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Stephanie Evans Case
Page Two:
Updates; Emails; News Articles
Presented By
Bonnie M. Wells
E-Mail About T.J. McCray
* indicates name or word has been changed:
Hello
I am really interested in receiving more details about the whereabouts of my {*relative} T.J. McCray on the night of Miss Evans' murder. Please tell me what you can with as much detail and contact information as you can. The police won't tell the family anything and I feel he's being railroaded. At this time he is in prison on a shoplifting charge. They have him 5 years in prison for stealing a pair of shoes from Kmart. 5 years is a long time to make a case against someone! I only want the truth and justice.
Please help if you can.
{*Maggie}
My Response:
{*Maggie},
Thank you for writing to me.
I'm very sorry but I cannot tell you anything about the whereabouts of your {*relative} on the night that Stephanie Evans was murdered.
But, I can tell you this .....
If I were your {*relative}, and I was sitting in prison for shoplifting, I'd be screaming my head off as far as my whereabouts on the night of Evans' murder is concerned!
In other words, I shouldn't have to tell you where he was ..... he should be telling it.....to you, to me, to the media, to anyone who will listen. And I would listen to him because I too would like to know the truth to some of these murder cases. Either we got a bunch of damned killers running around among us, or we got one dangerous serial killer that really needs to be gotten off our streets.
See if you can find out if TJ was in Maine on the morning of April 2nd of that year. If he was, and if he's the guy they arrested in Maine that morning, there is absolutely no way he could have killed Stephanie Evans.
I am not connected to the case in any way except as already stated on my web site.
I did not know Stephanie nor any of her family. I am not interested in defending a guilty person, but neither am I interested in railroading an innocent one. This has already happened too many times.
Thanks for writing.
Bonnie M. Wells
There has been no response from *Maggie in regards to my letter to her, and I've heard nothing from TJ McCray.
However, the letter from Maggie seems to refute the rumor about TJ McCray being a hide-a-way in Canada.
I have chosen to put Maggie's letter on this page, so everyone can see for themselves what has been said to me about the case. And...just in case the letter did not actually come from a family member of TJ McCray, I thought that should be made public also.
I saved the e-mail along with my response, and of course have the address of the person who sent it. So it would be easy enough to check out, should anyone ever desire to do so.
There is no reason for me to doubt that it did actually come from someone close to TJ McCray, but I do wonder why the person never wrote back.
And while I'm wondering about so much .... I also wonder about this ...
If TJ McCray is incarcerated anywhere in the United States, and Ross County has so much incriminating evidence.....especially DNA evidence .... on him, then why has he not been charged with the murder of Stephanie Evans???
Personally, I say let the circumstantial evidence speak for itself. In the words of a federal prosecutor ...
"CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE IS SOME OF THE BEST EVIDENCE YOU CAN HAVE BECAUSE ... CIRCUMSTANCES DON'T LIE!"
Ross County Takes Action
April 15, 2003...
As soon as accused murderer T. J. McCray was returned from Canada and safely in United States custody Monday night, he was informed the state of Ohio will seek the death penalty against him. McCray is accused of raping and then beating to death 21-year-old Stephanie Evans, whose partially clad body was found dumped along a river bank not far from her home in Richmond Dale. Her 2-year-old son was found abandoned nearby but was unharmed. Besides the rape and murder counts, McCray is now charged with kidnapping, gross abuse of a corpse and child endangering. Ross County Sheriff Ron Nichols says McCray also is a suspect in the murder of 84-year-old Ella Mae Grant, a Londonberry real estate agent who was fatally shot during a robbery at her home two months before the Evans murder. Nichols believes McCray is a cold-blooded murderer and used an international televising show to help find the suspect serving time in a Canadian prison under a false name.
T.J. McCray Returns to Ross County
April 16, 2003...
T.J. MCray spent the night in Columbus in the Franklin County jail and was then placed in the Ross County Jail upon his arrival around 10:30 am Tuesday morning. McCray is charged with kidnapping, gross abuse of a corpse, child endangering, rape and murder. McCray was informed that the State will seek the DEATH PENALTY.
He is also a suspect in the Ella Mae Grant murder. Ms. Grant was the 84 year old Realtor whom was shot during a break in to her home.
No More Contact
Does Canada send people to "prison" for five years for shoplifting?
