FILE 206 / 14 January 2021 / 149 MIN / full

Why Charles Manson Wasn't In "Friends"

Moses Lake, WashingtonListen

The town

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

This is Moses Lake, Washington ... in central Washington, kind of dead center ... This is in Grant County. about 0:04:50

History, in brief

Town note

Known to Native Americans as Hoopa, meaning willow.

about 0:06:57

Town note

Chief Moses was the leader of the tribe around the lake; under pressure from the government he traded the Columbia basin land for a reservation stretching from the lake north to the Canadian border.

about 0:07:04

Town note

Settlers began arriving in the 1880s, and the settlers named the place Moses Lake after Chief Moses.

about 0:07:08

Town note

The city was originally named Neppel, after a town in Germany where one of the first settlers had lived.

about 0:08:04
All 12 history facts

Town note

Known to Native Americans as Hoopa, meaning willow.

about 0:06:57

Town note

Chief Moses was the leader of the tribe around the lake; under pressure from the government he traded the Columbia basin land for a reservation stretching from the lake north to the Canadian border.

about 0:07:04

Town note

Settlers began arriving in the 1880s, and the settlers named the place Moses Lake after Chief Moses.

about 0:07:08

Town note

The city was originally named Neppel, after a town in Germany where one of the first settlers had lived.

about 0:08:04

Town note

The first settlers had fisheries and farms and exported carp, jack rabbits and fruit.

about 0:08:12

Town note

Irrigation attempts failed and the settlers left; this happened several times in the area.

about 0:08:53

1938

The town was incorporated and named Lake Moses, or Moses Lake, in 1938, when there were 302 people living there.

about 0:09:02

1942

The Moses Lake Army Airbase was built in 1942, and the military pumped water in from the Columbia River, after which people, fishing and livestock followed.

about 0:06:47

Town note

A big dam was built on the Columbia River near the town.

about 0:06:47

Town note

The average precipitation is under eight inches a year and the area is desert, with sometimes a month or six weeks without rain in midsummer.

about 0:06:26

Town note

Evil Knievel lived in Moses Lake for a long time.

about 0:09:42

Town note

BMW has a giant factory there making electric cars, and Conagra and paper plants also have factories in the town.

about 0:11:43

The figures, as told

Religious

40.8%

Biggest faith: Catholic, 17%

about 0:20:16

Who lives here

White about 60% · Black 1.5% · Asian 2.1% · Hispanic 33.3%

Ethnicity can overlap race.

Crime / national average

Property crime
▲ almost double

about 0:27:37

Violent crime
▲ right at double

about 0:27:43

Money

Median home value$193,400
Two-bedroom rent$793
Median household income$49,800
Cost of living85

For sale

a lot between $100,000 and $200,000

Houses for sale

about 0:21:51

For sale

$154,900

Three-bedroom two-bath house, 1,296 square feet

about 0:22:39

For sale

$259,900

Four-bedroom two-bath house, 2,784 square feet

about 0:23:15

For sale

$967,000

Four-bedroom three-bath house, 3,868 square feet

about 0:23:38
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2021

Property crime

"almost double"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2021 about 0:27:37

Violent crime

"right at double"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2021 about 0:27:43

Population in 1960

"over 11,000"

Comparison: "up from 300 in 1940". Direction: above.

As told in 2021 about 0:17:54

Population

"22,038"

Comparison: "up 96% since 1990". Direction: above.

As told in 2021 about 0:18:04

Female population

"about 54%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:18:54

White population

"about 60%"

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

As told in 2021 about 0:19:36

Black population

"1.5%"

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

As told in 2021 about 0:19:42

Asian population

"2.1%"

Comparison: "low for Washington State and for the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2021 about 0:19:42

Native American population

"1%"

Comparison: "high for the U.S.". Direction: above.

As told in 2021 about 0:19:52

Hispanic population

"33.3%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:19:52

Religious population

"40.8%"

Comparison: "less than the 50-50 norm". Direction: below.

