Hope Schreiner
To solve the sudden and violent murder of a retired landscape architect, investigators weed through information about a disgruntled neighbor and an illicit affair only to find that seeds of resentment are often planted close to home.
Season 26 Episode 14
Originally aired: November 24, 2019
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Transcript
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After 39 years of marriage, a small-town Oregon couple was looking forward to their golden years.
They were working very hard to have their retirement.
Until suddenly, a bizarre chain of events interrupts their plans.
He said there's a woman out there if they threw her off the bridge.
I'm unconscious for a while, and I can't get to my knees.
She looked like she'd been through hell.
A violent crime sparks a desperate search for answers.
They have one victim whose whereabouts are unknown.
Did someone kidnap him?
And they're gonna hold him for ransom.
You don't know.
They had two outstanding suspects who were reported to be armed.
As investigators dig into the mystery, secrets come to the surface.
It was like watching a freight train that was headed for a wreck and couldn't stop it.
Were you seeking somebody else?
No, we are Christians.
I'm just talking about their post crime, these two.
And you never know just how far someone will go to cover their tracks.
There's definitely human remains in there.
Something you don't want to believe.
February 6th, 2009, Corbett, Oregon.
It's a crisp winter morning when local residents Gerald Ford and Jim Pogue make their way into town and notice a flash of movement as they cross the Gordon Creek Bridge.
It was early in the morning, and I seen a hand come up out of the weeds.
I crossed the bridge and I thought maybe one of them fishermen fell down, so I backed up, asked Jim to go out and see what was was going on he came back to the truck and said there's a woman out there
he says help me drag her up to the road I said no no don't touch her if she's injured don't even touch her just stay with her I'll run up the hill and get cell service I'll call 911
While Gerald seeks higher elevation to summon help, Jim stays with the victim, who identifies herself as Lynn Stomps.
Her fingernails were all worn down because she was crawling up the embankment to get to somebody to get help for her.
Officers responded to a 911 call and found Lynn seriously injured.
And she had reported to them that she had been the victim of a violent crime.
Though Lynn is in great pain, she's desperate to tell first responders that she isn't the only victim.
Lynn was telling investigators was that there's two guys that they met to sell a boat and they had attacked her and her husband, Jerry.
Lynn said the boat wasn't with them.
It was back at their property.
According to Lynn, Jerry had met the potential buyers online and wanted to meet first before bringing them by to see the boat.
They were going to fish in the Sandy River, I believe, and talk about them buying the boat.
She said she stayed in the pickup truck while Jerry went down a pathway towards the river.
After a short period of time, she got out of the vehicle.
The moment she stepped out of the truck, Lynn realized she wasn't alone.
Jerry was yelling at her to run.
So she took off running across the bridge and she was being chased by this second suspect who displayed a firearm,
overtook her, grabbed her by a backpack, and threw her off of the bridge.
The officers had a violent crime that was reported, a seriously injured victim, a second victim who was outstanding and may be in need of aid or worse, dead.
Born and raised in Gresham, Oregon, Jerry Stomps was 19 years old when he met Lynn Plant in 1969.
Jerry and Lynn had a pretty good relationship.
They were, they just kind of clicked.
When you would see them, you knew that they were together.
From the moment they met, Lin and Jerry were smitten with each other.
But there was one thing that would keep them apart.
The war in Vietnam.
He was in Vietnam in 68, 69 as an MP in Saigon.
He was a military guy.
Though Jerry was away at war, he and Lin kept in touch through letters.
Shortly after he returned to the States, the two married.
To some, they may have seemed like an unexpected pair, but Jerry and Lynn proved that opposites really do attract.
She was a sweet gal, a very nice person.
Jerry was just Jerry.
I've never come across anybody else like him.
He was very bold.
If somebody said, no, you can't do that, oh, yes, he could.
He didn't trust anybody.
He didn't trust government.
He didn't trust corporations.
He didn't trust police.
All he trusted was Jerry and God.
Still, Lynn had a way of breaking through his tough exterior.
