Dana Flynn

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An epic snapped story unlike any other.

With stunning twists along the way that culminates in an exclusive interview featuring new information never heard before about a case that rocked a small community.

This was the most heinous murder investigation.

He was going running and he never knew what hit him.

An execution style murder.

It was obviously an issue of overkill.

Investigators are sent down a trail of sordid secrets and cover-ups.

They suspected that there was an affair going on.

She'd been caught lying.

There was a report to one of our detectives alleging that he had been molesting his daughter.

It was very disturbing.

As the pieces fall into place, they will reveal a heinous plot twisted by faith.

It all seemed to stem from church activities.

He had prophesied that it was God's will that he needed to be killed.

It's hard to understand, I guess, unless you're part of that.

It's like a cult situation.

You had church scandal.

You had an affair with a pastor.

You had sex.

And for the very first time, one man at the center of this horrific crime finally tells his story.

I know it obviously doesn't change the name or

probably bring a whole lot of comfort, but

maybe at least knowing some things might help.

December 22nd, 1992.

It's 3.30 p.m.

in Junction City, Kansas, a small town of only 23,000 located two hours outside of Kansas City, when the local sheriff's department receives a 911 call about a gruesome discovery.

The call that was received was from a passerby who had noticed a body on the side of the road.

Law enforcement responded to the scene and found a body of a white male lying on his back at the intersection of Adams Road and Lyons Creek Road.

Originally there was some thought that maybe he'd been hit by a car or something like that because the wounds were so severe and he was next to a road.

Pretty shortly they were able to determine that he had been the victim of a homicide.

The man was deceased because of bullet wounds to his head and torso.

It appeared to be a shotgun, but yet we found no shotgun shell casings.

Someone was trying to hide their tracks.

It wasn't long before a stream of emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, and the sound of the collective sirens caught the attention of one neighbor in particular.

He walked down to the scene

and he was able to identify the victim as Randall Sheridan.

Immediately, the thought was, who could have done this?

Why would anyone want to kill Randy, especially in broad daylight?

Born in Ellsworth, Kansas in 1952, Randy Sheridan was a cowboy through and through.

We grew up listening to Western music and watching old Westerns on TV.

His dad was retired as an Army officer and he always had a great love for horses.

He was an extrovert, friendly.

He had a good sense of humor.

He had a lot of friends.

He was a good person, you know.

He was very engaging, very personable.

He was always the fun jokester type person.

In 1974, the young cowboy fell in love with Junction City native Judy K.

Youngins.

He always was able to

make a person feel like that he was listening to them and really understanding and asking all good questions.

When Randy and Judy were dating, they just seemed to get along really well.

Judy had a son, and Randy was helping raise her son.

They were all three really close.

In In 1981, after dating for seven years, Randy and Judy tied the knot.

We moved into the small house right after we got married.

It had some acreage with it, which had a place for his horses and dogs.

So it was, and it was close to town.

It was very nice.

They were very good years.

Unfortunately, the idyllic family life didn't last.

Shortly after we were married, I would say within a year, things did not go so well.

He moved out.

That was a time when

there was a lot of not getting along, distancing, kind of leading parallel lives.

By 1984, while still separated from Judy, 32-year-old Randy was working as a salesman in Chapman, Kansas.

There, he met a woman that stopped him in his tracks, 22-year-old Dana Dreling.

Mirandi met Dana, and they had what I would say is an affair.

Dana was one of five children raised in the small Kansas town of Chapman, a blue-collar type upbringing.

The family had a very strong work ethic.

The household was

a traditional Catholic.

household.

My father was a carpenter.

That's what he did for a living.

And my mother worked in the healthcare industry.

Later on, she really just raised us kids.

In her early 20s, Dana took a job as a dental hygienist in Chapman, where she soon met Randy.

I do not know exactly when Dana and Randy became involved, but we ended up getting a divorce.

And that was Because of the fact that Dana at that time, he was involved with her and she was was pregnant.

I don't think Randy was ever serious about Dana.

Dana was more serious about Rand.

But when Randy found out that Dana was pregnant, he took full responsibility.

He was fully on board.

He always wanted to have kids.

In 1985, Randy and Dana welcomed their daughter Ashley into the world.

He always was very interested in having a child.

He was excited about that part of it, but he did not want to get married,

so they were not living together.

When he would bring Ashley over to my folks's, which is where I would usually see her, he was, you know, just

full of joy.

Randy spent the next several years striving to be a good father.

He also made amends with his ex-wife, Judy.

After Ashley was born, we gradually became

close again

and then ultimately he moved back in.

When we did get back together,

it was good.

It was very good.

A few years after that reconciliation, Judy and Randy actually had a daughter together.

