Free Billy Scott

It’s hard to understand why corruption within our law enforcement happens as well as in our local judicial systems. Especially in the year 2023. Cameras and recording devices are everywhere.

It’s hard to believe there are so many cold cases and wrongful convictions when our technology and abilities are at an all-time high, but yet it happens. This is the Murder of Lisa Buckley and the wrongful conviction of Billy Scott.

It was July 4th, 1990 and a large group of friends attended a Motley Crue and Tesla concert. After an amazing show, the group of friends began to kick around the idea of throwing a party. These young people began planning their party. One member of the friend group, Don Sutton gained permission from a property owner by a lake to hold t he party.

The owner of the land had some simple rules, no trouble, no underage partygoers and they must clean up their mess.

July 7th, 1990, the party took place Billy Scott attended with his fiancé Jena. Billy would park his truck at an entrance to the party area and provide the music from his truck stereo, Billy would also assist with checking IDs at the gate. The party went on without an issue, music, people throwing a football and frisbees, drinking beer, and overall having a great time.

Another party-goer, Lisa Buckley arrived with her friend Chelsi. Chelsi drove Lisa and herself. Lisa Buckley hung around Billy’s truck near the music as Billy was playing Tesla and of course, everyone was still on a concert high.

Lisa hung around on the hood of Billy’s truck, she had a fifth of vodka and was drinking straight from the bottle. Billy’s brother David arrived with his girlfriend, according to a letter written by Billy, one of Lisa’s friends, Missy collected money from partygoers to go buy snacks since everyone had been drinking heavily.

At one point, Billy sat on the truck bumper eating snacks, with his fiancé Jena and Lisa Buckley. 

This information comes directly from Billy Scott. It’s a handwritten statement of facts.  And there are others that back his statements up about that night… 

Back to the party, Billy and his friends are having snacks, and drinking, and at one point Lisa Buckley had recently ended a dating situation with Don Sutton and told her friends she was going to meet with Don Sutton, she had a blanket. 

Lisa was afraid that the Johnson family would try to come to this party. 

Lisa Buckley had a volatile relationship with the Johnson family. She had dated Ronnie and he was extremely abusive, Lisa wore many bruises as a result of her relationship with Ronnie.  She had also dated another of the Johnsons as well. The Johnson family had been involved in many violent situations with Lisa. 

Where we are right now in this story is in July of 1990, but there were incidents that occurred in May of 1990 between her and the Johnsons. 

Lisa had been beaten by Ronnie at one point and being friends with the Scott’s, she went to them. David Scott made a special trip to the Johnsons and basically threatened them to leave Lisa alone. Fast forward, there is an incident with with several Johnsons and Billy. They attack him with a lawn mower blade.

Lisa was there with her friend Chelsi and as they tried to drive away one of the female Johnsons attempted to open the door and pull Lisa out of the car. Lisa locked the door and the female Johnson kicked the car. 

This information comes directly from a handwritten statement. Lisa Buckley herself wrote this statement of facts for the police. Nothing was done, no arrests were made, etc. 

In another incident, a female from the Johnson family ran over Lisa in a parking lot. She was stopped by police but released. No formal charges regarding this incident.

Basically leading up to the party there seems to be a lot of anger and violence directed towards Lisa Buckley and also the Scott brothers as they stood up for her. 

Sounds like motive, but let’s get back to the party…

Lisa goes off on her own and Billy, who has a camera is taking pictures and enjoying the party. He hands the camera off to his fiance Jena as well. Billy wrote in his written statement that he was with his brother David, some friends he calls the Melody Brothers a few other guys. They were shooting bottle rockets at each other and he ran down in front of a few parked cars near the lake when someone pushed him from behind and he fell in the water. 

Billy stated this was around 9 pm he went back into the crowd, obviously wet. He took more pictures and then went back to shooting bottle rockets. Around 11:30 pm a fight breaks out between two male partygoers, Billy helps others to break that fight up. Once the fight is broken up and calm, Billy goes back to his truck and he sees Ronnie Johnson. Ronnie asks Billy if he’s seen Lisa. 

This took place a little after midnight.

By 2:30 a.m. Billy wrote in his letter that an older couple brought a portable stove and the few that remained at the party cooked hot dogs and marshmallows. Those that remained were the older couple, Billy and his fiance, Don Sutton, and Missy Longmire, all of these people stayed the night at the party site by the lake. 

Billy and his fiancé Jena slept in the back of his truck. They woke around 8 a.m. and helped pick up trash and beer cans with Don Sutton. Billy and Don decide they will come back later in the day around noon or 1 pm to swim.

They went home and had something to eat and Billy and Jena arrived back at the lake with Billy’s dog.   

Don was not there. 

 The gate was locked, so Jena and Billy went back into town to look for Don. They finally bumped into him around 1 p.m. and followed him back to the lake. They enjoyed an afternoon of swimming and drinking. Billy’s brother David arrived with his girlfriend Cindy as well as several others. Billy’s dog was a Rottweiler and was in the water swimming with everyone, but once Billy and another were wrestling around in the water his dog thought he was getting hurt and accidentally bit Billy. 

Billy got out of the water and went with a friend named Bruce to clean up his arm. He came back to the water with a bandaged arm. They jumped back in with inner tubes  and several in the group decided to swim to the middle of the lake. This is quite a distance, but Billy’s dog was tied to a picnic table. 

After some time Jena noticed their dog jumping around trying to get unhooked because he saw a man walking a dog. Fearing that the dog would get loose and attack the other person’s dog.

