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A woman has launched a podcast to investigate her father’s unsolved murder more than two decades after his death, in the hopes of finding out who shot him – and why.
In 2002, Madison McGhee’s father, John Cornelius McGhee, Forty five, used to be shot and killed in the doorway of his home in Bridgeport, Ohio, a shrimp town in Belmont County on the border with West Virginia.
According to an incident file from the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office it used to be a home invasion gone wrong.
However McGhee says that thought is encumbered with inconsistencies – and ignores that her father, also is called JC, used to be a customary drug seller became confidential informant for native regulation enforcement.
To this point, McGhee has launched six episodes of the podcast Ice Icy Case, which unravels the many theories and attainable characters in the serve of her father’s unexpected death.
John Cornelius McGhee, Forty five at the time, used to be shot and killed in the doorway of his home in Bridgeport, Ohio
Madison McGhee (pictured), 26, has launched a podcast investigating her father’s unsolved murder more than two decades after his death in the hopes of finding out who shot him and why
The fatal incident took situation rapidly after 6am on July 11, 2002, between two neighboring properties in Bridgeport, Ohio. Pictured is an excerpt from a native newspaper at the time
The fatal incident took situation rapidly after 6am on July 11, 2002, between two neighboring properties in Bridgeport, a town of around 2,000 folks in rural Ohio, according sheriff’s office incident stories seen by DailyMail.com.
McGhee’s father lived in a single of those properties and that day used to be there with his elder daughter and McGhee’s stepsister Alyssa, who used to be napping at the time.
Subsequent door lived JC’s sister Pearl. Her son Omar had been there that morning with his lady friend Kim.
After the tournament, Pearl, Omar and Kim told deputies a neighborhood of around four men dressed in gloomy arrived at Pearl’s home in at least three automobiles and armed with shotguns and pistols earlier than bursting into her home and demanding medication or money.
Amid the chaos, the home used to be ransacked, Pearl and Kim had been tied up with cell phone cord, covered in blankets and the men doused them in alcohol earlier than threatening to house them alight.
According to those stories, Omar used to be ready to catch away and fled to a stop-by auto store. It used to be at point that at least one of the men moved subsequent door to JC’s home and fatally shot him in the head in the doorway.
JC’s daughter Alyssa told deputies she used to be woken up at the time by the sound of a gunshot.
Alyssa then chanced on her father bloody in the doorway of the home and known as 911.
Minutes later, Omar susceptible the cell phone in the auto store to name 911 to file that his ‘neighbor’ used to be being robbed and that ‘they bought my mother and my lady’, presumably referring to Pearl and Kim, according to a dispatch transcript.
The transcript of a 911 name made by Omar at around 6.30am on July 11, 2002, minutes after Madison McGhee’s father, John McGhee, used to be fatally shot in the head
Minute print in sheriff’s office’s account are restricted but according to the file a coroner chanced on that JC used to be killed with a bullet to the head from a pistol
‘It used to be a spoil shot,’ McGhee told DailyMail.com. ‘A coordinated hit.’
McGhee, who used to be honest appropriate six-years-customary at the time, had been residing with her mother in Charleston, South Carolina, and used to be told by household that her father had died from a heart attack.
Some ten years later, customary 16, she went to Bridgeport with her mother and met her cousin Omar.
It used to be after that assembly that McGhee’s mother told her that her dad had undoubtedly been killed.
At the time she used to be about to graduate high college and fascinated with a profession in TV manufacturing.
‘I went to college with the idea that manufacturing used to be one thing I used to be passionate about but there used to be this inch in the serve of my mind that I may presumably perchance catch one thing about my dad’s murder,’ she said.
‘I deem that that speak honest appropriate bought louder and louder as I bought older.’
McGhee used to be six-years-customary at the time her father’s death and at first told he died of a heart attack. It used to be now not till ten years later that she chanced on he had been murdered
Then got here Covid, and with nothing worthy else to attain, she started to dig and recorded her conversations with the oldsters she spoke with along the manner.
At some point of her podcast McGhee probes varied theories as to why those men had been recent that day and why her father used to be shot.
Alongside the manner she introduces characters in her father’s often unlit lifestyles, together with his ex-lady friend, Daneen Schrader, and her unique boyfriend at the time, Butchy.
According to sheriff’s office’s documents, Daneen gave birth to JC’s son, but as an informant JC had also been interested by Butchy’s recent indictment.
At some point of the podcast McGhee also suggests her father used to be in the midst of a custody battle for the child.
‘My dad used to be due in court docket the day after he used to be murdered for the custody of Daneen’s son, who used to be also my dad’s son and my half of brother,’ she said.
And according to some, Butchy used to be an acquittance of Omar. ‘I even bear heard that they had been friendly,’ said McGhee. ‘That’s honest appropriate through talking with of us that are around at the time.’
In the hours after the shooting on July 11, Belmont County sheriff’s deputies interviewed JC’s ex-girlified Daneen Schrader, with whom he used to be engaged in an ongoing baby custody battle
Though there is now no leading thought, in the weeks after the killing in July 2002, Belmont County Sheriff’s department and prosecutors singled out one man – Daryl Smith, according to sheriff’s department logs.
He used to be thought to bear been recent at the time in response to information given by Kim, Omar and Pearl, who all identified him among a chain of photos.
Belmont County sheriff’s department and the prosecutor’s office had been particular ample that Smith used to be alive to that they took his case to a Grand Jury, which threw it out at the last minute, according to McGhee.
In each and every episode of the podcast, McGhee gadgets together more gadgets of the puzzle, meshing together the varies theories in the hopes of landing on a narrative that ties up the total loose ends.
Though the podcast used to be scheduled for eight episodes, McGhee has said this will bear to rush on.
‘Placing this all out is priceless because information will reach in, and the greater this gets, the more information will funnel through,’ she said.
‘However I need proof. I need somebody to reach forward and train I used to be there and this is what took situation. That goes to be undoubtedly tough, but I’m now not giving up till that happens.’
The first episodes of Ice Icy Case are on hand to listen free of price.
