# TOP 2 Cracked Cold Cases With Disturbing Twists

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 17 Sep 2025, 23 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO2498767190.mp3

Join me as we discuss cracked cold cases with disturbing twists. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 forensic science cold cases, doe case identification, unidentified remains solved, genetic genealogy cold cases, forensic breakthroughs in mysteries, solving john doe cases, jane doe forensic science, unidentified bodies identified, cold cases solved 2025, forensic genealogy success stories, missing persons solved by DNA, cold case identifications, forensic anthropology cold cases, doe cases forensic breakthroughs, unidentified remains solved by DNA, cold cases closed with forensics, forensic genealogy cold case files, mysteries solved with DNA, unidentified victims identified, forensic technology cold cases, john doe identified by DNA, jane doe identification 2025, solved unidentified persons, forensic DNA cold case investigations, unidentified cold cases solved, genetic genealogy identifications, forensic science mystery solutions, solving missing persons with DNA, forensic case breakthroughs, unidentified victims solved with science

## Transcript

[0:00] In the pre dawn chill of Thanksgiving weekend 2011,
[0:03] firefighters extinguished a car engulfed in flames behind a
[0:07] quiet Detroit alley, only to make a horrifying discovery.
[0:11] The vehicle was holding the charred remains of an individual
[0:14] who could only be identified by her dental records.
[0:18] The fire had been no accident, and it was deliberately set to
[0:22] cover up a brutal attack. For nearly seven years, the
[0:26] woman's family and the authorities had no answer, and
[0:29] the perpetrator remained at large while the case went cold.
[0:34] This is the story of what happened to a beloved
[0:36] grandmother, how an investigation stalled for years,
[0:41] and how a cold case was ultimately cracked to bring a
[0:44] monster to justice. On November 26th, 2011, the
[0:52] Saturday after Thanksgiving, authorities were alerted to a
[0:55] vehicle on fire in an alleyway on Buena Vista St. in Highland
[0:59] Park. Firefighters doused the flames
[1:02] and found a body in the back seat, wrapped in a comforter
[1:05] with the head down and feet up. A strong odor of gasoline
[1:09] indicated the blaze was intentionally ignited in the
[1:12] car's back seat. By the following week, news of
[1:16] the horrific crime had spread, and investigators combed through
[1:20] Helen's house for clues. The victim had been burned so
[1:24] badly that identification was impossible on site.
[1:28] Investigators trace the car's registration to Helen Gale, an
[1:32] 81 year old Southfield resident who lived alone, and dental
[1:35] records soon confirmed that the charred body was indeed Helen.
[1:43] From the very start, police treated Helen's death as
[1:45] intentional. The unusual circumstances an
[1:49] elderly woman's body found in a torched car miles from her home,
[1:54] were immediate red flags. Detectives suspected that the
[1:58] perpetrator set the fire to destroy evidence and hinder
[2:01] identification of the victim. An autopsy later confirmed that
[2:05] Helen hadn't perished from the fire itself.
[2:09] She had been slain beforehand, the cause of death, determined
[2:12] to likely be smothering. In other words, someone
[2:16] suffocated the 81 year old and then attempted to hide the crime
[2:21] by burning her body and vehicle. It was a shocking and calculated
[2:25] act, and it left the community stunned and fearful.
[2:30] Helen Gale wasn't a person anyone would expect to be
[2:33] targeted for violence. She was a vibrant senior who had
[2:37] dedicated over 30 years to the Southfield Parks and Recreation
[2:40] Department before retirement. In fact, Helen loved her work so
[2:45] much that she continued part time as the coordinator of a
[2:48] local dance program, staying involved in the community even
[2:52] in her 80s. Friends and colleagues recalled
[2:55] her as an extremely kind, energetic woman who was one of
[2:59] the sweetest people one could ever meet.
[3:04] She was also a mother and grandmother, deeply loved by her
[3:07] family. Just hours before her life was
[3:09] taken, Helen had enjoyed a Thanksgiving phone call with her
[3:13] daughter, Nancy, and everything seemed perfectly normal.
[3:19] The news that Helen had been violently slain later that night
[3:22] was utterly devastating to her family and neighbors, who
[3:26] struggled to imagine who could harm such a gentle soul.
[3:31] At Helen's home on Winchester St. in Southfield, investigators
[3:35] found disturbing evidence that the crime had started there.
