Speaker 1: Virginia Beach has always been a city caught between worlds.
Speaker 1: Since the English colonists first landed at Cape Henry in
Speaker 1: April of sixteen oh seven, this stretch of Atlantic coastline
Speaker 1: has been a witness to history, rivals, departures, wars, and reinvention.
Speaker 1: By the late nineteenth century, the city was marketed as
Speaker 1: a seaside escape. A single hotel linked by railroad to Norfolk,
Speaker 1: transformed the quiet stretch of shoreline into a bustling resort.
Speaker 1: But Virginia Beach was never just about tourism. Over the decades,
Speaker 1: it grew into a sprawling community, a place where vacationers
Speaker 1: mingled with longtime residents, and where military families arrived in
Speaker 1: steady waves carried by the shifting tides of deployment orders.
Speaker 1: By nineteen ninety one, Virginia Beach was home to one
Speaker 1: of the largest naval air stations on the East Coast.
Speaker 1: Military housing dotted the city like small, self contained villages,
Speaker 1: each with its own heartbeat. Rows of near identical homes,
Speaker 1: front yards with bicycles left on the grass, and the
Speaker 1: constant hum of aircraft overhead defined these neighborhoods. They were
Speaker 1: places where children formed fast friendship, and parents leaned on
Speaker 1: each other when deployments pulled one spoue far from home.
Speaker 1: One such community was Wandsworth Homes, perched near the quaint
Speaker 1: waters of Birdneck Lake. The lake itself was unremarkable on
Speaker 1: a map, but for the families who lived nearby, it
Speaker 1: was a familiar backdrop. Kids fished for bass on hot
Speaker 1: summer afternoons, skipping stones across the still waters, while the
Speaker 1: smell of barbecues drifted from backyards. Birdneck Lake felt safe, ordinary,
Speaker 1: a place where children could roam without their parents worrying
Speaker 1: too much. But safety is sometimes only an illusion. On
Speaker 1: a humid March evening in nineteen ninety one, that illusion
Speaker 1: shattered to young boys from Wandsworth Homes didn't make it
Speaker 1: home for dinner. Nine year old Daniel Geyer was born
Speaker 1: in Anniston to Gary and Valerie Geyer. He was part
Speaker 1: of a large and lively family with three daughters and
Speaker 1: another son. The Gyers had moved to Virginia Beach three
Speaker 1: years earlier, when Gary's posting with the Navy brought them
Speaker 1: to Burneck Lake. Like many military families, they knew the
Speaker 1: rhythm of constant change new cities new schools, new friends.
Speaker 1: It was a lifestyle that required resilience, especially from children,
Speaker 1: but it also came with a ready made support network.
Speaker 1: In military housing, neighbors often become standing family. A nine
Speaker 1: year old Daniel thrived in that environment. Neighbors recalled him
Speaker 1: as a bride outgoing boy, always quick to smile. He
Speaker 1: was constantly in motion, peddling his bicycle through the complex,
Speaker 1: stopping to chat, or joining in a pickup game with friends.
Speaker 1: His presence was one of those constants you barely noticed
Speaker 1: until it wasn't there. One friend, Kenneth Lester, remembered Don
Speaker 1: was a real good little kid. He was always happy.
Speaker 1: You could tell he had a real nice family. He
Speaker 1: was always happy, and he always had a smile on
Speaker 1: his face. He was just a real good kid. Wherever
Speaker 1: Daniel went, another boy was usually close behind. Seven year
Speaker 1: old Ashley Christopher Weaver, known to everybody as Scott, lived
Speaker 1: just a few doors down. His nickname had come from
Speaker 1: his birthplace, Scotland, though Virginia Beage was the only home
Speaker 1: he really remembered. Like Daniel, Scott was part of a
Speaker 1: Navy family. He was the eldest of five children born
Speaker 1: to Robert and Tomorrow. Weaver. His mother Tomorrow was serving
Speaker 1: as an electrician's mate aboard a navy's ship in the
Speaker 1: Persian Gulf at the time. His father was holding downe
Speaker 1: the Ford at home with the children, but he too
Speaker 1: was in the military. Scott missed his mother deeply when
Speaker 1: she was deployed, but he wrote to her faithfully, filling
Speaker 1: his letters with updates from home. Reverend D. R. Statton,
Speaker 1: who knew the family, described him simply. He loved people,
Speaker 1: he loved to explore. Seldom was he still together. Daniel
Speaker 1: and Scott made the most of their freedom. The military
Speaker 1: housing complex was their playground, and bird Neck Lake was
Speaker 1: the backdrop for their adventures. They fished, rode bikes, and
Speaker 1: explored the wooded areas of the neighborhood. For boys their age,
Speaker 1: it was the kind of childhood that felt both bondless
Speaker 1: and secure. But one evening in nineteen ninety one would
Speaker 1: prove that even in place is built on structure and community,
Speaker 1: tragedy can arrive quietly without warning. It was the fourth
Speaker 1: of March nineteen ninety one for nine year old Daniel
Speaker 1: Geyer and seven year old Scott Weaver the dead. They
Speaker 1: began like any other Monday, they spent the morning at school,
Speaker 1: and once release, did what they loved most, racing through
Speaker 1: the neighborhood on their bicycles side by side. By late afternoon,
Speaker 1: around four thirty p m. The boys were seen pedaling
Speaker 1: up and down the familiar straits of Wandsworth homes. Their
Speaker 1: parents gave them the same rule every evening, be home
Speaker 1: when the sun goes down. But as daylight began to
Speaker 1: fade and the sky shifted from pale orange to gray,
Speaker 1: Daniel and Scott still hadn't returned home. At first, Daniel's mother, Valerie,
Speaker 1: wasn't alarmed. Children in Birdneck Lake often lingered a little
Speaker 1: too long at play, But once darkness settled in and
Speaker 1: there was still no sign of her son on A's
Speaker 1: crept in, Valerie stepped outside, calling her son's name into
Speaker 1: the dim streets. Somewhere near by, another voice echoed into
Speaker 1: the night. It was Scott's grandmother searching for him as well.
