Dawn Magyar: How DNA Solved a 28-Year-Old Cold Case

A Young Mother Vanishes

Dawn Lee Swan Magyar was born on March 28, 1952, in Corunna, Michigan. She grew up with her brothers Max and Larry, attended local schools, and graduated from high school in 1970.

Dawn married Donald "Don" Magyar, and by January 1973, they had just celebrated their son's first birthday. They lived in Chesaning, Michigan, and were building a life together.

On January 27, 1973, Dawn went grocery shopping at a supermarket in Owosso, Michigan. A friend saw her in the checkout line and watched her leave the store with her purchases.

Dawn never made it home.

The Abduction

When Dawn didn't return home that evening, her husband reported her missing.

The next day, police found the borrowed truck Dawn had been driving in the shopping center parking lot. Her groceries were still inside. Her keys were scattered on the ground near the truck.

It was clear she had been forcibly abducted.

A massive search was launched, involving 4,000 local volunteers who combed the area looking for Dawn. Despite the enormous effort, she was not found.

The Discovery

On March 4, 1973, two young brothers—Wayne and Bill Somers—were tapping maple trees on their family farm in Saginaw County when they made a horrific discovery.

They found Dawn's body in a wooded area.

The medical examiner determined that Dawn had been raped and shot three times in the head and back with a .22 caliber gun. An autopsy indicated she had likely been killed within 90 minutes of being abducted.

The bullets came from two Remington and one Winchester brand ammunition.

The Investigation

In June 1974, a .22 caliber revolver was recovered from the Shiawassee River in Owosso. The gun was rusted and unable to fire, but it was still loaded with three spent rounds that matched the brand of bullets that killed Dawn.

The gun was traced to a pawn shop in Yuma, Arizona, where a man named Robert Shaw had purchased it in 1965.

In 1976, Dawn's wallet and identification were found on the bank of the Shiawassee River, in the same area where the gun had been found.

But despite these clues, the case went cold.

The DNA Breakthrough

In 2001, new DNA technology enabled Shiawassee County police to analyze DNA collected at the murder scene.

The DNA matched Jerald Leroy Wingeart.

Wingeart was arrested and charged with Dawn's murder. In November 2001—28 years after Dawn's body was found—he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison.

Justice for Dawn

Dawn Magyar was a 20-year-old mother with her whole life ahead of her. Her life was stolen in a violent abduction and murder.

For 28 years, her family waited for justice. Thanks to DNA technology, her killer was finally held accountable.

Dawn's case is a powerful reminder that cold cases can be solved, and justice—even delayed—can still be served.

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi Mandy. How are you? I am doing well. Happy to be not in the new year. Almost in the new year, but actually when this comes out, we will be in the new year. We'll, so Hope 2025 is off to a great start.

Great for everyone. Yes. Yeah, it's been great for both of us. I say with zero trepidation, it's going to be a good year. I'm very excited. Yes. Melissa, how was your Christmas? I hope it was very relaxing and uneventful. It was very relaxing and uneventful. I got some kind of upper respiratory infection, like right before, and I was feeling horrific, but by Christmas I was on antibiotics and feeling better.

I still sound kind of rough, but I feel so much better. But we had, um, my sister and her family came over and we ended up doing, have you ever seen blind [00:01:00] karaoke? No. No. When you. Some, I've seen people do it on TikTok, of course, but it's like where you sit in front of the TV and you have karaoke going on, so you, they can't hear the words.

You pick a song for somebody. So say you're sitting there, I have a song playing behind you. You can hear the music, you can't see the words. Okay. And you're singing. It's amazing how little words you know of your favorite songs. Yes. Like it's. It is embarrassing. It's humbling. Also, no one can sing nearly as good as they think they can, you know, in the radio, in the car, with the radio.

So it was a lot of fun. It ended up being my, uh, niece doing like a solo karaoke version of Wicked Songs, which was so fun. Aw, cute. So that's, I love it. So cute. So it was a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. What about you guys? We had a pretty lowkey Christmas, actually very low key. I don't know if I even told, I think I kind of told you that we were doing this, but like didn't really say it full out.

Uh, but we, we went with like a no [00:02:00] wrapped gifts Christmas this year, first time in my entire life, I have literally had zero wrapped presents under my tree on Christmas morning. I was so nervous about how that was gonna go. We talked to the kids, um, ahead of time about it and decided to do. Things for the holiday season that maybe weren't just giving each other things.

