FILE 191 / 1 October 2020 / 166 MIN / full

Like Severed Legs At A Wedding...

Fairfield, OhioListen

The town

N ↑Public placePublic placePublic placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

We're going to Fairfield, Ohio, the suburbs of Cincinnati, in both Butler and Hamilton counties, southwestern Ohio, 30 minutes outside Cincinnati about 0:05:31

History, in brief

Town note

Before white settlement the area was home to the Shawnee, the Miami, and the prehistoric Hopewell and Adena peoples, who built earthworks around the city.

about 0:08:27

Town note

Most of the earthworks were ploughed over by early settlers making farm fields, without the settlers realising they were there.

about 0:08:50

Town note

Battles with Native Americans kept people from settling permanently in the area.

about 0:09:53

Town note

An early settler account said going onto Native American lands was almost certain death, and that settlers without employment were brought to the verge of starvation.

about 0:10:11
All 6 history facts

Town note

Before white settlement the area was home to the Shawnee, the Miami, and the prehistoric Hopewell and Adena peoples, who built earthworks around the city.

about 0:08:27

Town note

Most of the earthworks were ploughed over by early settlers making farm fields, without the settlers realising they were there.

about 0:08:50

Town note

Battles with Native Americans kept people from settling permanently in the area.

about 0:09:53

Town note

An early settler account said going onto Native American lands was almost certain death, and that settlers without employment were brought to the verge of starvation.

about 0:10:11

Town note

Families whose lands were contiguous formed associations for mutual protection, and each party built a strong blockhouse with cabins and enclosed log pickets.

about 0:11:04

Town note

A sentinel watched for attack during the day, and at sunset everything of value was brought inside the fence.

about 0:11:30

The figures, as told

Religious

38%

Biggest faith: Muslim residents, 6%

about 0:21:43

Who lives here

White 73% · Black 14.4% · Asian 3.2% · Hispanic 7.5%

Ethnicity can overlap race.

Crime / national average

Property crime
right about average

about 0:29:07

Violent crime
▼ about half the national average

about 0:29:13

Money

Median home value$169,800
Two-bedroom rentabout $970
Median household incomeabout $62,000
Cost of living87

For sale

$149,900

Four-bedroom, three-bath, 1,882 square foot house

about 0:24:19

For sale

$199,900

Three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,672 square foot house

about 0:24:37

For sale

$483,000

Five-bedroom, five-bath, 4,997 square foot house

about 0:25:03
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2020

Property crime

"right about average"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: about the same.

As told in 2020 about 0:29:07

Violent crime

"about half the national average"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:29:13

Population

"42,589"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:20:23

Population when the murder happened

"about 30,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:20:23

Population growth since 1990

"up 7.2%"

Direction: above.

As told in 2020 about 0:20:30

Median age

"38"

Comparison: "close to the normal median age". Direction: about the same.

As told in 2020 about 0:20:30

White residents

"73%"

Comparison: "normally about 62%". No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:21:00

Black residents

"14.4%"

Comparison: "normally about 12.3%". No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:21:00

Asian residents

"3.2%"

Comparison: "normally 5.3%". No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:21:00

Hispanic residents

"7.5%"

Comparison: "a little less than half the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:21:33

Religious residents

"38%"

Comparison: "50-50 is normal". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:21:43

Jewish residents

"0.1%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:21:50

Muslim residents

"6%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:22:00

Household income

"about $62,000"

Comparison: "normally about $57,000". No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:04

Cost of living index

"87"

Comparison: "100 is normal". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:11

Housing index

"73"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:16

Median home cost

"$169,800"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:16

Most house prices

"between $100,000 and $200,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:25

Average two-bedroom rent

"about $970"

Comparison: "under the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:54

Four-bedroom, three-bath, 1,882 square foot house

"$149,900"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:24:19

Three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,672 square foot house

"$199,900"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:24:37

Five-bedroom, five-bath, 4,997 square foot house

"$483,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:25:03

The reviews

2.0 / 5 · average of 5

2 stars

“Police take some time to respond and there are potholes everywhere that do not get fixed.”
about 0:14:52

2 stars

“Mostly safe and quiet, but the city government is corrupt and considers the city above the law, and the police are lazy and inept.”
about 0:15:08

3 stars

“The school system overlooks bullying; too many students are bullied and it turns a blind eye.”
about 0:15:39

1 star

“Nobody in the apartment complex knows each other, there are no community events, and dog owners do not clean up or train their dogs.”
about 0:16:43

2 stars

“Most of the Asian restaurants have very little selection and what they do have is not very good.”
about 0:19:21

“The reviewer loves the fair, its games, exhibits, animals and demolition derby, and has gone every year for over ten years.”
about 0:26:23

In Ohio

Closest episodes

  1. Grumpy Violent Old MenShawnee Township, Ohio · 1 October 202229 km / 18 miShow on map
  2. Never Sing Your ConfessionHighland Heights, Kentucky · 21 March 202434 km / 21 miShow on map
  3. Team Murder LunchEdgewood, Kentucky · 29 March 201836 km / 22 miShow on map
  4. Loneliness Is Better Than MurderWaynesville, Ohio · 16 May 201845 km / 28 miShow on map
  5. A Murder For GreedEaton, Ohio · 15 February 201747 km / 29 miShow on map

The story

Monica Lemon was 21 years old in the winter of 1987. She lived in an apartment in Cincinnati with her brother, worked as a waitress at the Buskin bakery at Eighth and Walnut Streets in the city centre and was taking classes at Cincinnati Technical College. Her mother said the two met on a visiting day when both were visiting relatives; other accounts said they became pen pals while he was inside. She visited him five times in 1983 and 1984, the only person outside his family to sign his visiting list.

