Tag: Indiana

Review: ‘Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman,’ starring Sarah Pender, Ryan Harmon, Larry Sells, Willard Plank, Peggy Darlington, Bonnie Prosser, Roland Pender and Richard Hull

March 1, 2026

by Carla Hay

Sarah Pender in “Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” (Photo courtesy of ABC News Studios/Hulu)

“Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman”

Directed by Sebastian Smith

Culture Representation: The true crime documentary series “Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” features a nearly all-white group of people (with one African American) discussing the 2008 prison escape and capture of Indiana convicted murderer Sarah Pender, who has maintained that she is not guilty of murder and is trying to get her murder conviction overturned.

Culture Clash: Pender, who was 29 when she escaped from prison, had several people helping her when she was a fugitive, and she claims new evidence uncovered because of her escape should entitle her to have her murder conviction overturned.

Culture Audience: “Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about prison escapes and possible wrongful convictions.

Ryan Harmon in “Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” (Photo courtesy of ABC News Studios/Hulu)

“Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” has three true crime stories rolled into one documentary. It’s a story about a woman being sentenced to 110 years in prison for murder; escaping from prison and being caught after nearly five months on the run; and trying to get the murder conviction overturned after new evidence emerged because of the prison escape. This absorbing three-episode docuseries gives an inside account of the 2008 hunt for Sarah Pender when she was an escaped prisoner, as well as the aftermath of her capture. The updates to her murder conviction case might surprise many viewers.

Directed by Sebastian Smith, “Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” has interviews with several of the people who are directly involved in Pender’s legal issues. However, the documentary does not have any interviews with people who are family members and/or friends of the two murder victims in this case: Andrew “Drew” Cataldi and Tricia Nordman, who were an unmarried couple in their mid-20s at the time of their deaths in 2000. This lack of perspective from the victims’ side is the documentary’s biggest flaw.

“Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” doesn’t glorify the convicted murderers who are interviewed in the documentary, but the documentary could have given more information about Cataldi and Nordman, other than the fact that they were murdered when they were living with Pender and her then-boyfriend Richard “Rick” Hull, who was also convicted of these two murders. Pender and Hull are interviewed in the documentary, which also includes interviews with Pender’s parents and some of her friends or acquaintances; law enforcement officials who were in involved in the prison escape hunt or Pender’s murder case; members of Sarah’s legal defense team; and one journalist who has done extensive coverage of Pender’s crime saga.

“Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” has a timeline that could have used slightly better film editing, since the timeline jumps back and forth throughout the documentary. Episode 1, titled “Run Sarah Run,” details how Pender escaped from Rockville Correctional Facility in Indiana, who helped her while she was a fugitive, and why she ended up as a convicted murderer. Episode 2, titled “A Bullet With Her Name on It,” chronicles how the hunt for Pender intensified. Episode 3, titled “The Female Charles Manson,” has information on how Pender was caught and why the prosecutor in her murder case now thinks it was a big mistake that Pender was prosecuted for murder.

Pender was born on May 29, 1979, and raised in her birth city of Greenfield, Indiana. Her parents Roland Pender and Bonnie Prosser also have a daughter named Jennifer, who is not interviewed in the documentary. Roland describes Sarah’s childhood as Sarah being a “joyful child,” who was “kind, considerate and intelligent.”

However, Sarah and her parents both say that Sarah was deeply affected by her parents’ breakup when Sarah was 6 years old. Sarah’s mother decided to leave the family and let Roland raise their daughters as a divorced dad. Sarah says that up until she was a college student, she had a great need to be a people pleaser and constantly sought approval and acceptance from others.

As a student at Purdue University, Sarah studied biophysics, chemistry and trigonometry. But after she dropped out of Purdue, her life went down a path of drugs and crime—especially after she met Hull, who became her live-in boyfriend in Indianapolis. Sarah says she was attracted to Hull because he was physically large and seemed to be very protective of her, which is what she desperately wanted in a romantic relationship at the time.

In the documentary, Sarah says Hull lied to her when they first met by telling her he was in the carpet-cleaning business, and she found out later when she had already fallen for him that he was really a drug dealer. Hull contradicts that information in his documentary interview because he says that he told Sarah from the very start of their relationship that he was a drug dealer. Sarah doesn’t go into details about what drugs they used and will only say that she and Hull “partied” a lot together.

By the time Sarah got involved with Hull, he had an arrest record for several crimes, including two felony convictions for auto theft and unlawful entry. At some point in the relationship, Cataldi (who was also a drug dealer) and Nordman moved in with Sarah and Hull. Sarah describes the other couple as people who were friends with Hull first. Sarah only got to know Cataldi and Nordman after they moved in with Sarah and Hull in 2000.

Cataldi and Nordman were fugitives from a Nevada correctional facility at the time the couple moved in with Sarah and Hull. Cataldi had been incarcerated for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, while Nordman was in prison for forgery. Ironically, eight years later, Sarah would also go through the experience of escaping from prison and hiding out with the help of friends.

Sarah and Hull both have very different stories about what happened in their Indianapolis home on the night of October 24, 2000. What they both agree on is that Sarah purchased a shotgun at Walmart earlier that day, and it was the gun that was used to murder Cataldi and Nordman. Sarah says Hull asked her to buy the gun because his felony criminal record prevented him from purchasing firearms. Hull says it was Sarah’s idea to buy the gun.

The murders happened sometime after 11 p.m. in the home where the two couples lived. Sarah says that she went out for a walk, and when she came back, she saw Cataldi and Nordman murdered. According to Sarah, Hull admitted to Sarah that he committed the murders, and he asked her to help hide the bodies. Hull has previously gone on record to say that he came home that night to find Sarah holding the gun near the murdered bodies of Cataldi and Nordman. Hull also claims Sarah asked him to help hide the bodies.

Sarah believes that Hull’s motive for murdering Cataldi and Nordman was because there had been growing tensions between Cataldi and Hull because Cataldi’s sister owed drug money to Hull. Sarah says that Nordman was most likely murdered because Hull didn’t want to leave any witnesses alive. Hull says that Sarah murdered Cataldi and Nordman because Sarah was jealous of Nordman and because Sarah didn’t want Cataldi and Nordman living there anymore.

What Sarah and Hull both agree on in their stories is that they both dumped the bodies in a nearby garbage bin. Sarah says Hull threatened to kill her if she didn’t help him dispose of the bodies and keep the murders a secret. Sarah said she stayed in the relationship with Hull because she feared that he would kill her too. “Things were a blur, and everything happened so fast,” Sarah says in the documentary about what happened after Cataldi and Nordman were murdered.

Hull and Sarah were eventually arrested after the bodies of Cataldi and Nordman were found. Hull pleaded guilty to the murders and received two 45-year sentences, with the possibility of parole. However, he is now appealing those convictions. Sarah pleaded not guilty and went to trial. In 2002, she was convicted of the murders and sentenced to 110 years in prison, with the possibility of parole.

In the documentary, Sarah says she takes full responsibility for covering up the murders and the illegal disposal of the bodies, but she has never changed her story that Hull was the only person who actually murdered Cataldi and Nordman. Sarah believes she has served more than enough time in prison for the crimes she has admitted to, and she continues to say that she was framed by Hull for the murders. To her detriment, Sarah seems to have a problem accepting the fact that her prison escape made things worse for her in her quest to have her murder conviction overturned.

The most damning evidence against Sarah was a letter that a convicted robber named Floyd Pennington (who knew Hull in prison) had claimed was written by Sarah to him. In the hand-written letter, there was this seeming confession to the murders: “I just snapped. I didn’t mean to kill them.” Pennington was also the “star witness” in the prosecution’s case against Sarah in her trial for murder.

However, that “confession letter” evidence is now being called into question as a fabrication because the handwriting in the letter doesn’t match Sarah’s, and Hull is now claiming that the letter was fabricated. Sarah’s defense team for her murder trial did not put forth any handwriting analysis as evidence that Sarah did not write the letter. Sarah’s current defense team, which is a different team from the legal representation that she had for her trial, says that handwriting experts have since determined that Sarah did not write the letter.

In addition, after Sarah’s prison escape and she after was sent back to prison for this escape, evidence was uncovered that Pennington had written a list in the early 2000s of people he wanted to get revenge on at the time. Sarah’s name was on the list. Pennington is not interviewed in the documentary. It’s unclear if anyone from the documentary reached out to him for comment.

In his documentary interview, Hull says the so-called confession letter was fabricated, but he doesn’t comment on Sarah’s accusations that Hull framed her and Hull was the person who persuaded Pennington to fabricate the letter and lie about it in court testimony. Hull also says because his own case for these murders is under appeal, he can’t comment about certain things that could affect his appeal. However, Hull remarks that if he could go back in time, he wishes he had never met Sarah. Hull also says that when he and Sarah were a couple, he was in love with her.

Why was Sandra writing to Pennington in the first place? According to Indianapolis journalist Vic Ryckaert, who is interviewed in the documentary, Sarah had a “steamy pen pal” relationship with Pennington. It’s a recurring theme in Sarah’s life of crime: Sarah, by her own admission, uses her sexuality and charm to get people to do what she wants.

It’s mentioned several times in the documentary that she is very manipulative and a convincing liar. For example, Indiana Department of Corrections chief investigator Willard Plank describes Sarah this way: “She had an ability to bring people in to her. I’d never seen an inmate like that before.” But does having this power of persuasion make Sarah a murderer?

Through interviews with Sarah and other people, the documentary details who helped her when she escaped from Rockville Correctional Facility in Rockville, Indiana, on August 9, 2008. Scott Spitler, who was a Rockville Correctional Facility corrections officer at the time, drove the getaway van, in exchange for $15,000 and sex from Sarah. Sarah got the money by selling contraband in prison. Spitler was later arrested, convicted, and sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in this escape.

