Lauria Jaylene Bible (/lr/;[3] born April 18, 1983[4]) and Ashley Renae Freeman (born December 29, 1983[5]) were American teenagers who disappeared between the evening of December 29 and the early morning hours of December 30, 1999, from Freeman's home in Welch, Oklahoma. Two nights later-on Stephen Olds' 25th birthday-his mother was bludgeoned to death as she left to walk her golden retriever. A court-appointed receiver, attorney John Kneafsey, was retained to set up an account that would take in Oldss salary from the law firm and disburse the funds, including $9,000 a month in maintenance for Sue Olds and living expenses for Dean Olds. Sue Olds decorated in a traditional style, mixing new furnishing with many antiques she had inherited from her family. Olds, who has reddish hair and freckly skin, had a polished and witty way of speaking, his neighbors said, and liked to service and discuss fine wines. What followed was far worse: On Dec. 28, 1993, his wife, Suzanne Olds, was found bludgeoned to death at their home in Wilmette. That life unraveled quickly and thoroughly. If lack of money is indeed a concern, Olds, who is working as a paralegal under California's expansive notion of what law practitioners can do, disguises his poverty well. [8] In 2010, the Freeman family initiated court proceedings to have Ashley declared legally dead. She was very frightened as far as her image and propriety were concerned, said a friend. In the following days, Olds defended his young friend to reporters, and tried to debunk the evidence authorities had presented against the German national. [8] In 2020, Busick was convicted and sentenced.[9]. "You can go to any corporation or to any church, and you tell me how many people are duplicitous, and then I'll answer your question. Firefighters arrived at the Freeman home shortly after 5:30 a.m. on December 30, when a passerby reported a fire at . Simpson. Olds began traveling to Germany often, even spending part of the Christmas holidays there in 1990. They were ruining his reputation. [7] However, law enforcement was unable to find any trace of Bible or Freeman in the rubble of the home. She thought that Dean was less than forthright with her regarding financial matters, said Marcyan, her divorce lawyer. She was a good tennis player, her friends say, and played regularly at Skokie Country Club. This is something that will never leave me, he said. I find they have more presence, more grace, than their American counterparts. Then, days after Christmas in 1993, Suzannes son-in-law found her bludgeoned to death in her garage. Dean Olds, too, played a part in disseminating conflicting information about Hofers life. Hofer moved from Germany to Chicago in 1993 when the business dissolved, and lived there until after his trial. Unquestionably, the two men spent an enormous amount of Oldss money together. On December 29, 1999, high school friends Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman spent the evening together celebrating Freeman's sixteenth birthday. Hes a fine fellow, Olds said in an interview near the end of March. A tearful Lewis later spoke at Martins funeral, which took place on December 28, 1995, at the Pierce Brothers Cemetery in Westwood, California, according to Variety. Olds lost that money when he and his former lover, Helmut Carsten Hofer, were found responsible for the fatal bludgeoning of Suzanne Olds three days after Christmas 1993. I decided I wanted to live with him. Hofer says the man was an American actor who had been on tour in Europe. Shattered Lives: The Dean Olds Story: Directed by David Rorie. They were married on April 16, 1960, at the First Presbyterian Church near her home. The money was supposed to be for Sue and Deans retirement, but it was quickly dissipated on a variety of trips and expenses, purportedly in connection with Dean and Carstens joint business, Hofers Rolls-Royce Service, a limousine rental firm in Munich. The money went to subsidize Carstens lifestyle, Marcyan charged in a recent interview. [8][13] Following this discovery, the crime scene was reexamined, yet no sign of Bible or Freeman was found. Though as a visitor to the United States Hofer was prohibited from working here, he took at least one modeling job. SARAH NORDGREN December 7, 1995 CHICAGO (AP) _ Dean Olds had it all. Rory and Lorelai warn Dean before entering the lion's den but even Rory doesn't expect the night to go so horribly. Efforts are under way to prevent Olds, a suspect in the murder from the start but who was never charged criminally in the case, from profiting from his wife's slaying. His future bride, Suzanne Shonkwiler, a redhead with a bright smile, grew up the daughter of a lawyer and a housewife in Monticello, Illinois, a village of about 4,500 people between Champaign and Decatur. What happened to Dean in Season 9 episode 23? For example, at a press conference the day after Hofer was arrested, Kling, his defense lawyer, made much of Hofers modeling career in Germany and his success in that field here, even referring to his appearance in a national Gatorade commercial. No documents that Olds produced in the divorce case show any income from the business that year. The living room contained several of these heirlooms, including a mahogany baby grand piano. Reflecting on fatherhood, the 54-year-old actor said: "My number-one priority in this entire world has always been to be a father." Even with things that developed concerning Carsten and Dean, she didnt want us to be suggestive or descriptive in what we were doing in the divorce case In the pleadings we were very general [using terms such as] business associate, friend.. Hofer moved back to Germany after his trial and, according to friends, has gone into business painting houses. Its strictly a desire for money., Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. You could not run the limousine service without ads in the paper saying Rolls-Royce for hire. In the end, the business failed, he said, because of my wife, my wife, my wife.. Released in July 2020, it is titled Hell in the Heartland: Murder, Meth and the case of Two Missing Girls. [7] Both had been shot to death at close range. He traveled the world on business and lived in an ample brick house in an exclusive suburb where he and his wife raised their family. With Dean Olds. It is assumed that the pregnancy occurred close to Rory's 22nd birthday. [8] In 2013, it was profiled on the documentary series Disappeared on Investigation Discovery. A senior partner with his name on the door of a prestigious firm, Olds was paid more than $400,000 a year (varying with the bonus) and owned a five-percent interest in the firm. I heard him say he was from Braunschweig, says Olds, who was about 60 at the time. An occasional McDonald's hamburger is "a big night out.". Still, Mrs. Olds tried to conceal what she thought were the worst aspects of the situation from the children. When Hofer was questioned about his whereabouts on the night of the murder, Goebel said, he admitted having exclusive possession of [Dean Oldss] car during the period in which the murder was committed. One point that they and the once-powerful trademark lawyer agree on is that Olds blew much of his wealth providing a pampered lifestyle for a young boyfriend in Germany. [14] According to The Washington Post, "at least a dozen" witnesses claimed all three men bragged about raping and murdering Bible and Freeman and having taken Polaroid photographs of them. James Byron Dean was born in Indiana on February 8, 1931, where he lived for a few years before his father's work had the small family transferred to California. So, Hofer says, he and Olds turned all the operating papers for the limousine service over to a liquidator. While it is premature to speculate on a possible motive, the evidence we have so far suggests that the offender may have come to the victims home for the express purpose of causing her death.. Referring to Hofer, who Olds says he believes killed his wife in order to end a judge's injunction that froze marital assets, Olds says: "You get people mad enough and they act irrationally. "He introduced him as the orphaned nephew of a client of his who was down on his luck," Glavin testified. Why it matters: Dean is the first officer in Tarrant County convicted in an on-duty shooting. We had talks like real good friends at dinners. He sold his company in 1984 but remained a spokesman for it until 2003. Mrs. A favorite is the chic Renaissance on Forest Avenue, a boulevard where thatched cottages and Swiss chalets evoke an Old World charm, despite the presence of street-corner grunge bands and robed devotees of the Hare Krishna sect. Hofers reasons for wanting to return to Germany (as stated by his lawyers) also beg for an explanation. She was very much a lady, said George Kundaris, her hairdresser. If there was a business at all, it appears to have been a total loss. In the spring of 1993, after acknowledging that he had a drinking problem, he was put on a leave of absence from the law firm. [8] Law enforcement determined the fire had been an arson. Investigators claim that Busick kept repeating "the root cellar," and his stepdaughter alleged that he had forbidden anyone from accessing it. The Wilmette police immediately assembled a task force of about 20 members, including detectives from neighboring towns and members of the state police force and the Cook County states attorneys office. [7], In April 2018, it was reported that Ronnie Dean Busick, age 66, had been arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Bible and the Freeman family. That life unraveled quickly and thoroughly. When a prominent lawyer opened up his bank account to a charming young man, his wife put her foot down. He then prepared to return to Germany. During his 21 years in that position, Donovan headed investigations into about 4,000 unexplained deaths and homicides, including some of the most notorious crimes in Buffalo over the past century.. By Nancy Millman. It premiered a few weeks ago in theaters and streaming on demand. The Olds family has evicted Dean Olds from his home in the Indian Hill Estates section of Wilmette, and attorneys for Suzanne Olds' estate recently sold about 80 acres of woodlands that Dean Olds owned in Michigan, as part of settling a $443,000 judgment against him for dissipation of his wife's money. She was interested in learning more about the gay life., Why she stayed in the marriage can perhaps be explained by the words of her minister at the crowded memorial service last December 31st. Now, with the problems hes had, I dont know. She slept at night only after securing the front and back doors and locking the deadbolt on her bedroom door. The police reported that speed contributed to the cause to the accident and that Dean was traveling over 65 mph at the time of the impact. "We have not forgotten the fact that he (Dean Olds) owes a judgment, although I doubt we're ever going to find all the money he has hidden," said John Shonkwiler, Suzanne Olds' brother and executor of her estate. Sept. 16, 2014 4:52 AM PT. He did not respond to a request for an interview. Hofer was subsequently found not guilty in a jury trial of murdering Suzanne Olds, who was 56. Dean a young, highly ambitious, Porsche-driving, tassel-loafer-wearing lawyer when he joined the ultra conservative Nixon minions ended up getting fired in 1973 once it became clear he would. [8] Jones had claimed that he murdered Freeman's parents as a favor for a friend over drug debt, then took the girls to Kansas, where he shot them and threw their bodies