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What do two recent high school grads and a 27-year-old repeat offender from northern Michigan have in common with a 33-year-old veteran hitchhiker from Missouri? Most people would think the answer is simple, nothing. However, these four would be going on the ride of their lives, a ride that would change the future for every single one of them.
Daniel Remeda was known by every law enforcement officer in his small hometown of Sutton's Bay, Michigan, and eventually by most of the law enforcement in his more recent home of Traverse City, Michigan. So, what happened on February 13th, 1985 was no surprise to anyone who had ever encountered Remeda. On the other hand, Mark Walter was a former altar boy turned grocery store attendant, also from the small village of Sutton's Bay.
Lisa Dunn, from Traverse City, came from a happy, well-to-do family. They were an odd trio to see together, to say the least. They did have one thing in common though. They were all dying to escape their small-town life in Northern Michigan. Like many teenagers, Dunn started to rebel in high school. She went to parties, dated bad boys, and acted out in school. She even went as far as stealing a wallet from one of her high school teachers.
So, when Dunn met Daniel Remeda at a high school party, he appeared to be exactly what she was looking for: a bad boy with a reckless disregard for authority. The unlikely pair started a relationship immediately, not too far into said relationship. Dunn found herself alone when Remeda was arrested and incarcerated yet again. The only difference this time around was that Dunn was there to help him out.
In January 1985, Dunn would take her friend, Mark Walter, down to the Traverse City jail to bail out Remeda, thus introducing the two men together. Unbeknownst to Walter, he had something the couple would need. If Mark Walter did not own a vehicle at the time, things may have turned out very differently for him. Maybe, just maybe, he'd still be here today to talk about Dunn and Remeda and his encounters with them.
Unfortunately for him, he did have a car. Even more unfortunate for him, he shared a desperate need to get out of Michigan with Dunn and Remeda. So, when they pitched the idea of driving down to Florida, Walter was all in. On January 27th, 1985, the three hit the road in Walter's blue Buick, but not before robbing a convenience store in Copemish, Michigan.
The only thing standing in the way of their road trip to Florida was money. So committing a robbery seemed like the obvious solution. The 30-year-old woman working as an attendant was shaken up but unharmed. She was the lucky one. She would be one of the few victims in this story who was left unharmed. Part 1: Danny An armed robbery at a busy gas station was no trivial thing for most people. Danny Remeda was different though.
Danny was Native American, Russian, and Latino. His parents somehow managed to stay together long enough to have four kids, three boys and a girl. His father was mostly out of the picture once the kids were slightly older. He would pop in and out when he ran out of money for more alcohol, but he was not a permanent fixture in the household.
When he did come into town, Danny's mother, Betty, would welcome him right back into the house. Undoubtedly, it would only take a few hours before he would become angry and violent with Danny. On occasion, he would have people over to the house to drink, then would wake up Danny and a brother of his choosing and force them to fight each other for the drunk adult's entertainment.
Betty couldn't handle the abuse, the violence, or the pain she felt deep down for allowing her children to live through this. When Danny was a preteen, she finally gathered the courage to get a divorce. However, now she was a single mom of four kids with a severe drinking problem, living in poverty in Northern Michigan. To make matters worse for the kids, they were half Native American, a population of people that was somewhat unwelcome there.
Betty's solution to these problems was to drink even more. Local social worker, Ava Puffer, who had many encounters with the Remeda family, recalled seeing Betty take the kids to the park. Her park hangouts were different than other mothers though. Betty would sit on the bench, watch her kids play, and chug a fifth of vodka. This was also a common occurrence when she went to pick up the kids from school.
So, it came as no surprise that Danny would start drinking, smoking, and causing trouble at a very young age. By the time he was a teenager, he was already renowned by local police, even going as far as telling one officer that he wanted to become a hitman for the mafia. On another occasion, he escaped police custody when he was going into the care of social services.
Many local law enforcement agents had encountered Danny and had almost nothing good to say about the scrawny, Native American, pre-teen troublemaker. Pre-teen Danny got in so much trouble that he was kicked out of public school. A judge sentenced him to juvenile detention in the W.J. Maxie Boys Training School. He was ordered into what the judge called "specialized rehabilitation treatment."
