Raytown is a city in Jacksonville County, Missouri with a population of 30,000. One of those 30,000 was Ann Marie Harrison, age 15 at the time this story begins. Ann was born in Kansas City, Missouri on February 22nd 1974. She was a sophomore honor student at Raytown South High School, Ann attended church with her parents and two sisters, and played on a softball league. Annie, as she was known by those closest to her, was a good girl.Music:Titles: Elven Passages, Adrift in the Void, Stomping on a Nanite,Sub Theta Stomach Massage 232573, Awaiting, What it Means to be AliveTim Kulig (timkulig.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0997280/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1CO.AG Musichttps://www.youtube.com/@co.agmusic1823Sources:https://pastebin.com/xf2pZuj0Support:Donations are appreciated, if you would like to help support the show, use the link below and buy me a burrito and a Diet Pepsi:http://Ko-fi.com/crimeatoriumFor $3 a month, you can support this show on Patreon, in return you will receive ad free, early, and bonus episodeshttps://www.patreon.com/crimeatoriumIf you like the podcast, please share it on social media and with friends, and take a minute to leave a review for Crimeatorium on Spotify, Podchaser or Apple Podcasts.Contact:[email protected] you for listening!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/crimeatorium9009/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Raytown is a city in Jacksonville County, Missouri, with a population of 30,000. One of those 30,000 was Anne Marie Harrison, age 15 at the time this story begins. Anne was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 22, 1974. She was a sophomore honor student at Raytown South High School, attended church with her parents and two sisters, and played on a softball league.
Annie, as she was known by those closest to her, was a good girl.
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On the morning of March 22, 1989, Ann walked to the end of her driveway a little before 7 a.m., set her purse, flute, and backpack on the ground, and waited for her school bus to arrive. That morning, she was wearing her favorite jean jacket, adorned with souvenir pins, pink slacks, and matching socks.
At around 7.10 a.m., the school bus driver pulled up and honked the horn, but Ann wasn't there, only the belongings she had set on the ground. Janelle Harrison, Ann's mom, checked in the house, the backyard, and with a neighbor who Ann was friends with. Ann was gone, with no sign of a struggle, and she had just been 60 feet from her front door.
Janelle called Anne's father, Bob Harrison, who was working at the time, who in turn called the police. Before long, ground and aerial searches were launched. Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley, friends since their teens, both had criminal backgrounds, mostly in car theft and other petty crimes. Nunley was thought to be involved in a murder, but charges were never filed.
Sometime in the early morning hours of March 22, 1989, they stole a dark blue 1984 Chevy Monte Carlo. Drinking wine coolers and smoking weed, they drove through the streets of Kansas City, stealing T-tops off of cars and trying to come up with other ways to make immediate money. While winding through the Kansas City neighborhoods, they spotted Ann waiting for the bus.
Nunley was driving and Taylor, seeing Ann's purse on the ground, told him to pull over so he could snatch it. Nunley pulled next to Ann. Taylor climbed out of the car and asked Ann for directions to an address he just made up. Leaving Anne's purse and other belongings on the ground, he grabbed her and forced her into the passenger side floor of the car. Anne did not fit the profile of a runaway.
She was in the school band, had a boyfriend, and held a job as a bagger in a grocery store. As word got out of her disappearance, flyers were distributed, and it was breaking news on local TV and radio stations. This was a quiet and safe neighborhood and the community rallied together and created a reward fund and soon a tip line was established.
Witnesses began calling in and one tip mentioned seeing a dark Monte Carlo in the area. Nunley and Taylor drove away with Ann on the passenger side of the floor. Nunley removed his sock and it was put around her mouth to quiet her. Eventually, they ended up at Nunley's mother's house, where they pulled into the garage, which had an entrance to the basement.
Once there, Ann was blindfolded and they made her crawl on her hands and knees into that basement. Through the tip line, the police received many leads, most leading to dead ends. Through the generosity of individuals, organizations, and businesses, a reward was established of $9,000. Once inside the basement, Ann was bound with wire.
The sock was removed and she was led into a basement where she was assaulted by Taylor. Because of her age, he was having a difficult time of it and asked Nunley to bring him some lubricant. After he was done, Nunley entered the room and attempted to assault Anne, but it is unclear whether he was able to due to him being high at the time.
After they were done, they allowed Anne to put her clothes back on and they put the blindfold back on her. Taylor questioned her as to whether her family had money, and she told them that her family would pay them to get her back. All they had to do was call them.
The two men asked her for her phone number and pretended to write it down, and of course she could not see that they weren't due to the blindfold. She must have been feeling some hope and relief that she would be able to go home to her family. They led her, crawling on her hands and knees, back to the car so that Nunley's sister, who was home at the time, wouldn't see her.
