A Very Cold Case: The Vampire Master
Friday, July 8, 2011 at 6:01AM I remember this case well as I lived in Springfield, Missouri, at the time. Here is the crime scene:
Mr. Feeney, 36, had said he was at a teacher's conference 90 miles away when his wife, Cheryl, their 6-year-old-son and their year-old daughter were killed early on the morning of Feb. 26, 1995. The three were found face down in their beds. Mrs. Feeney and the son, Tyler, had been beaten to death; the daughter, Jennifer, had been strangled with a drapery cord.
Prosecutors, who had no witnesses or physical evidence, contended that the crime scene was staged and that Mr. Feeney had the motive to kill. Four women testified they had had affairs with Mr. Feeney, and evidence indicated that he stood to gain $500,000 in life insurance and other property from the death of his wife and children.
This was the extent of the evidence against him. The reason that Feeney was the prime suspect was statistics. The perception is that most women that are murdered are murdered by their husband. I myself had thought this was true until I wrote this entry in the blog. While such statistics are hard to come by, the correct percentage seems to be 28 percent. Famed attorney F. Lee Bailey says 30%, but to come to that figure he had to include ex-husbands and ex-boyfriends.
It is only natural that a husband as odd as Feeney would be a suspect. For example, as a High School teacher he was known to play a game called Vampire The Masquerade with his students. While the insurance motive was possible, in a dual income household such policies are common. Mrs. Feeney was a nurse.
But police, once they had their "murderer," did not do much with some of the other oddities of the case:
There was also evidence that others may have been involved. Unidentified hairs were found on Cheryl Feeney's bloodstained nightgown. And the boy was found to have a sexually transmitted case of hepatitis B that did not come from his parents, raising the possibility that someone who had infected the boy also killed him and his family.
There was even a semen stain on the marital bed that did not belong to the husband.
At the time I wondered why prosecutors bring such weak cases. Then an eye witness came forward. While there was proof that Feeney had been at the convention, key to the prosecution’s case was that a 90 mile drive from the teacher’s conference in the middle of the night was not out of the question. The eye witness was a convenience store clerk who remembered Feeney buying gas in the middle of the night in Springfield. I remember thinking, "He must have done it then." But when the employment records were examined it was discovered that the "eye witness" was not working the night of the murder. Whoops.
It is not clear what the motivation of the clerk was. It could be similar to the problem of police perjury called testilying, where the police lie to convict a suspect they "know" is guilty. Or the clerk could have been sincerely mistaken. Eye witness identification is not as reliable as most people think.
The point of these series of blog posts is to highlight the need for us to think about the templates we use to evaluate the criminal cases in the news. We need to abandon our preconceptions that if someone is arrested they must be guilty. It ain't necessarily so.
After 5 hours of deliberation Jon Feeney was acquitted.
[Positive Dennis]
Vampire Master was changed to Vampire The Masquerade.
Reader Comments (32)
Weren't they playing Vampire the Masquerade? I wasn't involved in the game, but I knew those who were. I never thought it was him. I always found it strange they checked into the students so little. I also remember the other teachers well. I remember how emotionally it effected them, and then the sex scandal side came out. Then there was the suicide of the teacher's brother that coincidently happened at the same time. I can't remember the teachers name, he was across the hall from Feeney. It was a strange time of sex, death, and odd comments from students. I have my personal theories that never involved the teacher, but it is probably best not to name people I have no evidence against.
I am not sure exactly what game they were playing. It was a very odd case. Maybe he was guilty, maybe not. But there just was not enough evidence against him to charge him.
I rode the bus with Tyler...I remember this so well because it was my first experience with a real death...with murder... when I first knew if its meaning. 18 years later it sickens me this case is still open... if Mr Feeney didn't do it then who did? it always just seemed like once he was acquitted they stopped looking...but there was hair and semen found at the crime scene... technology is different now. are you telling me that the piece of crap that did this has not committed another crime and does not have his DNA in a database anywhere? I bet I check on this case atleast 5 times a year... I hope one day to see a resolution.
