The Sickening Hi-Fi Shop Murders
The torture of five people led to three deaths, all because six men wanted to rob a Hi-Fi store and didn’t care who got in their way.
On April 22nd 1974, Dale Pierre, William Andrews, Keith Roberts and three other men drove in two separate vans to a local Hi-Fi Shop at 2323 Washington Boulevard, Ogden, right before closing time. The Hi-Fi shop was being worked by two employees when Pierre, Andrews and two of the unknown men entered, brandishing handguns.
The employees, Stanley Walker (20) and Michelle Ansley (18), willingly went with whatever the robbers ordered, allowing themselves to be taken into the basement by Pierre and Andrews. They were bound while the remaining two men in the shop began to rob the audio equipment; the fifth man and Roberts remained in the vans outside as getaway drivers.
While the robbery was in progress, Cortney Naisbitt (16) entered the store, intending to thank Stanley for allowing him to park in the shop’s parking lot while he ran errands nearby. He was taken to the basement and held hostage by Pierre and Andrews.
It isn’t clear how long went by, but later in the evening, Orren Walker (43), concerned about his son’s absence, went to the store. He arrived simultaneously as another concerned parent, Carol Naisbitt (52), was worried for her son. Together, they entered the Hi-Fi and were quickly taken to the basement, where their children and Michelle were still bound.
The exact time length between events is unclear, but things took a drastic turn when Pierre ordered Andrews to get something from the van. When Andrews returned, he held a bottle inside a brown paper bag and a cup; Pierre poured the liquid into the cup and went to Orren to force him to drink, but he refused and, in return, was gagged and laid face down on the floor.
Pierre and Andrews propped the remaining four hostages up in sitting positions, claiming that the liquid was just vodka laced with sleeping pills. The moment it reached their skin, it was clear it wasn’t. Blisters began to form on their lips, their tongues and throats were burnt, and the flesh around their mouths began to peel. Pierre and Andrews had forced them to drink a corrosive drain cleaner.
The attackers tried to stick duct tape over their mouths to keep the liquid inside and silence their screams, but the blisters began to ooze, which prevented the adhesive from sticking.
Orren was the last of the five to be forced to drink the Drano, but after witnessing what had happened, he didn’t swallow the liquid. Instead, he let it dribble out of his mouth and mimicked the convulsions and screams he’d witnessed.
Pierre reportedly becomes enraged at the length, volume and mess of the method of murder he and Andrews picked, so he shoots Carol and Cortney in the back of their heads. Carol died instantly, but Cortney survived with extensive wounds. He then shot at Orren but missed, leaving Orren to witness his son be fatally shot before another bullet was sent his way. Orren was grazed on the back of his head, but he was still alive.
Michelle was dragged into a far corner of the basement, forced by Pierre to remove her clothes before being repeatedly raped over thirty minutes. Andrew had been told to leave for this time. Pierre watched as she used the bathroom before dragging her to the hostages, throwing her on her face, and fatally shooting her in the back of the head.
Andrews and Pierre noted that Orren was still alive after three attempts on his life. Pierre mounted his back, wrapping a wire around Orren’s throat, attempting to strangle him. Once again, the attempt on Orren’s life was a failure. Pierre gives up and goes off with Andrews to find another weapon. They found a ballpoint pen and shoved it into Orren’s ear; Pierre stomped on it until the pen punctured his eardrum, broke and then exited through his throat.
Assuming that Orren was dead, Pierre and Andrews went upstairs and began loading equipment into the vans before they all left.
Almost three hours later, Orren’s wife and other son went to find him and Stanley since neither had returned home. The son heard noises from the basement and broke down the back door to investigate while his mother called the police.
In the basement, Stanley and Michelle were already deceased. Carol was rushed to St. Bendict’s Hospital (now Ogden Regional Medical Center) but was pronounced dead on arrival. Cortney wasn’t expected to recover from his injuries, but after 266 days of hospitalisation, he survived, left to live with severe and irreparable brain damage. Orren also survived with extensive burns to his mouth and chin and damage to his ear.
Despite his injuries, Orren was able to give descriptions of the two leading attackers to the police.
Hours after the crime had made it to the news, an anonymous Air Force employee called the police to report that Andrews had confided in him months prior — “One of these days, I’m going to rob that Hi-Fi shop, and if anybody gets in the way, I’m going to kill them.”.
At a similar time, two teen boys were dumpster diving at Hill Air Force Base when they got into contact with law enforcement. They’d found wallets and purses containing the victims’ driver’s licenses, and the boys recognised them from the news coverage.
Detective Deloy White responded to the scene; he believed that the killers were in the evergrowing crowd of airmen and began to speak dramatically, putting on a show as he waved each piece of evidence in the air with a pair of tongs as he removed them from the dumpster. He noted that most personnel stood stoically, remaining relatively silent, while two, towards the back of the crowd, were pacing around with frantic hand gestures as they spoke loudly.
Those two were Pierre and Andrews.
Based on their reactions, the detective brought them in for questioning, and a search warrant was granted for their barracks. The search found fliers for the Hi-Fi Shop and a rental contract for a unit at a public storage facility. Issuance of another warrant allowed the investigation of the unit and found stereo equipment and half a bottle of Drano. The equipment was later identified as stolen from the Hi-Fi through serial numbers.
A few weeks after Andrews and Pierre were caught, a third airman, Keith Roberts, was taken into custody after being identified through questioning around the base.
Pierre, Andrews and Roberts were charged with three counts of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery; their joint trial began on October 15th, 1974. On November 16th, 1974, Pierre and Andrews were convicted of all charges, while Roberts was convicted only of aggravated robbery. Four days later, Pierre and Andrews were sentenced to death by lethal injection, and Roberts was given five years to life imprisonment.
Roberts was paroled in 1987, the same year as Pierre’s execution. Andrews was executed five years later, in 1992.
During the trial, it was revealed that Pierre and Andrews had gone to the robbery with the intention of killing anyone they encountered, a plan they had been working on for months. They extensively researched the quietest and cleanest method of murder before settling on Drano after watching the 1973 movie Magnum Force, in which a prostitute is forced to drink Drano and instantly drops dead.
Orren Walker was the star witness for the prosecution. Cortney Nasibitt could not testify due to amnesia caused by injuries, but his father, Bryon Naisbitt, did testify.
The other three men were never identified and have gotten away with the crimes they committed.
Sherry Michelle Ansley was eighteen at the time of her murder and had only worked at Hi-Fi for a week when the attack occurred. She was recently engaged and planned to be married on August 5th 1974. She was laid to rest at the Washington Heights Memorial Park in South Ogden.
Carol Elaine Naisbitt was fifty-two at the time of her murder. She was a member of the LDS Church, a Weber County Medical Auxiliary and a former Junior League of Ogden member. She was laid to rest at the Washington Heights Memorial Park in South Ogden.
Stanley Orren Walker was twenty at the time of his murder. He was an elder in the Ogden 10th LDS Ward and coached basketball for the ward. He was laid to rest at the Aultorest Memorial Park in Ogden.
Orren and Cortney continued to live their lives up until they passed in 2000 and 2002, respectively. Cortney was forced to drop out of college due to the damage done to his brain, but he did graduate from high school after returning from almost a year recovering from his injuries.
That’s all for the sickening Hi-Fi murders. Thank you for reading.
