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00:00In the darkest moments, the promise of excitement can turn women into killers.
00:16A charismatic young woman uses the occult for murder.
00:22I just can't understand how three other girls would follow this woman with these horrific
00:27ideas.
00:29A teen turns jealousy into a murderous game, and the path mentality takes hold.
00:36We see people in groups doing things that they would never do individually.
00:42A 16-year-old girl picks up a gun and shoots into a schoolyard, just because she doesn't
00:49like Mondays.
00:51What I see is a person who felt like, I don't have anyone that loves me, I don't have anyone
00:56that even cares about me.
00:59These are deadly women, all seduced by the dark thrill of a kill.
01:17Madison County, Indiana, January 11, 1992.
01:27Don Foley is about to make a terrible discovery along the roadside.
01:33A farmer and war veteran, he's used to seeing death and suffering.
01:39I've seen dead animals, I was in the service, I've seen people burnt and stuff.
01:46I'd seen it before, but nothing like that.
01:51I thought it was a mannequin to start with, or one of them rubber dolls you hear about.
02:00She was burnt real bad from here up.
02:06The young girl's body had been sexually assaulted, tortured, burned.
02:14The victim, 12-year-old Shonda Scharrer.
02:24Even those used to brutal slings, like former FBI profiler Candace DeLong, were shocked
02:30by this crime.
02:33For all the years I've been involved in working with people that committed murder, as a psychiatric
02:38nurse to my work as an FBI agent, this is one of the most disturbing cases I've ever studied.
02:47For Candace DeLong, it's a tragic case of peer pressure gone terribly wrong,
02:53turning teenagers into terrifying killers.
02:59Shonda Scharrer's murderer is not one, but four school-age girls, on the ultimate thrill kill.
03:08Everybody was shocked when we learned the age of the girls involved.
03:12I think that, I know that's what surprised me more than anything else.
03:19Indiana State Police Detective Steve Henry headed up the investigation.
03:25For some reason, the chemistry was right that night between these four girls for this to occur.
03:33Alone, young girls rarely commit homicides.
03:39But group pressures can override an individual's instinct for caution.
03:44We see people in groups doing things that they would never do individually.
03:51Some of these violent attacks by a group against one person, they take on like a pack mentality.
03:58One person is always the leader, and the others are followers.
04:04It started three months before, outside a school dance.
04:09Amanda Heverin is with her new friend, Shonda Scharrer.
04:14I met her in junior high. I was in eighth grade, she was in seventh.
04:21We became very, very close. We became really good friends.
04:28But Amanda's ex-girlfriend is brooding.
04:33Sixteen-year-old Melinda Loveless.
04:39Jealousy is probably the most common motivator of murder.
04:47Period.
04:48They tried to beat Shana up at a dance.
04:52I got between them and told Shana to run.
04:58The relationships that they get in at that age may seem trivial.
05:03But that's their life's breath. That's their world.
05:09If somebody interferes with those relationships, things can get pretty rough.
05:15Melinda begins writing letters to Amanda.
05:21Frightening letters wishing Shonda dead.
05:25Well, I would say I didn't think she was capable of murder.
05:28I thought maybe she'd just, you know, try to scare or beat her up or something.
05:34That's the Melinda that I knew. I didn't know her as being a violent person.
05:42She convinces some friends.
05:46Tony Lawrence, Hope Ripley, and Lori Tackett
05:52to take a joyride to Shonda's house.
05:56None of the three had ever met Shonda.
06:00It's easier to do something when you've got a group of people.
06:02You can share the responsibility, share the guilt, share the blame.
06:08Melinda has assembled her pack.
06:13The only question now, how far will they go?
06:21There is no doubt in my mind that Melinda intended to cause the death of Shonda.
06:35Melinda brings a knife, ostensibly to scare Shonda.
06:42The pack mentality can take on a life of its own.
06:46The leader determines what's going to happen,
06:48and the other members of the group, sometimes they'll go along with it to impress the leader,
06:52and sometimes they go along with it because they're afraid of going against the leader.
07:01The plan was to lure Shonda into the car
07:06that her good friend Amanda was waiting for her.
07:10There were not mean-looking, dirty child molesters.
07:14There were two children that looked like her
07:17that were not threatening, and they said,
07:19just walk 25 feet and talk to her.
