Unfairly accused on UM

[haloworld]

What are some instances where you feel someone on UM was unfairly accused, or even harassed by others, when in all likelihood the individual had nothing to do with the crime?

One immediate instance that comes to mind is the segment on Niqui McCown. The UM segment puts a lot of focus on her fiance Bobby Webster. Webster had suspiciously cancelled their wedding days after Niqui was missing, and insisted on returning his wedding ring for a full refund. Webster has also taken a polygraph test with inconclusive results.

It seems since the time of the segment, much of the focus of the investigation is on a Trotwood, Ohio police officer who has since died. I've seen various local news reports online that seem to very strongly suggest that this former police officer was most likely the abductor in this case. It's a stark reminder of how lie detectors are certainly not perfect, and how innocent people can be wrongly accused. Of course, who knows what really happened in this case.

Another segment that comes to mind is none other than Donald Kemp, the first segment profiled. Without knowing a tremendous amount of details about what has happened with the case since it's airing on UM, I definitely feel that Kemp's mother unfairly harassed the owner of the trailer where Kemp supposedly made phone calls. Kemp's mother somehow got access to a phone bill from the trailer and discusses in the segment how it was full of calls to phone sex lines. While this might certainly be seen as unsavory behavior, I always thought it was unfair and harassing to assume that because someone called phone sex lines he was also likely involved in a murder. Personally, I feel like whatever link was made between the Kemp case and phone calls from that trailer could have been some glitch with the phone company. I can only imagine going about my life and suddenly having a truly distraught and furious mother of a dead son at my door, demanding answers and insisting that I knew something about her son's death.

Does anyone else have segments where you've felt people were wrongly accused?

(Sorry if this has already been posted)

[cocytus]

Originally Posted by haloworld

What are some instances where you feel someone on UM was unfairly accused, or even harassed by others, when in all likelihood the individual had nothing to do with the crime?

One immediate instance that comes to mind is the segment on Niqui McCown. The UM segment puts a lot of focus on her fiance Bobby Webster. Webster had suspiciously cancelled their wedding days after Niqui was missing, and insisted on returning his wedding ring for a full refund. Webster has also taken a polygraph test with inconclusive results.

It seems since the time of the segment, much of the focus of the investigation is on a Trotwood, Ohio police officer who has since died. I've seen various local news reports online that seem to very strongly suggest that this former police officer was most likely the abductor in this case. It's a stark reminder of how lie detectors are certainly not perfect, and how innocent people can be wrongly accused. Of course, who knows what really happened in this case.

Another segment that comes to mind is none other than Donald Kemp, the first segment profiled. Without knowing a tremendous amount of details about what has happened with the case since it's airing on UM, I definitely feel that Kemp's mother unfairly harassed the owner of the trailer where Kemp supposedly made phone calls. Kemp's mother somehow got access to a phone bill from the trailer and discusses in the segment how it was full of calls to phone sex lines. While this might certainly be seen as unsavory behavior, I always thought it was unfair and harassing to assume that because someone called phone sex lines he was also likely involved in a murder. Personally, I feel like whatever link was made between the Kemp case and phone calls from that trailer could have been some glitch with the phone company. I can only imagine going about my life and suddenly having a truly distraught and furious mother of a dead son at my door, demanding answers and insisting that I knew something about her son's death.

Does anyone else have segments where you've felt people were wrongly accused?

(Sorry if this has already been posted)

Actually, OP, a "glitch" in the phone company's system would be one of the least probable explanations.
Why?
A single phone call made from a SIMILAR number may have somehow become "mistaken." Multiple phone calls over a period of days would have been impossible.

I believe that the most likely explanations for the phone calls were:
1) Kemp himself was using the man's phone and was making the calls himself.
2) The man in the trailer found Kemp's address book or something that contained the name and the number of the person called and began making the calls (for whatever reason) himself.

3) Kemp's mother probably paid a PI to "obtain" the man's phone bill. I always thought that it was VERY foolish of her to have confronted this man, whether or not he had done what she thought he had.Even if he wasn't a killer (which I don't believe him to be) he could have had her arrested and even sued her for aggravated stalking and harassment.

My thoughts on this case have always been that Kemp had either a psychotic break or was undergoing serious mental/emotional issues and wandered away from his vehicle.
In his confusion, he hid from the people searching for him and eventually succumb to exposure.

