MISSING: The Thompson Family

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Speaker 1 Hi, Crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Brits.

Speaker 1 And man, the story I have for you today, I'm going to warn you, it is going to have you yelling at your phone or whatever you're listening on because the answers to this case were out in the open the entire time.

Speaker 1 When a family disappears into thin air, it is glaringly obvious that all roads point to one person. And the answer literally starts at home.

Speaker 1 But police at the time jumped on the investigation too little, too late, leaving the family of the victims frustrated with the lack of police response for this family of color, something that is still all too common in marginalized communities.

Speaker 1 But we talked to an attorney in this case and she gave us the real details on why the investigation unfolded the way it did and why no charges were ever brought in what looks like an open and shut murder case.

Speaker 1 This is the story of the Thompson family.

Speaker 1 It's Friday, July 5th, 1996, when Herman Thompson calls his son Everett at the restaurant Everett owned.

Speaker 1 He wants to know exactly when he can expect Everett and his young family to get into town for the holiday weekend.

Speaker 1 The plan was for them to drive from Chicago to Philly sometime after Everett got off work. But, you know, when you're the owner operator, that's always a little TPD.

Speaker 1 So before they can hash out all the details over the phone, Everett tells his dad, okay, listen, hang on, my wife Lydia, she's on the other line.

Speaker 1 He's only off the phone for a second before he clicks back over and he tells his dad he's got to go.

Speaker 1 Lydia has locked herself and their two boys in the closet because her brother is there at their house threatening them with an axe and Everett's got to get home. Like click.

Speaker 1 Now, based on reporting from the Chicago Tribune, Herman expects Everett to call him back at any point, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, and be like, hey, everything's fine, whatever.

Speaker 1 But he doesn't. And I assume he calls back, probably tries Lydia too, but he's not getting anyone.
So when a whole day goes by without word, he calls the police in Chicago to report everyone missing.

Speaker 1 And that's Everett, Lydia, and their two boys, Everett Jr., who's 11 and Andrew, who's eight.

Speaker 2 But guess what?

Speaker 1 The Chicago PD won't take the missing persons report over the phone from someone who lives out of state.

Speaker 2 Okay, did he mention the part about the acts?

Speaker 1 He had to have, but they seemingly won't budge. So he's like, Fine, can you at least go do like a welfare check?

Speaker 2 Yeah, again, acts.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yes. And this they can do.
So they tell Herman, listen, we're going to send someone out to do a welfare check. We'll give you a call back at some point.

Speaker 1 Minutes must feel like hours, hours like days. Yeah.
But eventually his phone does ring. And the department is calling with good news.
The family's fine.

Speaker 1 They're actually on their way to Philly right now. And Herman's like, oh my God, good.
Like you talked to them. They're okay.
Like, and he's like, well, no, no, no. I talked to someone named...

Speaker 1 Kenneth, said he was Lydia's brother.

Speaker 2 Wait, like the axe brother?

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's the one who told them that they had already left in the family van.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry, is no one putting two and two together? Like, why are we taking the word of the axe-wielding brother? And also, why is he the one who's answering their door?

Speaker 1 Well, so Kenneth actually lives there. So that part's not odd.
He had just gotten out of prison five months earlier. He had originally moved in with a roommate, I guess, but that didn't work out.

Speaker 1 So he moved in with Lydia and her family. Like, whatever, that part's neither here nor there.
The scary part is that, as you said, the axe-wielding brother told police they'd already left.

Speaker 1 He didn't say when exactly, just that they're gone, which means that the family should already be in Philly. And Herman knows they're not.
Right.

Speaker 1 But all of Herman's concerns, even as he's like pointing this out, seem to be overlooked by Chicago PD. They're pretty much like, well, you know, maybe they got delayed, just like given a minute.

Speaker 1 But the sixth goes by, then the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, the holiday weekend has come and gone twice over. And the family in Philly can't wait anymore.

Speaker 1 Like if they need a missing persons report to be filed in person, fine, we'll go do it in person.