[3:39] The scene inside the house pointed to a struggle and the
[3:42] bedroom showed signs of a violent attack.
[3:45] This suggested Helen was attacked and likely slain in her
[3:49] own home before being moved to the car.
[3:52] Several personal items were missing from the house,
[3:55] including Helen's identification wallet and a distinctive
[3:59] designer purse that her daughter had custom made for her as a
[4:02] gift. With a secondary crime scene now
[4:06] identified at the victim's residence, police began piercing
[4:10] together the timeline. The attacker probably assaulted
[4:14] Helen at home on the night of November 25th, then transported
[4:18] her body in her own car and set it ablaze early the next
[4:22] morning. Despite the perpetrators attempt
[4:27] to destroy evidence, investigators did recover some
[4:29] crucial clues. Near the burned car, not far
[4:33] from Helen's scorched Honda, police found a discarded blue
[4:36] bag with a gasoline can inside. Attached to this bag was a
[4:41] receipt, and on it was a name that immediately caught
[4:44] detectives attention. Incredibly, the name on the
[4:48] receipt was Darren Keener, one of Helen Gail's neighbors at the
[4:52] time. This was the first major break
[4:54] in the case, or so the detectives thought.
[5:00] When questioned back in 2011, Darren Keener admitted the gas
[5:04] can was his, but claimed it had been stolen from his back porch
[5:08] and placed in that blue bag by some unknown person.
[5:12] Police found this story highly dubious but did view it as a
[5:16] potential possibility. Keener was the obvious suspect,
[5:20] but the evidence back in 2011 was too thin to charge him, and
[5:24] at any rate he seemed to be very helpful and cooperative.
[5:29] Having his name on a receipt at the scene was incriminating yet
[5:33] not definitive proof of involvement, and detectives
[5:36] lacked any hard evidence tying him directly to the crime.
[5:40] As a result, he remained free and the case went cold with
[5:43] years passing and no arrest. For years, Nancy Gale, Helen's
[5:50] daughter, waited in vain for answers.
[5:53] The case had gone cold, with crucial evidence destroyed in
[5:57] the fire and no new leads. The police didn't seem to be too
[6:01] interested in actually pursuing any form of justice.
[6:05] Yet Nancy GAIL refused to let her mother's case be forgotten.
[6:09] In 2017, Nancy decided to take action on her own.
[6:14] She hired a private investigator, Scott Lewis, to re
[6:16] examine her mother's case. Lewis was a former investigative
[6:21] journalist who had both connections within the Police
[6:24] Department and could also be a thorn in their sides as well.
[6:30] Nancy and Lewis gathered all the evidence they could and launched
[6:33] a campaign to make the cops do something about this case.
[6:37] Lewis's involvement breathed new life into the investigation,
[6:41] prompting Southfield police to re engage with fresh urgency.
[6:45] In effect, it was the Gale family's persistence that forced
[6:48] a second look at evidence that might otherwise have gathered
[6:51] dust. Southfield police officially
[6:54] reopened Helen's case and enlisted the Oakland County
[6:58] Sheriff's Cold Case Unit to take a fresh look at the evidence.
[7:03] It had been nearly six years since the event, but
[7:06] investigators were determined to finally crack the case.
[7:11] With fresh eyes on the case, Detective soon found new
[7:14] evidence and inconsistencies that had been missed.
[7:17] Back in 2011. Everything began to stack up
[7:21] against Keener, especially after they revisited his alibi and
[7:25] gathered new witness testimony. Notably, there were a number of
[7:29] significant breakthroughs in the case as a result of this that
[7:33] really make me question the original investigation.
[7:37] I just need to reiterate here that a receipt with this guy's
[7:40] name on it was literally discovered at the scene of the
[7:43] crime. Despite this, there seems to
[7:46] have been little effort to actually dig any deeper into him
[7:50] and reveal what in retrospect looks like obvious
[7:53] inconsistencies. Keener's original alibi for the
[7:58] night of November 25th 2011 fell apart under renewed scrutiny.
[8:04] He had claimed he spent that weekend with his young daughter
[8:06] and then went to his mother's house.
[8:09] But when detectives talked to the child's mother, she
[8:12] confirmed that Keener didn't have their daughter on that
[8:15] Thanksgiving weekend at all. In other words, he had used his
[8:19] daughter as a cover for where he had been.
