On November 25, 1992, in Manchester, Kentucky, every family was busy preparing for Thanksgiving, and November 26 was the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, when the students at Pacey Elementary School in the town were looking forward to lunch, which was a special lunch specially prepared by the school for Thanksgiving, and 10-year-old fifth-grader Scotty Baker was particularly excited about the coming of the holiday, because during this holiday, his father promised to take him on a long-awaited high-speed long-distance trip.
Scotty's dad is a long-distance truck driver, Scotty has liked to sit in his father's van since he was a child, and travel with his father, but it makes Scotty particularly regret that his parents are divorced, and his father is away all year round, and he does not spend much time with him.
At 3 p.m., Scotty's mother, Ruth, was going to pick up her son from school and take him to his grandmother's house for the night, and then his father picked him up early the next morning for Thanksgiving.
Scotty
However, when Ruth came to the school, she did not find any trace of Scotty, and after asking the teacher, the teacher said, "I saw Scotty just now, and I don't know where to go."
Ruth thought that Scotty had taken the bus to her grandmother's house by herself, because he used to take the car alone to her grandmother's house, so Ruth did not care and went straight back to work.
At 6 p.m., Ruth's mother called Ruth and she asked, "Did you take Scotty away?" Where is he now? ”
At this time, Ruth realized that Scotty was not at her grandmother's house at all, so where had he gone? An impatient Ruth immediately rushed to the school, at this time the school's teachers had already gone home to prepare for the holiday, only the principal was still in the office to stick to his post, Ruth came to the principal's office and immediately explained the situation to the principal.
Ruth
At the headmaster's desk, with the registration book for the students entering and leaving the elementary school that day, Ruth opened it to see that at 11:20 p.m., a mysterious woman named Patricia Smith had picked Scottie away.
In Ruth's mind, Patricia Smith was the cousin of her ex-husband, Donnie, whom Ruth had met once a few years earlier, but Patricia was not Scotty's guardian and had no right to take the child away without the guardian's consent, so the principal called the front desk secretary to confirm what was happening.
The front desk secretary told the principal, "Scotty was indeed picked up by a woman with glasses and a dark wig, who claimed to be Scotty's father's cousin and said he was going to take Scotty to his dad's side, and Scotty was playing, and I asked Scotty, would you rather stay for lunch or go see Dad?" He chose to leave, I knew Donnie had a cousin but had never met, and Scotty didn't show much fear of the woman, happily packing up his things and following the woman."
When she heard of this, Ruth was very angry, and she felt that the school did not fulfill its duty of care, and it was obviously inappropriate to let people take the child away without the consent of the guardian. Ruth immediately called her ex-husband Doni, but Donnie was on his way to deliver the goods at this time, and it was not convenient to answer the phone, so he never got in touch.
Because she did not know Patricia's address, Ruth decisively called the police, and the police found Patricia's address according to Ruth's description, but when the police came to Patricia's house, Patricia was confused, she said, "I did not pick up Scotty, and I also have alibi."
Apparently, Scotty was picked up by another woman, and police searched for all those named Patricia Lee within 100 kilometers. A total of 4 women with Smith's name were found, but none of them matched the image described by the secretary. The police then found Scotty's classmate again, who recalled that "when Scotty left with a young woman, they got into a car together, but they couldn't remember the license plate number and model, and Scotty was very happy at the time, and he kept nagging about getting on the highway with his father, and he seemed to be no stranger to this woman."
At 10 p.m., the police still hadn't found any clues about Scotty. Ruth also did not receive any kidnapping calls, and the police speculated that the person who picked Scottie up was not asking for ransom.
Ruth and Dorney divorced 5 years ago, they both liked their son Scotty, after consultation, they decided to raise Scotty together, every weekend, holidays, Scotty will come to Doni for the holidays. But with the estrangement of their relationship, Ruth wonders if Doni wants to take over her son alone and doesn't want her to see him again.
Stephanie
So Ruth speculates that it is possible that Donnie found someone she knew to pick up her son, and that the most likely person to do it was Dorney's current wife, Stephanie, and Ruth told the police about this inference.
A year ago, 36-year-old Donnie met 21-year-old Stephanie, and they were married 9 months ago shortly after they fell in love, and after the marriage, whenever Scotty went to Doni for the holiday, after returning, Scotty always said that he never wanted to go to his father's place for the holiday.
Ruth didn't think much about this situation at the time, and now that she thinks back, she thinks that stephanie must have been bad for her son, so she thinks stephanie is very suspicious.