Speaker 1 So Everett's mom, dad, and a couple of his siblings, Derek and Denise, they make the 11-ish hour trip from Philly to Chicago on the 13th.

Speaker 1 And just to make sure that they are not the crazy ones, because police sure made them feel like that, they stop at Everett's restaurant first, or at least Denise and Derek are pretty sure that's where they stop first.

Speaker 1 We spoke to both of them and they said that, you know, it's been almost 30 years on, like everything's a little bit fuzzy, but they think the restaurant was the first stop.

Speaker 1 But they know for sure that when they got there and spoke with the manager, she tells them that Everett hasn't been seen in the restaurant or even seen by anyone since the 5th.

Speaker 1 That is the same day that dad last spoke to him on the phone.

Speaker 1 So next, they go to the family home on the south side of Chicago, the same place that Everett told his dad that he was headed to when he cut that call with him short.

Speaker 1 Now, the house is locked when they get there, so they end up having to track down a key from one of Lydia's aunts who lives nearby. And when they get in, the scene is bone-chilling.

Speaker 1 The house is empty, totally cleared out, except for garbage bags full of clothes. I'm talking no furniture, nothing.

Speaker 2 Not even Kenneth?

Speaker 1 No. Not even Kenneth is there.
So now it's time to file that missing person's report with police.

Speaker 1 According to the family, Chicago PD does take the report now that they're in person, but it still doesn't seem like they're doing much. I mean, it was summertime.

Speaker 1 So I think the thing they're thinking is like, it's within the realm of possibility, at least to police, that the Thompsons had, in fact, just like taken a trip before school started or something.

Speaker 1 And it's not entirely clear to me if they consider at all whether something nefarious could have happened to this entire family. But their own family is convinced this is wrong.

Speaker 1 So they start going door knocking around the Thompsons home themselves looking for answers. And they find someone with an interesting story to tell.

Speaker 1 According to Denise, this one guy says, you know what? I did see something.

Speaker 1 Now, he didn't specify exactly when this happened, but he said it was likely sometime between their disappearance, which would have been on the 5th, and when all the family got there on the 13th.

Speaker 1 But this guy says that it was the middle of the night one night and he noticed someone. He didn't say who, but he knew it wasn't Everett or Lydia.

Speaker 1 But this person was taking out trash from the Thompson house. One of the things that they pulled out of the house was this large rolled-up carpet.

Speaker 1 And instead of setting it out on the curb with the rest of the stuff, this mystery person puts it in the back of Everett's van.

Speaker 2 The van that Kenneth said the family drove to Philly.

Speaker 1 Exactly. And guess what? He's not saying that anymore.
The family is bringing like every tidbit they get back to police, including this story.

Speaker 1 And at some point, the police at least go talk to Kenneth again. And this time, when they ask him where the family is, Kenneth tells them a different story.

Speaker 1 He says that he drove Everett to a bus station on July 5th. I'm guessing in Everett's van because Kenneth didn't have a vehicle that we know of.

Speaker 1 And he says that Lydia and the boys were already there waiting for him because they were going to go take a bus to Philly for the weekend. But he hasn't seen them them since.

Speaker 2 Okay, so where's the van now, Kenneth?

Speaker 1 My question exactly. Followed by, did anyone check the bus depot? Right.
I bet the family bought no tickets, but it's unclear if police like did that or if they even attempt to track the van down.

Speaker 1 I mean, our FOIA requests were denied in this case. My gut says even if we got them, we wouldn't see much.

Speaker 1 Because for context, police inaction in Chicago is not uncommon for people of color, especially back in the 90s.

Speaker 1 I actually looked at some studies from the Invisible Institute and Data USA, and there has been a decrease in population size of Black Chicagoans over the past two decades.

Speaker 1 But according to census data, they make up around 34% of the population, give or take, yet they account for two-thirds of all missing person cases. And some were later found to be likely homicides.

Speaker 1 So it is clear that this kind of dismissal is just like baked into the system. So I don't know what happens next.
Seems like not a whole lot.

