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The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
The Von Stein Tragedy: A Perfect Family Shattered I
A whispered plea for help in the dead of night unravels a chilling tale of betrayal, resentment, and deadly consequences in Washington, North Carolina.
July 25, 1988 began as any other sultry summer night in this sleepy riverside town, where crime rarely disrupts the gentle pace of life. But at 4:24 AM, dispatcher Michelle Sparrow received a desperate call from Bonnie Von Stein, her voice barely audible: "This is an emergency...my husband may be dying and I may be dying too." What first responders discovered at 110 Lawson Road, in the town's most affluent neighborhood, was a scene of unimaginable brutality that would shatter the community's sense of security forever.
The Von Steins appeared to have everything – a beautiful home, financial security, and plans for the future now that their children were approaching college age. Leith Von Stein had recently inherited over $1.2 million from his parents, allowing him to contemplate early retirement from a job he never truly enjoyed. But beneath this veneer of prosperity lay complex family dynamics, particularly between Leith and his stepson Chris Pritchard. Despite Leith's attempts to win Chris's affection through expensive gifts like a classic Mustang, their relationship remained strained. The weekend before the attack, Chris had visited unexpectedly, engaged in an uncomfortable confrontation about drug use, then abruptly returned to NC State claiming he had an urgent paper due.
What initially appeared to be a home invasion would gradually reveal itself as something far more calculated and personal. Through meticulous investigation of Bonnie's description of the "shadow" who attacked them in their sleep, the peculiar timing of Chris's visit, and the family's newly acquired wealth, detectives began piecing together a narrative more disturbing than anyone could have imagined. This case examines how inheritance, family resentment, and opportunity can combine with devastating consequences, proving that sometimes the greatest threats come not from strangers, but from those closest to us.
Subscribe to follow this investigation as we uncover the shocking truth behind one of North Carolina's most notorious crimes, where a family's darkest secrets ultimately led to murder.
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, kiara, and this is episode one of the case of Chris Pritchard and the Volsteins. Let's begin Little. Washington is a small town in North Carolina that its extinction was that it was named for George Washington. Originally it was called the Forks of the Tar, but then the town renamed itself because in 1776, there was the year of independence and they gained the distinction of being the first town and a new nation to bestow such an honor on the man who will become the country's first president. It's situated just off miles of river from Bath, north Carolina, which is North Carolina's first town. Washington is part of its history but has few historic structures because most of it got destroyed in two fires that swept the town, the first set by retreating Union forces in 1864, leaving the townspeople with a lingering resentment of Northerners and the federal government. The town was rebuilt, only to be devastated again by another fire, and this one started by a faulty flu in 1900. But a few antebellum homes, including one dating to 1780, survived, most near the riverfront, proudly maintained and decorated with historical markers so that passing tourists might find them easily.
Speaker 1:Washington is a town of 25 lawyers, countered by twice that many churches. It's the civic center of Beaufort County, a county of farming and fishing and ever-dwelling expanses of wooded and boggy wilderness. The county's 45,000 residents depend more and more on the industries that had settled in Washington and other nearby towns. For much of its history Washington was a trading town dependent on river traffic. But river commerce had gradually died in the 20th century so it left the town with a waterfront eyesore of decaying wharfs, abandoned warehouses, all swept away by the urban renewal of the 60s, replaced by a broad waterfront parkway lined with flowering cherry trees, park benches and tell streetlights that double as flagpoles. With a population around 10,000, washington prides itself on the waterway location. Its relative isolation is friendliness, its quiet and slow-paced lifestyle, a good place to raise a family.
Speaker 1:According to the townspeople is a sleepy little town and in the predawn hours of Monday July 25th 1988, the town was largely asleep. It was a sullen, sultry night, as most midsummer nights are in coastal Carolina. The temperature still in the 70s, humidity nearly unbearable after showers. Earlier Only an occasional vehicle would pass along the strip of fast food restaurants, convenience marts and motels on Highway 17, almost all of them closed On military pay weekends. The traffic at this hour on Monday morning usually would be heavier, with Marines rushing back to their buses further south from weekend passes in Norfolk and other points north Easy targets for speeding tickets from police officers with little to do. But payday was still a week away.
Speaker 1:Four police officers were watching the town this night Three patrol officers assigned to separate zones and a patrol sergeant who backed up all calls and to whom decisions of any magnitude were left. As 4.30 approached, only one of those officers, danny Edwards, actually was on patrol. He was assigned to Zone B, which included the downtown area now deserted. As he slowly eased his car east on Main Street, one block north of the river, his car east on Main Street, one block north of the river. The other three officers were only a couple blocks away.
Speaker 1:David Sparrow, who was 22 years old at the time. He just sat into a chair in the county jail in the basement of the courthouse to eat the country ham biscuit he had picked up at Hardee's, which operated the only all-night drive-thru in town. Sparrow usually took his 30-minute break at the jail so that he could bring food to two jailers who were as confined as the sleeping prisoners they watch over. Sergeant Bradford Tedderton and Patrolman Ed Cherry were across the alley from the jail at the communications center in the back of the Beaufort County Law Enforcement Center chatting with the dispatcher, michelle Sparrow. David's wife Sherry, a close friend of the Sparrows, had followed David through the hardiest drive-thru to pick up a country ham and egg biscuit and some tater tots for Michelle's breakfast. It had been one of those slowest nights in recent memory. Central communication received calls for seven rescue squads, 16 fire departments, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Department and the Washington City Police. But only a few calls had come this night, none of any consequence, and Michelle, an avid reader, had passed much of the night so far with a Stephen King novel Misery.
Speaker 1:Normally Michelle didn't work on the radio. She had been promoted to a communications supervisor and worked regular daytime hours. But one of the regular dispatchers was on vacation this weekend. The other, rescheduled for duty Sunday night, had caught in sick. So Michelle had no choice but to come in and work the late shift, 10 pm to 6 am. She really didn't mind. After all her husband was working the same shift and in another week they would have been married for three months. And Teleton was teasing her about it when the telephone rang at 424.