07:22And that's what she did.
07:33And they had her.
07:43You stole my girlfriend!
07:48I think when the knife was first put to her throat,
07:51some of the followers just thought this was kind of a game,
07:55that they really had no idea it was going to end where it did.
08:01It would be the last day Shonda's mom, Jackie, ever saw her daughter.
08:07Shonda had never been anywhere that we didn't know where she was or who she was with.
08:10Shonda wasn't allowed to go in anybody's house that I didn't call the parents,
08:13that I didn't go there.
08:15I was very, very protected.
08:23Shonda is driven to the countryside, then assaulted.
08:33Led by Melinda, 17-year-old Lori Tackett joins in.
08:38Lori took the most active role in helping Melinda.
08:41The other two girls, I think, were just kind of going along,
08:44something to do on a Saturday night.
08:47There was really no indication that they knew what was going to happen.
08:54After the attack, Shonda is tossed in the trunk.
09:04Twelve-year-old Shonda Scharr has been lured into a car,
09:08assaulted and tied up.
09:13Her teenage captors appear to be on a thrill kill.
09:21It really isn't that difficult to kill someone quickly.
09:25If you have a knife and they are disabled, they can't run away from you.
09:31And yet, we didn't see that in this crime.
09:33And yet, we didn't see that in this crime.
09:35We saw very long, drawn-out, horrible torture.
09:41Shonda suffers unimaginable abuse.
09:45Hope Rippey sprays window cleaner as the assault ends.
09:50One could say Hope really didn't want to deal her a fatal blow,
09:56but felt compelled to do something to make it look like she was into the murder.
10:03Fifteen-year-old Toni Lawrence is the only one to resist.
10:09I can only imagine that she was terrified.
10:12If they did that to her, they can do that to me.
10:19Oftentimes, they become paralyzed with fear.
10:22And yet, she was able to say,
10:25I'm not going to be a part of this, I'm not going to look, I'm not going to do anything.
10:30But she must have been terrified.
10:34Shonda's Ordeal
10:44Shonda's ordeal has continued for eight hours.
10:51At dawn, her tormentors finally put an end to it.
10:55Well, I think these girls used gasoline because, partly, they didn't know what they were doing.
11:03I think if they'd found some big, heavy boulders, they would have dropped them on her body.
11:07It was just whatever was convenient, whatever popped into their mind.
11:11The way it was told to me, they drove away and turned around and came back past the body,
11:17thinking that she would be burned completely up and there would be no trace of her and she was still there.
11:23I was just so terrified.
11:27I was so scared.
11:30I saw the lights.
11:31I saw the shadows.
11:33You know, I was so scared.
11:35the body, thinking that she would be burned completely up and there would be no trace
11:39of her and she was still there. So Melinda set her on fire again.
11:44And then we went to McDonald's and had breakfast.
11:52But Shonda wasn't dead.
11:58They identified soot in her airways, which means at some point she had actually inhaled
12:04or was breathing in the fumes, the fire, the burning contents that were all around her.
12:11This indicates to all forensic pathologists that she was conscious.
12:18They didn't know how to tell me how she had died and I saw it on television, that she
12:24had been burned alive. I didn't know that.
12:41Later that day, Melinda confesses to ex-girlfriend Amanda Heverin.
12:46She told me everything that had happened. I thought it was a joke because I just can't
12:58fathom that four girls would do this to another human being. This is, you know, this is stuff
13:05you wouldn't even do to an animal, you know.
13:09In Melinda's mind, it might have been simple. Remove the competition and then you'll be
13:15number one again.
13:20She also might have been telling her partly as, look what I can do and I'll do it to you
13:27if you don't come back to me. We don't know.
13:42One evening, Toni Lawrence, the only one of the four who refused to participate, turns
13:48herself in and tells police everything.
13:54Before the night is out, Shonda's killers are behind bars.
14:02Shonda's death shatters her family.
14:05She weighed 77 pounds.
14:07And 91 the year before, that was the year before she died.
14:12There would be another victim, Shonda's father.
14:16Steve could not have been a prouder father. Shonda was his life. From the day that she
14:23died, he did everything he could to kill himself besides putting a gun to his head. And finally,
14:31he drank himself to death and he died at 53.
