Mystery Unsolved Inc True Crime

I Scream Murders

"Seventeen year old Beth and Jenny H. were your average high school girls, both working for the I Scream ice cream shop in order to make some spending money. They had worked closing together many times in the past and on the night of December 6th, the girls had a easy shift ahead of them. As Jenny's fifteen year old sister Sara and thirteen year old friend Amanda would be coming a few hours before shift end in order for Jenny to drive them home for a sleepover. Sara H. celebrated her fifteenth birthday only five weeks before the night of the murders, she was a cheerleader. Her sister was also an avid athlete, Jenny H. was a member of the track team. Seventeen year old Beth loved to read and dance, her mother believed she would be a writer one day. The youngest of the teens Amanda was still in middle school, she was an active member of the yearbook staff and skillfully creative, she had won the arts and craft division at the local fair. All four girls were friendly with each other. These bright and energetic teens were well loved in their community. The loss of those young lives and the sheer depravity of their last night in 1991 would shake Aster City, even to this day."

"'It was dark inside, smoky, burned insulation everywhere. Just the cold feeling of death.' one of the detectives said."

"'For a long time I shut out what I saw...just wholescale carnage. We knew immediately that they were kids.' The lead detective said."

"The girls were found in the prep area of the store. Two were stacked on top of each other while another girl was found nearby. It is believed that the third victim was stacked with the other girls but was knocked loose due to the water pressure from the hoses while fighting the fires. As the debris was moved from their bodies, the viciousness of the crime became apparent. Their legs were spread and it was clear that the girls had been sexually assaulted."

"Sara was naked and severely charred, she had been gagged, her hands were bound behind her back with a pair of panties. Sara died from a shot through the back of the head. A .22 caliber bullet was later recovered from her brain."

"Jenny's naked body was not bound, but she was discovered with her hands behind her back, her bindings likely destroyed in the fire. Jenny was shot with a .22 caliber weapon in the back of the head as well. Jenny suffered the most during the fire, she could only be identified during her autopsy."

"Beth's naked body was found much like the other girls, she had been bound, gagged, and shot in the back of the head also with a .22. Due to her burns it was unclear if Jenny was sexually assaulted but it was likely she had suffered the same fate."

"The only one of the four to be found separately was Amanda, it's theorized that she continued to struggle after being shot in the head with the .22 and had dragged herself from her attackers. She had a sock-like material tied around her neck and it was determined during her autopsy that she had been manually strangled, but not fatally. Amanda was the least harmed in the fire but she still suffered third-degree burns to nearly thirty percent of her body. She had two gunshot wounds, one on the left side of her head and the other behind her left ear. Horrifyingly, Amanda was still alive when First Responders arrived but she soon succumbed in the ice cream shop along with the other girls."

"When firefighters arrived on the scene, the front door was locked but the back door was propped open. Detectives soon learned that this was highly unusual as at no point did any of the girls had any reason to open that door. An arson investigator from Aster City's police department initially concluded that the fire had been started on the shelves in the storage area, had spread up the walls, and across the ceiling, down the opposite wall. This would severely hamper the case. First Responders reported no scent of an accelerant. It would be eight years later when a special investigator from Mystery Unsolved Inc reviewed the photographic evidence and based on his analysis of the burn patterns, the damage to the girl's bodies, and the relative amount of damage to the items in the area, he concluded the perpetrators had directly set fire to the bodies of the victims. The autopsy report also noted an indication of a probable use of gasoline to burn the bodies."

"The damage not only by the fire but also the efforts to put out the blaze left investigators very little in the investigation. As well as the mistakes in understanding how the fire was set, further complicating the investigation. Despite all the difficulties facing us, we weren't willing to give up. The lead detective called in assistance like Mystery Unsolved Inc to chase down every possible lead, they would relentlessly pursue justice for the innocence that was lost that night."

"Putting together the details of that December night proved a challenge for the detectives, within the first two years of the investigation, nearly five thousand leads were looked into by Mystery Unsolved Inc. None leading to an arrest. A public plea was made to anyone that visited the ice cream shop that day to speak to the police. One customer was a former cop named Darren. Somewhere between 9:30 and 10PM of the night of the sixth, Darren came into the shop to get ice cream for himself and two friends. While there he noticed a suspicious individual lingering around the shop for some time. The man was wearing military camouflage and allowed customer after customer to go ahead of him in line. When the stranger talked to Darren, he asked him if he was a cop. This further raised Darren's suspicions, so he refused to go ahead of the man in line. When the suspicious individual finally approached the counter, the man only ordered a soda and went behind the counter disappearing behind the back room. Darren asked where the man had gone and Beth replied that she allowed the man to use the restroom. Feeling uneasy Darren lingered even after his order was ready, however, the man never reemerged from the back of the store and eventually Darren left. The man in the military jacket has never come forward and has never been identified."

"Another set of customers that had came forward was a married couple who had arrived at the ice cream shop not long before 11PM, the time which the store closed. They stated they saw two young men seated in a booth by the counter, both drinking sodas and not eating ice cream. Beth and Jenny had long since begun cleaning up the store. Investigators noted that chairs had been stacked on top of tables, napkin dispensers were refilled, in fact all the tables and booths had been cleaned. All except for the one where the men were seated. These individuals have never been identified or come forward."

"At one point Mystery Unsolved Inc had three hundred and forty-two suspects. And as many as fifty confessions for the crime. One was from a notorious Aster City serial killer The Mop Killer, he had killed three children and repeatedly sexually assaulted his female victims before breaking their necks with a mop. The Mop Killer was ruled out as DNA did not match any of the samples from the ice cream shop murders."

"As more time past and with no conclusion in sight, the chances of finding who was TRULY responsible for killing four teenagers was looking less and less likely."

"In a sea of leads and confessions, frustration would begin to grow. It seemed no matter the efforts, Mystery Unsolved Inc came up empty. For years Mystery Unsolved Inc chased down every possible lead, they went after Satanist and serial killers alike however as more and more time passed, the Mystery Unsolved Inc members shrunk and even the lead detective was promoted and the case passed on from his care."

"When two cops were making a routine traffic stop, the ice cream shop murders couldn't have been on their minds. The same cannot be said about Benjamin Jerry, one of the suspects at the time. Benjamin Jerry was a white and light brown furred dog with pink eyes. Jerry suffered intense anxiety and paranoia relating to law enforcement. When the officers pulled him over, Benjamin ran. One of the cops pursued Benjamin on foot but when he caught up, a struggle ensued. Jerry pulled a knife off the officer's belt and stabbed wildly, he stabbed into the officer's neck and severed his carotid artery. Despite his injuries, the officer managed to draw his firearm and shot his attacker. The officer survived the injuries he sustained that night, however, Benjamin Jerry did not. Benjamin Jerry died alone and afraid, his greatest fears realized."

"On August 6th, 1999, six investigators were given the case and began dissecting all the old leads. One of the arrests was of a young Benjamin Jerry. Eight days after the murder, Benjamin Jerry was arrested in a mall for carrying a .22 caliber revolver, he was only sixteen at the time and had bragged to his friend Woods that the gun had been used in the murder."