[8:22] This wasn't necessarily proof of his involvement, but it did
[8:26] prove that he had lied to the initial investigators despite
[8:30] being apparently helpful. This of course made the story
[8:34] about how the receipt got to the crime scene even more dubious
[8:37] than it already was. Also, I know I shouldn't be
[8:42] shocked by this given what Keener was capable of, but using
[8:45] his daughter as cover to commit this crime just amplifies the
[8:48] disgust I feel towards this guy. Cell phone records further
[8:54] undermined Keener's story. These records placed him in the
[8:58] vicinity of the Highland Park alley at around the time Helen's
[9:02] car was set on fire. Personally, I'm not sure how
[9:06] these cell phone records weren't initially obtained in 2011,
[9:10] given that a receipt with his name was found at the crime
[9:12] scene. Honestly, that's some real
[9:15] questionable police work right there.
[9:19] Notably, one acquaintance revealed that Keener frantically
[9:23] called her about 16 times on the night of the slaying.
[9:26] When she answered, he sounded distressed, and the next day she
[9:30] discovered a voicemail from him essentially confessing that he
[9:33] had done something terrible. He didn't say exactly what he
[9:37] had done, and he didn't say that it was a crime, even, but the
[9:41] timeline added up. All of these clues considered
[9:47] together painted a devastating picture of who was responsible
[9:50] for this sick act against this innocent grandmother.
[9:54] By early 2018, the authorities had assembled a strong
[9:58] circumstantial case indicating that Darren Keener had slain
[10:02] Helen Gale. They theorized that his reason
[10:05] for doing so was likely to steal money for feeding his substance
[10:09] habit. Confronted with this mountain of
[10:12] evidence, the wheels of justice finally began to turn, and
[10:16] Keener would find himself crushed under the full weight of
[10:19] the state coming down on him. In May 2018, nearly seven years
[10:26] after the attack, US Marshals located Keener in Toledo, OH and
[10:31] arrested him. He was extradited to Michigan to
[10:34] face charges, finally bringing the prime suspect into custody.
[10:39] Keener was soon arraigned on charges related to the crime,
[10:43] including the slaying itself, arson related charges, and
[10:47] charges related to substances he was found with.
[10:51] At a preliminary hearing in June 2018, prosecutors laid out the
[10:55] cold case evidence. They even played the confession
[10:59] voicemail using his own words against him in this pretrial
[11:03] conference. Confronted with this strong
[11:07] case, Keener chose to avoid a jury trial and accepted a plea
[11:11] deal by late 2018. In October 2018, Keener
[11:17] officially pleaded guilty to a variety of offenses and was
[11:21] sentenced to 12 to 50 years in prison.
[11:24] Disturbingly, under these terms, he must serve only 12 years
[11:28] before he can be eligible for parole, putting his earliest
[11:32] possible release at May 2030 for what he did.
[11:38] Darren Keener's guilty plea with a minimum sentence of just 12
[11:42] years can definitely strike some as far too lenient for such a
[11:46] horrific crime, and I don't disagree.
[11:49] Considering Helen was smothered in her own home, her body
[11:53] stuffed into a car and set ablaze, in a just world, this
[11:57] guy should have got life in the slammer at minimum.
[12:00] But the reality is that prosecutors had to weigh the
[12:03] strength of their evidence. The case against Keener was
[12:06] almost entirely circumstantial and built on phone records.
[12:11] A discredited alibi, a gas can linked by receipt, and a
[12:15] voicemail that was short of a confession.
[12:18] Now, of course, I need to comment here that if the initial
[12:21] investigators had actually dug into Keener's lies, I think
[12:25] there's a good chance the case against him may have been much
[12:28] stronger. In the years this case spent,
[12:31] cold evidence was lost to the sands of time, meaning the
[12:35] prosecution couldn't present as strong a case as they could have
[12:38] otherwise. While these pieces combined to
[12:43] create a convincing picture, they weren't as definitive as
[12:47] DNA or direct eyewitness testimony.
[12:50] Prosecutors only get one chance to put a defendant on trial for
[12:53] a crime such as this. If they went for a first degree
[12:57] charge and lost, there'd be no second attempt and Keener would
[13:01] have simply walked free and there's nothing anyone could
[13:04] have done. The plea deal, though
[13:07] unsatisfying, ensured a conviction and prison time
[13:11] rather than risking an acquittal.