I just want to know...did the husband/ father look for the muderer or murderers if it is true that he did not do this? Did he do whatever he could to try to find the killer?
How in the world would he find the killer(s)?
Cheryl was my cousin, and I believe with all my heart...Jon had something to do with the murders.
One would have to know Jon himself to understand why he cast so much suspicion on himself without any physical evidence. Jon is a pathological liar, even when he knows ultimately he will be found out. He is narcissist to his own detriment thinking his science degree made him smarter than everyone around him. In the end I guess it did. He got away with it. I Knew jon after the murderers and I initially believed he was innocent even though he hadn't told me so nor has he yet to have tell me that. After several months into a relationship I began seeing all the inconsistentsies and flat out lies more often that not in his stories and how much he manipulated people and situations to always make him look like an innocent victim. I think one has to know Jon's family to understand why he did it. His Father a Pastor in a Christian Fundmentalist Church who did not believe in Music, and Divorce was sin that one committed against God himself. Jon was quite the opposite. An active alcoholic, with Party Guy tattooed on his forehead. Jon cared about his parents deeply and was distraught over the pain his sister brought them when her husband divorced her, so Divorce was simply an option Jon could not imagine. Do I know 100% he is guilty. NO! Do I know he was capable of doing it. YES! Few that have come to know him after the murderers have come to the conclusion of his innocence. However, the burden of proof was on the prosecution, ultimately he went the whole enchilada, making it impossible of every trying Jon again. Jon could have been charged with just one of the murderers at a time, had the prosecution lost, they could always go after him with another victim after finding out more information or been given more proof. Jon is now remarried to a young beautiful South American Girl with a new family, which had always been his plan. Jon believes so much in this crazy Christian God, (strange for a man of science right?) that he simply thinks he will see them all in heaven, and in some ways he thinks he thinks he did them a favor by getting them off this place and back into the hands of God. You definitely have to know Jon to really understand any of this, but if you do, You know exactly what I am talking about.
I was a student of Feeney's at the time this happened, but moved out of state prior to his trial so most of the details i was not aware of. I do remember that the police were certain he was responsible and i was told by another teacher that much of the staff believed that as well. I was interviewed by police a couple of times, as were all of his students, but his class was so pointless i rarely showed up. I do remember how strange i thought he was, even though most students wanted to take his class because it was a complete blow off. i thought it was a waste of time, and he essentially taught nothing or had us do any labs in our chemistry class. He was so strange and i remember him passing around photos of his family at the beginning of the year, and would frequently pass around photos of the kids in particular and talk about tyler's soccer practice, etc. i always thought it was very odd, as i've never had another teacher that spent half of a class talking about their family. prior to his trip to the conference he told our class more than once that the whole family was going with him and they were going to make it into a family vacation. next thing i know i'm seeing on the news that they were murdered, and obviously did not go to lake of the ozarks with him. i had trouble believing at the time that he could kill them just because he always struck me as sort of a pansy, but at the same time i found it odd that he seemed to go out of his way to portray himself as a loving husband and father. he also had a weird obsession with cindy crawford (poster up in the classroom) and was most interested in having his students like him than actually teaching us anything. He would end each day by telling us "make good choices out there!".
I'm 99% certain Jon Feeney didn't do it. Was he weird and capable of doing it, probably. The truth is that Jon Feeney left, and yet the vampire obsessed deviants stayed. They were even caught again in shenanigans with LaCallia Wiggins.
http://archive.news-leader.com/article/20071205/NEWS01/712050370/Lured-into-darkness
Springfield has a rich underground history, literally. Between the extensive Jordan Creek tunnels and the abundant small caves, there are plenty of places to foster this fantasy of being Vampire Gods. The scary thing is that he got away with it the first time. Has he gotten away with it since? That blonde haired kid is now a 35 year old man. I mean obviously, no one has anything substantial on him, but there are a series of unsolved disappearances here in Springfield that involved somebody. What scares me most is if I'm right about it not being Feeney, and this guy is now good enough to not leave bodies, he can kill with impunity.