As told in 2021 about 0:20:16

Unemployment rate

"about double"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2021 about 0:20:48

Household income

"$49,800"

Comparison: "national $57,500". No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:21:02

Cost of living index

"85"

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

As told in 2021 about 0:21:38

Housing index

"84"

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

As told in 2021 about 0:21:41

Median home cost

"$193,400"

No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:21:45

Houses for sale

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

No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:21:51

Average two-bedroom rent

"$793"

Comparison: "national average about $1,200". No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:22:16

Three-bedroom two-bath house, 1,296 square feet

"$154,900"

No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:22:39

Four-bedroom two-bath house, 2,784 square feet

"$259,900"

No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:23:15

Four-bedroom three-bath house, 3,868 square feet

"$967,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2021 about 0:23:38

The reviews

1.4 / 5 · average of 5

1 star

“There is no mall and no national chains like Olive Garden, Red Lobster or Applebee's, and only two Taco Bells, two McDonald's, two Arby's, five Subways and three Starbucks, with no Wendy's and no chicken places except a KFC with the worst service.”
about 0:12:34

1 star

“The town is very small, racist and bigoted, with too much crime, a huge drug problem, a lot of teen preg, overcrowded schools, badly paid jobs, unfriendly people, an airport hours away, crooked politics and horrible medical care.”
about 0:13:57

1 star

“A tiny town overrun with crazy religious racist weirdos, not much for jobs, everywhere paying minimum wage, the worst customer service, and drugs and gangs equal to an actual city in a sixteen square mile dust ball.”
about 0:15:31

2 stars

“A lot of petty crime and gang activity for a small town, real issues with methamphetamine production and use, subpar and overcrowded schools, and little to do without driving two hours, but lots of sunny days, tons of lakes, a low cost of living and good traffic.”
about 0:16:50

2 stars

“There are a lot of homeless people and drugs, and the reviewer would not recommend walking outside at night or walking alone through the town.”
about 0:17:21

In Washington

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  1. You Are... Not The FatherDeer Park, Washington · 15 December 2023166 km / 103 miShow on map
  2. Bits Of Flesh & Mysteries SolvedAddy, Washington · 14 July 2022174 km / 108 miShow on map
  3. Jealousy, Meth, Icepicks & MurderTonasket, Washington · 31 May 2017176 km / 109 miShow on map
  4. Insane In The BrainMoscow, Idaho · 25 February 2023178 km / 111 miShow on map
  5. Family Murder TreePost Falls, Idaho · 24 July 2026188 km / 117 miShow on map

The story

In the autumn of 1986 Moses Lake, Washington, was a town of about 10,000 people in Grant County, in the desert of central Washington. Margo McKee was eighteen. She was a straight-A student at Moses Lake High School, a churchgoing girl whose parents had both died of cancer when she was twelve, within a year of each other. Ross and Myona Sterling took her in and raised her, and she called Myona mom. At eighteen she inherited $18,000, and her plan was to finish school, join the army under the delayed entry programme she had signed up for in her junior year, use the money for college and leave Moses Lake for good.

In the spring of 1986 Myona Sterling went into hospital to have a kidney removed. When she came home she found that Margo had moved out without telling her, into a small apartment she shared with another Moses Lake High student. McKee stayed at the apartment talking to her all evening instead of going to the party the others went to. Margo turned eighteen on 4 April 1986, collected her inheritance, and within a week of meeting him she and McKee decided to marry. She bought a car.

In April, with two of McKee's friends, they drove to Reno, then Disneyland, then Tijuana, and stopped at the MGM in Las Vegas on the way back. Margo was away from school for a month. When she returned to Moses Lake High she was told she had been expelled: thirty absences meant automatic expulsion, a rule she had never had reason to know. Her army contract depended on graduating, so that was gone too. By mid-May she was pregnant. The couple moved in with McKee's parents, and in September 1986 they took a studio apartment of their own.

Within a couple of weeks the apartment held five people. Margo, five months pregnant, was paying the bills and hated the arrangement. He said his aura had a busted link. McKee was acting as his disciple.

On 24 September 1986 the group talked about driving to California in early October.

