True Crime On This Day December 9th

December 9th

On December 9th in true crime, cold case disappearance, triple murder in Los Angeles, Black Panthers murder, and a Bahamas mystery.

1978

In Summit County, Ohio, the body of 26-year-old Billy Huling was found lying in the street. Huling had been shot in the head by an unknown assailant.

Law enforcement struggled to find the perpetrator and the murder remains unsolved. As of 2022, the murder is an active cold case in the State of Ohio.

1979

In Los Angeles, police found the bodies of Preston Wheeler, Patrice Brandon and Ronald Chism in Wheeler’s apartment. Wheeler had been stabbed in the chest six times and shot in the neck at close range.

Brandon and Chism had been beaten and strangled with wire coat hangers. Brandon had also been raped before her death. A year later, Jesse James Andrews and Charles Sanders were arrested for the murders.

Sanders ended up testifying against Andrews in a plea bargain that saw him with a sentence of 17 years to life in prison. Andrews received a death sentence for each of the three murders.

1980

In the United Arab Emirates, 21-year-old Sabrina Taylor vanished without a trace. The case involved a large manhunt before it was closed two years later.

Taylor had last been seen leaving her family home near the Sharjah Police Headquarters, heading to work, but she never arrived. Her white Mazda was found in the evening with her purse on the floor and the car keys still in the ignition.

The disappearance was never discussed again until 40 years later when researchers in the UAE delved into the archives and rediscovered her case. The circumstances surrounding Taylor’s disappearance remain a mystery.

1981

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Police Officer Daniel J. Faulkner was shot and killed while making a traffic stop. He was found dead on the street next to the driver of the car, Black Panthers member and freelance journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who had suffered severe wounds from multiple bullets.

In 1982, six months after the incident, Abu-Jamal was convicted of Faulkner’s murder.

Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for first-degree murder. While in prison, he wrote several books and made many radio appearances advocating anti-racism.

The death sentence was commuted to life in 2011. The Black Panthers were a racist, radical group that were responsible for the murders of at least 15 law enforcement officers across the country.

1982

In Spencer, Oklahoma, 22-year-old Patrolman and Army National Guard veteran Kevin Simmons was shot and killed while making a routine traffic stop.

He approached the vehicle but the two men inside jumped out and fought with him, before relieving him of his weapon and shooting him. Simmons died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Unknown to Simmons, the two men had just robbed a local pharmacy and assumed Simmons was there to arrest them. The suspects escaped but were later captured.

The shooter was sentenced to life in prison where he died of natural causes.

1983

In the Bahamas, two unrelated men went missing on the same day. Jairo Javier Sanchez and Gary Weaver were on the same flight together, on a Beechcraft Queen airplane, which took off from Nassau, headed to a private island.

Both families of the men noticed similarities between the disappearances and contacted the Bahamas Royal Police Force.

There were no stories of a plane crash, and no papers showing the two men had boarded the craft. An airport official claimed the plane had taken off but the pilot never radioed the tower, so the flight was never confirmed.

A Bahamian Defence Force helicopter made an air search of the area but turned up nothing. The case went cold quickly.

In 1985, one of Weaver’s friends in the Bahamas, John Sims, arrived at Donna Weaver’s home, Gary’s wife. He said to her; ‘it’s not right what they did to Gary.’ Then he left $1,000 (USD) in cash on her table and walked out.

Both Weaver and Sanchez are now believed to have been killed on Andros island, for reasons unknown, but no trace of their remains have ever been found.

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