Murder by nature

The Gee Family Massacre

• Jazmin Hernandez • Season 1 • Episode 9

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Intro

“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases!. I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!


Thank them for listening and being a part of this community.

References: 

The Gee Family

Our story begins in 2009 but let's jump back a few to get a good idea of who the Gee family was. Raymond “Rick” Gee was born in Decatur, GA, on Feb 27th, 1963. Ruth Ann Constant was born Sept. 11, 1970, in Lincoln to Dean Edward and Frances Everhart Constant. The family would become a large, blended family with Rick’s three children from a previous relationship and Ruth Ann’s children, Justina and Dillen Constant. Friends would say the Gee family was the real-life Brady brunch. In 1997 Rick and Ruth Ann got married in Beason, IL.  Together, they welcomed a son Austin in 1998 and a daughter named Jessica, and they would complete their family in 2006 with the birth of their daughter Tabitha. Unfortunately, Jessica suffered from a severe brain injury resulting in profound disabilities. She was eventually put into DCFS custody and admitted to a long-term care facility as a state ward. As the years passed, Nicole Rick’s eldest daughter would marry a man named Christopher Harris, and they would welcome a daughter in 1990. The couple would develop a toxic relationship on and off marriage, but the pair would work through it and welcome their son in 2009. The now grandparents were excited to welcome their grandchildren into the family and continue to grow. 




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Intro

“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases!. I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!


Thank them for listening and being a part of this community.

References: 



The Gee Family


Our story begins in 2009 but let's jump back a few to get a good idea of who the Gee family was. 


Raymond “Rick” Gee was born in Decatur, GA, on Feb 27th, 1963. Ruth Ann Constant was born Sept. 11, 1970, in Lincoln to Dean Edward and Frances Everhart Constant. 


The family would become a large, blended family with Rick’s three children from a previous relationship and Ruth Ann’s children, Justina and Dillen Constant. Friends would say the Gee family was the real-life Brady brunch. In 1997 Rick and Ruth Ann got married in Beason, IL.  Together, they welcomed a son Austin in 1998 and a daughter named Jessica, and they would complete their family in 2006 with the birth of their daughter Tabitha. 


Unfortunately, Jessica suffered from a severe brain injury resulting in profound disabilities. She was eventually put into DCFS custody and admitted to a long-term care facility as a state ward.


As the years passed, Nicole Rick’s eldest daughter would marry a man named Christopher Harris, and they would welcome a daughter in 1990. The couple would develop a toxic relationship on and off marriage, but the pair would work through it and welcome their son in 2009. 


The now grandparents were excited to welcome their grandchildren into the family and continue to grow. 


The Case


On September 21st, 2009, Rick’s stepfather went to check on the family after Rick failed to show up for work. He didn’t know that he was about to uncover a tragic case. Quickly after seeing the devasting scene, he called 911. Police and emergency medical services arrived at the Gee home in Beason, Illinois, to find five family members dead in a gruesome attack that would haunt law enforcement for years. Rick, age 46, Ruth Ann, age 39, Justina, age 16, Dillen, age 14, and Austin, age 11, had all been beaten to death in their family home. Three-year-old Tabitha was found severely injured with a fractured skull and arm. She was airlifted to a hospital in Peoria, Illinois, and placed under protective custody. With no suspects and no motive, people had no idea what they walked into. 


Nicole leaving work drives by her parent's house to see the scene unfolding. When she approaches the house, officers quickly tell her that has happened. Nicole rushes to the hospital to be with her sister, uncertain if she will be okay. 


Police quickly interview Nicole. She was the only family member not harmed and was not in the area at the time of the attacks. Nicole is in shock that they would think she would do this to her family. 


As the day continued, police urged their community to lock their doors and be alert to their surroundings. Benson Il is a small town of about 430 people and about 117 families in the area. This was a town where everyone knew everyone, and after such a brutal attack, the community was unsure who to trust. 


As the police looked into suspects they had to narrow down who the family was and who would want to hurt them. Rick owned his own construction company. Ruth Ann was a stay-at-home mother. The family had no known enemies in the town or surrounding towns and the kids were normal kids. Justina was a typical sixteen-year-old starting high school and beginning to date boys. Austin was a typical eleven-year-old who loves sports. Dillen was a wrestler for his middle school team there was some suspicion on Dillen as he was a little frustrated at time. Friends recall that Dillan would stay in his room and play video games most the day and have very little interaction with the family besides some children obsessed with video games there was no motive to kill the family. 


Police started to interview neigbors to see if anyone had seen anything the night of the murder or anyone area the area. One neigbhor recalled seeing a pick up truck with exhaust pipes out the back around 12 am that morning driving down the street. He remember this as it was strange to him for a truck that was not in the area to be riding around the streets that late at night.  The police quickly followed up on this lead and the many other that flowed into the tip lines from all around the world. Unfortunately there was no truck in a 200 mile radius that the police could locate. 


On Sept 28th, 2009 the Gee family was laid to rest. Relatives spoke at the funeral service and remembered the family as warm and welcoming. They said Rick Gee was mild-mannered and had a big heart. Nearly 500 people gathered to remember the family at funeral services in Mount Pulaski.


