TEEN LOVERS: Murder Along the River

by Holly Fox Vellekoop

  Janet countered with, “You’ve always hated Shirley. From the day she was born, you hated her and made her life miserable.”

  On the night of the murders, Linda had cried herself to sleep after being told of Shirley’s death.

  Linda’s friends were taken to their homes by the police who explained the terrible news to their parents.

  The Saturday headline on the front page of Danville’s local paper The Morning News declared “Teen Lovers Murdered Along the River.” Individual senior class pictures of the popular high school teens were printed next to an article describing the murder scene and how their bodies were discovered. Included in the text were press interviews with neighbors who expressed shock and sadness. The story ended by detailing the many school activities in which Shirley and Joey had been involved.

  Neighbors and others who heard of the murders were shocked. Never before had something like this occurred in Montour County. A couple of times car accidents had claimed the lives of high school students and there were some drownings in the river, but nothing such as this had ever happened. The citizens of the tight-knit community were horrified.

  The newspaper article reported Chief Bill’s claim the deceased were discovered about 11:00 PM by some students who’d gone to the fog-veiled football field to hang out. They’d found dead, the most popular kids in the high school.

  The names and ages of the boys who found the bodies were not cited in the police report. The account noted that one of the young men told his friend to run to the police station for help while he and another boy guarded the bodies.

  The teenager frantically ran the length of West Mahoning Street, turned onto Mill Street and fell against the Odd Fellows Building steps. He got up and ran the rest of the way to the Police Station. He wasn’t aware of it, but he’d been screaming the whole time.

  When the boy reached the town police they knew he was coming. A Mahoning Street resident had called ahead to report some goofy kid yelling and running up their street. The resident demanded something be done before some mischief occurred.

  Chief Bill claimed by the time he and his deputy made sense out of the boy’s incoherent story and got to the crime scene, the area was corrupted by the teenagers.

  The teens remaining at the field told police that while their friend was getting help they’d walked around the bodies looking for clues to what happened or a weapon which may have caused the deaths. The boys said they poked the grass and gravel with their loafers and some sticks they’d found.

  Despite the cold weather and late evening hour, as happens in a small town, groups of people who’d heard of the gory find began to gather. They came to make offers of assistance to the police and to help the dead teenagers’ families.

  By the time police gained control of the foggy crime scene it was too late. Valuable clues that could’ve been gathered were either destroyed or tainted.

  The murder weapon was never found. Neither was the murderer. The police didn’t have any suspects.

  Some local citizens wondered aloud what the teenagers were doing at the field before they were murdered.

  Pictures of the football hero and his cheerleader girlfriend were posted on the Pennsylvania State Police meeting room board on November 27, 1954, and stayed there.

  Chapter Three

  When Sheski began investigating the case

  State Police Lieutenant Thomas Sheski stared vacantly out the window of the meeting room at the wooded tract behind the barracks. His cool blue eyes surveyed the stark wintry vista for nothing in particular. A powdery snow lay peaceful amongst the trailing pine at the foot of Pennsylvania hardwoods.

  Lately, Sheski couldn’t keep his mind on the maze of details involved in his job as a state policeman. One of the older detectives, he was getting tired of the grind when the job was monotonous although he still loved a challenging case. Today, he found himself daydreaming of proposing marriage to his ladyfriend Lana Stahl. Though his friends called him Sheski, Lana lovingly called him Tommy. He loved the way she said his name. What would she say to a proposal?

  Sheski thought he knew but couldn’t be sure. He wasn’t scared or nervous, just so overwhelmed by the enormity of the decision to propose marriage, that focusing on his job wasn’t easy. Sheski pondered how their marriage would impact Lana’s job. He was supportive of her decision to work as a private-duty nurse rather than continue to work for a hospital or clinic. He was sure they could work it out.

