I'll try to keep this fairly short, but this is something that has been weighing on me pretty heavily the past few days. A little backstory: I didn't grow up in an evangelical household by any means. My parents were more culturally Christian, and I would even put my dad as being somewhat skeptical. I went to Sunday school at the local Methodist church with my parents until I was around 6 or 7 and then I didn't start going to church again (other than occasional hardcore shows at churches) until the end of my senior year in high school, when I was invited by a girl I liked to come to a local youth group and made the decision to become a Christian. Being a musician, I almost immediately got involved playing guitar at various churches over the years. Despite this, I definitely had points I disagreed with the mainstream Evangelical church with; specifically regarding LGBTQ issues and the right to abortion. As I'm sure is the case with many in here, the 2016 election was a big catalyst for my own deconstruction.
Fast forward to the past year or so. I had still been serving and playing guitar at a local church most Sundays out of the year, in addition to working full time and running a home studio on the side. Around a year ago, I joined another hardcore band which has started playing shows fairly regularly and going on small weekend runs every few months or so. For the first time in years, I had to greatly scale back my availability at church. This started coming to a head a few weeks ago in regards to a Men's conference members of our church were attending. One night at rehearsal the worship leader at my church asked me if I was going to which I told him no since it was the one weekend in May that I didn't already have a show or a client in the studio. He started getting aggressive with me about how he told me about this event months in advance and I needed to be there because it was going to be life-changing for me. I'm by no means the most masculine man and I don't like being surrounded by people I don't really know, so spending a few days surrounded by hundreds of macho men sounded like an absolutely miserable experience. He brought it up again and, to his frustration, I again told him no. Fast forward a few weeks and I was telling another musician at rehearsal about the run of shows my band had booked for this summer. The worship leader pulled me aside and asked me if I had anyone in my life could tell me I was doing too much, to which I told him yes. He then proceeded to tell me that, in his words, I was "focusing on the wrong priorities in life" by playing shows with this band. His demeanor and aggression definitely struck me as off-putting.
The Monday before last, my entire friend group was left in a state of shock after our bassist had been found dead in his apartment. This was somebody who my wife and I had been close friends with for over a decade now, especially after performing with hin over the past year. I even took this past week off from serving just to have a chance to deal with the grief and attend funeral services. Despite sharing about his passing on various social media platforms and notating in Planning Center that I needed this past weekend off to deal with grief, not a single member of leadership at a church that my wife and I have been serving at almost every weekend for just under 7 years now reached out to talk to us or even to check up on is. Honestly, I'm at a loss currently. I'm back on the schedule this Sunday; but I just have no desire to serve.
Sorry for the long post. Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Would it be best for me to take some time away from church?
Thank you!

At 3:10pm today, my mother called me to tell me that my father had died. I knew something had to be big if she was going to actually call me rather than just text me or fb message me.
I haven't seen my father in a decade, not since my sister's funeral in 2013. I didn't know he was sick in any way. I think I found out that he caught Covid and nearly died from it after the fact, like perhaps 6 months later. I am generally not included in family discussions, even extended family.
I feel nothing at all. Nothing. Even the call, I was more like "..oh okay". I called my husband right after and he wondered if I would be okay, to which I replied, "I don't know. I don't feel anything at all". I'm not sure how he felt about that, but I know we'll be talking when he comes homes from his work.
My parents separated at some point when i was very small, I never knew when. It wasn't a happy marriage, lots of violence from both parties. I only saw my father periodically, stayed at his place a few times. My mother remarried and my stepfather wasn't a good person. Maybe I mentally shut off the idea that a father was something I needed.
I felt the same when my sister died. A lack of emotion. Not the best relationship there. But I felt so much pressure to feel something, to be emotional, to "properly mourn". This idea that one must cry to show that they care, or feel something. The funeral of my niece when I was younger, I remember someone telling me to cry, that it was the right thing to do, that's what you do.
The pressure is already starting. My mom says that my family will probably to calling me.
I'm sorry if this is all over the place. I just dont really have people to talk to right now, at least people who won't use religion as a guilt trip (My family is very religious) or make me emotional over someone who didn't take a part in my life.

I lost my grandfather on Sunday, just two days before his 85th birthday. He passed at his home, surrounded by all his family. His last words were to my grandmother telling her that he loved her.
It still doesn’t feel real. Partially because he was physically unrecognizable by the end, but also because this illness progressed so quickly and took him away from us so suddenly. He survived cancer and miastenia gravis, yet this is what has taken him away from us….
I’m haunted by the images of his body and seeing it be taken away by the funeral home. I won’t forget the sound of my grandmother’s pain or the sight of my mother crying because she had just lost her father.
The funeral has been delayed because my grandmother was hospitalized the next day with broken heart syndrome. She is home and resting now, but god these past several months and especially these last several days have been absolutely draining. The world feels like it’s stopped spinning and everything is cloudy around me.
I am trying to remind myself that he is finally at peace and can finally rest and no longer suffer, but my selfish feelings just want him here with me. My heart breaks into a million pieces every time my grandmother mentions him. I don’t know how to even move forward or begin the process of grieving and healing.
I felt like people on here would understand my mixed emotions of relief and heartbreak. F this illness.

THere are four of us in our family. My sister, myself (f), brother and youngest brother. My older sister and younger brother were. always the golden children and my brother and I (two middle) were were the ones who were subjected to all the abuse. In addition to being pit against one another..My dad was a good man but had his own issues and manipulated by my mother. My father died about ten years ago, in which everything went to my mother. After my father died the youngest brother was released from prison after 10 years. In the year following my father death somehow my mother got sick, although I still question her illness. My parents were economically well off..When my father died he made sure my mother did not have any financial worries and would be taken care of.....At the time of my fathers death, the will was set up if my mother died, or when she did everything split equally among the four children. lol My father should have known my mother better...But he was such a good man I think he wanted to see the good in that dark rock of heart.... Within one year most of my fathers money was gone as my mother purchased my convict brother a new truck, home etc etc...By the time she died the next year, he was left everything..Almost a million dollars worth of assets. My sister had a falling out with my mother later on in life so she too was exclude from the will..Specifically naming that her three children get nothing...if that isn't I hate you, I'm not sure what is..I can only laugh and feel sorrow that even in her death she had so much evil in her heart...None of this was surprising and we had found out before she had died so at least she didn't have the last laugh in her grave... My siblings are better people than I because I didn't even go to her funeral..It sounds horrible but I didn't cry when she died..I wasn't going to go to her funeral and pretend I was sorry she died...I know that sounds horrible but the only sorry I felt was she was so miserable in her life and never dealt with her issues...There are mixed emotions towards her..A part of me will feel sorry for her but then another part feels there is no excuse to hurt your children...As parents, we hurt our children but it's not intentional..It's part of being a parent..It took me years to understand that..but I can't imagine ever wanting to hurt your child or go out of your way to cause them pain..My son and I have had our ups and down, just normal parent stuff...never in a million years as screwed up as my mother was to me, would I ever want to see him in pain...or do something I know would cause him pain...That part I will never understand...for those young folks dealing with this, as time goes by things get better..being young is hard in general..being in a toxic family is tough....but with age comes insight...when you have your own children you start seeing things differently...both good and bad..a huge sense of relief came over me..Years later the anger is gone but a lot of questions of Why remain..If anything I feel a deep sense of sorrow for her for being so miserable..My sister however filled my mothers shoes in trying to do anything possible to hurt my brother and I...My youngest brother who inherited everything is back in prison, calling us asking us for money...Everything my parents had during their 40 year marriage is gone..Either sold or pawned..It makes me sad and laugh...Part of me doesn't want to help my youngest brother, but he was just a pawn in her game..If anything i refuse to let her actions continue to cause a division, because it lets her win...But it's not easy not to be resentful..Thank goodness I have a good therapist..The reason why I am posting the below situation is because anywhere else wouldn't believe the story as normal people would think it was insane or I was leaving stuff out...t
My sister and I used to be close but I began to start feeling she was trying to cause a division between my son and I....she would act as if she was supportive but in reality do things to hurt me..For many years I thought I was being paranoid or a lot of time my mom took the blame because it was expected with my home..Now I have to wonder how much blame my mother took that really it was my sister...Or things my sister would say that was a lie..Don't get me wrong, my mother had her issues but there were numerous times my sister seemed to find "love letters" from other men and give them to my father, which in turn would cause issues with my parents...I question the authenticity of this because my mother was equally as manipulative and not stupid...But yesterdays events has me questioning a lot of things with the sibling dynamics. I have my own issues after years of trauma and dysfunction. Even though I have dealt with a lot of issues it took and still takes a lot of work...I am the only one out of four that see's a therapist to address the issues..Sadly my two brothers even though treated very differently, both ended up in and out of prison and had drug issues..... My sister married well off and hides behind religion...to pray away everything..We are all in our 40s and the crap that went on 30 years ago still impacts us as adults...The dynamics no matter how much they have changed are still the same...As i get older and through therapy I've learned I don't need to cause myself hurt but it's hard when the hurt is caused now by my siblings.
Here is the situation that transpired yesterday. I do not feel I am overreacting and justified in thinking how F#### up this situation is... Honestly I am not even sure how to think or feel...For context I live across the country from my siblings. Not because of any reason except the farther I am the safer I am, or so I thought..I have not spoken to my siblings in at least a week maybe more. Even when we do speak it's usually my sister and I....the only times either of my brothers call, they want money...My sister and is nothing but small talk as our relationship has worsened over the years..The better I do, the worse my relationship with her gets. My therapist pointed out that when I became my sisters "equal" she lost control..It makes sense but i'm not sure of anything right now..
Yesterday evening I"m upstairs painting a spare bedroom, with ear buds in when I noticed my dogs going insane..They are chilled out and lazy...I remove ear buds and I hear yelling "make yourself known make yourself known"...As I walk out the door to my second floor I see no fucking joke 8 police standing in my living room walking up the steps like they after a criminal.. I"m utterly confused, scared and honestly not even sure what is happening... While my brother are in and out of prison, my life professionally and personally is so far removed from that sort of thing, seeing LEO at my door, much less inside my home is so abnormal. I can't even recall the last time I had a traffic ticket..My life is pretty mundane and boring. Honestly the next few minutes seems like a fog. They cops tell me they made entry through my basement because I didn't open the door when they knocked...If they rang the doorbell I would have heard upstairs..My earbuds were on but I can hear a doorbell or hard knock..My dogs would have heard someone knocking...THe knock must of been really light because my dogs didn't perk up until the cops were walking up my stairs to the second floor.. They seemed surprised why I didn't answer the door? As if it's abnormal to have ear buds in but I think they honestly thought the call was legit.. So Besides not hearing them, LEO are the very last people I expect to be at my house.. I don't have interactions with LEO ever. I don't live in a area where LEO visit ever...I already have PTSD from multiple combat deployments so I can't put into words the feaanxiety I was feeling at that moment... My home is one safe place...well until yesterday.. My first thought was they have the wrong house..They ask me my name and I tell them and they ask me "we got a call from your brother who said your adult son called and wanted to do a welfare check" Looking back I should have asked if they knew how to paint...but at the time my sarcasm was not on point.. The cops said when I didn't answer they let themselves in. (no shit) I am literally so confused to what's happening at that moment and feel like I"m going to pass out...I didn't even know what a welfare check was until they asked if I felt like hurting myself? For a welfare check, cops came in like they were there for a hardened criminal..If I were needing a welfare check, walking in uninvited yelling make yourself known, needing 8 total cops seems rather excessive for one single chick..I don't have fire arms so i'm unsure what they were told to garner that sort of response..But i admit it really f#### me up..it's one of the scariest situations I have been in for a really long time..
I still wasn't processing everything and tell them I haven't spoken to my family in at least a few days and it was small chit chat..I can't convey how insanely confused I was as to what the hell was transpiring..I"m a very private person and this is not norma by my life today.. Deep down though none of this is knowing my siblings were involved comes as shocking.. The shocking part was it was unprovoked...I show them my phone like I even needed to justify myself.. I realize the call was orchestrated by my sister manipulating my adult son and brother. She used my brother to do the dirty work and call the police..Why she told my adult son I died is either really cruel or a lie..Honestly I do't know what the truth is as none of it makes logical sense... I know she did it to cause a division between my son and I over an upcoming trip together next week. None of my siblings and I are close due to a history of dysfunction and trauma. They live thousands of miles across the country from me. My brother would have had to speak to my sister to get my home address.. I"m still trying to understand how this even transpired or why but it's not surprising knowing the way my family dynamics are. I'm contemplating selling my home so nobody knows where I live because I can't say for certain this won't happen again. It's unbelievable anyone can make a welfare check call and if you don't answer a door, police can come in. I understand it but then again I don't because anybody can call and say whatever they want and a situation like yesterday can happen... It could have ended up a lot more tragic than it did.....It really F#### me up.... As I said it's not like the police came in gently as if there was a concern something was occurring, it was more like they came in like they were the swat team yelling and stuff..Not to mentioned the humiliation as all my neighbors standing outside because this stuff does't happen where we live...I feel my family as a whole crossed way to many boundaries and short of sociopathic.. The sick and twisted thing is somehow this all turned on me? Somehow I was in the wrong and my brother defending our sister. My son who is 25, does't understand dysfunction as I did everything I could to break the cycle by dealing with mental health early on...He's turned out pretty well adjusted so in his normal rational mind it makes no sense why his aunt would do something like this. So while it hurts that he was defending my sister, I"m not angry with him because rational people who grew up in normal homes don't understand the dysfunction. But I see how the cycle continues with my sister and her children. I've tried to address it lightly but she, like my mother, feels she is a "good mother"....
I finally came to the realization I have to cut complete and all ties with my siblings...A lot of things have happened over the years but yesterday was the final straw..I could almost understand her actions if we had spoken or gotten into an argument but none of that even occurred. I don't really have a question and I realize this is indirectly about parents, honestly I'm trying to process everything that happened..I know it seems silly that a welfare check causing this much grief, but the way the LEO came in and yelled "make yourself known" or maybe the randomness as it would be the last thing I ever expect to occur..But today every little sound startles me more than usual...I have since learned to make sure every door and. window is locked and plan on getting a security system installed but I shouldn't have to live like that..Am I overreacting? Does anyone else see history repeating itself though their siblings..My grandmother was the same way as my mother, which is weird bc my mother was hated like she hated me...Sometimes I feel silly that things that happened when I was 10 can still upset me a 30 years later..I don't resent either of the GC either..while they were treated different and better they can't see the division it created...They don't understand what it's like not to have your mother love you or be so cruel..It's unfathomable to people who do.. My sister says she forgives our mother for the hate later on because of our mothers mental heath issue..but i think it's a load of crap..My mother went out of her way to hurt her children..SHe put freaking sugar in my gas tank like who does that to their child?But the name calling had the longest impact...Always being called "fat" or "blimp"...I was never even chunky as a child..Looking back at photos I see a normal looking kid, even if I was overweight, it doesn't justify her behavior. But it's more appalling because I was worried about something that didn't' exist..I'm sorry I know this is long and all over the place..I really just needed to vent and there are very few places where people can even remotely relate to things I've said...I haven't been this"upset' or whatever I'm feeling right now in a long time.. It's like I lost control over my life...That a quick phone call when I least expect it will send a squat team of LEO to my living room..I've decided to permanently go NC with my siblings....I"m to old for this kind of drama and have worked to hard dealing with this type of treatment from my mother..At least with her I could sort of expect it and she did her dirty work..my sister manipulates my brother who should know better and worse my adult son who doesn't' understand dysfunction....I apologize again if this is long...I am just trying to process everything and maybe someone can provide some insight as to why the randomness of it..First LEO has better things to do but the what ifs of how that could have turned is scary...and as "normal" as this is with my family, I have been so far removed from it, I still find myself trying to figure out why..But there is no answer for toxic families..again i hope this is okay..i'm curious if anyone else shares similar sibling dynamics...I thought when my mother was dead I could begin the healing process I never expected to be dealing with it from my older sibling...Looking back though I realize my sister has always been the same way..I was just manipulated in thinking it was all my mom... Im really grateful for forums like this...Growing up I always felt all alone. I'm glad young people today have a platform to go to bc it's so difficult when your financially dependent on the abuser..Thank you for letting me vent..The last 24 hours has been a mix of emotions. Not only has it brought up old issue but made me really wonder if i need to NC with my siblings because it's not healthy normal behavior..My rationale is I spend the first half of my life miserable because I had no choice as a child but as an adult if people, even family cause me pain or bring strife to my life, I'm allowing myself to be unhappy...But I think a part of me craves the family I don't haveIDK Part of me almost wishes my sister and I had gotten into an argument or something so then I could "justify" her action in my head but knowing she would hurt me just to want to hurt me makes me feel like the 12 year old version of myself who has no control over her life because I am subjected to the actions my mother..Short of selling my home and moving not allowing anyone know where I live, i'm not seeing a viable solution to present this again? Or worse every little sound thinking the police are coming inside..

