Who Murdered Ally Brueger?

Alexandra "Ally" Brueger 

Cops Have Few Clues in 10-year-old Murder

By Robert A. Waters

On Saturday afternoon, July 30, 2016, Ally Brueger got ready for her daily 10-mile jog. A registered nurse, she had recently broken up with her boyfriend and moved back in with her parents at their home in Rose Township, Michigan. Her jog took her along a rural, wooded trail next to Fish Lake Road.

Although she stood only 4 feet, 9 inches tall, Ally kept herself in tip-top condition. On that day, a resident near the trail heard four or five blasts from a shotgun. He called 9-1-1 and told dispatchers, "There's a girl laying in my yard that just got shot a couple of times. Laying face down, she's bleeding all over the place. I gotta get out there and see if I can help her." The homeowner ran outside and attempted to stop Ally's bleeding until paramedics arrived.

By the time EMTs got her to the hospital, Ally was dead. A single gunshot had pierced her lower back, causing massive bleeding.

The Good Samaritan, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Crime Watch Daily, "I was trying to keep her from bleeding to death." At some point, she stopped breathing, and the man said he screamed at her and "she started breathing again."

 Michigan State Police Lieutenant Michael Shaw commented on Ally's wound. "The shot hit her in the small part of her back and just happens to hit the wrong blood vessel and she bleeds out."

There were no witnesses, and by the time cops arrived, the shooter had vanished. Several residents did tell investigators they heard gunshots, but nobody saw the shooter. Some said they saw a white sedan in the area, but there were no surveillance videos or other physical evidence.

The Michigan State Police, in charge of the investigation, immediately focused on Ally's parents, Franz and Nikki Brueger and her ex-boyfriend, Wes Sutherland. The parents were eliminated after a longer than usual investigation.

Investigators said Wes Sutherland failed a polygraph and he quickly rose to the top of the suspect list.**

Nikki told reporters that Ally "was our only child. She was my best friend. Ally was a very considerate, thoughtful, generous, kind person. She was totally dedicated to her nursing, her work. While nursing was her profession, writing was her passion." Nikki said Ally was studying to get her master's degree in writing.

The murder ruined the lives of her parents. "The circumstances of her murder are unrelenting to me, to Franz," Nikki said.

After nearly ten years, investigators still have little to go on. Shaw said, "There's so many different scenarios that are possible in this. Somebody drives by and for whatever reason, they get into it, and she's killed." In other words, maybe a deadly road rage scenario.

Another possibility, according to Shaw, is that she was intentionally "assassinated." Maybe "she knew who it was," he said. "Somebody that got mad at her at work, something to this effect."

Then there is the serial killer theory. "Someone travelling and doing it in different places," Shaw said.

The Lieutenant concluded, "She had to know who her killer was. It's just too weird. Everyone is in the game."

With no other suspect, Shaw goes back to Sutherland. Police always felt he lied to them. "We know that sometimes he's not absolutely truthful," Shaw said, "but maybe he's not absolutely truthful with everybody, and not just us."

Sutherland said he took two lie detector tests: "They said the first one was inconclusive, and then they said that I failed the second one. I don't believe I failed, I believe it was an intimidation tactic."

He also made the mistake of not having an alibi. "I was at home," he said. "Ally and I had actually worked the night before. And she was planning on coming over that morning."

Sutherland and Ally had a disagreement about marriage. He stated that she wanted to get married immediately, but said he wanted to wait until he graduated from college. He also admitted to being on a dating website, which caused friction between the two. But he said the two had reconciled days before her murder. "If anything," Sutherland said, "the breakup made us realize that we needed each other more than we realized."

In a more recent interview, Ally's mom made the following statement: [We] fear potential witnesses may have discounted details they notice the day of the murder by assuming the killer was someone close to Ally. The shooter was a stranger. Ally did not know who pulled the trigger. It really changes the scenario from what [investigators] said in 2016--to calm the public, in my estimation. It maligned her character because when that happened, people would say, 'oh what kind of girl was this--who did she hang around with? They didn't know she was an RN. They didn't know she never drank, didn't do drugs." 

