A beloved pastor and his wife rent a cabin to get away from it all but a vicious attack leaves one deceased and the other nursing their wounds at the hospital; an investigation into the couple's past reveals a laundry list of suspects and misdeeds.
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00:00It was really kind of a spooky place.
00:21When we arrived at cabin 13, it appeared that there was a real serious struggle going on
00:27there.
00:30Somebody killed her.
00:31I just could not fathom that someone had actually killed her.
00:36To look back and see all these clues that I missed that I just didn't see.
00:44There was a male subject in the photos that appeared to be in various stages of undress.
00:52His story didn't add up.
01:07That night wasn't a lot of traffic out, nothing going on.
01:13So I decided to go have dinner.
01:16As soon as I walked in, I got the radio call.
01:21There was a individual that called in from Babcock State Park.
01:27He said several individuals had broken into his cabin and attacked him and his wife.
01:35So I was on my way.
01:43When I arrived on scene, there was the headquarters building and that's where the call came from.
01:50He was there at the telephone and only thing he had on was a pair of brief white underwear.
01:59His legs were scratched.
02:05As I approached him, he was very hysterical.
02:09I said, calm down, I'm a police officer, I'm here to help you, not hurt you.
02:15Asked him if he knew who he was, he told me he was Mr. Flipper.
02:20He advised me at that time that his wife was still at the cabin.
02:24I asked him which cabin we're at, he said cabin number 13.
02:31So I told him to go with me, I placed him in my cruiser.
02:40I asked him what had happened.
02:42It told me that several people had been there, they had attacked him and his wife.
02:49The distance between the headquarters building and cabin 13 is probably about seven-tenths
02:54of a mile down a one-lane road.
02:59When we arrived at cabin 13, there was a Camaro sitting on the left-hand side of the road
03:05across from the cabin.
03:08Had what looked like a white t-shirt or something hanging off the side view mirror.
03:13I said, did you arrive in this car?
03:17He said, no, I don't know who owns that car.
03:20I said, do you remember how you got here?
03:23He gave me very good details of his green Cadillac.
03:29There was no green Cadillac anywhere around.
03:40I told him to remain seated in the vehicle and I was going to check the cabin.
03:54Had been raining that night, so it was kind of slippery.
04:09I didn't know what I was walking in on.
04:14I thought there were several people inside the cabin.
04:16I thought there was going to be a fight.
04:21I yelled in the Fayette County Sheriff's Office, is anyone in there?
04:26There's no response.
04:27I looked over at the bed, there was a large bloodstain on the bed, and I seen a lady
04:54laying between the bed and the wall.
04:58A lot of blood.
05:03That point I walked back out, went back to my cruiser, got on the radio, called for other
05:09assistance and an ambulance.
05:17I'm trying to keep Mr. Filippo calm until I can get medical attention for him.
05:23Once the ambulance got there, one attendant took care of Mr. Filippo and me and the other
05:28ambulance attendant went over and checked his wife.
05:34Michael Filippo's wife, Cheryl Filippo, was deceased.
05:42You never think anything like this will happen.
05:45She was a beautiful person and she brought joy to many people and to us.
05:59We grew up in southern West Virginia.
06:04There was seven of us children.
06:07We lived in a little coal mining community that had like 22 houses.
06:12I went to church about every Sunday.
06:16Cheryl, as far back as I can remember, she always was very devoutly religious.
06:22When we reached high school, you know, thinking about your future and what you want to be,
06:27she prayed for the Lord's direction and she felt the Lord told her she should be a minister's
06:33wife.
06:35Michael was in college studying to go into the ministry.
06:40So when Cheryl and Mike were introduced, Cheryl was very interested because she felt
06:45the Lord works in wonderful ways.
06:49When Cheryl and Mike got married, Cheryl was 19 and Michael was a few years older.
06:55She glowed.
06:56She was so happy.
07:03Cheryl and Mike had been living in Nitra, West Virginia, for about 15 years.
07:11Michael Flippo was a pastor at a church of God in Nitro.
07:18He was a typical church of God minister.
07:21He spoke in tongues, he did his altar calls.
07:32Cheryl absolutely took her role as a pastor's wife extremely seriously.
07:38She felt that they were like a couple in their ministry as well as a couple in their
07:43marriage.
07:46She was constantly doing things for the church, for people in the church.
07:52She had lots of roles in the church.
07:54She was part of the women's group.
07:57She was a youth leader, Sunday school teacher.
