MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Fan Favorite - "Murder by the Slice"
27 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Today's episode is a fan favorite. The audio in the story has been remastered for today's episode. On a spring night in 2009, a middle-aged married couple was closing up the local pizza place they ran in a small Virginia mountain town. The husband walked to the back of the restaurant and grabbed a large bucket of ice. He carried the bucket out the back door and dumped the ice into the grass.
He stood up, and for a moment, he just felt the cool breeze on his face. It was a nice change from the hot pizza ovens he'd been working around all night. But then, right before he turned to go back inside, he heard screaming coming from inside the restaurant.
Chapter 2: What events unfolded on the night of the murders at Pizza Plus?
Without hesitation, he dropped the bucket and ran inside. But when he discovered what was happening in there, all he could do was turn and run for his life. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
So if that's of interest to you, tell the follow button you have a hilarious joke and then spend 20 minutes on the setup, but then never give them the punchline. Okay, let's get into today's story. On Sunday night, March 29th, 2009, 48-year-old Valerie Looney pulled a fresh hot pizza from an oven at Pizza Plus, a busy restaurant in a small mountain town in Tazewell County, Virginia.
Valerie slid the pizza onto a serving tray and then walked around the front counter and delivered it to a booth filled with local police officers. The officers thanked Valerie by name and then dug into their pizza.
valerie checked on the other diners who had filled up almost all of the booths inside the restaurant and then afterward she headed around the front counter and went back into the kitchen and there she saw her husband harvey standing by one of the pizza ovens valerie was short with crop brown hair and harvey was a big guy with gray hair and a bushy beard but despite the huge differences in their physical appearances everybody who knew them thought they had always looked perfect together
Harvey pointed to the clock hanging on the wall by the oven, and he grinned at his wife. He said it was only a few more hours until their 29th anniversary. Valerie smiled back and then jokingly told Harvey to get back to work. Valerie had been the manager at Pizza Plus for over 10 years, and her husband Harvey had been working for her for the past seven years.
The couple knew a lot of people would shudder at the thought of working alongside their spouse day in and day out, but it was actually what Valerie and Harvey had always wanted. In fact, while other people might dream about, you know, making a ton of money or traveling the world, all Valerie and Harvey ever wanted was just to spend as much time together and also with their son Chris as possible.
And so Valerie and Harvey working together accomplished a portion of that goal. Harvey got back to work like his wife had jokingly suggested, and he began to prepare some pizza dough for the next order. As he did that, Valerie stood up on her toes and gave Harvey a kiss on the cheek, and then she headed back into the restaurant's dining room.
Pizza Plus was a really popular restaurant in this little town. The entire town only took up a few square miles, and it was surrounded by thick woods and then mountains beyond that. And at times, the people who lived there could feel isolated from the rest of the world.
And so Pizza Plus had become almost like a meeting place where everybody could get together and feel connected to their community, at least for a little while. And Valerie and Harvey had really embraced that aspect of their work. The two of them always seemed so happy and welcoming to patrons. I mean, they wanted their customers to feel like they were hanging out with family when they were there.
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Chapter 3: How did the community react to the tragic events involving Valerie and Harvey?
For a second, Valerie thought about scolding him, but she stopped herself. Instead, she just thanked Brian and then turned and walked back to the front counter. Pizza Plus stayed busy the whole night until they closed around 10 p.m. Valerie and Harvey said goodbye to the last of their customers, and when the dining room was empty, Valerie walked to the counter and opened up the cash register.
And while Valerie counted the money and did the paperwork for the night, Brian trudged out to the front of the store and began mopping, and Harvey cleaned up the kitchen and the back of the restaurant. And at some point after cleaning for a while, Harvey picked up a large bucket of ice and shouted towards the front of the store to Valerie that he was going out back to dump the ice.
Valerie responded by saying that Brian was finished with the mopping and she was almost done with the paperwork, so when he was done, they could leave. Harvey carefully picked up the ice bucket, walked out the back door, and dumped the ice onto a small patch of grass. And after he was done, he set the bucket down, and Harvey just bent over at the waist, trying to catch his breath.
He hated to admit it, and he would never want his wife or his son Chris to see him like this, but even the smallest physical tasks, like dumping this ice, had really started to wear Harvey out. And so after standing outside in private for a couple of seconds there, Harvey was about to go back inside when suddenly he heard screaming coming from inside the restaurant.
And so instantly Harvey charged back inside. And the second he did, the screaming got louder and louder and he called out for his wife. But then a second later, the screaming completely stopped and the entire restaurant went completely silent. At 8.40 a.m. the following morning, a woman named Mary Fullen walked down the street towards Pizza Plus.
She was on her way to open up the restaurant that day and then work the lunch shift. Mary passed a car wash not far from the restaurant, and she waved to a couple of people outside trying a car. Then she walked a bit further down the street and went around to the back of Pizza Plus. When she got there, she looked down and reached into her pocket to grab her key to the back door.
But when she looked up, she saw Harvey laying face down right behind the back of the store. And so Mary ran over to him and began yelling his name, but as she did, she could see he was laying in a pool of blood.
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Chapter 4: What evidence did investigators find at the crime scene?
Mary shook him like it might wake him up, but she knew he was dead. And so in a total panic, Mary threw open the back door of the restaurant, barely noticing she didn't have to use her key to get in. And then once inside, she ran for the phone on the front counter to call police.
But before she could even get there, when she was in the kitchen, she looked down and found Valerie, who was also on the floor, blood covering her hair and her clothes. It was obvious that she was dead too. And so Mary began crying and her whole body was shaking, but she still made it to the phone and she dialed 911.
The operator told her police would be right there and that for now she needed to get out of the restaurant immediately. And so Mary hung up and just ran out the front door, not noticing that that door too was also unlocked. A few minutes later, the Tazewell chief of police, David Mills, pulled up in front of the Pizza Plus and just sat there in his car for a minute.
When the call had come into the station, Mills and the small group of officers who worked under him couldn't believe it. They all knew Valerie and Harvey really well. In fact, they usually went to Pizza Plus as a group at least a few times a week.
Mills looked at his windshield, and he saw a couple of officers from the county sheriff's department standing with Mary in front of the restaurant, the woman who had called this in. Mills took a long, deep breath, then stepped out of his car and went up and joined them. All of the officers knew Mary about as well as they knew Valerie and Harvey.
Mills could see Mary was a total wreck, and so while he didn't want to press her too hard, he did ask her if she could just fill him in on everything she had seen and heard that morning. Mary told Mills she'd been coming in to open the restaurant when she had found Harvey out back, and then when she ran inside to use the phone, she found Valerie lying on the kitchen floor.
Mills told Mary he was so sorry she had to see that, and then he asked her if she had had to use her key to unlock the door when she went inside. Mary looked like she hadn't even thought about this, and then she told Mills and the other officers that were there that actually the back door had been unlocked when she ran in.
And also, now that she thought about it, the front door had also been unlocked when she ran back out again. Mills thanked her and then asked her to please wait outside. Then Mills and one of the county officers put on their gloves and walked into the restaurant. The sight of Valerie laying there on the kitchen floor, surrounded by a huge pool of blood, almost knocked Mills back.
He had known Valerie for years, and he couldn't remember a single person ever speaking badly about her. It might sound foolish to people outside of the area, but as the manager of the local pizza place, Valerie was a huge part of this community. And sometimes, after a bad day, a good slice of pizza and a great conversation with Valerie could turn everything around.
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Chapter 5: Who were the initial suspects in the murders of Valerie and Harvey?
Mills and the other officer collected themselves, and then Mills noticed that from where he was standing, he could see the front counter. And he noticed at the front counter was the cash register, and the drawer was open, and it appeared to be empty. So Mills' first thought was that somebody had come in to rob the place when Valerie was counting cash and closing for the night.
And maybe Valerie put up a fight, and the robber attacked her and killed her. And then obviously at some point after that, Harvey must have gotten involved and gotten attacked and killed too. The investigators headed down a hallway to the back door and they stepped outside. And there they saw Harvey's body on the ground.
He did have one major wound, but it didn't look like the attack on him had been nearly as violent as the one on his wife. Mills knew they still needed to do a thorough sweep of the restaurant, but already just the sight of these two bodies made it clear to him that neither the local police nor the county sheriff had the resources to deal with a case like this on their own.
There had not been a recorded robbery homicide in the county in 20 years, and as far as Mills knew, there had actually never been a double homicide in this area, and certainly not one that involved this level of brutality. So Mills grabbed his cell phone and he made a call to the Virginia State Police.
And then after the call, he and the other officer went back into the Pizza Plus and began searching the entire restaurant. And it wouldn't take them long to find multiple pieces of evidence that seemed to paint a picture of a vicious struggle that had taken place the night before.
Mills located blood spatter on the pizza ovens not far from Valerie's body, and he saw bloodstains in the sink, like maybe the killer or killers had tried and failed to clean up after themselves. Then Mills heard the other officer calling for him. The officer was standing a few feet away from the pizza ovens, staring at a fire extinguisher that was hanging on the wall.
And when Mills joined him and looked at the extinguisher, he saw all these bloodstains on the bottom of it. And so it seemed like the extinguisher had to have been one of the murder weapons. A moment later, the two policemen left the kitchen and headed down towards the hall towards the back door again where Harvey's body was.
They had already searched the area once, but this time they were going to do a more thorough search. And this time they noticed a mop leaning up against the wall next to a bucket. Mills walked over to it and knelt down and he noticed in the mop head were several pinkish spots that looked like blood.
And what struck both investigators about this mop and the bloody fire extinguisher as kind of odd was that after both items had been used, it looked like they had been placed back where they belonged. They just kind of put them back as if nobody would notice. And so Mills and the other officer began speculating about who would do something like that.
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Chapter 6: What role did Brian Lee play in the investigation?
