The Murder of Lisa McCracken

For my research for this case, I watched an episode of On the Case with Paula Zahn. It’s season 12 episode 5, titled ‘Hidden by Lies.’ Now, I have heard and seen a lot of mixed reviews of this show, but personally I like it. It brings a lot of attention to underreported cases and there are a lot of interviews and interrogations in most of the episodes.

This case happened in 1987, and I chose it because I’ve never heard of the case. It also took many years to solve, but at least it was solved to bring justice to a victim and her family.

Background

Lisa McCracken was born on February 20, 1968, and lived in Vincennes, Indiana at the time she was killed.

Lisa was very close to her mom, Diane, who was a pastor. Diane described Lisa as being very happy all the time. On the last day she spoke to her daughter, Lisa said she was staying home because she had to study for midterms. She was attending Vincennes University, and lived in an off campus apartment. Diane told her daughter she loved her and that was their last conversation.

The Murder and Investigation

On October 12, 1987, Lisa’s boyfriend, Doug came over to her apartment like they had planned. She had left her front door open for him, and he walked in. He found the lights and TV on. He called out to Lisa and walked into her bedroom. He found Lisa dead on her bedroom floor. The police were called and started their investigation right away.

Lisa had been beaten, stabbed and sexually assaulted. The police also found a broken window in the bedroom, and determined that Lisa had fought back against her killer.

The knife that was used was still in Lisa’s chest, and the murder weapon was one of Lisa’s own knives. That is not what killed her, though. The autopsy determined that Lisa’s cause of death was manual strangulation, and she was stabbed after she was already killed.

The police also found a note on Lisa’s bed that she had written. It said:

“I don’t think he can tell me what to do when I’m not at work.”

The police thought that Lisa’s killer was someone that she worked with, so they started questioning her co-workers.

A New Suspect

The police also had to tell Lisa’s mom, Diane, that Lisa was dead. Diane thought she knew who the killer was after Lisa told her she was having problems with someone at work.

The man’s name was Wayne Swick, a 24 year old assistant manager at The Waffle House where they both worked. He apparently had a crush on Lisa, and asked her out constantly. She turned him down, and was scared of him because he didn’t take the rejection well.

Another co-worker of their’s named Barbara told the police that she had a weird conversation with Wayne a few days later. Barbara said that Wayne told her details of the crime scene, he knew about the knife, note and sexual assault.

The police brought Wayne into the station. He was asked how he knew about the crime scene, he said the police told him details. The police were really suspicious, so they came up with a ruse for Wayne to confess to being at Lisa’s.

Larry Eck, a sergeant with the Indiana State police, told Wayne that a witness came forward saying they saw his car at Lisa’s at the time of the murder. Wayne said he was there and went inside, but Lisa didn’t answer him when he called out to her, so he left.

The police took Wayne’s DNA, and when it came back it couldn’t be excluded. At this time, DNA was in it’s infancy and wasn’t as reliable as it today.

Two years after Lisa’s murder, Wayne was indicted on the charges of rape and murder. They were dropped shortly after because the district attorney wanted to be able to make sure they got a guilty verdict. If he would have been acquitted, they wouldn’t have been able to arrest or try him again.

Another Murder

Three years later, Lisa’s case had gone cold and unfortunately, it had to take another murder to happen to know what happened to her.

Jill Slater, a 15 year old girl, was babysitting at a home right near hers on June 17, 1995. She was babysitting a 5 year old girl named Saesha. Saesha’s house caught on fire, but when the police and firefighters arrived, Saesha was rescued, but they found the body of Jill.

The fire wasn’t what killed Jill. Jill had been beaten, stabbed and sexually assaulted. In fact, this crime scene was eerily similar to Lisa’s. The police believed that the fire was set to destroy evidence or to conceal the killer’s identity, since Saesha was in the house.

Saesha Keith was interviewed in this episode, now an adult, she said she remembers that day but only briefly. She thought the killer had been her dad. However, Saesha’s dad was in jail at the time and couldn’t have killed Jill.

The Killer

A few witnesses came forward and said they saw a local man near the crime scene the night before the murder. They said he was intoxicated and scary looking.

The man was identified as Jeffrey Whipps. The police went to to interview Jeffrey at his house, and the police said Jeffrey appeared nervous and was sweating. They also saw that Jeffrey had a burn mark and blood on his shoes.

The blood on his shoes was a match to Jill Slater’s DNA. Jeffrey was arrested and charged with Jill’s murder and sexual assault. He was sentenced to 89 years in prison.

The Cases are Connected

When Jeffrey Whipps was arrested in 1995, his DNA was put into CODIS (Combined DNA Index System). His DNA was also a match to Lisa McCracken’s crime scene.

The Indiana State police were called, and Larry Eck was stunned that the killer wasn’t Wayne Swick. He said he felt bad that they focused on the wrong person.

Jeffrey Whipps is Charged with Lisa’s Murder

It wasn't determined if either Lisa or Jill knew Jeffrey, but the police’s theory is that Jeffrey saw both girls and somehow got into both homes and killed and sexually assaulted them.

Thirteen years after Lisa's death, Jeffrey Whipps was finally charged. He pleaded guilty to her murder, so he didn’t get the death penalty, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. His sentence was to be served after his 89 year sentence for Jill’s murder.

Other

Diane McCracken said she forgave Jeffrey because the pastor in her needed to.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Jeffrey Whipps is a monster. It takes a sick person to see someone that you don’t know and think it’s okay to enter their home and violate and kill them. He doesn’t deserve to see the light of day ever again. It’s sad that it had to take two murders for him to get caught, I can’t imagine how many other innocent girls would be dead today if he hadn’t been caught.

Diane is a saint for forgiving this man, if that was my child, there is no way in hell I would be able to do that.

Sources

https://victimsofhomicide.fandom.com/wiki/Lisa_McCracken

https://victimsofhomicide.fandom.com/wiki/Jill_Slater

https://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/whipps-jeffrey.htm

https://www.14news.com/story/928216/whipps-pleads-guilty-to-second-murder/

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/usedtobedoe/up-date-arrest-made-in-unsolved-murder-t16133.html