  Inside Sheski’s suit coat was a box holding the diamond ring he was planning on presenting to Lana. Pulling the container out of the inner pocket, he thought of the night he’d proposed to his first wife Lois. It was a summer’s eve in a park near the campus in State College. He’d just finished his last year at Penn State University on a football scholarship where he earned a degree in criminology.

  Sheski’s proposal to Lois came just after his college graduation and prior to becoming a cadet at the State Police Academy at Hershey. It was easily, the happiest day of his life. The next happiest was when their son Thomas was born. They were a contented family of three. At the time, Sheski could think of nothing else he desired. He thought it would go on forever.

  A native of Centralia, Thomas Sheski was the son of a Polish father and a mother with Pennsylvania Dutch in her background. Intelligent and a talented athlete, he was recruited heavily by many colleges for football. Hearty Pennsylvanians produced football players such as Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, and Dan Marino, to name a few of the famous ones. Sheski came from the same background.

  Thinking of it now, to Sheski, his first marriage seemed so long ago. Theirs was a love affair lasting until Lois was murdered. He still felt a twinge of pain when recalling his inability to shield his wife from the bullet that took her life. As time passed he never thought he’d be happy again.

  Until he met Lana.

  Sheski took a sip of coffee and opened the ring box. He examined the flawless diamond in a gold setting which was nestled inside. It twinkled back at him as if to reinforce the sparkle returning to his life. That he was being given a second chance at happiness occurred to him many times in the years he and Lana had been dating. They complemented each other. He was quiet, introspective. She was outgoing and fun. The love they shared was deep. They both had been instantly attracted to the other and made a good pair. Life was once again good.

  “What in the world are you daydreaming about?” a deep voice boomed behind him.

  Sheski blushed and fumbled with the ring box. He returned it to his suit pocket. He observed his boss, red-faced Captain Paul Lewis and wondered if he should tell him about his engagement plans. He decided against it. “What’s up?” Sheski countered.

  “You tell me. You’ve been distracted for weeks. Not that your performance is suffering, it’s just your attention seems to be somewhere else lately. So, you tell me. What’s up?” He wasn’t taking Sheski’s stonewalling this time. “Come on. Give it up.”

  Sheski recognized Paul wasn’t going to be put off so he pulled the box out from its resting place and opened the lid. Holding it up for his boss’s inspection, he watched Paul’s face for his reaction.

  Paul leaned forward to get a close look at the ring and a broad grin crossed his lined face. “No, I won’t marry you,” Paul said. He laughed, relieved the source of Sheski’s attention wasn’t a calamitous personal or work problem.

  “Thank God,” Sheski said. “Cuz I plan on asking Lana.”

  Paul shook his hand, patted him on the back and said, “Congratulations. I hope you two will be very happy. Now, knock it off and pay attention to your job. Oh yeah, when’s the big day?”

  “We haven’t set a date yet. I haven’t officially asked her. We’ve been talking marriage and I feel the time is finally right.” Thinking about Lana made him grin. The more he thought of her, the bigger he smiled.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Paul said.

  The Captain thought Sheski was one of the loneliest men he’d ever met. The detective a
lways did his job and did it well, displaying the patina of a seasoned State Police Lieutenant, but there seemed to be this empty place within him which no one had been able to fill since his wife died. Now, here he was, ready to get engaged. Paul hoped the news he had for Sheski didn’t ruin the moment. But, work is work and we gotta get to it.

  Paul was about to divulge the details when the door flew open and Sergeant Pat Riley entered.

  “Am I interrupting anything?” she asked. Smiling in her usual flirtatious way at both men, she tried to appear casual.

  Pat was considered by everyone at the barracks to be a nuisance. She was youthful, energetic and intelligent but overtly self-serving. Her job performance was contrived to get what she wanted, always scheming to outdo her co-workers and do so at their expense.

  “We’re having a meeting here,” Paul answered as politely as he could, considering it was Pat. He stared blankly at the young female trooper who boldly stared back.

  “We could go to my office,” Sheski offered.

