The True Crime Kitchen

2016, Darlington, IN

Raise your hand if you have wasted spent hours of your life reading about people’s tea on Reddit. And by tea I mean the tea, as in hot juicy gossip. I have no drama, (at least not amongst friends or family), so I must feed on the drama of others. There are subreddits full of relationship drama, confessions, and cringeworthy stories regarding coworkers, in-laws, partners, and toxic friends. Who even needs fake reality tv shows when there’s all this real drama to be read?! All one has to do is create a username and share their troubles on the subreddit that fits. The internet may read your tale and agree you’ve been wronged…or they may not. It’s a way to get advice, if you need it, though oftentimes it’s more just crowd confirmation of what you already know, long before posting. Occasionally, the stories are too specific and someone KNOWS it’s about them, only to reveal the poster grossly misrepresented the tale to their benefit. Sometimes the stories go viral, even getting picked up by the news. The post I’m covering today didn’t make the news, at first, as it was just another wordy write up about a cheating spouse. Those are posted all the time. Dime a dozen, really. So what makes this one so special? Well, since I’m posting it here, you should already know: Murder.

On October 29th 2016, on the RelationshipAdvice subreddit, user JasonInHell posted, “I’m [30/m] having a hard time coping with my wife [29/f] having cheated on me with our neighbor [51/m]”. To summarize: In 2015 he started working more, and she took up with their neighbor. He saw a suggestive text reading, “I am all covered in frosting, you wanna lick it off?” but kind of brushed it off, thinking it was just a joke. The neighbor was a contractor. Jason’s wife claimed the neighbor was coming over a lot to build an office in their home as a present for Jason for Fathers Day. Time goes on and on, the office isn’t finished, so it was pretty clear to Jason that the only thing getting done was his wife. Through some questionable tactics, like installing some software on her phone to read texts she had set to delete after x number of hours, he got the proof he needed to confront her and the neighbor. They deny the affair, but he presents his evidence. Then they claim it was all digital. Just some sexting and spicy pics. It had never gone further than that. Jason says he’ll file for divorce, but his wife says she’ll never let him see their kids again. She places all the fault on Jason for being busy at work. They agree to separate temporarily, to figure things out. But immediately, she begins to play it to the kids that this is daddy’s fault they have to leave. So the separation doesn’t happen, and Jason begs her to stay, so the kids would be happy. His wife even makes Jason apologize to the neighbor, and they still invite the man and his girlfriend over from time to time for birthday/holiday parties, since their children are friends. Then, over a year after the original suspicions, his wife sent the neighbor some pictures on Fathers Day. She claimed it was an accident, but Jason had his doubts. His reddit post, 476 days after he confronted her about the affair, concluded with:

“I’m afraid that after this much time, and the fact that I begged her back, that to say that I want a divorce now would only make her more vindictive towards my children and I. I just feel like I have put myself so deep in a hole that I can never get back out. I haven’t really talked to anyone about this. I didn’t want to talk to my mom about it because I felt she would treat my wife differently and I didn’t need the two fighting anymore than they already do. I tried talking to one friend about it but his advice was to put my trust in God but that was not much solace for me as I am an atheist. So I have no clue what to do with my feelings or how to move on from this.”

Most of the Redditors who responded to Jason’s post were pretty supportive, in a tough love kind of way. They encouraged him to move on by filing for a divorce and fighting for custody of the kids. He’d be better off, healthier and happier, and more importantly, he’d be a better father for his kids if they had a house of love, not resentment. Jason read these comments and realized he’d only postponed the inevitable. He had stayed for the kids, and now he was leaving for them. He posted an update on November 2nd that read “Instead of trying to fix something she doesn’t want to fix, she has refused counseling several times in the past before this even happened, I am going to get myself and my kids out. I meet with an attorney next week. Thank you everyone for helping me see how far I had my head up my ass.”