14:38What could motivate such a crime? Jealousy? Path behavior? Or something else? Made possible
14:51by other people not even on trial. It's alleged most of the girls came from troubled or abusive
14:59homes.
15:02I think every horrible thing that happened to each one of those girls, everything they
15:06had held in all their life, they took it out on my child. I think that's what they
15:11were doing. I think they just all exploded that night.
15:16Court testimony revealed Melinda had a violent father who abused her mother, her sisters
15:22and a cousin for years.
15:29I think the outrageous home life that Melinda was subjected to at the hands of her father
15:36and the mother who didn't protect her from that played a tremendous role in why she eventually
15:42grew up to be a murderer.
15:47None of these girls were born murderers. They weren't born to murder children. They weren't
15:52born to be in prison. This is what we do as parents. We mold our children into what they
16:01are.
16:03All four were tried as adults and pled guilty. Tony Lawrence, the least involved, was sentenced
16:11to 20 years but was released in 2000. Accomplice Hope Rippey was sentenced to 60 years but
16:22released early in 2006. Still serving their 60 year sentences in Indiana State Women's
16:31Prison, Laurie Tackett and Melinda Loveless, the teenager whose violent past and catastrophic
16:40jealousy created a thrill killer.
16:45Melinda Loveless is the closest thing you will ever look at and know what the devil
16:49is. Her eyes are empty. There's nothing inside of her.
17:05The suburbs have harbored their share of deadly women. But until 1979, one of its institutions
17:15had been largely untouched by violence or death. On Monday, January 29, that would change
17:27forever.
17:29This is one of the most unthinkable, horrendous crimes that could ever occur in California,
17:34in the nation and in the world.
17:41The city is San Diego, California. School teacher Daryl Barnes heads off for another
17:48day.
17:51I was a teacher for 38 years. I enjoyed the community and I enjoyed the kids that were
17:56there. It was an extremely pleasant experience until the incident happened.
18:08Across the road from Daryl's school, Grover Cleveland Elementary, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer
18:14is home alone. Her single parent father has left for work. But Brenda isn't preparing
18:23for class. She's looking for a thrill.
18:38This Monday would spawn a hit song and become the most infamous school day in modern history.
18:48It's difficult to think of anything more evil than shooting into a crowd of school
18:54children.
18:57For District Attorney Richard Sachs, that Monday starts a case he's followed for 30
19:03years.
19:04This was the country's, if not the world's, first school shooting type of case before
19:09January 1979. This type of behavior, this type of crime was unheard of.
19:16It's a Monday that will scar Cam Miller, then just nine years old.
19:23Every day I wake up, I see the scar on my chest and it's a constant daily reminder that
19:29I'm fortunate to be alive.
19:34Every parent wants nothing more than to protect their child. In this particular case, these
19:43parents thought they were doing that by sending their kids to school.
19:50As I walked up to the school, apparently she saw me. I was wearing a blue vest and I was
19:59a good target because she liked blue, so she shot at her favorite colors.
20:08The bullet actually went in my back and out my chest. I was very fortunate that it did
20:14just go straight through my body.
20:17These .22 caliber rounds are going to be traveling probably at excess of 1,600 to 2,000 feet
20:24per second. So when something is going that quickly through your body, you won't perceive
20:29pain, but you will perceive a shock from the transfer of the kinetic energy.
20:33The principal and I were sitting in the office talking and we heard this pop, pop, pop. It
20:43sounded like firecrackers to us and it got our attention. I saw children either fall
20:50or grab a part of their body and start crying, some screaming, some just look around in shock.
20:59We didn't know where this was coming from.
21:03Undetected, Brenda had the school under siege. As news of the killings gets out, the country
21:13goes into collective shock. They're asking how can a killer open fire at defenseless
21:20children in a suburban schoolyard?
21:25One thing we can say with absolute certainty is having a gun accessible to a minor greatly
21:31contributed to the case. It was absolutely wrong and illegal.
21:38Brenda's .22 caliber rifle is a Christmas present from her father.
21:44There is no question in my mind that Brenda's father bears a tremendous amount of responsibility
21:50for what happened. Buying a rifle and supplying her with bullets, he has much to be ashamed
21:58of.
22:02Brenda had been known in the neighborhood as a troublemaker. Colleen Davidson was just
22:08five when she first tried to befriend her.
