Kriti Mehrotra
It was October 1996 when Trisha Jane Ruddick Stemple was found horrifically murdered along Highway 75 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, leaving the entire community baffled to the core. As explored in Investigation Discovery’s ‘Evil Lives Here: The Killer Speaks A Killer’s Words,’ the 30-year-old mother of one was actually ambushed in the dark in one of the worst ways imaginable. Thankfully, though, with the help of the evidence present at the scene, witness statements, as well as confessions, law enforcement officials were able to apprehend the perpetrators rather quickly.
Trisha Stemple Was Found Dead Along Highway 75 After Being Reported Missing
It was on June 14, 1966, that Trisha Jane Ruddick was born in Tucson, Arizona, to Carol Hunziker White and Morris Ruddick, growing up in a home full of care, love, and support. She herself was an incredibly kind and loving individual who never hesitated to help those in need, with her sister Deborah Ruddick-Bird often even describing her as “gorgeous” inside and out. She was even living a good life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a dedicated family woman and a doctor’s employee by the time the fall of 1996 rolled around, so it was truly a shock when she was suddenly found dead.
According to records, it was on the morning of October 24, 1996, when Timothy Shaun Stemple called 911 to report that his wife was missing from their home, leading to an extensive investigation. Little did anybody know that Trisha would be found dead in the woods alongside U.S. 75 between 81st and 91st street within hours, with the scene making it clear that she’d been killed. Not only were there signs of an automobile-pedestrian collision, but her autopsy also proved that she had multiple fractures across her body, including her arm, skull, pelvis, and vertebrae. However, the intensity of her injuries, along with the fact that 17 of her ribs were broken, made it clear that this was not a normal accident. The 30-year-old’s official cause of death was subsequently also ascertained to be blunt force trauma to the head.
Trisha Stemple Was Targeted Owing to an Affair and an Insurance Payout
Trisha Stemple’s missing case evolved into a homicide case almost as soon as her remains were discovered, leading investigators to question everyone close to her in order to find the truth. They also looked deep into all aspects of her life, and that’s when they discovered that while she had no known enemies, her union with her husband wasn’t as idyllic as it seemed from the outside. After all, he was having an extramarital affair with a woman named Dani Wood. This is what drove detectives to hone in on the now-single father, just to learn that he had actually orchestrated the plan to remove his wife from the picture altogether so as to collect her life insurance proceeds worth $950,000.
According to court records, Shaun had hired his girlfriend Dani’s then 16-year-old cousin, Terry Lee Hunt, as a hitman, promising him $25,000 to $50,000 if the entire plan succeeded. In other words, the teenager was only to be paid if Trisha died and if her now-widower managed to collect the entire payout from the life insurance policy he had taken out on her merely months prior. What ensued was Terry recruiting another person, Nathanial Helm, to help him, which started with them going to Walmart and purchasing a baseball bat as well as plastic wrap on October 10.
The two males subsequently wrapped up the bat and traveled to their predetermined location on Highway 75 to wait for the married couple to arrive – their plan was to beat Trisha to death. However, a short while later, it was Shaun who drove up to the scene alone, telling them that they needed to postpone the hit because his wife was so unwell that he could not get her out of the house. Two weeks later, though, on October 24, he managed to pull off his plan and got Trisha to the location by feigning car trouble – he’d previously arranged for Terry to drive his pickup truck there and leave the hood up.
Trisha Stemple’s Murder Was Brutal and Premeditated
As per Terry’s own statements, he snuck up behind Trisha while she stood by Shaun as he pretended to work on his truck and immediately struck her over the head with the plastic-wrapped bat. However, when this blow failed to render her unconscious, her husband grabbed the weapon to hit her several more times, with the two men taking turns to beat her to death. It was then that they attempted to run over her head in the pickup, only for her to still try to get up. According to records, Shaun subsequently went to her, told her he would help, and that “the ambulance was on its way” before hitting her with the bat 12 more times.
As if that’s not enough, Shaun then went back to his wife’s car and drilled a hole in the front tire in an attempt to make it appear as if she’d had car troubles before dying in an automobile-pedestrian collision. That’s when he and Terry fled the scene, only to return to the spot minutes later to ensure she was dead and running over her a few times because they noticed she had managed to crawl into the grass. They brutally killed her, but they were soon apprehended thanks to a witness coming forward with all the details, clarifying that Terry had outlined the plot to him the day after the incident. So, both men were arrested and charged with murder.
While Terry Hunt is Serving a Life Sentence, Timothy Stemple Has Been Executed For His Crimes
After Shaun and Terry were arrested in connection with Trisha’s murder, they both eventually gave widely different accounts of what had transpired, which they maintained until the end. While her husband maintained his innocence at every step of the way, the then-teenager ultimately confessed and even agreed to testify against Shaun during his jury trial. In the end, while Terry was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the charge of murder, Shaun was found guilty of three counts. These were first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and attempted first-degree murder, with the aggravating circumstances of “murder for remuneration” and “heinous, atrocious or cruel” methods.
For this, Shaun was sentenced to death, with an additional 10 and 22 years behind bars for conspiracy and attempted murder. On his appeal, the attempted murder charge was overturned, but the rest of his conviction was upheld. Therefore, on March 15, 2012, at the age of 47, he was executed by lethal injection while at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary – he was pronounced dead at 6:11 pm. He had shaken his head no when asked if he had any last words, but he still maintained his innocence, as made evident through his statements during his clemency hearing the month before. As for Terry, today, at the age of 45, he remains incarcerated at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, where he is expected to remain for the rest of his natural life.
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