The Skeleton Key Chronicles

7 hours ago

For 57 years, the teenage girl found inside a downtown Oakland hotel room had no name. This week, genetic genealogy finally gave it back to her. She was Joanne Yvonne Burdick, known to her family and friends as Joanie, she was only 16 years old when she was found at the former Hotel St. Louis on October 2, 1969.

Joanie had no identification with her that afternoon, and despite years of work on the case, investigators were never able to figure out who she was. That finally began to change after the FBI joined the renewed investigation in 2020. Evidence saved from the original case could now be examined with tools that simply did not exist in 1969, and investigators were able to use genetic genealogy to start building their way toward Joanie’s family.

The trail eventually led to her brother, who voluntarily provided a DNA sample. It was a match. And Joanie had not simply disappeared without anyone looking for her. Her family had reported her missing. Somehow, though, the missing 16-year-old Joanne Burdick and the unidentified teenage girl in Oakland were never connected, leaving her family without answers while Joanie remained a Jane Doe for more than half a century.

Now that investigators know who she was, they are also taking another look at who may have been with her at the Hotel St. Louis that day. Taylor Morris Teaford was identified as a potential suspect during the original investigation. At the time, he was already being sought by the FBI in connection with another case and spent several years on its Ten Most Wanted list. Teaford was never charged in Joanie’s case, and investigators say they still do not know what became of him or whether he is alive today. If he is, he would now be 91.

Oakland Police announced Joanie’s identification on October 1st, one day before the 57th anniversary of the day she was found. Her family thanked everyone who continued working on her case through all those years for caring enough to finally give Joanne her name and give her family the answers they had waited so long to receive.

The investigation remains active as detectives continue reviewing the evidence and following leads. They are hoping Joanie’s identification may finally help answer the questions that have followed her case since 1969.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

21 hours ago

Three days after what happened with Christa Pike Wednesday night, Tennessee is now making some pretty major changes while the state tries to figure out exactly what went wrong.

For starters Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada has submitted his resignation, and Gov. Bill Lee says he will leave the position sometime this month. Strada continues to defend the department’s handling of Wednesday night, but says he believes it is better for someone else to lead TDOC while investigators sort through what happened. The state has not yet announced who will take over in the meantime.

Now we know who will be doing that investigating, and there is some history here. Former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton has been brought in to take an independent look at what the Department of Correction did Wednesday night, whether Tennessee’s own procedures were actually followed and what may need to change going forward.

Stanton is the same person Tennessee brought in to conduct an independent review of its lethal injection procedures in 2022. That investigation found problems with the state’s process and ultimately led to leadership changes and a substantial rewrite of the protocol before Tennessee resumed carrying out these types of sentences. Frank Strada became commissioner in January 2023 and later oversaw development of the revised protocol.

So four years later, Stanton is being brought back to examine what happened under the system that grew out of that earlier review. Lee has also called off Tennessee’s remaining scheduled dates for this year while Stanton conducts his investigation. Apparently Gary Wayne Sutton had been scheduled for December 3rd.
So presumably that will be on hold for now.

All of this comes just three days after Tennessee said publicly that the Department of Correction had followed “every step” of its established protocol Wednesday night.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

1 day ago

Last year, 30-year-old Connor Henderson became part of a family discovery involving hidden cameras inside his father’s Florida home. Less than a year later, Connor passed away. Now a lawsuit filed by members of his own family is revealing what they say was eventually uncovered.

Connor’s father is Wes Henderson, a name you probably recognize if you know anything about Kentucky bourbon. Wes co-founded Angel’s Envy with his father, Lincoln Henderson, and later went on to start True Story Whiskey with his sons. Now several members of that same family have gone to court accusing Wes of secretly recording them and others without their knowledge.

According to the lawsuit, once the family started looking further, they say they found around 15 cameras at the Florida house, along with memory cards containing recordings. Some of the cameras were made to look like completely ordinary household items, including clocks, speakers, charging blocks and fire alarms, and some were allegedly capable of livestreaming.

What the family found in Florida apparently wasn’t the end of it either. More cameras were later discovered at a Henderson property in Oldham County, Kentucky, and the lawsuit includes allegations involving recordings made at The Kentucky Castle as well. Altogether, around 40 people are identified as having potentially been recorded without knowing it, including Connor and his wife. The family says the cameras, memory cards and recordings were eventually turned over to law enforcement.

Connor passed away on June 4th of this year at only 30 years old, several months after the cameras were discovered. The circumstances surrounding what happened remain private.

That timing is interesting because the lawsuit was actually filed in Oldham County back in June, but the case was later sealed and the allegations only became public this week after documents from the case were provided to the Lexington Herald-Leader. And things are already moving quickly.

Earlier this morning, the company behind The Kentucky Castle and True Story Whiskey announced that Wes had been removed as CEO effective immediately and that an independent investigation is now underway. Wes has also stepped away from his position as an Oldham County deputy coroner and is taking unpaid leave. He has not been criminally charged in connection with the allegations.

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