CAPTURED: Michael Townson

William Stauffer is going about his workday in Titusville, Florida. When his phone starts ringing, he's not expecting a call, but he answers anyway, and he's surprised to hear it's his girlfriend's daughters. Now, it's a little before 3pm on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007. So they should just be getting off the bus, where their mom, Sherry Carmen, normally waits for them. But while I'm not sure exactly who is on the other end of the call, he learns that Sherry wasn't there. Waiting for the girls today. And when they decided to just walk home by themselves, assuming she'd be there, she wasn't. Her car is missing, too, and there's not like a note or anything saying when she'll be back.

So he gets in contact with the girls, who pretty much tell him the same thing their mom isn't there now, even though this would immediately put me on high alert. William actually isn't that worried at this point. Because he had just spoken to Sherry on the phone a couple hours ago. It was around noon, and there was nothing about their conversation that made him worried. Jessica Gertler reported for WREG that Sherry told him she'd slept in and was getting a late start to her errands for the day. So William probably figures, you know, she's still out there somewhere. Couldn't make it back in time to meet the kids.

He thinks she'll probably be home soon, but he doesn't want the girls to be totally unsupervised while they wait for her. They're only 7 and 6, and their 10-year-old brother is still at school, so not really ages where he feels comfortable leaving them home alone. He tells them to go wait at the neighbor's and he'll get someone to come pick them up. William starts making calls, and it only takes a few minutes for him to get a hold of Sherry's father, who agrees to take the kids to his house. He also tries to call Sherry just in case, but she doesn't answer again. Though he's not panicked, by the time he gets home, she'll probably be there safe and sound.

He doesn't hear anything else from the kids or grandpa. So when he gets home between 6 and 7pm, he's expecting to just spend some time with Sherry and then crash for the night. But as soon as he pulls into the driveway, he realized that isn't going to happen, because Sherry's blue sedan is still nowhere in sight. He parks and walks into an eerily empty house, and when he calls her name, he gets no response. As he makes his way through the home, he finds a note. But it's from Sherry's grandpa, basically just saying the kids are with him and telling Sherry to call him when she gets home.

And William realizes she hasn't been home to see it. So he starts trying to call her again, as well as their friends and family, to see if maybe she's with someone else. But all his calls to her go unanswered, and friends and family all say the same thing No one has seen her. As he goes to the house, he makes his way to the primary bedroom, and that's where he finds Sherry's purse, as well as some of her prescription medication. And that's enough to take his worry up a notch. His first thought is maybe she's gotten hurt or was in an accident or something. It's the only explanation he can think of for why she's missing.

So he calls local hospitals, even the local jail, too, just in case, but no luck. But as he's trying to track her down, there's something else that sticks out to him. Sherry's not the only one missing from the house. One of her childhood friends, this guy named Michael Townsend, had been crashing with them since January 11th. That's five days ago. He'd gotten out of prison a few months ago after serving a 12-year sentence for some robberies he committed in the Orlando area. And he didn't have any income or a place to stay. So he'd reach out to Sherry and she'd open their home to him, no questions asked.

But as William's looking around the house, he doesn't see any of Michael's stuff. And I'm not sure if this is like a major red flag, or if he just assumes Michael had moved out and didn't tell anyone who knows. All his focus is on Sherry, so he gets in his car and spends the rest of the evening driving around town, looking for still nothing. Eventually, it starts getting pretty late, he's exhausted, so he ends up staying the night at a friend's place. Now. At first, this stuck out to me like you'd think that he'd want to be home in case Sherry turns up, right?

But the more I think about it, the more I kinda get it. I don't know exactly what he's thinking right now, but I can imagine that staying in that house alone, not knowing where your girlfriend is, I could see how he might need.

According to a homicide report from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. At one point during his search, William does come across the deputy and asks if he's seen a vehicle matching Sherry's car's description. But the deputy says no. And just tells him to contact the station if he needs help or to file a report, but he never does. The next morning, January 17th, he's back to his search and at about 10.30am, he heads back over to the house. This time, though, he's searching more thoroughly, going through each room for signs of sherry. And it's in the living room that he notices something he hadn't seen before. On the floor, under a loveseat, is a cell phone.

My source materials aren't consistent on who this belongs to, one article says It's Sherry's, but everything else is just super vague, although I think it is her cell phone. Because when William picks it up, he notices this sticky red substance on its surface, and it takes him a moment, but he realizes eventually it's stained with blood. And as he starts frantically tearing through the rest of the house, he notices this big pile of clothes. At the foot of a bed. And laying on top is a blood-stained sheet, he pulls the sheet off to get a closer look, uncovering a bloody cushion.

