18 Wheels and a Highway: The Murder of Myra Danette Stalbosky | Part 3

A prayer on the interstate. A family in a hotel room. An angel-shaped earring that turns a hunch into a roadmap. We take you inside a rare blend of raw humanity and rigorous police work as a young investigator faces the most difficult duty in the job—breaking unimaginable news—then steps into the fire to build a case that can stand up in court.

From a guarded stretch of highway to a lab bench in Quantico, we trace how small details grow into powerful evidence. You’ll hear how a yellow-insulated wire with a blue connector, found near a guardrail, links back to a suspect’s truck through meticulous tool‑mark comparison. We unpack early medical insights pointing to rape and a fatal neck disarticulation, and we navigate the mid‑90s landscape of evolving DNA science: blood in a recovered mattress matching the victim, seminal fluid matching the suspect, and the careful chain of custody that kept it all intact. The angel earring—one at the scene, one in the truck—undergoes metallurgical testing to confirm a high‑probability pair, adding another beam to a structure of proof.

The investigation widens with the FBI and Kentucky State Police at the table, a late‑night warrant, and a suspect who goes from talkative to silent. Inside the courthouse, elite defense counsel challenges every inch—preservation motions, discovery dumps, and attacks on forensic reliability—while the prosecution assembles a clear, consistent story for a thoughtful jury. Through it all, we keep focus where it belongs: honoring the victim, supporting the family, and showing the unglamorous, exacting craft that turns compassion and evidence into justice.

Subscribe, share with a true crime friend, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. What piece of evidence stood out most to you—DNA, the wire, or the earring? We’d love to hear your take.

David's book, True Crime and Consequences is FINALLY available!

This book explores the intricate and often controversial relationship between the true crime community and law enforcement. For  amateur sleuths, true crime fans, and social media detectives and cops everywhere.

http://truecrimeconsequences.com/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBQ4BT5Q

Do you have your copy of David's book True Crime and Consequences? Get your copy today at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBQ4BT5Q.

See what you have been missing on YouTube!

Transcript

Setting The Emotional Stakes

SPEAKER_03 0:02

There's parts of the story. That will always be tough for me to tell. It's just it'll always be that way.

Sonny Boggs 0:12

I was young, inexperienced, scared out of my wits. What if I got into? How am I going to handle it? You know. So I get back in my cruiser and I leave the scene. I run north on I-70 ways. I find a place where I can turn around and come back south toward LaGrange. And uh, you know, I'm cooking along good. You know, I want to get back here as fast as I can. And I remember I said a prayer. You know, God, please give me the words. That's gonna soften the blow of the information I'm about to deliver to this good family.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

18 Wheels in a highway. The murder of Myra Denet Stoloski. Only on the Murder Police podcast. Part three.

Wendy 1:03

The podcast you're about to listen to may contain classic descriptions of violent ascent in a double language. Listening description is advised.

Sonny Boggs 1:32

I walked over the embankment, straight line, straight down to the remains. Uh I checked uh for vital signs, and there was no vital signs. Uh and I can't remember which ear was which, but one of the ears had a earring missing out of it, and then the other ear. Looked like a match to the earring that we were recovered from his truck.

Wendy 1:56

It was the angel.