I am all for extra content and I will watch secrets revealed, but they are NOT being honest. fucking still! we were baited into this reveal imo. we knew they were fucking around and it's no surprise to me that it was in sandal and arianas home, and while sandal wasn't at the funeral. that is not at ALL surprising.
wheres the reveal? because im not seeing anything groundbreaking.

Like for example, the Undertaker and Kane growing up in their family's funeral home, that could be a whole series right there;
Or Razor Ramón growing up in Miami, wrestling in in some shady underground circuit;
Or (check this out)
An alternate timeline where WCW won the Monday Night Wars, and didn't buy the contracts of the Rock or Mick Foley. They now share an apartment in NYC. Rocky is a Broadway actor, Mick wrestles on the independent circuit. It's a buddy comedy.
What y'all think? Any ideas?

TLDR: years upon years of depression built until breaking point, just before the pandemic. I've done incredibly well since, but every blip seems to swing me back further and for longer; it's like watching my own Greek tragedy.
Skip to end for advice I'm seeking
Long version, it's really really comprehensive and I do just feel compelled to get it all out: apologies in advance/thank you
My family upbringing was fractious at best and featured endless family arguments. My parents separated when I was 11 and ever since I've been juggling mental health issues.
For the most part my mental health challenges were masked for one reason or another until my penultimate semester at university. I'll set the scene. Studying philosophy, (specifically Nietzsche which I'm sure didn't help) going into 2020, where I had assignments due end of Jan2020.
I was very depressed, and thought it was just studiously anxious. Once the assignments passed, things took an incredibly bad turn. By February, the month of love felt so fake, and even with my partner I felt like those fleeting moment of joy were just masking over the real me. The happy persona I had mintained over all those years had come crashing down.
End of Feb, I attempted suicide. I had planned the whole thing over the whole month. It was very dark and bleak. Luckily I had rung my parents (I can't remember precisely which one first) in the very early morning crying and telling them what happened. My dad immediately drove the 2 hr drive to come get me. Going into March I was now at home, which had always been an environment which aggrevated my issues - but with the benefit of family, however toxic, to support me.
I slept that journey back home home, but when I woke the next day my Dad said he got no sleep over it, and that there was something that my family had omitted from telling me.
My nan (Yiayia) was actually hospitalised with heart failure and was in critical condition from the night beforehand. She was stable, but things weren't looking good. She was the matriarchal figure in my extended family, and deeply adored. (Sure you can tell where this is heading)
The UK went into lockdown endish of March. My Yiayia had remarkably made a speedy recovery from the heart failure, got pneumonia and recovered from that, but understandably was advised to stay in hospital as the doctors and nurses felt she was more likely to get COVID out than in. Within a week she got COVID and passed on 2nd April whilst we were all quarantined. It felt like the most elaborate April fools joke. The Truman Prank Show.
I was living at my mum's during this, and my nan was my mum's mother. I was sat with her when she got the phone call. I was null to feeling anything, and what I was witnessing was such an overwhelming experience. I buried those feelings so quickly Damon Salvatore would of been proud.
So, lockdown, trying to finish my degree (not Nietzsche but had committed to a dissertation on a topic that hadn't been done before), my adored Yiayia had just died to COVID, my Mum was completely broken, and I was still dealing with suicidal thoughts. The funeral was black mirror-esque, some extended family members couldn't bring themselves to attend, some genuinely weren't allowed to attend, we couldn't embrace and console eachother because of bubbles, and the funeral was atypical for my family with traditional religious values.
I had bought a pendent to represent my Yiayia Athena, of Pegasus. In Greek mythology they had a nice relation, so it was nice to carry her with me. I've not taken it off since. Oddly its been a great source of strength, in many ways feeling a tad sacrificial somehow. Experiencing and living with grief, and being surrounded by it with my family members did hit home how it could have beeny actions that equally could have caused such anguish.
I'll fast-forward abit. August 2020. Pumped with anti-depressents to try stabilise me, I, very docile, somehow got my dissertation in and finished my degree. A week later, my Gf of 3 years and I break up because this all got too much for her, and mutually we knew this was not working. My first love and all that shit. I had stress-eaten over these 6 months to packing an additional 20kg of weight on (all fat, I'm sure realistically this compounded issues with her). I was also a support network to my Mum through the whole period, and together we slowly made progress in that environment. The anti-depressents were replaced with talking therapies, funded by Mind and soon after counciling. And slowly things were looking well.
This was the closest I'd ever been with my Mum. Naturally I wanted to talk with her about the breakup and part of that discussion was related to my mental health issues that were left dormant from my childhood. I dunno how we got there, but the crux of this part is that, in her frustration, probably over guilt of her parental role (not that I explicitly said this) she screamed at me that "maybe I should have gone through with it in February". Damon Salvatore had learnt to feel again only to have his heart obliterated. I immediately packed my bags and left to move to the other side of London. To this day, I've spoken to my mother a handful of times and only seen her in passing at my Dad's house once.
London was great, I got a job, was living with my best bud. We both actually ran the London marathon this year for Mind, a charity that had helped both of us. I felt so so good that in 3 years, I had gone from depending on mind to fundraising for them, that pendent round my neck for it as motivation.
Since I crossed that finish line, the physical pain I was feeling was inconsequential to the emotions of it all. I felt like I was right back to Jan2020. Like I've just spent 3 years masking my issues. And that feeling hasn't shaken since the marathon ended a few months ago.
To wrap this up, I now feel so fragile, I've started stress eating again and feel like the thread is loosening. On Saturday I'm actually having to move back home (to my Dad's) because the rental market in London is horrendous. Back to the drawing board after all those small (and large) wins. I thought I had a better grasp on my behaviours, thoughts and feelings but I'm starting to lose myself to compulsions, day dreams and impulsive thoughts. The unfaltering fire I found within myself through those mental health challenges seems to be dwindling once more, but this time I just feel hopeless that it'll go out for good.
For those that have overcome their issues, how do you manage the persistent fear of regressing to darker times? How to you shake the existential dread that any second the rug could get pulled from underneath to send you hurling downwards? Is this just going to be an ever-present feature of my life now and something I have to learn to live with?
If you've got this far thanks for taking the time. I get it's loaded and definitely never easy to hear. It's 1:30am and I have a presentation at work tomorrow. I should probably struggle to fall asleep right about now.