  “No. Stay where you are. I want to discuss this with you here,” Paul said. He looked at Pat with his ‘get lost’ expression, and glanced at the door.

  “Okay,” Pat said coldly. She turned and closed the door behind her. She didn’t go far. Leaning against the outside of the meeting room, she tensed, wanting to know what was going on. What if a new case was coming up, an important case and I’m not asked to be involved? She pressed tighter to the door, found out what she wanted to know and went to her office to make some phone calls.

  While Paul and Sheski were having their meeting, predictably, Pat was making connections. On the other end of her line, a phone rang at her father’s office in the capitol building in Harrisburg.

  In the meeting room, Paul told Sheski the news. “I have a new case for you. Well, not a new case really, but new to you. This could be big for all of us.”

  “What do you have?” Sheski asked. He pulled himself up out of his chair, glad for a challenge. The routine work he’d been doing lately wasn’t capturing his imagination. He and his partner Mike hadn’t had an intriguing case for a while now and they were looking for something interesting.

  Paul went to the display board near the door and pointed to two curling, faded photographs which were held to the surface with thumbtacks. A handsome boy and a beautiful blonde girl, both teenagers, beamed from their yellowing high school pictures.

  Sheski’s eyes widened. Unsure of what he was hearing, he said “The Teen Lovers Murders?” His voice raised. “You want us to revive that case?”

  “You got it,” his boss replied.

  “You gotta be kidding. That case has got to be forty years old!”

  “Plenty more than that,” Paul corrected. “And someone at the top wants it reopened. An inmate at the penitentiary has become talkative and has some interesting facts only a person involved in the Teen Lovers crime would know. Whatever it is, it sounds legitimate enough that the Governor got involved. Are you interested?”

  “Are you serious? Of course, I’m interested. How about Mike? Can he come on board?”

  “I was hoping you and Mike would want to do it. As a matter of fact I arranged for the three of us to be in Harrisburg to meet the governor’s rep on Friday morning. Clear your schedule Sheski cuz’ this is now at the top of your list.

  Sheski walked to the board where the teenagers were happily staring out from 1954 photographs into a new century. Had they lived, they’d be an elderly couple. He shook his head back and forth in wonder.

  Sheski pulled the thumbtacks from the pictures and took them down from their resting place.

  Chapter Four

  Wednesday afternoon

  Mike was pleased to be part of Sheski’s new assignment. The two of them together were one of those special law teams you sometimes hear about. Sheski was methodical, a researcher, a thinker. Regardless of his center of focus, he did his homework and did it well.

  Mike was intuitive and good with people. He possessed excellent communication skills and had the rare ability of getting people to relax and talk. He enjoyed working with his friend Sheski and he liked a challenge.

  Lately, Mike had some challenges of his own. He and Lillian discovered months ago they were to be parents again for the third time. A unplanned new baby was on the way for them and their two daughters to fuss over.

  Lillian’s physician told them, “It was just one of those things that happens sometimes to older couples.”

  Lillian had a career in teaching dance, harp and other stringed instruments at her place of business on Mill Street. They’d not changed diapers for many years. At her doctor’s insistence she turned over some of her clientele to others so she could rest as needed.

  Mike’s concern for the health of his wife and baby was weighing heavily upon him. At her age he knew there was a potential for complications both for her and the child they’d already come to love. He loved his wife with more intensity now than when they were freshmen dating at the college in Bloomsburg. At the time, he’d thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He still does.

  “Are you gonna answer my knocking or are you planning on sitting there in a fog all day?” Sheski asked his partner. He’d rapped several times on Mike’s office door and receiving no answer, opened it just far enough to look around.

  “Just thinking about Lillian and the baby,” Mike replied. He shook his head in disbelief at his situation.

  “You play with fire, you’re gonna get burned,” Sheski said. He laughed.

  “Well, then, with that attitude I guess we won’t be naming this baby after you,” Mike said kiddingly.