Speaker 1: Valery hurried over, explaining that Daniel hadn't come home either.
Speaker 1: The grandmother's response was heavy with worry. I hope to
Speaker 1: God they didn't go where they went last week over
Speaker 1: to the lake. Birdneck Lake wasn't far. The children had
Speaker 1: been warned not to play there. It was too deep,
Speaker 1: too unpredictable, a place of hidden dangers. But warnings don't
Speaker 1: always stick in young adventurous minds. Valery and her husband
Speaker 1: Gary grabbed their flashlights and headed over to the lake.
Speaker 1: They swept their beams across the water's edge, calling out
Speaker 1: the boys' names. The beams caught on nothing but trees
Speaker 1: and murky water. The silence that followed was crushing. By
Speaker 1: seven thirty PM, with the boys still missing, police were called.
Speaker 1: The search began almost immediately, and words spread through Virginia
Speaker 1: Beach with urgency. Neighbors poured from their homes, and soon
Speaker 1: more than sixty p people, including police officers, firefighters, Navy personnel,
Speaker 1: and volunteers were coming through the neighborhood. They searched house
Speaker 1: to house, straight to straight, and pressed further outward towards
Speaker 1: the dark woods and the waters of Birdneck Lake. The lake,
Speaker 1: which was really just a flooded borrow pit, sat just
Speaker 1: south of the Navy amphibious space, encircled by thick woods
Speaker 1: and dotted with smaller bodies of water. It was treacherous,
Speaker 1: tern still, the searchers pressed forward as they neared the
Speaker 1: water line, something called the bam of a flashlight just
Speaker 1: beneath the surface. It was a small bicycle, its wheale
Speaker 1: bent at a strange angle. It was carefully pulled from
Speaker 1: the lake. It belonged to Scott, hoped that the boys
Speaker 1: had simply wandered off began to shrink. Searchers turned their
Speaker 1: focus deeper into the woods and around the swampy edges
Speaker 1: of the lake. Divers entered the water despite the hazards.
Speaker 1: Submerged trees, debris, and jagged construction material made every step uncertain,
Speaker 1: and in those depths anything could remain hidden. Around thirty
Speaker 1: to forty yards away, another discovery surfaced, Daniel's bicycle, half
Speaker 1: submerged in swamp water, its frame caked in mud. By
Speaker 1: eleven PM, the dangers of night diving forced police to
Speaker 1: suspend the water search. The darkness was far too consuming
Speaker 1: and the risk was too great. But on land the
Speaker 1: hunt continued. Volunteers with flashlights swept through the woods in lines,
Speaker 1: calling out the boys' names into the night air. At
Speaker 1: three forty five am, searchers briefly stopped to regroup before
Speaker 1: pressing on again. Karen Lincoln, a dispatcher for Virginia Beach Police,
Speaker 1: Fire and Rescue recalled how the k strew people farm wide.
Speaker 1: They've had people volunteering from all over the state with
Speaker 1: tracking dogs to out in help. Through the night, the
Speaker 1: search pressed forward, every passing r weighed with dread. The
Speaker 1: next morning the search resumed. By now the effort had
Speaker 1: swelled to nearly two hundred people. Volunteers came from all
Speaker 1: across Virginia Beage and beyond, Shaken by the disappearance of
Speaker 1: two young boys in a community where children were supposed
Speaker 1: to fail. Safe searchers spread out across the woodland surrounding
Speaker 1: Birdneck Lake, about one hundred yards ace of General Booth Boulevard.
