Marie “Freida” Dighton

Warning, this episode contains graphic crime scene detail and maybe sensitive for some listeners. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to go ahead and dive in to right now in true crime. So one thing I did not talk about on the last episode intro that I really wanted to talk about was the fact that we have a bit of an update. In the Ellen Greenberg case. Now, if you have not listened to my Ellen Greenberg episode, it was my second official episode, I do suggest you go back and listen to it for a little bit of context. But Ellen was a young, engaged teacher living in Pennsylvania and her life was tragically cut short in what they said was a suicide. Even though she had multiple, multiple, multiple stab wounds, there's no way that that equates to suicide. So her family has been very persistent in trying to get her case reopened and looked at to try to figure out what happened to Ellen and get justice for her. Because at the end of the day she did not take her own life. So ultimately, what her family wants out of this is they want her death to no longer be classified as a suicide and be classified as what it is, which is a murder. So the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is officially open to hearing arguments in her case, and that is kind of where we stand. That is good news, that is progress. We are moving ahead in the right direction because Ellen's family has been trying to get justice for her for a long time and I just hope that this is the move that will hopefully get us to that point so we can figure out what exactly happened to Ellen that day. So another cold case update that. I have to share with you guys is that of an arrest being made in the homicide of a woman named Melissa Wolfenbarger. So her case has been unsolved since nineteen ninety eight. On Thanksgiving Day in nineteen ninety eight, Melissa spoke with her mom on the phone, and that was the last time anyone in her family. Heard from her. Her sister said. They continued on throughout the holiday season, there was no word from Melissa, and everyone started to grow concerned. Melissa's parents ended up driving to her house in Atlanta, and they were checking to see what was going on with Melissa. And when they arrived the duplex that she had lived in with her husband, Christopher, it had been completely cleared out and there was nobody there, so they filed a missing persons report. Her husband Chris. Ended up being questioned by police and he told them that Melissa had left on her own. She wanted to start a new life in. California, and she was missing for about five months, and then in April of nineteen ninety nine, they found a human head in a black trash bag. This was in very close proximity to where her husband Chris worked, and they ended up discovering more human remains in June of nineteen ninety nine, and again they were discovered in black trash bags in close proximity to where the human head had been found, And in two thousand and three they identified these remains belonging to Melissa. So at this point they have a murder potentially on their hands, and it has been already at this point a few years in time. Christopher was questioned again and again and again, and he said that he had nothing to do with his wife's murder. He admitted that he did have some criminal history, but that he was not a murderer. Now, obviously this has been an ongoing investigation and they have had him pretty much as their number one suspect the entire time, and they finally were able to come up with enough probable cost to make an arrest, and they have officially arrested Christopher and they are charging him with the murder of his wife. So that is why I think covering these cold cases is so important, because even when you think there is no hope left, the person that did whatever crime we're talking about is going to get away with it. Something like this happens. A new set of eyes happens upon a case and they realize what they needed has been in front of them all along, and they end up following through and they end up cracking a cold case. So that is the best news. Her case happened in nineteen ninety eight and it has been essentially a cold case since then. It has been a total of twenty six years since Melissa's life was likely taken. Because I assume that the murder did happen in nineteen ninety eight, when she mysteriously left on her own that probably doesn't track. Christopher was probably lying about that. It's obvious. But that is why I always say it is never too late not to lose hope, because twenty six years later, forty years later, fifty years later, I've covered cases that have been solved after decades and decades and decades of searching for answers. So it is never ever too late, and I will continue to do this podcast and cover these cold cases until we have resolution in every single one of them. That is my hope. I hope at day comes where I don't have to do the podcast anymore because all of the cold. Cases have been solved, and with the. Advances in DNA technology and honestly the pressure being. Put on some of these suspects by the community and by the coverage of these stories. That is my hope that eventually there are no more cold cases. I hope one day I can live in a world where there are any more cold cases. Now, carrying on kind of on the same topic, they have arrested suspected serial killer who has been officially charged in Ventura County strangulation murders. After nearly fifty years so, a man named Warren Luther Alexander. He is seventy three years old. He is from Diamond Head, Mississippi. He has been charged with three counts a first degree murder in connection with different strangulation murders that occurred in Ventura County in nineteen seventy seven. He's also believed to be connected to a fourth murder that happened in North Carolina in nineteen ninety two. He was arrested and extradited to California from North Carolina. He is awaiting prosecution for a nineteen ninety two cold case murder of a woman named Nona Cobb. And his first court appearance occurred Thursday, so today, and he has an arrangement