A Mother's Love: The Case of Cheryl Silvonek, Part 1

Cheryl Silvonek was a 54 year old beloved wife and mother of 2 children. On March 15th, 2015, her body was found in a shallow grave not too far from her home. Detectives immediately had a suspect, and when it was revealed as to who was responsible, everyone was in disbelief. When it was all said and done, many of us are left to wonder: who can you really trust?

Transcript

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It is known that very early on in a woman's pregnancy. Maternal loves makes its presence known as a strong instinctive force. That same force creates a lifelong bond for mother and child. A mother's love is unique, not familiar with any laws and takes no pity on others, willing to do harm to her children for a mother, a child always remains her baby until the end of time, all mothers have what's called unconditional love for their children. And that love carries through in any chapter of life or setting this unconditional love that mothers have is so very exclusive for every child. Cheryl Slavonic was a prime example of what was just said. She was the cornerstone of her family and just an exceptional self-sacrificing person. She too would do anything for her. Two children, 14 year old, Jamie and 20 year old Alex, but sometimes giving it all to your family. Isn't enough out in the world, lurks evil, not willing to look at all the unconditional love and support a mother has given to her children, but evil itself decides the self sacrifices a mother has made just isn't enough. In the early morning hours of March 15th, 2015, ill will misery decided that Cheryl Salvan was to be punished for her unequivocal love and her utmost devotion to her family. It was on that day in the early morning hours and unknown to the rest of her family and neighbors. Cheryl was being savagely, beaten, choked, and stabbed in her own car, right in the driveway of her family home. This torturous attack lasted around 20 to 30 minutes after discovery of Cheryl's body, her family, friends, neighbors, and her close knit community of MCCE Pennsylvania would be shocked at who and why was behind the orchestration of this unnecessary and brutal murder. You're listening to depart it in Penn. And this is episode one, a mother's love the case of In the early morning hours of March 15th, 2015, a neighbor was walking their dogs in the 5,700 block of HAA road in Orfield, Pennsylvania, HAA Del road is located in a rural area of Orfield with no sidewalks, very few homes and very little street lighting. The road itself is winding and scenic. And even in the wintery month of March is still quite full with trees and vegetation Haal road also runs along the Hasan Creek, which is part of the Hassan Creek nature trail, a scenic one mile nature trail that in the warmer months is frequented by nature lovers. While walking their dogs, the neighbor came upon a car that seemed abandoned, but yet had its headlights on curious, the neighbor walked towards the vehicle. And when they looked inside, they noticed a great deal of blood and immediately called 9 1 1 within a few minutes of placing that nine one one call south white hall police arrived, but the vehicle was already gone as they searched the area for the car. Attending officers noticed a pile of loose dirt and snow, and what appeared as a shallow grave along the Creek upon the discovery of the shallow grave. The officers on the scene were instructed to secure the area until their Lieutenant arrived shortly after around 5:00 AM, south white hall police, Lieutenant Michael Sarino arrived on the scene being that it was still winter and dark. At that time, the local fire department set up exterior lighting. So the police could continue their investigation. Lieutenant Tino had borrowed a thermal imaging camera from the fire department, so he could scan the area of the shallow grave by using this device. Lieutenant Tino was able to distinguish a torso and the faint outline of an arm while the other police Sergeant illuminated the area with the flashlight. Lieutenant Tino used a shovel and began to dig away at the dirt. When two legs became visible as a result of his digging, he immediately contacted other authorities for assistance shortly after finding the body buried in the shallow grave. Other officers had located the suspicious vehicle that had been called in about the previous call to nine one one. The car was found about one mile away from the shallow grave, and it was at the edge of a pond in the area of Applewood drive and huckleberry road in McKenzie. But the 2007 Ford freestyle didn't make it into the pond. Instead, the vehicle was partially stuck in a snowy and muddy pond. The ignition of the vehicle was turned on and the headlights were still on inside the front area of the vehicle. There was a significant amount of blood, specifically, a large puddle of dried blood on the driver's seat, bloody fingerprints