Lena Chapin // 379
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What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. And big thank you to Deanne for recommending today's case. This story is absolutely nuts. So don't miss a single detail because it is shocking and disheartening from start to finish. Yeah, your guys' minds are going to be blown. This is such awesomeness.

a heartbreaking and insane story. So listen up. We've got a lot of details for you guys today. So again, thank you guys for tuning in. This is episode 379 of Going West. So let's get into it. ♪♪♪

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You really, really want it all to work out while you're away. Monday.com gives you and the team that peace of mind. When all work is on one platform and everyone's in sync, things just flow. Wherever you are, tap the banner to go to Monday.com. In 1999, a Missouri teenager stepfather disappeared. And four years later, in February of 2003...

She informed her uncle that her mother had murdered her stepfather and burned his body. Then she disappeared herself. So what happened during both of these very suspicious disappearances? And is her mother really behind them? This is the story of Lena Chapin. And it's also the story of Gary McCullough.

Lena Mae Chapin was born on August 29th, 1985 to Sandy and Robert Chapin. She was Sandy's second daughter, joining older half-sister Brandy, whom Sandy shared with a former partner. Sandy was born on August 29th, 1985 to Sandy and Robert Chapin.

Sandy left Robert shortly after Lena was born and eventually added four more children to her bunch. Robin, Jeannie, Rachel, and Rosie. So all girls. But the girls moved around a lot growing up and described their childhood as pretty tumultuous.

But Brandy, who is Sandy's oldest daughter, also remembers a lot of love amidst their hardships. Now, even though the family always had little money, the girls remember their mom always looking after them and making sure they had enough to eat. They never saw their mom doing drugs or drinking or being a negative influence when they were younger. She just had a lot of love to give and show them, which makes what's to come just absolutely baffling.

But as time went on, things began to change. In addition to their mom struggling with money, Brandy recalls that she prioritized her affairs with men over everything else in her life, deriving the most validation and satisfaction out of who she could get to date her, marry her, or even better in her eyes, cheat on their wife for her.

Brandy recalls that her mom rarely spent more than two years with any boyfriend or husband, including any of the girls' fathers. In the chaos that was their childhood, the sisters remember fondly that Lena was always the one in charge, adding that she could be stubborn and ornery, but she knew her place in the family and she served it with pride.

Brandy remembered fondly, quote,

But her sisters also recall a rarer, softer side of Lena, that she was creative and kind. She loved to scrapbook, and she spent as much time as possible nurturing her younger sisters, desiring to be a role model figure for them.

Though Brandy was the oldest, Lena cast herself in the role of the dominant sibling. Her younger sister, Jeannie, added, "'Lena was a protector of everyone she loved, especially her sisters. Lena really was the glue that held us together. When all six of us plus a stepsister had to share a bedroom, she would crawl across the three bunk beds that were lined up in the bedroom and read to me. I'm so glad God gave her to us as a sister.'

Though Lena was stubborn and a spitfire, she wanted a traditional home life more than anything.

Her friend and neighbor growing up remembered that she loved to drive around town and admire the ruins of old homes, dreaming about how she would fix them up to house her own family one day. Now, although the six sisters had each other and their mom to rely on, their non-traditional family structure took a toll on all of them.

They were constantly moving around, saying goodbye to their last father figure, and ushering in the next one. Sometimes even in a new town or state. So the instability was really difficult for the girls to become accustomed to. Then Sandy really threw the family for a loop when she married a guy and divorced him for his brother. In 1992, Sandy married Albert McCullough, who was a farmer from Missouri.

The girls had fond memories of their time with Albert, calling him a kind and gentle stepfather. Albert himself said, "I loved those girls like they were my own." But after a few years of marriage, their relationship cooled, and Sandy seemed to seek something different. And Albert started to notice Sandy behaving very strangely, as if she was kind of sneaking around. He recalls asking the girls directly if their mom was having an affair, and that Lena herself actually covered for her mom Sandy.

