Daughter-in-Law Kills 80-Year-Old on Christmas And Then Takes Family - Part ONE

On a frigid February night in 2025, police knocked on Brittany Cole's door in Zanesville, Ohio. A teenage girl's friend had called in a tip: an 80-year-old man's body was in the shed out back. Brittany seemed genuinely confused. Her father-in-law, David Cole Sr., had moved to Columbus weeks ago, she said. His brother had come to pick him up. He had Parkinson's, he was getting too much to handle, and he wanted to be near his siblings. That was the story. But within an hour of interrogation, the story collapsed. David Sr. had never left the property. He had been dead for weeks, and his body was wrapped in plastic in the backyard shed.

The interrogation of Brittany Cole

Detective Brian Ruff sat down with Brittany just before 1 a.m. on February 11, 2025. At first, she played the part of a bewildered nursing student. She claimed she had no idea why police were there. She suggested the tip came from a disgruntled former friend of her daughter's, a girl named Emily Walls, who had a grudge against the family. Brittany explained that her daughter Nina had fallen out with another girl, Novea Stroud, who had briefly lived with them and been asked to leave. Novea was at the house that very evening, visiting. The implication was clear: this was teenage drama, not a homicide investigation.