Criminal Discourse Podcast
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Criminal Discourse Podcast
Unholy Deception The Case of A.B. Schirmer
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Could your trusted local minister harbor a secret life of malevolence? This episode peels back the veneer of piety surrounding Arthur Burton Schirmer, the "sinister minister," exposing a trail of untimely deaths including those of his two wives and a troubled congregant. As we share the heart-wrenching narratives of those affected by these tragedies, we also spotlight the relentless pursuit of truth by the families and law enforcement that eventually cast a glaring light on Shermer's shadowy existence.
Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Criminal Discourse Podcast. I'm Trish, I'm Wendy, back with you with an all new episode and we appreciate you joining us this week and we have some feedback on social media to share. Yes, one of our listeners pointed out in the Sarah Yarborough case, when we had talked about what exactly a drill team is, I thought maybe it was more of like auxiliary vanguard. I was wrong.
Speaker 2It is a dance team, Dance team I was thinking cheerleader too, based on her uniform.
Speaker 1But, yes, but more of a dance team. So thank you so much for pointing that out.
Speaker 2And let's get into it Now. We know there are so many true crime podcasts out there to choose from and only so many hours in a day. We want to take a moment to say that we truly appreciate you listening to ours today and, if you want to join the discourse, share your feedback, answer our questions that we have about our episodes. You can reach out to us on our website, criminal discourse podcast dot com or on social media. We're on Facebook, instagram and YouTube YouTube at Criminal DisPod and Criminal Discourse Podcast. And one last thing before we get started the views and opinions discussed on our podcast are just our views and opinions. Everyone is presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law.
Speaker 1All right, well this case actually was kind of a case suggestion that I already happen to be working on.
Speaker 2We love case suggestions too. It's another thing you can do on our website and social media, and our last one was the Corey Edkin. We did a three-parter, I believe. Yeah, this is not a three-parter.
Speaker 1This is just one, and this was from Gwyneth who reached out. So we are back in Pennsylvania and today we are dwelling into the chilling case of the death surrounding Arthur Burton Shermer, or AB as most knew him, and what I'll refer to him as he was, a man who wore a cloak of a reverend while concealing dark and deadly secrets. Known as the sinister minister, ab Shermer was either an unlucky man who lost two wives through tragic accidents or a killer who almost got away with murder if not for an unexpected event that no one saw coming. Jackson Township in Monroe County is located in the Pocono Mountains. At the intersection of PA Route 715 and Church Road sits Reader's United Methodist Church, this beautiful white-steepled building with the vibrant red doors that offered fellowship and service to those seeking spiritual guidance. Now, one such man who was seeking some support was Joseph Musanti, a carpenter who struggled with alcoholism and had sought out AB Shermer for support. He was a congregant of Reader's United Methodist Church Now Joseph's wife, cindy, also a congregant at Reader's, was also AB's secretary, slash personal assistant at the time, so I was unsure. I've seen her referred to as both. While working through his issues with Reverend Shermer, joseph helped with construction jobs around the church. He had even built the desk for AB to use in his church office.
Speaker 1Now, reverend Shermer had been counseling both Joseph and Cindy, who had been married for about 18 years and had two children, but that assistance would end in October 2008, when Joseph Musanti was found dead sitting behind the very desk he had built. Joseph died of a single gunshot wound to his head. What would cause Joseph to take his own life? Was it his alcohol addiction becoming too overwhelming, or did something else drive him to it? Rose Cobb was Joseph's sister, and when she learned of her brother's death, she traveled to Reader's to be with her family. And when she arrived, she felt something wasn't quite right. Something was off, as there was no one around offering comfort or condolences to the family. So she questioned her sister-in-law, cindy, as to why was this? And that is when Cindy told her she had fallen in love with her boss, ab Shermer, who had just lost his second wife, betty Jean, three months prior in a car accident. Cindy relayed what AB had told her about a deer running out in front of their car one night as he was driving Betty to the hospital.
Speaker 1Now AB Shermer he's described as a good speaker, an intelligent man who held a magnetism and charisma when he delivered his sermons. Ab was a native of Milton, delaware, and had received his pastoral degrees attending Eastern Pilgrim College in Allentown and Messiah College in Grantham, both in Pennsylvania. Reader's United Methodist Church was not AB's first assignment, as he had previously served as pastor at the United Methodist Churches in Lebanon and Lancaster counties. Now, side note, I do have in the show notes some shows regarding this case. I believe there's a 48 Hours and an Accident, murder, suicide. They will say Lebanon and Lancaster. It is Lebanon and Lancaster.