However, in the eyes of the police, Stephanie did not have a motive for the crime, and this statement is likely to be deliberately provoked by Ruth jealousy of the relationship between her ex-husband and his wife, so the police did not investigate Stephanie's situation at that time.
In the early morning of November 26, Donny got off the highway and received a phone call, he learned that his son was missing, And Doni immediately took his wife Stephanie to the nearby woods to look for it, because he used to take his son to play in the forest here, but until the morning, he did not find any trace of Scotty.
On November 26, Doni meets Ruth, and the two post a search notice of Scotty's disappearance at various locations in the town, by which time Scotty has been missing for 24 hours, and the two have a heated argument, both suspecting that the other party took the child and then hid him.
The police then begin questioning Donny and Stephanie, who claims that he plans to take Scotty to Tennessee on Thanksgiving, that he did not call his relatives or anyone to pick scottie up, and that he was driving all the time.
Stephanie told police "On the morning Scotty was picked up, my friend Susan and I were doing housework at home, and I suspect it was probably Ruth who hid Scotty".
Since all three had alibi, the police gave their photos to the secretary at the front desk at the time, but the secretary said that "there was no one who picked up Scotty that day."
Suffering from the lack of evidence, the police called Donnie, Ruth, and Stephanie to the police station and asked them to conduct a lie detector test, Both Donnie and Ruth passed the test, and their notes were not the notes in the registration book, but when it came to Stephanie, she refused to do a lie detector test on the grounds that she was pregnant, and according to Kentucky law, the state police could not conduct a lie detector test on pregnant women.
The police suspected that Stephanie was committing perjury, so they took her to the hospital for examination, and it turned out that Stephanie was indeed pregnant, and her handwriting was not on the register, so the police could only agree that Stephanie did not do a lie detector test.
Susan
That night, the police came to the home of Stephanie's friend Susan, when Susan and her husband were watching TV at home, in the face of the police's questioning, Susan's answer was basically the same as Stephanie's answer, she also said, "At 11 o'clock in the morning, Stephanie received a call from a friend saying that she wanted to get together on the weekend." The police then verified the call with the friend, proving that Stephanie had indeed received the call, but the friend could not remember the exact time of the call.
On November 27, three days after Scotty's disappearance, Kentucky police could not find a clue and could only seek help from the FBI, and the FBI agent came to Ruth's house, and Ruth said, "So far, I have not received a call for ransom, you should investigate Donny and Stephanie." ”
Although she hadn't been in contact with Stephanie, Ruth often heard rumors coming out of the outside, and she suspected that Stephanie had deliberately created rumors about her, and a week before Scotty disappeared, he had said that "Stephanie followed me (Scotty) after school"
Ruth suspects that Scotty is often with Donny, causing Stephanie to become jealous.
The police found Donny again to understand the situation based on this situation, and Donny said, "When I was with Scotty, Stephanie did seem a little grumpy, and a week before I disappeared, when I finished pulling the goods, Stephanie told me that she was pregnant, and I didn't take it seriously, but Stephanie was directly violent, and for this matter, the two of us had a big fight."
In Doni's opinion, I don't have much time to spend with Stephanie, because I have to run around all year round, and when I return home, I basically stay with Scotty, and Stephanie will stay by herself, so I don't spend much time with Stephanie.
In addition, Dorney also found a copy of Stephanie's diary and handed it to the police, in which it was written "Donnie loves Scotty far more than she loves me, I hate Donnie, I hate Scotty, I really hope Scotty disappears".
The FBI then called Stephanie, although the Kentucky state police can not let pregnant women perform lie detector tests, but the FBI can perform lie detector tests on pregnant women, they immediately conducted a lie detector test on Stephanie, the result is that Stephanie did not pass the lie test, the agent asked Stephanie to describe in detail what happened that day, Stephanie recounted in detail.
Stephanie's confession was almost identical to Susan's, even down to a few seconds, which aroused suspicion from the police, and Stephanie was rather indifferent during the questioning, not caring at all about Scotty's situation.
The police again asked Stephanie for the note, which was confirmed to be not the one in the registration book.
Scotty was taken away at 11:20, and if Stephanie received a call at home at 11 minutes, then her alibi would be valid, but because it was the Thanksgiving holiday and the phone company was on holiday, the FBI couldn't investigate the phone call and verify the authenticity of the call.
In desperation, the FBI came to Susan's house again, wanting her to do a lie detector test as well, but Susan left the house at this time and went to Florida with her husband, who was also a truck driver like Dorney and often had to travel between different states.
