BONUS: Gustafsons (Killer Siblings)

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Hi, Snap listeners.

We're bringing you a special bonus episode today from Oxygen's hit series, Killer Siblings, returning with all new episodes tomorrow, Friday, December 3rd at 8-7 Central.

You can also watch full episodes live or on demand on the free Oxygen app by clicking the link in our description.

Enjoy.

The explosion itself had almost completely destroyed the home.

One of the neighbors said it felt like an earthquake.

Who would want to mail a bomb to a 19-year-old kid named George Kerr?

George started to hang out with Raymond Shealy and Doug Gutson.

Their interesting guns brought them together.

Just disaffected and wild, feral teenagers.

They can't be surprised that someone died as a result of that gunshot.

I usually wouldn't ride out my friend.

Doug's older sister, Peggy, was firmly convinced that Doug was innocent.

The people with the best motive also had the best alibi.

How can he even think that he could talk his sister into doing this?

And she did it.

Trugiak is a rural community

It's located approximately 15 miles out of Anchorage, a relatively safe area.

No one was prepared for what happened that day.

A neighbor hears the explosion, calls the Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department.

They don't know what's happened.

Initially, they thought it was a natural gas explosion.

I just heard a loud explosion and it rocked her house.

And then a couple minutes later, my five-year-old had looked out the window and saw some smoke.

The explosion itself had almost completely destroyed the home.

There's debris everywhere.

When first responders arrived, neighbors quickly pointed them to the home of 44-year-old David Kerr and his 34-year-old wife, Michelle.

They were both pillars of the community, and neighbors feared they were in that house when it blew up.

The emergency responders are calling out, is there anybody home?

Is there anybody here?

Unfortunately, David Kerr was killed by the explosion.

Michelle Kerr, amazingly, never lost consciousness.

So she hears them yelling.

She manages to physically sit up out of all this rubble that she's covered with.

She has a piece of the door jamb sticking out of her body cavity.

She's got all this.

blown-in insulation stuck to her.

She tells the emergency responders it was a package that had exploded.

When they realized that this was a murder by a mail bomb, it was a federal case.

And that's when the postal inspectors got involved.

I arrive on scene.

There was considerable damage exterior to the house.

The front window had been blown out.

One of the neighbors described the blast as it felt like an earthquake.

The male victim, David Kerr, was blown.

back across the kitchen away from the counter where he had opened the device.

He was

pretty well mangled from the blast.

The explosive fire had changed the shape of his face, so he looked like he'd been windswept or sandblasted.

I assigned one of my team members to go with the body to the coroners for an autopsy and collect evidence from the body.

We started setting up for major recovery of evidence on the scene.

They bring Michelle to Alaska Regional Hospital here in Anchorage and immediately start working on her.

She has between 2,000 and 3,000 individual projectiles, pieces of metal, glass, ceramics, wood, driven into her body and into her face at supersonic speed.

They're working on her frantically, trying to save her life.

The Anchorage Police Department responds to the hospital, and an officer put a little cassette recorder next to her head.

to ask Michelle questions, which everybody expected to be a dying declaration.

Michelle, there's some police officers here.

Just repeat what you think happened.

Well, we got a

package

for George of the state of Alaska.

The female victim revealed that the parcel was addressed to her stepson, George Kerr.

Who would want to mail a bomb?

to an 18-19 year old kid named George Kerr.

George Kerr was born March 2nd, 1972.

He grew up in the rural town of Sugiak, small suburb of Anchorage, Alaska.

In Alaska at that time, you have this pipeline boom.

Suddenly, all this new money starts coming into Anchorage.

Sort of Peters out in the 90s, and you get this generation of what I call them bad seeds, just disaffected and wild, just lost kids.

I've known George Kerr since elementary school.

George lived right up the road from me.

We were good friends growing up.

We worked at JD's barbecue pit together.

How I come to meet George.

He worked for my big brother.

We owned barbecue restaurants in the state.

We would hire high school kids to help us run them during the summertimes and stuff.

George seemed to be, you know, just a regular kid there.

You know, he done well in school as far as I know.

His dad was a real good guy, but somewhere along the line there, George got to thinking he wanted to be a tough guy.

About that time, George started to hang out with Chukiak's resident bad boy, Raymond Cheely.

