.

Welcome to another gripping episode of Voices of a Killer. In today's episode, we will be exploring the chilling and profoundly tragic story of Terry Myers and Sheryl Russell, a story filled with volatile relationships, drug abuse, and a violent end that left families shattered and communities in disbelief. 

We'll ask the tough questions. What drives a man like Terry to commit such a heinous act? And most tragically, what led to the irrevocable and devastating loss of Sheryl Russell's life? And just a note about the victim in the case, Sheryl Rose Stewart Russell. Throughout the story, she is referred to as both Sheryl Stewart and Sheryl Russell.

So sit back and listen closely. This is not just a story about crime and punishment. It's also a probing look into the human psyche, the circumstances that can make a person fall from grace, and the immeasurable pain left in their wake on this episode of Voices of a Killer.

So, Terry, where are you from originally? I was born in Eugene, Oregon, and I was raised in Northern California, a town called Oroville, above Sacramento, about an hour north of Sacramento. And then at some point, you moved to Missouri? Yeah, and then I come out in '94, and then I went to Nevada. I went to Nevada, Missouri in '94, and I stayed out here. And then, after a few years, I went back to California, and then came back out. Stuff like that. Visit family and everything. 

How would you describe your childhood? My childhood was good. My father was a police officer and then he became disabled. And I remember hunting and fishing and camping and baseball and my parents were good people. They didn't beat us or molest us or nothing like that. 

Did you feel like having a father as a police officer, there was a lot of strict rules enforced or how was that? Yeah, yeah. Like I say, we did a lot of wrong, stupid stuff when we were kids, like breaking into school and stealing rockets and stuff from the space science class, but, I mean, he didn't spank us over it. He'd ground us, but that wouldn't last more than a day or two.

Did you witness any kind of violence in your family or alcoholism or drug addiction? I witnessed my Uncle Jack kicking in the door and attacking my father right after he had back surgery. All of us kids jumped in and I hit him with an ashtray. I remember stuff like that. My brother, Roy, was kind of violent towards me. I mean, he put me in a hospital once for five days because he hit me in the stomach. And he was always doing stuff to me, beating me down, stuff like that.

How many siblings did you have? I have two older brothers and an older sister. Yeah. Do you still have a relationship with them? No. My brother took my stimulus money. Yeah. And the only one I talk to now is my sister in California. My brother stopped talking to me a couple of years ago. Yeah. I got two daughters, and they live in Joplin and I haven't spoke to either one of them in a couple of years. 

Are they mad at you? My youngest daughter... Alright, my youngest daughter loved Sheryl. That's my victim in this case. And everything was Sheryl, she had to be around Sheryl. Sheryl took good care of her, but Sheryl had her own issues. And after the murder and stuff, and I came to prison, my daughters went to foster care because their original mother was a drug addict and didn't want them, and she left us when they were seven and eight. So it's always been me and my daughters, and it took a toll on them. And I think my youngest daughter don't talk to me now because, she's in anger because of Sheryl, what I did. Murder. My oldest daughter, she's fallen off the wayside, you know. She's a nurse, but she's gotten into drugs, I believe, and she ain't spoken to me in a couple years either. 

Had you ever gotten into drugs? Yes. What kind of drugs did you get into? I started smoking pot at 15. First time I ever heard the word m***amphetamine, I was 16, 16 and a half, and my brother told me to stick my arm out and he gave me a shot of dope. I've never seen a glass pipe, a line, or anything, until that night when he told me to put my arm out and he gave me a shot of dope.

So you had actually, your first experience with hard drugs was shooting m***? Yep. How did that make you feel? Man, it made me feel invincible, you know. It used to be... And then, you know, after that it was fun. I'd stay up all night. I'd get high and stuff like that. And I would just basically do what I wanted. Yeah. You know, run the streets, get in trouble, steal stuff, get high. 

Do you feel like, at this time, that you could see your life taking a turn? Not at that time, no. I thought it was just all for fun. Yeah. I thought there was always time to grow up. What did you do for a living? I've had a few summer jobs, like construction worker and like the JTPA and seated jobs, but as I got older and I got with a girl who later became my wife, had my daughters, I had to get a real job.

And that was like at 23, 24, when I first moved out to Missouri. And I worked at a recycling center for five years. And then I did forklift driving and I did asphalt, building roads and stuff for a man in Nevada, Missouri. Did you do m*** at all at this point in time, all these jobs? Yes, I became what I like to call a weekend warrior. I would work through the week because I had to pay the bills, keep a roof over my daughters' heads, but on the weekends, I'd get a gram, a gram of dope and get high and have sex and tear things apart and try to put them back together. 