Danny served his time there, and shortly after, his mom moved the family to San Bernardino, California. The move did not help Danny at all. In fact, it may have made things worse. Danny managed to get himself into a Latino street gang called New Esta Familia. The Familia gang was known to be one of the most violent street gangs in the area at the time, and Danny fit right in.
According to Danny's own statements to police, while part of the Familia gang, Danny participated in car thefts, drug sales, holdups at small stores, and shootouts with rival gangs. He served time in some of California's worst prisons, including San Quentin.
His disciplinary records from his time in California institutions contained a variety of infractions, such as making bombs and zip guns, inciting riots among other prisoners, and stabbing more than one inmate. Shortly after the release of one of his prison stints, he violated his parole by being in possession of a knife and bomb and was immediately sent back. His last release was in 1978. This time, he was better behaved.
Danny even completed his parole. Then, in 1981, he went back to Michigan with his family. His troublemaking days did not end there though. Once back in the Traverse City area, Danny was initially committing petty crimes like shoplifting and disorderly conduct. Eventually, these led him right back into committing more severe crimes. He was then incarcerated for the theft of a boat and was placed on parole when he was released.
Only a couple of months after his release, he was rearrested for kicking in a friend's car windshield during a drunken argument. This final Michigan arrest would be the one that would link Danny, Lisa, and Mark forever. Of course, Danny didn't want to stay inside, and Lisa just couldn't live without him at this point.
She gathered money from Danny's mom, Mark, and what she had from a restaurant job to bail Danny out of the Michigan jail on January 23rd, 1985.
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Part 2. Mark.
Mark was just like any other teenager. He was not perfect and had been in a bit of trouble over the years, accruing a few speeding tickets and being known to have skipped school a few times. On the other hand, he was an altar boy growing up, and even as a preteen and into his teenage years, he was still very active in the Catholic Church in Sutton's Bay, Michigan. He held a full-time job at a local shop, and his supervisor spoke very highly of him.
He did, however, get kicked out of his parents' house on January 25th, 1985. Nobody seems to know what he did to get kicked out, but he was also 18 years old at this point with a full-time job, which was pretty far from being considered a child who needed to live at home. He did what anyone would do and asked some friends if he could crash on their couch.
Some friends of his, Troy, Jill and Al, knew Mark was a decent guy and agreed that he could crash at their place for a bit while he was getting on his feet. At the time, his three friends didn't know who he had started hanging out with. Shortly after coming to crash, his friends noticed that Mark was running around with one of the Remeda kids. As it turns out, Mark's friends were also friends with the guy whose windshield Danny had recently smashed in.
Obviously, it was no longer ideal that Mark, who was friends with Danny Remeda, was crashing on their couch. So, Mark was homeless again. As one can imagine, being an 18-year-old kid with nowhere to go makes it easy to say yes to a couple of friends who want to go on a road trip. Part 3. Lisa
While it was known in Northern Michigan that folks from Sutton's Bay didn't hang much with folks from Traverse City, it was not a huge surprise that Lisa Dunn was friends with Mark Walter. Even though they came from different areas, they were similar people. Lisa was also active in the local church community. She also held an after-school job and came from a seemingly normal family. And, just like Mark and most other teenagers, Lisa had started to rebel a bit in high school.
However, Lisa appeared to take her rebellion a little further than Mark. Lisa was well-known and liked in school. She was considered one of the smartest girls in her class and took, almost exclusively, honors courses in high school. But that would all change as she grew up. Before she met Danny, she had a history of dating bad boys. One of Lisa's previous boyfriends was similar to Danny.
He was a bit older, a bit of a troublemaker, and had just been released from prison on a robbery charge. In her senior year of high school, right before she met Danny, Lisa stole a wallet out of a classroom from one of her teachers. Cops were called, but charges were never pressed, and Lisa denied any involvement.
Once she met Danny, her rebel phase would only intensify. She was fighting with her parents so frequently that she was also kicked out of her house in January 1985. Her parents loved her but couldn't handle her partying and unruly ways. Then, when the trio decided to go on a road trip, Lisa knew they would need money, protection, or both. So, she stole her father's gun out of his bedroom while her parents were in Florida on vacation.