Speaker 1:And you know, michelle answered like always, beaufort County Central Communications, and a soft female voice it was so low that Michelle could barely understand it said this is an emergency. So Michelle said can I help you? And the lady whispered again this is an emergency. Yes, she said where do you need them? And she says 110 Lawson Road. And her voice was barely audible. So Michelle strained to hear and she said 110, what road? She said Lawson. She said so, 110 Lawson Road. And she spelled it out. She said yes, l-a-w-s-o-n. She said ma'am, I can hear you, could you speak up? And she said I'm sorry, but the intruder may still be in the house. So Michelle senses quickened and she said no, no, my husband may be dying and I may be dying too.
Speaker 1:And so she thought that if this was one of her regulars, there was a mentally disturbed woman that frequently called the dispatchers, usually late on full moon nights, to report that awful acts were being committed upon her. And indeed she had called just a week before claiming her husband had tied her up in her bathing suit and was killing her. But this voice was so faint that Michelle couldn't tell if it might be the same person. So she asked OK, what is your name, please? She said I am bleeding. She said OK, what is your name, please? She said I am bleeding. She said okay, what is your name please? She said Bonnie Von Stein. She said Bonnie, what? And she said Von Stein, and so she realized this was not a regular. She said okay, bonnie, hold on just a minute and I'm getting an officer on the way. Okay, don't hang up on me, all right.
Speaker 1:So Teleton had started back outside to his patrol car carrying a handful of forms he would come to pick up, but he stopped when Michelle called anxiously to him and she says Sergeant, I don't know what we got up here, but there's a woman on the phone. She says she's got an intruder in the house and she and her husband may be dying. I don't know whether she's crazy or for real, but it's 110 Lawson Road. Tiddleton left the building at a run, calling to Ed Cherry who headed to his own patrol car. Michelle returned to the telephone and she said Bonnie, and the weak voice answered yes, I'm here. She said OK, is someone in your house? She said I don't know if they're still here or not. She said okay, did someone. Well, where are you bleeding? She said in the chest I have been beaten and stabbed. I think she said okay, is your husband has been beaten and stabbed also? She said yes. She said okay, I have an officer on the way. She said 33 is 1017, lawson Road.
Speaker 1:Michelle heard Cherry said over the radio, giving his code number and reporting that he was en route. And Michelle was telling Bonnie and I want you to stay right with me, so don't hang up until the police get there. And the woman said I don't know where my daughter is. And Michelle said 10-4, into the control board microphone, acknowledging Cherry. And then she advised she and her husband had been beaten and stabbed. She advised her daughter is also in the house and she doesn't know where she's at.
Speaker 1:So Danny Edwards heard the call on his radio desk as he was reaching Market Street on Main and he said what's the address? Central. And Michelle answered 110 Lawson. 110 Lawson. Market Street was a straight shot to Lawson. 110 Lawson. Marcus Street was a straight shot to Lawson. So he turned left on it, switched on his blue light and siren and floored the accelerator, his car leaping forward with a roar in the quiet downtown streets.
Speaker 1:David Sparrow heard the radio talk on his handset in the jail. Lawson Road was in his patrol zone Z on the northern edge of town, away from the river. He knew that it ran through the town's plushest division, smallwood. People in Smallwood did not have intruders who beat and stabbed them in the night. Such a thing was almost inconceivable. So he abandoned his coffee and ham biscuits, yelled to the jailers to slide open the heavy electronically operated doors and free him. Michelle had never heard patrol cars leaving in such a rush, not that she heard the squealing tires of her own husband's car as she sped from behind the courthouse At Fifth Street, in front of the fire department were sleeping rescue squad members that were about to receive a call from his wife, and he saw the blue lights of three other police cars streaking ahead of him. Blocks away In the communications room, michelle Sparrow heard Bonnie Van Stein whisper to the telephone Please hurry. And Michelle said Okay, they're getting there just as fast as they can and I'm going to stay with you. Okay, I hear the sirens going out right now. You just hold on. And Bonnie said I'll try.
Speaker 1:The weekend at 110 Lawson Road wouldn't have been out of the ordinary if Chris had not come home Friday night, unexpected. He had not been home much at all during the summer. So his mother was pleased when he called after dinner to say he was driving in from Raleigh. For no special reason. She always had felt a special closeness to Chris, her firstborn. He was shy and sensitive and gentle, although she knew the son might not realize that about him, and that she had always tried to fill his special need for love and attention without pampering him. He had been away at college for nearly a year now and she worried constantly about him, calling him frequently to make sure that everything was all right. She was a worrier when it came to her children and she worried especially when Chris was on the road. She knew that he drove too fast.
Speaker 1:She realized that she probably wouldn't see much of Chris on his visit on the weekends, that he would come home during the past year, but he either brought some new college friends with him or he wanted to spend time with all high school buddies who were still in town. This weekend likely would prove no exception, but she was comforted just knowing that he would be at home. He arrived late and after giving his mother a hug and chatting briefly, he hurried out to visit friends and cruise the mall and the waterfront to see what was happening. He stayed out late, but his mother was relieved that he was in good spirits, that everything had seemed all right, that apparently there was no ulterior motive for this visit. He would cause her a lot of concern. Recently, after a rocky first year at NC State University, he would change his major, got a part-time job, enroll for both sessions of summer school, although he had had a problem with his class in the first summer session, a misunderstanding that had kept him from receiving any credit. She was hopeful that he was getting on a more even keel now, and so she didn't have much chance to see him Saturday either. He didn't get up until about nine, and after breakfast he announced he was going to check out the town and left. She had to run errands that morning, and afterward she and Leith drove 20 miles west to Greenville to have a late breakfast at the Waffle House their weekend ritual. They stay a while in Greenville to look at mobile homes. They were planning to buy one and put it in a nice wooded trailer park Mariana Mobile Estates on the western edge of Washington so that Leith could put an office in it and they would have some place for Bonnie's many relatives to stay when they came to visit.
