Stories of serial killers often times peak the interest of the public.

The stories of how each victim died, the thought process of the murderer,

and even the story of how they were finally apprehended and brought to justice are always key talking points.

However, sometimes it only takes a single murder to strike fear into the hearts of a population,

and the brutality and depravity of a single killing can be much more of a shocking event than the discovery of a serial killer.

In spearfish South Dakota in the year 2000, a single horrifying murder did just that.

Warning, this episode contains descriptions of extremely violent and disturbing events.

Listener discretion is advised.

You're listening to Murder in America.

In a small town called spearfish South Dakota lived a poked family.

David the patriarch and daughter of the matriarch along with their two teenage children Chester and Samantha.

The family seemed to live a normal midwestern life.

They were hard workers, attended church every Sunday, and they mostly kept to themselves and tended to their farm.

But a lot of times the perfect families aren't always so perfect.

Dottie and David didn't have the best marriage, and in 1996 just days after Dottie presented David with divorce papers, he killed himself, leaving a heart-stricken family in the wake.

This was hard on everyone, but especially hard for their son Chester.

Chester was often bullied in school because of his father's suicide, his funny name, and for his appearance.

He was six-one, slender with big-round glasses and red hair, he played the drums, and liked woodwork and electronics.

He looked like a sweet and innocent boy. It wasn't easy for Chester to make friends, but he was a good kid who just wanted to be accepted.

Chester was relieved to graduate high school, to get away from other bullies and start fresh at his new college in Kansas where he would major in communication technology.

He went to school for two years, then in December of 1999, about two years into his college experience, Chester moved back to spearfish with his mom and sister.

He had just finished a long internship in Denver and wanted to take the upcoming semester off.

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