And in 1973, Jerry's heart softened when he and Lynn welcomed a son, Jason,
followed by Adam in 1976.
Lynn was a very natural-born mom.
She just took right to it.
Just boom.
She'd have the baby and then she was up working the next day and I was just amazed.
The household, it was just a normal, loving, country family who stuck with each other, but with a live wire
dad who ran the show.
My dad, like, he was a hard worker, taught us to work hard.
As a little kid,
I'd go out hunting with my dad or fishing or we'd go out cutting firewood or camping.
At the Stumps home, outdoor activities were limitless.
We had 17 acres and we ran around all the woods and canyon all over the place.
I go outdoors to the playgards.
Jerry and Lynn lived on some property that took a little bit to find the place.
Jerry liked his ability to be unseen to the public and this property that they had gave him all of that that he would want.
They were growing Christmas trees, so they had different Christmas trees at different heights all over this four or five acres.
Though Christmas tree farming allowed Lynn and Jerry to make ends meet, their lives radically changed in 1991 when Lynn's father died and left her $1.7 million.
When the inheritance came in, I think Lynn felt relieved.
The couple used the inheritance to invest in several rental properties in and around Portland.
With the stress of providing for their families lifted off their shoulders, Lynn and Jerry were able to enjoy life.
We always used to go salmon fishing, spend a week down to coasts.
It was always a lot of fun.
Still, it was important to Jerry that he and his family continued to live within their means.
They never owed any money.
Jerry was a guy that would find a way to not buy anything on credit.
He saved the money all the time.
He bought his cars all cash.
By the late 90s, the two Stomps boys had left the nest, started their own families, and in 2004, Jerry and Lynn became grandparents.
Babys had his kids a lot of name.
They loved having their little ones out there again.
They were very much into it.
They loved being a grandparents.
He would grab those grandkids and they were off.
Let's go do this and let's go do that.
And I'm sure he wasn't staying around in the house and rocking them in a rocking chair.
He was too much of an outdoorsman.
As the years ticked by, Lynn and Jerry fixed their eyes on one goal.
They were working very hard to have their retirement.
All of their married life, that's what they were searching for, was how to get there fast.
But now it seems the life Jerry and Lynn Stomps worked so hard to build is falling apart.
On February 6th, 2009, Lynn Stomps is being treated after reportedly being attacked by two men she thought were there to buy her boat.
And her husband, Jerry, is nowhere to be seen.
Where could they have put Jerry?
Nobody could find him.
They're putting her on a gurney and bringing her to the ambulance.
As detectives arrive on the scene, they hit a roadblock when their only eyewitness is whisked away to the hospital.
At this stage of the investigation, what officers know is they have two outstanding suspects who were reported to be armed.
So they had an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Coming up, a risky search effort commences.
This was a case where the officers pull out all stops, use all available resources.
If you're enchased by a gun, it doesn't make any difference how big you are.
You could be out there, you could be dead.
And chilling new details emerge.
I have this little bag thingy, and he just spun me around by grabbing it, and I go, and I'm sure he just pushed me right here, and over I went.
February 6th, 2009.
First responders in Corbett, Oregon are gathered at the Gordon Creek Bridge, where a brutal attack on Lynn Stomps and her husband Jerry is believed to have occurred earlier that day.
She said that these two men threw her off the bridge and one of them took off after her husband with the gun.
While Lynn is transported to Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland, back at the Gordon Creek Bridge, a search for 60-year-old Jerry Stomps commences.
This was a case where The officers pull out all stops, use all available resources, including air assets, canines, search and rescue teams.
We had a tracking dog out there along with several airship dogs, and we started looking for him.
There were an awful lot of volunteers and a lot of resources from the sheriff's office, local law enforcement, just citizens.
They were very thorough.
While the search teams scour the woods for Jerry, detectives get their first break in the case when Lynn Stomps is cleared to interview.
She had a a broken pelvis, just split in half, and she had scratches all over her.
She was just in a really bad way.
She couldn't walk.
From her hospital bed, Lynn is finally able to give detectives more details about her attack.
So let's just start at the beginning.
