Nationwide Manhunt Ends in My Brother's Yard

[John Picard]

Got this e-mail this morning from my sister-in-law:

Well we made the national news today. Here is the story. Last thursday man for unknown reasons shot and killed his exwife and little girl then went later in the day and killed his girlfriend and infant daughter. He quickly became a national man hunt.

On thursday John spoke with a man he knows who was getting some posts from our property and he was going to have a man help him and may leave a vehicle on our property.

Friday am around 2 am our dogs Lobo and Joey started barking and acting up. I was off on Friday and John would go to work at noon on Friday. Friday morning around 10 am he was on the other side of our barn and notice a silver SUV believing it to be from the man who got the posts. Well then he went to work telling me that I might see the man getting the vehicle. I was busy all day getting ready for our annual Christmas party due to take place on Saturday night. John worked day shift on Saturday and then we had the party (good time had by all).

Sunday morning I suprised John with a miniture pony for Christmas. We spent the day working our back of the barn building a pen area for Fred, (ya I know Fred for a pony however you all know John) I took him for a walk late in the day around the property and noticed several areas of vehicle tracks on our property and then noticed the vehicle still on our property. I said something to John and late that night he called the man who said he had not left a vehicle after all.

Monday morning I went to work and John walked out to the vehicle and found blood coming out by the back passenger wheel. He called 911 gave them the plate and they told him to get inside. The police arrived very quickly and after doing a complete search of property and vehicle, they found the murder dead in the back of the vehicle.

Spent the day dodging the news media and feeling very vilated and realizing how short life really is.

So I checked the local news in their area: UPDATE: Suspect in Four Murders Found Dead

UPDATE Posted Monday, December 7, 2009 -- 5:38pm
By Zac Schultz

Town of Cottage Grove: The man who killed his two young daughters and their mothers has been found dead of an apparent suicide.

Starting 10pm Thursday night, Tyrone Adair and the vehicle he was driving were the subject of a nationwide manhunt.

For most of that time he was dead, his car sitting near a shed in the Town of Cottage Grove.

Just after 10 Monday morning, a homeowner in the Town of Cottage Grove called police and said he'd found the silver GMC Acadia Tyrone Adair was last seen driving.

Inside, police found two handguns and the body of Tyrone Adair. "At this time it appears that death is the result of a firearm injury," says Dane County Coroner Ray Wosepka.

Investigators now believe Thursday morning Adair killed his girlfriend Tracy Judd-Graser and their 23-month-old daughter Deja. That evening, Adair shot and killed his ex-girlfriend Amber Weigel and Neveah, their two-year-old daughter.

That night Adair criss-crossed Dane County. He was as far west as Dodgeville, but eventually he parked the car next to this pole shed on Natvig Road.

The homeowner saw the vehicle Friday morning, but police say he never looked inside. "He had a friend who would occasionally park a vehicle on this property and so it didn't seem unusual to him that there was a vehicle parked there for a couple of days," says Joel DeSpain, spokesman for the Madison Police Department.

Police can only speculate why Tyrone Adair killed four people and then himself, but court records show he has a history of domestic violence.

In 2006, an ex-girlfriend obtained a restraining order against Adair, after he threatened her and slashed her tires. That should have prevented him from possessing a gun, but police say he bought one off Craigslist.

Last March, Adair got in a fight with Tracy Judd-Graser at their home in the Town of Middleton. Charges of disorderly conduct and intimidating a witness were referred to the District Attorney, but they were not filed. "A decision was made to decline on charging in that case because the facts weren't there for a criminal case," says Dane Co. D.A. Brian Blanchard.

This summer Amber Weigel received full custody of their daughter, and was due to receive $351 a month in child support. Tyrone Adair also lost his job.

On top of that, Dane Co. Sheriff Dave Mahoney says it appears Judd-Graser was looking at breaking up with Adair, and likely kicking him out of her house. "There is some indication that she had spoke to friends and relatives in an attempt to break off the relationship."

Blanchard says all charges will be dropped in connection to the murders because the only suspect is dead. The only other possible charges would be if someone helped Tyrone Adair either before or after the murders, but Blanchard says that is not the case.

 

[Amaris]

Awesome!
Oh, and I think Fred is a great name for a pony!

