ALEXIS OESTERLE - 15 yo (2009)/ Convicted: Stepfather; Ryan Lee Shelby - Rockport IN

A 15-year-old Rockport girl was found dead behind a shed in her
backyard less than two hours after she was reported missing Monday
night.

“We are treating this as a death investigation at this time,”
Indiana State Police Trooper Detective Rob Gardner said in a news
release. “We have already begun interviewing friends and family members
hoping to get some insight as to what happened.”

The girl's name has not been released and no information on the cause of death has been announced.

Authorities were called about 7:45 p.m. to the home on Grissom
Avenue to take a report on the missing juvenile. She had last been seen
about 10 p.m. Sunday.

A sheriff's deputy spoke with family members and then began searching the area. The girl's body was discovered about 9:30 p.m.

An autopsy is scheduled later today in Louisville.

Authorities say they are not releasing additional details because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

People in a small Spencer County community are still in shock over a
15-year-old girl's sudden death. Investigators from the Indiana State
Police are interviewing friends and family to get some answers about
how and why the Rockport teen died.

The teen was missing for nearly 24 hours before police were contacted.
About an hour after the search began, deputies found her body. A
neighbor, Sandy Bartlett, said the tight-knit community is in shock
over Alexis Oesterle's death.
"They've already been coming up this morning all upset," Bartlett
said."It's just shocking knowing our neighbor right here this could
happen at your back door."
One of those visitors, Jannine Nieves said she can't believe someone
would hurt her friend Alexis.
"I love her, she's awesome great, great person," Nieves said. "She's
really going to missed by a lot of people." Investigators are releasing
few details about how the teen died, except her injuries are consistent
with criminal activity.

A teenage girl is found dead and there are a lot of questions tonight that authorities in Spencer County are trying to answer. Alexis Oesterle's body was found behind a shed in the backyard of her Rockport home Monday night. Alexis was reported missing about 24 hours earlier. On
Tuesday morning, Indiana State Police were calling this case a death
investigation but after the completion of Alexis' autopsy, it was
declared a criminal investigation. Tears rolled down Janine Nieves' cheeks as she remembered 15-year-old Alexis. Tuesday morning, Nieves learned her friend was found dead Monday just behind her Rockport home. "I don't understand why any one would want to hurt her," Nieves said. Police say Alexis was last seen Sunday and reported missing by her parents Monday evening. That's when the sheriff was called out to her Rockport home. Indiana
State Police told 14 News that a deputy started looking for Alexis.
That's when her body was found behind a shed in her family's backyard. Indiana State Police investigators worked through the night, searching the home for clues. They're now questioning friends and family and have taken some evidence in to custody, including a truck. Police would not tell our reporter who the truck belonged to. While
police continue their investigation, neighbors deal with their shock
over the death of such an outgoing and friendly young girl. "I
think it was a tragedy," Sandy Bartlett told our cameras. "It's scary
that it happed right next door and I hate it for her parents and for
the little girls because she was a sweet little girl."

Indiana State Police have opened a criminal investigation into the
death of a 15-year-old Spencer County girl whose body was found Monday
night outside her home on Grissom Avenue in Rockport.

The body of Alexis Oest-erle was discovered behind a shed in her
backyard less than two hours after she was reported missing Monday
night.

Sgt. Chad Dick, State Police public information officer, said
Oesterle's death was not the result of suicide, declining to release
any information regarding the manner of death.

He said police are interviewing several people of interest. He said
officers have talked to members of Oesterle's family and close friends.

They also have impounded a pickup truck, he said. Dick said he doesn't know who the owner is.

An autopsy of Oesterle's body was performed Tuesday at Louisville, Ky.

Senior trooper Detective Rob Gardner said anyone with information
pertinent to the case should call the State Police's Jasper Post at
(812) 482-1441 or (800) 742-7475.

A neighbor, Chris Bartlett, said Oesterle's family moved into the
house on Grissom Avenue about a year and a half ago. He said they
largely kept to themselves.