Do you feel like, at this point in time you're describing, do you feel like you were a violent person or you had it in you or the drugs made you in a different way? Yeah, I had it in me. I caught my best friend of 17 years having sex with my girlfriend of 3 years when I was 19. And I beat him with a ball-peen hammer. And I beat him pretty bad and there's a few times where I went over to people's houses and I took stuff, you know, because they didn't pay. And they didn't pay money or they wanted something I had.

And I was just, I was always big. I mean, over 6'5", 280 pounds. I was a big boy. And I'd just take what I wanted. You know, I felt they owed me. Had you ever been to prison before? No. No, I've been arrested for strong-arm assault and extortion but I got a lawyer and beat the charges. 

Born in Eugene, Oregon and raised in Northern California, Terry Myers had a relatively stable upbringing. His father was a police officer, and he describes his parents as good people. The household wasn't particularly strict, even though they engaged in youthful misadventures like breaking into their school.

However, violence wasn't entirely absent from his early life. Myers recalls his uncle violently attacking his father, and mentions a particularly fraught relationship with his brother Roy, who once hospitalized him for five days. As Myers grew older, his life began a downward spiral, fueled by drug use and violent tendencies.

By the age of 16, he was introduced to m***amphetamine by his brother, a drug that made him feel "invincible" and let him down a path of petty crime, including theft and assault. M*** is a strongly addictive drug and those who use it tend to devote most of their time to funding their addiction. For Terry, this meant becoming a self-described "weekend warrior", staying clean during the week to work, but delving into drugs over the weekends. This pattern would tragically culminate in the volatile drug-fueled relationship with Sheryl Russell that ended in murder. 

At what age did you meet the victim, Sheryl Stewart? I was 38. And what was y'all's relationship? My wife had just been arrested and charged with selling drugs inside of a school zone and she was in the county jail in Nevada, Vernon County, and she was looking at seven to ten years. You met her while your wife was in jail? Yeah, before she'd even been sentenced to prison.

So how did you meet her? Where was this happening? I was in Nevada and my neighbors were having a Christmas Eve party and they called me over and that's when I met her. Did y'all do drugs together? Yeah, after about the first couple days, yeah. Yeah. Did y'all get into a relationship while your wife was in prison?

Yes. Describe that relationship. Was it steady or did y'all have a lot of turbulence? Oh, it was like oil and water. It really was. We should never have been together. But she would... There were police reports for... my daughter would call the police or I would call the police or the neighbors would. Because she would get drunk and she would assault me and then she would just... she would break things, she would yell things. And then we would separate and we'd be separated for a week or two and then we would always just go seek each other out again. I would just find her or she would come find me.

What do you think your biggest point of contention was? Why was there friction? We were doing drugs. Yeah. And we would think things about each other, like either she was messing around on me, or I was messing around on her. Or another thing is, my wife was in prison, and I would send my wife a little bit of money here or there, and I would take my daughters to see her. I took her twice to see her, because they gave her seven years, and I took the girls up there two times to see her, and they were just... She didn't want me to go so she cut the gas line on the car so I couldn't leave.

Sounds like a pretty rocky relationship. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She kicked out my windshield from the inside one time. She almost tried to run me over once with a car. 

Meeting Sheryl at a neighbor's Christmas Eve party, their relationship quickly escalated into a turbulent and volatile affair fueled by drug use. Describing their union as "oil and water", Terry recounts instances of frequent domestic disturbances involving the police more than once. Sheryl, often in a drunken state, would resort to physical aggression and property damage, while the relationship itself seemed to be underpinned by jealousy and suspicion on both sides.

The tension between them reached destructive levels, exacerbated by their ongoing drug use and by Terry's attempts to stay connected to his imprisoned wife, which Sheryl clearly resented. And in an alarming display of conflict between them, Sheryl even took the drastic steps of cutting the gas line of Terry's car to prevent him from visiting his wife in prison.

The violent tendencies that both had exhibited throughout their relationship came to a head in a terrible way, ending in a loss that neither of their families would ever recover from. 

