Have you ever wondered how a simple disagreement between neighbors could escalate into something deadly? On this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I'll be diving into some chilling cases where neighborly disputes went way beyond petty arguments and ended in murder. From simmering tensions over property lines to grudges that festered for years, we’ll explore the tragic outcomes when civility breaks down and violence takes over. You’ll hear real stories of neighborly conflicts that spiraled out of control, leaving communities shattered and lives lost. Join me as we uncover the dark side of these deadly disputes. * Listener discretion is advised.
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0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08 I'm your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly True crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready?
0:31 Happy Wednesday?
0:32 I hope it's not as hot where you're at as it is here.
0:37 Our North Texas Fair and Rodeo started this week.
0:41 It was so much fun, but it was so steaming hot.
0:46 I have to say, I'm glad it's over.
0:48 I'm always happy that I did it, but I'm always glad that it's over when it's done.
0:52 I met some great entertainers, and our med spa had a little booth, and then we also had an area where we could do IV’s on some of the stage crew and stuff that was kind of fun.
1:03 And we made a trucker hat for Ashley McBride and gave it to her.
1:08 If you like Ashley McBride, take a look at my Facebook page and Instagram, you'll see a picture of her with the trucker hat on that I made for her.
1:17 They said she loved it and I was so happy that she even put it on her head.
1:20 Everyone stay cool and drink plenty of water.
1:25 I need to start taking a cooler on my scenes with me and just filling it with ice water.
1:29 I keep saying that, but I haven't done it yet because it gets so hot and I've gotten to the point I didn't used to, but now I'm leaving my car running because I'm not about to go into a hot scene and then come back out to my car and burn up.
1:44 You would think that being born and raised in Texas, that I would have acclimated to it by now.
1:51 But I have not, I don't think it's something that you ever really get used to.
1:56 And I don't think there are many Texans who love summer.
2:02 I mean, an occasional day at the pool is great, but I could not handle this every day.
2:08 Running a little bit behind y'all.
2:10 Grad school started back up yesterday.
2:13 I'm kind of looking ahead at my assignments to try to see if I can get a little bit ahead.
2:18 But I'm excited about this class, advanced pharmacology.
2:22 I'm hoping that it's a little bit easier than the advanced pathophysiology I took last semester.
2:28 This is an 11-week course.
2:30 It's not over until November and I don't know how much of a break I'm going to get during the holidays.
2:37 It has definitely been a challenge, working two jobs, recording a podcast and going to grad school.
2:46 But I don't know, somebody asked me the other day why I do so much.
2:50 And I think it's just because, I mean, dealing with death every day, I don't want to die, feeling like I didn't do everything I could have possibly done and taken every opportunity that I've had to, I don't know, make the most of laugh.
3:06 I don't want to regret anything.
3:09 That's why I do it.
3:11 There is an end goal, I guess for every project that I take on.
3:15 I know sometimes I take on too many.
3:17 I'm sure that some of y'all are guilty of the same thing.
3:21 Overachievers anonymous, right?
3:23 But it is what it is.
3:25 I love it.
3:26 I love to stay busy.
3:29 I love to keep my mind going and to keep learning and investigating these cases.
3:36 A lot of fun for me.
3:38 I've met a lot of new people who have reached out to me about cases, and I just say do what makes you happy.
3:45 This makes me happy.
3:47 So it's what I'm doing.
3:48 I wanted to talk to y'all about a couple of cases this week that I don't know why they're recent, but I feel like we've all had those neighbors that just absolutely get on our nerves that we can't stand to the point that we're willing to sell our house and move just to get away from them.
4:07 And I've been in that situation before.
4:10 I've also been best friends with my neighbor.
4:12 It can definitely be the opposite.
4:14 But I feel like we've all had a neighbor either directly next door or across the street or down the street that we wish was not our neighbor.
4:25 But recently there've been a lot of people killing their neighbors and I mean, not just recently it happens all the time, but I found a lot of recent cases where people just don't want to deal with it anymore.
4:37 I know growing up we had a neighbor; her name was Rosie.
4:39 We called her nosy Rosie because I swear, she was always over at our house trying to figure out what was going on, trying to get up in everybody's business and it was annoying.
4:51 Unfortunately, you don't get to choose who buys the house next door.
4:56 But in these cases, one is in Canton, Michigan, Devereaux Johnson, who's 47 he was arraigned on first degree murder charges.
5:05 After he shot his neighbor, the two were in the street in the neighborhood and got into an argument.
5:13 Nathan Morris who was a 35-year-old father of two was shot and killed while on a walk.
5:21 Now Johnson got into a verbal argument with Morris.
5:25 When Johnson saw him walking down the street, he fired a handgun multiple times fatally wounding Morris who was unarmed.
5:34 Johnson could face life in prison without parole and he's being held at the Wayne County jail without bond.
