Tell Me a True Crime Story
Tell Me a True Crime Story
Real Life Halloween Horror - Halloween Triple Homicide
In Oak Harbor, Ohio, in the early morning hours of Halloween in 2010, William "B.J." Liske murdered his dad, Bill Liske; his stepmom, Susan Liske; and his stepbrother, Derek Griffin.
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Tell me a true crime story. Hey there, welcome to Tell Me a True Crime Story podcast. I'm your host, holly. I'm so appreciative of you for being here. I know that you have a whole lot of quality choices out there as far as true crime podcasts go, so I am truly honored and thrilled that you choose to listen to me. Thank you for taking me along with you and allowing me to be a part of your day in your life. I hope that you and your family are happy, healthy and together forever. Big, big hugs to all of you.
Speaker 1:Don't worry, I'm not going to blab a lot, but some things are important to cover, so if you don't want to hear anything except for the story, hit that fast forward button a few times. Besides, some people like to hear me blab a little bit, so, in an effort to make everyone happy, I'm just going to say a few quick things before we get started. I'm just going to reiterate how important reviews are to me and this podcast. I want to ask those of you who enjoy the podcast and haven't done so to please take a few minutes and give me a five-star rating and a written review on Apple. Many of you have done that favor for me already and I thank you from the bottom of my heart because I know you guys are super busy out there with everything and everyone you have to take care of this.
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Speaker 1:Please follow this podcast on Facebook, instagram and TikTok. My username on all three of those is at tell me a true crime story. So, okay, okay, enough of that. Now let me tell you a true crime story. It's that time of year, so I'm continuing to cover murders that occurred on Halloween. Here's another one of those stories. So let me set the scene for you just a bit.
Speaker 1:Our story takes place on Halloween in 2010 in a small village in Ohio called Oak Harbor. A village in Ohio is a municipality with less than 5,000 residents. The population of Oak Harbor in 2010 was a little less than 2,800 and hasn't grown much since then. The population of Oak Harbor now is just a little over 2,800 people. Oak Harbor is mostly rural and is located in north-central Ohio, in Ottawa County, about 30 miles southeast of downtown Toledo. The village is located along the shoreline of one of the five great lakes, lake Erie.
Speaker 1:Oak Harbor is known as the Warbler Capital of the World. What's a Warbler, you say? Well, a Warbler is a small, adorable little bird. I didn't know what it was either. I had to go look it up. According to VisitToledoorg, the shores of Lake Erie quote serve as a resting spot for thousands of Warblers each spring before they continue their trek across Lake Erie to Canada. Visitors from all over the United States and around the world flock to witness this phenomenon each May end. Quote. Oak Harbor also hosts a popular annual Apple Festival, which attracts thousands of people to the village. Man the random off-the-wall stuff we learn together in these episodes.
Speaker 1:So on Sunday, october 31st, halloween morning in 2010, 16-year-old Devon Griffin stopped at home at about 9.30 am to change his clothes before going to sing in the choir at church. His parents were divorced and he had been at his dad's house that weekend. He didn't know it then, but being at his dad's house that weekend very likely saved his life, while Devon was at home. While Devon was at the home that he shared with his stepdad, his mom and his brother getting on his church clothes, he'd only encountered his stepbrother, 24-year-old William Lisk, who went by BJ. Bj Lisk didn't live there with them, but had only spent the night there. The prior evening, devon saw BJ loading something into his dad's white F-150 pickup truck. Devon found BJ to be happier and more chatty and upbeat than normal that morning. Typically, he was gloomy and darkish. Bj had asked him what he was doing and how long he'd been gone, but he didn't think much of it and quickly changed his clothes and went off to church. Devin was in and out of the house within about five minutes.
Speaker 1:Devin returned from church about an hour and a half later and went directly upstairs to play video games. A couple of hours later, at about 1.30 pm, he realized that the house was too quiet, like no one was around. Where was everybody? 16-year-old Devin couldn't have imagined the unbelievably grisly, shocking scene that he was about to encounter. It was so unbelievable that for a few seconds he thought it was a Halloween prank. He moved through the eerily silent house and went downstairs to the master bedroom. There he found his mom and his stepdad still in bed covered up under their comforter. He started talking to them to wake them. As he walked in and went to his mom's side of the bed, their maroon comforter was pulled up over their heads, with only his mom's foot sticking out. He tapped her on the leg, but she didn't move. He continued to talk to her as he pulled the covers down a little, and that's when he saw that her pillow was soaked with blood. At that moment is when he thought it may be a Halloween prank, but it quickly registered with him that this was real. He began to cry as he ran out of the room and out of the house. Devon called his aunt, lori, in a complete panic and told her what he'd discovered. But Lori had already been concerned because Devon's older brother, derek, hadn't showed up that morning as planned to do some work for her husband, lori immediately called the police and then went straight over to console her 16-year-old nephew, devon.