What year did this murder take place? 3/11/06. 2006? Yes. What exactly happened that day? I was working at one of the day job things where you go to work that day and you get paid that afternoon. Piece work? Yeah, temp work. Yeah. And the job that I was working at told me that I was doing really good. I had a, you know... I could do forklifts. I could do everything they wanted. They were really liking me, so they kept calling me back. And the boss, his name was Ben, told me, "If you can pass the drug test, we're going to hire you."

So I stopped. I didn't do no drugs. I wanted this job. I need this job. I had bills to pay, kids to raise, and it was good money. So I wasn't doing nothing wrong. But she still was. I can say, you know, she had a... She got social security, you know, because she had mental illness. She never took medication. She should have though. And she was 10 years older than me.

Anyway, it was Friday night. I just got paid. And I wasn't doing nothing because of this job. I needed this job. And she kept on harping at me, "You never do anything I want to do. You never do anything I want to do. You don't care about me." And I'm like, "Alright, alright. Let's do a shot." So she went over to somebody's house. When you say a shot, you mean shoot up m***? Yeah. Okay. I said, "Okay, let's do it." And she left. She came back about an hour later and she had some and we did it. 

And it just... it wasn't that good. It really wasn't that good. So we got into an argument over that. I said, "It's crap." I said.. You know, I'm risking everything, you know, and about 11 o'clock that night, she come in the room and I was laying down in bed, that's how good this stuff was, I was laying down in bed, and she started kicking the bed and telling me to give her some money and she wants more. And I'm like, "I ain't paying for that, it ain't no good." And she got me a handheld crossbow for Christmas, like a toy, and she went to cock it and put an arrow in it. She couldn't get it cocked because she couldn't pull it back.

Well, I got up out of bed and I left the bedroom and I'm heading into the kitchen, the front room area, and she throws it at me. Yeah, she threw the crossbow at me. And it's like I said, it's a little handheld one, it goes on your wrist. And I'm like, "Just leave, just leave me alone, just leave." And she reached over and she grabbed this knife, and she started coming at me, swinging it, and I'm thinking, "Now she's just going to really kill me." You know, she tried to kill me a few other times. 

Anyway, I hit her in the throat and took her to the ground and I strangled her. You strangled her? Yeah. I didn't mean to kill her. And I picked up the phone and I had the nine dialed for 911. I dialed the nine and then I thought about my daughters. I'm a single parent. Their own mom don't want them. And I told Sheryl, I said, "I have to do something. I have to do something with Sheryl." So I had to get my kids to safety in California, my family, and I was going to turn myself in. And so I went outside and smoked a cigarette because my daughter was staying the night at her friend's, like four houses down.

On the fateful evening of March 11, 2006, the tumultuous relationship between Terry and Sheryl Stewart reached a tragic breaking point. Terry, focused on turning his life around, had been working temp jobs in the hope of landing a more stable employment opportunity. He had abstained from drug use, committed to passing a drug test for a job he desperately wanted and needed.

Sheryl, however, continued her own troubled path, struggling with untreated mental illness and ongoing drug abuse. The tension between them boiled over that Friday night. At first, Terry resisted Sheryl's insistence on using drugs again, worried about jeopardizing his chance for a job. Eventually, he relented, a decision that he'd regret.

The confrontation escalated dramatically. Terry struck Sheryl in the throat and strangled her in an attempt to defend himself from her attack. He found himself dialing the first digit of 911 before hanging up, thinking about his daughters, his sole responsibility, as their mother was already in prison.

It was an agonizing, complex moment. Terry took a life. While considering the lives of his children and the loss they would suffer if he turned himself in right away, Terry admits he didn't mean to kill Sheryl. Nevertheless, she lost her life that night, a life already steeped in suffering and turmoil. It was a bleak culmination of a relationship that should have never been, a blend of toxic behaviors, desperate emotions, and, at the end, a fatal encounter. As tragic as the loss of Sheryl's life was, the story doesn't end here. 

I had no option because I had to get rid of her so I could save my daughters so they wouldn't end up in foster care and that's just what happened to them. They ended up in foster care.

That, and more after the break. 

And you haven't contacted anybody yet? No. No, I'm just standing there thinking about, you know, I'm going to prison. I'm gone. I'm going to jail. My kids, what about my daughters? You know, I was thinking of them, and I, you know. So what I did was I went in there and I took like a dog leash and I tied it around her neck. And she had a few gurgling noises, so I didn't know if she was still alive, but I assumed she was dead, it was just impulses, you know. I've seen people die before.

