"SERIAL KILLER'S DAUGHTER FOUND IN PIECES: Husband Hid Behind Wine Rack for 26 Years While Rapper's Killer Got Life Plus 35"

0:03 Caalarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter, and welcome to celebrity trials. Today. We've got two cases that prove murder runs in families, sometimes as victims, sometimes as perpetrators, and sometimes the universe just has a sixth sense of irony. First, the trial of Christopher Wolfenbarger, accused of dismembering his wife Melissa in nineteen ninety eight. Here's the twist. Melissa was the daughter of Carl Patten, the Flint River killer. Yeah, a serial killer's daughter was allegedly murdered and dismembered by her own husband. You can't make this stuff up, then justice for young Dolph. Justin Johnson just got life plus thirty five years for executing the Memphis Rapper at a cookie shop. The hit man who testified said they were supposed to get forty thousand dollars each. He got eight hundred dollars. Hope it was worth it. Let's start with the Wolfenbarger case, where being the daughter of a serial killer might have been the least dangerous thing about Melissa's life.

1:13 Twenty one years old, mother of two, daughter of Carl Patton Junior, who murdered at least five people in the nineteen seventies and dumped their bodies in the Flint River. You'd think having a serial killer for a father would be the worst thing that could happen to you. Turns out marrying Christopher Wolfenbarger was worse. Melissa met Christopher in high school. Her mother, Norma Patten, who by the way, admitted to being an accessory to her husband's murders, didn't want them together, said Melissa was too young. But teenage, Melissa kept running away to be with Christopher, got pregnant as a freshman, had two kids by twenty one, then gave up parental rights before her death. That's not a decision you make lightly. That's desperation. July nineteen ninety eight, Melissa files for a temporary protective order against Christopher. Atlanta police officer Marlon Sutton responds to a domestic violence call.

2:11 Documents bruising on her legs, abrasions on her arms. The neighbor, Dorothy Cooley, testifies she heard loud arguments constantly once saw a bruise under Melissa's eye. Norma Patten, Melissa's mother, saw abrasions on her daughter's backside, allegedly from being dragged on a sidewalk, dragged on concrete by her husband. But here's where it gets interesting. The defense is trying to blame Melissa's murder on her serial killer father or her accessory to murder mother, anyone but Christopher. Their argument the patents were the real abusers. Melissa was trying to escape them, not Christopher. Classic defense strategy. When your client looks guilty, point at the convicted serial killer in the room. The disappearance.

3:02 Thanksgiving nineteen ninety eight, Melissa calls her family to make plans for Christmas. She never shows up. No call on Christmas, no call on her mother's birthday. In February, Norma and her husband, Yes the serial killer, drive to Melissa's house in Atlanta. Christopher tells them Melissa left on her own, went to California to start a new life, pursuing her dreams. He never reported her missing. His excuse. He thought she'd moved on with her life for two years. He told anyone who asked that she just left. The neighbor asks where his wife is she was leaving him? The police ask California dreams. Meanwhile, Melissa's remains are literally across the street from where he works. April twenty ninth, nineteen ninety nine, five months after Melissa vanished, a man named George mcshern is behind a building at eight five eight aven Avenue in Atlanta, directly across from Action Glass and Mirrors where Christopher worked. He finds a human head in a black trash bag. The head is sitting upright, like someone placed it there deliberately, not thrown placed. Former Atlanta police detective Dale Kelly responds, they bring in cadaver dogs. The medical examiner initially misidentifies the remains as male. That's how badly they were decomposed. June third, nineteen ninety nine, more remains

4:34 found torso never recovered extremities showing saw marks a reciprocating saw, the kind Christopher's boss, Ronald Brock, testified employees could borrow from work no questions asked, common at construction sites. But here's the kicker. These remains aren't identified as Melissa for four more years. The serial killer's confession. Carl Patton Junior gets arrested for the Flint River murders, five people killed in the late nineteen seventies, and in a twist nobody saw coming. His arrest leads to his daughter's remains being identified how DNA testing. When they test Carl's DNA for his murders, it matches the familial DNA of the unidentified remains from nineteen ninety nine. Suddenly those body parts have a name. Melissa Wolfenbarger Norma Patten, made a deal with investigators.