Sarah comments on her relationship with Spitler: “I did what I had to do. I saw Scott as a means to an end.” She admits that Spitler was probably in love with her or had romantic feelings for her that weren’t mutual. Sarah says that Spitler made her promise that she would text him after she escaped from prison, but she says she never kept that promise.

As part of this escape plan, Spitler dropped Sarah off to a meeting place, where Jamie Long, a former prison inmate and friend of Sarah’s, was waiting to pick up Sarah in another car. Long let Sarah stay at Long’s place for a brief period of time. Long is not interviewed for the documentary, which has some audio recordings that Long did with police investigators.

Sarah describes the feeling that she had when she and Long drove away after Sarah had escaped from prison: “I felt completely refreshed. I remember hitting the dashboard, and I was like, “I’m free!'” Sarah says why she planned her escape from prison: “I knew I was going to die in prison. And then, one day, I thought: ‘I can get out of here.'”

In the documentary, Sarah says Long was responsible for a botched money exchange that eventually led to Long’s arrest. According to Sarah, Long was supposed to give $3,500 in cash to Sarah but only delivered $350. Long got paranoid that she would be followed by police to the McDonald’s restaurant where the money exchange would happen, so she had a mutual friend named Peggy Darlington (a former cellmate of Sarah’s) hide Sarah in the trunk of Darlington’s car, while Long delivered the money to Darlington in a restroom at the McDonald’s restaurant.

Darlington, who is interviewed in the documentary, says she adamantly believes that Sarah is not guilty of murder. “She didn’t do anything she was accused of. She wouldn’t hurt anybody,” Darlington says. Long eventually cooperated with authorities when Sarah’s prison phone records were traced to Long’s phone. Darlington also cooperated with authorities. Unlike Long, Darlington did not get into legal trouble for assisting Sarah during Sarah’s prison escape because Darlington was not a getaway driver.

Sarah says during her time as a prison escape fugitive, she used burner cell phones (disposable cell phones that can’t be traced) and disguised her identity with aliases, fake IDs and dyeing and cutting her hair. She also wore glasses and hid the real color of her eyes with colored contact lenses. Sarah says she became suspicious of Long cooperating with authorities, so Sarah destroyed the cell phone that Sarah had been using to contact Long, got another phone, and moved in with a stripper friend named Thea, whose last name is not mentioned in the documentary.

And once again, sexual entanglements were part of these relationships. Sarah, who is openly bisexual or queer, describes Long as someone who was her lover when they were in prison together, but their relationship eventually became a platonic friendship. Sarah and Thea did sex work together while Sarah was a fugitive. This sex work included having paid threesomes with a married, retired businessman named Tom Welch, who is heard in the documentary only through audio interviews with police.

In the documentary, Sarah describes Welch as a “sex addict” who willingly helped her evade capture after he found out that she was prison escape fugitive. Welch became so smitten with Sarah, he helped her relocate out of Indiana and got her jobs through his family members and other people that he knew. Sarah says it was through Welch that Sarah was able to get low-profile administrative assistant jobs in Cincinnati and later Chicago. In exchange for his cooperation with authorities, Welch was not charged with any crimes for helping Sarah during her time as a fugitive.

However, Sarah’s days as a fugitive were numbered after she was profiled on the TV series “America’s Most Wanted.” That TV exposure resulted in an anonymous tip that led to her being captured at the apartment she was renting in Chicago, on December 22, 2008. In the documentary Sarah says she didn’t resist being captured because at that point, she thought it would make things worse for her, and she was tired of being a fugitive.

In “Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman,” Sarah’s descriptions of her life as a fugitive are juxtaposed with descriptions from Ryan Harmon, who at the time was part of the U.S. Marshal Fugitive Task Force that was looking for Sarah. Harmon, who is also a former Indiana police officer, says in the documentary that he became obsessed with this case and wanted to be the one to personally arrest Sarah.

Harmon says at one point, after a situation where he thought he was close to finding Sarah, he was ready to shoot her if he had to do it: “I’ve never had to shoot anyone, but I guarantee that bullet had her name on it.” Harmon also complains that he “suffered” tremendously because of this case but says that he doesn’t want to talk about how the case affected his personal life.

But then, later in the documentary, Harmon describes how he would get drunk on vodka on a regular basis at night while working on the case, and he would wake up with hangovers. And then, Harmon breaks down and cries when he said the case destroyed his marriage, and he lost his wife and kids in this divorce. Keep in mind that Sarah was a fugitive for only little more than four months, so it’s more likely that Harmon had problems in his marriage long before Sarah escaped from prison.

After all the obsessive time and energy that Harmon put into the fugitive hunt of Sarah, he wasn’t even the one who received the anonymous tip that led authorities to where Sarah ended up being arrested. Harmon also wasn’t the arresting officer, but he describes how he decided not to spend time with his family in the days close to Christmas 2008, so he could go to Chicago to be there in time for Linda’s capture.

Sarah mentions in her interviews that she thinks misogyny is a big reason for how she’s been treated by the criminal justice system and the media. After being sent back to prison, she was put in solitary confinement for five years. Sarah believes she got this extreme punishment because the male-dominated law enforcement officials who decided her punishment for the escape didn’t like that she had outsmarted them for this prison escape, and they wanted to make a punishment example out of her. Sarah also says Hull blaming her for the murders is an example of how men often blame women for their own misdeeds.

Sarah also takes issue with how the media tried to portray her as a worse criminal than she really is. When “America’s Most Wanted” profiled her as a fugitive who escaped from prison, she was described as a “female Charles Manson.” Regardless of whether or not people think Sarah is guilty of murder, the comparison to Manson is off-base. Manson had a long history of being convicted of several crimes before being convicted of murder, and he was a cult leader who convinced certain people in his cult to become serial killers. Sarah does not fit that description.

Larry Sells, the prosecutor in Sarah’s murder trial, gives one of the documentary’s most memorable interviews. Sells says he now believes that star witness Pennington was lying in his testimony against Sarah. Sells also comments that if he had the evidence about the fabricated confession letter at the time that Sarah was being investigated for murder, he never would’ve prosecuted Sarah for murder. Sells firmly believes that Sarah’s murder conviction is a huge miscarriage of justice, and he deeply regrets prosecuting her for this crime.

However, it’s not up to Sells to overturn her conviction. The documentary includes the 2025 court hearings to get the conviction overturned and the fight to get Sarah released from prison. The documentary includes an epilogue with the results of these hearings. These results will not be mentioned in this review, in case people want to see the documentary to find out this information.

Sarah’s defense team includes attorneys Timothy Daley and Martin Tankleff. (Tankleff was wrongfully convicted and exonerated of the 1988 murders of his parents, and he was released from prison in 2007.) Daley and Tankleff are both interviewed in the documentary. Other people interviewed in the documentary are Indianapolis police detective Anthony Finnell and Heather Rashel, who is a former inmate of Sarah’s.

“Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” gives viewers a lot to ponder in this controversial murder case. In the documentary, Sarah is sometimes sympathetically vulnerable, sometimes charmingly self-deprecating, and sometimes defiantly arrogant. Someone’s personality is not evidence of guilt or innocence, but this documentary is certainly an example of how media coverage can make a difference in how people might think about a notorious convicted criminal.

Hulu premiered “Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman” on February 19, 2026.

Review: ‘Scream 7,’ starring Neve Campbell, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, Joel McHale and Courteney Cox

February 27, 2026

by Carla Hay

Neve Campbell stars in “Scream 7” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Scream 7”

Directed by Kevin Williamson

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional cities of Pine Grove, Indiana (and briefly in Woodsboro, California), the horror film “Scream 7” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Sidney Prescott, the “final girl” in 1996’s “Scream” movie, is now married to a police chief and is the mother of a 17-year-old daughter, who feels overshadowed by Sidney’s fame as a rare survivor of the Ghostface Killer, as Sidney’s family and others become the targets of another Ghostface Killer murder spree. 

Culture Audience: “Scream 7” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Scream” franchise and horror movie sequels that make several references to its preceding movies.

Mckenna Grace, Celeste O’Connor and Isabel May in “Scream 7” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

The “Scream” horror movie franchise built its reputation on poking fun at itself and other slasher movies. With “Scream 7,” this franchise invites ridicule, but in a way where people are more likely to groan than laugh. The welcome return of the Sidney Prescott character is surrounded by a bunch of recycled ideas and plot holes. The good news: Unlike some other previous “Scream” sequels, viewers who are new to the franchise won’t feel too lost if they haven’t seen any of the previous “Scream” movies. The bad news: The reason why is because “Scream 7” gets bogged down in so many horror clichés, the movie becomes redundant and utterly predictable.

Directed by Kevin Williamson (who co-wrote the “Scream 7” screenplay with Guy Busick), “Scream 7” reunites Williamson with Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, two of the stars of the first movie in the “Scream” franchise: 1996’s “Scream.” Williamson also wrote 1996’s “Scream,” 1997’s “Scream 2,” 2000’s “Scream 3” and 2011’s “Scream 4,” which were all directed by Wes Craven, who died in 2015. Williamson has spent most of his career on TV series, with writer/executive producer credits for series such as “Dawson’s Creek” and “The Vampire Diaries.”

The “Scream” franchise had a reboot with 2022’s “Scream” and 2024’s “Scream VI,” from co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and co-writers James Vanderbilt and Busick, the filmmaking team that ramped up the satirical comedy in both movies. “Scream 7” goes back to basics in a way that makes the movie a little too basic. Even though “Scream 7” has modern technology references, such as the use of artificial intelligence for deepfake videos, everything in “Scream 7” is an inferior and outdated rehash of other “Scream” movies.

