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Killer in the family podcast
A true crime podcast exploring men who kill their families.
Killer in the family podcast
Episode 71 - The Feeney Family
In February 1995, the quiet town of Springfield, Missouri was devastated by a brutal familicide. Cheryl Feeney and her two young children — 6-year-old Tyler and 18-month-old Jennifer — were found savagely murdered in their own home. The crime scene was bizarre, chilling, and left more questions than answers.
Husband and father Jon Feeney was away at a teacher’s conference when the murders took place. But it wasn’t long before suspicion fell squarely on him. Despite a trial that captivated the nation and a verdict of not guilty, many remain convinced that Feeney got away with murdering his family.
This is the story of the Feeney Family.
Information and support
· Samaritans UK Contact Us | Samaritans
· Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) Home - AAFDA
· Women’s Aid Home - Women's Aid
· National Domestic Abuse Helpline UK 0808 2000 247
· Mental health support USA Mental Health America | Homepage | Mental Health America
· Domestic abuse helpline USA 1.800.799.SAFE Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline
References
Ozarks True Crime Season 2: The Feeney Family Murders — Anne Roderique-Jones
MURDERED: The Feeney Family | Crime Junkie Podcast
The Feeney Family murders: A complete timeline of events
Cheryl Lynne Feeney (1959-1995) - Find a Grave Memorial
The Feeney Family murders: A complete timeline of events
Crime Traveler: The story of Jon Feeney and his family's murder TRUE CRIME
Credits
Hosted and created by Clare Laxton @ladylaxton
Produced by: Clare Laxton
Killer in the family podcast (buzzsprout.com)
Music from Pixabay.
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https://www.buymeacoffee.com/clarelaxton
Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Welcome to episode 71 of Killer in the Family. And before we dive into this episode I have a massive mea culpa. I wanted to flag that in last week's episode on the Simmons family I totally mispronounced one of the states in the USA. Arkansas is actually pronounced Arkansas and not how it is spelt. Massive apologies for that. As much as I really try and get my pronunciation right, I don't always so sorry about that. But now let's get into this episode.
Speaker 1:In February 1995, the quiet town of Springfield in Missouri was devastated by brutal familicide. Cheryl Feeney and her two young children, six-year-old Tyler and 18-month-old Jennifer, were found savagely murdered in their own home. The crime scene was bizarre, chilling and left more questions than answers. Husband and father John Feeney was away at a teacher's conference when the murders took place, but it wasn't long before suspicion fell squarely on him. Despite a trial that captivated the nation and a verdict of not guilty, many remain convinced that Feeney got away with murdering his family. This is the story of the Feeney family. This is going to be a really tough listen team, not only because we're discussing the murder of a whole family, but also because, technically, the crime remains unsolved. In the episode notes there are links to information and support if you need it, as well as all my sources. And, just to flag, there are a couple of great podcasts out there on this case. Already there's a crimes junkie episode about the family, as well as a brilliant multi-episode podcast called Ozark's True Crime the Feeney Family Murders. This is presented by Anne Roderick-Jones, who actually grew up in Springfield and was 15 years old when the murders took place, and I definitely recommend this for a listen if you want a deeper dive into the story and also to hear from some of the main players too.
Speaker 1:Now let's start by talking about Cheryl. She was born on the 4th of October 1959 and was 35 years old when she was killed. She was actually adopted by her parents and she had an older brother, doug, who I think was quite a bit older, like sort of 8-10 years older than her when she was killed. Cheryl was a nurse and a team leader for a gynecological surgery at Cox South Medical Centre in Springfield. As well as being an incredibly dedicated and intelligent health professional, cheryl was a much-loved colleague and friend. She apparently cared really deeply about her patients, her friends and family and just had a real care for everyone really. And as well as her successful professional life, cheryl was also so proud to be a mother and she just seemed like such a warm and lovely person to everyone her friends, her community, her colleagues and patients.