He said, quote,

Now, it turned out that Albert's instinct was actually correct, because in 1996, Sandy left Albert for his brother, Gary. When Albert discovered that his own brother was the one embroiled in the affair, the two got into a physical altercation. But despite Albert's disbelief at the situation, Gary made up his mind. At the time, Albert was angry, but he softened as the years passed and now remembers with guilt, quote, "I brought her here."

Albert even told his brother that marrying Sandy was the worst thing that he'd ever done for himself, telling Gary, quote, "You're making a hell of a mistake." But Gary was infatuated and seemed to know what he wanted, and that was Sandy. So he bought them some farmland near Butterfield in Berry County in the southwest corner of the state.

As he got the farm up and running, he worked at a chicken processing plant to keep the family afloat. And the two were married in December of 1996, which, for reference, is when Lena was 11 years old.

Though Gary was stricter than Albert, he was a steady figure in the girls' lives. He had two young daughters of his own and expected all of them to help out on the farm, doling out chores and assignments for them to complete. But although he was firm, he cared about the girls and took his job as their stepfather seriously. However, things would take a terrifying turn.

On May 13th, 1999, so just over two and a half years into Gary and Sandy's marriage, police discovered that Gary was missing from his residence, having left everything and everyone, including his daughters, behind.

police had actually stopped by the McCullough farm for unrelated reasons because some of their cattle had gotten loose. According to the Berry County Sheriff, Mick Epperly, they arrived at the farm to discuss the missing cows, and Sandy approached them saying, quote, Well, I guess while you're here, I should go ahead and report Gary missing. Jesus Christ, that's just like the most heartless...

uh thing you could possibly say in that moment yeah like might as well so according to sandy her husband gary had already been missing for two days and why she waited to make the report she couldn't explain sandy claimed that gary had left the farm two days prior on may 11th 1999 heading to nearby diamond missouri which is a town about 45 minutes northwest of their farm in butterfield

She claimed that he was purchasing a fighting rooster from a Mexican man who lived there, but that he had never returned. Sheriff Epperly claims that they were critical of the story from the onset. And what made the story the most unbelievable is the fact that Sandy had already moved a new man into the house mere days after Gary apparently failed to return home.

Mick Epperly claimed, quote, "...he was there, living with them, while we were working the case. He moved right in. That's another flag. If Gary wasn't coming back, he wouldn't have been there, because he would have known that he was getting his butt kicked. So that's another indication that we have a homicide on our hands."

So here's the thing, Sandy who was 32 at the time met a 22 year old man by the name of Chris Klemp and reportedly became infatuated with him.

Just four days after Gary disappeared, Chris moved onto the farm. So it seemed, you know, eerily convenient timing that the early phase of their relationship came on the heels of her current husband's disappearance. I'll say. Yeah. So she had a lot of motive to get rid of her husband because obviously, you know, he had purchased the farm for them and was apparently struggling to keep it afloat.

Now, in the weeks leading up to his disappearance, Gary had written a series of bad checks and their finances were extremely fragile. And even her daughter seemed to be aware of what was going on. Brandy reported, quote,

She was nervous about him finding out that she had six kids. So the first time I met Chris, my mom made me act like I was one of her coworkers and not one of her daughters. Here's my 13 year old coworker. What the fuck yo? So as she had done with every suitor who came before him, Sandy did what she could to capture and maintain Chris's attention.

Brandy continued, quote,

Gary's mom Ella last saw him on Mother's Day, May 9th, 1999, when he came over to pick up a male hog to breed with his female hogs. Ella remembers him telling her that he had been fearful of Sandy, even saying that he was scared for his life. So his mom Ella begged him to stay and move back in with her, but Gary felt that he had an obligation to the farm.

Ella said, quote,

When Sandy was brought in for questioning about her possible involvement in the curious disappearance, police asked if she would be willing to submit to a polygraph examination, and Sandy told police that she would only take a polygraph if they found a body. Police also attempted to talk to the children, but it seemed as if Sandy had already gotten to them and forbade them from doing so.

Lena, then just 13 years old, adopted her mom's attitude toward the police, which was a bit angry and hostile and refused to give them any information, which made sense. You know, she and the others wanted to protect their mom thinking that they had to. This is their mom they're talking about.