So, uh, nobody got a wrapped present. And we have just, we spent pretty much all of December just like doing different things. We've been on the go constantly doing so many different things. Um, we're about to leave and go on a family cruise over the new year. Yeah. As the new year comes in. So my family is just very blessed and spoiled in many ways.

So, um, no wrapped gifts for Christmas. But you know, Santa always visits his true believers and mm-hmm. I have a true believer in my home. And so Santa did, do you make a delivery for him? So, yes. He, uh, my young, well both of my children, Santa loved to note that this was where both of the kids, but they got an [00:03:00] electric scooter.

Oh. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So that's been fun. So that's really all we did, you know, after we, um, didn't open a single present, we made waffles and then we went out and everybody rode on the electric scooter. So it was like, honestly, one of the best Christmases. I'm so excited to be back with you. And before we get started in this week's episode, just a reminder, if you guys wanted to support us in the new year on Patreon or Apple Podcast subscriptions, it's a great way to support the show.

We have sponsors, as you guys know. And that's not always viable to people. But if you wanted to support the show in another way, that is a great way to do it. Starting at $5 a month, get 3D bonus episodes. And as you go up in the tiers, there's tons of other stuff, including this week on Sunday at 7:00 PM we have a Discord watch party.

We're gonna do a run through this next time, Mandy, where I actually make sure. The thing that's trying to play is playing. Yes. Because, um, our first one was a learning experience. It was a learning, yeah, a learning curve there. [00:04:00] Um, but nonetheless, we were there and we were happy to do so. And then if you're listening to it, the week of the first week, we're back here January 7th, last Wednesday, January 1st, we.

Released a bonus episode on the biggest heist ever on Netflix. What a hot mess. What a hot mess That couple was. So fun. If you want to learn more about Bitcoin, don't listen to this episode. But if you don't know what Bitcoin is, it's a fun one to hear us try to figure it out and never come to any sort of, uh, conclusion.

But yeah, those are up on Patreon and Apple Podcast. Connect. Uh, we love for you to join us. Yes. All right, so we'll get into the story. Uh, for this week, our first new story of the new year. Yay. On a foggy winter afternoon in January of 1973, 20-year-old Dawn Lee Swan Maar set out on what should have been a routine shopping trip just to run a few errands.

She had plans to stop and pick up [00:05:00] groceries and baby food for her one-year-old son, Donnie. They had actually just celebrated Donnie's first birthday four days earlier, and Dawn was planning to cook a special meal for her husband that night, but she never made it home. Later that evening, her husband Dawn, alerted the police and Dawn's car was soon located, but she was nowhere to be found.

Dawn Lee Swan was a bright and spirited young woman whose kindness left an impression on everyone she met. She was born on March 28th, 1952 in Corona, Michigan, and she grew up in a loving family with her two brothers, max and Larry. Dawn had a natural charm about her and she was known around the community for her outgoing personality.

She excelled in high school. She was actually an honor student and she participated in extracurricular activities, which showcased her many talents. Dawn was very creative and she loved to sew her own clothes, which is something that she learned how to do through participating in [00:06:00] four H. After graduating in 1970, Dawn married her high school sweetheart, Dawn Maar, and they started to build a life in the quiet town of Ches Ning.

Soon they welcomed their son. Donnie and Dawn thrived in her new roles as wife and mom. She poured her heart into being the best she could be for her young family. Everyone who knew Dawn described her as being friendly and conscientious on January 27th, 1973. Dawn stepped out for a few errands that shouldn't have taken her too long, but at some point she started having some car trouble, so she called her father-in-law from a gas station and asked if she could borrow his truck for the remainder of these errands.

She was getting her car battery charged at that time, but she was planning to drive her car over and pick up the truck from her father-in-law. She got there at around four in the afternoon, but only stayed for about 10 minutes because she was actually in a hurry to get back home. As we mentioned [00:07:00] before, she was planning on going to do these errands and then returning home to her husband and young son and making a special dinner.

At one store, Dawn ran into a friend of hers named Janice, and they talked a little while in the checkout line. Dawn mentioned to Janice that she was in a hurry to get back home, but she also mentioned being nervous because there was a very dense fog outside, and Dawn was a little bit apprehensive about driving in it.

It's believed that Janice is the last known person to see Dawn alive. So Don started worrying when his wife hadn't returned home and by 10:00 PM he knew something must be wrong, and he called the police to report her missing. At around four 30 the next morning, Don called his parents, who had actually just gotten in from a party the night before.