And they both agreed that, you know, while this was kind of a flimsy theory, it seemed like maybe it was an employee who was responsible. because an employee would know where the fire extinguisher went and where the mop went. You know, they both seemed to be back where they belonged. And so perhaps just kind of out of habit, you know, they put those things back.
A few minutes later, Mills and the other officer started yet another walk through the restaurant.
Chapter 7: How did the police connect Homer to the case?
And as they did, they heard several cars pull up out front. Mills stopped what he was doing and went outside, and there he saw members of the Virginia State Police and a state forensics team heading his way. A man wearing a dark suit extended his hand and introduced himself as Agent John Santola of the Virginia State Police.
Mills shook Santola's hand, introduced himself, and said he was glad to have some help. Then Agent Santola and the forensics team walked inside the restaurant to take blood samples and look for other possible DNA samples. And as Mills stood there outside, something suddenly hit him. He would now have to go tell Valerie and Harvey's son, Chris, that his parents were dead.
While state police searched the Pizza Plus, Mills and the county officer drove across town to the small trailer where Valerie, Harvey, and Chris had all lived together. When they got there, Mills walked up to the door and knocked. And shortly after, Chris answered. Chris was 28 years old. He wore a black sweatshirt and jeans.
And he looked really confused to see two police officers standing there. He asked Mills if everything was okay, but Mills just shook his head and asked if they could come inside. Chris said, yeah, of course, and he let the officers in.
And then once Mills and his partner got inside, Mills just turned to Chris and with a sad look on his face, he told him that unfortunately, both of his parents were deceased. They had been attacked and killed at the restaurant. For a moment, Chris just stared at Mills like he was in total shock. And then he began shaking his head and said, no, that doesn't make any sense.
Today, his parents were out of town on a trip for their 29th wedding anniversary. but Mills just shook his head and said he was very sorry, but that could not be true. His parents had not left town. In fact, they had never left the restaurant the night before. Chris eventually sat down and just stayed silent for a couple of minutes, and the officers just waited.
And then, with a shaky voice, Chris said he should have known something was wrong when he didn't hear his mother and father come home the night before, and then also this morning when he didn't see them. But Chris said he had just assumed his parents got home when he was already asleep and that they had left that morning before he woke up to go on their trip.
But now he felt like it was obvious there had been an issue. Mills nodded his head and said he was sorry to have to do this, but he did need to ask some pretty pointed questions about his parents. And Chris just nodded. And so Mills asked Chris where he was the night before, and Chris said he had been at work, and then afterward he had come home, hung out for a bit, and then went to bed.
Then Mills asked Chris what his relationship was like with his parents. Chris said their relationship had been good. He had been forced to move back in with his parents after going through a divorce, and he felt bad about it, but his mom and dad seemed happy to have him at home. After that, Mills asked Chris if he could think of anyone who might have had a grudge against either of his parents.
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Chapter 8: What new interrogation techniques were introduced to solve the case?
I mean, Harvey and Valerie were beloved in this town, so he wasn't surprised their son couldn't think of anyone. Mills said how sorry he was for Chris's loss, and he promised the police would do everything they could to get the person who had killed his parents. Then Mills and the other officer turned to leave, but then Chris told them to hold on for a second.
Mills turned around, and Chris asked him if a guy named Brian Lee had been working with his parents the night before. Mills admitted they had not gotten that far yet, but he asked Chris why would it matter if Brian in particular had been working. Chris just said his mom complained a lot about Brian and often got into arguments with him whenever they were working together.
Mills thanked Chris for the information and said they'd be in touch, and then he and the other officer walked outside, got in the car, and headed back to the crime scene. And on the way, Mills called into the station and asked them to get in touch with Brian Lee.
On March 31st, so two days after Valerie and Harpy's murders, police chief Mills and agent Santola met Brian Lee as he walked into the local police station. Brian was young and very tall, and he already looked like he wanted to turn around and make a run for it.
The news about the murders had spread through town almost as soon as cop cars started pulling up to the Pizza Plus, so Brian knew exactly why he'd been brought in. Mills and Santola led Brian to a small interview room, and inside was a table and chairs. Brian sat down on one side, Mills and Santola sat down on the other.
And pretty much right away, what investigators noticed was Brian just could not sit still. And then, before the interview really even got going, Brian said something that totally threw off Mills and Santola. Brian wanted to know how much cash the killer had taken from the register.
Now, nobody had told Brian that the register had been robbed, but the investigators knew this news could have gotten out pretty easily. Still, they were surprised that Brian's first question, when two people he worked closely with had been murdered, was about the money in the register.
Agent Santola said they couldn't discuss those details with Brian, and then after that, he asked Brian to please talk them through the last time he had seen Valerie and Harvey. Brian said he'd been working with the couple on the night they were killed, and the place had been pretty busy.
Then, once they closed, he said he mopped the whole restaurant, just like Valerie had told him to do, and then after that, he clocked out and he left. Now, right away, the mop stood out to Mills because they had found blood on the head of the mop. And so Mills, as discreetly as he could, asked Brian where he left the mop when he left.
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