Speaker 1:According to the Crime Junkie podcast, cheryl met future husband John Feeney when they both worked at a trauma centre in 1978. He was working at a sort of attendant at the weekend, maybe while he was putting himself through school, I think. Now I couldn't find the exact date of John Feeney's birth, but it was sometime around 1960. The exact date of John Feeney's birth, but it was sometime around 1960. He was born into a very religious family and his father was actually a preacher in the Church of Christ. Now Feeney went on to be a science teacher and was a pretty popular one. Apparently he won Missouri's Best Science Teacher Award at some point in his life as well and on a total side note and Brit mentions this in the Crime Junkie episode as well but does a total side note and Brit mentions this in the Crime Junkie episode as well but does anyone else think of Boy Meets World and the teacher, mr Feeney when they hear about our teacher, Mr Feeney, in today's episode. Anyway, one for the millennials there, I think.
Speaker 1:So Cheryl and Feeney met and apparently they sort of officially got together when they danced at a colleague's party. They were married in the 1980s and both sort of continued to flourish in their careers Cheryl is a health professional and Feeney is a teacher. There's a really interesting bit of the Feeney Family Murders podcast by Anne Roderick-Jones where she talks to Cheryl's brother, doug, who tells the podcast that he first met Feeney at the actual wedding and he instantly thought that Cheryl was making a mistake. He talks about having like a real sort of visceral reaction to it and just thinking that it was wrong and a mistake, and I thought this was so interesting, such an interesting insight from him. Now Cheryl and Feeney welcomed their son, tyler John Feeney, into their family in 1988. Tyler was just six years old when he was killed. Then, in 1993, jennifer Lynn Feeney was born. She was just 18 months old when she was killed.
Speaker 1:The Feeney family moved into their family home in Springfield in the early 1990s and anyone who was looking at the family would see a happy, normal suburban family with parents with successful careers and happy children. As we know, not all is always as it seems. Firstly, and possibly not too seriously, neighbours talked about how they never really saw the family. Tyler was never out playing with the neighbourhood kids and the parents kept to themselves. Nothing too out of the ordinary here, maybe, but friends and family also talked about how Feeney would often wax lyrical about his son, tyler, and what he was up to, but he would never talk about Cheryl or Jennifer when she arrived into the family. Secondly, and more seriously, although Feeney told the police after murders that him and Cheryl had a perfect marriage with no infidelities, that was a long way from the truth.
Speaker 1:Feeney was a serial philanderer and was also inappropriate with his female students. The podcast the Feeney Family Murders talks to quite a few people who either remember Feeney as a teacher or had an actual affair with him. There was not just one. There were multiple affairs with adult women, fellow teachers a lot of the time, and one sexual encounter or even ended up with a sex tape being made. More concerningly, there were multiple rumours and occasions where Feeney's interactions with his students, ie under 18s, were highly inappropriate and in today's world would definitely be seen as sexual abuse due to his position of power as a teacher would definitely be seen as sexual abuse due to his position of power as a teacher. One woman spoke to the Feeney Family Murders podcast about a camping trip she and a few of her friends went on after they'd graduated, so they'd be sort of 18 years old. Feeney, their teacher, also came on the camping trip and apparently was often off with one of the female students and it was pretty well known that they were sleeping together A huge abuse of power from a teacher. Apparently, feeney also invited female students to like go to the cinema or other places with him. He sort of chose ones to like, you know, stay behind school and help him and then invited them to places with him. Apparently, he was away with a couple of female students and called their hotel room to see if they wanted to go somewhere. When they declined he asked what they were wearing. I mean, he was their teacher.