24-year-old Rebekah Gay was reported missing on the morning of Halloween in 2012 when she didn't show up for work. She never got to take her son trick-or-treating for Halloween that evening, or ever again. (Updated and re-recorded episode.)
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24-year-old Rebekah Gay was reported missing on the morning of Halloween in 2012 when she didn't show up for work. She never got to take her son trick-or-treating for Halloween that evening, or ever again. (Updated and re-recorded episode.)
Please give this podcast a 5-star rating and review on Apple or a 5-star rating on Spotify. Spread the word about this podcast - tell your friends, coworkers and family about it. Follow the podcast on social media; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are @tellmeatruecrimestory. You can support the podcast at buymeacoffee.com/truecrimestorypod Thank you so much and big, big hugs to each and every one of you!
Speaker 1:
Tell me a true crime story. Hey there, welcome to Tell Me a True Crime Story podcast. I'm your host, holly. I'm so appreciative of you for being here. I'm truly honored that you take me along with you while you drive, work out clean, cook work or when you lay down to go to sleep. Thanks for letting me keep you company and be a part of your day. I hope that you and your family are happy, healthy and together forever. Big hugs to all of you.
Speaker 1:
So this podcast has grown a lot lately. I know I told you guys that last week, but a big part of it is because you guys are telling your friends and your coworkers and your family about the podcast and it's also because of your reviews. I've been asking you guys to review the podcast and you've been doing it for me. I'm just overwhelmed and it's so sweet and thoughtful. I have 28 ratings on Apple now. That's three more than last week, so I just wanted to go through those really quick.
Speaker 1:
I would like to thank John and Rory. John said I love this podcast. I work the Graveshift and lately I started listening to podcasts to keep me busy when it's a quiet night. Keep up the good work, john. Thank you so much, john, for the very kind words and for taking the time out of your day to write that for me. And Rory said best podcast. I just love how calm your voice is. I'm so glad I found you. Lots of hugs, rory. Rory, that was so sweet. Thank you for that. So sweet of you.
Speaker 1:
And now I did get another one and it was only two stars, but that's okay, I'm going to share it with you guys. Anyway. Lady Bulldog said quote two stars for original cases. But unfortunately this is delivered like a fourth grader delivering a book report. I'm not sure where the humanity is. It's flat, without drama or the sense that Holly actually knows the case at all. Numbers and places get rattled off without intonation or meaning, end quote.
Speaker 1:
So I was thinking that maybe Lady Bulldog was listening to some of my earlier episodes and I will admit I was not comfortable at all in front of the microphone and I sounded like robotic and I talked super slow. My kids even told me that they were like mom, you need to loosen up. Like you sound funny, you sound like a robot and like you're just so scared. And I was scared. This was not me to like. Get in front of a microphone, I'm okay with people like one on one, but if I feel like all eyes or all ears are on me, like it's really nerve wracking for me. But, yeah, okay, you know, I've gotten better at it. It just takes time and repetition. So, um, you know it took me a long time to get where I am now and I still have a ways to go. I'm sure I still have a lot more, you know, growing to do, but I'm way better than I was.
Speaker 1:
But I am disappointed that Lady Bulldog thinks that I sound as if I don't know the cases that I cover. I really pour my heart into each episode and I read and study and read and read and read some more and add as much accurate detail to each episode that I can possibly dig up for you guys. And as far as lacking drama, I'm not so much concerned with like delivering the cases in a dramatic way, like I'm not trying to sensationalize these stories. I feel strongly about my podcast being like victim focused and fact based. I just want to recount these true crime cases to my audience in a respectful and thorough manner. But, like I said, you can't please everyone, I guess, and I can only be me and deliver each case to you in my style.
Speaker 1:
So, um, and then last week I mentioned to you guys about Sus Living. I don't know if it's like Seuss, like Susan or like Sus Living, like I'm not sure, but it's Sus Living or Seuss Living. So they left me a really sweet review, and I mentioned this last week. They left me a really sweet review and it said I stumbled upon this podcast and boy I'm boy, am I glad I did. But they only gave me one star. So I assumed that that one star was a mistake because of the nice words. And so I said last week on the podcast I said if you're listening Sus Living or Sus Living, please edit your writing on Apple and change the stars from one to five. If you really did mean to put five. And guess what they did. I mean that was so nice and thoughtful that they went back and fixed that and they actually heard it and, you know, did that.
