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Old Time Crime: Parents ditch murdered children in Phoenix sewer in 1994

Murdered children found in PHX sewer in 1994
Murdered children found in PHX sewer in 1994
Posted at 10:03 AM, Sep 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-19 17:23:32-04

Four and five-year-old siblings were killed at the hands of their mother and buried in a Phoenix sewer in 1994.

He was upset with his girlfriend for hitting with a frying pan

It was September 20, 1994, when 24-year-old Brent Linner directed police to a sewer near 36th Avenue and Osborn Road, where the bodies of Henry Greer, 5, and his sister Odessa, 4, were discovered. Linner brought the matter to police because he was upset with his girlfriend for hitting him in the head with a frying pan.

Linner reported to police that the children were killed by their mother, his girlfriend, Loretta Greer in July, three months prior. 

Odessa was struck with an iron rod and left gagged in a closet for hours

He said Henry was beaten with a tennis racket, then drowned in a bathtub, while Odessa was struck with an iron rod and left gagged in a closet for hours. 

Henry was killed first, about three weeks before his sister. He was put in the corner of a room by Linner and left there for several hours. He was later beaten by his mother with a tennis racket, for urinating on himself and then placed in a bathtub where he went under the water. Investigators say he may have still been alive when he was removed from the water and given CPR, but emergency responders were never called. Instead, he was folded up in a mattress and placed in a closet, before being put in the sewer about a week later.

About three weeks after Henry's murder, Loretta Greer returned home from work and was told by Linner that her four-year-old daughter Odessa had been put in the closet all night long for being noisy. Greer opened the closet and saw Odessa gagged with a sock and covered in urine, feces, and blood.

She was then thrown and disposed of into the same sewer grave as her brother

After seeing this, Greer threw Odessa back into the closet and went to bed. Odessa was not removed from the closet for another 18 hours. Greer told police that when she checked on her, "Odessa would not wake up."  Investigators reported that "Linner tied Odessa's limbs to make it easier to fit her tiny body into a small blue trash can. She was then thrown and disposed of into the same sewer grave as her brother Henry."

Greer later admitted to striking Henry with a tennis racket and beating Odessa with an iron rod about two weeks before her death. She said they got scared and Linner put Odessa's body in a trash bag, later placing her beside her brother in the sewer.

The medical examiner found 19 fractures on Odessa’s body

The medical examiner found 19 fractures on Odessa’s body, including ten head fractures, three on the arms and six broken ribs. The Medical Examiner found seven fractures on Henry, including the head, arms, shoulders, and ribs. 

Brent Linner was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter, for not doing anything to prevent the beatings and participating in the disposal of the bodies.

Linner was given leniency due to his diminished mental capacity. Doctors reported that he does what he's told, and was manipulated by Greer.

He was released from prison in 2003.

After a lengthy court trial, where Greer fired two court-appointed attorneys and faked mental illness, she was sentenced to life in prison for the 1st-degree murder of both children. She always maintained it was Linner that killed the children and disposed of the bodies and that she was too afraid of him to come forward. Greer remains in Perryville prison in Goodyear.