On November 14, 1994, police were summoned to a farm near Folsom, West Virginia, approximately one-hundred-twenty-five miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The source of the call was most unusual: a would-be burglar told them there was a dead body in the basement of the rural log-cabin house. The call sounded like a prank, but it had to be checked out.

When the policemen arrived at the farm, they entered the house cautiously. Predictably, the burglar was not there, but as the policemen made their way down the stairs to the basement, they knew the would-be thief had been telling the truth. The lawmen were greeted by an overwhelming odor which they instantly recognized as the smell of decomposition.

On a basement bed, police found human remains, which appeared to have been there for an extended period of time. An autopsy identified the remains as the farm’s proprietor, thirty-seven-year-old Tim Good. He had been beaten and strangled to death.

Neighbors were shocked that such a good man, not only in name, had met such an awful end. Diaries found in the home identified the prime suspect and revealed a bizarre tale of manipulation and brainwashing ultimately culminating in murder.

 

Tim Good

Tim Good was bachelor who had moved to rural Folsom, West Virginia, in 1991, after selling his three-hundred-fifty acre dairy farm near Airville, Pennsylvania, for $1.3 million. His friends were surprised by his relocating because the Folsom farm, was half the size of his Pennsylvania farm and the land was not as suitable for dairy farming.

 

Successful Dairy Farmer

Ben Freeman, as he was known to Tim’s friends in Pennsylvania, had worked for Tim for six years, primarily as a maintenance and repairman for the farm equipment. Freeman, his wife Eliza, and their two children had also lived with Tim.

The Freeman family moved with Tim to West Virginia where the living arrangements remained the same. Upon arriving in in the Mountaineer State, Freeman introduced himself as Dave instead of Ben.

Shortly before Tim left Pennsylvania, acquaintances said both his and Freeman’s behavior had changed. Tim acted docile while Freeman gave the impression of being in charge of the farm, a pattern which continued in West Virginia.  Although it was Tim who had purchased and owned the farm, neighbors said Freeman acted as the boss and Tim as the employee.

In August 1993, Tim’s father, Harold, and stepmother, Rachel, came to his home. Tim, claiming he was fixing up the home, uncharacteristically refused to let them in. Freeman also began refusing to let anyone other than his family inside the home.

On August 11, Tim purchased a .45 caliber Ruger handgun at the local Wal-Mart; this was the last sighting of him. Freeman was also scarcely seen shortly thereafter and had completely dropped from sight within the following year. The men appeared to have left the area even though the farm had not been sold.

Dave (or Ben) Freeman

One year later, in October 1994, neighbor George Anderson saw Freeman driving to the farm house. George, along with several other neighbors, went to inquire about Tim. Freeman told them he and his family moved out of the home after Tim inexplicably vanished and had only returned because he had heard the kitchen door had been broken.  Freeman claimed he did not know where Tim was and that he, like the neighbors, had not seen him in over a year.

George’s son-in-law gave Freeman and his family a ride to Washington D.C. where he dropped them at a service station off Interstate 495 near Silver Spring, Maryland.

George Anderson

Tim’s Neighbor

Three weeks later, Tim’s remains were found in the basement of his home. Wetzel County Coroner James Frost believed he had been dead for approximately a year.

Locked in a gun safe in the basement, police found voluminous diaries totaling over 8,000 pages, written primarily by Freeman but also with some entries from Eliza. The contents revealed the hired hand appeared to have taken control of his employer’s life to the point that Tim had become a virtual slave in his own home.

The diaries indicated that Freeman had convinced Tim to move from his larger, more ideal, Pennsylvania farm to the smaller West Virginia farm, on which Freeman appeared to have hopes of building a religious temple. Freeman fancied himself a self-made preacher to Tim appeared to have turned for spiritual guidance. Instead, Freeman appeared to have spiritually seduced Tim to the point of stripping him of his freedom.

The diaries listed the chores Tim was to perform each day and what he was allowed to eat each day, if anything. Tim was only allowed to leave the property to run errands for Freeman at his discretion and Freeman even gave Tim a new name: Alex St. Johns.

The diaries also revealed a medieval type living arrangement in the home: Freeman and his family lived like royalty in the lavishly-furnished upstairs, equipped with three big screen televisions, state-of-the-art stereo equipment, a hot tub, and a wet bar. Tim, conversely, lived a Spartan existence in the dungeon-like concrete-floored basement furnished with little more than a small bed and dresser.

Tim’s bank account, once containing nearly $1 million, had been drained. In the last diary entries, Freeman wrote that Tim had questioned him about the money and suspected his control over him was waning. These entries were made in October 1993, within the approximate time Tim is believed to have been murdered.

Grocery receipts indicated Freeman and his family had lived in the house for approximately seven months afterwards; they appeared to have left the farm only after Tim’s money was gone.  The air vents from the basement to the main floor had been plugged, likely to keep out the odor resulting from the decomposition of Tim’s body.

Employee Controls Employer

Most disturbingly, the diaries also suggested Freeman had committed previous murders and that he may have been a member of or associated with a religious cult, but he could not be linked to any specific crime or group.

In May 1996, police tracked Freeman to Sterling, Virginia, an hour west of Washington, D.C. He was working as a mechanic; a man told them he had charged him over $1,000 more than agreed after working on his car.

Freeman was living under the name William Cooper, which investigators believe is his real name. He was arrested on May 18 as he attempted to drive out of his apartment parking lot. The gun Tim had purchased shortly before he is believed to have been murdered was found in Cooper’s apartment.

Cooper’s wife, Eliza, was located and arrested approximately a year later. Her real name may be Arlene Whitehurst. I could not find a picture of her.

Investigators believe William Cooper murdered Tim Good, but the case against him was entirely circumstantial. In October 1997, Cooper agreed to a plea deal in which he pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years in prison.  I could not find if Eliza/Arlene was also convicted.

Freeman’s Freedom Ends

Another alias used by William Cooper is Winston George Jelks. A man by that name died in March 2018, at age sixty from complications of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Some sources state this man is William Cooper, alias Dave Freeman and Ben Freeman, among others. Other sources, however, state Cooper is still alive and living in Maryland.

Winston Jelks

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/51200168/timothy-allen-good#

 

SOURCES:

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• Unsolved Mysteries
• West Virginia Herald-Dispatch
• York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record