[13:14] In this light, the outcome reflects the delicate balance of
[13:18] the legal system. It's about securing
[13:20] accountability within the constraints of available
[13:23] evidence. However, given the heinous
[13:26] nature of the crime, I suspect that he may end up serving
[13:29] something closer to the full sentence.
[13:35] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here reminding you to take a moment
[13:38] to share this video with a friend or family member.
[13:41] Sharing my videos is one of the best ways to help my channel
[13:44] grow and ensure the content keeps flowing.
[13:51] As the late afternoon sun cast long shadows on a quiet Florida
[13:55] St. in the sleepy Gulf Coast town of Punta Gorda, two
[13:59] teenagers stepped off their school bus.
[14:02] They expected to find their older sister at home, but
[14:05] instead, on October 1st, 2001, Tara Sidarevich's siblings
[14:12] walked into an eerie scene inside their house.
[14:15] The front door was left ajar, the television was still
[14:19] playing, and 19 year old Tara's car sat in the driveway with her
[14:24] purse still inside. Tara herself was nowhere to be
[14:28] found, and muddy footprints were tracked across the floor.
[14:33] These prints matched none of her family members and hinted that a
[14:36] stranger had been in the home and that something had gone
[14:39] terribly wrong. There were no signs of forced
[14:43] entry, suggesting that Tara had willingly opened the door to
[14:47] whoever came by that day. Tara Siderevich was a lively,
[14:53] responsible teenager who had her whole life ahead of her.
[14:57] She worked at a local jewelry store and was adored by friends
[15:00] and family, and she was looking forward to a bright future.
[15:04] It was unthinkable that she would simply disappear on her
[15:07] own as her loved one's concern grew by the hour.
[15:11] Police initially approached the case like a typical missing
[15:14] person situation, hopeful that Tara might turn up safe and
[15:17] sound. For a short time, investigators
[15:21] entertained the possibility that the 19 year old had voluntarily
[15:25] gone somewhere without telling anyone.
[15:27] Tara had even mentioned plans to pick up her paycheck from work
[15:31] that day, which suggested she fully intended to return home
[15:34] later. But as hours turned into days
[15:38] with no sign of her, that optimism faded and the cops
[15:42] started to take the case seriously.
[15:47] In the days and weeks after Tara vanished, a massive search
[15:50] effort engulfed the community. Charlotte County deputies combed
[15:54] through woods and fields with sniffer dogs, and volunteers set
[15:58] up search parties, yet no trace of Tara turned up.
[16:03] Investigators did discover one puzzling clue inside the house.
[16:08] Some of Tara's jewelry was missing.
[16:11] This supported a theory that a robbery had occurred and perhaps
[16:14] Tara had interrupted a burglary in progress and the intruders
[16:18] harmed her when she confronted them.
[16:22] After 9 agonizing months of uncertainty, the mystery took a
[16:27] tragic turn in July 2002. About 10 miles from Tara's home,
[16:34] investigators found a hastily buried grave in a wooded area
[16:38] off Burnt Store Rd. Inside, they discovered skeletal
[16:42] human remains that forensic tests soon confirmed to be Tara
[16:45] Siderevich. An autopsy determined that she
[16:49] had died from blunt force trauma to her ribs.
[16:54] Despite recovering Tara's remains and a flurry of
[16:57] investigative activity, authorities struggled to pin
[17:00] down a suspect in 2002. They interviewed friends,
[17:05] neighbors and anyone who might know something, but no one had a
[17:09] motive for doing this to the good-natured young woman.
[17:13] There was little physical evidence to go on, and even
[17:17] public pleas for help brought no breakthroughs.
[17:22] Early on, suspicion had swirled around two men who were among
[17:26] the last to see Tara alive. These were 34 year old Philip
[17:31] Barr, a septic tank repairman, and his 30 year old employee
[17:36] David McManus. The pair had visited Tara's
[17:40] house around midday on October 1st under the pretence of fixing
[17:44] a plumbing problem, but at the time detectives had no proof
[17:47] tying them to the crime, so they remained free and apparently in
[17:51] the clear. By 2007, six long years had
[17:58] passed since Tara's slaying with no arrests, and the trail had
[18:02] gone ice cold. That year, a newly elected
[18:06] sheriff in Charlotte County put fresh focus on cold cases, and
[18:10] Tara's unsolved slaying was at the top of the list.
[18:14] A-Team of veteran detectives re examined every detail and re
[18:17] interviewed witnesses. They zeroed back in on Philip
[18:21] Barr and David McManus, suspecting that the passage of
[18:24] time might persuade someone to talk.
