Shallow Grave: The Crimes of Roy McLaughlin

0:05 M a wall Street line, shackle Chaine, Oh someome girdie, it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice as the huge stream game Wrangle three, come here by me, the dies inside these walls, inside the wild.

0:56 And went no girl as I'm hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody in Gola, a podcast one hundred and forty two years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest prison. I'm Jim Chapman, and today I'm bringing you the horrific story of one of the current inhabitants, if you will, of Bloody in Gola, and the subject today is going to be Roy McLaughlin who in August of nineteen ninety nine was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, Maryanne McLaughlin. So let's get right into it now. I'm going to take you back to June of nineteen ninety eight and miss mary Anne McLaughlin.

2:15 She tells her fifteen year old son that she's going to go meet with her husband, Roy, who she was estranged from at this time, and she said she was going to discuss their divorce. Now she had filed for that divorce the month prior. So she goes missing on July eleventh of nineteen ninety eight, and on July twelfth, the very next day, she is officially reported missing by her family. So police knew right off the bat who to investigate for this. They were handed the same set of circumstances in facts, I just gave you an estranged husband.

2:56 She's telling people that she's going to meet this guy, and then she goes missing. It's pretty obvious, right, Well, this case would be more challenging than it may seem on its face. First things first, police start digging into Roy in Marianne's relationship, and they discover that Roy and mary Anne were scheduled to appear in court just four days after she went missing. Now that appearance would be to address child custody. They had two teenage children, as well as a restraining order that Marianne had filed due to Roy having a violent temper. They were also going to discuss some child support issues at that hearing. So the initial investigation had a lot of problems, most notably the lack of physical evidence. They had a ton of circumstantial evidence already in this case, but they didn't have any physical evidence. Nobody knew where Mariamne was was she was still missing, there was no body although they probably suspected foul play right from the beginning. So police start interviewing people who knew the estranged couple, and several of these folks would say that Roy had taken the divorce pretty hard, and that he had said more than once that he would kill his wife if she continued to seek a divorce. Those threats, coupled with the sudden disappearance

4:28 of Marianne, that's going to raise immediate suspicions that foul play was for sure involved here, and police would continue to pack on evidence though it's all circumstantial at this point. Now that doesn't mean you can't prosecute a case just because it's circumstantial. Plenty of people have been found guilty of things based solely off of circumstantial evidence. But you'd like some physical evidence there as well. So police would discover that two days after Marianne disappeared, Roy had at his rental car professionally cleaned, and he emphasized to the detailer this was at a car wash. They had some detailers there that would actually detail your cars. He emphasized to that person to vacuum the trunk several times. As a matter of fact, he stood next to this guy, according to the detailer, and said, you know, vacuum it again.

5:21 So think about that for a second. Who vacuums the trunk of a rental car, much less several times standing over an attendant and making sure he does it right now. Just about a week after his wife's disappearance, Roy does get arrested, but not for the reason you would think. He is actually caught in a Mississippi hotel trying to get underage girls to pose in laningerie in his hotel room and take pictures of them. Apparently one of the young girls reported this to police. They go pick him up and he goes to Jay on that charge in this missing case. Sadly, it pretty much turns cold at this point. There are no leads. They just all dried up, no physical evidence, and although police had an idea Roy was involved in this, he wasn't talking at least to police. Inmates.

6:21 That's a completely different story. It seemed that old Roy he can't keep his mouth shut around all these inmates. So in June of nineteen ninety nine, while he's sitting in the East Baton Ridge Parish prison awaiting trial on those charges stemming from that hotel arrest. He tells an inmate not only that he killed mary Anne, but apparently he drew a map to the location of her body, so that inmate in hopes obviously of getting a lighter sentence, I'm sure, for one of his crimes. He turns this information over to authorities and he agrees to testify to what Roy mcliefelin told him. Some of the specifics of that he told this inmate that he killed her because she said she was divorcing him. The inmate also said that, according to Roy, he admitted to smothering mary Anne with a pillow and disposing her body in a forest. Now it's important to mention that the map that this guy said Roy drew of the location of Marianne's body was saying the body was in the Chapelized spillway, which, if you were not from Louisiana, the spillway is like a swampy body of water here, not really what you would think of as a forest. So there was a little bit of a contradiction there, But regardless, he did admit to killing her. And this inmate was willing to testify.

