MURDERED: Bill & Peggy Stephenson

**Brit Prawat** (0:00)
Before we get started, I've got one quick reminder for you. If you've been meaning to check out the Crime Junkie Summer Collection, this is your sign, because it is officially the last week to shop. If you've been eyeing this collection, especially the super cute If You Have a Secret Tee, or the incredibly cozy Always Go A Layer Deeper hoodie, now is the time, because once this collection is gone, it's gone. So head on over to the show notes to find that link and start shopping.

**Ashley Flowers** (0:25)
Hi, Crime Junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers.

**Brit Prawat** (0:27)
And I'm Brit.

**Ashley Flowers** (0:28)
And the story I have for you today is a case that haunts everyone who touches it. The kind of case that most detectives only ever see once in their career. It's become local lore around Boone County, Kentucky. Once word leaked that there could be ritualistic elements to the murder of a retired couple in their home, you can just imagine the rumors that spread. Even more so in the void of information left by police. They have been incredibly tight with the details about this case.
But today, for the first time, they're sharing some never before released case information with us, including the crime scene evidence that has recently led them to a man out west. And now, investigators believe that they may finally be closer than ever to solving the murder of Bill and Peggy Stephenson.
May 29th, 2011 is a hot Sunday in Florence, Kentucky. That's also Memorial Day weekend. Many people have the next day off, so their Sunday routines are changing a bit. Family get-togethers, a day at the lake, maybe a road trip to get out of town. But not for Beth Victor, because even though she plans to take her daughter to do some shopping to celebrate her graduation, they're still going to church first. Sunday always means church for their family. That was ingrained in Beth by her own parents, Bill and Peggy Stephenson. But when Beth and her family take their seats in the pews, her 74-year-old parents aren't there, and she knows that something is up immediately. Bill's a deacon and Peggy plays the organ. They are there every single Sunday, like clockwork. So when the service starts, it's not just Beth who is like looking around, trying to see what's going on. The whole congregation notices their absence. And I can imagine Beth just like sneaking glances at the door, expecting them to sneak in at some point during the sermon, but they never do. And after it wraps up, people are coming up to Beth, asking if she knows anything. And this is when she learns that it wasn't just this service that was missed. So her dad Bill had this like truck stop ministry where he gave church services inside an old truck trailer earlier in the morning. And a few of his church friends volunteered there as well, and they said that Bill didn't show up to that either.
Beth spoke to her parents the day before at her daughter's graduation, and they were fine. But clearly, something happened between now and then. So she asked her husband Claude to stop by her parents on his way home since she'd already promised her daughter that she was going to take her shopping. No problem, right?
So he heads over to their condo complex. Claude lets himself into the building's main entrance and makes his way to the front door of their unit on the first floor. But when he knocks, no answer. He tries again, still nothing.
So he walks around to the back of the condo building because there is a sliding glass door that opens directly from their unit to the outside. And he notices that the screen door is closed, but it looks like the glass door isn't. So he reaches for the screen expecting it to be like latched, but that just slides right open. And there are these moments when life splits into the before and the after. And that sliding screen door opened up the world of after for him and their entire family. Because what Claude saw that day was so brutal that it haunts him in a way he can't even describe. I mean, literally, Beth told us that even 15 years later, he couldn't bring himself to tell us about what he saw. He declined to speak with us for this episode. But we know what he went through because he would later tell police after he called them instantly. And he knew without a doubt when he walked into that condo that Bill and Peggy were dead.
It was Detective Coy Cox from the Boone County Sheriff's Office who arrived at the Stephenson's condo just before 3 PM that afternoon. And he told us when he walked through that sliding back door, what he saw was what he calls a 1% kind of crime, the kind of case that you get once in a career, if you ever get one like this at all.