Daddy's in the Backyard: The Walter Couch Story

The story of how an Ohio father ended up buried in the backyard in 1984. His wife says it was an accident...

www.midwestcrimefile.com

The Midwest Crime Files | creating Podcasts, Blogs | Patreon

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Midwest Crime Files. I'm your host, Gina. I'm here to tell you the stories of small towns and the heinous crimes that change them forever. Welcome to a brand new episode. This episode is called Daddy's in the Backyard, the Walter Couch story. So the title is a little bit intriguing, and if you can use your imagination, you can imagine where we're going with this. This is the story of a woman that felt trapped in her marriage and took the deadly way out. And so I'm just going to jump right in. Walter and Dorothy Couch were the proud parents of Walter Douglas Couch, who was born on May 17th, 1949. They raised their son in Cincinnati, Ohio, and like most parents, they doted on their son. They had high hopes for his future. When he met a young woman named Linda at a wedding reception, they soon married. They tried to set up a life for the newlyweds. They allowed them to move into their home, eventually placing the deed for the home in their son's name as they moved into a home of their own. They allowed their son and daughter-in-law to become a little family, and Linda soon had three children, two daughters and a son. Linda was born on January 15th, 1954. She recalls being smitten with Walter when she first met him, but she later regretted rushing into that relationship. She says she moved in with Walter and her parents when she was 16, and it was something that she really regretted because she said as soon as she got a ring on her finger, he changed completely. She said that he became very abusive, both controlling mentally, verbally, and physically. She said that when she had her eldest daughter, Roxanne, that he became very abusive to Roxanne as well. He states that her oldest child was a lot like her. It wasn't what her husband expected. He had wanted a son, and Roxanne just didn't meet what his expectations were. Roxanne was overweight, looked a lot like her mother. Um, according to even Roxanne, she wasn't what her father wanted. Her grades weren't good enough. She just wasn't what he wanted. And the beatings were allegedly focused on both Linda and her oldest daughter, Roxanne. The second child of the Couch family, also a daughter, and their third child, a son, apparently were spared the beatings of Walter Couch. According to Linda, the abuse was only focused on her and Roxanne. And statements that were given by Roxanne, the physical abuse was corroborated, as well as the fact that it was primarily focused on Linda Couch and Roxanne. Walt often hit his daughter with a belt. Roxanne described her father as having an explosive temper and frequently hitting his wife. She also admitted that Linda often had black eyes and bruises. In more recent interviews, Linda claims that she was gang raped by Walt and his friends. However, this is a claim that Roxanne states simply is not true. She said that their family never had parties and events where Walt would have big, large groups of friends. And so she said that it's just not possible that this claim could be true. Other issues certainly existed in the marriage as well, primarily financial. Roxanne was, quote, the keeper of the secrets, end quote. She described her mother as being very secretive with money, taking out loans, bank accounts, and other things with Walt's name on it, um, and hiding that from Walt. And she was put in a position to lie to her father. She would hide statements and in the ceiling. Um, and she would force her daughter Roxanne to lie to her father to keep these secrets from her father. She stated the bank was starting to insist that Mr. Couch come in personally to discuss matters, and Linda knew something had to happen because this was going to cause major issues for her. On October 13th, 1984, this power powder keg that was explosive temper between the abuse that Walt had and the lies and deception that Linda had came to a head. On October 13th, 1984, Linda sent the children to their grandparents' house for the night. She was in a nursing program trying to establish some freedom for herself and her children. And apparently Walt had demanded that she drop out of the nursing program. She planned to tell him that night that she was not going to drop out of the program, and she knew that Walt was going to beat her, so she didn't want the children there. According to Linda, Walt was enraged and went for the gun that the two had just recently purchased a few days prior, a 22 caliber semi-automatic. She said she didn't know what to do, so she went at him and kicked him in the groin. When she did this, she said the gun went off and shot him in the head. Walter was dead. Lying on the floor, dead. Linda said she panicked and didn't know what to do. And so according to her, she rolled him up in the carpet and put him in the basement for two days. Instead of calling the police, Linda said she