They were actually out until about 3:00 AM and he explained to his father that Don hadn't come home and he was worried. Don didn't realize until this point that Don, his wife, had borrowed his father's truck, and [00:08:00] when he realized it, he panicked because he had told the police to be looking for Don's car, not his father's truck.

When I was in school, we had the principal and his wife were. Both in the office and there was one named Don, DAWN, and the other named Don, DON. And it was always like, which, which Don do you need? Which one? And so that's kind of how it is in this story. But as we go along, you'll see which one's the husband, which one is the wife, so it'll make it easier.

So his dad tells Don to call the police to let them know about the truck, and in the meantime, he'd be on his way to pick them up, meaning his son Don, and the baby. While Donald Sr was driving over to Don Jr. And Don's house, he spotted his own truck in the parking lot of the Stadium Plaza. When Don went over to the truck, he found that the driver's side door was unlocked and there was a bag of groceries sitting inside.

He grabbed these groceries and took them with him. When he went to pick up Don, his son and the baby [00:09:00] when they were all on their way back to Corona, Corona. When they were all back on their way to Corona, they stopped by the trucks again and saw a JC Penney's package on the floor that had men's socks, baby clothes, and women's clothing inside.

They decided to leave the truck in the parking lot in case Dawn returned to it, but by this time it was 6:00 AM. Word of Dawn's disappearance spread quickly throughout this close-knit community. The town had a population of about 3000 people, and many of them were eager to help. Dawn's story was featured in the newspapers, and on January 31st, it was reported that a helicopter was out searching rural areas of sh Wase and Saginaw counties.

The Air Force from Kentucky took aerial photos of an eight mile radius that could be blown up enough to show items as small as a bottle on the ground. Several people were interviewed, including the cashier at the supermarket in the Yankee Plaza where Don Chopped this woman, Eileen Helmke, said she talked to Don, who said she was in a hurry to pick up [00:10:00] her son from her mother's house.

Eileen told police about a man who was at the store at the same time as Don. She said, this man had really big eyes and he seemed to be pacing back and forth, and police took this information from her and were able to create a sketch of this man. By February 4th, Dawn had been missing for a week, and the sheriff's office had coordinated a search effort that included 4,000 volunteers, which is incredible.

Yeah. The town is 3000 people and they have 4,000 volunteers. That's, that's a, that's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah, so the search was massive and it covered cornfields, riverbeds, ditches, and woodlots all through rural areas of the county. They searched on foot, on horseback and in planes and ATVs. Police from five different counties came to assist, and they also had help from the Michigan Air National Guard and the Civil Air Patrol.

In addition to the search efforts, Don's friends, family, and many others contributed to a reward fund totaling thousands of dollars for information about Don's [00:11:00] whereabouts the Maggie R Family was offering $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Don's disappearance.

But unfortunately, despite all of this, there was still no sign of dawn. In February, dawn and the baby moved out of the rental home. They shared with Dawn and moved in with other family members. Six weeks went by with no sign of dawn, but on March 4th everything changed. An 11-year-old boy named Wayne Summers was out on his family's property about 15 miles away from Dawn's last known location.

By this time, the winter had turned into early spring and it was time to tap the maple sugar trees, which is a task that I. Absolutely. I'm unfamiliar with very unfamiliar think. It sounds so cool though. Me too. But I don't know what it entails or how you would go about doing this, but I feel like I would just knock on maple trees and hope for the best.

Yes. And that's not, that can't [00:12:00] be right. But Wayne was going from tree to tree, checking each bucket for the sap that would soon be made into maple syrup. As he was doing this, something bright blue on the ground caught his attention, and as he got closer, he realized it was actually a woman. Wayne called his brother over, and both of them approached the body and recognized the woman as being the one they had seen in the newspaper for months.

The remains were positively identified as belonging to dawn using dental records and fingerprints. Police believed that the killer had forced dawn into his vehicle and took her to a secluded location and then forced her at gunpoint to walk into a farmer's field or woodlot where he raped and then shot her.

They weren't able to determine an exact date and time of death, which probably is due to many reasons, but I imagine the fact that it was winter during, yeah, the majority of this time that she was missing temperatures were very cold and that's [00:13:00] has some preserving effect on the body. They did say that Dawn was likely killed within 90 minutes of her abduction.

She was shot three times at point blank range once in the back and twice in the head, and she had been raped. They were able to obtain a semen sample during the autopsy and they also recovered 3 22 caliber bullets from two different brands. So this was interesting. So there's, the bullets are all from a 22 caliber weapon, but they're like two different brands of ammunition.

