Who Knew a Murderer?

 Once upon a time, I knew a murderer, her husband, and their best friend. But this starts a few years before I met the murderer... 

In 2007, I got pregnant with my son. I was planning my wedding to my husband (now divorced), and we'd decided that, since we were getting married in a few months, we could stop birth control.

Fred and I had a polyamorous relationship. The rules were simple:

-Be honest with one another

-Ask permission 

-Respect the option to say No

-Respect the No-fly list

-Don't cheat or lie

The weekend I found out I was pregnant, Fred had gone to a reenactment camp out for the weekend. Since I had to work that weekend, and we didn't have a car, I opted to stay home. I was so tired, and feeling generally off. So I bought a pregnancy test, because I just needed to know it was all in my head.

I took the test early Saturday morning, and sent the result as a picture to him to wake up to. We'd agreed before he left that it was fine, because he said he couldn't sleep alone, so his response that he'd told someone as soon as he woke up wasn't surprising. He announced it to everyone on site, including Ann and Matt Hester, who had just started dating. 

Korina Walters was 10 years younger than we were. She seemed nice enough at first, and had a boyfriend, and two small children. I met her finally about 5 months later. She'd been keeping to herself and hadn't wanted to meet me, saying she was intimidated by me.

Once we met, Fred encouraged a relationship between her and me as well. Things seemed fine for a while, but within 6 months, I started to feel like I was always the third wheel, even when it was just either me and Fred, or me and Korina. 

About two years after I had my son, Korina introduced us to Angela McCraw, her best friend in the whole world. Ang was... Different. She was married to a guy named Tim, and had 3 kids from different relationships. All of them she said, had some sort of mental health challenge, so she stayed home in order to care for them, and they were diagnosed with bipolar, OCD, and ADHD at an early age, and placed on medications before they were even 5 or 6.

Ang swore up and down that my son (two at that point), was sociopathic and bipolar, and needed to be medicated immediately so that he'd be easier to control - that was her word for it "control". She regularly took Korina's kids to "teach them how to behave" properly for Korina. 

This was the beginning of the end of Fred's relationship with Korina. She'd been cheating on him, his hold on her ever-tightening and more obsessive. He'd built multiple fake accounts to stalk her, got into her personal email and Facebook accounts, all to find out what was happening and what she lied about. It broke my relationship with Fred, honestly, because I watched as he slowly crumbled into an obsessed shell, and nothing I could do or say was able to stop him.

But I digress... 

I told Fred the summer of 2011 to break it off with Korina, because their relationship was destroying our marriage, his health, and his relationship with our son. He said he would. 

We went to karaoke a year later in 2012, at a different bar than normal, and Ang was there, with a guy named Matt Hester. She acted like we'd never met before, and I realized she was having an affair with Matt. 

A few months later, Ang and Korina invited me over to Ang's house for tea, because they wanted to give me a "safe space" to vent. Korina said she was sorry for having been the cause for so much strife between all of us.

I declined, because I thought it was really weird. I didn't really think too much about it, though until 2014.

Ann "Panda" and Matt Hester had gotten a divorce from one another in 2012. Ang had moved in with Matt a few months later, with her 3 kids and in 2014, Ang and Matt got married. While Ang was staying at home constantly to care for her 3 kids, Matt worked and had weekend custodial visits with his daughter from his marriage with Ann.

Eventually, the child support and custody battles brought Ang's frustration to a head. She wanted Matt to have full custody, because she could then put the child as the 4th of her kids needing state medical assistance, which meant more state income.

It was, it turns out, a scam. Her children had been repeatedly abused by their mother by claiming mental illnesses and being prescribed medications that weren't necessary. Ang wanted more money from the state, and wanted Matt to stop having to pay child support. 

The day of June 10, 2016, things came to a head. That week they'd gotten notice that Matt would have to pay over $12,000 of child support in arrears. Ang had had enough of the custody battles, the child support money being expected, and she and Matt had been denied custody again. They'd had Korina Walters (remember her? Yeah, that Korina) move into their townhouse to help pay the rent. 

Korina lived in their uninsulated garage, set up as a bedroom. She'd lost custody of her two kids in her separation from her last relationship, and was attempting to get back on her feet, so she could get them back. 

The night of June 10th, once they had custody of Matt's daughter for the weekend, Ang got into her minivan, and drove across Gresham to Ann's house. She crawled through the child's window, and pulled a knife out. She stabbed Ann over 60 times. When she was no longer able to hold the knife she'd brought with her, Ang pulled out a knife from Ann's small kitchen, and kept stabbing.

Ang exited through the front door, leaving both knives at the scene, as well as a bloody footprint. Ann lived long enough to call 911 and report that she'd been stabbed. But, by the time that officers arrived, she was dead.

Meanwhile, Ang had driven back home, covered in blood. She parked in the driveway, so Korina would have heard her pull out, and pull back in. Ang went in and was escorted I to the shower by Matt. They then got back into the car, and drove out to a secluded part of a park with a stream, and they dumped the shoes she'd worn. 

For a year, the entire household swore they didn't know what happened to Ann. As soon as they got custody of Matt's daughter, they immediately moved to Idaho, including Korina, who suddenly dropped the attempt to get custody of her own kids, and quit the job that her new partner's wife had helped to get her. 

Ang and Korina were best friends. They knew one another since middle school, and I don't doubt for a second that she knew everything that happened. There's no other way to explain her actions.

A year later, the Gresham police had enough evidence to arrest Ang for murder. Matt attempted to stop police, so he was also arrested. Ann's daughter was then taken to Ann's parent's home, and Korina was left to get rid of anything in the Idaho home that might be linked to the murder.

Angela was charged and arrested for murder in 2017. She was convicted in November 2020, and sentenced to life in prison. She won't be eligible for parole until 2045.

Matt was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in 2021, and was eligible for parole in March 2023. They divorced while in prison.

Neither of them have ever spoken in public about the murder, or their relationship. Ang's oldest daughter has spoken publicly on record, that her mother abused her regularly and drugged her for mental health issues she didn't have. 

Korina, last I knew, still visits Ang in prison, driving from Idaho to Portland regularly. She spoke out publicly, claiming she had know knowledge of anything that happened. The tears she cried on camera were, to me, the most over-the-top attention-grabbing acting I'd ever seen since we dated her. 

So there you go. I knew a murderer, and two accomplices.