Considering the above articles, I'm inclined to guess that the letter from his family member was not factual or truthful. It sounds as if he was "on the run," just like the sheriff's department claimed.
I'm not his attorney and wouldn't want to be his attorney, and I'm certainly not the least bit interested in helping anyone get away with murder or any other crime.
The things that I reported within this story cannot be changed because they were the truth, and the truth does not change regardless of whether we like it or not.
All I can say is that I do not understand some of the things that happened ..... like the writing in the mud along the river ..... and the date of April 2nd.
But I can say this ... {If} T.J. McCray murdered Stephanie Evans, and left her little boy sitting on the river bank all alone, then I hope he's hung from the highest tree.
And if he didn't murder her, then I hope he has a good attorney, because he's going to need one.
Now whether he's the same man that I was told was incarcerated in the state of Maine on the morning of April 2nd, or not, I cannot say, but if he is, then I would be very, very interested in learning how the man murdered Stephanie .... sometime around midnight, because the latest report states that she spoke to her sister at 11:30 pm ..... drove her van to Columbus and abandoned it, and made it to the state of Maine before noon the next day. I'd really like to know how he did that, because short of taking a plane, it is virtually impossible.
More Info - Dec 2004:
Within the first week of December I was contacted by 3 different people concerning Stephanie's case.
I will share some of the information those individuals gave to me.
1. I was told that T.J. McCray was not in Maine "the day after Stephanie's murder," but that in fact it was a couple of days later when the sheriff's department managed to track him down and discovered he had been arrested for attempting to steal a car, but had been released. If this information is correct, then the time line that appears on my first page of this story is irrelevant. He could have hopped a freight train, or hitchhiked, or whatever. How he got there is of no importance what so ever.
As I said before, I am not an attorney, and would not want to be T.J. McCray's attorney. But, if the information given to me is not correct, then it is up to the man's attorney to gather that information and use it to help his client.
2. I have been told that Stephanie did in fact know T.J. McCray, but that they were not "close" friends or anything like that. However, that same individual said that T.J. had phoned Stephanie at some point and told her he was coming by her place that day {April 1st.} No one seems to know for certain whether he actually was there earlier in the day or not.
3. Other information indicates that Stephanie was in fact seen speaking to an "older man" who may {or may not} fit the description of my Wild Bill character. I am still working on this information and will do an update as soon as I gain further details. However, whoever this man was, he was not speaking to her on the day that she was murdered. It apparently was sometime prior to that day.
4. I have been told that there is in fact a branch of the company that Wild Bill works for that is located within a short distance from where Stephanie lived and from where her body was dumped. They say it is located out route 220. If this is correct, then there is the same number {22} which has remained consistent in so many of these cases. It does not "guarantee" anything, but is simply another piece of the puzzle that cannot be explained at this time.
5. Sources say that one of Stephanie's shoes was located in another area, in front of the home of one of her friends. Supposedly, the shoe had an empty prescription bottle inside it. I do not know who's prescription bottle it was ..... Stephanie's or someone else's ..... but it did remind me of the empty prescription bottle that was found in the McCrady case. That bottle was supposedly from the Cleveland, Ohio area. I do not know, and have no way of knowing, if these bottles were actually connected to the crimes or not. It sounds rather peculiar to me, but then, I'm not a detective, and {if} Jackie McCrady did in fact murder his wife {as the jury decided}, then this is simply another "coincidence" and means nothing. However, I find it strange that this is yet another case in which the murdered woman's shoes are found somewhere other than her body! Guess this makes about 20 cases so far. Perhaps all killers have a thing for shoes!
6. There does not appear to be any relationship between the names .... Hickman, Burton, Martin ... that I am familiar with, and Stephanie Evans. (2012 NOTE: I was mistaken. There IS a connection to HICKMAN!)
I sincerely hope that T.J. McCray is the right person in Stephanie's case. Her case needs to be solved - but so do many others. And unless T.J. McCray is a serial killer, then we still have at least a dozen killers walking our streets with us! That's a scary thought.