Speaker 1:When they got back home early Saturday afternoon, chris was still out and his sister, angela, who graduated from high school only a few weeks earlier, had gone off to the beach for the day with her friend Donna Brady. The unusual phone call came later that day. A stranger was on the line, the mother of a high school student who lived in a town near Raleigh. She wanted to know why Chris had written a check to her son for $35 the previous afternoon. Her son had tried to get her to cash it, but she was suspicious. He had told several stories about the check that it was for yard work, which was what Chris had written on the check that he had helped Chris move some stuff into a dorm that he had given Chris money to get home on because Chris was broke and couldn't get a check cash. She suspected instead that it might have something to do with drugs. The co-op said Leith and they confronted Chris about it after he came in late in the afternoon, but he maintained that the boy had helped him with some work at school. Leith didn't believe that, just as he had not believed the tale that Chris had told about how he had spent the three days when he had disappeared earlier that month, prompting his worried mother to report him missing to the campus police. And Leith was angry at Chris and told him if you're getting involved with drugs, I'm going to kick your ass. But Chris had known that he didn't mean it, for although Leith had a temper, he was not a violent man. Later, after further questioning from his mother, chris admitted that he had given the boy $35 in cash and a check for another $35 for half an ounce of marijuana that the boy was supposed to bring back to him. But the boy had ripped him off, left him waiting four hours in a shopping center parking lot.
Speaker 1:Friday before he came home, chris acknowledged that he had been smoking a little pot at school, but at state, he maintained, it was almost impossible not to smoke it. As he told it, the dorms were virtual dope dens and almost everybody, except for him, of course, was dealing drugs of some sort. His mother and Leith had thought that this might be the case. Chris's actions in recent weeks had caused them to wonder if he might be using drugs. They were perturbed to learn that their fears were justified, but eventually his mother recalled. Later they settled down and talked reasonably about it. After all, it was only marijuana. It could be much worse. Elith, a student in the 60s, had smoked pot and college himself without any ill effects. Had smoked pot and college himself without any ill effects.
Speaker 1:To condemn his stepson for doing it would make him a hypocrite. Finally, as Chris recalled later, they had told him that if he was going to smoke pot he should do it in his own room, not get caught, not overdo it and never do it and drive, and they didn't want him spending a lot of money on it, especially any of the $50 allowance they gave him each week. He should buy it with the money he was making from his clothing store job and he would better not sell it either. That could get him in deep trouble. That evening Chris suggested he grow hamburgers for supper and dinner had been very pleasant and the family was all together, along with Angela's friend Donna.
Speaker 1:Right after dinner Chris said that he had to return to NC State to work on an important paper that was due Monday morning. His mother tried to talk him into staying until Sunday, but he insisted on going back to staying until Sunday, but he insisted on going back. She walked him to his car, a classic 65 Ford Mustang fastback that Leith had bought him for his 16th birthday. And as she was bidding him goodbye, she spotted the gaping hole with dangling wires in the car's dashboard and she asked him what happened to your radio? And she and Leith had bought him an expensive JVC stereo radio and cassette player for Christmas the year before. Somebody had broken into his car at school and stolen it. A few weeks earlier he explained, along with all of his tapes, and he had not told them because he didn't want them to be disturbed by it. One more thing to upset Leith With Chris, there always seemed to be something, and later Bonnie mentioned the loss of the radio to Angela and Donna, but she decided to keep it from Leith, at least for now.
Speaker 1:Bonnie and Leith were up earlier than usual Sunday morning, and again they drove to Greenville for breakfast at the Waffle House, as Bonnie recalled. The day later they came straight back home and spent most of the day going through back issues of the Wall Street Journal and recording stock prices in their computer. Both had once worked as computer programmers Indeed, that was how they had met and they had had developed a program to help Leith keep up with stock trends now that he was playing the market In the past year. Leith had come into a large inheritance and he was certain that he could make it even larger. A meticulous record keeper and planner, he did not develop his investment strategy in a half-assert way, strategy in In a half-assured way. He studied and plotted and made careful moves, and that required a lot of tedious time at the keyboard, but both he and Bonnie were enjoying it. They worked until late afternoon.
Speaker 1:The Leith opened a Budweiser and went upstairs for a shower while Bonnie tended to her cats. There were 13 cats now, counting the four abandoned kittens she recently had rescued and was keeping until the human society could place him in good homes. When she came upstairs she found Leith in an amorous mood. They had the house to themselves, angela was off to indulge in her passion for horseback riding and they made love in the bedroom. Afterward they decided to drive back to Greenville for a nice dinner. They went first to the King and Queen, the most expensive restaurant in town, but found it closed on Sundays. They chose instead Sweet Caroline's, which occupied a white stucco building with blue and gold awning and a wood shingle roof near the campus of East Carolina University. Sweet Caroline's had a dark dining room with colorful quilts draped from the ceiling and advertised a New Orleans style French cuisine. Bonnie and Leith both ordered the $11.95 Sunday special, leith choosing Supreme de Poulet and Bonnie the Beef Bordelais.
Speaker 1:Leith was in a good mood and they talk about his success with the investments he had been making and their future now that the children both soon will be in college. Leith finished most of our carafe of wine as they talked. Perhaps it was the wine combined with the food and the setting, but something brought out the sweetness in Leith. He told her something she would cling to later. He would have no life if not for her, he said, as she remembered it later, and no reason to live without her. They left the home for home and a little before nine, and no reason to live without her. They got there. Leith went straight to bed but she had settled on the cushions of the heavy wood couch in the den to wash it, thumbing through the Sunday newspapers during commercials.
Speaker 1:Angela came in just before 11. She had been home until about 9 after returning from horseback riding. Then she and Donna had gone out to cruise the mall and the waterfront. She had sort of promised to go out that night with a new boy she had met but she really didn't like him much. And when she called she had made excuses and called Donna to come over. And she shouted at her mother with you didn't leave a note, who was now sipping a cup of tea and working on a poster for the Humane Society to display at the Washington Summer Festival on the waterfront the coming weekend. Her mother laughed and acknowledged her slip up. She had a firm rule about leaving notes on the bulletin board next to the wall telephone in the kitchen so the family members could keep up with one another's whereabouts. She was always getting on to Angela and Chris about it. So she asked how was your day? And Angela said boring and then went on upstairs to bed.