Peter G. Moloney is a violent seditionist who attacked law enforcement with cans of Raid and brought his son to the attack on the Capitol. He was identified by Sedition Hunters over 2 years ago, but was just arrested yesterday. He and other family own a funeral home in New York. Looking forward to his legal punishment, but we can do more. If you have a Yelp account leave the kind of feedback a business deserves for people like him. Thanks
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/ny-funeral-home-owner-arrested-jan-6-sleuths-ided-rcna88111

The memorial is the quietest place full of the most understanding and considerate players. However, ever since someone posted the memorial on tik tok and how to get to it, there have been a lot more people there and they're not as considerate. I'm glad that more people know about/have access to it but you must understand some small etiquette.
Please don't stand in front of me and do the pull-ups emote. Please don't swim in the memorial lake and swim in circles around other players. Please do not honk consistently at the memorial. Please don't chase people and insist on lighting there candles. It is a place of mourning. You wouldn't go into a funeral home and start dancing and jumping so Please don't do it here. Show some respect.

(TW: death, grief)
I found out the news earlier today. I've been numb and in a dissociated funk all day. My friends are not empathetic or kind people, and I'm estranged from my family because they're abusive... so I don't really have anyone I can talk to right now. (To clarify, my grandfather wasn't abusive though- he was nicer to me than a lot of my other family members). His funeral is tomorrow, but I won't be able to go for safety reasons, because my abusers will be there.
I hope my grandpa is at peace now, and his spirit is watching over me with a smile on his face. I know he was suffering a lot these past few weeks, so I'm glad he's not in pain anymore. I've never dealt with anything like this before (the loss of someone I care about.) I've always been comfortable/ indifferent about the idea of my own death, but death seems to actually hurts me when it's someone else's.
Luckily, I happened to facetime him in the hospital yesterday. I spoke to him for a bit, and sang him a few songs, and told him I love him.
I had to move out of my home (where he was living) years ago because my abusers were also living in the same house. Escaping my abusers took me away from my grandpa- I couldn't visit him for the last three years, except once when my abusers had left the country. The occasional texts and calls were all we had. I was also so mentally and physically ill this year that I didn't really do the best job at staying in touch either.
I regret the distance between us and that I couldn't spend more time with him. My family members and friends don't seem to understand why I wouldn't go back to visit my grandpa, and seem to think I'm just a jerk who didn't care about or love my grandpa. . But the truth is that I had to escape that place because my abusers were there, and that's why I left. I just want someone to know the truth. People are accusing me of not caring about him and questioning why I left my home state. I'm sure my absence at the funeral tomorrow will confirm everyone's belief that I don't care about my grandpa. But it's not true, I do care about him. I always have, and I still do.

Hello!
I am a funeral director and am currently caring for a young man with Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) who has passed away.
He LOVED Marvel, specifically Spider Man. I am looking for someone to draw or photoshop him as Spider Man from a photo as a gift for his family.
This would be relatively quick turnaround time - the service is Friday at 9:30 AM, so I would need it by tomorrow at 3:00 PM.
I am able to offer $70 for this commission as well as the promise of continued partnership with the funeral home I am employed by. We do not presently have a go-to digital artist, and things like this come up quite a lot.

This is Part 2 of this write-up. Please read part 1 first. This is the link:
https://www.reddit.com/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/143r7l9/felix_vail_the_pedophile_serial_killer_caught/

PART 2:

ANNETTE CRAVER:

