Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content that may not be suitable for all audiences.
Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host Mark Covey and I'm Courtney and this is Mountain
State Mysteries.
The case we have for you today is about two co-workers who were found stabbed to death at
a mall in Virginia in November of 1996. This is the case of Cheryl Edwards and Charlida Singleton.
Charlida was born in Richmond, Virginia, but she mostly grew up in Delaware. After high school,
Charlida went to complete several business courses as a step into her new life. She married a man
named David in Delaware in 1978 and the two went to have six kids together, three boys and three
girls. In 1988, eight years before the murders, Charlida and her family moved back to Richmond.
David said that Charlida had a passion for jazz and running. He also said that she was a lot of fun
to be around. David and Charlida were in the middle of renovating their home into their dream home.
Despite the amount of effort it took to be involved in such a big project like that,
they somehow managed to do it while raising their six kids and both managing a full-time job.
Charlida was the assistant manager of All For One, a dollar store at the Clover Leaf Mall. It was at
this dollar store where Charlida would meet Cheryl Edwards. Cheryl was a cashier at All For One in a
school crossing guard. The two jobs were a mess for her. She was supporting herself and her son.
With our research, we noticed that little was known about Cheryl's life, but we didn't know
she lived near Richmond, not too far from the All For One. It's said that she was a great mother
and that she was actually close with her mother who would watch her son while he was in school.
From our research, we aren't sure what the relationship was like, but we take it that
Charlida and Cheryl were strictly co-workers. We have heard they had a really good working
relationship. The Clover Leaf Mall opened in 1972 and it was the first regional mall in the area.
It has stores like JCPenney's. I know I could name off so many other stores and it would be a
walk down memory lane for people. Like most malls, the atmosphere started to go downhill.
There was a major shoplifting problem, drug and alcohol violations. Auto thefts, most of the
troubled seemed to come from teens who would hang out and end up causing the trouble. So the mall
emptied up patrol in the area. Off-duty police officers were hired to patrol the parking lots
and in all honesty, management felt like they were seeing an improvement.
On November 7th, 1996, Charlida and Cheryl were scheduled to work the closing shift. The store
closed at 9 p.m. but they did the closing duties. They left the store around 10 p.m. That night,
Cheryl's mom, Robin, was watching her son. Robin actually lived in a retirement community
and he was staying with her until Cheryl came to pick him up. By 1130, Robin began to grow concerned.
Robin, along with one of Cheryl's brothers, headed to the mall to see if they could find Cheryl.
When they got to the mall, it was around midnight. They both saw Cheryl's pony at Greenpreet in the
parking lot. Charlida's car was parked right next to Cheryl's. Robin thought that maybe they were
just in the store doing inventory. She thought that maybe she just forgot to tell her. So what
her and her son did was walk to the back of the mall to the security door and explain what was
going on to the officer who was working. The officer looked him inside and they all walked to the
all-for-one store. They all saw that the gate was down in front of the store. It's one of those
gates that every mall has. It comes down from the ceiling but you can still see through it. They saw
that every light in the store was on but one in the back of the store. The store was eerily quiet
so Robin called out for Cheryl but she was met with silence. After waiting for a couple of hours,
Robin called other family members to come to the mall so they could help search for Cheryl.
They would even search a wooded area near the mall. Her family even went to a nearby nightclub
to see if she was there. When they found out she wasn't there around 4 a.m. they went back to the
mall and called the police to report the situation. Around the time they contacted the police,
Charlida's husband David arrived. From her research, it sounded like David fell asleep
and woke up in the middle of the night and realized that Charlida never made it home.
Which caused him to drive to the mall once police made it to the scene. Robin, David,
and a Chesterfield police officer walked together to the rear door of the all-for-one store. When
they got to the door they realized that it was unlocked. When the officer opened the door to
walk inside, David called a glimpse of disorder. When the officer stepped back out after a few
minutes inside, he told Robin and David that everything was okay. Charlida and Cheryl weren't
inside. He basically encouraged them both to go home. Robin and David found out later that
Cheryl and Charlida were inside and that they both been murdered. Do you find yourself searching for
a true crime podcast focused on West Virginia? Well, I have you covered. I'm Mark Covey,
the host and creator of Mountain State Mysteries, where every Friday my co-host Courtney and I
tell you about one of West Virginia's coldest unsolved cases. Tune into Mountain State Mysteries
on your favorite podcast platform. Both Charlida and Cheryl sustained more than 10 stab wounds
and cuts to their neck, chest, back, and head. However, the exact number of wounds has never
been shared. They both had wounds on their hands and arms, showing that they fought their attacker,
which is natural to do. You're going to defend yourself when someone is attacking you. Police
said they were stabbed with a knife, but never said what type of knife it was. It was apparent to
police that a struggle took place. The store safe was found open. It was missing between $1,000 to
$1,500. Other than the cash, the murderer took nothing from the women. Their wallets, checkbooks,
and jewelry were all left behind. It's never been made clear if robbery was the killer's primary motive.
The police actually pointed out that the murders in particular, that the fact that Cheryl and
Charlida were stabbed multiple times, which sometimes indicates there is a personal motive,
but it also shows that the killer could have been scared and wanted to make sure the two were dead.
The police actually explored a few possibilities of how the killer could have gotten into the
store. They did learn that the rear door was double bolted and you needed a key to both open
and close the door. None of the keys were missing and there was no key left in the lock. Since Charlida
was the assistant manager, she was more than likely had the keys on her or would have been responsible for them.
The police said there was no sign to force entry, which the killer could have used intimidation to
get in the store. Police thought it was more than likely that the killer approached the women as
they were leaving out the back door. It's also possible that one of the women let the killer in,
but given the time of night, it's honestly unlikely they would have opened the door for anyone
unless they were expecting that person. So one of the possible clues that police couldn't make
sense of was a spealed 28 ounce bottle of Parsons Ammonia. Police actually found the Ammonia in
the hallway between the back door and the office where the women were murdered. They found out
that the Parsons brand Ammonia wasn't sold at any of the stores in the mall and that the mall's
cleaning staff didn't use it in that ounce. So police focused on this detail for a while.
They sent out a nationwide notice asking if anyone had seen this type of Ammonia or something like
it at a crime scene, but this lead was a dead end. They were never able to connect the Ammonia to
another crime scene. At the time of the murders, the Clever Leaf Mall was equipped with various
surveillance cameras. The police reviewed the footage to identify anyone who was seen walking
or driving in the parking lot around the time of the murders. However, there was no direct view of
the rear door to the all for one store. Police were actually able to track down a lot of the people
that they saw in the footage. They said it was unbelievable how many people they actually identified,
but after meeting with each person, none of them seemed to be the suspect. Out of everyone,
they were able to track down. There was one man who wanted to be questioned as a possible witness.
In an article from the Richmond Daily Times, Dispatch, it said that there was a composite
sketch that was developed and sent out shortly after the murders. Court, I put the sketch in your
document. Can you describe it for everyone listening? So it shows a white male with dark hair and eyes.
His eyebrows are pretty close together, kind of forming a unibrow. His nose is pretty large.
He don't have a top lip, and he has a really bad receding hair line. Oh, he does his hair like
really swoops down. It's like his eye, it has like the way the pictures show him like. His eyes are kind of
it would be his right eye. If he saw him in person, it's like different than his left eye. Yeah,
like the left eye is sloped a little. Yeah. So the sketch is pretty detailed. How could someone
talk about a unibrow if they didn't get a good look at this man? But yet again, we aren't sure if
this man had anything to do with the murders or not. There was a camera in the all for one store
that was actually in a prime spot. It actually faced the hallway, so the killer could have been
called on camera. However, the tape in the camera hadn't been changed in like a month, and the hallway
lights were off. The investigation led to a lot of dead ends. Investigators attempted to recreate
what might have happened. They've been played out every scenario. They sit in the parking lot
after the mile closed to get a sense of what the area was like at that hour. They wanted to know
how any kind of activity could have been expected. Despite all of their efforts, they made little to
no headway. At times, they actually wondered if the killer was from out of town. The mall was so
close to the interstate, so it makes sense that someone could have gotten off of the interstate,
committed the murders, and then hop back on. Do you find yourself searching for a true crime
podcast focused on West Virginia? Well, I have you covered. I'm Mark Covey, the host and creator
of Mountain State Mysteries, where every Friday, my cohost Courtney and I tell you about one of
West Virginia's coldest unsolved cases. Tune into Mountain State Mysteries on your favorite podcast
platform. Lieutenant Andy Scruggs told the Richmond Daily Times Dispatch in 1997 that they
considered the killer, quote, could have been someone passing through looking for money and
happened to see two people coming out of the store at night. And God knows where they are now.
Why did he have to kill them both? I don't know. Especially if it's a drifter. What are the chances
of him getting caught if he doesn't stay in the area? End quote. I mean, does this make any sense?
It's kind of. To me, the killer would have to be super close to the back door to even know where
the back door was. I mean, even at our local mall, I barely know where the back doors are at the mall.
Like I just drive by and I don't pay any attention. But with this being unplanned,
if the person was from out of town or not, they would have to know how this worked.
They would have had to be walking around that part of the mall. Both families were to get more
attention on the murders. Along with police, they approached various programs and solve mysteries.
America's most wanted just to have their murders featured in an episode, but they were unsuccessful
and that's really disappointing because we both know how hard it is to get coverage on a case,
especially one like that. It just seems to be so cold at the time. The investigation turned into
an examination of Charlida and Cheryl's backgrounds. They wanted to see if someone wanted to kill one
of the women and disguise it as robbery. Like this had to be explored. Just like any other case,
you'd want to investigate that theory. But with how brutal the murders were, it seemed like it was
necessary to learn if there was anyone in either of their lives who had motive to kill them.
Basically, the further investigation scot, the clearer it became that no one was out to get them.
Cheryl and Charlida both lived pretty normal lives, going to work, spending time with their
families, taking care of their children, none of which included developing enemies.
Neither Charlida or Cheryl mentioned having any issues whatsoever with customers. No threats or
really anything like that. There was basically no warning signs coming from them that someone could
be casing the store at any point before the murders, which this doesn't mean someone could have been
doing that without causing any attention to themselves. So I kind of want to backtrack to the
robbery motive. So from what I can tell from my research, a lot of the employees at the mall
were kind of shocked and they honestly wondered why someone would target the dollar store out of
all the stores in the mall. Like this was a store where if you bought five items, you'd be paying
five dollars and some sale tax. It's not like you're at JCPenney's buying a dress or a suit,
spending hundreds of dollars. So it's been hard to figure out why someone would rob and kill two
women for a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars when you could have got more from any other store.
Some even wonder if the killer could have been a former employee at the all-for-one store who was
familiar with the store and knew where everything in the back was and they could have been familiar
with Charlida or even Cheryl. For instance, thank you Cheryl and Charlida as Nellie ran for a second.
She was killed because she could have confessed and told the cops who killed Ray. So who's to say
if Cheryl and Charlida knew the killer that they were only killed because the killer knew
they would confess to the cops and the killer would have been caught with the robbery.
During my research, I couldn't find if all of the former employees of the all-for-one store
were investigated. I would like to think they were because it seems like a good possibility to me.
To be honest, we aren't a hundred percent sure if the killer was even a male. In all of the articles,
I've seen the police just referred to the killer as a he. It also wasn't clear if they thought it was
one person or multiple people who committed this crime. In 2011, the Clever Lake Mall was demolished.
It was already having issues and started to get downhill before the murders. They just added more
to the uneasy feeling in customers and employees. You can look at it like the Nell in the coffin for the mall.
After the mall was demolished, the site became a combination of stores, restaurants, offices,
and apartments. And it's now called the Stonebridge Shopping Center. In 2019,
Cheryl's niece, who was 14 at the time of the murders, said, quote,
You can dress it up and make it new, but they'll never forget the tragedy that occurred there,
end quote. As of today, the murders of Cheryl Edwards and Carlita Singleton are still in salt.
If you or anyone you know has any information on the murders of Charlita Singleton and Cheryl Edwards,
please contact the Chesterfield County Police Department at 804-748-1251.
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Thank you.
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