Now, if you're like me, you might be wondering, how the hell did he not see any of that yesterday? The only explanation I can come up with is that he just didn't notice it. And to be fair, in that report from the sheriff's office, Sherry's grandfather describes the home as messy. Which, yeah, three kids plus three adults living in the same house. Things are going to get messy. And it's not like he went in there looking for those items, he was looking for Sherry. I think everything else kind of became background noise.

By now, he's completely distraught, and he finally calls 911, and an officer from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office shows up that morning.

As soon as the officer pulls up, William rushes up to her patrol car, saying that something isn't right. The two go inside and it doesn't take her long to realize something horrible has happened in that house. In addition to all the blood, she spots a hammer and some unknown object that's later identified as a pipe, and both are covered in blood. It all points to one thing. So she and William head back outside and she waits for backup as they're waiting. He briefly fills her in on a few details, like the last time he talked to Sherry, the phone call he got at work and the fact that Michael's not there either.

He also insists there is no way Sherry would just up and leave, especially without her kids. Backup finally arrives, and by that afternoon, the house is swarming with people. Technicians from the crime scene unit, agents from the homicide unit, and Sherry and her car are entered into NCIC and FCIC as missing. But Michael's not, they're just focusing on Sherry right now and I think there could be a few reasons for.

They know this is out of the ordinary for Sherry, but it might not be for Michael. And on top of that, he's not even a permanent resident there at the house, anyway, they get William's permission to do a full search of the house. And in addition to everything I've already mentioned, the only thing that stands out is the laundry room because they can't get in, it's locked. William says there's a key, but he isn't sure where it is, so he goes ahead and just kicks the door open.

Inside, that report from the sheriff's office states that the only thing they see is a big pile of clothes stacked on the floor. No, sherry. It's really no question at this point, foul play is definitely involved. Investigators are getting ready to interview anyone they can, and they get their first interview pretty quickly. Because this random man just walks up to the house and says he used to stay there.

He says his name is Donald Hill and he's a friend of William's. He'd been crashing there since December and actually had just been kicked out a few days before. On the 12th, or possibly the early morning hours of the 13th. Because he says he saw Sherry and Michael in bed together. There was this whole argument over it, which ended with him leaving. But he'd been back since then. Once yesterday to get his wallet, which he'd left behind, and then he was coming back today to get the rest of his stuff. I'm not 100 sure what police's reaction is to this. But since Sherry's missing and they clearly didn't part on their best terms, I'd imagine their feelers are up pretty quickly.

But he says he hadn't seen or contacted Sherry since the day before, when he'd come over to grab his wallet. They don't have any reason to hold Donald, he's free to go, but he's not the only one they interview there. At the scene, police also chat with the neighbor that watched the girls before their great-grandfather came. He corroborates William's story. He says he got a call that the girls were home, but Sherry wasn't, so he watched them at their house while they waited.

And somehow, he didn't see anything either. Now, as all this is going on. Police bring William into the station for an interview and he gives them a bit more background on his and 29-year-old Sherry's relationship. He explains They've been together for three years and about a year ago the two moved into the house along with her three kids. And things had been going pretty well. He walks them through pretty much his last 24 hours, you know, getting the call that the kids were home. But Sherry wasn't getting home to find her still missing, seeing the blood the following day. And that's definitely odd. But I want to be clear that William isn't ever on police's radar as a suspect.

Based on everything I've gathered, I think he just really didn't register the blood until he went back to look for her. He goes on to explain that while his relationship with Sherry was solid, they had been having some problems with their recent houseguests. Just to recap, there was Donald, who'd been staying with them from sometime in December through January 13th, and Michael, who'd moved in on the 11th. But there was also a third man who was a friend of Michael's, named Stephen. Wayne Cox, who I've seen referred to as just Wayne Wayne, came to stay in the house with Michael on the 11th as well, but he didn't stay long.

By the 12th, he was kicked out because he'd been caught doing drugs in the house. However, that's not where their troubles with Wayne ended, though, because after he left, they realized he'd stolen some of Sherry's speakers. So Sherry and Michael went out to look for him. That same night, they couldn't find him. And when they got back, that's when the whole blowout fight happened. Because Donald had accused Sherry of cheating on William with Michael, Donald was kicked out and the next few days were pretty normal. Sherry and Michael were still trying to track down Wayne, but they didn't have any more issues until the 16th, when they disappeared.

And as all this is going on, a crime scene team starts processing the home. They meticulously go room by room, but they don't find anything significant until they get to that laundry room.

