Woman working to solve dad’s murder 23 years later

A young woman didn’t know her father was murdered for a decade — and now she is doing everything she can to find out who pulled the trigger.

A young woman didn’t know her father was murdered for a decade — and now she is doing everything she can to find out who pulled the trigger.

Madison McGhee’s father, John Cornelious McGhee, was shot dead on the doorway of his Ohio home in 2002, in what police described as a “home invasion gone wrong”.

The police believed three to four people went to the home next door, which had her aunt, her cousin and his girlfriend inside.

The intruders ransacked the house for more than 30 minutes, and when they couldn’t find any more they went to John’s home next door.

John had heard a commotion, went to the door as the alleged thieves approached. From less than three metres away, John was shot in the head. The assailants never even entered the house, Ms McGhee claimed, according to Fox News.

For close to a decade she believed her father had died of a heart attack, and it wasn’t until she was 16 she learned the truth. Immediately, she started asking questions.

Finally, at 24, she demanded to see the case files, and set about to discover what really happened to her father.

Madison McGhee's father was murdered when she was six. Picture: Supplied/Madison McGhee/Ice Cold Case podcast

“I often find myself thinking about a general overview, my dad’s vibe. It’s hard to really pinpoint a lot of smaller, more specific memories because I was so young,” Ms McGhee told news.com.au ahead of her appearance onSBS Insight.

“I remember him being really kind and funny and loved music. I remember him trying to teach me how to dribble a basketball — he really wanted me to be athletic of some sort but that was not in the cards for me.

“I remember picking my sister up from school and he loved RnB music and listening to that in the car, at probably an inappropriately young age. He was just this carefree, go-lucky person.”

Ms McGhee’s investigation, which eventually would go on to form the Ice Cold Case podcast, would expose her to a side of her father that she didn’t know. Her father had a drug problem, and he became a dealer turned informant. The information he provided led to a series of arrests.

She said she learned a lot about the town her father lived in, and the “context” of the issues that the community faced and how her dad fit into it — particularly a drug dealer. Ms McGhee also learned about the system, and the “complex web” of names she was only just uncovering and what that meant for her dad.

“The more you know about this case, the more confusing and complicated it becomes because there’s just so much,” she said.

“I’ve learned so much about the context, which I think is so important — particularly in a murder case. Motive is super important to figure out who did it and why they did it and how they did it.

“To understand the fullness of this case really required me to understand the town and that was a huge part of the investigation.”

She began her own investigation at 24. Picture: Supplied/Madison McGhee/Ice Cold Case podcast

Ms McGhee said her investigation saw her dive into all the leads of people who might have had issues with her dad. She said it led her down several paths.

“Police had one main suspect that they really ‘believed did it’ but they didn’t have enough evidence, they couldn’t do anything about it and there was all these barriers in front of why they weren’t going after this guy,” she said.

“And I ended up interviewing him. We talked for several hours. I interviewed people the police never spoke to. I interviewed the girlfriend who was in the house that day, I interviewed the girlfriend of the main suspect who says she was with him the whole time and it wasn’t him.”

She said she spoke to all these people, and uncovered all these sources and information and it makes her wonder if she can do all of this — living an eight hour flight away — then what do other people know.

“I think I am getting very close, but it’s still frustrating to know that even if I solve it, if I get a name and confession, I am still at the mercy of the police,” she said.

Ms McGhee said the investigation has required her to work alongside authorities, but there was also a level of resentment there simply because of the fact she’s had to take up the mantle of her father’s investigation.

Police had a person of interest but no charges were ever laid.

She said she needs to know what happened to her father. Picture: Supplied/Madison McGhee/Ice Cold Case podcast

“It’s super frustrating, of course. I think a lot of families struggle with this where the police don’t investigate a case properly, or things get missed, and they feel compelled to pick up the slack,” she said.

“We’re just family members. We’re not professional investigators, we don’t have the resources that police departments have access to. We certainly aren’t getting paid to do the work that we’re doing, so it usually means taking time away from your job or family that you should be spending your time, energy and finances on to do the job of someone that didn’t fully execute their job.”

She said there was the added layer of, police are meant to serve and protect and that she needed to play nice with them to get them to work alongside her, even though their inability to put the case to bed is the whole reason she is working on it.

“I wouldn’t be in the position I am in if they had just done an adequate job in the beginning, so there’s this very weird circle where you don’t really know where it begins or ends with your relationship with police,” she said.

“But, for me, it’s been really complex because this case will only go to trial if the police and prosecutors office work together. I need them. But, I can also objectively say they haven’t done the best job.”

Ms McGhee began her own investigation. Picture: Supplied/Madison McGhee/Ice Cold Case podcast

Ms McGhee appears on SBS Insight on Tuesday. Picture: Supplied/Madison McGhee/Ice Cold Case podcast

Ms McGhee is appearing on Citizen Sleuths, an SBS episode that asks the question whether people such as herself help or hinder a police investigation.

There have been high profile cases of this nature in Australia, such as The Australian’s Teachers Pet podcast by Hedley Thomas.

“It’s nuanced. It’s very complicated, but I understand the context of that. I feel like I am relatively objective in my thought process of what is good and bad,” she said.

“I think if I genuinely thought me drumming up information, or calling people out that potentially the police were already thinking were suspects and didn’t want them to know yet because they were gathering more information, I would have the wherewithal to not butt in.”

However, at the same time she said there was no accountability for what was going on, saying police could say they were doing something but no progress was made for months or years. She said you had to ride the line, and it was tough because you never know until you go too far. Ms McGhee said at the end of the day, the question revealed a greater issue; that police should just “do their job”. She explained when she uncovers something, she does consider whether it will help or hurt. But, she said, to not to it at all “wasn’t right”.

Ms McGhee said she will likely never have closure — even if someone ends up in prison for what happened to her father — but she won’t stop until she knows the truth.

You can watch more of Madison’s story on SBS Insight at 8.30pm tonight and SBS On Demand.

Originally published as Woman working to solve dad’s murder 23 years later