Episode 45 - The Sueppel Family

Could the need to maintain a facade drive someone to commit the unthinkable? Join me, Clare Laxton, as we untangle the heart-wrenching story of the Sueppel family tragedy that left a community in mourning. On Easter Sunday, 2008 in Iowa Sheryl Sueppel and her four children Ethan (age 10), Seth (age 9), Mira (age 5) and Eleanor (age 3) were brutally killed by husband and father Steven Sueppel. Sueppel then took his own life through a car crash.

This is the story of Sheryl, Ethan, Seth, Mira and Eleanor Sueppel. 

Information and support 

·       Samaritans UK Contact Us | Samaritans 

·       National Domestic Violence Helpline UK 0808 2000 247 

·       Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) Home - AAFDA 

·       Women’s Aid www.womensaid.org.uk  

·       Mental health support USA I'm looking for mental health help for myself | Mental Health America (mhanational.org) 

·       Domestic abuse helpline USA 1.800.799.SAFE Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline (thehotline.org) 

References 

Killer bites on You Tube https://youtu.be/ou8NpLuMVeU?si=sfviMm1BzxvXhJH0

Sheryl Margot Kesterson Sueppel (1966-2008) - Find a Grave Memorial

Steven Francis Sueppel (1965-2008) - Find a Grave Memorial

Case 28: The Iowa City Sueppel - Murder Tapes - Apple Podcasts

Iowa City Sueppel murders - Wikipedia

Ethan W. Sueppel (1997-2008) - Find a Grave Memorial

Seth Sueppel (1999-2008) - Find a Grave Memorial

Mira Sueppel (2002-2008) - Find a Grave Memorial

Eleanor Sueppel (2004-2008) - Find a Grave Memorial

Credits 

Hosted and created by Clare Laxton @ladylaxton 

Produced by: Clare Laxton  

Killer in the family podcast (buzzsprout.com)

Music by Tom Box and from Pixabay. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Family Annihilator
• 12:40 Family Annihilator

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Welcome to episode 45 and sorry I wasn't able to record an episode last week. I was super ill and lost my voice so I didn't think that you needed or wanted to listen to me coughing through this case. The last couple of episodes that I've released on the Dupont de Ligionesse family and Jennifer and Abby Blagg have actually been really popular in the download, so I'd be really interested to know what you all thought of them. I'm always keeping an eye out for international cases as well, so do send them over to me on my insta at killer in the family pod or via the link in the episode notes to send me a text and suggest any cases. So let's get into this episode.

Speaker 1: 1:05

On Easter Sunday 2008 in Iowa, cheryl Supel and her four children, ethan, age 10, seth, age 9, mira, age 5, and Eleanor, age 3, were brutally killed by husband and father, stephen Supel. Stephen Supel then took his own life through a car crash. This is the story of Cheryl Ethan team and, as usual, all my sources and links to information and support, if you need it, are in the episode notes. Now let's start. Let's get straight into it by talking about Cheryl. She was born, cheryl Margot Kesterton, on the 21st of February 1966 in Shoe City in Iowa and she was 42 years old when she was killed by her husband. Cheryl was born to parents John and Gisela Kesterton and was brought up in quite a religious Catholic family, with her faith being really, really important to her. She graduated from Iowa City High School and attended the University of Iowa, graduating with a degree in education. Now, some sources said that she had a bachelor's degree in education and some said master's degree in education. So I'm not sure which level, but she definitely had a degree in education and Cheryl later went on to work as a teacher in a range of schools in Iowa and, according to the Murder Tapes podcast episode that I listened to, for this case, although Cheryl took time off work to raise her four children, she was still, like, very much involved in the school and the community, you know, supporting fundraisers and other events. She was obviously just so dedicated to education, caring for children, and just spent her whole life, know, educating and supporting them, which I think is just really lovely.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Now Cheryl met a man called Stephen Supel. I couldn't find any information about like where or when they met, but they were both of the same Catholic faith and dreamed of building a large family in their faith. They married on the 13th of June 1990. Now, stephen Francis Suppell was born on the 13th of August 1965 in Iowa City. He was born to parents, william and Patricia, and graduated from Regina High School and went on to attend the University of Northern Iowa and graduated with a degree in business. Now, apparently, suppel's family were very highly regarded in Iowa, as his father and brother were well-known lawyers and both worked at the firm Mearden Supel and Downer, and Supel himself worked in finance and banking and his last job was at Hills Bank and Trust Company in Iowa City.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Now, as I said, when Cheryl and Supel met and married, they wanted to start a family and build, you know, that really big family in their Catholic faith. It was something that Cheryl had always wanted to do and she sort of dreamed of that big family life. They actually went on to adopt four children from South Korea. Now, according to an article on Cinemaholic, cheryl had certain allergies and had had sinus surgery a couple of times and she actually believed that because of these allergies she might not ever be able to stop taking the medication she needed and that prevented her from becoming a mother. So the couple turned to adoption. Now, I couldn't find any other sources that talked about this or the reasons why the Superhelps turned to adoption, but you know, I think that sort of makes sense to me in terms of Cheryl, you know, not being able to come off medication that was stopping her her being a mother. And, as a bit of background, the adoption of children from South Korea began really in the 1950s because of the number of children who lost their parents during the Korean War, and then religious organisations in America in particular started supporting the more so. Knowing that, I wonder if Supel and Cheryl adopted their children through like a Catholic adoption agency. But I don't know that at all for sure and I haven't found anything, couldn't find any references to that.