So I tied the body up, and I wrapped her in a sheet and I put her in the trunk of the car, and I waited until almost sunup. I think it was around sunup, and I was going through the trailer, and I'm just racking my brain. I'm thinking. I'm crying, and I can't believe this is happening. And I drive her about four counties away to a place where we'd gone fishing and camping a couple different times, and I dug a hole and buried her.

And I kept telling her, "As soon as I can, Sheryl, I'm going to come back. As soon as I can, I'm going to come back." And then I left there, and I talked to my brother Roy. 

Whenever she attacked you with the knife, obviously you defended yourself. How did you get her to the ground? Did you punch her and knock her down, or did you just grab her and throw her down? Tell me a little more detail. I caught her wrist with my left hand, and then took my right hand and grabbed her throat and took her right to the ground and just squeezed and held her there. Do you think if you wouldn't have grabbed her hand that she would have stabbed you with the knife? Yeah, she'd already backed me all the way up to almost the bedroom. She took like five, four swings at me. 

So one of the things that I'm certain of, not only because I've interviewed people that have strangled others, but I just know, you know, medically, it takes a long time to actually kill someone by strangling them. So, and I've asked this question, I want to see what your answer is. How long did it take from the time that you put your hands on her throat to you letting go to deciding it's been done? How many minutes? At least, I would say three to five. The autopsy said that I broke her thing when I hit her in the throat, they said that I broke it. Broke what? Something about something inside the throat. Did you have two hands on her throat choking her? No, I had one and then as soon as I let go of her... as soon as I let go of her right hand, I used the other one on her. So yeah. 

Were you straddling her body on top of her? I was, yeah, I was on top of her. Was she trying to grab your hands to pull 'em off as you're choking her? She was trying with her left hand, but I was holding her right hand. If we were to sit here and count to 120 seconds, which is two minutes, is the minimum that you would probably hold somebody, but you're saying more than that.

What is going through your head while you're choking her? Why is this happening to us? I was scared. And did you ever, during the process, did you ever let go and then, and think about it and start back again? Or you just, when you started, you never stopped? I don't think I started back again. I think, when I went outside to smoke a cigarette and I came back in, that maybe there was a slight chance that she was still alive, but I was pretty sure she was dead. She made a couple little noises. I thought they were just body noises. So those prompted you to make sure she was finished off? You wrapped something around her neck? Yeah. And you tightened that leash and did you see her react to you tightening it? No. 

Did you ever check her pulse or anything to see if she was still alive? No. Was her eyes open? Yeah. Did you shut 'em? They wouldn't shut. They would open right back up. Did that kind of mess with you seeing that? Yeah. Yeah. How did that make you feel whenever you tried to shut her eyes and they just looked at you? I saw it in the movies, you know, where they closed their eyes, and their eyes stayed closed, but her eyes just stayed open. Did that kind of creep you out? Like, she just looked at me. She just looked at me. Did that kind of mess with you a little bit? Yeah, it messes with me a lot. I take medication now. 

Do you ever have dreams about that? Yeah. I see her in the woods and she's naked and she's looking at me from behind a tree in the forest. 'Cause we did a lot of camping and she'd be like, "Terry, Terry, why did this happen? Why did you do this?" And it, yeah, I cried a lot, you know? 

That haunting image of Sheryl appearing in Terry's dreams is evidence that the burden of his actions and their irreversible consequences continue to affect him deeply. The act of strangulation itself had taken several minutes, a long, harrowing stretch of time where Terry was caught in a mental struggle, questioning why this horrific scenario was unfolding. He wasn't entirely sure Sheryl was dead even then, a suspicion confirmed by a few lingering noises from her body. He eventually ended it all with a dog leash that he had strung around her neck in an attempt to finish her off. 

The disrespect that Terry had for Sheryl in that moment was echoed in court documents. According to the testimony of one of the officers who interrogated Terry after his arrest, when asked why he used the dog leash, Terry responded, "So that b**** wasn't going to hurt me again." His contempt for Sheryl wouldn't end there. As Terry came to grips with what had happened, he attempted to get rid of the evidence by digging Sheryl a shallow grave. 

How big of a woman is this? You know, weight and height? Oh, she's at least 190 pounds. She wasn't no little girl. She wasn't fat though. She's tall. And you had to wrap her up and put her in your trunk? Yeah. How did you wrap her up? I wrapped her up in a sheet and she kept falling out of the sheet and I struggled to get her out the door and down the stairs because there was... it's dead weight, I mean. And then I had to strip her and do my best to get her in the trunk of the car.

