Doretta Scheffield

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

You chose to hit play on this podcast today.

Smart choice.

Progressive loves to help people make smart choices.

That's why they offer a tool called AutoQuote Explorer that allows you to compare your progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies.

So you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you.

Give it a try after this episode at progressive.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.

Not available in all states or situations.

Prices vary based on how you buy.

Everyone's talking about weight loss meds, but these days, fewer people are talking about how hard they are to access.

That's because HERS is changing that with transparent pricing, expert care, and a personalized plan that's actually built and priced for where you are at.

If prescribed, you get medication as part of a doctor-developed weight loss program, complete with ongoing care, check-ins, dosage, and medication adjustments, and access to 24-7 online support at no additional cost.

No hidden fees and no membership fees.

Whether you want to lose weight, grow thicker, fuller hair, or find relief for anxiety, HERS has you covered.

Visit forHers.com slash snapped to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you.

That's F-O-R-H-E-R-S.com slash snapped.

forhers.com slash snapped.

Weight loss by HERS is not available everywhere.

Compounded products are not approved or reviewed for safety, effectiveness, or quality by the FDA.

Prescription required.

See a website for full details, important safety information, and restrictions.

Actual price depends on product and plan purchased.

They were dedicated partners in life and love.

She wanted them to be financially solvent.

She wanted them to be successful.

It was work hard, play harder.

I think he was pulling in over $600,000 a year.

They did everything right.

However, on a December evening in 2011, an unnerving discovery brings an abrupt end to a more than decade-long union.

I heard the most just horrific, shrill of a scream.

Oh, he definitely has a lot of blood.

I gotta get him on his back.

We gotta roll him over.

Your husband has a gunshot to the back.

No,

no.

Oftentimes, they will literally remove the gun from a scene and hide it because they don't want people to realize that their loved ones have committed suicide.

Had this successful Ohio businessman harbored hidden demons or did he make a few enemies on his way to the top?

He felt entitled if this is my company.

This is gonna be my house.

They made the comment that, you know, I gotta find a way to off Randy Sheffield.

It's just pure greed.

December 27th, 2011.

It's the first snowfall of the season in Newberry Township, Ohio.

Before starting his evening route, snowplow driver 36-year-old Jason Tibbs stops by the home of his boss, 53-year-old Randy Sheffield.

I wanted to see how long they had already been out because they should have been already been out plowing.

When Jason arrives at the Sheffield Lawns garage, he finds Randy's wife Doretta, Randy's stepson, David Tigg Rolls, and Tig's girlfriend Gina, along with other employees, gathered inside.

As for Randy Sheffield, he is still unaccounted for.

Doretta said that he was in the house sleeping.

He'd been sleeping all day, he hadn't felt good.

More often than not, Randy would take a nap.

He would sleep because he was going to be up all night long calling the guys on the road.

By 9:30 p.m., there's still no sign of Randy.

Outside the garage, the snowfall is beginning to pile up.

Dorita said, You know,

the snow's coming down.

I should figure out where Randy is.

So she goes into the house.

I heard the most

just horrific, shrill of a scream.

She comes running out of the house, and I could hear her screaming, I can't wake him up.

Tiggy, he won't get up.

Tig went running towards the house, screaming for me to come with him.

The heart rate just jumps about 100 beats a minute instantly.

And I was entering the house and going to the second floor.

Saw my friend sleeping.

He looked peaceful.

Just, you know, laying on his side.

And I started screaming, Randy, get up.

Randy, get up.

You know, he didn't move.

move Tig immediately dials 911 what is the problem sir he's unconscious there was a little bit of blood coming out you know on the on the side of his head where the pillow was

he's not responsive you want to try CPR yeah we gotta get him on his back we're gonna try CPR soon as I put my hands on him I got like a lightning bolt of shock you know the coldness that I felt was just you could see like a bluish purple tint across his back like halfway and I was in shock I was absolutely in shock shock.

I knew my friend, it was gone.

And from the sounds of Doretta's screams coming from the nearby garage, Jason realizes that Randy's wife knows it too.

She was in absolutely hysterical, bawling, wailing, unbelievably distraught.

It was one of the most horrible things I've ever been through in my life.

It just,

it, it, it hurt, it hurt bad.

Randy Randy Sheffield was born and raised in Russell Township, Ohio, east of Cleveland, and attended college at the University of Akron.

