S12 E1 - Seventeen - The Murder of Christa Lynne Ruth Ferree

In 1991, seventeen-year-old Christa Lynne Ruth Ferree, a Harper Creek High School junior from Battle Creek, Michigan, left home to visit someone she knew. She never came back.

Days later, Christa’s body was found hundreds of miles away near Clinton, Oklahoma. She had been strangled. Three teenagers — Thomas Eugene Krause II, John Seeley Loepke Jr., and Brad Trevor Warner — were convicted in her murder and originally sentenced to life without parole. Decades later, because they had been juveniles at the time of the crime, all three were resentenced to 40 to 60 years, reopening painful questions about punishment, rehabilitation, second chances, and the life Christa never got to live. 

This episode of Malice in the Mitten tells Christa’s story with care: who she was, how she is remembered, the betrayal that led to her death, the long road from Battle Creek to Oklahoma, and the legal aftermath that brought her case back into court nearly three decades later.

Listener note: Thank you to Jessica Elliott for suggesting Christa’s story and helping bring her name back into the light.

#MaliceInTheMitten #MichiganTrueCrime #ChristaFerree #BattleCreekMichigan #TrueCrimePodcast

Hosted and Produced by Tracy Preston, Featuring Christine Mulligan

Researched and written by Tracy Preston

Original music created exclusively for Malice in the Mitten by Tracy Preston

Original artwork by Todd Preston

Sources include WWMT News Channel 3 reporting on the 2019 resentencing’s, WBCK coverage of the Battle Creek murder case, MDOC OTIS records, the Harper Creek Educational Foundation Christa Ferree Scholarship Fund, Find a Grave memorial records, The Oklahoman April 1991 article excerpt, and Battle Creek Enquirer obituary/article clippings reviewed during research. Some archival newspaper records are subscription-limited; unsupported secondary retellings were treated as leads only and were not included as verified fact unless supported by additional sourcing.