The three men separated from the three girls to play rock paper scissors over who would kill Margo. The beating went on for about ninety minutes. She was stabbed five times and struck between twenty and thirty times.

The body was found on 15 October 1986, after a high school student, Robert Niverson, walked into the Grant County Sheriff's Office and said there was a body buried by the lake. Deputies went with him and found a young woman in a shallow grave in bushes, badly decomposed and beaten and stabbed. She was identified through dental records. Detectives questioned him for forty minutes and he admitted he had been there when she was killed, saying Steve and Jeff did it all.

McKee was questioned again the next day. He denied asking for the killing but admitted saying only that he should not be involved. The girls also told the police everything.

In December a bloodstained blanket was found near the scene with two blond hairs on it, but exposure had destroyed the evidence. The prosecution said McKee wanted his wife killed because he was tired of her complaints and did not want to pay for a baby.

The judge refused to admit the blanket. The judge called the killing cruel and senseless but found no reason to go beyond the standard range and gave him twenty-seven years and nine months, 333 months, plus a $10,000 fine.

He took the email address Shadowlord@AOL.com.

The case

Murder of Margo McKee

Victims

Margo McKee (18). born Amargo Ann Whistman, a Moses Lake High School senior, married to and five months pregnant

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 14 January 2021.

Accused

Accused

Accused

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Ross Sterling. Margo's foster father, who took her in at twelve
Myona Sterling. Margo's foster mother, who had a kidney removed in spring 1986
Robert Niverson. high school student who told the Grant County Sheriff's Office there was a body buried by the lake
David Fro. manager of the McKees' apartment complex
Deputy Frank Detrolio. Grant County Sheriff's Office deputy who visited the house on 27 September 1986
Luke McKean. defence attorney
Judge Evan B. Spurline. Grant County Superior Court judge who cancelled the 1998 retrial

The timeline

  1. 1966 is born.about 0:39:09
  2. when she was 12 Margo's parents both die of cancer within a year of each other; Ross and Myona Sterling take her in and raise her.about 0:45:50
  3. her junior year Margo hears an army recruiter at school and signs up for the delayed entry programme, promising to join after graduation. (Moses Lake High School)about 0:47:21
  4. the spring of 1986 Myona Sterling has a kidney removed.about 0:48:20
  5. mid-March 1986 While her foster mother is in hospital, Margo moves out without telling her, into a small apartment shared with another Moses Lake High student. (Margo's first apartment)about 0:49:12
  6. a couple of weeks later The roommate's parents make her move back home, leaving Margo in the apartment. (Margo's first apartment)about 0:49:36
  7. March 1986 At the apartment Margo meets , who stays talking to her all evening instead of going to a party. (Margo's first apartment)about 0:50:13
  8. April 4th, 1986 Margo turns 18, inherits $18,000, and she and McKee decide to marry.about 0:51:39
  9. April 1986 With two of McKee's friends they drive to Reno, Disneyland, Tijuana and Las Vegas; Margo is absent from school for a month and spends over half her inheritance.about 0:54:08
  10. late April 1986 Margo is expelled for 30 absences, which ends her army contract because she will not graduate. (Moses Lake High School)about 0:56:57
  11. mid-May 1986 Margo finds out she is pregnant.about 0:58:30
  12. the summer of 1986 The McKees live with McKee's parents. (McKee parents' home)about 0:59:36
  13. September 1986 The McKees move into their own studio apartment. (McKee/ studio apartment)about 0:59:44
  14. September 1986 moves in with the two runaway girls, and , and is there most of the time; six people end up in the one-room apartment. (McKee/ studio apartment)about 1:01:40
  15. late September 1986 says a link in his aura has been busted and talks about fixing it. (McKee/ studio apartment)about 1:10:35
  16. September 24th, 1986 The group talks about all driving to California in early October, taking the underage girls across state lines. (McKee/ studio apartment)about 1:11:29
  17. a couple of weeks before the killing hears tell McKee he will have Margo killed on the way to California. (McKee/ studio apartment)about 1:44:07

Places and phrases

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Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode