The Book of the Dead Case Files: What Happened After the Episodes Ended

0:01 Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending. In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten, waiting to be heard and have their stories told. This is the Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases, re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath the years of silence. I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery, one step closer to justice. Brought to you by Darkast Network in Deep Podcasts with the Twist.

1:12 Hey, I'm Jill, the host of the Murder Shelf book Club podcast. Every other week I feature a true crime book by one of my favorite authors, telling you the story with respect for the victims and loved ones. But I don't stop there. A psychology educator who's also studied serial killers, I analyze the cases and I endeavor to explain the whys why do people do this? Told in Trilogies, Part three is dubbed Second Cast, where I cast a wider net, going into some surprising bone chilling directions, cold cases, homicides, missing persons, serial killers, and stories from history. These both fascinate and appall us. This is a true crime book club, so read with me or let me read for you.

2:03 Join the Murdershelf book Club podcast and see what I'm pulling off the murder shehelt next. Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead. Over the last almost four years, I have covered one hundred and forty one cases. Some are salved, some are unsolved, and some are on determined. Since my very first chapter, many of the cases I've covered have had updates over the years, some of which may be very minor, but others have had significant updates, and today I'd like to share them with you. All of the cases I've researched over the years are all so important to me, and I've gone back and looked into all of them to as always bring you the most accurate information possible. For more information about the case is mentioned today, and of course I'll give a short description of that case.

3:04 Take a listen to my past episodes before I begin. I won't be covering all one hundred and forty one cases today or in general, some have no updates. But also I can't possibly go over every single one of them in one episode, so in a few weeks I'll make another part for the episodes that I don't go over today. In chapter two, I cover the murder of Breck Bedner. For longtime listeners, you'll remember my mom Lisa would join me to talk about these cases and she was horrified. Breck Bedner was fourteen years old from Surrey who encountered a predator while playing online games with his friends.

3:46 This eighteen year old Lewis Danes, groomed Breck using lies and manipulation to gain his trust until he was finally successful in luring Breck to his home. Breck was murdered by Lewis Danes on February seventeenth, twenty four, fourteen. Following the murder of her oldest child, Breck's mother, Lauren LeFave, founded the Breck Foundation to save other children and families from falling victims to online predators. The mission of the Foundation is to quote empower the digital generation to be smart and safe online and advocate for their well being to be at the center of internet safety policies and practices across government businesses and wider society. Lauren travels around the UK, visiting schools, businesses, police departments, and various government agencies to tell her son's story and educate on the importance of internet safety. The foundation also provides various resources in an effort to equip parents and children with the tools necessary to stay safe in a digital era without restricting children's access to the things they find enjoyment in. Recently, playwright Mark Wheeler wrote the play game Over, which tells Breck's story using his own words as well as words from his family and his killer, to educate students on the day of the digital world. It has been adapted into a fifty minute performance for secondary schools and For more information about the Brack Foundation, as well as the resources they provide, you can visit brackfoundation dot org or see the link in the source notes. There has been no significant update on Lewis Danes, who is still serving

5:18 a mandatory life sentence and will not be eligible for parole until twenty forty. In chapter five, I covered Saka Kabara Sato, the Kovid child killer whose real name is Shinichiro Azuma. This was an incredibly graphic case and one of the very few cases where I covered the murder of a child under the age of fourteen. It's something I very rarely do. They're so hard to stomach, but this was a case that so few people knew about. In March of nineteen ninety seven, in Kobe, Japan, someone was attacking the children there. The first victim was a ten year old girl named Ayaka Yamashida, who had been attacked with a hammer and a knife. An hour later, a nine year old girl was also tact but she survived.

6:02 That May, an eleven year old boy named jen Hessei went missing for three days before his mutilated head was found at the gate of his elementary school. Considered Japan's own Zodiac killer, the media was sent notes in red ink signed Saka Kebara Sato. The perpetrator was caught a few weeks later and discovered to be fourteen year old Shinnanchiro Azuma. Following his sentencing, he was remanded to Canto, a medical juvenile training school. He was transferred in two thousand and one after turning eighteen, to a different facility after a positive assessment, and was given a provisional release in March of two thousand and four at the age of twenty one, which was met with public outrage. He later wrote a book called Seka, detailing his crimes and alleging to feel remorse, which the families of his victims tried in vain to have blocks from publication. Azuma made ten million yen in royalties, and now in his forties, he has led a relatively quiet life. However, a month after I released my episode in October of twenty twenty two, the records of fifty two high profile cases with juvenile offenders, including the records involving the Kobe childs killer, were disposed of after the storage dates expired. According to an article for the Sahi Shimbun, the Kobe Family Court was in violation of Supreme Court orders for discarding of these records, which included the ruling a trial. There were in confessions, his psychiatric evaluation, and other information. The Supreme Court requires that lower courts keep records indefinitely of cases that attracted significant attention or met other criteria, and the disposal of these records meant that society as a whole will be