There is a reward of $20,000 for information leading to the arrest of the killer. If you have information, please call the Michigan State Police at 1-855-MICHTIP.

**NOTE: Cops have no evidence that Sutherland killed Ally. If they did, he would have been arrested by now. Polygraphs are not really lie detector tests. The fact that some cops sincerely believe they are infallible is scary. Sutherland said he thinks cops lied to him about "failing" the test in an attempt to get him to confess. That is likely. Investigators do it all the time, and, according to the courts, lying to suspects is legal.

Check out one of my stories about what happens when cops rely on polygraphs.

http://kidnappingmurderandmayhem.blogspot.com/2012/08/would-you-take-polygraph.html

Uber Driver Murdered in Pennsylvania

 Christina Spicuzza

Dash Cam Leads Cops to Killer

By Robert A. Waters

On the evening of February 10, 2022, thirty-eight-year-old Christine Spicuzza stopped her Nissan Sentra in front of an apartment complex at 139 Brinton Avenue in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania. Because of covid, the Uber driver wore a white medical-type facemask.  

Calvin Crew, 22, her customer, also wore a mask, one that showed only two dark eyes. A hoodie covered much of his coal-black mask as he entered the back seat on the passenger side. He'd requested a ride to Penn Hills, about 10 miles away.  

Christine had mounted a dash-cam on the dashboard, and it recorded many of the events as they occurred. 

The driver greeted Crew in a friendly manner, but he remained silent. Then, ten minutes into the ride, Crew moved to the middle of the seat and grabbed Christine's pony-tail with his left hand. Using his right hand, he stuck a semi-automatic handgun against the back of Christine's neck.

The dash-cam recorded the following exchange:

Christine: "What are you doing?"

With her right hand, she reached back and felt the weapon. It was indeed a gun, a semiautomatic pistol.

Crew: "This is a gun. Keep driving."

Christine: "No, it's not. Come on, man, I got a family." 

Crew: "I got a family, too. Drive, drive."

Christine: "Come on, I have a family. I'm begging you. I have four kids. Please take that [gun] off me." 

Suddenly, Crew noticed the dash-cam. Reaching up, he snatched it along with Christine's cellphone. He turned off the dash-cam and threw it onto the back seat. Later, at trial, prosecutors said "Crew forced Spicuzza...to ferry him across eastern Allegheny County for nearly an hour before marching her into the woods in Monroeville and finally shooting her."

Christine's fiance, Brandon Marto, reported her missing when she didn't return home within two hours. Marto told investigators that they had communicated with each other via cellphone while she was driving. Then suddenly, her phone went to voicemail.

The missing driver had posted the following bio on Twitter: "Mom of 4 amazing kids. Wife. I love Jesus and my Bible. I love art, journaling, study coloring crafts & camping." She had begun driving for Uber to make extra money for her family.

Crew coerced his girlfriend into using her phone to call Uber and schedule his ride. The company quickly shared that information with detectives. 

The evidence against Crew was overwhelming. At trial, he was convicted of a slew of crimes: first degree murder; kidnapping; robbery; carrying a firearm without a license; inflicting serious bodily injury; theft of a motor vehicle; and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to life in prison, plus an additional thirteen to twenty-six years.

The trial brought out the fact that Crew scheduled the ride so he could rob the driver. When he found that Christine had no money, he used her phone to attempt a  transfer of money from her bank account to his. He was unsuccessful.

After Crew was convicted, the Allegheny County DA's office released the following statement: "Investigators followed an objective trail of overwhelming digital and video evidence evidence which identified Crew as the robber, kidnapper, and killer. The evidence admitted at trial included 422 individual exhibits submitted to the jury along with testimony from Crew's girlfriend, who had purchased the Uber ride for him and dashcam video from inside Spicuzza's car depicting Crew holding a gun to the back of Spicuzza's head...Further evidence included Crew's fingerprint, cell phone GPS records, Uber records, the bullet casing and license plate readers used to track the movements of the car."

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported that Christine's family had asked the DA to take the death penalty off the table due to Christine's religious beliefs.

Brandon Marto told a Review reporter the following story: "She loved her children more than anything, and she loved me. She made me a better person. I was half-lost, out of control, but she saw something in me."