Speaker 1: A group moved slowly through thick undergrowth. On one side
Speaker 1: was a residential street, on the other a public camp ground.
Speaker 1: One searcher, James McKinsey, was watching the ground as he
Speaker 1: picked his way over branches and fallen leaves. Then something
Speaker 1: in the distance caught his eye, a shape, too small,
Speaker 1: too out of place among the angled brush. He stepped closer,
Speaker 1: heart pounding as he neared, he froze. A tiny hand
Speaker 1: was sticking out from beneath a pile of leaves and branches.
Speaker 1: Blonde hair glinted faintly beneath the debris. James staggered back
Speaker 1: in horror before calling the police over. The area was
Speaker 1: quickly sailed off. Officers saw what James had seen, a
Speaker 1: crude pile of tree limbs, branches, and forest DeBras. Many
Speaker 1: of the branches bore fresh cup marks, as though they
Speaker 1: had been deliberately sawn down with a knife to create
Speaker 1: this makeshift cover. One by one, the atoms were carefully
Speaker 1: removed beneath them, Lying side by side with the bodies
Speaker 1: of Daniel Gear and Scott Weaver. Both boys were fully clothed,
Speaker 1: but their clothes were saturated in blood. Their throats had
Speaker 1: been slacked. The search was finally over as the boys
Speaker 1: remains were prepared for transport to the medical Examiner's office.
Speaker 1: The unimaginable task of notifying their families fell to Navy personnel.
Speaker 1: None of the parents had slept through the night they'd
Speaker 1: waited by the phone. Joined the searches clung to the
Speaker 1: hope that the boys were hiding somewhere safe. Gary and
Speaker 1: Valerie Gear were standing outside when the officers approached. The
Speaker 1: moment Valerie realized what they were there to say her
Speaker 1: body crumpled. She sobbed, No, it can't be. They've got
Speaker 1: to be okay. A short distance away, Robert Weaver was
Speaker 1: told of his son's death. Scott's mother, Tomorrow, was serving
Speaker 1: aboard the USS Yellowstone in the Persian Gulf. Word was
Speaker 1: sent to her immediately. She was flown back home at once,
Speaker 1: a military mother summoned back to face the most devastating
Speaker 1: news imaginable. Over the medical Examiner's office, the fathers were
Speaker 1: asked to do what no parent should ever be asked
Speaker 1: to do. They had to identify their son's bodies. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: Gary slammed his fists against the canopy of a pickup
Speaker 1: truck and shouted, get that, son of a bitch. Autopsies
Speaker 1: then revealed the brutality of the attack. Both boys had
Speaker 1: bled to death. Seven year old Scott suffered three stab
Speaker 1: wounds delivered in rapid succession. The injuries would have incapacitated
Speaker 1: him quickly, but the killer didn't stop. Scott's throat was
Speaker 1: slashed over and over until he was nearly decapitated. Nan
Speaker 1: year old Daniel had been struck with such force that
Speaker 1: his neck was broken before his throat was slashed. He
Speaker 1: too had been slashed multiple times. The autopsies also brought
Speaker 1: an unexpected revelation. Despite initial fears that the boys might
Speaker 1: have been killed by a sexual predator, there was no
Speaker 1: sign of sexual assault. This wasn't a crime of sexual gratification.
Speaker 1: It was something else, something fueled by raw violence and rage.
Speaker 1: And now in Virginia Beach, the search for two missing
Speaker 1: boys transformed into a hunt for their killer. The woodland
Speaker 1: where Daniel and Scott had been found was sealed off,
Speaker 1: crime scene tape fluttering in the wind as detectives and
Speaker 1: forensics teams combed the ground inch by inch. News of
Speaker 1: the murders spread like wildfire through Virginia Beach. Parents who
Speaker 1: had tuck their children into bed the night before now
Speaker 1: faced an unbearable truth. A child killer was in their mids.
Speaker 1: It's the sense of safety that military housing and close
Speaker 1: knit neighborhoods once offered had vanished overnight. Be At Stea,
Speaker 1: who lived nearby, captured the raw fear that gripped parents
Speaker 1: everywhere when she said, this is every mother's worst nightmare.
Speaker 1: For children in the community, the shock was just as profound.
Speaker 1: The woods where the boys' bodies were found wasn't just
Speaker 1: any patch of land. It was their playground. Generations of
Speaker 1: kids had built forts there, hammered to gather, treehouse, and
Speaker 1: carved skateboard ramps into the clearings. It was a place
Speaker 1: where imagination ran free, but that innocence was now gone.
Speaker 1: One boy told reporters were scared. We used to play
Speaker 1: in those woods all the time, but not anymore. Adults too,
Speaker 1: had long been uneasy about the area. Some had warned
Speaker 1: that the woods were no longer safe for children, pointing
Speaker 1: to signs of trouble that had cropped up regularly discarded
Speaker 1: beer bottles scattered across the floor, evidence of late night parties,
Speaker 1: and what neighbors described as rough looking kids emerging from
Speaker 1: the tree line. Others claimed they had seen youths carrying
Speaker 1: crow bars and tire irons. There's all kinds of stuff
Speaker 1: that goes on in those woods, recalled James McKinsey, the
Speaker 1: searcher who had made the grim discovery. He then added,
Speaker 1: the children play in there, but you can tell from
Speaker 1: what's in there that there's other things that go on too.
Speaker 1: A local mother who didn't want to be named, put
Speaker 1: it more bluntly. There's beer cans and wine bottles all
Speaker 1: over that woods. You can look around and see where
Speaker 1: they have had parties in there, and police knew that
Speaker 1: these weren't just harmless gatherings. The summer before, children reported
Speaker 1: being chased through the trees by a man who was
Speaker 1: holding a knife. Around the same time, a grocery store
Speaker 1: clerk was robbed, dragged into the woods, and then raped.
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Denis Free of the Virginia Beach Police admitted grimly,
Speaker 1: I'll guarantee you there'll be people living there during the summer.
Speaker 1: For detectives, the picture was complex. The woods were a
Speaker 1: place of play but also of menace, a shadowy space
Speaker 1: where predators could hide in play in sight. Detectives were
Speaker 1: cautious in their early statements. They couldn't yet say whether
Speaker 1: Daniel and Scott had been killed by somebody they knew
Speaker 1: or by a stranger, but they were certain of one thing.
Speaker 1: The boys had been murdered where their bodies were found.
Speaker 1: Moving two children such a distance through thick brush would
Speaker 1: have been nearly impossible without leaving clear signs behind. A
Speaker 1: special tip line was set up, and within days hundreds
Speaker 1: of calls flooded in, but each lead ended in frustration.
Speaker 1: Nothing yet pointed clearly to the killer. Detectives began retracing
Speaker 1: the boy's final steps, piecing together a timeline. Rose Campbell,
Speaker 1: who worked at the seven eleven near Wandsworth Homes, recalled
Speaker 1: seeing Daniel around five point thirty that evening. He'd come
Speaker 1: in to buy candy and play video games, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't with Scott. He was with another boy, she said,
Speaker 1: but she was certain it wasn't his best friend. Another neighbor, Bennett,
Speaker 1: said she too had spotted the boys around the same time,
Speaker 1: between five pm and five thirty pm. She saw them
Speaker 1: near the edge of the woods, but they weren't alone
Speaker 1: with them with a teenage boy. At the local schools,
Speaker 1: the tragedy of Scott and Daniel was all anybody could
Speaker 1: talk about, But at First Colonial High School, one student
Speaker 1: seemed to know more than he should. Sixteen year old
Speaker 1: Sean Novak lived in Wandsworth Homes with his parents. Neighbors
Speaker 1: knew him well. He often mowed their lawns for extra cash,
Speaker 1: including the waivers. His family was deeply religious and regulars
Speaker 1: at church. On the surface, Jean looked like any other
Speaker 1: teenager in the neighborhood, but in the days after the murders.
Speaker 1: He began boasting to classmates that he had discovered the
Speaker 1: boy's bodies. That claim was false, James mackenzie had found them,
Speaker 1: but Novak consisted he was the one. He said he
Speaker 1: had seen their throats slashed, even touched their bloodied bodies.
Speaker 1: These were details that hadn't been released to the public.
Speaker 1: For those who knew him, this wasn't entirely out of character.
Speaker 1: Joan Novac had always seemed strange, prone to shocking others
Speaker 1: with bizarre behavior. One classmate explained, sometimes it was like
Speaker 1: he was trying to stick out, like he wanted to
Speaker 1: do anything that looked weird, and weird he was. John
Speaker 1: had a habit of flaunting macab trophies. He carried a
Speaker 1: sack of animal boons, wore dead bird's head strung around
Speaker 1: his neck, and once waved around the severed leg of
Speaker 1: a cat to discuss his classmates. When they stopped reacting,
Speaker 1: he escalated. He bragged about killing a dog next. It
Speaker 1: was always something bigger, just to freak you. One friend recalled.
Speaker 1: Neighbors had noticed his oddities as well. Melita Canover remembered
Speaker 1: simply he was kind of strange. He carried weird things.
Speaker 1: Sean also talked to himself, or rather to objects. He
Speaker 1: could be seen muttering to tennis balls, golf balls, and
Speaker 1: even blades of grass. At school, Kerrie Duprey remembered him
Speaker 1: stopping her on the stairway, warning solemnly that she had
Speaker 1: nearly stepped on a cander. The word kender came from
Speaker 1: his obsession with the fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons. Let's
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Speaker 1: In Shawn's mind, the dense woodland near bird Neck Lake
Speaker 1: wasn't just a neighborhood playground, it was his kingdom. He
Speaker 1: created a role for the younger children who followed him,
Speaker 1: calling them his Kendors, named after a mischiefous, fearless race
Speaker 1: of creatures from the game. Local teenager John Cleepoor explained,
Speaker 1: Sean had like this little group of Candors, and the
Speaker 1: little kids would be in it. They'd run around just
Speaker 1: goofing off. Daniel was in that group. It was pretty
Speaker 1: much normal everyday life, but he gave a name to
Speaker 1: it and made it more interesting. Despite his eccentracies, not
Speaker 1: everybody viewed Sean in a negative light. Some neighbors said
Speaker 1: that he was harmless, even kind. He was known to
Speaker 1: babysit younger children and often spoke about wanting kids of
Speaker 1: his own one day. Others described him as shy, a
Speaker 1: quiet loner, more focused on passing grades than causing trouble
Speaker 1: his classmates Thereing the Hindman put it simply, he was
Speaker 1: basically a loner at school. He was always trying to
Speaker 1: keep his grades up and make sure he passes. To
Speaker 1: some Sean Novak was just an awkward teenager with strange
Speaker 1: habits to others, he was unsettling. Sean Novak didn't just
Speaker 1: make up stories for his classmates. He also told his
Speaker 1: friend Donald Williamson's mother that he had seen Scott and
Speaker 1: Daniel around five pm on the day they disappeared, that
Speaker 1: he was the last person to see them alive. Alarmed,
Speaker 1: she immediately called police. That afternoon, a detective found Novak's mother, Jenny,
Speaker 1: at work. He explained that he was canvassing the neighborhood
Speaker 1: for clues and asked if he could speak with her son.
Speaker 1: Jenny wanted to be present, and she rushed home from work,
Speaker 1: but by the time she arrived, the detective had already
Speaker 1: been and spoken briefly with Sean. Later that evening, detective
Speaker 1: Sean Hoffman arrived at the Novak home and asked Jenny
Speaker 1: if he could question Sean privately. He reassured her that
Speaker 1: Sean wasn't a suspect, just a possible witness. Jenny agreed,
Speaker 1: and soon she and her some were on their way
Speaker 1: to the police station. For two hours, detectives questioned Sean.
Speaker 1: He denied knowing anything about the murders, but stuck to
Speaker 1: his claim that he had been present when the bodies
Speaker 1: were discovered. Investigators knew that this was false. James had
Speaker 1: made it clear that he and his wife were the
Speaker 1: only ones there. Suspicion sharpened even further when a witness
Speaker 1: confirmed that the teenager last seeing with Scott and Daniel
Speaker 1: was none other than Sean Novak. The next day, detectives
Speaker 1: asked Sean to return. This time, detective Hoffman asked Janny
Speaker 1: to step outside the interrogation room. Left alone with Sean,
Speaker 1: he shifted tactics. He told the teenager falsely that investigators
Speaker 1: had found his fingerprints on one of the victim's clothing
Speaker 1: and that a police officer had seen him in the
Speaker 1: woods before the bodies were discovered. Then he pressed harder,
Speaker 1: suggesting that maybe Sean had stumbled upon the boys first,
Speaker 1: maybe even try to cover them with branches. Sean admitted
Speaker 1: he had. Hoffman pushed further, maybe something had happened in
Speaker 1: the woods, maybe by accident. Sean hesitated and then nodded.
Speaker 1: Did you kill them? Hoffman asked. Sean nodded again. Yes.
Speaker 1: After Sean Novak admitted to the murderers, detectives read him
Speaker 1: his miranda rights. What followed was strange, unsettling, and chilling.
Speaker 1: Novak began talking about Kender, the mischievous creatures from dungeons
Speaker 1: and dragons, but his description was distorted. He said that
Speaker 1: they were four inch tall green beings that killed others
Speaker 1: by planting parasitic worms in their paths. He laughed as
Speaker 1: he spoke about them. Woments later, he broke into sobs
Speaker 1: and began describing what happened that day. It had started
Speaker 1: like any other. Novak went to school, then hurried home,
Speaker 1: grabbed his buck knife, bought cigarettes at seven eleven, and
Speaker 1: headed into the woods, where he often spent hours throwing
Speaker 1: his knife at trees. On his way, he bumped into
Speaker 1: Scott and Daniel. He already knew Daniel, his younger brother's
Speaker 1: best friend. Scott, however, he'd never met The boys asked
Speaker 1: him to show them a new ford in the woods,
Speaker 1: and he agreed. As they walked, Daniel kept asking to
Speaker 1: see his knife. Near the fort, they began playfully wrestling,
Speaker 1: and Sean said he grew concerned somebody might get hurt
Speaker 1: with the blade. He said, he took it from his
Speaker 1: belt and set it up against a tree mooment Slater.