By now, most people who watch a “Scream” movie already know that Sidney Prescott (played by Campbell) was the sole survivor of the Ghostface Killer serial murders in her hometown of Woodsboro, California. In the world of “Scream,” this murder spree got a lot of media coverage and was the basis of a popular horror movie series called “Stab.” It’s also common knowledge that each “Scream” movie has a different Ghostface Killer, who wears a ghost face mask and who could be one or more people.

In “Scream 7,” Sidney (whose last name is now Evans) is now living in Pine Grove, Indiana, where she owns a small business called the Little Latte Coffee Shop. (“Scream 7” was actually filmed in the Atlanta area.) Sidney’s loving and supportive husband Mark Evans (played by Joel McHale) is the police chief of Pine Grove. Sidney and Mark have a 17-year-old daughter named Tatum Evans (played by Isabel May), who wants more independence from overprotective Sidney. Sidney and Mark have kindergarten-aged twin daughters named Emma Evans (played by Maggie Toomey) and Rebecca Evans (played by Annabelle Toomey), but the twins are not part of the main story in “Scream 7” because the twins are spending time with Mark’s mother.

“Scream 7” begins with a 15-minute sequence of a couple named Scott (played by Jimmy Tatro) and Madison (played by Michelle Randolph), who are in their late 20s to early 30s, in Woodsboro. Scott and Madison have signed up for a Monster House Experience to stay overnight at a replica of the house where Sidney lived in the first “Scream” movie. It’s nighttime when Scott and Madison have arrived at the house. Unrealistically, there are no employees in sight.

Inside the house is a lot of “Stab” memorabilia, including a life-sized animatronic robot of the Ghostface Killer. Scott is the horror aficionado in this couple, while Madison is jittery and doesn’t really want to be there. This entire sequence is just an elaborate “jump scare” setup to let viewers know that the Ghostface Killer murder spree is about to begin again. Unfortunately, this long sequence didn’t need to be in “Scream 7” at all, based on what happens in the rest of movie.

All the new characters in “Scream 7” are quite bland and generic. Tatum, who wants to be an actress, is insecure because she’s living in the shadow of Sidney’s notorious fame. Sidney doesn’t trust Tatum’s boyfriend Ben Brown (played by Sam Rechner), a classmate of Tatum’s, who is first seen sneaking into Tatum’s bedroom at night. Ben is a stereotypical good-looking teenage guy who excels in sports and academics. He is very skilled in computer technology and is respectful to Tatum and her family. And that’s all that viewers will learn about Ben in “Scream 7.”

Tatum’s closest female friends are classmates Hannah Thurman (played by Mckenna Grace) and Chloe Parker (played by Celeste O’Connor), who are part of a school play with Tatum and other students. Hannah has diva-like ways, while Chloe has a down-to-earth personality. The play’s theater director George Williams (played by Tim Simons) rudely critiques Tatum’s acting skills and her personality, by telling Tatum that she’s not as confident and brave as her mother Sidney.

Another classmate of Tatum’s is true crime fanatic Lucas Bowden (played by Asa Germann), who wants to interview Sidney for a true crime podcast that he plans to start. Lucas and his divorced mother Jessica Bowden (played by Anna Camp) live next door to the Evans family. Jessica is embarrassed that Lucas is star-struck by Sidney, who is polite but emotionally closed-off when Lucas asks Sidney about her Ghostface Killer experiences. Lucas’ father is not involved in his life. Jessica bitterly tells Sidney that Jessica’s ex-husband/Lucas’ father is a deadbeat dad who abandoned the family.

The “Scream 7” terror begins for Sidney and others when one of these teenagers gets murdered by a Ghostface Killer. Sidney also starts getting video phone calls from someone who claims to be Stu Macher (played by Matthew Lillard), one of the Ghostface Killers who died in the first “Scream” movie. Whoever is calling has put Sidney on notice that Sidney, her family members and other people in Pine Grove are going to be the next murder victims.

Sidney and other people suspect that someone is using deepfake technology to impersonate Stu. However, certain things happen that make Sidney wonder if Stu could really be alive. Sidney does some investigating at a place called Fallbrook Psychiatric Hospital, where a hospital orderly named Marco (played by Ethan Embry) gives her some information.

Whenever the Ghostface Killer murder spree starts again, ambitious TV news journalist Gale Weathers (played by Cox) is on the scene to report what happens. Gale has made a career out of Ghostface Killer reporting, including writing a best-selling book about the Ghostface Killer murder spree that happened in Woodsboro. In “Scream 7,” Gale has gone back to being a freelance reporter, after her high-profile TV talk show was canceled. Her current job is considered a “step down” for Gale in her career.

In “Scream 7,” Gale has arrived in Pine Grove from New York City. She is accompanied by often-bickering twins Chad Meeks-Martin (played by Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (played by Jasmin Savoy Brown), who first appeared in “Scream VI” as New York City college students who experienced Ghostface Killer violence. Chad and Mindy are now Gale’s interns. The uncle of Mindy and Chad was Randy Meeks (played by Jamie Kennedy), whose fate is shown in “Scream 2.” A local Pine Grove TV reporter named Robbie Rivers (played by Mark Consuelos) gets competitive with Gale over the Ghostface Killer story in Pine Grove.

“Scream 7” has a sufficient amount of suspense in its chase scenes and kill scenes. The best of these scenes is when Sidney and Tatum are trying to escape in between a house’s walls while the Ghostface Killer is stabbing through the walls. However, “Scream 7” has some plot holes and disjointed scenes that are too big to ignore. And pity the residents of Pine Grove, which has one of the most incompetent police departments you could ever see in a slasher horror movie. When “Scream 7” reveals the killer or killers toward the end of the movie, it’s underwhelming and nonsensical.

In order for the “Scream” franchise to thrive, it needs to have above-average stories and new characters who seem authentic and interesting. Sidney, Chad and Mindy are the only characters in “Scream 7” who are written fairly well. Gale in “Scream 7” is a lesser version of her famously acerbic self. “Scream 7” will satisfy horror fans who want a formulaic slasher flick, but the movie wastes a lot of potential to be clever and genuinely self-deprecating, which are characteristics of the best “Scream” movies.

Paramount Pictures will release “Scream 7” in U.S. cinemas on February 27, 2026.

Review: ‘The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer,’ starring Jeff Jellison, Chris Schmidt, Shannon Doughty, Debbie Falls, Rob Garvey and Mark Goodyear

November 2, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jeff Jellison in “The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer” (Photo courtesy of ABC News/Hulu)

“The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer”

Directed by Alex Jablonski

Culture Representation: The four-episode docuseries “The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer” features an all-white group of people who discuss their connections to the cases of missing or murdered men who are widely believed to be victims of Westfield, Indiana-based suspected serial killer Herb Baumeister, who committed suicide in 1996, at the age of 49, without being arrested for his suspected crimes.

Culture Clash: Baumeister, a thrift-store entrepreneur who was married to a woman and had children with her, lived a double life of having male lovers whom he would meet in his local gay bar scene, and many of those men were found dead on Baumeister’s farm property.

Culture Audience: “The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about murders and missing persons cases that are still unsolved.

Mark Goodyear in “The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer” (Photo courtesy of ABC News/Hulu)

“The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer” can be both fascinating and frustrating in how it presents the bizarre, disturbing and complicated mystery of at least 10 men who were found murdered on an 18-acre property called Fox Hollow Farm in Westfield, Indiana, in 1996. Unidentified bones indicate that a lot more men were probably murdered but have not yet been identified. These cases have remained legally unsolved. This four-episode true crime docuseries is uneven but compelling. It has the first on-camera, non-disguised media interview with Mark Goodyear, the ex-lover of suspected serial killer Herb Baumeister. Goodyear’s interview will infuriate many viewers.

Directed by Alex Jablonski, “The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer” also has interviews with several law enforcement officials; family members and friends of some of missing or murdered men who were linked to Baumeister; a journalist who’s covered this mystery for years; a former employee of Baumeister’s; the current owner of Fox Hollow Farm; and filmmakers Jane Gerlach and Russ Walker, whose documentary work on this case is included in much of “The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer.” The docuseries is not a biography of Baumeister but is an examination of the theories and investigations that have kept much of this mystery unsolved. By the end of the documentary, many viewers will get the feeling that if Baumeister committed these crimes, then he did not act alone.

Episode 1, titled “The Lost Boys,” features information on some of the missing or murdered men who are believed to be victims of Baumeister. Episode 2, titled “A House With Good Bones,” has details about Fox Hollow Farm, including footage filmed on the property for the documentary. Episode 3, titled “Answer the Riddle,” is about a riddle that Goodyear has posed to investigators that strongly hints that Goodyear knows more than he’s telling. Episode 4, titled “No Longer Forgotten,” mainly consists of the on-camera interview with Goodyear, whose stories have changed over the years, but he continues to insist that he never murdered anyone and doesn’t know where the missing people are.

Baumeister was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 7, 1947. His father (who had the same name) was an anesthesiologist. His mother was a homemaker/socialite. Baumeister was the oldest of four children. Baumeister’s troubled youth is briefly mentioned in the documentary. According to several reports, he had an obsession with urine and dead animals. At school, he would urinate on teachers’ desks or put dead animals on teachers’ desks. Since his youth, Baumeister showed signs of urophilia, which is getting sexually aroused by urine.

