5 years of ‘hell’: Three killings, two presidents and a quest for justice in Carroll County
As criminal case continues, victims’ families seek to keep memories alive
By
Brendan Nordstrom
PUBLISHED: December 17, 2025 at 1:33 PM EST | UPDATED: December 18, 2025 at 8:07 AM EST
Diana Riddle stands in her dining room among the wrapped presents and stuffed animal gifts in her living room for needy families. She is the widow of Jonathan Riddle who was murdered in a killing in 2020. She runs a foundation in his honor that gives Christmas presents to low-income families and scholarship money to an essay winner every year. She also crafts gnomes to help fundraise. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)
Every time Diana Riddle gets an update on
the case in the killing of her husband, Jonathan and two other Carroll County residents, she breaks down in tears and her mind goes back to March 2020.
On the night of March 17, 2020, Diana watched an episode of “This Is Us” in their Taneytown bedroom, and
Jonathan said goodnight to her. She didn’t know it would be for the last time.
The next day, his burned body was found in the West Virginia woods, and the world started shutting down due to a worldwide pandemic.
It’s been over five years since Jonathan, 33, and two witnesses — Danielle Tyler, 18, and Heather Grogg, 33 — were killed and the case against their alleged killers has once again been delayed until next September in U.S. District Court.
“The last five years have been hell,” Diana Riddle said. “Can this just be over already? It’s torture.”
The latest delay came earlier this month. The Trump administration had filed an intent in July to seek the death penalty for Monroe Merrell, of Westminster, who was indicted on kidnapping and murder charges. The court denied the request in October and an appeal of the decision was dismissed Dec. 4.
While West Virginia and Maryland have abolished the death penalty on a state level, the sentence is still allowed for certain crimes in federal court, where Merrell’s case is being handled.
The decision left Nicole Tyler, mother of Danielle, “sickened and disgusted.”
Earlier this year, the Trump administration had made promises about bringing back capital punishment, and Nicole Tyler wrote a letter to Attorney General Pamela Bondi asking her to intervene in the case against Merrell, a co-defendant in the killings of Jonathan Riddle — who was stabbed and set on fire over $40 in crystal meth — and witnesses Danielle Tyler and Heather Grogg.
Merrell’s attorneys declined to comment on the case.
Merrell is one of six people awaiting trial for their alleged roles in the 2020 homicides of Riddle, Tyler and Grogg. David Sanford Jr., 32, John Black III, 28, and Jeffrey Smith, 28, all of Carroll County, still don’t have trials scheduled for their alleged roles in the killings.
With the wheels of the justice system turning slowly, the families of the victims say they want one thing: to keep their loved ones’ memory alive.
Finding purpose in the Riddle Foundation
Diana Riddle sat at her kitchen table earlier this month and pointed to his obituary on a shelf. Nearby sat the blue urn that holds his ashes.
The couple met at an outpatient rehab facility and were married in 2018. In the months before his death, Jonathan had relapsed into addiction, she said.
“He was such a beautiful soul, and he had a heart of gold,” she said with a soft smile. “Helping out and keeping Jon’s memory alive is the thing that’s keeping me going.”
Following his death, Diana created the Jonathan Travis Riddle Foundation, which funds an annual scholarship for a student who has been affected by drug addiction. The foundation also provides Christmas gifts for families who can’t afford them.
Diana, surrounded by piles of stuffed animals, toy trucks and knitted scarves, said she began the foundation in 2021 and it has given her life more purpose. Every year, she receives donated toys from the community, including from families she had helped in previous years.
Diana started crafting as a form of grief therapy, buying stuffed gnomes from the Dollar Tree and wrapping them in fabric. She sold them for $10 apiece and used the profits for the foundation.
Some of the nearly 200 gnomes Diana Riddle has crafted. She is the widow of Jonathan Riddle who was murdered in a killing in 2020. She runs a foundation in his honor that gives Christmas presents to low-income families and scholarship money to an essay winner every year. She also crafts gnomes to help fundraise. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)
Her garage is now filled with tables of gnomes she makes herself, wrapped in fabric representing sports teams or the American flag. She made one with butterflies to honor Danielle Tyler’s favorite animal.
