Collier Landry Boyle

My parents were never really affectionate with one another. I don't ever really recall seeing them hold hands or embrace or anything like that. It had been a while since they had been, you know, I would imagine, together in any sort of way. A lot of times he would be sleeping on the couch and that's how I would find him in the morning.

I definitely seen them argue, but I never knew what it was about.

My father would have this temper that you could just set off at the drop of a hat. And there was no telling what would set him off. We would go outside to play catch, and he would end up trying to throw fastballs and hit me in the groin or my head to teach me how to be a man.

So my father says, I'm going to stop, get a tan real quick. So we stopped at the tanning salon. And out comes Sherry. I was like, oh, that's the woman from the other week, you know, the patient. And Sherry comes out of the tanning salon with these two radio control cars. And she's like, happy Father's Day. And my dad's like, oh, what a nice surprise. And she's got the batteries and everything.

And as she's, you know, handing everything over, I look at her hand and I notice a ring on it. My mother was very into jewelry and handbags and clothing and all these things. So I was always a kid who paid attention to like watches, jewelry, all that stuff. So I see this ring and it's unmistakable because it is identical to a ring that my father had given my mother that was a diamond slide ring.

So I'm just kind of doodling away, and we have all these doctors and their wives around us. And my father's telling this story of how he was flying a solo mission for the Navy. during the Vietnam War over the South China Sea and he gets shot down in his fighter plane.

And it had this like shaft and the diamond slid back and forth in the shaft of the ring. And I looked at it on her finger and I looked up at her and I said, oh, I like your ring. My mommy has a ring just like that. I had never seen that ring before other than on my mother's hand. And then she looked at my father and kind of giggled.

And I take the batteries and I'm all excited because I'm playing with the radio control car in the parking lot. And I look up and I see my father making out with Sherry. I mean, I, I just, I'm standing there in the parking lot, just kind of looking at them like, what is, I'm just trying to go back to like play with the car. And I just keep looking like, what is happening here?

So my father says, we have to go. I get in the front seat and my father gets in the car and my father says to me, I need you to do daddy a favor. I need you to tell mommy that I gave you the radio control cars as a gift for getting good grades this year in school. That's the first time that I can remember my father asking me to lie to my mother. So we go home and I tell my mother the lie inside.

I'm just sick to my stomach and I'm just torn up inside. My stomach is in knots. And then the next morning I wake up. My mom says, why don't you go play with your radio control car? take the radio control car out in the driveway and I'm playing with it. And I'm so, because all it is just playing back in my head over and over and over again. The ring, the kiss, the party, like all these pieces.

And I go in and my mother's on the porch and I started telling her about everything. I feel so embarrassed. I'm feeling all of this like wave of emotions. She thanked me for telling her the truth. And I remember she very calmly got up and she asked me to go outside and she went into the kitchen to use the telephone and... I heard lots of words and lots of screaming on the telephone.

And all I could think about was my sort of childhood facade or family life as I knew it was over.

The smoke in the engines is billowing and he's trying to pull the ejection lever and his F-14 Tomahawk crash lands into the South China Sea. And he cannot get out. And the water is coming in through the cracked cockpit, right? As he's slowly sinking. And he gets out his trusty bowie knife and uses the blade to cut his way out of the cockpit. And he sees an island off into the distance.

So every time I'm telling Dave about any of this stuff, it's almost kind of hard to get a read on Dave because he's just very like, hmm. He would go, hmm. So every time he would go, hmm, I knew that he was thinking like, oh, that's weird. That was his way of reacting. He never let on that like that was a clue or anything like that, but he did because it was like, huh, hmm. That's worth noting.

That night, Sherry drops in with a pork roast and sauerkraut because New Year's. And she just comes in and starts like playing house. Like, oh, I made you guys dinner and this and that. And I'm like, this is awful. Thinking to myself, because she's a terrible cook. And my father's like, oh, this is so good. And he's eating and he's telling her how great the food is. And they're just talking.