Born on the 7th of December 1965, Annette Craver was intelligent and creative. At 15 she was a singer-songwriter and in her senior year at a private school that specialized in medicine. Her dream was to become a midwife.
http://charleyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/vail_annette6.jpg(A photo of Annette Craver.)
In the summer of 1981, she and her mother, Mary Rose greeted people at a friend’s yard sale in the Montrose neighborhood in Houston, Texas. They had just returned from a vacation in Mexico, and Annette felt heartsick, still infatuated with a boy named Adolfo, who was unable to join her in America.
VAIL MEETS ANNETTE
While people browsed the sale, Vail pulled up on a motorcycle and spoke with Annette. He was 41 and had done some carpentry work in the area. “When I saw her, I thought, ‘That’s going to be my new girlfriend,’” he said about the 15-year-old.
In April 1982, Rose and her daughter invested in a Tulsa home that had a rental cottage behind it. Rose began renovating both. After graduating from high school, Annette joined her mother in Tulsa. Vail appeared a few days later, and convinced Annette to leave with him on his motorcycle. They lived off the $500-a-month Social Security check that she received from her father’s death 3 years prior. It would be over a year before Mary Rose would see her daughter again.
That fall, Annette (who was still 15) would fall pregnant, and Vail would force her to have a painful abortion.
Jerry Woodall, reportedly friends with Vail later recalled an embarrassing scene, where the 42-year-old Vail was in a sleeping bag, having public sex with a 16-year-old Annette, only 20 feet away from him and his then-wife Meredith McMackin. Annette grinned and waved at them. Woodall and McMackin did their best to ignore them.
McMackin would later say that Vail had “this coldness and controlling aspect to his personality. Annette was so open and alive, but I think he just totally dominated her. He would try to convey that he was this higher form of being. At first, I thought maybe he was evolved, but then I realized it was this arrogant act.”
Later that summer, police in California would arrest Vail for violating probation a dozen years earlier. Annette telephoned Woodall, who gave her $200. After Vail walked free from prison, he and Annette decided to get married. However, as a 17-year-old she needed permission.
Annette told her mother that she loved Vail, that they were already “spiritually married” and that they would travel to Mexico and get married there if she refused. Not wanting to lose her daughter completely, Rose said OK.
On August 15th, 1983, in Bakersfield, California, the couple were wed.
AFTER THE MARRIAGE
Four months after the marriage, Annette turned 18, allowing her to collect more than $98,000 ($293,500 today) from life insurance policies on her late father. Accompanied by Vail, she withdrew all the money in cash from a San Antonio bank. She bought a Fiat convertible that Vail liked and paid for his dental work.
In April 1984, Rose returned home to find Annette waiting at her door. She told her she wanted to divorce Vail, and enroll in college. She talked about Vail’s temper, including an incident where he had broken his hand trying to punch his wife. He missed and hit a wall.
A few weeks later, Vail showed up. The couple fought constantly, and Vail left after a few days. Mary Rose said that Vail was “insanely jealous” and would become furious when Annette spoke of her desire to go out with younger men.
She and Annette worked on renovating the two homes after Vail left, enjoying their time together. The 2 even started a garden together.
Annette received a letter from Vail, who vowed their time apart would fuel their love. He wrote to her: “After we hung up, I went out to a park and ran and hung and talked with God and smoked some and shot some pool and rode with the top down out through the marsh playing ‘Iron Butterfly’ [“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”] and bathing every inch of your body-spirit being with love.”
He referred to being away from Annette as “deprivation jail” and to her ego as “his jailor.”
“The idea of her cutting away ego’s “feeder roots and creating roots between your spirit and the cosmic ground of loving makes me hot for you. My mind is kissing you everywhere.”
After that, Vail would return to Annette’s life. Rose said, “Annette told me, ‘Felix is the wisest person in the world, and I can’t make decisions without him.’” His influence on Annette had only grown stronger. According to Rose, she even compared Vail to God, a comparison Vail agreed with.
After this, the couple angrily insisted that Rose move out and deed the house to Annette. Accompanied by suicidal thoughts brought on by Vail’s continued control over her daughter, Rose left for California to stay with family and friends, deeding the house to Annette for $7000 ($21,000 today) before she did.
Annette would add Vail to the deed, and a month later had deeded him both homes, leaving him as the sole owner.
ANNETTE’S DISAPPEARANCE
Mere weeks after deeding the houses to Vail, the couple told neighbors they were leaving on vacation. When Vail returned in October, he was alone.
Vail told a neighbor that Annette had a lot of money wither her when he’d left her, and that she was likely visiting friends in Denver.
Upon learning that Annette hadn’t come back with Vail, Mary Rose called him. “He told me that while they were camping, Annette had a sexual dream about being with other men in Mexico, and she wanted to go there,” she recalled to an investigative reporter years later. “He claimed that the dream made them both realize that she should have her freedom.” The next day, Vail told her he had put Annette on a bus with $50,000 ($150,000 today) but didn't elaborate.
On Oct 22, 1984, Rose filed a missing person’s report. She told the Tulsa Police Department that each person who spoke with Vail “gets a different story about the amount of money that Annette took with her and where she might be. We all believe that he knows where she is or has done something with her.”
On January 22, 1985, Detective Dennis Davis and another officer questioned Vail at his home (This is obscenely late to start questioning him). By this point, Vail had filed for divorce, citing an inability to find her after a “diligent search.” Davis said her mother, Mary Rose, mentioned her daughter had received more than $90,000 from her father’s estate. Vail confirmed this was true, saying the couple had spent much of that money traveling in foreign countries. He said they kept their money in cash because they didn’t trust banks and that he had found about $10,000 in cash when he returned home.
The next day, Vail called a lawyer, who promised to talk with the officers and tell them to “leave me alone,” as he wrote in his journal.
When Davis returned five days later, Vail had a detailed alibi: The couple left Tulsa between noon and 3 p.m. on Sept. 13, 1984, and stayed the night in a hotel in Claremont, Oklahoma. After two nights of camping on the river, Annette woke up and told Vail she had decided to leave him. He took her to the Trailways Bus Station in St. Louis and left before she bought the ticket. (There is no Trailways Bus Station in St. Louis, and there has never been a Trailways Bus Station in St. Louis.)
He told the officers that she had told him she was headed for Denver, where she planned to get a fake ID card and leave for Mexico. When asked if he would take a lie detector test, Vail said no.
After Davis left, he wrote a letter to Rose. He blamed her for the “bad things” about Annette, told her that after the couple had returned from Costa Rica Annette had been “seeing friends and relatives --- completing her relationships with them for the purpose of getting ready to drop everybody and start over.” He wrote that Annette “disappeared herself from you” because Rose kept imposing her “value system” on her, and said Annette viewed her mother, grandmother, and herself as “zero self-image whores for approval.”
He explained the 2 had no plans to communicate, he did not know where she was, and that “I also assure you that even if I did know, I would not tell you.”
When Rose returned to Tulsa in April 1985, she entered the cottage Annette used to live in, only to find almost all the young woman’s belongings were gone, including her clothes and her diary.
Inside a Barbie suitcase, Rose found a photograph of her daughter and several of her identification cards. She also located things that Annette had written, including a Feb. 17, 1984, note that contradicted Vail’s claim that the couple had spent most of her inheritance on their travel to Mexico and Central American countries.
Instead, the note detailed how they used the money to buy the Fiat, pay off all of Vail’s loans, and deposit $36,000 into Louisiana Savings. It said that as of that day, they had $41,600 ($125,000 today) in cash.
Rose shared the information with the police. Detective Davis showed up again, and Vail told Davis the couple divided the money into smaller cashier’s checks, contradicting his earlier statement that they kept the money in cash.
After a while, Davis left, and despite the (seemingly obvious) suspicious behavior of Vail, closed the missing person’s case.
AFTER ANNETTE’S DISAPPEARANCE
Rose kept calling Vail after this and was finally able to reach him on September 14th 1985.
When asked about Annette’s whereabouts he refused to tell her.
When asked about Annette’s missing clothes he said he gave them to charity.
When asked about the insurance money, Vail told her ‘That’s all she really cared about.’ Rose hung up.
Two years later, fed up with the lack of progress in Annette’s case, Rose would return to Tulsa. She spent thousands of dollars on private investigators to locate Vail. When that failed, she simply went and found him herself.
Tipped off that he was staying at someone’s house, she went there with a friend and found him sitting outside. When asked where Annette went, he replied “Mexico.” When asked where in Mexico, he said the 2 had made a pact to contact each other every 5 years, contradicting his statement that the 2 didn’t have plans to communicate. Rose didn’t believe a word of it.
The whole time Vail never looked up, never stood up and never looked her in the eye.
BETH FIELD
Some time after this, Vail began dating Beth Field. Soon the couple had began arguing, and Vail would call her a “whore.” During a December 1987 argument, he would strike her so hard he ruptured her ear drum. She told Vail there was no justification for violence, to which he responded, “If you quit behaving like a whore, I’ll quit hitting you.”
In August 1988 Beth received a call from Rose, sharing details about the disappearance of her daughter, Annette. From that point forward, Field said she began to examine Vail’s words more closely, realizing that he had likely murdered her.
Four months after the call, he entered her home unannounced. Already drunk, he accused her of “imagined promiscuity,” according to a court order. He slapped her, struck her, and threw her across the bedroom. She asked if Vail was going to kill her, to which Vail replied, “It depends on what you tell me.”
A judge gave her a protective order, requiring Vail to keep his distance. Two weeks later, the sheriff reported that Vail was nowhere to be found.
While Field was visiting a meditation center in Texas in 1990, Vail arrived. After composing herself, she told him “There is a part of you that goes off, and it’s sick and it’s dangerous.”
He looked at her and asked, “Really?” She said “yes, really.” This time, the message seemed to go through. Vail left the next day, and with a single exception about five years later, she never saw him again.
MARY ROSE LEARNS ABOUT THE OTHER 2 CASES
In the summer of 1991 (6 years after Annette's disappearance), Rose drove over 2000 miles to Canyon Lake, Texas to speak to Sue Jordan, Felix Vail’s sister. Jordan said that Vail had told her that Annette wanted to leave, that he took her to a bus station and that she left with some Mexican men, heading for Mexico. Jordan also mentioned that Vail’s first wife had drowned, which was news to Rose.
Before she left, Jordan also told her, “Oh, you know, there was another woman that disappeared. I remember her mother calling my mother for years, checking to see if they’d heard from her. I think her name was Sharon.”
After the conversation, Rose sat down at a typewriter, writing every word she could remember. She also called the public library in Lake Charles.
The librarian remembered the 1962 drowning of Vail’s first wife, Mary Horton. She told Rose that he had taken out life insurance policies on his wife prior to her drowning and that the insurance companies were suspicious and didn’t pay the full value. The librarian made copies of newspaper articles and mailed them to her.
After reading them, Rose reached out to Mary’s family in Louisiana, speaking to Will Horton. He shared her suspicions about Vail and a copy of the 1971 National Enquirer article made after Vail's son Bill reported him to the police. When she read it, she learned that Sharon’s last name was Hensley.
In 1994, she read in the newspaper about Dolores Strehlow’s disappearance from Medford, Oregon, seven years earlier. Police had just arrested her husband, thanks to the work of Detective Terry Newell. She contacted Newell, who helped her find the family of Sharon Hensley. When Rose dialed the Hensley family, Sharon’s mother, Peggy, answered. Rose asked if Peggy knew a Felix Vail. Peggy replied with "you bet I do"
THE INVESTIGATION HEATS UP… AND COOLS DOWN
The detective who helped Rose before, Terry Newell, contacted Jim Bell, a national expert in serial killings working for the FBI. When Rose talked with Bell, she felt like she'd finally gotten somewhere. He was interested in working on the Vail case if he could swing the time. He still remained busy with active serial killer cases, helping train task forces across the U.S. Vail’s son, Bill, told Rose that he was willing to testify, as long as authorities provided protection to his family. Both the Tulsa police and the district attorney’s office in Lake Charles revived their investigations into Vail, now considered a suspected serial killer.
Bell suggested the victims’ families gather with authorities at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, to share information on Vail. He was unable to work on the case and left the FBI in 1995. The meeting in Quantico never materialized, and the cases involving Vail grew cold once again.
A QUICK RUN DOWN OF EVENTS
In the fall of 1997, family and friends held a mural for Annette.
Diagnosed with esophageal cancer, Vail’s son Bill heard from doctors that he didn’t have long to live. He’s quoted saying “now I’ll get to be with my mom.” Months before passing away in 2009, Bill talked about his father in a recorded interview with his pastor at Grace Church in Overland Park, Kansas.
On Jan. 3, 2009, Bill died, and Vail wrote in his journal, “I feel a large empty hole in my being where his life presence has been for 47 years,” before writing about getting a good haircut. He drove to Kansas but didn’t attend his own son’s funeral. If he had, he would have heard the recording, with his son detailing how he had overheard his father talk about murdering Bill's mother, Mary.
When Vail learned of the recording, he wrote to Pastor Tim Howey, asking for a copy. He blamed his son’s statements on “false memories,” saying, “I have not known about it until now and am stunned.”
In 2012, while attempting to confront Vail with reporter Jerry Mitchell whom she had contacted to write about Vial, Rose was stopped by Kaye Faulkner, Vial’s sister. She told Rose and Mitchell of the recording and urged Mitchell to get a copy of it. She also said that she believed Vial had murdered Mary Horton, Sharon Hensley, and Annette Craver.
She gave the reporter Vial’s number, as well as the numbers of her other brother, Ronnie, and her sister, Beth. Vial didn’t answer those calls, so Mitchell left a message. Ronnie promised to speak to his brother on his behalf.
MITCHELL INVESTIGATES
Mitchell arrived in Lake Charles and stopped by the Southwestern Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Library, which shared copies from old city directories. He began tracking down people who had lived in the Maree Apartments with Felix and Mary.
Many described Mary’s fair of drowning. A close friend of Vails, Judson McCann II described Vial as a ladies’ man, and insinuated he was a cheater. “Many nights, his car wouldn’t be home, and Mary would be there with the lights on. When Felix was gone, it wasn’t because he was trotline fishing.”