on August twenty first, and he is being held without bail. So these charges are for the murders of eighteen year old Kimberly, Carol Fritz, thirty one year old velvet Ann Sanchez, and twenty one year old Lorraine and Rodriguez. They were all found strangled in nineteen seventy seven. He very much liked to target sex workers and he's kind of like a rex Huerman. He goes after women like that, so he thinks that he will get away with it. The Ventura County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit started to re examine these cases in February of twenty twenty three, and they were able to connect DNA evidence and this linked him to the crimes. Because of all the advances in technology here we are it has officially been matched with his profile and that is what led to him being arrested. Again. It is never too freaking late if you are the family member of someone who is a cold case, never give. Up hope because these are two. Back to back stories of finally there being accountability for one's actions. Okay, last thing I'm going to talk about real quick. The prosecutor from the Alec Baldwin trial. In the Rust trial said that. The case was improperly dismissed. The lead prosecutor, Carrie Morrissey, basically said that both in Alex's trial and Hannah gutierres Read's trial, that the judge misunderstood the evidence and the whole thing ended up being dismissed because allegedly the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense, which is a big, big no no in the world of trial and innocent until proven guilty and all of that. So the judge dismissed all the charges against Alec Baldwin, and Alec at this point has said. That he may sue mis Morrissey, who. Is the lead prosecutor in Santa Fe County Sheriff ad Non Mendoza over the trial being brought up in the first place, and that is kind of where things stand, so I will continue to keep you guys updated if anything more comes of this. But she's basically saying that it was all a huge misunderstanding and the case against Alec Baldwin never should have been dismissed, and I really don't even know. I do feel like there were some really shady shenanigans going on on the prosecutorial side of things. So we are gonna have to see what ends up coming of this. If anything, I don't know if anything will come of it, but I will. Be sure to keep you updated. And with all of that, we are going to go ahead and get started with today's episode. Okay, guys, today we are diving into a brand new unsolved case. We are going to be talking about the unsolved homicide in June of two thousand and eight of a woman named Marie Dton. She went by the nickname fred so I am going to be referring to her as Freda throughout this episode. She was sixty eight years old at the time of her death, and she resided in Buffalo Valley, Oklahoma. Frieda was born July eighth of nineteen thirty nine in Germany and Eventuary a man named Clarence Richard Dyton. He went by the nickname c R. And together they would raise five children, and they raised their children in Buffalo Valley, Oklahoma, and they owned and operated a television and appliance store for a total of twenty five years. So they were very well known in their small town. Kind of everyone knew everyone. And Frieda was an elderly woman. So when we talk about her murder and the circumstances of her murder, it really just makes you wonder who would do such a thing, and how can somebody be so callous and calculated that they would enter this home of this elderly woman and completely take her life in such a heinous way. We're going to talk about it, but in. Such a heinous way, I think crimes against children and elderly people. There's just no way that I can, even in my head think of how anybody could do that. I mean, I could never, for one take a life, but obviously I have a podcast surrounding cases like this where people's lives are taken. But when you think about the elderly and children, I just cannot imagine how horrible of a human you have to be to be willing to do that to somebody, and seemingly for no reason. A sixty eight year old woman isn't going to have mortal enemies out there, especially when she's just a mind your own business, go about her own day kind of gal. It doesn't make any sense. So we are now going to talk about the circumstances surrounding Freeda's death. Okay, so the day is June fifth of two thousand and eight, and Frida's daughter Marie had attempted to call her mom contact her mom and there was no response, so Marie was a little concerned. Frida had been sick. She was in the hospital. She was diagnosed a couple weeks prior with pneumonia. She was in the hospital and they had released her home, but she was on oxygen. At this point in time, Frida lived by herself because they had moved cr into a nursing home type facility because he had been showing some signs of dementia. So because of Frida's health and CR's failing health, they had decided to move him into this nursing home. So Freda lived at the home by herself. So Marie very much wanted to try to get in touch with her mother, but was having no luck. She did not live locally, She lived about two hundred miles way, so she ended up calling the police department so they could do a welfare check on Freda. So law enforcement arrives to Freda's home and they see that Freda's car is in the driveway. They noted that the garden looked like it was well tended to and everything seemed like normal, so they knocked on her door. They had no answer, and they were given permission at this point to enter the home. Marie gave them permission and they essentially had to force their way in. All of the windows and doors were locked. Everything was pretty much locked up tight. The house was very clean and orderly. There was a lunch that it appeared that Freda had prepared for herself that was still sitting on the kitchen table, but immediately upon entrance into the home, the female officer could smell decomposition, so right away they assumed that Freda had passed, but of course they thinking it was more from a natural causes standpoint due to the fact that she had been ill recently. The officer