But they did determine that they were fired from the same gun. That is, I feel like someone that shoots a lot or has guns, would have like either a brand they really like or you use. These bullets and then you get out your other. I legitimately feel like you're not supposed to use two. You're not supposed to mix ammo, like even brands like in the same, that makes sense.

Me. I mean, I don't know enough are to know we right? We don't know. I don't have a clue. I could be wrong, but I don't know [00:14:00] if you're even supposed to do that. So I just thought that was interesting that he. Had two different types of ammo. Yeah. I don't feel like we've heard that before. Yeah. So the investigators continued to work tirelessly on her case, just as they had been doing since the day that she was reported missing.

Dawn was eventually laid to rest at the Pine Tree Cemetery from January to March when her body was discovered. Authorities had already followed up on over 2,500 tips from family, friends, and former classmates, and they had interviewed dozens of potential suspects. Unfortunately, as more time passed, the tips started to slow down and the police had to start prioritizing more current cases, and sadly, Dawn's case went cold.

We have more to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. Now back to the episode. So before the break, the police have learned where Dawn's body was found. They were able to do an autopsy recover, three bullets, and Dawn's family [00:15:00] has now laid her arrest. While they did find semen, they still had no one to match it to at this point.

But 10 years later, on June 9th, 1984, 13-year-old, Jay Patton was swimming in the Shiawasee River with some friends. When he stepped on something hard on the bottom of the river. No, thank you. Lakes, rivers, I don't want to step on anything. No, I only wear water seas. Don't to investigate. If I do step on something, I don't even want to know what it was.

I wanna to just get out of there. I pretend it doesn't exist, but thank goodness, right? These kids were not scaredy cats like we are. So he actually picks up this item and realizes it's a gun. It's actually a 22 caliber revolver and the boys. Luckily immediately take the gun and they turn it into police.

The gun was actually found about one mile from where Don had been abducted a decade earlier. Since the gun had been at the bottom of the river for so long, it was rusted and corroded, but forensic technicians were able to [00:16:00] open it, and what they found inside was stunning. There were three shell casings from two different brands, one Winchester and two Remingtons, which were the same types of ammo found in Dawn's body during her autopsy.

That's so wild. Wild. Yeah. To be that. Specific, not just like this brand, it's no, this brand and this brand, this many of this one, this, many of that one. So it's pretty incredible. But a year after the gum was recovered, authorities found another clue, Don's wallet, and it was found about 150 to 200 feet away from where the gum was found.

Strangely, this wallet was found by yet another kid and his friend. I cannot believe how many kids are involved in this story, like. These children, they were different back in 1970s. I feel like. Like this is wild, that these kids have like solved this case or are solving this case iPad. Kids could never, they could never, we love them, but they could never, [00:17:00] never.

This is incredible. I just was not expecting a kid than a teenager and a kid. And you're like, what? But luckily. I mean, if, if adults had found this stuff right, they probably wouldn't have even done anything with it. So thank goodness. I mean, besides how horrific it would be to find Dawn, right? Thank goodness kids were able to find these things.

So the wallet has Dawn's driver's license and her social security card inside of it. Once they found the wallet so close to where the gun was found, it seemed highly likely that they had stumbled upon the murder weapon. In the case of Don Maar. The gun serial number was recorded, and local authorities asked for the help of the HEF to find out who owned this gun.

The HEF was able to trace the gun to Jim's pawn shop in Yuma, Arizona, which had since gone outta business. The owner was able to find the ticket for the revolver and told the police that it was sold to a guy in Yuma named Robert Shaw. And thank goodness for this guy having excellent record keeping, even though the business is no longer, uh, [00:18:00] running, I no wondering business wonder.

But how in the world did he go back and be like, I mean, he must have just had amazing record keeping and he easily was able to say like, I can find. That transaction on paper. I'm, I'm wondering, I I will look this up later and if it's not true, I'm gonna take it out. But I'm wondering if I'm, I'm thinking for gun sales you have to keep these things on record for a certain amount of times.

Probably. So. I wonder. So, yes, I would hope so. Yeah, me too. But no, I agree. Like to be able to find it. 'cause it would be easy to be like, sorry, I don't see anything. Right. How are you keeping track of these numbers? This isn't a Dewey decimal system. Right. Unfortunately, though attempts to find Robert Shaw and to speak to him were unsuccessful, and the case again goes cold.

Another decade passed. And then in 1995, Michigan State Police Sergeant Tobin was asked to look at all the unsolved murder cases in the Owasso station that they were working on. This is when Sergeant Tobin came across Dawn's case, and by [00:19:00] this time she thought DNA testing might be useful, so she requested permission for the funding to conduct this testing.

