Episode 2

Family members and friends learn of the terrible tragedy. Children of the agents remember their father.

Transcript

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Matthew Vanderhorst: 0:01
Welcome to part two of Lost Heroes. Missing money.

Retired FBI Agent Ross Rice: 0:06
Flying down there with this suspect as part of a plea agreement to try and find and recover those funds.

Joni Konstantelos: 0:13
We knew what our dad did, but we didn’t really know the danger.

Retired Firefighter Frank Lerner: 0:18
We were all standing there talking and also on that plane just went right across in front of us. Oh, my God.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 0:30
Johnny Konstantopoulos agent Mike Lynch’s daughter remembers when FBI agents came to her Illinois home to tell her family about the crash.

Joni Konstantelos: 0:38
I remember walking home from school that day with one of my little girlfriends and kind of coming down the hill and seeing several cars parked in front of my house. And my first thought is a seven year old is. Hmm. Or maybe we’re having a surprise party for my dad.

Amy Frederick: 0:54
Agent Terry Herefords Young daughter Mary Morgan remembers when agents came to her family’s home. Mary says it was her fourth birthday.

Mary Morgan: 1:02
You know, we were down the stairs to the left, playing in the basement. I remember looking up and seeing my mother blocking an individual in another individual. So it turned out they were the FBI agents that came to inform us. But I remember that. And I remember going upstairs after they left, my mother was on the bed crying and holding my dad’s flight jacket.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 1:24
Joanie remembers when her mother told her and her brother that her father had died.

Joni Konstantelos: 1:28
You know, I came home from school and my brother Josh had already gotten home. My mom sat down on the chair together and she got low in front of us and just said, you know how Daddy went on a plane to Cincinnati today? And we said, yes. And she said, Well, there was a plane crash and everyone died and one of us are both of us, said even Dad. And she said, Yeah, even Daddy.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 2:00
While working in the FBI’s Chicago office, Ross Rice remembers being notified about the crash.

Retired FBI Agent Ross Rice: 2:06
I can still remember sitting in the office in Chicago and an announcement came over the public address system internally that there had been a tragedy in the agent in charge was going to address the entire office so that everyone would know at the same time what happened. It would eliminate rumors and misinformation going around. And there was just a complete attitude of stunned silence that something like this would happen.

Amy Frederick: 2:37
Back in Montgomery, Phyllis Neyer, who was trapped in her burning car and rescued by firefighters, suffered burns and was hospitalized for nine weeks. She underwent surgery on her knee, which was broken in the accident.

Don Neyer: 2:48
Her recovery took quite awhile, took about a year and a half before she was totally recovered. But she came home after a number of weeks in the hospital. And then it was a recovery and it was quite traumatic the first time I took her out after the accident. Jude. She just broke into tears no matter where we were. And she would just it was just a lot of pressure for her to. She had bandages all over her face and all of her legs and all of her arms.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 3:21
The Shepherd bookstore was so badly damaged in the crash that the old house was torn down two days after the accident.

Chief Rob Penny: 3:26
When that airplane hit that building, it knocked the building a foot and a half off the foundation. The whole building literally slid off of the Rock Foundation that was on. So and that was just from the explosion.

Chief Paul Wright: 3:42
Our city manager at the time, Dean Sterling, he had ordered that the house be destroyed and because it was a public nuisance right off the bat. So within the first couple of days, they brought in some demolition equipment and had the house razed and taken away.

Amy Frederick: 3:58
The old farmhouse was built in 1814. The Shepards had operated a bookstore in the building for 17 years before the crash happened. It took a wrecking company about an hour to tear down what was left of the home. Joseph Shepard passed away about two years after the crash. His wife, Olga, had opened another bookstore in Mount Adams. She died in 1989. Today, in Montgomery, a small office building now stands where the Shepard Bookstore once stood.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 4:24
In December 2007, 25 years after the crash, the city of Montgomery held a memorial service to honor the FBI agents that were killed in the accident.

Chief Paul Wright: 4:33
One of the things that the 25th anniversary service that we had at St Barnabas was everybody was telling their stories in front of the church with a microphone. And Mr. Neyer said, Is Frank Learner here? Frank stood up in the church and he said, I’ve never got to meet you or thank you for saving my wife’s life. So 25 years later, the two of them finally made that connection.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 4:59
Firefighter Frank Lerner remembers seeing the Snyders at the memorial service.

Retired Firefighter Frank Lerner: 5:04
She and her husband were there then, and that was the last time I had had contact with them. And they were just so appreciative and, you know, kept asking what can we do something for you? You know, I was doing my job. I’m glad that she’s safe. And I know she went through quite a bit with her burns.

Don Neyer: 5:25
You know, he was a life saver. He saved her life totally. She couldn’t have made it without him. Pulling her out of the car was totally on fire.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 5:33
Through the years, there have been various memorial services for the agents.

Joni Konstantelos: 5:37
Every year, the FBI Retired Agents Association on the death anniversary date of an agent. Someone will go and place a flag on the agent’s grave.

