She continued to appreciate acting and the theater, but as a levelheaded realist, she did not expect to be able to make a living in that occupation. She loved performing on the stage. Hedda Gabler was a favorite play of hers, and one in which she performed during her college years. Although separated from the adventurous Vicki by time and distance, the two girls kept in touch. Brenda even attended Vicki’s wedding, once Vicki finally settled down a bit and decided to create a lifetime union with one man.
Brenda was happy for Vicki and her newfound love, but Vicki was less enthusiastic about Brenda’s choice for a mate.
“There is no doubt that Brenda’s boyfriend loved her, but he became completely obsessed with her. If there was ever a fatal attraction, that was it,” Vicki said.
According to Richard McGougan, this statement may have been an emotional reaction to his suspected involvement in Brenda’s murder.
“Brenda had lots of friends. Vicki was one of them, but she certainly was not her best friend,” McGougan said.
Richard said that he finished school and he and Brenda remained committed to each other. They intended to marry and eventually move to New York City, where Richard planned to pursue his acting career.
Brenda was offered a job at the Grand Department Store in Milwaukee and wanted to accept it. Richard and Brenda discussed their options and mutually agreed to postpone their wedding, but not indefinitely. Richard moved to Los Angeles to work as an actor and Brenda took the position in Wisconsin. For about a year and a half, they maintained a long-distance relationship with occasional visits. The strain became too much, and Richard moved back to St. Louis, where he still had contacts to continue acting and would have a closer proximity to Brenda. The fact that they had still not followed through with their marriage plans, and they continued to find reasons to live in different states from each other, decreased the validity of their intention to remain committed to each other. Still, Richard maintained that their love for each other was as strong as ever.
Floyd eventually recovered from the physical injuries to his heart and he left the convalescent home on Sprigg Street to return to his empty house. It was the emotional injury that Floyd could never recover from. According to Sergeant Brown, Floyd would spend much of his time sitting in a rocking chair with a loaded shotgun by his side, waiting and praying that the person who stole his family’s lives would someday return.
Without any other evidence or leads, McGougan remained on the police investigator’s short list as a possible suspect for years. Because of that, he removed himself from the life he was familiar with, and finally moved to New York in 1979 in an effort to escape suspicion, to pursue his acting career, and to try to put this episode of his life behind him.
Without placing blame on the incident or excusing self-responsibility, McGougan admitted that for the next several years he indulged in drug use and heavy drinking, which might have been a result of the depression that was brought on by Brenda’s murder and the accusations that he might have been responsible for the crime. He wasn’t raped or murdered, but McGougan—like Floyd, Vicki, and many others—became a victim of the real perpetrator’s actions.
Floyd later died of complications related to his heart condition, and he was never able to have the satisfaction of finding out who was responsible for killing the people he loved most in his life. It was the phone call that he made long ago, in August 1977, that proved to be a critical piece of evidence for linking the killer to the crime.
Thirty years later, after the murderer confessed to the crime, police authorities kept saying that they would not officially press criminal charges in connection with the deaths of Mary and Brenda Parsh unless there was positive proof that he was guilty. It’s the “Show Me” state. The killer was the only surviving person who would have had knowledge about the phone call that Floyd made to Mary from the hospital. It was his mention of this call that sealed his confession of guilt. There was no possible way that he could have known about that call unless he was there. There was no longer any doubt about the perpetrator of the crime. Unfortunately, because so much time had passed, the number of living relatives who benefited from his confessions of at least nine murders all across the country has been reduced, but the number of people that these victims have had an influence on may be uncountable.
Floyd went to his grave without ever having the satisfaction of discovering the identity of the person who murdered his wife and daughter. He never saw justice prevail, and he never had closure. He died of a broken heart.
When investigators announced publicly in 2007 that Timothy Wayne Krajcir had confessed to the crime, McGougan was relieved that closure would finally take place. Still, he was disappointed that Krajcir was able to escape the death penalty in exchange for his confession.
“Krajcir stole the lives of decent, wonderful people, but there are other lives, the lives of those who lived on, which were also negatively impacted because of his actions. Justice would be best served if he (Krajcir) would be executed,” McGougan stated.
4
Sheila Cole
November 1977
Cape Girardeau is often described as a big town or a small city, depending on one’s point of view. It hosts a plentiful stock of hotels and motels, bars, and hundreds of choices of places to eat, from fast-food chains to fine-dining establishments. There is a downtown that caters to tourists with a desire to explore American history as well as to the college students who attend the Southeast Missouri State University. There is plenty of free downtown parking available for people who want to visit the unique shops, galleries, and pubs that are nestled along the banks of the Mississippi River. What was not generally plentiful were horrific crimes of murder.
On November 17, 1977, just three months after the Parsh murders, a SEMO State University student was found dead. She was discovered at a rest stop along Illinois Route 3, just south of McClure, Illinois. Her fully clothed body was lying faceup on the floor in the women’s restroom, with two .38-caliber gunshot wounds in her head.
A passing motorist who pulled over at the rest stop discovered the body and anonymously called 911 to report it. Deputy Kenneth Calvert, of the Alexander County Sheriff’s Department (ACSD) in Cairo, Illinois, was the first to arrive on the scene. He saw the body of a fully clothed white female lying faceup on the floor at the north side of the restroom. A wound was clearly visible on the victim’s head, where a large quantity of blood had pooled around it. It did not take long for other officers from the sheriff’s department to arrive.
The scene was photographed and processed by Special Agents Gary Ashman and Connell Smith, of the Illinois Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One bullet was found lodged in the north wall of the restroom. A second was recovered from the floor underneath the victim. Two partial footprints were found near a trash container. A woman’s purse was discovered inside the trash can. The purse contained a photo driver’s license belonging to twenty-one-year-old Sheila Cole, of Crest Oak Lane in Crestwood, Missouri. Also inside the purse was a checkbook. The last entry, dated November 16, was in the amount of $8.97 for a purchase from a Wal-Mart store. Other items recovered from her purse included credit cards, traveler’s checks, a small amount of cash, and some personal items. The motive for her murder was obviously not robbery. There was also a Wal-Mart sales catalog in the purse, which was addressed to Sheila Cole, residing on Sprigg Street, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Once all the evidence was collected from the scene, Alexander County coroner Thomas Bradshaw had the body removed and transported to the Crain-Barkett Funeral Home in Cairo, Illinois.
The Cape Girardeau police were notified of Cole’s murder and were told that she had been living in an apartment located on Sprigg Street,