He was diagnosed with having paranoid schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder, but Baumeister did not receive significant psychiatric treatment until shortly after he married Juliana “Julie” Saiter in November 1971. About six months after the marriage, Baumeister was sent to a psychiatric facility for about two months. That’s the last known time he reportedly received intensive mental health treatment.

Baumeister bounced around from job to job and eventually founded the Sav-A-Lot thrift store chain in Indianapolis in 1988, the same year that he purchased Fox Hollow Farm. Baumeister and his wife had three children. The children’s names will not be mentioned in this review to protect their privacy. No one in Baumeister’s family is interviewed in this documentary. However, it’s widely known public information that Baumeister’s wife is the person who contacted authorities in June 1996, after she and Baumeister had separated, and she had filed for divorce.

In 1994, one of the Baumeister children had actually found a partial human skeleton buried on the property, but Baumeister explained that it was a scientific skeleton that was used by Baumeister’s doctor father. By 1994, authorities had heard rumors that Baumeister was linked to missing gay men in the area, with at least one witness identifying Baumeister as the likely suspect, but the Baumeister spouses refused permission for law enforcement to search their property. However, by June 1996, with Baumeister’s marriage ending, and his estranged wife feeling that she could be in danger, she finally allowed police to search the property.

An extensive search revealed about 10,000 human bones at Fox Hollow Farm. A warrant went out for Baumeister’s arrest, but he escaped to the Canadian province of Ontario. He committed suicide on July 3, 1996, by shooting himself in the head at Pinery Provincial Park in Grand Bend, Ontario. Baumeister left a three-page suicide note with an apology to his family but no admission or information about the missing and murdered men he was suspected of killing.

A shocking statistic mentioned in the documentary is that until the 9/11 tragedy at New York City’s World Trade Center in 2001, the Fox Hollow Farm property held the record for the most bones of murdered people at a single location in the United States. It’s widely believed that the murder victims were killed at Fox Hollow Farm when Baumeister’s wife and children were away. There’s been speculation that Baumeister could have been the unidentified serial killer nicknamed the I-70 Strangler, who murdered numerous gay men (who were usually last seen at gay bars in Indianapolis) and whose bodies were dumped near Interstate 70, from 1980 to 1991. Baumeister was officially named a suspect in those murders.

Jeff Jellison, a coroner for Indiana’s Hamilton County, has been leading the investigation to identify all the people whose bones were found at Fox Hollow Farm. One of the criticisms against law enforcement in this case was how Baumeister was able to get away so easily, when other murder suspects would have been under heavy surveillance before being arrested. Many people believe that Baumeister’s status and image as an upper-middle-class member of the community gave him privileges and lenience that other people wouldn’t have had.

Jellison, who was never responsible for arresting Baumeister, comments on why he thinks Baumeister was never arrested: “Having a serial killer in this county, I think really caught people off guard.” He describes the county as a “bedroom community” that is very Republican, affluent and very conservative, with a low murder rate. (Obviously, the murder rate wasn’t that low if 10,000 bones were found at Fox Hollow Farm.) He says in the 1990s, this part of Indiana was much more conservative than it is now.

The documentary interviews two openly gay men who were part of the gay nightclub scene in Indianapolis in the 1990s. Steve Warman (who was a bartender) and Mark Lee (a photographer) both say that homophobia is why these murder cases were treated as low priorities by local law enforcement. Lee says, “We [gay men] were targeted by the police and everyone in the community. The gay bars were the one place where we felt safe.”

Warman comments that the gay clubs in the area had to be hidden at the time. He adds that when gay men went missing in the area, many people assumed that that it had to do with dying from AIDS. Mary Wilson, a detective with the Indianapolis Police Department, says that many of the missing gay men were estranged from their families, so the men weren’t reported missing for a while. Laura Musall, a former journalist for the Noblesville Daily Ledger in Indiana, says that Hamilton County law enforcment botched the case against Baumeister but commends Hamilton County for reviving the investigation to identify as many of the murder victims as possible.

The documentary admirably gives some loved ones of the victims a chance to talk about their loved ones who had this tragic end. Allen Livingston went missing on August 6, 1993, when he was 27. His remains were found at Fox Hollow Farm, but his remains were not identified until 2023. His mother Sharon Livingston, his sister Sharon Doughty and his cousin Eric Pranger all describe Allen as a people-loving individual who had a “goofy” side to him.

Also interviewed is Debbie Falls, the sister of Richard Hamilton Jr., a Fox Hollow Farm murder victim who disappeared in July 1993, when he was 20. Hamilton’s remains were identified in 1996. She describes him as someone who had a zest for life who was probably lured to his death by someone whom he thought he could trust. Another interviewee is Adam Williams, son of missing person Jerry Williams-Comer, who was 34 when Williams-Comer went missing on August 8, 1995. Police have since linked Baumeister to the disappearance of Williams-Comer, whose remains have not been found or identified.

Dixie Prichard, who used to work at Sav-A-Lot, says that Baumeister was a very weird boss. According to Prichard, Baumeister liked to keep rotting food in a file cabinet. She also remembers that he kept an overabundance of mannequins in his office. When police searched the Baumeister home in 1996, they found several mannequins in the house, with many of the mannequins posed around the swimming pool and in a lounge area with a pool table.

Rob Garvey, the current owner of Fox Hollow who is interviewed in this documentary, is a contradictory and very eccentric person. He seems proud of owning a place where numerous murdered people were buried. He’s written a non-fiction book about it. In the documentary, Garvey shows off much of his collection of Baumeister personal memorabilia and Baumeister scrapbooks. And yet, he says it’s tacky when people are obsessed with serial killers and when people profit from serial killers.

Garvey says, “I didn’t have any interest in serial killers until I bought a house possibly owned by a serial killer.” Garvey then makes this disgusting “pun” joke: “The house didn’t do anything. It had ‘good bones,’ if you will.” Garvey says he had a Catholic priest and an Indian shaman bless the house after he purchased Fox Hollow Farm. He also says he believes the ghost of Baumeister haunts the house, but as long as the ghost leaves Garvey and his family alone, Garvey is okay with it.

Even more peculiar is the interview with Goodyear, who is hyper, fidgety and wildly inappropriate in how he often laughs about his role in this case. Goodyear is also seen doing a walkthrough of Fox Hollow, where he says he gets the chills being back there, but he gives the impression that he’s probably enjoying the visit back to Fox Hollow. In parts of the interview, his face is not shown on camera. But at some point, Goodyear changed his mind and agreed to do his first on-camera interview showing his face. Fox Hollow homeowner Garvey greets Goodyear like a family friend.

In June 1996, Goodyear went to local authorities to say that Baumeister tried to kill him shortly after he met Baumeister in 1994, at the 501 Club, a gay bar in Indianapolis. Goodyear also claimed that Baumeister told Goodyear that Baumeister murdered 56 people. The documentary includes some archival video footage of Goodyear’s 1996 interview with police. Goodyear’s stories have changed over the years, but one thing he’s been consistent about is saying that he and Baumeister were on-again/off-again lovers who were part of the gay bar scene in the Indianapolis area.

In his June 1996 witness statement, Goodyear told police that in 1994, Baumeister, whom he knew at the time as Brian, took Goodyear back to Fox Hollow Farm, where they had sex, and Brian tried to get Goodyear to reciprocate the erotic asphyxiation that Brian was doing to Goodyear. Goodyear also claimed that Brian gave him a glass of liquor, but Goodyear poured out the contents of the glass because he didn’t trust Brian enough to drink it. Goodyear’s witness statement and other people’s witness statements were enough to name Baumeister as the prime suspect in cases of missing and murdered gay/queer men in the area.

In later years, Goodyear has given interviews where he says he knew Baumeister a lot longer than he originally claimed. The documentary mentions a man named LeRoy Bray, who gave a witness statement to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in 1997, about how he was at Fox Hollow Farm for a small party when he witnessed the murder of a man named Rick “Dog” Rigney, who went missing that year. Bray said that he saw Goodyear hold down Rigney, while Baumeister shot Rigney to death. The whereabouts of Bray are currently unknown.

When confronted with this information, Goodyear doesn’t immediately deny it but instead asks if Bray said what year this murder took place. Goodyear denies in this documentary interview and in other interviews that he ever killed anyone or knows anything about what happened to the missing people who were linked to Baumeister, whom Goodyear describes as a cocaine abuser. It’s pointed out in the documentary that Baumeister was not a strong or tall man, and it’s very unlikely that Baumeister would be able to carry and bury all of those bodies by himself. Did he have an accomplice?

The documentary mentions that on July 5, 1996, two days after Baumeister committed suicide, his attorney John Engloff came forward and told an investigator named Todd Urick that in November 1995, Baumeister gave a warning about Goodyear (who is very tall) and said that Goodyear was very dangerous. No further details about Engloff’s statement were given in the documentary. Goodyear has this to say about Baumeister in the documentary interview: “He was trying to take me down with him. But guess what? He’s fucking dead, ain’t he?”

In the documentary interview, Goodyear says he not only lied to police about Baumeister trying to murder him, but he also lied about the part of the story where he suspected that Baumeister tried to drug Goodyear. In his changed story, Goodyear now says that he was the one who drugged Baumeister. Goodyear also claims that on another occasion, Baumeister showed Goodyear some burning bodies in the backyard of Fox Hollow Farm. Goodyear says that in June 1996, he and Baumeister watched news reports about the search of Fox Hollow Farm.

Goodyear has never been named as a suspect by police and has not been charged with any crimes related to this mystery. In the documentary, Gerlach says that Goodyear once wrote her a letter with this riddle, where he admitted that Baumeister never tried to kill him. In the letter, Goodyear wrote: “I was never attacked. I am not a murderer. Exactly what am I? Tell me what I am. Not an accomplice, not a victim, never attacked. What am I?”