And this was unfortunately not a new occurrence for the sisters, because Brandy remembers that they were constantly lying and covering up for her, whether it was for her cheating endeavors or now, what seemed like a much more serious offense.

Though Sandy was apparently puzzled by Gary's disappearance, yet not trying to help with it, Gary's siblings, parents, and daughters were on the front lines of the search and stayed after local authorities who even organized dive teams and dives of local bodies of water.

In the weeks following Gary's disappearance, the Berry County Sheriff's Office announced to local media outlets that they believe Gary to be dead and that they believe strongly that foul play was involved.

Even more alarmingly, Sandy and Chris were charged with fraud in the aftermath of Gary's disappearance, having stolen cows from Gary's herd to sell for profit. However, shortly before his disappearance, Gary had leveraged these cows to obtain a loan for his farm property, so they were technically owned by the bank. Thus, Sandy was charged with defrauding the bank, and Chris was actually detained on murder charges.

He was arraigned on June 7th, but without any evidence, aside from the obvious overlap in their relationship, Chris was released. And the fraud charges against Sandy were also eventually dropped. But police suspected something very sinister in this case, and they didn't explain why they suspected this at the time. But sorry, this is a really disturbing, gross detail, but

The charges allege that both Sandy and Chris had fed pieces of Gary's body to the animals on the farm after killing him.

So that is what police believed happened, and yet the charges had to be dropped and they had no actual evidence against them, but they thoroughly believed that they were responsible for such actions. And then on April 11th, 2000, so 11 months after Gary went missing, Sandy was granted dissolution of her marriage to Gary after he obviously declined to show up to their divorce hearing.

And Sandy and Chris just kind of carried on as normal, but obviously they were desperate to escape the rumor mill that they faced in Berry County. So Sandy and her boyfriend Chris moved themselves and the girls to a farm in rural Dent County, which is a whole three and a half hours away from their farm in Butterfield near Sligo, Missouri, which is a mostly abandoned former factory town.

The couple were married and on March 1st, 2005, Gary McCullough was officially declared dead. But of course, they still didn't have his body or any concrete evidence as to what exactly happened to him, but police were still heavily suspecting Sandy.

Now, those Sandy and Chris seem to move on from the events of May 1999 as if nothing had happened. Lena descended into the throes of emotional turmoil, often seeming sullen and angry. All the changes in the family really took a toll on her. And now a teenager, she began to rebel.

According to friends, she would leave the house for lengthy periods of time, staying with friends or extended family, and sometimes even leaving the state.

Lena's childhood friend Joshua remembered, quote,

This is also around the same time that Lena began experimenting with drugs and drinking, using it as a coping mechanism for the commotion that was happening at home. Joshua remembered, quote, Lena was a good person, but she was a wild girl. Lena wanted to be a country girl. She really liked going to the river and partying as much as she could. What girl didn't at that age around here? We all had our moments, but Lena was partying a little too much.

Lena's boyfriend at the time echoed, quote,

But this behavior was no accident because in 2003, four years after Gary's disappearance, Lena confided in a boyfriend that she was keeping a terrible secret on behalf of her mom for the sake of her family, but that it was completely eating her up inside and causing all of this chaotic behavior in her personal life.

She claimed that she knew what had happened to her former stepfather, Gary, and it was exactly as law enforcement suspected. Sandy had murdered him and then forced 13-year-old Lena to help her dispose of the body. ♪♪

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On June 26, 2003, 17-year-old Lena decided to meet with her former stepfather-turned-uncle, Albert McCullough, remember Gary's brother, to report what she knew. That her mother, Sandy, had killed Gary back in 1999, so four years earlier, in order to marry Chris Klemp, and then forced Lena to help her cover it up.

After the two chatted for a while, Albert gently broached the topic of his missing brother. According to Lena, on the day of Gary's death, he had been sitting on the couch eating scrambled eggs, and Sandy walked into the room calmly and shot him two or three times directly in the head. Lena recalled seeing her mom wrap Gary in plastic, throw him in the bed of her truck and drive away with his body.

