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cover of episode Mind of a Killer: Thayne Ormsby, Part Two

Mind of a Killer: Thayne Ormsby, Part Two

2021/1/12
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Murder, She Told

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叙述者:本集讲述了2011年Maine州Amity镇发生的Thayne Ormsby三重谋杀案。Thayne Ormsby杀害了Jeff Ryan、他的朋友Jason以及Jeff Ryan的10岁儿子Jesse。本集通过警方问询记录和证词,深入探讨了Ormsby的作案动机和心理。Ormsby将自己定位为一个“刺客”,声称他的目标是除掉“邪恶”,而Jeff Ryan正是他眼中的“邪恶”。然而,他的行为也杀害了无辜的Jason和Jesse。Ormsby的童年经历充满创伤,这可能导致了他的精神疾病和扭曲的世界观。最终,Ormsby被判处三项一级谋杀罪,终身监禁。 Thayne Ormsby:我杀害了Jeff Ryan,因为我认为他是一个坏人,他伤害了很多人,包括我认识的Mariah。我把自己看作一个刺客,执行一项正义的使命。我承认杀害了Jason和Jesse,因为他们是目击者,我必须消除他们。我并不后悔我的行为,我认为我做了一件正确的事情。我的童年经历很糟糕,我受到了虐待和忽视,这影响了我的心理健康。 侦探Keegan & Stoudemire:我们一开始怀疑Ormsby是凶手,因为他对案情的描述前后矛盾,并且他的DNA和指纹在犯罪现场被发现。在长时间的审讯过程中,我们逐渐揭露了他的谎言,并最终让他承认了自己的罪行。Ormsby的作案手法非常熟练,这让我们感到震惊。虽然他声称自己是为了正义,但他的行为是残忍和不可原谅的。 Dr. Catherine Thomas:我认为Ormsby患有精神疾病,他与现实脱节,不应为他的行为负责。他的童年创伤和精神疾病导致了他扭曲的世界观和妄想症。他认为自己是一个刺客,执行一项正义的使命,这是一种妄想。 其他证人:Robert Strout作为Ormsby的室友,向Ormsby讲述了Jeff Ryan的负面信息,这可能加剧了Ormsby的杀意。

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Thayne Ormsby is interrogated by detectives after the brutal murders of a father, his best friend, and his son. He attempts to mislead the police about his involvement, showcasing his manipulative and deceptive nature.

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You can connect with me and suggest your hometown crime at MurderSheTold.com and follow me on Instagram at MurderSheToldPodcast. You're listening to part two of Mind of a Killer, Thane Ormsby. If you haven't listened to part one, I suggest going back and starting with that one first. This episode is a little more explicit in nature and includes confession tapes with graphic details of the crimes. I advise you to please listen with care.

20-year-old Thane Ormsby sat uncomfortably in a chair, cornered in a stark white room that smelled of dry-erase markers and coffee. There were no windows in the room, and the old fluorescent lights made everyone's skin look awful. He tried to appear comfortable and casual. He had no reason to be nervous. He happened to be in the area at the time of the murders and was just here to help detectives find the killer, a noble thing to do.

Two weeks prior to this moment, somebody brutally stabbed three people in a small town in northeast Maine, killing a father, his best friend, and his 10-year-old son. What kind of a monster would do such a thing? Who could murder a child? He knew one thing was for sure. This killer was never going to get caught.

He knew that because he was the killer. An assassin who was stealthy and quick on his feet. A killer who covered his tracks. A vigilante who was combating evil in the world. Sure, two innocent people may have gotten caught in the mix, but that was the price to be paid for completing such an important mission.

His next mission was to make the police believe the killer was still out there, to provide them with everything he might know to help them catch the guy, so that he could go home, take the edge off with a beer, and put this misunderstanding behind him. The detectives told Thane he wasn't under arrest. He was just there to talk, and went through the motions to make sure he understood that. Thane grabbed his chest and smiled, feigning shock.

"Yes, I understand I'm not under arrest. I'd be a bit shocked to tell you the truth, if I was." The detectives played along and laughed with him. They, too, would be shocked. "Well, I'm here to cooperate," Thane said confidently. Detective Dale Keegan knew he was looking into the eyes of a killer, but he didn't want to believe it. This scrawny, shaggy-haired kid sitting in front of him.

How could such a seemingly normal-looking young man be capable of such a violent and heinous crime? But his gut told him he was hiding something. The question was, how to get it out of him. His confidence was laced with the superficial charm of somebody twice his age, but his blind spot was that because of this, he didn't seem to think the detectives were onto him. "'What type of person do you think would do this?' Keegan asked Thane."

I haven't given it much thought, but, I mean, cold, greedy, heartless. Somebody with no love for life, with no love for things that grow, Thane responded. Keegan knew Thane would slip up, and they would be ready for it, so they let him do the talking. Thane loved to talk about anything other than what he was there for, going off on tangents about J.R.R. Tolkien and The Hobbit, which was his favorite book.

He even spoke in different voices, making comments about his favorite characters in The Voice of a Hobbit and tried to get the detectives to joke along with him. They played along with his fantasy tangents, to a point. But it was time to cut the shit. So tell me about Jeff Ryan. When was the first time you met him? The room went silent. For a split second, you could cut it with a knife before Thane jumped in and tried to take control, covering up the silence with more talk.

He said that Jeff came over to Robert Strout's house, a neighbor who Thane was staying with at the time, and that was when he first was introduced to Jeff. It was a casual introduction. An exchange about possible work was made that hung in the air for a future interaction.

But Thane had already told the detectives that he'd only met Jeff once, when he went to Jeff's house and had a beer two weeks before the murders. So they asked him for clarification. And Thane can't seem to keep his story straight. How long were you there, you think? Half hour. And he had already showed you around the place before this, you said? Should be, so I'm saying. Before this visit? Before this visit. No, this is the visit. And we're only...

There was at least two visits that you said the first time, the very first time you met him, you went down and had a beer. Then you said, I asked you if it was the second or third visit that this happened and you said it was the second visit. I'll be straightforward because there's no reason I can't. I appreciate that.

There are only two occasions I've met Jeff. The one where he comes down to the house. Right. And I combine those two occasions with one. A week later, I come back. And you're on your bike this time? And I'm on my bike this time. I come in and I have a beer with him. And he shows me around the house. During that visit? Yeah. During that visit. And that's the only visit, though, that I've made to Jeff. No. You said the first time. He visited me and I visited him. The same occasion? Yeah.

You said the very first time he met you, you asked him to get a job and stuff. He said, come on. Two different occasions. I combined the two in one, just to be simple. Each time you were here. How many times you're at this house? Once. Once. I've only been there once. I've been to his house once. And this time here, he shows you around. And he shows me around. So the first time you said you went there after you met that very first time you met him. I said, but really that was the week later, just to be simple.

The coroner Thayne sat in started to feel smaller by the second.

He needed to get these detectives off his back and make them realize they were barking up the wrong tree. Detective Keegan asked Thane to draw the layout of the trailer to the best of his knowledge on the whiteboard behind him. Thane said Jeff had quickly shown him around the house and they wanted to see exactly where he'd been and also see if Thane would lead them to the correct rooms where his DNA may have been found.

Thane said that he'd only been to Jeff's house once, and added that he'd only been inside for about 10 minutes. But the drawing Thane did of the interior layout of Jeff's trailer was strangely accurate, something that was curious to detectives Keegan and Stoudemire. When you say he showed you the house, did you go through the house? Did you take your room by room, or did you just stay at home? Did you go down in here? No. How do you know it was a bathroom there? You drew that. You drew that because I asked.

I asked him where the bathroom was. Did you go to the bathroom? No. Why not? I didn't have to go to the bathroom. Why didn't you ask where the bathroom was? In case I needed to go to the bathroom. You're kidding me. You said, where's the bathroom? I asked him inside and outside. He said, the bathroom's down the hall. And he said, well, where's the bathroom? You mean, you and I have to get him out for a couple of minutes. You wanted to look at him for 10 minutes, you said. Why would you ask him in 10 minutes, hey, where's the bathroom?