Billy started to swim back with a friend named Jerry. Swimming fast, Billy ended up with cramps in his foot. So he took another shorter route and Jerry came along. As they were walking along the bank they saw a clearing in the bank at the water and noticed something fluorescent orange or pink. They assume it’s a frisbee and decide to retrieve it. Once in the water they realize it’s not a frisbee and realize it appears to be a body. Unable to tell who she was as she was swollen they went up to the bank and began yelling for the others to come quick. Jena, Chelsi, and Don Sutton meet them near the body. 

They agreed Don would go get the police. 

It was Billy’s girlfriend Jena who identified Lisa as she had the same outfit from the party. Staying close to the body, Jerry notices a plastic up lying on the bank and picks it up. Billy told him now your fingerprints are on it. Jerry threw the cup into the lake. 

The group walked back to Billy’s truck and waited for the police. Police took statements and left and as the friends began to leave it appeared that half the town had shown up and asked what had happened. 

I’m sure you’re wondering where the film from the camera went?

Billy actually turned over the film to authorities and never saw the photos. For some reason after the body is discovered authorities began questioning people regarding Billy and attempted to bribe and coerce others to say Billy committed this crime. He began being harassed by local law enforcement.

At the end of his handwritten letter, he makes a powerful statement: 

“Lisa and I were friends. I had no reason to kill her, and especially not for sex.”

I know…Listeners are thinking why would authorities harass Billy? And basically, this county and local government is corrupt. This took place in New Paris, which lies in Preble County in Ohio. And Preble County is well known for its corruption. 

In 2007, corruption allegations in Preble County, Ohio resulted in a complaint to the Department of Justice. There were dozens of cases alleging corruption in Preble County, Ohio, and they resulted in a class action complaint addressed to the Department of Justice. The allegations include acts of intimidation, harassment, retaliation, false charges, deals for false witnesses, evidence/document destruction, drugs, and homicides. 

In 2007, the county had 42,000 citizens and also had a high number of cases with peculiar and questionable circumstances. In this 2007 complaint alleges that the citizens of Preble County have been subject to wrongdoings for years. The complaint alleges the acts of wrongdoings all fall under the RICO act. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. Even more so in Billy Scott’s case. 

The day Lisa’s body was found nothing else was found. That was July 1990. In November of 1990 blankets, panties, and other items were found in a barn near the site of the party. 

It is said that hairs and other DNA were found on the blankets, but they did not match Billy. DNA has been collected but nothing has ever been tested. 

With respect to all parties, I did not want to go into great detail regarding the body and medical examiner’s report, however, what we do know is that Lisa was raped, beaten, and thrown in the lake half alive. Her official cause of death is drowning. 

In this day and age, why hasn’t any of the DNA been tested…. 

 That’s an excellent question. The Innocence Project of Ohio is involved and after many appeals, Billy won a post-conviction appeal for DNA testing. So with any luck, hopefully, something will come back… 

However, the corruption in this county and lazy investigation is what has kept Billy behind bars for over 32 years. He was prosecuted based on false statements and rumors. 

For example, David Heath was a very violent offender who was provided info on the Billy Scott case and asked to say that Billy told him details of the murder. 

Heath was so violent he stalked and stabbed one of his exes with scissors and another woman he was involved with went missing… When they found her body, they learned that David Heath had murdered her. But yet he was offered a deal… Time off his sentence if he would just say that Billy Scott told him he murdered Lisa.

But in a 1991 written statement, David Heath recanted his statements and wrote that 

David Lindloff supplied him with information in the Billy Scott case. David Lindloff was the county’s prosecutor investigator. 

David Heath wrote a handwritten statement stating that he was given graphic details and told to say Billy told him, but… He also wrote in this statement, that Billy never told him any of this. He also wrote these words : 

In exchange for my coached testimony I was promised:  

• Face-to-face interview with Rebecca Ferguson the prosecutor of Preble County concerning my appeal of misdemeanor conviction.
• Sentence Reduction
• No Parole Violation
• Intervene in my divorce proceedings so I would get visitation with my son 
• Breakfast before the grand jury testimony

This interview of David Heath recanting his statement, stating Billy Scott did not murder and rape Lisa was not allowed in one of Billy’s appeal attempts. A judge said he would not look at it as David Heath had not been sworn in. But he had in fact been sworn in, there are pictures and videos. I’ll place them on our site at unexplainedrealms.com for you to see for yourself.

You can actually see these videos on YouTube. I’ll add the link below.

Remember David Heath, was an extremely violent individual and the Preble County prosecutor Rebecca Ferguson failed to keep him locked up. 

Basically what we have here is, no DNA evidence connecting Billy to the murder, we have no eyewitnesses and now we have recanted statements all mixed in with local government corruption. And ultimately… We have no motive. 

 The only individuals that seemingly had a motive was the Johnson family. They came for her multiple times and attempted to harm her severely. Billy Scott and his brother repeatedly tried to help her. 

While reading through so many documents, it was obvious this was just fueled by rumors. Someone saw Billy wet at the party and immediately assumed in the days to come that he had to have committed the murder and then washed off in the lake. 

Anyone who was questioned had a different version, but the facts remain. As of this moment in time, there actually is nothing tying Billy Scott to the murder of Lisa Buckley.

It’s time for justice. Preble County residents, Lisa Buckley and ultimately Billy Scott have suffered enough. 

If you or anyone you know has information on the July 7th 1990 rape and murder of Lisa Buckley reach out to us… We cannot leave this to the realms of the unexplained…

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/@freebillyscott

Website – https://freebillyscott.com/

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