In 1993, when he was 12 years old, Rick Ennis murdered his parents. But did he kill Lori Ann Slesinski?
This story originally aired on Sept. 24, 2022.
was a recent Auburn University graduate who vanished in 2006 when she was supposed to show up at her best friend’s home to watch a movie. Her disappearance remained a mystery until 2022, when another friend, Rick Ennis, went on trial for her murder. As «48 Hours» correspondent Peter Van Sant reports, this wasn’t the first time Ennis was accused of an unspeakable crime.
Lindsay Braun: I can still see her smile. Her smile is just etched in my memory.
To this day, Lindsay Braun is haunted by the final call from Lori Slesinski on June 10, 2006, when they were supposed to get together for drinks and a movie.
Peter Van Sant: That last call — Did it indicate it was her phone?
Lindsay Braun: Yes …
Peter Van Sant: She calls, and it hangs up?
Lindsay Braun: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: And no one’s there?
Lindsay Braun: Just no one was there. It was just dead end.
Peter Van Sant: Did you call her right back?
Lindsay Braun: I did. No answer.
Lori Sleskinski and Braun became fast friends when they met junior year at Auburn University in 2002.
Lindsay Braun: I … remember the day I met her. … we just kind of immediately clicked … But I could just tell that she was a warm person … very friendly, just outgoing, loving, all those good things.
Lori’s family — her older brother, Paul, and their parents, Arlene and Casey— were actually from New York State. They headed south to rural Alabama farm country when Lori was 13 years old.
Arlene Slesinski: She loved animals. We always had animals in our house … very studious student. She was a good girl.
When she enrolled in nearby Auburn University, her parents bought Lori a mobile home to live off-campus, in a manicured trailer park popular with students.
Peter Van Sant: So, from valedictorian of her high school class … was it tough for you … to see your baby girl leave the house … and head off to university?
Arlene Slesinski: Oh yeah, it was very tough … I called her every day. And … she’s like, «mom, this has got to stop.» … and I was like, «but you’re my baby and … I worry about you.» «Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.»
Lori majored in psychology and minored in criminal justice. She graduated with honors.
Peter Van Sant (looking at photo): There she is with mom and dad…she looks so happy there.
Arlene Slesinski: She was. … She was over the moon happy.
After graduation, Lori and Braun started working together at a local mental health facility.
Peter Van Sant: Did you sense… that she had any enemy in this world?
Lindsay Braun: No.
Peter Van Sant: … the day that Lori disappeared … June 10, 2006 … was anyone with Lori that day?
Lindsay Braun: Rick was at her house.
Rick was Derrill Richard Ennis.
Lindsay Braun: When I had spoken to her, he was in the background.
Lori got to know Ennis back when she was still a student. She hung out at the local bowling alley where he worked.
Lindsay Braun: I didn’t know much about him at all except … he was her friend.
Arlene says just before Christmas in 2005, Lori asked if Ennis could join them.
Arlene Slesinski: She asked me, she said, «mom, he has no family. Can I invite him?» She kind of, you know, felt bad that he was going to spend Christmas alone. … He was friendly, um … He was very polite.
Braun says Lori often spent time with Ennis, so she wasn’t surprised that he had been at Lori’s home the day she disappeared.
Lindsay Braun: They were friends so. … I wasn’t concerned.
Peter Van Sant: But now you’re at home —
Lindsay Braun: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: — waiting for Lori to come over.
Lindsay Braun: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: And you went to bed that night thinking?
Lindsay Braun: You know, I hope she’s OK.
But the next morning, Braun started to worry.
Lindsay Braun: I called her house several times … left voicemails on her home answering machine. … «Hey Lori, checking on you. Are you OK? Where are you?»
Peter Van Sant: You went to work on that Monday, right?
Lindsay Braun: Yeah. … She wasn’t there … In my mind something’s wrong … I had Rick’s number … so I did text him, and asked … «have you seen Lori? Where is she? I’m worried about her.» … Um, his conversation back was, «no, I haven’t. … and I’m worried now, too …
When Lori didn’t show up at work a second day, that’s when Braun headed to Lori’s home.
Lindsay Braun: No one answered.
And found her dog Peanut in his crate.
Lindsay Braun: I’m an animal lover so … the very first thing I did was let the dog out.
That’s when she noticed something else strange. Lori was missing three days, but the crate was spotless, and Peanut seemed happy and appeared to be well-fed, as though someone had taken care of him. And there was more.
Lindsay Braun: One thing I remember about Peanut is he wouldn’t walk on tile, so she had these rugs in her kitchen and he would hop on the rugs … and the rugs were gone. I noticed that immediately … her outside trashcan was missing … she had one that she had like yard tools in …
Lindsay Braun: And … the answering machine had actually been unplugged … so those messages were not there.
Arlene Slesinski: I have got to go to Auburn and see what’s going on, where she is ’cause I called her, and she didn’t answer her phone.
She headed off on an agonizing drive, calling her husband, and alerting the police, finally arriving at her daughter’s home.
Peter Van Sant: And when the police got there … what was their attitude?
Arlene Slesinski: Well, you know. They’re like she’s got to be missing 48 hours. … And they didn’t really think a big— make a big deal out of it.
Lindsay Braun: … they wanted to just think she ran away.