entered Freda's bedroom and soon discovered a different story. Unfortunately, Freda had been heinously murdered. So the autopsy showed that Frida's throat had been slashed and she had a total of nine cuts to her throat. She also had quite a few defensive wounds. On her left hand. But by the time law enforcement realized what was going on that this was a crime scene, the scene had already been severely compromised and potential evidence was lost. They did come up with a timeline that they believed that Freda had been killed June fourth, so the day before, between twelve and one pm. They definitely know that she was alive and well on June fourth, because she visited her husband's CR fifteen miles away at the nursing home in which he lived at. This was routine for her. She went every day like clockwork. She would spend an hour or two with her husband's CR. And then she would return home and they very much expected her to show up again on the day of June fifth, but she never did. So after she left from visiting cr she went home, she made herself lunch, and they believe that is when she was interrupted by whoever took her life. But investigators couldn't figure this out. Who would want to harm a sixty eight year old mother, grandmother, who was a harmless human. She did nothing to disturb anybody. She kept to herself. She didn't have any enemies, so who would want to harm this lady? So they were looking to see if there was what is the motive? Was it robbery based? Was she followed? What happened that led to this person going into Freda's home and attacking her and taking her life? So there wasn't any evidence of a robbery or a break in or any sign that anything in the home. Had been disturbed. Freda was still wearing her wedding ring and other valuables were untouched. There was a safe that was in the home that was still intact. However, it did look like maybe somebody had potentially tried to tamper with it, but again they had no real motive and nothing to go on. Freda's family is obviously distraught. Frieda had previously lost one of her sons, her youngest son had passed away prior to her, but her four remaining children were completely distraught by the fact that. She was heinously killed in her own home. So they attempted to start to try to pick up the pieces and try to help law enforcement with whatever they could to potentially solve Freda's murder. So they went ahead and started planning for her funeral. They didn't have money to embalm her, so they went ahead and went the cremation route. And they really didn't know what to do, and tensions were high amongst them. They didn't know who to trust, they didn't know if they could believe what people were telling them, and they thought the killer could have been somebody that was close to the family because Freda's home was locked up tight and it seemingly looked like whoever this person was was let into Freda's home by FREEDA months into the investigation, there are still no leads and law enforcement is still trying to figure out what is going on, but they are pretty much at square one with this investigation. Freda's daughters offer up a ten thousand dollars reward, and the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation also offered five thousand dollars towards that, so it was a total of fifteen thousand dollars leading for information in the murder of Freda Dyton. Marie Wilson, who is Freda's oldest daughter, is quoted as to saying, somebody out there knows something. It's hard to imagine something like this happening out there and nobody knows anything. I still get chills. She was a mother, a grandmother. She never hurt anybody. End quote. Now, unfortunately, the OSBI agents are keeping a lot of the crime scene details to themselves. Any evidence that was recovered was turned over to the FBI labs for analysis, and there isn't really a whole. Lot to go on. They don't have any potential suspects, they don't have any leads, they have no motive, and this poor family has been left to try to pick up the pieces of their crumbled family themselves. I can't even imagine having to go through something like this and for it to happen to somebody like Frida, who just seems like she was the sweetest little mom and grandma sixty eight years old, tending to her house, visiting her ailing husband. Literally would never hurt a fly, and someone went into her home, into her space, and savagely took her life. And nobody knows anything. This person just slipped out in broad daylight. Because they're saying it happened between twelve and one and nobody saw anything. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Freda's family has a Facebook page that they have created to spread awareness about her case. Keep her name out there, keep her face out there. This is actually how I learned of this case, and recently, on the sixteenth anniversary of Freda's murder, her family posted the following sixteen years ago, about this time of day, you were fighting for your life. Literally, the defensive wounds show you fought vigilantly. It pains me to imagine the fear. It pains me to know you laid there for two hours, dying slowly. It angers me that someone could be so evil to do this to you. Still fighting for justice. God's word says he does not forget innocent blood spilled someday and then a heartbreak emoji. So you know, Freda's family is just reeling still to this day over Freeda being taken so heinously by whoever this horrible, evil person is. A year after Frieda lost her life, CR ended up passing away as well. And I don't know what his mental capacity was at the time that Frieda was taken, but you have to know they were married for a long time. I'm sure CR felt every bit of Freeda being taken in such a horrific way, and a year later he ended up passing away as well, without knowing what happened to his wife that he had five children with and had a life with. There was another post made on June fourth of twenty twenty three on. The Facebook page, and I'm going to. Read it just because it's so infuriating how they cannot get any answers in this case. Fifteen freaking years and no justice. My heart aches. It