In the documentary, Goodyear says he and Baumeister had a twisted relationship where they stalked each other. Goodyear also claims that on multiple occasions, when he would be at a gay bar with Baumeister, Goodyear would yell out to anyone listening that Baumeister was a serial killer and no one should leave the bar with Baumeister. Goodyear claims that Baumeister’s reaction was to laugh and act like it was a joke. There is no corroboration of this story. Goodyear admits that he lied in the past about certain things about this case, so his credibility is very questionable.

Dr. Chris Schmidt, a forensic anthropologist who is an expert in solving cold cases, says in the documentary that if Baumeister had been such a prolific serial killer, it’s very unlikely that Baumeister acted alone because of the physical strength required to bury all of those bodies. Unless there is DNA evidence or a confession that can be proven, it’s unlikely that these murders will officially be solved. However, investigators are still working on identifying all the people whose bones were found at Fox Hollow Farm.

Other people interviewed in the documentary include people who’ve been directly involved in the investigation, such as Hamilton County coroner Jared Privett; David Allender of the Indianapolis Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit; Kathleen Clark, former Hamilton County deputy prosecutor; Sonia Leerkamp, former Hamilton County prosecutor; and cadaver dog handlers Erica Blackburn and Chelsea Gill. The documentary credits Hamilton County coroner Jellison with being one of the biggest heroes in this mystery, because he has tirelessly kept the investigation going to identify as many of the murder victims as possible.

“The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer” is the type of docuseries that probably should have been three episodes instead of four episodes because there’s some redundancy that could have been cut from the series. The movie’s editing also could have been assembled better, because there’s a lot of back-and-forth timeline jumping in the documentary’s narrative. The killer or killers of these murder victims might not be brought to justice. However, this documentary brings more public awareness that the investigation is ongoing, and it’s still possible for loved ones of the missing and murdered people to get more uncovered information about what happened to their loved ones.

Hulu premiered “The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer” on February 18, 2025.

Review: ‘The Speedway Murders,’ starring Essie Randles, Nya Cofie, Davida McKenzie and Jo Cumpston

June 21, 2024

by Carla Hay

Theresa Jeffries in “The Speedway Murders” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“The Speedway Murders”

Directed by Adam Kamien and Luke Rynderman

Culture Representation: The documentary film “The Speedway Murders” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few black people) who are connected in some way to the Burger Chef murders, a notorious unsolved case about the abductions and murders of four employees of a Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana, in 1978.

Culture Clash: People have different theories about who committed these crimes.

Culture Audience: “The Speedway Murders” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about unsolved mysteries, but the documentary’s quality and credibility are significantly lowered by excessive use of scripted scenes depicting the ghosts of the murder victims.

Essie Randles, Jo Cumpston, Davida McKenzie and Nya Cofie in “The Speedway Murders” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

The true crime documentary “The Speedway Murders” has a good mix of interviews about the 1978 Burger Chef murders in Speedway, Indiana. But the movie is ruined by tacky drama scenes of the murder victims as ghosts trying to solve their own murders. Many documentaries have dramatic re-enactments. However, it’s just downright exploitative for a documentary to fabricate dramatic scenes that speculate what the murder victims would say and do after they died. These “ghost” scenes do not help the real-life investigation of this unsolved case. And they certainly don’t help the victims’ loved ones.

Directed by Adam Kamien and Luke Rynderman, “The Speedway Murders” would have been sufficient without these unnecessary ghost scenes. When these ghost scenes show up (and they are about half of the movie), they are utterly distracting and diminish the impact of the compelling interviews in the film. “The Speedway Murders,” which is a production from Australia, filmed these dramatic scenes in Australia with cast members who are from Australia or New Zealand but are portraying Americans. The interview scenes with non-actors were filmed mostly in Indiana.

Perhaps “The Speedway Murders” filmmakers wanted to do something different in a true crime documentary by having these ghost scenes. However, it comes across as tone-deaf filmmaking where it looks like the filmmakers spent more time on the movie’s production/set design and writing the screenplay’s fictional dialogue for the “ghost” characters than doing any real investigative journalism. The documentary offers one “bombshell” interview at the every end. But considering that many of the so-called witnesses who are interviewed in the documentary are admittedly shady people with a history of lying and criminal activities, viewers can have a lot of skepticism about who is credible.

The facts of the Burger Chef murders are retold at the beginning of the documentary. On November 17, 1978, the Burger Chef (a fast-food restaurant) in Speedway was found unlocked and unattended late at night when the restaurant was supposed to be closed and locked up. The safe in the restaurant’s back room was open, in what looked like an apparent robbery. The four Burger Chef employees who were supposed to close the restaurant were missing and found murdered about 20 miles away in a wooded area in nearby Johnson County on November 19, 1978.

The murdered Burger Chef employees were 20-year-old Jayne Friedt, the assistant manager of the restaurant, who died by stabbing; 17-year-old Ruth Ellen Shelton, who died by gun shooting; 16-year-old Daniel “Danny” Davis, who died by gun shooting; and 16-year-old Mark Flemmonds, who was beaten to death. Some reports have listed Shelton’s age as 18 at the time these kidnapping and murders happened. But her younger sister Theresa Jeffries, who is interviewed in “The Speedway Murders,” says that Shelton was 17 and one month away from turning 18 at the time the crime happened.

In “The Speedway Murders” scripted dramatic scenes, Friedt is portrayed by Essie Randles; Shelton is portrayed by Davida McKenzie; Davis is portrayed by Jo Cumpston (also known a Joseph Zada); and Flemmonds is portrayed by Nya Cofie. Other cast members are in re-enactments portraying various witnesses or persons of interest. The cast members depicting the murder victims have more screen time than anyone else, which is probably why the movie’s marketing materials list them as the stars of the movie. The “ghosts” of the murder victims are only seen at the movie’s reconstruction of the Burger Chef restaurant that was the scene of the crime.

Friedt is depicted as the feisty and outspoken one in the group. Shelton is shown as introverted and somewhat nerdy. Davis is portrayed as a generic regular guy. Flemmonds’ personality is presented as amiable and fun-loving. The cast members in these roles have credible American accents and give adequate performances, but the dialogue they’re given in this movie is often cringeworthy. For example, there’s a scene where the ghost of Friedt exclaims: “I’m not just a footnote in a murder mystery … I’m me!”

A major problem with the real-life investigation is that when police showed up at the scene in the early-morning hours of November 18, 1978, they thought that the restaurant was left unlocked and unattended by irresponsible employees and did not think that the missing employees had been kidnapped—even though worried family members of the employees had reported them missing. The police let other Burger Chef employees clean up the restaurant so that it could be open for business, not knowing at the time that the restaurant was a crime scene. Therefore, valuable evidence was destroyed, thrown away or contaminated.

“The Speedway Murders” has interviews with four current or former police detectives with close knowledge of the case: Todd McComas, a retired Indiana state police detective who was assigned the case in 1998; James Cramer, a retired Indiana state police detective who was the lead investigator on the case continuously from 1981 to 1986 and intermittently from 1986 to 1999, the year he retired; Mel Willsey, a captain of Indiana’s Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Criminal Division, who joined the case in the mid-1980s; and Bill Dalton, an Indiana state police sergeant who is currently the lead investigator of the case.

Dalton is the police investigator who has the least to say in the documentary and only offers vague commentary, such as he thinks it’s still possible for the case to be solved. Dalton comments, “I’m chasing answers … for [the victims’] family members. They deserve closure.” It looks like the “Speedway Murder” filmmakers were only able to get brief comments from Dalton at a press conference where Jeffries and Dalton were two of the speakers.

Cramer is the former police investigator who is shown the most in the documentary. He responds to accusations that the original team of investigating police re-staged the crime scene in crime scene photos, in order to cover up the police’s major blunder of letting the crime scene be cleaned, thereby ruining or disposing of crucial evidence. Cramer says, “I don’t know if I would characterize it as re-staging. All I know it was an attempt to pass off photographs as if [they] were actual crime scene photos.”

Cramer adds, “It became common knowledge amongst all the investigators that the crime scene wasn’t handled properly … There should’ve been pictures, fingerprints. People should’ve been interviewed—witnesses and so forth. I don’t believe much was done.”

McComas is the former investigator who is the most adamant in saying his theory of who committed these horrific murders. The documentary does a fairly good job of laying out and explaining four of the most popular theories about who the culprits are. Almost everyone with a theory believes that there was more than one culprit who kidnapped the murder victims from Burger Chef.

Most of the theories and witness statements mention two unidentified white men in their 20s as the most likely perpetrators. One man (described as the “leader”) was about 5’8″ with dark hair and a beard. The other man (the less talkative one) was described as younger, taller (about 6 feet tall, give or take a few inches), dark-haired and clean-shaven. The culprits were widely believed to be driving a van (witnesses can’t agree on the color of the van) when they arrived at the restaurant. This van was also believed to be the same vehicle that the Burger Chef employees were forced into during the kidnappings.

On the night of the Burger Chef kidnappings, two men who fit these descriptions approached witnesses Mary Rhines and George Nichols (who were dating each other at the time) in the Burger Chef parking lot. Rhines and Nichols, who are interviewed in “The Speedway Murders,” say that they were smoking marijuana in the Burger Chef parking lot when they were approached by the two men, close to the time that the kidnappings were believed to have occurred. The man with the beard was the only one who spoke to Rhines and Nichols, and he told them to leave because some young people had gotten busted for committing vandalism at that same restaurant. Rhines and Nichols left because they didn’t want to get in trouble for smoking marijuana.