Lori’s parents could only wait for Lori to walk through the door, or call. Finally, the phone rang late that afternoon, but Arlene says it wasn’t Lori — it was her friend, Rick Ennis.
Arlene Slesinski: … he said that Lori had gone to make a big drug deal.
Peter Van Sant: What?
Arlene Slesinski: Yeah … and I was like, there ain’t no way … My daughter would not do anything like that.
Peter Van Sant: Did you tell the police what he told you?
Arlene Slesinski: I didn’t. Rick told them. … And the police came to the trailer … banging on the door … and they raided the … mobile home and they found nothing.
Then, just before dawn, that’s when Lori Slesinski’s missing car suddenly exploded into a fireball on a desolate dead-end outside a construction site.
Arlene Slesinski: The feelings were just unbelievable of fear and knowing something really bad has happened.
Peter Van Sant: Who would set her car on fire?
Arlene Slesinski: Exactly.
Peter Van Sant: And why?
Arlene Slesinski: (emotional)
The investigation shifted from a missing person to a possible homicide. Investigators dug into Ennis’ tip about Lori dealing drugs but found no evidence — none — that he was telling the truth.
Now investigators started digging deeper into Rick Ennis. They wanted to know if he was hiding something from them.
Peter Van Sant: Did you have any sense as to why Rick Ennis didn’t have a family?
Arlene Slesinski: No. I had no idea why at all.
Peter Van Sant: Eventually, you learned.
Arlene Slesinski: I did. … It’s beyond shocking.DID RICK ENNIS HAVE A SECRET?
Peter Van Sant (inside Lori Slesinski’s trailer): And do you go into that trailer from time to time just to connect with her?
Arlene Slesinski: I do. … Just go in there and think about the happier times.
Peter Van Sant: This room … besides the memories, is also a solemn place because you believe some horrors went on in this room, correct?
Arlene Slesinski: Yes.
In the early days of the investigation back in 2006, Arlene Slesinski says she became suspicious of Rick Ennis when he told her that the night Lori disappeared, she had gone out to make a drug deal.
Peter Van Sant: And why would he be doing that do you think?
Arlene Slesinski: I think to take the heat off of him. … I was thinking, «this guy is lying through his teeth.»
Police suspected the same. But without direct evidence linking Ennis to Lori’s disappearance, police could not make an arrest, and the case quickly went cold.
Peter Van Sant: Did Rick Ennis stick around town?
Agent Mark Whitaker | Alabama SBI: He was there for a couple of days. But within a — a week, after his third interview, he left town; never came back to Auburn again.
In 2016, 10 years after Lori disappeared, Mark Whitaker, a special agent with the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation, started a cold case unit. He chose the disappearance of Lori Slesinski as his first case.
Peter Van Sant: Any estimate how many murder cases you’ve been involved with in your career?
Mark Whitaker: Probably about a hundred.
Peter Van Sant: Where does this one rank in terms of fascination for you as an investigator?
Mark Whitaker: It’s number one.
Mark Whitaker: It was a very difficult case. … because there was no body. … we don’t know exactly what happened. And — we don’t know where she is.
But it didn’t take long for Rick Ennis to become Whitaker’s prime suspect.
Mark Whitaker: We couldn’t eliminate him. His inconsistencies in his statements made no sense whatsoever. We knew Lori was not a drug dealer. … I mean, she vanished off the face of the Earth when he’s the last one to ever see her.
And when police spoke to Ennis hours after Lori was reported missing, they noticed scratches on his hands and arms.
Mark Whitaker: (points at evidence photos of Ennis’ scratches): Right here, that is a thumb print where somebody’s digging in … she’s fighting for her life and doing everything she can to get away from him.
In Ennis’ car, there were handcuffs, a knife, and cleaning supplies. And they soon learned something startling about Rick’s past.
Former Alabama State Trooper John Clark.
John Clark (in car with Peter Van Sant): Turned into one of the most bizarre cases I’ve ever been associated with.
John Clark: I was patrolling this county when I got a call.
It was March 5, 1993. The call from dispatch said a car had gone off a highway and struck a fence.
John Clark: And as my headlights take in the curve, I see it looks like a young boy with a backpack.
It’s a 12-year-old Rick Ennis. And he admits he had been driving the car. Clark searches his backpack.
John Clark: The first thing I pull out is a kitchen knife …. There’s … some 12-gauge and some 22-caliber loose ammunition in the bottom of the bag.
John Clark: … he’s sittin’ back there in that seat behind you. And I said, «Where are your parents?» … He looks right back at me and he says, «I killed them both.»
Peter Van Sant: «I killed ’em both.»
John Clark: «I killed ’em both.» No tears, no emotion, nothing.
Clark then radioed for local police to get over to Ennis’s home.
At the time, a show called «MPD: The Television Series» was following the officers:
Cameras enter the home of Rick’s mother and stepfather. On the floor of a bedroom are two dead bodies.
Rick’s own mother, Dolly Flowers, was shot in the face and then beaten to death with a baseball bat. Rick told investigators he covered her face with a velvet blanket, and placed a rose on her chest.
Rick Ennis’ stepfather, Eddie Joe Flowers, was known as Elvis for his sideburns and colorful personality. Rick shot him in the face using a shotgun. Ennis told cops he was mad that his parents planned to move. He said he didn’t want to leave his school.