7:33 unable to scrutinize this case. Ordinarily, cases involving juvenile offenders restored ontil the offender turns twenty six. Momourojissei Jin's father met with the Japanese Supreme Court in February of twenty twenty three and criticized the disposal of these records. He demanded measures to be put in place to prevent this from happening again, and Supreme Court General Affairs Bureau Chief Shinya Onodera apologized, saying, quote, it was not appropriate to have disposed of the records. According to an article for the Mayini Ussay said, quote, the common sense of the judiciary is detached from that of the public. I hope courts will change for the bereaved families. Case records play a major role in understanding why the incidents happened. There was a world of difference between having records and not having them kept. I hope that bereaved families will be able to access records more freely. Proper preservation of case records will be the first step to achieving the school.

8:31 In chapter eighteen, I cover the murder of Colleen Ritzer, a twenty four year old high school teacher from Massachusetts who was murdered by her fourteen year old student Philip Kisom, a rising soccer star originally from Tennessee. Both Colleen and Philip are reported missing within a couple of hours of each other on October twenty second, twenty thirteen. Philip was found walking along the highway in the neighboring town of Topsfield at twelve thirty the next morning, but there was still no sign of Colleen. When police searched Philip's belongings, they found a knight as well as a box cutter with blood on it, a sweatshirt, a mask, credit cards belonging to Colleen, and a pair of women's underwear, which he claimed to have found before later saying he stole them from Colleen's car. Philip was brought to the police station and he refused to have his mother or a lawyer present with him, and he eventually admitted to police that the blood on the box cutter belonged to his algebra teacher, Colleen Ritzer. Philip claimed that she had set something to trigger his rage, and he killed her by cutting her throat with the box cutter. Philip draw a map where they could find Colleen's body behind Danver's High School, as well as where they could find her phone, which he had disposed that behind the Hollywoodhills movie Theater, Colleen Ritzer was found naked from the waist down, covered in leaves and other debris in an effort to hide her body.

9:44 Twenty yards away in a recycling bin. Were her clothes, bloody gloves, and a note saying I hate you all. In surveillance footage, Philip was seen following Colleen into the girl's restroom at three eleven p m. And then later removing her body from the bathroom in the green recycling bin. Philip was charged with first to be murder as an adult, as well as robbery and aggravated and unnatural rape as a juvenile. He was not guilty in December fifteenth, twenty fifteen, and sentenced to twenty five years for murder and forty years for rape and robbery, with the possibility of parole after serving forty years. The sentences were to runk concurrently, with eight hundred and fifty seven days credited for time served, meaning he is eligible for parole at the age of fifty four. In October of twenty twenty four, Philip appealed to his conviction, asking the courts to vacate the murder conviction and order a new trial. His attorney, Michael Schneider, said to the High Court. According to CBS, there was no question that the defendant was the once to kill the victim. However, he was arguing that Chism was unable to make a full insanity defense. This was due to expert testimony of the scans of his brain being excluded from his original trial that allegedly showed him to be suffering from mental illness. This was due to Philip having never been previously diagnosed with the traumatic brain injury or a disorder lick schizophrenia. A statement was issued by Collin's family that said quote, it is clear and agreed to by a trial and jury of his peers that the convict's actions were premeditated, calculated, and committed a pure evil

11:14 based upon overwhelming evidence. Without any admission of remorse. This evil individual cannot be rehabilitated. It is unthinkable that Cosin could be eligible for parole at thirty nine years old if his sentence is reduced. In February of twenty twenty five, Philip Kism was denied a new murder trial, with Associate Justice Frank Gaziano stating quote the defendant asked that we exercise our extraordinary power and either order a new trial or reduce the murder verdict. After carefully reviewing the record, we conclude that none of the asserted errors, standing alone or accumulatively, requires a new trial, and that there is no other basis on which to disturb the Stury's verdict. Colleen's family released a statement saying that the new ruling would allow them to finally grieve the loss of calling properly.

