As per his parole order, Hatcher had to report every night to the halfway house and take prescribed pills. He took a total of nine such pills.
Hatcher as always attempted escape. This time he did it five days from his release on parole. The authorities in charge of the home considered him as a walk away. In June, they declared him as parolee at large.
For over a year from June 1977, Hatcher was at large except for a single sighting at Wilmar in Minnesota.
Chapter 5: Murder of innocence - 3rd victim
In May 1978, the death of Eric Christgen, a four-year-old boy rocked St. Joseph, Missouri. The killer abducted and murdered the little boy. Three months later police apprehended Hatcher in September in Omaha, Nebraska situated 150 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri on charges of sexual assault on a boy 16 years old.
After release from prison between 1978 and 1982 Hatcher was in prison on an off on various charges including molesting a teen boy, trying to stab a boy of seven years, for fighting with a young boy over payment charges for sex.
These crimes happened in Omaha, Nebraska. In addition to the above crimes, Hatcher also tried to kill a person in Des Moines and in Lincoln tried to molest a man. His crime path also took him to Iowa where he abducted a boy, 11 years old from a Bettendorf shopping mall.
Hatcher spent time in the Douglas County Mental Hospital situated in Omaha after his sexual attack in 1978. He went by the name Richard Clark when the police arrested him and the police did not know him as Hatcher, according to the records there.
This was because during his earlier run in with the legal system no jurisdiction had thought to process Hatcher’s fingerprints.
Melvin Reynolds - The scapegoat
In 1979, the police apprehended Melvin Reynolds falsely for the murder of Eric Christgen and convicted him. Hatcher was the actual murderer but he was not a suspect in the case.
The death of Eric Christgen is a tragic incident indelibly etched in the minds of the people of St. Joseph.
On the fateful day (May26, 1978), Eric was with his baby sitter. The baby sitter left him outside a store to buy a flag.
He was alone for just a few minutes only. When she came back to get him, she couldn’t find him anywhere. An intensive search ensued but in vain.
Authorities expected a demand for ransom as the Christgen Family was a prominent family in St. Joseph. No ransom demand came. The Christgen family decided to appeal for the return of their son and offered a reward of $10,000 for anyone returning the child safely.
But the family were in for a painful and distressing shock. A search party came upon the body of the boy. The body showed signs of severe sexual abuse and asphyxiation. The killer had left the body near a weeded part of a Missouri River bank.
Search for the vicious pedophile
In St. Joseph, which was a quiet place by all means, and where death was a rarity, the murder caused a big furor. Nobody could imagine how a person could commit such a gruesome murder. The funeral of the child was the largest ever funeral held in St. Joseph.
The police after conducting an intense investigation and going over several leads finally caught the killer. Melvin Lee Reynolds had been near the store, when the kidnapping occurred.
Matching criminal profile
Reynolds had the right criminal profile the police were looking for. His childhood included charges of indecent exposure twice during his teenage years (one of the charges involved exposure in front of the nuns in the school he had gone to), evidence of broken home origins.
Additionally he was a school dropout. Melvin was gay hence had trouble staying in school or getting a permanent job.
Before the incident of Eric, the State Mental Hospital at St. Joseph diagnosed him as a mentally retarded person. This diagnosis occurred one year prior to Eric’s disappearance.
The counsellors dealing with his case suggested that he focus on developing relationships with the opposite sex. Melvin accepted their suggestion and tried his hand at building relationship.
This was how he met up with Rita Anderson. Anderson knew about his sexual preference but it did not deter her from meeting him. She actually wanted to change him completely and she even succeeded in her mission. Melvin and Rita announced their engagement.
When the police put Melvin to lie detector test, he refused to confess. He denied his presence near the place of disappearance. He vehemently denied murdering Eric. However he said, “But I’ll say so if you want me to.’’
Coerced into confessing
While the police did not arrest him, they kept him under surveillance and called him up for interview often over the next couple of months. The various details he gave over the months served to further incriminate him.
His activities on the day of Eric’s disappearance were especially under strong suspicion. Melvin had later said that the police inquisition was so grueling that he would have said anything to stop them from questioning him further.
In the end after nine whole months of interrogation with each session lasting for several hours, Melvin confessed to the killing.
Although later on they recognized that, the expressions used by him were similar to the words used by his interrogators at that time his confession was all that mattered. He confessed both in writing and verbally. They recorded his confession on tape too.
Guilty of murder
Melvin even took the detectives to the place where the police had discovered the body of Eric. Although it was not the exact place, it was near enough. It was common opinion that Melvin was a monster disguised as a simpleton.
In the trial held later, the jury in the Missouri court decided he was guilty with just one ballot. In 1980, they decided on life imprisonment for Melvin Reynolds. The investigation of the case received commendation and many of the officers who worked on Eric Christgen murder trial received promotion.
But what the investigating officers, the jury and the public did not know was that the real killer was not Melvin but Charles Ray Hatcher.