And I get up and I leave the table at some point because I just didn't want to be there.

And he swam to this island. And he survives in the jungle, eating bark and slugs and waits for the naval team to rescue him. And my mother is listening and nodding because she's enthralled with the story.

Everybody wants to believe their father is a, you know, the savior of the world, right?

So every day that I go to school, I'm trying to like check in with Dave, whether I ask him to come to the school to talk to me or I'm just checking in with him on the telephone.

There was a matador and a bull. And I remember, I'm gonna be the bull. And my mom was like, dinner's ready. And I run with my eyes closed and I run smack dab into our Land's End table and I split my head open. They take me to the naval base where my father worked at the hospital right there, the clinic.

My mom's freaking out and he's stitching me up, you know, and I remember I was like crying and my mom was feeding me like salami and provolone cheese because we didn't get to have our dinner, but he stitched me up. And it was like one of those moments of like my dad being there to save me.

I mean, my mother was my whole world. The sun rose and set with her, you know. I just loved being around my mom. I would help her like shop. She loved to go to museums, the theater. She loved cultural things.

I remember one time my mother was like shopping at Tiffany's. There was a Rolex counter. There was this sales girl working at the counter and I got her to let me try on a Rolex. My mother was mortified because first of all, we're not buying you a Rolex.

Second of all, she was mortified that I had talked the sales girl into letting me put this, you know, whatever, $5,000 watch on my wrist and walk around the store with it. I just thought it was fun to play grownup. And she just got a kick out of that because she just was like, that's my little boy. Like he just charms people into doing things for him, I guess.

My mother used to say he's 11 going on 40. That's what she would tell people.

If we were going somewhere, I was expected to behave a certain way, where I was maybe upholding my aristocratic family, if you will.

My mother's last name was Schmidt. We were related to Schmidt's Brewery in Philadelphia. And she was related to Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco.

My mother had a station wagon where, you know, you have the front seats, then you have the middle seats, then you have the back seat that faces out the back, right? On road trips, my parents would be playing, you know, the Philharmonic. And I'd be over the orchestra pit, which was the back of the station wagon, conducting as if I was conducting the orchestra.

Maybe I was using a soda straw as my baton, maybe. They thought it was hilarious.

I was taking tap dance lessons, so I would tap dance for the patients and then I had this little harmonica, which I still have, and I would play like the harmonica and like sing and do a whole little thing to entertain.

We go to this party in the middle of the sticks. And these are, you know, I mean this with all due respect, but these are rednecks. These are beer drinking, quad riding, you know, salt of the earth type of people. I looked around and I thought, this is a whole different world. Here I am in my little penny loafers, my little polo shirt and little shorts.

And I remember Sherry got on the quad and she said, do you want to ride the quad with me? And I was like, okay. I was like, I'm here. I'm like, I'm going to have fun, right?

I looked back. And my father is walking with Sherry, talking to her, and he has his arm around her. They're in this very serious conversation. And later on, we say our goodbyes and we get in the truck and I ask my father, who is that woman? He tells me she's daddy's patient and she's terminally ill. And daddy was consoling her. I was like, oh, that's terrible. That's absolutely terrible.

A lot of times he would come in late at night or he would be gone by the morning.

I didn't really know what their marriage was other than it looked normal. But what is normal?

Collier said, Lieutenant Messmore found your mother.

We go to my father's office and on the way back, we stop at a gas station. And my father used to, do you know what mallow cups are? They're like Reese cups with marshmallow in them. He was like really into mallow cups. And so we went into the gas station to get those, but he left me in the truck. And I'm watching through the windshield and I see him inside the gas station.

And I just start rummaging through his truck and I open up the center console. And that's when I find two photographs. One is of a house that I've never seen before. And the other one is of his girlfriend, Sherry Campbell, with her two kids who I knew. And they're sitting in front of a fireplace that's like covered in plastic. So it looks like a new fireplace.