Speaker 1: 6:01

But the Supel's four children were all adopted at different times from South Korea. I don't know if they shared any of the same biological parents, though their eldest child was Ethan. He was born on the 2nd of November 1997 in South Korea and was 10 years old when he was killed by his father. When he died he was in fourth grade at a local school called Longfellow and apparently he played the cello and he loved sports such as golf and football or soccer for our North American listeners. And the next child they had was Seth, who was born on the 1st of July 1999 in South Korea. He was nine years old when he was killed by his father. When he died, he was in second grade at the same school as Ethan Longfellow School and apparently Seth was, you know, pretty different to his older brother. Instead of sports, he loved music, gardening and flowers and apparently he spent like lots of time in the garden, you know, looking after the animals and flowers and vegetables there, which is really sweet.

Speaker 1: 7:06

Mira Supel was born on the 25th of March 2002 in South Korea and was just six years old when she was killed by her father. She was just a kindergartner, so like in reception class at Longfellow School, where Seth and Ethan attended just you know, really starting out her school life and everything that that would bring. Now, apparently, mira was a bit of a boss and loved to boss everyone around, which I absolutely love. A bit of a boss and loved to boss everyone around, which I absolutely love. Now, the Superl's youngest child was Eleanor. She was born on 31st of October 2004 in South Korea and she was just three years old when she was killed by her father. Now, apparently, eleanor loved to dress up and she was, like, quite liked a lot of princess things and you know, love playing princess and things like that, like any sort of young young girl at that age. And you know, just talking about their four children, it just it really breaks my heart to think of them taken from where they were born for presumably a better life and better opportunities with a family in America, and yet they ended up being murdered by the person who was supposed to love and protect them the most. It is just really heartbreaking. Now, by 2008, people would have seen a really happy, busy family living in Iowa just dealing with the day-to-day details and activities of normal life.

Speaker 1: 8:33

However, for Stephen Supel, it was anything but normal. In February 2008, he appeared in court and was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of embezzlement and money laundering from his former employer. He was actually fired by his employer, hills Bank and Trust Company, in late 2007 when the fraud was discovered. According to the charges, he stole over half a million dollars from the company. There wasn't any indication that the family were in financial trouble, but who knows? Here. In the February court hearing, supel pleaded not guilty and was let out on bond or bail, as we know it and he was due to face trial in April 2008.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Okay, team, this is. This is going to be a tough listen. The actions of family annihilators and what they do to their families will never cease to horrify me, and super is no exception. But he also does something that we haven't heard before, we haven't talked about before. So you know, please do do take care when you're listening to this.

Speaker 1: 10:01

On the evening of Easter Sunday, the 23rd of March 2008, after they'd attended their Easter service at their local church, stephen Supel had a plan that he would be putting into action Late night on that Sunday evening, it's believed that he went upstairs to where his wife, cheryl, was sleeping. He beat his wife with a baseball bat and he killed her and left her there. He then left voicemails for both his father and brother stating that his family were in heaven both his father and brother stating that his family were in heaven, though police believe at this time his children were still alive. Sometime in the early hours of the Monday morning, after brutally beating and killing his wife, cheryl Supal continued with his plan. He woke his four children up Ethan, seth, myra and Eleanor and ushered them into the family minivan that was in the garage. Now, I just can't imagine what his children were thinking at this point.

Speaker 1: 11:03

It was the early hours of a Monday morning. They were probably so bleary-eyed and confused and wondering where their mum was. Nevertheless, they followed their father. Why wouldn't they? They trusted him. They followed him downstairs into the family minivan. Maybe they thought they were going on a trip, or maybe that's what he told them. A holiday was not on the cards, however. Instead, supal ushered his four trusting children into the minivan which was in the garage and proceeded to try and kill them Via carbon monoxide poisoning. Now, after a while, he either decided that it wasn't going to work or that it was taking too long and ushered the kids Back into the house.