into an abandoned mine. But in an hour-long interview with Chicago six weeks before, Hofer never mentioned being a model in Europe, despite detailed questions about his work experience. Hady said Hofer persuaded her to turn over all the transparencies from the photo session, something she wouldnt ordinarily have done. In the Season 9 episode 23 finale of Supernatural, Dean (Jensen Ackles) makes the ultimate . He's still able to scratch out a living, even if it is in the legal profession that he now bitterly blames--along with his dead wife--for triggering a downfall as steep as Southern California's craggy cliffs. You could kid around with her, but politely. Seven weeks later, on December 28th, Kristen Olds Glavin talked to her mother on the phone at about nine in the evening. I speak a little German, so I tried to help him out.. The next year, Hofer was acquitted of all charges, but the government soon deported him for overstaying his visa. He chatted about his travel plans and reminisced a little wistfully about his life with Hofer. On March ninth, Circuit Court judge Jeffrey A. Malak dismissed the pending divorce case, which meant that the couples joint assets, primarily the Wilmette house and its contents, reverted to Olds. [12], In the decade following the disappearance of Bible and Freeman, two convicted killersTommy Lynn Sells and Jeremy Jonesconfessed to murdering them, but subsequently recanted their admissions. Almost a year has gone by since. Richard immediately quizzes Dean about his upbringing and his education . And instead of still directing a sizable staff in a 100-lawyer intellectual-property law practice that has clients all over the globe, Olds sits at a work station in a small law office in Laguna Beach. Still Oldss legal skills were celebrated. There were people who felt very strongly that Olds should be allowed to remain because of his status in the field and the contributions he had made to the firm. He hated (her attorney). But after he started spending much of his time and considerable wealth on an attractive young German man named Helmut Carsten Hofer, she filed for divorce. After a trial in the spring of 1990, the stunning decision came down from U.S. District Court judge Prentice H. Marshall in December: Quaker was ordered to pay $42.6 million to the Vermont company. For weeks, he eluded off-duty cops trying to serve him with a subpoena for a deposition in the divorce case. I wouldnt want to be on the other side against him., Olds partners say they didnt notice any change in him as his relationship with Hofer was deepening except that he was taking frequent trips to Germany. The prosecutor referred to a photograph of the defendant and Mr. Olds together on a bed in boxer shorts. Revisiting a Made-for-Netflix Scandal on the North Shore, 2020 Chicago magazine / A Chicago Tribune Media Group website. It's Rufus who introduces Bobby to the world of the supernatural, and they hunted together for many years until a hunt goes wrong in Omaha, and a woman important to Rufus (possibly his daughter) dies. In the ensuing weeks, he worked with Mark Wheeler, his civil lawyer, on a libel case against Chuck Goudie charging that reports portrayed Hofer inaccurately and irrelevantly played up his homosexuality. Her friends are angry and, in the words of one Wilmette woman, profoundly sad for what those children must deal with for the rest of their lives. And no one who knew Dean Olds and his family can understand how such a seemingly model North Shore existence could have turned around so suddenly and tragically. As early as 1987, Sue Olds began filing a separate tax return, and by 1991 she was deeply concerned about the familys financial situation. Hes be telling me about his family, about his business, about his cases and I just knew him as a very nice and very friendly person, he said. Some processing plants were spun off, and an aggressive program of acquisitions and divestitures brought more and more brands and consumer offerings. Without a license to practice law in California, Olds conducts research and writes legal briefs for other, arguably less-gifted, lawyers to use in court. In January, David Biro was ordered to pay $41 million to the family of Nancy and Richard Langert of Winnetka for the 1990 murder of the newlyweds. Reports also referred to a map found in the car with the location of the house marked with a star. Thats the last that Hofer the ventures manager admits to knowing about the business. The termination from the firm would bring him, according to court documents, approximately $600,000, paid in increments over time. Civil lawsuits have been used, with some success, in other Chicago area murders. That came when I came over here to the States, and when Ive been living with him. As or romance, Hofer said, There was never from my side anything.. He was 30 and she was 22 and beginning a career as a teacher in the Northbrook school district. ". ``They were the only two people in the world who didnt love her, Courtney Olds said as her eyes filled with tears. This chance encounter led to an intense relationship between the two men that has coincided with a precipitous plunge in the life and career of Dean Olds. The police investigation centered on Hoer from the beginning, and detectives also closely followed the movements of Dean Olds. First, there was a bitter divorce proceeding and a freeze on his assets. [7], In a 2001 profile on Unsolved Mysteries, it was mentioned that rumors had circulated among locals that the Craig County Police Department had been feuding with the Freemans at the time over the death of their son, Shane, who was shot by a deputy after stealing a car. Said in an on-duty shooting down on his assets profiled on the phone at nine. 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