Suspicious Coincidences

The Mysteries Of Derlin County

In the season premiere of The Mysteries of Durland County, private investigator Brandon takes on a case involving Jack, whose childhood frie

Key takeaways

• Retired Deputy Matthew Boardman Cease investigated the 1998 death of Mary Sternin, which was ruled a suicide despite suspicious circumstances.
• Jack alleges that his childhood friend Eddie is responsible for several disappearances and murders in Ned Campbell National Forest.

Main topics

• Cold case investigations
• Serial killer allegations

Notable quotes

I'm more than willing to talk with you, okay? But you're going to come in here and question the policing.

Conclusion

The episode establishes a high-stakes mystery where local law enforcem

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) Hey everybody, welcome to season 23 of the Mysteries of Durling County. Before we begin the season, I wanted to give a warning that this season is going to be loud, outlandish, crude, possibly one of our most not-safe-for-work seasons. So if you're listening, you know, with a lot of people around that you might not want to hear some weird stuff, this might not be, or this might be a season better played in private or in headphones. Then secondly, there is a lot of content that may be triggering to some. There is talk of suicide. No one actually does any of it in the show. So you're not, you know, that kind of stuff. There's no more killing of children in here. But there is childhood traumas and stuff like that involved. So listener discretion is advised. And welcome back to the Mysteries Speaker 3 (0:52) of Speaker 5 (0:52) Derling County. Speaker 3 (0:55) June 7th, 1998. It was a normal day. Or at first. Speaker 5 (1:01) The voice you're hearing is that of retired Durland County Sheriff Deputy Matthew Boardman Cease, who on June 7, 1998, while on patrol, stumbled across a scene that would stick with him his whole life. And then decades later, I'd be contacted by someone involved in all of it. And it led me right to Matthew and this fateful day. Speaker 3 (1:21) I woke up that morning and had me some breakfast. Two eggs, rye toast, grapefruit, and some yogurt. Four strips of bacon, a half stack, three egg waffles, and a bowl of cocoa puffs. Oh yeah, and a banana. A banana? I wasn't getting enough fiber back in. Okay. And I kissed my wife goodbye. Well, ex-wife now. Fucking whore. And I walked outside, jumped in the squad car, and headed into the station. But on my way into the station, I passed the Stallion Glance trailhead and noticed a brand new 1998 Toyota Sienna in the lot. It's aquamarine paint glistening in the sun. Speaker 2 (2:01) I Speaker 3 (2:02) think they were six cylinders back in. Seven seats up, your comfort. Rear torsion beams with coil spring suspension. Just the beauty of a machine. Okay. I made it into the station just in time for the morning briefing and then headed back out on shift patrol. After about half my shift, it was a quiet day, mind you. I think I only had one call, petty domestic dispute, couple of neighbors arguing about lawn height or some shit. Speaker 5 (2:29) I Speaker 3 (2:29) went home for lunch, took the same route home, and there was that same Sienna sitting in the stallion glance lot. This time I kind of took more notice to it, but I still kept going home. I was hungry. Had me a small lunch, a turkey sandwich with Swiss. Six deviled eggs, a Cobb salad in a salad bowl, two Miller Highlifes, a Baconator from Wendy's, and a few potato pancakes my wife had made. Speaker 5 (2:51) Then Speaker 3 (2:52) I headed back out on patrol. I decided to drive past this stallion glance one more time and make sure that Toyota was gone, but sure enough, there it was. Aquamarine Toyota Sienna. So I pulled in the trailhead and I could see what appeared to be Mary Sternin sleeping in the driver's seat. Unstovered a little bit, but nothing too suspicious. I got out to knock on the window, see what was up, and that's when I saw the blood. and started hearing the cries. I ran around to the passenger side and opened the slider and yanked it open. Sitting there in the back seat covered in blood and shit and piss. Little Jackie. I don't know, maybe 10, 11 years old. Eyes closed, tighter than a Catholic schoolgirl's legs and crying like a baby. I scooped him out of there and ran him over to my squad car and put him inside and radioed for backup. Forensics and detectives were on scene shortly after that. It was a pretty clear cut and dry suicide. See, Mary and her husband had adopted the young boy a few months back and ended up fighting all the time afterwards. Okay. He showed up at the scene as the investigation was beginning and... How was he acting? He seemed, you know, in shock. You know, calm. Kept repeating over and over he needed to head home and take care of the boy. That's not odd. It's normal. People seem to think, you know, when... something like this happens to you that you're screaming and crying and shouting. And some people do, but most people go into shock and they don't know how to feel or act. Yeah, and that didn't, like, stand out as odd that his demeanor was calm or anything? No, like I said, most people, you know, when they stumble across the loved one or something who goes through this or whatever, they don't freak out. They go into shock and, like, instinct takes over and they, you know. They don't know how to think or feel or act. Yeah. Speaker 5 (4:51) He was just calm. Speaker 3 (4:52) So, you know, we went to the squad car and pulled little Jackie out the back seat and put him in his car and drove off. And that was it. I mean, he, throughout the investigation, which, you know, was concluded, you know, by the fall of night. Mm-hmm. I mean, he was cooperative. He was, you know, he was always around if we had any questions for him and stuff like that. But, you know, for the most part, he was just taking care of the boy. Speaker 5 (5:20) But, Speaker 3 (5:21) you know, it wasn't but a couple months after that, he kind of realized he, because he worked full time and all that. Yeah, where did he work? He worked at some landscaping company. Okay. Speaker 3 (5:35) You know, he realized that he wasn't home enough. He couldn't give the boy enough attention, and it was too hard raising him alone, so he turned him back into the foster system. Yeah. And that was, you know, the last we heard about little Jackie until recently. Yeah, so... Speaker 5 (5:52) You know, when I was asked about this, there's people questioning if this was actually a suicide. So, I mean, what do you think the possibilities are that this wasn't a suicide and that somebody may have done this to Mary? Look, I'm more Speaker 3 (6:07) than willing to talk with you, okay? And I'm more than willing to share with you what I know and what I experienced that day, okay? And I appreciate it. But you're going to come in here and question the policing. Well, Speaker 5 (6:17) I'm not necessarily— You know, because Speaker 3 (6:18) we had a crack team. of investigators back then. Yeah, I get that. This is cut and dry suicide, and if you're going to question that, then we're going to have problems, okay? Because I'm the kind of guy that'll put my fist through your fucking asshole. Look, all I'm saying... Wait, what? Speaker 4 (6:31) Breaking news out of Durland County today is that a nearly three decades old suspicious death case has officially been reopened. Questions and theories have been thrown around ever since it happened all those years ago. Maybe this time we can bring much needed answers and closures to those affected most by that tragic day. I Speaker 2 (6:47) don't know why I always come back. Speaker 2 (7:37) It Speaker 5 (7:44) had been just a few weeks since I returned home to Durland County, and things immediately returned to normal. At least after the initial shock of almost dying yet again wore off. We were all back to being in each other's throats. No, I mean, each other's mouths. No, the other person was putting themselves in my throat. Speaker 1 (8:07) Oh, that's Speaker 5 (8:08) wrong. We were just fighting all the time. We were back to fighting, like nothing had ever changed. So we all agreed to take the summer away from each other, reflect, learn, grow, and then get