In 1987, Dana decided to follow Randy's lead and take a second chance on love herself.

Steve Flynn was an old classmate of hers in school and then reconnected later.

It happened real fast.

I think they reconnected, dated for a few weeks, and they were getting married.

Two years later, Steve and Dana had a son.

The couple also began attending the Fountain of Life Church in Salina, Kansas, led by Pastor Jerry Rollins, where Dana became an active member of the congregation.

My parents ended up selling their house and moving to Salina.

We started attending that church in Salina, Kansas when I was 16.

My family was lower middle class, very common, but Jerry had a way of making them feel like, well, God looked at them with particular favor

and was really going to bless them and they were special people.

Through the years, Randy Sheridan maintained a cordial relationship with Steve and Dana for the sake of his daughter, Ashley.

Typically, what would happen is is he would pick her up and Dana and Steve would come to pick Ashley up at our home on the return side.

As girls got older they would play together.

Those were very good times.

Unfortunately everything changed.

On December 22nd, 1992, Randy Sheridan, a beloved father of two, has been found dead less than a mile from his home.

What made it difficult, you're in a rural area where there's no houses, so there's no neighbors, no potential for witnesses.

With no witnesses, detectives will have to look to their victim to find his killer.

It was apparent from the scene he had received five shotgun wounds.

With the wounds inflicted, it was indicative that it was an emotional crime and that it was overkill.

It just screamed out, this was a personal killing.

They wanted to make sure that he was dead.

We have to rule everyone out.

And loved ones or people that are close to a murder victim or someone you look at,

because that's often who perpetrated it.

Coming up.

Was the cryptic call days before the murder a prank or a warning?

The only word she could make out was dive

because she said the caller was trying to disguise her voice.

And a surprising source of evil emerges.

He had voiced concern that the pastor of the church was trying to drive a wedge between Randy and his daughter.

The way it was done was textbook for cult doctrine.

On December 22nd, 1992, authorities in Geary County, Kansas are investigating the roadside slaying of Randy Sheridan.

At the conclusion of the investigation at the crime scene, Randy's body was taken to our local funeral home where the autopsy was conducted.

What takes place anytime there's a murder is they will start looking at that person and looking at their life, looking at the people in their life.

His wife would naturally be a suspect, you know.

I mean, were they having an argument?

Were there problems, you know?

Detectives don't have to wait long to find out.

I took off early

and was

driving home and saw all of these cars around our house.

There was a

sheriff's car that was sitting at the end of the driveway,

and that person flagged me down.

We spoke to her, told her that her husband had been murdered.

At the time,

It's hard to take in that information.

I was in shock.

It was

very difficult.

I basically was just shaking.

It was hard to

not shake.

It was just devastating.

The phone rang, and I recognized my father's voice on the other end.

And he just said, they've shot and killed Randy.

It was like an atomic bomb goes off inside of you.

Just

devastation.

While Randy's loved ones grieve, investigators waste no time searching for leads.

We did check the house to make sure that it had not been, you know, burglarized, but his house was intact.

There appeared to be no anything amiss within the residence.

So, you know, it came down to investigating what was going on with his life.

Detectives start by asking Judy when she last spoke to Randy.

He called me at my office around three o'clock and said he was going to go for a run.

That was, of course, the last conversation I had with him.

Judy says that the only conflict in Randy's life stemmed from a past affair.

She told us that Randy had had an affair with a woman by the name of Dana Flynn.

In that affair, he had

a child.

Judy also told detectives that Randy was going through a very nasty custody situation

with the mother of his young daughter.

Judy explains that earlier that month, Randy tried to pick up his daughter for a scheduled visitation, but her mother, Dana Flynn, refused to drop her off.

She was not there at the place where he was supposed to pick her up.

So this went on for a while, and he, of course, hired an attorney to see what could be done.

She said they had a court hearing coming up, and it was to be a change of custody to where Ashley would be given to Randy on a more permanent basis.

instead of just on visitation.

Judy let detectives know that on December 22nd, the day that Randy was killed, Dana was scheduled to bring their daughter to Randy so that they could go on a vacation.

According to his wife, he said, when I get back, I'll call my attorney and hopefully I'll know when we're to pick up Ashley.

And it was while he was out jogging that he was murdered.

Judy also tells detectives about a mysterious late-night phone call she received 10 days ago.

It was at 1.30 in the morning.

I happened to be awake, so I went and answered the phone.

And at that time,

I heard someone say something like, die.

Randy had heard the phone ring also, and so he came out and he grabbed the phone from me.

I heard him say on the phone.

Something about Mikey,

something Mikey.

When they hung up, he said that that was Dana's brother, Michael, who was calling.