As the police were searching for the murderer they had an office watching over Tabitha. Nicole stayed with her sister night and day to ensure she was okay and watch the progress that was happening with her sister. One day as an officer was leaving the hospital they rode down the elevator with Nicoles husband Christopher. When watching Christophers body langauge they noticed that his shoes match a shoe print left at the crimes and his truck was similar to the one that was seeing leaving the house that night. 


Police bring Christopher Harris in for questioning, they search his home and truck but notice that even thought there was similarities within the shoes it was not an exact match to the ones at the crime scene. As police contiuned to search for the suspects they could not shake the fact that Christophers truck, and shoes were all similar to the ones at the scene of the crime. 


10 days after the murders of the Gee family the police search the property of Christopher and Jason Harris several times and seize the pickup. On October 1st, 2009, thirty-year-old Christopher Harris was arrested and charged with five counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and several other charges in relation to the Gee family murders. Christopher had been living up the street from the Gee family with his ex-wife, Nicole Gee, who is the daughter of Rick at the time of the murders. Many people were in disbelief following the arrest. “He didn’t do it. The family is trying to hire a lawyer from Chicago because he didn’t do this” said Jennifer Earnest, the girlfriend of Chris’s brother Jason. Nicole Gee also supported Christopher posting “All this is such a mess and its not right at all. Now not only has my children lost 5 very close family members but their daddy is being set up and taken away this is too much” on her MySpace page truly believing that her husband was innocent and the police had made a mistake in the case.


 It wasn’t very long before others were also arrested including Jason Harris, Jennifer Earnest, and Jennifer’s mother Sara Duncan. The three were charged with obstructing justice in the murder investgation of the Gee family. The following day Jason Harris was also charged with murder and attempted murder. 


On October 28th, the Harris brothers were charged with more than 50 counts including murder, attempted murder, home-invasion, residential robbery, and criminal sexual assault. Jennifer and Sara were accused of providing false alibis, burning clothing, concealing a laptop computer, and lying to police. 


 The case against the Harris family started to mount. Police were able to locate numerous articles of evidence to use against the brothers in court and have a die hard case to put the brothers in jail for the murders. The evidence found was a tube of antibiotic ointment found on Nicole Gee’s table as well as stained tennis shoes and a tire iron found near Jason’s home were collected and sent for DNA analysis. The shoes confiscated from the Harris brothers matched bloody footprints at the scene. Bloody handprints at the scene matched Christopher Harris. A laptop computer was also found that belonged to Rick Gee. 


Jason Harris told investigators that he and Chris were out drinking, smoking weed, and doing lines of cocaine the night of the crime. He said they had tried, without success, to hook up with some girls his brother knew. At that point, they decided to go the Gee family home. The reason for going to the Gee home, according to Jason, was to talk to and possibly hook up with Justina Constant. Jason later stated they went to the home to buy weed from Rick Constant and to steal a computer. 


As the time passed awaiting the murder trials of Christopher and Jason Harris, the town of Beason had to move forward. Tabitha Gee recovered from her injuries and was placed in foster care pending a custody case between her grandmother and DCFS. The tiny town of Beason pulled together to cope with this tragedy and find peace once again in their community. The town constructed a playground to honor the children and entitled it the Gee-Constant Memorial Playground 




Trial


During the trial Christopher testified that he and his brother, Jason Harris, drank, smoked marijuana and used cocaine during a long night that ended with the slayings. He testified that the two went to the Gees' home to buy more marijuana. When he walked into the house he saw 46-year-old Rick, 39-year-old Ruth and 11-year-old Austin Gee all badly hurt or dead. He said he then fought Dillen. But Jason Harris testified that he believed they went to the family's home that night because his brother wanted to have sex with Ruth Gee's 16-year-old daughter, Justina Constant. Jason Harris, testified that he stayed outside the house but said he heard a woman scream like something from "a horror film" and thuds like the sound of a bowling ball hitting the floor. He said he saw his brother hit Dillen with the tire iron and that his sibling admitted he'd killed the rest of the family, saying: "I (messed) up. I killed them all."


Jason Harris initially lied to police, and helped his brother burn bloody clothes and dispose of the tire iron and other evidence. Jason Harris was at one point charged with murder but agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges that, with time served and good behavior, could see him freed from prison in six years of being commited. 


Christopher’s defense team had a whole other theory to what had happened that night.  Christopher stated that he was at the Gee home around the time of the murders but his story was different than the one his brother shared. Chris claimed that the brothers had gone to his former in-laws home in hopes of getting more marijuana.  Apparently it could be proven that the Gee's would have likely had some.  Christopher claims that when they got there, Jason stayed outside. However, Christopher claims that when he entered the house he saw Rick Gee laying face down in the hallway.  He said a tire iron was laying next to him.  He would say that after being startled at the scene he was confronted by Dillen Constant who had a knife and began attacking him. He said he picked up the tire iron to defend himself.  Just as Jason would claim the fight went out into the yard for a bit before ending inside the home.  Christopher would claim that the only person he killed was Dillen and that Dillen had killed the others.  