In June of 1996, the results were in and they were actually able to use the results to clear 12 different suspects in the case, which is incredible progress. You're at least able to say like, we can cross these people off the list for sure, but they still weren't able to find a match. Then Sergeant Tobin was transferred and another detective sergeant named Mark Pendergraff took things over.

Dawn's mom told the newspaper at this point that she didn't mind if the police kept trying to solve her daughter's murder, but she wasn't going to get too optimistic about it as it's been 20 years now at this time. So you can kind of understand that, like kind of keeping your guard up a little bit and like, like being happy that.

They're people are still caring, they're working on it. Right. And that people are still looking into this. But you also can understand like from her, you know, point of view. I can't imagine so much time has passed [00:20:00] just up and down all this time. Yeah. Right. So she said, you know, she really would love to know who killed Dawn.

And she and her husband Ralph, who had passed away in 1988, used to check with the sheriff's department almost every single day just to see if there were any updates. Despite having this new DNA profile, the police slowly ran outta suspects as they were able to cross more and more names off the list without finding a match.

So they turned their attention back to the murder weapon in 1999, they were finally able to track down Robert Shaw, which is the man who allegedly bought the revolver from that pawn shop in Arizona prior to Dawn's murder. When Robert was found, he was in Mason, Michigan, and he told detectives that he'd been in the Army from 1964 to 1966, and he was a military police officer in Yuma.

He alleged that he bought the 22 caliber pistol for target practice and agreed that the one they found in the Shiawasee River was similar to the gun that he bought. However. [00:21:00] He couldn't recall what happened to that gun. He told the police, he thought it may have been put in a drawer or a junk box somewhere because he didn't think it was worth anything.

But he said that when he owned the gun, he was married to a woman named Darlene, and they separated in 1968 and got divorced the following year. Of course, she took some of their shared belongings and furniture and things while he wasn't around, so he said perhaps this gun had just. Gotten lost in the shuffle of life, you know, when he went through this divorce.

Which is wild because like obviously this is such an important gun and for the one person you can now connect to this gun to be like, honestly, I don't know where it is. Right. Guys, no idea could be anywhere. Right. Is uh, not what the police are wanting to hear and not what I thought was gonna happen in this story, right?

Yeah. So Robert Shaw gave the police a sample of his blood, which ended up proving that he was not a match to the DNA recovered from Dawn's body. So meaning he certainly was not the one who killed her. Um, just because he. Had purchased or owned [00:22:00] this gun at one time, so it seemed like the investigators were at yet another dead end, and things did come to a halt for a little while after that.

This is so wild to me. A few years later, Robert has this epiphany. I guess he just remember, he just remembers something that he thinks might be important, so he called the police and told them that his ex-wife. Got into a new relationship. Very soon after their divorce, she dated this guy named Gerald Wing Hart, and Robert suggested the police look into this guy.

He said it was totally possible that Gerald could have found or come across and taken, stolen, you know, whatever taken this 22 caliber pistol during that time that he was seeing Robert's ex-wife, which. It is so crazy to me, like to even think That is one thing. I mean, I guess if I Uhhuh were years later thinking about that, I'd be like, huh, I wonder if that happened.

But then it's like, do you think you would contact the police again or do you think that would just [00:23:00] be a thought that you had, that you'd be like, I wonder? Well, it'd be, yeah, I, I've. I mean, good point. I feel like that's why the police say no information is too little, because this is something that seems like an, oh by the way, right?

She did have this boyfriend. It's not like the police asked them, asked him during this time, or at least it doesn't seem like it. Did she get in a new relationship? Anything like that? It was just him. Oh, I forgot about this. Right. And thankfully the police followed up on it and you know. They followed up on so many leads so they could have known thought this is gonna be a dead end, but thank goodness they followed up on it.

By this time, Gerald was 60 years old and he was living a quiet life in Michigan with his fourth wife. He had an adult daughter from a previous marriage, and he worked at Chrysler's Sterling Heights Stamping Plant in the accounting office. Gerald was known for his computer skills and he was a respected member of his community.

He was someone who lived pretty quietly and didn't seem to bother anyone. [00:24:00] However, his criminal history told the story of a very, very different man. Back in 1961, when Gerald was 20 years old, he was convicted of armed robbery and the rape of a 19-year-old woman who was blind at the time. Gerald was an engineering student at the University of Michigan, and he was married to one of his wives.