He was working in a landscaping job to, you know, to make money.

And then when he got out of college, I think he just decided that, you know, I could do this.

I could have my own business.

Because he just wasn't the kind of guy who was going to sit in an office all day.

My mother became the bookkeeper.

He had a van and a trailer and a lawnmower.

And from there, he built a very reputable landscape business, and it was in a very affluent part of our county.

Along the way, Randy had gotten married, but by 1988, that marriage was over.

It didn't last more than two or three years, and that ended abruptly and not well.

Randy was ready to move on and meet someone new.

But in a place as small as Newberry Township, Randy's options were slim.

In need of a change of scenery, he started frequenting a nearby town called Chagrin Falls.

There was like a pub, bar where the local people would hang out.

So after he got divorced, he was going there with some of his friends.

And one fateful night, at the pub called the Greenville Inn, he met 40-year-old Doretta Boyce.

Like Randy, Doretta grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland, Collinwood, Ohio, just a half hour from Randy's hometown.

Doretta was small but mighty.

She was a force.

She was outgoing.

She was a strong woman.

Doretta and her first husband, David Rolls Sr., had three children, Jennifer, Beth Ann, and David Tigg Jr.

She was the mom that all of us would want to have.

You could pick up the phone, call Doretta virtually at any time.

Say, I'm going to buy, I need this.

Doretta would drop everything and go out of her way to try to make that happen for you.

Doretta would split her time between caring for the children and working with David Sr.

They had a remodeling business together.

So that's sort of where she got into the painting and wallpapering because that was their business.

However, Doretta's picture-perfect life eventually fell apart when she found out that David Sr.

had run off.

Pretty much he abandoned the family.

In the aftermath of her divorce, Doretta and her three children were forced to move into a nearby housing project to make ends meet.

She did have her own landscaping painting company at that time, but she needed help.

She tried her hardest, but you know, being a single parent for anyone is a difficult task.

Doretta's only escape was a weekly trip to the bar at the Greenville Inn.

So, when Randy and Doretta met that night in 1992, it felt like a breath of fresh air for both of them.

They both just recently gone through a divorce, and maybe they just needed some companionship.

After a few drinks at the bar, Randy invited Doretta to come out to the track with him.

Randy liked snowmobiling.

Randy liked dirt bike riding.

So Doretta came on board also and started snowmobiling and started dirt bike riding.

She would hop on the back of any snowmobile or motorcycle he had, you know, if not ride her own.

She went to the races.

She did all these things that a lot of women, you know, they might go along with for a while, but she

just got into it full force.

Doretta was Moto mom.

I mean, I can't even tell you how many times the woman washed my gear or cleaned my goggles or made me a sandwich.

She was great to me, to all of us.

A few months later, Doretta and Randy moved in together, along with two of Doretta's three children, including 11-year-old Tig.

During the early years, he took him under his wing, Tiggy.

We taught him how to ride, we take him camping with us.

Randy really kind of took him in as his own son.

Randy was absolutely full-time dad, no question about that.

Randy was everything to the kids, especially Tig.

Then, in 2002, not long after a health scare, Randy and Doretta decided to finally tie the knot after 10 years together.

He became diabetic later in life, and Randy just decided he wanted to take care of Doretta, make sure she was taken care of.

So they did get married, and they just ran off to the Justice of the Peace.

After making things official, Doretta closed her wallpaper business and joined Randy at Sheffield Lawns.

Randy let Doretta take over the books.

She was very loyal to him and seemed like she enjoyed being with him and helped them keep everything in chip shape.

And the company became even more of a family affair when Randy hired on his now grown stepson, Tig.

He was one of the crew leaders, pretty much the main guy for the company.

Randy wasn't easy on Tig.

He didn't just hand him things.

Randy actually taught that boy everything.

For years, Randy, Doretta, and Tig lived and worked together in the home and garage that housed Sheffield Lawns.

Then, in 2010, Tig brought someone new into the mix.

His girlfriend, 27-year-old hairdresser, Gina Battaglia.

Gina Battaglia adored Tig Rouse.

She just thought he was, you know, all that in a bag of chips.