When suddenly, they see something that looks like human skin peeking out amongst all the fabric. And gently, they start removing the layers of clothing. Until finally, they completely uncover a woman's body. They're pretty sure it's Sherry, but they can't make a positive ID just by looking at her face, because she's been so severely beaten that she's unrecognizable. So they look around her body for other identifiable marks, and that's when they spot a small tattoo of a cross on her ankle. They snap a picture and go show it to her family, and, sure enough, they confirm that it's Sherry's tattoo.

This is a horrific discovery. The fact that multiple investigators and William looked at that pile of clothes and had no idea she was underneath is just shocking and terrible, but she was well-concealed. So there's no way they would have been able to tell, just by looking at it, that there was a whole person under there. Now that Sherry's been found and they believe she was murdered. Investigators talked to her three kids, as well as her grandfather, just to see if they saw anything suspicious in the house. And it turns out they'd been inside several times, but none of them saw Sherry.

According to that homicide report, her daughters say that when they got home, they saw the front door was open and the living room light and TV were on. When they didn't see their mom, they started calling around to family and friends. But while they were there alone, they noticed a few things that stood out, like what looked like blood on a tissue in the laundry room. And their brother, who got picked up from school later on, says the same thing. He noticed what he called blood dots on some napkins, and he also adds that he saw some blood on the living room couch.

Now I know what you're probably thinking. The laundry room door was locked, wasn't it? It turns out their great-grandfather had been the one to lock it. When he's interviewed, he tells investigators that he'd gotten the call from a family friend who notified him that the girls were at the house alone. After he talked to William, he went over to pick them up, and he also saw that tissue or napkin in the laundry room, but he thought it was tomato sauce.

He explains The door to the laundry room leads outside, like there's an interior door, the laundry room, and then another door that leads outside. He locked the interior door before they left, just as a precaution, basically. But that wasn't the only time that they were back in the house, he says. After he picked up Sherry's son, they all drove back to the house to get some clothes so they could stay at his place overnight. Then they went back again the next morning before school.

And when I was prepping for this episode, I was just devastated by thinking about these kids. I mean, 10, 7, 6. In the house. Looking for their mom, even being in that laundry while her body was right there. It's just chilling. At this point, investigators know they need to track down Michael. Sherry's car is still missing, so they're thinking, missing car, missing man seems like a pretty good place to start. They pour all their efforts into trying to track him down, but they cannot seem to find him. And if he's got Sherry's car, that gives him about a 24-hour head start. I mean, he could be long gone by now.

So investigators expand their search and send Sherry's vehicle info to law enforcement agencies across the region. But even at this point, Michael is being treated as a witness, not a suspect. It takes a bit. But at 5.30am on the 18th, they get a call to contact the Orlando Police Department about an hour away. And when they do, they're told Sherry's car has been found. To their surprise, though Michael wasn't driving. It was this couple.

According to the police report, one of them tells police a friend introduced him to some guy who was letting him borrow his car in exchange for drugs. This guy hung out for a bit and eventually let the couple use the car too for another trade. Police are pretty sure the guy the couple's referring to is Michael, so they ask, Do you know where we can find him and get this? The couple says, Well, yeah, he's at our house. Because apparently, after their friend drove away in his car, they just let him hang out.

So investigators head out to find him, and when they do, they find him hanging out like nothing's wrong. They ask him a few questions and he agrees to go back to Brevard County with investigators. If they'll get him some food, it's kind of unsettling. But police agree to his request and take him through a fast food drive-thru. And by the time they pull into the parking lot of the precinct, Michael is saying he's innocent. He actually breaks down in tears and says he wasn't the one who killed Sherry, but he did witness her murder. When they go in and actually sit down for an interview, Michael elaborates.

He says it was around 1pm on the 16th and he'd come back to the home to find Donald standing over. Sherry, with a fence post pipe in his hand. According to that police report from Brevard County. Michael says that when he saw what was happening, he got scared and ran before Donald could take his anger out on him next. So he hopped in Sherry's car and took off. He says. He was so shaken up that he went out searching for drugs to calm his nerves. Eventually, he met that couple and traded Sherry's car.

Now it's a flimsy story. But in order to cross their T's and dot their I's, they check back in with Donald, who they find at a court-ordered rehab appointment. They bring him in and pretty much right away he's like, Yeah, I didn't do it, and I can prove I didn't. Donald has an airtight alibi. He stopped by Sherry and William's house at 7.30am to get his wallet, which William can verify, and then went to a rehab appointment. He was there for a few hours and then was picked up by a relative and spent the rest of the day and night at his parents house.