on the steering wheel and spattered blood on the center console and passenger seat. After detectives ran the registration of the car, they found out it belonged to David and Cheryl Silvan who lived at 1516 Randy Lane in upper MCCE township, Pennsylvania shortly after discovering the crossover SUV, Lieutenant Sarino acquired what's called a J net photograph of Cheryl Silvan. This photograph allows users to make a single inquiry and automatically search for photographs from other government systems, including Pennsylvania department of transportation using her driver's license photo Lieutenant. So was able to determine that the woman in the shallow grave had been identified as Cheryl Sivan. Now, in order to get a, an idea of who and what type of person Cheryl was, we need to rewind a bit. Cheryl Sivan was a 54 year old wife to David Silvan, daughter to Clark S and Margaret Lynn, sister to Clark, Jr. And Jeffrey mother to Jamie and Alex, Cheryl met her then husband David 30 years prior when he walked into a medical center in Jim Thor, Pennsylvania, where Cheryl was a receptionist. David had family members who were patients of the medical center and told David, there was a pretty girl who worked there and would ask about him for both David and Cheryl. It was love at first sight, after working up the courage to ask her out, they dated then eventually married in 2006, they purchased a 3,500 square foot home that had four bedrooms and four baths and was located in upper McKenzie township, Pennsylvania. The home is located in an idyllic cul-de-sac and is situated in the highly sought out Parkland school district. David worked as a pharmacist and Cheryl got a job at Lehigh valley hospital working as a medical secretary at the woman's health center. They had two children, Alex, who was following in his da in David's footsteps and studied pharmacy at Duquesne university in Pittsburgh and their 14 year old daughter. Jamie was a gifted student who was enrolled in the eighth grade at Orfield middle school, both David and Cheryl enjoyed a full and loving life with marriage, successful careers, two kids, and a lovely spacious home, like most dedicated wives and mothers. Cheryl often put everyone before herself. Her life touched so many others, close relatives, friends, coworkers, and most importantly, her children to everyone around her. She was the world's greatest mom. Cheryl could get the most done at night and thought nothing of going for late night, food shopping like so many other working mothers, Cheryl was on the move from the moment she woke up every day because she was a working mom, her mother, Margaret Lynn, sometimes called Peggy Lynn would make the 48 minute drive from Jim Thor, Pennsylvania during the week to help out Cheryl and David while they worked shortly after identifying the lifeless body as Cheryl Silvan, detective Richard Hele finger of the Lehigh county district attorney's office arrived on the scene to investigate the suspicious death after viewing the scene and speaking with Lieutenant Sarino, detective Hele finger proceeded to the Sivan residence, which was located approximately three miles down the road from the crime scene at HASA road. After investigators knocked on the door, David Sivan answered. He stated he had been sleeping and he did not think anyone else was home at that time. David granted the officer's permission to search the residence. After walking upstairs, detective Heffelfinger came upon a girl's bedroom and he observed a male and a young female in the bed. The female was holding up the sheets to her chest. And as he looked around the room, detective Heffelfinger noticed one knife and a cell phone on the floor of the bedroom and another cell phone on the headboard of the bed. The male in the bed was identified as 20 year old Kayla Barnes and the female was identified as 14 year old. Jamie Silvan described as a tomboy 14 year old, Jamie Sylvan loved hunting, fishing motorcycles, and pretty much everything that her dad David did, and that helped them forge a particularly close bond with each other. Although she couldn't bring herself to shoot any deer. Jamie still liked to spend her weekends with her dad tagging along with him on fishing or hunting trips. David Sovan loved the outdoors and was so happy when Jamie took an interest in his hobbies. Jamie also loved animals, including her cats, Cleo and blaze and aspired to be a veterinarian. Jamie wasn. Triar Jamie was an eighth grade student at Orfield middle school and was very well liked by her teachers. She was deemed of a very superior range of intelligence and was enrolled in the gifted individualized education plan through the Parkland school district. She had a significantly above average verbal IQ of 1 42, and that placed her in the moderate gifted category. Like most girls, her age, Jamie was also very active on social media, especially Twitter, her Twitter account reads incurable optimist