08:00I mean, she did all different kinds of roles that Michael needed her to fill.
08:08And Cheryl loved those things.
08:13They was always busy going to church, going to hospitals and going to people's houses.
08:21Michael said that they were just riding around and on the spur of the moment, they decided
08:26that they would like to spend the night at Babcock where they could have a romantic evening.
08:39Michael Flippo rented cabin 13 in Babcock State Park.
08:47Babcock State Park is almost all woods.
08:51I think many people would go to Babcock for seclusion.
08:58They have hiking trails and cabins that are built along the creek that runs through there.
09:08It's very quiet.
09:10Normally not a whole lot goes on in my town.
09:19When I first got there, I met up with Sergeant Bryant and he gave me a brief rundown of meeting
09:27Flippo.
09:29The police had to tell him that his wife was dead.
09:32He was sad and grieving, but they still had to ask him questions as they were moving
09:37forward with the investigation.
09:40Michael Flippo was confused, incoherent at times.
09:45The statement that he gave was he had a pleasant evening eating ice cream and eating snacks.
09:53Then they retired for the evening.
09:56He stated that this intruder had broke into the cabin while he and Cheryl were sleeping
10:06and attacked them both.
10:09In her final moments of life, how much fear she must have suffered at that point.
10:21Michael Flippo told us this intruder just hit him in the middle of the night.
10:29While he was knocked down on the floor, the intruder got on his legs to hold him down,
10:36facing him, and took a knife, cutting his legs.
10:54He was unconscious for a period of time.
10:57Then when he came to, he went over, he checked his wife.
11:03He says he put his head down on his wife's chest, and he could hear her heartbeat.
11:09He had told me he couldn't find a cell phone, so he ran out the door, and he ran to use
11:18the pay phone at headquarters.
11:22It was obvious what had happened to her.
11:25What wasn't obvious was who did it, and that is the thing that we have to find out.
11:33I left New Orleans with the house, let him process it.
11:42Early morning hours, next morning, the area was searched.
11:45Babcock's Lake Park is huge.
11:49Most of the park is wooded.
11:51The police start looking for that someone to check to see if he was out there.
11:57I placed an officer up at the mouth of the road, so if anybody left the area, we'd know
12:02about it.
12:04Every camp was checked.
12:06We went to the cabin, talked to the individuals there, asked them if they heard anything.
12:12Told them to stay inside the cabin until somebody says it's okay to come out.
12:19No one who was near cabin 13 heard or saw anything.
12:27We were trying to collect evidence as quickly as possible.
12:32I obtained the license plate and had a registration check for the Camaro.
12:37Now we wanted to start processing the crime scene before we did anything.
12:44There was a table with various items on it.
12:49Cheryl's purse was there, a briefcase was there.
12:55There was a bloody fingerprint that was discovered in the bathroom window on the inside roll
13:02of the duct tape.
13:05It appeared that there was a real serious struggle going on there.
13:11You could see the blood splatter on the wall.
13:14Various items turned over.
13:17The bedding had been pulled down to the foot of the bed.
13:21As Gerlenberg processed the whole scene, he did find a piece of wood that he believed
13:26was the murder weapon.
13:31Cheryl Flipper had taken a severe beating.
13:36To think that someone could mutilate a human body like that, it's hard to forget.
13:51I drove up to my mom's because my kids were staying there.
14:01And when I opened the door, I heard Pamela screaming.
14:06Cheryl's son had called and said that Cheryl was dead, that she had been murdered.
14:13And I was like, shocked.
14:18Cheryl's dead.
14:21And Michael is in the hospital.
14:27I just remember saying, somebody killed her, somebody killed her, really, somebody killed
14:35her.
14:36I just could not, could not fathom it, that someone had actually, actually killed her.
14:45My immediate reaction was to think that this had to be a mistake.
14:49That, I mean, who would do that to Cheryl?
14:53I would have thought she would have been the last person that anyone would want to hurt,
14:58period.
15:10Flipper was being treated at the hospital.
15:14There was a small wound to his forehead, and he got struck in the back of the head,
15:21and some cuts on his leg, very, very minor.
15:27So he got released from the hospital.
15:30He was transported to the Sheriff's Department, where they performed a more in-depth interview.
15:40When he was questioned about who could do this to you, Michael Flipper appeared scared.
15:47He said someone was communicating threats to him.
15:52He said, somebody's stalking me.
15:55The stalker was in and out of their lives, and now he was back.
16:08Many years before Cheryl's murder, Michael Flipper had made several reports concerning
16:15this alleged stalker.