Marto said that when they met, he was an alcoholic, but Christine was patient with him and showed him a better way to live. "I wanted to spend the rest of my life making up for those first four years," he said, "but that has been cut short."

After the conviction of Crew, District Attorney Stephen Zappalla released a statement calling Christine's death a "brutal, senseless execution of a mother of four children."

Calvin Crew currently resides at the State Correctional Institution in Fayette, Pennsylvania, where he can spend a lifetime thinking about the robbery and murder that got him no money at all.

The Execution of Michael Eugene Thompson

The Lady in the Well

By Robert A. Waters

Maisie Gray was pushed into the abandoned pit. Arms flailing and her screams piercing the silence, she fell. She couldn't see beneath her because of the darkness, but within seconds, she landed with a jolt on a rock-hard surface. The bottom of the well held three feet of water and had a strange toxic smell. 

She must have known she would die in this pit.

Above, the man who'd shoved her into the abyss yelled, "I know you're still alive." Then he leaned into the opening in the well and began firing gunshots down at Maisie. Some of the bullets rocketed straight into her body, while others ricocheted off the centuries-old stone walls. An autopsy later revealed she'd been hit with multiple rounds in the head and "all over her body."

Did she have time to think of her son and daughters? Or her husband? Did she pray to God? Whatever thoughts she had couldn't have lasted long.   

Because of an evil stranger, she died alone in that poisonous well.

At about 2:30 A.M., December 10, 1984, a customer stopped at the Majik Mart in Attalla, Alabama. Finding the store empty and the cash drawer open, she called the Etowah County Sheriff's Office. Thus began a month-long search for the missing 57-year-old clerk.

Maisie had been working there for only three weeks. During that time, she'd sold more beer and soft drinks than she ever knew existed. A friendly country girl, the Gadsden Times reported "she liked nothing better than sitting down with a couple of friends and draining a coffee pot while they talked."

Maisie was alone when Michael Eugene Thompson walked into the store. He looked around, making sure no one else was there. Then he pulled a long-barrel .22-caliber pistol out of his pants and stuck it in Maisie's face. Quickly complying when he demanded she empty the cash register, she handed him exactly $72.23.

She'd done what the company had trained her to do. "Don't fight," she was told. "Give the robber the money in the cash drawer and he'll leave. That way, you won't get hurt." 

Instead of leaving alone, however, Thompson demanded that Maisie go outside with him. Keeping the gun trained on his victim, he marched her to his car and forced her into the trunk. For more than an hour, he drove randomly through the countryside.

Thompson had grown up in the hills in nearby Blount County. He knew many places to hide a body. Before he got hooked on dope, he'd hunted and fished the area. Those were the few pleasant memories he had of his childhood. Now he couldn't go more than a day without getting stoned. The cash Maisie had handed over should get him what he needed. At least for a few hours.

But he had to get rid of her. He finally thought of a place where her body would never be found. Thompson recalled several abandoned wells located in the desolate woods he used to roam. He later confessed. "I left [the store] and went to Blount County," he told investigators, "where I pushed her in the well and shot a bunch of shots down in the well, and I run out of [bullets]."

The Birmingham Post-Herald wrote that Gray's "body was found a month later when Etowah County Sheriff Roy McDowell received a tip that Mrs. Gray's body was in a 24-foot well about 5 miles north of Snead. McDowell testified he learned of the location after Shirley Smith Franklin, who had lived with Thompson, called his office and later talked to him in person."

Franklin explained her involvement. After getting some "shells," (as she called the bullets) for the pistol, she informed cops that Thompson grabbed a burgundy-colored housecoat off the bed. According to Franklin, her boyfriend dragged her out of the house and forced her to go with him. While driving to Blount County, he told her about kidnapping the clerk, throwing her in the well, and shooting her. 

Franklin said they stopped in front of the well. Then he set the housecoat on fire and forced Franklin to hold it down in the well so he could see the bottom. She later testified that he reloaded the gun and began firing again into the well. After eight or ten shots, they left and went home.

One month after her murder, because of Shirley Franklin's confession, several agencies, including Blount County Sheriff J. C. Carr, arrived at the well.

