Murder in the Heartland: Book Two

Prologue

One morning I went to the office early to catch up on some paperwork. It was about 6:30 a.m. I was reading and, although I didn’t hear anyone, I had the feeling there was someone in the room. I looked up to find a woman standing in front of my desk. Her small frame of about ninety pounds was still as she looked at me with eyes that looked like glass marbles.

Can I help you? I asked.

Sheriff, I think I killed my husband, she said.

You did what?

I think I killed my husband.

Why do you think you killed your husband? I repeated.

I shot him.

Where is he?

He is in bed at home. I used a shotgun.

I sent a deputy to the home and he found the husband in bed where the woman said he would be. He had been shot with a shotgun and there was blood and brains all over the wall. The deputy roped off the crime scene and the detectives begin to process the scene.

Back at the office the woman was arrested, given her rights, and then we used an atom kit on her hands to determine if she had in fact fired the shotgun found at the scene of the crime. During the process I couldn’t help but notice the calmness of the woman. She just set with a blank look on her face.

During the course of the investigation we learned that her husband had battered her and her children for years. On several occasions she tried to leave him, but he would always find her and bring her and the children home. Then after a while the battering would start all over again.

We learned that he had mood swings, which she learned quite well over the years. He was entering another abusive stage. She couldn’t take any more so she got a shotgun and while he was asleep she killed him.

On March 25, 1981, the Carbondale Police Department was contacted that Marie Azevedo had not reported to work and was missing. The police immediately began a search that lasted for six days. On April 1, 1981, her body was found in a cornfield. Marie had been shot several times in what police described an execution murder.

Dentist Allen Azevedo, the husband of the victim, immediately became a suspect as police probed into the homicide case. Although, they learned that the dentist had an airtight alibi. Police investigated the case for three years without any success.

Then a break came in the case when Dr. Azevedo contacted the police and told them that someone was trying to rip him off. According to Azevedo, he received a call by a man identifying himself as R. R told Azevedo that he wanted payment for setting up Mrs. Azevedo’s murder. Azevedo told the police he had nothing to do with it. After intense investigation by police they learned that Dr. Azevedo contracted with the El Rukin gang out of Chicago to have his wife murdered. His motive was that his wife, who had recently divorced him, was going back to India with the children for a trip to see their family. Dr. Azevedo did not think they would return.

In 1985, Dr. Azevedo was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder. The case went to trial and after the state presented its case, the community was shocked to learn that the judge had given a directed-verdict, a legal decision that dismisses the case because the state had not presented enough evidence to convict the defendant. The judge ruled Dr. Allen Azevedo could never be tried for the murder again.

The tragedy of this case didn’t end here. During the trial one of the sons, who was now fifteen years old, listened to the evidence and realized that his father had killed his mother and got away with it. He obtained a gun and while his dad was taking a nap in his dentist office, he shot and killed him. The young man loaded the body into a car, but was caught when his car broke down before he could dispose of the body.

Now it was his turn to stand trial for murder. Only he wasn’t as lucky as his father had been. He was convicted of his father’s murder and was sent to a juvenile detention center. A senseless family tragedy that ended with both parents dead, four parentless children with one in prison.

Murder is considered a crime of passion. The altercations often trivial to anyone but those involved: quarrels over money or girlfriends. Murder is swift for the victim and can happen to anyone—rich, poor, old, young. It can happen anywhere, day or night and all to often it is one spouse killing another.

On another spring morning of 1986, I was in the office shuffling papers when I got a call from the St. Charles County, Missouri sheriff. The Sheriff needed my help. A woman named Sharon Williams had been buried in Williamson County after she died from injuries in a car accident on October 19, 1983. The sheriff believed she had been murdered. According to the Sheriff, Sharon Williams was found in her Cadillac coupe on Central School Road after the vehicle left the road, ran down a nine-foot slope, and dropped over a retaining wall into a creek. The windshield was broken and there was extensive damage to the front of the car. Sharon was found unconscious on her back in the passenger seat. She had massive wounds to the back of her head. She was transported to a local hospital where she died thirteen days later. There was no autopsy performed—a slip up by the attending physician who signed her death certificate with the cause of death as accidental. Her family quickly moved her to Marion and, after funeral services, she was buried in the cemetery in Williamson County.