Bartlett's son, a sophomore, knew Oesterle and would chat with her from time to time.

"That young girl was very polite and very respectable," he said.

Authorities were called about 7:45 p.m. Monday to the home on
Grissom Avenue to take a report on the missing juvenile. She had been
seen last about 10 p.m. the day before.

A sheriff's deputy spoke with family members and began searching the area.

Oesterle's body was found about 9:30 p.m.

The police continued to look around the house until about 2 p.m.
Tuesday. Dick said they have obtained a search warrant allowing them to
return if they want. That practice is common in these types of
investigations, he said.

Dick said Oesterle's family must stay out of the house while it is
being treated as a crime scene. He did not know where the family was
staying.

Indiana State Police pull a large piece of evidence from the home where deputies found a teenage girl dead.
15-year-old Alexis Oesterle went missing Sunday night in Rockport,
Indiana near the Ohio River. That’s the same place authorities found
her body.

State Police towed a pick-up truck from the driveway of the teenager's
house late Tuesday, but they won't say who owns it. Investigators also
won't say if the girl's family had anything to do with her death that
has police looking for a killer.

Deputies from Spencer County, Indiana showed up to 78 East Grissom
Monday evening after a call for help finding a missing girl. Detectives
interviewed the family, searched the home, but when they searched
outside, behind this shed, they found 15-year-old Alexis Oesterle dead.

Sgt. Chad Dick with Indiana State Police said, "until today when
the autopsy was performed we were calling it a death investigation. And
then when the autopsy was performed information investigators received
from that autopsy is when they decided to make it into a criminal
investigation instead of just a death investigation."
Though authorities are keeping details of how she died kept under wraps for now while they talk to people close to the girl.

Neighbors told WHAS11 they didn't see much of Alexis, but they believe
she had been having some trouble at school. They also think she may
have even been expelled from South Spencer High School not long before
what happened here.

Police also question why it took Alexis's family nearly 24 hours to call police after she disappeared Sunday Night.
A reporter asked investigators, “does that raise concern for you that they waited almost a full 24 hours?”
Sgt. Dick responded, "from the outside it does. But I don't know the
inner workings of the family, what the normal protocol is for them,
anything like that. So that's what the investigators are obviously
looking at and trying to get the answers to those questions."

State Police hope to gather more evidence from an autopsy underway in
Louisville. Through their interviews so far they have found several
persons of interest, but they won't say if Alexis's family is among
them.

Indiana State Police have just arrested a man on in connection with
the death of a 15-year-old girl found slain outside her Rockport, Ind.
home Monday night.

The man's name has not been released. Officials say he will be charged with murder.

The victim, Alexis Oesterle, was found behind a shed in her backyard less than two hours after she was reported missing.

Police say detectives are not looking for anyone else in connection with the crime.

Indiana State Police say they have a man in custody for the murder of a 15-year-old southern Indiana girl.

The girl's grandfather reports that the girl's stepfather was the one arrested.

Alexis Oesterle's body was found Monday night in the backyard of her
Rockport, Indiana home in Spencer County with a wound to her neck.

Officers found her body one day after she disappeared.
Osterle's grandfather, Jeff Spong, said that police had arrested 32-year-old Ryan Lee
Shelby around 2:00 p.m. Wednesday. Shelby was the girl's step-father.

Spong says he believes Shelby planned the crime.

* * * *

Wednesday night, Jeff Spong, the
grandfather of Alexis Oesterle, spoke from his home in Cleveland, OH. Spong
said there was an ongoing dispute between Alexis’ mother and Ryan
Shelby over the baby the two had together.
According to Spong, Alexis and her mother, Jessica, didn't want
Shelby around the baby. Spong said does not know if that had anything
to do with Alexis murder, but said that his daughter has been pleading
for months with southern Indiana authorities for help.
“She tried to tell them she caught him abusing the new baby as in
the baby was crying on the bed and he got upset and he slammed the bed
and the baby bounced up in the air and he ran with the baby,” said
Spong. “She pleaded for help from social workers, child protective and
every place she could think of calling. No one wanted to hear it.”

The stepfather of a 15-year-old Spencer County, Ind., girl whose
body was found behind her home Monday night will be charged with
murder, authorities said Wednesday.
Ryan Lee Shelby, 32, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in connection
with the death of Alexis Oesterle. He was booked into the Spencer
County Jail without bond and is scheduled to make an initial court
appearance today.

Oesterle's body was found behind a shed in the backyard of her
Grissom Avenue home less than two hours after Shelby reported her
missing Monday night.


Alexis Oesterle
Her body was found behind her home Monday night.


Ryan Lee Shelby
He reported Alexis Oesterle missing.

Investigators declined to provide specific details about the case or
any information on a motive during a news conference on the steps of
the courthouse Wednesday afternoon.

But Indiana State Police First Sgt. Rob Priest said authorities are confident they have the killer.

"We went in with a broad sense of 'let's find out what happened to
this 15-year-old girl,'" he said. "And as we went, the picture just
kept getting narrower and narrower and narrower. We ended up with
enough probable cause that we felt comfortable making an arrest."

Priest declined to specify precisely when Oesterle was killed, if it
was a premeditated act, what weapon may have been used or what, if
anything, Shelby told investigators.

A dispatch log provided by the Spencer County Sheriff's Office at
the news conference provided some insight into how the investigation
began.

According to the log, Shelby called police at 7:44 p.m. saying the
girl hadn't been seen since the night before and he was wondering if
she had been picked up by authorities.

About an hour later, deputy Jason Dunsworth advised dispatch from
the residence that "something seemed weird about the whole situation"
and it "looked like there had been some sort of violence" inside,
according to the log.

Dunsworth then commenced a search of the property, finding Oesterle's body outside about 9:30 p.m.

Officials praised Dunsworth's work in searching the area and said it may have been the key component toward making an arrest.

"Had he not done that, probably the body would have been disposed of
and not discovered for a length of time after that," said Spencer
County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Wilkinson.

Police intuition

"It was something extra special," Priest said.

"It's a policeman trusting the hair on the back of his neck."

More than two dozen of the victim's friends gathered around the
outdoor news conference at the courthouse. One asked a question about
Oesterle's injuries. Police told her, as they did multiple times to
reporters' inquiries, that they couldn't answer because of the ongoing
investigation.

After the speakers concluded their remarks, the friends remained on the sidewalk — shedding tears and sharing hugs.

Among the friends were 14-year-old Meggan Ficker and 15-year-old
Mandie Roll, who said they were close with Oesterle since she moved to
Rockport a year ago from Owensboro, Ky.

Ficker said Shelby and Oesterle had a strained relationship.

"He was nice to me," Ficker said. "But him and Alexis never got along. Never."

Roll said the same and that she suspected Shelby might be arrested, though it still came as a shock when it actually happened.

She and Oesterle used to hang out frequently at Rockport Park. Finding out about what happened was difficult.

"It was devastating and heartbreaking," Roll said. "I lost a best friend."