Hatcher continues with criminal activity
Meanwhile police apprehended Hatcher again for assault as well as murder attempt in Omaha. Charles assaulted 7-year-old Thomas Morton. The authorities however dropped the charges in his name.
The authorities in charge instead sent him to a different mental health care facility. Later the facility released him on May 1980. His free state did not last for long as two months after his release he returned to the facility for assault charges.
In September the same year, Charles escaped from confinement in Norfolk Regional Centre. In October, police arrested Hatcher who went by the name Richard Clark on charges of sodomy and attempted assault of a teenage boy.
21 days after his confinement in the mental health center, they released Charles. In January 1981, the police arrested Richard Clark again. This time it was in Des Moines, Iowa. The problem this time was a vicious knife fight. Charles spent some time in the mental health facility centers in Iowa. Later in April, the same year the facility discharged Hatcher. A confinement in a Salvation Army shelter present in Davenport Iowa ensued.
Chapter 6: James L. Churchill - 4th victim
The several confinements in mental facilities did not accomplish much towards Charles turning a new leaf. In fact, they only served to increase his criminal tendencies further.
Whenever he came out of a facility, he resorted to some sort of violence or killing, which returned him back to the facilities. But the authorities didn’t have any other option other than confining him to the mental health centers.
Murder without reason
In June 1981, Hatcher committed his fourth murder. He stabbed James L. Churchill, a 34-year-old man in Rock Island, Illinois. The killing happened on a Mississippi riverbank in Rock Island.
The case was under investigation and the police did not know Hatcher’s involvement in the murder until he confessed to the crime. Hatcher revealed eventually about the murder saying that he was in a heavily drunk state, when the mu
rder occurred.
Hatcher confessed to FBI agents about killing 14 people in Midwest region. The FBI did not reveal any details of the investigation initially and the public came to know about it when the investigating team located the shallow grave of James L. Churchill in Arsenal Island near Iowa.
The FBI confirmed that the remains unearthed from the grave belonged to James L. Churchill.
According to special agent Joseph Ondrula, the officer in charge of the FBI operations done in Springfield region, Churchill was seen last in Rock Island area. The FBI also reported that they were interviewing a person in St. Joseph regarding the incident that had led them to discover the body of Churchill.
Map to grave
Later authorities revealed about receiving a map from an inmate, Richard Martin Clark (one of Charles aliases), aged 53, living in Mound City, Mo., Clark was in confinement for murder of first degree at that time.
The feeling to kill had grown intolerable forcing him to do the act. He stabbed James L. Churchill for about 12 times and the police found the body with the knife embedded deep in the right part of Churchill’s chest near his heart.
Meanwhile on July 1981, the police arrested Hatcher for attempted abduction of an eleven-year-old boy in a grocery store. The day, July 16, was ironically the birthday of Hatcher. The police however dropped all charges and as was the case with Hatcher in previous such incidents they sent him to a mental facility in Mount Pleasant in Iowa on involuntary commitment.
The incident however created a stir with the investigating team as Charles Ray Hatcher had used different names.
The authorities did not know that they were investigating the same man. Every time they apprehended Charles, it was under a different name as he changed names frequently. Therefore, they released him freeing him to kill again at his will.
Aliases confuse the police
When Charles accosted the 11-year-old boy –Todd Peers, he went by the name Richard Clark. He gave this name to the police when they arrested him. Charles posed as the store security and forced the boy to the backside of the store.
Since the boy knew something was amiss, he struggled and the fortunate intervention of an officer driving by on patrol near the store served to subdue Charles and free the boy.
When investigated it was found that the security guard had ropes of pre-cut lengths and a fake security identification badge. They also found identification indicating his name as Richard Clark.
While charging him of the offense, the Iowa state police department fingerprinted him before putting him in jail. The following day, Richard Clark refused to come out of the cell and looked agitated.
On psychiatric evaluation ordered by the Iowa Court judge, Clark underwent evaluation where in the attending psychiatrist confirmed his mentally unstable state. This resulted in the judge extending his stay in prison.
The investigation however did not take into consideration the fingerprints taken by the police, as the concerned identification officer did not send the prints. Thus, Charles escaped close scrutiny.
Since the authorities did not know about Clark being Charles, they released him leading to his committing several more crimes. When later this came out in the open, the investigating officers realized the serious error of not considering his fingerprints.
As per Iowa Code, it is necessary for the officer concerned to record fingerprints of the suspect, and submit the print to court. Because of the lapse in the part of the investigating team, they released him unleashing a terrifying spree of murder and mayhem.
Hatcher killed two more kids, a boy aged four years and a girl aged 11 years because of the lapse.
The St. Joseph Police however submitted Hatcher’s prints at the appropriate time. This led to them identifying Hatcher as the killer wanted for murder in several locations.
Free again to continue with crime
Hatcher did not stay long in the mental facility. After 49 days, the authorities released him on May 7, 1982. In two months’ time, Hatcher came under police radar for accosting a young woman named Stephanie Richie.
The event happened in a shopping mall in downtown St. Joseph, Missouri. Hatcher had asked the women to go with him and offered to have coffee with her.
