Killer Thinks He Got Away – Doesn’t Know 4YO Saw Everything | The Case of Dameon Huffman
The boy you just heard is 4-year-old Dameon Huffman. Just one hour before this police interview was recorded, Dameon was living a quiet, happy life with his grandparents in rural Ohio. Raised by them since birth, Dameon was their whole world, and they were his. But on March 27th, 2003, everything changed when Dameon showed up at the front door of his daycare alone, covered in blood.
No one knew what to make of those words until investigators went and checked on his grandparents and saw both of them dead in their beds. With no suspects and no clear motive, this murder in Ohio might have remained a mystery if not for one clever 4-year-old boy who pretended to be sleeping and became the only living witness.
He saw something he shouldn’t have, something that could solve the case, but could also cost him his life. It’s 2003. In the quiet rural town of Bradford, Ohio, 4-year-old Dameon lives with his great-grandparents, Jack and Linda Myers, and his mother Amber on their 40-acre farm. Amber was just a teen when she had Dameon in late 1998.
So, without hesitation, her grandparents, Jack and Linda, still full of energy, opened their home to Amber and her new son. They gave her a place to stay and helped raise Dameon as their own. When Dameon came along, he was just so precious. You know, they loved him, and they loved me enough to help me out and so they helped me with him.
Jack and Linda had met later in life, blending their families when they got married in their fifties. Together, they ran a small pizza shop and quickly became pillars in their tight knit community. I was living with grandma and grandpa, ’cause them being the kind, loving people that they were, they took me in and cared for me and everything, and mom would come and see me.
We were always having fun, laughing, and just carrying on and whatnot. Jack and Dameon were the best of friends. Jack would sit him on his lap, and they’d be out there, just driving around in the field, and Dameon thought that was the coolest thing ever. Family meant everything to them. Their home was always full of kids, grandkids, and the smell of home-cooked food during frequent, big family dinners.
The farm was a place that everybody went and got together for all the family gatherings. This is Grandpa Jack at his best. Oh, that’s grandma. Hi, grandma! I mean, we all had great family things that we did together. We were all so close that you didn’t put that stepparent or stepson into things. You know, we were all just really close.
There was no reason to ever think that anything bad would go on there. Life was good for the Myers. Amber, now an adult, recently got married and was able to live in her own home, finally gaining the financial stability to fully support Dameon by herself. The plan was clear, after Dameon finishes preschool, he’ll officially move out to be with his mother, just 30 minutes away from Jack and Linda’s farm, and start kindergarten in his new neighborhood.
But on March 27th, 2003, things take a disturbing turn for the worse, when at 9:15 AM, a 911 dispatcher in Ohio receives an unusual call. On the other end, a preschool teacher frantically explains that a little boy has just arrived at daycare. He’s alone, in his pajamas, and he’s covered in blood. That’s not a call we get every day.
What could melting grandparents mean? Something was wrong. The little boy is Dameon, who lives a mile down the road at the farm. The preschool teachers recognize him as one of their daycare students and fear something terrible must have happened for him to run all the way here on his own. Officers head straight to the Myers’ farm, but they have no idea what to expect, and no one knows yet what’s happened to Dameon’s family.
Fearing the worst, and with a class full of children nearby, the dispatcher orders the teachers to go into full lockdown. We didn’t know what we were dealing with. We didn’t know if it was an injury or if it was an assault. Were there perpetrators at the scene? I’m just assuming worst case scenario. What was first noticed was the front door of the house was standing wide open.
We tactically entered the door, where we stopped, took cover, calling out “Anybody home? Anybody here?” And there was still no response. The house is quiet, too quiet. Guns drawn, the officers stepped through the front door, slowly making their way through the kitchen. Then they push open the bedroom door. Their worst fears are confirmed when they discovered two bodies on the bed, not moving, and covered in blood.
They’re identified as Jack and Linda, Dameon’s grandparents. I see that Jack was bleeding from the mouth and nose. He had a gunshot wound to the back of his head. I could see that he had suffered significant blood loss. I checked him for a carotid pulse, and he obviously wasn’t breathing, and I determined he was deceased.
Linda had suffered a gunshot wound directly to the face, and also to the hand. They both felt a little bit warm to the touch, which tells me it hasn’t been days that they’ve been deceased, it’s probably more like hours. Unsure if the killer might still be at the scene, officers quickly search the house room by room.
However, they confirm no one else is inside the home. The killer is still at large. Back at the daycare, Dameon was placed under the care and supervision of police. His safety is the top priority. With no killer in custody and police just beginning their investigation, everyone is a suspect, even family. It’s not safe to let Dameon out of their sight.
Meanwhile, more officers arrive at Amber’s house with the heartbreaking job of giving her the tragic news about what happened earlier in the day. The detectives told me that they were no longer with us, and I was confused. I said, “And Dameon too?” Because the way that they worded it made me think my son wasn’t here either.
He was actually put in a protective custody status, and he was hidden from all of his family members. Not knowing where Dameon was or how he was feeling, there was nothing I could do. To comfort my son is the worst feeling in the world. As Dameon remains hidden from his surviving family for his own protection.