Diana said at least two student scholarship winners have gone on to become EMTs.
“So, they’re literally saving people’s lives when they’re overdosing,” she said.
The Tylers continue to fight for justice
Sherry Tyler, Danielle’s grandmother, hasn’t touched her granddaughter’s room since the day she went missing in 2020. She sees a doctor and a therapist for her PTSD from losing her granddaughter, and the delays in the trial are “prolonging the pain,” she said.
“I wake up crying because of what happened to her,” she said. “Even almost six years later, it’s like it happened yesterday. People say it gets easier. No, it doesn’t.”
This time of year is especially difficult for the Tylers — Danielle would have turned 24 on Dec. 18.
“It’s a very hard day because she should be here,” Sherry Tyler said. “There’s no reason she shouldn’t be here except these animals decided that they wanted to kill.”
Danielle was a painter and a photographer with big aspirations. At the high school graduation she never got to attend she was given a governor’s award for academic achievement, Nicole said.
The Tylers remembered Danielle as someone who was “perfect” and had “the biggest heart.” They recalled her laugh, her hugs and her smile.
Danielle Tyler was 18 when she was killed April 6, 2020. The trial for her alleged killers has been delayed until next September. (Photos courtesy of Nicole Tyler)
“To know her is to love her,” Nicole said. “I just can’t imagine how anybody could find it in their heart to hurt her, because she would never hurt anybody.”
Charging documents say that Danielle, who was 18 at the time, was killed because she witnessed Jonathan Riddle’s murder. She was taken to West Virginia under promises of safety and instead her drink was spiked and she was suffocated with a bag over her head, police say.
The Tylers still haven’t received a death certificate because the trial is ongoing, Sherry said.
Sherry still goes to the place where Danielle’s body was found, despite others trying to dissuade her.
“That’s where my baby was placed, and that’s where I’m going to go,” Sherry said. “This is all I have.”
Nicole was in rehab when Danielle went missing and has been sober since, because she “was more determined than ever” to not let her daughter down.
The Tylers also award a scholarship each year to a student at Gateway School in Westminster, where Danielle attended. Eventually, they hope to start a nonprofit in her name.
“I want to make sure that good part of her still can shine on, even though she’s gone,” Nicole said. “She may not be able to change the world in the ways that I thought she was going to, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t still be able to make a difference.”
Case delays and the death penalty
The Biden administration placed a moratorium on the death penalty in July 2021, when concerns
grew over the first Trump administration’s revival — and proliferation — of executions. That kept prosecutors from seeking the death penalty for Monroe Merrell.
In July, in the wake of the new Trump administration’s re-commitment to seeking capital punishment, prosecutors tried to seek the death penalty for Merrell, court records show. It was denied by Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Gina Groh because it was too close to trial, and the case was dropped in the U.S. Court of Appeals in November — one of many efforts by local judges to slow down the rush to put criminals to death.
For example,
Trump-appointed U.S. Judge Stephanie Gallagher struck down a death penalty request for three alleged MS-13 members accused in savage killings statewide, including a
teen girl found dead near Baltimore County’s Loch Raven Reservoir.
Gallagher said in
that ruling that the late death penalty request “leapfrogged important constitutional and statutory rights.”
But Nicole Tyler said: “How many lives do you have to take and destroy before it’s not OK and you’re not allowed to continue?”
Sherry and Diana first met at one of the first hearings. The two said they attend nearly every court date and console each other. The family of Grogg could not be reached for comment.
With the trial now scheduled for Sept. 14, both families are ready to see justice served.
“I will be there. I got to be her voice. They got to know how much she was loved,” Sherry said. “I want them to see my face.”
Have a news tip? Contact Brendan Nordstrom at [email protected] or at 443-900-1353.