Here are the theories presented in “The Speedway Murders” documentary:

The Robber Gang Theory: Prior to the murders, a group of armed robbers had been stealing money and other valuables from several Burger Chef locations in Indiana. S.W. Wilkins and Gregg Steinke, two men who confessed to the robberies and spent time in prison for these crimes, have denied any involvement in the Burger Chef murders. However, McComas is certain that Wilkins and Steinke are the most likely suspects for the Burger Chef murders because they fit the witness descriptions of the two men seen in the parking lot before the kidnappings happened. McComas says that Wilkins and Steinke also lived in Johnson County near the rural area where the murder victims’ bodies were found.

The Don Forrester Theory: On January 9, 1989, Indiana prison inmate Don Forrester (a convicted rapist) gave a videotaped confession to police by saying that he helped in the kidnapping of the Burger Chef employees by hustling them into the van. Forrester did not name the other culprits, but he said they were all under the influence of drugs at the time. Forrester said he killed Davis and Shelton and gave details of the crime scene. It was later proven that Forrester could’ve gotten those details from crime scene photos that he saw in the police station where he was interrogated. In his confession, he said that Jayne Friedt was the main target of the kidnapping because she owed $15,000 related to cocaine deals. Jayne’s brother James “Jimmy” Friedt was a convicted drug dealer, and Forrester said that Jayne was mixed up in drug dealing too. Willsey believes this theory, but admits that Forrester (who died of cancer in 2006) had questionable credibility because Forrester changed/recanted his story many times and failed multiple polygraph tests about this confession.

The Speedway Bomber Theory: During a six-day period, beginning in early September 1978, bombs were detonated in various parts of Speedway. Brett Kimberlin was eventually convicted of the bombings and spent 15 years in prison for it. No one died in the bombings, but a man named Carl DeLong had to have one of his legs amputated because of a bomb injury, and he committed suicide in 1983. The theory is that the bomber was also involved in the Burger Chef murders. Kimberlin, who is interviewed in the documentary, denies anything to do with the bombings, the Burger Chef kidnappings/murders, or his suspected involvement in the 1978 murder of Julia Scyphers, who was the mother of Kimberlin’s girlfriend at the time. Kimberlin will only admit that in 1978, he was definitely a marijuana dealer. He describes any reports that he’s a bomber, kidnapper or murderer as “fake news.”

The Jeff Reed/Tim Willoughby Theory: Allen Pruitt, a mechanic who spent time in the same prison as Jimmy Friedt, claims that the Burger Chef murders happened because of a drug deal gone wrong. Pruitt (who died in 2022) is interviewed in the documentary. In his documentary interview, Pruitt says that a drug dealer named Jeff Reed had a dispute with Jimmy Friedt over drug dealing issues, and Jayne Friedt was involved because she was allowing this Burger Chef location to be used as a transaction location for Jimmy Friedt’s drug deals. Pruitt says on the night of the Burger Chef kidnappings, he saw Reed force Flemmonds, Shelton and Davis into Reed’s van in the parking lot of the restaurant, and Reed’s friend Tim Willoughby (also a known drug dealer) was nearby having an argument with Jayne Friedt. Pruitt said he saw the van drive off but didn’t think at the time that anyone had been kidnapped. Pruitt (who says he gave this information to police years ago) states emphatically that Reed and Willoughby committed the Burger Chef kidnappings and murders, based on what Pruitt says that he saw that night.

One of the problems with this theory is that Willoughby (who was clean-shaven and slightly resembled the clean-shaven mystery man in the Burger Chef parking lot that night) is believed to have gone missing before the Burger Chef murders. Willoughby was reported as last seen in June 1978. He has never been found. The reason for his disappearance—as well as the possibility that Willoughby could have still be alive in November 1978—remain unknown. Another problem is that Pruitt admits that he was very intoxicated when he saw Reed, Willoughby and the Burger Chef employees on the night of the kidnappings. Pruitt’s impaired state of mind makes Pruitt a less credible witness than if he had been clean and sober at the time he says he saw the suspicious activity that night.

The documentary also includes a more compelling interview with Tim Boyer, who was a friend of Reed’s in a clique they called the Riff Raff Social Club, which had Reed as the unofficial leader. Reed and his van matched the descriptions from witnesses who say they saw a bearded man in the Burger Chef parking lot close to the time that the kidnappings were believed to have taken place. Boyer says in the documentary that in 1978, not long after the Burger Chef Murders, Reed confessed to Boyer that he and Willoughby committed the crimes. Boyer also claims that Reed told incriminating details to Boyer as proof.

According to Boyer, this is what happened: Reed and Willoughby went to the Burger Chef restaurant to rob the place, but victim Flemmonds saw the intruders and confronted them in a back room. The criminals assaulted Flemmonds, possibly knocking him unconscious. The other three Burger Chef employees also saw a crime taking place, so all four were kidnapped and murdered because the employees were witnesses.

Boyer said he kept this secret for decades because he didn’t want to be a snitch. In the documentary, former police investigator Cramer seems to think this is the strongest theory of what happened in the Burger Chef murder case, but since there’s no proof, it’s unlikely this case will ever be solved. Reed, who died in 2011, was never formally interviewed by police about this case. Cramer said he once informally confronted Reed about the Burger Chef kidnapping/murder case in an unnamed year after Reed had been arrested and was out on bail for an unrelated case. Cramer says that in this conversation, Reed did not make any comments when asked if Reed was involved in the Burger Chef kidnapping/murder case.

“The Speedway Murders” also has interviews with Russ McQuaid, a reporter for Indianapolis TV station WXIN/Fox 59; true crime podcaster Chris Davis; a man named Charlie (no last name is given), who says he was Jayne Friedt’s boyfriend in 1978; Kirk Thompson, a friend of Flemmonds’ who had plans to meet up with him after Flemmonds’ work shift ended that night; Ginger Anthony, a Burger Chef employee who asked Flemmonds to substitute for her that night because she wanted to go on a date with someone; Norma Davis, the mother of Daniel Davis; David Brosman, a Speedway bombing witness; and Jean Bland, a witness who claims to have seen a man forcing the Burger Chef employees into a van, although she admits she never saw the front of the man’s face.

Jeffries is given a small amount of screen time to talk about her murdered sister. Thompson says that he and Flemmonds liked to hang out at a youth-oriented nightclub called the Galaxy, which allowed people under the age of 21. There’s a clip of an archival TV interview with Robert Flemmonds (Mark Flemmonds’ father) where he mentions that Jayne Friedt told him that Mark was like her “protector” on the job. Norma Davis says her son Daniel called her earlier that evening to tell her that he was asked to help close the restaurant and he would be working later than usual that night.

Almost all of these interviewees have something interesting to say. It’s too bad that “The Speedway Murders” filmmakers chose to waste so much screen time on cheesy re-enactments (including the obligatory slow-motion shots) and outright fabricated dialogue of the murder victims discussing and debating various theories about their own murders. Not surprisingly, the “ghost” of Jayne Friedt vehemently denies she was involved in drug dealing.

In an interview for this documentary, Jeffries says that too often in media coverage about murders, the victims don’t get as much coverage as the suspected or convicted killers. “The Speedway Murders” is certainly guilty of that too. Despite spending an offensive amount of time on scenes showing actors portraying ghosts of the murder victims, these drama scenes and the rest of the movie tell almost no details about these victims before their lives were cruelly taken away.

What were the hopes and dreams of these murder victims? What were some of the most memorable things that they did when they were alive? Who were the people who were most important to them? Don’t expect the documentary to answer these questions. Instead of offering more insight into who the murder victims were, “The Speedway Murders” gives way too much screen time to showing these murder victims as babbling ghosts who’ve returned to the scene of the crime.

And if you’re still not sure that this misguided documentary is like a slap in the face to the victims and their loved ones, then the last scene in the film removes all doubt. This final scene is obviously manipulative and intended to make viewers cry by showing a “what if” scenario speculating what would’ve happened if the victims hadn’t been kidnapped and murdered that night. Simply put: “The Speedway Murders” is shameless exploitation of murder victims. If people want to know more about this tragic case, there are much better resources—including Investigation Discovery’s 2022 documentary “Murders at the Burger Joint,” which has been renamed “The Burger Chef Murders”—that have information without exploiting the victims.

Vertical released “The Speedway Murders” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and on VOD on June 21, 2024.

Review: ‘I Still Believe,’ starring KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Shania Twain and Gary Sinise

March 13, 2020

by Carla Hay

KJ Apa and Britt Robertson in "I Still Believe"
KJ Apa and Britt Robertson in “I Still Believe” (Photo by Jason LaVeris)

“I Still Believe”

Directed by Jon Erwin and Andrew Erwin (The Erwin Brothers)

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in California and partially in Indiana, the faith-based drama “I Still Believe” has almost an exclusively white cast representing the middle-class (with a few African and Latinos in minor speaking roles) and has a story based on the real-life contemporary Christian singer Jeremy Camp at the beginning of his career.

Culture Clash: During his first year in college, Jeremy gets involved in a love triangle with a young woman who finds out that she has cancer.

Culture Audience: This movie will appeal mostly to fans of Jeremy Camp and anyone who likes predictable, tear-jerking, faith-based movies.

KJ Apa and Britt Robertson in “I Still Believe” (Photo by Michael Kubeisy)

Bring on the Christian melodrama. “I Still Believe,” which tells the story of how real-life contemporary Christian singer Jeremy Camp met and fell in love with his first wife Melissa, has enough weepy and sentimental moments to make a Hallmark Channel movie look downright cheerful in comparison. Because this dramatic film is based on true events that fans of Camp already know about (he’s written songs about it and done numerous interviews over the years about this period of time in his life), there really isn’t anything new that will be revealed here for his die-hard fans.