I said, what did he, did he say something to you?

What did he say?

And he did not tell me anything about what he heard on the phone.

I think he just didn't want to worry me.

In that interview, she's thinking that Randy's murder had to do with the child custody dispute.

You know, I mean, it's just too coincidental that they've had all these problems having visitation, and he's murdered on that same day he's to pick up his daughter.

Immediately after wrapping up with Judy, police receive a telling phone call from Randy Sheridan's attorney.

He thought I needed to investigate this church that Randy Sheridan's estranged girlfriend, mother of his child, was involved in.

A church run by a 54-year-old pastor named Jerry Rollins.

Apparently, Randy had voiced concern that the pastor of the church was trying to drive a wedge between Randy and his young daughter.

The attorney told me that he was very suspicious that the pastor is the one who would have masterminded the death.

of his client.

And he said, I think that's who did it.

Coming up, investigators piece together Randy's terrifying final moments.

Those first two blasts were from some distance, and the shotgun blasts get closer and closer.

And police follow a litany of suspicions and accusations.

When there's a murder in a small town, that's huge, huge news.

The rumors were flying very, very rampantly.

After speaking to Judy Youngins, investigators now believe her partner, Randy Sheridan, may have been murdered in connection with an ongoing custody battle with his former girlfriend, Dana Flynn.

Randy was involved in this very contentious

custody battle.

Detectives, of course, wanted to talk to Dana.

While detectives begin tracking down Dana for questioning, Randy's autopsy report comes in.

The forensic pathologist's determination was that Randy was originally shot from a moving vehicle by a 12-gauge shotgun.

He was shot five times.

The injuries sustained included a major gunshot wound to his right wrist area.

and that it had gone through his wrist into his chest wall.

The second wound was to his back,

and both of those shots were likely fired at the height of a car door.

And then the suspect got out of the vehicle and just to make sure that he was dead and for that vengeance style killing, got very close to him point-blank range and fired those two shots to the head.

This was the most heinous murder investigation.

It was obviously an issue of overkill, which of course indicates a strong emotional contact of some sort with the victim.

The gruesome autopsy report leads detectives to an important piece of information.

According to the forensic pathologist, the shooter was in a passenger seat of a moving vehicle.

And so someone else had to be driving.

So far, investigators have three potential suspects.

Randy Sheridan's ex-girlfriend, Dana Flynn, Dana's brother, Michael Dreiling, who investigators believe had made a threatening call days before the murder, and Dana's pastor, Jerry Rollins.

We immediately went to Salina, Kansas to speak with the pastor.

When I first asked him where he was,

Around three o'clock that day, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a receipt from Walmart where he'd bought a toothbrush, as I recall.

That was a little strange.

Police asked Pastor Rollins if they could search his home, and he agreed to it.

One of the things they found were

shotgun shells, 12-gauge shotgun shells.

And again, it was determined that Randy had been killed by a 12-gauge shotgun.

When we asked him about, where's the shotgun?

You've got shells.

Where's the gun?

And he said that he had a son and that he had sold it before he went to the Navy.

Police obtained contact information for Jerry's son, David, and seize the shotgun shells as evidence.

As soon as we were done at the pastor's house, We immediately went down to Dana Flynn's house.

As I recall, it's one in the morning.

I sat down and spoke to her.

She didn't appear shocked at all or devastated that the father of her child had been murdered and gunned down, even though her daughter was to have gone to him that day.

I said, well, where were you today?

Dana Flynn admitted that she got a call from her lawyer

that upset her about noon on the day of the homicide.

She advised her folks at work that she didn't feel well and that she left work.

And she called her mother and told her mother to pick up her children after school.

She said she had gone to the gas station and got gas and then went immediately to her mother's house to stay there.

While she didn't feel good and didn't leave until, I believe, seven o'clock that evening.

With Dana's children still sleeping, detectives asked her to come in for further questioning the next morning.

I said, come in and take a polygraph and let's get to the bottom and say,

if you pass, hey,

you know, you're able to take that polygraph and show that you had no knowledge or no participation.

And she said that she would like to do that.

They had it all set up, but then they got a call from her lawyer that, guess what?

Dana wasn't going to show up and take that lie detector test.

Her attorney said that she would be making no statements or having any other conversations with law enforcement.

After Dana's change of heart, detectives pivot their focus to her brother, Michael Dreiling.

Randy Sheridan received a threatening phone call to his residence on December 12th, which was 10 days before the murder.

Randy told his wife it was Michael Dreiling on the phone.

After Randy's death, two days later, they showed up at my work to interview me.

They spoke to Michael and asked, where were you this day?

And he said he had a knee injury and said that he had gone to stat care.