Raymond Cheely, a social person.

Most of his friends called him R.D.

I've known R.D.

Cheely since

Eighth grade.

We started wrestling together in the same wrestling team.

Then he started driving us to junior high because he had a license before, you know, most kids can get licenses.

Raymond Cheely was well known in the community as being kind of a feral teenager.

His parents got him his own apartment because getting to and from his house was pretty iffy in the winter sometimes.

Raymond Cheely had quite the entourage at Shugiak High School, including Douglas Gustafson.

Doug was very awkward.

He had no self-esteem, I don't think, at all.

He was called the lizard by a lot of people.

So that in itself is, that says a lot, I think.

He was R.D.'s friend, and a lot of people would be like, why did you bring him?

You know, why is he here?

Their interesting guns brought them together.

Doug was smart.

But Doug also had some weird quirks.

Like, his reading was the anarchist cookbook.

I mean, who reads that?

He was fascinated with firearms, fascinated with explosives, would make statements like his goal was to become an assassin.

He was really sort of an oddball and was viewed that way, even by these other kids that were part of this group of miscreants.

Doug's parents were devout Jehovah's Witnesses, but they weren't devout parents.

Peggy Gusteson, she's eight or nine years older than him.

Their parents both worked full-time.

And so Doug's older sister, in effect, became the caregiver for Douglas after school.

Peggy Gusteson was like so many Alaska women.

She was a caring woman and cared about her family.

Peggy was kind of the older sister that never got in trouble and was trying to keep her younger brother, Doug, out of trouble.

So they were particularly close.

They had a very close connection as siblings.

Their other sibling, Craig Gusteson, who was the middle child between Peggy and Doug, not so much.

Craig was a hardworking guy.

He was a mechanic, but he had other jobs.

He kind of went on his own path.

Doug and Craig were not very close.

Aside from Peggy, Doug was pretty much a loner.

1990, the year that Doug, Raymond, and George graduated high school with absolutely no plans for the future.

The three teens post-graduation spent most of the time hanging out at J.D.'s barbecue pit where George Kerr was employed.

They got to talking to some of the hell's angels and different guys that hung around our barbecue restaurant.

They seen some things

right that might have appealed to them.

Hey, I want to be like that too.

With this little group, They started committing acts of mayhem out in the Eagle River and Chugiak area.

Acts of vandalism, burglaries, for lack of a better term, they were bad kids.

You get those three together, and they're thinking, okay, how can we steal?

How can we make money?

How can we do this, this?

They were bad news together, those three.

Raymond, he was the brains behind all of it.

They were out burglarizing stuff.

The most noteworthy of the unlawful activities was they burgled rib Mike's meats.

George Kerr, Gustafson and Cheely,

thought it'll be a swell idea.

Let's rob the joint.

In the middle of the night, they break into Mike's meet through the back door and make off with the entire safe.

There was a substantial amount of funds in the safe.

They obtained approximately $20,000 from Mike's Meets.

They immediately took that cash and they went out and purchased some high-end firearms the day after the burglary.

An AR-15, a semi-automatic Uzi, and a HK-91.

Doug Gustafson bought an HK-91.

That's a sniper rifle.

Doug always wanted to be a sniper.

The next day, on October 19th, 1990, all three of them had been out.

firing these weapons out of the gravel pit.

They had just finished up doing that and got into their car.

Raymond Shealy, who's the driver, Douglas Gustafson, who's the front seat passenger, and George Kerr, who's a passenger in the rear seat.

They're driving to Anchorage, and the intention was that they were going to party.

They were going to have a good time.

Again, using the proceeds of this meat market burglary.

Douglas Gustafson has in his lap a HK-91.

Doug is shooting at signs on the sides of the road.

And this little red sports car came around them.

The other vehicle crossed in front of the Cheely, Gusteson, and Kerr vehicle and is exiting on an off-ramp.

R.D.

accused him of cutting him off.

Doug decided he ought to teach him a lesson.

Raymond Cheely accelerates the car

and lines up Doug Gusteson to fire a shot.

Doug Gusteson takes that sniper rifle, leans out the passenger side window, aims it at the rear window of the car in front of him, and fires.

He comes back in the vehicle and says, I missed him.

He didn't miss him.

Sibling love that's gone just totally awry.