Speaker 2We're the PA Proud podcast here Right. We got this one. We may butcher the others, I know.
Speaker 1I may butcher ones from other places, but it is Lebanon and Lancaster. Ab and Betty had moved to Reader's in 2001, the same year that they had married. Ab had been married previously to his first wife, Jewel, for about 31 years when she had passed away in 1999. Now Betty Shermer was born Betty Jean Scherzer, on June 28, 1952 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and she was one of nine siblings growing up in the town of Hummelstown, which is right next door to Hershey. Betty, like AB, had been married previously and she was currently divorced when she had met AB and had one child, a son. Now, at the time of her death, Betty was 56 years old and an active member of the church. Her husband ran. Betty is described as always having a smile on her face. She was kind, outgoing, generous. She fit right into being a reverend's wife. She was also a board member at the Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Network, a program whose mission is to provide low-income families or families in crisis with essentials to maintain a dignified standard of living. Now these services include a food pantry, a clothing closet, all for residents who are hitting hard times in Monroe County.
Speaker 1So Rose wanted to know more about Reverend Shermer, especially after Cindy had told her his first wife, Jewel, had suddenly died in 1999. That death was due to an accidental fall down the stairs in the couple's home they shared in Lebanon. Ab at the time had been pastor of the Bethany United Methodist Church in Lebanon. That arose Two wives dying from accidents seemed a little more than a coincidence or even bad luck. Knowing this information also called into question Joseph's death and the reason behind him taking his life. So one person that may have known what had driven Joseph to commit suicide was his 16-year-old daughter, Samantha. Samantha had found out about her mother's affair with AB through some text messages she discovered between the pair. She was worried about how her father would react to finding this out, as he had turned to AB for support and guidance with his drinking problems and his marital problems.
Speaker 2That makes it so much worse to just not even that your wife is having an affair, but with someone that you trusted with your marriage problems. Yeah, double whammy, double whammy.
Speaker 1So, samantha, she tried to end her mother's affair by setting up a fake email under the name Jean Smith and sending a message to AB that someone knew what he was up to with his secretary and that he should keep it professional. However, that is not what happened. Ab and Cindy figured out it was Samantha who had sent the email, and AB confronted Samantha in his office telling her she was wrong. They both denied anything sordid was going on between them and how dare she accuse them of such, and she needed to drop it. So Samantha left that meeting not quite believing what AB had told her, but kept quiet for her father's sake. But that was until he started asking questions. Joseph asked his daughter if Cindy loved AB and Samantha said I think so. Joseph confronted Cindy and she had promised it in the affair, but she secretly kept in contact with AB. Plus, she worked in the church where he was the reverend. So I'm not sure how you keep that separate. So the day before Joseph took his life, cindy had taken herself and the kids to her sister's house and refused to allow anyone to answer Joseph's repeated calls, including Samantha. Cindy also told AB to get out of town as Joseph may come looking for him and he had access to a gun. Joseph had reached out to his daughter several times, with her mother directing her not to answer. Now in the morning Samantha did listen to a voicemail. Her father had left and he said to her if you love me at all, please call me back. That was the last time she heard from her father.
Speaker 1Rose Cobb now knew of three bodies connected to Reverend Shermer. That didn't sit right with her. So Rose made two phone calls. The first one was to the Methodist Church Bishop to inform her about Cindy and AB's relationship, and her next call was to the police. Detective Jim Wagner of the Pocono Township Police Department was assigned to investigate.
Speaker 1Now, like Rose, detective Wagner felt there were some red flags here and initially suspected that perhaps Cindy, ab or both of them had a hand in Joseph's death, and now that Joseph was no longer in the picture, the two could be together. However, pennsylvania State Troopers Phil Barletto and William Maynard, who initially investigated Joseph's death, ultimately ruled that yes, it was a suicide. They based their findings on the blood spatter evidence and glass fragments found on the bottom of Joseph's shoes, which were consistent with him breaking the glass to the back door of the church to gain entry and then stepping on that glass. Also, cindy and AB had airtight alibis. Ab was over an hour away at the time of Joseph's suicide and Cindy and the kids were with her sister.
Speaker 1But on November 8th 2008, an official investigation was reopened by Detective Wagner. He accepted the state police findings, but he still had suspicions that something wasn't right with the reverend's wives both dying of accidents nine years apart. Detective Wagner wanted to take a closer look at Betty Shermer's death, who, I mentioned, had just died three months prior to Joseph's suicide. Her death was originally classified as an accident after a vehicle crash.