Nunley and Taylor opened the trunk and told Ann to get in, but she resisted. She told them she didn't want to get in the trunk. The men told her she had to so that she wouldn't be seen, so with their assistance, she got into the trunk. The two men discussed what they should do next. Taylor didn't want her to be able to identify them, so he told Nunley to go into the house and get a knife.
Nunley returned with a butcher knife and a smaller serrated knife. Nunley attempted to slice Anne's throat with the butcher knife, but it was too dull. So he stabbed her in the throat instead, twisting it in the process. The men took turns stabbing her in the chest and the neck. When they were done, Anne was struggling to breathe, but she was still alive.
Taylor stood there watching her suffer while Nunley returned the knives to the kitchen and disposed of the wire used to restrain her. Once Nunley got back to the car, the trunk was closed and the duo drove away.
Police were called about an abandoned vehicle.
When officers arrived and plates were run, the owner showed up with the keys. He poured some antifreeze in the radiator, then opened the trunk to put it away. He took a step back and said, there's a body in the trunk. Officer Williams looked in the trunk and saw the body of a white, fully clothed female lying partially on her back. Her left side leaned up against the rear of the trunk.
Her left arm was extended out. Her right arm was laying across her chest. Both hands were stained with blood. A white colored button with Disneyland written on it was found underneath a denim jacket that was lying partway over Ann's arm. Ann had been wearing souvenir buttons on that jacket on the day she disappeared.
Ann's uncle, who was the captain of the Kansas City Police Department, was called to the scene to identify the body. It was Ann Marie Harrison. The vehicle was towed to the police garage with Anne's body still in place to protect any evidence. After the car was processed for fingerprints, Anne's body was taken to the medical examiner's office.
Anne had multiple stab wounds to her chest and neck area, as well as a large laceration to her throat. The car the body was located in was a blue 1984 Monte Carlo. Anne had been missing a total of 37 hours before her body was discovered. In the ensuing days of the investigation into Anne's death, the police received dozens of leads.
Several police departments in the surrounding area canvassed the neighborhoods, but came back empty-handed. Several suspects who were known for auto theft were eliminated. The investigation was extensive and the murder of Anne Harrison was big news in the area.
On closer inspection of the Monte Carlo, they noted that the ashtray, the dome light and the radio were missing and the steering column was broken. The interior car light bulb was sitting on the rear passenger floorboard. On June 29, 1989, an anonymous call came into the tip line saying that they knew who killed Ann.
It was 23-year-old Mike Taylor, who was at that time in the Missouri State Penitentiary for parole violation, and 24-year-old Roger Nunley, a name Roderick Nunley sometimes went by. The caller stated that Ann was murdered in Nunley's mother's basement in Grandview, Missouri, and that Nunley had slashed her throat.
He stated that he informed the police of this crime so that he could collect the $9,000 reward. The caller said he would call back the next day, June 22nd. When he did, he identified himself as Kareem Abkar Hurley. Because Hurley knew the details of the crime that only the killer would know, the detectives convinced him to come into the station.
Hurley told detectives that when Taylor and Nunley spotted Ann, their only intent was to steal her purse. Instead, they put her in the car and drove her to Nunley's mother's house. He stated that no blood would be found in the basement because the two men killed Ann in the trunk of the car. A warrant for Nunley and Taylor's arrest was made and each would be held on a $125,000 bond.
A warrant was also obtained to search the home of Nunley's mother, where they swept the carpet and took photographs. Taylor was locked up at this time, so locating him wouldn't be a problem. However, it was unknown where Nunley was. Officers discovered that Nunley, who worked as a housekeeper at Baptist Memorial Hospital, failed to return to work after June 21st.
Nunley's supervisor provided his contact information to the officers. They learned that Nunley was behind in his car payments and the credit company was trying to locate him and the car so they could tow it away. They would let officers know if they located Nunley. Officers visited Taylor in prison and confronted him about what Hurley had told them.
Taylor went silent, then asked if he could call his mother. Taylor told his mother that he was being questioned about a rape and a murder, and after a few minutes of speaking, he told her he loved her and hung up. Taylor then said that his mother told him that if he did this, to tell the truth.
He then proceeded to tell the officers that he and Nunley were on a drug binge that night, and once Ann was spotted, Nunley kidnapped Ann by putting her over his shoulder and shoving her in the car. He described blindfolding her with a sock that Nunley had removed from his foot once she was in the car. When they got to the basement of the house, her hands and feet were tied with a cable wire.
According to Taylor, Nunley removed Ann's clothes at some point and Ann was crying. He said Nunley tried to keep her quiet and in Taylor's words, he had intercourse with her. When Nunley asked Taylor if he wanted to do the same, Taylor claimed that he declined. On second thought, he decided to take his turn but claimed he didn't finish the act.
