#85 - Carter Cervantes *

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mug shot quite like that one. Carter Cervantes is obviously a very attractive young lady. At the same time, though, I don’t think I have ever seen such a stone-cold expression like that on anyone before.

It all started in 2014. Carter was an assistant manager at an American Eagle store in Amarillo, TX. There, she began a relationship with one of her subordinates, the much younger David Mallory.

Since that was against corporate policy, the company offered her two choices, quit or get transferred. She opted for the latter, moving to Ft Worth. David would in turn get fired – not for the relationship, but for simply not showing up at work.

A little different look

In Ft Worth, Carter managed to rehire David by fudging his Social Security number. That was really just a setup, though, for the two to rob the store of $18K after the tax-free Memorial Day weekend.

In response, another assistant manager, Ashlea Harris, took a gander at some security tape. There, she thought she saw Carter leave a back door unlocked and a hooded figure looking like David go straight to the store safe and quickly empty it of its contents. Though there wasn’t enough evidence to charge them, there was enough to get both fired. 

The victim

Carter didn’t take too well to that. Her next move was to combine a little revenge with another burglary. 

The first step was to confront Ashlea at her apartment. After beating, stabbing, strangling, and binding her, the couple then set fire to her apartment. On the way out, they made sure to take her keys.

The next step was to show up at the store super early on the morning after Black Friday. Fortunately, though, the locks had been changed. Security tapes did show someone looking very like Carter trying to get into the store, but coming up empty & briskly walking away.

And another look for the trial

The cops were able to nab David in the parking lot, then hold him for not having his drivers license. They found Carter at home, then had her come in for an interview. They would have to let both of them walk away though.

The next break came when Carter’s Infiniti was identified as being at the scene of Ashlea’s murder. Getting a search warrant, the police found a treasure trove of evidence at the couple’s apartment – the gun used to pistol whip the victim, a murder kit, blood in the vehicle, and phone chats planning everything.

The evidence was pretty overwhelming. Both would get life without parole. The case has been covered on Snapped and Dateline (as well as True Detective).

#86 - Angelika Graswald †*

Female killers don’t usually get their own nicknames. You know, the Boston Strangler, the Green River Killer, Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, BTK …

Angelika Graswald, however, will forever be known as the “Kayak Killer.“ Here’s how it all came about … 

Angelika, who was born in Latvia, came to the US to work as a nanny. Here for 13 years, she married and divorced twice, then met Vince Viafore. She moved in with him a couple of weeks later and the two were engaged 5 months after their initial meeting.

One thing both shared was a love of the outdoors. So, one warm Spring weekend, they decided to go kayaking, on the Hudson, near where they lived in Poughkeepsie, NY. The weather turned, though, on their way back, and Vince’s kayak overturned.

The water temperature was 48 degrees, and Vince had no life vest and was lightly dressed. Angelika could not reach him, he floated away, and she called 911.

After the event, the police noted some suspicious behavior. For one, Angelika seemed to have flipped her own kayak just moments before the 911 crowd arrived. She also seemed oddly unemotional. Later, there was a raucous memorial night at a local bar, as well as bubbly FB posts (including her turning cartwheels, no less).

Meeting the cops at the site of the drowning, she was subsequently taken in for questioning. After an 11-hour interview, she admitted to pulling the plug on his kayak (though months before), taking a safety ring from his paddle, keeping his paddle from him, waiting 20 minutes to call 911, and stating, "I wanted him dead and now he's gone and I'm OK with it."

As for motive, she claimed he wanted sex all the time, and wanted her to engage in threesomes and BDSM, all of which she resisted. Oh, there was also a little matter of a half-a-million insurance policy.

Avoiding trial, Angelika pled guilty to 2nd degree manslaughter, getting a sentence of two and a half years. She would actually get out 6 weeks after the verdict, having spent the rest of the time awaiting trial. Upon release, she celebrated with a multi-hour steak and martini lunch.

Subsequently, Angelika became a born-again Christian, has been fighting to get some of the insurance settlement (she ended up getting half), and is living and working a church-sponsored camp for kids. There's a chance she'll face deportation after her parole is up this year. Stay tuned.

#87 - Shannon Crawley *

Hell hath no fury …

Denita Smith was a beautiful, popular and talented graduate student at North Carolina Central University, an HBCU in Durham NC.

On the morning of January 4, 2007, she was found at the foot of some stairs leading up to her off-campus apartment. She had been shot in the head.

The victim

Police on the scene found a witness who saw a woman who looked like Shannon and who had fled the scene in a burgundy Ford Explorer.  

They next talked to Denita's fiancée, Jermeir Stroud, a cop in Greensboro, about an hour away. Though he had an alibi, he did mention that a girl he had been cheating with Denita on, Shannon Crawley, did just happen to own a burgundy Ford Explorer. 

Shannon, a 911 dispatcher, had hooked up with Stroud at the Greensboro PD. When he got her pregnant, she got an abortion, and the two broke up. Or did they? 

Crawley tried to pin the crime on Stroud. She called him abusive and jealous; claimed he raped her after the murder; fashioned fake phone conversations and – when finally pinned down – came up with some crazy story about Jermeir forcing her to drive to Durham, where he shot Denita, then hid in the back of the Explorer while she drove away. In addition, Shannon was caught lying about a .38 she bought, a doctor’s appointment she supposedly had on the morning of the murder, and never having been to Durham before.

At trial, she was found guilty of first-degree murder and given a sentence of life.  Two-timing Jermeir got off scot-free.  

The story has been featured on Snapped, Hear No Evil & Dateline.

#88 - Claudia Hoerig *

Talk about your hot-blooded Latinas …

Karl Hoerig had a lot going on for himself. He was movie-star handsome, earning serious coin, and had a hotshot job. That last bit was as a commercial airline pilot and as a major in the Air Force reserve. He lived in a bucolic part of Ohio, in the same town as his ex-wife and their 2 kids, with everyone getting along.

Claudia Sobral was a Brazilian native who had moved to New York City. There, she worked as an accountant and became a naturalized US citizen.

The two met online. Things then proceeded to move rather fast, with Karl proposing after only 6 weeks.

As often happens in these whirlwind romances, there were more than a few hiccups later. First, Claudia refused to move to Ohio. When she eventually did, she accused Karl of pining for an ex girlfriend, not wanting kids (she did), and forcing her to walk around the house naked in high heels (?!?!).

It all came to a head when she told Karl she was pregnant (she wasn’t), then pointed a gun to her head, threatening suicide. According to Claudia, Karl told her to “do it in the basement,” where it would be easier to clean up.

Needless to say, we only have Claudia’s side of the story. What we do know is that Karl’s bullet-riddled body was found at the bottom of the stairs, where he appeared to have been tying his shoes. A hastily packed suitcase was later found in his car. It appeared that Karl was attempting to get out of Dodge.

What was missing was Claudia. Police, though, were first able to trace her car to the airport. They also discovered she had cleaned out the couple’s bank account, then sent the proceeds to Brazil. Finally, following her cell phone records, they placed her at JFK, then in Brazil.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. Brazil does not have an extradition treaty with the US. Claudia was, however, technically no longer a Brazilian citizen. The case wound through the courts and diplomatic channels for 9 years, finally ending up in Brazil’s supreme court.

They ruled that Claudia could be extradited to the US. She subsequently stood trial, getting a life sentence.