Though the other girls hadn't been home at the time of his death, Brandy recalls coming home to find Sandy furiously scrubbing a dark substance off of the tile floor one afternoon as she and her sisters arrived home from school. That same night, Jeannie recalls her mom instructing Lena to cover for her and keep all six girls in their bedroom. Lena even slept in front of their bedroom door to ensure that everybody did as they were told.

Jeannie later reported seeing what she thought was Sandy dragging a large, heavy object out of the house. As Lena relayed these details, Albert remembers that she was trembling and seemed terrified, and that he believed every word that she said.

When Albert asked what they had done with the body, she claimed that Sandy had burned her late husband's body on a pile of brush on the farm and scattered his remains, including, yes, feeding parts of him to their farm animals.

In addition to covering for her with her sisters, Sandy had forced Lena to help clean up the crime scene. And again, Lena was just 13 years old at the time. Lena had also tearfully confided in Brandy about what had happened to their late stepfather, but the girls didn't know what to do with that information. Brandy recalls a time that she threatened to tell on her mom and that Lena was furious with her for putting herself at risk in that way.

For the Salem newspaper, Brandy remembered, quote,

Lena heard that from the other room and came in with a red face and shoved me into the mirror. I'd never seen her so mad. In this altercation, Brandy cut her finger on the mirror and had to be taken to the hospital for stitches. So seeing their story begin to unravel, Chris threatened Brandy with a gun.

Brandy explained, quote,

So I jumped over the opposite side of the bed and we started playing cat and mouse around the truck and I'm screaming for my life.

Then the radio starts blaring. It's up so loud, it's vibrating the windows. I didn't know if I should run. I didn't know the area. And I didn't want to give Chris a clear shot. So then all of a sudden, I think if my mom's door was unlocked and I went for it. And sure enough, I got in and I grabbed onto her tight. I said, mom, please don't let him kill me. I won't tell anyone, please. She just stared straight ahead.

It's so sad because I can't even imagine these kids in this situation. They're the worst humans on this planet. Sandy is just straight up a huge problem.

Yeah, seriously, it's unbelievable.

And things are going to get even crazier. So when they arrived back home, Sandy forced Chris to apologize to Brandy. Oh, nice of her, right? And the three shared a group hug. As if a group hug is going to, you know, settle this whole situation of getting a gun pointed at you. Truly insane. So Brandy said, quote, she grabbed us and said, we're okay now, right? So that time Sandy intervened, but Lena was not so lucky.

After that night, Brandy began staying elsewhere, obviously too scared to go back to Sandy and Chris's house. But four years later, 17-year-old Lena found herself wrapped with guilt and came to Albert in a desperate plea for help. Albert recalls, quote, "'I asked her straight out, "'Lena, I want to know who killed my brother.' "'Her answer was one word, "'Mom.'"

Now, unbeknownst to Lena, Albert recorded their conversation about all of this and submitted it to the police. And in that recording, Lena recounts coming home from school on that fateful day and that after sending her sisters away, Sandy had brought Lena into her bedroom alone where Gary's body lay sprawled on the floor.

Lena says in the recording, quote, she was crying and all she wanted to say was, I can't believe this happened. I can't believe this happened. And that's all she'd say the whole time when she was freaking out and telling me she was bawling and saying, I can't believe this happened. And I asked her, I'm like, I want to see. I didn't believe it. You know, when you think to yourself, okay, there's a dead person in your house. You know, you're not thinking, okay, come on now, whatever. It's just like, I want to see. She wouldn't let me see. She had her door locked.

I said, I want to see it. I want to see it right now. I know if I had seen the whole thing, I would have flipped out. I would have flipped out. But there was a crack in the door and I looked and I saw it and I completely went crazy. I started spazzing out on her and I went, what the hell happened? What happened? You know, over the course of the next two days, she helped Sandy scrub the tile floors with bleach to rid them of blood while her sisters were at school.

Lena's school attendance records confirm that she was not present on either May 12th or May 13th of 1999. It's just crazy that her mom kept her out of school to help her clean up a murder that she committed. So wild.

