was still hope that some useful information might be revealed from the bullets that were recovered at the scene.
Sheila’s mother and father were obviously distraught at the news of their daughter’s death. Sergeant Brown said that for a long time afterward, Harold Cole, Sheila’s father, would drive to Cape Girardeau from his home in Crestwood almost on a weekly basis.
“He would just drive around, hoping that somehow he would be able to find Sheila’s killer. I think he knew that he never would, but he couldn’t just sit around feeling helpless. He needed to feel like he was doing something,” Brown said.
According to everyone who knew Sheila, she was a sweet girl who got along well with just about anyone. She had a contagious smile and an optimistic attitude. As a senior at SEMO State University, Sheila was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Little Sisters at the university and she enjoyed school activities. All her life, she had a fondness and fascination with animals, so she majored in zoology with a minor in chemistry. Her chosen course of study was academically challenging, but Sheila was very studious. She was also a social person who liked to party with her roommates and circle of close friends, but she was conservative with her money. Her roommates said that Sheila never had any financial problems and always found some type of job to make money during the summer months when she returned to live with her family in Crestwood.
During a coroner’s inquest on December 1, 1977, her father, Harold, testified that Sheila always acted conservatively and responsibly when it came to her possessions. “I’d like to make this point very strongly,” he said. “If her keys were found in her car, then she did not leave the car voluntarily. She always took her keys and locked the car.”
Her roommate Connie Walker also testified that Sheila was fastidious in her habits. Walker said, “Sheila’s car was her pride and joy. She took good care of it. She was always telling me to lock the door.”
Harold Cole said that the only enemy the family might have was a woman from Arcadia, Missouri, who was involved in a lawsuit over some money that his wife’s uncle gave to her. He also said that Sheila dated a boy named Jerry Seegers during her first year of college at St. Louis Community College (STLCC)—Meramec in Kirkwood, but that he moved on to attend Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, when Sheila moved to Cape Girardeau.
Dixie Gail Keena, a friend of Sheila’s, told police about another former boyfriend named James Zeiser, who belonged to the Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity. Each person that investigators interviewed led them to another interview, and another.
Lester Burchyett told investigators that Bob Lusk, of Ralph Edwards Realty, told him that Sheila had inquired about finding a house in McClure, Illinois. When police contacted Ralph Edwards, they were told that Sheila had not contacted their agency.
Round and round it went as dozens of interviews were conducted throughout the next month, and still, the police were no closer to solving the case. They did not even have a suspect or a motive.
Matthew Sopko agreed to submit to a polygraph examination December 2 at the Cape Girardeau Police Department. The results of that examination indicated that Sopko had no involvement in the murder of Sheila Cole.
During the course of the investigation, Illinois state troopers were told of women who claimed they had been stalked by strange men, a member of a mercenary group that killed “dirty women,” and a drunk man who sat at the bar in the Down’s Club and told the bartender he was going to kill somebody. It seemed that everyone knew somebody who might be the killer.
Special Agent Richard Evans, of the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement (IDLE), tracked down Sheila’s former boyfriend Jerry Seegers in Carbondale. He lived at the Tan Tara Mobile Home Park and still attended Southern Illinois University, where he majored in photography.
Seegers told Evans that he had not seen Sheila since he last visited her about a year earlier. He said that they had dinner together, went to the Trail of Tears State Park, and then spent the rest of the evening watching television in his motel room. He added that they did not have sex.
Seegers said that Sheila told him that she did not care for one of her roommates (she was living in the dormitory at that time) and that she was becoming disillusioned with Sopko because he “hassled” her about her foul language. He added that Sheila was not too fond of her brother, either. Seegers told Evans that he had learned of Sheila’s death from a television news report and that he would assist investigators in any way that he could.
Alexander County sheriff Donald Turner reported that a man named Charles Clifton told him that another man, Dean Bagby, came into the Hub Tavern on the morning of November 17 and said that he was in terrible trouble because he had shot someone. When Bagby was interviewed, he denied making that statement. Round and round it continued, but police were still no closer to the truth.
It was not until near the end of December that ballistic test findings determined that it was probable that the same type of gun used to kill Sheila Cole was also used in the Parsh murders. The lab examiner reported that in both cases the bullets appeared to be Remington-Peters .38-caliber 158-grain round-nose bullets that were probably fired from a Charter Arms undercover model pistol. On December 29, the cases were combined.
In a prepared statement, the Cape Girardeau Police Department released to the media that the Parsh and Cole murders might be linked to a single “psychotic” killer. The statement said that in addition to similarities in the ballistic test report, the apparent lack of a normal motive in the slayings—such as robbery, rape, or revenge—has led authorities to theorize that one psychotic individual could be responsible for all three murders.
Chief Gerecke said at the time, “We don’t want to be alarmists, but I feel it is our duty to alert the public.” He added that his own daughter was visiting during the holiday break from her school in Texas, and he had told her not to go out alone or pick anyone up while she was staying in the area.
The bodies of Mary and Brenda Parsh were so decomposed when they were discovered that no useful physical evidence could be recovered from their autopsies that would aid investigators to solve the case. In contrast to the longevity that contributed to the accelerated decomposition of Mary and Brenda Parsh as a detrimental factor, it may have been haste that contributed to a lack of evidence in the Sheila Cole case. According to Sergeant Brown, Cole’s body was already in the process of being embalmed before some investigating authorities were even notified of her death.
While the ballistic test showed similarities in the bullets used in the Parsh and Cole murders, the report did not provide definitive proof that the same weapon was used in both cases. Federal, state, and local authorities worked together to search for another common thread that might link the victims.
Sheila Cole lived in an apartment building that was located next door to the nursing home where Mr. Parsh lived for several months after his wife and daughter were killed, but he said that he had never spoken to or even had known who Cole was.
Before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Brenda Parsh lived and worked in St. Louis. Cole’s family lived in Crestwood, which is located outside of St. Louis, but there was no indication that they ever ran into each other or even knew each other. In considering any possible connection with the background of the victims, Brown said, “Nothing seemed close or to overlap at all.” He added, “That was just about the time that ‘Son of Sam’ was prominent in the newspapers and maybe that triggered something. If we have a true psychotic here as well, he might strike again.”
1978–1981
I just went nuts. Back in ’77 and ’78, I think I just went a little crazy.
—Timothy