Speaker 1: 11:54

After trying to poison them, supal took his four children and brutally killed each one by beating them with a baseball bat. Ethan, seth and Myra were found in the house in their bedrooms, and Eleanor was found downstairs in a playroom. It just absolutely breaks my heart to think of these children trusting their father and just being met with pain and confusion before their deaths. I assume at this point. The kids at least felt some effects of the carbon monoxide, because the police said they found no evidence of defensive wounds on them. So I'm sure they were probably really drowsy and just not able to fight back.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Now police believe that the children were killed before 3.45am on that Monday morning, as that's when Supel left a voicemail on his former employer's answering machine. No one knows what that message said, though he also left a message on his own home answering machine at 3.50am expressing regret for what he did. And apparently just after 4am he left another voicemail on his own home answering machine saying he just tried to kill himself by drowning himself in a river. But he just kept floating this guy. He's obviously leaving messages to justify his actions and make sure he has the last word about what he's done. I just can't with him Now. At 6.31 on that Monday morning, so a couple of hours after that last voicemail he left, 911 received a call from Supal and it went like this, so I'm going to read out the sort of whole script for you. So it went like this quote this is 911. What's the location of your emergency? No-transcript. At 6.36am on that Monday morning, supel died in a car crash on Interstate 80 outside Iowa City. Witnesses indicate that the driver was driving erratically and apparently deliberately drove into a concrete pillar, killing himself inside the car.

Speaker 1: 14:54

Now the murders of the Supal family by the person who should have loved and protected them the most obviously shocked and horrified their local community. You know their church friends, their family and neighbours as well, and apparently Supel not only left those numerous voicemails for his brother, father and ex-employers, but also left a note in the house as well. Now, as you know, I am not a fan of reading through these sorts of notes, as they're usually pretty self-serving and absolute BS. So I'm not going to. But according to CBS News, police talked about the note and they said quote he did indicate in his note that ever since his problems came to light he was having trouble dealing with this issue, but again, no specific incident or cause was identified as to why it happened. He apologized numerous times.

Speaker 1: 15:53

Now, following the discovery of the note and you know from that quote from the police you can see that there was lots of discussion in the media and others questioning why he did it and why. Then To me it is pretty obvious Supal was facing humiliation for embezzling funds, something that he did for his own selfish reasons, something that he did for his own selfish reasons. He was awaiting trial. He was about to face trial for this and he was about to face losing his image and his status in his community, losing his image of a perfect and successful Catholic family man, and basically he just didn't want that to happen. Not only did he want to take his own life, but he wanted to take his family with him, not for loving reasons, but for totally selfish reasons.

Speaker 1: 16:46

We have seen this before Men who are facing financial ruin and can't bear to face the humiliation and also don't want their family to be able to live without him. They want to think that their family cannot live without them, so they take the decision to kill them as well, coldly and callously. Think about John List, robert Mockery, jean Todd, christopher Longo, xavier Dupont de Ligionnesse. We have seen it again and again. These guys are not special, they're not unique. They are selfish killers who believe in their own self-importance and their entitlement to do whatever they want to their families.

Speaker 1: 17:31

I was reading a Reddit thread about this case and someone sort of suggested that like families of men who, have you know, been indicted for fraud, or like serious sort of charges against them should maybe get some protection or consideration, thinking about the potential impact of of that on their families, and I really think that's something to think about, maybe, and to consider. Now, apart from the discussion around, you know why he did what he did, how horrific he was and all of those things. There was also discussion and questions about the funeral for the families, because they were all buried together in a Catholic funeral. Now, as you know, most of the time, if the family annihilator is also dead, they are usually buried in a separate private ceremony away from the family they killed. Now, according to Cinemaholic Cheryl's older brother, david, said about the joint funeral quote, the thought of having them laid to rest separately was unthinkable. They were a family in life. They are a family in death. Their legacy is love and that is what they will be remembered for. And what better way to end this episode by dedicating it to Cheryl, ethan, seth, myra and Eleanor and the love they had for each other, their families, friends and communities.

Speaker 1: 19:05

This has been Killer in the Family podcast, written and produced by me, claire Laxton, with music from the brilliant Tombox and Pixabay. I'll be back next week with a new episode, so please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to send me any comments or questions to my Insta at Killer in the Family Pod, or through a text via a link in the episode notes. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well. Also, don't forget, you can buy me a coffee if you like the podcast and help support its running. The link is in the episode notes too. Until then, I've been Claire Laxton. This is killer in the family podcast. Until next time, take care, thank you, thank you.