7:50 So that was enough for the batnerge Da, who at that time was Doug Morrow, to seek a grand jury indictment for the murder of Mayor, even without a body. So Roy does indeed get indicted for the murder of his wife after the evidence was presented to a grand jury, and he was already in jail by this time, so he just remained in jail. And it's important to mention by this time he had already sued the Sheriff's office for slander. He claimed that he was wrongfully portrayed as the prime suspect in his wife's murder by the Sheriff's office, and he sued them for ten million dollars. But lawsuit did not go anywhere. It was thrown out eventually. So Roy remains in the East Baton Ridge Parish prison awaiting trial.

8:41 And then a major break in this case when in December of nineteen ninety nine, the remains of Mary Ann McLaughlin are discovered in Mississippi in what's known as the Homachido National Forest. Now this was eight teen months after her disappearance. A hunter who was hunting in that forest, he came across a human skull, and that human's goal was identified through dental records as being the remains of Mary Anne McLaughlin. Now where those remains were discovered were also very significant because they were very close to a property owned by Roy McLaughlin. That's not my accident, right, And with this new evidence, prosecutors were at least going to have some sort of physical evidence now to present.

9:36 And when they tested those remains, not only did the timeframe fit, they also had the proximity to that property another good piece of evidence. That's just way too coincidental that Roy McLaughlin owned property very very close to where they found those remains, So it obviously made this case pretty damaging for Roy McLaughlin. So in March of two thousand and one, this trial starts, and I'm going to cover for you every single thing that happened to this poor woman that came out in that trial. And for reference, I'm getting this directly from the magistrate judges report, and it covers all the facts that came out during that trial.

10:23 So it came out during the trial that on May thirteenth of nineteen ninety eight, there was an outstanding warrant for the arrest of Roy McLaughlin out of East baden Ridge Parish on a felony charge of issuing worthless checks. Miss McLaughlin reported to the ebr Sheriff's Office that Roy was at her home in Baton Rouge and could be apprehended on that charge. She knew that that warrant was out there, so officers from the Sheriff's office they arrived at Miss McLaughlin's home to arrest Roy, but he sees them coming and he actually is gapes arrest by jumping through a bathroom window. In the report, the officers described Miss McLaughlin's demeanor at the time Roy escaped as visibly shaken and scared. Now on that same day, she filed for divorce and for a temporary restraining order against Roy, so Roy fled from Louisiana to Boone, North Carolina. A friend of Roy's, a guy by the name of Floy Miller, helped Roy find a job with a commercial debt recovery business in Boone, North Carolina. So, after Roy had worked and lived in Boone in temporary corporate housing that that company supplied for him for several weeks, he goes to his friend Floyd. This was on June tenth of nineteen ninety eight, just after he received his first paycheck, and

11:56 he tells his friend, Hey, I'm going to travel to bat Rouge after work. This would be on June twelfth, nineteen ninety eight, to pick up his vehicle and other personal items. Police had evidence, though, and that evidence indicated that Roy never returned to work on June eleventh of nineteen ninety eight. On that date, he actually rented a nineteen ninety one Chevy Lumina from Matt Brown's Chevrolet dealership. This is in North Carolina, And when he rented that vehicle, Roy did not advise that he planned to drive the vehicle out of state. Instead, he told the employee who rented the vehicle to him that he had recently moved to North Carolina and that he was renting the vehicle so he could for MEI riz himself with the air.