Hmm. Hmm. And that was when things started to sort of get hairy.

He told me, you know, that they had found my mother's body. And it was buried underneath the house that I found the photos of. I remember asking him, did she look like she was at peace? And he said, yes. I'm sure he was lying. And I was really sad. I was also sad for Dave, because I knew he wanted a different outcome too. I knew he probably wanted more than anything to say. I found her.

She's okay. We've found her shopping and, you know, you know, she just need a little break, but she's back now. I knew that's probably the story he would have rather have told me. But I also know that he wanted to be there to tell me about it. He was my partner in crime.

There's a finality to it. Because there's always that little modicum of hope. And I believe I started crying, but I also was just, my whole life was just, everything had just changed.

And the one person that can make it all better isn't there anymore.

Did you honor about December 31st of 1989 caused the death of Noreen Boyle? No, I did not. I never harmed her at all.

These guys didn't really see her coming.

If something ever happened to me, then they would know who did it.

I just needed to be reminded that there was somebody in my life that also remembered my mother that was doing something to try to find her. Somebody else is in this with me. It's not just me.

Because my father always had these really well manicured hands. He was really particular about that. Because when you're a doctor, you're always washing your hands and stuff. So he was really careful with that. And so I start noticing there's like cuts on his hands. When my father comes home one night, his shoulders hurt or really sore.

And he asked me to rub Bengay on his shoulders because he said he had been moving boxes all day. And there was some bruising on his arms too. I thought that was weird. My father was not like a manual labor person.

We're having this conversation at the dinner table, and he says, you know, Collier, I know this has been really hard for you, With mommy, you know, abandoning us, we're all having a really tough time, myself included. Like, I don't know why she would be doing this to us. I have a medical convention that's happening in Clearwater, Florida.

He says to me that we should take a father and son trip together to go to this medical convention so I can have a break from everything.

So the next morning I go to school, I call Dave and I say, this is what's happening. I said, no, no, no, no, no.

It was around middle of January. My father says to me that he was going to go to his office to pick up some paperwork. And he said, did I want to come along with him?

There are these two people from Children's Services that come into my room and they're like, you've got 20 minutes to pack a bag. We're getting you out of here. And I can hear all this commotion downstairs, like all hell breaking loose. My grandmother's yelling at somebody. I'm like, what is happening? And I start packing a bag for myself and I pack a bag for my sister with like her toys.

So we're coming downstairs and there's Dave Messmore talking to my grandmother. So they take me to the principal of my school's house. And she kind of is telling me, you're going to stay here for a little bit while everything gets sorted out.

and I thought I would come down to PNN, the prison news network.

Dave Messmore was with me at the absolute lowest point of my life. We had a bond that no one will take away. He was sort of like the father that I wished I had had.

We had lunch, and I drank two glasses of milk and a glass of juice. I had some Cheerios, generic Cheerios.

I'm working on the project that we discussed, and I'll try to get your letter out as soon as I can. It'll be predated, of course, and I'll put some instructions in there.

I did not kill Mommy. I am not responsible for her disappearance. I am not part of any plot against her.

Dear Dad, I've been so busy with school I haven't found time to write. How was Easter? Did you do anything sort of special?

Dad, just to get this off my chest, why did you kill my mom? Don't get me wrong. I do love you even though you have hurt me, my family, and my mother. You are my father, and I owe you a great debt. I am proud to be an heir to the Boyle name, disregarding my family's faults. I love you. Yours very truly, Collier.

I have much anger for your trial antics. Maybe I should say performance. I am here because of your testimony in part not because I committed a crime against mommy.

I just wanted to be a kid, and I really loved their family, and so I wanted to really experience all of that.

Collier. I'm in receipt of your recent communication. Your poisonous communication is simply the apt product of some nearby cesspool, the stank of which seems to have been foisted upon your brain.