Gina quickly moved in she was pregnant within four months after gina and tig's son was born the couple moved out of the sheffield home

by 2011 after nearly 20 years together randy and doretta were looking forward to an early retirement i think he was pulling in over 600 000 gross a year In the very near future, Tig can take it over and Doretta and Randy would simply go play for a while, ride their snowmobiles and go travel.

I think he was happy in that sense, that he felt he'd accomplished the things that he wanted to in his life.

Not long after, on December 27th, 2011, tragedy struck.

Despite the help of 911 dispatchers, Randy Sheffield's stepson Tig Rolls and family friend Jason Tibbs are unable to rouse him.

His chest isn't rising at all?

No, no, there's no possibility.

Oh, but he is dying.

But how did this giant in the community end up dead at just 53 years old?

Coming up, a crime scene discovery changes the course of the investigation.

She saw a wound in the back of his head.

They asked us if, you know, we thought Mandy would have possibly taken his own life.

Or is it something even more sinister?

Somebody said there was a strange man in a red shirt walking up this road.

On December 27th, 2011, friends, family, paramedics, and Geauga County Sheriff's deputies converge on the home of local business owners, 53-year-old Randy Sheffield and his wife, 60-year-old Doretta Sheffield.

Upstairs, paramedics find Randy cold to the touch with no pulse.

He was found laying inside the bed.

There was a little bit of blood on the mattress.

Not a large amount, but there was blood on the mattress.

One of his hands was up on a bedpost and it took quite a bit of effort to try and pry off.

Reuben Morris definitely set in.

Downstairs, in the garage that served as the headquarters of Randy and Doretta's lawn care company, Doretta is inconsolable.

Doretta was, I don't even know how to explain it properly.

She was sobbing so bad that mucus was coming out of her nose, her mouth, and her eyes all at the same time.

I couldn't even ask her a question.

She was rocking incessantly back and forth and wasn't saying a word.

When investigators speak to the friends and family gathered at the scene, though, they don't seem as stunned as Doretta.

He was in his 50s, so there was a possibility of heart attack.

He was diabetic.

he had health issues from that for all intents and purposes you know it looked like he had an aneurysm and blood bled out his ear or something thought my friend died of natural causes

however as emt deputy heather billisek examines randy's body upstairs she notices something strange she saw a wound in the back of his head and that the wound in the back of the head is not consistent with that of an aneurysm nor a heart attack so she started looking about what did he hit his head on.

And while she was looking for that is when she discovered a empty gunbox in the dresser drawer.

So she started asking questions of Doretta Sheffield.

Where's the gun that belongs in this gunbox?

And she says, I don't even know.

I hate guns.

I don't touch guns.

With a dead man and a missing gun, Deputy Heather Billisek realizes that this is no heart attack.

So she sends Doretta and the rest of the family and friends to the home of Doretta's son, 30-year-old Tig Rolls, and his girlfriend, 28-year-old Gina Bataglia.

The officers on scene, they knew something was wrong.

Randy was taken to the hospital.

They did an x-ray, and in the x-ray, they revealed that there was a small caliber round in the back of his head.

I'm thinking, am I dealing with a suicide here?

I've had many suspicious deaths that I've investigated that the family is very sensitive to the issue of suicide.

And oftentimes they will literally remove the gun from a scene and hide it because they don't want people to realize that their loved ones have committed suicide.

At 4 a.m., Gea County deputies ask Doretta to come to the station for an interview.

She's very polite, very stoic.

First thing, you know, I was talking about is go through the day.

Talk to me about what did you do today?

What did you do yesterday?

Dorretta woke up about 6.30.

Randy went to McDonald's, got breakfast.

It was about 7 o'clock in the morning.

Randy came home, started watching TV.

And he said, what's your plan for today?

And I told him, I have to go to your mother's.

I have to make a deposit.

I want to go grocery shopping before death comes because I want my pork roast for New Year's.

Do you want to go with us?

Good luck.

He goes, no, I don't want to go with you.

She said that Randy was sitting on the couch when she left.

From there, she did some errands.

She went to the bank.

She went to Walmart to pick up some items.

She went to Gina Bataglia's to get a haircut.

She tried calling his phone a couple times to try and get a hold of him and ended up getting voicemail.

Doretta says that when she returned home around 4 p.m., she found Randy's bedroom door shut tight.

I went down the hall in Randy's rule, okay?

The bedroom door and the bathroom door are closed.

I'm sleeping.

Don't wake me up.