His sister Peggy was convinced that that George Kerr was the one who fired the shot.

They want revenge.

September 17th, 1991, 44-year-old David Kerr opens the package addressed to his son George

and is killed instantly.

So the question is, who would have a motive to want to harm or kill George Kerr?

George had a reputation of being involved in some unlawful activities with some of his friends, Doug Gustafson and R.D.

Cheeley.

One night, Doug Gustafson leans out the window, aims at the other vehicle, and fires one round.

He comes back in the vehicle and says, I missed him.

He didn't miss him.

That round that he fired went right through the back window, and it hits the front seat passenger, Jeffrey Kane, right in the head and kills him instantly.

Driver pulled off, stopped, looked over at his buddy, and his buddy was dead.

We pull into the parking lot,

and there's Robbie's car with a blanket or something over

the window.

Of course, they wouldn't let me

get within 50 yards of it.

They had all cornered off, but I could see Jeffrey still sitting in it.

Jeffrey Kane went to Tugak High School like we did.

Seemed to be a nice kid, man.

He didn't deserve what he got, that's for sure.

He was just full of life and joy.

In fact, the night that he died, he came upstairs and he was going to go out with Robbie.

And I said, you need some money?

Nah, I got $5.

And he looked at me and he said, Mom, I really love you.

And I'm going, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Everybody loves me.

You want some more money?

And he said, no, but I really love you.

And off he went that night.

And that was the last thing she told me.

Chili and Doug Gustason and George Kerr continued on into Anchorage.

They go to a local motel.

They call some young women and

they have a party.

They drink, they smoke some weed.

And then they finally go to sleep.

At that point, they didn't know that Doug Gustison killed Jeffrey Kane.

The next morning, George Kirb's walking into his house, he sees on the doorstep the Anchorage Daily News.

He realizes instantly that, holy smokes, that was us.

I don't believe Doug aimed that gun to kill anybody.

I don't believe our demon.

He might have said shoot.

But I do not believe that that bullet was meant to kill Jeffrey Kaine.

Is it an accident that Jeffrey Kane is killed instantly by the shot from that sniper rifle?

Why have a sniper rifle if you don't intend to be a sniper?

They can't be surprised that someone died as a result of that gunshot.

It's on all the TVs about this kid getting killed that night.

R.D.

and Doug are trying to get rid of all the evidence.

They're trying to do whatever they can.

to cover up.

So that's the time the gun disappeared.

But George is starting to get the cold feet.

He agonizes for much of the day about what to do.

George, he even went to those guys and he said, we got to turn ourselves in.

They were the ones that said, no, no, no.

It was just one of them clean crimes that nobody would ever figure it out.

George Kerr, he thinks about it.

He thinks about it.

He finally talks to his boss who owned the restaurant he worked for.

And George was real close to him.

Tells my big brother what happened.

Phelps tells him, you have to do the right thing here.

You got to go to the police, George.

So he does.

They arrange for him to go down to the Anchorage Police Department.

He meets with homicide detectives, and George agrees to cooperate at that point.

These guys are friends, okay friends, I would say.

I mean,

and I usually wouldn't rat out my friends, but this is just so severe, I got to do it.

Ultimately, George recognized that this was a very, very serious matter.

Obviously, very much more serious than anything these kids had ever done before.

George tells the police, Doug Gusteson leans out the window, aims, and fires one round.

Did he actually aim it like a rifle?

It was really quick.

I don't know.

I was sitting in the back and I was telling him, you don't want to do that.

I still didn't think you'd do it.

In any case in which you

somebody coming in and telling you a story about somebody else committed a crime, you have to get some kind of corroborating evidence, some reason to believe this person is credible.

What George has to do is get Raymond Cheely and Doug Gusteson to talk about this shooting directly to him to get it on tape.

And there is your evidence.

That's when they wired Kerr up

and had him talk to Gusteson and Cheely.

Doug Gustason cleaned out the window with that sniper rifle and he killed Jeffrey Kane.

And George Kerr, who's in the back seat, saw it all.

If George Kerr keeps his mouth shut, he's an accessory to this crime.

And I think that was probably most of the motivation for George to go and report this to the police.

So the police, based on what George Kerr told them, went and and obtained a warrant.