What's going through your head whenever you're... you basically just... I'm looking around. Yeah, I'm looking around and seeing if anybody sees this and I'm thinking, "Oh no, this just can't be happening. This is a dream. This is a nightmare. It's my worst nightmare. This can't be happening." But it was happening.

So you buried her. Was there any other options you were going through your head like, what I can do? What were the other options? I could've called the cops. Like I said, I had the phone in my hand and I had nine pressed. I had no option because I had to get rid of her so I could save my daughters so they wouldn't end up in foster care. And that's just what happened to them. They ended up in foster care. 

So Terry, you get her in the car, do you immediately get in the car and drive off or do you sit back and kind of think about things? I sit back and think about things and I've already tried to call my brother twice but he was a long-distance truck driver so he wasn't answering his phone so I was thinking he was sleeping.

Was there anybody else that you reached out to? Well when the sun come up... So you actually waited till the sun kind of came up, and that's when you left with the body? Yeah. Well, the body was already loaded. Right, how far did you drive from where the murder scene was to where you buried her? Three to four counties away, I don't know. 45 minutes maybe, at that.

Were you real paranoid that you'd get pulled over? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What kind of car were you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think it was a little Ford, but I really don't remember the car. So, did you pack up a shovel and everything with you? Yes. Just... Yeah, I packed up a shovel. I threw a fishing pole in, because if anybody come by, I figured that they would just think that I was fishing.

So, anybody that is from this area of Missouri knows that whenever you dig a hole, there's a good chance you're going to hit rock. So, did you find a spot that was fairly easy to dig? Yeah. Yeah, like I say, I've been to this spot several times fishing and camping and stuff, that's where we, you know, what we do. Anyway, I knew the ground was soft. So you went out there and kind of found a spot where you felt like you could dig and keep your vehicle there to act like you're fishing? Yeah. Yeah, it was only like 17, 18 inches deep at that. So, you dug a pretty shallow grave? Yes. Yes. 

Did you get to pull the vehicle right up to it, or did you have to drag her that way? I backed the vehicle up as far as it would go, and then I had to drag her like an extra 20 foot down, like a little 5-foot tall ravine. So, you really didn't dig no more than 2 feet, less than that? Yeah. Yeah. Was that pretty tough, trying to dig that and stressing somebody to walk up? Yeah. You were probably... Yeah, I kept looking around.

What time of year was it? It was March. It was still cool, but the sun has, you know, warmed up some March. So you were probably breaking a good sweat trying to dig this grave? Yes. Yeah. So you put her in there and you have to bury it. Does it leave like a mound of dirt? You know, where it's obvious? Yes. Or you, what does that look like? Yes. Yeah, it was a mound of dirt, about six foot, six foot long. 

Did you put her face up or face down? I think I put her on her side. Yeah. Yeah. Naked. Naked on her side. Did you like say any kind of last words or were you like just freaked out? I told her I'd be back. I told her I had to get the girls to safety. 'Cause I didn't want them, you know, bad things to happen to them, go to foster care because nobody wanted them. Is it... did you have kids with this woman? No, no. Oh, my daughters were with my first... my only wife. Yeah, Tina. Yeah. Tina was her name. 

So after you get her buried and you load up your shovel, I'm guessing you loaded up your shovel, and you went to your previous wife's house that used to be in prison? Yeah. And you literally just say, "Hey, I just killed Sheryl"? Yes, I did. Yes. And you said that she laughed at you? Yeah. She laughed. She said good, she didn't like that b****. Well, did she laugh cause she didn't think you were serious? Or she laughed because she really thought you did it? She really knew I did it. She knew you were serious? Yeah. She said she didn't like that b**** anyway. 

Were you not worried that she would call the police on you? Nah, I knew she wouldn't. Well, I don't know. I mean, she could have, but I didn't think she would. Instead, she took me to a car wash and pulled out the trunk lining and said she had to clean the car out. And I stood there watching her while she took a car washer, the nozzle, and sprayed it, and started spraying water on the car and the trunk and stuff. Yeah. 

And then, within hours, I spoke to my brother and told him what was going on. Two days later, on the next night, my brother's like, "We need to move the body. We've got to move the body, Terry." 

