28 years after the most tragic Valentine’s Day: steroids, murder and two details that changed everything

Police station: 911

Sally: I just shot my husband because he hit me.

EP: Did you shoot him?

Sally: Si. Estoy in 1802 Tremont Street South

PS: Who is crying?

Sally: Mihija

EP: Okay, is he dead?

Sally: The missing…

EP: Okay, what’s his name?

Sally: My name is Sally McNeil… Don’t knock on the door Shantina!

EP: How old is your husband?

Sally: He hit me, he beat me up.

Shantina: “Dad, not dad. My God, he is shot!

EP: Are you breathing?

Sally: Yes.

…

The life of the McNeil family changed dramatically after what happened February 14, 1995the day Sally, fed up with her husband’s abuse and in the midst of another attack, took the sawed-off shotgun she had in her bedroom closetshot him twice, then called the police confess his crime.

Ray McNeil was a famous 1990s bodybuilder known as Mr. California after the title he obtained at the IFBB Championship (1991), created for amateur athletes looking to make the leap to professionalism. However, his love for weights had begun long before, when He was a member of the United States Marine Corps.

There, day after day, he exercises his muscles with his companions, until he meets Exit, an athletic young woman who worked as a cook in the Navy and who had been captivated by her physical appearance. Quickly They started going outwhile sharing their passion for the gym.

In 1989 they were already married and they had become a sensation within the armyespecially after winning the Navy Bodybuilding Championships separately, he in the men’s category and her in the women’s.

Both were clear: they wanted to be professional bodybuilders. He did so and immediately decided to resign from the Marines after getting his pro card after being crowned the IFBB Championship. But this passion ended up becoming an obsession, to the point of developing “reverse anorexia”, as experts call it, where He wanted his body to get bigger and bigger.

At that time, the couple was already known in the media for the impression that these two bulky bodies caused on stage. But at the time steroids played a key role in the formation of the muscles of bodybuilders, who consumed them regardless of the side effects they may suffer.

Following this, they began to transit financial difficulties due to the cost of the doses, and with that the discussions began: all the substances had to be for Ray because he was the professional, he said, while she only used them for the physical approval of her husband.

In an effort to help pay for expenses, Sally took advantage of her already defined figure to work in a wrestling program. Seeing the repercussion generated by his body, he took another step and she became professionally independent by filming her own videos beat men and define themselves as Killer Sally (The Murderer).

She never turned professional, even placing fifth in an amateur competition in 1993. However, money was no longer an issue due to the fame he had gained making these recordings. But as the money grew, they were also increasing the steroids for Ray.

The long-awaited event has finally arrived for Mr. California: had qualified to compete for Mr. Olympiathe most prestigious tournament in the world of bodybuilding.

Although having made steroids a routine diet, Ray failed to move past fifteenth place, which turned out to be a huge blow to his self-esteem, which he ended up dealing on Sally. The consequences of mass consumption were already being felt: Ray had gone from a charismatic and tall athlete, to a six-foot monster with sudden changes in mood and personality.

“The first time he hung me, I thought he was going to kill me. It was shocking. Many times when he attacked me, he choked me instantly. I shouldn’t have come to this, I should have left much earlier. I should have left him on the third day of the wedding. That day he hit me and then he told me he was sorry he wouldn’t do it again and I believed him,” Sally said in the documentary. Netflix Killer Sally: The Killer Bodybuilder.

February 14, 1995: the day that changed everything

Ray and Sally they lived together for 8 years in the midst of a relationship marked by violence, infidelity, weights and steroids. She had even decided to move in with her kids (she had with another couple) weeks before that day, but what happened completely changed her plans.

Time Valentine’s Day. Ray and Sally hadn’t seen each other all day, and when it got dark she put on her makeup and decided to meet him at a bar he always went to after practice. When he was about to open the door, Mr California enter the house. After an argument, Ray lunged at her and began to choke her. That’s when Sally broke free, ran around the room, grabbed the gun cut out of the cupboard with two cartridges and, after asking him to leave and receiving a negative answer, Shooting.