with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a ravenous appetite for adventure period. Open-minded secular humanist period, Caleb then with a heart emoji, but unlike other 14 year old girls who a her age who most likely tweeted about Justin Bieber, Katie Perry trips to the mall are getting her nails done. Jamie tweeted more sophisticated thoughts and ideas. For example, her man crushed Monday, she would tweet and paid homage to the likes of Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krause, Carl Sagan, and Neil Tyson on social media, especially Twitter. She would comment and tweet her views of the world, science politics, religion and mortality. At 14, it was apparent that Jamie viewed herself as more of a grown up a woman, more than the eighth grader. She actually was Jamie's grandmother. Peggy described Jamie as quiet, shy, and overall a goodhearted girl. Jamie was embarrassed by her braces and often would not smile in photos. Peggy went to most of Jamie's school events and spent the night, at least once a week at the Silvan home, Peggy and Jamie were particularly close. And when Peggy would stay over, Jamie and herself slept in the same room. Their late night giggle and gossip sessions would often end with Cheryl coming into Jamie's room and scolding both of them to go to sleep. But in late 2013, there was a change in her. Jamie who was normally friendly and gregarious started to become secretive and withdrew from friends and family. Her dad, David Silvan recalled the day at the end of the last deer hunting season. When he found his daughter outta bed at 4:00 AM, text messaging, someone David was shocked because it was a school night and someone was talking to her at that late hour. He didn't think much of it. Jamie just brushed it off as she couldn't sleep around the same time. Peggy said she also noticed an abrupt change in her granddaughter. As mentioned before Peggy would stay over at least once a week with both Jamie and Alex often sleeping in Jamie's room. Peggy said that eventually stopped because Jamie was always on the phone or computer at night. Jamie just stopped spending time with Peggy, like with previous visits and she missed it while the investigators were in Jamie's bedroom. David Silvan walked in and was surprisingly shocked to see a man in his daughter's bedroom, not even knowing who Caleb Barnes was. He began questioning police about the man in the bedroom, who is this man? David Silvan, reportedly yelled to his daughter, even with investigators in her room and throughout the family home, Jamie and Caleb's disposition seemed natural and nothing out of the ordinary. All in all during the investigation of the home, investigators found three knives at the Silvan house. One bloody knife was found on a picnic table outside in the backyard of the family home. And two were actually found in Jamie's bedroom, one by her bed next to Caleb's wallet and watch and another on her couch. The knife on the couch had Caleb's initials. C G B was engraved on the blade after securing and searching the family home. David, Jamie and Caleb Barnes were transported to south white hall township police station for questioning all three were separated and put into different rooms. Since Jamie was a minor detective Heffelfinger asked David, if there was an adult individual that could be present with Jamie during questioning, David said his mother-in-law Peggy should be contacted. Peggy was then contacted and it was informed that Cheryl was missing. She agreed to come to the station, but it took some time to arrive because she lived in Jim Thorpe, which was about a 40 minute drive to white hall township. After Peggy arrived, she agreed to sit in with Jamie during the interview, she was allowed to speak with Jamie for about 15 minutes or so prior to the police interviewing her detectives planned to interview Jamie prior to Caleb because Jamie's dad, David did not have any idea who Caleb Barnes was during the start of the interview. Detectives noticed cuts and abrasions to Jamie's hands, including a broken acrylic fingernail. When detectives began asking about Cheryl's whereabouts, Jamie seemed unaffected about her missing mother. Jamie had stated that the night before around 6:00 PM, her mother had driven her to a breaking Benjamin concert in Wilkes bear, Pennsylvania. According to Jamie, Cheryl had waited in the car until the concert was over and then drove Jamie back to the Lehigh valley where they then drove to Chris's diner, a restaurant located by their home in Mckenjie Jamie sended, her mom, Cheryl waited again in the car while Jamie ate breakfast alone. Inside the restaurant, after Jamie was done eating at the diner, she said they arrived back home at 1:00 AM. Jamie had a conversation with her mom and Cheryl said she was going out to buy some spinach. Jamie said she went inside and went to bed shortly after Jamie went to bed. She told detectives, she was awakened by Caleb