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now, whether Cheryl knew about Feeney's affairs I don't know, but Cheryl's mother told the Feeney Family Murders podcast that Cheryl did sometimes talk about leaving Feeney, something she would never get the chance to do. On Monday, the 27th of February 1995, cheryl Feeney didn't turn up to work, something that was very unlike her, a no-call, no-show, as Crime Junkie would call it. As well as that, the kids also weren't dropped off at their babysitter, which had sort of been pre-arranged and was like a normal arrangement. So a co-worker of Cheryl's called Teresa was really concerned about her because this was such off behaviour from her and called the police for a welfare check and in between that volunteered to go and check on the house as well. You can hear her speak to the Feeney Family Murders podcast about that morning when she got to the house. She talks about how she saw that the Sunday papers were still on the porch, which was really unlike the family to leave the papers the whole day without being picked up. She also saw that one of the glass panes in the front door was sort of cut out and had white paint on it, which she thought was really weird. She tried the doorknob, actually thinking it would be locked, but it was open. So she went in. She was calling Cheryl's name but couldn't see her or the kids. She had a bit of a walk around and saw in the garage that the bonnet of Cheryl's car was raised, you know, like almost someone was like changing the oil or putting like screen wash in it. But on top of the bonnet, like in between the bonnet and the windscreen, was like a TV and like loads of other just random stuff which seemed really strange. Now Teresa could immediately tell that something wasn't right, so she called 911 and said that they needed to get over to the house straight away, and she went back outside to wait.
Speaker 1:A police officer arrived at the house and went into the house to check what was going on. Maybe it was a burglary, considering the window pane and the stuff on Cheryl's car. So in he went to investigate and what he found would have stayed with him for the rest of his life, I am sure. Once he got to the main bedroom and turned the light on, the police officer saw Cheryl, who was lying face down on her bed. She was dead and had multiple injuries to her face and neck, presumably from a blunt instrument or maybe a metal pipe. According to a couple of sources, teresa actually talks about this moment on the Feeney Family Murders podcast because she followed the police officer into the house and said to him, when she saw his face looking at Cheryl's bedroom, that she was dead, wasn't she? And I just can't imagine the shock and heartbreak for Teresa here.
Speaker 1:The officer then went into Tyler's bedroom and turned the light on. He saw six-year-old Tyler lying on his back on his bed. Tyler was also dead and also had multiple injuries to his face and neck. In the last bedroom, 18-month-old Jennifer was found in her cot and had been strangled by a cord. I think the cord was from like the blind in her room, but can't be 100% sure.
Speaker 1:So where was John, you might ask? Well, while his family was being found dead in their home, john was at a teacher's conference in the Tantara Resort at the Lake of the Ozarks, about a 90-minute drive away. On that Monday morning John saw a few colleagues before heading back to his room where he received a call that his family couldn't be found. Apparently his dad called him later on to give him the horrific news that his whole family was dead. Now I did see in a couple of sources that, like a police officer had actually told him in person, but most said that his dad told him. So I'm not 100% sure on this or how he found out, how he found out, but he did find out on that Monday morning and made his way back to Springfield to talk to the police, back to the Feeney family home where police were investigating a very strange crime scene. As we said before, in the garage the bonnet of Cheryl's car was up and had like a TV and other stuff placed on it, which seemed strange in itself. There was also the basement door that was off its hinges, but according to the Feeny Family podcast, a crime scene investigator said that it didn't look like it had been kicked off its hinges. It looked like it had been taken off and there were no other signs of a break-in.
Speaker 1:The crime scene continued to throw up just some really strange things. All over the house were footprints. They were size 11 and they were in sort of white paint, like the paint that was on the glass pane on the front door. So the footprints looked like someone had sort of tracked the paint in and around the house. But the weird thing was that the paint didn't fade. So if you think about it, if you stepped in paint and then, like, walked down the pavement, the paint would fade as you walked along and there was less paint on your shoes. But that wasn't the case. The paint would fade as you walked along and there was less paint on your shoes, but that wasn't the case here. The paint was like the same thickness, almost like someone was walking along and like repainting their shoes as they went. I couldn't find what shoe size John was, by the way, so not sure if it matched the paint footprints. Now, as well as these footprints in paint, in Cheryl's bedroom on the wall was written D-I-E-B-I-T. So die bit in white paint, and this is really strange. Like did someone mean to write die bitch and ran out of time or paint, or was interrupted.