That's when they wired Kerr up and had him talk to Gustafson in Chile.

I've worked a lot of cases where you have cooperating witnesses wired up, and that's always

pretty intense.

George goes out and meets with Doug Gustafson, and they talk about the shooting that had occurred the night before.

And George says to Doug on that recording, he says, Doug, why did you have to kill that guy?

And Doug responds, I didn't mean to, George.

That's all they needed.

It was an admission from Doug Gusteson that he had pulled the trigger and fired the shot that murdered Jeffrey Kane.

George also is wired up and has conversations with Cheely.

Cheely is much more circumspect in his responses to George Kerr's prompting questions.

So they don't obtain a smoking gun admission like they did from Doug Gusteson, but ultimately they obtained enough that they felt that they were ready to charge Raymond Cheely.

Doug got arrested first and then R.D.

got arrested.

Gusteson and Cheely, they're charged with murder for killing Jeffrey Cain.

George's decision to cooperate leads to a decision for him not to be charged by the state of Alaska for any exposure he might have had for the Jeffrey Kaine murder.

That greatly upset Doug's older sister, Peggy.

As siblings, they're very close.

Peggy was firmly convinced that Doug was innocent of the Jeffrey Kaine homicide.

It was two or three days after my son was killed that the district attorney called the house and he said, I believe we've got the people that

killed your son

and I said that's good news but you better get a conviction because if they get on the street I'll take care of the problem myself

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The turnaround from the arrest to the trial is remarkable.

Today, you'd be lucky to get a case like that to trial in a year and a half, much less four or five months.

The Jeffrey Kaine murder trials had been high profile.

Everybody in town, you know, was aware of what had happened and were following the media coverage.

Gustason and Chile's trials were severed, so they had two trials.

Gustason went first.

His trial was in early March of 1991.

George Kerr, of course, is the main witness for the state of Alaska.

Obviously, his testimony is the key component.

It wasn't like an aim thing.

It was just pointed in the general direction of the car.

Prosecutors sought the conviction of both Cheeley and Gustason.

The reasoning was that Cheely purposely positioned that car so Gustason could take that shot.

If Cheeley hadn't cooperated fully by positioning the car that way, the murder never would have happened.

So Cheeley is just as guilty of the murder of Jeffrey Kane as Doug Gustafson.

19-year-old Douglas Gustafson and 20-year-old Raymond Cheely were tried and convicted for killing Eagle River resident Jeffrey Kane in a drive-by shooting on the Glen Highway.

Cheely and Gustafson were sentenced to 60 and 65 years in prison, respectively.

Peggy Gustafson genuinely believed her brother, Doug Gustafson, wasn't the shooter.

I think she really believed he was innocent, innocent and that George Kerr was lying.

In fact, she was convinced for whatever reason that George Kerr was probably the one who fired the shot at Jeffrey Kane.

Peggy was in total denial that her baby brother, the one she'd raised all of his life, could be guilty of such a heinous crime.

She was sure someone else must have pulled the trigger.

Following the trials in March of 1991, George is still here in the community.

He ceases to be part of the chili crowd because those kids don't want to have anything to do with him.

He decides at some point that he's going to join the Navy.

So in September of 1991, early September, George departs the state to join the Navy.

Dave Kerr picks up a package from the post office, and it's for George, and he takes it home.

His wife, Michelle, is in the kitchen just down the hall.

David Kerr opens the package.

He's killed instantly.

They're processing the remains of David Kerr in an autopsy at the state crime lab.

A number of things were collected from the body.

One of the key things we found was the forensics were able to recover chemical traces of MMAN.

And the reason that was important is because MMAN is added to an explosive called Tovex.

It's a high explosive that is frequently used in things like mining and logging.

But the single most important piece of physical evidence was a piece of the micro switch that was used to set off the explosive.

This little piece that's recovered from David Kerr's body cavity is part of a roller switch.

And this is typically something that is used to complete an electrical circuit.

So as long as the switch is closed, the circuit isn't complete with the wiring that goes between that switch so that when David cut the tape on the box and lifted the flap, it completed the circuit into the Tovex and detonated the explosives.

It was only by a miracle that Michelle Kerr survived.

Later, investigators were able to talk to her.

Well, we got a

package

for George from the state of Alaska.

