The Flenderson Files

21 year-old Lauren McCluskey (pictured left) was murdered by 37 year-old Melvin Rowland (pictured right) on October 22nd, 2018. Lauren and Melvin dated for a short period of time, however Lauren had ended things with him on October 9th—just short of two weeks before her murder.

Prior to her tragic death, Lauren was a student and star track athlete at the University of Utah. She met Melvin a little over a month earlier on September 2nd, 2018, at Salt Lake City bar where Melvin worked as a bouncer. Within days of meeting, the two began dating and Melvin began frequently visiting Lauren on her college campus. He also became acquainted with other people on campus during this time. Eventually, though, Lauren learned that Melvin was not the person she thought he was. Not only did Lauren learn that Melvin lied about his age, she also learned that he had previous felony convictions for attempted forcible sexual abuse and enticing a minor. After learning about this, Lauren invited Melvin to her dorm room on October 9th to end the relationship.

Lauren’s issues with Melvin continued to escalate after the break-up. On October 12th, Lauren began to receive text messages that said Melvin was dead. She contacted the campus police and said she believed Melvin’s friends were sending her the messages, as Melvin was still posting on social media. Lauren also told police that she did not necessarily feel that she was in danger at that time, but she did feel as if Melvin’s friends were trying to lure her out of her dorm.

Unfortunately, Lauren’s lack of fear was short-lived. The following day, she contacted the police again after she began to receive text messages demanding $1000 in exchange for the privacy of intimate pictures of Lauren and Melvin that were taken while they were dating. Lauren ended up wiring the money to an account after the person threatened to post the pictures online. Even though she complied with these demands, Lauren received another threatening message six days later, on October 19th. She contacted police yet again. An officer followed up with her on the extortion investigation, however it is unclear if the investigation was making any progress.

Surveillance footage would later reveal that Melvin lurked around the University of Utah campus several times between the days of October 19th-22nd. Lauren was unaware of his presence, but she grew suspicious on the morning of October 22nd when she received a text message from a person claiming to be Deputy Chief Rick McLenon asking her to go to the police station. Lauren contacted the police about the message, and they confirmed that they did not send the message. In fact, they believed that Melvin had sent the message to Lauren in an attempt to lure her out of her dorm.

Around 8:30pm that evening, Lauren spoke to her mother on the phone as she walked to one of her night classes. She was confronted by Melvin in the parking lot of her dorm building. He grabbed her, causing her to drop all her belongings in the process. Melvin then dragged Lauren to a car and forced her inside. Lauren’s mother heard Lauren scream out and shout “no, no no!” while on the phone. She asked her husband to call 911 while she stayed on the line, hoping that Lauren would eventually get back to her phone. A few minutes later, a female student picked up the phone and told Lauren’s mother that she had found the phone, along with Lauren’s other belongings, scattered across the ground.

Very shortly thereafter, around 9pm, Lauren’s body was found inside the car near another dorm on campus. She had been shot multiple times. Authorities spent the following hours trying to locate Melvin. Around 1am, they spotted him near 600 South 200 East in Salt Lake City. Authorities chased Melvin on foot to a nearby church, where Melvin broke in. Once inside, he shot and killed himself.

19 year-old Natalie Bollinger vanished from her family’s home in Broomfield, Colorado, on December 28th 2017. A few weeks before her disappearance, Natalie wrote on her Facebook page about struggles she had been having with a stalker. She identified her stalker as a man named Shawn Schwartz, and wrote the following about him:

“I met this man when I was young, I ran into him about two years ago. Long story short, I became friends with him. I helped him out with rides and stuff. I moved to Virginia. He drove across the country to see me, slept behind my work for weeks. He’s sent e-mails for over a year close to everyday, harassing me. Making numerous different accounts until I block him again. Threatening my family, telling me he’ll kill himself in front of me, and sending my friends and family threatening messages as well.”

At the time this Facebook post was written, Natalie was living back in her hometown of Broomfield, Colorado. Once she went missing, suspicions immediately fell on her accused stalker, Shawn Schwartz. Schwartz continued to post on Facebook after Natalie’s disappearance, defending himself. Unfortunately, the following day, Natalie’s body was found on the side of the road in a wooded area near Adams County. Her death was classified as a homicide.