He's been married four times. We assume it's probably the first one. In this incident, Gerald attacked the woman and her boyfriend who had pulled over on a remote road to talk and to have some alone time. Gerald pulled up. Threaten the couple with a 22 caliber rifle and force them out of their car. He fired a shot into the bushes to scare them and told the woman to tie her boyfriend up as he tossed her a rope.

The woman struggled to do this, so Gerald told her to get back in the car and he tied at the boyfriend. Gerald stole the man's wallet and said something about how he robbed a bank and needed a car to get away. Then [00:25:00] he grabbed the woman and forced her into the car, drove further up the gravel road and stopped again.

He forced her to get outta the car and he sexually assaulted her. The woman's hands were tied behind her back and she feared for her life. She believed in that moment that Gerald was going to kill her. Instead, Gerald tied the woman's legs up and he drove away. Luckily, the woman and her boyfriend were both able to free themselves and run for help.

When the authorities asked Gerald about this crime, he claimed. He couldn't remember it, but the boyfriend was able to identify him in a lineup and the couple gave detailed statements to the police. Gerald was ultimately convicted of armed robbery and criminal assault, and was sentenced to eight years.

He was released in 1969. As the investigation continued, it was revealed that Gerald was responsible for at least one other violent crime. In April, 1979, a 16-year-old girl named Laura McVey was out jogging [00:26:00] when she disappeared from a road that was a popular route for local fishermen. Laura had stopped along the road to talk to someone in a Burgundy Ford van, which another local man was passing through and noticed that this young girl has stopped talking to this van, and he thought that it actually looked suspicious, so he took the time to write down the license plate number.

Amazing. Yeah. Then when the news broke later that Laura had disappeared, this man immediately went to the police with the information investigators at that time ran the plate and found that it was registered to. Gerald Wing Hart when they confronted him, Gerald told police that he wasn't familiar with that area and he had been trying to find a friend to meet up for a day of fishing, and that's why he was talking to Laura.

He had stopped her to ask for directions. The detectives did not believe his story, and they got a warrant to search his van, where they ended up finding a ton of hair and fiber evidence that they believed was from Laura's body. Gerald then [00:27:00] took off and fled to New York. Over a month later, some people that were out hunting mushrooms discovered the body of Laura McVey.

Two years later, authorities finally caught up with Gerald and he was arrested and charged with Laura's murder, but before he could actually face the charges, a judge dismissed the case on the grounds of questionable search warrant affidavits for the van. Oh my gosh. That always just drives me crazy because I feel like.

You can use that, I guess in, in a legal way. I feel like if they did not find anything in the van, right? Like if this man was put through this and it, and it truly, he didn't, there was nothing, but they found this girl's hair in his van. So I'm like, I don't, I know. Feel like you can, it's such a. It just, it sucks.

It does. It's one of those like catch 20 twos, it's that like it's there for a good reason, but it sucks when something like this happens. Yes, definitely. And for her family especially, because that's extremely frustrating. Oh yeah. To have that evidence and then for them to still [00:28:00] say, we can't go, actually, we can't move forward with this.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Some speculated that there were actually some other issues at play, um, like maybe because of the fact that where Laura disappeared was right on the county line between two different counties and so. There could have been some jurisdictional questions from county to county that were coming in to play there with his, oh my gosh.

You know, his legal proceedings, which again, absolute nightmare to find yourself in. So once the investigators who are looking into this, you know, this case now, trying to get somewhere with it, 20 years later, they're learning all this information about this guy, Gerald. They're finding out that he has. At least these two very violent crimes in his past that he's been charged with.

And they really want to find out if he may have something to actually do with Dawn's murder. So they just started watching him. They started running surveillance in hopes that they could get a DNA sample simply by waiting for him to spit out a piece of gum or discard a cigarette, bud or. [00:29:00] Drink from a Gatorade and throw it in a trash can in public or something.

I've heard of them trying to do this before. Usually when they don't have enough to get a warrant to get your DNA, I feel like they'll try and do it this way. That's how they caught the guy that's on trial right now, or he was arrested for the Gilgo Beach murders. Oh yeah, it was like a pizza slice I think he threw away in like on a New York Street and they were able to get it.

Wild. That's how my memory is wild. Yeah. But it's incredible. Yeah, it is. In this case, unfortunately that was taking too long. They did. They tried this, you know, just watching him for a long time and they weren't really successful at getting a DNA sample. So instead on November 8th, they did what they call a trash pole at his residence.