Speaker 1:Her mother stayed downstairs to watch the beginning of the news before switching off the TV and putting her pocketbook away in the cabinet under the built-in microwave where she kept her junk, as she called it extra pocketbooks, snapshots, doodads, recipes and whatnot. She looked in on the cats on the back porch, made sure the pet rooster a byproduct of one of Angela's school of science products was all right and in his covered cage in the utility room off the back porch and then check the front door to make sure it was locked. She would check the back porch door when she came in from dinner before going to bed. She could hear music coming from Angela's room. When she got upstairs and she opened the door to tell Angela goodnight, to ask her about the whereabouts of some cassette tapes and that Angela had borrowed and was supposed to return In her own bedroom.
Speaker 1:She turned on the brass extension lamp on the typewriter table by her side of the bed and woke her husband, who always slept on the side of the bed nearest the door, to ask if he would like to have a glass of iced tea or something. He mumbled no, turned over and went back to sleep. A depressed table with cosmetics on it stood by the door. She removed her jewelry and put it in the heart-shaped bowl, took a $20 bill and some change from her pocket and placed it on the tabletop. Then she undressed, put on a gown, climbed into the bed, reached for a book from the stack of paperback historical romances on the floor beside the bed and she read for a few minutes. But she would left the bedroom door open and she still could hear music coming from Angela's room. She got up, closed the door, returned to bed, read for another 20 or 25 minutes without musical intrusion, before drowsiness overtook her. Sometime about midnight, she put down the book, turned off the lamp and went to sleep. We'll be right back Later.
Speaker 1:She could not be certain whether it was the thought of the first blow striking her husband or his first scream that startled her from sleep. She only knew that she awoke confused in the darkness, and that her husband's screams were short and piercing, so loud that they seemed to fill her head. He was trying to sit up, but he couldn't, and she reached out her left hand to help him, only to feel it deflect a blow. Only then did she see the figure that she later would come to think of as the shadow. It stood near the foot of the bed, silhouette in the wisp of light that filtered through the open bedroom door. A man, she was sure of that, although she could see no distinctive features. He was tall and broad-shouldered, strong and with no neck at all. Or maybe he had a hood on, she couldn't tell. All was darkness, and without her glasses, everything from more than a few feet away was blurred. Well, his arms were raised, though, and in his hand he held an object that appeared to be cylindrical, maybe three feet long. He swung it methodically, his aim precise and he made no sound other than the whoosh of the flailing weapon and the thud when it struck.
Speaker 1:Each blow brought more screams of terror from her husband. She couldn't be sure how many times he screamed 10, 15. Nor could she be certain how many blows were struck. Two blows caught her, then another, sending her really from the bed onto the floor, and as she lay there she heard her husband taking more blows, this different, lighter, and followed by sucking gushing sounds. No longer the heat screen. She made no sounds herself, at least none that she could remember later.
Speaker 1:Shock, she later decided, was the reason for that. The utter surprise and horror of it all. The force of the blows had stunned her, her, and as she lay on the floor she slipped briefly into unconsciousness, only to revive and see the shadow again, this time standing at her feet, arms upraised, in the same medicine position. Again, she heard the whoosh and remembered no more, until she heard footsteps, the soft closing of her bedroom door and she knew that the shadow had gone. She was sure that she heard whoosh sounds again and more thoughts, three this time, and she was struck by the awful knowledge that her daughter, sleeping in her room just down the hall, was being attacked and there was nothing that she could do to protect her.
Speaker 1:Blessedly, unconsciousness again intervened to deliver her from her agony. She did not know how long she was out, but when she came to again she realized that she was on the floor. At first she thought she had a bad dream and falling out of bed, but when she reached to get back into bed she grabbed her husband's hand hanging from the side of the mattress and it found it limp and sticky. She recoiled and a sensation came to her that she later described as this gushy, yucky, warm feeling that came up on my neck. She brought her hand to her head and felt a big hole there, and the horror of the situation returned in a rush.
Speaker 1:For a few moments she lay still listening, fearful that the intruder might still be in the house. She was reassured to hear her husband breathing, although it seemed to be growing fainter and fainter. Her own breathing was difficult and when she tried to get up she couldn't. She felt no pain, but she knew that she was gravely injured. Somehow she realized she had to get help. The telephone was the obvious answer. Even in the darkness she could tell that her head was at the typewriter, stand beside the bed.
Speaker 1:The telephone was on the filing cabinet to her right, not far away. She angled her head toward it and began to push herself across the carpet with her heels scooting on her rump. When she finally got to the filing cabinet, she couldn't pull herself up to reach the phone. When she finally got to the filing cabinet, she couldn't pull herself up to reach the phone. The cord, she thought. She edged herself onto a briefcase, reached between the filing cabinet and the adjoining desk, found the cord and yanked on it. The heavy phone plopped onto her chest, but again she felt no pain, only gratitude. She grasped it to her and began trying to punch 911, not knowing there was no 911 emergency line in her county. Her attempts to seek out the right buttons met only with failure. However, and with frustration growing, she laughed again into unconsciousness.
Speaker 1:When she awoke once more, the telephone still on her chest, she told herself to think logically. One button at a time eventually would give her the operator. She began pushing buttons and hanging up when she got a busy signal or some strange noise. Finally, a button produced a ring and the welcome voice of a long-distance operator and she told the operator this is an emergency, I need the police and an ambulance. Later she wouldn't remember the operator's response but she would remember the voice of Michelle Sparrow a few moments later saying Beaufort County Central Communications.
Speaker 1:Later saying Beaufort County Central Communications, a savvy police car in service in Washington spent northward on Market Street. Michelle Sparrow dialed the number of the Washington Fire Department and Captain Jerry Lewis answered and she said Captain Lewis, this is Michelle in communications. We have a possible stabbing and beating, 110 Lawson Road. We have three officers on the way at this time. I can't give you any more than that right now because the lady can hardly talk. And Lewis said 110 Lawson Road. He said 110 Lawson Road. There may be more than one person injured. So he said okay, we're rolling.