Damn! I said, interrupting his story. That’s Alice! That’s Alice Almaroad’s daughter.

Yes, yes, that’s right, he agreed. She’s Sharon’s mother.

Yeah, I know. Alice is a precinct judge in my precinct. She lives just north of me and the cemetery is just south of where we live. Right after her daughter was buried, she was in the office one day and told me that Sharon’s husband had murdered her daughter. I just thought she was upset at him.

Continuing, the St. Charles County sheriff said that his department didn’t have enough evidence at the time, but they were suspicious of the accident. Sharon had injuries to her head, but they were all to the back of the head with all the damage to the vehicle being to the front of the car. The police learned that Sharon’s husband was seeing another woman. On December 28, 1983, that woman’s husband was mysteriously reported missing. He supposedly went for a jog in sub-zero weather and never returned. Shortly after the disappearance, Sharon’s husband received a one hundred thousand dollar life insurance payment from his wife’s accidental death policy and the couple moved in together—all within a couple of months of the death of one spouse and a disappearance of the other.

Through other information that the sheriff’s investigators had obtained, the sheriff had reason to believe that the missing husband had been dumped in a cesspool behind a home belonging to Jim Williams, Sr. The problem was he had no probable cause to get a search warrant.

A few weeks ago, the sheriff explained, he had just finished watching the Sunday night movie when the ten o’clock news came on. The sheriff listened to a report of the uncovering of a murder that had originally been thought to be a fatal car accident. The accident occurred in the St. Peters area of nearby St. Louis. The victim, a federal parole officer, had run off the road, hit a utility pole, and been pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. However, an autopsy performed at the St. Louis University Medical Center by Chief Medical Examiner Mary Case revealed that the victim had died of a gunshot wound, not from the car accident.

The St. Charles sheriff said that he contacted the medical examiner the next day and told her of the Williams case. He was sure the hospital would have X-rays and asked the medical examiner if she would take a look. She agreed and a couple of days later she examined the X-rays of Sharon Williams’ injuries. She called the sheriff and told him that the injuries did not appear to be from the car accident. If she could examine the body she could definitely determine the cause of death.

I went to the judge and we finally got permission to exhume the body. On April 1, 1986, almost three years after she had been buried, Sharon’s body was exhumed and taken to a local funeral home for verification that the body was that of Sharon Williams, and to insure that all legal procedures were followed. Her body was shipped to St. Charles County, Missouri, for an autopsy. After careful examination, Dr. Case determined that Sharon Williams had died as a result of blows from a blunt instrument to the skull—not from the vehicle accident. Sharon Williams had been murdered.

This information was enough to implicate Jim Williams, Sr., as a suspect on Sharon’s death and also gave the sheriff probable cause to get a search warrant for the cesspool behind the home belonging to Williams. The sheriff was right. The body of the missing spouse was found in a cesspool wearing clothing that fit the description given on the day he was reported missing. The evidence was enough to arrest Jim William, Sr., for the double murder of his wife and his girlfriend’s husband. He would be convicted of both murders a year later.

In this book, Murder in the Heartland Book 2, there are ten case files. They are cases from the heartland that I as Sheriff participated in the investigation or cases that I have researched as a writer. It is my hope that in reading these murder cases people will become more aware of our vulnerability as citizens. Rural America isn’t immune to murder. As much as we like to think of ourselves as safe, murder can happen here. Too often it does.

Case 1

The Azevedo Murders

Marie Azevedo

March 25, 1981

Carbondale, Illinois

Allen Azevedo

September 27, 1985

Murphysboro, Illinois

At about 11:15 a.m. on March 25, 1981, the dispatch office of the Carbondale Police Department received a call. The caller reported that Marie Azevedo had failed to show up for work. The woman, a co-worker of Marie’s, told police that Marie had dropped off the youngest of her four children at the babysitter’s, just a few blocks from her work place at 8:00 a.m., but still did not show up. The police learned that Marie Azevedo, a native of India, was five feet, three inches tall, 120 pounds, with wavy black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a tan trench coat, a red and green plaid skirt, and open toed sandals. She was driving a brown 1978 Chrysler Le Baron station wagon with wood grain side panels. The Illinois license plate number was DWN123.