16:20Cheryl called to tell us that they thought somebody was following Michael and had threatened
16:27him.
16:30We all knew that there was somebody doing some strange things around their house.
16:38The stalker was even entering his house and leaving notes taped in various locations.
16:51The notes were made from cutting letters out of magazines and gluing them on paper.
17:01Cheryl would come home and find a note someplace, and it would say, you know, I'm watching you,
17:08I'm after you, I'm going to get you, and stuff like that.
17:13The notes were very brief, but they indicated that someone was trying to hurt them.
17:22The idea that the stalker could come into their home and do that and disappear, that
17:29was very scary.
17:33I do remember telling Cheryl, you guys should not be alone.
17:37It seems like when you're alone, that's when you're more at risk.
17:45Cheryl did at one point tell her friend, I believe somebody's trying to kill me.
17:55We also learned about an incident at the church in Nitra.
18:03Cheryl had been in the church, and right after he left, the church caught fire.
18:14The thought was the stalker was in there, and the stalker was the one that set the fire.
18:22They were very scared.
18:25Cheryl didn't feel safe.
18:29The FBI got involved, and the house was staked out.
18:34The Nitro police took this very seriously, and I know that they were at that home and
18:40the church on several occasions.
18:49Michael began to tell his church family, Cheryl and the Nitro police, that he was once again
18:56being stalked.
18:58He reported to the police that among the many things that would indicate the stalker was
19:02there, was this note that said, April showers, bring May flowers to your grave.
19:10Most of the congregation had a plan to protect them.
19:14Men from the church would come in and stay with Michael and Cheryl to make sure that
19:18nothing happened.
19:20Michael said the stalker left a message on the answering machine saying, I tried to kill
19:26you eight years ago and failed, but I won't this time.
19:30He was the one that went into that cabin to commit this heinous crime.
19:47We had been at the cabin all day.
19:51It took so long to process the crime scene.
19:57We wanted to preserve and to collect evidence slowly, meticulously.
20:03There was a briefcase laying on the table.
20:09There was some papers in there that had Michael Filippo's name and address on there.
20:17There was an envelope that appeared to have photos in it.
20:22There was a male subject in the photos that appeared to be in various stages of undress.
20:29The man was standing by a car, taking off his pants.
20:34The police have no idea who this man is in those pictures and no idea of his relationship
20:40to the Filippos.
20:45We went to Nitro to talk to the members of the church.
20:49The members of the congregation were very leery about talking to law enforcement.
20:58They loved their pastor.
20:59They loved their pastor's wife.
21:02The people of the church felt loyal to the Filippos.
21:12We actually rented a motel to interview the ones that would cooperate, but would only
21:18come in the early morning hours of darkness so that they could keep from being seen.
21:32When we interviewed some of the congregants, we determined the person in the photograph
21:38was an individual by the name of Joel.
21:43Joel was a friend of Michael Filippo's.
21:49He was a young adult.
21:50I believe he was 25 years old.
21:54I knew a little about Joel.
21:58Michael was trying to counsel him and provide spiritual guidance.
22:05Joel started hanging out with Joel quite a bit.
22:10He had been trying to work out some kind of land deal with Joel, and they were going to
22:15go into some kind of business together.
22:18Cheryl was very anxious.
22:20She just seemed stressed.
22:24She had her reservations about it.
22:28I don't think she ever really trusted Joel.
22:34One particular couple informed us about the close relationship that Joel and Michael Filippo
22:40had developed.
22:42They said that strange things were happening in the church, and that Joel had even started
22:50occupying the seat that Cheryl Filippo normally occupied in the church.
22:57That made her uncomfortable.
23:00She didn't understand that.
23:10Michael was gone a lot, and she seemed extra nervous about why he was gone.
23:18We learned through the investigation that Michael Filippo and Joel had went to a ski
23:23resort.
23:26They were together for the weekend and spent the night together in one room.
23:34I'm sure a lot of Michael's behavior disturbed her, and I'm sure her gut was telling her
23:41things weren't right.
23:46When the stalker thing got really bad, she also told me that Joel was staying in their
23:52house.
23:54I said, Cheryl, why would Joel be staying in your house?
23:57I know you have some concerns about him.
24:01And she said Michael brought him into the house because he was an expert with a gun.
24:07So that would offer them some protection if somebody tried to harm them.
24:18They found Michael Filippo's diaries on the computer at Filippo's church.