Another close friend, Bob Hodges described Vial’s story of Mary ‘falling’ in the river as “horse manure.”
A college roommate of Mary, Sandra Sudduth Pratt, said “Nobody believed it was an accident.”
Mitchell shared Mary’s autopsy report with pathologist Dr. Michael Baden of New York City, who concluded that foul play had taken place in her death.
The report showed large bruises with bleeding into tissues on the left side of the neck, which he said suggested she suffered forceful neck trauma before entering the water. There were hemorrhagic bruises to the right calf and left leg above the knee, which he said were consistent with a struggle before her submersion. But most convincingly of all was the scarf authorities found around her neck that extended 4 inches into her mouth, which suggested traumatic asphyxia before entering the water.
“Somebody had to push that scarf into her mouth. She had to have that scarf wedged in her mouth before she was put in the water.”
A cousin put Mary’s brother Will Horton in touch with former detective “Rabbit” Manuel, who had headed up the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Office’s investigation back in 1962. He had never forgotten Mary’s death. “Felix’s story just didn’t add up. The fishing tackle was dry. The trotline was dry. The boat was dry. Even Felix’s cigarettes were dry, despite him telling the deputies he dove straight in the water to save Mary.”
He and Manuel met with “Lucky” DeLouche, who directed an elite task force unit that investigated homicides. Three young detectives took notes as they talked. Manuel shared details from the case, saying deputies (officers) wanted to prosecute, but the district attorney wouldn’t let them. Horton shared the autopsy report, Vail’s letters and his belief that Vail was a serial killer. Horton said DeLouche replied, “This absolutely fits the profile of a serial killer,” to which the other detectives agreed.
Shortly afterwards, DeLouche left the task force, and for seemingly the hundredth time, grew cold again.
After Mitchell posted a story about Vail titled “Gone” (It’s nearly 9,000 words long, and the precursor to the 35,500 word story I have drawn heavily from) a man named Wesley Turnage contacted him. He told him of a conversation he had had with Vail in 1963 during a car ride.
According to Turnage, Vail called Mary a bitch and said she thought another child would help solve their marriage problems. He quoted Vail as saying, “She wanted to have another kid. I didn’t want the one I got. I fixed that sorry bitch. She will never have another one.”
Mitchell would make another discovery. District Attorney Salter Jr. had ordered that the judge dismiss 882 criminal cases — more than three cases for each working day.
Will Horton told Mitchell the original detectives in the case told him that Salter wouldn’t allow them to present the evidence they had collected against Vail. That matched the stories Mitchell had heard from grand jurors’ families.
Horton then contacted District Attorney John DeRosier, who said he would be willing to reopen the case if there was enough evidence.
Then came an interesting wrinkle in the story. Finding Vail.
He’d disappeared, returning on Labor Day weekend 2012 to sell his property, before disappearing again. Luckily, another reader of "Gone" came to the rescue. He phoned Mitchell, telling him where Vial was. Canyon Lake, Texas.
Mitchell then contacted Enzo Yaksic, founder of the Serial Homicide Expertise and Information Sharing Collaborative. Yaksic then contacted Armin Showalter, acting chief for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, which specialized in serial homicide investigations.
Yaksic shared a copy of GONE with Showalter, who in turn called Calcasieu Parish Deputy Randy Curtis, now taking on the Vail case. Curtis phoned Mitchell to find out where Vail was. A few days later, he called back to say the FBI had discovered Vail purchased property at 737 Shadyview Drive in Canyon Lake.
On Jan. 18, 2013, Curtis decided to confront Vail. He found him at that address, living in a storage shed. Curtis said he read Vail his rights before asking him about the death and disappearances of the women. Vail refused to say anything, accusing families and The Clarion-Ledger (Where "Gone" was published) of lying about him. The whole time, Vail couldn’t stop smirking.
​
Will Horton gave Mitchell the number of his cousin, who was a caretaker for 90-year-old Isaac Abshire Jr. When Mitchell sat down with the man, he shared a haunting story.
Abshire had worked with Vail and offered him a room to rent out. Once Vail and Mary were married, Vail had moved out. Abshire viewed himself as “a big brother” to Mary, calling her “a sweet little girl.”
After the marriage, Vail had become angry at work, talking about how ugly his wife was when she was pregnant, and how he didn’t like his baby. On the Friday before she was killed, the couple visited Abshire, bringing Bill, who was still an infant. Mary privately asked Abshire if he thought Vail could take her baby away.
Two days later, Mary was dead.
Abshire and two other workers went out the next day to drag the river. The next morning, Oct. 30, 1962, he returned with one of them, Jimmy May, to continue dragging.
Abshire said while they were talking, “something popped up. A guy with binoculars asked, ‘Does she have blonde hair?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s her.’”
They recovered the body, and Abshire could never forget what he saw. Her body was rigid, and a scarf was wrapped around her neck before going into her mouth. Blood boiled on the boat, everyone voicing the same opinion. Vail had killed Mary.
Abshire had kept photos from that day for over 50 years. He said he had given them to Deputy Curtis as well as a copy of the 1962 sheriff’s report, which listed 15 points suggesting Vail’s guilt.
Despite being behind on major bills, Vail had managed to pay an entire year’s premiums in advance for a $50,000 ($150,000 today) life insurance policy on his wife. He had a second life insurance policy on her for $8,000 ($24,000 today), which promised to pay double if she died by accident.
It was almost as if he knew she was about to die.
Deputies had reported witnesses claims that Vail had told them he didn’t love his wife, that she looked stupid and vulgar, and that he had had sexual relations with multiple women, and at least one man.
Vail told deputies that his wife was wearing an off-white leather jacket when she went into the water. But she wasn’t wearing the jacket when her body was recovered. Inside his boat, deputies found two life preservers. Mary had not been wearing one, despite her fear of drowning. As for the trotline the 2 were supposedly running, deputies found it still inside Vail’s tackle box.
Most witnesses the Deputies had spoken too felt that Vail was capable of killing his wife.
When asked if he believed Vail killed his wife, Abshire said “Oh, my God, yes.”
THE CHASE & THE FINAL CLUES:
Ever since Vail had sold his Mississippi property, Mary Rose had wondered if he would eventually sell the Tulsa property, the one she and Annette had lived in. He did. Vail sold it for $149,000. Rose asked the question on the mind of everyone investigating. “What is he going to do with all that money? --- He could be running.”
On April 30th Mitchell got a call saying that Vail had left Texas. He was pulled over by police in Columbus, Mississippi after hopping the fence of his now dead brother Ronnie’s property. Curtis told Mitchell that the Columbus police were sending him a photo of Vail and the white pick-up truck he was pulled over in. He once again warned Mitchell that Vail could be running.
Vail’s sister called again, saying she heard her brother was heading to Montpelier. She wondered if he was driving to the home of possible witness Wesley Turnage.
Mitchell called Turnage to let him know that Vail might be headed his way. Turnage replied “If he sets foot on my property, there won’t be no trial.” He called Mitchell back later, saying no one in Montpelier had seen Vail.
Private Investigator Gina Frenzel, who had questioned Vail herself, including pretending to be his girlfriend, called Mitchell with good news. Vail had contacted her and told her he was back in Canyon Lake. Mitchell informed Curtis.
On May 17th 2012, authorities arrested Felix Vail for the murder of his wife Mary Horton.
In telephone calls from the jail in Lake Charles, he shared his explanation of what happened the night of Oct. 28, 1962, when Mary died.
He referred to his first wife as a “coon-ass lady,” saying she was “half kneeling” on his feet when she “saw one of the float buckets that were on the line.” He said the boat was “going real slow along the edge of the bank when the boat hit a stump ... and it dumped her right out.” Vail said he shut off the motor and dove in “where she had plopped in the water. I mean, nothing. The river had sucked her right in.” He said he “dove around until I was exhausted, and came in immediately to the police station in town and reported the accident and that was it.”
This story differed greatly from his story in 1962 when he said his wife was sitting on top of a boat seat when she fell out, not that she was kneeling on his feet. Back then, he said nothing about hitting a stump — just swerving to miss it.
It also differed from the story he had told his son, where a wave from another boat had dumped Mary out.
Vail told Frenzel that the case “has been an avalanche coming down the mountain all that time, waiting to hit my head, and it finally has.”
He blamed the families and Mitchell, “an evil, shrimpy reporter,” for what had happened, calling the charges “fabricated” and insisting that “a large amount of money, hate and political ambitions are behind them.”
At Vail’s request, Frenzel returned his truck to his home and went inside to take care of a few tasks. While there, she spent 16 hours photographing all his journals, more than 2,400 pages. She also photographed letters, documents, photographs and business cards, some dating back to the 1960s. She found a collection of women’s jewelry, old buttons, pins, and even a glass dildo.
Disturbingly, if at this point unsurprisingly, she found a photograph of a naked 3-year-old girl. Frenzel later spoke with the girl, now a woman. The journals revealed that Vail had stalked her for years.
Frenzel discovered the birth certificate of Annette Craver, who had used it for previous trips to Mexico.
Mitchell and Frenzel poured through the journals she had photographed. They noticed gaps in them that lead them to believe Vail had ripped pages out, including times when he should have been with Sharon and Annette.
His journals were dominated by sex, dreams of sex and reflected an obsession with children. In a March 27, 1986, entry, Vail wrote about the visit of a woman and her daughters in his home. “The little girls were delicious --- We massaged some, hugged & kissed some & it was 12 (midnight) & time for them to go.”
On Aug. 29, 1992, Vail walked into the Wal-Mart in West Point, and as he wrote in his journal “a 1-year-old white girl looked in my eyes loving me like there was no age difference between us.”
When Mitchell interviewed Kert Germany, a co-worker of Vail in 1977 he said that Vail attracted women wherever he went, and that Vail had told him the best sex of his life had been with 2- or 3-year-old girl.
It was that this time that Alexandra Christianson, Vail’s ex-wife called Mitchell and told him her story. She also put him in contact with Bruce Biedebach, the man she had been on a date with when she left with Vail. Biedebach would tell Mitchell that during a party in 1965 that turned into a “boast-fest” Vail had boasted about something he had done, that no one else had done.
Killed his wife.
He told the men at the party that he had held his wife’s head underwater until she drowned.
Biedebach then put Mitchell in contact with Rob Fremont, who had bicycled around California with Vail when he was 13. He said that while riding with Vail, he had told him that he hit his wife on the head and drowned her. Fremont never rode with him again after that.
With as much evidence as they could possibly gather, the case went to trial.
THE TRIAL:
Vail’s trial began on August 8th, 2016.
District Attorney John DeRosier laid out the evidence clearly.
He spoke of the evidence against Vail about Mary’s murder on October 28th, 1962.
He spoke about Vail swearing to Sharon Hensley’s mother that she wanted to start a new life in 1974.
He spoke about his letters to Mary Rose, telling her he wouldn’t tell her where her daughter Annette was “even if he knew.” Vail smirked at that one.
Finally, he spoke to the jurors.
“Mary Horton Vail is gone, Sharon Hensley is gone,” DeRosier said, “and Annette Craver Vail is gone.”
“You’re going to write the last chapter, and it’s simply going to read, ‘And justice was finally done. William Felix Vail, guilty as charged.’”
Prosecutors called all three families to testify.
Will Horton told jurors of his sister, “Mary was the kind of person you would want as a friend.” He broke while talking about visiting his nephew after he death in 1962. “I just wanted Bill to know how much his mother loved him.”
Brian Hensley told jurors that he last saw his sister, Sharon, with Vail before the pair left Bismarck, North Dakota, in 1972. Other than a telephone call and letter in the months that followed, he said no one had seen or heard from her since.
When Mary Rose took the stand, Vail bowed his head.
This was the woman who had been working for 32 long years to bring him into this court.
This was the mother who had waited 32 years for this moment.
She called Annette “a huge light in my life. We were always loving toward each other.” She testified that Vail ran off with her daughter on his motorcycle and married her. She testified that Annette, who inherited nearly $100,000 and received two homes, disappeared weeks after deeding those homes to Vail.
Wesley Turnage, Rob Fremont, and Bruce Biedebach swore under oath that Vail said he killed his first wife. Biedebach said he asked Vail if Mary was a bitch, to which Vail had said yes. Vail laughed in court as he told the story.
The current coroner, forensic pathologist Dr. Terry Welke, testified that in most drownings, the body comes up in a “dead person’s float,” with the back of the head surfacing first and the limbs hanging down in the water.
After sharing a series of pictures to show it, he showed the court two black-and-white photographs of Mary Horton when her body was recovered on Oct. 30, 1962, less than two days after she reportedly drowned. Her body was stiff, with her hands over chest as if she was in a coffin.
They also saw the videotaped testimony of Isaac Abshire Jr, who had died in 2014. He said her body was stiff when it surfaced either sideways or face up when she bobbed up in the Calcasieu River.
That testimony helped contribute to Welke’s homicide conclusion. So did the unbroken grease-like stain across her Chi Omega sweatshirt, which he believed could have come from a tarp covering her. Welke concluded Mary was dead and stiff before her body went into the water, explaining why rigor had set in.
Testimony was heard of Vail not paying for his own wife’s funeral, despite having made thousands from her life insurance.
THE VERDICT
The jury didn’t even take a half hour to reach their verdict.
William Felix Vail Sr was unanimously found guilty of murdering Mary Horton. He was sentenced to life in prison.
After the verdict, the prosecutor also revealed that the FBI had found out that Vail had molested a child over 30 years ago. They were unable to put him on trial for it, as the statue of limitations had passed.
Finally, nearly 54 years after she was murdered, Mary Horton had found justice.
Finally, 42 years after her disappearance, Sharon Hensley had found justice.
And Annette Craver, with the help of her mother Mary Rose’s tireless efforts, had finally found justice after 32 years.
https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/f75084c7dce4fb08e12e45ccba5e40a1
This a photo of Mary, Sharon and Annette. I felt it was fitting to end off with. May they all rest in peace.
MY SOURCES:
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/8284?nav
https://charleyproject.org/case/annette-michelle-craver-vail
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/felixvailgone/2016/12/29/felix-vail-gone-one-wife-dead-two-other-missing-jerry-mitchell/95895894/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5796622/mary-elizabeth-vail
https://charleyproject.org/case/sharon-hensley
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/20525?nav