Um, okay, we woke up.
He told me he had this appointment with this guy that he was going to meet.
He's anxious to sell the boat, but I don't want anybody we don't know who really isn't serious coming to the house.
Sometimes I'm there by myself.
So he said, okay.
So he had made arrangements with this guy to meet him there.
Around what time do you leave the house?
We had to have left at 6:20, 6.30, no later than that.
Lynn says the couple left their boat at home and made the trip to see if the buyer, a man Jerry only referred to as Dave, was even worth their time.
Her story is when they got there, Jerry takes off with this Dave person down to the river and they kind of disappear out of sight.
She stays in the truck.
So they're walking and I'm just sitting there.
And then I thought, oh, I'll go.
It's not raining at the moment.
And so I started to get out the truck.
I know as soon as I got my feet on the ground, I hear Jerry yelling, Lynn, run, run, Lynn, run.
And I turn around and there's this another guy right behind me, and he's got a gun out, and I just bolted for down the road.
Lynn says as she tried to outrun her assailant, she looked toward the woods and saw her husband.
I could see Jerry, I couldn't see the guy.
Okay, what was Jerry doing?
He was running.
Which way?
Towards the river.
That's when Lynn says she felt the man catching up to her.
I'm on the bridge, basically.
I have this little bag thingy, and he just spun me around by grabbing it, and I go and I'm sure he just pushed me right here, and over I went.
And then what happens?
I'm unconscious for a while, and I can't get to my knees.
I crawled all the way up the embankment.
After making her way up to the road, Lynn says it took more than half an hour for someone to spot her.
I was so frustrated that
I yelled and yelled and yelled and yelled for someone to stop and help me.
With no other leads, detectives ask Lynn for more information about her attackers.
Can you describe those two individuals again?
Okay.
The best you can.
Lynn described the attackers as being both white males, Dave being about 5'8 ⁇ , with brown hair, the other suspect being six foot tall, also with brown hair, and they were driving a gold-colored pickup.
Since Jerry had left their boat at home and the couple's truck wasn't stolen, detectives ask themselves, had these two men targeted Jerry for another reason?
Why do you think this happened?
What do you think the motivation was for all this?
You know,
I couldn't tell you.
I don't understand it.
It's not like he's got a million bucks sitting in his pockets and they're going to relieve him of it right then and there.
We're not into alcohol, drugs, or anything like that.
We're just basic normal people.
You know what I'm saying?
Jerry didn't owe anybody
serious money.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
You didn't owe any money to anybody.
No.
With no new insight on a potential motive for the attack, investigators bring in a forensic sketch artist to create composites of the suspects.
The sketches are released to the public, hoping to generate leads.
Meanwhile, detectives form theories of their own.
Well, the possibilities at the time, obviously, were robbery.
Is this a robbery?
Jerry was known in the community as someone who was not exactly big on government, didn't have a lot of trust.
So is it possible that somebody thought that he had a lot of money around and that they could get that?
That was possible.
Jerry was missing.
You know, did he run into the river?
Did someone kidnap him and they're going to hold him for ransom?
You don't know.
He was a pretty big guy, pretty good-sized, liked to hunt.
But in either case, if you're in chased by a gun, it doesn't make any difference how big you are.
You could be out there, you could be dead.
As daylight fades, investigators learn their search team back at the Gordon Creek Bridge have come up empty-handed.
Tracking dog kind of indicated nobody had been there.
They didn't have anything out there.
Just as hope begins to fade, investigators receive a tip from a first responder.
Eric Eaton was a Corbett fireman who had responded to the crime scene, rendered aid to Lynn, and accompanied her to the hospital.
After they had left, he continued having a conversation with Lynn, and Lynn relayed new information to him about what had occurred.
Lynn had a pretty good idea that the guy they were going to go meet down there this morning was the same gentleman that Jerry ran into a week ago.
Coming up, did Jerry's tough exterior rub some folks in town the wrong way?
Jerry was such a fella that he couldn't help but make enemies.
And a new discovery stops detectives in their tracks.
The first thing that caught my eye when I went around back was the burn pile.
