“I’M A MONSTER!”

Terry told police that he woke up around 10 a.m. on June 23 to find that Kathie had already begun drinking. He says his mother was mad at him for leaving the door unlocked the previous night, and the two began to argue. The fight lasted into the afternoon, and at around 1:30 p.m., Terry says he was pouring Kathie’s alcohol into the sink when she cornered him and threatened to kill him. Kathie reached for a knife, Terry told police, so he grabbed a different knife and stabbed her in the chest and neck seven times.

An autopsy later revealed that Kathie’s skull showed signs of head trauma, and in a second interview with police, Terry said that he had struck Kathie’s head on the kitchen floor several times before stabbing her.

In a series of text messages between Terry and Jakob Shumaker, Terry asks for help to make the body of his mother “disappear.” Illinois State Police investigator Lisa Crowder, the lead investigator in the case, read the texts aloud during a preliminary hearing on July 18, including one from Terry that said, “I killed el madre, need help making her disappear. I stabbed her seven times after mercilessly beating the shit out of her.”

After the stabbing, Terry also posted on his Facebook page, saying “I’m a monster!” Terry later turned himself in to police.

INVESTIGATION CONTINUES, BUT CHARGES PENDING The charges against Terry seem to have been filed even as the investigation into his moth er’s death continues. Illinois Times spoke to five neighbors who lived in close proximity to Terry and Kathie Payton, only two of whom report having been contacted by police about the case. Those neighbors who have spoken to police were not asked about allegations of abuse, they say, but only whether they heard or saw anything unusual around the time of Kathie’s death.

During the preliminary hearing, Crowder, the ISP investigator, testified that she was not aware of the threats against Terry that Kathie had expressed to the school counselor. Crowder also said she had not received Terry’s school records or DCFS reports regarding Terry, and Edgar County Coroner William Templeton says results of tests for drugs and alcohol on Kathie’s body have not been returned. Her body has been cremated.

Terry’s attorney, Edgar County public defender Kaye Dent, declined to be interviewed by Illinois Times, but she questioned during the preliminary hearing whether there was a “thorough enough investigation” to file charges against Terry.

A woman who answered the phone at the office of Edgar County State’s Attorney Mark Isaf declined to comment, saying, “At this time, we’re not speaking to any media.”

SIMILAR CASES This isn’t the first time a headline-grabbing murder case has happened in Paris. In 1986, newlyweds Dyke and Karen Rhoades were found murdered in their trailer home, which had been set on fire. Two Paris residents, Randy Steidl and Herb Whitlock, were convicted of the murders and later exonerated after both spent more than a decade in prison.