“3 days before I had a show and I’d been on a lot of steroids. Five different ones. I didn’t know what Ray was capable of, he was a super human, super strong and super fast in a small apartment,” he recalls.

With Ray lying on the ground, Sally called the police and confessed what had happened. While being transferred to the police station, Ray died in hospital from injuries caused by the impacts. A shot ripped through his ribs and, for a second, his jaw.

“On February 14, 1995, at approximately 10:40 p.m., Oceanside Police responded to 1802 South Tremont (the McNeil family apartment) regarding a shooting. Upon arrival, officers found 30-year-old Ray McNeil, he had gunshot wounds to the face and stomach. McNeil was airlifted to Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla, where he later died (while undergoing surgery two hours after the shooting). A preliminary investigation revealed that McNeil had been shot by his wife, Sally, during a domestic argument. Sally McNeil called 911 and was present when officers arrived. She was later arrested and convicted of murder at the San Diego County Jail,” Sergeant Thomas A. Bussey’s official report said.

The next day, medical tests revealed that Ray had tested positive for five substances used by bodybuilders: fluoxymesterone, nandrolone, oxymetholone, clenbuterol and drostanolone, while Sally tested positive for nandrolone.

After the murder, the investigations to carry out the trial began and with them new revelations arose. Sally had a history of violence and aggression, according to several witnesses and Marine service history: “Argumentative, disrespectful, violent, seeks prosecution. She even had run-ins with the police in which up to five officers were needed to get her out of the house.

At the same time, one of Ray’s friends confessed that Sally starred in several violent episodes due to jealousy and infidelity issues and left Marianne’s name on the table, a woman Ray had met at the gym and Sally was quitting for. Upon learning of this side relationship, she threatened her with a phone call. “It was not an attack of jealousy, it was fear”, she assured the reason for her actions when asked about this episode.

What had grown from a vigilante domestic violence case began to take a drastic turn, especially after the district attorney handling the case, Daniel Goldstein, gave two details that changed everything: “He was going to end up with her and had an affair with another woman. To me, it’s premeditated homicide.”

During the second week of the trial, Goldestein raised a key point in the forensic analysis that contradicted Sally’s opening statement: reload the shotgun.

At first, Sally said she got the gun and ammunition from the bedroom. and, after the first hit, she reloaded into the kitchen only to immediately re-fire when attacked. However, the cartridge from the first impact was in the roommeaning she went back into the room, loaded the shotgun, and returned to the scene to fire a second time while Ray was bleeding to death on the floor.

To test this conjecture, the prosecutor focused on a lamp that was in the bedroom that night. The blood splatter was inside the light screen, meaning Ray was shot in the face while he was on the ground, as the blood spurted upwards.

Finally, thanks to a test performed on Ray’s body, it was also known that no trace of Sally’s DNA was foundwhich could mean that, despite being a battered wife for years, there may not have been a physical fight in the minutes leading up to the time of the crime.

In March 1996, the sentence fell. Sally was found not guilty of first degree murder, which carries a sentence ranging from 35 years to life imprisonment. The jury understood that the murder was not premeditated, but it was convicted her of second degree murder: which means you intended to kill someone without provocation, excuse or justification.

In summary, according to the experts who witnessed this verdict: “She decided she was going to end her life, she shot him and finished him off, without being in imminent danger.” She ended up being sentenced to 19 years in prison.

In one of his attempts to apply for parole, and after being repeatedly denied, He accepted responsibility and rejected the physical abuse he suffered. Initially, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the conviction, but the State of California appealed to the Supreme Court and Sally was forced to serve her sentence at the Chowchilla Women’s Center.

Finally, in 2020 and after spending 25 years behind bars in the California Correctional Facility, Sally McNeil was released.

Continue reading