She thought Randy was in bed, probably getting rest, because he knew what the weather was forecasting for that day.

He knew there was snow coming.

What do you think happened?

I didn't know.

I don't know.

He's diabetic.

I thought he was sleeping.

That's when investigators disclose the truth to Doretta.

Your husband has a gunshot going to the back of the...

No!

No!

I personally thought it was a suicide.

I said, if your family has the gun, let's just get this out in the open now.

Could he have done this himself?

No, he wouldn't hurt himself.

That's when she becomes hysterical to the point where I can't even get her back.

Hours after investigators return Doretta to her family, the coroner calls detectives with the results of Randy's autopsy.

In addition to examining Randy's stomach contents and other standard procedures, the medical examiner says that she has also studied the location and trajectory of the bullet that entered Randy's brain.

Her determination, this was no suicide.

We have a homicide.

On the morning of December 28th, Geauga County deputies canvass Randy's neighborhood looking for leads.

Brenda Brown is the neighbor, lives across the street from the Sheffields.

Brenda Brown said she was doing dishes and sees a man walking down the street sometime in the morning hours.

She's lost sight of him as he was approaching the Sheffield residence.

And then about 20 minutes later, she saw the same individual going northbound.

She said she thought it was kind of odd because he seemed to be going at a like a faster rate of speed with a distinctive limp.

The limp is important to me.

If he was involved in this, was he on the property?

Did he trip over a piece of barbed wire that's in the woods as he was running through the woods to get away?

Did he fall coming off the back steps?

I guess the conclusion would be that it was a burglary that had gone bad.

Maybe the person had been detected, and for that reason, they ended up killing the only witness.

I know investigators went right away to the gas stations and the mini marts in the area to pull footage to find out who is this guy.

Can we identify him?

When we were gathering videos, the BP station faces the Sheffield residents and sure enough we see him trucking down the road just like Brenda Brown's head walking down 44 South right in front of the Sheffield house and goes to the marathon station.

You know he buys some candy and a pop and looks up at the camera in his red flannel shirt and proceeds to leave and starts walking the opposite way.

We sent out flyers.

We contact the radio stations, TV stations, asking for assistance in identifying Red Shirt Man.

Coming up, is this mysterious man Randy's killer?

Or will a new interview point investigators towards someone much closer to their victim?

She felt entitled that this is my company.

This is going to be my house.

And another suspect emerges.

She made the comment that, you know, I got to find a way to off Randy Sheffield.

Hey, it's Stephanie Gomolko with Oxygen.com.

When I'm running a marathon, I have enough to worry about.

My hydration, to my time, to how my knee is feeling.

The last thing I need to worry about is blisters.

Thanks to Bombas, that hasn't been an issue.

Don't let bad socks and blisters stop you in your tracks either.

Bombas make slides, socks, and seamless essentials to keep up with however you pace your days.

Bombas offers sweat-wicking blister fighting and impact cushioning socks.

You can also order Bombas abroad.

That's right, along with the U.S., they now ship internationally to over 200 countries.

Head over to bombas.com and use code snapped for 20% off your first purchase.

That's bombbas.com, code snapped at checkout.

You know, over the years, I've had my fair share of financial stress, overdraft fees out of nowhere, forgetting a payment and getting hit with penalties, or just wishing I had a better way to stretch my money between paychecks.

That's why I love what QIIME is doing.

As a fee-free banking app, QIIME understands that every dollar counts.

When you set up direct deposit through QIIME, you unlock fee-free features like free overdraft coverage, getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit, and so much more.

QIIME is banking done right.

You can open a checking account with no monthly fees and no maintenance fees.

And when you set up direct deposit, you can actually get paid up to two days early.

Imagine that.

Plus, with qualifying direct deposits, QIIME has your back with free overdraft, up to $200 on debit card purchases and cash withdrawals.

No more sweating, that surprise coffee charge.

In fact, QIIME has already spotted members over $30 billion to date.

And when it comes to access, you're covered with over 47,000 fee-free ATMs nationwide.

That's more than the top three national banks combined.

I use QIIME, and you should too.

Getting paid early has actually made budgeting easier for me.

It gives me a head start on rent, groceries, subscriptions, everything.

And I love getting those real-time alerts when I spend.

It keeps me way more aware of my daily habits.

