In 1996, Rev. Mike Flippo had been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the bludgeoning death of his wife, Cheryl, at a Babcock State Park cabin in West Virginia.
Prosecutors said Flippo was trying to cash in on the life insurance policy he had taken out on his wife about a month before her death. Flippo told police an unidentified man who had been stalking them for several weeks broke into the cabin and knocked him unconscious before killing his wife. After sealing off the crime scene, police opened a briefcase that was on a table inside. In the briefcase, they found several photographs. Prosecutors said the photographs were evidence of a homosexual relationship between Flippo and that man, and that Cheryl Flippo's displeasure with the relationship may have been one of the reasons Flippo decided to kill her.