The anger and shock continues to grow in Spencer County as the saga surrounding the death of a local teen keeps unfolding.
Ryan Shelby made his first court appearance Thursday morning at the Spencer County Courthouse.
He is preliminarily charged with murdering his 15-year-old step daughter, Alexis Oesterle.
Lots of people showed up for what was a quick hearing.
Shelby was ordered held without bond.
He's due back in court in two weeks.
It's a situation that will be the talk of the county for a long time to come.
New details are emerging about the relationship between Oesterle and her Shelby.
But, conflicting accounts, some from friends, some from family, of what
things were like between the two are creating a somewhat hazy picture.
Outside the courthouse, emotions ran high.
Friends tried to comfort each other.
Some let their emotions boil over as Shelby left the courthouse.
"Hang the G** d**m a**," shouted one man.
"We're pretty mad," said Janine Nieves, a friend of Oesterle's. "We
wanted to throw things at him. But, we were told that was assault."
Shelby had no reply to reporter questions as he entered the sheriff's vehicle.
Couple that with a very quick court appearance and little new information - it all left friends continuing to wonder why.
"They didn't really get along, but I never thought it was this serious," Mandie Roll, another friend, said.
"She had a lot of difficulties with him. She absolutely hated him. I
never thought he would kill her. Never," said Nieves. "I knew that she
didn't like him."
Friends saw that side of things.
Oesterle's grandfather, Jeff Spong, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio tells a different tale.
"I don't know. She called him 'father.' She called her stepfather 'dad.'"
But, Spong is also well acquainted with Shelby's violent temper.
He explained an incident involving Shelby and Oesterle's mother's young child.
"The baby was laying on the bed crying. She walked in the room," said
Spong. "Ryan didn't know she was there. Ryan said to the baby, 'Why
don't you just shut up?' And, at that, he hit both sides of the bed
where the baby was laying. The baby flew up in the air."
As far as, what triggered Shelby's temper to turn toward Oesterle, that remains a mystery.
To recap the key points of the past few days.
Oesterle's family originally reported her missing Monday night.
Sheriff's deputies found her about an hour after arriving at her house.
She died from a loss blood from a slash to her neck.
Shelby was arrested Wednesday afternoon.

A southern Indiana man accused of killing his stepdaughter faced a judge Friday.Ryan Shelby is accused of slitting Alexis Oesterle's throat and then dumping her body behind a shed.It was Shelby's initial hearing at the Spencer County courthouse and he entered a plea of not guilty in the brief proceeding.Court
records indicate earlier this month, Shelby agreed to a polygraph test.
They also say when police told him his test revealed he was not being
truthful about his stepdaughter's death, Shelby admitted to killing
Alexis.Shelby also told police about the boots he was wearing at
the time of the killing. Officers later found them and discovered blood
on them.Despite this, Shelby's attorney said he has no intention of advising his client to take a plea just yet."I
would tell you we know very little about the facts. Police have not
turned in their investigative files yet. We've not seen them. We don't
know what information they have. Once they surrender the things they
have to us, we'll conclude our investigation, then we'll advise our
client on what the proper, recommended route to be," said Shelby's
attorney, Anthony Long.Shelby is being held without bond.A trial date has been set for August of next year.He could face a maximum of 65 years in prison if convicted.

Judge moves Ryan Shelby's murder trial to Warrick County, Ind.
By Mark Wilson
Evansville Courier & Press
Posted April 4, 2011 at 11:52 a.m

ROCKPORT, Ind. — A Spencer County judge refused to recuse himself from presiding over the murder trial of Ryan Shelby on Monday, but did agree to move the trial to Warrick County.

Shelby, 34, was arrested Nov. 4, 2009, in connection with the death of his stepdaughter Alexis Oesterle, 15. He faces charges of murder, obstructing justice and false informing.

Defense attorney Anthony Long argued that Spencer County Circuit Court Judge Jon Dartt’s door-to-door campaigning for the re-election of former prosecutor Dan Wilkinson — who subsequently lost to current Prosecutor Kelly Johnson ­— presented an appearance of bias.

The motion for a new judge also cited Dartt’s ruling against Ryan Shelby’s father in a civil suit filed against Jessica Shelby, mother of Oesterle, and his refusal to allow Long to inspect the crime scene outside the presence of the prosecutor’s office or Indiana State Police.

Prosecutors, however, argued there was no evidence that Dartt expressed opinions about the case or that his alleged support of Wilkinson as a political candidate affected his rulings in the case.

However, Dartt ordered the trial will now be July 11 in Warrick Circuit Court with a jury drawn from that county. Both Long and Johnson agreed with the move.

Johnson noted the case was similar to another Spencer County murder trial. Roy Lee Ward was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002. However, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned that conviction in 2004, saying jurors were exposed to too much pretrial publicity. Ward was retried in Vanderburgh County in 2007, pleaded guilty and again sentenced to death.

