The Prophetic Dreamer

My mother, Stella Martin was a prophetic dreamer, as was her mother and grandmother before her. Many of her dreams are told within the pages and stories of Pure Coincidence.

Mom had the "comforter" dream on the night of September 28th, 1996, and reported it to me during the day of September 29th. At that time, everyone was searching for Jenifer McCrady who had disappeared from her Belpre home on the 19th.

I wrote the details of Mom's dream down and gave it no more thought ... for a day or so!

My Daughter's Birthday

October 1st {1996} was Christina's 31st birthday. I bought her a gift and went to visit for a little while. She lived on State Route 124, just past the Township Road 298 turn-off.

Christina needed to go to Little Hocking School for something that day, so I took her to the school and thought of the missing Jenifer McCrady, as I waited in the car.

Jenifer had been missing twelve days at this point, and I continued to feel she was nearby.

Already I'd sent Detective Winstanley reports stating that I thought Belpre was going to lose another woman ... in September. And I'd said in those reports that I could feel the presence of the killer, because he was coming into Little Hocking .... coming right at me.

"We need a horse-back search party to find Jenifer McCrady," I said when Christina returned to the car.

"Well, Steve is standing over there," she said as she pointed to a man who was standing by the dumpster.

"So?" I replied.

"So, he has several riding horses and likes to ride the back trails of the area. He'd be the one to speak to about organizing a riding party." She replied.

Off I went to speak with Steve about a search party.

Later, Steve told Christina that I scared the hell out of him that day. I insisted we needed to search in a circular pattern within a couple mile radius of Little Hocking School. I'd been working the 7/10ths mile puzzle for some time, and had sent a couple of reports to Winstanley. I could feel the 7/10ths connection in the case, but couldn't determine why .... for awhile.

Bulls Eye Strike

We never got the chance to organize a riding party because within an hour or so, Jenifer McCrady's murdered body was found 7/10ths of a mile from Little Hocking School! That's when Steve said my words had hit him like a ton of bricks, because the entire time we were speaking I was looking toward 298 and telling him we needed to start down that direction. Surprisingly enough, the farm that Jenifer was located on is across the road from where Steve lives and is the farm on which he rides his horses on a regular basis!

When Jenifer was found wrapped in a comforter, on Christina's birthday, I recalled my mother's dream.

The Comforter Dream

Dreamer was talking to her son Mike about his ex-wife Joyce, who was having a nervous breakdown.

The dreamer believed she was at a large rummage sale because there were stacks of clothing and household items all around. She and Mike watched Joyce from the corner of the room or area they were in. Joyce paced nervously back and forth. She wanted to buy a comforter but didn't have the money and was upset because her new husband would not give her the money to buy the comforter, even though winter was coming and she really wanted and needed the comforter.

Mike sadly shakes his head and says ...."Well Mom, she always said I was such a son-of-a-bitch but you know, she didn't have to worry about things like this when she was with me.

I brought home my pay check and handed it to her. She carried the check book and charge cards ... I never, ever said one word about what she spent on herself, the kids, the house or anything else.

******* End of dream ******

Mike Martin

My brother died of a massive heart attack on November 24th, 1986. He had been dead almost ten full years by the time our mother had the dream I titled "The Comforter."

In the dream Mike was clean shaven: At the time of Mike's death he had a full beard and mustache, and had worn both for several years before he died.

Note: Click on below link to see picture of Mike and Joyce

The first picture on the page is NOT Joyce. The page actually goes with yet another story, but contains the only photo of both Mike and Joyce that I have available at this time.

Photo of Mike & Joyce

The Dream & The Reality

The date of Mom's dream contains the number of the road on which Jenifer McCrady was found .... dream 9-28... road numer 298

Ultimately 9-28 would become important for another reason. Mary Dye would later testify that she saw Jackie McCrady coming from the direction of his wife's grave on 9-28!

Jenifer McCrady was found, on October 1st, white plastic trash bag over her head, wrapped in a comforter and zipped up in a teal colored sleeping bag. She had been shot once in the head and then buried in a shallow grave just a couple of miles from my home. But, her makeshift grave was even closer {7/10ths of a mile} to the home that my brother's ex-wife Joyce grew up in right here in Little Hocking.

In the dream, the man who was called a son-of-a-bitch and who watched what was happening to his wife from a distance, was clean shaven.