Speaker 1:Authorities responded to the Lisk home located at 7052 North Ohio 2 that sat on about a hundred acres and found Bill and Susan Lisk in their bed, both dead from gunshot wounds. Blood spatter covered the walls of their bedroom. Fifty-three-year-old Bill Lisk had the covers pulled up over him and was in a natural sleeping position. He'd been shot five times in the head and face from a distance of only one to two feet away. However, investigators noted that 46-year-old Susan Lisk was sprawled more awkwardly, as if she'd been moved or repositioned. She had been shot with a small caliber weapon, probably a twenty-two, three times, also at close range. Two shots were to her head and one shot was a defensive wound to her hand. A medical examination later revealed that she'd been sexually assaulted either right before or after she was killed.
Speaker 1:Authorities then went upstairs to check on 23-year-old Derek Griffin and found the door to his room locked. They kicked the door in and found Derek curled up in his bed in a fetal position, dead. He'd suffered severe trauma to his head, but it was not immediately clear if he'd been shot or had suffered injuries from a blunt object. It was later determined that he'd been bludgeoned with both sides of a claw hammer and died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. Investigators found a bloody hammer in a closet, which was found to be consistent with Derek's wounds. Investigators surmised that during the wee hours of the morning on Halloween, while everyone slept, the killer entered Derek's room and killed him, first using the hammer instead of a gun, so as not to awaken Bill and Susan Lisk. Then the killer locked Derek's bedroom door as they walked out, possibly to delay the discovery of his body.
Speaker 1:Investigators also figured that sixteen-year-old Devon Griffin likely would have been murdered too, had he not been with his father that weekend. How could this have happened to these great people? Who would have wanted them dead? Who was responsible for these heinous, cold-blooded murders? People familiar with the family may have said that it wasn't that much of a surprise that they would have guessed that something like this could possibly happen one day. Neighbours, friends, family members and even police records gave authorities a solid investigative angle to pursue when they told them of the prior violent acts that BJ Lisk had committed against his dad, his stepmom and others, and of the strained relationship between BJ, his dad and his stepmom.
Speaker 1:Now let's go back in time a little bit and talk about some of those previous acts of violence perpetrated by BJ Reportedly. After BJ's mom and dad divorced, he started skipping school and misbehaving. His dad married Susan in 2001, when BJ would have been about 15 years old. Bj and his new stepmom had a contentious relationship from the start. Some of the reason for that may be because Susan attempted to establish some rules and BJ began to resent her for that. About eight years prior to the murders in 2002, then-16-year-old BJ Lisk was already on house arrest when he threatened to harm himself. His dad, bill, called the cops and when they arrived, bj Lisk attacked the officers and got charged as a juvenile with assaulting a peace officer.
Speaker 1:At some point neighbors began to suspect BJ Lisk of torturing and killing their pets. Only friend and neighbor Mark Gradel said his dog was shot twice with 22 caliber bullets. Mark Gradel told investigators that Bill often called him for help when BJ was causing problems. Bill would say something to Mark like hey, come over, it's BJ, or BJ is getting goofy. But on at least one occasion Derek Griffin, susan's son and Bill's stepson, called Mark because BJ and his dad, bill, were physically fighting. Mark Gradel also told investigators that he'd had some serious talks with Bill about the family's safety where BJ was concerned. Mark said it was a hard conversation to have because Bill could never see the bad in BJ. Bj was Bill's only son and Bill would just tell Mark BJ won't hurt us. Even though Bill had received physical injuries from BJ.
Speaker 1:In October of 2004, bj Lisk was just one month shy of 19 when he hit his stepmom, Susan Lisk, hard in the chest, and I'm not sure if this was part of the same incident, but BJ Lisk attempted to attack Susan as she showered too. Bj Lisk was kicked out of his parents' home Just two months after that. Bj Lisk hit Susan with a coffee cup and stole her car keys. As a result, he was charged with felonious assault and robbery. However, the charges were eventually dropped when he was found incompetent to stand trial.
Speaker 1:In February of 2006, bill Lisk filed for guardianship over then-20-year-old BJ. The guardianship application stated, quote Mr Lisk wants to protect William and to get him the help that he needs. He would eventually like to see him in a halfway house or a group home. When William is on his medication he does really good. After a while he will stop taking it because he thinks he is OK, starts drinking smoking pot, end quote.