Amy Frederick: 5:52
Mary shared her thoughts about her father, Terry Hereford. She says she can remember sitting on his lap watching the Chicago Bears play football. Agent Hereford was a Vietnam veteran who received a Purple Heart. He was an FBI agent for three years before his death.

Mary Morgan: 6:07
He was a hero. I mean, he was very driven to do the right thing. That was my dad. That’s what I remember. That’s what all of us kind of have within ourselves that we got from him was this fierce feeling of needing to do the right thing always. I mean, my dad, you know, went to Vietnam. He has a Purple Heart. He went to serve his country. You know, he had this desire to do the right thing. He was beloved by the rest of the family, by my aunts. And he just had this charismatic way about him that was that people were drawn to.

Amy Frederick: 6:50
Joanie remembers her father, Mike Lynch, is a man who protected the family and enjoyed making homemade ice cream for his children. Agent Lynch served with the FBI for six years before his death.

Joni Konstantelos: 7:02
I felt different and a little bit weird because everyone most everyone had two parents and I didn’t. And as I got to be older and have children of my own, it hit me from all different angles, from my mom’s point of view, losing her husband and having to raise kids on her own. And from my dad’s point of view, I see my husband, you know, and how close he is to our girls. And I thought, my gosh, what you missed out on. And then as I see my own girls and at the age I was, I think, wow, that’s how old I was. And you guys have all these memories of your dad, and I don’t.

Amy Frederick: 7:45
Ross remembers the four agents as his friends.

Retired FBI Agent Ross Rice: 7:49
They were all wonderful guys. They were all people that if you knew them and this happened, you would want to sit down after work and have a beer with them or be involved with them socially, which I was with Mike. And it’s like losing a good friend. And it just is. Even talking about it today is difficult.

Amy Frederick: 8:22
While Phyllis was badly hurt, she survived the crash. Phyllis and her husband Don, were married for 63 years. Phyllis near died in 2016. They are now more than 100 members of the Neyer family.

Don Neyer: 8:34
My whole life was with her and the time I was an adult. We got married when he was 21 and I was 22, and so we had a lot of good time together and then accidentally separated us and all and strengthened our marriage. But it was just a quiet, traumatic thing. But it certainly didn’t do anything to diminish our love for each other.

Retired Firefighter Frank Lerner: 9:03
Everybody did such a good job and it’s hard to single out anybody at all. I mean, everybody had to know there was a job to be done. Everybody did their job. And at the end of the day. Folks that we could save got saved. I think there couldn’t have been a better group there.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 9:27
The Montgomery Fire Department and firefighters and paramedics from nearly a dozen other departments responded to the crash. Police departments from Montgomery and officers from other departments helped secure the accident scene.

Amy Frederick: 9:40
Lost in the crash were FBI agent and pilot. Terry Harford. Agent and co Pilot. Robert Connors. Agents Michael Lynch. And Charles Ellington.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 9:49
Terry Burnett HEREFORD was born in Pomona, California. Agent Hereford was a Vietnam War veteran of the US Army who had received a Purple Heart. He had served with the FBI for three years. Agent Terry Hereford was married with four children.

Amy Frederick: 10:03
Robert W Connors was born in Lima, Ohio. Special Agent Connors was a US Air Force veteran and had served with the FBI for four years. Robert Connors was married with four children.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 10:14
Michael James Lynch was born in Dayton, Ohio. Special Agent Lynch was a US Air Force veteran and he had served with the FBI for six years. Michael Lynch was married with four children.

Amy Frederick: 10:25
Charles Lawrence Ellington was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He served four years in the Marines. Agent Ellington entered the FBI in December 1979 and worked in Atlanta before transferring to Chicago, where he was assigned to white collar crimes. Charles Ellington was married with one daughter.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 10:42
Carl Henry Johnson. The accused embezzler was also killed in the crash. He left behind a wife and three children. Retired Chicago Police detective Patrick Daley, who was hired by Johnson’s lawyer to escort him to Ohio, was also killed in the crash.

Amy Frederick: 10:58
The FBI says the crash was an accident. Investigators say there were indications that the aircraft encountered altitude readout problems which may have caused it to fly at a low altitude. The secret location of the money may have died with Carl Henri Johnson that day. The FBI has never said where the missing money is. Johnson’s lawyer reportedly told his client to lead agents to the money and not disclose its location beforehand. While over the years, people have tried looking for the missing money, no one has ever reported finding it.

Matthew Vanderhorst: 11:31
Thank you for listening to Lost Heroes Missing Money. We leave you with thoughts from Joni Konstantopoulos and what she wants everyone to remember about law enforcement and officers everywhere.

Joni Konstantelos: 11:42
When law enforcement gets up and goes to work, they absolutely don’t know if they’re coming home. We need to honor them and acknowledge the sacrifice that they and their families make. These people are there when we need them. They’re the ones running into the buildings when everyone’s running out. And I just think that regardless of what’s going on in the world, we need to really remember that these are people, they’re heroes every day, and their families sacrifice a lot. It’s not an easy job. We need to just really be thankful.