makes me angry and sad that the people in charge who could do something don't and their ego is more important than justice, so they won't ask for outside help. Our new OSBI agent won't even look at it. I could say dirty words, but I'll refrain myself. Send the DNA to Perabon ask cold justice to look at it. There are options to get this solved. Everyone deserves justice, and just because she was old shouldn't determine how hard they work at it. I watched a live case yesterday and all it took was fresh eyes in a different approach, and he had it solved and it was fifty teen years old. Also, I miss her. I think about her life and all she survived and thrived through. I get my determination from her, my adapt improvise and overcome. She loved learning something new and could talk to anyone. I so wish she was here to load up in the car and take off on a road trip with me. We could have had so much fun that pos stole that from me. And I don't know if this is Marie who's writing these Facebook posts, but whoever this person is is so right when they say that her case. Is not any less important than anyone else. All people deserve to have their cases solved, regardless of their age, gender, race, social aspects. If they're rich, poor, homeless, sex workers, whatever the case may be, they all deserve to have their cases looked at with fresh eyes. And to get these cases solved, they have to have some type of DNA evidence. Freeda fought like how against whoever attacked her. There has to be evidence on her, DNA evidence on her somewhere that they could send to a lab to get familial DNA genealogy. All of that done, we are in twenty twenty four. This happened in two thousand and eight. There are constant advances in this DNA technology. We talk about it all the time. AUTHORAM is a lab that is local to me that is constantly solving these cold cases. But law enforcement has to be willing to send this DNA off and work in conjunction with these labs to get these crimes solved. And that is the frustrating part is so many of them get pushed back in the stack and they just get lost in time and translation. But for these families, they are constantly thinking about their love to one's case and who did this. Whoever did this is a dangerous person. If someone is going to come into Freda's home and murder her in such a heinous way at sixty eight years of age, this person should not be out and about on the streets to harm other people. So I think personally that law enforcement should put this case at the top of their list because this person cannot harm anyone else, and they shouldn't have the opportunity to harm anyone else just because Freda's case isn't at the top of their list. I know that Freda's family is going to keep pushing for answers and hopefully they will get them. There has to be answers into what happened to Freda. Somebody has to come forward and share what they know in order. For this case to be solved. Like every case I cover, it just takes that one missing link, that missing puzzle piece to solve a case and propel it forward. And I hope that that happens in Freda's case because this woman and her family deserve justice. So that is Freeda's story. Thank you guys so much for listening. I wish that I had more of a story to tell as far as any potential suspects or leads, but this one is literally a dead end and a cold case, so keeping her story out there is what we need to do. So please share this episode, share it on social media. I'm going to be posting photos of Freeda on my Instagram and Facebook pages. If you don't follow me on Instagram it's Primetime Crime KRME pod. Please follow me there and on Facebook It's just Primetime Crime Crime with a K. And I really love getting to interact with you guys and hear your thoughts on these different episodes and these different cases that I'm covering, So please follow along with me there. If you haven't subscribed to the podcast, please subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen, and if you could, please leave me a rating. That is the easiest and best way to show your support and also to push the podcast out to other people that listen to true crime and may be interested in learning about a cold case that is unsolved. Because the more eyes and ears we get on these cases, the more likely that it is going to be solved one day by somebody. It could be one of you. We never really know. So thank you guys so much for your support. As always, I appreciate each and every one of you, and I will see you on Monday for a brand new Unsolved episode. I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend and I will see you on Monday. Bye. It is solvable. It was solvable two weeks after it happened. March twenty fifth, two thousand and four Cross Plans Tennessee their Last Day question Mark. Jennifer Just twenty one, stands in the kitchen of her boyfriend Joey Benton's family home, where she and her two year old daughter, Adriana Wicks have been living. She has the. Only phone in the home in her hand and is on a call with her father. Jennifer expresses how the night before, she and her boyfriend's parents, Joe and Cindy Benton, have been involved in a very heated argument. In fact, it was so heated that Jennifer was still rattled from the night before. She moves the receiver down to talk to a muffled female voice coming from behind her. She then says goodbye to her father and hangs up the phone. And what happens next, Well, that's what we're here to find out, isn't it. Jennifer and Adriana Wicks have not been seen or heard from since March twenty fifth, two thousand and four. I'm a true crime investigated podcaster living in the same town where the Wicks girls went missing. Hi, I'm Jules, and I've teamed up with Jennifer's sister, Kasey Robinson to ask some big questions from our little hushtown that we've been too afraid to ask each other over the last twenty years. Where are Jennifer and Adriana Wicks small Town's talk and guess what we're listening? Missing in Hushtown is coming twenty twenty four wherever you get your podcasts. The entire first season will drop in August. We'll see you then,