Author's Note: This story is long. I'm sorry. It really deserves to be told exactly as it happened and therefore, I am forced into murdering brevity. I hope that in time you'll forgive me.
I'm going to tell y'all another stupid story. I should warn you that this one isn't really a comedy, despite being set in a RadioShack.
A few months after Cocaine-Kevin took off for Brazil in pursuit of true love, we got a new transfer employee. We came to call him 'Aikedo-Kevin' (I'm adding the -Kevin because this is a subreddit about Kevins.)
We called him 'Aikedo' because we met him before the final act of the following chain of events took place and afterwards we just didn't have the motivation to attach anything else to him.
When I replay what happened in my head, it astounds me that this took place at all. I mean, we had our fair share of Kevins at RadioShack. There was Cocaine-Kevin, (whom you've previously met.) Crazy-Kevin, 'TP' Kevin, Kevin the Customer, and Kevin the Destroyer. Every one of these people occupy space in my brain for various reasons, but out of all these Kevins, Aikedo-Kevin is the most memorable. And not for the reason you'd most expect.
As if he represented the cosmic opposite to the Kevin he was replacing, this new Kevin came across as competent. He was older and well-kept. He didn't smell at all like sun-dried squirrel and rather than being cartoonishly fat, he was worryingly thin. He looked surprisingly normal for a RadioShack employee; completely trustworthy, certainly like the guy you'd confidently go to to get your Questions Answered.
Looking at him, I would never have believed in a million years that he would be the most profligate serial liar that I've ever had the misfortune to meet.
I know that I should start this tale at the beginning; with the story of how he got his name, but I really don't have the space, so instead we'll just rollercoaster through this cascade of events much like I did originally.
Almost from the moment Kevin showed up, things got real weird, real fast. He lasted for about six months with us, but they were unforgettable. It started with Kevin telling us that he was a 'triple-stripe; dragon-class' black belt in aikedo. Then he told us that he met Kiss back in the 70's and they invited him back to their hotel to party. Then the lies got egregious. He was late because there was a riot at Publix. Someone else ate the food that I had clearly marked and labelled in the back fridge. His dad was in the CIA and helped plan Vietnam with Henry Kissinger. He didn't know why the drawer was short $5.34. He was allergic to fruit. The list was long and got progressively weirder as the weeks went by, but it was generally innocuous; innocent.
But then he fucked up. He told a lie about NASA. Guys, this was a RadioShack. We were all nerds of various stripes, with varying areas of scientific interest and knowledge. There was NO possibility in any universe that one could just traipse into my RadioShack and successfully lie about NASA. Especially this particular lie. There was even less of a possibility that upon hearing such a lie spoken, any of us RadioShack employees would let it go unchallenged.
Ok, now that all the foreshadowing is out of the way, let me get down to the meat. I mean, that's why you're still here, right?
This chain of events spanned three days and it began in the way these things always do; somewhat accidentally.
DAY 1: THE NASA PROVOCATION
It was a normal Florida afternoon for everyone who didn't work at my store. As usual, I came in on second (closing) shift. I was taking over from Kevin, who'd just returned from his vacation. The drawer was missing $5.34. Again? Wtf? He 'fixed' it while I was in the back re-counting it. Okay. $5.34? This is so weird. I have to report this shit.
While waiting for his wife to pick him up, Kevin told me that he and his family had had a blast in Cape Canaveral. That he was able to take his son into the 'anti-gravity chamber' at NASA. He went into great detail about how they 'flew around in the tunnel.'
Now, y'all... I'm not an idiot. I very well know how NASA trains their astronauts in Zero-G. Fuck it, I'll bite.
"Uh, Kevin, they use planes to simulate zero-gravity. What are you talking about?"
He shook his head conspiratorially and said, "No, they have secret pods. There's two. One in Huntsville, Alabama, and one at Cape Canaveral. It's top-secret. I have a friend."
I stood there transfixed as Kevin embellished his experiences at NASA a bit more, making sure I knew how cool it was that his kids got to meet all the astronauts and how big the pod really was (almost as big as the Pentagon) until his wife finally showed up and they left.
I think I took a minute before going back inside. I had to call Frank (our store manager) to report the drawer discrepancy. And if I'm being honest, I also wanted to inform him of NASA's Pentagon-sized secret. We were all getting sick of Kevin's fibs, but nobody had really said anything to him yet and I knew Frank was a huge NASA fan. Repeating to him what Kevin had said was tantamount to lighting off firecrackers at a funeral, and at that age, I just wanted to watch the world burn.
Frank answered on the first ring, as I knew he would if the store was calling him.
"Heeeyyyyy, Frank. So. My drawer was short $5.34 again. Kevin somehow fixed it. He also went to the, uh, secret anti-gravity pod at NASA while he was at Cape Canaveral."
Frank laughed. There was a long pause. Then he snarled.
"What? Your drawer was short?! I'm DONE with this!" Frank hung up. I looked down at the phone. Dang. Frank is a terrible force for truth in the universe. I knew this from painful personal experience.
DAY 2: KEVIN'S LAST LIE
I got a call at 5 am to come in early; that Kevin couldn't open. Whatever. More money for me. I rolled out of bed.
When I got there, Frank was behind the counter pacing and literally purple. I've never seen a human being that color before. He looked like an engorged eggplant preparing for a Kanly duel.
I was putting my stuff away in the back when Frank stomped in behind me. He was hollering about gravity and idiots and I realized immediately that Kevin was in major, major trouble.
A frission tickled its way through my central nervous system. Fear or anticipation? Uncertain. Frank could be terrifying. Alternately, Frank could be compassionate. Frank was a real street-dude; a living tragedy-to-triumph, rags-to-riches kind of guy. He was also a VERY understanding boss. He basically only had three rules: 'Don't fuckin' steal,' 'Don't bring your personal fuckery to the store,' and, most importantly, 'Don't EVER fuckin' LIE to me.'
Those are exact quotes and he lived up to them. I know this. And now you all know this too. Kevin should have known this, but Kevin lived life on the edge.
In the backroom, I squared my shoulders and pretended to be uninterested while watching Frank's face pulse with incandescent rage.
"What's up?" I ventured, trying to hide my curiosity.
Frank exploded like something you shouldn't microwave. His purple face rippled as he tried to roll his eyes and snort simultaneously. He looked for all the world like an indignant water buffalo. Which is funny really. See, big game hunters will tell you that despite looking slow and stupid, the water buffalo is one of the most dangerous animals on Earth. African buffalo will lay traps. They will actually double back to lie in wait to hunt their hunter. And, much like the animal he resembled, Frank too was dangerous and known for his traps.
He smiled at me ferally.
"Kevin called out this morning. Apparently his cousin the St. Petersburg cop got shot last night in a drug raid."
"What does that have to do with NASA?" I said stupidly.
Frank stared at me like I was the only Red Gal in the Blue Man Group.
"I busted Kevin last night for theft." Frank said slowly, with that owlish look he saved for especially thick customers.
Okaaaay "But, what does tha-" I stopped, the light bulb over my head starting to flicker.
"Oh." I said.
Frank was still staring at me, perhaps waiting for my brain to finish its loading sequence. Accurately concluding that I was operating somewhat below dial-up speed, he sighed impatiently and continued.
"My wife called the hospital just now. They don't have anyone by the name of (Kevin's cousin's name) on file there. She called two other hospitals just to be sure."
I just looked at him blankly. "Waaaait. what?!" My mental bulb finally snapped on and flared brightly. Oh shiiit. My brain is furiously connecting dots. Did he lie to get un-caught for thieving? Is that a even a thing? Wtf?
Frank nodded grimly and picked up the phone. He dialed Kevin's number.
Unfortunately for this story, I had a customer walk in right then and therefore didn't hear what was said. Customers can be the most annoying things in the world sometimes. This one probably wasn't, but I don't remember because all I could think about was Kevin's career suicide. It seemed like an eternity passed before I was able to rejoin Frank in his investigation.
In the time I was away, Frank had learned two things: the first thing being that no cops had been shot according to the news, (which Kevin countered by claiming that the news wouldn't report a cop being shot in an on-going investigation,) and the second thing being that no hospital in the tri-county area had admitted anyone matching his cousin's name, (which Kevin dismissed by saying that secrecy was standard operating procedure in a 'Full Blackout' situation and that it's all put in place to protect a wounded cop's identity.
It was a testament to Frank's determination that he was able to do all this so quickly. Especially since this all happened back in the 90's before the sum of human knowledge was only a smartphone click away.
This inanity went on for my entire shift. Frank sending his wife to check out hospitals while he alternately called the local newspapers, TV stations, and Kevin.
Frank was terrifying in his pursuit of truth and I have to admit, it was a thing of beauty to watch him put his case together. Perry Mason be damned; Frank was on an investigative roll. But no matter what he learned, when he called Kevin, Kevin had an answer to it. A detailed answer. He went into specifics about how the bullet (9mm) hit his cousin's vest and richocheted off of a rib. He explained how it was a 'cartel case,' and everything has to be kept hush-hush. It was quite entertaining, if schadenfreude is your thing. It's not mine. I can't really explain how uncomfortable the whole thing made me feel. Like chewing on cotton. There's no way Kevin keeps his job. Kevin has the survival skills of a suicide bomber and the critical thinking skills of a cabbage. It was plain as day that Kevin was a drowning man grasping desperately for an anchor.
Finally, my shift ended and I went home mentally exhausted on Kevin's behalf.
As I left, I could see Frank behind the counter, still on the phone, hyper-focused, and absolutely intent upon some mission objective that I apparently wasn't cleared for. He told me just to be ready to close the next day.
DAY 3: THE GREAT DENOUEMENT
I woke up haunted with the strange certain knowledge that disaster was nigh. Maybe it was the same instinct that allows animals to sense an earthquake before it strikes. I really don't know. I felt both uncomfortable and giddy as I readied myself for work.
When I pulled into the RadioShack, I saw that Frank's Jeep was there. So was Frank's wife's SUV. Kevin's car was nowhere to be seen.
Oh boy... this was not a good sign. I parked and went in. Immediately I could see Frank, his wife, and the employee who had opened huddled furtively together behind the counter. No customers in sight.
Excellent, I thought. Maybe I'll finally get some Answers. This IS a RadioShack, after all, right?
As I counted in my drawer, the preliminary results of Frank's investigation poured out: allegedly Kevin had been taking money from the drawer to get McDonalds for lunch. The amount ($5.34) matched perfectly with the meal Kevin was observed eating each day that he worked. No one knew why he did this. He very obviously brought his lunch in from home every morning.
Frank was a-twitter with anticipatory fury as he spoke. After the conversation he'd had with Frank the previous night, Kevin had slyly switched shifts with another employee to avoid having to open and therefore face Frank. Which, of course, had jacked Frank's temper over from red to plaid. Kevin daring to dodge him like this was simply the last straw, and he had decided he was going to fire Kevin. ...Except, despite trying all morning, he hadn't managed to actually reach Kevin to give him the news.
Frank being Frank, this had in no way deterred him. He had simply looked in Kevin's employee file and called the emergency contact. By the time I walked in, the proverbial shit had hit the fan and was well on its ballistic arc towards us in the form of Kevin's wife.
Yall. It's really important for this story that you have a mental picture of Kevin's wife. Essential, even.
Do y'all remember that 90's song 'All Star' by that band Smashmouth? Remember the lead singer? If you don't, it's okay. Just picture Guy Fieri instead. Now picture Guy Fieri/the Smashmouth dude dressed up as Xena: Warrior Princess. That's what she looked like. She was enormous. Not necessarily fat, but big. I bet she could crush a watermelon with her thighs, easy. (That's really a thing, by the way. You should probably Google it. Fuck it, here ya go )
Anyway, 'Xena' was surprised to hear that Kevin wasn't at work. She was even more stunned by what Frank had to say.
At roughly the same time this phone conversation was taking place at the RadioShack, another, weirder conversation was taking place in person across town. Out of exasperation, and to out-manuever Kevin completely, Frank had finally just sent his wife down to the police station...
...which went something like this: she walked in, and asked if any cops had been shot recently. I imagine there was a pregnant pause at the reception desk while it was hurriedly determined whether or not she was a threat or a crazy person. She asked again and was told that no, no one had been shot recently. She then asked to speak with Officer (Kevin's Cousin's Name) and lo and behold! he happened to be walking by at that exact moment, un-wounded, ambulatory, and utterly confused as to why anybody thought he'd been shot in the first place.
Perched behind the counter in the RadioShack, listening to Frank and his wife list the steps they had taken and the results of taking said steps, I actually felt kind of bad for Kevin. I mean, why would he do this?
Why would anyone make up such a ridiculous lie? What did he have to gain? And most mysteriously, why was he stealing to buy lunch when he brought his own lunch in? The whole thing was steeped in bizarre absurdity and I was beginning to lose perspective of the situation when the door-chime dinged and Kevin walked contritely into the store, followed by his strapping virago of a wife.
Y'all. Holy shit. I don't think that I will be able to properly describe what followed but I will do my best.
When I was a kid, there was a cartoon I saw once. Maybe it was part of a Disney movie, maybe a Bugs Bunny short, I don't really remember. But in it, a ginormous nanny-type woman drags a teensy man into a room by his ear to force him to apologize for something.
That's almost exactly what happened. Xena frog-marched Kevin into the RadioShack and made him apologize for stealing. She literally made him hand over an envelope with $600 in it. (The amount Frank calculated Kevin had stolen over six months.) And then she berated him for breaking the diet she had set for him.
I'm going to say that again. He broke the diet she had set for him. This ... veritable Amazon of a woman had set a caloric limit for this dude who was already so skinny that he could likely crawl through the holes in a chain-link fence. All of a sudden, it all made sense. All of it. Kevin was emasculated, hence the lies. Kevin was desperate and fucking starving, so he stole to feed himself. I was wrestling with my new-found understanding of all things Kevin when she told us the envelope was all of his 'allowance' money. At this point, I was entirely speechless. I could only gape witlessly at her.
Stealing a glance back at Frank, I could tell he was going through the very same emotional turmoil as I was.
In the uncomfortable silence, Kevin handed over his keys and mumbled something about it being great working with us and then they left.
With the possible exception of the first time I saw the cemetary scene in Steel Magnolias, I have never gone from one emotional extreme to the other so quickly. Where I had been affronted by his actions only minutes earlier, now I felt unimaginable regret and I could tell Frank felt the same way. Frank had held back from revealing that he'd had his wife visit the police station and he never even brought it up. He looked deflated; all the energy and momentum of the chase gone, replaced by utter shock and remorse.
Y'all, I bet you thought this story was going to have a happy ending. Or at least a funny one. I'm sorry to disappoint you. No happy ending here, just a cloudy moral lesson.
Kevin was fired and we never saw him again, though I insisted that Frank's wife go back down to the police station and tell Kevin's cousin everything we'd seen and heard. I felt that I owed him that much, being responsible for the initial phone call that had set everything in motion.
Yes, Frank and I learned much and more that day. That experience changed something in me. I'd like to think I'm a better person now.
Oh, I still laugh at Kevins, but I don't assume anything anymore. Oh, no. I've learned that everyone has a truth to tell, even if it comes swaddled in lies.