Speaker 1:And she went back to talk to Bonnie and she said okay, bonnie, the rescue's on the way too. Okay. And Bonnie says yes. But Michelle said but I'm not going to hang up until you hear them there with you. And she said I don't hear my husband breathing as fast. And Michelle asked her where is your husband, bonnie? She said in bed. Can you wake him? He said I can't reach him. I'm on the floor. She said okay, can you call him? She said no. She said okay, and you don't know about your daughter? She said no, is there anybody else that lives there with you? And your daughter? She said no, is there anybody else that lives there with you? And she said they're not at home. And the voice seemed to be fading again. And she said okay, bonnie. And she said huh. She said you still with me? She said yes. She said look, you hang in there, don't pass out on me. Okay, she said I'll try.
Speaker 1:Officer Danny Edwards in the lead card was going so fast that he almost missed Lawson Road, but he hit his brakes in time to swerve right onto the street when he saw the sign Teleton cut beneath him and he was the first to arrive at the house, edwards and Sherry right behind him. And Michelle said okay, because you stay calm and cool like you're doing, you're going to help everybody. Where are you in the house? And the three cars screeched to holds, one behind the other, in front of the two-story house with a steeply pitched roof and narrow rail front porch. And then he had a call to Michelle reporting their arrival. He said 31, 32, and 30, 10, 23. And Michelle heard from the telephone I'm in the bedroom on the right. And she responded to the officers 10, 4, and then spoke again in the phone asking you're in the? What bedroom on the right? In what bedroom on the right? She says upstairs. The bedrooms are upstairs, and so she advised she's upstairs.
Speaker 1:Michelle relayed to the officers as she bolted from the car, as they bolted from the cars on snapping their holstered weapons, ran to the darkened house carrying heavy flashlights and hand radios. And Teleton called to Edwards. He said you take the front, I'll take the back. Call to Edwards. He said you take the front, I'll take the back. And Tetherton, who had been with the police department for 26 years, the only veteran among the four officers on duty, he thought the intruder might still be in the house and so did the other officers. As Edward went to the front door, tetherton threatened his way between the four cars, parking the driveway toward a gate in the six-foot-high wooden fence that enclosed the backyard. And the woman told Michelle my daughter is in the bedroom on the left. Said your daughter's what dear. She said in the bedroom on the left. And so Michelle radioed the officers. She advises she's in the bedroom on the right, her daughter is in on the left and Bonnie said God, I hope this is a bad dream.
Speaker 1:Officer Tedderton pushed open the backyard gate, shined his heavy MAC light at a recently enclosed back porch lined with windows. The light revealed that the porch door was slightly open, the window beside it broken, and he radioed to Edwars who had just tried the front door and found it locked. Said I got an open door. So Edwars came off the front porch, told Sherry, who had been a police officer for only four months, to station himself at the western end of the house where he could see the fence around the backyard as well as the front door, and he said don't let him get out either way. So Michelle was asking Bon if she could hear the officers and she said I think so. She said OK, how can they get in? She said I don't know. She said you don't know how they can get in. She said no, can you give? I said I don't know how somebody got in. She said you advise which door was unlocked? It was called. She said she doesn't know how they got in. Michelle told him Stand by, I'm trying to get you more. He said okay, I got the back door open. This is on the radio. He said the back door's been forced open, I believe. And Michelle told the other officers the back door is open and Bonnie heard this over the phone. And Bonnie said oh my God.
Speaker 1:So David Sparrow had arrived at the house, jumped from the car carrying a 12-gauge Ithaca shotgun and Edwards called to David as he unholstered the .45 on his hip and hurried back to meet Tetherton. He said the front door, david. And Michelle was saying into the telephone to just lay right there, don't get excited, okay, bonnie. Saying into the telephone to just lay right there, don't get excited, okay Bonnie. And so Edwards called again to Sparrows and said the front door, don't let him out. And Michelle was keep trying to talk to Bonnie and saying you come down, come down, okay. So Tetherton and Edwards entered the back porch cautiously. Tetherton was carrying his .357 Magnum, both shining their mag lights into the dark corners. Cats cowered and skittered before the beams. Through a window the officers could see a light inside the house, apparently in the kitchen. Both were tense as they opened the door that led from the porch into the house, not knowing if a crazed person might be lurking inside waiting for the right moment to attack and Bonnie was saying into the telephone I have cats, please, I don't want my
Speaker 1:cats hurt. In the kitchen a fluorescent light was on, was on over the sink and tethered to the nether. So cabinet doors opened under the microwave oven to the right of the sink. Doors open under the microwave oven to the right of the sink, a woman's white pocketbook laid on the stovetop, built into an island in front of the sink, and the contents were strewn. And Edward said in a near whisper somebody's dead. I can smell it, you smell the blood. And rooms led off from the kitchen in two different directions and Tillerton said you take the right, I'll go left. And Michelle said to Bonnie okay, bonnie, you just come down. Think good thoughts. I'm not going to hang up with you until Officer Sparrow comes in and talks with me, okay? She said okay, officer Sparrow is my husband, okay, so you ask for him. And she said okay, tell him I'm on the phone and let me talk
Speaker 1:to him. So Teleton and Edwards had made quick sweeps through the darkened downstairs, teleton taking the dining room, then Edwards' living room. They met at the foot of the stairs that led to the second floor from an alcove at the front door and Teleton said oh, clear down here. If the intruder wasn't downstairs, there were only two other possibilities he already fled or he was waiting upstairs. So Teleton took a deep breath and he said you got to go for broke you ready? And Edward said ready. So Teleton said I'll go right, you go left. He flicked on a light switch at the base of the stairs and both officers charged up to be greeted at the top of the steps by five closed doors leading off
Speaker 1:a hallway. One door was immediately to the right, at the top of the stairs, and Tetherton stopped and rapped on it lightly and Bonnie called to him from inside the room and she said please come in, please come in. But he couldn't hear her. So he rapped again and she called louder please come in. And he said she said yes, please. So Bonnie pleaded as Tetherton opened the door to see only darkness. And Tetherton said okay, I'm with you, although he couldn't see her yet. And she said turn the light on. She
