On September 9, 1981, Chuck came home from work around 6 p.m. and found Cheryl partially clothed and hanging from a bedroom doorknob. An ironing cord was wrapped around her neck. She had been strangled to death.
Seeing his bride in such a horrific state was gut-wrenching enough, but his shock was compounded by his shame that he wasn’t there to prevent the attack.
“I don’t think [Chuck] ever got over the fact he felt like he’d failed to protect her,” Cheryl’s mother stated. Of course, Cheryl’s family didn’t blame Chuck for their daughter’s murder. But that didn’t stop Chuck from blaming himself.
Police noted that there were signs of a struggle at the crime scene; however, there was no evidence of a break-in, suggesting that Cheryl knew her killer.
Chuck strongly suspected Larry Galloway, a friend and co-worker who lived only miles from the couple. A few weeks before the murder, Cheryl confided in a friend that Larry had invited himself over while Chuck was at work and made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, Larry was no dummy. He refused to take a polygraph, he refused to cooperate with the police, and from that point on, he was careful never to discard any item that would have his DNA.
Cheryl’s family took Larry to court to compel him to provide a DNA sample, but a judge sided with Larry and ruled against such an order.
A man married the love of his life, only for her to be murdered less than two years later
lizjin.medium.com