  “Paul just told me we leave promptly at 7:00 AM, Friday morning for Harrisburg to get started on the Teen Lovers case. He’s arranged for the three of us to go in a state car and of course he’s driving.”

  “What a control freak,” Mike said. “But that’s fine with me. I get more than my share of driving when you and I are working together so it’ll be a welcome break. Besides, while he’s concentrating on the road he won’t be able to do his usual questioning and micro-managing.”

  “Have you had a chance yet to look at any of those files I sent over to you?” Sheski asked. He was referring to the boxes of folders and photos that constituted the evidence in their new case.

  “I thought we could spend the rest of today and maybe even tonight reading and taking notes,” Sheski said. His enthusiasm was growing. “This is one of the most interesting unsolved cases in the state. I’m glad we’re working on it.”

  Mike looked at the hundreds of pages of typewritten documents and newspaper articles. “I’ll get on it but I have to call Lillian first.”

  Sheski had already called Lana. He didn’t have a chance to tell her what he was working on, just that Paul had given him a new and challenging case. “I’ll tell you about it when we get back from Harrisburg,” he said.

  Lana told him not to work too hard and that she loved him.

  Sheski recognized immersing himself day and night on a stimulating case was one of his flaws. When he bit onto something interesting he didn’t want to quit until it was completed. He saturated himself with the details and expected those who worked with him to do the same. Every case placed on his desk was one he wanted solved. So far he had an enviable track record.

  Loud knocking diverted their attention from the papers and they swiveled in their chairs to face the door.

  Paul, cradling a thick folder, didn’t wait for them to answer his knocking. He surged forward with Sergeant Riley in tow.

  “Time to talk,” Paul said, glancing across the desk to the detectives. He didn’t look happy.

  Sheski had a bad feeling about this.

  Pat was grinning broadly which wasn’t a good sign with her.

  Before Paul had a chance to break his news Pat edged up to Mike’s desk and ran her fingers across the boxes, reaching in to retrieve some files. She bent over and pulled documents, moving some of the men’s piles
away as if she owned the place.

  The lieutenants watched her with narrowed eyes.

  Mike and Sheski stood as the realization of something dreadful crept across their minds. They stared at Paul for an answer, hoping it would be the right one.

  Their boss looked pained.

  The Captain cleared his throat and started apologetically with, “This was not my doing. I just want you to know that. I’m only following orders.”

  Mike let out a groan and sat down in his chair.

  Sheski remained standing, preferring to take the bad news upright.

  Pat gave her fellow detectives a smug glance.

  “Harrisburg wants Pat in on this investigation. It’s just a suggestion from them, mind you, but a strong one,” Paul said. He’d long ago accepted that being connected played well in the state system. He noticed so far it worked for Pat.

  “I guess they want a young, intelligent woman’s angle on this important case,” Pat interjected. “Me. And I’m ready to assist in any way I can. When do we start?” Hands on her hips, she looked from Sheski to Mike and back again. They’ll either like it or lump it. I don’t really care.

  Standing there in a suit, Pat looked professional. Her long hair was pulled back and pinned up. A fitness buff like many of the officers, she was trim and had great legs, both planted firmly on their turf. She was pleased with herself.

  “We start now and will probably be working well into the night to get the groundwork laid. I hope you’re up for it,” Sheski said.

  “Don’t you old men start worrying about me. I can easily keep up with you two without breaking a sweat.” With a cocky smile and swift movements, she took in the sight of the men and dug into the boxes again.

  Sheski and Mike were not happy.

  Paul saw what was coming and took control.

  “Look, all of you. I don’t want any bickering between the two camps here. We’re going to work our butts off and clear up this case. You hear me? These murders have been on the back burner for decades and Harrisburg wants them cleaned up. That means I want them cleaned up. So there’s to be no funny business from any of you. Got it? If someone here has a problem with that you can say so now and opt out. Otherwise, you’ll cooperate with each other and keep me informed on what’s happening.”