24:23Several years earlier, a member of the congregation had installed the computer at the church,
24:30and Filippo asked him to include a journal program so the congregant knew the diary existed,
24:37and he went to find it.
24:43Filippo talks about men and his frustrations about his sexuality.
24:48In his diary, he says, I love Joel.
24:57He also says, I'm not homosexual, but I feel like I would like to have a man put his arms
25:03around me.
25:06And for us, that was pretty shocking.
25:13We were like, what?
25:15Just mind blown, what?
25:18We thought we knew Michael.
25:21The member of the church was pretty disturbed when he read it, and he gave it to the investigators.
25:27It kind of seems like he was living a double life.
25:32So we wanted to get as much information about the marriage as possible.
25:39Inside Cheryl's Bible, which was located inside the cabin, was a letter that had been written
25:44to Michael Filippo.
25:47In Cheryl's letter, she was clearly expressing frustration.
25:51She said something like, I'm so tired of going to bed punished.
25:56She said, I do love you, but I hate this competition that you've created.
26:03And one of the things he said in the letters, too, is why can't I have a friend?
26:08His idea that he would have to have this friendship in secret didn't sit well with him at all.
26:14It's clear from her letters, she wanted him to put her above Joel, but she didn't feel
26:20like that's what Michael was doing.
26:26And then the results from the registration check made on the license plate for the Camaro
26:31came back, registered to Joel.
26:46It was becoming pretty clear that the police had serious questions about the relationship
26:52between the two men.
26:54So they called Joel to come and speak to them.
26:58Joel denied that he had any involvement with the murder.
27:03He clearly stated it was his car, but he was not there.
27:09And he said that Filippo was threatened by a stalker and wanted to get away.
27:15So he volunteered to give his red Camaro to the couple.
27:21Joel did say to the police that on April 27th, just a few days before the murder,
27:27he and Filippo visited Babcock State Park and just drove around.
27:34He's the one that told Filippo, get cabin 13.
27:41He had been to that park many times since he was a kid.
27:45He liked the park very much.
27:48Joel had always wanted to be baptized at this park.
27:53So they found a spot where they could pull over and do this baptism.
28:00Joel explained that those photos record the time after the baptism, changing from wet
28:06clothes into dry clothes, and that Filippo took the pictures to capture a happy moment.
28:13Joel said he and Michael Filippo were absolutely just friends.
28:17And when he was asked about the marriage, he thought that Filippo and his wife had a
28:22good marriage.
28:25The police were trying to figure out, was it Joel?
28:28Is he telling the truth?
28:34When he was questioned again, Filippo said that he had borrowed Joel's car to be in
28:40somewhat of a disguise so that the stalker couldn't follow them.
28:45Every time the police asked Michael Filippo who the murderer would have been, he continued
28:52to say it was the stalker.
28:58He could never describe the stalker.
29:02He can't give a physical description.
29:05We were beginning to be suspicious of what had happened.
29:09So we wanted to see the cabin.
29:16It was really kind of a spooky place.
29:23Just eerie and so isolated.
29:27I felt Cheryl.
29:29I felt Cheryl's presence.
29:32I remember sitting down at the table that was there, and I could feel her just wash
29:37over me.
29:40Just was one of the worst feelings you could ever get, walking in there and knowing that
29:45that's the last thing that she ever saw was inside of that cabin.
29:53It was brutal.
30:02Now we wanted to go back and look at the photographs in case we missed something with
30:08the naked eye.
30:11At first impression, the attack occurred in the bed, but when I looked at the blood pool
30:18on the floor, you could see where something had been dragged through the blood.
30:25It seemed like someone picked up a pillow, sopped it up with the blood on the floor and
30:32put it on the bed.
30:34Someone was trying to make it look like Mrs. Flipo died in the bed instead of on the floor.
30:41When you're looking at the rocking chair turned over, it would give the impression that there
30:47was a struggle.
30:50You start looking closely, there was clothing neatly stacked underneath the rocking chair.
30:57And I noticed that footprints were very evident at the cabin.
31:06It was extremely rainy that night.
31:09If you got off the walkway at all, you got mud on your feet.
31:13You could see Charlie Bryant's footprints and the footprints of the medic that was going
31:20in.
31:21So you're looking then and you're thinking, where is this third person?
31:28In my opinion, Michael Flipo couldn't describe the stalker because there was no stalker involved.
31:36This was a staged crime scene.
31:46It started becoming evident at that point that Michael Flipo was no longer a victim,
31:54but he was a suspect.