5:44 He's being charged with homicide, possession of a firearm by someone with a felony.
5:50 He will appear in court on August 23rd.
5:54 The victim, let's talk a little bit about Nathan Morris.
5:58 He was walking with his family when Johnson became angry with them.
6:04 The confrontation started after Morris's daughter touched Mulch in Johnson's yard.
6:14 Mulch, Y'all! Johnson became angry and when he confronted the family who were walking together, Morris sent his family ahead to try to calm things down and just to kind of get his kids away from the volatile situation and out comes a gun and Johnson shot him.
6:36 Now, police were dispatched to the scene at around 11:48 p.m. After shots were fired during the confrontation, the victim suffered a gunshot wound and was taken to a local hospital after the shooting, the suspect then barricaded himself in the house and after commands from the police, he ultimately surrendered.
6:59 Now Johnson had prior run ins with police for assaulting neighbors and other incidents of him assaulting police officers and a judge requested a competency exam to check on his mental health.
7:15 But Morris, who is the victim tried to deescalate the argument.
7:21 Now this just happened on Saturday, August 10th, apparently Johnson, according to his neighbors, was kind of feared in the neighborhood.
7:32 Everyone that lived close to him kind of sought every means to avoid him.
7:37 They kind of found him to be a bully and he was a little intimidating.
7:42 He was 6 ft four, about 240 pounds.
7:46 They said he just had an unsettling look, verbally confrontational with others just for making eye contact with him.
7:56 And he was supposedly getting worse every day.
7:59 People noticed him to be maybe more and more violent.
8:03 He apparently moved into this subdivision five or six years ago with a woman who was presumed to be his girlfriend and they said he pretty much immediately began to terrorize people in the neighborhood and his behavior worsened over time.
8:19 And he was a problem well known to law enforcement.
8:24 Police reportedly immediately suspected Johnson when they got the call and were alerted of the shooting due mostly to his long criminal history.
8:36 Johnson had assaulted a city employee within the last year and during his subsequent court appearances for the assault, he was arrested a second time and that's when he assaulted a police officer and an officer of the court for that crime.
8:54 He was convicted and placed on probation and his probation ended shortly before the murder.
9:02 Sources also say that he is a person of interest in a drive by shooting in Indiana.
9:09 And in addition, there are also prior convictions for forced sexual assault in Nevada, Illinois and Michigan.
9:18 This guy has been given multiple opportunities, like I said at one time was on probation, had been arrested multiple times, not a good guy.
9:30 I mean, Morris was not doing anything to him.
9:33 He was just walking, and this guy was just a ticking time bomb.
9:37 It's kind of scary to think that things like that can happen.
9:40 It's all over his daughter just touching malt in his yard, which is absolutely crazy.
9:47 Now, Nathan Morris was an engineer who recently ran for the school board and I'm pretty sure the fundraiser for his family has well exceeded $50,000.
10:00 How sad that his poor family has to live without him just because the neighbor can't control his temper.
10:07 The neighbor who in my opinion should have still been in jail for previous convictions and should not have been allowed to commit other crimes.
10:18 And I know we had talked about that before people get out and the judge goes easy on him, gives him probation.
10:24 They end up promising to live a better life and then they just commit crimes over and over.
10:32 That's exactly what happened in this case.
10:34 I don't know if he was a registered sex offender, but I did read, you know about his previous issues.
10:40 He was apparently an unemployed, former marine again.
10:46 I'm sure we've all been in that situation where we have a neighbor that we absolutely can't stand another case that occurred on January 15th this year, Christopher Casey.
10:58 Now this occurred in Pennsylvania.
11:01 Christopher Casey called 911 just after 6:30 p.m. to report a stabbing at his upper Moreland township, Pennsylvania residence at the scene.
11:12 Police found Robert Wallace who was 62 suffering from multiple stab wounds.
11:18 His body was located about 50 ft from Casey's home.
11:22 Casey also had a stab wound to his right thigh.
11:27 So both men were rushed to Abington Hospital where Wallace was pronounced dead.
11:31 About 30 minutes after the 911 call came in, police found a large military style knife on Casey's front porch and he was arrested for third degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and possessing an instrument of a crime.
11:48 Casey was sentenced in Montgomery County court between 11.5 to 23 months in county jail.
11:55 With another three years of probation.
11:58 These two men were known to local police for ongoing arguments and supposedly the argument stemmed from Casey's loud snoring.
12:10 So these two men, they live close to one another, and they shared a common wall, and a duplex and Wallace became so annoyed that he pushed in Casey's first floor window and threatened to kill him.
12:25 Wallace eventually calmed down and offered to pay for surgery to correct Casey's snoring.
12:32 But Casey did not believe that his offer was genuine, and he stabbed Wallace several times with this large military knife before he called the police.