Speaker 1: Daniel picked it up I freaked out. Sean told detectives
Speaker 1: he didn't elaborate on what triggered his panic or exactly
Speaker 1: how the events unfolded. He only admitted that he killed
Speaker 1: both boys, then cut branches and piled them over the
Speaker 1: bodies to conceal them. When police searched the Novak home afterward,
Speaker 1: they found in his bedroom a knife, a book on
Speaker 1: serial killers, and newspaper clippings about violent crimes in the area.
Speaker 1: The day that Sean Novak was formally charged with capital murder,
Speaker 1: the courtroom and the community felt the sense of shock, horror,
Speaker 1: and for some relief. Almost immediately, prosecutors requested that he
Speaker 1: be tried as an adult, a decision that would profoundly
Speaker 1: shape the trajectory of the case. Prosecutor Robert Humphrey addressed
Speaker 1: the medias, starting, it may well be that we will
Speaker 1: seek the death penalty. It may well be that we won't,
Speaker 1: but I think it's premature at this point to make
Speaker 1: that decision. Word of the arrests spread quickly throughout the
Speaker 1: Wandsworth Home neighborhood. Families who had spent long, sleepless nights
Speaker 1: searching for answers, felt the cautious relief twelve year old
Speaker 1: Michael Swagger, a friend of the victims, put the feeling
Speaker 1: into words, I feel better that they called someone. My
Speaker 1: dad said, whoever could kill those kids must believe in
Speaker 1: the devil. On the eleventh of March, Novak appeared in
Speaker 1: court for the first time. His parents sat beside him,
Speaker 1: his mother clutching his cuffed hands tightly. The judge then
Speaker 1: ordered that he beheld without bond, and a psychological examination
Speaker 1: was mandated to determine whether he was competent to stand trial.
Speaker 1: The results confirmed that Novak was fully able to understand
Speaker 1: the proceedings and assist in his defense. By the end
Speaker 1: of March, the stakes had been set. Novak would face
Speaker 1: the death penalty if convicted. Humphrey addressed reporters, starting, my
Speaker 1: interest is in getting the kid a fair trial. I'm
Speaker 1: not all that concerned about what the public news. We
Speaker 1: have a distinct possibility of putting a sixteen year old
Speaker 1: kid in the electric chair. I don't want it sent
Speaker 1: back on appeal. Novak's defense team, however, pushed back. They
Speaker 1: appealed the decision to try him as an adult, arguing
Speaker 1: that the juvenile court system would better provide counseling and
Speaker 1: protections appropriate for a youthful defendant. That appeal was denied,
Speaker 1: and Judge Jerome Friedman ruled that the case would remain
Speaker 1: in adult court. Without ruling, Novak's attorneys requested in another
Speaker 1: psychiatric examination, signaling their plan to mount an insanity defense.
Speaker 1: The prosecution, who were anticipating this strategy, also arranged for
Speaker 1: psychiatric evaluation. Humphreys explained the rationale plainly and said, since
Speaker 1: that's the case, we're now entitled to have him evaluated
Speaker 1: by our psychologists and psychiatrists. Nearly a year after the murders,
Speaker 1: on the fifth of March nineteen ninety two, the trial
Speaker 1: of Sean Novak began. He was escorted into the court
Speaker 1: room and seated beside his defensed him, his expression unreadable.
Speaker 1: During opening statements, Novak's attorney, Richard Bridges, led out the
Speaker 1: defense's strategy. It was unusual, unsettling, and immediately drew attention.