31:58When Officer Burke looked back at the Church fire several years earlier, he learned that
32:03the fire chief suspected it was arson from the beginning.
32:09I think he learned that you can get money from insurance.
32:16They kept saying they needed a new church, they needed a new church, and that old church
32:21burnt down and they got a brand new church.
32:24I mean, it's too coincidental, burn, burn, burn, burn, burn.
32:33Our investigation also revealed a background of embezzlement money.
32:42Just before the murder, there was a child who desperately needed a liver and pancreas
32:47transplant.
32:49Everybody rallied around this family and ultimately they raised almost $90,000.
32:57Flipo opened an account for the child with only his name on it.
33:02And he was dipping into that account.
33:06There was around $12,000 missing.
33:09Flipo took that money and he was never held to account.
33:13He always liked expensive things, always liked to impress people.
33:18It had always been about money.
33:21Joe was determined that they would live with a budget and save money for their retirement,
33:26which was not Michael's plan.
33:30We discovered a life insurance policy had been taken out.
33:35He had made this life insurance policy, making himself the sole beneficiary.
33:40And if Cheryl would die, he would get $100,000.
33:45The insurance policy was taken out in the name of Cheryl Flipo on March 1st.
33:53And it went into effect April 1st.
33:57Little pieces of the puzzle started coming together.
34:04His story didn't add up.
34:13He did this.
34:25We actually got a search warrant to have his body examined.
34:30So we took Michael Flipo to the medical examiner.
34:35He checked the wounds and the way the striations were on his leg.
34:41They were self-inflicted in this case.
34:46The curve of the wound is one of the things you look at.
34:50From observing the wounds on his leg, we could determine the wounds were self-inflicted.
34:58And then the results from the bloody thumbprint on the duct tape came back matched to Michael Flipo.
35:06By that point, investigators believed they had a complete picture of what led to her murder.
35:15On April 27th, after Joel and Michael visited Babcock State Park, Flipo reserved cabin 13.
35:26He brought her to cabin 13 because it was a secluded area.
35:33You could do about anything and nobody had known about it.
35:37What I think occurred was that Cheryl and Michael had laid down in her mind to go to sleep and have a restful evening.
36:00And Michael started striking her with the piece of firewood.
36:06I can't imagine what went through her head at that point.
36:19It's the worst kind of betrayal.
36:22The scene was made to look like the stalker came in and had a big struggle with Michael Flipo and harmed him.
36:44He fled the scene. He made his cover story that removed him from any guilt.
37:00The day before Cheryl Flipo's funeral, we went to Nitro and arrested Flipo.
37:13That was a very satisfying moment to me.
37:18Michael Flipo was charged with the first degree murder of his wife.
37:43You fought for justice for her. You wouldn't have been able to live without justice for her.
37:58But it didn't make the pain go away.
38:02We never got a confession. We never heard anything other than the fabrication he told us up front.
38:09We did debate whether or not anybody else was involved.
38:15But when we sat and listened to Garland Burt tell us that he was at that cabin for five, six, seven days,
38:21he could not find a molecule or a hair sample or a blood spatter or anything that did not belong to those two people.
38:28The only piece of evidence that even connected Joel was the use of his car that Michael Flipo had driven to Babcock.
38:44I thought I was good in judging people and to look back and see all these clues that I missed that I just didn't see.
39:09There wasn't a stalker.
39:15Michael was the stalker.
39:21Every time Michael would get into trouble, he would say the stalker was after him.
39:29It was like his ace in the hole, you might say.
39:35For a preacher, I think he was very devious.
39:38He betrayed all those people, not just us and her and his family.
39:43He betrayed all those people that he supposedly was ministering to.
39:49In my mind, you know, it's like she paid the price for his sins and how is that right?
40:00Cheryl was our angel on earth.
40:04She wasn't perfect, but she was our angel on earth.
40:08She was the heart of our family, so to lose that for us was insurmountable.
40:19I feel the pain as much today as I did in 1996.
40:32We had to move on.
40:35We did our own things.
40:39It was extremely hard to do it without her.
40:44It was for me.
40:51Life goes on for us.
40:56It will never be the same, but at least you have the solace of knowing that
41:01you'll never be able to do it to anyone else.
41:08We had a cabin on Stump Island.
41:11I'm not saying that evil things were happening, but it was a creepy, creepy space.
41:17There were rumors galore.
41:19They were concerned that you have a serial killer in your community.
41:22That cabin holds an awful lot of secrets.