12:42 Police found Wallace on the ground, and he was pronounced, like I said at a local hospital, Casey was treated for this self-inflicted stab wound to his right thigh.
12:54 He had pled guilty to reduce charges indicating that he had killed Wallace through unintentional recklessness.
13:03 His plea deal will allow him to be freed after 8.5 months in prison of which he has one more to serve before he'll be released on probation.
13:14 People get serious y'all and these are little things.
13:17 These are not huge incidents.
13:19 I mean, touching mulch in someone's yard and snoring. I don't know.
13:25 I feel like there is something you can do.
13:27 Move, just move.
13:30 You know, that's what I did when I was in a very similar situation and I won't go too far into detail, but I literally went as far as to put my house on the market because who wants to live next door to someone that makes you miserable or next door to someone that you're scared of?
13:47 That to me just sounds like if you can't be comfortable and feel safe in your own home, where can you feel safe at?
13:57 I really feel like sometimes moving is the only option.
14:01 I hate to be called a quitter, but it's going to lead to this eventually if all the arguments and all the issues continue to fester.
14:11 Now there was another incident in Wellington, Florida where a suspect was accused of fatally shooting a Wellington couple after confessing that he killed them over a dispute related to a basketball hoop.
14:26 This happened on Galleria Street which is part of the Black Diamond residential development just before 530 pm.
14:35 Now when police arrived, they found the bodies of the victims.
14:38 Tara Marie Jones and Taylor Glenn Jones in the front yard of the home, a witness nearby said that they heard gunshots while they were in their house, and they came outside and then saw both of the victims on the ground bleeding.
14:53 The witness said that he attempted to render aid but saw a man identified as Norman Scott who was 63 walking outside the home.
15:03 The witness asked Scott if he heard anything and his reply was, don't worry, I shot them both just before the shooting.
15:13 He was arguing with the neighbors about a basketball hoop and property boundaries.
15:19 He claimed that during the argument, both victims attacked him, so he shot them.
15:24 Now, Scott also called 911 to report the shooting and he did tell police that his neighbors attacked him and that that's the reason why he shot them.
15:34 A second witness who lives on the street said that they spoke to Scott after the shootings, and he actually admitted it.
15:40 We know now Scott had eight exterior surveillance cameras pointed toward where the shooting took place, and all of the cameras were operable and controlled by an app on Scott's phone.
15:56 Two of the surveillance cameras recorded the shooting which show Taylor Jones removing debris out of the yard and escorting his children's bicycle back in front of his home.
16:10 And the video showed Scott exiting his front door, holding a ladder and appearing to motion toward Jones.
16:18 Scott appeared to be asking him to come speak to him.
16:22 And then Taylor Jones walked towards Scott in a very non-threatening manner and the two were talking during this encounter, Taylor Jones became what appeared to be aggressive and threatening.
16:38 The video showed that Scott was clearly upset and was yelling at Taylor Jones, and both appeared to be looking and pointing towards the basketball hoop that was actually between both of the houses.
16:50 Scott reached into his right side, retrieved a handgun.
16:55 Taylor Jones backed away with both hands raised, but Scott continued to follow him while pointing the handgun at the victim.
17:02 Taylor Jones begins tumbling backward and Scott fired 3 to 4 shots even after Taylor Scott was falling to the ground and lying on his back.
17:13 Scott then turned the handgun on Tara Jones and shot her while she was on her own property.
17:20 The video showed Tara Jones retreating backward and Scott advancing towards her and after he shot her, he just turned and began walking back to his house.
17:30 Tara was shot three times, once in both legs and once in the upper chest.
17:37 And Taylor Jones was also shot three times once in the left eye once in the back and once in the right upper leg, no, they did find nine-millimeter shell casings next to them and they found the weapon used in the shooting inside Scott's home.
17:57 Now he appeared before a Palm Beach County judge facing two charges of first-degree murder with a firearm and was being held at the Palm Beach County jail without bond.
18:10 Now, I have had a neighbor like this before where they just have tons of cameras like cameras pointing down the road, cameras pointing at neighbors’ houses.
18:20 And I've had a lot of friends tell me about issues with neighbors.
18:24 It's so weird how property boundaries and little things, you know, touching your yard.
18:33 Obviously these people have problems, and it just takes one little thing to trigger them, especially if there's a history of violence, it's not going to take much to set somebody off.
18:45 And if they have a mental health disorder and they're not on any medications, that's just going to make things even worse, even like an apartment complex.
18:54 I know that it's an issue because those walls are thin.
18:57 They may not be built the best, but especially if you live downstairs and you've got 20 people living upstairs from you and they're stomping around all the time.
19:07 Over time, I know things like that anger people.
19:11 But if you have anger control issues or mental health issues or both, you never know when somebody's going to snap.
19:18 So that's what's kind of scary.