No other evidence (including the phone calls) has been introduced to dispute those facts.

[TheCars1986]

Yes in the Don Kemp segment I've also thought that he just died from the elements and the man that lived in that trailer was being unfairly targeted. Also that segment with Bob Bean where he along with a murdered man's girlfriend and the man's identical twin were accused of murdering him...each pointed the finger at each other and it turned out it was just a random act of violence that took his life. And that case where the woman got trampled by her horse, I kind of thought the family was unfairly accusing the three people she was with of something that was next to impossible to happen. The woman was bucked off her horse and trampled to death but the family believed her boyfriend at the time beat her to death and then took a horseshoe and "imprinted" it on her chest to look like a horsing accident.

[justins5256]

Stephen Geri and Tim McClure.

[DarkDante]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

Yes in the Don Kemp segment I've also thought that he just died from the elements and the man that lived in that trailer was being unfairly targeted.

Maybe but those phantom phone calls are still one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of the show in my opinion. The information regarding the phone calls just doesn't add up in my opinion. We have Don Kemp making a telephone call to one of his closest friends in NY from somewhere in Wyoming. Unable to reach her, he leaves a message on her answering machine and a telephone number where he could be reached.

She calls the number back and the man who answers the phone mentions Don specifically by name and tells her that he is unavailable to take her call at the moment because he was not at the residence at that time.

Months later when police follow up this lead, the man that lived in the trailer where the phone calls were placed claimed he never heard of Don Kemp and had no knowledge about any of the phone calls.

To me all of this just doesn't add up. This should have been investigated more as we have a case of a missing person who was later found dead making a phone call from the state where he went missing and when that phone call was followed up on their was confirmation that at the very least someone named "Don" was at the residence at one point from where the phone calls were placed. Too big of a coincidence for me.

[TheCars1986]

As unlikely as it seems, I think it was just a big coincidence. The friend from NY said she knew it was Don from his voice, but she doesn't say he identified his name on the messages. Perhaps it was an old message and Don gave her the wrong number accidentally? And maybe the guy at the trailer was some sicko that was posing as Don just for kicks...who knows? I just don't see how someone would abduct him, leave his car untouched, keep him alive for years, then kill him and take him back to the exact spot his car was found abandoned.

[RobinW]

Well, I'm going to exclude accused people who have officially been cleared (Jeff Oberholzer, Patricia Stallings, Johnny Lee Wilson, etc.) and focus on those who are still under suspicion.

-Eric Smith: the "red herring" in the Eric Tamiyasu murder case. I don't believe he had anything to do with it and the only reason he appears to be a suspect in the first place is because the most guilty-looking suspect, Don Dixon, pointing a finger at him
-Alfredo Newball: he seemed pretty genuine and sincere during his interview about the disappearance of his wife and son and even though some people thought he didn't look concerned enough when they went missing, I really don't think he had anything do with it
-Curtis Heck: I have no idea why Kenneth Engie's family seem so determined to hold this guy responsible for Kenneth's death. Hell, their alternate version of events has Curtis being the one who turned off Kenneth's truck while he was passed out in the garage, so what exactly do they think this guy did wrong?!
-Christina Jackson: man, did her ex-husband come across as a real jerk when accusing her of being responsible for the disappearance of their daughter, Lauren, even though the only possible evidence of that is some really shaky eyewitness testimony
-Steve Bechtel: I know that his bizarre journal entries and refusal to take a lie detector test have made him a suspect in the disappearance of his wife, Amy, but when you look at the timeline of the case, it seems unlikely to me that he was responsible

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by RobinW

-Curtis Heck: I have no idea why Kenneth Engie's family seem so determined to hold this guy responsible for Kenneth's death. Hell, their alternate version of events has Curtis being the one who turned off Kenneth's truck while he was passed out in the garage, so what exactly do they think this guy did wrong?!

100% agree. Forgot all about Curtis Heck, and even if he did go back to Engie's garage and punch him for hitting his truck how does turning off the truck show any signs of a motive for murder?

[soilentgreen]

Michael Self (in reality, not as portrayed on UM)

Curtis Heck -- too much sauce and too little judgment on both sides.

Judy Smith's husband

Gabby (who owned the footlocker skeleton)

As far as Don Kemp's case it was either a screw up originating with the phone company, or a third party at that number gained access to Don's information (possibly when he lost something on his trip) and placed the prank calls.