Speaker 1:
So, like I really appreciate you guys. I have some really nice listeners and I'm just so grateful for you guys. I know how busy life is and how busy just everybody is trying to take care of everyone and everything in life and make money to pay the bills, and it means the world to me that you guys stop what you're doing for a few minutes and take valuable time out of your day to help me out. So big, big hugs to you guys for being so kind. For those of you that gave me five stars without writing a review, I thank you so much too. I'm sorry that I can't thank you by name because it doesn't let me see your names if you just leave the stars. But big hugs to you and big hugs to all the Spotify users that are rating me on Spotify. I got a couple more this week, so I'm grateful for all of that. Thank you so much. And so for those of you who are listening and like the podcast and haven't done so yet, it helps me out a ton if you can leave me a five star review on Apple or a five star rating on Spotify. So to leave me a rating on Apple, you just go to my show page and you scroll down till you see ratings and reviews. Then you select a star rating, then below that, you click on write a review.
Speaker 1:
So one more thing before we get into this episode, and if you're tired of hearing me blab, just fast forward like 30 seconds or so. I went to Crimecon in Orlando on Friday and, if you listened, last week I told you that I couldn't afford the tickets for me and my two daughters to go. So we all signed up to volunteer and we got accepted as volunteers and when you volunteer, you get to go, like, for a day for free. So it was lots of fun and we just didn't have enough time to like experience everything. But that's okay. Like now, I know for next year to like save my money to go or, you know, hopefully, fingers crossed, next year I will be at Crimecon on podcast row with this podcast. That's what I'm shooting for. That would be like my dream. But if you want, you can see pics of me and my daughters at Crimecon on my TikTok.
Speaker 1:
It's at tell me a true crime story. So please follow me on TikTok, facebook and Instagram at tell me a true crime story on all three of those. So enough of all that talking. Now let me tell you a true crime story. Rebecca Gay's trailer home was decorated with pumpkins and scarecrow's On Halloween, october 31st of 2012,. Rebecca Gay was looking forward to taking her son Conway trick or treating along with her fiance Erin, but on Halloween morning she didn't show up at the Goodwill store where she worked. Her co-workers were worried and one of them went to her home to check on her. She wasn't there, but her car was parked next door in the parking lot of a bar named Barn Door. Rebecca Gay was reported missing around noon by her co-workers.
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By October of 2012, john Douglas White had been pastor at the 14 member Christ Community Fellowship for the past three years. Pastor White asked the members of his congregation at Christ Community Fellowship Church to pray for his missing young neighbor, rebecca Gay. He told his congregants that Rebecca was 24 years old and a single mom to a three-year-old boy named Conway. John White knew Rebecca pretty well. They both lived in Broomfield Valley Trailer Park in rural Broomfield Township, michigan, and John often watched Rebecca's toddler son Conway for her while she worked. Not only were they neighbors, but Rebecca's mom, sally, was engaged to Pastor John White, and Sally was one of the 14 members of Christ Community Fellowship Church.
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The truth about Rebecca's sudden disappearance was horrifying and would very soon be revealed. No one knew it, but Pastor John White was hiding a dark past and an even darker obsession he enjoyed watching porn that showed women being murdered and acts of necrophilia, and I'm sure most everyone listening knows what necrophilia is, but just in case you don't, necrophilia is the sexual attraction to dead bodies. As I mentioned, john White was hiding a dark past. Now we're going to rewind and go back in time 18 years.
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Vicky Sue Wall was only 26 when she went missing in July of 1994 from Kalamazoo County, michigan. Friends and family had not seen her since July 10th and she was reported missing on July 15th. Two days later her vehicle was found in the parking lot of a Meyer store on Gull Road in Kalamazoo, michigan. Police obtained footage from a camera there that showed Vicky getting picked up in the Meyer parking lot at about 3 am on July 11th by a man with a beard in a black pickup truck. The police investigation into her disappearance determined that although Vicky was married, she had been having an affair with a man she'd met at work. His name was John Douglas White. He was married with two children and had another child on the way. Six weeks after she went missing in September of 1994 and two miles away from the Meyer store she disappeared from.