Down the hall, you know, you've been with us now for over a couple hours here, you never once asked that question. Our conversations wandered. Yeah, you're there for 10 minutes, you asked where the bathroom is, he told you and you didn't go. I mean, I was, okay. So you've never ever been down that hallway. So there's no way in hell that your DNA is going to be down in this area anywhere. Yeah. Is what you're telling me. That's what I'm saying. All right. And there's no way in hell that your DNA is going to be back in here anywhere. Mm-hmm.

So this event here where you were inside was about a week before this murder happened? Maybe two. Maybe two weeks. Never met Jason? Never met Jason, you mean. Well, now we have a problem. Inside the trailer, police had found recently used beer bottles, all sitting together on the kitchen counter with three separate DNA profiles. One belonged to Jeff, one belonged to Jason, and the other was an unknown male profile with fingerprints on the bottle.

In Thane's initial interview with police, he voluntarily submitted his DNA and fingerprints for analysis. Both the prints and the DNA were a match to the third bottle. Police had found their unknown male profile,

But why was Thane's beer bottle still sitting out next to Jason and Jeff's if he'd never met Jason before and he was there at least two weeks before the murders? Now, you only had one beer in that house, you said? One beer. And it was a Budweiser bottle? Budweiser bottle. And you said to me the other day, you drank it all? Yeah. Okay. What happened then, after you drank that beer? I told you I left it on the counter in the sink. I don't recall.

You left it in the counter or in the sink? On the counter or in the sink. On the counter or in the sink. Okay. I know you told me that, but is that what you really did? Yes. Okay. You smoke. Do you have any smokes in the house? Smoke. Cigarettes. Cigarettes. Do you smoke any cigarettes in the house? In his house? In Jeff's house. I smoked one of his cigarettes. What type of cigarette was it? A rolling cigarette. Do you have a brand? No.

I don't know. What type of tobacco or what was it? - No, it was filter, what type of filter was it? Was it brown filter, white filter? - It must have been a brown filter. - If I told you it was white, would that screw you up?

Thayne didn't know that they'd connected his DNA to the crime scene from both the beer bottle and freshly smoked cigarettes. Cigarettes that looked exactly like the ones Thayne had shown them a few days prior. It was going to take a lot of verbal gymnastics to get out of this one.

Keegan showed Thane a photo of the bottles, pointing out who they belonged to, and said that his problem was that one of them belonged to Jason, who Thane had never met. And both Thane and the detectives knew there was no way that bottle had sat there for two weeks without being cleaned up. Keegan asked for an explanation of why Thane's bottle was there at the time of the murder.

"I know everything," Detective Keegan said. "And this is the dance we're doing, that you know that I know everything." Keegan reined the focus back to the timeline. What happened outside? What happened in the shed? So, we have a smoke. Something goes terribly wrong. Jeff comes outside, we think. Something happened right down this area, outside. We went outside and came over here by the garden. Nice smoke to join. Down here by the garden area?

I'm sorry? I smoked a joint with Jason. You smoked a joint with Jason. Okay. And Jeff didn't smoke. Still not in all the boys area. Yeah. Okay. So you smoked a joint down in this area. I just got a joint there with Jason. Like I said, I asked Jeff about work and we were talking about carpentry and all sorts of different things and he said he had some nails for me and that's why you have my prints towards the shed. My bad. Towards the shed. He was trying to show me. Where's the sheds?

Where are the sheds? When were you out there by the sheds? That night. Tuesday night, in the Wednesday morning. Tuesday. It was Tuesday night, yeah. I was home shortly thereafter. That's true.

I know you want the truth, but I'm going to have to keep the business. Does that mean you want to stop talking? For a minute. I'm going to get another coffee. I'm going to take a cigarette, and if you could bring me a joint, maybe. Here's what we're going to do. I'm honest. Here's what we're going to do. I appreciate you being honest. I appreciate that a lot. I want you to...