Michael told detectives that on the morning of December 22nd, he was home.

And then

later in the morning, his girlfriend took him to go visit Dana.

And after visiting with Dana, he then headed to the doctor to get his knee checked out.

Investigators quickly realize that Michael's story contradicts Dana's alibi.

He said that he had seen Dana at her house, but Dana had said that she was at her mother's house.

How could she be two places at the same time?

He said he went at 4 o'clock in the afternoon to have his knee checked.

We, of course, went to

the care facility that he indicated, and their records indicated he didn't show up until 4:30 that day.

He had more than enough time, driving the speed limit, to go from the murder scene to the care facility and arrive by 4:30.

So, it appeared to me to be,

you know, an attempt to come up with an alibi.

That's when we knew that we were on the right track.

Coming up, another family is torn apart in this small town.

His son looked at him and said, you serve the devil.

And he knew that that could only come from one place.

And the intimate details of a scandalous love affair are exposed.

There was Pastor Rollins, partially clothed, and he said, take it easy, dear.

We're just praying.

We're just praying together.

My mother received flyers in her mailbox about Jerry ordering some kind of sexual toys or products.

You can imagine what a stir that caused.

Detectives investigating the murder of Randy Sheridan have just discovered inconsistencies in the alibis of 31-year-old Dana Flynn and her 20-year-old brother, Michael Dreiling.

There are indications they weren't being truthful about all of it.

So So it definitely put them in suspicion.

Detectives decide to dig deeper into Michael and his sister Dana.

They start by contacting Steve Flynn, the father of Dana's son and her husband from 1987 to 1989.

When detectives went to talk to Steve Flynn, he was very candid in saying that basically he was fighting not only Dana in regards to to custody of their son, but the whole family too, and felt like the whole family was ganging up.

Steve Flynn tells police that he and Randy had actually been in contact the past several months.

They discovered that there were things in common with the visitation and what was happening, you know, with the children.

Steve and Randy actually became quite close because they both found themselves in similar circumstances fighting Dana, fighting her family, and fighting Pastor Rollins.

Dana and her whole family had joined this church.

Steve, as I understood, quit going to the church.

Steve tells detectives he feared Dana was getting a bit too involved in the church.

There was a concern in the underlying child custody matter that the pastor was having a negative influence on the children and teaching that their fathers who were involved in trying to get visitation were evil or somehow served the devil.

Dana began withholding Ashley from some of the visitation with Randy.

Before long, Ashley began changing from a happy little girl to someone who would tremble

in our presence.

Steve knew things had gotten really, really bad when he went to go get his son and his son looked at him and said, you serve the devil.

And he knew that that could only come from one place.

It all seemed to stem from church activities.

That was where it all appeared to begin and end.

Hoping to learn more about the inner workings of the Fountain of Life Church, investigators pay a visit to Pastor Jerry Rollins' ex-wife.

She played a big, big role in detailing the relationship that she believed had been ongoing between her husband and Dana for quite a while, beginning back in 1989.

After Dana had broke up with her husband, Dana moved in with the pastor and his wife.

At one point, his wife woke up early in the morning and didn't find her husband in bed.

She went to walk around the house, didn't find him, went over to the bedroom of Dana, knocked on the door and said, Is the pastor in there?

And she said, No, I think he's outside.

She then went outside, checked outside the house for her husband, didn't find him.

She raced down to Dana's room.

She opened the door,

and there was Pastor Rollins partially clothed.

And of course his wife said, what's going on here?

And he said, take it easy, dear.

We're just praying.

We're just praying together.

Jerry Rollins' wife was concerned about them having a relationship.

And then she found a receipt from an adult mail order company called Adam and Eve.

The receipt was for sex toys

that were sent to Dana from her husband.

She left her husband after that incident.

Jerry Rollins' ex-wife tells investigators that she gave the receipt to her lawyer, who passed it on to Steve Flynn and ultimately Randy Sheridan.

Randy Sheridan then took

this mail order receipt that he had with Jerry Rollins name on it and Dana's name on it, and he made a bunch of copies of it, and then he mailed that out to church members.

At some point, my mother received flyers in her mailbox about Jerry ordering some kind of sexual toys or products for him and Dana with his credit card and in her name.

mailed to her.

I remember family members defending Dana strongly and thinking that it couldn't have been what it appeared to be.

You can imagine what a stir that caused.

Coming up, detectives uncover a hotbed of cover-up and corruption.

People closed ranks.

People were not cooperating.

And a dark conspiracy comes to light.

Randy was demonized more and more as time went on.

It did seem to indicate to us that Jerry Rollins did have some control over people.

I would call him a very evil man.

Police in Junction City, Kansas have decided to center their murder investigation around Dana Flynn's pastor, Jerry Rollins.