Speaker 1:Initially, police investigated whether the crime was linked to local gang activity, but dismissed that relatively quickly. Now there was also a few hairs that were found on Cheryl's body and in the garage. They would turn out to not belong to any member of the family, including John Feeney. In another strange aspect of this case, all the photos and pictures of the family were like turned around, so like turned around to face the wall or turned over, so you couldn't see them. And this is a classic sign that the killer knew their victims. They didn't want to see them after they had killed them, and this happened in the List family murders that we talked about way earlier on in the podcast, the list family murders that we talked about way earlier on in the podcast where John List had killed his whole family and he actually cut out their faces from family photos so he wouldn't have to see them.
Speaker 1:And finally, the final strange aspect of this crime scene was that the temperature on the waterbed that Cheryl was lying on was like turned up to the max. So it's really really hot and there's a lot of speculation that this was to try and confuse like the time of death. So presumably because it was so hot, cheryl would decompose faster. But Tyler and Jennifer didn't have the same sort of temperature. They they didn't have waterbeds. So you know they didn't have the same sort of temperature applied to them. So have waterbeds. So you know they didn't have the same sort of temperature applied to them. So I'm not sure if that would have worked anyway. So the crime scene was complicated and bizarre and meant that there was lots to unpack and investigate for the police.
Speaker 1:So you might be asking what John's movements were over the weekend and whether he had time to drive from the conference and back again to kill his family on sort of Saturday nights, early Sunday morning, which is when the police thought that they had died. You know, because the Sunday papers were on the porch. It implies that you know, that sort of late Saturday, early Sunday was when they were murdered. Late Saturday, early Sunday was when they were murdered. Now, spoiler alert, he did have time, so that weekend Feeney drove to the teacher's conference on the Saturday afternoon. He went to dinner that night with fellow teacher called Pam, and according to the Feeney Family Murders podcast they finished their dinner and when they were driving back to the hotel around 8.30, they were pulled over because Feeney was speeding. So he was issued with a ticket and the police actually held on to his driving license because he didn't live in the area. So, like they couldn't, they had to take it, so he would have to go to the police station to pay the fine and get his license back. So he did that later on that night, around 10.30pm. There are records of that. So he was in the Lake of the Ozarks around 10.30pm on Saturday night. Earlier that night he actually called and spoke to Cheryl around 9.15pm as well. So between this time, so between 10.30pm on the Saturday night and the next morning, feeney said that he was in his hotel room the whole night. There was no one to corroborate that though, and, interestingly, police found a receipt in Feeney's car for like a McDonald's breakfast from 6.59am on the Monday morning. He hadn't actually mentioned that to police, but it clearly showed that he was back in the Ozarks resort around 7am on that Monday morning. According to someone who knew Feeney, they told the Feeney Family Murders podcast that they thought this was really strange as he was always late and was a really late riser as well. Maybe he got, you know, went to that McDonald's to try and establish an alibi.
Speaker 1:Now police continued their investigation into the murder of Cheryl, tyler and Jennifer and slowly started turning their attention towards Feeney. There were a couple of things that piqued their interest. First, after the murders, feeney moved back into the family home where his whole family had been murdered and many in the community thought that this was really strange and a bit macabre as well. Now I don't know what his financial situation was, etc. But it does seem really strange that he would want to live in his house, in a house where his wife and children were killed so brutally. Like did he sleep in the bed where Cheryl died it just I can see why people thought it was strange. And the second discovery that made police look squarely at Feeney was that they discovered that he had taken out quite a large life insurance policy on her just a few months before she died, for a quarter of a million dollars. Now there is real side eye happening now on Feeney. Now a teacher did tell the Feeney family murders podcast that an insurance company sort of visited the school like at that time to upsell some insurance which lots of teachers, including Feeney, took advantage of. But it provided a motive for police. Also, after doing some calculations police worked out that Feeney had plenty of time to drive to and from his conference. About a three-hour round trip and thinking about it would be really early in the morning. So you know, not lots of traffic. So he would have time to do that kill his family, stage the crime scene and then get back in time to that 7am McDonald's. So Feeney became the prime suspect in the murder of his whole family.