Speaker 1 But the one court doc I did get my hands on says that at the beginning of August, now nearly a full month since the family has been seen, a detective finally makes his way over to Everett's restaurant to talk to the manager who was working on the fifth when Everett ran out to go check on his family.

Speaker 1 And what she says gives even more cause for concern and puts even more suspicion on Kenneth.

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Speaker 1 The manager tells police that Everett left the restaurant quickly at around 3 p.m. on the 5th.
She never saw or heard from him again after that, which is way concerning.

Speaker 1 But even more concerning was the fact that not long after Everett left that day, like two hours later, 5 p.m., she saw Kenneth pull up in Everett's van, the same van that Everett had just left in.

Speaker 1 So Kenneth definitely has a van. Yeah.
And she said that in that moment, something Everett once told her comes to the forefront of her mind.

Speaker 1 He said, quote, if you ever see Kenny driving my car, you'll know that I'm dead.

Speaker 2 I mean, immediately call the police.

Speaker 1 I know. Yes.
Easy for us to say now. Yes.
But no, like, I mean, everything sounds ominous in hindsight. Like, I kind of wonder, like, what if Everett was saying that as a joke at the time?

Speaker 1 Like, oh, his car was out. And she's like, oh, does your brother have it? And he's like, oh my God, like off the dead.

Speaker 2 Over my dead body. Literally.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't know the context for that. Also, Kenneth was there with a story that must have made her put her guard down.

Speaker 1 I guess he came into the restaurant and walked right up to her and said that Everett had gotten in an accident and was arrested after he got in an argument with a Chicago police officer.

Speaker 1 Now, this makes zero sense to the manager because that's not like Everett at all, but for some reason she accepts this, even when she looks down at Kenneth's feet and notices what looks like blood on his white sneakers.

Speaker 1 And not that I even have to say this, but just in case, there was never any arrest records for Everett in Chicago or anywhere else. Now, what does the detective do with with this bombshell revelation?

Speaker 1 Wish I could tell you. The Chicago Tribune reports that in October 1996, Chicago PD's Special Investigation Unit takes on the Thompsons case.

Speaker 1 And they've got to attempt to retrace all the family's steps from like three months before. They're so behind.

Speaker 1 But they start by going to the boys' school and they talk to the principal who says that the boys hadn't attended since early summer of 1996. So seemingly when the school year ended in June.

Speaker 1 And there were no other transfer requests or anything. So like poof, they're just gone.
And it's discovered that medical appointments have been missed. No one has shown back up at the restaurant.

Speaker 1 And even their mail person noticed that none of the Thompsons were getting any of their mail. And they had left the family cat behind.
It was just Kenneth and this cat at the house.

Speaker 1 So it is seeming more and more clear that something happened to this family on or around July 5th. And all eyes are finally on Kenneth.

Speaker 1 And guess what was in in their records all along that maybe they knew about, but did nothing with, or they never looked hard enough into to find?

Speaker 1 Just two days before the family went missing, Lydia had called police on Kenneth for the same exact thing that she called her husband for on the 5th.

Speaker 1 Court records show that on July 3rd of 1996, Lydia called police to say that Kenneth was chasing her around the house with an axe. Now, the court documents aren't actually for that case.

Speaker 1 It's just like a note made for another case involving something else.

Speaker 1 So it doesn't get into any details about the police's response or lack thereof, because I know based on the records that they didn't arrest Kenneth for that.

Speaker 1 Now, we found some reporting from the Chicago Tribune that says police noted the scene was quiet and calm and no ongoing trouble, nothing that stood out.

Speaker 1 But that doesn't make it clear to me, like, was Kenneth gone? Was he there, but everything had cooled down? Yeah. I wish I had more details.

Speaker 1 Again, the court records just say say that the responding officer checked out each room, didn't see anything strange.

Speaker 1 But like they clearly didn't do enough because instead of calling 911 on the fifth, two days later, Lydia calls her husband for help. Like she called the police the first time and nothing happened.