There were suspicions that it was the pastor who was involved because they suspected that there was an affair going on between the pastor and Dana.

It was also very curious that we did know it was a 12-gauge shotgun involved in the murder and we knew Terry Rollins had 12-gauge shotgun shells.

Pastor Rollins had said that one of his sons had sold a 12-gauge shotgun prior to entering the Navy.

On December 28th, 1992, less than a week after Randy's body was found, detectives turned their attention to Pastor Rollins' son David for clarity.

I contacted Naval Investigative Services and asked them to question him about the location of that shotgun.

His story changed minute by minute.

He sold the gun.

No, he didn't sell the gun.

And then

basically said he didn't know where the gun was.

Though David's demeanor is suspicious, detectives are forced to take another approach.

In February 1993, after working the case for two months, investigators take a closer look at the Fountain of Life Church.

We wanted to find out what was going on in the church.

Were there discussions of any magnitude that would indicate conspiracy to commit murder?

We began to interview everyone we could find that had been at least attended church there or had been a regular member.

People closed ranks.

People were not cooperating.

It very much turned into a dead end when we talked to church members, except

it did seem to indicate to us that Jerry Rollins did have some control over people.

But those who recently left the church following the pastor's shocking affair scandal are more forthcoming.

We learned that there were several prophecies prophecies from Jerry Rollins.

One was that

Randy Sheridan was evil

and that God should, they would pray that God would intervene.

Pastor Rollins had prophesied that it was God's will for Randy

not to

see his daughter.

It's hard to understand, I guess, unless you are part of that or of that mindset.

Basically, it's like a cult situation.

The indications of a cult are separation, trying to get people separated, you know, from their past loved ones and moving them apart.

And this was all part of that.

Randy was demonized more and more as time went on.

That created a,

I think, a...

a thought in people's minds that he was less than human or if something were to happen, it really wouldn't be a loss.

It really wouldn't affect people.

After interviewing ex-followers of the church, investigators wonder just how far Pastor Rollins' influence had reached.

Reviewing old police reports, detectives discover a history of demonizing allegations against Randy that seemed to echo the pastor's so-called prophecies.

In 1989, Dana Flynn came to the Gary County Sheriff's Department and made a report to one of our detectives alleging that Randall Sheridan had been molesting his daughter, Ashley.

These allegations, they had been investigated by the Sheriff's Office, they had been investigated by Kansas SRS, Social Rehabilitative Services, and no one had found any indication of an actual sexual or child molestation having occurred.

The evaluators were concerned that there was coaching going on with with the child and that the allegations and the manner in which they were being made was done in an effort by Dana to try to gain an advantage in the child custody dispute.

Dana didn't want him to have shared custody.

She did not want him to have any influence over her daughter.

And this was a way to have that come to be.

It was very disturbing.

There was a very important court hearing that was going to be be taking place just before the day he was murdered, where it was likely that she might lose custody of her child because she was refusing visitation.

She did not want to attend or have that hearing take place, so she obtained a continuance.

There was clearly motive in this case for Randy Sheridan to be killed by Dana Flynn.

Although investigators have established a motive and a suspicious pattern of behavior, they still don't have any physical evidence that dana flynn murdered randy sheridan people want physical evidence that links someone specifically to that scene at specifically at that point in time or they want a confession and we had none of those

The case languishes on for nearly two years.

We investigated well over a hundred and some people,

you know, thousands of pages of reports.

We had to investigate everything that came up.

You always have a risk in these kind of cases of when you go forward.

You know, have we got enough evidence now or do we need to continue the investigation for an additional period of time?

When you know who is responsible, but the time that it takes for the investigation and for that to

finally

be resolved is very frustrating.

But a phone call is about to change everything.

A witness came forward and told detectives that on 5 p.m.

the day of the murder, that she saw Dana going through a Salina car wash, not once,

but twice.

Coming up, a calculated plot rises to the surface.

There was sufficient time to commit the murder that afternoon and be able to get back to Salina in time.

She wanted her way, and it didn't matter how she got it.

And in an exclusive interview, A Killer Tells All for the Very First Time.

I still would be interested to know basically just what happened, the story behind the story.

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After nearly two years of investigation, detectives in Geary County, Kansas finally have the break they need in their case against Dana Flynn for the murder of her ex-boyfriend, Brandi Sheridan.

One of the members of the church who was no longer attending the church observed Dana Flynn going through a car wash twice on a day when she's supposedly too upset and sick to pick up her kids.

Law enforcement actually drove the route from where they believe Dana and Michael would have been to

the scene where the murder took place.

And they did that a couple different ways.