Speaker 1:Court records show that in 2007, bj was hospitalized for Schizoaffective Disorder, bipolar type. He went to live at a group home for mental health patients in Sandusky, ohio, which was only about 30 miles away from where his dad and step family live. Bj's father, bill, visited him at the group home often. Since moving into the group home, bj Lisk had had at least three encounters with police. One time he and his father, bill, got into a physical fight when his dad had gone there to pick him up. Despite everything, bill Lisk never gave up on his only son. In fact, the week before the murders, he had taken some vacation time from work in order to take BJ on a trip to the family's hunting cabin on Poker Road in rural Carroll County, ohio, about a three-hour drive away.
Speaker 1:On Saturday, october 30, the day before the murders, bill and BJ Lisk had returned from deer hunting. That evening they drank a few beers with Mark Gradle. Later, mark Gradle would tell investigators that everyone had a good time and that the small get-together had broken up around midnight. Mark Gradle said that he didn't see Derek Griffin, susan's 23-year-old son, that night, but that was not unusual because the stepbrothers, derek and BJ Lisk, did not get along. Bj Lisk was not allowed to live at the home and was living at the group home at the time. He rarely even spent the night at his parents' home because of his tendency to get violent, but Bill Lisk had been drinking and he didn't think it was a good idea to drive BJ back to the group home in Sandusky that night, although BJ was permitted to spend the night.
Speaker 1:When investigators searched the house after the murders they found a bed made up on the living room sofa, apparently for BJ Lisk. Authorities spoke with witnesses, collected evidence and pieced together a timeline of events surrounding the murders. They looked into 16-year-old Devon Griffin but rather quickly ruled him out as a suspect. The murder investigation began to focus solely on 24-year-old BJ Lisk. There was no sign of forced entry or of anything being stolen from the home. The.22 caliber rifle that was used to shoot and kill Bill and Susan would have ejected brass shell casings. However, none were found at the scene. The killer had obviously picked them up. Neighbor Michelle Gradle, who was Mark Gradle's wife, heard banging sounds, which were likely the gunshots that killed Bill and Susan at about 6.30 am on Halloween, october 31st, the morning of the murders, detectives found out that when Devon Griffin left the house and headed to church, bj Lisk had taken off in his dad's white Ford F-150 truck with his dad's cell phone and wallet also in his possession.
Speaker 1:He'd driven to the family's hunting cabin Remember that was about three hours away in rural Carroll County, ohio. Bj Lisk had been at the cabin for less than an hour when Sheriff's deputies from that county went there and arrested him. Ottawa County Sheriff's detectives traveled to the cabin to look for evidence. They searched the cabin and surrounding property. On the counter they found an uneaten subway sandwich. Detectives went to a subway near the camp to view their security video which showed BJ Lisk purchasing the sandwich. Apparently, he hadn't had time to eat it before the Carroll County Sheriff's deputies descended upon the cabin and took him into custody.
Speaker 1:Detectives working back at the murder scene at the family home learned from the surviving stepbrother, sixteen-year-old Devon Griffin, that the family owned quite a few guns. They confiscated many of them and sent them for forensic testing. The sprawling property was searched and a muddy footprint was discovered along a dock near a pond. Investigators thought that the killer may have thrown the murdered weapon into the pond from the dock. However, the pond was drained and no weapon was found. Evidence sniffing dogs found nothing on the property either, but in the white F-150 truck, investigators found blood and a.22 caliber rifle. Later on, testing of BJ Lisk clothing would reveal that his boxer shorts and shoes contained blood and DNA from all three murder victims his dad Bill, his step-mom Susan and his step-brother Derek.
Speaker 1:Bj Lisk was charged with three counts of aggravated murder, which he pleaded not guilty to, and was held on a $3 million bond. He was initially held in Ottawa County, but because one of his family members worked in corrections there, he was moved to the Erie County Jail. The court appointed a guardian to BJ Lisk and he underwent a competency evaluation. Despite his history of mental illness, he was deemed competent to stand trial. According to Detective George Byington of the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, bj Lisk talked with his mom on the phone from jail and she asked him about what he'd done. In the March 19, 2011 conversation, she read her son, bj, a full newspaper article about the killings and then asked him you did this, you did all this stuff? Her son replied yeah. She said BJ, how could you? And he answered I wasn't in my right mind. Then he said Mom, I can't talk about this anymore.
Speaker 1:After that phone conversation with his mom, bj Lisk gave up his right to a jury trial and changed his plea to guilty. In August of 2011, he entered into a plea agreement that the prosecutor had worked out with the family of the victims. Bj Lisk's defense attorney called the plea deal quote unquote a fair resolution. Bj Lisk avoided a possible death sentence and, under the plea deal, accepted three life sentences without the possibility of parole. He signed the plea agreement in court. Judge Winters asked BJ Lisk Is it true you have agreed to imprisonment without the possibility of parole? He answered yes, your Honor.