The suspicions against Schwartz only intensified after the discovery of Natalie’s body. However, throughout the investigation, it was discovered that Schwartz was not even in the same state as Natalie at the time of her death. Many still questioned if he was still somehow involved–and that maybe he had hired a hitman to kill Natalie. Still, by this point, police had officially cleared Schwartz of all suspicion.

Finally, on February 8th, 2018, a 22 year-old man named Joseph Lopez was arrested and charged with first degree murder in Natalie’s case. It turns out, Lopez was, in fact, a hitman–but Schwartz was not the one who put the hit on Natalie. Instead, Lopez told authorities that Natalie actually put the hit on herself. Lopez apparently responded to a Craigslist post entitled “I want to put a hit on myself,” that was created by Natalie on December 28th, 2017. Lopez and Natalie met for the first time later that day. The two drove around discussing how Natalie would pay Lopez for killing her, before he eventually shot her and left her on the side of the road where she was found the following day. An autopsy confirms that Natalie died of a gunshot wound to the head; however it was also noted that she had lethal amounts of heroin in her system at the time of her death as well.

Cayley Mandadi (19) was a student and cheerleader at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas when she died at a hospital on October 29th, 2017. According to police records, her boyfriend Mark Howerton (22) dropped an unconscious Cayley off at a hospital in Luling and drove away. When she was found, she was partially nude, bruised, and unresponsive. Mark apparently admitted that Cayley fell unconscious after the two of them had “rough sex” in his car. Earlier that day, the couple had attended the Mala Luna music festival where they allegedly got into an argument. Mark told authorities that he and Cayley went to his car to continue the argument, then later made up and had “rough make-up sex.” Mark said that after the sex, Cayley claimed she was not feeling well and fell asleep. He assumed that she wasn’t feeling well due to the fact that they had both ingested both alcohol and ecstasy while at the music festival.  Mark continued to drive towards his home in Houston when he eventually realized that Cayley was not breathing. He said that he performed CPR before eventually dropping her off at the hospital. There, it was determined that Cayley had no brain activity and was taken off life support just a few days later.

Investigators were suspicious of Mark from the beginning. He apparently changed his story numerous times. It was also revealed that Mark has a violent past and allegedly had been violent with Cayley during previous incidents. According to the doctors, Cayley had injuries on her body consistent with physical and sexual assault. Additionally, she ultimately passed away from blunt force trauma to the head; her death did not have anything to do with drugs or alcohol.

On a blistery winter morning on the 21st of November, 2015, in Northampton, Pennsylvania, 33-year-old Jessica Padgett disappeared. Just hours later, volunteers were handing out missing person leaflets and combing the area for any clues as to her whereabouts. Her family were adamant that she wouldn’t have ran away - she was in a blissful marriage and had three children she doted on. Among the volunteers was Padgett’s stepfather, Gregory Graf. Graf had married Padgett’s mother, Danielle, when she was in high school and she affectionately considered him her second father. Police were immediately suspicious of Graf, noticing that he was acting obscurely.

A search warrant of his home uncovered Padgett’s body buried in his back yard. She had been shot in the head. Even more disturbing, police found a videotape depicting Graf having sex with her corpse. Before recording, he placed a plastic bag over her head so that the blood wouldn’t turn him off. The footage was played in court and the jury were aghast. For those who closed their eyes, the sound alone was horrid - he was shouting obscenities at her lifeless body as he ravished her.

Georgeann Hawkins was an American college student from Tacoma, Washington who disappeared from an alley behind her sorority house at Washington University. She was later known to have been a victim of serial killer Ted Bundy.

Georgeann was 18 years old and described as spirited, popular and outgoing. She was an A grade student and star athlete. On 10th June 1974, Georgeann went to a party on campus with friends, she reportedly left early to study for her Spanish final. Georgeann was a cautious person, she stuck to well lit paths and the alley behind the houses was brightly lit by street lights and just 90 feet from her sorority house. As Georgeann had previously lost the key to her house her roommate had been waiting for her to throw stones to signal she need to get in, when Georgeann had still not appeared by 3am the roommate grew concerned and reported her as missing.