We'll get you a cup of coffee. We'll give you a piss break. If you want some food, we can make that happen. I'm hungry too. I cannot get you a joint. They kind of frown on that. Okay, and I cannot get you a beer. Trust me, I want a beer. I don't want a beer. I do. I do want a joint. As Thane sat on the picnic table outside the precinct smoking his cigarette, his mind was spinning in circles. How did it come to this? He thought the cigarette would calm his shaking, but it didn't seem to be doing the trick.

Detective Stoudemire noticed the change in Thane's behavior. He seemed emotional and tried to hide his misty eyes. He pointed out Thane's singed eyelashes and told him that he knew he was involved with the arson. Stoudemire knew of Thane's desire to be a Marine and tried to appeal to his sense of duty. But perhaps what he really tapped into was Thane's longing for a father figure to tell him right from wrong.

For the first time, he felt overcome by emotion. Not over the crime he committed, but over the possibility of facing yet another failure. He knew he was caught. It was this moment when Thane's facade began to melt, and he decided that it was time to tell the truth. This is the first time I've cried. Yeah. Let it out. It's a lot to absorb, buddy. It's a lot to process. You're right.

The detectives went back to where they last believed that Thane was telling the truth. What happened? You're on your pedal bike? Okay.

What happened? Everything was going fine, to tell you the truth. And I did see Jesse, and Jesse was in the living room. He was playing video games, and we were just mildly introduced. And we had a beer and everything, like I said. You know, he was nice to me, which makes it strange. Right. But I did have it out for him. You did? Yes. When did it turn from everything going fine to not so much?

Did he say something to you? I... No. No? Did he have to? No. No. Where you found him? Where you found my prints. My DNA in the shed where you were showing me nails. He was out there to show you some nails or something. And he bent over to get you the nails. What happened?

I think you know what happened. I like to hear from you. I have theories, but I like to hear your side of the thing. I know what happened. I want to see if you can tell me what happened. If I can tell you what happened, I killed him. You killed Jeff. And how did you do that? With a knife. So he was bent over? No. Back to you. He was back to you. And you stabbed him in the back? I'm asking. Yeah.

Okay, and where did you get the knife? It was my own. Okay, there was a bayonet type knife? Large. Large knife. And that's the one you keep sharpening off on, right? And you brought that with you because you always wear it. I knew you knew that much, yeah. So... But I knew that. He's outside. Okay, he's out there by the shed. And Jason's in the house?

Jason and the boy are in the house? Yeah, Jason and Jesse are in the house. Jason sat down next to Jesse on the couch. Right. And you guys are outside. And you're thinking, now it's time. So like I said, everything was going fine. And we were talking about, I had been talking about spending the winter in the forest. Just camping out. In the forest, you said? Yeah, building a hut. Sure. And he said, oh, I got nails. So he took me to the shed to show me nails. And I stabbed him in the back.

He never said anything to you? He was just trying to help me. Okay. How many times did you stab him, do you think? Those are questions I don't know the answer to. Are you saying one or a hundred? I mean... Multiple. Multiple times? Okay. Obviously more than one. Okay. So you stabbed him and does he fight you back? Momentarily, but I didn't want it to be a prolonged thing. I wanted it to be as quick as possible and unfortunately...

His primary target was now lying dead in the grass at his feet. But Thane had no time to revel in this moment. He had to eliminate the witnesses.

So you kill him outside. Do you hide him at this point or do you go take care of the other two? I go. Okay. What happens then? You have a lot of blood on you at this point. Okay. And then what do you do? You come around up the stairs in the house? At this point, I'm in a mode. I'm scared and I have to finish what I started. Mm-hmm. In my mind, it was a job. It was like a hit to me. Mm-hmm.

and they were on the couch. I started with Jason, but Jesse ran to the back room. Okay. Now Jesse, was he sitting on the couch the first time you stabbed him, I'm assuming? I'm asking? Yes. You stabbed him? Yes. And does he stand up? He ran. I stabbed Jason. They were sitting side by side. Jesse ran to the back room. I thought Jason was done. You thought Jason was done? I didn't think he was going anywhere.

With Jason incapacitated in the living room, Thane turned his attention to Jeff's son, Jesse, a 10-year-old boy who was now hiding in the back bedroom. So I chased Jesse. He was the quickest. He just said he was scared. The families don't need to know that. No, we do.