12:01 They also hold a five K walk in her honor annually to support the Colleen Richter Foundation, with this year's having just passed, and you can learn more about the foundation and the memorial scholarship set up in Colleen's name to support aspiring teachers by visiting Colleen Richard dot org. Chapter twenty two and twenty three was my two parter on the murder of Shari Resmussen. Twenty nine year old Cherry Resmusen, the director of nursing at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center, was murdered in while police insisted for twenty three years, was a robbery gone wrong in her vanny's apartment on February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty six, she had been shot three times in the apartment where she lived with her husband of three months, John Rotten, was ransacked, but only her car and marriage license were stolen. After years of Sherry's father begging police to look into John's ex girlfriend, a fellow police officer to Texas in two thousand and three finally took another look at the case and realized that the police had gotten it wrong all those years ago. The key was in the saliva taken from a bite wound on Shrefry's arm, and a notation in the file that police had rarefied that John's ex really was law enforcement, but they never followed up with her.

13:07 Stephanie Lazarus, a detective in the art Theft division of the LAPD, was obsessed with John Rutton and enraged that he was marrying another woman. She killed Cherry Resmusen and staged the scene to look like a robbery, finally being arrested after her DNA off of a cup from Costco was matched to the saliva from the bitemark. Twenty six years after Sharry's murder, Stephanie Lazarus was sentenced to twenty seven years to life in prison. In twenty twenty three, Stephanie was eligible for parole, was granted, but then rescinded when Governor Gavin Newson expressed various concerns, including quote, evading justice for more than two decades, and she did not appear to begin taking full accountability for the murder until she was finally caught. In fact, Stephanie did not actually confess to Sharry's murder until that parole hearing in twenty twenty three, stating, according to CBS, quote, it makes me sick to this day that I took an oath to protect and serve people, and I took Shary Resmussen's life from her a nurse. All I could think about was getting out of there before the police showed up. I will never ever harm an individual like I did on February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty six, when I murdered, callously murdered, and heinously murdered Shary Resmussen. John Rtton was among the members of Shary's family who had asked the Review Board to deny Stephanie's parole, saying that he did not believe her to be genuine in her remorse and was saying whatever she needed to in order to be released. He reminded the board that she had callously murdered his wife in cold blood, and then used her police training to

14:39 stage the scene to look like a robbery to cover up what she had done. This allowed her to evade justice for decades, living her life after taking someone else's. She had another parole hearing in May of twenty twenty four, where she was denied once again. Commissioner Kevin Chappelle said she was unsuitable for paroles, citing that her own test mo HE did not match the evidence presented at her hearing in twenty twelve. She claimed that she and Scheri had gotten into a physical fight, but Commissioner Chappelle said, quote more of her DNA would have been found at the scene if the incident was in fact a fight, as she had testified. Instead, you were the only one engaging in this extreme act of violence. Sephanie Lazarus seligible for pearol once again in May of twenty twenty eight.

15:26 In chapter twenty twenty six, I told you about twenty four year old Daniel Robinson, a geologist who vanished after leaving a work site in Buckeye, Arizona, on June twenty third, twenty twenty one. His coworker Ken reported that they met up at seven am to go to the site, where they spoke of things like the weather. At approximately nine a m. Minutes after making it to the site, Daniel waved goodbye and got into his jeep, Renegade, and drove off into the desert. Daniel's sheep was found lying on its side in the Sonoran Desert by a rancher on July twenty ninth, which was interesting because an aerial search had been done prior to this in order to look for the jeep, but no one had seen him until this point. All of the clothing Daniel had been wearing that day was found three feet away, as well as his wallet and keys, and the airbags had been deployed in the vehicle. There were reports that Daniel had been acting erratically before he went missing, claiming to be in love with the woman he had meant only a week or so prior, and Ken reported that Daniel had been staring off into the distance and he kept speaking of going to rest. Daniel's Instagram had also been completely wiped of all pictures, and his phone had been turt off Daniel's father, David, drove to Arizona to assist in the investigation, hiring a private investigator to help out. While the Buckeye and Tempe police were insistent that Daniel had likely run off after crashing his car, the evidence presented by the private investigators showed that the damage to the vehicle did not match the terrain. The black box of the car suggested tampering or the foul play was involved, and the investigator believed that the jeep was staged at the ravine.

16:59 The police, to thee this day do not believe this to be the case. Since his son has gone missing, David Robinson has conducted over fifty searches for his son, which has resulted in the discovery of the remains of various missing persons. He has also drafted the police He has also drafted the Police Help Find Missing Americans Act, also known as Daniel Robinson's Law, which quote aims to expedite standardized access to telecommunications data in cases involving a suspected missing person. This proposed federal legislation is designed to streamline the process for law enforcement agencies so they can act swiftly and effectively at the same time, it ensures that these actions uphold essential constitutional safeguards and deeply respect individual privacy rights, balancing urgency with ethical responsibility. It also ensures that families have real time access to telecommunications data without unnecessary delays. David also founded the Daniel Robinson Foundation, which aims to quote deliver outreach, resources and advocacy to families navigating the challenges of finding their missing loved ones.