So when Albert asked about the whereabouts of the body, Lena said quote:

She then explained why she participated and said that the guilt had consumed her since that day, telling Albert, quote, quote,

Lena was recorded as saying, quote,

Albert comforted Lena by telling her, quote,

So Lena thanked him for being a good and steady influence on her and her sisters and said that he and his family deserve the answers and closure that they sought. Albert handed the recording of this conversation over to police immediately and police contacted Sandy hoping to speak with her once again. Within 24 hours, Sandy obtained a lawyer.

Brandy remembers sadly, quote, Lena and I would both joke about it with one another saying, you better watch out or mom will get you. But she would say mom wouldn't do that to me. She'd never touch me. Up to that point, mom had always been all about us kids and keeping us together. I never thought she would be capable of actually killing one of us. But then Lena went missing.

Just five months after Lena confessed what she knew to Albert in their recorded conversation, she gave birth to a baby boy. Racked with guilt and shame, Lena had dropped out of high school and become pregnant from her boyfriend. But with this news, she vowed to turn things around, which may have been the catalyst for telling Albert in the first place.

On November 3rd, 2003, she gave birth to a baby boy named Coulter and planned to focus on giving her son the stability that she was not afforded as a child. She began working at Country Mart, which is a local supermarket, and put her creativity to good use decorating cakes. Her friend and coworker Nikki said, "'Lena was fun and full of life. We worked together in the deli. She decorated the cakes in the bakery and just loved what she did.'"

Lena was a beautiful girl who had everything going for her. 20-year-old Lena moved in with her new boyfriend, James Bryant, who eventually became her fiancé. And the three of them formed the little family that Lena had ached for her entire life.

Nikki added fondly, quote, Then, on Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14th, 2006, James, again Lena's fiancé, arrived home to find Sandy cleaning out their apartment.

Sandy stated simply that Lena had met a new guy and had become infatuated with him. She claimed Lena had spontaneously moved down to Florida with him, leaving James and Coulter behind, as well as her job, her apartment, her family, and basically all of her belongings.

Sandy was hastily packing up her belongings, and both James and Lena's sisters noticed that Lena didn't appear to have brought a single item of clothing or possession with her on this supposed move. And James never saw or heard from Lena ever again. Devastated, Brandy said, "...I knew my mom had done it again. I knew she had done something."

Not buying their mom's story, Lena's sisters did what they could to spread the word about Lena's disappearance, posting missing flyers all over Dent County in hopes that someone could point them in the right direction, since Sandy didn't seem to be willing to help. But the crazy and really fucked up thing about this is that Robin later discovered that Sandy was paying her youngest daughter $5 for every missing flyer that she took down.

So she confronted Sandy about it, telling her that she knew Sandy was involved, and that she would stop at nothing to find out what really happened to her sister. And thus, the girls distanced themselves from their mother, Sandy.

And ultimately, Lena's father, Robert, reported her missing from where he lived in Alabama. But little was done about their suspicions that Sandy had concocted the story about this boyfriend in Florida in order to cover up her misdeeds. It's so sad, too, because without any actual evidence, because Lena is an adult, this story...

could in theory make sense. She could have done that. Absolutely. Right. So if her own mom is saying this and there's no proof that her mom, uh, you know, had anything to do with Gary's disappearance in the past, then in the eye of the law, her mom didn't do anything wrong. She's just saying, Oh yeah, I'm just picking up after her. She told me that she was going here and she, you know, left on her own accord.

And it's just so frustrating about this story is that even her whole family is like, what? She would never do that. Yeah, it's just it's completely pure evil. It's pure evil here.

So because of Sandy's unwillingness, of course, to help and staunch retelling of her version of events, a case file wasn't opened on Lena's disappearance until March of 2012, which was over six years after she was last seen. So awful. And sadly, Sandy maintained custody over Coulter.

Basically, with Coulter's biological dad out of the picture, Sandy was Coulter's rightful guardian. And Lena's sisters had to look on as she took Coulter into her care as if basically he was her own. Locals remember that she even made him call her mom. Like, are you kidding me?

Her daughters recall that she had it in her mind that she was Coulter's real mom, not Lena, which was obviously completely false. She even filed abandonment charges against Lena, which earned her full custody of Coulter, when Lena, of course, did not show up for the trial. So Lena's loved ones were forced to look on, as Sandy took over the life of yet another person that she claimed that she loved.

