Hi-Fi Murders, April 22, 1974
*Trigger Warning: physical and sexual violence*
The Hi-Fi Shop was an audio store located at 2323 Washington Boulevard. On April 22, 1974, Dale Shelby Pierre and William Andrews entered the store at closing time while Keith Roberts waited outside. The three airmen from Hill Air Force Base had come to rob the store.
Stanley Walker and Michelle Ansley, store employees were quickly taken hostage. Courtney Naisbitt, who came to the store to talk with Walker, was also taken hostage. After Walker failed to come home, his father, Orren Walker, arrived to look for him. Carol Naisbitt also came to the store to look for her son. All five victims were taken to the basement where they were tortured.
Andrews forced the hostages to drink liquid Drano and Pierre raped Ansley. Pierre also shot each hostage because their deaths were taking too long. The men loaded a van with about $24,000 worth of equipment. The entire episode lasted about two hours.
The crime was discovered three hours later by Orren Walker’s wife and other son who came looking for him and Stanley. Ansley and Stanley Walker were dead when found. Carol Naisbitt died at St. Benedict’s Hospital. Courtney Naisbitt survived with serious and permanent brain damage. He was hospitalized for 266 days. Orren Walker survived with extensive burns around his mouth and face and with major ear damage from a pen that Pierre kicked through his eardrum.
Two teenage boys found a wallet and other personal belongings of the victims in a dumpster at Hill Air Force Base. Police arrived to gather the evidence. In hopes of identifying potential suspects, they closely watched the airmen who gathered nearby. Pierre and Andrews were both noticed in the crowd pacing, gesturing, and talking loudly. An Air Force officer who supervised the suspects also called in a tip to the Ogden Police Department. Pierre, Andrews, and Roberts were arrested and a search warrant issued for their barracks.
The three men were tried together for first degree murder and robbery. Naisbitt was unable to testify at the trial, but Walker provided key testimony. Because Roberts was in the van and not part of the murders, he was only convicted of robbery. He was sent to prison and paroled in 1987. Pierre and Andrews were found guilty on both counts and sentenced to the death penalty.
In prison Dale S. Pierre legally changed his name to Pierre Dale Selby and was put to death by lethal injection on August 28, 1987. Andrews faced death by lethal injection on July 30, 1992, after 18 years of appeals.
Michelle Ansley
Carol Naisbitt
Stanley Walker
Courtney Naisbitt