Bloody Lies: A CSI Scandal in the Heartland

3. Suspect

14 bloody lies 3 suspect The Douglas county mobile crime lab van kicked up dust as it sped along the gravel roads past miles and miles of farmland, an hour from Omaha. Finally, they came upon a very tidy country farm, a most unusual setting for the cSi team. “You’re talking about a farmhouse in the middle of nothing ,” remarked Douglas county criminalist Don Veys.1 The Douglas county cSi team had been told that two people were killed, and the crime scene was extremely bloody. “it was a very brutal crime scene,” Kofoed recalled. “One of the worst i ever seen.”2 The bodies unnerved Kofoed. Wayne Stock lay facedown in his hallway, fatally shot in the back of his head. He had crawled out of his bedroom after suffering the initial gunshot to his knee. Wayne and Sharmon Stock were the last people the residents of cass county ever suspected would be victims of foul play, especially in the horrific manner they died. “What really bothers me is these two people were just sleeping in bed,” Kofoed said. “He was shot in the head, clearly an execution. The female victim was holding a phone in her hand, and she had been shot in the eye at close range.” Kofoed encountered a chaotic scene when he arrived at Murdock. Roughly twenty law enforcement officials from Cass County and the Nebraska State Patrol had already trampled through the two-story, bloodsoaked farmhouse by the time Kofoed’s metropolitan cSi unit got busy and down to work. This greatly perturbed Kofoed because several of the initial responders walked through the farmhouse without wearing any protective gear to prevent contaminating the crime scene. 14 susPeCt 15 That first afternoon, Kofoed took charge of the crime scene. He gave any necessary crime scene tours for the coroners or those needing to remove the two bodies upstairs. Kofoed’s cSi partner, Don Veys, took hundreds of photos of the farmhouse, moving from room to room to document the site. Forensic scientist cl retelsdorf videotaped the perimeter of the farmstead. Bloodstain analyst Michelle Steele helped Kofoed process the handful of live and spent red shotgun shells left near the bodies and on the carpeted staircase . also upstairs, the Douglas county cSis made a startling observation. They realized there were two different shooters who killed the gray-haired male victim. The blood spatter on the walls left behind a perfect silhouette of a person. “The one who was in the hallway was actually sprayed with a considerable amount of blood, probably from head to toe,” Veys concluded.3 Outside, the cSis saw a detached window screen resting against the back of the house. The laundry room window was partially open. all the other Wayne Stock farmed more than a thousand acres in western cass county, a scenic stretch of Nebraska countryside between metropolitan Omaha and lincoln. (Author ’s collection) 16 bloody lies windows on the Stocks’ two-story house were closed shut that cool april morning. Veys suspected the intruders had cut a hole through the screen to gain entry through the back window, so he snapped numerous photos of the open window, including close-ups of the tampered screen. But the smalltown investigators from cass county had their own opinions too. The open window didn’t fit their theory. “We were told, and I don’t remember exactly who told me, or who told us, that the window wasn’t involved,” Veys would later testify. “But it was obvious it was about the only thing on the entire property that was out of place, so it was not dismissed.”4 and besides, the local cops sensed the killer was not a stranger or transient. They suspected a murderer, seething with rage, simply walked in through crime-scene tape stretches across the front yard at the southeastern Nebraska farmhouse of Wayne Stock, fifty-eight, and wife Sharmon, fifty-five. The Stocks, who lived near the tiny town of Murdock, were slain as two intruders barged into their master bedroom in the early hours of april 17, 2006. (Author’s collection) susPeCt 17 the front door and right back out. after all, the interior front door was found wide open. The rest of the house appeared as neat as a pin. Both victims had suffered gruesome shotgun wounds at point-blank range. Veys had never encountered deer slugs used in a slaying during his...