However, for everyone else, there are many indications of how this movie will go, from the cutesy lovebird moments to the emotionally distraught hospital scenes. “I Still Believe” is based on Camp’s 2011 memoir of the same name. Brother directors Jon Erwin and Andrew Erwin directed the movie (they also directed the 2018 biopic “I Can Only Imagine” about MercyMe singer Bart Millard), while Jon Erwin co-wrote the “I Still Believe” screenplay with Jon Gunn.

As the story begins, it’s September 1999 in Lafayette, Indiana (Camp’s hometown), and Jeremy (played winningly by a charismatic KJ Apa) is packing up his car to leave behind his supportive and loving parents and two younger brothers, as he heads off to California to attend college for the first time. (The college isn’t named in the movie, but in real life, Camp attended and graduated from Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, California.)

Before Jeremy leaves, his parents Tom Camp (played by Gary Sinise) and Teri Camp (played by Shania Twain) give him a brand-new guitar as a gift. They know he’s a talented singer and musician, so they’re encouraging him to use that talent in the best way that he can. (It should be noted that Sinise and Twain are in the movie for only about 20 minutes, since most of the story takes place when Jeremy was a college student in California.)

One of the first things that happens when Jeremy arrives on campus is he meets a personal hero: Jean-Luc (played by Nathan Dean), a French Canadian contemporary Christian singer who graduated from the school years earlier and has returned to do a concert on campus. Because Jean-Luc has “made it” as a successful artist, Jeremy approaches him backstage before the show to tell Jean-Luc how much he admires him and to ask for his career advice.

Jean-Luc tells him the best advice he could give is that being an artist isn’t about “making it” but what an artist’s songs give to people. Jean-Luc also tells Jeremy that songwriting is about authenticity. He confides in Jeremy that he’s been writing love songs lately with a special girl in mind.

To Jeremy’s surprise and delight, Jean-Luc then asks Jeremy to tune his guitar. The next thing you know, Jeremy is an instant guitar tech who gets to go on stage and hand Jean-Luc the guitar when it’s time for Jean-Luc to switch instruments. While giving Jean-Luc the guitar, Jeremy sees a pretty young student in the crowd who seems enraptured as she sings along to the music. And then she and Jeremy lock eyes with each other. It’s a “love at first sight” moment for Jeremy that is as sweetly sentimental as you would imagine it to be.

Jeremy is so smitten that when he sees her hanging out in the theater after the show, he goes up and introduces himself to her. They have a cautiously flirtatious conversation. Her name is Melissa Henning (played by Britt Robertson, in an emotionally believable performance), and she invites Jeremy to hang out with her and some friends at the beach after the show.

It turns out that Melissa is a close friend of Jean-Luc, who’s also there at the beach, to Jeremy’s surprise. Melissa is so close to Jean-Luc that she says that she and Jean-Luc are “best friends.” As Jeremy lets this information sink in (and it becomes obvious that this is the “special girl” that Jean-Luc is writing love songs about), he still tries to figure out a way to date Melissa.

At the beach, Jeremy has brought his guitar, so that’s how Melissa first finds out that he can sing and play. And since she seems to have a thing for musicians, Jeremy’s talent probably makes him even more attractive to her. She plays it cool, but her reaction to him singing and playing shows how much Jeremy has piqued her interest. (Apa does his own singing in the movie. And he’s pretty good.)

When Jeremy is alone with Melissa, he asks her point-blank if she and Jean-Luc are dating. She says no, but she admits that Jean-Luc might have romantic feelings for her that aren’t mutual. Jeremy doesn’t waste time in expressing that he’s available and interested in dating Melissa, but she tells him that she promised God and her protective older sister Heather that this semester that she wouldn’t have any distractions from her studies and that Jeremy is definitely a distraction.

Undeterred, Jeremy persists in asking Melissa out on a date every time he runs into her on campus, until finally she says yes to one date. She agrees on the condition that she and Jeremy see each other in secret because she doesn’t want to hurt Jean-Luc’s feelings.

On their first date, Melissa and Jeremy go to a planetarium. While in the Hubble Space Telescope room, Melissa turns out to be very knowledgeable about astronomy trivia. After she rattles off some facts about outer space, Melissa says, “I’m just one star in an infinite galaxy.” And Jeremy replies as he looks at her meaningfully, “Well, some stars shine brighter than others.” Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

One date turns into two and then into more dates. And soon, it’s obvious that Jeremy and Melissa have fallen in love, but Melissa still wants to keep their relationship a secret because she’s afraid that it will ruin her friendship with Jean-Luc. This deception bothers Jeremy, but he goes along with it because he doesn’t want to lose Melissa.

Meanwhile, Jean-Luc has been acting as a mentor to Jeremy and has even offered to help Jeremy make a demo recording that could lead to a record-label contract. Jean-Luc has also offered to pass along the demo to the right people to help speed up the process. In other words, this love-triangle situation has turned into something even more complicated than when it started.

According to the movie’s production notes, there was no real-life love triangle between Jeremy, Melissa and Jean-Luc, who is based on real-life French Canadian musician Jean-Luc La Joie, the lead singer of the Christian rock band The Kry. In real life, Jean-Luc and Melissa were just friends, and Jean-Luc really did help Jeremy, early on in Jeremy’s career. But the filmmakers decided to make the Jean-Luc character in the movie as a combination of the real person and the numerous guys who were also pursuing Melissa during the time that she and Jeremy began dating.

Whether or not Jean-Luc finds out about the secret love affair turns out to be the least of Jeremy and Melissa’s problems. Just as Jeremy’s career is taking off, Melissa finds out that she has cancer. The rest of the movie shows how this devastating diagnosis affects their relationship. (And if you know what happened in real life, then you already know how this movie is going to end.)

All of the actors do a fine job with their performances. As the central characters in the film, Apa and Robertson (who also played a young couple in love in 2017’s “A Dog’s Purpose”) have natural chemistry together that makes them convincing as two people who’ve fallen hard and fast for each other. But there are moments in the movie that are so melodramatic and cliché-ridden that they’re downright cringeworthy. And there might be some non-religious people who could be offended at the idea that prayer can cause medical miracles. But this isn’t a movie for atheists or people who don’t like Christian movies. “I Still Believe” will definitely be a crowd-pleaser for the film’s intended audience. For everyone else, proceed with caution or avoid the movie altogether.

Lionsgate released “I Still Believe” in U.S. cinemas on March 13, 2020.

UPDATE: Because of the widespread coronavirus-related closures of movie theaters worldwide, Lionsgate Home Entertainment has moved up the digital and VOD release of “I Still Believe” to March 27, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘All I Can Say’

May 2, 2019

by Carla Hay

Shannon Hoon and daughter Nico Blue Hoon in “All I Can Say” (Photo by Shannon Hoon)

“All I Can Say”

Directed by Danny Clinch, Taryn Gould, Colleen Hennessy and Shannon Hoon

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 26, 2019.

The documentary “All I Can Say” gets its title from the first line of “No Rain,” the biggest hit song from Blind Melon, the rock band that released only two studio albums when lead singer Shannon Hoon died of a cocaine overdose in 1995, at the age of 28. Unlike most documentaries, which combine archival footage with new interviews, “All I Can Say” consists entirely of footage that Hoon filmed of his life from 1990 to 1995, the years when Blind Melon existed with Hoon as lead singer. Danny Clinch, Taryn Gould and Colleen Hennessy (who are credited as co-directors) assembled the footage and made it into this film.

The 2019 Tribeca Film Festival has the world premieres of three documentaries about lead singers of rock bands who had untimely, tragic deaths in the 1990s, and all three men left behind a toddler or infant child to grow up without their father. The documentaries are “All I Can Say”; “Sublime” (whose lead singer Bradley Nowell died in 1996 of a heroin overdose); and “Mystify: Michael Hutchence” (about INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, who committed suicide in 1997). “All I Can Say” is the most unique of this trio of movies, simply because it’s filmed from a first-person perspective with no outside commentary or current footage. There are voiceovers, but they are of interviews that Hoon did during the five-year period in which the documentary footage was filmed.

Almost all of the footage in “All I Can Say” is shown in chronological order, but it begins on a chilling note, with the last footage that Hoon filmed of himself. It shows him in a New Orleans hotel room, talking on the phone to an unidentified person, on October 21, 1995, the day that he died. Before this final footage can be seen in its entirety, the movie then rewinds to 1990, when Hoon was living in Los Angeles as a struggling musician, but also going back home to visit family in Indiana, where he grew up in the suburban cities of Lafayette and Dayton.

It’s clear from these first few scenes that even before he was famous, Hoon was a self-described troublemaking rebel who couldn’t wait to get out of Indiana to become a rock star. He had drug problems and arrests before he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream. He also had a high-school sweetheart named Lisa Crouse, who was in a relationship with him during the time all of this footage was filmed.

It was while in Los Angeles that Hoon met the musicians who would become the other members of Blind Melon: lead guitarist Rogers Stevens, rhythm guitarist Christopher Thorn, bassist Brad Smith and drummer Glen Graham. The band’s name was inspired by the nickname that stoner hippies gave themselves in Graham and Smith’s home state of Mississippi. But it was Hoon’s Indiana roots that proved to be a major factor in Blind Melon’s career, because Guns N’Roses lead singer Axl Rose, whose hometown was Lafayette, knew Hoon’s half-sister Anna from high school.

