I enjoy murder mysteries; I have from a young age! ๐ My family's idea of a great Saturday night was watching an episode of America's Most Wanted together ๐ I have always enjoyed getting to study the human psyche -- why people do what they do.
But I was watching this one case in particular, and it has still been lingering with me for the past week... It is the case of Johnny Cashman, a death that had originally been ruled as natural, yet depending on how one chooses to view it, has remained unsolved to this day. Let's get into it...
(But before getting into it, please note that a murder mystery will obviously include some graphic content. I will give blatant warning ahead of time, so please beware of links)
On April 14th, 2022, Johnny's family would suddenly stop receiving any kind of communication from him, behavior that was extremely abnormal for the man. As such, after a few days of continued silence, his family eventually contacted his local police department to do a welfare check at his apartment.
It was there that police would discover Johnny's lifeless body... They would report that Johnny seemed to have died from natural causes, and given that the family knew of a pre-existing health condition, they decided to take the police's word on Johnny's status. Therefore, an autopsy was never performed, and Johnny's body would be cremated.
The only note that the medical examiner would provide was:
"Blood with faecal matter found around home, likely GI (gastro-intestinal) bleed per investigators. No trauma, no drugs, nothing suspicious."
Several days later -- about 2 weeks since Johnny first stopped communicating -- an ex-girlfriend would arrive at the apartment to begin gathering his things together. When she entered the unit, she was absolutely petrified...
Gastrointestinal bleeding, sure -- but there was blood on every inch of that apartment. The bathroom looked like a horrific murder scene. Bloody hand and shoe prints tainted every wall, floor, and item of furniture. Pools of blood were scattered throughout the unit.
(This link will direct you to the photos from Johnny Cashman's apartment. Please note that they are extremely graphic, bloody... https://imgur.com/a/TypwuJS)
Appalled, the ex immediately began to snap photographs. Upon leaving the apartment, a neighbor of Johnny's approached her. He claimed to not only have footage of Johnny's final moments, but he also claimed that Johnny's death was anything but natural...
The Ring doorbell recording shows Johnny entering his apartment. Shortly afterwards, we can hear an altercation between Johnny and another man. Someone yells, "Dude, what the fuck?!" and "Stop!" while the other replies, "I can't..." It sounds like there is a lot of banging, stuff falling over...
(Here is the doorbell recording; not graphic. Please fast-forward to 15:00 for the audio of the altercation)
A few minutes later we will see a man exit the apartment, a man who will be revealed as Johnny's "unofficial" roommate, Steven Church. The strange thing that Steven does, is he returns back up the stairs to wipe his fingerprints from the door. He will later state his reasoning for doing so was because of his criminal history (burglaries); he didn't want to be accused of being a squatter. A few more minutes later, we can hear more banging as Johnny cries out for help.
Steven would eventually be located and brought in for questioning. He claimed that he and Johnny had an altercation about rent, but that it had not turned physical. Police never found Steven's footprints throughout the bloody scene, so they let him go.
Now I, like all of you, have several questions. Let's start with the amount of negligence on behalf of the police department.
To come across that crime scene, and immediately conclude that the victim not only died of natural causes, but that he "didn't appear to have suffered" ??? There were bloody handprints smeared everywhere, Johnny had been crying out for help.
Because that's another thing -- the police had already seen the Ring footage as well! They watched that footage and had still concluded that there had been no foul play.
If the police were this negligent -- God forbid to cover something up -- I would not put covering up a murder past them. I will come back to why I believe it was murder later on.
Last point: they contacted family, management of the building, etc. and didn't warn them of the scene that they would encounter? Like, because it wasn't ruled malicious, there was no CSI? no cleanup crew?? Again, no warning?
As for Johnny himself, I do not believe that his demise was a result of strictly gastrointestinal bleeding. I strongly believe that Steven killed Johnny -- more specifically, that he stabbed him -- and that GI bleeding could have resulted from that.
I've seen photos of GI bleeding; Johnny's case seemed much more profuse than that. His photos look similar to cuts on blood thinners, and Johnny was known to be quite the drinker...
(This is an example of massive GI bleeding/GRAPHIC: ~~~ embed:MedicalGore/comments/c1y0im/the_result_of_a_massive_lower_gi_bleed/) reddit metadata:fE1lZGljYWxHb3JlfGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnJlZGRpdC5jb20vci9NZWRpY2FsR29yZS9jb21tZW50cy9jMXkwaW0vdGhlX3Jlc3VsdF9vZl9hX21hc3NpdmVfbG93ZXJfZ2lfYmxlZWQvKXw= ~~~
(This is what bleeding on blood thinners looks like/GRAPHIC: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFnWqpeM6GI/?img_index=5&igsh=a2c5cmphenExczJ3)
I will say this... I have analyzed the voices heard in the Ring recording (with my own two ears and a pair of headphones), and Johnny is the one shouting, "Yo, what the fuck?!" I truly believe that Steven had Johnny cornered at one point, with Johnny almost too shocked to react at the sight of Steven stabbing him. As Johnny gradually grows weaker, "Stop..." we finally hear Steven reply, "I can't..."
There is absolutely no reason to go back and wipe fingerprints, especially for someone with such a petty criminal history. If one hadn't done anything incriminating, the thought wouldn't even be in their head. And it wasn't in Steven's head, noted by the fact that he has to double back and do it -- if it was second nature, he would have immediately done it. But similar to Johnny, Steven was also in a state of shock over what had just taken place.
Let's go with the theory that no altercation happened and Steven saw Johnny having a medical episode, freaked out, and left... Steven still couldn't have done the humane thing and called 911 after getting away?? "We-Well no because of m-my burglaries ๐ฅบ" Aah, okay!~
The only thing I struggle with: why was it possibly covered up? It could be something as simple as Johnny had seen something he shouldn't have. Is it possible that Steven has connections within the police force? a family member, an uncle?? and got the entire force to cover up the crime?
Sending Love and Ecency Curation Vote!