22:11One of my first memories is going to her house and I had my bar read all and she ripped its
22:19head off and I was really upset because she said she was going to give me some clothes
22:23for it and I went home crying.
22:29Doll mutilation is something that we have seen in children who later become and teenagers
22:36who later become killers or stalkers of others. It can show a rage against the owner of the
22:42doll or that's how she's abused at home by someone. She's recreating it.
22:50Brenda would later accuse her father of sexual abuse.
22:55What I see is a person who felt like I don't have anyone that loves me. I don't have anyone
23:01that even cares about me. I can die tomorrow and everybody will be happier. And that was
23:06her state of mind, you see. So she felt if I'm miserable, I'm going to spread the misery
23:11to other people. Why not?
23:16Before that fateful January day, no one really knew what was going on in Brenda Spencer's
23:23mind. But soon she will tell the world.
23:29I realized that I had to get these kids out of here and that was going to be a big deal
23:35because I had to get the ones that were wounded in the office and there were still kids coming
23:39down the street.
23:42Teacher Daryl Barnes is joined by Principal Burton Ragg who bravely jumps into the line
23:47of fire.
23:48There was three more pops which were shots by Brenda Spencer. And he twirled and dropped
24:03down immediately right there at the front of the school. I ran over to him. He had a
24:11big red spot right on his chest right here.
24:13A gunshot wound to the aorta is a very lethal event. The aorta is the major blood vessel
24:22that leaves the heart. It transfers oxygenated blood to all the organs in the body. It is
24:27putting out blood at a very rapid rate. Very, very difficult to survive even with immediate
24:33medical care.
24:36Principal Ragg dies at the scene.
24:43Daryl risks his life to save the wounded.
24:46Of course, I didn't stop her from shooting eight kids. But at least I got them out of
24:55that area in case she wanted to continue to shoot at them.
24:59There is more courage that day. School custodian Michael Sukar also braves the sniper.
25:08He was taking a blanket to put over Burton Ragg. Three shots rang out and hit him. He'd
25:20been in the service where this is the kind of thing he did. Never been scratched a day
25:25in his life in war.
25:28Michael, too, will die of his wounds.
25:35I think the fact that Brenda shot on and on and on kind of speaks for itself in that she
25:41was enjoying it and it was doing something for her. Absolute power and control over the
25:48lives of others.
25:51By 9 a.m., police have arrived.
25:54I hadn't had a chance to talk to this police officer except to say, well, there's some
25:58bodies out in front. And so he was crawling out to see if he could assist them. And then
26:06she shot again.
26:13Officer Robert Robb is shot in the neck.
26:18She was a very, very good shot. She used very good accuracy in order to hit this many.
26:26The death toll only stops when police moved a garbage truck to block Brenda's firing line.
26:34Before Brenda makes her next move, a journalist calls asking why.
27:00When Brenda said to the reporter, I did it because I don't like Mondays, when I first
27:06read that, it occurred to me that she certainly was not mentally ill when she did it.
27:13It was too flippant and sarcastic an answer for someone who's seriously mentally ill.
27:19I worked with the seriously mentally ill for 10 years. That's not the kind of answer you
27:23get when you ask them a question. And I think it shows Brenda's contempt for society.
27:32After a six-hour standoff, Brenda finally surrenders.
27:42She shot approximately 36 times. She wounded eight schoolchildren, one police officer,
27:50the principal of the school, and the school custodian. Nine injured, two dead. Thirty-six
28:02rounds fired, 11 hits.
28:06In April 1980, Brenda Spencer is imprisoned for 25 years to life. She has applied for
28:14parole four times. Each time, it's been denied.
28:20This is the type of case where, in our view, she should never be released from prison.
28:24She should spend the rest of her entire life in prison for what she's done.
28:29I don't have any animosities or vengeance towards Brenda Spencer. I forgave her a long
28:36time ago, but I do believe that it's important that she pays the consequences of her judgment.
28:44Many of us don't like Mondays, but Brenda Spencer had so much more not to like. Not
28:52the least of it, an abusive father who bought her a gun that she tragically used for a sick
29:01and twisted thrill.
29:07A link between excitement and murder. The idea of a thrill kill shocks every society
29:16wherever it happens. One morning, the Australian city of Brisbane awoke to news of a most horrific
29:26murder.