Not all of the trouble that came Lisa's way was her doing though. In early 1984, in Florida, there was a criminal sexual assault investigation conducted on Lisa's behalf. While the details of that investigation and case are mostly unknown, the implications are that Lisa was attacked in a sexual manner.
Later, Lisa would go on to tell law enforcement that the reason she took the gun from her parents was that she and Danny could get revenge on the men who hurt her once they got to Florida. However, other accounts out of Michigan seemed to point more toward Lisa wanting her very own Bonnie and Clyde adventure. So off they went, the unlikely couple and their friend with a car. Part 4. Florida
The trio arrived in Florida on the night of February 1st, 1985. And this was when things started to go very downhill. Danny had a stepdad of sorts who was living in Plant City. So they decided they would spend some time crashing with him and a bit of time staying in hotels. They still had one issue though. They didn't have enough money to fund their trip and pay for accommodation. So, it didn't take long for them to resort to robbery for income.
On February 2nd, Danny decided to take things one step further. He abducted a young woman who was coming out of a supermarket late in the evening. According to Danny himself, they drove around with the woman from 11:00 PM on the 2nd until 2:00 AM on the 3rd. The trio told investigators they took her cash and valuables and that she wrote them a check. Danny also stated that he asked for her address because they planned on paying her back.
The three then dumped her at a service station along the highway, where she was able to call for help. She later described Danny to police as the man who forced her into a vehicle. While this wouldn't be the only crime these three committed in Florida, they also wanted it to be a semi-normal friend's road trip. On February 3rd, they all went to Disney World together.
Lisa claimed it was like any other trip to Disney World. They went on rides and visited the water park and then spent their stolen money on overpriced food and games. Lisa even mailed some postcards back home to Michigan, saying she and Danny were having a lovely time and had enjoyed their trip to Disney World. There was confusion about what exactly happened next.
Danny told investigators that a friend from Michigan, Tom Cantrell, came to see them. And they had an argument, and Mark threw him into an alligator pond, where he was never seen or heard from again. Lisa, on the other hand, said Tom only stopped in to say hi on the way to visit his girlfriend in southern Florida. Regardless of the alligator pond story, they still needed money to keep going.
They found themselves in a campsite near Lakeland, Florida, and realized an elderly couple was camping in one of the RVs. Danny and Mark attempted to rob the elderly couple but were in for a surprise. The husband was experienced with firearms and had a gun on him when Danny approached with his own gun. The husband started firing at Danny and Mark, and they had to take off to find cover.
Knowing the elderly couple was a lost cause, the boys returned to the car and took off, looking for another victim.
It didn't take them long to find one. They had made their way to Ocala, Florida at this point, and around 12:30 AM on February 8th, they passed a Tenneco store. Danny and Mark both pulled out their guns and went inside while Lisa waited in the car. According to Danny, he only asked for a pack of cigarettes and put some gum on the counter, acting as more of the lookout.
Then, when 60-year-old Merle "Chet" Reeder was handing over the measly $52 he had in the cash register, Mark shot him twice, square in the chest, with a .357 Magnum. These shots were enough to kill Chet, but it wasn't enough for Mark. He apparently then walked around the counter and fired, point blank, twice when Chet was already dead on the floor.
Interestingly, this specific crime was the only one that Danny refused to confess to any part of. Until the day he died, he swore this one was all Mark. Even more interestingly, Danny faced the death penalty in Florida for this exact crime. Part 5. Arkansas and Texas
As soon as Chet was killed, the group knew they had to get out of Florida. They hadn't left any witnesses behind, as Danny wouldn't allow it. But they'd left a dead man behind the counter of a gas station now. So, they had to leave the state. The trio continued west. They needed to get more ammunition and had decided they preferred to have more guns too. They stopped at a flea market in Greenwood, Louisiana that advertised the massive amounts of firearms they had for sale.
It was the perfect place for them to pick up what they needed to continue their spree across the US. However, again, they had one small problem. They still didn't have enough money. Danny and Mark went to the flea market and actually found some guns they were interested in, but they cost a lot more than what they had left after Chet Reader's murder. So, they did what any murdering trio would do.
They crossed over into Texas to rob and murder another gas station attendant. This time, though, things did not go according to plan. The plan was simple and the same as it had been in Florida. Rob the gas station for money, kill the attendant, and leave no witnesses. They chose to stop just over the border of Texas, in a small town called Wascom, in the middle of the afternoon on February 10th.
Camelia Carroll was an 18-year-old who had just begun her shift. Again, Danny and Mark walked in and demanded the money from the register. But this time, perhaps due to the time of day and the danger of being discovered, they decided to take Carroll with them. They drove down the highway to a wooded area where cars could pull off. They then told their victim to walk towards the trees while they counted and to start running when they got to five.
Carol did as requested, but the guys did not keep their word. Before she was able to start running, Danny shot her from behind several times. Then, the group took off, heading back toward Louisiana to buy the guns they had just looked at. However, they underestimated Camelia Carol. She had a will to live like no other. They had left her to die in the woods, but, shockingly, she was able to drag herself back to the road and wave down a passing car.
She was taken to a hospital and still survives to this day. She went on to testify in several trials and positively identified Danny as the person who shot her. In the meantime, Danny, Mark, and Lisa were now $400 richer and were headed back to buy the guns they needed to keep going. They did exactly that. But $400 only goes so far when you need to buy a few guns plus ammunition.
In a way, they were back at square one after the purchase. They needed to continue and needed more money to be able to. Their next victim in crime happened just over 24 hours past Carol's horrible ordeal on February 11th. The money hungry trio decided to stop in another small town, Mulberry, Arkansas, which in 1985 had a population of about 1500 people.
There wasn't much in the town, but there was a small store called Bob's Grocery just off US Highway 64. It was the perfect next target. With only one attendant working, and it was conveniently located next to the highway where they could rapidly escape and be on their way. Both the boys went inside, likely excited to be using their new toys. Single mother Linda Marvin was working that night.
They went up to the counter with items to purchase, and as soon as she had her head down, grabbing their change, Dani pulled a gun. As anyone with a gun pointed at their head would, she emptied the register and handed over the $500 that was in it. Later that night, the three checked into a Motel 6 to quite literally wash their hands of the last crime and rest up to hit the road the next day. It was in this Motel 6 that their worst nightmare would happen.
While watching the local news, they heard that a woman had been shot in Wascom, Texas, just across the border. This woman was shot approximately 10 times, but miraculously survived. Lisa claimed that Danny and Mark started to panic once they all got wind of this bit of information. Part 6. Kansas. They checked out of the Motel 6 around 3 a.m.,
Now that the heat had been turned up, the trio decided to change things up a bit in order to stay under the radar. So, they left Louisiana and went through Oklahoma and took the Muskogee Turnpike up to Joplin, Missouri. From there, they turned west onto US Highway 96 and followed that into Kansas. They'd now skipped a couple of states and weren't anywhere near the trail of death they'd left in their wake.
The next course of action was to change appearances. The three kids from Michigan checked into a hotel in Wichita, where Danny cut his hair and colored it black. Lisa was up next, also going with a shorter cut, but a lighter brown. Danny and Mark decided they needed a new vehicle. Since that was not an option now, they chose to paint Mark's car a new red color. However, they ran out of paint, so the car was partially red and partially the original blue.
In the morning, Danny, Mark, and Lisa checked out of the hotel and started making their way north towards Salina, Kansas. On the way, they happened to spot one of the unluckiest men in Kansas on that day. James Hunter Jr. was hitchhiking on the side of the road. Like a regular hitchhiker, he was on his way from his brother's house in Texas to his parents' house in Overland Park, Kansas.
He just needed to ride with them north, and then catch another ride a little bit east as the trio told him they had to head west. James, a US veteran, sometimes drifter and frequent hitchhiker, had encountered lots of people on his trips. There were so many different kinds of people that he didn't find it strange that they had multiple guns on them. They offered him a beer and a free ride, so he didn't ask questions. But things were about to take a very wrong turn.
When the four arrived in Salina, they stopped for gas and food at a McDonald's. At this point, the three kids from Michigan needed to go west, and James needed to go east. However, Danny refused to let him out of the car at each stop. James knew they had multiple guns and was likely scared for his life. So, he did not get out.
In fact, he told investigators that he wanted to sneak away that night when Danny eventually had to get some sleep, but he didn't know if he would ever get that opportunity. After their lunch break, they had to get right back to the grind. Around 2:00 PM, the group exited the highway into another small town called Greenfield. Right off the exit was one of those all-in-one stores called Stucky's, which was a restaurant that sold souvenirs, snacks, and gas.
