This week, Snapped looks at a possible serial killer in the shape of Cynthia Phillips, who seems to have left a trail of destruction from Kansas to Texas to Colorado.
In April 1998, officers in the sleepy small town of Corsicana, Texas, got a report of shots fired. When they went to investigate, they were shocked to discover the remains of Toby Matthews, who was lying by his vehicle with seven bullet holes in his body.
Matthews had recently moved to the area with his girlfriend, Cynthia Phillips. He had a small social circle, which caused the police to be suspicious of girlfriend Phillips and Richard Boyd, who was living with the couple at the time.
Phillips denied any involvement in her boyfriend’s death, but when police delved into her past, they discovered a string of ex-boyfriends and husbands who had met a nasty end. There were usually significant life insurance policies with Phillips as the sole beneficiary involved.
Cynthia Phillip’s first husband died under mysterious circumstances
Investigators later learned that her first husband, Les Konrade, had been found dead floating in a river in Kansas. The pair had separated and were known to have constant arguments over alimony payments.
After Konrade, Phillips had moved to the tiny town of Haswell, CO., with her second husband, Ron Phillips. It was here that she met Matthews and began an affair with him. She led a double life spending half her time with her husband Ron and the other half with Matthews.
Investigators subsequently learned that Phillips had paid a man, she met at a bar, $10,000 to murder Ron. Luckily for Ron, the murder attempt failed.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelThe police also learned that Phillips had started an affair with Boyd in Corsicana and that the pair had gunned down Matthews at the side of the road.
When Phillips was sat in a jail cell in Colorado, she admitted to her cellmate that she and Boyd had both fired bullets into Matthews. Phillips and Boyd were subsequently both sentenced to 60 years.
Phillips was also sentenced to a further 24 years in Colorado for attempting to murder her second husband, Ron Phillips. The death of Les Konrade remains unresolved.
More from Snapped on Oxygen
Follow the links to read about more crimes profiled on Snapped.
In a particularly brutal case profiled on Snapped last week, Sarah Vercauteren beat her mother with a hammer and then choked her to “finish her off.” Vercauternen committed the crime because her mom wouldn’t let her borrow her car so she could buy heroin.
Dominic Whitaker and Kayla Nelson from Arkansas had been high school sweethearts who had seemed inseparable. However, years later, Kayla shot the father of her children dead and set fire to his remains on a neighbor’s land.
Snapped airs at 6/5c on Oxygen.