The woman sensed something was wrong as the man frightened her. She told him to leave. This event took place just half a block space from the place of Eric Christgen’s kidnapping four years back.
On July 29, 1982, the abduction attempt of a 10-year-old boy, Kerry Heiss, appeared on the Gazette in St. Joseph. The abduction occurred in a record store situated in a mall in St. Joseph, Missouri.
The boy complained of a man who claimed to be the security of the mall grabbing him. The boy escaped Hatcher’s clutches fortunately. Hatcher escaped before the authorities, informed about the incident by the boy’s grandmother, arrived on the scene.
The little boy fortunately escaped death in the hands of Charles Ray Hatcher. But 11 year old Michelle Steel was not as fortunate.
Chapter 7: The brutal murder of Michelle Steele – 5th victim
On the same day that Hatcher attempted abduction of 10-year-old Kerry Heiss and failed, he tried another abduction attempt. This time he succeeded.
11-year-old Michelle Steele had, on July 29, 1982 gone to her dentist at 10.30 a.m. The dentist’s office claimed she left at 11.30 a.m. But she did not return to her house. Her mother Annette Steele noticed Michelle’s disappearance, when she came back home at 3.15 p.m. She filed a complaint with the police.
A group of hikers came upon the ravaged and nude body of Michelle Steele. The killer had beaten her viciously. She died of strangulation on a Missouri River bank near St. Joseph.
They found her dead lying between logs. The place where they found the body was nearby the place where earlier they discovered the body of Eric Christgen’s. On the same day, Hatcher voluntarily checked into the State Hospital in St. Joseph not as Charles Hatcher but as Richard Clark.
Caught red handed
Investigation into the disappearance and subsequent murder of Michelle started. The authorities charged Charles Hatcher who went by the name Richard Clark with the killing of Michelle Steele on August 3 1982.
Charles received charges of murder of first degree this time. The court fixed his bond at $250,000.00. This time around Hatcher left behind several trails that implicated him explicitly. Eyewitnesses identified him as the man they found near the place of murder.
The teeth marks of Hatcher matched with the marks found on Michelle’s body. The knapsack, nylon cords, shoe imprints and photo identification received from earlier two abductions Hatcher attempted provided sufficient proof to hoist first-degree murder charges on him.
Michelle Steele murder trial
On August 13, 1982, Charles underwent mental evaluation in the case. The evaluating psychiatrists concluded that Charles understood the murder charges but still referred him to another mental health facility.
Time flew by and it was April 1983, when the authorities received declaration about Hatcher’s competency. Charles stood trial for murdering Michelle Steele with charges of first-degree murder.
The court sentenced Hatcher to imprisonment in Buchanan County Jail on May 3, 1983. After confirming the information provided, authorities finally put the charge of the murder of Michelle Steele on Charles Ray Hatcher on May 28, 1983.
In June, one month later the court fixed a trial date after attorneys Morrey and Dahms obtained charge for Charles. The court fixed the trial date as August 22, 1983.
Skeletons in closet
It was in prison that Hatcher revealed about his various killings. He sent a note to the deputy in charge asking him to call FBI, as he wanted to see them on a very important matter. Joe Holtstag, the FBI agent in charge of the case met Hatcher in jail.
Hatcher wrote in detail the murder of the four-year-old boy Eric Christgen. The details were so explicit that it was impossible for anyone else to know about them except the perpetrator of the crime.
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He confessed to the murder of James. L. Churchill, on August 1983. He also confessed to the murder of William Freeman in 1969.
Hatcher gave the FBI agent a map. The map led to the body of Churchill. While Hatcher revealed the place where they can find the body of James L. Churchill he did not however admit killing him.
And Hatcher’s confession did not only end with the map to Churchill’s body but he also confessed to a big list of murders.
He had information on 16 other murder cases of which 13 were adults and all of them male. While the FBI went through the list of murders, they realized they had wrongly implicated Melvin Reynolds implicated in the death of Eric Christgen.
Charles convicted finally
The reason Charles came forward with the information of the murders was to remove the charges of death penalty on him. He wanted to trade the information for removing the death penalty.
In the interview with FBI agent Holtstag Hatcher confessed to all his criminal activities starting from the auto theft done on October 27th 1947 up until the killing of Michelle Steele in July 1982.
However, Hatcher backtracked in September the same year and pleaded not guilty. The court set another trial date for January 9, 1984.
On October 13, 1983, the court sentenced Hatcher to prison for life in the penitentiary present in Missouri State. The sentence was for Eric Christgen’s murder. It was on October 13, that the court released Melvin Reynolds wrongly convicted for the murder of Eric Christgen. Melvin had spent nearly three years in prison by then.
The trail was all set to start on January 9th, 1984 but didn’t as Hatcher’s attorney Dahms dropped the case due to the abusive manner of Hatcher. The trial venue changed to Warrensburg, Kansas and started in September 1984.
True Crime Stories Volume 4: 12 Shocking True Crime Murder Cases (True Crime Anthology) Page 32