5:30 She'd testify against her serial killer husband if they'd find her daughter. Carl cooperated too, according to the family, he was devastated. Dad loved us. Melissa's sister Tina testified, there was no way it had anything to do with my dad. Think about that, a serial killer who murdered five strangers was a loving father who had never hurt his daughter, But the husband who was supposed to protect her different story the arrest. Twenty six years. That's how long Christopher Wolfenbarger walked free, got remarried, moved on with his life, while Melissa's family wondered what happened to her. August twenty twenty four, finally police arrive at Christopher's home in Spaulding County with a warrant. Bodycam footage shows them searching the house and where do they find him hiding behind a wine rack in the garage, A grown man hiding behind wine bottles for twenty minutes. When asked why, what does an innocent man say? Nothing? He's uncooperative, just hiding in his garage like a child playing hide and seek. Detective Stephen O'Hare testified they had to use cell phone GPS to track him down in his own house. He was physically healthy, but uncooperative. Translation, he knew they were coming and tried to hide. Christopher worked at Action Glass and Mirrors from October nineteen ninety eight to February nineteen ninety nine, bactly the window when Melissa disappeared and her remains were found.

7:04 The remains were found directly across the street from his workplace, not a mile away, not down the road, directly across the street. He had access to reciprocating saws, the kind that leave the exact marks found on Melissa's bones. He never reported her missing for two years. He told everyone she went to California, but there's no evidence she ever left Atlanta. He was terminated from his job after a company van accident in February nineteen ninety nine, right after the head was discovered but before the other remains were found. And here's what the prosecution isn't saying. But everybody's thinking, you don't dismember someone you didn't kill. That's not a crime of passion. That's not self defense. That's cleanup, that's cover up. That's someone who thought they could literally throw away a human being like garbage. Back in a moment with Young Dolph's killer learning that eight hundred dollars isn't worth life in prison. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm read Carter. Now, let's talk about what happens when you execute a beloved wrapper in broad daylight at a cookie shop.

8:28 The cookie Shop Killing. November seventeenth, twenty twenty one, two twenty pm, Makdah's Homemade Butter Cookies on Airways Boulevard in Memphis. Young Dolph real name Adolph Thornton Junior is inside buying cookies. He's in town visiting his aunt who has cancer. He's been giving out Thanksgiving turkeys to the community. Just the week before, he'd promoted this very cookie shop on Instagram. A stolen Mercedes Benz pulls up. Two men get out. They don't say a word, They just start shooting through the window. Twenty two shots, twenty two in broad daylight in a strip mall with witnesses everywhere. Young Dolph dies on the floor of a neighborhood cookie shop, thirty six years old, Independent, successful, beloved gone. The hitmen Justin Johnson and Cornelia Smith, two guys who thought they were about to get paid. Here's the sick part. Cornelia Smith took the stand and admitted everything said. Anthony big Juk Mims, Jogatti's brother put out a one hundred thousand dollars hit on Young Dolph, one hundred grand for a human life.

9:37 Smith testified that he and Johnson were each supposed to get forty thousand dollars. Forty thousand dollars to murder a man at a cookie shop, to orphan his kids, to destroy a family. You know how much Smith actually got eight hundred dollars eight hundred dollars. He murdered a man for less than a month's rent. Big Joke did eventually pay fifty thousand dollars, but that was for Smith's lawyer fees after he got caught, and Big Joke he got shot and killed outside a restaurant earlier this year. The streets always collect their debts. The confession. Smith took the stand at Johnson's trial. Here's what he said. I wasn't feeling nothing at the time. I was just, you know, trying to get some money. I was aiming for Dolph.

10:26 I shot through the glass. I wasn't close up on him. I shot through the glass. I saw him standing by the window. I just got out and started shooting. No feeling, just trying to get money. Like he was describing a day at work, not a murder. He said. The same day they killed Dolph was his daughter's birthday. His daughter's birthday instead of cake and presence, Daddy was out committing murder for eight hundred dollars. Smith claims his conscience led him to confess right. Not the mountain of vs evidence, not the surveillance footage, not the cell phone records, his conscience, the evidence the prosecution had them dead to rights. Surveillance footage showed Johnson leaving a building the day of the murder, wearing the exact same outfit as one of the shooters, not similar exact Johnson tried to delete his call log, but investigators found he had a FaceTime call with Big Jok immediately after the murder. Immediately blood still warm, and he's facetiming the man who ordered the hit. Cell Phone records showed calls between Smith and Johnson right before the killing.