12:46 So this guy had no idea that he's about to drive this rental you know, several states over to Louisiana. So the guy rents him the vehicle and that was for a four day period. Roy then drives the rental car from Boone, North Carolina, to Baton Ridge, Louisiana, and he checks in at what was known as the Quality Inn Hotel on Sherwood Forest Boulevard. That's a major boulevard in Baton Rurage. This was at approximately eight point fifty six pm. This was on June eleventh of nineteen ninety eight. So the Quality In that was located only four and a half miles from Miss McLaughlin's residence and it's the closest motel you can find to that residence, which is also awfully convenient. So upon checking into that Quality In, Roy gives the hotel manager the correct name, but he provides a false address, and he also provided a false vehicle description. Why would you do that, Jim?

13:56 Did you see what happened in Texas today? Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you what happened in New York. It cannot be as crazy as the case I told you about yesterday in Louisiana. You know what, we should do a podcast about it, and with that we did. Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from all over the country and even sprinkle in a few globally. Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts. Simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link in the description of this podcast. So around this same time, the youngest son of Roy he goes to visit friends and this is at about seven o'clock PM that night, This was Jene eleventh of nineteen ninety eight, and he tells his mom, I'm going to visit friends. And when he leaves, Miss McLaughlin is there at the home by herself.

14:56 Her nineteen ninety four Caprice Classic was also present at that residence, and according to the son, miss McLaughlin never told him that she was going to go anywhere that evening. So her son returns home about eleven thirty that night, at which time the vehicle is gone and his mother is gone. But he found something strange. And y'all remember this is nineteen ninety eight. So Miss McLaughlin had left her pager at home, and this was very uncharacteristic of her. She always had her pager with her. Look, this was infancy of cell phone, y'all. Everybody existed with a pager and they never left it at home. It's kind of like cell phones now. So her son notices this and he contacts his older brother, and his older brother says, well, she mentioned to me that she planned to meet with dad to discuss their marital situation, but he wasn't sure when she was supposed to do that. She just mentioned that she was going to do it. It's kind of an assumption. That's where she went to the brothers. Now, while one of the brothers was at home that night, he gets a phone call from Roy his dad, and Roy asked if miss McLaughlin was home. The son tells his dad that she was not at home, and Roy said, well, she must not have gotten back yet. She'll be in shortly. So, upon the advice of his older brother, the younger brother

16:26 he spends the night at a friend's house that night. This is June eleventh of nineteen ninety eight, and the next morning he went to a basketball camp at his high school. And now we're on June twelfth of nineteen ninety eight, and at approximately six twenty five am, Roy calls the Yellow Cab company from a pay phone in Baton Rouge and he requested the cab pick him up from what's none as Benny's car wash. The cab company says okay, And they asked him his name and he says John. He doesn't tell them Roy. So the taxi cab says, that's fine, we're on the way. And at that point Roy drops his rented Chevrolet Lumina off at that car wash. This is at six twenty nine am.

17:14 He then leaves that car wash in the cab that he had called for so they were going to detail it and he didn't want to wait around for that. And how do they know when he arrived and when he left to get it down to that exact time, Well, there was video surveillance at that car wash and they could actually watch his comings and going. So the cab driver who picked up Roy, he testified in court that Roy told him he had dropped off his wife's car at Benny's to be washed. Roy tells the cab driver that he wants to be taken to the quality ind The cab driver brings him back to his hotel. Now shortly after Benny's opened that day. This was at eight point fifteen am. Roy contacts Benny's car wash and he tells them he wants the super clean service to be performed on that Chevy Lumina he had left there, so they weren't even open when he dropped it off. He also requested that the trunk of the car be vacuumed and indicated he would pay the extra cost of two dollars to have that service be performed. When the trunk of that Lumina was cleaned at Benny's, the carpet inside of it was intact. And I'll tell you why I'm bringing that up later on. So at approximately ten am of that day, Roy travels to Gonzalez, that's an outskirts of Baton Rouge, and he's inside of miss McLaughlin's car and he gets a haircut in Gonzalez at a barber shop.