When Jenifer's grave was discovered, her clean shaven, State Trooper husband, was not informed of the discovery. Instead, his commanding officer instructed another trooper to "shadow" McCrady, and go back to headquarters.

Commander Robert Dunn testified that McCrady was watching a training video as instructed, when he entered the room, sneaked up behind McCrady, grabbed him in a choke hold and pulled his chair over backward.

Dunn testified that he disarmed McCrady and when McCrady asked what was going on, he kicked him and replied .... "Shut the f--- up, you dirty son-of-a-bitch."

She Didn't Have The Money

McCrady insisted his wife had taken several thousand dollars with her when she disappeared on September 19th. However she did not have the money when she was found. The only "money" located in her purse was 57 cents. And I wondered if Winstanley remembered me saying the "57" was in play? I don't suppose he did.

Court room testimony revealed that Jackie McCrady took his check home and handed his wife the money and that he never, ever questioned any expense regardless of whether it was for her, the kids, the house or anything else.

Jenifer McCrady carried the check book and credit cards and after she disappeared, her husband searched the house until he located an old ATM card so he could groceries.

Testimony revealed that Jenifer had been seeing a psychiatrist, and was searching for her birth parents.

In a 9-23 interview with Officer Dave Garvey, Jackie McCrady indicated that he thought Jenifer had been somewhat depressed in recent days before she disappeared. In closing arguments, the prosecuting attorney said McCrady tried to convince Garvey that Jenifer was " having a nervous breakdown."

I sat in the court room and wondered if the prosecution had read all the materials that I'd faithfully sent to Detective Winstanley, and was attempting to convince me that they had the right guy! Their refusal to admit where the information came from went a lot further than their attempts went though, and I remained doubtful. Besides that, the idea of Jenifer being depressed didn't exactly come from a rumor. She had been seeing a psychiatrist, and had told several friends that she wanted to locate her biological parents. By the time the state got done twisting things around though, it sounded as if it had all been a well laid plan of Jackie McCrady. I knew better, but I wasn't testifying, and I certainly wasn't on the jury and couldn't say one word about the case to anyone who was. At least not back in 1997. Today's a different story.

Speculation

There was testimony and speculation about the "comforter" that Jenifer was found wrapped in. Pictures were produced that showed a comforter like that one on the couple's bed. These pictures were approximately four years old, and testimony showed the couple earned in the neighborhood of $90,000.00 per year. Almost everything in their home had been re-done, replaced, remodeled within that time period. Still, the state claimed that the comforter was the one used on their bed even though the bed room had been completely redecorated, including carpet and drapes; and even though the pillow shams that matched the comforter were found in a storage area of the attic.

The Rummage Sale

P.J. was a friend who sometimes babysat for the McCrady's. She testified that she had held a yard sale to which the McCrady's had brought three large loads of clothing and household items to be sold. Although she could not remember if "the comforter" in question was part of the items brought to her, she said it was possible because there was an enormous amount of things brought from their home.

Was it possible that Jenifer had donated the comforter to P.J. for the yard sale and had overlooked the matching pillow shams? Was it possible that the set had been stored separately in the attic, perhaps for several years, and Jenifer just didn't dig deep enough into the storage area to find the pillow shams?

The McCrady's had been looking at new houses. A real estate agent testified that she had showed Jackie and Jenifer a house or two in the weeks preceding Jenifer's disappearance. She said they told her that their home in Belpre was just too small for the family and they wanted something larger and something that would be more conveniently located for both of them since they worked primarily in the Marietta area.

I didn't know exactly how long the McCrady's had been thinking about relocating, but wondered if it hadn't been in the plans prior to Jackie's stroke in early July.

My thoughts went back to the time I'd helped a friend pack and move from the house he'd lived in for about 5 years. I did most of the packing and still remembered how many boxes I had started at any given time, because things were not stored together ..... I might find a top sheet and one pillow case in one area but not find the fitted sheet and the other pillow case until I searched another spot.

I tended to be a very organized person, and stored bed spreads {of which I have at least half a dozen} with matching pillow shams, sheets, blankets, etc. but I also realized that the average person ..... the average woman with a job, children, husband and other responsibilities ..... is not like me. Things get out of place and are not always where they should be. Something told me that the comforter in question had been given to P. and the pillow shams weren't even thought of because they had been stored away long before the comforter was given away.

