How Unsolved Mysteries Solved The Case Of Melissa “Missy” Munday
YouTubeJerry Strickland inspired an unassuming teen named Melissa “Missy” Munday to pursue a life of crime.
Until 1986, Melissa “Missy” Munday was an average teenager. She was an honors student, a member of the Future Homemakers of America, and reportedly only left home to go to school, church, and sporting events.
But her life changed forever when she met Jerry Strickland, a smooth-talking young man in his early 20s with a questionable past.
Strickland initially approached the Munday family under the guise of purchasing a property to convert into an orphanage. While Phyllis Munday was skeptical of Strickland, her daughter Missy was reportedly “smitten” with him. He lavished 15-year-old Missy with the attention she reportedly wasn’t getting at home and she ultimately ran away with him in April 1986. They moved from Maryland to Michigan and soon had a son together.
Munday eventually got a job at a gas station, where she befriended a man named Elmer DeBoer. It was DeBoer’s job to collect the cash receipts from the gas stations in town. And it was this friendship that ultimately led Munday down a path that ended in a robbery and a gruesome murder.
On May 11, 1987, DeBoer came to Munday’s gas station to pick up the cash receipts and was never seen alive again. Authorities theorized that Strickland used Munday as bait to lure DeBoer away from his car, then robbed his safe of more than $10,000 in cash and shot DeBoer twice in the back of the head.
YouTubeMunday’s parents were shocked when their honor student daughter ran off with Strickland. But they were even more horrified when they learned about the crimes she had committed.
The next day, Strickland and Munday purchased a car in Pontiac, Michigan, using only the small bills they had taken from DeBoer. They then drove off to the West Coast, ultimately settling in rural Washington State.
On February 5, 1988, Unsolved Mysteries aired an episode featuring Munday and Strickland. And within minutes, the hotline was flooded with calls that revealed the pair’s whereabouts, according to The Associated Press. Ironically, Munday and Strickland also saw the episode featuring their crimes and were found waiting in their friend’s home for the police to come.
Both Strickland and Munday (then 26 and 17 years old, respectively) were arrested and charged with armed robbery, kidnapping, and murder. However, Munday ultimately decided to testify against Strickland in exchange for prosecutors dropping the murder and kidnapping charges against her.
After she testified, Munday — who’d given birth to Strickland’s second child, a son, by that point — served time in a juvenile home on the armed robbery charges. She was released when she turned 19 years old, and ultimately returned to her parents’ home with her two children.
Strickland, however, was convicted of all the charges against him, and is currently serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