In his motion to move the trial to another county, Long cited evidence of what he argued was public hostility, including photographs of vandalism to Ryan Shelby’s truck, Facebook and MySpace postings and media coverage.

“The defendant is unable to receive a fair trial in Spencer County because many members of the community have a preconceived belief that the defendant is guilty,” Long wrote.

Long also cited “the existence and dissemination of the contents of the defendant’s confessions evidenced by news reports and Web postings” as further argument to move the trial.

In a pending motion to suppress that confession, Long argued that police coerced Ryan Shelby’s confession by depriving him of sleep, confining him to a hotel room because his house was a crime scene, not allowing him to make or receive telephone calls, and misleading him that they had evidence of his guilt.

Ryan Shelby was awake more than 30 hours by the end of his second formal interview with police, Long argued.

Police officers also secretly recorded his conversations with them during smoke breaks from the formal interrogations, according to Long’s motion.

“The defendant was coerced by police into confessing with the use of psychological stimulation, a method actually taught by law enforcement agencies for the sole purpose of extracting a confession, and police officers made suggestive remarks regarding leniency if he confessed,” he wrote.

A hearing on that motion was delayed until a still-undecided date next week so that Long can bring in an expert witness from out of state. The motion also includes other statements, communications or testimony made by Ryan Shelby, as well as polygraph results.

Oesterle’s body was found behind a shed in the backyard of her Grissom Avenue home in Rockport less than two hours after Ryan Shelby reported her missing on Nov. 2.

According to the probable cause affidavit supporting his arrest, the medical examiner said Oesterle’s death was caused by loss of blood from a wound in the neck area. The affidavit also said that Ryan Shelby allegedly confessed to the killing when he was interviewed by Indiana State Police detectives, but only after they told him that they had evidence indicating he was responsible and gave him a polygraph test.

Some of Ryan Shelby’s answers on the polygraph test indicated that he was not being truthful about some of the facts concerning Oesterle’s death, according to the affidavit.

During a bond hearing in June 2010, an Indiana State Police detective testified that Ryan Shelby told him that Oesterle came at him with a knife. But he said Ryan Shelby told him that he took it away from her but she came at him again and that is when the alleged stabbing took place.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/apr/04/judge-moves-ryan-shelbys-murder-trial-warrick-coun/

Ryan Lee Shelby found guilty of murdering stepdaughter

By Mark Wilson
Posted May 25, 2012 at 4:51 p.m.
updated May 25, 2012 at 6:34 p.m.

BOONVILLE, Ind. — A Warrick County jury on Friday found Ryan Lee Shelby guilty of murdering his 15-year-old stepdaughter Alexis Oesterle.

The jury of six women and six men began deliberating about 12:30 p.m. Friday after attorneys for both sides gave closing arguments on the nearly monthlong trial in Warrick Circuit Court.

Shelby, 35, was charged with murder, obstruction of justice and two counts of false informing stemming from the Nov. 1, 2009, death in the backyard of his Rockport, Ind. home. The jury found him guilty on all counts.

After the verdicts were read and the jury polled to affirm them, Shelby removed his glasses and wiped tears from his eyes as he left the courtroom.

Judge David Kelley set his sentencing for 9 a.m. June 20 and ordered him to continue being held at the Warrick County Jail.

Although her death occurred in Spencer County the trial was moved to Warrick County to avoid pretrial publicity tainting the jury.

“I wish I could stand up here and tell you and some sense of why this young lady lost her life. This was an absolutely senseless, impulsive taking of such a young life,” said Spencer County Prosecutor Kelly Corne in her closing statement, with a picture of Alexis’ face projected on the wall behind her.

She argued during the trial that Shelby called Jessica Oesterle, his then wife and Alexis’ mother, and lured her away from the home with a story about his car breaking down near Reo, Ind. After she left, he returned home and killed Alexis, Corne said, then left again and arrived home shortly after his wife returned.

Defense attorney Anthony Long argued that Jessica Oesterle was the real killer but that police decided early in the investigation that Shelby was guilty. He told jurors that Indiana State Police botched the investigation and coerced a false confession from Shelby.