By 7.45am police were on campus, worried especially due to the string of young girls who had gone missing that year. It was a particular concern as Georgeann fit the physical profile of the previous girls- she was young, caucasian, pretty and had long, brown hair with a middle parting. An extensive police search found nothing. Police theorised that the perpetrator could have been lurking in the alley and either lured Georgeann towards him or rendered her unconscious, since Georgeann was only 5 foot 2, slim, and was visually impaired having left her glasses at home she would have been easy to overpower. Despite frantic searching Georgeann was never found.

On 6th September, 1974 skeletal remains were discovered near a service road, two skulls were found to belong to Janice Ott and Denise Naslund and a third set of remains of a femur and several vertebrae were thought to be the remains of Hawkins, although they were impossible to identify.

On 23 August, 1937, new mother, Dorothy Lucas, was out shopping in Chicago with her three-month-old daughter, Diane. In a brief lapse of character, Dorothy left Diane in her pram outside the grocery store as she quickly paid for something. When Dorothy came back, Diane was gone.

Miraculously, Diane was discovered 23 hours later, completely unharmed. Police had received an anonymous call from somebody who said where Diane could be found. A couple of days later, the Lucas family received an anonymous letter from somebody who described themselves as a 28-year-old woman. She confessed that her husband and daughter had both recently died and when she saw Diane alone outside the shop, her heart broke.

Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman were 10-year-old schoolgirls whose disappearance and murder sparked an international man hunt. The girls’ bodies were found almost two weeks after they were reported missing. Ian Huntley is currently serving a life sentence for double murder.

At 11.45am on Sunday 4th August 2002, Jessica and Holly were having a barbeque at Holly’s family home. The girls played computer games and changed into distinctive red Manchester United football shirts, socialised with the guests and then returned to Holly’s room. At 6.15pm, the girls left the home without telling anyone, they wanted to buy sweets from a vending machine at the nearby sports ground. Their route took them past the home of Ian Huntley, a caretaker, and Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at the girls’ school who was out of town.

The exact chain of events which occured after the girls entered the home is unclear, although investigators believe it is possible Huntley was washing his dog when they walked past and that one of the girls suffered a mild nosebleed and went inside Huntley’s home to get help. Jessica’s mobile phone was switched off at 6.46pm.

At 8pm, Holly’s mum entered her daughter’s bedroom and raised the alarm that both children were missing, a frantic search began and the girls were reported missing. Over 400 officers were assigned full-time to search for the girls. A haunting photograph of the girls in their Manchester United shirts taken hours before they went missing was released to the press. Every known sex offeder in close proximity to the area, 260 in total including 15 high-risk paedophiles, were questioned. Several members of the public reported seeing the pair, some reports which were ultimately proven false. Huntley reported speaking with the girls briefly and police became susupicious of his account. On 6th August, Huntley had driven to pick up Maxine Carr and bring her home, neighbours reporting seeing the pair staring into the boot, Carr with her head bowed and crying. Huntley asked police questions such as how long DNA evidence could last and officers observed three vertical scratches on his jaw.

Maxine Carr provided a full alibi for Huntley, stating he had spoken with the children but that both girls had walked away. She also gave detailed descriptions of both children, showing them a thank you card Holly had made her and stating ‘She was just lovely, really lovely,’ the fact she had used past tense to speak about a child presumed missing made detectives suspicious. Carr and Huntley continued to act oddly and erratically, on 16th August, 12 days after the initial disappearance, the pair were questioned for 7 hours. By this time the police were aware Huntley had been accused of rape of a minor several years before and that Carr had been out of town.

Evidence began to mount and the girls’ charred footbal shirts were found in a bin at Huntley’s work. The girls’ partially decomposed bodies were found in a ditch, there had been an attempt to burn the bodies. Forensics stated the girls had probably died from asphyxiation.

Israel Keyes was an American serial killer who enjoyed the thrill that accompanied a kill. He was known to study serial killers and their modus operandi so that he could devise his own methods. He committed a string of rapes and murders, beginning in the 1990′s until he was apprehended in 2012. He confessed to killing at least 8 people - he raped and killed mostly women but on at least one occasion, he killed a couple.