The Angel Earring Match

Media Coordination And Scene Control

Telling The Family

Sonny Boggs 1:57

Yeah. Of all things an angel. Of all things an angel. So I come back up and I talk to Agent Evans, and uh I said, you know, we're gonna need some help. He says, and I remember him saying this, and I said, We're in it for a penny, we're in it for a pound, we got your back, we're gonna take this, we're gonna take and do your crime scene for you. And their evidence response unit, I think that's what they're called, they was gonna do our scene. Um, but when Agent Evans and I was standing up on the side of the road uh in uh parallel with where the body was laying over the embankment, we looked down on the ground next to the guardrail, and there was a yellow piece of wire. It's like the yellow rubber coating on the outside of a multi-strand piece of wire, and it had a blue uh connector on one end. This wire looked exactly like wires that we had seized out of the truck two days previous during the search. In addition to that, the connector that was on the end of the wire at the ground looked like connectors that was on other wires that we had seized from the truck. We identified that as a piece of evidence and and we collected that. Arguably, this is probably one of the most important pieces of evidence, in my opinion. Um so I was convinced that this was Ms. Stelboski. And at back during the time, this uh this was a just an absolutely massive news thing. Everybody was trying to track this girl down. The news media was tearing it up. Uh, and there had been a reporter from Wave 3 News. I know you're from Louis. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uh, and her name was Kelly Brikeen. Uh she was following us down Interstate. And uh Miss Burkeen was back behind outside the crime scene, and she was getting ready to report on that we had found something. And I went back to her and I said, uh, I said, listen, I said, Miss Birkeen, I said, could you please give me 30 to 45 minutes before you report on this? I said, we have a crime scene. It's a substantial crime scene. Uh, but there is a family that's sitting in this hotel back in LaGrange that don't need to find out about this via a television news report that's gonna come on. And she agreed. And she agreed. So by that time, the world had showed up. The Henry County, Kentucky Corner, the Kentucky State Police, the FBI's evidence response unit, they were on their way, the scene was secured. I told my boss what I was doing. I said, I gotta go back and talk to this family.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Um there's part to his story that will always be tough for me to tell.

Sonny Boggs 4:56

It's just it'll always be that way. Um I was young, inexperienced, scared out of my wits. What if I got into? How am I gonna handle it, you know? So I get back in my cruiser and I leave the scene. I run north on I-70 ways, I find a place where I can turn around and come back south toward LaGrange. And uh, you know, I'm cooking along good, you know, want to get back here as fast as I can. And I remember I said I said, I said a prayer, you know, I said, God, please give me the words. That's gonna um soften the blow of the information I'm about to deliver to this good family. And uh I got back to LaGrange, pulled up in the parking lot of that hotel, and uh walked inside to Mr. and Miss Dolboski, the grandmother, and there's other family members there that I can't recall who they were, the brother was there. And this was back during a time when hotel rooms actually had real keys. So yeah. So I walked to the house I knew everybody there in LaGrange because I'd worked there for that long. You'd get to know everybody in a small town like it. And I walked up to the clerk, I said, Could you uh please give me a key for a room that's downstairs? I knew that Miss Stolboski, or Mr. Ms. Stolboski was their room was upstairs, so I didn't want to take one of the stuff. I said, give me a key to a room. She did. So I took Mr. I said, Can I come, can you guys come back here and talk to me? I need to talk to you in private for a minute. Um, so we took them into this, I took, I took them into this room. Um, there was two beds in the room, uh, two full-size beds, and I sit on one uh and they sit on the other. And uh I took a deep breath and I reached out and I took Miss Stalbosky by the hand. I said, uh, I have some information uh to pass along to you. And uh and I I I it's gonna be difficult for me to tell you this, but we have found remains of a young lady that I believe to be your daughter.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Unimaginable total meltdown.

Warrant Strategy And Arrest

Sonny Boggs 7:08

Just it was just it was just horrible. Just both the mother and the father. It was just it was the most horrible piece of news that they had probably ever received in their entire lives. And I delivered it to them. Um I told them that that we had located what I believe was their remains, the clothing description matched. Told them about the earring and this and that. And uh they begged me to take them to the scene. I said, I can't do that. I said, we can't take you to the scene. And I explained to them why, and Mr. Stolboski was more understanding than the mother was, of course, because of what he did. He was a chief of police, and uh and I called somebody from the Oldham County police. They had a uh um a pastor that worked with them, and they they sent a pastor out there, and then we got uh LaGrange police duty unit to come up and sit with them. I said, My work is just our work's just starting. I I I'm gonna have to go, but I will be back in touch with you. So by that time, excuse me, the scene was being processed, the body was being collected, the body was gonna go to the state medical examiner's office in Little 810 Barrett Avenue. Uh Tracy Handy. Okay. Tracy Handy was the uh uh medical examiner at the time. Um I knew that at some point in time that I would have to take somebody would have to take the family to make the identification. I would do that later on. Um, but before that, we knew then that we had at that stage of our investigation, we had strong probable cause. Right. We had very strong probable cause. And uh we got in touch with the Commonwealth's attorneys uh and me and my boss and the FBI, and by that time the state police post commander and anybody that's who's who in you know leadership in law enforcement was was there, and we all went to the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. And uh because I had done the most on the case, I come in and give a brief. This is why that I believe that William Christopher Blue is responsible for this murder. This is the evidence that we have, and I think that we should get a warrant for him immediately. Uh let's let's draft up an arrest warrant. So back and forth, we got the arrest warrant drafted up. But in the meantime, the FBI was tracking our suspect down in because they wanted to ask more questions of him. And we found out that at the same time we found the body and located the body, the remains of Ms. Delboski, is that the FBI, an FBI by the name of Phil Lusader, had uh Baloo in his office in Paducah, Kentucky, re-interviewing him at the time we found the body.

