STEVE RUNDIO
As editor of the Decatur Herald & Review, George Althoff had covered many crime stories, but never one like the murder of 23-year-old Karyn Hearn Slover. This one was different, he said. She was one of our own.
Slover was a Herald & Review advertising representative, and Althoff faced the challenge of directing coverage of a murder victim known and adored by everyone in the newsroom. His recollections about the case are part of Oxygenâs One Deadly Mistake, which airs at 6 p.m. Saturday.Â
Karyn Slover Steve Rundio
Footage taped at the time showed Althoff walking down the steps from the newspaper front doors to the parking lot; that was the route Slover took on the evening of Sept. 27, 1996, the last time her friends saw her. She was going to pick up her then 3-year-old son, Kolten, who was being looked after at the home of Michael Slover Sr. and Jeannette Slover, the parents of her former husband, Michael Slover Jr.
since michael had an alibi, investigators turned their attention to karyn s current boyfriend, david swann. he d had some run-ins with law enforcement. he had been put on probation in the past. he had pretended to be or impersonate a law enforcement officer in the past. he had spent time in a mental ward at a hospital. 34-year-old david swann had been dating karyn for only a short time. a background check revealed a disturbing incident. he had been involved in killing a deer and then had put the deer over a swimming pool and had used a chainsaw or like instrument to clean the deer. and due to the fact karyn had been dismembered and we weren t exactly sure what the means of dismemberment were, we were interested in information like that. and david s alibi was shaky.
pervert, serial killer-type investigation? the first potential suspect was her ex-husband, michael, the father of her little boy. there was obviously some violence in that relationship. we talked to several people who indicated that michael had battered her in the past. i don t think it was a good relationship. karyn wasn t very fond of michael s family either. they were the ones baby-sitting karyn s son, christopher, on the day of her murder. karyn had a tough time with her ex-in-laws. they re the ones who watched her son, and it was frequently stressful when she either would go to drop him off or to pick him up. but karyn s former husband, michael slover, had an alibi for the time of karyn s disappearance. he was working as a security guard at cub foods. he had made an arrest that afternoon at cub foods. the police had been there.
person involved in this. you couldn t leave a vehicle along the interstate and walk back to wherever you left from. someone had to drive there and pick you up and take you back. so, who would have had the motive and the opportunity to commit this crime? karyn s ex-husband, michael, had an alibi for the night of the murder, but his parents did not. they were the ones watching karyn s son, christopher, on the day of the murder. michael slover sr., he works at a power plant in the decatur area. and once he clocked out, he has no alibi after that time. jeannette slover, who wasn t employed or anything, she had no alibi or anybody to corroborate their alibi. 51-year-old jeannette slover detested her ex-daughter-in-law karyn, and everyone knew how much she loved her 3-year-old grandson, christopher. i think the relationship between jeannette and the boy
was not normal, that jeannette treated the boy as her own and actually believed it was her own son. in fact, she told friends that after christopher was born, she began breast-feeding him. investigators checked telephone records and discovered that michael jr. called his parents 12 times on the weekend of the murder. also suspicious, the slovers owned a used car lot just one mile from their house. the lot, patrolled by two junkyard dogs, was always dirty and in disrepair. just after karyn disappeared, neighbors said the lot got a makeover. michael jr. and michael sr. were seen by the neighbors out at miracle motors cleaning up the lot, cutting brush, cutting weeds, burning items. was it possible they were trying to remove something