From Rape to Robbery: Accused Killers Changed Their Story

  While stories told by the four charged with the Hickory Street double murder differ, with the alleged killers not only contradicting each other but also themselves, it appears Bethany McKee was friends with Terrance Rankins and invited him to Alisa Massaro’s home the night of Jan. 9.

A resident of Shorewood, where she lived with her parents and siblings, McKee had been staying at the home of Massaro and Massaro’s father for a number of days.

Rankins arrived with his friend Eric Glover, who Massaro believed was his cousin. The two men were under the impression they were going to have sex with Massaro and McKee, she said, but after showing up, they settled in to drink, smoke marijuana and play video games.

Joshua Miner told Joliet Police McKee invited Rankins and Glover over with instructions to “bring booze and weed.” They showed up about 10 p.m., played Grand Theft Auto and drank, a police report states.

Miner reportedly told police he was on the floor with Massaro and McKee was on a bed fooling around with the “bald” guest, Rankins. McKee told him to stop, Miner said in a report, but Rankins pulled her pants off, prompting Miner to get up and say, “You f------ n-----, get off her.”

“Miner then punched him in the side of the head,” a report said.

In the ensuing fight, Miner choked Rankins until he went limp, according to the police report. While Miner and Rankins were grappling, Glover kicked Miner in the head, according to the police report, and Adam Landerman then grabbed Glover and choked him to death as well.

Miner reportedly told police Landerman jumped on the backs of the dead men.
“Miner described Landerman’s actions as surfing on the bodies,” and told how “they released a gasp of air, and possibly feces as well, as he stated it smelled,” according to a report.

Landerman reportedly told police he helped Miner “hog tie” one of the dead men with dirty laundry in case he came to, then “heard a gasp or "zombie noise" from the victim and then didn’t hear anything else from the victim. He realized then the man had been killed.”

McKee and Massaro had departed before the violence started, the reports said, and when they returned were afraid the bodies “would reach out and grab them. (Landerman) stated that at this point, both of the individuals were hog-tied, one with cloth material and the other with an extension cord.”

The officers first sent to the Hickory Street house to investigate a report of two dead men inside entered through the open front door and met Massaro. She told officers there were two people in her house: Miner upstairs and Landerman down in the basement.

Officers checked the basement and saw no one, a report said, but did hear Miner calling for them to come on up, that he was in the bedroom.

An officer wrote that he walked in and saw Miner “sitting on the couch smoking a cigarette. Miner made the statement, ‘I did the guy with the dreadlocks.’” That was Glover. Miner reportedly told the cops Landerman killed the other one. He claimed the man he killed was “trying to rape one of the girls,” a report said.

While the accused killers reportedly started with a story about an attempted rape, the police were apparently skeptical. For one thing, Miner couldn’t even keep straight which man he supposedly killed, according to reports. After questioning by police, the four conceded the plan was to rob Rankins and Glover.

Massaro reportedly told police McKee knew a man who sold drugs and “kept a lot of money on him.” Detectives asked her what she meant by a “lot of money,” and she “stated approximately $100.”

McKee called the man, who reports identified as Rankins, and he ended up bringing Glover along to Massaro’s house. After the men were dead, according to reports, Miner searched them for drugs and money. He took about $10 and “small baggies of weed” off Rankins, a report said, and found around $100 and cocaine in a front pocket of Glover’s pants.

What Should You Read Next?

• Nightmare on Hickory Street Part 1: Sex on the Bodies
• Return to the Home Page of our Nightmare on Hickory Street report
• Past Patch coverage of the Joliet Double Murder

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Look for Part 3 of the Nightmare on Hickory Street report Wednesday morning on Joliet Patch.