ID's Murder in the Heartland, the highly popular and gripping true crime series, revisits the bone-chilling murder case of Charlene Puffenbarger. The shocking true story is depicted in episode 3 of the documentary series' fifth season.
The episode debuts exclusively on Investigation Discovery this Wednesday, November 30, 2022, at 9 pm ET.
The title of the brand new Murder in the Heartland episode is Toddlers Terrible Tale. As per the official synopsis for the episode, released by Investigation Discovery (ID):
"In the small town of Twinsburg, Ohio, Charlene Puffenbarger's 3-year-old son is the only witness to her brutal murder; as investigators continue to follow every tip that comes in, an unexpected source leads them to the killer."
Dating back to 1992, the heart-wrenching Puffenbarger murder case rattled the entire community of Twinsburg, Summit County, in Ohio. The 26-year-old woman was ruthlessly murdered by her sinister ex-boyfriend Willard McCarley.
Willard McCarley strangled his ex-girlfriend to death
Who is Willard McCarley and what did he do?
Willard McCarley, who is currently 58 years of age, is a convicted murderer who murdered his former girlfriend Charlene Puffenbarger in 1992, who was just 26 years old at the time.
Willard McCarley, originally named Willard S. McCarley, is a man from Northfield in northern Summit County, Ohio, in the United States. McCarley used to be a Ford plant worker in Northfield. He was involved in a romantic relationship with the victim Charlene Puffenbarger and the two also had a son, who was just two years of age at the time of the murder.
However, the two parted ways and McCarley reportedly did not want to pay child support for their two-year-old son. On January 22, 1992, McCarley went on to brutally end the life of his former girlfriend Charlene Puffenbarger by beating, strangling, and suffocating her to death in her Twinsburg apartment.
Puffenbarger's sons were in the house when the murder was committed. One of them unfortunately even became a witness to the murder.
What happened to Willard McCarley and where is he now?
After DNA samples from McCarley were discovered on the murder weapon, which was the leather belt used to strangle the victim, he was arrested and convicted by authorities on charges of murder in 2004.
Since then, he was held for trials in the murder case a total of three times, including once in 2005, then in 2007, and most recently in 2017. In all three trials, McCarley was found guilty by jury members.
On April 13, 2017, Willard McCarley, after spending more than a decade inside prison, again received a life imprisonment sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years behind bars.
Don't forget to catch Murder in the Heartland season 5 episode 3, which debuts on ID, on Wednesday, November 30, 2022, at 9 pm ET.