 The defense team brought a ton of evidence to help back up the story that Dillin could do this.  Dillen had some major issues it appeared.  He had several incidents in his school over the last few years that had caused a lot of problems.  He had been in trouble with fighting, slashing seats on a school bus and even once was quoted as saying "I can't wait until this stupid school blows up" after failing a test.  The defense had a "video game expert" testify that the games Dillen played were violent and "could have" contributed to his attitude but was forced to stop short of saying he had the mind set and ability to commit these crimes.  In 2007 Ruth had apparently told a therapist that Dillen was seeing that she feared he would hurt himself or someone else.  Around the same time Rick's mother, Judy, claims that Rick told her "if they didn't get Dillen under control they would all wake up dead one day."  Now, neither of these two statements were allowed to be entered into the trial considering they were more than two years before the murders.  It was something the defense would appeal on but the courts would uphold.  However, since they could not use those statements they used the school records and some of Dillen's medical doctors claiming that he had been diagnosed with ADD and had been prescribed medication but at the time of the murders was no longer taking it, and hadn't in some time.  


 The biggest thing that Christopher had to answer to was if his story was true that he walked in on Dillen killing the family and he then killed Dillen defending himself why did he not call the police?  Christopher would simply claim that he did not want to have to explain himself and that he had taken the laptop on the chance there was a camera for the same reason.  The other big question was why did he not look for and attempt to help three year old Tabitha?  While the community was obviously upset over the five murders themselves, the attack on a three year old who had struggled to survive was almost even harder to comprehend.  Christopher had no real answers for this.  


The defense had a few other things going for them, such as the fact that Christopher did not apparently have any wounds on his body after the murders. This was also something that Nichole had pointed out early on in her MySpace status.  At the very least it was common knowledge that Dillen had struggled but authorities would claim that all of the victims, including little Tabitha, had defense wounds indicating that they had fought for their lives.  In fact, the police had announced initially that they were looking for that gray truck with someone who had injuries.  The defense would argue that the house was very little and just the hallway that Rick Gee was found in was only three feet wide and that it would be nearly impossible to not have any injuries after killing him, let alone four other people and attacking another.  One other interesting thing that helped the defense was that apparently Rick Gee had DNA under his nail that belonged to Dillen and not Christopher.  The prosecution would point out that this was not uncommon since they lived in the home together and would attempt to argue that Dillen had no scratches on him.  The prosecution would ultimately have to admit that the things about Dillen's behavior that were allowed admitted into the trial were accurate but attempted to dismiss them as "horseplay" or "the acts of an immature boy looking for attention." 


Christopher Harris was convicted on all five count of murder and recieved five consecutive life terms. Chris admitted killing Dillen Constant, but claimed he did so in self-defense after discovering the 14-year-old boy slaughtering his own family. Chris continued to maintain his innocence throughout the trial and the sentencing he recieved. Chris stated "I made a lot of stupid, stupid decisions that night but I did not commit this crime, and that's all I have to say," 


Judge Scott Drazewski, who before the sentencing denied Chris' motion for a new trial, not only imposed the five consecutive life sentences, but added a total of 80 years in prison for first-degree murder, armed robbery and home invasion. Because of the charges, the only sentence that the judge could have imposed was life in prison. Tabitha Gee, who was 3 years old when she was beaten and survived the attack, said through a statement that was read in court, "I am 7 and it still breaks my heart and I wish you were dead and my brothers and sister and Mommy and Daddy were alive," 


Nicole Gee, stated in a letter that was read in court that she had changed the name of their' son, who was born a short time before the killings, and vowed that she would never tell Chris what the boy's name is.


During the trial, Chris’s' own brother testified against him, describing the sickening sound as Chris pummeled his former mother-in-law and her family with a tire iron.


Jason Harris’s murder charge was dropped as part of his plea arrangement. He pled guilty to concealment of homicide, delivery of a controlled substance, and obstruction of justice. He received twenty years in prison for his role in the murders with credit for time served. In September 2013, Jennifer Earnest pled guilty to obstructing justice and was sentenced to 24 months of probation, 120 days in Logan County Jail, $1,000 fine, and 100 hours of community service  Sara Duncan was given 24 months of probation and a $2,500 fine for her obstruction of justice charge.


Conclusion


Firefighters have burned down the home where five members of a Logan County family were beaten to death in 2009. Ten members of the Beason Fire Department set the small, white, one-story house ablaze. Rick and Ruth Gee and three of their children were killed by Christopher Harris, Rick’s former son-in-law. The Beason Fire chief said the Gee family asked him for help demolishing the house. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency signed off on the plan in 2014. 


My Thoughts


Outro

That brings us to the end of this episode!  As always, thanks for listening to Murder By Nature. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any streaming platform you are currently on, and be sure to come back Saturday for our new episode. Until then, I am your host, Jazmin Hernandez, don’t forget to stay safe! don’t get murdered or murder people, you lovely humans!




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Jazmin Hernandez

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