Reddit may have gotten some of the marriage breakdown deets from Jason’s posts, but unfortunately the real scoop would be found in crime reports and news articles. Jason did speak with an attorney and officially filed for divorce on November 15th. He broke the news to his wife, Brandi, that night. In the morning she took the kids, daughter Charlee, 3, and son Tyler, 7, to go stay with her mother for the day. That evening was Charlee’s dance recital, and the family attended together. Afterwards, the family headed home, still not having worked out all the details of a split (it had been only 24 hours since Jason’s announcement). Brandi made a solo trip to Walmart, saying she needed to buy craft supplies for their son’s school project. Instead of just buying pipe cleaners, she also bought a knife. A Ka-Bar combat knife. She hid the knife in Tyler’s bedroom before joining Jason and the kids in the living room. She sat there, watching Jason play with the kids. Then, for the last time, Jason put his children to bed. Sleeping together wasn’t an option, and hadn’t been for quite a while, so Brandi told Jason he could sleep on the couch. However Jason preferred sleeping in the basement on an air mattress. After sleeping in the basement for a few blissfully ignorant hours, he was awoken by the sounds of horrified screaming.

It was 4:35 a.m. November 17th when Brandi called 911. In a flat voice she told the dispatcher “I just stabbed myself and I killed my two children.” When asked why, she stated: “My husband wanted a divorce and wanted to take my kids. I don’t want him to have my kids.” Brandi had called her mother before 911, so when the woman arrived at the house before emergency responders, the dispatcher asked if she would check on her grandchildren. When she got to Charlee’s room and saw the bloody scene, it was the sound of her screaming that woke Jason. Brandi’s mother fled the bedroom as Jason ran up from the basement, meeting in the kitchen. Still calmly sitting on the couch, the only thing Brandi would say to him was “Now you can’t take the kids from me.”

Brandi would recover from her alleged “Benadryl overdose”, and the knife wound to her neck. She claimed she’d wanted to die with her children, but the multiple stab wounds to their necks make her lone stab seem rather non-committal. She confessed she had woken Tyler up, having him join her in Charlee’s room for what she called a “sleepover”. There, she straddled the boy, stabbing him in the neck multiple times. Charlee, hearing something, woke up and asked her mother what she was doing. Brandi replied “Nothing,” and Charlee went back to sleep. Brandi continued stabbing Tyler. Once she was finally finished with him, she turned to Charlee, repeatedly stabbing her in the neck as well. With both children dead, she covered them with blankets before she left the room. Initially she pled not guilty, opting for the ever popular insanity defense. However, in 2018, she pled guilty. She was sentenced to 55 years for Tyler’s murder, and 65 years for Charlee’s murder. That’s 120 years, to be served consecutively, with no chance of getting out of prison. She has never apologized or shown any remorse for what she did. Her family even launched a GoFundMe, misrepresenting themselves, and using Jason’s name and pictures of the children, in an attempt to raise money for her medical and legal bills. It was shut down, and the donations were refunded.

As for Jason, he initially deleted his JasonInHell reddit account once the crime story and the post connection started getting a lot of media coverage. He posted a few times after the crime, mostly thanking people for their kind words, updating people on the GoFundMe scam his former in-laws were pulling, and sharing how he was haunted by the what-if of sleeping on the couch that night. If he had, would she have killed him too? Or could he have perhaps heard the attack and saved the kids? He doesn’t know, and he never will. He had gone into a deep depression, lost his job, and was self medicating with alcohol. But eventually he came through it, started working again, and had the support of friends and family. He was satisfied Brandi, who he had officially divorced, will be in prison for life. He ended his final post with this “If I can impart on you something I have learned through all of this it is that you should always take the time to be with the ones you love. It doesn’t matter if they are asking you to read The Poky Little Puppy for the millionth time or asking you to play Smash Bros even though you both know they will wipe the floor with you every time, just do it because you never know what time will be the last time. Always make sure they know how much you love them. I had the fortune that the last thing my children ever heard me say was, “I love you, good night. I will see you in the morning.”