Of course if my theory is correct then we have a serial killer. This doesn't mean he's a huge monster that can just grab any victim he chooses - I'm living proof of that. It simply means that there is a man out here {and nation wide there are dozens} that has killed more than 3 people. He isn't a freak. He isn't weird looking or filthy dirty and horrible smelling. If he was he would never make it in the serial killer world. It means he looks and acts like any other normal guy. He probably eats at the same restaurants that you and I eat at, goes dancing, watches movies, plays with his children or grand kids, and enjoys the same things we do. That's what makes him so hard to identify. But it is not my fault that he has not been identified, and short of committing suicide to satisfy his wishes, I don't know what else I can do to stop him.
And there's another item of importance that should be mentioned here. Even if I'm right and the killer has "fixated on," or became obsessed with me, that is simply something that God allowed to happen so that his identity could be revealed to people. The Lord knew I was a writer .... he made me a writer .... and he knew I would put the pieces together and show everyone. However, I am not the first person this killer has become obsessed with, nor am I the last. This is not anything new in the world of serial killers and psychopaths. They can become obsessed with a waitress in a restaurant, a nurse who they see working in a hospital, a school teacher, someone they saw in a news paper, a girl walking down the street with a friend, anyone is a potential victim to a serial killer.
Another Serial Killer Book
I've just finished reading another book about serial killers. I've read hundreds {and have all of them} about killers, psychopaths and maniacs, all in an effort to understand their characteristics, their ways of thinking and reasoning.
I highly recommend this book and will close this page with a few quotes from it, some of which will be followed by {my own comments} and what the quote reminded me of. When I get time I intend to design a new web page on which will be more quotes, much like appear on the pages for Dark Dreams and other books that I found of great value. In my opinion, this is one of the most valuable resources for information on serial killers that I have read in some time.
SERIAL KILLERS -
THE METHOD AND MADNESS OF MONSTERS:
Written by Peter Vronsky
"I have a problem with women." - Richard Cottingham, the Times Square Torso Ripper:
{"I have a problem, and need help." - Wild Bill 1994 upon his arrest for a sex crime in Marietta, Ohio.}
"He (Cottingham) would either pick up his victims on the streets of Manhattan or meet them in bars. Either way, he would buy them drinks or dinner and slip a date rape-type drug into their glass. He then would maneuver or lure the semiconscious victim to his car..."
{Wild Bill and B.H. 1992: Also pictures of unconscious women that he showed to his girlfriend and told her he waited until they passed out and raped them. When asked why he replied that, that way he didn't have to listen to their damned mouths.}
"Eighty percent of all known male serial killers in the United States appeared between 1950 and 1995. Serial killers between 1975 and 1995 accounted for 45 percent of the total of both male and female killers in the United States between 1800 and 1995. Between 1960 and 1990, confirmed serial homicides increased by 940 percent."
76 percent of all recently reported serial killings in the world took place in the United States.
{Washington County Ohio and surrounding areas in a 200 mile radius of Wash. Co. are saturated with unsolved homicides, primarily of women and girls, and yet authorities continue to ridicule the mere notion of a serial killer. Somehow they reason it makes them appear more intelligent, better trained, or perhaps wiser than those who dare speak the words "serial killer." But what does the alternative say? Two or three hundred "one strike killers" and they can't catch any of them! I'd be screaming .... "sophisticated, methodical, organized, SERIAL KILLER, from the roof tops if it was me!!! Oh, I forgot, I have been screaming that for years!}
"Scoptophilia - voyeurism; seeking sexual pleasure by peeping through windows, an early behavioral trend found in some serial killers who graduate from voyeurism to rape to murder."
{In the early eighties Wild Bill was married to his first wife, who had a school aged younger sister. The girl liked to go spend the weekends with her "big sister," but had to stop going because Wild Bill sneaked into her room at night and slipped his hands beneath the covers; and peeked through door cracks and watched the child as she was dressing:
His second wife also had a young daughter, and within a short while the girl accused him of molesting her and attempting to entice her friends into vehicles with him. The child had to go away from her mother and live with her grandmother in order to escape his sexual advances:
In December of 1980 he committed a sexual offense against two teenage girls in Marietta, Ohio and went to jail for 30 days:
In the late 1980's he exposed himself to 2 teenage girls who were sitting at a stop light. A few days later one of the girls was at a local car wash when she looked up and saw him watching her from a distance. One of her friends was able to get his license number and report him. No charges were brought against him although the girls tried:
In 1994 he exposed himself to a woman and her 2 year old child on a public street in broad daylight and threatened to rape the woman right there if she didn't agree to go to a motel with him! He spent 60 days in jail that time:
In 1997 he was accused by 2 young girls of exposing himself to them at a local park. He denied any involvement and the police dropped the issue. However, he later confessed to his girlfriend that it was in fact he who had done it, and he took the woman to the park and showed her what he does .... fixates on the victim {little 10,11 or 12 year old girls} while masturbating and pretending that he is raping them!