Either of the routes would have provided sufficient time to commit the murder that afternoon and be able to get back to Salina in time for Dana to have been seen washing her car at the car wash.

Detectives never let up on this case.

They worked tirelessly to bring the people responsible for this brutal killing to justice.

Finally, there's enough evidence.

On October 18th of 1994, the Gary County grand jury indicted Jerry Rollins, Dana Flynn, and Michael Dreiling for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit perjury.

Dana Flynn had a very close relationship with her brother.

There was specific evidence that he had made a threatening phone call to Randy 10 days before the homicide.

We also have him admitting to having contact with his sister the afternoon that the murder took place.

And then we also have the false alibi evidence.

He was basically playing the role of the heavy in helping Dana.

When they were going to arraign them, I came over and was standing outside and watched them file from the jail into the courthouse.

I guess that was part of my way of still trying to take care of my

pastor rollins entered an alford plea which is basically to say i uh

am not admitting guilt but i recognize there's enough evidence if i went forward on these charges i'm pleading to that i could be convicted he served i believe maybe four months

jail time for his participation

One could easily argue that Pastor Rollins deserved a lot more time

because it seemed that he was very, very influential in this case.

Pastor Rawlings was an individual who,

in my words, I would call him a very evil man.

In August 1996, siblings Dana Flynn and Michael Dreling go on trial for first-degree premeditated murder.

As a prosecutor, we often have cases that you look at and you say that, you know, in many ways, true life is so much stranger than fiction.

Think about it.

You had church scandal.

You had an affair with the pastor.

You had child custody issues.

You had sex.

You had adult sex toys.

The pastor and Dana have always maintained that they never had a relationship whatsoever other than parishioner and pastor.

This was a

complicated case because it was circumstantial and you had to show every angle.

What we had was a very detailed timeline for the jury to show them

how things were building towards the event that occurred here.

Our inference all along was that Dana was the driver and Michael was the shooter.

That was the the circumstantial case that we argued to the jury.

Dana's alibi turned out to be very shaky, how she said she was at her mom's house, but then a witness sees her going through the car wash twice.

Michael's alibi was very shaky.

And of course, there was also the issue of the 12-gauge shotgun shelves found inside the Rollins residence.

And we know that Randy Sheridan was killed with a 12-gauge shotgun.

But nobody in the Rollins family could ever say what happened to that gun.

All told, the prosecution builds a solid argument.

The jury was only at a matter of hours before they reached their verdict, and I think it was very clear to them

what took place in this particular case.

They were found guilty.

It was like such a relief.

On January 27th, 1997, Dana Flynn and Michael Dreling are both sentenced to life in prison.

Still, they maintain their innocence.

Dana, Michael, and the pastor never confessed any crimes.

They said that they had gotten the wrong people and remained very, very steadfast in their innocence.

I think that she wanted her way and it didn't matter how she got it.

This was the easiest way for her to get full custody and get rid of Randy.

It's been 27 long years since Randy's horrific death, and those close to the case still seek answers.

There are a lot of unanswered questions in this case.

We don't know who the shooter or shooters were

for certain.

We had no specific evidence of how the murder actually took place other than the inferences that were made from the autopsy report and what we saw at the scene of the crime.

It would be very, very

good if

either Mike or Dana were able to come forward and explain what happened and bring kind of closure for the family.

It would be very

good to hear, just for instance, how much Jerry Rawlings had to do with this.

Coming up, after 27 years of waiting, Randy's family hears Michael Dreiling speak out for the first time.

It's hard to come to terms with it when you've done something like this, to be honest and have to tell the truth about it, because nobody wants to admit doing something like this.

But it's the truth.

In 1996, 24-year-old Michael Dreiling was convicted for the brutal murder of Randy Sheridan.

On October 16th, 2019, he was released on parole.

After 23 years behind bars, he has decided to tell his story for the first time.

There's no way to

for this to be a positive experience for me,

except if someone else gets something out of it.

There's someone else being the victim's family.

I know it doesn't, obviously it doesn't change anything or

probably bring a whole lot of comfort, but

maybe at least knowing some things might help.

Now, Michael shares the details of the crime he committed and starts at the very beginning.

I was in the military, ended up having surgery while I was in,

and was medically discharged.

And

I ended up coming home, I want to say in April of 1991.

When I say home, I was Salina, Kansas at that time.

Once back at home, he found a new sense of purpose in his family's church, a Pentecostal parish led by Pastor Jerry Rollins.

Jerry was charismatic, and I think he definitely cultivated an atmosphere of everybody was special,

that we were chosen, chosen people.

He made people feel special and unique.

By the time Michael joined the congregation, Pastor Rollins had already taken a special interest in Michael's sister, Dana.

