The Mother of Manipulation: The Murder of John Parker
The town of Merrillville, Indiana sits in the northwestern corner of Indiana, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. With a population of about 30,000, the town still had a small town feel in the spring of 2003. The innocence of the town would be destroyed on the evening of April 17th, 2003. Thirty-three-year-old John Parker stopped at his business, J&J Industries, so his wife, who also worked for the company, could pick something up. Before they could leave, John was shot in the back of the head in the parking lot of their business.
Judy was born in August of 1969 in Texas. She grew up in poverty and without a father. In 1984, Judy married a man she met who was working in Texas. She was only fourteen years old, but her mother agreed to the marriage and signed off. By the time she was nineteen years old, Judy was a divorced mother with two young children, Christina and Daniel. She began selling vacuum cleaners when she met John Parker. John, also born in 1969, was born in Hammond Indiana. John had big ambitions and wanted to be rich. At only nineteen, he was already a top salesperson. John fell in love with Judy, and the two married in 1993 after she gave birth to his child in 1992. At this point, John and Judy opened J&J Industries.
John and Judy both worked hard and grew their business into a thriving industry. John became one of the number one vacuum distributers in the United States. He was a millionaire by the time he was thirty years old. John and Judy had another child in 1997 and bought a beautiful home in an upscale neighborhood. Judy seemed to have left behind the poverty and difficulty that defined her early life.
However, John and Judy’s marriage was not without problems. Many of the problems revolved around the two teenagers, Christina and Daniel, whom John treated as his own children. Christina was experimenting with drugs, alcohol, and boys in high school. Her younger brother was rebellious as well, taking a vehicle and knocking down mailboxes in the community at age twelve. John paid for the damage and tried his best to ensure his stepson stayed out of trouble. By all accounts, he seemed to be a loving husband and father who provided well for his family.
The problems with the teens put a strain on the marriage, however. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only stress on the marriage. At some point, John learned that his wife was having an affair with an employee of J&J Industries. Although John learned of the affair, he told family and close friends that he had no intention of divorcing his wife. In fact, he allegedly said, “It’s cheaper to keep her”. John was also in love with Judy and wanted to win back her affections.
On the night of April 17th, 2003, John was shot in the back of the head around ten o’clock at night in the parking lot of their business. The couple, who had gone to dinner for their tenth anniversary, did not even make it through dinner before their teenaged daughter, Christina, called her mother. Christina said that one of the younger girls left some homework in her father’s office at J&J industries. On the way home, John and Judy stopped by the office to get the homework. That is when John was fatally injured. His wallet had been taken, so the initial belief if that the motive was robbery.
Judy was not able to provide a description of the assailant and claimed she did not know who would have killed her husband. The police investigating the crime became suspicious of the robbery scenario, however, when they realized John had his $20,000 Rolex watch on at the time of the crime, which had not been taken. Furthermore, the office area is in a desolate area, not somewhere anyone would be lying in wait to rob someone… unless they knew he was coming.
The family of John Parker were in shock following the murder of John. On Monday following the crime, however, a Crowne Point High School resource officer notified the police that he had information that may be pertinent to the investigation. Approximately six months earlier, two teens living at a local halfway house had been flashing a large amount of cash months earlier. They had six thousand dollars that the teens said was given to them by Daniel Hicks, Judy’s teenaged son. The teens stated Daniel gave them the money because they promised to kill his stepfather, John Parker.
Although the resource officer notified the police immediately, Crowne Point Police failed to follow up on the alleged murder plot. However, when John Parker was actually murdered six months later, the resource officer came forward to the Merrillville Police Department. The two teenagers who had been paid by Daniel were interviewed. They had rock solid alibis and were eliminated as suspects in the actual murder. They had simply taken Daniel’s money and then cut off communication with him. They said they never had any intention of actually killing anyone, but they were simply ripping off Daniel Hicks.
The police were suspicious of Daniel Hicks, but they also felt that someone else had to be involved. A fifteen-year-old boy would not have had the money to pay someone six thousand dollars to kill John. The police believed that Judy may have financed the murder plot. John’s siblings also believed Judy must have been involved. Her suspected motive was money- if she divorced John, she’d probably get half of his three-million-dollar estate. If he died, however, she would get all of it plus 1.5 million in life insurance. The suspicions grew when Judy began a relationship and started living with the office manager of J&J Industries, the same man she had an affair with.