Wendy 10:00

How'd he find him?

Cause Of Death And Rape Evidence

Sonny Boggs 10:02

I don't know. That's a piece of the story that I don't know, but he was able to locate him. Uh and so we got in touch with uh the FBI there got in touch with uh Agent Luzader and said, hey, hold on to this guy because we have an arrest warrant that's that's coming for him. We'll have to fax it to you. So uh my chief and I, uh, we after this search warrant was a draft, and we all agreed on the facts and you know, contained within the uh probable calls affidavit. Uh we had to go to a judge's house in the middle of the night, lived out in Goshen, Kentucky. And uh the judge looked at the warrant and he read it. He agreed that there's probable calls, he signed the warrant. We got it faxed, and William Christopher Blue was lodged in McCracken County Jail out in Paducah, Kentucky on Sunday, April the 30th, 1995.

David 10:51

And a small detail on that, if he was in that agent's office, again he was in there voluntarily, right? I mean, they didn't just go pick him up and say you're gonna that again he's volunteering to come and make statements again.

Wendy 11:02

I have to ask, when you found Myra when you walked upon her, was there trauma on her? Was it was it visible what had happened?

Sonny Boggs 11:12

No, it wasn't. There was some blood. Uh, you know, uh her hair was, you know, it was strewn about. She was laying in a very unnatural position uh because I believe that she had been ejected from the side of that truck down that hill and you know, after she was murdered and and dumped off. She was laying in a very unnatural position, but I was able to see both ears.

Wendy 11:35

But you couldn't tell it was no gunshot, no you couldn't see any kind of that kind of thing.

Sonny Boggs 11:41

The only time I touched that body was for one thing. I took I looked for a pulse in the carotid artery, and uh there was no there was no vital signs in that.

David 11:49

And again, it's not like on TV and movies where the detective doesn't start rolling the body over it. No. That is so fetched, you know, that the that that body belongs to the corner. That's right. And that that immediacy of that belongs to the corner. So it's not like on TV where they start rooting, hopefully they start rooting things.

Sonny Boggs 12:07

So on uh Monday morning, May the 1st, 1995, uh the chief, my boss and I, left uh from LaGrange early, early in the morning, and we drove down there and we picked him up and brought him back and put him in the Oldham County jail. Uh they uh set his bond at$500,000. And at the time, you know, it's a lot of money. Still is today, but uh set his bond at$500,000, and there's where he remained.

Wendy 12:35

So did he talk to you all? That's a long ride. That's a few rides.

Sonny Boggs 12:39

I memandized him again. I read him the warrant, I mirandized him, and he refused to say anything after he was taken.

David 12:46

Did you just button up or did he say, I'm not talking to you? He's uh he just buttoned up. He's buttoned up.

Wendy 12:51

Didn't even speak the whole way.

David 12:53

No, uh-uh. Never said a word. He wised up. Huh? He'd wised up. Yeah. He had done enough damage, but uh because he had allowed too much as it was. Because even after Miranda, if they do have spontaneous utterance in the back of that car, then it's good.

Sonny Boggs 13:06

You know, unsolicited spontaneous utterance. Exactly.

Lead Investigator Named

David 13:09

Unsolicited, you're right. Uh what is that? I can't remember the uh and the lawyers listening will find it, but I think they called it the graveyard speech, where those detectives from many years ago, there's a case law based on how they were talking about somebody being buried somewhere. Right. And uh they were so off the case that the guy started talking, and I think they held that no, they didn't really solicit a statement.

Sonny Boggs 13:30

So I had another case uh from Lowell was uh kind of like that.

David 13:34

That uh is uh so you get him back, he's buttoned up, he's finally smartened up. I guess they thought he was smart that whole time.