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Vicky Wall's body was recovered by a local resident. The man noticed drag marks on the side of a two-track driveway and followed them. He soon came upon a white tennis shoe. The trail of drag marks continued, as evidenced by some flattened weeds. He continued to follow that trail of flattened weeds until he came upon a pair of women's underwear. Suddenly he smelled a horrible odor and caught a glimpse of a skull. Vicky Sue Wall had been found. Her body was naked but there was a shirt and a bra around her neck. Her body was so badly decomposed the forensic pathologist couldn't determine exactly how she died, but stated that the quote manner of death was suggestive of homicide. End quote.
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Investigators alleged that Vicky was pressuring John about the affair they'd been having. Perhaps she wanted him to leave his wife for her. John White was arrested at the Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital in September of 1994, approximately a week after Vicky Wall's body was found. He'd checked himself into the psychiatric hospital shortly after the day. He was caught on camera picking her up from the Meyer store parking lot. Because of a lack of evidence in the case, john White was allowed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 1994. According to mlivecom, at John's sentencing in 1995, he said Vicky Sue Wall's death quote was a tragic accident. End quote. I love Vicky. He said, he was sentenced to eight to fifteen years. John White served almost thirteen years in prison and was released in 2007.
Speaker 1:
Vicky Sue Wall was not John White's first victim. Now we're going to rewind the clock back even further, from 1994, when Vicky went missing and her body was recovered, to the year 1980. John White's first known victim was seventeen-year-old Teresa Etherton. In 1980, john White was twenty-two years old and married. Teresa was John White's neighbor where they lived in Battle Creek, michigan. John White invited Teresa to his house to look at his racetrack in his basement. While down in the basement, without warning, he started stabbing her from behind near her shoulder blade. He stabbed her a total of fifteen times in the back and chest, but thankfully, teresa survived, and in a 2012 article by Ken Culker of woodtvcom, teresa stated that John White said to her that day, quote I'm really sorry you had to go like this, but what the fuck? You're just a woman. End quote.
Speaker 1:
John White was convicted of attempted murder. He was sentenced to five to ten years in prison. Calhoun County Circuit Judge Paul Nicolik also recommended he receive mental health counseling while he did his time in prison. John White appealed his conviction on grounds that his attorney had not mounted an insanity defense on his behalf, the Michigan State Court of Appeals ruled in John White's favor and threw out the jury verdict. John White was not retried for the vicious attack on Teresa. Instead, he was given a plea deal. He was ordered to undergo mental health treatment and received two years of probation. His victim, teresa, was not informed of John White's release from prison or his plea deal.
Speaker 1:
No doubt Teresa received the shock of her life when she was standing in line in a state office and heard John White's voice behind her, the voice that had haunted her since she'd been so brutally attacked a few years earlier. She'd turned around and there he stood, smiling. So that's who John White really was. He'd hid the truth of his reprehensible past deeds from his small congregation and from his fiance Rebecca's mom, sally Gay. He'd hid it from Rebecca, who entrusted him with the care of her little boy. He'd nearly killed his young neighbor Teresa in 1980 and murdered his lover Vicki in 1994. Because of lax sentencing laws back in the day, john was led out into the world to kill again.
Speaker 1:
According to John White's confession to police, after drinking about four or five natural light beers, he went to Rebecca Gay's home around 2 am on Halloween morning he walked into her trailer and a light came on in her bedroom. She walked to a side door where he'd come in. That's when John White hit her on the head several times with a rubber mallet. John White said that when he hit her over the head she said to him I know you. He hit her until she lost consciousness. When he noticed she was still breathing, he put a large zip tie around her neck and tightened it until she died. He then dragged her body into the kitchen and undressed her. He touched her naked body but said he could not remember if he had sex with her body or not. He told police that he was unable to get any erection. All the while her little son, conway, was in his room sleeping.