18:43 Now a friend named Dolores, a friend of Roy's who cut his hair that day. She testified she asked Roy to go visit her fiance, but Roy told her he couldn't do so because he was going on a boat ride with his brother. Now Roy's brother, however, testified at the trial that Roy had no plans to go on a boat ride with him, so he obviously lied to this lady. He, as a matter of fact, said he hadn't spoken to Roy since the prior Thanksgiving and he went on to say more than likely he was working on June twelfth of nineteen ninety eight, so he would have never told Roy, hey, we're going to go for a boat ride if he's working now. Miss Dolores the one who cut his hair. She also indicated that when he left the barber shop, he drove in the direction up Baton Rouge in a Chevy Caprice, and according to the quality inn records of that hotel he was staying at, he checked out of that motel at twelve twenty eight on June twelfth of nineteen ninety eight. Now, at sometime around noon of that day, Roy called miss McLaughlin's home again and spoke with his son again, who at this point had arrived home from a basketball camp, and he asked his son if miss mc claughlin hadn't made it home.

20:01 His son said, no, Dad, she hadn't made it home yet. And at that point Roy told his son that Miss McLaughlin had gone to Mississippi with a friend to buy a new car, because she was giving him her current car, that Caprice. So his son says, oh, so you're in town, and he replies that he was in Baton Ridge. But when his son said, well, where are you? He wouldn't tell his son where he was calling from now. Later that day, the older son he contacted the East Baton Ridge pair Sheriff's office when Miss McLaughlin did not show up for Danny's baseball game, which was very out of character for her, So the older brother knew something's not right here. A sergeant by the name of Steve Young He arrives at the home that evening around seven point thirty PM, and he and the detective by the name of Shane Evans. They searched the home and they find no evidence of anything that would indicate like a physical struggle, an incident where she was basically attacked in her home and maybe somebody stole her car and took her gun point somewhere. None of that. They did find, however, several overdue bills and that suingested that maybe Miss McLaughlin was experiencing some financial difficulties at the time, which, hey, you're getting a divorce, you're a single female raising two kids, probably pretty tough for you. So the older brother, he explains to the detectives assigned to that case that his

21:33 parents had separated a month earlier and that his mother had mentioned to him that Hey, I'm going to meet with your dad to discuss this divorce. He did say that she did not specify a date for such a meeting, but did mention that they were going to meet. The older brother also told the detectives about the substance of some phone conversations that I've already told you about where his younger brother had talked with his dad Roy. So at this point the police are like, oh, yeah, something's not right here. They issue a b on the lookout of Bolow for Miss McLaughlin and her Caprice Classic vehicle. So, at approximately five o'clock PM on June twelfth of nineteen ninety eight, Roy returns to that Benny's car wash and he's in Miss McLaughlin's Caprice Classic. He leaves that there.

22:28 He picks up that rented Chevy Lumina, and he leaves the car wash. The very next day, June thirteenth of nineteen ninety eight, he calls Miss McLaughlin's home again and he speaks with his older son this time, and he tells his older son, Hey, go pick up your mom's car at Benny's because I left it there to get it cleaned. Now, according to his older son's testimony at trial, Roy would not tell him where he was when he called, and he also mentioned that he didn't answer any questions about where Miss McLaughlin was, other than to say she had gone to Jackson, Mississippi last time he heard, to buy a brand new car. The elder brother did indicate, however, that such explanation of his mother's whereabouts was kind of suspicious to him because his mother was not in a financial position at that time to buy a new car, and the detectives can speak to that they saw all the bills. So at that point the phone conversation ends and Roy drives to the day's end in Brandon, Mississippi, which is outside of Jackson, Mississippi, kind of an outskirts of Jackson, and he checks in to that day's in motel.

23:45 This is at some point before eleven PM on June thirteenth of nineteen ninety eight, and when he checks in, he checks in under a false name, He gives a fake address, he even gives a fake vehicle description again of pulling checking in also on June thirteenth of nineteen ninety eight, the East Baton Ridge pair of Sheriff's deputies, they secure miss McLaughlin's caprice from Benny's. So the older son, he's not a dumb ass. As soon as he got off that phone, he called the police and said, Hey, my mom's car is at Benny's car wash. So they said, we got it. We'll go pick it up. We'll scrub it for DNA or whatever, and they picked that vehicle up.