19:20 I've always gotten along well with my neighbors except for the one incident I told you about earlier.
19:24 But I mean, we all have that one time or that one neighbor.
19:28 There was another story though that I wanted to add to the stories about neighbors and this is a story in Pennsylvania, and this happened in February of 2021.
19:38 It was a winter storm.
19:39 There was a winter storm across the northeast and three neighbors are dead in a suspected murder, suicide after a Pennsylvania man opened fire on a couple during a snow shoveling dispute.
19:53 This is right on up there with the mulch and the basketball go guys, Jeffrey Spade who was 47 shot and killed his neighbors, James Goy who was 50 his wife, Lisa was 48 before he turned the gun on himself.
20:09 Now the shootings happened in Plains Township which is about 15 miles from Scranton, and it appears to be the end result of a verbal dispute about snow spilling over each other's property lines.
20:24 Crazy, right?
20:25 I mean, not that big of a deal.
20:27 Someone was having a very bad day.
20:30 There were a lot of explicative exchanges which were seen on surveillance cameras.
20:38 A lot of words that I'm not going to repeat, but basically James Goy threatened to make spades laugh a living hell.
20:46 Go's spouse was seen holding a shovel in the footage and then she was also cursing James Goy.
20:56 Then flip spade off in the footage.
21:00 Spade is seen approaching Lisa who kind of entices him by saying, go ahead, go ahead.
21:07 And then when he pulls his weapon out, her husband says you put the gun down, but Spade fired multiple rounds striking both of them.
21:16 Now, Lisa cried out to call the cops and Spade then returned to his home and got a second larger rifle and then returned to gun down.
21:27 Lisa Spade then went back into his house and shot himself with a third firearm.
21:33 So there were three weapons used in this scenario, which is, you know, every death investigator's nightmare.
21:41 We do always keep track on our death scenes when there is a weapon involved of a number of things.
21:47 You know, we have to count shell casings.
21:50 What kind of ammunition was used?
21:52 Where are the projectiles?
21:54 There's just all kinds of different things that we have to pay attention to.
21:58 When there's more than one weapon involved, it can get a little bit confusing.
22:02 But this argument has been a long running feud that these guys had spade and then the boys, I guess it had finally reached a boiling point.
22:15 The boys were just shoveling snow out of their parking spots, but the snow was getting on to Spade's property and then boom, that's how it all started again.
22:24 I think I told y'all that I had been involved in a similar incident where I sold my house because of a neighbor.
22:31 And unbeknownst to me, the husband who I wanted nothing to do with was watching me mow.
22:38 And I was in my twenties, I had two kids.
22:41 I was not in a thong or a swimsuit even.
22:44 I was in clothes.
22:45 I wore shorts and a T-shirt, wasn't showing out.
22:49 Had no idea anyone was watching me.
22:52 But apparently his wife had caught him several times and one of their Children told my daughter.
22:59 So that's how I found out that this whole feud got started, wasn't even really aware of why I was not liked by my neighbors.
23:11 But I soon found out and it made sense, you know, right, jealousy but I had nothing to do with it.
23:16 I definitely did not bring it on myself.
23:20 I was just simply mowing my yard because I was too broke to pay someone to do it for me.
23:25 It's kind of crazy though how people snap, and jealousy can cause a lot of problems and anger can cause so many problems.
23:33 Anyway, another story, another story about neighbors.
23:36 This is very similar to the basketball hoop and very similar to the mulch.
23:41 And it's just crazy how things can escalate so quickly.
23:45 And in this case, three people are dead as a result of shoveling snow.
23:52 Of course, the perpetrator committed suicide.
23:56 So there is no prison term in trial.
23:59 This case is a little bit different in that respect but wanted to remind y'all about my Patreon that is up and running.
24:07 There are several different levels of subscriptions.
24:11 I am almost up to 30,000 subscribers.
24:14 I'm so excited.
24:15 I want you to share, just share this podcast with everybody.
24:20 If you love True Crime, if you love these stories, if you love anything about them, I love that.
24:27 I work in the field every day.
24:29 So I'm exposed to these things.
24:31 I get to see the way people respond and react to death and murder and suicide.
24:39 And it's so interesting to me because everyone does respond differently.
24:43 But that's one thing that I think I bring to the table that a lot of people enjoy listening to again, the YouTube channel.
24:52 If you would like to have a conversation, shoot me a quick email, Julie at PushingUp Lilies.com.
24:58 Check out the website, PushingUpLilies.com and take a peek at the YouTube channel.
25:04 It's brains, body bags and bedside manner.
25:07 Hope you'll have an amazing week, and I look very forward to talking to you next week and going over some new exciting stories.
25:15 Take care.
25:15 Bye y'all.
25:17 Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.
25:21 If you like this podcast and would like to share with others, please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple podcast.
25:28 This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public.
25:32 Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.