Well, there were bone fragments in the burn pile.
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Detectives in Corbett, Oregon are trying to pinpoint an initial interaction between Jerry Stomps and his alleged attackers in the days leading up to his disappearance.
At this stage of the investigation, it's important that they get as much information as they can.
Included in this is establishing a timeline of what was Jerry's activity in the last week.
The most solid information that the investigators have is the name of the one suspect, Dave.
Dave was interested in purchasing the boat and apparently contacted Jerry through Craigslist.
What were the circumstances that precipitated this meeting with Dave?
What record is of that?
What other interactions were there?
In search of this information, detectives turn back to Jerry's wife, Lynn, who is still in the hospital.
Lynn recounted Jerry's activities in the previous week.
This provided the officers with a lot of information that gave them leads to follow up on and ways they could corroborate the fact that prior to the reported disappearance on February 6th, Jerry had been around and been engaging in normal day-to-day activities.
Lynn says on Wednesday, February 4th, Jerry took some hay up to feed their cows in Clickatat County, Washington, where they own some farmland.
My dad got that property on Clicketat.
He goes there quite a bit to feed the cows.
Did he spend the night or did he come back Wednesday?
He spent the night and he came back on Thursday.
Okay.
And then when did he come back on Thursday?
He had been back before long.
Could Jerry have run into some unsavory characters in Clicketat who later plotted to attack him?
In efforts to corroborate what Lynn had told them, officers spent a tremendous amount of time driving through the area where he was reported to have been on his way to Clicketat County.
Along the way, detectives learn that Jerry had a bit of a reputation.
We were able to open a few doors and talk to a few people.
He was liked in the community.
He was known a little bit as a hothead.
He spoke his mind and whatever he thought, that's what he told you.
And it wasn't always nice.
You know, he could be very cruel.
I believe that Jerry was such a fella that he couldn't help but make enemies.
Though many in the community know Jerry well, no one has seen him in the last few weeks.
So detectives take a new approach.
Officers went to the Hood River Access Toll Bridge, which is on the Oregon-Washington border.
While there, they obtained videotape where they were able to identify Jerry's truck crossing the border.
But on February 4th, the day Lynn had said Jerry went to Washington, there was no sign of Jerry's pickup truck.
So I think that was a pretty clear indication that something wasn't right.
It's evident to detectives that someone isn't being entirely honest.
Could Jerry have been involved with something or someone he wasn't telling his wife about?
To find out, they confront Lynn at the hospital once again.
Typically on any suspicious disappearance, police want to look at that person's behavior.
In other words, are there things that could precipitate violence?
Things such as family problems, having a girlfriend.
So officers looked into this.
I'm going to be straight up with you.
Was Jerry seeing somebody else, or were you seeing somebody else?
No.
We are Christians and no, he would.
This is my husband.
I'm just talking about their past trials.
These two.
We just want to know if there's
some type of love triangle going on or either one.
I'm married for life, and he did too.
I told him the only way he was getting out of this, well, I shouldn't say this, getting out of this marriage was through death.
His or mine.
Unsettled by their last interview with Lynn, detectives obtain a search warrant for her home.
When they got to the residence, officers noted that there was no sign of a forced entry.
It was cluttered, but it hadn't been ransacked.
They also noted that some portions of the residence appeared to have been meticulously cleaned, perhaps with bleach.
When we were searching in the house, there was a coat rack right by the front door.
And on the coat rack was a fanny pack in which we located a revolver.
Aegis never really left the house without his gun.
He took it everywhere with him, so why would he be going to meet some stranger without his gun?
When we look at the gun, there's two cartridges that are left.
It was a revolver.
Someone like Jerry, who carries a gun religiously, would not have two spent cartridges in his gun.
Someone who carries on a regular basis cleans her gun when they shoot it.
That's not the only alarming detail about Jerry's gun.
When they looked at this a little closer, they saw that there appeared to be blood spatter on the exterior of the firearm.
With high intensity light, you could see that there was a very fine mist of what appeared to be blood.