Jesse was kneeling on the floor in the corner of the room, curled up in a ball with his head between his knees, hoping his hands would protect him. Thane stood over him, knife in hand, watching his tiny back heave in and out from crying. He knew this moment from his own past, of trying to hide and wishing to be invisible, hoping that if you close your eyes tight enough, the monster in the room would disappear.

For a moment, he hesitated, realizing the gravity of the crime he was committing. But he was an assassin on a secret mission, steadfast in his resolve. And failure was not an option. When he returned to the living room to start the cleanup, he was shocked to find it empty.

Jason wasn't done. He wasn't down. He got up and he ran outside and he ran down the road and I chased him down the road and that's why he was in the ditch. And he, I did pull into the ditch because I wasn't going to leave him in the road. He what, I'm sorry? You pulled him into the ditch? Yes. Okay. And does he say anything to you? Does he try to get away from you? Yeah, he didn't understand because obviously I just met him and there was no reason to him. You really only met him the very first time? It was really the first time I met him. Yeah.

And you're stabbing him. I mean, he didn't understand. And did you do something else besides stab him? I cut his throat. How many times did you cut his throat? Two, maybe three slashes. Two, maybe three slashes. And it's obviously something I had never done before. It was just... What did you do from there? I made my round waist mount promise. I ran around the back of the building, front of the building. I went inside. Where did you see it? I took a look and picked up whatever I had dropped. I lost...

- Bracelet of the struggle. - You found it? - I found it and I had lost a hat and I had found it. I knew I had the beer bottle and I thought I took the beer bottle, to be honest with you. I thought I put it in the back of the truck. If you look where you found the truck, you'll find the beer bottle I found was mine. I threw my bike in the back of the truck. I went around and tried to wipe off any evidence. - Yeah. - You wiped off the same? - I found that washcloth that you found on the table.

And I, yeah, I washed off in the sink. The crime was solved. The killer, in gruesome detail and surprising candor, told detectives exactly what had transpired. Obviously, this is premeditated murder. That's the term you use for it. I don't know. Yes, it is. Did you go there to plan to kill him? Yes. You did? Okay. How long before this were you planning this? It was really kind of a new revelation.

Were you planning it for days, weeks? When did you start planning this? Maybe days. You planned it for days? I thought about it. I thought about it. Consider it. Consider it. All right. So when it comes time that day, when you were planning it? I want to go back to explaining what my plan was. What is your plan? My plan was to kill Jeff Ryan, take his vehicle, and leave no witnesses and evidence.

Unfortunately, Jason was there. Unfortunately, Jason and Jesse were there. Why did Thane go through with it when he saw that there were two innocent bystanders? Why not come back another day? Detectives understood the details, but they were stunned that this 20-year-old kid had acted alone and had managed to kill three people armed with only a knife. Have you ever killed before? No. I have to ask you.

And one of the reasons I ask, you're very proficient in what you did. Where did you learn this? That's just it. That's another thing we're curious about. Did you learn how to do this from any military training, martial arts training, TV, movies, videos, video games? The way you said it was very proficient. Self-knowledge.

I mean, it was my first time ever having anybody really. I've never even shot a deer. I've never even shot a deer. I mean, I've cleaned a deer. I've cleaned a skunk. I really barely hunted. But it was just mental focus. And I've studied things that I shouldn't have studied and know things that I shouldn't have studied. And in my mind, we have the concept of hashishin. And what a hashishin is, is where we get the derivative of the word assassin.

So you're studying the Shishuns? I've learned about this, but the concept in my mind was just such an impressive thing. And I'll tell you why. The story goes that, I forget which emperor, but one of the Eastern Roman emperors, Byzantine emperors, he amasses this large army to come take this place. And the old man on the mountain has his Shishuns, his trained assassins, their Islamic people.

And we're, you know, the stories of them were just ridiculous. But what happens is he comes to siege the fortress and the night he comes to siege he sends his Ashishans out and they make it all the way into the emperor's tent. They don't kill him with a dagger, they leave a note on his bedpost saying that if you don't get the fuck out of here and move your army, we're gonna kill you. And he was so impressed that they made it there without getting caught.