24:26 In the meantime, they obtain a warrant to search that vehicle, and during their search they find a copy of the bill from that quality in in Baton Ridge that Roy was staying at inside that vehicle. Also, while they're searching that vehicle, they find tax receipts from a Mississippi property listed in the name of Roy McLaughlin that would come into play later on. They also pulled a latent fingerprint from Roy's left middle finger from the interior passenger door window of that caprice. So fast forward three days to June sixteenth of nineteen ninety eight, and after receiving a complaint about Roy Brandon City police officers, they obtained a search warrant to search his room at that day's inn in Brandon, Mississippi. When Roy arrived at the day's in he arrived in that rented Chevy Lumina, and the Brandon City Police lieutenant, a guy by the name of David Ruth, he runs a check on the car's license plate and he finds that it's a rented vehicle rented by a guy by the name of Roy McLaughlin and that he was wanted on an outstanding felony warrant in Louisiana. Remember those worthless checks. So he gets arrested and the police search his room at that day's in motel room, and the search reveals a partially full box of tide detergent,

25:58 a large amount of club belonging to Roy, a dry cleaning receipt from a dry cleaning business in the area, And the police also searched the car, and they found that the carpet inside that trunk and portions of the padding under the carpet had been removed, that the spare tire was gone, and that the area of the trunk where the spare tire was stored contained a considerable amount of soapy water in some very fresh rust. And why is that important? Because when the attendant at that Benny's car wash actually cleaned that trunk all that shit was there, it wasn't missing. Police also lifted some latent fingerprints from the driver's side rear corner of the trunk lid, which were identified as belonging to Roy. So at that point, Roy is transported from Brandon, Mississippi, to East batter Ridge Parish because of that outstanding warrant for check, And upon that transfer, they searched Roy McLaughlin and they find a check in the amount of seven hundred and twenty one dollars and six cents inside Roy's pocket that was not endorsed yet but was made out to both him and his wife. Now, according to testimony that was presented at trial, that income tax check refund have been at Miss McLaughlin's home where it was mailed to her in June of nineteen ninety eight, which is important because Roy at this

27:32 time was living in North Carolina. So a bunch of time passes, as I told you at the beginning of this episode, and eventually he gets indicted for the murder of Miss McLaughlin on August twelfth of nineteen ninety nine. Then, as I told you, on December twenty seventh of nineteen ninety nine, human skeletal remains are identified, they discover that human skull and other remains in side that forest. A forensic pathologist, doctor Alfredo Suarez. He testified in the trial that although miss McLaughlin's body significantly decomposed at the time he examined it, the condition of the remains were not inconsistent with someone who had died as a result of strangulation or suffocation. Evidence presented at trial also indicated that Roy owned several tracts of land near the remote area of the Homachina National Forest where her skeletal remains were found.

28:33 In the testimony of one of the co owners of the property owned by Roy in that area, a guy by the name of William Myrick, he indicated that he and Roy had hunted in that area extensively and that the petitioner was quite familiar with the territory that was very important in this case. The state also presented the testimony of one of Roy's fellow inmates at the Eber Parish prison. His name was Jane Johnson, and as I told you, he testified he had been housed in an adjoining cell to the petitioner and that because of the similarities in the case and what I mean by that is Johnson was in prison on a charge of second degree murder of his fiance, he said, because he was in jail for that, Roy confessed to him, Hey, man, I know how it feels I killed my wife. Johnson also testified to various details concerning Miss McLaughlin's family history and her marital situation, which he had learned from Roy.

29:34 And that's important because he knew those facts, which means Roy really talked to him. He wasn't just making all this shit up. Now. Information concerning Miss McLaughlin's family history was confirmed by her mother at the trial as well. Just to prove this guy was telling the truth. Johnson also testified that he had not learned such information or any other information about Roy's case from the newspaper because Ro he always removed reports concerning his case that were in the newspaper before Johnson would read it. According to Johnson's testimony, Roy admitted that he met with miss McLaughlin at the Quality Inn near Sherwood Forest and Baton Rouge on June eleventh of nineteen ninety eight. He said that during that meeting, Miss McLaughlin told Roy she wanted a divorce.