Yesterday I had multiple people ask me to post this, and their comment has 552 likes at the time of me writing this, so I have spent the last day and a half editing, and adding information so it's up to standard. Overall, it has taken me close to a week to make. It probably isn't perfect, but I will edit it if I notice any mistakes. I hope you enjoy ❤
I would like to start this off by saying that this is an incredibly long write-up. This case spans 54 years, and this write-up is over 8650 words long, and is in fact so long that it exceeded the character limit, forcing me to make 2 parts. u/that1guywiththehat has already covered this case, and their write-up is much shorter. I will link it here, and you can check it out if you'd like. They did a fantastic job. 😊
https://www.reddit.com/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/g3wqcc/after_18yearold_annette_craver_vail_vanishes/
Secondly, this write-up borrows EXTENSIVELY from "Gone," a 35,500 word book about the life and crimes of Felix Vail. It contains information that you simply cannot find anywhere else, and I'd estimate that around 80% of this write-up uses it's information. While it's extremely long, being over 4 times the length of this write-up, it is well worth the read. I will also link it here so you can check it out if you'd like.
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/felixvailgone/2016/12/29/felix-vail-gone-one-wife-dead-two-other-missing-jerry-mitchell/95895894/
Now with that out of the way...

PART 1:

MARY HORTON:

​
Born on the 16th of February 1940 to Floyd and Lillie Horton, Mary was popular, beautiful, and well liked. She became homecoming queen at Eunice High School and wrote for the school newspaper. After graduating she began attending McNeese State University where she was so popular that all 5 sororities invited her to join. She eventually chose Chi Omega.
https://www.clarionledger.com/gcdn/-mm-/d313713be82928fb5c54a52348e9f0b6fbe9ca88/c=0-232-3288-4617/local/-/media/2016/12/27/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/636184665129485321-mary-horton-0001.jpg?width=300&height=401&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp
(Mary Horton from 1957, as Eunice High School homecoming queen.)
A FATEFUL ENCOUNTER
In 1960 she began dating William Felix Vail Sr, who goes by Felix. He was 6’, slender and in the words of another sorority girl “looked like he’d been touched by heaven.” In her diaries and messages to friends, Mary spoke of being happy and excited. However, not everything was sunshine and rainbows for the young couple.
On June 20th, 1960, Mary confided in a friend “I really do love Felix, but I don’t think that I like him anymore. He really is sweet, but we don’t see eye to eye on things.” She requested that a friend set her up on a date with another man in the hopes that Felix would leave her.
In response to this date, he came to Mary saying he suffered from a disease. She asked what disease he had. He meant Mary.
The 2 had a conversation that Mary described as ‘Felix doing all the talking, and her just listening.’ He told her that he had changed, and she said that she had too.
The 2 began dating again, but Mary continued to see other people. She attended a house party with Kelley McFarland, who afterwards heard that Vail was so angry he ‘wanted to kill him.’ McFarland tracked him down, eventually meeting him in dark woods. The 2 exchanged no blows, and they went their separate ways.
After this incident, Mary described herself as “miserable” and Felix as “jealous”, although she reiterated her love for him. There was reportedly an incident at a pool party where Felix “walked up to Mary and just slapped the heck out of her,” according to Mary’s high school boyfriend Leonard Matt.
Despite everything, Mary continued to defend him, calling him a “wonderful person.”
THE MARRIAGE
On July 1, 1961, in Eunice, Louisiana, Mary Horton and Felix Vail got married.
https://www.clarionledger.com/gcdn/-mm-/3a212b032aef874dfc60297c45f3a63946f5aeee/c=0-304-1765-2658/local/-/media/2016/12/28/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/636185193505145184-1022maryhorton003.JPG?width=300&height=401&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp
(Mary Horton in her wedding dress, July 1st, 1961.)
In the fall of that year, Mary began her job as a second-grade teacher at Moss Bluff Elementary School. That December, she found out she was pregnant. Another teacher, Myrtis Quinilty said Felix didn’t want a child.
Her sister-in-law, Sue Jordan, told Mary the only reason Vail believed she wanted to get married was to have a baby, and not because of him. Mary blamed herself, saying “I can see, looking back, from many things I said how they could have been misunderstood.” Mary insisted that the couple were happy but did comment on how unattractive she felt while pregnant, a sentiment that Felix shared.
On their anniversary, Mary gave birth to William Felix Vail Jr, who they called Bill.
https://www.clarionledger.com/gcdn/-mm-/c701d4cdc0e5ff127e79b575a1c137adfa57d585/c=0-0-180-240/local/-/media/2016/12/28/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/636185195986996911-TCLBrd-08-11-2016-ClarionLedger-1-A001-2016-08-10-IMG-636047953682196834-M-1-1-G0FAJ00I-L860703094-IMG-636047953682196834-M-1-1-G0FAJ00I.jpg?width=180&height=240&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp
(Mary holding Bill in 1962)
Within a month, Mary suspected that she may be pregnant again. At this time, strange things began to happen in the couple’s apartment. One morning, the couple awoke to find their front door had been removed from its hinges. Another time, they found the front door of their apartment wide open. Nothing was stolen.
Mary began receiving threatening calls. The couple concluded that whoever was calling must be watching them because the caller only ever did it when Felix wasn’t home.
Mary spoke with her mother about divorcing Felix. Her mother, a devout Catholic, urged her daughter to stay and work things out. It would be a fatal mistake.
MARY'S DEATH
On October 28th, 1962, at 7:30pm, Felix Vail drove up to Shell Beach saying that his wife had fallen in the water of the Calcasieu River while they were running trot lines. It took 2 days to find her body, close to where Vail had said she disappeared.
Her funeral was held on October 31st. Vail never paid a cent for it.
On November 4th deputies arrested Vail at work, hauling him to jail and questioning him. He refused to take a lie detector test. The coroner ruled Mary’s death an “accidental drowning,” a sentiment not shared by the officers who found her body, or the community at large. Days later, Vail was released without charge, as the D.A declined to prosecute.
Months later, he picked up his son, Bill, from the Louisiana home of his late wife’s aunt and headed for Mississippi. According to Bill years later, Vail told him that he and Mary were out fishing, that a boat had come by and caused a big wave and knocked her out of the boat. Mary didn’t know how to swim, had no life jacket (despite being afraid of water) and so immediately sank and drowned. He said he had almost died trying to rescue her.
I will go further in depth into Mary’s death further down this write-up when I go through the investigation that followed, decades later. There are more details that I will cover there.
ROBIN SINCLAIR:
In this section I will cover his relationship with a girlfriend between the murders of Mary Horton and Sharon Hensley. Vail was a full-time scumbag and I want to illustrate that, as well as show some of the other lives he’s impacted, and other people he’s hurt. I will be covering multiple instances like this one. If you only want to read about the 3 murder victims, feel free to scroll down, I have them clearly marked for convenience.
AN 11 YEAR AGE GAP AND A DEAD-BEAT DAD
In 1967, Vail met a 17-year-old Robin Sinclair at a bus stop in San Diego. (Vail would have been 28 at this time. Large age gaps will be a theme in this write up.) She was spending the summer there with her sister, and the 2 began dating. When summer break ended, she left without him, returning home to San Francisco.
In October of 1968 while attending an Iron Butterflies concert, Vail appeared again. Sinclair took it as a sign that the 2 belonged together. He had his young son Bill, and the 3 bounced from place to place together. Sinclair would later describe how Bill was poorly looked after, neglected and that Vail would even give the young boy drugs. Bill would later recount his father giving him LSD as a child.
While watching over another couple’s home during the Christmas holidays, she learned she was pregnant and shared the news with Vail. He said, “Well, I don’t think you’re emotionally stable enough to handle the pregnancy.” The next morning, Vail and his young son had vanished. A friend told Sinclair that he went back to Mississippi, that it was time for his son to go to school and that he didn’t want to be with her.
Heartbroken, Sinclair would move in with her parents. In August of 1969 she gave birth to her daughter, who she named Simone. She wrote Vail an angry letter, and 2 months later he showed up on her doorstep. She told him to leave, and that she never wanted to see him again. She never did.

SHARON HENSLEY:

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Sharon Hensley was born on December 20th, 1948. Growing up in the state capital of Bismarck, North Dakota, she dated football players and belonged to the high school’s 'Demonettes', an award-winning dance team founded by a former Rockette.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT-drYY1YZjqadja6gpHI_j8-zHNTiww7XDLwZ3pq-m&s
(A photo of Sharon Hensley.)
She graduated in 1966, and attended Bismarck Junior College, where she took classes in dance and acting, performing in a play with her older brother, Frank.
In 1967, aged 19, Sharon discovered she was pregnant. Wanting to escape her hometown, she followed her brother Frank and other classmates to San Francisco. After arriving, she stayed in a home for single mothers, where she gave birth to a girl she named “Cherry” after the popular Neil Diamond song. She told friends she wanted to keep the child but was unable to. Two years after leaving for California, Sharon was in jail and her mother, Peggy, headed there with a $5,000 cashier’s check to bail her out. When she returned, Sharon wasn’t with her.
“She said she had lost her daughter,” her younger brother Brian would later say. “She cried almost every night. She was never the same after that.”
MEETING VAIL
While house-sitting in a high-rise apartment, Vail would meet his future girlfriend, Sharon. She was 20, and attractive, having even modeled in her teens. They became friends, and then started a relationship despite the 10-year age gap.
While hitchhiking across California, Vail would confess to Hensley that he had killed Mary, something his son Bill overheard. Because of this, Bill would later go to the police to report his own father for murder. The police at first didn’t believe Bill, but after camping out on the front steps, one detective listened. He told the detective that he was hungry, tired of using the drugs his father gave him, that he wanted to go back to school, live like other kids, and that he had overheard his father admit to killing his mother.
At a beach along the Merced River, police found his father and Hensley, carrying a bag of LSD capsules. Police charged the couple with LSD possession and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Vail received a six-month jail sentence, plus three years’ probation, after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of LSD possession.
California police shared their information with Louisiana authorities. Once again, the district attorney in Lake Charles once again passed on prosecuting Vail for murder. Another fatal mistake.
Bill returned to Mississippi to live with his grandparents, who then gained full custody. On January 23rd, 1971, Vail and Sharon showed up in the driveway. Bill thought Vail was there to kill him, and his grandmother had to reassure him that he was safe.
The father and son eventually sat down and had a talk. Vail told Bill that he didn’t blame him for the time he spent in prison, but instead blamed Sharon, which the young boy found strange because “she had nothing to do with it.”
The family wondered how the couple could even legally be in Mississippi if they were supposed to be on probation in California. They couldn’t. After a visit from the Sheriff, the 2 were smuggled out of town and given enough money to get back to the West Coast.
In the Summer of 1972, the couple appeared unannounced at Sharon’s childhood home in Bismarck. The more the family saw of the couple, the more horrified they became. Sharon wore a mini skirt with no panties and had armpit hair and leg hair "like a man." She had been losing weight and losing clumps of hair.
Her younger brother Brian said it felt like his sister had been brainwashed. If someone asked her a question, “either Felix would answer the question for her, or she would look at Felix while she was giving the answer.”
The couple left then North Dakota and traveled to Mississippi, where they stayed with Vail’s family. On the dairy farm the family owned, they helped paint the home. The couple also sunbathed in the nude, drawing the ire of neighbors.
Peggy Hensley received a telephone call from Sharon, who said she and Vail were heading to New Orleans and then to Miami to make pornographic films. She believed it was a cry for help as “what daughter tells her mother she’s going to do a porno?” Sharon’s parents wanted to travel down to get their daughter back but couldn’t. (The 2 did end up shooting pornographic scenes together, but I won’t get into any of that.)
In early 1973, Sharon called and talked of traveling to South America with Vail, where they would eat natural foods and write a book. It was the last conversation the family would ever have with her. Soon after, she would send her final letter. It contained a photo of her holding a pen, captioned “making travel notes.” It was the last picture ever taken of Sharon Hensley.
https://www.clarionledger.com/gcdn/-mm-/94195697544ea2e63b0b95e33a6de88a8b4f1e2b/c=0-50-399-276/local/-/media/2016/12/28/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/636185487179588030-Sharon-Hensley.jpg?width=399&height=226&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp
(The last photo ever taken of Sharon.)
THE DISAPPEARANCE
In March of 1974, Peggy received a letter from Vail, claiming he was in West Florida. He wrote that he last saw Sharon about a year before in Key West, with an Australian couple that was traveling around the world. All he recalled was the first names of the couple (John and Vanessa), who were talking with Sharon about “island hopping around South America, the West Indies, --- Hawaii for a while, maybe a couple of years in the Philippines, then India, Egypt and the Mediterranean islands and coasts. I don’t know which of these (if any) they decided on or in what order.” Peggy didn't believe a word of it.
In the fall of 1975, Vail’s mother wrote to the Hensley family, saying that her son was surprised the family hadn’t heard from Sharon during that time. Interestingly, Vail told his mother the names of the couple that Sharon left with were Frank and Sally, different names than he had given a year earlier. Vail explained to his mother that before Sharon left, she had burned all her identification cards, got new IDs, and declared that she would become a completely different person.
Bill recalled his father mentioning Sharon. “He said she would never bother anyone ever again.” The words upset Bill, who believed his father had just confessed to another murder. “There was not a soul I could tell about it because I had had my experience in court when I was 8, no one would believe me. It would be my word against his, and no one would believe a 13-year-old.”
​
SHARON CAMPBELL:
I want to talk about this relationship because of the egregious age difference. For reference, Campbell is only 4 years older than Vail’s son.
While riding a bus to north Mississippi in 1975, Vail sat next to 17-year-old Sharon Campbell. Despite being literally twice her age, he commented on how fit she looked, saying "he needed someone like her to keep him fit." In spite of this, she felt flattered and shared her telephone number with him. Not long after she got home, Vail appeared in a yellow Volkswagen bug.
Vail said he wanted Campbell to travel with him, and she told him the only way her parents would allow it was if they got married.
On July 24, 1975, they did, honeymooning in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
In court years later, she would tell prosecutors that they never consummated the marriage because “he was unable to obtain an erection.” (This isn’t relevant, I just wanted to include it out of spite because fuck this guy.)
Several weeks later, she went with Vail to visit his relatives in Louisiana. There, she said a niece told her, “You probably need to know that he killed his first wife --- they arrested him. We all believed that he did it, he drowned her out of a boat.”
Campbell didn't believe them, telling herself that he would be in prison if he was a murderer. But as the months passed by, she concluded that he “had no value in the female gender,” and that “he hated women.”
She later traveled with Vail to his parents’ home in Montpelier. While there, he was outdoors working on the Volkswagen and Campbell walked closer without him noticing. He opened a compartment, and she said she saw “sinister, surgical looking saws of all shapes and sizes in a neat formation.” To her, the sight screamed evil. “It scared me. I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’” She left, annulled the marriage, and never looked back. It was likely the best decision she ever made.
After the divorce he would marry a woman named Carolyn in 1977. The relationship would end after he cheated on her with a woman named Alexandra Christianson during a double date. When Carolyn called Vail’s mother and asked her if the behavior surprised her, she simply replied “no.”
After being served the divorce papers, Vail smashed his car into her MGB Sports Car. A month later he would call her saying “I love you.” She did not reciprocate. She would later describe Vail as “mentally deranged.”
​
ALEXANDRA CHRISTIANSON:
Alexandra is the woman Vail cheated on Carolyn with. She eventually got married to him in Mexico after he officially divorced Carolyn. Not long after their marriage, she heard that Vail was cheating on her.
After a motorcycle accident, he came to rest up at her condo in Costa Mesa, where she confronted him about the cheating. He reportedly got agitated and said, “you know my first wife died.” When she replied saying he’d told her she drowned, Vail shot back “I could have saved her, but I chose not to.”
After telling him to leave, she went to have a shower. While in the shower, Vail attacked her, wrapping his hands around her neck. Hearing her screams, Alexandra’s young brother came in, grabbing Vail and forcing him to the ground. Vail then left.
Soon after this, she found out she was pregnant. The child was still-born, and Alexandra was heart-broken. She would later lead important investigators to witnesses that were used in Vail's eventual trial.
In part 2, I will cover Vail's final victim Annette Craver, and the lengths her mother went to to finally secure justice.
Here is Part 2:
https://www.reddit.com/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/143riqi/felix_vail_the_pedophile_serial_killer_caught/
MY SOURCES:
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/8284?nav
https://charleyproject.org/case/annette-michelle-craver-vail
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/felixvailgone/2016/12/29/felix-vail-gone-one-wife-dead-two-other-missing-jerry-mitchell/95895894/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5796622/mary-elizabeth-vail
https://charleyproject.org/case/sharon-hensley
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/20525?nav

A few years ago my family went through some tuff stuff, the most recent one was my grandpa had passed away and since he lived in another country everyone couldn't go to his funeral. It was decided that my mum would fly to attend and help my grandma through it, she was the only one to go as we couldn't afford to send everyone. This all happened a few weeks before Christmas and as such we had to scale back on our Christmas to fly my mum out.
Everything was going just fine, we made plans to go see the Christmas lights just like the years before but wanted to wait until Christmas Eve when my mum flew back home, we had picked the place we'd go and we're all set.
About 10 days before my mum was set to fly back my dad was in an accident and ended up passing away. My siblings and I were the only ones home the night the constable came to our door to break the news. We called close friends and our church pastor who came to our house that night and stayed there.
The next day our house was very busy as a meal train was started to make sure we had enough food for us and the people who came by to see us. I did not come out of my room and found myself laying on the floor. Word got out to my school principal who came to see me and just hug me as she had a similar loss and knew the pain, I had a close friend who came and just hugged me and sat on the floor with me. We had the funeral and it was packed, people came to share stories and to be by our side through the situation. When Christmas Eve came we went to see family for our party, up to this point we were expecting to have a small Christmas due to the financial situation we were in. When we came home that evening we found that our friends and friends of friends had come together to get us presents so we could have a Christmas.
The pure kindness from everyone nearly brought me to tears. Some people heard about our tradition of getting pj's for Christmas Eve and as such they got us pj's so we could have our tradition.
The pure kindness from people who had come together to help us through the situation was amazing, I truly don't know how we would have gotten through without things like a shoulder to cry on, a meal train, or all the love and support from everyone. To many of these people it was probably just something small to help someone out but to me it meant the world.
I'm not sure if many people will see this but if even one person does and it encourages them to do something kind for someone I'd be happy. Anywho if you got this far thank you for reading and I hope you do something kind for someone as even the small things could change someone's life. 😊

It does not matter how loving, supportive and caring a parent is because if a child doesn't love nor care about their parents then that parent will be all on their own in old age.
I have this relative who judged me for not wanting children she said "who will look after you when you are old" and went on about how I will "change my mind." I pointed out to her that the majority of elderly people in care homes have children and grandchildren who do not vist them. She kept quiet
The same relative a year ago I found out she cries on the phone to my grandmother about how her adult children basically do not help her around the house when she needs help. The woman has mobility issues due to her age and struggles going down the stairs. When Amazon come knocking her kids refuse to answer the door for their mother. I am not going to talk about my family life all I am going to say is her kids have a reputation for being pretty much self centred and have no respect for other people. I have plenty of stories of other relatives crying to my grandmother and other relatives over how their adult children don't care about them. Being a child of immigrants it is sad to hear these stories because its our parents who make so many scarifies to come to the west and to give us the life we have today. I wish I was never born but still I am grateful for all my mother has dome so I can have the privileged life I have today.
Even rescently I know a family whose elderly father has died. One of the adult children even publicly complained about how burying a body and funeral costs is expensive and cares more about saving money. This adult child is already wealthy he drives expensive cars and has regular holidays aboard. What makes it more sad is he was the father's favourite son.
I am so sick and tired of people saying how if you don't have kids you end up all alone with no one to care for you.
Edit: Sorry typo. Having children is not a guarantee a person will be looked after in old age which why is having kids on the grounds of being looked after in old age is not only selfish but impractical

I’m 21 years old female. I will get my bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering in December 2023 and I don’t want to do any additional schooling after I graduate. I don’t have much student loans thanks to scholarships. But whatever I do owe I do plan to pay that off with this money. I don’t have any other debts or any other long term payments other than my car which is almost paid off anyways in 4 more months. I don’t have a place of my own and I don’t pay rent anywhere. I live with my mom and brother. I am currently working part time at a Popeyes drive through. I have saved up $1,300 of my own money so far before this inheritance
I was just gonna let it sit in my savings account until I figured things out but I heard that putting it in savings isn’t smart, I’m not sure why but that’s just what I’m hearing. I also hear a smart thing to do is invest or do those crypto or stock stuff but I have 0 knowledge of that but it always sounds like a gambling type of thing so I don’t wanna do that. I want to know what’s a smart thing to do with my money to potentially make more money. I would like to purchase a home as well but I heard that it’s not a smart time to buy a home right now. If anyone can explain this to me and what I should do going about this?
Some distant relatives know about this and they are expecting me to help them out since they are poor and I don’t want to help them. They have not been kind to me. I don’t know them that well and the last time I talked to them is recently at the funeral before that the last time I saw them was when I was a small child. How can I politely tell them I don’t plan to give them anything? They are staying in town for a while and they asked for me to come over their house for a dinner this Sunday