Speaker 1:
John White said he put Rebecca's body, her clothes, the rubber mallet and bloody towels he'd used to clean up her blood in large construction trash bags. He placed the garbage bags into the back of his truck. When he did this, a bag ripped and some stuff spilled out. He dumped Rebecca's body in a ditch in a wooded area and dumped the rubber mallet and bloody towels. About one mile away, at the intersection of Pickard Road and Woodruff Road in Mount Pleasant. John White threw Rebecca's purse, car keys and phone in a dumpster at their trailer park, where they were later recovered by police. He then drove Rebecca's car to the barn door parking lot to throw off investigators and make them think she'd been abducted. He returned to her trailer home, dressed her three-year-old son Conway in his Halloween costume and drove him to his father. As part of their investigation, police interviewed John White and saw that he had a scratch on his nose. He said it was from a shelf falling on him at his place. Police ended up finding blood evidence in his home and truck and also a necklace in the back of his truck. John White was questioned by investigators and eventually confessed to killing Rebecca and dumping her body. Then-sheriff of Isabella County, leo Metashewski, told the Associated Press that John said he had been attracted to Rebecca and thought she was a very cute girl and for weeks prior to the murder he'd been thinking about killing her and having sex with her dead body. John White revealed where Rebecca's body had been dumped and it was recovered in a ditch on the southeast corner of the intersection of Coldwater Road and Pickard Road On March 27, 2013,.
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In the Isabella County trial court, john Douglas White pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as a habitual third offender for the murder of Rebecca Gay In April of 2013,. He was sentenced to 56 to 85 years in prison. In the Michigan Department of Corrections, john White was inmate number 167-505. He was serving his time as a level four offender at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia, michigan, when he committed suicide by hanging at 4.17 am on Wednesday, august 28, 2013. Staff and EMTs tried to revive him, but could not. John White was pronounced dead at 4.38 am. He was only months into serving his sentence. He was 56 years old. We're going to end today's episode talking about our beautiful victim.
Speaker 1:
Rebecca Jane Gay was born in Midland, michigan, on March 26, 1988, to Thomas and Sally Gay. She was a member of the equestrian team and graduated from Bullock Creek High School in 2007. She studied cosmetology and was also a graduate of In Session School of Cosmetology. Rebecca had worked at Bo Rick's haircare in Shelby Township before starting work at the Goodwill Store in Mount Pleasant, where she'd just recently been promoted to management. Rebecca was known to her family as Becaboo. She was totally devoted to her son, conway. Her mom said after her death quote she said prayers with her son every night before bed following story time end quote Rebecca's online obituary described her like this Rebecca enjoyed life to the fullest and was an inspiration to all that knew her. She was very family-oriented, caring for others before herself. She was a loving mother, daughter, sister, aunt and niece. Rebecca is buried at Jerome Township Cemetery in Sanford, michigan.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, guys, for listening to this episode of Tell Me a True Crime Story. Please tell your friends, coworkers and family about this podcast. Share a link to the podcast with someone who's interested in true crime stories, or share a link to your favorite episode. Let them know that they can listen to this podcast on Apple, google, spotify or wherever. And please stop what you're doing and go follow the podcast on social media. Facebook, instagram and TikTok are at Tell Me a True Crime Story. So I have two ways that you can support my podcast. You can buy me a coffee by going to buymeacoffeecom slash truecrimestorypod. And the other way is totally free. You can write a short but sweet review for the podcast on Apple Podcast or give it a five-star rating on Spotify. And one more thing before we leave each other this episode Many of you probably don't know that I have another podcast.
Speaker 1:
I did about six episodes there before. I had to stop and just focus on this one. But what I'd like for you guys to do for me is to go listen to a few of the episodes on that podcast and let me know if you enjoy listening to those types of stories and if you find them interesting. You can let me know by reviewing that podcast on Apple, just like you would review this one. You can review that one and let me know, tell me your thoughts or whatever. Or you can email me with your thoughts. So my email address is holliestellmepodcastatgmailcom. That's holly with a Y Hollies tellmepodcastatgmailcom.
Speaker 1:
So the podcast that I want you to go check out and listen to, my other podcast is called All Available Units Respond. You might have a hard time finding it because it's not got that many episodes or reviews so it's like not that relevant and it doesn't show up easily when you search for it. But I promise you it's there, it's live, it's there. If you look for it and you really really cannot find it, just email me and I'll send you a link to it. So again, it's called All Available Units Respond and my email, if you need to email me, is Hollies H-O-L-L-Y-S. Hollies tell me podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:
Thank you guys again, so much for being here. I love each and every one of you. I wish you safety as you go about your days. I wish you all good health and lots of happiness too. That's why I always say I hope that you and your family are happy, healthy and together forever. Please join me in the next episode, which will be episode 29, when I'll tell you another true crime story. Big, big, big hugs to each and every one of you. Bye-bye, pooling.