News of the sudden murders reaches the town and the surrounding Darke County, leaving everyone shocked. Nothing like this has ever happened here, and the residents are on edge, wanting answers. The bodies of Jack Myers and his wife Linda were found murdered in this farmhouse near Gettysburg. Both shot to death, execution style.
It’s already made the news, and the people in the community think some monster’s out there that has snuck into people’s house and gonna kill ’em. It seems like the only person who might know what actually happened is a 4-year-old child, seemingly the only witness. But before sharing Dameon’s side of the story, details from the crime scene and investigators are important to analyze.
Initially considered a burglary gone wrong, this theory is quickly debunked after an initial review of the farm. We found money around the house. We found purses, credit cards, checkbooks. We found cash. We found electronics. Drawers had not been opened or looked into. Theft does not appear to be the immediate motive here.
Whatever happened at the Myers’ house isn’t a random act of violence. It’s a premeditated double homicide. It’s personal. It is not normal for a total stranger to just sneak into somebody’s house overnight and murder somebody and walk out for no apparent reason. So, the investigation is gonna start to center around those that are closest to Jack and Linda.
However, none of the Myers’ close connections turn up any promising leads, none of them except for John. John is a longtime family friend and an outgoing next door neighbor to the Myers. He believed he had some information for us, reference to our investigation. John seems suspicious of Gregg Myers. Gregg isn’t just anyone, he’s Jack’s own son from his first marriage.
However, everyone close to the family finds it hard to imagine Gregg as a suspect. The 25-year-old had just been the best man at his father’s wedding to Linda. He’s polite, friendly, and spent a large amount of his childhood at the farm with his family. Gregg was the one that had been closest with his father for most of his life.
Gregg cared for his dad dearly, didn’t have no problems with anything about his dad. With no criminal history, Gregg is, by all accounts, the opposite of a typical suspect. With a family of his own and no known issues with any of the victims, he seems like the last person who would be involved in something as horrific as this.
However unlikely a suspect he may seem, Gregg is still brought into the station for questioning. When Gregg first come into the interview room, he was acting like he was down or emotionally upset, asked us for a trash can right away, said his stomach had been upset all day. When asked about where he was at the time of his father and stepmother’s murder, he provides a solid alibi.
He was at work that morning 30 miles away, even providing a stamped time sheet. Gregg also wears shoes two sizes larger than the footprints found at the crime scene. Throughout the interrogation, Gregg is cooperative and expresses a strong desire to help, even enthusiastically offering to take a lie detector test.
Police were even personally allowed to search his home. Up to this point in the investigation, I mean, we had no information leading us to Gregg. Although the current evidence seems like a dead end, 4-year-old Dameon, the young boy who ran to get help on the day of the murders, still has his side of the story to tell.
In the early-morning hours of March 27th, 2003, Dameon woke up on his own. This was unusual, since normally his grandparents were there to get him ready for preschool. At only four years old, Dameon knew something wasn’t right that morning. Worried he would be late for school. He made his way downstairs to check on his grandparents.
The horrifying scene was something no child should ever have to see or should even have the words to describe. To the young Dameon, the tragedy of his grandparents in front of him was impossible to make sense of. The only way he found to process it was to assume his grandparents were melting. The words he spoke left the detectives stunned, having to take a few moments to collect their thoughts.
As the full weight of what Dameon said began to settle in, the detectives knew what this meant. The little boy grabbed a tissue and attempted to tend to his grandfather’s injuries, but it was too late. Jack and Dameon were an inseparable duo, and Dameon knew his grandpa would never have given up on him, neither would his grandma.
Dameon decided to muster up his courage and do the same for his grandparents. The little boy grabbed the phone tightly and dialed 911, but nothing happened. The line was dead, silent. As it turned out, the killer had cut the phone lines to make sure no one could call for help. Dameon looked around the room, trying to find another solution to help his family.
Remembering his daycare wasn’t too far from the farm, he immediately headed out the front door and started to run over a mile down the road to his daycare, the one place he believed he could find help. With Dameon’s recounting of the story, there’s an inconsistency in his retelling versus the evidence at the farm.
In reality, blood was also found in Dameon’s bedroom. Either the 4-year-old is misremembering the events of that morning, or there’s more to the truth that he hasn’t yet revealed. They come up with a different approach to go through everything again. Using a bit of ingenuity, they craft the layout of the farmhouse with a model home and dolls, hoping the props will help Dameon open up further.
They had little puppets of me and grandma and grandpa. I showed them what I did and what had happened. As Dameon acts out his movements around the house that morning, he reveals that, while he was asleep in his bedroom before going downstairs to check on his grandparents, there was a stranger in the house.
I was in bed, I was sleeping. I heard the door click. And so, I peeked ’cause I didn’t wanna get caught being up. I figured it was grandma or grandpa coming in to talk to me or something. With one eye opened, to his horror, Dameon realized that it wasn’t one of his grandparents walking into his bedroom. It was a dark figure, a stranger dressed in a green jumpsuit, holding a shotgun.