After they were done with their assault, they untied Ann and allowed her to put her clothes back on. Ann told them to call her parents who would give them money. The two men gave her hope that they were going to call them by pretending to write down the phone number she gave them.
The sock was then placed around Anne's face and she was led back to the car, crawling on her hands and knees, where they made her get into the trunk. Taylor stood over Anne and watched her as Nunley went into the house and retrieved a butcher knife and a serrated knife. He drew a picture of what the knives looked like.
Taylor claimed that Nunley grabbed Anne by the hair and tried to slit her throat with a butcher knife, but because it was dull, it didn't work. Nunley gave up on slashing her throat. He turned to stabbing her in the throat until it went all the way through. Nunley then stabbed Anne in the chest and again in the neck, then encouraged Taylor to do the same.
Taylor stated that he said, nah, that's just crazy, man. But then he thought, well, we're in this together. So he started stabbing her too. Taylor watched as Ann's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she was struggling to breathe. The trunk was closed and the two men drove off in the car with Ann still in the trunk.
It would later be determined that Ann was conscious for about 15 minutes and stayed alive for two hours after her attack. The interview was taped and the officers collected hair and blood samples before they left.
It wasn't long before Taylor's fellow inmates caught word of what he was accused of and they attacked and raped him so violently that he required surgery and 80 sutures to repair the damage. A second search warrant was issued for Nunley's mother's house and when officers knocked on the door, nobody answered, so they made entry by removing a window.
Once inside, they made their way upstairs, where they discovered Nunley's sister and mother. His sister stated that Nunley couldn't have been involved because she was at home at the time and didn't hear or see anything. The officers found and removed two knives that matched the description given by Taylor. They swept the floor and photographed the entire basement.
On July 8, 1989, officers received a tip that Nunley had been spotted near Troost Lake and were dispatched to the area where one of the officers spotted him. As the officers approached Nunley, he took off on foot between some houses in the area. After some time, the officers caught up to him and he identified himself as Roderick Nunley.
He was transported to the police station, booked, and interrogated. The officer started off by telling him that Taylor had confessed to everything. Nunley asked for video proof of this. Nunley watched the video of Taylor not only divulging the events of that day, but putting the blame on Nunley.
This infuriated him, and he echoed the tale that Taylor had confessed to earlier, only he put the blame on Taylor. It was painful for officers to listen to the physical, mental, and psychological torture Ann went through that day at the hands of these two men. Nunley waived his rights and allowed the officers to take samples of his hair and blood.
The samples were sent off to be examined, and once they returned, Nunley's hairs matched those that were found on Ann's jacket. The hairs on the floor of Nunley's mother's basement also matched samples taken from Ann. On July 28, 1989, a Jackson County grand jury indicted Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor on first-degree murder, forcible rape, kidnapping, and armed criminal action.
Before the trial, Taylor escaped custody, and when he was apprehended by the officers, he said to them, Why didn't you let me go? You know what I'm facing. After Nunley was indicted, he agreed to a guilty plea and to go before a judge because he wanted to avoid being sentenced by a jury, even though the prosecution informed him that he could be sentenced to death.
Nunley's hearing began on January 29, 1991. He took the stand and testified that his intent was to only rob Ann of her purse. He admitted to the abduction but denied raping her. He claimed that it was only Taylor that raped Ann and that he had only pretended to in order to appease Taylor. The reason he murdered Ann was because she could identify him.
The hearing lasted three days and Judge Alvin C. Randall sentenced Nunley to death. Ann's family was present during the hearing and it would be the first time they had heard the gruesome details of the crime. Taylor's hearing was on February 9, 1991. Just like Nunley, he opted to go before a judge and plead guilty to all charges.
He was also warned that the judge could come back with a sentence of death. Taylor testified that he wanted to let Ann go, but he was pressured by Nunley to murder her. He described how she resisted getting into the trunk of the car and begging them to call her parents. Taylor's mother pleaded for his life, but in the end, Judge Alvin C. Randall sentenced Michael Taylor to death.
Even though Nunley and Taylor were thoroughly briefed on the fact that once they pled guilty and went before a judge, they couldn't change their minds. Despite this, in October of 1991, both Nunley and Taylor appealed their sentences, claiming that the judge was drunk and the prosecutors were racially biased.
The defense attorneys claimed that the two men received the death penalty because Ann was white and Nunley and Taylor were black. Each appeal that was introduced was denied. Michael Taylor was executed on February 26, 2014. He had no final words. Ann's father and two of her uncles were present. On September 1, 2015, Roderick Nunley was put to death.
Ann's father and two friends were in attendance.
After the execution, Anne's friends, many of whom are married and have children of their own now, released statements to the press and on Facebook about Anne. One described her as a shy, family-oriented girl who was nice to everyone she met and would help anyone who needed it, adding that she was an excellent student, softball player, and she loved music.
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