And sure enough, when they check in with the rehab facility and his family, they all cooperate. His story, and just to be super sure, they also have him take a voice stress test, which we all know is complete pseudoscience. But he passes, so investigators go back to Michael and are like, Okay, so that guy had an alibi, wanna tell us the truth, but he sticks to his story. At this point, everyone knows that everything coming out of Michael's mouth is bogus, and since he actually violated his parole, he's placed under arrest.

At this point, while he's in custody, he also submits to a polygraph, but according to the test results, he fails. On the questions, Did you cause any injuries to Sherry? and did you kill Sherry? So investigators keep grilling him, and finally, toward the end of the day, on the 19th, he confesses. It takes hours for investigators to draw the full story out of Michael, but eventually they have a clear picture of what happened, at least a clear picture, according to Michael.

Michael left Sherry's house with her around 1pm on the 16th, just hanging out on the couch while she talked on the phone with a friend. And when she got off the phone, she informed Michael that she'd given him HIV. Now I can't confirm whether or not they were sleeping together. And before we get any further, I also want to clarify that. Some of my source materials claim that Sherry's autopsy report later revealed that she wasn't HIV positive. So, with nothing besides his own word to back him up, I'm not putting much stock in Michael's claim, but anyway, Michael says that, even though this is a serious conversation, Sherry had laughed it off, and her casualness made him quote snap. So, in retaliation to the news, he'd beat Sherry with a fence post pipe for what felt like an hour. Then wrapped part of her body in a blanket before he blacked out. The next thing, he knew he was driving her car just outside of Orlando, covered in blood.

He'd used a water bottle to clean off his face and then went about scoring some drugs. After he's done confessing, he changes his story again. This time, he says it was Wayne who came back to the house and killed Sherry. But investigators aren't buying it, and he's charged with first-degree murder. But as his case makes its way through the legal system, his story on why he killed Sherry changes a few times. Including one where he accuses her of possessing and selling child sexual abuse material of her own children, by the way, and trafficking them as well. But police never find any evidence of this. On March 13, 2008, Michael pleads guilty as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty and is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

And with that, it seems like this case is closed. Michael's never getting out. Sherry's family can at least rest easy knowing the monster who took her from them can't hurt anyone else. But there's still more to this story because, over a decade later, Michael asks to meet with investigative reporters at the Sumter Correctional Institution, where he's serving his life sentence. He says he has information about some other crimes, so they go meet with him, but nothing could have ever prepared them for what Michael says next.

Michael says that he'd committed several murders in the Mid-South throughout the late 80s and early 90s, and it all began back in 1988.

His struggle with substance abuse was at its peak when he ran into a woman who was also looking to do drugs, according to more reporting. By Jessica Gertler. For WREG. They purchased drugs and then started fooling around near a park in Orlando when something in him quote just snapped and he blacked out. The next thing he remembered was sitting next to the woman's dead body, apparently having beaten her to death. I know the term snapped is kind of a trope in the true crime world, but Michael actually tries to explain this switch that flips inside him.

He doesn't know exactly what triggers it, but says he thinks it has something to do with the abuse he experienced as a child. He tells investigators that his parents also struggled with substance use disorder and that his stepfather physically and sexually abused him. He says he doesn't remember this first woman's name, but he says he booked it out of the city that very same day. And this kind of kickstarted a twisted road trip throughout Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and South Carolina, in each state. He'd commit crimes, usually robberies and burglaries, to fund his drug habit. He'd find a woman to share his drugs with, and then he'd kill her.

In addition to Sherry and the woman in Orlando, he'd probably killed at least seven others. And while he didn't remember most of them, there are two who stick out in his mind. One is a woman named Aline Michelle Branch, whom he met in downtown Memphis in December 1993. The second is another woman in Memphis from around the same time. But he didn't remember much of anything about her other than she was black and had green eyes, though he's not sure if she was wearing contacts that maybe tinted her eye color.

And investigators are wondering, why now? Why confess now when you're already serving a life sentence? And Michael has an answer? He basically tells Jessica Gertler, who's reporting we've used as source material for this episode. Quote "...I really have nothing to lose. What are they going to do?

Give me another life sentence.

End quote At first, it really sounds like he's just bored and wants attention. He even starts contacting reporters to try to tell his story. And while most don't give him the time of day, Jessica Gertler actually does sit down with him. Now. Police aren't present for the interview, but Jessica later relays them. The story Michael told her. Shortly after those murders in Memphis, he'd beaten a woman in a cemetery in Rosedale, Mississippi, after she allegedly tried to rob him.