And the thing I love most, QIIME's customer support agents are available 24-7.

It's been super helpful to get the support I need when it works best for me, not trying to cram in extra calls during the workday.

Work on your financial goals through QIIME today.

Open an account in two minutes at chime.com slash snapped.

That's chime.com slash snapped.

Chime feels like progress.

Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank.

Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank NA or Stride Bank NA.

Members, FDIC.

Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply.

Timing depends on submission of payment file.

These apply at out-of-network ATMs, bank ranking, and number of ATMs, according to U.S.

News and World Report 2023.

Chime, checking account required.

Less than 48 hours after Randy Sheffield's death was determined to be a homicide, police in Geaga County, Ohio are doing everything in their power to find and identify a man that had been seen in the vicinity of the Sheffields' home on the day of Randy's murder.

We jumped right on it.

We interviewed everybody everybody within a mile perimeter of the Sheffields house in any direction.

The idea was you had a drifter, somebody that was bouncing around different locations.

And after that morning, he was gone and he like kind of disappeared.

We talked to a number of people who we thought might be him, but never were able to identify who Redshirt Man is.

On December 29th, 2011, detectives decide to try one more possible source of information.

They call Randy's stepson, 30-year-old Tig Rolls, to the station.

Tig got to the house about one, was in that front garage all day.

He said there was nothing unusual while he was there.

Nobody unusual came to the house.

We really harped on the business.

Did Randy have any enemies in the business?

Did he fire anybody?

He said that three black males that Randy Sheffield

had employed were fired, I believe, right around Thanksgiving.

He said that the individuals were upset because now they're not going to have money for Christmas gifts.

To get more information about these workers, investigators bring 36-year-old Jason Tibbs, a family friend and former employee at Sheffield Lawns, in for an interview.

I was over there every day.

I knew every single employee they had that worked for them.

I mean, a lot of them had been there for years.

There were known three black guys that had never happened.

And Jason suspects that Tig may have his reasons for misleading the police.

He didn't want him to show up on a job anymore.

I know that he wanted Randy gone.

Jason says that although Randy and Tig were close as father and son, they had serious disagreements about the direction of the family business.

There was all this talk about, you know, going from just being a landscaping, grass-cutting, cleanup company to now we're going to do hardscapes, patios, big construction projects.

Grant, he wasn't comfortable with it.

He loved the maintenance part of it, the cutting the grass.

Everything was done in Randy's way, you know, and that's why it was successful.

In fact, Jason tells investigators that Randy had become so successful that he had stepped back from most of the hard labor of the company, leaving Tig to pick up the slack.

Tig always had this sense of entitlement, like he worked so hard, he should deserve more than what he got.

Tig and them would bitch about him you know oh once he's gonna get off his fat ass and help us but he doesn't have to you know his name is on the side of the truck that's his mower.

However Jason says that Tig would often mention that one day it would be Tig's truck and mower.

He was eager to inherit the business and that

there was some mounting frustration in that he had not yet inherited it.

He had this sense of entitlement that I never understood, you know.

He felt entitled if this is my company.

this is gonna be my house according to jason that may have been a pipe dream i thought the rant randy didn't trust any of them to handle it randy was never going to give the business to tig he was never going to inherit it had tig found out that randy was going to pass him over he'd lose everything

everything

Jason says others in Randy's circle believe the killer may be someone close to home.

Another mutual friend of ours started saying something like, it had to be an inside job.

It had to be an inside job.

That theory becomes even more compelling when detectives receive a call from the best friend of 28-year-old Gina Battaglia, Tig's girlfriend.

She revealed that in November of 2011,

Gina and her were walking on the square in Burton.

Gina was just raising a storm about how lazy Randy had gotten and he doesn't even get out of the air conditioning of his truck anymore and it's really tig's business and he's the one making all the money that money should be ours she said gina's always complaining however the caller alleges that on that day in november gina went too far she made the comment that you know i gotta find a way to off randy sheffield

She says that in November and Randy Sheffield in December was found dead in his bed with a gunshot to the back of his head.

We suspected that Gina definitely had some part in it.

Again, what her role was,

not 100% sure, but we definitely suspected that Gina was definitely involved.

When investigators interview Gina Battaglia, they press her about her whereabouts on the day of the murder.

Gina maintains she didn't arrive at Randy's home until late that afternoon, long after other employees had arrived at the scene.

