Episode 165: The Murder of Sharon Gregory
18-year-old Sharon Gregory was born and raised in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She was a freshman at Greenfield Community College with a major in psychology, and was very smart, kind and well-liked. She had a twin sister named Cheryl, who she adored.
For her psychology class, or even just for her personal interest, she was doing an evaluation and psychological profile on 19-year-old Mark Branch. Mark was a grocery clerk who was obsessed with horror movies, specifically the gore and violence within these movies. The clerk at Video Expo 1 in Greenfield stated “He rented strictly gore, period. The gorier, the better.” Mark had a special interest with the Friday the 13th movie series, a franchise of slasher films surrounding character Jason Voorhees who wore a hockey mask and stalked his victims.
Throughout his earlier teenage years, Mark had terrified and repulsed his female classmates. He had written them obscene notes, was very creepy towards them and at one point his behavior had escalated and he had pulled a knife on a female classmate. He had required extensive psychiatric care at a program for children with behavioral issues, and leading up to his stay he had been harming and killing small animals.
On October 24th, 1988, Mark put on a pair of black boots and a hockey mask to resemble Jason and started heading over to Sharon’s apartment. Sharon’s twin sister found her body in the upstairs bathroom when she later went to check on her. Sharon had been stabbed multiple times in her head, neck and chest. Cheryl was able to tell police that they needed to look into someone Sharon knew named Mark, who she said had made her uncomfortable just by looking at her. A neighbor verified that someone fitting Mark’s description had been at the home for just a few minutes that night.
Within days, tips came in regarding Mark and how he could have been involved with the murder given what was known about him around town. Police searched his apartment and they found a set up, almost a shrine, dedicated to gore and horror with multiple items relating to Jason Voorhees. They reportedly recovered 75 slasher films, 64 killer-related books, 12 hockey masks, 3 knives, and a machete. The psychological profile that Sharon wrote on Mark was never found.
Police received another tip from someone who reported that they believed they had found Mark’s car, abandoned 13 miles outside of Greenfield in nearby Buckland. Police arrived and found that the car had blood on the front seat and front console, sparking a massive manhunt. After several days when Mark still wasn’t found, and with Halloween quickly approaching, the rest of the town was on edge and terrified. Media coverage only fueled the fear in the town, with the parade and annual events downtown being canceled and trick-or-treating moved to daylight hours at the insistence of concerned parents. Halloween came and went without incident, but Mark was still out there. Multiple sightings were reported from surrounding areas.
Over a month after Sharon’s murder, on November 28th, police received a tip from a local hunter who was hunting deer just several days after the start of the season. He had found Mark’s body in the woods hanging from his belt and shoelaces from a pine tree. His death was tentatively ruled a suicide, and the medical examiner determined that his death had taken place shortly after he murdered Sharon.
The media did not let up about the angle of Mark’s horror movie obsession and the Friday the 13th aspect, and local newspapers even petitioned the courts to release documents about the murder, evidence taken from Mark’s home and the crime scene. They luckily were not successful.
Image sources:
findagrave.com - “Sharon Marie Gregory”