Speaker 2And the affair makes it all the more suspicious. Right that he committed suicide, this affair was going on, but that his wife died in this accident while this affair, we assume, was happening. Right, yes, so?
Speaker 1on July 15th 2008,. And go back to the night of the accident. Stan Dickerson was driving home in the early morning hours when he came upon a PT cruiser alongside a guardrail. Stan stopped and asked the driver what had happened and if he was okay. The driver, who was AB, told him he was fine, but he didn't think his wife was. Ab turned on the lights inside the car and Dickerson was able to make out Betty, who appeared unconscious and clearly having trouble breathing. He also noticed that an extreme amount of blood was inside that car. He asked AB if he called 911 yet and AB replied not yet. So Dickerson called. This was a little bit of that conversation with the operator. The operator said what's your emergency? And Dickerson responded someone hit the guardrail, there's a woman here. She's hurt, there are two people in the car, but the guy seems okay. So within minutes the ambulance had arrived and Betty Schirmer was removed from the passenger side of the vehicle with bleeding coming from her head. She was unconscious and she was clearly having difficulty breathing. She was rushed to Lehigh Valley Hospital and she was in grave condition. She had a wound to the left side of her head and two gashes to the right side of her head. Betty had multiple skull fractures and a subdural hematoma on her brain. She would die in the early morning hours on July 16th, around 12, 12 am Now.
Suspicious Deaths Under Investigation
Speaker 1Meanwhile, back at the scene, a patrol officer was doing the accident reconstruction work that goes on whenever you have a car accident and he was taking photographs and measurements of the roadway and photographs inside and outside the vehicle and ultimately no one had any suspicions of anything nefarious occurring and the accident was ruled just that an accident. So the coroner, prior to them closing the investigation, had talked to AB and this was after Betty passed and he wanted to know kind of how she sustained such severe injuries. And the coroner's job at the time was to determine would there be an autopsy be necessary or not? So AB told him that he had been taking Betty to the hospital for this jaw pain she was experiencing and while traveling 50 miles per hour or more, a deer had run out into the roadway Not uncommon in the mountains at all or even in Pennsylvania. He avoided hitting the deer but the car spun out of control, going off the road. He overcorrected and that is when he struck the guardrail. And at first, the way I read this, he struck a guardrail, I think in the rear of the car, and then it kind of spun around and he hit the guardrail again, this time coming to rest on the front of the car. So AB also told the coroner that Betty was not wearing her seatbelt and had been flung around the inside of the out-of-control vehicle. Ab stated that Betty had first hit the windshield, then the rearview mirror and then the post that the seatbelt loop is attached to. Now, at the time the coroner was unaware of any questions as to why Betty wasn't wearing her seatbelt. But in the end the coroner decided that an autopsy wouldn't be necessary and Betty was cremated within 24 hours after her death.
Speaker 1Now Betty's family was shocked when they had heard that she had not been wearing her seatbelt. As Betty was always safety conscious, they insisted that whenever anybody got in the vehicle with Betty, betty was like click it, I'm not pulling away until you put your seatbelt on. They were also shocked to learn about her wanting to be cremated, and AB assured them that this was something they had both agreed on. They always thought she wanted a burial and AB assured them that this was something they had both agreed on. They always thought she wanted a burial.
Speaker 1Now AB, when asked by one of her sisters about this whole seatbelt thing, he said that well, betty had started playing a game where she would leave her seatbelt off to see how long it took for the seat buzzer alarm to go off. And he would also give another explanation that Betty had taken her seatbelt off right before the deer entered the roadway. As the seatbelt she was uncomfortable, I guess, with the pain she was experiencing and she wanted to readjust. But as she took it off, the deer had run out into the roadway. And yet another version he would tell someone is that the seatbelt had simply come undone.
Speaker 1Now Betty's loved ones, including her sisters, they were just, they were dealing with their shock and grief upon losing her and didn't think to ask any more questions. But Detective Wagner, he was now asking those questions and the first thing that struck out to him, looking at the photographs taken that night, was how someone in the passenger seat sustained the type of head injury Betty had. Another thing was why there were no skid marks on the roadway. According to AB, the car was violently out of control, yet there was no evidence of any braking. There was also the car itself. It had sustained only minor damage to the front end and the airbags never deployed. The car was still functional. He literally could have just backed it up and driven away, but there was blood everywhere.
Speaker 2She had these massive head injuries.