The mist of it looked like high velocity blood that was something you would see at a very close range of something being shot.
The sample was sent to the Oregon State Police Crime Lab to determine if the blood was animal or human.
Investigators widen their search to the expansive properties surrounding the home.
We found several areas that looked really interesting.
There was some fresh ground that hadn't been dug in and covered over.
Brought the dog up to him, didn't care, so we pretty much eliminated the front yard, and then we went around the back.
The first thing that caught my eye when I went around back was the burn pile.
We went over there, and then the dog says, he's here, he's here, he's here, he's here, he's here.
Following the dog's lead, investigators begin a thorough search of the burn pile.
There are bone fragments in the burn pile.
Now, it's not uncommon for a critter out in an area like that to get into a burn pile and end up burning up.
So is it possible that it's not human?
It is.
It could be an animal.
We at the Oregon State Police had a forensic anthropologist, and we collected some of the bones to determine if they were human.
But the search doesn't stop there.
They noticed a metal garbage can on the patio.
And on closer inspection, they found what appeared to be charred bone remnants inside of this garbage can.
They collected these for further identification.
If the bones are human and the blood on the gun is Jerry's, then things have changed significantly.
In light of all the evidence, police are now fearing the worst and turned to the Stomp's phone records for answers.
Lynn had reported that Jerry had engaged in several phone calls with the one suspect, Dave, and gave specific times when these phone calls were purported to have occurred.
Detectives obtain phone records to corroborate or refute.
the information that Lynn had provided.
When the phone records were examined for the Stomps residents, there was no record that anybody named Dave had called on the days that Lynn had mentioned.
As soon as those leads end, you look at video, you look at cell phone data, and determine that Lynn's story was questionable and changing.
Each piece of information like this that we get is breaking down her story, telling us that for some reason she's not telling us the truth as detectives contact those listed in the call history a common theme emerges there's follow-up done from the phone calls to numbers that we know jerry would have been involved with what we determined was no one had actually spoken to jerry since before the super bowl
coming up a victim becomes a suspect and a lot of her story was slowly beginning to crack.
Is it something you don't want to believe?
And detectives demand answers.
That's not the truth, Lynn.
That's not the truth.
Oh, I'm going to be stepping.
Less than 48 hours after Jerry Stomps was reported missing, his wife Lynn remains in the hospital and police have found possible evidence of a violent crime at their home.
After scouring call logs, it seems no one has seen or heard from Jerry since before Super Bowl Sunday, five days before Lynn's reported attack.
After gathering extensive information and doing a ton of legwork, the investigators sat down with the family and engaged in kind of a roundtable.
I remember all of us sitting around talking and asking questions.
It turns out that Jerry was more or less missing in action for several days and Lynn always had
an excuse that he was working in the yard or he was hunting or he had gone to the store and at least once had gone to the family property.
No one could specifically identify having seen Jerry or talked to Jerry.
after February 1st.
A fact confirmed by Jerry and Lynn's young grandchildren and their mom, Sam Stomps.
Sam Stomps provided the information that her kids were over for Super Bowl Sunday at Jerry and Lynn's house.
They made a statement to mom
that they were a little upset because Papa Jerry wasn't there.
And we were always told that he was there.
Did you see Papa Sunday night?
When you went up there?
When you spent the night?
Papa was there, right?
as their discussion continues detectives uncover another useful piece of information
apparently lynn had lent their son jason several thousand dollars and jerry wasn't in on it uh he didn't know about it that's not something that he would have approved of lynn wasn't allowed to do a whole lot on her own especially when it came to finances without getting Jerry's approval.
When investigators dig into the couple's finances, they quickly realize a small loan to their son wasn't the only thing Lynn had been keeping from Jerry.
Lynn had $54,000 in unsecured, unreported credit.
that she had apparently been keeping secret from Jerry.
The secret debt was a problem.
Lynn had recently received an inheritance, so $54,000 may not seem like a significant amount.
However, this was a family that was carrying several mortgages and were trying to manage their finances as best they could.
Jerry was an independent person who, from what I understood, did not like credit cards, did not like to be in debt.
