S9, E2: One Disorder From Murder

One Disorder From Murder It was late morning on Sunday October 31st, 2010 and 16-year-old Devon Griffin had just gotten home from attending church, where he sang in the choir. He had spent the previous night at his father’s house. The house in Oak Harbor, Ohio where Devon lived with his mom, stepdad and older brother, Derek, was quiet. He headed straight for his bedroom to play video games. After a few hours he realized it was strange that everyone seemed to still be asleep especially with it being Halloween. Typically the family would be getting ready for the festivities later. He went into to his parent’s bedroom and it appeared they were still asleep with their red quilt covering them. He noticed blood spatter on the walls and assumed they were pulling a Halloween prank on him. He walked to his mother’s side of the bed and shook her. He pulled back the quilt and saw blood. After a few moments he realized it was no prank. He ran outside and called his aunt, who called 911. When police arrived, they discovered William and Susan Liske had both been shot in the head and face. It was also apparent that Susan had been sexually assaulted. Police went to check on Susan’s older son, 23-year-old Derek Griffin, but found the door to his room locked. When they kicked in his door open, they found him curled up on his bed facing the wall… with an obvious head wound. Derek was also dead. William, who went by Bill, was 53 and Susan was 46 at the time of their murders. There were no signs of a struggle or break in. But a bloody claw hammer that was consistent with Derek’s head wounds was found in a closet. The family owned several guns, which were all seized for testing, but ultimately none matched the victim’s wounds. The family’s white 2000 Ford F-150 pickup was also missing. There was a pond on the Liske family’s 100-acre property and muddy footprints were found on a deck near it. Police drained the pond but didn’t find the gun used in the murders. Police dogs searched the property but they came up with nothing. But this didn’t mean police didn’t have a suspect in mind… They had a long history with Bill Liske’s son, 24-year-old William J. Liske. The younger William went by the nick name B.J. and had been on the police’s radar since he was 16 back in 2002 when his father Bill called police to report that B.J., who was on house arrest at the time, was threatening to harm himself. When officers arrived at the home, B.J. attacked them and was charged in juvenile court for assaulting a peace officer. Bill and Susan had gotten married in the year before and tried to create a loving home for Bill’s 15 year old son B.J. and Susan’s 2 boys, 14 year old Derek and 7 year old Devon. But B.J. resented the new family situation – and specifically his new stepmother – from the start. He began acting out and skipping school. Sometimes BJ’s behavior was more than the family could handle on the their own. Bill started called a family friend, named Mark Gradel, for backup. He’d call Mark and say 'Hey, come over, it's B.J,' or 'B.J. is getting goofy.' But there were also a few times when a teenaged Derek called Mark for help because Bill and B.J. were physically fighting. Mark said he had some "serious" talks with Bill about his family's safety being jeopardized by B.J. But Bill would always tell Mark, “B.J. won’t hurt us”. He was Bill’s only son and always saw the good in him. The neighbors, however, still suffered. They suspected B.J. was responsible for torturing and killing their pets. Even Mark’s own dog was shot twice with .22-caliber bullets. In October 2004, B.J. got into a fight with his stepmother, Susan, and punched her in the chest. In December that same year, he was charged with felonious assault and robbery for hitting his stepmother with a coffee cup and stealing her car keys. At that time, he was found incompetent to stand trial, and the charges were eventually dropped. The next time he attempted to attack his stepmom while she was in the shower, and Bill had finally had enough and kicked a now 18-year-old B.J. out of the family home. But in February 2006 when B.J. was 20, Bill applied and was granted guardianship over his son in court. In his application Bill stated that he wanted to get his B.J. help and eventually see him in a halfway house or group home. He said that as long as B.J. was taking his meds he did great. But like a lot of people, BJ would feel ok and think he no longer needed them. Then he’d self-medicate by drinking or smoking pot which would make him worse. Soon after, BJ was hospitalized and diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type. People with schizoaffective disorder experience psychotic symptoms, like hallucinations or delusions. When it’s diagnosed as bipolar type, then they also have episodes of mania and depression. After he was released from the hospital, B.J. went to live in a group home for mental health patients in Sandusky, Ohio, just 30 minutes away from his family. Bill would visit him often. But while living there, B.J still had at least 3 encounters with police, including a physical fight between B.J. and his dad after Bill had picked him up from the group home. Back to Halloween 2010 when the murders took place. The week before, Bill took some vacation time to take his son deer hunting. Bill and B.J. went to the family's hunting cabin in Carroll County, Ohio – about 3 hours away. They returned to the family home in Oak Harbor less than 24 hours before the murders. That Saturday night, Bill invited a few friends over for beer. Neighbor Mark Gradel was there and he noted that he didn’t see 23-year-old Derek that night but it wasn’t surprising as he and B.J. still didn’t get along. But when everyone left around midnight, Bill had been drinking he decided he shouldn’t drive B.J. back to the group home in Sandusky. So a bed was made up for him on the couch. Because of his sometime violent behavior, it was rare for B.J. to stay the night. Mark’s wife, Michele Gradel, told police she heard what sounded like gunshots at about 6:30 a.m. October 31. Devon Griffin, Susan’s younger son, had spent the weekend with his dad, but came home at about 9:30 that morning to change his shirt for church and grab his choir stuff. He ran into B.J. who was loading something into Bill’s white truck. B.J. uncharacteristically asked Devon what he was doing and how long he'd be gone. Devon told police that B.J. was seemed happier, more upbeat and more talkative than usual. Devon was only in the house for maybe 5 minutes. Police believed that Derek was attacked first, as he slept. B.J. hit him with the claw hammer and the coroner’s report listed cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head. He most likely died within a few minutes of the first blow. Next, B.J. shot his father, Bill, 5 times in the head and face, at close range. Bill was found with the covers pulled up over him and it appears that he was shot as he slept. Susan was shot 3 times and had a defensive wound to her hand. It’s unclear if she was sexually assaulted before or after she was killed. Their wounds were from a small caliber weapon, likely a .22. No shell casings were found at the scene. The day after the murders detectives drove out to the family’s Carroll County cabin and found the white pickup truck outside. As police pulled up, B.J. came out of the cabin, leaned against a post on the porch and lit a cigarette. The approached him with guns drawn and arrested him. Blood and a .22-caliber rifle were found in the pickup. DNA from all 3 victims were found on B.J.’s clothes. There was an uneaten Subway sandwich on the counter in the cabin. Police obtained footage of B.J. purchasing it at a local restaurant. Nothing in the way he acted in that video recording would lead someone to believe he had just brutally murdered 3 family members the day before. In a recorded jail phone call between B.J. and his mother, she asked him, ‘BJ, how could you? And he says, ‘I wasn’t in my right mind.' Then he quickly adds, ‘Mom, I can't talk about this any more,'" Shortly after that, he pled guilty to 3 counts of aggravated murder to save himself from the death penalty. He received 3 life sentences without parole. In 2015, he was found dead in his cell from a self-inflicted wound. Sources: Sandusky register .com The Alliance Review at The review .com Medium .com Oxygen .com The mystique at medium .com The daily mail .co .uk