The police entered the information into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and started patrolling the last area Marie had been seen.

Meanwhile, detectives from the Carbondale Police Department and the Illinois State Police began questioning family members to determine Marie’s activities before she disappeared. Police interviewed her three oldest children first. Six-year-old Allison Azevedo told the police that she had last seen her mother when she dropped her and her eleven-year-old brother, Andrew, off at school. She told the police her mother was in good spirits and acted like she did on any other morning.

Police continued the questioning with eleven-year-old Andrew. He told the police the same story. Andrew stated that his mother said, with a smile, I’ll see you this evening.

Next, they interviewed her oldest son, thirteen-year-old Alberic. Alberic said the last time he saw his mother was when she left their home at 2012 Pine St. in Murphysboro to take his brother and sisters to school. He said his mother was acting normal.

Is there any other place your mother may have stopped other than school and work? detectives asked.

She stops for gas sometimes. She gets gas at the Martin station in Murphysboro and sometimes in Carbondale.

We understand that your mother and father were recently divorced. Is that right?

Yes! My father was always threatening my mother, and when they were fighting he was always the one who started it. I wouldn’t put anything past my father, Alberic stated.

Police left the area and headed for the babysitter’s home where Marie had dropped off her two-year-old, Ann Marie. On the way they checked the service stations in Murphysboro and Carbondale and learned that Marie did not stop at either station that morning.

When they arrived at the house, the detectives questioned the babysitter. She told the police that Marie was in good spirits when she dropped her daughter off at eight o’clock that morning. She said that she had known Marie since she started babysitting for her daughter, two-year-old Ann Marie, some months ago. The babysitter said, She was dependable, kind, and strong. A quiet person. Just a wonderful stable person. I don’t think the woman had any enemies. She was a very neat, attractive, well-dressed person. She was also a very private person, independent and cared very much for her children.

After the interviews, police surmised that Marie left her home with her three children. She dropped two of them off at the Murphysboro grade school. Then went directly to the babysitters, just three blocks away from her work place, before she disappeared. A day of search for Marie and her vehicle by patrol officers was fruitless. Detectives suspected foul play.

Next, the detectives contacted Dr. Allen Azevedo, Marie’s ex-husband. Dr. Azevedo claimed he had no idea where Marie could have gone. He stated that if Marie left without making arrangements for the children there was probably something wrong. Azevedo told the police that he was very bitter toward his wife over the divorce and custody of the children. He also stated they just completed a court hearing where the judge ruled that Marie could go to India for two months and take the children along. He said that he fought it because he felt that if Marie went to India with the children she would never return. He then stated he had absolutely no idea where his wife had gone. When police checked his appointment records they found that he had been in his dentist office from the time Marie was last seen until late in the day.

Staring at the police with cold eyes, Dr. Azevedo said, I will see to my children, but police noticed he showed little concern for the disappearance of his former wife.

Continuing the investigation, police begin interviewing neighbors and friends of Marie and the family. Most of the neighbors did not see anything unusual on the morning of Marie’s disappearance, but they did say that she was a wonderful mother and a very nice person. No one believed that she would go anywhere and leave her children alone.

Then, police interviewed a friend of the family who informed them that Marie recently received permission from the court on March 6, 1981, to take her children back to India for a visit with her relatives. The friend told the police that Dr. Azevedo was very much against it. He was afraid that Marie would go back to India and not return to the United States. The friend said that Marie told him that Dr. Azevedo gave his youngest son a gun and told him to shoot Marie’s sister when she picked the kids up for Marie. She also told the friend that she was going to leave town because Dr. Azevedo was giving her a rough time. The friend went on to say that he would check out Dr. Azevedo very carefully if he was investigating the case.

On April 1, 1981, a local farmer was in his cornfield preparing it for planting. At the far edge of the field he noticed a station wagon off in the ditch. Both front doors to the vehicle were open. He drove to the edge of the field and jumped down off the tractor. He walked over to the vehicle and then gasped for breath when he saw a woman slumped over the steering wheel. She was dead. The farmer hurried back to his house and called the Carbondale police at 2:50 p.m. There’s a woman in a car. She’s dead! He told the police that the car was in a ditch at the edge of his cornfield, one hundred yards northeast of the city limits of Carbondale, at the end of a dirt road off Wall and Burke Streets.