Barnes who began shaking her and asking what store is open 24 hours a day. Jamie responded Walmart. Jamie then said, Caleb Barnes took her from the house and drove her to Walmart in Drexler town, which is located about four miles from the Sivan home. According to Jamie, Caleb was rushing around the store, buying, rubbing alcohol, a flashlight, a file and other items. When they returned the Jamie's home. Jamie went back to bed while Caleb, for a while, when Caleb returned, he woke Jamie up again and raped her. Afterwards. Caleb told Jamie he had slit Cheryl's throat and then buried her at this point of the interview. Cheryl's mother Peggy became hysterical and had to be removed from the interview room about an hour into the interview with detectives Jamie's story began to evolve and she began to change her version of events that happened that evening. Jamie started her interview over again and stated that Caleb came to the Savan home prior to the concert. And her mother agreed to take them both to the concert. They arrived early to the concert and her mother left them alone in the car while they had consensual sex. When Cheryl returned to the car, she caught both Jamie and Caleb in the car with Jamie's pants off at that time. Cheryl said nothing to them. Shortly after that, Cheryl drove Jamie and Caleb to the concert. After the concert was over. Cheryl drove them all back to the Lehigh valley where Jamie and Caleb had breakfast together at Chris's diner. Cheryl waited in the car while Jamie and Caleb ate breakfast. After they were done eating, Cheryl drove them home. Jamie went on to say that as soon as they arrived in the driveway of the family home, Cheryl parked the car in the driveway and Caleb who was sitting in the back seat behind Cheryl reached around the front seat and grabbed Cheryl by the throat and began to choke her. Cheryl began begging for her life and pleaded for Jamie to help her who was seated in the back passenger seat during the attack. Cheryl used her foot to sound the car horn. And at that time, Caleb began to punch Cheryl in the face multiple times during the struggle. And finally, after his previous attempts to kill her had failed. He eventually pulled out a knife and stabbed Cheryl in the neck. Jamie went on with her story and told investigators that Caleb had killed Cheryl because Caleb did not want Cheryl standing in the way between him and Jamie being together. She said after Caleb killed Cheryl, Caleb moved her body to the passenger seat and drove Cheryl's car with her body in it and moved it to the cul-de-sac on Randy Lane. Then Caleb and Jamie got into his car and drove to Walmart in Drexler town where he purchased disinfectant wipes, rubbing alcohol, a file box cutter flashlight and leather gloves. The couple then drove back to the Slavonic residence, got into Cheryl's car and drove it to HAA road. Jamie said that Caleb then removed Cheryl's body from the car, dragged her into the woods and buried her body by the pond. While Caleb was burying the body, Jamie said they noticed a man with a flashlight and they both hid after the man left, they walked a three mile walk back to the Sivan residence. Then in another surprising twist during her interview, Jamie told police it was actually her friend's idea to kill her parents. After hearing this detectives located Jamie's friend and brought her in for questioning. Now at this point, police had not interviewed Kayla Barnes and held off questioning him until detectives had interviewed Jamie's friend in the late morning hours of March 15th, 2015. Detectives sat down with Jamie's friend who remained unidentified due to her being a minor detectives explained to the unidentified friend that she was being brought in for questioning because Jamie had told investigators that it was a friend's idea for both Jamie and Caleb to kill both of Jamie's parents. The unidentified friend started off the interview by saying that Jamie had called her and told her that on Friday, March 6th, 2015, Caleb went to Jamie's home for the first time. And at that time he met Cheryl. It was at that first meeting that Cheryl learned that Caleb was 20 years old, despite both Jamie and Caleb, trying to convince Cheryl. He was younger. Cheryl did not believe either one of them instructed Caleb to leave and ordered Jamie and Caleb to end their relationship unknown. The Jamie's parents. Caleb spent the night with Jamie in their basement and the following morning, Cheryl found the couple together in the basement and kicked Caleb out of the family home. Even though this event had occurred, Jamie's father did not know about Caleb or the incident afterwards. Caleb returned the Fort Mead Marilyn on Saturday, March 7th, 2015, according to Jamie's friend, they weren't supposed to see each other anymore. On March 8th. The day after Caleb was kicked out of the Sivan home, the unidentified friend went to visit Jamie at her home. It was at that time, Jamie