That, the next day, he packed up camp and left. What a remarkable story. This small group of highly skilled assassins were able to shape the course of history with their skill. It captured Thane's imagination and filled a void within him with a sense of purpose and duty. This fantasy of himself as an assassin on a noble mission laid dormant in his mind until he was confronted with an evil that spurred him into action.

So who was this villain in Thane's fictional story? I'll tell you what I know about Jeff Ryan. You thought that he was a drug dealer. I know he wasn't doing much now, but I know he used to. And I know he hurt Mariah. He hurt Mariah. And he hurt Craig. And he hurt Craig. And he hurt a lot of people. A lot of people.

And I don't believe in what he does, because I don't believe in, I mean, yeah, I smoke weed, but I don't believe in drugs. Right. And drugs are a big part of your amistad with your mom. It seems like everyone, everyone I know. But Thane had only lived in Amity for three weeks. How could he develop such strong feelings against a man he hardly knew?

How did he know anything about Jeff Ryan? Well, he lived with one of Jeff Ryan's biggest detractors, Bob Strout. When Thane had moved to Amity, he lived with Bob and grew close to him quickly. Bob was a father figure that Thane was constantly seeking in his life. He told him stories of combat and the people he killed in the Vietnam War. Bob felt Thane's admiration and respect and opened up to Thane about his feelings about Jeff Ryan.

He told Thane about Jeff's involvement with drugs and his neglect for his daughter and Bob's granddaughter, Mariah, a 16-year-old girl whom Thane had feelings for. When Thane heard about Jeff's involvement with drugs, it struck a chord. Everyone in Thane's life who had hurt him had been involved with drugs, going back to his abusive mother and her partner, as well as his absent father, who he believed was a drug dealer. Thane said, quote, "'Even though I never met him, he's a part of my life.'

He's the reason I'm missing parts of my life." Jeff Ryan was a symbol of his childhood pain, and 20-year-old Thane was now in a position to do something about it. Armed with a K-Bar combat knife and a mission, he was ridding the world of evil and confronting the demons of his past. And my idea is to kill Jeff Ryan, take his truck, and kill Alvin Sillsby because I... They were bad people and they hurt people, and I didn't...

And I thought it was some means of justification. I thought something could grow from taking away them. This is the first time we learn that Jeff Ryan was only one of two intended targets. The other was Alvin Silsby, another bad man who was a drug dealer, or so Thayne thought. Thayne's beliefs about Jeff Ryan and Alvin Silsby being drug dealers were never substantiated by the police.

Thane's notion of destruction as a force for good is not entirely misplaced. In art, we often destroy things to create fertile conditions for new growth. But this man who he killed was widely admired for the care and attention that he gave his young son. And how could he justify the killing of two innocent witnesses? What could possibly grow from two senseless deaths?

It only took the jury three hours to deliberate and find Thane guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. It was obvious that he had committed murder, but where did Thane belong? In a prison or in a mental institution? Thane told police during his interview that he believed he was "ordained to rid the world of evil." So, was Thane a cold-blooded vigilante killer? Or was he criminally insane?

Dr. Catherine Thomas, a clinical psychologist and expert witness, testified on behalf of the defense that Thane was out of touch with reality and therefore shouldn't be held responsible for his criminal actions. She said that he believed he was ridding the world of a bad man and that killing Jeff would transform him into a credible assassin.

She saw him as a mentally unstable kid with delusions of grandeur, and she believed that he shouldn't be held to the same judicial standard as other criminals. The prosecution, however, argued that although Thane had some bizarre beliefs and displayed symptoms of mental illness from his history with childhood trauma and depression, he was not criminally insane.

They contended that he knew exactly what he was doing and had tried to cover it up by eliminating witnesses. He had proven that he was capable of rational thought by throwing out the murder weapon and concealing evidence linking him to the crime scene.