You blaspheme God's name in your vitriol to me. Yes, it is readily apparent to a casual reader of your communication that it is Lord Lucifer whom you serve and who holds your soul.

So... Now I'm the fall guy. Now you're trying to make me the bad guy. Why don't you look in the mirror and see the bad guy is your own hate and anger. For it is I alone who allowed you to be pampered and spoiled and satisfied your every want. I see you have continued to wallow in self-pity and that is truly sad. You are still trying to play the innocent victim. Grow up and act like a man.

This pathetic poor me act will not serve you. You unctuous brat, you shameful coward. You are an outcast and too stupid to realize it. You infect all around you. I'm at peace with myself. Are you? John Boyle, A-222633.

Dear Dad, I recently received your package of the letters you sent back to me, so I will keep them for you. Why are you all of the sudden so angry with me? Is it because I didn't sign the paper that said my testimony was untrue? This really bothers me because I don't want you to be angry with me. I just wish you could admit your guilt and go on with life.

I need to know what really happened so that I can start to deal with it. There is always going to be a doubt in my mind whether or not one day mommy is going to come ring my doorbell and say, here I am. And I will always doubt whether or not you killed her. I want you to know that I do still care about you. And I hope the feeling is mutual. Love, Collier.

You're telling me that maybe my mother's body isn't my mother's? I mean, you're telling me that there's a possibility that maybe my mother's alive? Of course it gave me a shred of hope.

So his endorsement would be very good. Crucial might even be the word, yeah.

I lost everything in my family. I'm alone. I just want some sense of normalcy, right?

I cried. I cried. I cried.

I just, it was such a gut punch. I just felt broken in that moment.

I come from a family that's not ugly.

I asked the Zieglers if they would consider giving me up for adoption to the Massimoors. So they could adopt me and then they could give me up for adoption and Dave and Sue could take me.

It's sort of like you're more than a house guest. And I felt like their son, but there's also this part of you that feels like you're not quite 100% there. First couple of years were awkward. For sure. I was trying to figure out my life and just going to therapy and then just felt like there was something wrong with me all the time.

And then every time we wanted to do family therapy, then it just didn't work out. I didn't understand why I had to be there. Yeah, he didn't want to be there.

And it was causing me issues in school and people, you know, kids picked on me and stuff.

They would always catch me in little lies and they were worried that I would end up like my father. And they wanted to do everything in their power to make sure I didn't end up like my father.

This is a fucking complicated situation. You know what I mean? I think I was always seeking my father's approval.

Hi, Bumper. Good morning. It's Sunday, August the 7th.

Well, it was difficult for me to see him there saying things which were not correct.

John Francis Boyle, Jr. What's your date of birth, John? May 1st, 1943.

She stood there and threw credit cards at me.

She was dressed. She had her clothing on. She had an overcoat and a hat and was carrying her purse. I saw Noreen get into a car at the end of the driveway.

No, I did not. I did not kill Noreen. I never harmed her at all. I did not hire anyone or ask or counsel or incite or anything else like that to take the life of Noreen Boyle.

I was not the mastermind or orchestrator.

No, it's not accurate.

I'm human and normal, just like you and the rest of the people in this courtroom are.

Oh, the tarp?

The same thing. I mean, what am I going to do here? The tarp happened to be convenient. It was on the back porch. Again, trying to figure out, how am I going to correct this or fix this? Even if I'm able to fix it, who knows? I figured, let me dig up the basement. That's where we went.

The mindset was to keep moving for somehow, maybe psychologically thinking I'm distancing myself from the tragedy by moving, by driving to Erie.

Yeah, I was happy. I was happy.

Of course, I didn't know how to use it, but, you know... Uh... Just an absolute mess. Absolute mess.

I just kind of dragged it over and put it in the hole. Such a naive day of trying to, I think it's going to go away on its own or disappear on its own. Thinking if I covered it up, It would never be discovered and I would never have to see it again or think about it.