29:27He was covered in blood, absolutely covered in blood.
29:36In October 1989, Detective Pat Glancy gets a case he'll never forget.
29:45I've seen some shockers. Believe me, I have. This murder scene was right up among the top
29:51ones.
29:54At the crime scene, a naked father of five lay dead. He appeared to be stabbed, with
30:03his throat savagely slashed.
30:06When we rolled the body over, I truly thought that the head was going to detach from the
30:11body. It just almost went its own way, and it was most uncomfortable.
30:20Who could commit such a brutal crime? That first day, no one could have guessed.
30:28I don't think we even considered the idea of it being a female. We just assumed it was
30:32a murder that had been done by men, or a number of men.
30:37Detective Glancy and his fellow investigators would be drawn into a world of feminine darkness.
30:45A world of the occult, of gothic ritual, of a belief in vampires.
30:56It's hard to believe that the allegations or the report is true. As it turned out, everything
31:01was true.
31:03State Prosecutor Adrian Gundelac found himself in the middle of a unique murder case, where
31:11the motive seemed to be a lust for blood.
31:15Tracy Wiginton, who I would suggest was the main instigator, was telling these girls and
31:22leading them along the path to believe that she was a vampire, and that she needed human
31:29blood to keep going.
31:35The black arts had long fascinated 24-year-old Tracy Wiginton. Tracy fantasizes about the
31:45occult, holds seances, reads tarot cards. She is physically strong and chooses lesbian
31:55girlfriends with similar interests. It's all a far cry from her devout Catholic upbringing.
32:05Teenagers frequently develop interest in the very opposite of what they think their family
32:09would want them to do. If a child is forced to go to church, and they're going to act
32:16out and be defiant, an interest in the occult would be exactly the thing they'd go for.
32:24Tracy's upbringing left her something else, a small fortune, which she is lavishing on
32:32friends and her passion for the occult. The money is an inheritance from her grandparents,
32:40who raised Tracy after her mother abandoned her at age four. Tracy's friends are drawn
32:48in by a wealthy, forceful young woman, promising excitement. Dark passions are becoming more
32:57than fantasy. Tracy's friends will say they've seen her drink blood.
33:07And I said, had you seen her drink the blood? She said, I have given her blood. She said,
33:15I used my blade that I use for leather work. She said, and I slipped my veins for her,
33:21and she sucked the blood from my veins. This is so unusual. Drinking blood would
33:29certainly, from a physiologic standpoint, cause iron overload in an individual. At a minimum,
33:35it would cause some gastric upset, and is so socially unacceptable.
33:40Vampirism is a clinical term. Being aroused by the idea of blood and drinking blood,
33:52that actually is a clinical perversion. Whatever Tracy's motivation,
33:59she's beginning to contemplate a terrible crime.
34:02During meetings with her friends, Tracy Wigington tells them she needs fresh blood.
34:12Amongst her close circle, Tracy Waugh, her lover Lisa Paczynski, and Kim Jarvis.
34:21It is only Lisa who has given her blood.
34:32But this time, she wants blood from someone else. As yet unknown, a murder victim.
34:42So they planned to get a man. That man that they got was poor Mr. Bulldog, I'm afraid.
34:5247-year-old Edward Bulldog is the unluckiest man in Brisbane, on the night of October 21, 1989.
35:04He was chosen at random, the first vulnerable male the girls could find.
35:12Paradoxically, Edward thinks things are going his way.
35:16He's just won at darts, at a local bar, and spent his winnings on a few drinks.
35:22And he's very inebriated when he left. He had a blood alcohol content of 0.3%.
35:28So he's an easy victim to lure into the car with four young girls.
35:34Edward thinks his lucky streak is continuing.
35:39Four young girls offering a lift, and from Tracy, perhaps the most vulnerable.
35:46Perhaps something more. There was obviously talk that she was prepared to have sex with him,
35:51and she'd give him a good time. I think she also indicated that
35:55the other girls were available if he felt like them.
36:02The girls take their victim to a secluded riverbank. It's well after midnight.
36:11Edward appears willing to leave the car,
36:13and follow Tracy to a boat shed closer to the water.
36:20The three waited in the car while Williamton took him down to, down the back.