11:35 Johnson's own half brother, Jermarcus, testified against him, said he helped Justin escape Memphis after the murder, took his phone, posted on social media for him to make it look like he was somewhere else. Johnson's defense attorney, Luke Evans, tried to argue the videos only proved someone wearing similar clothes shot Dolph similar clothes, like Memphis is full of people wearing the exact same distinctive outfit on the exact same day, at the exact same time. The verdict September twenty sixth, twenty twenty four, after four hours of deliberation, the jury convicts on all counts first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, felon in possession of a firearm. Judge Jennifer Mitchell doesn't mince words, these were crimes committed in our community in the middle of the day, in broad daylight, with other people around, for greed. Life in prison for the murder. Then at a November hearing, she adds thirty five years for conspiracy and fifteen for the firearm charge.

12:39 Some concurrent, some consecutive. Bottom line, Justin Johnson dies in prison. His lawyers filed for a new trial, claim the evidence was insufficient, claim the gruesome photos were prejudicial, Claimed he should have been allowed to sit at council table. Judge Mitchell's response denied, denied, denied. The victim, Young Dolph, wasn't just a rapper. He was an entrepreneur who built paper Route Empire from nothing, turned down Yogatti's CMG label because he wanted to own his masters, wanted control, wanted independence. His family's impact statement read it sentencing. In just a few seconds, A crucial part of my life was ripped away, leaving a void that will never truly be filled. Our family's holiday plans turned from gatherings of joy to grief, anger, and sadness. There will be no more moments of hearing his voice, no hugs, no family trips, no celebrations, and no laughter shared together. His nephew had to be told his father wasn't coming home. His fiancee, Mia Jay, lost her partner, His two children lost their father. Memphis lost a legend who gave out turkeys at Thanksgiving and promoted local businesses, all for what a beef between record labels, jealousy over success forty thousand dollars that turned into eight hundred the aftermath Big Jok who ordered the hit dead

14:11 shot outside a restaurant. Hernandez Govan accused of being the go between. Trial set for July twenty twenty five out on ninety thousand dollars bond. Cornelius Smith awaiting sentencing after confessing faces life. Jermarcus Johnson got six years of diversion for helping his brother escape community service and a clean record if he stays out of trouble and Justin Johnson, he's learning what life without parole means every day, waking up in a cell every night, going to sleep in a cell for the rest of his life for eight hundred dollars. He never even got. Two cases. Two dismemberments of a sort. Christopher Wolfenbarger allegedly dismembered his wife's body, scattering her remains across Atlanta twenty six years of freedom while her family went under What happened? Now he's hiding behind wine racks when police come knocking. Justin Johnson dismembered a family, a legacy, a community. Three years later, he's convicted and sentenced to die in prison for less money than a decent television costs. Both cases show the same thing.

15:17 Killers think they're smarter than everyone else. Wolfenbarger thought he could claim his wife went to California and nobody would check. Johnson thought he could delete his call logs and change clothes and nobody would notice. But remains get identified. Surveillance cameras record everything, cell phones track everywhere you go. Brothers flip for plea deals, and eventually justice comes knocking. Sometimes it takes four years, like with Melissa Wolfenbarger's remains being identified. Sometimes it takes twenty six years, like with Christopher's arrest. Sometimes it takes three years, like with Young Dolph's killers, but it comes. Melissa Wolfenbarger survived having a serial killer for a father, only to allegedly die at the hands of her husband. She wanted to be a veterinarian. She loved animals, would bring home strays, dogs, cats, even a skunk once she had that twinkle in her eye. Her sister said. Young Dolph survived the streets of Memphis to become a successful independent artist. He was giving back to his community, visiting his sick aunt, buying cookies at a local shop he'd promoted. Neither of them deserved what happened.

16:28 Both of them deserved justice. One family waited twenty six years, the other waited three, but both got to see their loved ones kill her face consequences. I'm read Carter, and this is celebrity trials. Trust your instincts about violent partners, Appreciate your local cookie shops, and remember, if someone offers you forty grand to commit murder, you're probably only getting eight hundred. See you tomorrow,