Terry recounts the surreal sequence of events that followed that fateful night. The weight of Sheryl's lifeless body and the eerie silence of the night pierced through his consciousness as he struggled to wrap her up and load her into the trunk of his car. It's interesting how Terry is able to provide such clear details of what unfolded, from the sweat of his brow to the mound of dirt concealing his gruesome secret. However, Terry's confessions to those closest to him would be his downfall. After the break we uncover a shocking twist and a betrayal that would result in Terry's imprisonment.

After you told your brother, Roy, he called you two days later and says, "We need to move it"? I told him what had happened. And as soon as I got off the phone with him, he called the police and told them. Did you ...? No. 

My brother shot and killed a guy right in front of me in Oroville, California, a guy named Eugene Hammonds. And I had to lie to the police so my brother wouldn't go to prison over it. I never thought he would do this to me. He killed this guy right in front of me. But see, I didn't know he was already in touch with the police. He told the police everything. So the police got him to say that? Yes, they got him to take me to where the body was, and then he told them where the body was. 

So they basically set you up. They told your brother Roy, you're gonna have him go out there? Were they tailing you, or did he have a wire on him, or they were just hoping that he would say, "Hey, this is where it's at"? I couldn't tell you. I don't know. Two days after, I'm sitting in county jail. My lawyer comes to me and she goes, "Your brother Roy wants you to know that he was the one that told them."

So your brother, whenever he says, "Hey, we got to go move it", that was all set up by the police? Yeah. Because what I did was I told my wife to go buy another shovel. So she goes to Walmart and buys another shovel. Okay. And then me and Roy drive to where the body is, and I just couldn't do it. I told him, I said, "I just can't do it, Roy." couldn't do what? Dig her up. I just couldn't do it. And I was crying and Roy goes, "Okay, well, let's go." Well, he already knew what he needed. That's where the body was. So we leave. I dropped him off at home. 

And... Were you suspicious of him? Like, you know, that that may have been what he was doing or that completely caught you off guard? I had no idea. He told me he would take me and get me the 250 dollars so I could get my daughters tickets to California. My family was out there. My family didn't even know what was going on. I ain't told nobody except Roy. And Roy, he turned on me like that. I never suspected, never saw that coming. 

So after you dropped off... you left your brother, that's whenever the police came and apprehended you? Yep, within a day. Where were you at whenever the police came? I had just left the job to get the money because I was working for a day camp service. And I just got the check and I cashed it and I had just enough. Roy said he was going to give me 250 dollars. And I was pulling into the trailer park, trailer park in Joplin, Missouri and the cops came out of nowhere.

They were everywhere. Jumped on the hood with their guns drawn, everything. You feel like you knew that they were there to... 'cause of your murder? Yeah, yeah, as soon as they jumped on the car with their guns drawn, I knew what was going on. Did you have a shovel with you or anything at that time? No. No, I had a fishing pole, I think, in the back of the car.

But when we get to the jail, they search my car and they find a receipt from Walmart. And on that receipt is the date that my wife went in and bought a shovel and some soda. So they went to Walmart and subpoenaed their records or whatever and here's my wife walking to Walmart with a shovel and some Coca-Cola.

Did they charge her as a co-conspirator? No. No, because I told them, I said, "She didn't know nothing", I said, "leave her alone". I said, "I told her I was digging worms and broke my shovel". And, you know, for a couple times after that they would ask me, "We know your wife had something to do with it. Your wife won't take your kids. She's doing drugs. She ain't come to see you. Tell us Terry." This is detectives, they're like, "Tell us Terry. We'll go arrest her for her part in this murder." and I'm like, "No, just leave her alone. Nobody else needs to go to prison." I said, "My life's over." I said, "Just leave her alone", you know. And she's never been implicated in it to this day? Well, they searched her house and everything and stuff like that, but no. No, I couldn't do that. I couldn't let her go down for accessory.

So you actually got locked up and they charged you with murder, but you got interrogated, obviously, and you claimed your innocence the entire time? Yeah, I was, right after I was arrested, I was taken to the Neosho County Jail in Newton County, and I was interviewed right there on the spot, and I told them the story. I was scared. I told them... First I asked for a lawyer and s***, but you know, they got me talking, and I told them what had happened. You told them the truth? Because they knew where the body was. I mean, my brother then told them the whole story. 

But didn't you plead not guilty? Yeah, I pleaded not guilty. But you told them what happened first? Yes, and I took it to a jury trial. Because my lawyers were like, "Well it sounds like self-defense". I'm like, "yeah", but my lawyer said that I wouldn't be here today if I hadn't have buried the body. She said that's what got me, was burying the body, panicking. Coveting, she said, trying to cover up, you know? 