Jerry would not be pleased with the fact that Lynn was running up the debt that she did.
He was a pay your bills every month kind of person, didn't carry debt.
So yes, this would have been completely against what Jerry believed.
Had Lynn's debt led her to do the unthinkable?
We know Jerry's a volatile person.
Did he find out something about the other accounts that she had?
the debt that she was in.
That would have set Jerry off.
That would have created a fight.
Though they may have uncovered a motive, investigators still haven't secured hard evidence connecting Lynn to any crime.
Then, on February 10th, four days after Lynn was found on the side of the road, thorough police work generates a new lead.
They obtained videotape where they were able to identify Jerry's truck going to a shell station just across the border in Washington.
What was found was his truck pulling in, and we saw Lynn get out of the truck.
She's driving his truck when she says that he's supposed to be up in Clickatac County.
It clearly showed that Lynn was engaging in behavior that was contrary to what she had told the officers.
She was engaged in behavior deliberately trying to deceive the officers, and a lot of her story was slowly beginning to crack.
The next major break comes two days later when detectives are contacted by the State Crime Lab.
The State Crime Lab definitively identified the bone fragments as being human in nature.
Though investigators will have to wait to find out whether or not the bones are Jerry's, they are confident in what they've gathered thus far.
We knew at that point that we had a pretty strong case.
With this culmination of evidence and facts, they contacted Lynn one last time to give her an opportunity to explain her actions.
On February 12th, police confront Lynn in her hospital room once again.
You need to tell us.
You need to tell us, Lynn.
Yes.
Just
please tell us
what happened.
If some accident happened.
I told you it happened.
Lynn.
Lynn, listen to me.
Listen to me.
We have not talked to one person,
not one person,
that saw Jerry
from Friday before Super Bowl.
That whole week, Lynn.
Yes.
He was there.
It was not, Lynn.
That's not the truth.
What?
That's not the truth, Lynn.
That's not the truth.
It is the truth.
I don't know what's going on here.
This is...
Look at me.
Oh, I'm going to be stagnant.
They presented Lynn with evidence that the timeline she had presented was not correct.
Lynn didn't avail herself of this opportunity.
Lynn denied any of the information.
We found video
of the bridge in Hood River.
The gas station, the shell station.
We've gone to
other places to get video as well.
Uh-huh.
Trying to find Jerry on video.
Uh-huh.
We have not found him.
Okay.
Did you find me on video?
We have you on video, yes.
Okay.
Detectives show Lynn still images pulled from the gas station surveillance footage.
I don't understand this.
You're telling me that
you're thinking I did.
Oh.
No, we're not being accused of torque.
I still believe he's alive.
I know that he's out there.
You're not looking for him.
We are looking for him.
That has never stopped.
What we're trying to do is give you an out.
I don't need an out.
I know the truth.
Most times when presented with evidence, people will come clean.
Lynn was the type of person that was never going to admit anything.
Detectives have heard enough.
They place Lynn under arrest for the murder of her husband.
We were at the hospital and the detectives pulled us and said they're arresting her for the murder.
That was a very hard thing to hear.
Is it something you don't want to believe?
She didn't understand exactly why she was being arrested.
Then when all of a sudden it came clear to her that they thought that she had murdered him, she started crying.
Coming up, the truth emerges.
They were able to determine these bone fragments came from a maternal ancestor.
And family ties are broken.
They realize that they were standing by the wrong person.
The last thing I remember him saying is, I hope you burn in hell.
Less than a week after reporting her husband Jerry missing, 55-year-old Lynn Stomps is charged with his murder.
As her trial approaches, Lynn's family and friends remain on her side.
She kept saying, no, I didn't do it.
I loved your father, Bob.
I'm just a minute.
I thought, well, they're going to check into this and
give her trial and find out that she's innocent.
That was my first reaction.
It was the craziest thing that anybody would have said.
She had any part in doing something like that to Jerry.
I mean, she was four feet eight.
He was six foot something.
And for her to hide him in such a way that nobody could find him, she couldn't do it.