Thane Ormsby had a choice, even in the moment he had a choice, and he made it. He could have aborted his mission at any time, especially knowing that just inside the house were two people who weren't part of his initial plan. But he went ahead anyway, knowing that meant taking the life of a child and an innocent man. But did he make that choice alone? Or was he influenced by someone else? People still question whether or not Thane acted alone in the murders.

A year before Thane's trials, Robert Strout was convicted as an accessory to arson and for discarding evidence. But we'll never know about his involvement beyond that. Strout has since passed away, and if he did orchestrate this, Thane is still protecting him. You know, best possible outcome, that good things could grow where evil was destroyed.

You might not see it like that, but it's quite possible that these families will now be coming closer, much stronger where they weren't. That maybe those children might be better growing up without their father. As for the boy, he's so young. From what I understand, he too was well on his way to Tom's to be born. As for me, I have a feeling what's going to happen is I'm either going to die in prison or be committed to a death sentence.

Thane Michael Ormsby is inmate number 101543 at the Maine State Prison in Thomaston, where he will spend the rest of his life. The state of Maine doesn't have the death penalty. No matter what Thane believed, this self-proclaimed moral crusader who wanted to break the molds of society in his quest against the evil in the world followed a dark path that showed no mercy to the innocent.

an angry and hurt kid in a cheap hero's costume playing the fighter in a real-life video game. Jen Linz, reporter for the Bangor Daily, said of Thane's childhood, quote, "His uncle pulled him from that house, where he was being abused and ignored and neglected, and gave a boy a second chance. And Thane ran into that house and saw a little boy curled into a ball, screaming and pleading for a second chance, and he didn't give that kid another chance."

End quote. Jesse Ryan would have been 21 this year. Maybe he would be in his junior year of college right now. I imagine a proud and teary-eyed Jeff attending his graduation, sitting next to an equally proud Jason who'd watched this kid grow up and into a young man. But Jesse will never have that chance to go to high school and graduate and start a life because Thane Ormsby took it away.

So the hero sits behind bars, going in at 20 and never coming out. The state of Maine has no parole for life sentences, a huge price to pay for wanting to complete a mission. In the end, maybe it was Thane who needed to be saved. Maybe something good could have grown in him under the right circumstances.

Maybe if he'd had the father figure he always wanted and been cultivated from a young age to grow with kindness instead of with the anger that was already brewing inside. But nobody gets saved in this story. Four lives were destroyed and many others were impacted. Shannon and Mariah lost their father. Jason's wife lost a husband and his young kid's a father. A ripple effect of destruction through the once innocent town of Amity.

But perhaps all of this could have been prevented. Perhaps we have the power to prevent future destruction in the children we care for today. You cannot give a child their childhood back once it's been taken away. Maybe we'll never have the answers we so desperately seek. But in the words of Frederick Douglass, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." And Thane Ormsby was certainly a broken man.

I want to thank you so much for listening. I am so grateful that you chose to tune in and I couldn't be here without you. You can follow Murder, She Told on Instagram at Murder, She Told Podcast for key photos from this episode and more. My sources for this episode include archived articles from the Bangor Daily News featuring the writings of Jen Lins and Nick Sambides Jr. And articles from the Press Herald and the Associated Press.

Additional resources include the original affidavits and court files from the case, Sword and Scale podcast, investigation discoveries, signs of a psychopath, and Unraveled, and other media sources found on YouTube featuring news and police interviews. A very special thanks to Byron Willis for his research and writing support. All links for sources and media can be found in the episode link in the show notes and on MurderSheTold.com.

If you're a friend or a family member of the victims or anyone connected to this story, you are more than welcome to reach out to me at MurderSheToldPod at gmail.com. If you have a story that needs to be told or would like to suggest one, I would love to hear from you. My only hope is that I've honored your stories in keeping the names of your family and friends alive. Murder She Told will be back next week with another crime story from Maine. Thank you for listening.

I'm sending my brother money directly to his bank account in India because he's apparently too busy practicing his karaoke to go pick up cash. Thankfully, I can still send money his way. Direct to my bank account.

Yes, I know I'm sending to your bank account. Western Union. Send it their way. Send money in-store directly to their bank account in India.