Speaker 1Yes, so he focused on the bloodstains and Detective Wagner observed numerous blood drops on the seat cushion that looked to have been absorbed into the seat Betty had been sitting on. How did those bloodstains get there? They were underneath her. To him, she was sitting in that passenger seat for some time before Dickerson had stopped. Next, detective Wagner wanted to know more about how the first Mrs Shermer, died, so he contacted the Northern Lebanon Police Department.
Speaker 1Now Jewel Shermer had died on April 24, 1999, in what appeared to be a household accident. She had apparently been vacuuming the basement steps in the parsonage with a shop vac and somehow the cord had got wrapped around her leg and that caused her to fall down the stairs. Now, at the time AB told authorities that he had discovered his wife's body at the bottom of this basement stairs after returning home from jogging, and this was around 2.15 in the afternoon. Now, first responders were initially taken aback when they arrived by how calm AB was, and his story of just returning home from jogging was also a little unsettling as it had been raining that day and AB was completely dry. And it also appeared odd to the EMTs when they were ready to transport Jules to Hershey Medical Center they couldn't find AB anywhere to notify him of this and he was not at the hospital for some time after Jules' arrival. And it would be discovered years later that AB had stayed home and cleaned up the bloody basement while Jules was being hooked up to life support. Now, after doctors determined that Jules' injuries were so severe she was not going to recover she had severe head trauma AB made the decision to take her off life support.
Speaker 1Jules, who was an organ donor, had her heart, lungs, liver and kidneys harvested prior to support being discontinued and it was considered an accident. So no autopsy was ever conducted. So doctors initially thought that Jewel had a heart attack. That's what caused the fall down the steps, and it would be forensic pathologist Dr Wayne Ross at Hershey Medical Center who would conduct Jules' autopsy.
Speaker 1Before I said there was no autopsy, so I will get to that in a moment how that came about. And he concluded heart attack was not a reason for her fall down the stairs. Now, why they considered it a heart attack is that when they harvested her heart to be donated, the transplant team notified the doctors that they couldn't use her heart because it had elevated levels of a substance that they felt led to heart disease Like this is what caused the heart attack these elevated levels and I forget what the name of it is, but those levels can also be caused by CPR. So back then in 99, because the transplant team said, hey, we can't use this, these are the elevate. Because of these elevated levels, they thought, oh, that's because she had a heart condition.
Speaker 2And then that's what caused the fall and that is what caused the fall. And she was kind of correct me if I'm wrong. She was maybe around 50.
Speaker 1Yes, she was 50 years old at this time. Maybe, but still kind of a little young to just right and no history of it either, right Okay.
Speaker 1So Dr Ross conducted tests that at the time when he conducted this autopsy, it was negative for any heart disease. However, she did have several injuries to her skull two linear tears on the right side of her head and, according to Dr Ross, jewel's skull had received a blow equivalent to the force of at least 750 pounds of pressure. In all, she had 14 blows to her head and her face, along with numerous cuts, abrasions and bruises. However, she had no injuries to her ribs or her pelvis, or scrapes that would indicate she had slid down the stairs. She also had no significant injuries below her neck and nothing was broken in her hands or wrists. So you think of a fall put your hands and arms out to brace yourself, but there were no broken bones nothing like that, and she's supposed to be tumbling down the stairs with a shop.
Speaker 2vac too, right, correct so.
Speaker 1Dr Ross classified Jewel's death as undetermined at the time. So this is 99. He says it's undetermined and he did not feel Jewel's injuries would have been caused by a passive fall and he urged the Northern Lebanon Township Police to look further into her death. But for some reason they never did. And again, I think it was based upon what the transplant team had found in the heart that they couldn't use that they're like no, it's a heart attack and then they had no other reason really to suspect, yeah, that there was foul play Correct.
Speaker 1But in 2010, nine years after Jewel's death, her case was reopened after Detective Wagner's inquiry. And two years later, in 2001, after Jewel had died, he had met Betty. They had moved on to Monroe County where he became pastor of Reader's United Methodist Church in this small little town tucked away in the Pocono Mountains. So on December 18th 2008, this is five months after Betty's death Detective Wagner was able to secure a search warrant for the parsonage that AB and Betty had been living in. He had to move out once. He resigned his commission. Really, he and we'll talk about that later Some people said he retired, some people said he was fired. He was not fired, he turned in his credentials.