However, as more details emerge, it becomes difficult for Lynn's supporters to ignore evidence of her guilt.
The bone fragments were sent to a forensic laboratory in Texas that conducted an analysis of mitochondrial DNA.
Mitochondrial DNA comes from the maternal or mother side.
In this case, within a reasonable certainty, they were able to determine these bone fragments came from a maternal ancestor of Jerry.
We had collected his toothbrush and sent that in for his DNA sample to be compared to the samples collected from the gun.
The blood on the firearm was determined to be that of Jerry Stomps.
In light of this new information, support from those closest to Lynn begins to crumble.
The two Stomps boys stood by
their mother through a good chunk of the investigation and
I think eventually the writing was just
on the wall, and they realized that they were standing by the wrong person.
They started seeing that evidence the detectives had and everything, how it pointed to her
turmoil.
Lynn's trial begins on January 11th, 2011.
Lynn was about as impassive as I've seen a defendant in a court case.
She did not look like a robust, healthy person when I first saw her in the courtroom.
She looked like she'd been through hell.
She just looked like everybody's grandmother.
It was just kind of hard to believe that that woman could have done what she did.
However, prosecutors contend this demure widow is responsible for her husband's violent death.
And although the exact motive still remains unknown, prosecutors suspect a dispute over money likely played a role in 60-year-old Jerry Stomp's murder.
It sounded like they were having some financial-based arguments.
I think something happened in their house.
It could have been Super Bowl Sunday.
And she decided that was it.
Lynn knew where there was a loaded pistol, where Jerry always kept it.
by the door
and whatever they were talking about or arguing about must have escalated And Lynn grabbed Jerry's pistol and shot him twice at close range
and killed him.
Prosecutors believe that in a panic, Lynn then burned her husband's body.
They had a large burn pile right out front.
So the belief is that, you know, did she kill him, put him on the large burn pile?
He wasn't burning fast enough.
To get rid of the evidence, she used the trash can to make a hotter fire and put part of him in there.
Then, Lynn drove down to the Gordon Creek Bridge on the morning of February 6th, 2009.
She drove down to Gordon Creek, apparently with the intention of planting evidence to make it look as if Jerry had gone fishing by himself and perhaps had gotten lost or drowned.
drowned.
In the course of her planting this evidence, she fell down.
As the evidence stacks up, things are not looking good for Lynn.
She did not testify, and the defense did not present much of a defense.
Lynn was very upset with the trial.
She was just having to sit there and listen to what they were saying.
It was like watching a freight train that was headed for a wreck and couldn't stop it.
After two weeks of trial, the jury returns a guilty verdict.
At Lynn's sentencing hearing, her sons have a chance to say their peace.
Jason seemed to be totally choked up and he just couldn't do it and he left the stand.
And then Adam took the stand and it was the opposite.
He was very vocal and very accusatory toward his mother.
At that point, I believed in my heart eyes that she did it.
Told my mother she was a monster and I hope she burns.
It just seemed like there was nobody else in the courtroom except for those two for the time that that went on.
That's the only time that I really saw her possibly express true emotion.
On January 25th, 2011, Lynn is sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
But even with a murder conviction, missing pieces haunt those involved in the case.
If I could ask her one question, I guess I'd ask her why.
This still just blows my mind to this day.
How?
What is it that takes a woman who's married to a man for 39 years to kill him?
I have no idea what that answer is.
This is a case where the only person that knows why this crime occurred is Lynn, and she's not sharing that information.
Restaurants are sort of letting Rotten in prison, and she took a good man away from everyone.
No, I wanted to be remembered as he was.
A good man.
Hope Shriner became the oldest female inmate in custody in Massachusetts.
In 2014, after consulting with Bob's family, the Department of Corrections granted Hope's request for a medical furlough due to her declining health.
How hard is it to kill a planet?
Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.
When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.
Are we really safe?
Is our water safe?
You destroyed our town.
And crimes like that, they don't just happen.
We call things accidents.
There is no accident.
This was 100%
preventable.
They're the result of choices by people.
Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.
These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.
Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.
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