Nelda Chumbler was shot and killed while visiting her husband’s family farm over the holiday weekend. Initially believed to be an accident involving ‘stray bullets,’ investigators quickly uncovered the secrets behind this tragic death.
The Illegitimate Child
Charles Chumbler met Nelda Chumbler in 1986 while both were teaching at a school in Tampa, Florida, USA. At the time, Nelda was a seasoned science teacher there, while Charles was a temporary English teacher.
Nelda was a widow with two children. Her first husband unfortunately passed away from cancer, and Nelda received an insurance settlement of nearly $300,000. She raised her two children alone for almost a decade. Meanwhile, Charles, originally from Kentucky, had moved to Florida after divorcing his wife. He also had two children from this previous marriage.
The two began dating shortly after meeting and got married in November 1987. By then, Charles had secured full-time employment at another school.
About a year into their marriage, one day, a man named Michael Kariakis, 24 years old, appeared at Nelda’s doorstep. Michael claimed to be Charles’s illegitimate child from a previous affair. He said he had cancer and nowhere else to turn.
Charles confirmed to his wife that Michael was an ‘Illegitimate Child’ from his past, long lost. Out of sympathy for her husband’s son, Nelda provided financial assistance, including an apartment, a car, meals, and living expenses for Michael.
However, as financial strains mounted, Nelda grew weary of constantly footing Michael’s bills. She refused to provide any further financial support, causing friction between the couple.
The Sudden Death
Three years into their marriage, the couple tried to address their issues to mend their relationship. They decided to spend Christmas at Charles’s daughter’s home in Paducah, Kentucky.
On December 27, 1990, they left their daughter’s house to visit Charles’s mother’s farm, accompanied by Charles’s 4-year-old grandson. While stopping to feed the horses in a pasture, Nelda was suddenly shot dead.
Bill Mathis, Charles’s son-in-law, recounted hearing a gunshot while feeding the horses. He rushed over to find Charles “crying and looking quite shaken.”
Charles told the police that he took his grandson home to his mother’s house after the gunshot and sought help. He adamantly asserted that it was definitely a stray bullet from some hunter.
However, Charles’s account of what happened differed from his grandson’s recollection. While Charles insisted there was only one gunshot, the 4-year-old remembered hearing two.
Police later found a portion of a bullet at a nearby fence. The investigation took a suspicious turn when authorities discovered another bullet fragment lodged in Nelda’s body.
This ruled out the possibility of a bullet passing through the victim’s body and getting lodged in the fence post. Therefore, the police concluded that two shots were fired, not just one.
According to experts, the scenario of two stray bullets being fired seconds apart is highly unlikely. They concluded that this was a case of murder, not an accidental shooting by a stray bullet.
The Suspicious Couple
With the evidence found, the police determined that the death of victim Nelda Chumbler was a homicide rather than an accidental shooting as claimed by her husband, Charles Chumbler.
To bolster this assertion, the police searched about 800 meters around the gunshot scene. They wanted to see if there was any evidence supporting the theory of stray bullets and ultimately found nothing.
The police also traced the trajectory of the bullet to a warehouse on the farm, more than 20 meters from the horse pasture. Investigators believed Nelda was shot through a crack in the warehouse.
Immediately after the gunshot, a neighbor reported seeing a car with two people inside leaving the scene of the murder but couldn’t recall the license plate.
When talking to those who knew Nelda and Charles, the police learned about Michael Kariakis and his relationship with the couple. They also discovered that Michael drove a silver Nissan sedan, similar to the one the neighbor saw.
When the police visited Michael’s home in Florida, they only met a woman there named Holly Kariakis, Michael’s wife.
Holly told the police that the couple had visited family in Tennessee on the night of the murder. However, the hotel in Tennessee stated that the couple had paid for the room and left immediately. The couple then rented a room at a hotel in Kentucky, not far from the murder scene.
Shocking Secrets Uncovered
Continuing their investigation, authorities found that a gun store owner in Florida had sold Michael a custom-made rifle just days before the murder. He told the store owner that he would “go deer hunting in Kentucky” with this rifle.
Furthermore, the police uncovered a major secret. It turns out that Charles’s family and friends suspected he had a romantic relationship with Michael and that Michael being Charles’s son was entirely a lie.
The two actually knew each other years before Charles met Nelda when Michael was only 16 and working on Charles’s farm. According to relatives, despite the significant age difference, Charles seemed obsessed with Michael.
Donna McAvene, Charles’s ex-wife, said she only met Michael about three times. According to Donna, she knew her ex-husband and Michael had a romantic relationship just by looking at Michael and his actions. “Both of them claimed they were just friends. But deep down, I knew it wasn’t true. It was very different. I think Charles would do anything Michael told him to do. Michael could control Charles,” Donna said.
At this point, the police received a tip when searching the backyard of Nelda’s home. Authorities found a box containing photos of Michael and Charles together along with sex toys.
The Secret Plan
During a search of the backyard of Nelda Chumbler and Charles Chumbler’s home, authorities found a box containing photos of Charles and Michael Kariakis together, along with sex toys. Along with revelations from Charles’s ex-wife, a plot of deception and murder gradually unfolded.
Authorities discovered that victim Nelda had a life insurance policy that would pay double in the event of an accident. This meant that Charles would receive $70,000 instead of $35,000 if Nelda were to pass away due to a ‘stray bullet’ accident. Investigators believed that money was the motive.
In 1991, Charles Chumbler, Michael Kariakis, and Michael’s wife, Holly Kariakis, stood trial. Michael, then 28 years old, was convicted of killing Nelda, while Charles (52 years old) and Holly (27 years old) were charged as accomplices in the murder.
The prosecution argued that Charles and Michael had a romantic relationship since 1979. Charles married Nelda in 1987 with the plan to introduce Michael as his illegitimate son. Both conspired to drain all of Nelda’s savings over three years.
When Nelda ran out of money, the two faced financial difficulties and devised a plan to murder her to collect the life insurance money.
A Controversial Verdict
Two teenagers testified before the court that Michael had approached them to assist in the murder plot but was refused. Thus, he had to carry it out himself.
Before the murder, Michael purchased a gun and ammunition in Florida, then drove to the farm in Kentucky with his wife, Holly. Meanwhile, Charles lured his wife there as well. Police believed Michael was the one who directly fired the shot while hiding inside the nearby warehouse.
Before the court, Charles vehemently denied having a romantic relationship with Michael. He called it simply a “deep friendship.” However, with undeniable evidence, all three were convicted and received sentences of at least 20 years.
In 1995, the Kentucky Supreme Court overturned the convictions, stating that the prosecutor’s description of the romantic history between Michael and Charles was prejudicial. Instead of retrial, the defendants accepted a plea deal. All three pleaded guilty but did not confess to specific details.
Holly Kariakis was granted parole in 1996 at the age of 32, just six years after the murder. Charles was granted parole in 2003 at the age of 65, 13 years after Nelda’s murder. Meanwhile, Michael was granted parole in 2008, at the age of 49. This verdict left many, especially the victim’s relatives, dissatisfied.