Speaker 1:In April 1996, over a year after his family was killed, john Feeney was indicted by a grand jury and was going to trial. His lawyers took the prosecution by surprise and enacted his right to a speedy trial. So he faced a jury in September of that year. The prosecution evidence relied on a few key things. They brought up his extramarital affairs, calling quite a few women to the stand to testify about their relationship with him, calling quite a few women to the stand to testify about their relationship with him. And in her podcast, anne spoke to someone who said that although Feeney's affairs came up at the trial, the extent of his affairs and inappropriate behavior with students wasn't really covered, like the sex tape that he made with a fellow teacher never came up, and it made me wonder what else didn't come up in the trial. Maybe the prosecution didn't have enough time to bring all their evidence to the case. The prosecution did also highlight the life insurance policy that was taken out just a few months before Cheryl was killed, and they also thought that they had a trump card witness. Petrol station employee in Springfield testified that he had seen Feeney in the petrol station on that late Saturday, early Sunday morning in his red Mustang Seemingly an absolutely slam dunk for the prosecution. However, it was actually proved that the employee wasn't even working that night, so not a slam dunk at all.
Speaker 1:Another piece of evidence that came up and this was absolutely brand new was that Tyler, six-year-old Tyler tested positive for hepatitis B. Now this is a really serious infection team and according to the nhs. It is, quote a liver infection that is spread through blood, semen and vaginal fluids. Again according to the nhs, you can contract hepatitis b via quote having vaginal, anal, oral sex without using a condom or a dam, injecting drugs using shared needles, being injured, injured by a used needle, having a tattoo or piercing with unsterilized equipment, having a blood transfusion in a country that does not check blood for hepatitis B. Blood transfusions in the UK and I presume, the US, are checked for hepatitis B. So this was a huge, huge piece of evidence, huge news for everyone concerned, and it feels pretty rare that like a six-year-old, like Tyler, would contract hepatitis B.
Speaker 1:John and Cheryl Feeney were tested as well and neither of them had it. So it wasn't passed on to him by its parents, so it was suggested that he contracted it through being sexually assaulted by someone. The defense used this fact to suggest that there was another motive for the murder for someone who wasn't john feeney because he didn't have the infection. So there was someone out there who had been sexually abusing tyler and that was the motive for the murder. So someone else did it and this sort of aspect of the case really brings another element to the story. That doesn't really make sense and it remains completely unsolved. So nobody still knows how Tyler got hepatitis B. Was there someone that was sexually abusing him? And that feels just really heartbreaking to think about Now.
Speaker 1:On the 5th of October the jury found Feeney not guilty of the murders of Cheryl, tyler and Jennifer. Interestingly, people questioned afterwards why the prosecution didn't try the cases separately. So if he was found not guilty of killing Cheryl, they still could have taken him to trial for the murders of Tyler and Jennifer. Because he was found not guilty, feeney can never face trial again for the murders because of double jeopardy rules, so even if new evidence comes to light, he still cannot be tried again for the same crime.
Speaker 1:After the trial, cheryl's family sued Feeney for wrongful death and took him to civil court, and this happens quite a lot as there's a lower burden of proof in civil court. For example, nicole Brown's family took OJ Simpson to civil court and won. They wanted to make sure that he didn't financially gain from the murders. Now Feeney and Cheryl's family settled I couldn't find how much for, but he apparently did get $50,000 to pay for a private investigator to find out what happened to his family. Now ann rodrick jones actually tracked john feeney down to ecuador where he still works or works as a teacher. Not much else is known about his life there or whether he actually spent that $50,000 on a private investigator into his family's murders. Now there is one final twist in this case.