30:24 He said, when she would not agree to reconcile with Roy. That got in an argument, and Roy smothered Miss McLaughlin with a pillow and cut her body up in the hotel bathtub. Johnson testified that Roy told him he killed miss McLaughlin because if he couldn't have her, no one else could. Roy also told Johnson that after the murder, he took his rented card to Benny's car wash, had the vehicle and trunk clean to remove any evidence. Roy also told Johnson he had committed the quote perfect murderer, and that the state would never find where he hid different pieces of Miss McLaughlin's body. Now, according to Johnson, Roy, in explaining the murder, appeared to have enjoyed killing Miss McLaughlin.

31:16 And finally, Johnson testified when the reports arose of the skeletal remains of Miss McLaughlin having been discovered, Roy yelled, quote, oh shit, I'm fucked now. During the trial and all this evidence, etc. That was presented by the state, Roy did not testify on his own behalf no surprise really there, and although eight witnesses and three exhibits were presented by the defense, there was no evidence that would establish any sort of alibi for Roy to have on the dates and times in question. Why cause he fucking did it. Furthermore, another one of the fellow inmates of Roy's at the Parish President Eye, by the name of Barry Luger, testified that during the defense's case that he provided a signed statement to the police indicating that Roy confessed to him that he had killed miss McLaughlin and that was really the cusp of that trial. Now, a couple of points I'm going to bring up. One the map that Roy allegedly drew while in prison indicating where he disposed of his wife's body. It was introduced into evidence at trial, and as I told you, it was kind of strange because the map showed that he disposed of her body in the Enchapelai Basin rather than the Homachita National Forest. However, when police tested that for fingerprints, guess what Roy's fingerprints

32:46 and his palm print were on that map, so he definitely drew it. Also, at trial, testimony was presented indicating that although Roy's fifteen and seventeen year old sons were without a guardian and without money after Miss McLaughlin disappeared, while Roy was still in Baton Rouge. Roy never went to that home to take care of them or offer them any money. He knows that their mother is missing. This is his fifteen and seventeen year old sons, and you're telling me an innocent man would not say, hey, you need to come live with me till we find your mother, or at the very at least give him some freaking money. Roy also never coordinated any sort of effort to locate his missing wife. He never contacted the residence again to find out that she return home after the phone calls that I'd already told you about. And also another thing in this trial, the prosecution they produced over sixty witnesses in over two hundred exhibits on their side, so they have plenty of evidence. So everything I just told you comes out. And in March of two thousand and one, Roy McLaughlin, who at this time is forty one years old, is convicted in the second degree murder of his wife, Maryan McLaughlin after a seven day trial, and he's sentenced to life in prison. Inside of Bloody

34:19 and Gola. But if you think that's it in his story, think again, it's really just beginning. How about three escape attempts and two monumental lawsuits. Get ready because this case is fixing to blow your mind and I'm going to bring you the rest of this story on the next episode. Thank you so much for listening. Hey, check out crime Why Are Weekly? I do that with Unspeakable's award winning host Kelly Jennings. Every four Friday. We drop the headlines trending across the nation in the world of crime, and we give our own unique commentary on that. You can find it just by searching crime Wire Weekly wherever you listen to this podcast, and I'll also link in the description the links to it on various platforms and you can follow it just like you do. Bloody and Gola.

35:25 Check out the Patreon at patreon dot com slash Bloody Andngola podcast for commercial, free early releases and more. Thank you so much for listening, and until next time, I'm Jim Chapman for Bloody and Gola, a podcast one and forty two years of making the complete story of America's bloodiest present. Peace a Wall. Street line, shackle, change, Oh, gluesome, gird, it's calling my name.

36:17 There is no mercy and this being a tentery juice as the hill Stream Game Wrangle three. I'm here, be. By me to die. Inside these walls, inside the wild. And when the girl, as I'm know it, soul, bloody anglebody had all