Speaker 1 Right. Now, as you might be picking up on, Kenneth is a real piece of work.
Like I said, he had just recently gotten out of jail.

Speaker 1 He was a convicted sexual predator who was threatening to murder his sister now. For why, you might ask.
Best guess is only here. But he and Lydia had a history of animosity, according to court docs.

Speaker 1 Detectives learned from their aunt that things had gotten pretty bad between the year before in 1995 after their dad passed away. Their mom had already died in 89.

Speaker 1 But when their dad passed away, this is when the kids, so Kenneth, Lydia, and their other sister Phyllis, they got an inheritance.

Speaker 1 Now, this came while Kenneth was still in prison for criminal sexual assault.

Speaker 1 So Lydia sent him his portion while he was still in prison, but when he received $11,000 from Lydia, he was pissed because he told their aunt that each of them were allotted $15,000.

Speaker 1 So basically he thought that Lydia was holding out on him and he accused her of getting rid of his personal belongings while he was locked up.

Speaker 1 And he's saying all of this via letters to his aunt that, of course, the aunt ended up not being able to find for us, which is like a real shame because she says that in these letters, Kenneth allegedly wrote that he was going to kill Lydia when he got out of prison.

Speaker 1 Like very damning letters.

Speaker 2 Did Lydia not know how much he hated her before she let him move in with her family?

Speaker 1 It seems like she did, but like she let him move in probably because she felt some sense of obligation to, not because she was like jazzed to help out her brother.

Speaker 1 You see, the house that she was living in was also something that their parents left to all three kids. So I don't know how much of a choice Kenneth even really gave her in being there.

Speaker 2 In theory, it's kind of his house too.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, in legal, like not even theory.

Speaker 1 And really, it was apparently the house he was upset about more than anything, at least according to the roommate that Kenneth lived with right before he moved into the house with Lydia.

Speaker 1 And this roommate also says something interesting to police. He said that sometime between July and November, big window there, but he can't remember when.

Speaker 1 Kenneth told him that Lydia and her family moved out of the house because they were afraid that they were going to lose their children to child protective services, which there is no evidence of this.

Speaker 1 It sounds more like a story to explain why all of a sudden the house is empty to this guy.

Speaker 1 Now, investigators also learn that Herman had hired a PI at some point who spoke to a close friend of Everett's.

Speaker 1 And this guy says that just a few days before the family disappeared, Everett brought his son over to visit and he was like visibly stressed out about the situation between Kenneth and Lydia.

Speaker 1 And Everett even asked his friend to quote, get him a gun because he was going to put an end to the situation end quote.

Speaker 1 Now, his friend tried like calming him down, never actually got him a gun and told him not to do anything crazy. But that was their last conversation.

Speaker 2 It doesn't seem like Kenneth is living in the house anymore, though.

Speaker 1 Oh, no.

Speaker 2 During this investigation, like, where is he at this point?

Speaker 1 No, he peaced out pretty quick. He sold it, in fact, way back in like September of 96.
So like really even before they start a full-on investigation.

Speaker 1 What he did was he took two power of attorney forms to his own attorney. One was signed by Lydia, allegedly, and the other by his out-of-state sister.

Speaker 1 And those forms were what gave him the full rights to sell the home. So he sells it, and both Lydia, Phyllis, and Kenneth get money from that sale.
Except, of course, Lydia is nowhere to be found.

Speaker 1 So instead of just taking his own proceeds, Kenneth deposited Lydia's share into his savings account. Of course.

Speaker 1 Just to keep it safe. Well, like he knew she wasn't coming back to claim it.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 But he made a big mistake. The check was endorsed by Lydia White, which was Lydia's maiden name, which is an obvious slip-up, but it wasn't Lydia who signed the check.
And guess what else he sold?

Speaker 1 Their van. He says that he sold the van to a towing company back on July 10th.

Speaker 2 I mean, how are you selling a van that's not yours?

Speaker 1 Well, detectives go to this towing company and the company gives him the receipt confirming sold on July 10th, whatever. But the signature on the receipt is Everett Thompson, not Kenneth.

