On a summer day in June of 1989, the quiet of a Muskegon Heights, Michigan neighborhood was shattered by a brutal discovery. Inside her home, 48-year-old Linda Lou Herrera, a female of Hispanic descent, was found murdered. The gruesome scene revealed she had been shot once in the chest and stabbed fifteen times. Lying alongside her was the body of her 30-year-old daughter, Cynthia Lou Herrera Means, who had also been viciously attacked, suffering multiple stab wounds. The discovery was made by Linda's son, Celestino Dean Herrera, who, finding the house locked, had to cut through a screen to gain entry.
The immediate focus of the investigation fell upon Leon Means, Cynthia's estranged husband, who was an escaped prisoner at the time of the killings. Authorities quickly apprehended Means and charged him with two counts of murder. A handgun that had been fired once before it jammed was found concealed in a couch at the crime scene, seeming to point toward a violent struggle. However, the initial case against Means faltered, and in September of 1989, the murder charges were dropped due to a lack of sufficient evidence. Prosecutors hoped to build a stronger case while he served a lengthy sentence for his prison escape. For years, the double homicide remained officially unresolved, casting a long shadow over the family and the community. Celestino, the son and brother who found his mother and sister, lived under a cloud of suspicion that profoundly affected his life.
For over two decades, the case grew cold. Leon Means eventually served his time for the escape and other offenses and was released from prison in 2010. The families of Linda and Cynthia were left with unanswered questions and the pain of an unresolved tragedy. The break in the case finally came in 2014, when Means was arrested in connection with the murders of two other women. During the investigation into these new crimes, he confessed to the 1989 slayings of his estranged wife and mother-in-law. In 2015, Leon Means pleaded no contest to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Linda Lou Herrera and Cynthia Lou Herrera Means. Already serving a life sentence for the other murders he committed, he was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years for each of the 1989 killings, finally bringing a legal conclusion to a case that had haunted a family for more than a quarter of a century. The resolution, however, came at a high cost, with Linda's son expressing sorrow that two more women had to lose their lives before justice could be served for his mother and sister.