However, the FBI is very surprised by Susan's departure, why did she have to go out with her husband at this time? The FBI immediately investigated Susan's husband's destination, and the company confirmed that Susan's husband's goods should arrive in Miami at 7:30 a.m. on December 1, so the FBI contacted the Miami police and asked them to rush to the warehouse as soon as possible to check, and when the Miami police arrived at the warehouse, Susan's husband's van was already parked there.
When the police came to check, they saw Susan's husband, the police explained their intentions and carefully searched the driver's seat, did not see Scotty, but found Susan sleeping in the back row, the police then offered to search the carriage, Susan's husband looked embarrassed, he said, "If the carriage is opened, then the customer may return the goods." ”
So the police took a photo before opening the box, proving that it was because of business to open the box to search, the carriages on this road are intact and closed, and as a result, after opening the carriage, Scotty is not inside, so the police sent Susan to the Kentucky Police Department.
At this point, Susan was asked to do a lie detector test, but she did not pass, and Susan left her own notes to check with the notes on the roster.
While waiting, Susan suddenly opened her mouth, she said, "It was indeed I who pretended to be Patricia to take Scotty, and the situation that day was that Stephanie came to my house at 9 a.m. and said that she and Donny had a fight and wanted me to help, and she planned to take Scotty out to scare him and make him not come to Daddy again." But because she was afraid that she would go to Scotty and he wouldn't come out, so she asked me to pretend to be Scotty's relative, and I brought a wig and glasses and told Scotty to go to Daddy's place, Scotty was very happy and volunteered to follow me out of school, Scotty sat in the co-pilot, and Stephanie hid in the back seat, and Scotty seemed particularly excited on the way, just at this time. Stefani, who was hiding behind, suddenly grabbed Scotty's neck in the front row and dragged him desperately to the back seat, I was driving, I kept begging Stephanie not to do this, but Stephanie did not listen to my persuasion at all, and strangled Scotty's neck, Scotty struggled desperately, but to no avail, and soon lost her breath."
In this situation, susan and Stephanie are very flustered, and Stephanie tells Susan, "It's all your fault, you took Scotty out, you have to help me dispose of his body, otherwise you are also an accomplice."
Susan was also frightened to hear these words, and she had no choice but to dispose of the body as Stephanie suggested, and they drove to an abandoned mine, bought a barrel of gasoline in the town, poured it on Scotty's body and lit it, and then buried Scotty's body. She then returned home and received a call from a friend.
On the afternoon of December 2 (seven days after the crime), police asked Susan to lead the way and found Scotty's remains, still carrying a backpack on his back. Faced with ironclad evidence, Stephanie had no choice but to admit the crimes she had committed, facing three counts of murder, kidnapping and abuse of corpses, and Susan faced three counts of reckless homicide, kidnapping and abuse of corpses.
Eventually, after a trial, the court sentenced Stephanie to life in prison for 25 years without parole, and the judge pronounced the sentence saying "No one should die the way you describe." I would have had a harsher sentence, and if I had the power to do so, I would have imposed an aggravated punishment."
Stephanie gave birth to a boy 7 months later, raised by Stephanie's parents, and Donny divorced Stephanie for this.
In 2017, when Stephanie applied for parole, she gave another set of words, she said, "I wanted to take Scotty to see his father that day, but after Scotty got in the car, Susan took off her wig, which startled Scotty, so he wanted to open the car door and get out of the car, but the car was running, and if I got out of the car, it was very dangerous, so I pulled Scotty's clothes and let him sit in the car, but I accidentally strangled him, which was a terrible mistake I made when I was young."
The members of the parole board did not believe this statement, saying that "we were all young, most of us were young, but we did not kill.".
But many people don't understand why Susan didn't stop at the time and was still driving when Stephanie strangled Scotty.
Susan, who also did not escape justice, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and was released early in 2008 for her good performance in prison, and when she came out of prison, she said, "I don't want people to forget what I did forever." When I walk down the street, I want people to see me and think of a child killer."
After the incident, Kentucky introduced a new law that would require anyone who picks up a child from school to provide proof of their identity.
For Scotty's mother, Ruth, who hasn't come out of the shadow of losing her child in a decade, she said in a media interview that "it's hard to say what would have happened if he was still alive, and it made me a better parent and gave me more protection for my other two children and my granddaughter".
Scotty was buried forever at the Manchester Memorial Inc. in Manchester, Kentucky.
These cases remind every parent with a child that when picking up the child, we must pay attention to avoiding the child being picked up by strangers, if it is a friend to pick up, the teacher also needs to call the parent to confirm, only if all procedures are strictly followed, can the child be avoided unnecessarily hurt.