Gina Battaglia maintained that she had woken up that morning in the apartment, spent time at home, and was then visited in the early afternoon by Doretta.

She came over so that she could cut her hair.

She said she didn't leave the house until 4.30 when there was pizza brought over to the garage.

Detectives tell Gina that they think that she knows more about Randy's murder than she's admitting.

They confront her and ask her about what happened, and Gina kind of loses it and says, what are you talking about?

I mean, at one point, Gina literally said you're out of your effing mind i don't know anything about anybody committing this crime

what was the truth following gina's interview investigators subpoena her cell phone records for december 27th 2011.

so cell phone towers have like a circular range and if you place a phone call with your cell phone it's going to connect to the tower nearest to your physical location.

And where the Sheffield house was situated, it it landed kind of between two of these circles.

The logs confirm that several of Gina's calls that day had connected to the tower closest to her home, but they also revealed something else.

On two occasions during that morning and afternoon, her cell phone was bouncing off of another tower face, one that was over closer to the Sheffield house.

Could the early morning ping confirm that Gina was lying?

If her phone hit off a tower close to the Sheffield's house, isn't it reasonable to conclude that she was there?

It certainly was to us.

However, a hunch doesn't quite add up to probable cause to make an arrest.

So, investigators turn back to the surveillance footage they had already gathered from area gas stations.

One of the things that I did was re-watch

those video surveillance footage.

I believe, I can't say 100%, but I believe that I located Gina's registered vehicle traveling northbound through that intersection roughly around 7.20-ish in the morning.

About an hour later,

roughly, the vehicle is observed traveling back.

I can't see.

a license plate and I can't see who's in the vehicle.

Is it Gina?

Is it Tig?

Is it Gina and Tig?

We don't know.

Before detectives can present their findings to a prosecutor, they get another call.

A call that suggests that this purported conspiracy to kill Randy Sheffield could be much bigger than authorities suspect.

Yeah, I just kind of stopped and

couldn't believe it.

Coming up, investigators uncover a powerful motive for murder.

The state wanted their money.

There's a lien placed on the company.

But will it all add up to an arrest?

It's just terrific to me.

His mother told me at one point that I don't know if I'll ever live long enough to find out what happened to Randy.

Investigators in Geauga County, Ohio, have reason to suspect that Randy Sheffield's murder was an inside job.

Two individuals on their suspect list, Randy's 30-year-old stepson, Tig Rolls, and Tig's 28-year-old girlfriend, Gina Battaglia.

Now, investigators have received a phone call from Rebecca Sheffield, Randy's mother.

Rebecca is so, so sweet.

She just said, I want to talk to you about a visit that I had with Doretta that I...

thought was very unusual.

According to Rebecca, their discussion that day centered on Randy's business.

In 2003, when Randy married Doretta, Randy asked his mom to let Doretta take care of the books.

Rebecca didn't necessarily agree with that, but she was like, it's what my son wanted.

It's his business.

So I did that.

Rebecca was always quasi-involved, at least in some degree, because Randy appreciated the fact that she had Sugar Granfall's address, which was more desirable than his own.

She always would receive the mail.

And so as a part of their routine, Doretta would then go and collect the mail for the business at Rebecca's home.

However, Rebecca says that in the months before her son died, she noticed more and more letters coming from the Ohio Department of Taxation.

One day, her curiosity got the better of her.

She opens it up, and it shows that there, I believe, is a lien placed on the company because the company has not been paying its taxes.

Ended up accumulating $100,000, and the state wanted their money.

Rebecca confronts Doretta about this and Doretta says, ah, you know, I know about that.

I messed up.

Please don't tell Randy.

Rebecca says that Doretta assured her that she would have the back taxes paid off in a few weeks.

Rebecca thought, okay, I'm not going to make trouble where there's need to be any.

She's got to work out.

According to Rebecca Sheffield, in early December 2011, just weeks before Randy's death, her son approached her privately at a family party.

He said, Mom, I'd like you to take over

your previous role as bookkeeper.

He just said that Doretta's made a mess of the books.

She's run the business into the ground.

That raises some red flags to us.

In light of this new information, investigators decide to take a closer look at Randy's grieving widow.

They begin by issuing subpoenas for both her and Randy's phone records from December 27th.