It is true-I grew up in Springfield and recall individuals disappearing when I was growing up-some later found murdered and some never to be found. For all its "Bible Belt" reputation there is a huge criminal element in this seemingly "safe hometown" city. I knew Jon Feeney-he was in my high school class and the best friend of the guy I dated in high school. Jon has always been "eerily creepy" and yes I do think he played some part in his family's murder. Cheryl was convinced he was sexually abusing their son-she was getting ready to file for divorce. Why did he move to Brazil-doesn't take a rocket scientist-no extradition! Although he may not be able to be charged again for the murders I am sure creative prosecutors could find something to charge him with-have they thought of or done any modern day forensic testing on any of the evidence?!?! Doubtful. Come on Springfield PD-it's 2014-There is no excuse for not running the DNA in this case and putting it into CODIS! What's the worst thing that could happen-you solve the case!
You bring up a valid point that he could have played a part in planning the killing even if he didn't do it. The evidence did seem to point to someone else being involved at the actual scene. It's pretty pathetic they never tried to match the semen to anyone other than Feeney in the first place, especially when he didn't come back as a match. If they found the guy who actually did the killing, they'd probably have a better chance at determining how Feeney was involved. Feeney wasn't even the creepiest person involved in this case, but then maybe I'm making the same mistake that the police made when they thought Feeney did it mainly because he had mental issues. The one thing that is absolutely certain is that Feeney wasn't the only one involved even if he did play a part. We'll never know who that other person is solely because of the incompetence of the police in this city. My guess is that the vampire wannabes that hang out in Hell's Church in the Jordan Creek Tunnel have at least met the guy that did this. Not everyone down there thinks they are a vampire, but the ones that do first started getting the idea from one man.
I know who you mean. I grew up down the street. We were both interested in lavey the statanic bible vampires and all of that but it was all about rebelion against our hiperchristian parents. I never go to games with Feeney. Feeney was nothing. YOU KNOW 99%! I KNOW 100%! Guy you lie about is a GOOD GUY he KILLED NO ONE. His dad is a LAWYER and he is a NSA DETECTIVE! He can protect himself from stupid people thoughts. No one at Hells Church. People you lie about have a NEW HOUSE. Maybe you find some of white rabbits peoples. Thye just splorers ninja spiders.
If you know anything about this cult, about this satanic church he mentioned, or about Cheryl's tragic death, please, please, please, please go to the police, even if you think what you know is insignificant.
I typed in "white rabbit people Springfield, MO" into Google to try to understand what the person above was talking about. The first site listed is this: http://www.undergroundozarks.com/forum/. Does anyone know if this place has any connection to what is being discussed here?
The Jordan Creek tunnels are nowhere near Glendale. It seems like people are trying to link together unrelated incidents that are years apart. The Underground Ozarks site is just a bunch of urban explorers, again, unrelated. You aren't going to solve a 20 year old case wandering around on the internet as much as people still think about it. The best hope is getting the cops to use any DNA evidence they have left. Does anyone know if they've tried?
I still lose sleep over this case. Everyone knows he did it. What went wrong? Police work? Defense attorneys? Ask the one attorney who left the business because of this case....
I was just reading John Douglas's book, "Law and Disorder". It made me think a lot about the Feeney case. We all sat around asking, "do you think he did it?" when what we thought was biased by our own "common sense" and theories. Example - we assume because Feeney was weird, evil, into the vampire thing, plus people who knew him say he was capable of doing this, he actually did it. Theories can not convict. Evidence does. Look at what happened to the West Memphis Three. Because they were non-conforming to the acceptable "Christian" lifestyle, they sat in prison 19 years, innocent. The Satanic Theory convicted them. Evidence did not. John Douglas did a great job in exposing the use of community and prosecutorial theories. What this says to me is that the case was dependant on theories, and the person(s) who physically did this is/are still out there. Why wouldn't the DNA be in CODIS? The same reason that we aren't allowed to check out the parking lot for the 3 Missing Women - Spfd PD and City Counsel and prosecutors office.