Michael Johnson's wife --it seemed like the perpetrator's primary target was Rochelle Robinson and Johnson was killed simply for being the guy with her. UM focused more on the occult mumbo jumbo, but still...

[cocytus]

Originally Posted by DarkDante

Maybe but those phantom phone calls are still one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of the show in my opinion. The information regarding the phone calls just doesn't add up in my opinion. We have Don Kemp making a telephone call to one of his closest friends in NY from somewhere in Wyoming. Unable to reach her, he leaves a message on her answering machine and a telephone number where he could be reached.

She calls the number back and the man who answers the phone mentions Don specifically by name and tells her that he is unavailable to take her call at the moment because he was not at the residence at that time.

Months later when police follow up this lead, the man that lived in the trailer where the phone calls were placed claimed he never heard of Don Kemp and had no knowledge about any of the phone calls.

To me all of this just doesn't add up. This should have been investigated more as we have a case of a missing person who was later found dead making a phone call from the state where he went missing and when that phone call was followed up on their was confirmation that at the very least someone named "Don" was at the residence at one point from where the phone calls were placed. Too big of a coincidence for me.

What is there to "investigate", poster?
Kemp died of exposure.
No signs of foul play were detected.
If his "friend" hadn't mentioned the phone calls, this case would have already been closed.

Since this isn't a murder case (at least that's what the authorities believe and all of the evidence points to it not being) then what would questioning the man at this late date do to assist in this matter?

Since his "friend" apparently didn't save the messages or the tape that they were left on, we have only her word that these calls were from Kemp. And if they were, they could have simply been made at a time when Kemp was staying briefly w/ the man in question.

Personally, I have always thought the phone calls were a sign that Kemp and the man had a brief intimate relationship and that it ended badly. This may have been what prompted Kemp to begin acting in the bizarre manner that he did.

[haloworld]

This is an interesting take on it.

Also, "Don" is a pretty generic name. The friend could have received a call from anyone claiming to be a "Don", "John", "Juan", etc. Whatever the call was (if it really happened), it couldn't have been so extremely substantial to provide any detailed information about Don Kemp's situation. I wouldn't be surprised if it was imagined by a grieving/distraught friend, or just an honest mistake, compounded by grief.

[carebears]

Wrongfully accused people on UM
Darlie Routier accused of killing her two sons Devon and Damon.
Johnny Lee Wilson was wrongfully accused ******** man in Missouri of killing an elderly neighbor.
John Purvis a scitziofrenzic man wrongfully accused of murdering his neighbor and causing the infant daughter to starve to death in her crib without food or water.
Patricia Stallings accused of murdering her son Ryan with poison and also accused of trying to murder her second son David Stallings Junior.
Michael Self accused of robbing a gas station.
Tommy Ziegler accused of murding people at a furniture store.

[carebears]

John Branion the Chicago doctor accused of murdering his wife was wrongfully accused on UM. Some of the people that I listed in the above post have not been exonerated and proven innocent but I think they are innocent such as Darlie Routier,Tommy Ziegler,and Michael Self.

[rhzunam]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

And that case where the woman got trampled by her horse, I kind of thought the family was unfairly accusing the three people she was with of something that was next to impossible to happen. The woman was bucked off her horse and trampled to death but the family believed her boyfriend at the time beat her to death and then took a horseshoe and "imprinted" it on her chest to look like a horsing accident.

This is the case I thought about. I always thought UM made the case seem seem a lot more favorable to the victim and made it more mysterious than it is. They glossed over or hid things from her past and I totally think they exagerated how rare it would be for a horse to trample an owner. They made it seem like it would be impossible but when looking at it, it doesn't seem as an impossible thing to happen. I also thought it the evidence was weak and wonder why they didn't interviewed any of the companions.

[XCalibur]

Originally Posted by carebears

John Branion the Chicago doctor accused of murdering his wife was wrongfully accused on UM. Some of the people that I listed in the above post have not been exonerated and proven innocent but I think they are innocent such as Darlie Routier,Tommy Ziegler,and Michael Self.

I don't think this was ever proven. I will admit that they did a pretty good job of proving Branion couldn't hve been there, but still I have always wondered if he didn't hire someone to kill her.