Speaker 1:As Ottawa County Prosecutor Mark Mulligan detailed the murders to the courtroom, people wept and shook their heads. When he finished reading the facts of the case, bj Lisk admitted to the honorable judge, bruce Winters, that they were all correct. He said yes, your Honor, effectively admitting an open court, before Judge Winters and in front of a gallery full of family, friends and others, that he murdered his dad, stepmom and stepbrother on Halloween in 2010. The next month, on September 14, 2011, before the judge officially handed down his sentence, bj Lisk apologized for the killings quote. I want to say I'm extremely sorry, it is all my fault, I don't blame anyone but myself. End quote. He blamed his actions on Satan and mental illness quote. I cannot explain why it happened, only my eternal struggle with mental illness caused by great affliction from the devil. End quote he said that Satan was, and still is working to destroy his soul.
Speaker 1:Almost a year after the murders, ottawa County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Winters sentenced BJ Lisk to three life sentences without the possibility of parole. Three and a half years later, at 11.25 pm on March 31, 2015, 29-year-old BJ Lisk was found dead in his prison cell from a self-inflicted wound. He'd been serving his time at Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, ohio, as inmate number A-604625. As if the survivors of this family hadn't suffered enough loss, another incomprehensible tragedy befell them. Just hours after the murders of Bill, susan and Derek, on November 1, 2010, bill Lisk, younger sister, 52-year-old Zoo Dunmire, who lived about 30 minutes away from Bill, died in an explosive fire in her detached garage next to her house. So surely young. The mother of Bill Lisk and Zoo Dunmire, who died in the fire, shirley, lost her son, her daughter, her daughter-in-law and her grandson in less than 24 hours.
Speaker 1:I guess it's to be expected, but it seems that there's always so much fallout in true crime cases. I mean, think about 16-year-old Devon Griffin, who lost not only his mama but his big brother and his stepdad. They didn't die in a car wreck or an accident. They were senselessly murdered, violently ripped away from him forever, and he doesn't even have the benefit of remembering them as they were in life, happy and whole. No, he has to live with the image etched into his memory of what he discovered that day, when he pulled the comforter down from his mom's face and found her cold, damaged and dead on her blood-soaked pillow. And mercifully he didn't discover his older brother's body. But he still has to live with the knowledge of the dreadful details of how he lost his life. We're going to end this episode as we usually do, talking about the good, good people that we lost that day, on Halloween in 2010.
Speaker 1:Bill, or Billy as his friends and family called him, was born on May 11, 1957 in Toledo, ohio. The United States Air Force veteran was 53 when he was murdered and had been married to his wife, susan, for about nine years. He was employed at waste management as a front-end loader. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, gardening and all things outdoors. His 100 acres that he lived on was said to be his personal heaven. Today, bill would be 66 years old.
Speaker 1:Bill's wife, susan, was born on January 30, 1964. She graduated from Oak Harbor High School in 1982 and went on to get an associate's degree. She first married Gary Griffin, with whom she shared two sons with and later married Bill Lisk in 2001. She worked as the office manager for Northwest Ohio Carpenter's Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee. Like her husband, bill, she enjoyed outdoorsy activities like hunting, camping and gardening. She is said to have had a big heart and was a loving mother, aunt and friend. Susan would be 59 years old today.
Speaker 1:Derek Griffin was born on July 30, 1987. Like his mom, he was also a graduate of Oak Harbor High School. There he was active in track and set a school record in 2005 for the 4x2 relay. He was also a second-degree black belt and had fought in Italy for the US Taekwondo team. His favorite pastime was spending time on Lake Erie in his sailboat or in his dad's inflatable dinghy. He loved to sneak it away in the early morning hours when the water was calm. Had he not been murdered, derek would be 36 years old now.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of Tell Me a True Crime Story. Please follow this podcast on social media at Tell Me a True Crime Story on Facebook, instagram and TikTok. I have two ways you can support my podcast. You can buy me a coffee by going to buymeacoffeecom slash truecrimestorypod. They call it Buy Me a Coffee, but it's really just a way to show your appreciation and send me a tip. And the other way is totally free, but it helps me out so very much. You can write a short but sweet review for the podcast on Apple Podcast or give it a 5-star rating on Spotify. Thank you again for being here. I love you guys lots. I wish you safety as you go about your days, always be aware of your surroundings, and I wish you all in your family good health and happiness too. Please join me in episode 31 when I'll tell you another True Crime Story. Big, big hugs to each and every one of you. Bye, bye.