Remember the book, "This Present Darkness"? Fighting the devil was the thing back then. Of coarse we are going to say it was satanic. I wish we could have the case revisited and profiled, as a cold case should be, so we can lay this horrible crime to rest.
I was in Feeney's chemistry class in the late 80's at Glendale. I remember when my mother called me and told me about the murders. The first words out of my mouth were "oh he did it."
I remember him talking about Cheryl trying to get pregnant, I remember him complaining about it in class. I remember him saying he didn't want children. The students would all refer to her as Shirley Feeney, because of Laverne and Shirley. We thought it was funny.
He was always flirting with the senior girls, trying to fit in, trying to be the cool teacher. But he was creep, he was inappropriate with female students, and smart enough to know how to stage a murder scene.
I had heard a rumor that Cheryl was killed on a waterbed and that the temperature was turned all the way up, possibly to mask time of death. If that is true, it would certainly be something that a chemistry teacher would know.
RIP Cheryl, Tyler and Jennifer.
To the ex gf that wants to continue to bring up the Church Jon attended!!! You know nothing about it or Jons family!! His parents were like my own grandparents growing up in that small Church of Christ who are still there and I'm 34 and guess what they have all loved me and helped me through the worse times!!! And it's always like that!!! We are not as you describe us telling all they will go to Hell etc.. I find it funny that it's ok for you or others to have beliefs such as a Gay Rights n Abortion but if someone says it's wrong that's discrimination.. But you and others can trash talk our beliefs even when you are clueless. I have a news flash for you .. You can raise your kids in a good home and they can turn out bad or make bad choices!!! Maybe you should write an article on the model citizen since your so perfect!!! The Church of Christ members believe in the bible which is Gods word and it's far from just rules of dos n donts.. It teaches love n compassion try reading it sometime.. I guess not believing in Musical Instruments in the worship service !! Not outside makes all of us Awful.. Lol and Oh we don't dance that must mean we all are cable of murder?? You are so uneducated.. You need to edit the post where it says you would just have to know Jon n his family.. To understand Bc You Sure Don't!!!!!!
I was also in his class at the time. I remember very clearly that (exactly as in the earlier comment) he started talking about his family nearly every single day and bringing in photos. I had never had a teacher do that before and it seemed strange, but he always seemed strange.
I imagined that he thought he had a dream job, because he could basically teach nothing, and then give easy 50 point multiple choice tests that everyone passed. He also graded on an extreme curve, throwing out the lowest grades before making the curve.
He definitey focused most of his attention on a few female students, but so did several other male teachers at that time in the same school, so I thought it was creepy, but not too unusual. The Cindy Crawford obsession was strange, but most kids just laughed about it.
The last class before the murders, he told the entire class, with way too much detail, exactly where he would be. He didn't just say he'd be away, he told us all exactly which resort and how far it was, and how his family would join him there. I'm sure the police got the same info from 100% of the students who were repeatedly interviewed. It was stranger than him showing all the photos of his kids in class leading up to that time.
Immediately when I heard about the murders, I thought he must have been planting an alibi.
I also immediately remembered my older sibling a few years before telling me how strange he was. I am positive that I had heard a quote from his class at dinner one night when my brother was in the class. He said that his teacher had said that small children didn't count as real people yet, which led to a short discussion. I asked my family members about it, and they didn't remember that at all, and hearsay is meaningless.
Maybe someone else who was in his class around 1992-1994 would actually remember him saying something like that.
So, as a student at the time, he seemed very creepy, very clever, and always wanting to take shortcuts.
I think, having family members in law at the time...he didn't physically do it...think he got someone to do it for him. I wish they would reopen the case with all the new advances in today's world...people there is a sick person out there not to mention the husband. I went to school with Cheryl and visited with her several times after graduation with her. This was one special woman. A nurse with so much compassion and love. A beautiful, loving mom. She deserves the truth to be known. Her poor father passed without ever seeing justice.