On 16 November 1986 the pair walked off the job together in the middle of a shift and moved into a single-wide trailer at Sammy Drive in the Debbie Trailer Park in Fairfield.

Monica's friends and family later described a relationship that had frightened her. In December she argued with him in the trailer and he made the same threat; from then on she was afraid of him. An electrician who rewired her apartment that December found a two-foot statue of a greenish-black demon with wings and horns, along with books on witchcraft.

On 9 February 1987 Monica left work saying she was going to a job interview at a motel. According to several accounts, including her boyfriend Dennis Whit, the trip was to help her cash stolen cheques. While she was reading he shot her once in the back of the head with a .25 calibre handgun. She died there. He put the torso in the trunk of his Ford Pinto station wagon, took the legs to a separate place and dumped the torso in a dumpster.

Monica did not return home. She was in a coma for six weeks and later had no memory of the attack.

On 14 February 1987, Valentine's Day, a wedding was held at Little Cedar Baptist Church in Cedar Grove, Indiana, with the ceremony on the lawn beside the river. A guest saw what looked like a boot at the water's edge; it was a severed leg. Another leg was found about 30 feet away. The legs were wearing tight blue jeans cut off above the knee, red and white striped socks and tan size eight and a half boots. They were taken to the Connersville State Police post and then to Indiana University Medical Center. The coroner estimated that the woman was white, between 20 and 30, about five foot five and around 170 pounds. There were no scars, tattoos or other identifying marks. Police combed a six-mile stretch along U.S. 52 between Brookville and Cedar Grove and found nothing else; high winds stopped an air search. Monica's father identified the boots, which he had been with her when she bought, and the socks, which he had given her.

They seized a skull ring, a black-light poster, a magic book, a bust of King Tut, bells, candles, a butcher knife, parts of a shotgun, a pickaxe, a handsaw, a hacksaw, a ceramic goat's head, nine figurines, an animal jawbone and a stolen granite headstone set on a podium as an altar, with black candles around it and blood on the altar.

In 1988 Monica's family won a $1 million wrongful death judgment against him. Pike sent him letters describing her love of blood and pain, some written in her own blood.

The case

Murder of Monica Lemon

Victims

Monica Lemon (21). waitress at the Buskin bakery in Cincinnati and student at Cincinnati Technical College; former prison pen pal

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 1 October 2020.

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Dennis Whit. Monica's boyfriend in Cincinnati, who reported her missing
Tammy Sue Rose. Clark Oil gas station employee shot in the head during robbery; in a coma for six weeks
Patricia Lehman. Monica's mother, a public affairs specialist with the US Army recruiting battalion in Cincinnati
Eloise 'Poppy' Russell. a friend of , who was given Monica's jacket the day after she went missing
Colleen Slemmer. 19-year-old murdered by Pike and others at the University of Tennessee agricultural campus
Carlo Sanders. prisoner who ordered the 1993 stabbing of
Bill Crabtree. Knox County assistant district attorney general who received Pike's letters from
Frank Shiovanni. defence attorney

The timeline

  1. December 25th, 1962 is born on Christmas Day.about 0:46:59
  2. 1980 leaves Mount Healthy High School at 18 without graduating. (Mount Healthy High School)about 0:47:13
  3. May 1983 leaves his parents' home in Springfield Township, where he had lived since 1980. ( family home)about 0:47:36
  4. October 9th, 1986 starts work as a nurse's aide at the Cottingham retirement community in Sharonville. (Cottingham retirement community)about 1:07:55
  5. November 16th, 1986 and walk off their jobs mid-shift together and move into a trailer at the Debbie Trailer Park. (Debbie Trailer Park trailer)about 1:08:14
  6. November 1986 Monica Lemon tells a friend that threatened to kill her, dismember her and paint the walls with her blood.about 0:59:06
  7. December 1986 Monica and argue in the trailer; he threatens to paint the walls with her blood and she becomes afraid of him. (Debbie Trailer Park trailer)about 1:05:14
  8. December 1986 An electrician rewiring Monica's apartment finds satanic books and a two-foot demon statue with wings and horns. (Monica Lemon's apartment)about 1:21:00
  9. February 9th, 1987 Monica leaves work saying she is going to a job interview at a motel, then picks her up to help her cash stolen cheques. (Monica Lemon's apartment)about 1:10:23
  10. February 10th, 1987 forces Monica into the sorcery room to read a satanic incantation and shoots her in the back of the head with a .25. (Debbie Trailer Park trailer)about 1:12:02
  11. February 10th, 1987 borrows a circular saw, cuts off Monica's legs eight inches above the knee and puts her body in the trunk of his Ford Pinto. (Debbie Trailer Park trailer)about 1:13:18

Last meals

Places and phrases

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Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode