In the fall of 1984, a sense of excitement was in the air in Louisville, Kentucky, as two teenage friends, Scott Christopher Nelson and Richard David Stephenson, both 17-year-old Caucasian students at Trinity High School, set out for a football game on the evening of Saturday, September 29th. Their journey, however, took a tragic and horrifying turn when they became lost and stopped at a Moby Dick restaurant to ask for directions.
It was there that they encountered two men, 24-year-old Victor Dewayne Taylor and 23-year-old George Ellis Wade, who offered to help them find the stadium in exchange for a ride.
Instead of guiding the two students to the football game, Taylor and Wade, both of whom had extensive criminal records, directed them to a secluded, empty lot behind an abandoned apartment building. There, the two teenagers were robbed, and their clothing was forcibly removed. They were then bound with their own socks, neckties, and strips of a towel. In a final, brutal act, both Scott Nelson and Richard Stephenson were shot in the head at point-blank range. There was also evidence to suggest that Nelson may have been sexually assaulted.
The bodies of the two high school students were discovered early the next morning, sparking a massive investigation that involved nearly every division of the local police force. Investigators were able to piece together the victims' movements and found witnesses who had seen the abduction at the restaurant. This led them to George Wade, who was brought in for questioning on October 3rd. While he initially denied any involvement, he later changed his story, implicating Victor Taylor as the one who made the decision to kill the boys.
Taylor was arrested the following day, and a search of his mother's home uncovered several items belonging to the victims, including Nelson's pants and both pairs of shoes. Both men were subsequently tried and convicted for the murders. George Wade was found guilty of two counts of murder, kidnapping, and first-degree robbery and was sentenced to life in prison. Victor Taylor was found guilty of two counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery, and one count of sodomy. He received a death sentence for the murder and kidnapping charges.
