You Never Really Know Someone

Sometime in June of 2009, I received word that James "Jimbo" Childers, the older brother of my friends Lou Ellen and Jan Childers, had committed suicide. I had (and still do have) friends in local law enforcement who, while not divulging any specifics, told me that the story was beginning to look very dark and sinister and that I would probably be very shocked by what would eventually be released to the media.

While the fascination of whatever dark secrets would later be revealed intrigued me, I really did not give Jimbo's death much thought. While I knew him, I was not close to him and had only hung around with him a few times.On those few times that I was around him, he and I were drinking with his younger brother and sister, both of whom I spent a fair amount of time around.

A few weeks after the news of his death, I learned that just days before he died, Childers mailed an audio cassette tape to the Clarksburg Police Department confessing to multiple murders and arsons. The story was in the local news for a few months and eventually the FBI became involved but since Jimbo had killed himself the police were never able to substantiate his claims of committing five murders.  The have been able to link him to three of them but were never able to find the other two bodies Childers claimed to have buried on his family farm in Braxton County, WV.  Cadaver dogs were unable to locate any human remains on the 96 acre farm.  Without any new leads, the case has gone cold.  

The transcript of his confession was released about a year later in the hopes of discovering new evidence.

You never really know someone, do you?