[18:27] Their hunch was right, and an unexpected tip from a jailhouse
[18:31] snitch would soon blow the case wide open.
[18:36] A man named Michael Artel, who had once shared a jail cell with
[18:40] Philip Barr, contacted authorities in 2007 with
[18:44] alarming information. Artel told detectives that Barr
[18:47] had spoken about being involved in a slaying of someone who fit
[18:51] Tara's description. Notably, Barr was in jail at the
[18:54] time on a check fraud offense, A twist of fate that put him in
[18:58] Artel's path and ultimately helped crack the case.
[19:02] Artel recognized the story from a true crime TV segment about
[19:05] Tara's disappearance and realized he might know who was
[19:09] responsible. His bombshell tip gave
[19:12] investigators the lead they desperately needed after years
[19:15] of dead ends. It was the first significant
[19:18] break in the case in a long time, and detectives wasted no
[19:22] time chasing it down. With this new information in
[19:27] hand, detectives dug deeper into Barr and Mcmanus's lives.
[19:32] What they found was a web of circumstantial evidence that
[19:35] suddenly clicked into place. Multiple witnesses had reported
[19:39] seeing a truck belonging to Barr near Tara's home around the time
[19:43] she went missing. 1 Charlotte County officer even remembered
[19:47] spotting Barr frantically scrubbing out the interior of
[19:50] that truck less than a day after Tara vanished.
[19:53] Then came the most disturbing revelation.
[19:56] Barr's ex-girlfriend revealed that on the afternoon of the
[19:59] attack, she saw him loading a large bundle into his truck.
[20:04] When she pressed him, Barr claimed the bundle was actually
[20:07] just a hog. Armed with these witness
[20:12] accounts in the earlier clues, authorities were finally ready
[20:16] to act in October 2012, eleven years after Tara was slain.
[20:22] A Charlotte County grand jury indicted Philip Barr and David
[20:26] McManus on charges in the first degree.
[20:30] Law enforcement coordinated a multi state effort to capture
[20:33] the two suspects. McManus had left Florida and was
[20:37] living in Cumberland, MD, so US Marshals and local police
[20:41] tracked him down there and placed him under arrest.
[20:45] Barr was located and arrested in Florida.
[20:49] After more than a decade of frustration and grief, Tara's
[20:53] family got the news they had long-awaited. 2 men were finally
[20:57] in custody, accused of her slaying.
[21:02] Prosecutors decided to try Barr and McManus separately,
[21:06] beginning with Philip Barr's trial in 2015.
[21:10] In that courtroom, jurors heard damning testimony from witnesses
[21:14] like Michael Artel and Barr's former girlfriend.
[21:18] The defense argued that there was no direct physical evidence
[21:21] linking Barr to the crime, but the circumstantial evidence was
[21:25] overwhelming. Barr continued to insist he had
[21:28] no involvement in Tara's death, but the jury wasn't convinced.
[21:33] After deliberating, the jury found Philip Barr guilty in
[21:36] October 2015. He was sentenced to life in
[21:40] prison. The mandatory punishment for
[21:43] first degree in Florida when the big state sponsored DP isn't
[21:47] pursued. For Tara's family, who had
[21:51] waited so long, that verdict was a moment of immense relief.
[21:55] David McManus went to trial about a year and a half later,
[21:59] in early 2017. His trial lasted nearly six
[22:03] weeks and presented much of the same evidence implicating him as
[22:07] Barr's accomplice. This time, the jury needed less
[22:11] than an hour of deliberation to reach a verdict.
[22:14] They found McManus guilty as well, and the judge immediately
[22:18] handed down a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
[22:23] For the second time, Tara's family sat in a courtroom and
[22:26] saw justice done. Notably, neither Barr nor
[22:31] McManus ever admitted responsibility or showed a shred
[22:35] of remorse for what they had done.
[22:37] But for the Siderevich family, those guilty verdicts marked the
[22:42] end of a long and painful chapter. 16 years after she
[22:46] disappeared, they finally saw justice served.
[22:51] Both men, now middle-aged, will spend the rest of their lives
[22:55] behind bars, having all the time in the world to contemplate
[22:58] whether their evil act was worth it.
[23:03] Given the position that each man took at trial, Tara's family
[23:06] never really found out the why behind the crime.

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