Speaker 1: He said, some person with whom he was possessed, whom
Speaker 1: he didn't know, erupted and caused him to commit this
Speaker 1: violent act. Jean Novac didn't kill those boys. Somebody, something
Speaker 1: inside of him did. Before the trial, Sean Novac had
Speaker 1: undergone a five day evaluation by doctor C. R. Showalter,
Speaker 1: hired by the defense, sho Walter had diagnosed him with
Speaker 1: the FOURM of schizophrenia. According to the doctor, Novak had
Speaker 1: experienced a dissociative episode during the murders. He felt as
Speaker 1: if it was him watching himself from above, detached from
Speaker 1: his own body, as he carried out the murders. Defense
Speaker 1: Bridges argued that the schizophrenia had emerged approximately six months
Speaker 1: before the killings. He emphasized that moments before the murders,
Speaker 1: Novak had even set aside his knife during play with
Speaker 1: the boys to avoid an accidental injury. The prosecution countered
Speaker 1: with equal force they had enlisted two other psychiatrists, both
Speaker 1: of whom found no evidence of mental illness. Prosecutor Humphrey
Speaker 1: stated Sean Novak butchered Daniel Gere and Scott Weaver in
Speaker 1: the coldest cold blood. The trial focused less on the
Speaker 1: murders themselves and more on Novak's state of mind at
Speaker 1: the time. Bennett Stayed, the mother of one of Novak's friends,
Speaker 1: was among the first to testify. She described how Sean
Speaker 1: had spent nights at her house until June of nineteen ninety,
Speaker 1: when his behavior became more concerning. She recalled an incident
Speaker 1: where he threw a tantrum after being denied permission to
Speaker 1: watch a movie about Charles Manson. When asked why he
Speaker 1: was so upset, he told he idolized Manson. She also
Speaker 1: testified about seeing Novak with Scott and Daniel on the
Speaker 1: evening of the fourth of March nineteen ninety one. She'd
Speaker 1: even offered them a ride home, which they declined. Daniel
Speaker 1: mentioned he needed to swing by the nearby woods to
Speaker 1: grab his bicycle. Perhaps the most damning evidence of all
Speaker 1: was Novak's own confession, which was play to the jury
Speaker 1: in its entirety. Even though the defense conceded that Novak
Speaker 1: had committed the murders, they continued to argue that his
Speaker 1: confession had been coerced. The defense opened their case with
Speaker 1: doctor Robert Showalter to the stand. He testified he did not,
Speaker 1: as Sean Novak, understand what he was doing. The driving
Speaker 1: force was the Kender character. He went on to explain
Speaker 1: that the Kender sometimes fused with Novak taking control in
Speaker 1: moments of stress or obsession. According to the doctor, nova
Speaker 1: Vax immersion in fantasy wasn't typical adolescence, play, his writings, drawings,
Speaker 1: and the ars he spent alone in the woods revealed
Speaker 1: somebody deeply entrenched in a private world of imagination. He
Speaker 1: testified he was unusually preoccupied with fantasy to the point
Speaker 1: of being mentally ill. This form of schizophrenia occurs in
Speaker 1: only about three percent of the population. Only a small
Speaker 1: fraction of those ever turned violent. He then described the
Speaker 1: events of March fourth, nineteen ninety one, in the woodland,
Speaker 1: as Novak played with Daniel and Scott. Showalter claimed the
Speaker 1: Kender character emerged in Novak's mind. The children were no
Speaker 1: longer real. They were a fantasy, evil force, an obstacle
Speaker 1: to the character's imagined golds. Shewald's testimony painted a picture
Speaker 1: of a boy who had lost the boundary between reality
Speaker 1: and imagination, but the prosecution countered to decisively. Doctor Donald mcgoone,
Speaker 1: another psychiatrist, testified that Novak demonstrated no impairment in his
Speaker 1: grasp of reality. He said, Jean Novac exhibited only the
Speaker 1: usual struggles of adolescence in security, low self esteem, a
Speaker 1: desire to feel appreciated. These are all normal. I saw
Speaker 1: no evidence that he believed he was a Kender. The
Speaker 1: doctor added that Novak expressed genuine remorse. He often cried
Speaker 1: himself to sleep in jail. He testified he didn't know
Speaker 1: why he killed the boys, but he was fully aware
Speaker 1: of what he was doing. Doctor Paul Manshium corroborated this view.
Speaker 1: While he acknowledged that Novak had reacted violently when one
Speaker 1: of the boys touched his knife, he described this as
Speaker 1: part of ordinary magical thinking, a human tendency to ascribe
Speaker 1: significance to objects or events, such as buying a lottery ticket.
Speaker 1: I never saw any clue that Sean had eened, ever
Speaker 1: thought he was a candor or that candor was him.
Speaker 1: He said. The closing arguments brought the emotional weight of
Speaker 1: the case to its peaque. Defense attorney Richard Bridges implored
Speaker 1: the jury to focus on the core question. Was Jean
Speaker 1: Novak legally insane at the time of the murders. He
Speaker 1: painted the picture of a boy overwhelmed by his inner world,
Speaker 1: a young man whose bizarre behavior such as talking to
Speaker 1: unanimate objects obsessing over fantasy, was a cry for help.
Speaker 1: He said, this young man was out of control, and
Speaker 1: there was no reason for him to be out of control.