Speaker 1 And it's actually not Everett Thompson's either, because they later confirm that the signature isn't Everett's, or at least Herman says it's not his son's.

Speaker 1 But even though they were able to track all this paperwork and stuff, the bummer part is that by the time they get to this, the van had already been turned into scrap metal.

Speaker 1 And that happened like shortly after the sale.

Speaker 2 So they don't have, like, they don't own the house anymore or whatever, but what about the house? If the family was killed there, maybe there's some kind of forensic evidence left, like something?

Speaker 1 this is when you will see red but literally so they do end up searching the house not till like 97 how or why then all in the weeds i don't know what you need to know is that by this point they don't find anything now they talked to the contractor though that did some work on the house before it was sold and he's like yeah you know this was a weird one He said that like the time when he was doing this, it was like a month after the family went missing.

Speaker 1 He's brought in and he said, Before it was sold, the house was a mess. Like, the kitchen was all torn up, cabinets were missing, the floors had been ripped out.

Speaker 1 And I mean, no doubt that this happened around the time that they went missing or after, because they talked to the officer who responded to the call on the third, the one who like walked the house.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
And she's like, No, I was inside every room, like everything was normal. But the kicker is one of the bathrooms in the house had the toilet and the tub painted red.
What? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 So he was making sure there would be no forensics to find, like even if they had come way earlier.

Speaker 1 Maybe, maybe not.

Speaker 1 I mean, I think the family died in like two hours between when Lydia called Everett at three and then when Kenneth shows back up at the restaurant with the alleged blood on his shoes, talking some nonsense about Everett being arrested.

Speaker 1 The cleanup, though, that had to have taken so much time. Yeah.
Painting, ripping out floors. Not to mention, how do you dispose of four bodies? Think about it.

Speaker 1 What if that welfare check had been more thorough? I bet money Kenneth just came out on the front porch and was like, oh, they're not here. They went on vacay.
Like, bye.

Speaker 1 Like, he's not letting them inside.

Speaker 1 What would the officer have found had he actually?

Speaker 1 So all that to say, they have diddly squat when it comes to forensic evidence. They don't even have bodies or enough blood anywhere to prove that someone was murdered.

Speaker 1 They know their chances of getting Kenneth now are slim. They can at least put him in jail and try to get him to confess there because they find out that he failed to register as a sex offender.

Speaker 1 So he had already gotten arrested sometime in like November of 1996.

Speaker 1 He swears he had nothing to do with the family's disappearance, but he does admit to forging Lydia's signature for the sale of the house. but

Speaker 1 for the noblest of reasons.

Speaker 1 Only because he was acting as her power of attorney and he was going to deliver the money to her in Philadelphia. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Okay. You think she's still on her long weekend in Philly without their van months after they drove off into the sunset?

Speaker 1 Well, here's the good news on this. They got him.
Like not on quadruple murder homicide that they're all like, but certain he committed. Yeah.
But by him saying this, they have him on bank fraud.

Speaker 1 Oh, that is a federal crime. Yeah.
So in January of 97, in come the feds, specifically Agent John Larson, who is more than happy to take on this case.

Speaker 1 And while they do their bank fraud thing, investigators now have a full fire under them and they're trying to build a criminal case any way they can.

Speaker 1 They talk to witnesses that corroborate Kenneth's lies and not like say that they're actually true, just like that he was lying to everyone.

Speaker 1 Like he told a random cashier as he was cashing checks that his sister and her family moved to Hawaii.

Speaker 1 He also told investigators at some point that Everett took Lydia and the children to escape the IRS or drug debts and the DCFS.

Speaker 1 Like his story flip-flops from him driving them to the bus terminal, but then sometimes he says they all got on the bus to Philly.

Speaker 1 Other times he says that only Lydia and Everett got on the bus or they went to Minneapolis. Like, okay, where are the boys? Yeah, who knows?

Speaker 1 Because there's no consistent story coming out of this this man.