Speaker 1Detective Wagner was looking for any evidence that a physical altercation had taken place. Now, nothing appeared out of place in the house, but in the garage and this was a single car garage investigators found blood drops on the concrete floor, and this was visible to the naked eye. You didn't need any special chemicals to see that. They did end up using the chemical luminol, and that is when they found a trail of blood from the back door of the garage to what would be the passenger side of where the vehicle was parked, they found a large pool of blood that someone had taken the time to clean up and you could tell by the swipe marks that were used, like ones that showed in the luminol. So DNA was taken from the concrete floor and that was compared to DNA samples collected from Betty's son, her mother, who was still alive, and a sibling, and that DNA test would confirm that that blood was Betty's. Results would show that the blood collected well, it was a 20 trillion to one that it was anyone besides Betty. Of all the samples collected, none belonged to AB Two detectives. Betty had been assaulted in the garage and bleeding before she was placed in that car.
Investigation Into Suspicious Deaths
Speaker 1So while the search of the parsonage was going on, pennsylvania State Police were questioning AB about the blood, as they had been told it had been found, and AB denied that Betty had ever bled in the garage at first, but then he claimed that, oh yeah, we had been moving some wood that had been stacked in the garage at first, but then he claimed that, oh yeah, we had been moving some wood that had been stacked in the garage. Apparently, an exterminator said hey, you may not want to do that because of termites, which is true. You shouldn't keep you know, wood in your garage. And then he said, as they were moving some of this stacked wood, it had fallen on them and cut them both, and this was weeks before her death. Now they asked, well, where did you move it to? And they said, well, a woodpile in the backyard. And authorities did find a woodpile in the backyard, but at the bottom of that woodpile were some local newspapers that were dated September 2008. And this was two months after Betty's death. So this was not the wood he claimed they had moved, if they had moved it at all. There was also no blood found on any of the pieces of wood that they found. So during AB's six-hour interview with state police, he claimed that right after the crash, he was, you know, in shock. He had held Betty in his arms trying to wake her up, and he also admitted that, even though he had a cell phone, he hadn't thought of calling 911.
Speaker 1So, a year after Betty's death, ab was still in a now openly public relationship with Cindy and he had actually moved into her home, and it was on Samantha's 18th birthday that she moved out of that home. Now, in the summer of 2010, samantha received a text from her mother that had her worried for her mother's safety. Ab had given Cindy an engagement ring and Samantha, knowing how the first two Mrs Shermers didn't live happily ever after contacted the Pocono Township Police. Now authorities this whole time had been working on their investigation over the past two years and they took their findings to the two men who could really move that case forward to a level of getting charges. On July 8, 2010, forensic pathologist Dr Samuel Land and Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grimm reviewed all the evidence that had been gathered and they both determined that Betty's injuries were not caused by a car crash. Betty's death certificate was changed from an accidental death to a homicide. So, according to Detective Wendy's surface with the Monroe County District Attorney's Office, investigators felt that it was only a matter of time until whatever triggered AB would surface in his relationship with Cindy and that may put her in danger. So in September 2010, this is two years after Betty's death and only a few weeks after AB had proposed, he was arrested for Betty's murder and taken into custody at Cindy's residence and he was denied bail. So a grand jury had been meeting for the previous nine months and they listened to several key witnesses who testified as to what they observed that night of the accident. This is Betty's accident Paramedic Margo Warner testified that she couldn't figure out how Betty sustained such a traumatic head injury with there being such little damage to the Sharma vehicle.
Speaker 1Warner described that Betty had blood covering her entire head and had major bruising above her one eye. Those injuries didn't seem to reconcile with what she saw inside the vehicle. Although there was a lot of blood, there was no major damage inside that car. Nothing appeared to have caused the injuries that she sustained. Dr Wayne Ross also testified Now he had performed Jules' autopsy in 1999, and he had a look at Betty's medical records after the right side of their heads both dying of traumatic brain injuries under suspicious circumstances, and these injuries when put side by side matched up.
Speaker 2That, I think, is key. I was wondering this whole time. They sound very similar, but how identical matching. Oh, they were identical, wow.
Speaker 1So Dr Ross also conducted additional tests after being contacted by Detective Wagner in 2011. This is when also conducted additional tests after being contacted by Detective Wagner in 2011. This is when he he conducted more tests. He wanted to see you know, let me make sure how these injuries came about. He used crash test dummies of the same height and weight as Jewel and he placed chalk all over the dummies heads. He wanted to see like where these marks would occur with a forceful fall, a passive fall. So the chalk used reminded me of, like the blue pool cube.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, the pool cue dust. Yeah, that is exactly what it reminded me of.
Speaker 1And so he found that when he again forward backwards, sidewards, you know, you know, just falling passively or being pushed, yeah, he could not replicate those injuries to her head and he changed Jules Schirmer's death certificate from undetermined to homicide. Dr Ross believed that Joel had been struck a long cylinder like objects such as a crowbar or a pipe of some sort, and that Dr Ross testified to the grand jury of his findings that both women had died from similar injuries.