Well, I guess I must have been because no one ever said anything to me. So I must have had some kind of

He used to sleep on the floor next to his crib. You know, all those kind of nervous father things. He was a good baby, a good young man. And I expect he still is. I still wanted to have a relationship as my son and a father. I always wanted that. I want that to this moment.

Well, they're absolutely correct. I mean, I have lied in the past and I admit to that, to doing that. Noreen's death will always remain a tragedy forever into eternity. And I'm the one responsible for that, accidental or otherwise.

Well, there always could be that, sure.

I mean, I know full well that I was responsible. I was guilty.

Yes, I think that I was being railroaded. These guys all were in collusion of some sort. Jack is the new guy in town. We don't care about him. We're the old timers here in town.

And maybe Collier did too. What Collier did... So here we go. Daddy's the bad guy and he killed Mommy. I'm never going to talk to Daddy again.

Anyways. I'm sort of struggling a lot lately with... what I'm going to say to my father because it's been so long. I don't know.

Have you received any of the mail, the two manila envelopes yet?

You have to hit the rock bottom. And then when you hit the bottom, then you can start to move forward.

Thinking about suicide, thinking about harming yourself, thinking about what a terrible person you are, thinking about there's no future anywhere in anything you do.

It was not the skies opening up and the flutter of angels' wings and starbursts or whatever. I just had a very warm sense and a calming presence all over me. And that's when my actual life turned around.

Well, yes, God does forgive.

What am I doing wrong that they don't want me out of prison? And they keep telling me, keep doing what you're doing. Should I take any special program? No. Should I do something special? No. Just keep doing what you're doing.

His input as a victim's son of the victim, child of the mother killed, you know, it's important stuff.

I mean, he'd just have to say, I love you, Daddy, and I think you were a bad boy, and you should stay in prison. Well, they're going to take that as keeping me here for life. That's how they do.

I had asked him, By way of email, he would write a letter of support, supporting my parole. And of course, I never got an answer back. It's not funny. I can't think of the right word. But, you know, because of this whole thing, he's now become my arch enemy, so to speak.

I think my father was controlling. I think he's a psychopath. And I think he wanted to have control of my mother. And he wanted her to be right underneath his feet. I think it was some sick, twisted shit.

I don't know how I feel about his parole.

Yeah, I really do, yeah. Yeah.

Hey, movers. Welcome back to another episode of Moving Past Murder. I'm your host, Collier Landry, and what's going on? Never gets old. It really doesn't. I love doing it.

I remember asking these questions about my mother to her and learning about that the brewery didn't exist. We didn't come from this wealthy family, which I mean, I guess probably deep down inside I realized.

And don't forget, the last picture I sent you, would you scan it to Collier?

In a lot of ways, I almost deified my mother. But when I found out about that, I think it almost humanized her in a way with me. It kind of knocked her down off Olympus a little bit. And she came down to the land of the mortals and I realized that she was a human being with real flaws.

Tell him I said hello and I love him.

On one side, you have this man who's a monster, who did all these very destructive things. On the other hand, he's my father, and I do love him, and I want to make sure he's okay.

So I don't know. I don't know what he's going to say or do or anything like that. So it's all a lot.

Can hear you.

Can't you hear me? I can hear you. I just couldn't hear you back. Now I can hear you. Yeah.

So the game is about ready to have its first snap. The Eagles, Kansas City won the toss and deferred to the Eagles.

I hope so. They win. They deserve it. They worked hard this last couple years to get there. So we'll see what happens.

So I have an email from my father. Bumper, please let me know if this email gets through to you. Hoping this works, dad. To the point, very succinct. I've put up some boundaries, obviously. And boundaries are good for protecting one's mental health. But it is, in a way, too, it's nice to, you know, be able to communicate with him. So I guess here we go. Nice to hear from you.

What is your plan with August?

That's, I'm prepared to, there's not a problem or anything there.

Yeah, right.

And I will go to the Kineway Embark house in Franklin County for 90 days.