The Post Herald reported that that it took four and a half hours for the Oneonta Fire Department and a representative from the State Forensic Science Lab to remove Maisie's body from "the 24 foot well in the middle of a small orchard on a one-lane dirt road. Rescuers entered the well numerous times in the effort, which was interrupted at times so an exhaust fan could be used to remove gases from the well. Carr said methane gas was found in the well and rescuers initially had to use air packs when going in."

Sheriff McDowell said "the body was lodged against the side of the narrow well, just above the water, which was three feet deep."

Michael Eugene Thompson was tried in Blount County. At trial, he tried to convince the jury that even though he kidnapped Maisie and threw her down the well, his girlfriend had done the actual shooting. The jury didn't buy it. Convicted of capital murder and kidnapping, he was sentenced to death. 

Then the seemingly endless appeals began. After nearly two decades, Maisie's children had gotten fed up with it all. Evelyn Elliott, the victim's daughter, told reporters that "he's been found guilty of kidnapping and killing her. He took a life. There's got to be a penalty for doing things like that. I would like to tell him to be a man. To admit his sins and face the consequences like a man."

On March 13, 2003, Thompson drifted off to his final sleep after being administered a lethal injection. After the execution, James Rodgers, Maisie's son, said, "I don't feel sorry for him. It was his actions that brought all this about." 

Evelyn Elliott said, "He died a very painless death. I wish my mother had a chance to feel no pain."

The Life and Death of Tom T. Hall

"The Homecoming"

By Robert A. Waters

As a life-time lover of country music, I still remember the first time I heard the "The Homecoming." It would have been in the late 60s. Having grown up listening to Hank Williams and the Grand Ole Opry, I was always on the lookout for meaningful tunes. This song, about an estranged son coming home, fit the bill.

I don't remember if I had heard of Tom  T. Hall before hearing this song. I think it was one of his first to be played on the radio. Over his lifetime, Hall penned some of the finest and most successful songs ever written. 

Hall was born and raised near a small town, Olive Hill, Kentucky. He grew up listening to Bluegrass music, the hardscrabble cousin of  country music. In his youth, Hall had been influenced by a young guitar picker from the hills who had made a name for himself in Ohio. He later wrote a song about his hero, "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died." In the song, he wrote, "I'd give a hundred dollars if he could only see now."

All of Hall's lyrics were meticulously written, some using irony, some pathos, some humor. Most of the tunes were simple, just the way they should be. (Complicated tunes often squeeze the life from profound lyrics.) "The Homecoming" didn't use electrified instruments, just acoustics.

Over the years, I listened to Hall on the radio, and owned a couple of his albums. One of the songs from those records that had several twists of irony was "The Little Lady Preacher." Another of my favorites was "Who's Gonna Feed Them Hogs?"

Even though he became part of the Nashville establishment, Hall seemed aloof. Of course, no one can really tell what's going on in someone else's life. I won't name any names, but dozens, if not hundreds, of actors and singers we once thought were admirable turned out to be well...jerks.

I never got that vibe from Hall. He was married twice and had one son, Dean, from his first marriage. He and Dean and Dixie, his second wife, played music together. He and Dixie were married for 47 years. They wrote Bluegrass songs together, and by all accounts, were close. So, when she died, to many in the outside world, Hall seemed lost. (Again, we don't really know other people, but that's the way I took it.)

NBC News reported that "after being one of the biggest country stars of the 1970s, and certainly one of the most revered for his artistry among country cognoscenti to the present day, Hall had long since retired from performing and recording. Performing only sporadically after the mid-1990s, he delivered his last performance in 2011, saying he preferred enjoying life on the farm with his wife, Dixie Hall, and thought newer generations should have their day."

On August 20, 2021, Hall passed away. He was 85. PEOPLE wrote that "country star Tom T. Hall's death has been ruled a suicide. Hall, who was found dead at his Franklin, Tennessee home...died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to an autopsy report obtained on Wednesday by PEOPLE."