18:05 We are committed to bridging the gaps and media attention, raising public awareness, and improving law enforcement response for everyone, regardless of brace, ethnicity, or background. Every missing person deserves the same level of urgency, dignity, and care. Together we confront Together, we can confront these inequities and work toward a future where everyone is valued and no case is overlooked. This was founded in response to the overwhelming disparity when it comes to media covering missing persons cases involving people of color, and how these cases are often misclassified as runaways and receive less attention from law enforcement in the public. For more information, you can visit Daniel Robinson Foundation dot org or please help Find Daniel dot com. Chapter twenty eight covered the disappearance of two year old Tika Lewis from the New Frontier Bowling Alley in Tacoma, Washington, on January twenty third, nineteen ninety nine. She had been out with the multiple family members, including her mother and siblings, and was last seen playing in the bowling alley's arcade at around ten thirty pm. Her mother, Theresa, was watching Tiko when she took when she took her eyes off of her for a moment to check on her son as he went up to bowl. When Teresa turned back to the arcade, Dico was gone. The family frantically searched the bowling alley with the help of an off duty police officer who was there at the time, with members of her family stopping cars as they pulled out of the parking lot to search the vehicles. After fifteen minutes of searching, the police recalled, who responded immediately. During the course of the investigation, police learned of various troubling instances

19:37 that occurred in and around the bowling alley leading up to Tika's disappearance. Two months before she vanished, a four year old was assaulted in the bowling alley's restroom. Security had seen the boy go into the restroom with a man originally believed to be his father. The man was described as having a pockmarked face, aged thirty to forty, with curly hair and a mustache or beard. He was also wor wearing a hat with the Husky on it, leading police to believe the man was from the Washington area, as that was the university's mascot. The week before Teaka went missing, an unknown mail attempted to lure a six year old boy from the Bowling Alley and on the very day she vanished. A mile away at a park, a father was with his two young children when a man with curly hair attempted to lure them away. The father chased him off and reported to police that the suspect got into a blue nineteen ninety five Pontiac grand Am.

20:29 This was significant because the witness reported a maroon late eighties or early nineties Pontiac grand Am speeding out of the Bowling Alley parking lot around the time the Tika was reported as missing. The car and its driver have never been found. A few weeks into the investigation, a teenager came forward saying that he had seen a white man in his thirties with a pockmarked face and brown childer length hair, as well as a big nose following a child near the exit on the night Tika went missing. A man matching this description was also notice when news crews showed up to conduct a re enactment the week after Tika disappeared, but very quickly police had run out of leeds. As they cleared every member of Tika's family, they had come to the conclusion that Tika was the victim of a stranger abduction. Tika's case has never been solved, though there have been alleged sightings of her over the years, and women have come forward claiming to be Tika, but that's all been disproven. In twenty twenty five, a backyard was dug up a half mile from where the bowling Alley was in response to a tip in relation to Tika's case, but Tacoma Police stated that nothing had been found to aid in the investigation. This past January, after yet another woman came forward claiming to be Tika, Theresa announced the founding of the Tika Legacy Foundation. In a statement, she said, according to Como News quote, we never had the support we have now and that is why we created Tika's Legacy Foundation a non profit organization dedicated to helping families who may find themselves in similar situations. Our mission is to provide resources, guidance, and a compassionate community

22:03 for those in need, while also serving as a resource for the community that has honor Tika is named for decades. Our goal is to give hope, support and assistance to ensure that no child goes forgotten. In chapter twenty nine, I covered a case from my home state of New Jersey, that of the murder of twenty five year old Stephanie Pars who disappeared on October thirtieth, twenty nineteen, from her home in Freehold Township. At the time of her disappearance, she had recently broken up with the man she had been seeing since August, John Osbilgan, who was a twenty nine year old stockbroker from Staten Island. John and Stephanie were not together very long before she broke things off, and this was due to his controlling nature, violent temper, and the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse he subjected her to.