I know it was from George.

How do you know that it was from Doug, Michelle?

Because George put him in jail.

So you start connecting those dots.

It became pretty clear that Doug that she was referring to was Doug Gusteson.

But the people with the best motive also had the best alibi.

They were incarcerated.

I know it was from Doug.

How do you know that it was from Doug, Michelle?

Doug's drugs, put him in jail.

The problem the investigators have with the theory that Doug Gustison and Raymond Cheely are involved is how could they do this from prison?

How would they have the technical know-how to design an explosive device?

Where would they get the components from?

They didn't have access to a post office in prison, so that presented a big challenge to the investigators.

But then they finally got a break.

On the heels of the explosion, there are prisoners over at the prison where Raymond Cheeley is housed and where Douglas Gusteson had earlier been housed.

They have a couple of prisoners tell us that they actually saw a written hit list that Raymond Cheely had prepared of people that he wanted to kill.

He primarily centered on those involved in his conviction.

On that list was the judge, the prosecutors, and the witnesses.

And at the top of the list, George Kerr.

Cheely and Doug Gusteson are really angry with Kerr.

Angry with him because he was in on the initial horrible event.

Angry with him because he then turned state's evidence.

And maybe angry because he might have been lying.

Who knows?

And so they want revenge.

They were able to pass notes in jailhouse lingo.

They call them kites.

They would utilize the assistance of other prisoners like, hey, can you give this to Doug over in the other jail cell?

They were also able to coordinate a specific time and day to call the Chili house.

They have two separate phone lines that come into that home and that someone out there was taking the phones and literally turning mouthpiece to earpiece and they were able to talk to each other over the telephone that way.

So these hurdles like how could these guys do this from prison, it's becoming increasingly clear that it's really not that difficult.

Now investigators have to deal with the issue of these guys are in custody.

It's probably next to impossible that they constructed this bomb themselves in a correctional facility and mailed it to George Kerr.

So someone had to help them.

The investigators start looking at all the people that were close to Gustafson and Chile.

They'd find out about who these people had been talking talking to and what they'd been talking to them about, their family, friends.

Doug Gusteson has an older sister and an older brother, Peggy and Craig, who are living in the area.

So we determined that we need to know a little more about those people.

So we decide to review the prison tapes, trying to find anything of evidentiary value.

How are you doing?

Oh, God, I'm so glad you called.

Doug has many conversations with his sister, Peggy, before the bomb went off.

Ted, all these phones are monitored here big time.

Yeah, and if these phones are monitored.

Oh, yeah.

By Thanksgiving, we're all in the Anchorage Police Department listening to tapes.

It seemed like it was endless.

There was some bleak times for sure.

One of the prison tapes that we listened to, Peggy relates to Doug that she has a dream.

I dream I saw gorgeous pitch hiking.

And I looked around, I didn't see anybody, and I didn't get him.

I sent that puppy flying up to my car, and I looked, he was still alive.

And then I broke his neck.

I hope he took the car to the car wash afterwards.

Peggy's involved in the hatred of George.

She's of the same mind he is in getting even with George.

We all have headphones on, and we're all listening to recordings of these things.

And Glenn Porter says, boys, I think I found something.

Yeah, now this is to fix your car, remember?

Doug Gustafson speaking with Peggy in a code.

The more we listened to it, the more plain it became that they weren't talking about a car.

They were talking about a mailbox.

As soon as you find out which way is on, which way is off on the sliding one, glue it in place,

like I described right below the surface

so that when it's pushed towards the side it's on.

And when it's pushed towards the center it's off.

Right.

Okay.

What it sounds to me like is

a

triggering device for a bomb.

She burns up some switches and batteries trying to make the device work.

He tells her in one conversation that, you know, to get certain switches from Radio Shack.

This piece of metal that came from the body that was part of a switch was examined back

in the lab, was identified as being sold by Radio Shack.

Well, I first did it positive, separate, and negative, separate.

That's how I tried this.

Yesterday, I saw ready to pull my hair out.

You wouldn't believe how stupid I am when it comes to

my car dominant.

Is there a book I could buy?

A book?

I don't think it'd be smart to go out and buy a book on that type of thing.

Douglas is becoming frustrated with Peggy about her inability to wire up whatever she's wiring up.