Sonny Boggs 13:41

Yeah, he uh he buttoned up, he's coming back to, you know, we've got him charged with uh, you know, in Kentucky and the rules of criminal procedure, you know. If you're in custody, you got 10 days, you know, you get titled to a proper cause here within 10 days' time of your arrest. If you're out of cuss, you're 20 days, and that still stands today. Oh yeah, the preliminary hearing. Preliminary hearing, yeah. So by virtue of the fact that the uh remains were found in Henry County, Kentucky, the probable cause hearing was going to be done in the Henry County uh district court. Uh uh and the uh the judge in Henry County District Court was the same as one of the judges that we had in Oldham County, the same 12th judicial district. We had a female uh judge, uh uh Julia Fields, I'll never forget it. She was the judge. So there was uh there were three of us that put on evidence at the probable cause hearing. Detective Bosmer, um myself, and uh an FBI agent uh put on evidence, uh put on uh evidence uh of the what he found at the scene, what they processed and what it all meant and every everything. Ensco, James Ensco was the FBI agent that that uh gave the testimony, me and him and Bosmer uh and the the district court judge uh said, you know, you guys had put on a strong probable cause case and bound it over to a grand jury.

David 15:03

Uh so uh Can I ask real quick during the hearing, did you get cross-examined very much? Oh absolutely.

Sonny Boggs 15:10

At that point in time, uh Mr. Uh uh uh or Christopher Blue was being uh he was being represented by the Department of Public Advocacy, the public defenders, and uh they you know they asked a lot of questions of all of us, you know. Yes. And but still at the end, uh Probable Calls went out the other day and and they bound it over to a grand jury. A few days later, uh I went to a grand jury again in Henry County, Kentucky, because that's where the remains were found. Uh presented a factual account of the investigation leading up to his arrest, uh, and they returned a criminal indictment against him for uh uh intentional uh homicide and uh forcible rape.

David 15:54

Can you remember where the rape thing got based? Because we've talked about we know we had a kidnapping, we we have a death and everything. Without getting too graphic, uh where did your stuff come from to bring the rape charge in? Uh from uh the state medical examiner's office.

Sonny Boggs 16:08

They gave us information prior to the uh postmortem being, you know, produced because it takes a while to get a postmortem. Sure. But she gave me, uh Tracy gave me information that there was substantial evidence that a rape had occurred.

Wendy 16:22

What did they find her cause of death was?

Sonny Boggs 16:25

Broken neck. Uh disarticulation, and I can't remember which cervical vertebrae it was, but she had a complete disarticulation.

David 16:33

That's not very common. No, it's not. Not very few broke. I think I only maybe saw one that I remember in my career.

Wendy 16:40

Did he ever tell what did he ever tell what happened? Did that story ever come out?

Defense Upgrades And Trial Begins

Sonny Boggs 16:48

There was a story that came out. There was. And uh so yeah, uh I'll tell about that in in a few minutes. Uh he did, he he was uh at some point in time, he did give an account of what he thought had happened. Uh but uh we went on through, you know, he was indicted. Um the family, the suspect's family was able to acquire uh the money to hire a well let me back up. I'm getting way ahead of myself. So in this meeting in the Commonwealth attorney's office, where we briefed this this warrant and everything to the Commonwealth, you know, we got this warrant. Um they were trying, you know, you had KSP, FBI, and us, and the LaGrange Police Department, they've decided who's going to take the lead on this. So my boss, uh a lieutenant uh from KSP was in there. Uh the uh Dave Cole from FBI, uh two Commonwealth attorneys, and they I don't know if Bosman was in there or not, but they asked me to step out of this conference room and they wanted to talk about this case without me in there. They wanted to figure out who's gonna take the case. So I stepped out. 15 minutes later, they called me back in. They said, uh, you're taking lead on this. Well, my heart sunk. I was scared to death. I was like, well, at this point, I'll just be a good witness and explain, you know. But they said you're gonna take lead on that. Taking lead on that meant, and we talked about this once before, is this was not a one-man show. There were many, many parts of this investigation that had to be followed up on and done. Basically, that just meant that I was taking all the pieces of information and put it together in one big comprehensive package that would be used to try uh Chris Blue. But anyway, I was I was named the lead investigator on this investigation. I was scared to death. I was horrified because I had never been exposed to anything like this. And I was like, God, I I can't, you know, I'll mess this up somehow or another. But I had a lot of help. I had help from KSP, I had help from the FBI, and I can't mention this guy enough, Bill Bosmer, this detective from Oldham County Police. Just an awesome guy with a wealth of you know experience and knowledge, it really helped me a lot. We got it all put together, moved forward uh to the trial, but before the trial, uh we were able to get uh now. This is a time when DNA wasn't really thoroughly accepted in Kentucky. Okay, we were just getting into it. Uh we had uh, if you remember, I talked about the mattress and the blood in the mattress. You know, we we we had the victim's DNA, and uh those DNA reports finally come back, and the blood in this mattress that we had recovered was uh that of the the victim.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Um evidence found in the victim's um vaginal vault.