Many of Hall's tunes are considered "standards" of country music. "Harper Valley PTA," written by Hall, became a monster hit for Jeannie C. Riley. Her version alone sold over six million copies. Many others recorded it and the song is still one of his most played songs today. Tom T. Hall had been inducted into the prestigious Country Music Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Hall of Fame, and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.  

There are many rumors as to what made him commit that final act. But since I don't know, I won't speculate. Whatever the reason, Tom T. Hall left a body of work that will stand the test of time.

"The Homecoming," stays on my mind. A great song paints a picture. I can envision the father and son awkwardly sitting on the porch trying to make small talk while avoiding conflict. Finally, the son stands up to leave. "Got a dance to play in Cartersville tonight," he says.

The Florida Rebellion

Review of A Wilderness of Destruction: Confederate Guerillas in East and South Florida, 1861-1865

By Zack C. Waters

Mercer University Press

Reviewer is Gary Lee Hall

Recent published works about The [Civil] War have departed from the broad, general history and have been centered on smaller, less universal facets of the times. Biographies of less well-known officers, the story of men in the field on the front lines, and regional studies have replaced the thick volumes presenting The War as a whole. Those earlier volumes are/were necessary and many excellent [books] are available to the person interested in getting the total picture; however, many students of the War Between the States find a smaller picture just as valuable and full of stories left out of the earlier general histories.

In his acknowledgements, Waters speaks of a historical marker he and his father read on an ordinary trip along the roads of Florida. This marker told him of "the story of Capt. J. J. Dickison's cavalry company capturing a Union gunboat on the St. John's River." Waters shares..."that simple five minute tale sparked a fire in me that time has not quenched."

Florida during The War was sparsely settled. The 1860 U. S. Federal Census listed just under 79,000 free inhabitants and slightly less enslaved at 62,000. Initially the Confederacy intended to protect every part of the new nation, but the realities of war eventually left Florida lightly protected from Yankee soldiers and gunboats. Florida Governor John Milton said. "One thousand men, divided into small companies [and] well-armed--acting as Guerillas or Rangers and ably commanded--can do more to defend Florida from the enemies than thousands in regular service."

Waters wrote, "Almost without exception the state's Rebel combatants went into each engagement outnumbered, and outgunned, but they used ambush, rapid movement, and 'hit and run' tactics to level the field." Waters also points out, "The first rule of guerilla warfare has always been, 'Never attack where the enemy anticipates--attack where least expected.'" Throughout 1861-1865 these methods delivered Confederate successes.

Florida numbered few citizens but was very important to the Confederate war effort as it supplied cattle to feed the Rebel armies outside the state.

Chapters are divided by date and subdivided by region, battle and town. This approach allows the reader to experience The War just as it happened; hit and run. The subject matter is perfect for this division. So little researched and discussed, Waters has presented the interesting contribution of Florida to the Confederacy.

Back to the historical marker which started this volume. "Gen. George H. Gordon led the naval expedition to evacuate the Union detachment at Volusia. His troops boarded the gunboat Ottawa, and armed steam tug Columbine,... The Columbine made it past the Confederates as it moved up the river; however, the trap was laid and the return trip was not successful." A Union participant [said] the "Columbine approached Horse Landing where the river is quite narrow. They [the Columbine's sailors] shelled the wood, as they did when they were ascending but when directly opposite [the Landing] the rebels opened with grape and canister from a battery they had placed there. Our party returned the fire as well as the could, but a [Rebel] shot cut the tiller rope, leaving the boat unmanageable, and it went aground with the stern [pointing] directly at the rebels, so their batteries could sweep the entire deck... The captain of the boat, finding it useless to attempt to defend the boat, surrendered; five of our men and two of the crew escaped by jumping overboard and swimming ashore; the rest were taken prisoner or drowned in attempting to escape."

The reviewer thoroughly enjoyed reading Waters' volume and it is one of my favorite books on the conflict. Newly revealed and interesting events are throughout.

This well-written book ends with the observation, "As General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, cattle from Florida were nearing their destination at Petersburg. The state the Confederacy had abandoned in early 1862 continued to serve the Rebel nation to the bitter end."

NOTE: In addition to being an outstanding historical document, A Wilderness of Destruction should appeal to genealogists with Florida ties. To order a copy, check out www.mupress.org