And that's basically where the police just come over and have a party around your trash bin outside your house. Um, or I guess when you take it to the curb, I'm assuming it has to be. By the road. I don't know how trash pulls. Yeah, I think it does have to be like in a reasonable spot for right. You can't come onto your property, but they can do it once you put it [00:30:00] out to the road.

So they went through the trash. They ended up finding 32 cigarette butts, seven soda cans, and some used tissues. And all of these items were submitted for DNA testing. The DNA sample they were able to pull ended up being a match to all 13 markers in the semen evidence recovered in Dawn Magyars autopsy.

Wow. And we have more to get into after one last break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. Now back to the episode. So before the break, police are learning all of these things about Gerald's crimes from over the years, over the past few decades, and they've now done a trash pull and they've been able to link his DNA sample to 13 markers in the semen evidence that was recovered in Don's autopsy.

After almost 28 years of searching for answers, Gerald was finally arrested. Michigan police went to his job at the Chrysler and apprehended him that same day. Gerald [00:31:00] was questioned and samples of his blood were taken. They asked him if he'd been in Owasso in the seventies and he told them that he did.

Used to go for long drives and had been in the area a few times, but he did deny knowing anyone by the name of Don Maar. But when he was shown a picture of Don, he became visibly upset and said he didn't wanna see the picture. He also denied knowing anything about Robert Shaw's gun. Since the statute of limitations had passed for the kidnapping and the rape, those have a 10 and six year limit.

Gerald couldn't be charged with those crimes, but he was also being investigated for several other crimes committed during the previous 10 year period in at least two other counties in Michigan. Gerald pleaded not guilty and he was help without bond while he awaited trial. In November of 2001, he finally went before a jury at the CH Wase County Courthouse.

He was charged with first degree felony murder and first [00:32:00] degree premeditated murder. The prosecution's theory was that Gerald had randomly chosen Don as his victim after seeing her in the store or in the parking lot. And remember that one witness said a guy was in there and he was pacing back and forth, which is a very specific thing and Right.

I feel like you or I, or. Women in general really are gonna notice a guy pacing back and forth, right. And just hanging out in a store. Anybody? Yeah. The DNA evidence showing that Gerald's DNA matched the DNA from the crime scene was presented and experts testified that Gerald's DNA was left on Don during the brief timeframe between when she went missing and when she was killed.

They also introduced into evidence that Gerald had been previously convicted for the sexual assault of the blind woman and her boyfriend, and they pointed out similarities between that case and Dawn's case. They established that he was in the Owosso area visiting a friend around the time of Dawn's murder, and they were also able to link him to the 22 caliber revolver through his connection [00:33:00] to Robert Shaw, or really Robert Shaw's ex-wife.

The defense didn't challenge the DNA evidence presented by the state. But instead, they alleged that Gerald and Dawn had consensual sex. They questioned how reliable the DNA evidence was due to the 28 year gap between the crime in Gerald's arrest, which could also affect the reliability of witness testimonies.

Finally, on November 8th, 2001, after less than eight hours of deliberation, the panel of nine women and three men found Gerald guilty of first degree felony murder, and first degree premeditated murder. After almost 29 years, justice was finally served. Gerald was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The trial court later vacated the premeditated murder conviction to avoid double jeopardy issues. Gerald tried to appeal his conviction five times, beginning in 2003 when the Michigan Court of [00:34:00] Appeals affirmed the original verdict. He then appealed their decision in 2004, but the Michigan Supreme Court denied his appeal.

In 2005, he filed for habeas corpus in federal court and claimed that his conviction was unconstitutional. In what way? I know sometimes I always wonder you're, they're grasping at straws, you know, just trying to get anything. But he's been pretty lucky with the law throughout his life. Yes. And his sentencing, so I guess why not, right?

If I, if you're him. Yeah. They also denied his appeal, however, so. He didn't get the habeas corpus, but he appealed the denial of the habeas corpus to the United States Court of Appeals for the sixth Circuit, and they also denied his appeal in 2013. So his final attempt was a petition for a writ of Cary, which.

We have both listened to pronunciations of that and still are not sure if that is correct to the US Supreme Court, but they denied his petition and they also denied his request for a rehearing for that. I guess [00:35:00] on December 8th, 2014, Dawn's husband, Dawn, later told the media quote. After I testified, I tried to sit in court for a few minutes, but I came unglued when hearing again from people on the witness stand how nice a person Dawn was and how when she was last seen alive, she talked about just wanting to get home to see me and our son.