Speaker 2I'm also really impressed by the investigative work here. This is like the third time that I'm going. This one piece could have been a forensic files episode. These are excellent investigation strategies Very thorough Police.
Speaker 1Corporal Douglas Shook, who had done the reconstruction of the accident scene. Betty's one testified that the Schirmer vehicle had been traveling under 25 miles per hour when it had crashed not the 45 miles per hour to 55 miles per hour AB had claimed in various interviews. He also testified that there was no physical evidence of any avoidance maneuver on the roadway nor sufficient damage to the car to cause a fatal injury. His testimony was backed up by the Penn State University Crash Safety and Research Center. Their computer-generated model of the crash determined that the Schirmer vehicle had been moving between 18 and 22 miles per hour when it crashed. Now, as I mentioned before, once Detective Wagner contacted Lebanon County authorities about the circumstances around Betty's death, jewel Shermer's investigation was reopened and at AB's preliminary hearing so this is okay grand jury, I guess, handed down an indictment. He's being charged. Jewel's brother was allowed to give testimony that before her death they had a conversation where Jewel's told her brother that she believed AB had been cheating on her. There you go. In September 2012, ab, already in custody for Betty's death, was indicted for Jewel's murder. She had been 50 when she died and Jewel Shermer was born on October 30th 1948 into a ministerial family At the time of her death, jewel was an elementary music teacher at Our Lady of the Valley School in Lebanon and she had been there for the previous 10 years.
Speaker 1Jewel was also active at Bethany United Methodist Church. She was the junior choir director, director of church musicals and the church organist. She also started a daycare there. Jewel's also, being an accomplished singer, had taught others to play piano also for over the past 30 years, and all of this in addition to being a mother of three. So after United Methodist Bishop Peggy Johnson filed a complaint against AB, we're going back to 2008,.
Speaker 1Ab, like I said, had surrendered his ministerial credentials and chose to leave on his own. He didn't retire and he wasn't fired. He voluntarily gave them up, but that didn't mean he left ministering behind. Ab, also an accomplished singer, often sang with his first wife, jewel, at church and church camp retreats. And in March 2009, ab joined the evangelical singing trio Baroian. Baroian is named after a group of people written about in the Book of Acts who were described as people of noble character and integrity. Baroian performed their musical ministry at various churches throughout Lancaster and Lebanon area and this was up until his arrest. I understand he had actually a gig to go to, I think, the weekend right prior to his arrest. I wonder if they canceled Well they went down to a duo, at least not a trio.
Trial and Conviction of AB Shermer
Speaker 1But AB had also found other employment in May of 2009, working as program director for Lebanon Elm Street Program. Now this position was to work with state grants on economic revitalization programs for the community, and both of these ventures were obtained before his arrest on September 13, 2010. So on January 8, 2013, AB, now 64, stood trial for first-degree murder and tampering with or fabricating evidence in Betty's death, and this all took place on the Monroe County Courthouse. In Prosecutor Mike Mancuso's opening statement, he referred to Arthur Burton Shermer as the sinister minister telling the jury that his whole life was based on deceit and he was a wolf in shepherd's clothing. Now, at trial, the prosecutors presented evidence of the blood trail in the garage, photographs showing the saturated blood on the passenger seat where Betty sat and the coins in the car's console that remained neatly stacked after a supposed violent crash.
Speaker 1If you believe his version of events and his car had been traveling anywhere between 45 to 55 miles per hour, those coins should have flown all over that car. The prosecution's theory was that AB had brutally attacked Betty, beating her in the head with an object such as a crowbar or pipe in the garage of the parsonage. Then he placed her in the passenger side of the couple's 2007 PT Cruiser and then staged a low-speed car crash along Route 715, which was less than two miles from the Shermer home. Now, one detail that came out at trial was a call Joseph Musanti had made before his suicide. He had actually called AB supervisor Reverend Ronwin Yoakum, who oversaw the United Methodist Church's Northeast District, and he did this on October 28, 2008. Reverend Yoakum testified that Musanti had called her to file a complaint, alleging that Shermer was having an affair with his wife and he wanted something done about it. There were a series of phone calls that October afternoon, with Reverend Yoakum arranging for Musanti to come to her Allentown office to file a formal complaint. Now, he would never keep that appointment as he had used a 380 Beretta to end his life in the early morning hours of October 29th.