In 2000 he was indicted by the Washington County (Ohio) grand jury and charged with 3 counts of rape and sexual misconduct against his present girlfriend's 13 year old daughter. The girlfriend sided with him against her child ... as usual, he walked away unscathed.}
"If you want to understand the artist, look at his work. - John Douglas, former head of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Investigative Support Unit."
"If I have been doing my job right as a popular writer so far, you should be breathlessly alarmed by this described sudden and steady three-decade onslaught of crazed serial killers threatening us in every corner of the world.
The alarm you feel feeds sales of books, magazines, and commercial time on television. The historian in me, however, wants to know what really happened, even if the truth is more prosaic than the myth. This wave of serial murder is not as simple a story as a lot of true-crime literature, the government, and the media have been presenting it." - Peter Vronsky:
SERIAL KILLERS -
The Method And Madness Of Monsters /
Berkley Publishing / November 2004:
Additional emails and guest book comments:
Some details have been omitted, and * names changed by me, either at request or for privacy and/or safety reasons:
----- Original Message -----
From: {*In The Know}
To: bmwells@1st.net
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2005 2:20 AM
Subject: Stephanie Evans Info.
{letter #One from "*In The Know" }
Hi there!
After reading your page on the Stephanie Evan's case, I felt it necessary to contact you.
Since I personally know Stephanie & her sister, I would like to mention that she was a person who was loved deeply & will be missed.
I would also like to mention that TJ’s {portions omitted}: I have more information if you would like to contact me.
My response to "In The Know," letter #One:
bmwells {*In The Know},
Thank you for writing about Stephanie. If I somehow gave the impression that Stephanie was not loved or missed, I apologize. I certainly never intended that , but after reading your message I almost felt that you thought that's what I'd done.
I don't know Stephanie or any of the others that are profiled on my web site, and sometimes that makes it hard. And, I can't get real personal with one case and then not do the same thing for others. I do try to add any information that is sent to me though, so if you want to tell me something about TJ or Stephanie or anyone else in the case, feel free to write anytime.
Bonnie
{letter #Two From "In The Know" }
Bonnie,
As you know the Londonderry/ Richmond Dale area is pretty quiet. Everyone knows everyone , and when something like this happens, people tend to take it pretty hard. Sadly It happens everywhere. But being from there, I would like to tell you what I know.
If you use my information, even though it is not much. I would like to stay anonymous. Living {in the same town with} a known killer leaves me no room for comfort. But this is what I know...
TJ McCray was in fact hiding in the woods in an abandoned shack a few days after Stephanie was murdered. {Someone} was seen taking food and packing water to him through the woods at night. The cops were called and they did a stake-out {portions removed}. TJ got a heads up and was told to leave town by {someone}.
To give you a little background on TJ.. He is not the kind of person you want to be associated with. TJ & his family are known for petty theft & being into drugs. They are not the kind of people you can trust.
The theory behind all of this is that TJ, Stephanie, & an unknown person robbed Ella Mae {Grant}. Things didn't’t go the way they were planned and Mrs. Grant was put to rest. The day Stephanie was killed she told a close friend, over the phone, that she was scared & needed to go to the cops about something, but she would not’t say what for. They’re conversation ended when an unknown person came to Stephanie’s house.
It was obvious that she knew who it was that murdered her. Here’s why I think so:
- Strange cigarette butts were found in her home. Meaning she was comfortable enough to let the person in & either they stayed long enough to smoke more than one cigarette or there was more than just one person.
- She took her son with her. Why on earth would you jeopardize your son's life by taking him along with you if you thought you were in danger? Again leading back to my theory that she knew the person very well.
- Her son had a warm temperature when he was found. Leading me to believe that he had been taken care of through out the night & placed back at the murder scene just before day break. If someone Stephanie didn't’t know killed her, why would they care enough about her son to see that he stayed alive?
There are just so many things that point to TJ & I just hope that justice is served.
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