Guns N’Roses was one of the biggest bands in the world at the time, and Hoon became friends with Rose in Los Angeles. Hoon did guest backup vocals on several Guns N’Roses songs (including “Don’t Cry” and “The Garden”) that would be released on Guns N’Roses’ 1991 albums “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.” There’s footage in the documentary of Hoon with Guns N’Roses at the Record Plant recording studio in Los Angeles.

Hoon’s prominent appearance in the “Don’t Cry” video catapulted him into the spotlight, and it became the catalyst for a quickie route to Blind Melon signing with Capitol Records, at a time when Blind Melon didn’t even have enough original songs for a showcase. The documentary has footage of Blind Melon recording the band’s 1992 self-titled debut album, including signature tune “No Rain.” There’s also footage of Hoon watching the 1992 Los Angeles riots on TV.

The documentary shows that Hoon’s heavy drug use was ongoing throughout the period of time that this movie was filmed. In one scene, he holds up a bag of psychedelic mushrooms. In other scene, he and Stevens are seen doing cocaine on Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills. In other scene, a coked-out Hoon is talking about being awake for several days. There’s also a hint that Hoon’s substance-abuse problems were probably passed down from a previous generation, since there’s a scene of him on the phone with his father after his father was arrested for DUI.

Blind Melon’s self-titled debut album was a big hit (selling 4 million copies in the U.S. alone), and it remains the band’s best-selling album,  known for the singles “No Rain,” “Tones of Home,” “I Wonder” and “Change.” But that quick success came at a price, because Blind Melon became known as the “bee girl” band, which was an image the band ended up hating. First, the album cover was of drummer Graham’s younger sister Georgia as a child, dressed as a bee when she was in a school play. Then, Blind Melon’s “No Rain” video prominently featured another child—actress Heather DeLoach—dressed in a similar bee costume.

The “No Rain” video, directed by Samuel Bayer (who also directed Nirvana’s iconic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video), has the concept of a lonely bee girl who is rejected and ridiculed by society until she walks into an open field where she finds that there are other bee people just like her. Blind Melon is shown performing in the field, but “Bee Girl” DeLoach actually ends up being a scene-stealer in the video. For a while, she became a minor celebrity in real life. It’s obvious that the “bee girl” image was starting to annoy the band, because Blind Melon was constantly asked about it in interviews. In one such interview that’s shown in the documentary, Hoon says with an exasperated voice, “The bee is bigger than the band.”

Another major fame-related issue that Blind Melon had was the lead singer got most of the attention—and that didn’t sit well with the rest of the band. (It’s a common issue with most famous bands.) Blind Melon was on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1993 (when being on the cover of Rolling Stone was still a big deal), and the documentary shows how that cover caused a lot of tension in the band behind the scenes. Rolling Stone originally wanted only Hoon on the cover, but the other band members insisted that they be on the cover too.

The documentary shows video footage that Hoon secretly recorded of the band members talking about him when he wasn’t in the room. “All I Can Say” also shows Blind Melon’s photo session for Rolling Stone—all the band members were completely naked—and the cover photo ended up showing Hoon, front and center, in pig-tailed braids. The documentary also shows Stevens’ giddy and happy reaction to seeing the magazine cover for the first time.

“All I Can Say” also shows a mischievous, devil-may-care side to Hoon, such as a scene of him delivering pizza on-stage naked, a scene of him trying to channel the Beatles while walking on London’s famous Abbey Road, and a full-frontal nude scene of him filming himself completely naked in front of a bathroom mirror. There are also a few rock-star diva moments, such as when Hoon taunts a security guard backstage at a concert for some real or perceived conflict. Hoon treats the guard in a condescending manner, essentially saying, “I dare you to pick a fight with me, but you won’t, because I’m untouchable.”

Hoon was arrested for indecent exposure in 1993 for urinating on a fan during a Blind Melon concert in Vancouver, but that footage isn’t in the documentary, although the arrest is briefly mentioned in a TV news report that Hoon filmed. Hoon was also arrested in 1995 in New Orleans for disorderly conduct. That arrest isn’t shown in the movie either.

Since most people watching this movie know how Hoon died, there’s a sense of impending doom when watching “All I Can Say”—and there are plenty of signs that despite the fame and success, Hoon was deeply troubled and immersed in drug addiction. In one scene, he has a spoon that looks like it’s dripping with melted heroin. In another scene, he openly talks about doing smack. Hoon’s drug addiction was well-known to people in the industry and to Blind Melon fans, and he had multiple stints in rehab. The rehab stints are obviously not in the movie, but the documentary includes footage of Hoon getting a message from Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready asking for Hoon’s advice on rehab.

Hoon’s emotional turmoil must have also been compounded by a suicide that he and other band members witnessed after one of Blind Melon’s shows at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, where a woman in her 20s jumped to her death at a nearby hotel. (Blind Melon’s song “St. Andrew’s Fall” on the band’s 1995 second album, “Soup,” is about that horrifying experience.) In the documentary, Hoon is seen confessing that witnessing the suicide was the hardest moment for him in the band.

Other haunting footage is of Hoon watching TV news about the suicide of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain (who died in 1994 at the age of 27), and later commenting about Cobain’s death in an interview: “A lot of people are hurting, including his little girl.” The irony is that one year later, Hoon would also leave his own little girl behind by tragically dying. Hoon and Crouse welcomed their daughter, Nico, on July 11, 1995. The documentary has footage of Hoon finding out he was going to be father, seeing ultrasounds, the birth of Nico, and Hoon being a loving and affectionate father to Nico.

One month after the birth of Nico, Blind Melon’s second album, “Soup,” was released, and it was the band’s sophomore slump. Even though there’s a scene where a band member jokes that Blind Melon isn’t that popular anymore, the band’s big decline in sales was obviously a blow to the band’s confidence. And although Hoon didn’t reveal on camera how this career decline affected him, there’s one scene in the movie that clearly shows how depressed he was.

At home celebrating his 28th birthday, Hoon is seen with Crouse and Nico, who are seated at a table with him. A birthday cake is on the table, and while Crouse is smiling and singing “Happy Birthday,” Hoon sits there sadly, deep in his own thoughts. It’s impossible to know if Hoon’s personal problems or career problems (or both) were weighing him down at that moment, but it’s obvious that being surrounded by his closest loved ones on his birthday wasn’t making him happy.

We’ll never know what Hoon would be doing if he were alive today. Blind Melon’s third album, “Nico,” was released in 1996, and featured songs the band had already recorded with Hoon. After going on hiatus, Blind Melon regrouped in 2006 with new lead singer Travis Warren. But in that five-year period when Hoon experienced his meteoric rise to stardom, we get to see his perspective in “All I Can Say” as a talented but self-destructive person who found out that fame wasn’t the answer to his problems.

Hoon might have escaped from Indiana, but he couldn’t escape from himself. The tragedy is that Hoon left behind a child who didn’t know what it was like to grow up with her father. But at least she can see from this footage that she was adored by him in the short time that he was in her life, and he left behind a musical legacy that affects people who are fans of Blind Melon’s early music.

UPDATE: Oscilloscope Laboratories will release “All I Can Say” in select U.S. virtual cinemas on June 26, 2020.

Kroger temporarily removes pre-cut melons from stores in Michigan and Indiana due to possible health risk

June 8, 2018

The following is a press release from Kroger:

The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) said today it is withdrawing Kroger pre-cut cantaloupe, pre-cut watermelon and pre-cut melon mixes sold in its Indiana and Michigan retail stores due to possible contamination from a strain of Salmonella Adelaide.

On June 7, the company was informed by the CDC and FDA that multiple illnesses have been reported in connection with this outbreak. The products implicated were limited to select Kroger, Jay C, Owen’s and Pay Less stores in Indiana and Michigan, and were provided by a third-party supplier that is fully cooperating with the investigation.

Although the reported illness onset ended on May 28 and the shelf life on these products is very limited, out of an abundance of caution Kroger immediately removed these products from its stores and has temporarily suspended shipment of any new products from this supplier. This withdrawal does not affect other pre-cut fruit available in stores.

Kroger has withdrawn from sale the following items:

Product

UPC

Sell-By Dates:

Size

MELON SPEARS TRIO

82676613959

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

16 oz.

FRUIT SPEARS MIXED

82676613960

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

16 oz. 

WATERMELON SPEARS

82676613962

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

16 oz. 

MELON MEDLEY – SMALL

82676613980

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

10 oz.

WATERMELON CHUNKS – SMALL

82676613985

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

10 oz.

CANTALOUPE CHUNKS – SMALL

82676614000

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

10 oz.

HONEYDEW CHUNKS – SMALL

82676614001

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

10 oz.

CANTALOUPE CHUNKS

82676614006

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

24 oz.

MELON MIX

82676614007

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

24 oz.

WATERMELON CHUNKS

82676614008

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

24 oz.

WATERMELON CHUNKS

82676614014

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

48 oz.

FRUIT SNACK TRAY

82676614015

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

40 oz.

FRUIT MEDLEY

82676614017

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

10 oz.

FRUIT MEDLEY

82676614024

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

24 oz.

FRUIT MEDLEY

82676614030

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

48 oz.

SMALL FRUIT TRAY W/ DIP

82676614538

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

26.75 oz.

LARGE FRUIT TRAY W/ DIP

82676614539

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

63.0 oz.

FRUIT TRAY W/WATERMELON

82676618549

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

64.75 oz.

FRUIT FIESTA SALAD

82676618564

6/11/18 AND BEFORE

18 oz.

Customers who have purchased the above products from the company’s Indiana and Michiganstore locations should not consume them and should return them to a store for a full refund or replacement.

Customers who have questions may contact Kroger at 1-800-KROGERS.

At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit™. We are nearly half a million associates who serve nine million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and 2,800 retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.

SOURCE The Kroger Co.

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