Speaker 1: Look at the evidence look at the life of a
Speaker 1: boy crying silently in his bedroom, isolated and struggling, yet
Speaker 1: living in a reality he couldn't fully grasp. Prosecutor Robert
Speaker 1: Humphries rose to read, but his voice was sharp as
Speaker 1: he firmly said, this is psychobabble. These weren't mistakes, These
Speaker 1: weren't accidents. The boy his bodies were carefully hidden. They
Speaker 1: were methodically killed. Someone who's not in control does not
Speaker 1: take the time to conceal what they've done. This was deliberate,
Speaker 1: calculated and cruel. After deliberating for just ninety minutes, the
Speaker 1: jury reached a decision. John Novak was found guilty of
Speaker 1: the murders of Scott Weaver and Daniel Gear. There was
Speaker 1: no visible reaction from him, no tears, no flinching, no apology.
Speaker 1: After he was escorted from the courtroom, his defense attorney
Speaker 1: said he had seen in the juror's eyes during closing
Speaker 1: arguments that they had no sympathy for anybody but the
Speaker 1: victims and their families. He said, it's sad I think
Speaker 1: the case is full of victims. The sentencing phase of
Speaker 1: the trial began on the fourth of May. It was
Speaker 1: decided that the sentence would be up to Circuit Judge
Speaker 1: John mure As opposed to the jury. Novak's defense attorney
Speaker 1: said of his client, he's extremely disoriented about all of
Speaker 1: this because it makes no sense to him. He's not
Speaker 1: sure how it happened, or how it erupted, or even
Speaker 1: that it really did. He doesn't know completely that it did.
Speaker 1: The defense called on some of Novak's family to plead
Speaker 1: for leniency. His mother, Jenny said, I think someone needs
Speaker 1: to find out what's going on inside of Shaan. She
Speaker 1: started to cry as she said. Sean has tried to
Speaker 1: protect us. He puts a smile on his face and
Speaker 1: tries to say anything that will be encouraging and uplifting
Speaker 1: the prosecution. We're seeking a death sentence. Prosecutor Humphreys compared
Speaker 1: Novak to Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. He called the
Speaker 1: murders absolutely vile, disgusting. Defense attorney Bridges argued that sentencing
Speaker 1: him to death would only compound what is a tragedy.
Speaker 1: He said, I don't want this court to create more
Speaker 1: victims and more funerals. The defense attorney asked rhetorically whether
Speaker 1: the Gears and Weavers would find solace in Novak's execution
Speaker 1: in the public gallery. Daniel's father, Gary nodded. Judge Murr
Speaker 1: referred to the murders as probably one of the most
Speaker 1: horrible crimes this city has ever seen. He said that
Speaker 1: the absence of any clear motive suggested that Novak was
Speaker 1: a threat to kill again. While the jury rejected the
Speaker 1: insanity defense, the judge stated, I do believe he suffers
Speaker 1: from some severe psychiatric problems. This case was primarily the
Speaker 1: product of a very young, very immature, and very disturbed
Speaker 1: young man. The judge ultimately spared novaka death sentence and
Speaker 1: sentenced him to life in prison. He would become eligible
Speaker 1: for parole in twenty five years when he turned forty two.
Speaker 1: It was compromise between justice and recognition of Novak's youth
Speaker 1: and mental instability. Yet, decades later, the question that haunted
Speaker 1: the families and the community remains unanswered. Why John Novak
Speaker 1: never fully explained why he killed Scott and Daniel. His
Speaker 1: defense attorney reflected on the chilling silence that followed any
Speaker 1: attempts to broach the subject. He recalled John never really
Speaker 1: communicated with us. He talked about TV shows, juggling, and
Speaker 1: what books he was reading in jail, but when we
Speaker 1: changed the subject to the case, he would just stop
Speaker 1: talking and shrug. The prosecution had their own theory. They
Speaker 1: believed that Novak was simply obsessed with murder and driven
Speaker 1: by a desperate need for attention. Daniel's father, Gary captured
Speaker 1: the enduring pain of a father who would never really
Speaker 1: know the full story when he said I kept thinking
Speaker 1: he would say something. I wanted the guy to turn
Speaker 1: around to the families and say I'm sorry, or even
Speaker 1: go to hell anything. I've searched my mind from the
Speaker 1: back to the front, and I can't find a reason
Speaker 1: for this. I'll probably spend the rest of my life
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out. Well, that is it for
Speaker 1: this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for listening, and I'd like to say a massive thank
Speaker 1: you to my new supporter up on Patreon, Ali. You
Speaker 1: can join Morbidology up on Patreon for as little as
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Speaker 1: free early release and bonus episodes of Morbidology, plus that
Speaker 1: aren't on the regular podcast platforms. Remember to check us
Speaker 1: out at morbidology dot com for more information about this
Speaker 1: episode and to read some true crime articles. Until next time,
Speaker 1: take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.