A Former Deputy

By the time my brother died, Jackie McCrady was a deputy sheriff in Wood County, West Virginia. He wouldn't come to Ohio as a state trooper until 1990.

Before Jackie McCrady became an Ohio cop, and before he met and married Jenifer Barrett, he dated my sister Patty Martin-Fulton. This was information that I would not discover until well after Jenifer McCrady had been murdered. I often wonder if I could have made a difference had I known earlier.

At the time Jackie McCrady dated my sister he owned a house on Stella Street in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

The dreamer's name was Stella Martin.

Watching From A Distance

After McCrady was "relieved of his duties" he was told to go to his parent's home in West Virginia and stay there until further notice .... thus he was forced to watch what was happening to his wife from a distance.

The Shepherd Knows His Sheep ...

And The Sheep Know Their Shepherd

I always sent my information to Detective John Winstanley. I had a very good reason for this. The first time I ever laid eyes on John Winstanley he was a bailiff in a court room and was employed by the city of Marietta, not the county.

Even then I knew there was something about John Winstanley that was important and special. Our paths were destined to cross many, many times and I believed it would ultimately be John Winstanley who would bring our killer down.

I guess most people never believed that. I still believe it, and will until the Lord tells me otherwise! Yeah, I'm stubborn.

After the judge that he worked for lost the next election, Winstanley retired. It wasn't long until Sheriff Robert Schlicher hired him out of retirement to "head up the unsolved murder investigations" here in Washington County. We had several even then.

Early in 1996 I began warning Winstanley and a few "selected" others that "the killer is coming for a "cop's woman," because he hates you cops above everything on earth .... well, right after me, that is. Tell Belpre they got another strike coming .... And ten days before Jenifer McCrady was murdered I sent Winstanley another frantic warning .....

" I can feel the killer's presence in Little Hocking, John. For God's sake get me some back up out here. He's going to kill again real soon, probably this month if you don't stop him. He's coming right at me this time John, he's coming right at me."

Ten days later Jenifer McCrady was missing. She was the wife of a cop so I guess one could say she was a cop's woman. She lived in Belpre, so it was definitely another "Belpre strike," just like I'd warned. Her murdered body was brought to Little Hocking which is where I live so the killer came into Little Hocking, and with all the "connections to me, my sister and my daughter's birthday, we can see the he's coming right at me portion of the warnings pan out.

Panned Out To Perfection

As far as I'm concerned my mother's dream panned out to perfection and so did my own predictions. I was right on target with every single one of them.

Back To The Comforter

Although I sent all my information to Detective Winstanley because I was under the impression that homicide information was supposed to be sent to him .....and because he told me to "keep him informed," I couldn't help but notice that John Winstanley was the only cop in the entire valley that was not involved in the McCrady case. And in my opinion, he's the only one that positively should have been involved in it!

Why do I say that?

It all goes back to the "comforter!"

John Winstanley's birthday is October 14th so he is a Libran. Libra is the 7th house of the zodiac, so as someone familiar with astrology might say...he was born in the 7th house / 14th day, which easily translates to October 14th.

I turned to my Bible.

My first search was for the name John.

In the book of John, and in the 14th chapter, verse 16 (add the one and the six .... equals "7") I found the following verse....

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter."

A "comforter" is one who "comforts, takes care of, protects, helps heal the wounds, fixes that which is wrong, does what he/she can to make things right.

John Winstanley should have been there. He should have led the investigation. Instead he was tossed aside in favor of officer Dave Garvey, a Belpre city cop who was out of his jurisdiction the day he and Belpre Chief of Police Ira Walker discovered Jenifer's grave, and then, failed to report it for more than 24 hours!

And there's another reason that Winstanley should have led the investigation. Jackie and Jenifer were married on October 14th, 1989.

I wasn't aware of their anniversary until the court trial, and then I was probably the most amazed person in the room when I heard the date. And finally, I understood why I'd been so determined that John Winstanley be "kept informed!"

Dedication This story is hereby dedicated in the memory of my mother Stella Martin who passed away in January of 1997. And it is dedicated in memory of two friends whom I didn't get to see very often but whose memories will always be cherished.... Mr. Art Patton of Williamstown, West Virginia & Mr. Gene Soja, of Parkersburg, West Virginia. Both passed away this summer [2002] from cancer. They will be greatly missed.