The inspiration came from the frosting text for this week’s recipe. I imagine the frosting mentioned was a canister of Pillsbury. You know the kind- white or easily tinted a different shade, artificial vanilla in flavor, and great for showing off sprinkles. It’s a popular baking shortcut that makes for easy decorating with the kiddos. Brandi the baby killer’s black heart inspired a different take on frosting. I wanted a dark frosting, something that also fit as a Halloween item for decorating some treats. This frosting method comes from Sugarologie. Cooking the cocoa into a syrup creates a dark and fudgy looking frosting, no need to tint with dye, that is light in texture. Feel free to use it for your favorite cake, but I’m going with some black cupcakes for easier shareability. Besides sourcing some black cocoa (a delightful cocoa that makes things taste like Oreos) the only other trick is you’ll need an immersion blender. I know it seems weird, but you’re going to have to trust the science behind the blending of the butter fat and sugary cocoa to get the black color. If you just use a stand mixer it’ll be a tasty frosting, sure, but you’ll most likely have a grey color. Maybe that’s the color you want. But if you want black and it’s not darkening- bust out the stick blender. Your frosting will probably taste a bit more buttery than usual so it’s trade-off. Don’t have one yet? It’s one of my fave kitchen tools. It’s great for soups, sauces, and frosting.

Black Cupcakes

Black Frosting:

1 1/2 c. (3 sticks/339 g) Unsalted Butter

1/2 c. + 1 Tbsp. (50 g) Black Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 c. + 1 Tbsp. (313 g) Sugar

1/8-1/4 tsp. Kosher Salt

2/3 c. (160 g) Water

1/8 tsp. Cream Of Tartar

Note: This amount of frosting will comfortably frost 18 cupcakes with decorative swirls.

1. Slice the butter into chunks and put in the freezer to get extra cold while you make the cocoa mixture.
2. In a deep saucepan, combine the black cocoa powder before whisking in the water until smooth.
3. Turn the heat on to medium, whisking continuously, until the mixture is boiling. Add the salt, continue to whisk, and cook until 220 degrees. The mixture will bubble up so the deep pan is handy. Continue to whisk, and cook for 5 more minutes until the mixture is thickened. Take off the heat.
4. Avoid burning yourself, but taste the cocoa mixture. If it’s bitter, whisk in the cream of tartar.
5. Pour the syrup into a large bowl you can comfortably whisk in. While whisking, add the butter straight from the freezer into the chocolate while it’s hot. Whisk continuously until the butter is all melted and combined with the cocoa mixture. It should be smooth and glossy.
6. Taste the mixture again and add another pinch of salt if the flavor calls for it.
7. Cover and chill in the fridge until you’re ready to frost. Can be done overnight, just set out for 1/2 an hour to take the extra chill off before proceeding with the next step.
8. When ready to frost you use the paddle attachment to beat the frosting into a light whipped consistency. It may be grey. To turn that whipped frosting black- use an immersion blender, but it will taste buttery.
9. This is a soft, whipped frosting. If too warm, return to the fridge for 10 minutes before piping.

Black Cupcakes:

3/4 c. (69 g) Black Cocoa Powder

2/3 c. Hot Coffee

2/3 c. Buttermilk

1/3 c. Canola Oil

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 Egg

1 Egg Yolk

1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt

1 1/3 c. (160 g) Flour

1 3/4 c. (346 g) Sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

3/4 tsp. Baking Soda

1. Preheat your oven to 350° and line 18 muffin cups.
2. Add the cocoa to a large bowl and pour the hot coffee in, whisking, for one minute until combined and cooled.
3. In a 16 oz. liquid measuring cup measure out the buttermilk and oil before adding the egg, yolk, vanilla, and salt. Use a small whisk or fork to combine. Whisk into the coffee mixture.
4. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda together in a smaller bowl before whisking it into the coffee mixture until just blended.
5. Evenly fill each muffin cup 2/3 of the way.
6. Bake for 10 minutes. Gently rotate the pans. Bake for another 10 minutes.
7. Remove pans from oven and allow to cool.
8. Frost and decorate as desired.