Sandy divorced Chris Klemp in 2014, which was probably her longest relationship ever, and remarried Joseph Wink, and then she became Sandy Wink. Her last known location was reportedly Mount Vernon, Missouri, where she was believed to live with both Joseph and Coulter. Coulter is now 20 years old, but the family was cut off from him years ago and didn't get to be a part of his upbringing.

Lena's sisters, Brandy and Robin, believe that Gary's remains are scattered on the farm in Berry County and that Lena's are on the farm in Sligo, Missouri.

The apartment that Lena lived in with Jason has since burned to the ground, which apparently happened due to a renter smoking in bed. But it is really weird to me that that happened in the unit that her mom was cleaning up, you know? Yeah, exactly. The daughter goes missing from this unit and then eventually that place burns down.

It's really bizarre, isn't it? So I don't know. Maybe it is just a weird coincidence, but I don't know. Super strange. So aside from the disappearances of Gary and Lena, the effects were even more far-reaching as Albert also blamed Sandy for the deaths of his father and cousin. Now, not directly because basically he explained, quote, I want something done about this and I want it done soon. My mom is 79 years old and she doesn't have much longer. She can wait to get justice.

Gary's father, Wayne McCullough, had been so zealous in his search efforts, in fact, that he had been barred from the local sheriff's office.

Gary's daughter remarked, quote, I know this thing killed him. Frustrated at all the bureaucracy, rumors, and missteps in the case, Gary's brother, Larry McCullough, mused, quote, They're not going to find a body. This case is as good as it's ever going to get. In July of 2013, Gary's daughters, April and Joy, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Sandy, Chris, Lena, and Chris's ex-wife, Jennifer.

Jennifer allegedly knew of the affair between Chris, who was her husband at the time, and Sandy. She had also given Chris a ride at some point in the days following Gary's disappearance and likely murder. So the court believed that Jennifer may have helped conceal information pertinent to Gary's death. Police sought to deliver a court summons to Lena to give her testimony, but of course, they were unable to locate her. So Lena's bombshell taped confession to Albert was omitted.

Brandy, however, was willing and able to testify against her mother. So, in the end, Sandy and Chris were found to be responsible for Gary's murder, and ordered to pay $7 million in damages to Gary's daughters, of which they have not been paid a single cent.

Though this was a victory, it happened in civil court, meaning Sandy and Chris are able to live their lives freely. Though it seems to be a foregone conclusion that they ended both Gary's and Lena's lives.

Lena's sister Jeannie writes quote, "Lena would have wanted people to come together with love, the strongest force there is, and try to find her. Until we find her, she will be in my dreams, showing me different places that she could be and where I need to look. She wants to be found." Gary McCullough would now be 58 years old. He had brown eyes and brown hair. He stood at 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighed about 240 pounds.

He was last seen wearing a t-shirt, blue jeans, brown work boots, and a camouflage cap. Lena was around 5'9" tall and weighed about 130 pounds. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She has one tattoo of mushrooms and the phrase "Love Daddy" on her lower back.

She would be 38 years old today. If you have any information about the disappearance of Gary McCullough, please call the Berry County Sheriff's Department at 417-847-6556. And if you have any information about the disappearance of Lena Chapin, please contact the Dent County Sheriff's Department at 573-729-3241.

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. And on Friday, we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. It just makes me sick that they are free and living their lives right now. And Heath, you put it so well earlier, like Sandy is just absolute evil. And this situation is so disturbing and disgusting.

So please make sure that you share this story. I know you guys are just as frustrated as we are and Lena deserves justice. And I know that Gary quote unquote got justice, but we still don't know exactly what happened. So I, in my opinion, don't think Gary did get justice and his family didn't either.

I completely agree. And it honestly just boggles my mind that they haven't been able to find any evidence for either of these cases. But if you want to see photos from this episode of Lena and of Gary and the rest of the family, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast. We're also on Twitter at Going West Pod. And we're on Facebook. Yes, we are. So thank you guys so much for tuning in and we will see you in a few days.

All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. ♪♪♪