A notorious Wilmington murder to be the subject of a new true crime series

One of the most heinous murders in the history of Wilmington is the subject of a new true crime series scheduled to come out in 2024.

Mike Boudet of the long-running true crime podcast "Sword and Scale" and documentary filmmaker Ash Patiño of the investigative true crime series Ashes to Ash TV are currently in the Wilmington area collaborating on a new project that will tell the story of Talana Quay Kreeger.

In 1990, Kreeger, a 32-year-old Pender County resident, was killed in Wilmington by Ronald Sheldon Thomas, a long-haul truck driver from Tennessee. Her naked body was found in a wooded area near Shipyard Boulevard, her teeth knocked out and small intestines outside of her body, among even more gruesome injuries.

Thomas was convicted in 1991 of Kreeger’s murder and of first-degree sexual offense, for which he received back-to-back life sentences. He died in prison in 2022.

The murder was notable not only for its brutality, but for how, in its aftermath, it galvanized Wilmington's LGBT community, which was largely underground at that time. Kreeger was a lesbian, and local law enforcement warned local LGBT people to not mourn Kreeger’s death too visibly, perhaps fearing they too would face violence. More than one local church declined to host Kreeger’s funeral because of her sexuality before services were finally held at the Church of the Good Shepherd.

More Talana Kreeger:Documentary about notorious Wilmington murder to screen

"We are telling Talana's story to bring awareness to who she was and to what happened to her and why," Patiño said. "We want to honor (Wilmington) for quickly apprehending the assailant and recognizing the crime for what it was early on, and that is a hate crime."

North Carolina remains one of 16 states without hate crimes protections, but Kreeger's murder has long been viewed by many as a hate crime.

Thomas told investigators he and Kreeger had been drinking and playing pool in the hours before he killed her, and that they had argued about homosexuality. Thomas later gave Kreeger a ride in his rig during the early morning hours, and he told investigators he killed her after she rebuffed his sexual advances.

"I think what we're trying to do is tell the story of a human being who was targeted by a monster, and viciously attacked and brutally raped and assaulted and killed," Boudet said.

Boudet has hundreds of thousands of social media followers for "Sword and Scale," which describes itself as covering "the underworld of criminal activity and the demented minds that perform the most despicable and unthinkable acts." He noted that women are the biggest audience for true crime stories, and to his mind that's because women are so often the victims of violent crime.

"This is the purest form of human drama in real life," Boudet said. "And it happens every day in this country. There's always someone trying to take advantage of someone else. It's part of human nature and I find that fascinating."

Patiño said she first learned of Kreeger's story when she saw the 2020 documentary "Park View" from Wilmington filmmaker Tab Ballis at a film festival. The documentary takes its name from the old Park View Grill on Carolina Beach Road, where Kreeger, her friends and her killer were hanging out before she was murdered. Known as something of a haven for Wilmington's LGBT community in 1990, the bar was most recently known as The Dubliner, and was recently rebranded as the Greenfield Lake Yacht Club.

"I've always been attracted to true crime. To protect myself (and) to learn about situations I don't want to be in," Patiño said. "That didn't happen to me, but it could have, you know? I think most people have stories from their past when something (bad) could've happened."

Kreeger and Thomas "were playing pool together," Patiño added. "He probably seemed really harmless. And I think he's even described in the newspaper as being a teddy bear figure. Which I hate when people say that about killers, but he probably did have a demeanor that disarmed (Kreeger and her friends), especially because you have these really kind of tough women who have had to protect themselves for so many reasons."

Patiño said she and Boudet will be in Wilmington through March 28 or 29. They plan on interviewing Ballis, some of Kreeger's friends, New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David and others. They'll also be shooting footage at the former Park View Grill.

"The whole story will be kind of told about what led up to it, who she was, what happened," Patiño said. "Obviously it's true crime so people want to know. And then what happened after, you know, (what) could've been done better."

Despite the circumstances around her death, Kreeger’s sexuality was scarcely mentioned at the time in news coverage by the StarNews and other media outlets, although it was alluded to in coverage of Thomas' trial. Editorial decisions of the day were perhaps well-intentioned, and meant to keep from biasing the public or potential jurors against Kreeger. As the film "Park View" points out, those decisions had the unintended consequence of further dehumanizing her.

The film also notes that fallout from Kreeger's murder is one of the things that led to the founding of the gay-friendly St. Jude’s Metropolitan Community Church in Wilmington in 1992.

Patiño said the filmmakers' plan is to bring the completed episode back to Wilmington for a screening next year, before it airs for a wider audience.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington murder of Talana Kreeger to be subject of true crime series