Police rushed to the scene. The officers approached the vehicle. A female fully clothed was slumped over the steering wheel of the car. She appeared to have been dead for several days. Police detected that there were several bullet holes in the clothing of her upper torso. The front doors of the vehicle were standing open, and it appeared that she had been shot from both sides of the station wagon execution style.

While one officer cordoned off the area the other officer ran a 10-28 vehicle registration check on DWN123 Illinois plates. The vehicle was registered to Marie Azevedo of 2012 Pine St. Murphysboro, Illinois. The officer’s hunch was right, their missing person had been found.

Police begin processing the crime scene. They noticed the body of the victim was fully clothed. Her purse was on the ground outside of the vehicle on the driver’s side. Her driver’s license, $133 in cash, her social security card, several credit cards, bank books, checkbook and other personal items were undisturbed. The detectives’ concluded that she had been shot from both sides of the car several times in the upper torso. Her jewelry, ring, Seiko watch, and her gold necklace were undisturbed on her body. The police immediately ruled out robbery as a motive. They considered the murder as a hit, an execution type murder.

The police gathered the evidence, dusted for fingerprints and then the body was removed from the vehicle and taken to a local hospital for an autopsy. Soon afterward the car was impounded for further processing by the Illinois State Crime Lab.

Dr. Steven Neurenberger performed an autopsy on Marie Azevedo on the evening of April 1, 1981. The autopsy revealed that Marie had been dead for five to seven days and had died of massive gunshot wounds to the upper torso. The entry wounds were on both sides of her body. She was shot thirteen times—six times in the left side, four in the right, and three grazing wounds. The bullets were .22 caliber from two different weapons. Further investigation revealed the victim was not sexually assaulted, nor was there any indication that she had been physically attacked before the shooting.

The next day the story hit the local newspapers. Immediately the police began to receive calls with information in reference to the homicide. One person said that he and his wife were in need of some dental work and some friends recommended Dr. Azevedo. Their appointment was in January 1980 during the divorce of the dentist and Marie. He told the police that all Dr. Azevedo talked about was the difficult divorce he was going through. He said that Dr. Azevedo was very bitter toward the wife because this type of proceeding was not acceptable in his Indian culture.

He said that Dr. Azevedo continued on saying his wife Marie had accused him of beating their children with chains, the result of which was he was compelled to psychiatric counseling by the courts. He also said that Dr. Azevedo told him that he was very fond of his children and would do anything to get custody of them.

The witness said he did not hear Dr. Azevedo make any threatening statements toward his wife Marie, but he did say Dr. Azevedo was so upset over the divorce proceedings that he did a terrible job on his teeth and he never went back.

Another caller said she was in Dr. Azevedo’s office at 4:30 p.m. on April 1, 1981, waiting for her appointment. While she was waiting, Dr. Azevedo told her that he heard something on the radio that had him upset. He did not mention what it was he heard. The lady changed her appointment and left.

The woman did say that she spoke with Marie at some length about a week before her disappearance. Marie told her that she was divorcing her husband because of excess mental abuse and to protect her children. She said Marie also told her Dr. Azevedo had accused her of being too much like an American and not being faithful. She said she never heard nor had Marie ever tell her that Dr. Azevedo had threatened her.

Another caller told the police she had known Marie since August 1980 and occasionally had lunch with Marie. She said that Dr. Azevedo seemed to upset Marie very much and there appeared to be problems with child abuse on the part of the father. She said Dr. Azevedo came over to the United States before the rest of the family. Later, when Marie and the boy came over from India to join him, his son did not remember him. Dr. Azevedo beat him, trying to get him to remember. Marie told her that when they lived in Chicago, she turned him into the Department of Children and Family Services after he placed the boy in a trash can and said, I don’t want you if your not going to love me.

Marie told her that she found out that the six-year-old daughter was sleeping with Dr. Azevedo. Marie sent the child to a psychologist to see if anything unusual had occurred and found out that the child had not been sexually abused in any way.

Marie said Dr. Azevedo did not want the youngest child to go to a babysitter or to play with other children. He preferred the child stay in his office by herself.

Dr. Azevedo would not allow the children to take presents he purchased for them to Marie’s house. Marie also told her under