When we plugged in the passcode passcode into his cell phone, the voicemails came up.

And there were four from Doretta, all on the day of the murder, starting at 10.30 in the morning, telling Randy where she's going, what she's doing.

I'm going to see Gina and my grandson.

I'm going to be there for X amount of time.

We watch the movie.

Here's the name of the movie.

Details that nobody would really concern themselves about normally.

For investigators, the level of detail looks suspicious, especially when they realize that Doretta hadn't left her husband a voicemail before December 27th.

The first voicemail was from November 5th, and there was nothing after that until December 27th.

And the first one was a friend of his, and there was nothing in between.

And then there were four from Doretta, all on the day of the murder.

When investigators ask Randy's friend Jason Tibbs about the voicemails, he gives a candid response.

Oh, would you ever leave him a voicemail?

Waste of time.

He wouldn't even know how to check his voicemail.

Total waste of time.

This is a person who doesn't use his phone.

The voicemail is a useless tool to this person.

Why would you suddenly leave these?

This does not make any sense.

Unless Doretta wasn't leaving the messages for Randy.

They stand out like a sore thumb.

They are left there for one purpose and one purpose only, and it's to build Doretta's alibi.

It is an indicator that this was something that she planned?

While investigators believe the circumstantial evidence is pointing them in the right direction, they still need to place their suspects at the scene.

That requires nailing down Randy's time of death.

When investigators look at the autopsy results, they get their answer.

When you die, digestion stops.

Erica Armstrong, when she opened up the stomach contents, it was still in a perfect state.

She is able to describe the food that is in the stomach because digestion had stopped random 8th between 7 and 7.30.

And with that, Erica goes, okay, it's anywhere from 7.30 to 9.30 is when he died.

And with that, we have to edit it home.

That timeframe, though, is important for another reason.

If Gina's car was indeed the vehicle seen on the gas station surveillance footage, it put her squarely in the the area of the crime around the time of the murder.

I was like, Oh my god, I think this is it.

Investigators approached the Gea County prosecutor with their evidence against Randy's family.

We thought we had a case, but because it was circumstantial, we could not get the prosecutor to go with it.

He was like, We got one shot at this.

I just want it to be a better case.

We need to tighten it up.

However, before detectives can gather more evidence, tragedy strikes.

Two months to the day on February 27th,

Shardin schools have a shooter at the school district.

Unfortunately, you know, these kids are killed and it is a national tragedy.

So Randy's case is sort of like, okay,

but we've got to tend to this now.

Months later, when the school shooting investigation is winding down, there is a shakeup at the department and Randy's case gets filed away.

The The prosecutor announced that he was going to be resigning and he was running for Congress and that nothing would be done on this case until a new prosecutor came in.

It's just terrific to me because I don't understand what really happened.

His mother told me at one point that I don't know if I'll ever live long enough to find out what happened to Randy.

Meanwhile, Doretta, Tig, and Gina have problems of their own.

The company started going on again with, of course, Randy out of the the picture.

I really thought Tiggy would jump right into his shoes and take it over.

The business all of a sudden is taken over by Tig's sister and they change the name and we were told basically that Doretta came in and just fired Tig and everybody else.

Tig and Gina were absolutely cut out of the business altogether.

Doretta and her other daughter were supposed to be running this company.

And really, it just ran into the ground.

then in 2013 two years after randy's death a new prosecutor is finally elected we uh go to grand jury and present what we have to the grand jury and they give us the indictments to make arrests all three of them a tigrouse gina battaglia and doretta sheffield were all charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and aggravated murder

Coming up, Doretta, Gina, and Tig face life in prison.

She was scared to death to go to trial.

She didn't think she could win.

But will a major setback for the prosecution jeopardize all three cases?

The evidence wasn't there.

We couldn't place him there.

In March 2015, four years after Randy Sheffield was found murdered in his bed, Doretta Sheffield, his stepson Tig Rolls, and Tig's girlfriend Gina Battaglia are charged with his murder.

The fact that Randy found out that the business wasn't doing good financially because of the back taxes, he was going to take the books away from Doretta, Randy was just going to cut them all out.

She was losing everything.

Not only was she losing everything, but her son was losing everything.

I think the motherly instinct in her is like, I'm I'm going to protect my family.

And she snapped.

Their first chance to prove their theory comes in September 2015 when Doretta's case goes to trial.