Speaker 1 Investigators are feeling confident that they have enough statements to prove that Kenneth has been lying. But to further their criminal investigation, they need forensic evidence.

Speaker 1 We know the house and the van are a bust because they waited too long, but they're thinking maybe Kenneth kept something or forgot about something.

Speaker 1 And so they searched the place that he moved to after he sold the house, this trailer he was living in in Gary, Indiana, and they actually hit gold.

Speaker 1 So remember those bloody sneakers that the manager saw? Yeah. Well, they find a pair in his trailer that are field tested and they test positive for the presence of blood.

Speaker 1 They also find a blood-soaked child's sock in the crawl space of the trailer. Now they send those to the FBI crime lab and it later tests positive for the presence of human blood too.

Speaker 1 Now we were able to ask attorney Jaclyn Ross and she believes the DNA matched one of the boys. But she said that Agent Larson, who was lead on the case, would know more about that.

Speaker 1 But Agent Larson is a hard man to track down. Like, give me a call if you hear this.

Speaker 2 I mean, even if we know for sure, like, would this be enough? Like, should this be enough?

Speaker 1 I mean, like, the blood-soaked child suck when all of his like lies and stories have nothing. Feels like

Speaker 1 circumstantially, this case is really building. And Kenneth must feel the walls closing in on him.

Speaker 1 Because the FBI gets word from his other sister, the one out of state, Phyllis, who says that Kenneth tried getting her to tell tell Chicago PD that she'd talked to Lydia sometime in early October of 96, even though she hadn't.

Speaker 1 And like Kenneth also knew she hadn't talked to Lydia since like around July 4th.

Speaker 1 But anyway, so it's building and Jacqueline tells us that sometime in December of 97, Kenneth gets charged with bank fraud for that forged signature, but still not murder.

Speaker 1 But what's so interesting is that they use this as a chance to set the record straight. And I've never seen anything like this before.

Speaker 1 Not saying it hasn't happened, but like it was just so interesting to everyone on the team who worked on this episode.

Speaker 1 Basically, they said that Kenneth committed fraud that was motivated by murdering all four Thompson family members. And they used that affidavit to spell out what they think happened.

Speaker 1 It says that Kenneth was so mad at his sister for how she handled the inheritance and their parents' house after they passed that he basically wanted her out of the picture so that he could get the home, he could get the money.

Speaker 1 And his rage led him to attack Lydia and her kids and Everett were just unfortunately there, like collateral damage in his mind.

Speaker 1 Now, Jacqueline was there in court on the 24th and told us that Kenneth seemed shocked.

Speaker 1 Like he knew his charge was bank fraud, but when they brought up the murder allegations, like I guess his head like flew back in surprise.

Speaker 1 And the next day, the very next day, he took his own life in his prison cell.

Speaker 1 According to the Chicago Tribune, he didn't leave a note, but Jacqueline told us that he did send one final message to his sister, Phyllis, saying something along the lines of, I did a really bad thing.

Speaker 1 You may not be hearing from me again. And any potential answers about the Thompson family's whereabouts probably died with Kenneth.

Speaker 1 I mean, according to the Daily Chronicle, investigators do go back to Kenneth's trailer after his death to search for clues.

Speaker 1 And they do find some bone-like fragments that might be human, along with fibers and fabrics found underneath it and that was like june of 98 they even bring out cadaver dogs to like sniff around the area now i know that those items were sent off to the fbi crime lab in dc but there's no telling what the analysis showed and again we couldn't get the records back in 1998 police did put out a plea to anyone cellmate or otherwise that knew kenneth that might have information from him about where he put the family.

Speaker 1 Like they're begging people to come forward. And that is what still stands today.
This case is essentially closed. I mean, the main suspect has passed, and so have Everett's mom and dad.

Speaker 1 But Everett's siblings are still here, and so is Lydia's sister. So if anyone listening has information about this case, please contact the Chicago PD Missing Persons Division at 312-745-5020.

Speaker 1 You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkie.com.

Speaker 2 And you can follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast.

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