Speaker 1:said so. Tetherton swept the room with his flashlight. The beam jolted to a halt on the most horrible sight of his 26 years of police work. The whole room seemed red, with blood lying diagonally across a bed, face down with the body of a burly man wearing only cotton briefs that once had been white but now were blood red. Several stab wounds were visible in the man's upper, back and shoulder on his left side and there was such a huge ragged tear in the back of his head that Tidderton at first thought he could peer inside his skull. Tidderton had grown up on a farm near Washington, each fall participating in the ritual of hog killing that provided the winter's meat for his family, and the first image that came into his head on seeing the man's body was that of a hog eviscerated and laid out on the carving table for rendering. And he said oh my God in this world. And he fell back instinctively from the side back out of the room, pulling the door close as
Speaker 1:he went. Officer Bonnie called from the floor beyond the bed, officer, officer Sparrow. Teleton was on his radio calling communications From the floor. Bonnie had seen her husband on the bed in the rate of Teleton's flashlight and she said into the telephone oh, it's not a dream. And Teleton was excitedly calling to Michelle Sparrow Dispatch rescue 1033,. Call the rescue 10-4,. I hear I got them on the way and Teleton said advise them. It's 1033, traffic 431,. Michelle called to the ambulance that was now streaking toward Lawson Street. 10.33,
Speaker 1:4.31, 10.33. Leith von Stein liked to joke about the reason his parents never had more children. They only had one, he said, because they were afraid to risk having another one like him. Because they were afraid to risk having another one like him. Born in Queens in New York City, where both of his parents came from prosperous families of German descent, leith was brought to North Carolina as a baby. His father, howard, a philosophy graduate of Brown University, had been a professional musician playing saxophone and several big bands before going off to fight in World War II. After the war he returned to find the big band Aragon and work as a saxophonist hard to get, with a wife and a new baby to support. He had to have a job and he took one offered by his brother-in-law. Richard Hensel, who was married to the sister of
Speaker 1:Howard's wife. Marie had come to North Carolina as a salesman of laundry equipment in the 20s and stayed to buy a Winston-Salem laundry called Camel City. He was getting ready to expand and he hired his brother-in-law as general manager. Howard and Marie settled happily in Winston-Salem in a modest frame house on Connaught Drive on the city's south side. They became faithful members of St John's Lutheran Church and Howard quietly and gentlemanly began playing with a small dance band on weekends, an activity he would continue into old age. Marie, who was lively and outgoing, doubted on her only child. She had him a little bit spoiled. She was always waiting on him. He kind of had
Speaker 1:his way. By the time Leith was in high school, camel City Laundry and Cleaners had become one of the most successful laundries in the country, with several branches and more than 130 employees, and Howard had become part owner. Leith had no interest in the laundry business, however, and never even took a part-time job in one of the plants. He had decided on another field and before his graduation from James Gray High School in 1964, he was accepted into the School of Engineering at NC State University. He did okay there his first two years, but his junior year brought difficulties and according to a fellow engineering student, he says that he thought that he got burnt out. He was a numbers guy, but not to the engineering standpoint. He just got very tired of engineering school and he got into the party routine, because the school used to be party strong. So his grades fell and by the end of his junior year he had flunked out and was invited not to return to NC State. This was
Speaker 1:around 1967. The Vietnam War was raging and Leith had just turned 21. He was drafted before the year was out. His years at State got him assigned to clerical work and, instead of going off to war in Southeast Asia, he was sent to his family's homeland, germany. After his discharge in 1970, leith returned home and enrolled at Guilford College in Greensboro, this time as a business major. Guilford was a small Quaker college with a liberal bent. Some faculty and students held a weekly silent vigil against the Vietnam War on the federal courthouse lawn. Although basically conservative, he was the most Republican guy that you would ever met. According to a friend later said of him, leith had come to share the views of many of his fellow students about the war. He kept asking why are we there? What are we doing? We ought to get out
Speaker 1:of there. While he was at Guilford, leith let his hair grow to shoulder length, wore headband, blue jeans and the tiny round wire-rimmed glasses made popular by John Lennon. He often went for a week or two without shaving and he frequently smoked marijuana in late-night boat sessions without shaving and he frequently smoked marijuana in late-night boat sessions. Friends teased him by calling him the weird hippie. Lee's parents took his changes in appearance in stride. Whatever he wanted to do was all right with Marie, according to one friend. But he knew how to act around his mother. She was someone's shelter from the real world. Lee always took his friends, both male and female, home to meet his mother. She was someone's shelter from the real world. Leith always took his friends, both male and female, home to meet his mother and father and his friends. All were impressed with their warmth and openness. But more than that, all later would remark about the obvious depth of love and respect between Leith and his parents. They were just devoted to
Speaker 1:one another. Leith's friends all thought of him as upbeat, just eccentric enough to be charming. They admired his intellect, his outspokenness, his quirk, his right sense of humor and, according to his friend, rob Lorber, he says that he liked to look at life in the absurd, that he was a structured person, but he was also a very creative person and had tremendous imagination. Most of his friends at one time or another had undergone Leith's intense examination of their views. He relished playing devil's advocate, even to the point of strongly defending positions he didn't actually believe, especially if he came upon an unwary innocent who didn't know him and fell into his trap and one of his friends from NC State would say that he would absolutely take it to the hilt. Make you prove
Speaker 1:your point. Leith and Rob Lorber spent many nights in grungy bars drinking beer, proving points, solving the world's problems, making sarcastic comments about the other customers, usually ending up sometime after midnight arguing about which was going to marry the waitress. During one of their late-night drinking sessions, leith and Lorber decided that Lorber should run for president of the Guilford student body. On the apathy ticket Leith would be his campaign manager. Leith devised a series of satiric posters for the campaign. In Loeber's favorite, leith photographed three jockstraps that had been hung by thread in front of straight back chairs. In a fourth chair sat Lohber in animated conversation wearing an aviator cap. Even after a hectic day on the campaign trail, rob Lohber still has time to talk to. Some of his supporters said