See, the problem is I like to get things worked out, but I can't over here, you know.

Anyhow, did ⁇ for brains have any help?

Yep.

Okay, did he get everything straightened out with you?

Yeah.

Good.

We determined through interviews and contacts that ⁇ for Brains is their brother Craig, the middle child, who happens to be a mechanic and understands electrical wiring.

It was a eureka moment.

Peggy Gustafson had talked to Douglas Gustafson about assembling what the investigators believed to be an explosive device and strongly suspected their brother Craig Gustafson assembled that device.

It was a eureka moment.

That caused them to focus even more on the Gustafson siblings.

Craig was perceived to be the black sheep of the family.

He wasn't necessarily estranged from them, but Craig was not necessarily close to Peggy or Doug.

So we start focusing on Craig, who appears to be sort of a weak link here.

Really what we needed was evidence.

We had an idea of how the events occurred.

and what transpired.

But without evidence, you don't have anything that you can go to trial on.

And one of our inspectors inspectors on the team had built a little rapport with Craig and we gained some trust with him.

Craig is contacted.

Initially he's not cooperative with the investigators.

Craig wasn't necessarily hostile to the investigators, but he certainly wasn't, you know, forthcoming.

So they had had this continuing contact with him, which was increasingly becoming more frequent, a little more friendly.

It increasingly becomes clear that Craig was very troubled by the fact that David Kerr had been murdered as a result of this explosive device.

And then finally, Craig decides to pick up the phone.

He wants to talk.

On March 12, 1992, to the surprise of many, Craig Gustafson calls postal inspectors so that he could confess to the crime.

Craig Gustafson told the investigators that he was involved in making the bomb and his sister Peggy was involved in making and mailing the bomb and they did so at the direction of their brother Doug

from prison.

Doug Gusteson and Raymond Cheeley had been involved in this bombing plot.

Doug had asked Peggy to build this explosive device, that she was able to get the components, that she's having difficulty assembling the device.

Craig had been over at Peggy's, observed her attempting to put the device together, and was concerned for her safety because Peggy's about nine months pregnant.

So Craig tells her, I will put that device together for you.

I don't want you to blow yourself and the children up.

Craig takes all the components, assembles the device, and gives it to Peggy.

Peggy, in one of the great lapses of judgment in human history, drives to the post office with her daughter in the car over a bumpy road and a bomb in the back seat.

And for less than $3,

Peggy mails the bomb to the home of George Kerr.

And think of all of the postal workers, the truck drivers, everybody else that came in contact with that package could have been killed in a heartbeat.

When Craig decides to give them this information, it's huge because it corroborates exactly what they thought had happened.

We decided to not take him into custody right away.

Without Craig Gustafson, the case goes away.

We needed him to testify.

We needed to ask him more questions, to get more things to corroborate.

We need him to make our our case.

And if we arrest him and lock him up, our ability to talk to him is over, except through his lawyer.

Because of Craig's cooperation, we had the

probable cause for search warrants.

We did search Peggy's residence, her parents.

We found nothing distinctive.

Artie Cheley, his parents live out by Lake Oklutona, which is a rather remote area.

They have a considerable acreage.

And so they've got a number of law enforcement officers that had to cover that entire property to try and find if there is some location where these bomb components have been stored.

One of the outbuildings on the property was indeed where these things have been housed.

We also find a lot of abandoned cars on the premises, which had evidence of explosive damage.

Doug was a bookworm, so he learned it out of Soldier of Fortune magazines about building pipe bombs.

And so we'd build build these bombs, man, and go out and blow trees up.

You know, we'd go to the creeks, man, and throw pipe bombs down and blow up salmon.

Clearly, this is something they had been interested in, and that it wasn't something like they were starting from scratch on this.

They had the technical know-how, the understanding of how to build an explosive device.

The investigator had enough evidence that they could be satisfied that they had the right people and put it together for a case.

The investigators know that indeed they have a conspiracy involving four people, Raymond Cheeley and Douglas Gustafson, who are able to form this bomb plot.

They know that Peggy Gusteson is involved in assembling and ultimately nailing the device.

They know that Craig Gustafson in fact built this device.

Craig Gustafson's confession was the turning point that pretty much set in motion getting charges filed against the whole family.

