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Brutal murder of Trisha Stemple by husband Timothy ‘Shaun’ Stemple examined on Evil Lives Here

Mugshot of Timothy 'Shaun' Stemple
Timothy ‘Shaun’ Stemple was executed for savagely murdering his wife, Trisha Stemple. Pic credit: Oklahoma Dept of Corrections

Evil Lives Here is on the case of the brutal murder of Trisha Stemple from Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

On October 25, 1996, the battered remains of 30-year-old Trisha were discovered lying at the side of the highway on the outskirts of Tulsa.

She had been reported missing the day before by her husband Timothy ‘Shaun’ Stemple.

At first, the police thought this was a tragic hit-and-run until it became clear that it was a homicide that had been staged to look that way.

The murder had, in fact, been orchestrated and carried out by her husband Shaun, who wanted to get his greedy, murderous hands on a life insurance policy worth nearly $1 million.

The investigators learned that Shaun had been having an affair with another woman, Dani Wood. Timothy offered her 16-year-old cousin Terry Hunt between $25,000 and $50,000 if he helped him murder his wife, Trisha.

The duo hatched a plan which involved staging the crime to look like a hit and run.

Timothy left his pick-up truck and Hunt hiding in the woods at a prearranged spot along the highway. He then arrived at the spot with his wife a short time later. He had persuaded his wife to come along after pretending his truck had broken down.

While Timothy pretended to fix the truck, Hunt whacked Trisha twice in the back of the head with a baseball bat wrapped in plastic. Her husband then took the bat and hit her several more times.

Trisha Stemple was savagely beaten

The killers then attempted to run over her head with the pickup truck; when that failed, they beat her some more with the bat. They then succeeded in running over her chest and continued hitting her with the bat again. Timothy then drilled a hole in her car’s tires to make it look like she had had a puncture.

Despite Trisha’s horrific injuries, she had managed to crawl away into some grass. The two jumped into the pickup, and after reaching a speed of 60 mph, they ran over Trisha. Her injuries were numerous, but an autopsy revealed that she’d died from a blow to the head.

While in custody, Shaun attempted to put all the blame on Hunt and girlfriend Wood. He attempted to coerce the witnesses and even confessed to other inmates.

Shaun Semple was eventually convicted of the murder, and in 1998 he was sentenced to death. In 2012 he was executed by lethal injection.

Terry Hunt pleaded guilty and testified against Shaun. He was sentenced to life in prison.

More from Evil Lives Here

Follow the links to read about more crimes profiled on Evil Lives Here.

John Meehan was a conman, a pathological liar, and an abuser of up to fifty women. When he attempted to target one of his ex-partners’ daughters, Terra Newell fought back and stabbed him to death in self-defense.

In another very unsettling case, Judith Hawkey coerced her 10-year-old stepson, Corey Breininger, into shooting his father. Hawkey wanted to make it look like an accident so she could claim life insurance worth $500,000.

Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death airs at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.

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