He would just talk her up, like just compliment her over the top.

And she would do the same thing back to him.

I can see the indicators now that it was more than just a pastor-parishioner relationship.

In 1989, Jerry began counseling Dana about her struggle with ex-boyfriend Randy Sheridan over their daughter, Ashley.

Jerry's wife had actually overheard a conversation

with Dana's daughter and her husband, the pastor, speaking.

At the end of that conversation, he came and told everyone that she revealed to him that she had been sexually molested by her father.

And she goes, I listened to the whole conversation.

I was keeping my ears in, wondering what's going on.

And she said she never mentioned anything like that

by the fall of 1992 as dana's custody battle with randy languished michael says dana made a plan of her own

late october dana calls me and asks me if i can come over and show her how to shoot this this gun

because she had

supposedly experienced some

potential break-ins, people prowling around the property at night.

She wanted to be able to defend herself.

We went out to the country, and I, you know, we loaded the gun.

I showed her how to shoot it.

She shot it a few times.

The weapon was Jerry's.

I don't know where he got it, but it was his that he had given to Dana and I to use.

I couldn't know for sure, but it might have been the plan for her to kill him by herself.

And then they adapted the plan or changed it at some point, including me.

Dana had several conversations with me

about Randy sexually abusing Ashley.

I think she wanted to reinforce that idea with me and keep reinforcing it a few times to where it would build up and finally,

you know,

it would make me feel like something had to be done.

Dana wanted to kill Randy.

That was the solution to her problem with Ashley being molested or supposedly being molested.

I was complete and totally surprised

because it seemed to contradict the religious teachings that we were, you know,

we were trying to observe in church.

I was conflicted.

I didn't know what was right or what was wrong.

She seemed to justify that because of Ashley's life was at stake.

I had a contradiction inside of me trying to determine what really was going to be the right course of action.

Torn by his sister's request, Michael says he turned to the one person he was sure he could trust.

I sought the counsel of Jerry Rollins.

I arranged to meet with him and have a private conversation with him without Dana there.

He said, let's let's pray about it.

So he, you know, we prayed.

And when we finished, he just said, you know, Brother Mike, he was in all my years in the ministry,

uh i've never come across this this situation or these circumstances but i believe god wants this wants this to happen because what he's doing to that little girl

he validated the and sanctioned the

the killing of randy and that

That blew me away, but I did not know or even think or consider that

those two were making that plan.

I really didn't know what to do.

I kind of deferred to that judgment.

A person didn't feel like they're allowed to question anything

because it's almost like they're questioning God.

That's how that began.

Coming up, despite his inner conflict, Michael puts the plan into action.

There was a first initial attempt before the murder ever occurred.

that no one really knows about.

And the moment of truth arrives.

Dana calls me and told me that today was going to be the day that we were going to kill Randy.

After 27 years of silence, 48-year-old Michael Dreiling has finally revealed details of the 1992 murder of his sister's former boyfriend, Randy Sheridan.

I've attempted to not make amends because I can't, but offer something

by way of just my willingness to be open and honest about this, about what I did.

According to Michael, in the fall of 1992, it was his sister Dana who first asked him to kill Randy.

But it was Pastor Jerry Rollins who gave the murder plot his blessing.

Ultimately, it was Jerry's persuasion and persistence that

convinced me

to perceive that as a righteous thing to do and agree to it.

Agree to killing Randy.

I mean, the way it was done was textbook for cult doctrine.

The irony is, is when you're in a cult, you don't know it.

For Michael, the situation became a crisis of faith.

I felt like I'd be punished if I was wrong.

What if he really is a man of God

and I'm wrong?

So I reluctantly and

with a conflicted heart agreed to it because I thought that it was the right thing at the time.

That's where I failed huge:

I didn't have the courage to continue to question that.

On the night of December 12th, 1992, Michael visited his brother's house with Pastor Rollins' oldest son, Charles, and decided to call Randy Sheridan.

The truth of the matter is, I pranked Randy that night.

I was with Charles and my brother,

and I think he breathed heavy on the phone.

He might have said die or something.

I don't remember.

Randy ends up dying 10 days later.

I did not know that was going to happen that way.

I did not.

I mean, that was not even in my mind when that prank was made.

Dana said, I'll let you know when the time is right.

She made it sound like, you know, when God wants it done,

he'll let us know and we'll do it.

And so

part of me was hoping that would never happen or never would come, but

it did.

About a week later, Michael says Dana told him it was time.

Before Randy's death, December 20th, there was a first initial attempt

before the murder ever occurred

that no one really knows about.

The plan was

to surprise Randy when he came home.

And

When we were there, we realized that Randy wasn't alone.

The Sheridan family arrived at home while we were there.

