Who Killed Brienne Cross? » In the News

Brienne Cross Received Threatening Letters Days before her Death

OTT — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:31:28 +0000

By Tamara Hagethorn

Reprinted with permission from Celebrity Now! Magazine.

When Brienne Cross broke off her engagement with professional bull rider Cody Tiller, he became despondent and, according to at least one person who knew him, suicidal. People close to him are convinced that this depression led to his death under the hooves of the bucking bull, Barnbuster. “He was in a terrible state of mind,” his sister Neela Griffin told “Celebrity Now! Magazine.” “You had to see him, how much he changed. The heart went straight out of him.” Cody had always been “happy-go-lucky” and “kind of a jokester,” but all that changed when Brienne Cross called off the wedding only two months away. “He was devastated,” said his mother, Kathy Tiller.

Cody’s older brother, Rory, was in Afghanistan at the time. “He was very upset,” Neela said. “But I know my brother. He would never do anything to hurt Brienne Cross. He’d know Cody wouldn’t have wanted him to.”

Some friends of the couple think otherwise. Tiller spent two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, surviving a harrowing firefight that left everyone else in his squad dead. “It changed him,” said his best friend, who also fought in Afghanistan. “He wasn’t the same person. He was angry. He put his wife in the hospital and she’s scared to death of him now.”

Rory Tiller always took care of his little brother, friends say. And when he learned about Cody’s death, he became livid. “He was looking to blame someone. I think he blamed Brienne,” said a friend close to the family.

Rory Tiller was honorably discharged in January, 2009. Following his divorce, he sold everything he owned and decided to “see the country.” Nobody knew where he went.

“He had a big hole inside he needed to fill. He kept one thing, his ’09 Dodge Ram, and just took off.”

Some think he landed in Aspen in the summer of 2009.

It’s no secret that Brienne Cross was receiving menacing letters in the form of hard-to-trace emails from someone calling himself “The Great Leveler.” Her manager, Jay Lysle, was increasingly disturbed by the emails, which showed a pattern of escalation. “It was more than anger. These posts were … graphic.”

The long, rambling emails, sent over a two-month period, ended with the words, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.”

While in Iraq, Rory Tiller turned to religion. “He was always talking about God. But it wasn’t God loves you. It was more like God’s anger and God’s willingness to smite his foes,” said Tiller’s closest boyhood friend. “He wasn’t the same guy I knew at all.”

We may never know if Rory Tiller threatened Brienne Cross. But the execution-style murders point to someone with a military background—an efficient killer.

And Rory Tiller certainly fit that description.

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THE SHOP is a work of fiction, a political crime thriller by J. Carson Black.
People, places, and events portrayed on whokilledbriennecross.com
and associated Web sites are drawn from THE SHOP.

Aspen Murders Suspect Donny Lee Odell Still at Large

J. Carson Black — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:00:57 +0000

Fugitive from Justice?

Walt Njorgen, The Aspen News

March 8, 2010

ASPEN. Donny Lee Odell is still at large, despite law enforcement efforts to find him.

“He’s probably in Canada,” said one source, who wishes to remain anonymous. “He used to live in Hayden Lake and Wellfield, and there are plenty of folks up there who would hide him. They’d sure as hell help him get into Canada.”

Wellfield is known for harboring groups with anti-government sentiment, including the white supremacist/secessionist militia group, Defeat Tyranny! Both Donny Lee Odell and Ray Arquette belonged to the militia, although it is unclear whether or not they were in the group at the same time.

Sheriff David Blenman, Sheriff Johnsons’ successor, gave a press conference earlier today, holding aloft a plastic bag containing a Bowie hunting knife which had been found buried in the carport of the house Donny Lee Odell rented.

Initial indications are that the knife could have caused the wounds to the victims. “We are now awaiting DNA results,” said Blenman. “We’re optimistic about the outcome.”

Luck played a part. Early last week, the water main to the guest house belonging to Doris Clarkson broke, flooding the house. During the ensuing repair, plumbers discovered the knife wrapped in burlap buried in a shallow hole beside one of the carport posts.

“It’s amazing we didn’t find it before,” said an unidentified source with the Sheriff’s Office. “It was only buried about two inches deep. If he’d wanted someone to find it, he couldn’t have found a more obvious place.”

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THE SHOP is a work of fiction, a political crime thriller by J. Carson Black.
People, places, and events portrayed on whokilledbriennecross.com
and associated Web sites are drawn from THE SHOP.

BREAKING! Arrest Warrant Issued in Aspen Murders Case

J. Carson Black — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:37:50 +0000

Happier times: Donny Lee Odell, singing “Sweet Home Alabama” at the Clayton Bigsby Memorial Concert, Picnic, and Car Show (photo: Marcus Jamsen)

Arrest Warrant Issued for Donny Lee Odell – Whereabouts Unknown

Walt Njorgen, The Aspen News

March 6, 2010

SALIDA. The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office has issued an arrest warrant for Donny Lee Odell in connection with the murders of Brienne Cross, Justin Balough, Connor Fallon, Tanya Williams, Amber Redmond, and Brendan Shayles, Sheriff David Blenman said in a press conference today.

“We think we will now be able to bring this case to a successful conclusion,” Blenman said. When pressed, he refused to elaborate.

Late yesterday, police investigators appeared at the home of Doris Clarkson, Odell’s former landlady. Video from KMYZ News shows investigators converging in the carport area.

Followers of the case will recall that both Donny Lee Odell and Ray Arquette were released due to lack of evidence in October of last year. A hunting knife belonging to Odell, thought to be the murder weapon, did not match the wounds to the victims and the blood residue on the knife turned out to be animal, not human.

Donny Odell’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

* * *

THE SHOP is a work of fiction, a political crime thriller by J. Carson Black.
People, places, and events portrayed on whokilledbriennecross.com
and associated Web sites are drawn from THE SHOP.

Breaking! The Yellow Lamborghini Lives!

J. Carson Black — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:48:57 +0000

A yellow Lamborghini parked outside an Aspen cafe - was this the one?

The Galena Weekly
February 25, 2010
Keith Deloach

ASPEN. The woman whose car was nearly wiped out by a speeding Lamborghini the night of the Aspen Massacre has come forward.

I’ll call her “Pat,” because she wishes to remain anonymous. As the sole witness, Pat fears for her life. “If the person in the car was the killer, he might come after me.”

This is the reason she has finally broken her silence. She wants it known that she did not see the driver of the car, nor did she get the license plate. “It happened so fast. I could see him speeding up to the circle and I thought, ‘He has to stop,’ but he didn’t. He blew right through and even though I stomped on the brakes, he missed me by inches.”

The incident occurred at the junction of Highway 82 and Castle Creek Road.

The Lamborghini “spun around facing the other direction, seemed to stall, then rocketed out of there toward Snowmass.”

When asked if she reported the near-collision to the police, she said she did. Shaken and in shock, she parked by the side of the road and called the Aspen Police Department. They took a brief report over the phone.

And that was the end of it, as far as she was concerned. “I did my duty as a citizen. Of course, I didn’t know about the murders then.”

Singer and actress Brienne Cross, her producer, and the four remaining contestants of her new reality TV show, “Soul Mate,” were found dead in a house on Castle Creek Road the following morning. The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office has been close-mouthed about the details, but a week later, two men were arrested for the crime.

They were later released.

According to Pat, the incident took place “a little after midnight,” shortly after she got off-shift at Mercy Hospital near Snowmass.

“Pat” recognized the make of the car because her husband is a sports car buff. “It’s hard to mistake one of those,” she said. “They’re so unusual.”

* * *

THE SHOP is a work of fiction, a political crime thriller by J. Carson Black.
People, places, and events portrayed on whokilledbriennecross.com
and associated Web sites are drawn from THE SHOP.

Mystery Man at the Aspen Murder House?

J. Carson Black — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:34:49 +0000

According to one account, a mystery man attended the party on the night of the Aspen murders. One of the contestants, Jillian Garceau, did not make it to the Final Four, but was there. She noticed a young man talking to Nick Holloway out on the deck and asked about him, but nobody seemed to know who he was. One of the crew members told Jillian he thought Nick Holloway brought him, and that his name was “Mars.”

Did Mars crash the party? Was he a friend of Nick Holloway—the sole survivor?

* * *

THE SHOP is a work of fiction, a political crime thriller by J. Carson Black.
People, places, and events portrayed on whokilledbriennecross.com
and associated Web sites are drawn from THE SHOP.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Orders Investigation into Birth Defects in California Town

J. Carson Black — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:14:01 +0000

Victims Include Niece of Brienne Cross Born Last Year

KETTLEMAN CITY. Five and a half months before Brienne Cross and the contestants on her new reality TV show were killed by unknown assailants, her cousin Jo Ann Stamp gave birth to a baby girl named Moira Renee. Moira Renee, along with eight other children that year, was born with facial birth defects. This small farm-worker community was hit hard by the recession and relies heavily on the very company which may be the cause of their health issues: Chemical Waste Management. Chemical Waste Management insists that pesticides on farm fields may be the cause. “Birth defects such as these can be attributed to pesticides,” said a spokesman for CWM. “Not only that, but this is a trucking corridor and has its share of diesel fumes.”

The investigation will go through, according to sources close to the governor.

“This is a tremendous victory for the people of Kettleman City,” said Bradley Angel, executive director of the Greenaction.

* * *

THE SHOP is a work of fiction, a political crime thriller by J. Carson Black.
People, places, and events portrayed on whokilledbriennecross.com
and associated Web sites are drawn from THE SHOP.

Brienne Cross and The Forbes Celebrity List

J. Carson Black — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:56:21 +0000

by Greg Dawson
The Ute City New Times, January 17, 2010

ASPEN, COLORADO. Here’s a surprise—-Michael Jackson is not number one on the Forbes top-earning dead celebrities list. Earning 350 million, Yves Saint Laurent is Number One, and Michael Jackson comes in at Number Three with 90 mil. Not to worry, Michael, I’m sure there’s room for growth.

I would have thought pop-star-slash-murder victim Brienne Cross would been at least in the top two or three, but believe it or not, she didn’t make the list at all.

So I have to ask: What do you have to do to make the Forbes celebrity list? How do you break out in a field of famous people still earning money while dead? You would think the brutal Charles Manson-style murders of a rising mega-star and five other innocent people on a reality show would yield better results. What can be more real than that?

As a Coloradan, I see this as a snub.

Yes, I can see why Elvis Presley made the list of dead celebrities—he’s always been a staple on the Forbes list, but where did the other regulars go? Where is James Dean? Where is Marilyn Monroe? And how can Michael Jackson, King of the Celebrities, come in third behind Rogers and Hammerstein?

But most important, where is Brienne Cross?

* * *

THE SHOP is a work of fiction, a political crime thriller by J. Carson Black.
People, places, and events portrayed on whokilledbriennecross.com
and associated Web sites are drawn from THE SHOP.