brought up killing her parents. The unidentified friend told investigators that Jamie said to her, something like what if my parents were killed? The friend told Jamie, she didn't think it was a smart idea at all. Later that evening while her friend was present, Jamie used her cell phone and called Caleb twice and put him on speaker phone. During that first call to Caleb, Jamie herself brought up killing her parents multiple times. And the plan was to Lu her parents out of the house. Then go to a location where Caleb would be waiting. He would kill them, get Jamie. And then they would dispose of the bodies. The conversation even included a discussion of life. Insurance proceeds from Jamie's father David and who would get custody of Jamie. If her parents were killed throughout the call, Caleb said he didn't think it was a good idea. But later during the second phone call, he said he had the knives picked out and he would be able to kill them. Jamie's friend testified that as the second phone call went on, Caleb was getting more and more okay with Jamie's planned to kill her parents. The friend also testified that in front of her, Jamie said the Caleb over the phone, I miss having sex with you. Knowing that the conversation regarding the murder of her parents was damaging. Jamie began to cover her tracks and repeatedly told her friend that the plot to kill her parents was a joke. Jamie's friend never told anyone about the conversation and had told Jamie not to do it. The friend told police and she said she didn't encourage Jamie to do it at all. Unrelated to Cheryl's murder, but important in revealing Jamie's character. The unidentified friend recalled an incident in science class where Jamie and her would make faces at each other. Jamie was caught by the teacher and was taken out into the hallway to be reprimanded. Jamie told the teacher that other people should be punished too. The friend described this incident as the perfect example of Jamie being manipulative and throwing her under the bus. The unidentified friend also told police that their fellow classmates at Orfield middle school were talking about Jamie datings I'm 20 year old man. But Jamie told them it was just a rumor at the time the friend said she was starting not to trust Jamie and that Jamie was turning on other people. So she didn't have to face the consequences of her actions. The same day after the detectives were done interviewing Jamie's friend, detectives proceeded to interview Caleb Barnes. The interview casually started with Caleb talking about his family. During that part of the interview, Caleb began to cry and he said he moved around with his family until he was around eight years old. And then he moved with his family to Argentina. He was homeschooled and said he was taught Spanish and far sea, which he spoke fluently. After he completed high school, he followed his father's footsteps and enlisted in the army. At the time of Cheryl's murder. Caleb was stationed at Ford Mead in Maryland. When police first asked Caleb about what happened the night of March 14th, 2015, he claimed he was at a friend's house in Virginia. On the night of Cheryl's murder. Caleb told investigators he wasn't feeling good and went to see his friend. And afterwards he then headed to Jamie's house. He claimed he went to sleep in his Camaro, parked outside the Ovonic home. And that it was Jamie who had fatally stabbed. Cheryl Caleb then changed his story and said, he woke up to a blood cover. Jamie who admitted? She stabbed her mother. Cheryl, Caleb claimed Jamie told him she was pregnant. And that when she told Cheryl, she went crazy. When her daughter gave her the news investigators, knowing this wasn't the true story had told Caleb that Jamie had already told them an entirely different version of what happened. It was then that Caleb told a different version of events. According to Caleb, Cheryl snapped and became enraged after finding Jamie and Caleb having sex in her car after they returned home from the breaking Benjamin concert. According to Caleb, Cheryl freaked the out and attacked. Jamie Caleb said, Cheryl called Jamie a and started to choke Jamie. It was then he tried to stop the attack. When Cheryl began attacking him, Caleb stated Cheryl was not stopping her attack on him. And he didn't know what to do. Caleb claimed the killing was not planned and that Jamie was not involved in the stabbing or disposing of Cheryl's body. Detectives conducted two separate interviews with Caleb that day, both times Caleb denied. Jamie helped him in any way. Caleb claimed that Jamie had no idea about the killing and was in shock and appeared disconnected. He claimed she was following him around for the rest of the night. The following day on March 16th, 2015 Cheryl's autopsy was performed. The Lehigh county coroner stated Cheryl's death was caused by sharp force injuries to the neck or otherwise known as stabbing to the neck. In addition to