During the trial he attempted to use mental health records of both Jessica and Alexis Oesterle to show that the mother and daughter had a stormier relationship than Jessica Oesterle testified to in court. Under questioning by Long, Jessica Oesterle also admitted she had lied under oath in other court hearings before her daughter’s death.

“It is easier to prove somebody did something than somebody didn’t,” he said.

According to court testimony, the couple had lived together several years and married in June 2009, after Jessica Oesterle gave birth to their baby in December 2008. But after she accused him of slamming the baby onto a mattress, he left with the baby in August 2009.

That prompted Jessica Oesterle to file for an order of protection and divorce, as well as custody the baby, according to testimony.

Corne told the jury at the start of the trial that Shelby and Alexis had a good relationship until then but that there was tension after Shelby moved back into the house in September 2009. That tension was escalated by the financial pressure of Shelby being laid off from work.

Among the prosecution’s main evidence in the case was a drop of Alexis’ blood found on one of Shelby’s boots; an empty sheath to a survival-type hunting knife police believed could have been the murder weapon; and video stills from a surveillance camera at a storage facility near the home showing his car coming and going at key times; and a witness who placed a man Alexis said was her dad at the house before her death.

“Everybody, if they didn’t agree on times, agreed on the order of events and that was established by surveillance cameras,” Corne said after the verdict.

Corne also argued that Shelby confessed not once, but twice. The first came when he confessed to police during an interrogation on Nov. 4. The second time came during a recorded phone call from the Spencer County Jail between Shelby and his family. Both were played for the jury during the trial.

In it, according to Corne, after his mother told him about all the people who were supporting him Shelby replied: “Well they probably won’t be after they find out.”

“Find out what son?” his mom said, according to Corne.

She said Shelby answered: “When they find out I’m guilty.”

Long brought in Richard Leo, a San Francisco law professor nationally recognized as an expert on interrogations and false confessions, in an attempt to prove police coerced Shelby’s confession.

“We made our presentation based on improper police tactics and obviously the jury gave their stamp of approval,” Long said after the trial.

Leo was not allowed to tell the jury his opinions about the video recording of the Nov. 4, 2009, police interrogation in which Shelby confessed and other police interviews with Shelby. However, in a hearing while the jury wasn’t present in the courtroom, Leo said the interrogations were full of risk factors that have been linked to known cases of false confessions.

He said those include the length of the interrogation; that Shelby was tired; that police lied to Shelby, including about witnesses and evidence that didn’t exist; exaggerated evidence; implied promises and threats; and that police “contaminated” the confession by feeding him information about the killing while questioning him.

Among the evidence police lied to Shelby about, according to court testimony, was that they had cellphone evidence pinpointing his exact locations on the night of Alexis’ death.

He also argued that police overlooked crucial crime scene and forensic evidence, including a kitchen knife left unexamined on a patio table, and what appeared to be blood under one of Alexis’ fingernails and on her hand that was never tested.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/may/25/shelby-hed-herpppppppppppp/

Man Sentenced To 55 Years For Killing Stepdaughter
Ryan Lee Shelby Found Guilty Of November 2009 Murder

Posted: 06/20/2012
Last Updated: 609 days ago
A southwestern Indiana man has been sentenced to 55 years in prison after being convicted of murder in the death of his 15-year-old stepdaughter.

Warrick Circuit Judge David Kelley also sentenced 35-year-old Ryan Lee Shelby of Rockport to 1 1/2 years for obstruction of justice and one year each for two counts of false informing.

The body of Alexis Oesterle was found behind a shed in the backyard of their home about 30 miles southeast of Evansville less than two hours after Shelby reported her missing on Nov. 2, 2009. She bled to death after her throat was cut.

WFIE and the Evansville Courier & Press reported the defense maintained Shelby's innocence and said it will appeal his May convictions.

The trial was moved to Warrick County because of pretrial publicity.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/man-sentenced-to-55-years-for-killing-stepdaughter