22:48 This was also not a one off occurrence. John had three different domestic violence complaints made against him that same year. One was made by Stephanie, who filed on September twenty third after John was alleged to have struck her in the head and threatened her. Another complaint was made that June after an audioned woman alleged he had grabbed her by the face and hair and dragged her through the room, and an ex girlfriend filed her own complaint after he allegedly choked her into unconsciousness. The ex girlfriend ultimately dropped the charges, but Stephanie was due to appear in court on November sixth. Stephanie was last seen by her mother and sisters after dropping them off at home at ten thirty pm on the thirtieth after a night out. The next day, when her parents ed and Charlene failed to get in contact with her, they went by her home and found the door unlocked, her car in the driveway, and her phone in the couch cushions. Her dog was also in the home. When they checked her texts and Charlene found that Stephanie had missed work, and they immediately reported her missing. Police spoke to John and noticed scratches on his neck that he had no excuse for, so they focused the search on Staten Island. They also saw that John had been relentlessly calling and texting Stephanie's since the charges were filed, including calling and texting multiple times berating her. On the night of the thirtieth, police searched John's home five times, convinced that he had something to do with Stephanie's disappearance, and during one of the searches they found materials relating to the abuse of children, and he was arrested for possession of those materials. He was released after a bail hearing and bands from using the internet.

24:22 On December twenty second, three days after his release, John's body was found hanging in the garage of his parents' home. In his suicide notes, he implied that Stephanie was a terrible person and ruined his relationship with her, and that the things people would hear about him on the news was true, though he never made a formal confession regarding Stephanie or her disappearance. Three months after she went missing, on January twenty sixth, twenty twenty two, teens walking along Root six in Oldbridge found what they believed to be a mannequin six feet from the guardrail. The mad Cain was actually the body of a female fully clothed, and it was by sheer chance that she had been found. The body was ultimately identified as being Stephanie Parr's, though an official cause of death was never released. John's ex girlfriend believed that she was likely strangled to death. She claimed that John had to fetish for choking women and she believed him to be capable of murder. While John was believed to be responsible for her death, police were unable to determine if the death was murder or if it was accidental. In response to losing their daughter, her family founded In response to losing their daughter, her parents founded the Stephanie Nicole pars Foundation to quote prevent future domestic violence relationships from ending this way. We aim to provide quality, compassionate, and non judgmental services to all who need it. The Stephanie Nicole paris Foundation's mission is to provide education, intervention, and support to families and individuals dealing with domestic violence, sexual abuse, and missing loved ones, training

25:55 to learn how to deal with these situations, and setting up response teams for missing persons throughout the community. The Foundation is incredibly active and holds countless activities and events on a monthly basis. Also in twenty twenty six, Stephanie's Law was introduced, aiming to address issues related to domestic violence. Chapters thirty one and thirty two covered the murder of Colleen Slummer on January twelfth, nineteen ninety five, at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was murdered by to Daryl Ship, Shatala Wilson, and Krista Pike, who would ultimately be the youngest person on Tennessee's death row. When I covered this case, I did a really big deep dive. I think both episodes were two hours in total, and honestly, I've been wanting to go back and redo those episodes so I can add even more information. So I'm not going to give a big rundown of the case, but know that it's incredibly harrowing. Colleen Slummer was tortured and murdered because Christa had it in her head that Colleen liked to Daryl. Christa was finally given her execution date, and she is to be put to death on September thirtieth of this year. Of course, she's doing what she can to stop it, filing motions and suits. But I don't think she'll be successful again. I do want to revisit this case, so I'll leave that update as what it is for now. As for the rest of my cases, I'll leave this first part of my comprehensive list of updates here. As I said earlier, I'm constantly checking on the cases that I've covered, hoping that in the ones

27:27 that have been unresolved, In the ones that have been unsolved, there have been some sort of major movements in the case. For the ones I've mentioned today, please go back and listen for more information and for links and numbers to call for the family still waiting for answers. Those that haven't listened to my older cases, don't judge me too harshly. I was a baby podcaster, and I finally mostly know what I'm doing now. As my own personal update, I've been working on doing something with the case that I can and I'll stop thinking about. I have the case file and jail records, and I'm waiting on some more records to hopefully come in. But I have hit some roadblocks.

28:10 The Attorney General of Texas did deny me, so we're trying again. I've also been in contact with a family member, and I'm attempting to get in touch with the lawyer that worked on this case after the fact, so we'll see what happens. But hopefully I'll have something to share with you in the near ish future. But as always, I thank you so much for listening, and I hope you have a wonderful week, and as always, I will see you in the next chapter of the Book of the Dead. Bye, guys, Another page closed, But the story isn't over for the families left behind. The pain doesn't end when the headline stayed. And for the victims, we owe them more than silence for our on salt cases.

29:03 If you have any information, please reach out to local authorities or visit our show notes for links and resources. Someone out there knows something, maybe it's you. Thank you for listening to the Book of the Dead. If this story moved or spoke to you in some way, talk about it, share it, Keep their names alive. Until next time, I'm Courtney Liso. Stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant, and remember the dead may be gone, but their stories will not be forgotten.