36:27And the interviewing officer said, what was your thoughts at that time?
36:31And she said, I was going to kill him. Very cold, I was going to kill him.
36:40But Tracy doesn't strike immediately.
36:44Oh, come on. Come on.
36:46She appears to lull her victim into a false sense of promise and security.
36:55Then Tracy excuses herself for a moment.
37:02Edward has the presence of mind to take some precaution with his newfound friend.
37:09He hides his wallet.
37:11He had that sixth sense, I suppose, he thought he might be robbed.
37:14So he slipped his wallet under the corrugated door of the nearby sailing shed.
37:19Edward finds a loose credit card, and assuming it's his, hides that too.
37:27It would be one of Edward's last actions.
37:30In Brisbane, Australia, a cult enthusiast, Tracy Wiggington,
37:35is asking her friends to help her commit murder.
37:40She has her victim. All she needs now are weapons and assistance.
37:51But only one, her lover Lisa Paczynski, agrees to help.
37:56But only one, her lover Lisa Paczynski, agrees to the thrill kill.
38:05Edward Baldock has been lured to his death.
38:09But Lisa freezes.
38:12Tracy does not.
38:15She said she stabbed in as hard as she could and that the knife went right to the hilt.
38:21She said she got the knife and tried to get into the bones.
38:25That was her words, tried to get into the bones.
38:30Tracy's first blow almost severs Edward's spinal cord.
38:36It tells me there was a great deal of force,
38:38one which would have cut through all of this bone
38:41and nearly cut that spinal cord in half.
38:45Now the murder takes on a new vicious frenzy.
38:51She just brutally stabbed him 17 or 18 times, according to the pathologist.
39:01And the hole in his back was as large as bread and butter plate. It was huge.
39:12Another deep slash to her victim's throat.
39:15Then the reason Tracy gave for wanting to kill an innocent stranger.
39:24Blood.
39:26Kim Jarvis was asked, did she drink the blood? Did Wigington drink the blood?
39:31She said when she arrived back, she looked like she'd had a three-course meal.
39:45Something happened that night no one believed possible.
39:51Not the police, not the victim, perhaps not even the girls who had gone along for the ride.
40:04Only Tracy knew, only Tracy had the desire and the will to carry it out.
40:10Only Tracy had the desire and the will to carry it out.
40:16It was a very deprived and very cruel murder and it's one of the worst.
40:26But the killer would be caught because of a thoughtless mistake.
40:34The credit card Edward hid for safety that night had been dropped by Tracy.
40:41I later checked those shoes after they'd been photographed
40:45and I found the bank card was in the name of T.A. Wigington.
40:52Detective Glancy's discovery helped lock away the woman
40:56local newspapers dubbed Brisbane's lesbian vampire killer.
41:03Tracy Wigington was judged to be sane and convicted of first-degree murder.
41:11She serves a life sentence.
41:13I don't think she should ever be released, I really don't.
41:17It was just so vicious and done by a woman, a very, very cold calculating woman.
41:26Lover Lisa Paczynski was also found guilty, though she never physically assaulted the victim.
41:33Kim Jarvis, who was judged to play a lesser role, was jailed for manslaughter.
41:40Tracy Waugh, who stayed in the car, was found not guilty.
41:45I just can't understand how three other girls would follow this woman with these horrific ideas.
41:54Since the police interviews in which she confessed,
41:57Tracy Wigington has refused to speak again of the crime.
42:03We can only speculate why she wanted to be a vampire, in search of the ultimate thrill.
42:10The stalking, the choosing the victim, the luring him, the way that they dressed,
42:18and the multiple stab wounds, and then of course the drinking of the blood.
42:22That was all part of what her fantasy was,
42:26and something that she felt needed to be there for this crime to be complete.
42:30For these deadly women, an ordinary life was not enough.
42:36They crossed the line, falling into darkness, looking for something more thrilling.
42:46For Melinda Loveless, it was the thrill of revenge.
42:51For Brenda Spencer, it was the thrill of revenge.
42:54It was the thrill of revenge.
42:58For Brenda Spencer, the thrill of control.
43:05For Tracy Wigington, the thrill of the occult.
43:12Most of us know that the need for excitement must be controlled.
43:18That left unchecked, it can become sick and depraved.
43:22Not these deadly women.