I was absolutely terrified. I was scared. This dark-green mass of a man pointing a gun. I just closed my eyes and eventually I opened my eyes to peek, and he was gone. This 4-year-old had come pretty much face to face with somebody that had just killed his grandparents. As it turns out, just five miles away from the house, in the Stillwater River, cops recover a 12-gauge shotgun, but the serial number sanded off to prevent police from finding the owner.
However, it’s very similar to the weapon described in Dameon’s testimony. The forensic examiner was able to restore the serial number. Detectives review a local newspaper where people buy and sell firearms. There, they find an older listing for a shotgun that matches the exact model of the weapon recovered from the river and listed on March 25th, exactly two days before Dameon survives the murders.
With this lead, detectives are able to trace the ad to the gun’s original owner. Went to the person’s house who sold the Winchester shotgun and said, “Do you remember who you sold it to?” His wife brings us a piece of notebook paper where she had wrote down the name Gregg Myers. The name shocks the investigators.
Since the beginning, Gregg seemed like the most unlikely suspect, as a close family member to Dameon himself and to the victims. Detectives dig into Gregg’s past, looking for any signs of motive, and they uncover something concerning. Gregg had been struggling at work, and his finances were in serious trouble.
We discovered that Gregg was in financially dire straits. His house had been foreclosed on, and he’d stopped making payments ’cause he knew he was gonna lose his house, and that he really didn’t know where he was gonna go. But after looking into their insurance policies, cops discovered that Gregg would inherit the farm if his parents died.
Suddenly, the motive for the murder becomes clear, and Gregg is now the prime suspect in his father’s and stepmother’s murders. Only days after the murder, Gregg is taken back to the station for questioning. This time with a more direct approach. They ask him about the will and the inheritance, pressing him on whether his financial trouble could have played a role in his parents’ deaths.
Gregg is calm, but the tension in the room is clear. The detectives are determined to find out what really happened. With only circumstantial evidence pointing to Gregg, though, a first-degree murder charge will be tough to prove in court. However, upon later searches of the river where they had uncovered the shotgun comes something even more disturbing.
A suspicious floating trash bag tied shut. Inside the bag is one item perfectly matching Dameon’s description, a green jumpsuit. The bag also contains more damning evidence, latex gloves with a fingerprint on it later matched to Gregg, 12 gauge slugs exactly like those used in the murders, and tennis shoes two and a half sizes smaller than Gregg’s feet, but exactly like the footprints found at the window where the killer entered the farmhouse.
Sergeant Mark Whittaker called in for me. They made an arrest and that it was Gregg, and I just went to my knees on my kitchen floor, and I cried my eyeballs out because I was so close with him, that hit me like a rock. I just couldn’t wrap my head around him, of all people. I just didn’t believe that Gregg could do that.
In April of 2004, Gregg Myers goes on trial for the first-degree murders of his father Jack, and stepmother Linda. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Myers pleads not guilty. His entire family filled the courtroom. Sisters, brothers, and family friends who had once gathered for joyful family occasions.
Now, they sat in shock, witnessing the man they thought they knew, on trial for murder. Seeing Gregg, he didn’t show remorse for anything. He didn’t look at any of us. On April 27th, 2004, after just a few hours of deliberation, the Darke County jury found Gregg Myers guilty of two counts of aggravated murder.
Gregg Myers is sentenced to two life terms without the chance of parole. It was hard, because I still couldn’t believe that it was Gregg. I still felt like there’s no way. Sometime I’m gonna wake up from this dream. I just never would’ve thought he could do anything like that. To know that he did this all out of greed, that cuts like a knife.
It was terrible, and I hope he regrets it a lot. He deserves to be there for the rest of his life, for taking them from us. With Gregg Myers convicted and justice finally served, Dameon’s long nightmare finally comes to an end. During the investigation, Dameon was kept from his mother. And with his grandparents gone, it was difficult to stay strong, but detectives worked tirelessly to uncover the truth, save Dameon, and make sure his family got justice.
The four-year-old showed immense bravery for such a young boy, inspiring everyone around him. Dameon was able to reunite with his mother, Amber, and in a bittersweet turn of events, fulfilled the plan she had made with her family that same year of the murders. The little boy finally moves in with her and starts kindergarten at his new school, supported by the loving memory of his grandparents.
I was finally able to get Dameon back home. I can’t put into words what that was like. I think about this boy every day because it’s just one of those cases that you can’t dismiss it outta your mind. Dameon now is 22 years old, and he’s doing amazing. He did great in school. He’s grown up to be a hardworking, great young man.
We’re all proud of him. We all love him very much. Jack and Linda were the heart and soul of the family, the glue that blended their family and kept them united. In their own way, they found strength in each other. A love and closeness that doesn’t always follow the rules of a typical family, but still holds throughout time and any adversity.
The Myers’ legacy lives on through Dameon himself, now a young man. He carries forward the love, strength,