At the heart of this complex situation is a moral dilemma. Terry lied to protect his brother Roy in the past, only for Roy to betray him in the end. Initially, Terry seemed to believe that family loyalty would override any other considerations. To discover that his brother had not only cooperated with the police but also actively entrapped him must have been a jarring revelation that forced him to re-evaluate not just his brother but his own judgments and life choices.

There is a sense of fatalism in Terry's recounting of events. He knew why the police were there when they came for him. He had already mentally prepared for that moment, even if he hadn't consciously acknowledged it. And yet, he still claims his innocence, perhaps clinging to some last shred of hope that he could escape the situation or reframe it as self-defense, at least in the legal sense, as he pleads not guilty.

Now the question is left off to you, listener. Do you think that it's hard to empathize with someone like Terry who has committed such a violent and hateful crime? Or perhaps you see him as someone who is the victim of his own demise through a series of bad life choices? Whatever your final thoughts are, I wanted to end this podcast by asking Terry if he thought he deserved a second chance and if he was truly sorry for what he did. 

What was your charge? With second-degree murder or first-degree murder? I was originally charged with second-degree murder, and then after my confession, I believe they upgraded it to first-degree murder. 

So at this point in time, you're gonna die in prison? Yeah. How does that make you feel? Yeah, but I've done things here. I've done things here. I've... I went to school and I got my GED. I'm a forklift instructor. I helped other guys get their forklift license certificate. So when they leave here, they hopefully get a job. I maintain a full-time job at the license plate factory. I go and work out at the gym. I go to church every Saturday. 

And I do my best to stay positive, but yeah, I know I'm gonna die here. How does that... I'll die alone. It's hard. It's real hard, okay. 'Cause I see these older guys around here in wheelchairs and I know what waits for me, you know. I see it. I see it all the time. People die that I know, you know, older guys. And I know that's coming for me and I've got that coming. I deserve that for what I did. I'm sorry for what I did. I can't change it. 

I'm not going to sit here and say, "Hey, I think of Sheryl every day", because that would be a lie. What I do is every January 17th, I stop, because that was her birthday. She was born in Clinton, Missouri. Her favorite color was yellow. Her favorite movie was Russell Crow in Gladiator. She loved The Amazing Race. She could cook and make anything taste good. She was a bad person, but she had a really good... She was a good person too. She just had issues. Yeah. You know, we both had issues. We should never have been together, but we were, and I'll pay for that. 

Terry, are you sorry for what you did? Yeah, I am sorry for what I did. I'm sorry I took everybody... victims, my daughters. You know? But I'm here. Do you feel like you should be free, that you could live in the community? Should I be free? Yeah. Should you? Should I be free? I'd love another chance at life, but I don't... I can't afford no lawyer, you know? I-I don't know. I'm just... I'm just here. I'm just gonna die here. I seek mental health and I take medication and that helps me a lot with the dreams. Yeah. You know? 

Well, Terry, I appreciate you reaching out to me. Obviously, we don't have much time left. I think it helps you... I think it helps to be able to talk about it and people can see that you do have feelings and you're not an evil person. You... it happened on the motion. Thank you very much. Yeah, and if it's true that she attacked you with a knife, the only bad decision you made was to bury her body. So I hope that everything gets better for you. Thank you very much.

On the next episode of Voices of a Killer. In 2018, Luis Perez shot and killed his two ex-roommates and the woman who gave him the gun. I believe I should have been let out and exonerated of these charges. You still claim that you're not guilty. Why is the finger pointed at you? It didn't matter what the facts were or what the circumstances were.

I just looked at it like, "Damn, he's a Mexican. He's illegal." But if you think along the lines, I probably done did it. I just want to hear what your reaction is when I say those names. Joshua Hampton, Sabrina Starr and Steven Marler. I was not the one who did this to their people. 

That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. I want to thank Terry for sharing his story with us today. His ability to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special. If you would like to listen to the raw recordings of these interviews, you can visit www.patreon.com/voicesofakiller. By becoming a patron, you can access not only this, but hours of bonus recordings, correspondence, and you can contribute the way the show is produced. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handle the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, make sure to visit our website at www.voicesofakiller.com/. There you can find previous episodes, transcripts, and additional information about the podcast.

Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback helps us improve and reach Thank you for your support, and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in, I'm your host Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.