And

I

freaked out.

Here's the thing that no one knows about.

Dana said that everybody had to be killed because there's no, there can't be any witnesses.

And that's when I changed my mind and ran because I couldn't do that.

The following day, December 21st, 1992, Randy received permission to take their daughter for the holidays.

But the details remained vague.

Every other time that they'd had a transfer, there'd been all this discussion, cussing and discussing about the details, but this time there was none.

Desperate to get full custody of her daughter, Michael says Dana once again set her plan into motion.

The morning of December 22nd, 1992, Dana calls me

and told me that today was going to be the day that we were going to do that.

We were going to kill Randy.

Coming up, Michael's detailed account of Randy's brutal shooting is finally revealed for the first time.

She was driving.

I was in the passenger side.

And Dana brought the car to a stop.

Dana said, well, there he is.

That's the sign that we're looking for Now, now.

The gravity of it really started to sink into me at just how wrong it was.

Though the murder of Randy Sheridan was 27 years ago, convicted killer Michael Dreiling remembers the event that changed his life and the lives of everyone around him like it was yesterday.

But his version of events paints a very different picture of the crime, one that his sister Dana denies to this day.

It would have been early afternoon.

We arrived and we saw him jogging on the road.

Dana said, well, there he is.

That's the sign that we're looking for.

He's by himself,

you know, that God wants this done.

She was driving.

I was...

in the passenger sign and Dana brought the car to a stop and Randy was jogging up the road and he saw us and I think he recognized Dana

and he started to slow and walk and start walking towards the car by the window

to talk to Dana, I believe.

And that's when Dana told me now, now

Randy realizes the situation and put his hand up like this.

I know that I fired a shot.

One hit him in the arm.

And that kind of spun him around a little bit to the side.

And I shot it.

I fired another shot

and hit him in the side.

And then he started to run.

And I fired another shot and he fell down.

And when Randy fell down, that's when I stopped.

The gravity of it really started to sink into me at that time.

Just how wrong it was.

My part was over at that point.

In my hit.

My desire and drive to continue on was over.

But not for Dana.

Dana got out of the car and told me to shoot him again.

Randy was on the ground.

And I didn't.

I don't remember saying anything.

So she took the gun from me and went over and fired the last two shots.

I remember standing there just kind of

in somewhat of a daze, a kind of a shock.

And

Dana told me to help her pick up the shells, so we picked up the shells, got in the car, and drove away.

The weapon was cut up in pieces with a hacksaw,

and I tossed that out the car window, driving down the road.

Michael waited anxiously for two years for his deed to finally catch up with him.

I knew what happened, and I felt felt like I had to lie.

When I was arrested, my mind, Randy was still a bad person at that time.

It wasn't until later that I realized Dana and Jerry would lie about anything to

get their way about whatever they wanted done.

When I was sitting in court and hearing the evidence about their affair and the things that they did, then I knew

all of this is not only wrong, but it's been wrong for a long time.

And it was disgusting and sickening, and it made me angry and bitter towards them

today michael dreiling is a free man but he still has to live with the murder he committed in december 1992.

i served just shy of 23 years over that time

uh

i learned the value of human life um

And I wish I'd have known that sooner.

And I don't want to make excuses or say that I didn't didn't know better because

I did know better, but

it's not that simple.

I know that Jan is still claiming that she's innocent and didn't have anything to do with this because that's what the parole board has reported to the newspapers.

I don't understand why not tell the truth at this point.

You know, it doesn't surprise me that she's still claiming it, but it amazes me that she is.

Michael hopes when Randy's loved ones hear his story, it will bring some closure to Randy's death.

I hope they're able to

see that someone,

at least one of us, is actually remorseful.

I hope they feel something positive out of this.

Just closure of, you know, they finally know, you know, for a fact, you know, this happened.

It, I think, helps to finally know a little bit more about what happened and how it happened that he has

and is seeming to indicate remorse that is very helpful as far as information i would am interested in

i don't care what any of them have to say i don't care if they're sorry or not it they murdered my brother and that's the you know

that's that's all i know they can go to hell

I have fond memories of the times that we spent together, the time he spent with my son, times later on when the girls were young.

I miss the fact that his daughters

did not get to know him as their father.

That definitely is very hard.

The fact that Ashley was also no longer a part of our lives after having that connection,

that is,

yeah, very tough.

She may have gone to her mother's sister.

I I don't know for sure.

I always thought we'd grow.

I always thought we'd grow old together.

Randy and Dana's daughter, Ashley, was raised by Dana's family.

Dana Flynn is serving a life sentence in the Kansas Department of Corrections.

She will be eligible for parole in August of 2023.

She still maintains her innocence.

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