just panicked. She said she was not sure what to do. She also stated that her husband once said that he would like to be buried in his backyard. And so what she did was she rolled him in a carpet and um instead of calling the police, she had a neighbor help her move the carpet from the basement outside, unbeknownst to him. Walt's body was wrapped inside. She had her father-in-law and children, again, unbeknownst to them, help dig a hole in the backyard for what she said was a garden, and she buried her husband in a shallow grave. She then buried Walt in the backyard of their home in a hole that her husband, or I'm sorry, that her children had helped bury uh dig. It didn't take long, though, for people to start wondering where Walt was, in particular his parents. And within 10 days, Walter Sr. and Dorothy started to ask questions and called 911 when the smell of decomposition started to become obvious in the backyard. Ten days after he disappeared, Dorothy finally figured out exactly where her son was and called police on October 23rd, 1984. When police arrived, Dorothy was screaming, she killed my son, she killed my son. Walter's remains were discovered in the backyard of the family home. Linda Couch was arrested and taken into custody. Was this really an accident? Was it possible? Had Walt been shot once directly in the back of the head with a 22 caliber caliber pistol that had not had been purchased not by Walt, but by Linda Couch alone just days before the murder. She had gone to a big box store and purchased it on her own without Walt and had even asked the guy at the department store to show her how to load it and shoot it. She didn't notify authorities right away or try to get aid for her husband, and it had truly had it truly been an accident, she one would think she would have done those things. She had even had the children help bury their father. Apparently Walt was strictly against guns. Most people thought that he was a good father and didn't believe that he beat his wife and children. Although Roxanne did corroborate that part of Linda's story, but Linda did not present any of the domestic violence claims at her trial. According to her, her defense defense attorney told her not to. She also did not bring up anything about gang rape until recent interviews when she was on the TV show I Am a Killer. Roxanne states that those are outright lies and that her mom will is a pathological liar and will do things that she thinks will do and say things that she thinks will benefit her and get her attention. Investigators also found that the deed to the home for which Walt's parents had put solely in his name had been forged and altered and left into Linda Couch's name alone, which they would have never done. Roxanne testified against her mother at trial that she had seen her mother alter that deed. She described the numerous loans, credit cards, and financial issues that her mother had been hiding from her father and forgeries she had been witness to. Her daughter claims the statements about being raped were absolutely false and that Linda was beaten by Walt. However, Linda is a pathological liar. Linda Couch was set found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. However, she was denied a parole at every chance until January of 2026, where she was granted supervised medical parole to a medical facility as she is currently undergoing cancer treatments. So that is why this story is called Daddy's in the Backyard, the Walter Couch story. So I'm curious what you guys think about this. Um she was definitely abused physically, but she also showed a lot of manipulation and lying. And I kind of feel like though, if she was a beating, a beaten wife, an abused wife, even her financial lies were probably just her attempts to escape. She probably did feel trapped, which was the name of her I Am Killer episode. She may have been doing things wrong, but I feel like maybe she was doing them just to escape what she was, the situation that she's in. I'm not saying that it makes it okay. What she did was obviously really, really wrong. Um, but I think she probably had a lot of mental issues as well from being in a relationship where she truly was probably felt very trapped and very abused. Um I don't know. I wish she would have called the cops if it was truly an accident. I don't think it was, though. I think she killed him on purpose. But I'm curious to know what your guys' thoughts are. So let me know. Um, let me know on Facebook what you guys think about this. Uh, did Linda Couch do this on purpose? Did she deserve life in prison? Did she deserve to um have her medical supervised parole? How do you guys feel about this? So let me know. And until next time, I hope you guys like some of these shorter stories. Uh let me know your thoughts. Uh, follow us on Facebook and follow us on the website www.midwestcrimefile.com. And if you want to be part of the Patreon page, we'll be doing getaways, give getaways, giveaways, and lots of extra content on our Patreon page. So make sure you are a member of that as well. So thank you and have a good night. Bye.