That's a good question.

I think I should be okay in terms of getting some kind of a job without any problems. You know, I'm a hard worker. I go where I gotta go, so I'm good.

I don't have a garage to put you in anyways.

Hello? Dad, can you hear me? I think I lost you. I'll wait for it to circle back around. You there? You there, Pop? Hello? Dad, can you hear me?

I asked him, do you have a room for me or a place in the garage? And then he said, no, I don't have a garage in my house. So that was like a joke about if daddy moves in with Collier, daddy's going to move into the garage. That kind of thing. Just a joke kind of thing.

Yeah, I didn't want to. I didn't want him to think I was obligating him to find a place for me to live in his house. I mean, he may offer that down the road, I don't know.

I don't feel vengeful towards my father and me investigating with Dave and the trial and him going to prison and all of that. I think that I was satisfied with that outcome. That was the vengeance. But it doesn't mean that we can skip down the yellow brick road holding hands and being like, ah, you know, everything's great. You know? Thank you.

Collier starts typing. Hi, Pop. What do I say? Nice to talk to you. Long time? I don't really know. I mean, it's been a while, right? So now I'm analyzing what I wrote because it's my father and he might be critical of my writing. So now I'm like, all right, I'm sending it. Let me grammatically correct this really fast. I guess some things never change.

The things I'm talking with you, I've never talked to anybody after the trial. I tried to sequester this, as painful and bad as it was, in a part of my mind that I wouldn't have to ever think about again.

And when I came home that night, my mom made a cup of tea and put a piece of cake out for me. She came and put it and was on that table. So with the cake, of course, my mother being proper, there was a cake knife and a little cake fork and all that stuff.

I never expected that kind of behavior from her where she would be so irate.

She wasn't wearing clothes.

No, she had her panties on, that's all.

I think maybe she wanted to get me upset over the divorce. Oh, look, you're going to lose something terrific.

When the judge said that, I think that blew her whole world up

She started, you know, ranting and raving about she didn't like Mansfield, she didn't like this town. She should have never left Philadelphia. She should have never married me, you know. And, of course, I was adding more logs to the fire. I said, well, I guess you're right. You shouldn't have married me.

The cake knife. She could have grabbed the fork, but I'm pretty sure she grabbed the cake knife and waved it in front of him.

Yes, yes, I hear you.

And that's when I pushed her away from me. And I backpedaled off the sofa and hit the floor. And of course, she went the other direction. There was another chair off on the side, a single chair with a footstool, and that's what she hit her head on. That footstool.

I said, I got to get out of here. I went up to grab my little gym bag. I didn't know where I was going to go. Probably go back to my office and sleep on a chair or something. So I was upstairs probably 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes.

She was right there on the floor where I left her. And I said, oh my God, now what?

And then I went to kind of battle stations looking for a pulse and looking for a breath, and I said, oh my God.

All went downhill from there.

This is unbelievable that this has occurred. You know, like, oh my God. I just can't look at this.

Oh, boy. She looked, in a sense, she looked serene and quiet, as if she was sleeping. You know, in a sense, she looked peaceful. I just couldn't, I just emotionally could not look at her body like that, her face.

So what did you think when you learned that Sherry was pregnant? Well, I was kind of surprised. She was on birth control pills.

I mean, the fact that she was dead.

And the reason I tied it, I didn't want the bag to come off.

Positive. I am positive, which is all part of my panic. I was like, what am I going to do? What do I do? I don't know what to do. And somewhere in all that disjointed thinking came the idea, oh, I could take the body up to Erie and bury the body.

The stupid jackhammer was in the car. It was just an incidental thing.

So I think those were just happenstances.

I'm Collier Landry Boyle.

I am 12 years old.

I heard the two bangs and heard the scream.

And then I heard the footsteps.

I looked in my mother's bedroom.

Collier Landry Boyle wasn't your average 12-year-old. He was very smart. He was very determined.