It is a very circumstantial case.

You know, we don't have a confession.

We don't have the murder weapon.

We don't have any witnesses to the murder.

And the defense takes particular issue with a key piece of the prosecution's case, the time of Randy's death.

At trial, the defense was very focused on the fact that there was no meat found in Randy's stomach.

You had a McDonald's sandwich which contained meat that was digested somewhere between 6.30 and say 7.30.

It takes six hours for meat to digest, and there's no meat in the stomach at all, which would put the time of death in the afternoon, of which Doretta's whereabouts were completely known, and there was a complete alibi for her.

So she couldn't have been involved with the death.

Instead, Doretta's defense team points to someone else, the mysterious red-shirted man seen in the vicinity of the Sheffields' home on the day of the murder.

They harped on Red Shirt Man.

They said we missed the boat because of Red Shirt Man and that he was in reality the rogue man who broke into the house and shot Randy Sheffield.

However, when prosecutors present their forensic evidence to jurors, they point out what they consider a critical detail.

The bullet went in at a similar height as Randy was laying.

So they weren't standing above Randy.

The bullet came in at an angle where they had to have knelt down and been at the same level as his head to shoot.

If it's a burglar, there's a confrontation, they're going to shoot from a standing position.

Whoever did this literally had to squat down and get level with his head within three feet and shoot that gun.

On September 29th, 2015, after two weeks of testimony and 12 hours of deliberation, the judge asks each individual jury member for their verdict.

Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.

It was best thing in the world.

She had to hear it 36 times.

He pulled the jury.

They were unanimous.

I was astonished.

When I heard that, that was one of the best feelings ever.

One of the best feelings in my life.

On November 4th, Doretta is sentenced to 27 and a half years in prison.

With one victory under their belt, prosecutors turn their attention to Randy's stepson.

Tig Rolls.

We strongly believed at that time that he was a part of this conspiracy.

However, the evidence wasn't there.

We couldn't place him there.

We realized that what we had collectively, while suspicious of his involvement, we were not prepared then to have him face life in prison because we were suspicious of him.

So at that point, we made the determination to dismiss his indictment.

In January 2016, the last of the alleged co-conspirators, Gina Battaglia, prepares for trial.

Her defense plans to contest the surveillance footage that allegedly put Gina's car near the scene on the morning of the murder.

Gina had a 2001 GMC Jimmy, I believe.

And I went to a GMC dealership, spoke with no less than 10 individual technicians that are certified through GM.

And I asked them what the car was, and they all came up with 2007 to 11 Acadia.

Every one of them said there's no way that's a GMC Jimmy.

However, even though Gina's lawyer is ready to fight, Gina isn't.

Gina had talked to one of our detectives, Detective Kelly, and had told him that she was scared to death to go to trial and she didn't think she could win.

With that, a plea bargain was reached between the two attorneys.

She got a sentence of 18 months.

In my opinion, talking directly with Gina, she made the best decision for her family and her child.

to plead out and not roll the dice and go in front of the same jury that convicted Doretta.

For Gina, Doretta, and their supporters, the sentences are a grave injustice.

We can never ever replace Randy Sheffield, but if we can't put the right person behind bars, we've done him no justice either.

It's very likely that there is still the person out that committed this crime is still out there and

could be committing other crimes.

For those close to Randy, though, the sentences feel like a slap on the wrist, especially for a man man who gave his family everything.

There really, for me, is no closure.

The whole incident ripped my heart out and broke my spirit.

After everything that Randy did for her and her children, Doretta is exactly where she should be, and she's going to stay there for the rest of her life.

Doretta has appealed her conviction.

She will be eligible for parole in 2042.

She will be 90 years old.

After serving one year and three months of her sentence, Gina Battaglia was released from prison on April 13th, 2017.

Tig Rolls maintains his innocence.

His previous indictment was dismissed without prejudice.

Therefore, Ohio authorities can refile charges against him should evidence against Tig be uncovered.

It's all a light-hearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid.

We're your hosts.

I'm Alina Urquhart, and I'm Ash Kelly.

And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy.

The stories we cover are well researched.

Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group.

With a touch of humor.

Shout out to her.

Shout out to all my therapists out there.

There's been like eight of them.

A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing.

That motherfer is not real.

And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes.

You should tune in to our podcast, Morbid.

Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.