J.

 

[John Picard]

Heh. I e-mailed her asking why there were no pictures of Fred. I'll post them when she sends me some.


Raw video footage.

 

[Marc]

Hopefully the police will have a little chat with the person on Craigslist for selling the gun to adair.

 

[John Picard]

Here's Fred!

 

[Tribbles]

OMG WANT FRED NAO!

Seriously, though, your poor brother and his wife. That must have been quite an upsetting ordeal for them.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Wow, I'd find it quite alarming and overwhelming to be a part of an event like that. What happened to those victims was very tragic, and it's unfortunate the cowardly murderer could not even be brought to justice.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Fred is cool. Too bad his arrival was overshadowed by Crime Drama.

 

[John Picard]

Spoke to my SIL, Patty, last night. She was completely unaware that there was any raw news footage of the crime scene and didn't even know it hit the national news until her sister, who lives in New York, called and asked, "OK, what happened that you two aren't considered suspects?" Patty was confused and asked what she was talking about.

Anyway, the overall story is really weird. At least two weeks earlier, they'd had a late-night intruder around the house. As far as they know, nothing was stolen or disturbed. It seems that this Tyrone Adair, for whatever reason, pulled into their property Friday night sometime around midnight. That's when the dogs went crazy and my brother screamed out, "WHOEVER IT IS BITE THEM ON THE ASS AND GO TO SLEEP!" and then promptly went back to sleep. The rather humorous part is that the Christmas party was at the house on Saturday evening and a few of the guests were local law enforcement (Chief of Police among the attendees). It was either Saturday night or Sunday when Patty discovered tire tracks in the back of their field near the creek. She thought it was a bunch of teens from up the road who came down to screw around, party, etc. She later learned that the neighbor across the road (which in Wisconsin is about ½-mile away) had seen tail lights in the field on Friday night and also thought it was teens. When the two of them compared notes, the thought is that Mr. Adair may have been spooked and tried to hide or drive across their field. Unfortunately, he was briefly stuck in the creek bed before getting freed. Sometime after that is when he parked near the barn.

Sunday, they build the pen for Fred and notice the Silver SUV still sitting there, thinking nothing of it. Sunday night, my brother calls his friend who states he didn't leave a vehicle there. Now John is thinking either A) the old guy's losing it, or B) he told someone else it was OK to leave a vehicle there and can't remember who. It was on Monday morning when he went out with his dog that he then saw the blood dripping out of the passenger side rear. All of the windows were tinted really dark, so he couldn't see anything inside of the vehicle. He called 911 reporting both the vehicle description and the plate number. The dispatcher then tells him to quickly get in the house and lock the doors. My brother, who has worked as both a deputy, Sheriff, and maximum security prison guard responded, "I don't think so. The vehicle's been here for three days and never moved, plus we've been coming and going with no issues. He's not going anywhere." About 10 minutes later police from at least three different jurisdictions arrived on the scene followed by the news media. The Forensics guys did their work and according to Patty, Mr. Adair apparently bundled himself up and was in the very back of the vehicle. The thought is that perhaps he was panicked, remorseful, and despondent at which point he popped himself. Whoever was in charge advised them that the vehicle would be loaded onto a car hauler with the body inside. At that point, everyone would leave and John and Patty were advised to leave so that the media would take a hint. They did so and returned home after a few hours and within 10 minutes a news truck pulls up. John steps out and the moment the reporter steps on his property:
"Get the FUCK off of my property."
News guy gets snippy and says, "Excuse me, but I came here very nicely and I just want to ask you a few questions."
"I'm telling you very nicely to GET THE FUCK OFF of my property."
"You don't have to be so rude. Did you know the suspect?"
"You were at the debriefing the police gave the media and that's all anyone knows. I suggest you go back and listen to the tapes again. GET THE FUCK OFF OF MY PROPERTY."

Their answering machine has been riddled with messages from news outlets, television, and radio stations.

A couple of the Cottage Grove deputies commented that they'd been up and down the road several times and never noticed the vehicle. John has so much farm equipment parked around his barn that the guy's vehicle just blended in within plain sight.

Now, every time the dogs start barking it causes a bit of anxiety.