Daniel was brought in for questioning with his mother beside him. Detectives hoped that Judy would feel protective of her son and admit her role in the crime to protect him. However, she denied being involved in the crime. Daniel admitted to paying the boys six months earlier but stated that he had paid them to beat up John, not to kill him. He denied that his mother gave him the money. Daniel went on to say that John was abusive to him. He said his stepfather often hit him and threw him against walls. The cops had no choice but to release Judy, but Daniel was taken into custody. Daniel was also freed, however, when prosecutors realized that as a minor, his Miranda rights were waived by his mother. In Indiana, Judy could not sign away her son’s Miranda rights because she was also a suspect in the same crime. Both mother and son were free to go while the investigation continued.
John’s family was horrified and determined to see justice done. Judy filed a claim for the insurance money, but his family took legal action to challenge her right to the money. Judy still had the home and estate, as well as custody of the two young daughters John and Judy shared. Although it seemed clear who was behind the crime, it would take a few years before justice could be done.
Four years later, in 2007, Christina was now in her early twenties and married with two young children. Daniel was now nineteen and was living in Arizona with her biological father. Judy was living with her boyfriend in Michigan. In 2007, Christina’s husband was brought in by the police on a drug warrant. The cops talked to him about the murder of John Parker. The man said that his wife had told him that Daniel had drove to the business and shot their stepfather. He said that Christina shared that the murder plot was the idea of her mother, but she admitted to her husband that she had participated in the crime.
When Christina was brought in, she admitted to her role in the crime. She said that she had used her mother’s money to purchase the gun that was given to her brother. She admitted to making the phone call which brought Judy and John to the business that night, where she knew that her brother was waiting. Judy had given Daniel black clothing and instructed him and Christina to burn the clothing after the crime. Judy also told Daniel to take his wallet and make it seem like a robbery. She failed to tell him to take the Rolex, however.
Investigators then flew out to Arizona to interview Daniel Hicks. Daniel admitted that he was the one who killed John Parker. He said that Judy was the mastermind and had convinced him to kill John by alleging abuse by her husband. There is no evidence that John had abused Daniel or Judy. Daniel was now, four years later, angry with his mother and felt manipulated. Daniel and Christina were arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The prosecution made deals with Judy’s kids in exchange for their testimony against their mother. In 2008, with these witnesses secured, Judy Parker was arrested and charged with murder.
As the story would unfold, it would stun the community. Daniel and Christina shared details of the plot to kill John Parker, which began in June of 2003. According to the kids, Daniel had paid the two teenagers in Crown Point to kill John, but they had stolen the money and failed to complete the job. This was only after Judy had failed to kill John by poisoning his food. Christina admitted that she obtained the gun with Judy’s money for the crime and knew it was going to occur. Judy apparently tried again to hire a hitman, and once again was ripped off. Fed up with getting ripped off, Judy decided that she and her children would have to kill John themselves.
Before she could go to trial, Judy Parker arranged a deal for herself in which she plead guilty to murder and was sentenced to thirty-three years in prison. Daniel, the shooter, took a plea with the promise to testify against Judy. He was sentenced to twenty-three years. Christina plead guilty to assisting a criminal and was given a five-year sentence. John’s family was frustrated with the plea deals and felt the punishment did not fit the crime.
After serving around two years in prison, Christina was released in 2013. Later that year, she died of a drug overdose. Daniel, who showed remorse for his role, was paroled in 2017. He is said to live a quiet life with no contact with his mother. Judy was paroled in 2022. She served thirteen years in prison for plotting the murder of her husband- a man who was not only the father of her younger children but also a provider for her and the older kids. Judy was certainly the mother of manipulation.
References
Snapped Season 19 Episode 20 “Judy Parker”
John Parker Murder: Where are Judy Denise Parker, Daniel Lee Hicks, and Christina Hicks-Grabski Now? Update (thecinemaholic.com)