Investigation Discovery is researching a particularly grisly triple homicide from 2009 when Gregory Alvin Cook (aka Gregory Alvin Mitts) murdered Shannon McKillop, Frank Sccaramuzzi, and Jeremiah Johnston in rural Oregon.
In 2009, two boys made a sickening discovery when they found a decomposing severed hand floating in a lake near Elgin, Oregon. A short distance away, they also found a canvas bag that contained another hand and a human head.
The police were able to use fingerprints to identify the remains as 51-year-old Shannon McKillop. The police were initially suspicious of her boyfriend, 50-year-old Frank Scaramuzzi, who they subsequently learned had disappeared along with his friend, 28-year-old Jeremiah Johnston.
However, the police were given a new lead when a barman told them that a shady man called Greg used to drink regularly with these three individuals. They identified this man as Greg Cook and discovered he had a lengthy criminal record.
The cops would later learn that Cook had gotten into an argument with Shannon over a small amount of money that she owed him. This argument led to him killing and dismembering her.
Gregory Cook went on a murder spree
Cook then feared that Frank and Jeremiah would be able to link him to her murder, so he tricked them into following him to the woods, supposedly to look for Shannon. He forced the men to dig their own graves before he shot them both.
Cook then decided to flee the area; he forced his girlfriend to flee with him by threatening to kill her. He eventually let the terrified woman go after he’d left her with a written confession.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelOnce Cook had arrived in Thurston County, Wash., he sought shelter in a woman’s campervan. He had met Linda May at a launderette, and she agreed to let him stay after they telephoned his daughter to confirm, somewhat ironically, that he was not a murderer or a rapist.
Cook’s daughter subsequently informed the police of her father’s whereabouts. The next morning, a SWAT team surrounded the campervan and took him into custody.
Cook openly confessed to all three murders but blamed his actions on methamphetamines. He said: “It changes who you are as an individual when you’re under the influence of that stuff for days and weeks at a time. It changes who you are.”
Cook was sentenced to three life sentences.
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I lived next to this guy in La Grande after he got out of prison, I believe in 2002. We had him over a few times. My husband came home and he had our cat trapped in his closet and he was going to hit her with a hatchet. I use to make copies for his mom of his prison drawings before he became my neighbor.
The death penalty is tailor made for monsters like this. Why he did not get it baffles me.