Cheely was arrested this morning at Cook Inlet pretrial.

Gustafson was arrested at Spring Creek in Seward.

Peggy Gustafson Barnett was arrested at her Anchorage home this morning.

Count one of the complaint charges each of these defendants with mailing explosives with the intent to kill.

Count two charges each defendant with the use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Craig Gustafson has also been charged in the federal complaint, but he has disappeared.

On March 29th, a couple weeks after his confession, Craig Gustafson surprises us again by disappearing.

The investigators try and get a hold of Craig Gustafson, and they can't find him.

His girlfriend says he left.

She doesn't know where he is.

Craig Gustafson is still at large.

We do have a warrant for his arrest.

We are looking for him.

One of the best pieces of evidence in a conspiracy is getting one of the conspirators to talk to you and fess up.

Without Craig Gustafson, the case goes away.

We needed him to testify.

Officials are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Craig Gustafson.

He's maintaining contact with his girlfriend.

He would call her from time to time from a payphone, but it was several weeks.

We did obtain a tap on his girlfriend's telephone, and she agreed to cooperate with us in order to keep him from getting injured or hurt.

He makes a call from a payphone on April the 18th.

His girlfriend is able to keep him on the line during that particular phone call long enough that they're able to trace the call.

They determine it's coming from this payphone at the Roosevelt Hotel in the Los Angeles area.

On the phone call, Craig tells his girlfriend, they will never catch me.

At which time we hear you're under arrest, freeze.

And he drops the phone.

So now by April 18th, all of these folks, Raymond Cheely, Douglas Gustafson, Peggy Gustafson, and Craig Gustafson are in federal custody.

All these individuals were ultimately indicted by the federal grand jury here in Anchorage for their involvement in the mail bombing murder of David Kerr.

Craig Gustafson

decided to plead guilty relatively early on.

As we say in the U.S.

Attorney's Office, he joined America's team, entered a plea agreement under which he agreed to plead to certain crimes, and part of his deal was he would cooperate with the government and testify.

Peggy made a number of admissions at that point.

Peggy said, we didn't intend to kill anybody.

This whole thing was just meant to scare George Kerr into telling the truth because she's got a very strong belief that Doug has been wrongfully convicted for murdering Jeffrey Cain.

Peggy was desperate to help her brother.

To a large extent, she was a victim to, you know, she was a victim of the quicksand she got drawn into, you know, because of her brother.

Peggy ultimately pled guilty to her participation in the bombing and agreed to cooperate.

However, there is a twist.

Doug agrees to plead guilty.

It's conditional upon Peggy receiving leniency in her sentencing.

This is sibling love, sibling love that's gone just totally awry.

How could he even think that he could talk his sister into doing this?

And she did it.

Peggy wound up getting roughly 28 years.

Craig, he was sentenced to about 22 years.

Raymond Cheely was convicted of conspiracy, of mailing an explosive device causing death, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Doug Gustavson gets the same sentence as Cheely, Life without possibility of parole.

These guys are, in fact, they're going to die in custody.

Unfortunately for the Augustin parents, all three of their children are convicted murderers.

Unusual case, to say the least.

People reached out from prison and used their own family to kill

innocent people.

It's astonishing.

You know, the most memorable thing for me is Michelle Kerr, quite frankly.

Michelle testified at trial.

She was a strong witness.

And so just having to go through and tell the story, you know, it's extremely tough because it brings all of those emotions and all those feelings back.

That's about as strong of an individual as you're ever going to encounter.

Surviving mailbox victim Michelle Kerr sued the Alaska Department of Corrections for negligence.

She was awarded an $11.8 million judgment.

Dave Kerr was a salt of the earth.

Great guy.

Should have never happened to him.

Me and George are still friends to this day, so, you know, he's got to live with a lot of things in his life that are pretty rough to deal with.

I think it weighs on him.

It took a toll on a lot of families, you know.

We think of Jeffrey all the time.

He still has the bedroom.

I have his coat still hanging in in the closet with his name tag on it.

So,

you know, even the grandkids tell us Jeffrey's room.

And they're all old now, but they know it's Jeffrey's room.

You know, he was alive once, you know, so let's keep him in our hearts.

For more information, go to oxygen.com.

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.

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There's been like eight of them.

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

That motherf 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.

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