So Jessica and her team start working on trying to match that story to a murder that fits the timeline and location. And it seems like Michael might have been telling the truth all along. Because, according to an article Jessica writes, after the interview, they find a case that matches. In 1993, a 22-year-old woman named Patrice Horsley was murdered. Everything from her cause of death to the location where she was found is exactly as he described it. And so investigators in Rosedale, Memphis and the other locations Michael mentioned. Start to take a closer look into some of his confessions, because maybe, just maybe he's telling the truth.

But some, like the Memphis PD, can't ID all. His victims and others tell investigators in Florida they just don't see the point in charging Michael. He's already behind bars for life. Thankfully, though, at least when it comes to Aline's murder, Memphis PD closed her case by exceptional means. Which basically means they can't arrest or charge someone for a crime for some reason, but they have enough to bring charges against them. So in this case, they know for a fact that Michael killed her. But since he's already serving a life sentence, they aren't going to pursue additional charges. Then, in 2020, Michael is transferred to the Tomoka Correctional Institution. And that's where he makes another request he wants to talk to investigators from the Daytona Beach Police Department.

Michael tells them that on or around October 11, 1991, he'd killed another woman. She was white, in her 40s, and only a tad shorter than his 5'11 frame. She had curly brown hair, and he'd met her at a bar just off the International Speedway Boulevard. He didn't remember her last name, but he was certain her first name was Linda. As soon as Michael says her name, investigators hearts sink because they know exactly who he's talking about.

Linda Little was 43 years old when she disappeared on her way home from work in Daytona Beach on October 11, 1991.

She was white, had curly brown hair and stood at either 5'10 or 5'11, depending on the source. You read back in 1991, investigators had been notified of Linda's disappearance three days after she was last seen. They had been able to track her bike from the restaurant she worked at to a bar along the very same street where Michael says he met her. Linda worked the late shift and didn't get off till about 1 a.m, so it wasn't unusual.

I don't know when she left the bar, but the next time someone saw Linda, she was riding her bike past a nearby 7-eleven around 4 a.

M. Her co-workers eventually contacted 911 when they couldn't get a hold of her, according to an article by Chris Graham for the Daytona Beach News Journal. Despite land and water searches, interviews, and more than 3,500 flyers hung around town by her family, the initial investigation never stirred up any viable leads. Both Linda and her bike were never found. And even though her sister and adult son swore, she just would not up and leave on her own personal accord. Police at the time concluded that foul play wasn't involved. But now investigators are both shocked and relieved to hear they might finally solve Linda's case.

But they aren't just taking Michael's confession at face value, they really want to dig into this claim and make sure it's true before they notify her family. Here's Michael for more information. And he says that even though he lived in Orlando at the time, he liked to make the trip to Daytona Beach for weekend getaways. Especially on his birthday, which happened to be the day after Linda was last seen. And he says he and Linda were leaving the bar in his car, presumably to him at least to go have sex when he suggested that Linda shower first. She allegedly freaked out and was yelling at him. And for whatever reason, he quote.

He says that he backhanded Linda and then choked her to death. Then he kept driving and made the two-hour journey to the Georgia border, where he pulled off the interstate and dumped her body behind a dumpster in a rural area. I couldn't find out what happened to her bike, or even if Michael offered up some sort of explanation for that, but I do know that. They immediately started trying to find Linda's body in Georgia. The WFTV Orlando News staff reports that they do multiple checks for Jane Doe's in the corresponding county, but they don't find any matches. Meanwhile, other investigators go back to the prison and show Michael a picture of Linda and ask if he knows this woman. And he says he has no doubt that she's the woman he killed back in 1991..

Over the next two years, investigators continue building a case around Michael's confession. They never make any evidence public, nor do they ever find Linda's body. But I guess they have enough to move forward. Because on October 24, 2022, they charge him with first-degree murder, and two months later, he's given another life sentence. Other than Aline's murder, none have been officially solved. In fact, most of his alleged victims haven't even been identified. But that's not for lack of trying. Officers in Memphis do a lot to try and ID. The second victim, Michael confessed to. They just don't have much luck.

Investigators in Florida are convinced that Michael is a serial killer. They just can't call him that officially. But he could have other victims out there and their families deserve just as much justice as Linda, Sherry and Aline's. So crime junkies, it's up to you. Memphis PD is still trying to identify the other woman Michael says he murdered in the winter of 1993. So, if you have any information about a Black woman who may have had green eyes who went missing from downtown Memphis, call the MPD's Homicide Bureau at 901-636-3300. And if you have any information on the whereabouts of Linda Little's body, please contact the Daytona Beach PD and submit an anonymous tip by texting DBTips Plus Your Tip to 274-637..

You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.

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