Speaker 1:the poster. Computers were beginning to make heavy inroads into American life at the time and Leith became fascinated with them. During the two years at Guilford he was always going to the computer lab to play with them. After his graduation in December of 1972, he got a job working with computers at Intagon, an insurance company in downtown Wisdom, salem. He cut his long hair, forsook his John Glennon glasses, traded his blue jeans for business suits and began trying to make his mark in corporate America. At Integon, leith made another person who had taken a strong interest in computers. Her name was Bonnie Lou Bates Pritchard. She was two years older than Leith, recently separated from her husband and she had two small children. And Leith, recently separated from her husband and she had two
Speaker 1:small children. Bonnie had grown up in the lush and rolling red dirt farmland of northern Davidson County, about 10 miles south of Winston-Salem. Her father was a brick mason and she grew up with three sisters and a brother in a spacious brick house on Hoover Road, surrounded by piney roots, grain and tobacco farms and family, enjoying the welcome attentions of many aunts, uncles and cousins who lived nearby. She and her family regularly attended Central Methodist Church and Welcome. Slim, shy and quiet. Bunny wore glasses and was not as pretty as her sisters. She liked reading and loved animals. At North Davidson High School in Wellcome she worked on the school newspaper staff and was a member of the Library Club and Dramatics Club. Two years after her graduation in 1962, she went to work for Intagon, then called Security, life and Trust Company, pentagon, then called Security, life and
Speaker 1:Trust Company. Bonnie was married on August 5, 1967, three weeks after her 23rd birthday. The wedding took place with her big family in full attendance at Central Methodist Church. Bonnie wore an embroidered wedding gown that she designed and made herself. Her sister, ramona, was her maid of honor. Bonnie's new husband was David Stephen Pritchard, who was working that summer at Miller Tool and Plating Company. He was five years younger than Bonnie. After a brief honeymoon, bonnie went back to work at the insurance company. Her new husband returned to West Davidson High School to finish his senior year as a special student. With the help of Bonnie's family, the newlyweds bought a new ranch-style brick and frame house on a cul-de-sac in a rural subdivision called Winchester Downs, just two miles from her parents' house. The first child, christopher Wayne, was born on November 25, 1968, in Lexington, the county seat. A second child, angela Christine, followed
Speaker 1:in 1970. Bonnie's marriage had been shaky from the beginning, but children made it unworkable. Later Bonnie complained that her husband was immature, irresponsible and wouldn't keep a job. This separated four days before Bonnie's 28th birthday, four and a half months shy of their son's fourth birthday. Bonnie later maintained that she and her children had been abandoned. With her family's help, she remained in the house on Winchester Court and struggled to pay the bills she and her husband had accumulated. Her children often stayed with their grandparents and other nearby relatives while she worked. On November 9, 1973, bonnie and Stephen Pritchard were divorced, the judge ordering that Stephen pay Bonnie $750 for debts they had incurred, plus $160 a month in
Speaker 1:child support. Although Lee von Stein had several close female friends, he had no girlfriends that his friends knew about. Nor did he date much. He was very unusual, very humorous, very bright, according to one of his female friends, but he wasn't handsome. She would always thought he would have liked to have had dates, but he was uncertain about asking. One of his closest male friends, with whom Leith spent much time talking about women thought that Leith may have had more dates than friends realized about. Women thought that Leith may have had more dates than friends realized Because he was so secretive about his relationships. He didn't let people know if he was seeing anybody. That was brought home to him in an
Speaker 1:embarrassing fashion. Leith spent nearly three years at Intagon designing forms on computers, but he found the work boring and unchallenging. He quit in September 1975 to take a traveling job as an internal auditor for Federated Stores, a conglomeration of department store chains with headquarters in Cincinnati. He moved into an apartment across the Ohio River in Kentucky. One weekend when Leith was home for a visit. His friend, who thought him secretive about his relationships, got a call from Leith's mother, marie, and she asked is Leith there? And Leith's friend asked worriedly is he supposed to be? And Leith's mother said he told me he was spending the weekend with you. So the friend began trying to cover for him and Leith's friend demanded. When he saw him later he said what are you up to? And that's when he learned about Bonnie. And when he met her later he was surprised because she and Leith were so unlike and had so little in common except for the work with computers that he wondered what the attraction was. He was not alone, because other of Leith's friends, after meeting Bonnie, asked one another what in the world is he doing with her? She never really made any impression at all. According to one of his friends from the days at Guilford, she could blend into
Speaker 1:the wall. Leith left Federated Stores in May 1977 and moved to South Bend, indiana, to become a traveling auditor for the Associates, a financial services company with loan officers throughout the country. During his two years in Cincinnati, leith was seeing less and less of his old college friends, but he kept in touch with Bonnie. He had not yet been in Indiana two years when he came home for a visit and called Robert Rob Lover and he said he was thinking about marrying Bonnie. And Lover asked are you sure you want to do this? And he thought so, according to Leith. But he was worried because of her two children. He had never been around children, he said. He didn't know whether they would accept him or if he would be a good father. So Loebert thought the concerns were normal. So he chose to listen and not advise. He felt that Leith had already decided that marriage was what he wanted and that he was right. When next he heard from Leith, it was to be told that he and Bonnie were getting married. The wedding took place on August 17, 1979. She gave up the job that she had held at Intercon for 15 years, that she had held an intercom for 15 years, and her two children moved into a house with Leith at 1842 Acorn Court in Mishawaka, a suburb of South Bend. Chris was three months shy of 11, angela
Speaker 1:was nine. Leith continued traveling after the marriage and was home mostly on weekends, making the transition for him and the children less traumatic. The company for which Leith was working was in the process of moving its headquarters to Dallas, but when he decided to leave his computer operations in South Bend, leith began working for a new job or looking, I should say, for a new job, preferably in North Carolina. So he did not like the fierce winters that blew in off Lake Michigan. So he also was concerned about his parents getting older and being far away from them. In the spring of 1981, he was hired as head of internal auditing at National Spinning Company in Washington, north Carolina. Bonnie and Leith and the two children he had taken as his own moved to Washington in July of 1981 and settled in the modern two-story frame house at 110 Lawson Road in Smallwood. Leith later got a loan from his father to pay off the mortgage, allowing the monthly interest to be kept in the family. Leith had to travel during his first two years in Washington, but after that he began spending most of his working hours in the big plant on the western edge of town. In the fall of 1983, bonnie took a job teaching data processing at a community college in adjoining Martin County. In late summer of 1984, she went to work as a programmer analyst at the Big Hamilton Beach Appliance Factory, only a few miles from her house, a job she would keep for the next