Keyes lived in numerous states over the years, living a somewhat transient lifestyle, and authorities have tried to link him to multiple unsolved murder cases. He also confessed to committing bank robberies in New York and Texas. Keyes had hidden “murder kits” around various areas in the USA - the sole purpose to dispatch and dispose of victims if he ever felt the urge to kill nearby. His last known murder is that of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, who was a barista which worked in Anchorage, Alaska. He kidnapped her and raped and strangled her to death. He then took her body and hid it in a shed for two weeks while he went on a cruise. After those two weeks, he returned to her body, taped open her eyes to make her appear to be alive and took a photograph of the girl with a newspaper to prove the date. He then wrote a ransom note demanding $30,000 from her family. He then dismembered her body and disposed of it in a frozen lake.

On November 23, 1957, Edward Theodore Gein walked quietly through the doors of Wisconsin’s Central State Hospital for the criminally insane, after a week in which he won an unquestioned place in the nation’s annals of horrifying crime.

Just seven days before, authorities found the butchered body of a 58-year-old widow hanging in Gein’s woodshed.

Barbara Holik has not been seen since June 23, 1995. A German immigrant, she lived in Taos, New Mexico. She was last seen at a restaurant in Taos Plaza having a drink with friends. Barbara was not reported missing for five days, and when they went to search her house, the one thing that was noted as being out of place was a pair of gloves; one being located by the refrigerator and the other by an exterior door. This had been noted as being out of place since she always kept her home clean. Besides that, all of her personal belongings, including her purse, keys, identification, passport, luggage, and thousands of dollars in cash were found. Not long after she vanished, a pair of her shoes were found in a vacant apartment that she had access to. The apartment room had the telephone wire cut as well as the mattress covers removed from the bed. Unfortunately, when police were notified, a maid had already cleaned up the room, possibly removing any forensic evidence that could have aided in finding Barbara. Despite police and volunteer efforts, Barbara remains missing.

Barbara Holik is a white female who stood at 5′0″ (152 cm) tall and weighed approximately 120 pounds (54 kg) at the time of her disappearance. She has black hair, which was waist length at the time of her 1995 disappearance, and brown eyes and speaks with a German accent. She was 33 years old when she went missing. Barbara is a German citizen and may have somehow traveled back to Germany, where her family lived. If alive, she would be 56 years old. 

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Barbara Holik, please contact the Taos Police Department at 575-758-4656.

Sources:

Charley Project

Doe Network

New Mexico Missing Persons

It was a brisk winter morning at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego on the 29th of January, 1979. The children were waiting outside for Principal Burton Wragg to unlock the schoolyard gate so they could begin their day of learning. However, this day would change their lives forever. Inside her home just 100 feet away was 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer. She was setting up a vantage point with her Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic and her .22 caliber rifle, both of which were gifts from her father.

Then she pulled the trigger and then again and again until the schoolyard was filled with screams of children. She fired 30 rounds of ammunition. She injured 8 children, ranging in age from 6-years-old to 12-years-old, and killed Wragg and the school custodian, Mike Suchar, as they protected the children. She also shot a responding police officer in the neck. After the shooting, she barricaded herself in her home. When a reporter called to speak to her and ask her why she did what she did, she cooly responded: “I just did it for the fun of it. I just don’t like Mondays. I did this because it’s a way to cheer up the day. Nobody likes Mondays.”

Six hours after the shooting, Brenda finally surrendered and was detained at Juvenile Hall. Those who knew Brenda told authorities that she often spoke about guns and bragged that she was going to kill a police officer one day. The shooting became the inspiration for The Boomtown Rats song “I Don’t Like Mondays.” Brenda pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1993, she became eligible for parole hearings but has been denied parole each time.

The first photo shows police shift logs at the crime scene of Gabor Neugebauer and Anja Habschied in the Belanglo State Forest. As you can see it took two officers to lift one of the logs covering the bodies. Some of the logs were so huge that it took three persons to lift them.