Speaker 1Now, another interesting witness was a woman who was receiving counseling from AB around the time of his affair with Cindy Musanti. I believe Betty was still alive at this point. She testified as to a conversation she had with AB about him divorcing Betty after he had shared with her his relationship problems with his wife and his affair with his secretary. I'm not sure why you would share that in a counseling type program. She testified that AB told her that he didn't want to lose half of everything he had to his wife and perhaps that was the motive, because I could find nothing in terms of. You know, we always think when a spouse dies, oh, how much insurance was collected. I read nothing on either of his wives of collecting insurance. I think he lived a very simple life. It wasn't lavish. He wasn't a reverend of a mega church bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars and having a private jet or nice luxury vehicles. He lived as a simple country reverend. But you don't have a lot. Do you want to give up what you have?
Speaker 2Well, and divorces are messy, especially if your whole personality is entrenching yourself in these communities and, as this great guy, you're not going to get a lot of sympathy after a divorce.
Speaker 1And you shouldn't really be giving marriage counseling either, right, yeah. So the prosecution also presented witness testimony from other various women that AB had propositioned or had affairs with, painting him as a serial cheater. Testimony from Jewel Shermer's brother was allowed into court. John Bainey testified that the day he saw his sister lying in the hospital bed with raccoon eyes looking if she had taken a beating, didn't believe from the get go that she had fallen down the stairs. So both John and his father, albert Bainey, who passed away in 2004, felt something wasn't right, not only about Jules injuries, but how AB was acting at the hospital with some of his parishioners who had come to offer support. So in one news article I read it was quite sad.
Speaker 1John Bainey is being interviewed and he talks about sitting, you know, with his dad and his dad's looking at a photograph of his daughter and he's very quiet and John's sitting there going. Do I share my suspicions? Do I not rock the boat Like he looks over his dad and can see his dad crying and he said Dad, what are you thinking? And his dad goes. Something's not right.
Speaker 1She didn't die from a fall. So at the time of Jewel's death John had reached out to a detective with the Northern Lebanon Police Department, a Detective Leahy, and he shared his suspicions that Jewel had died, more so from a beating and not from a fall down the stairs. The detective got Jewel's body transferred to the Hershey Medical Center from the Roland Funeral Home in Lebanon, where she had been already partially embalmed, and he was able to do this after getting a body warrant, and this was literally the day before her funeral was to take place, and when you get a body warrant you don't have to inform anyone or get their permission to do so. So that is how her body got to Dr Wayne Ross, I see.
Speaker 2So wait, there were people who raised questions.
Speaker 1Yes, Back in 99. Yes, her brother being one of them.
Speaker 1Okay, so there were questions about it, but they still didn't investigate it, I think once the transplant team came back with you know we can't use her heart because of these elevated levels, and those levels are usually associated with heart disease. That we can't use her heart because of these elevated levels and those levels are usually associated with heart disease. That okay, she must have died of a heart attack, losing consciousness and falling down the stairs Even after the body got transported to Dr Ross and Dr Ross said, yeah, these don't line up with a fall. For whatever reason, it was not opened and nobody really has an answer as to why. So also at trial, steamy emails between Cindy and AB were also brought into court, and these were pre and post Joseph's suicide. So again, I think it's to paint that picture that he wasn't a very honorable man. He cheated on his wives, he had affairs even on the people he had affairs with, on his wives.
Speaker 2He had affairs even, on the people he had affairs with, and he could present an image and convince people that he was one thing and be something else behind the scenes.
Speaker 1Correct. So the defense decided to put AB on the stand and AB told the jury the same version of events he had told authorities that night. Now, during AB's testimony, prosecutor Mancuso, he found it interesting that when AB sat down, was sitting in a chair and he turned it to face the jury, not look straight ahead at your defense attorney asking you questions. He turned to look at the jury and he found it interesting, because that is what expert witnesses will do to engage the jury. Now to the defense. They thought AB did well on the stand. He was consistent. He relayed to the jury the story of how Betty had died that night and he didn't waver or embellish To the prosecutors. They thought AB well. They thought he was their best witness. With his flat, unemotional testimony the prosecutor got AB to admit that he had made poor choices in his life, he was not a good person and he treated his wives badly, but he did not kill Betty. Now what version of events would the jury believe after 11 days and 60 witnesses? Well, after 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury came back with a verdict of guilty of first degree murder in tampering with or fabricating evidence. Ab received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. So in October 2010, ab was charged again with one count of first degree murder for Jewel's death, and this was after a grand jury had handed down an indictment in that. So a year and a half after his conviction and Betty's death, he struck a deal with the Lebanon County District Attorney's Office. In the death of his first wife, jewel, he pleaded no contest to a charge of third degree murder.
