In the spring of 1985, twenty-four-year-old drifter Jerry Strickland called on the home of Phyllis Munday in Hancock, Maryland, in the Cumberland Gap area of the Appalachian Mountains, approximately ninety-five miles north of Washington, D.C. He inquired about the house for sale next door, saying he was looking to convert a property into an orphanage. Phyllis was not impressed with the supposed entrepreneur whom she described as a “smooth talker.” Her sixteen-year-old daughter, Missy, however, was smitten. Unbeknownst to family and friends, she and Strickland soon began dating.

The man Missy had chosen for her first serious boyfriend altered the course of her life. Recently released from prison, Strickland soon introduced his young lover to his criminal ways.

The two-year-long odyssey of the kid and the convict began on one side of America and ended on the other. In between, on May 11, 1987, was a deadly pit stop in Middle America.

Missy Munday     Jerry Strickland

To all who know her, Melissa “Missy” Munday was the All-American girl. She was popular, an excellent student, a member of her high school choir and basketball team, and active in the Future Homemakers of America.

Active Missy

In stark contrast, Jerry Strickland, the man Missy viewed as her prince charming, had served a year in a West Virginia prison for grand larceny after writing multiple bad checks. After being paroled in January 1985, he settled in Hagerstown, Maryland, thirty miles east of Hancock. He was soon in trouble again for passing more bad checks.

Missy and Strickland soon began a clandestine relationship. It is not known if Missy knew about her new boyfriend’s past.

According to Unsolved Mysteries, Strickland had also been convicted of malicious assault in West Virginia after raping his sister-in-law and slashing her throat, leaving her for dead. I could not find any other source, however, corroborating the claim. It seems unlikely that he would have been granted parole after only a year for committing such a violent crime.

The New Beau Is An Old Con

On April 17, 1986, Missy said goodbye to her mom and was seen walking toward the school bus. Instead of getting onto the bus, she hopped into Strickland’s car; instead of driving to the school, Strickland drove to Centerville, Virginia.

Four months later, the couple relocated over six-hundred miles, settling in Springfield, Michigan, one-hundred-twenty miles west of Detroit. Using the name Melissa Strickland and saying she was nineteen-years-old, Missy was hired as a cashier at a Union 76 gas station. She never contacted her parents nor told them they had a new grandson, Jamie.

Mother Missy

Through Missy’s employment, she and Jerry became friends with thirty-eight-year-old Leeman Oil Company courier Elmer DeBoer who picked up the daily cash receipts from the local gas stations.

On the morning of May 11, 1987, customers found the Union 76 gas station deserted. Elmer’s car was in the parking lot when police arrived at 11:00. Inside the gas station, they found the office door, which should have been open, locked; the safe, which should have been locked, was open with between $10,000-$11,000 missing.

Elmer DeBoer

The following day, teenagers on their way fishing found Elmer’s body in a wooded area of a marshy filed near a lake in Waterford Township (some sources say in the bordering Rose Township), roughly twenty miles from the gas station. He had been handcuffed and shot twice in the back of the head.

Nearby residents told police they had heard gunshots at approximately 11:00 the previous day; they assumed they were from hunters.

Elmer Is Executed

Investigators believe Jerry Strickland and Missy Munday were desperate for money and committed the crime together. They theorized that after Elmer arrived at the gas station and removed the money from the safe, Strickland took him hostage at gunpoint, then handcuffed him to Missy in an effort to make it appear to Elmer that Missy was also a victim.

The handcuffed pair, investigators surmised, were then taken by Strickland to the isolated area outside Pontiac. After un-cuffing them, Strickland fired two shots into the back of Elmer’s head.

The Alleged Killing Couple

On the following morning, May 12, Strickland purchased a pickup at Lucky Auto Sales in Pontiac, thirty miles north of Detroit. He paid cash for the vehicle with small bills, consistent with the quantity carried by Elmer during his routes.

While Strickland ran errands, Missy, with baby Jamie, waited at the car salesman’s office for over two hours. She never gave any indication that she was in trouble. To investigators this inaction signified her guilt, as during that time, she could have signaled for help or called the police. They contend her failure to do so indicates she participated with Strickland in the robbery and murder of Elmer DeBoer.

Missy Is Deemed An Accomplice

The fugitive couple fled over two-thousand miles to Moses Lake, Washington, one-hundred-seventy-five miles southeast of Seattle. They were apprehended on February 6, 1988, following their profile on Unsolved Mysteries. Missy was five months pregnant at the time of their arrests.

After fleeing Michigan, the accused killers had initially lived in Seattle before moving to Moses Lake in June 1987.  Strickland found work as a mechanic at K-Mart, while Missy was working at a card shop and as a maid at Hallmark Inn, a local motel, though she had told her employer at the latter job that she was going to be quitting, saying she and Jerry were moving to West Virginia to help his brother run a family flower shop. The day before they were arrested, the couple had a yard sale to raise money for their moving.

Captured

In an interview shortly after his capture, Strickland said he and Missy did not kill Elmer DeBoer and expressed confidence in an acquittal, saying the only evidence against them was “circlestansive.” That may have been so, but witness testimony at Strickland’s trial added fuel to the fire. Two former West Virginia coworkers, Aubrey Brandon and Greg Chapman, testified he had approached them about robbing Elmer.

More devastating to Strickland was his lover’s turning state’s evidence against him. Much to authorities’ dismay, murder and kidnapping charges against Missy were dropped in exchange for her testimony.

A Bold Prediction

Missy Munday said the robbery was planned for a Monday because the gas station had more cash on hand due to the couriers having Sundays off. She testified she helped Strickland plan to rob Elmer but not to murder him.

Strickland had recently purchased a van which he forced Elmer into at gunpoint. Once inside, Elmer was handcuffed and ordered to the floor. Strickland then drove to the field and ordered Elmer out of the van and into the woods.

Missy insisted she was not present when Elmer was shot to death, but said that her lover ultimately admitted to her that he had murdered him. Missy went on to say she did not leave Strickland afterwards because she had nowhere to go.

Missy Gets Off . . .

In June 1988, Missy Munday gave birth to her and Strickland’s second child, also a son. Four months later, she pled guilty to armed robbery. She served eight months in Michigan’s Oakland County Children’s Village, a juvenile home, during which time she obtained her driver’s license and high school equivalency diploma.  She was released when she turned nineteen-years-old in May 1989 and returned to live with her parents in Maryland.

I could not find if Missy was granted custody of her two young sons or if she maintains any sort of relationship with Strickland.

. . . And Moves On

Jerry Strickland’s prediction of an acquittal did not come to fruition; he was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery in August 1988 and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.

Strickland learned firsthand that “circlestansive” evidence is often very powerful.

Strickland Is Sank

By “Circlestansive Evidence”

Now sixty-two-years-old, Jerry Strickland is imprisoned at the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Michigan.

Strickland Is Serving Life

A woman posted in my Facebook group that this was at one time was Missy Munday’s Facebook profile picture, and that she is married with more kids and is apparently living a good life in Johnson City, Tennessee.

To me, the woman appears to resemble Missy, but her profile says she grew up in Georgia, not Maryland. I found nothing indicating she ever lived in Georgia, but I do not know for sure.

Missy Today?

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117895005/elmer-dell-deboer

SOURCES:

• Associated Press
• Detroit Free Press
• Los Angeles Times
• Seattle Times
• Unsolved Mysteries
• Washington Post