Speaker 1:After her podcast came out, anne Roderick-Jones was contacted by a woman called Brittany who was a neighbour of the Feeneys back in 1995 when she was about nine years old. She talked about one night when she was younger. She woke up in the night because she had a stomach ache. She went in to see her parents and they advised her to go and take some medicine. So she went to take some Pepto-Bismol. And this was when she looked out of the window in her house and saw a red Mustang Feeney's car parked in the Feeney's drive. She knew it was his car as it was quite distinctive and also it was usually parked in their garage. So she sort of noticed that it was there in the drive. This night happened. The night this happened was Saturday, the 25th of February 1995, the night that the Feeney family were killed.
Speaker 1:Now, when the family were found after that night the police did do door-to-door investigations. They came to talk to Brittany's dad when he was sort of out and about in the garage, he said he didn't say anything. When he was sort of out and about in the garage, he said he didn't say anything. Now Brittany talked to Anne about how she pulled her dad aside and told him what she saw. He pressed her to make sure she was really clear, which she was, and then he called the police officer back. So Brittany told this police officer what she saw and she sort of thought the officer wrote it down. This information was never passed on or brought up ever again, and Anne actually confirmed this with Brittany's dad, who told her that he thought that Brittany got up with stomach ache between sort of 2am and 4am, which would probably fit with the timeline if Feeney drove back from the lake of the Ozarks.
Speaker 1:Now on the podcast, anne then talks to an investigator on the case about this new piece of information and she said she'd never heard about it and it was just never passed on, and she finished by saying, quote man, that's too bad. She may have been the witness that won the case for us. I mean like mind blown, mind, absolutely blown, the the power of podcast, this brand new witness who did pass on the information at the time of the murders and I don't know why it wasn't passed on either. This is brand new and it could have changed the trajectory of the case completely. I'm so heartbroken and disappointed. It feels feels like somebody messed up here and just think about what could have been for Cheryl's family.
Speaker 1:The case of the Feeney family murders is still technically unsolved, to the absolute heartbreak of Cheryl's family and friends. So what do I think? So, on the basis of the evidence that we know of and this is my personal opinion so on the basis of the evidence that we know of and this is my personal opinion I think that John Feeney probably did kill his family. I think that the crime scene seemed just obviously staged to look like a break-in as much as possible. We know that he had enough time to drive between his conference and his family home, kill his family and drive home again. And with the new witness that came through Anne Roderick-Jones podcast, I think that adds weight to this theory. I think that he had motive, in the sense that Cheryl might have been thinking about leaving him and he didn't want to lose his family. Or, you know, he was raised very religious and maybe he didn't want to get a divorce. Maybe there was something about to come out about his inappropriateness with students and that he thought he was about to lose his like career and image. I genuinely think that he thought he came up with the perfect plan to get away with murder and that he did. There are still a couple of things that trouble me, like the hairs found at the crime scene don't match John's and the fact that Tyler had hepatitis B. But on reflection, I think that John did kill his family. Sadly, if he did, cheryl's family will never see justice because of the double jeopardy laws, and that is just heartbreaking. This episode is dedicated to Cheryl, tyler and Jennifer, to their lives cut way too short and the love they brought to their family, friends and community. We remember them.
Speaker 1:This has been Killer in the Family podcast, written and produced by me, claire Laxton. I'll be back next week with a new episode. 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, and don't forget that you can buy me a coffee if you like the podcast and help support it's running. This is a podcast with purpose. That is a total labor of love for me, so all help is appreciated. Until then, I've been Claire Laxton. This is Killer in the Family podcast. Until next time, take care, thank you.