Speaker 1In Pennsylvania, a person can plead no contest. That means the person is not admitting guilt for the crime they are charged with and is waiving their right to a trial. The judge, with the defendant pleading no contest, will then sentence the defendant based upon the crime he or she is charged with. Now, why would anyone do this? Why wouldn't you try to mount a defense? The benefit of pleading no contest is that a plea cannot be used against you in civil or criminal cases because you never admit your guilt. You just admit that there's enough evidence to convict you. So since you've never admitted your guilt, you have grounds for an appeal.
Speaker 1Now, at AB's sentencing, he still professed his innocence. His motivation for entering the no contest plea was to spare his family the trauma of going through another murder trial, and AB's children from his first marriage. They have stood by their father. They believe that he is innocent of both their mother and Betty's deaths. However, not everyone believes in AB's innocence. John Bainey, jewel's brother, told the court that he believed AB was an evil man. Jewel's daughter also feels the same way. Ab received a sentence of 20 to 40 years on top of his life sentence to be served consecutively.
Speaker 2That's interesting too, that some of the family doesn't fully believe in his guilt. They're kind of taking his word for it.
Speaker 1Oh, absolutely. If you watch the 48 Hours special and I do have that linked in the show notes they interview two of his daughters and they say, no, we don't believe he did this. And even if the person talking to them says, well, you know, dr Ross found 14 blows to your mother's head I don't believe that. They don't believe the evidence Right. They've stood by their father, cindy, who's still engaged him my understanding is she's still his fiance and she visits him regularly and puts money on his books every month in prison. They support him. He has his supporters. Their former congregants still believe in his innocence, like nope. They cannot reconcile the fact that the person that was their reverend would do something so unholy. But there are others former congregants, friends of his and Jules and Betty, family members that are like yeah, no, I, yeah, they got shades of the other side of him.
Speaker 1Yes, yes, so it is split, but he is still in jail. I believe he's at the state correctional institution in Green. He is appealing. I think he's exhausted all of his state appeals. He and then I read one federal appeal that has since been denied. So I mean he can still go up the ladder but as of now, everything he's appealed, they have reaffirmed his conviction. He tried to do ineffective counsel. That didn't fly. He tried to say there was prosecutorial misconduct in terms of evidence being allowed into trial. Like he did not feel Jules' death information should have been allowed in Betty's trial. An interesting side note they referenced the Bukowski murder trial in one of the appeals of a case we had done allowing again.
Speaker 1You had the death of two wives in that case and having evidence of the first wife's death brought in. So, yeah, that is the case of what? The Oxygen Channel's episode, the Sinister Minister, or what prosecutor Mike Mancuso called AB Shermer.
Speaker 2It's a pretty great name, honestly.
Speaker 2There were several specials about this, and if you want to learn more about today's case, head on over to our website, criminaldiscoursepodcastcom.
Speaker 2There you'll find the detailed show notes with all of the resources that Trish used to put this episode together, lots of newspaper articles and, again, links to the television specials that featured this. We invite you also to join the discourse and let us know your thoughts on today's or any other case through our website contact page or by messaging us on social media. You can reach out anytime to tell us more about yourself or suggest a new case for us to cover. And reminder this was one that one of our listeners suggested. Trish was already on the trail of it looking at this one to cover, but it's always nice when we hear from listeners and what cases you want us to dive into. And if you've enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe on whatever platform you're listening to us on, Leave us a five star review and, of course, tell a friend, share the discourse and let them join in on the discourse too it takes to solve the crime.
Family, Suspicion, & Safety
Speaker 1You got to look at this case. John Bainey, jules' brother from the get-go, felt something wasn't right and tried to do something to bring attention that his sister did not fall down the stairs passively. Then you have Rose Cobb, who she's listening to this going wait what? And something isn't right here that there are so many dead bodies surrounding this one man.
Speaker 2I appreciate Samantha too, Cindy's daughter yeah. Reaching, even at 16 years old. Something's not right. I have to, but I don't want to get involved sending emails trying to get to the bottom of it. Trying to end the affair and keep her family together. Yeah, protect her mom, yeah, so before we go.
Speaker 1Remember we want you to stay safe out there. Make sure you wear your seatbelt. Don't take it off during a car ride. Now it's clicker ticket, right? Yes, in Pennsylvania it's clicker ticket If you do not have your seatbelts on in the front seat of the car. I don't know about the back, but I do know the front. Just wear it. We need to be kind to one another and we need to watch out for one another. So until next time, guys, bye, thank you.