She was a beautiful person. She was my wife and I loved her. In a way, I suppose I'm still in shock after all these years that just like seriously broke my heart just thinking about him and, you know, Dawn only being 20 and like they just had this 1-year-old son and like they just had such a young family starting out.

Yeah. Like it just mm-hmm. Is so sad to like think of. I, I feel like I would feel the same way even 30 years later just struggling to accept that that's what happened to my wife and mother of my young child. Like that's just, you can't even begin to imagine it. In May of 2004, the Michigan Attorney General's office said that it was going to be reviewing the cold case of Laura McVay's [00:36:00] rape and murder as well.

Prosecutors were working with the state police to try and bring new charges against Gerald in that case. When those original charges were dropped, uh, when the case was first ongoing. Laura's mom of course was devastated, but now that they were looking into it again, she said that it would actually be okay with her if the case never made it to court because now Gerald was already behind bars and that's where he would be forever.

Sergeant Pendergraff told the Argus Press that other agencies across the country continue to contact him regarding open homicides that had similar crime scenes and victim characteristics. Experts in criminal psychological profiling categorized Gerald as a statistic fantasy sexual killer, and considered it highly unlikely he could have or did stop with just two murder victims.

And since Gerald has lived in several states and at one time he was a long haul trucker, authorities firmly, that there are more of his victims out there, which is so. [00:37:00] Unsettling to think about. Absolutely. And of course we know with everything they can do with DNA, now they're going to start finding these people, which I mean, it's great.

Wonderful. Great. Yeah. Yeah. But man, heartbreaking. Yeah. Gerald died on August 20th, 2022, while he was incarcerated at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan. Prior to that, he had also been held at the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Michigan. I just feel so sorry for Dawn's family.

I know. And just to have somebody, and we've talked about this before 'cause we had one similar as far as like a random victim where, where people will tell you, you know, it's so unlikely that that happens most the time. It isn't until it isn't. Exactly. And, and she obviously would've had no idea. I mean, he's going after a woman with her boyfriend too, so he, he doesn't necessarily, doesn't seem to have like a target, a certain person.

[00:38:00] It almost seems like it is like a, um, matter of convenience for him. Right. And an impulse like that. He just commits like, I'm doing this. I don't care how many people I encounter, like I'm committed to. Right. Doing this, whatever it is that he's doing at the time. Because yeah, it, that the attack on the woman and her boyfriend together was very, you do not hear about that very often in a ca in a no sexually motivated crime like this.

They don't usually bother people that are with their boyfriends or spouses. Right. They're. Easier victims if they're by themselves. But I still cannot get over all the kids involved in this story. No, I know. Like straight up Nancy Drew, you know, hardy Boys mysteries kind of things happening with those kids.

Yeah. But even that is like, so. I, I hate thinking about the kids who found Dawn, you know, and made that one, made discovery. One that's horrific. Just thinking about that. I have an 11-year-old, and so I just think about him stumbling on something like that, and I'm like, Ooh, I just, oh my gosh. It, it would be absolutely horrific.

[00:39:00] The other things is really what I mean, like the wallet and the other stuff. It's just, it's just wild. Yes. That was the episode for this week. We hope you guys enjoyed it. We are so happy to be back in the new year and very excited about all the new things that we have going on. Melissa, I know in the very beginning you mentioned some of the things that we have coming up on Patreon this month, and I'm looking really forward to that.

We, we just started doing, um, our new Patreon things, uh, in December. So I feel like now we're. More comfortable. We kind of know a little bit more what's going on, so yes, very excited to have more people join us. We had a live Zoom hangout, and that was a lot of fun. Laura stopped by, a couple other people stopped by, and it was a small group, so it was a lot of fun though.

And so we hope you guys will join us in the future. In the meantime, you can go to patreon.com/moms and Mysteries podcast. You can find all of the different tiers. There's just three tiers. Find out what you want. [00:40:00] If you're just wanting bonus episodes. That's the first tier, and you can also get those on Apple Podcast subscriptions.

It's three bonus episodes a month coming up. The rest of this month we're doing the Jerry Springer Netflix documentary. Oh my gosh, I can't wait. Losing my mind. So, uh, that comes out, that will be out this month as well. So very exciting. Mandy's watching TV 2025 Mandy's watching tv. Honestly, that's what we should call it.

I, I have a TV show for you to watch now, but I'm like, I'm not even gonna tell her she's gonna be overwhelmed. Like it's not for work. I can't give you any more work. Alright guys, well thank you so much for listening. We will be back next week, same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. Bye.