There was only one person inside: Larry McFarland, the manager. Danny and Mark walked in and pretended to purchase something as per usual. One of them then pulled out a gun and demanded money. Larry didn't even have enough time to hand over the $170 from the cash register before Danny shot him. In addition to the cash, Mark also took a few pairs of sunglasses and some cigarettes.
The murderous pair got back in the car and took off with Lisa and James in the back, leaving behind Larry McFarland's body for a high school kid to find on his way home from school. What the group hadn't realized was that their vehicle was now more obvious than ever.
it stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of Kansas. It was half blue, half red, and had Michigan license plates, which was exactly the description that the witnesses gave to police when they began investigating. Lucky for them though, this was not known to Officer Ben Albright when he pulled them over for speeding.
He was not aware they were on the run or were wanted for murders across the country. Albright only knew they were speeding, so he pulled them over and began to run the plates. Before he was able to do so, one of the guys got out of the car and shot right through Albright's windshield. He was shot in the chest twice. Luckily, he survived and lived with that bullet inside his chest until the day he died of natural causes.
Law enforcement in rural Kansas was on the lookout for a car that stuck out like a sore thumb. However, Danny and the gang were not that stupid. They were very aware of the fact that they needed a new car immediately, and an opportunity presented itself. They were driving through Levant, Kansas, when they passed a green elevator and saw a pickup truck sitting in the driveway. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.
So Danny and Mark got out of the car and headed into the grain elevator. They took out any witnesses they could see, Maurice Christie being one of them. They left Maurice for dead, but he would ultimately survive. There was one issue though. There were two additional men outside, Glenn Moore and Ben Schroeder. For whatever reason, instead of shooting them on sight, Danny decided to force the two men into the back of the pickup they were stealing and drove off.
As everyone now knew, Danny didn't like to have witnesses, so he had no other option but to get rid of them. Mark was driving, but Danny asked him to pull over for a minute. Danny forced the two hostages out of the truck and ordered them to lie face down on the ground. He then shot them both in the head, execution style. While more murders and shootings were occurring, all the law enforcement in Kansas were on the lookout for Danny and his crew.
Only a few more miles down the road, the police finally caught up with them. Kansas Highway Patrol had the truck cornered, and the occupants had no choice but to step out of the vehicle. Mark must have had a death wish because as soon as they exited the truck, he started shooting and was immediately shot dead by one of the officers on the scene. Danny, Lisa, and James all watched as Mark took his last breath, which was enough to make them all surrender.
but not before Lisa and Danny had a chance to scream "I love you" to each other one last time. Part 7: Not a Happy Ending With five murders, three attempted murders, five confirmed robberies, Grand Theft Auto, and a whole slew of speculated crimes behind them, the three remaining suspects faced multiple trials in various states. Danny was facing trial in Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and Florida.
After he was caught, he only had one thing in mind: keeping Lisa out of prison and not spending the rest of his life in one. In 1985, there was no death penalty in Kansas. Danny asked repeatedly to be sent to another state where he would be sentenced to the death penalty. He also repeatedly confessed to all of the crimes, except Chet Reeder's murder.
He denied Lisa's involvement in all of it. He told investigators that he had threatened her and her family, and she had no choice but to go along with it. Danny was found guilty in Kansas and then was shipped to Florida as he wanted. There, he faced the death penalty, which the jury was overwhelmingly in favor of. Daniel Remeda was executed on March 31, 1998.
While on death row, he got married, got in touch with his Native American roots, and even developed a friendship of sorts with one of the victim's families. Lisa was also found guilty in Kansas and Arkansas. She served nine years in Kansas before being released. She won a new trial based on a battered woman defense and was resentenced to time served. However, it looked like Lisa couldn't stay away from trouble.
Shortly after her release, she was facing trial again for embezzling money from her employer. James was the unluckiest of the survivors. He was also found guilty in Kansas and was not charged in any other state. On appeal, he argued that the jury could not be unbiased in that area because they were familiar with the victims. Like Lisa, he won his appeal. He was released after three years of incarceration.
but it didn't matter that he got out. Four days after his release, he died of a heart attack.