Sonny Boggs 20:03

I think the way the medical examiner described it. Um that DNA evidence that seminal fluids found in there matched the ones of the suspect. Um so we had that piece of it, you know, the thing locked up pretty evidence. DNA evidence was strong, you wasn't gonna get past it, but we went through a lot of hearings on it. Um the earring hairs and fibers uh metallurgical testing was done by the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. Um the earring found at uh on the victim and the one found in the back of the truck, uh, a metallurgist examined that and with a high degree of probability that they were they were a match pair.

David 20:50

That's important.

Sonny Boggs 20:51

You can't just go by visual. No, yeah. We had a you know a very scientific examination done of that. Um and the piece of wire found at the scene that I spoke about on the side of the interstate next to the guardrail, um, that piece of wire was examined along with tools that we had collected and other pieces of wire that we had collected at the scene, and they were compared. And the tool that was used to cut that wire at the piece of scene was that we had recovered. We recovered that from his truck. In addition to that, the piece of wire that the wire was cut from that was found on the ground that we found in his truck two days previous is all a match. That's incredible. It was all a match, and that was put together by the FBI and and and gave us that. So um we had all this good evidence, but he his family dismissed the pup the Department of Public Advocacy, dismissed them, and they came up with the money to hire um at the time in Kentucky, they was the premier defense team. Bill Johnston got through truth. Oh, yeah. The A team. Yeah, they were the A-team. And when uh, you know, I I knew who they were, I I just just knew who they were. And when I found out that uh, you know, they had dismissed the Department of Public Avenue C and then we were picking up Bill Johnson and Guthrie Troop, I was like, well, this thing just got a little bit more intense. So there was motion after motion after motion after motion that was filed. And one of the first ones uh that I remember saying, Well, what does that mean? They filed a motion, uh uh a preserv a preservation motion. Everything ever handwritten note, everything that uh that I collected, everything that I'd done. They wanted they wanted copies of everything. So everything that I done this thing, there was three copies, one from my master case file, one went to the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. Well, two went to Commonwealth Attorney's Office because they sent it to Johnson and for discovery. Yes, for discovery, yep. Uh they they they sent everything forward. Um Commonwealth decided they was going to try this as a as a capital case because you got your homicide and then you got to aggravating circumstance, right? So they decided to try as a capital case. And uh we started uh the trial. It's Henry County, Kentucky, where we seated a jury out of, and I'll tell you, and I know that you understand this, but uh seating a good jury on a case means a lot. Oh, it's a lot of work. And Mr. Johnson and Mr. True are very wise and they're very good at what they do. Uh we seated a very good jury for the prosecution. We had a good jury seated. And uh in about the eighth day of the trial.

Wendy 23:38

Hey, you know there's more to the story, so go download the next episode like the true crime fan that you are.

David 23:45

The Murder Police Podcast is hosted by Wendy and David Lyons and was created to honor the lives of crime victims so their names are never forgotten. It is produced, recorded, and edited by David Lyons. The Murder Police Podcast can be found on your favorite Apple or Android podcast platform, as well as at MurderPolice Podcast.com, where you will find show notes, transcripts, information about our presenters, and a link to the official Murder Police Podcast merch store, where you can purchase a huge variety of Murder Police Podcast Swag. We are also on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, which is closed caption for those that are hearing impaired. Just search for the Murder Police Podcast and you will find us. If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe for more and give us five stars in a written review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your podcasts. Make sure you set your play or automatically download new episodes so you get the new ones as soon as they drop. And please tell your friends. Lock it down, Judy.