Speaker 1:two years. In 1982, with his health beginning to fail, richard Hensel retired from the laundry he had operated for more than half a century in Wisdom Salem, turning the company over to his brother-in-law, howard von Stein. By then, camel City had seven outlets in Wisdom Salem and other nearby towns. Howard's reign at the top was short. Two years later he and his partners received an offer from a Texas company that was hoping to create a nationwide chain of laundry and dry cleaning plans by buying out regional companies. It was one of those offers they couldn't refuse and the partners sold the laundry and Howard joined his brother-in-law in retirement. The partners sold the laundry and Howard joined his brother-in-law in retirement. His share of the proceeds from the sale and his investments over the years had made him a wealthy man. But few people realized it. He and Mary still lived frugally and without ostentation in the same small mother's house they had moved into in 1950, and they felt no need to change the habits of a lifetime. But Howard did splurge and buy a new Buick Century. Howard's retirement was to last only
Speaker 1:three years. He died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm on a Saturday morning in February 1987 at the age of 79, living in an estate valued at more than $1.2 million. Most of it was in two trusts that he has established for his life and son. He had named his only child to be his executor. Leith had little spirit for dealing with his father's estate. He was too worried about his mother. A heavy smoker, she had suffered for years from emphysema and heart problems. Her grief from her husband was more than she could bear. She began deteriorating and Leith and Bonnie frequently made the eight hour round trip from Washington to Wisdom Salem to attend to her. In July she died in the same hospital in which her husband had died four and a half
Speaker 1:months earlier. The loss of both of his beloved parents in so short of a period, soon to be followed by the death of his uncle, richard he'd leave hard, and settling his parents' estates occupied much of his time in late 1987 and early 1988. It also brought him a considerable amount of frustration and irritation. He told an old friend quote I'm so relieved I'm just settled. The same Don't ever get involved with the trust department of a bank, it's just so unbelievable.
Speaker 1:End quote. With his father's wealth now at his disposal, leith had the opportunity to do something he had been thinking about for several years change his life. He had settled into a boring routine. On weekdays he got up at seven, showered, had coffee with Bonnie until about 8.15, left for work Because he had gained so much weight. He was only 5'6" but he had ballooned up to nearly 170 pounds. He rarely ate lunch anymore, often settling only for a piece of fruit. He was home in late afternoon, always had a few beers before supper, which was always at 6.30. After supper he watched Wheel of Fortune and Derperty on TV and was in bed by 8.30 or 9. On weekends, when he and Bonnie would start visiting with her relatives, they went to Greenville for breakfast, always to the same restaurant. Leith had fallen into a rut. He was aware of it. So Leith was aware of it and he worried him. He thought that he wouldn't live long. He was overweight, he drank too much, he didn't exercise. Shortly after his mother's death he took out another life insurance policy, this one
Speaker 1:for $350,000. In the spring of 1988, rob Lorber heard that Leith was in Winston-Salem staying at his parents' house, which he did not plan to sell. They rarely saw each other anymore, but Rob decided to drop by. And Rob recalled later the following he said that he yelled at him for not getting in touch with him anymore and Rob's and Leith's senses of humor had always meshed and fed off one another. And he said quote we were really silly together. End quote. No matter how we frequent or short their visits, they always fell back into old routines joking and laughing. That happened on this
Speaker 1:visit too. But Rob thought that he detected an underlying sadness in Leith, a sense of fatalism about his situation. Rob knew that Leith didn't really like his work and never had. His new wealth, though, could change that. Indeed, leith already was thinking of quitting his job at the end of the year, of using the money his father had made to make more of his own. So work alone could not account for the sorrow Rob sensed in Leith. Other factors no doubt prevailed, family
Speaker 1:factors perhaps. Leith rarely talked with friends about his relationship with Bonnie and as far as they knew it was fine. But all of his friends knew that his relationship with Bonnie's children wasn't so fine. They knew that had to be especially distressing to Leith because he wanted so desperately for them to accept him and love him as a father. Some of his friends thought that Leith had made a mistake or too common to step-parents. He had tried to buy their love. He bought Chris and Angela whatever they wanted and although he tried to attach responsibility to the gifts that never quite work In Indiana, he had bought both children expensive bicycles, paying nearly $600 each for them. When Chris went out and wrecked his, leith got him another one. Later, when Chris wanted a classic Mustang for his 16th birthday, he got it. When he asked for a computer, that too was quick
Speaker 1:and coming. Yet there was always an underlying tension between Leith and the children, especially between Leith and his stepson after Chris got into his teens and he told one friend that he was hell trying to raise teenagers between Leith and his stepson. After Chris got into his teens and he told one friend that he was hell trying to raise teenagers, he said we just don't know what to do with Chris. He won't do anything, he's not interested in anything and respect for his parents and the work ethic was so deeply ingrained in Leith that it was hard for him to relate to someone who didn't have those values. And according to a friend of Leith, he said, I quote I think that what was what he was struggling with was Chris. He had the feeling that Chris was a. He just didn't care about anything.
Speaker 1:End quote. Even to co-workers and casual acquaintances, leith frequently had remarked that he would be happy when both of Bonnie's children were grown and gone. And as the summer of 1988 approached, that time seemed imminent. By fall Angela would be in college in Greensboro and if Chris didn't flunk out, which seemed highly possible, he would be back at NC State for his sophomore year. Leith and Bonnie would be alone and Leith soon would be quitting the job he never had liked. Leith should have been excited by the prospect, but to his old friend Rob Loeber he seemed resigned, as if he sensed that life had passed him by. Thank you for listening to the Murder Book. Have a great week.