the neck injuries, Cheryl had contusions abrasions, sharp force injuries, more than five wounds to the head torso and outer extremities. Most notable were the three gaping wounds on Cheryl's right side of her neck, forensic pathologist. Barbara Bollinger noted that Cheryl's cart and jugular arteries were cut in half during the attack. Her trachea was penetrated and it took a significant amount of force to cut the veins. Cheryl's eyes had broken blood vessels, which indicated strangulation and her high bone, which is the U-shaped bone in your neck that supports your tongue was fractured, which also indicates strangulation occurred. Cheryl also had defensive wounds and bruising on her hands, thumbs and wrists. The direction of the stab wounds were consistent with the attacker being behind Cheryl, even though her body had been burned to conceal the identity of her body, it was not listed as a cause of death. After the interviews with Jamie Caleb and the unidentified friend, authorities began the rest of their investigation by questioning Cheryl and David's neighbors that lived on Randy Lane, Michelle Mueller, who li resided to the right of the Silvan home stated her bedroom overlooked thes driveway. On the evening of March 15th, 2015, Michelle was at church, not far from Randy Lane. She returned home at 9:45 PM and went to bed around 11:00 PM to watch TV. As she fell asleep, she was awakened around 1:00 AM by the short, random beeping of a car horn. The random beeping happened again around 1:06 AM. And it was then Michelle decided to look out of her bedroom window. When she did, she noticed a car parked in the Sivan driveway with its headlights on a few moments later, she heard a commotion and clanging in the Sivan garage. This noise made Michelle get up again and look outside her bedroom window. Michelle told police that the front driver's side of the vehicle in the driveway was open and there was an additional vehicle in the driveway that was not there earlier. When she looked out, Michelle then noticed Jamie casually walking into the garage. Next investigators began to accumulate video surveillance from the areas and places, both Jamie and Caleb claimed where they were at the night and the morning of Cheryl's murder. First investigators started with surveillance video from March 14th, 2015. Video showed Cheryl exiting the Pennsylvania turnpike, Wyoming valley toll Plaza, which showed Cheryl exiting that toll booth at 6:41 PM. Then detectives went on to retrieve the video footage obtained from the breaking Benjamin concert, which was held at the Scranton Hilton and Wilkes bear footage shows Jamie and Caleb enter the concert at 8:32 PM and depart the concert at 10:34 PM. Additional footage shows Cheryl Salvan in the lobby area of the Scranton Hilton during the timeframe, after the concert Cheryl's car entered the Pennsylvania turnpike, Wyoming valley toll Plaza at 10:34 PM and departed the Lehigh valley, Pennsylvania turnpike toll Plaza at 8:58 PM. After exiting the turnpike, Cheryl drove them all back to the Lehigh valley where they went to Chris's family restaurant, which was located approximately one and a half miles from the Sivan home. The video footage shows Jamie and Caleb sharing a meal. It was during this time when the two were alone eating in the restaurant that according to Jamie, they both agreed to move forward with their plan of killing Cheryl. Cheryl Slavonic sat outside in the car, unknowing what her fate would bring her a few minutes later. Video footage obtained from the Walmart located at mill Creek road in Allentown. Pennsylvania showed Jamie and Caleb arrive in Caleb silver Chevy Camaro walking together and enter the store around 2:08 AM. During this trip to Walmart, Jamie did not appear to be uncomfortable with being with Caleb. Their surveillance video also showed Jamie physically directing Caleb by reaching out to grab his arm inside the Walmart. Jamie and Caleb purchased multiple items, such as gloves, bleach, rubbing alcohol, a box cutter, and a file throughout their shopping trip. Jamie and Caleb are seen walking arm in arm. And at one point during the video, Jamie is carrying a bottle of what appears to be bleach, being very playful and swinging the bottle of bleach as if it were a sand pale at the beach prior to leaving Walmart, the surveillance video shows Jamie flipping up the hood of Caleb sweatshirt over his head. As they exit the store at 2:31 AM Jamie and Caleb, then leave in Caleb's silver Chevy Camaro armed with the evidence Jamie and Caleb were arrested on April 2nd, 2015, and each charge with homicide conspiracy to commit murder tampering and fabricating physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. Initially, Jamie was tried as a juvenile until investigators discovered the text messages and charged her as an adult. Thank you so much for listening to depart in Penn tune in next week. For part two of a mother's love the case of Cheryl S.