Dina Lightner was born in Upstate New York in 1969 to parents Bob and Connie who later divorced when she was just five years old Dina loved to travel and would accompany her grandparents on trips to Bermuda Florida in the West Coast but from a very early age Dina didn’t have it easy during a family vacation to the Caribbean eight-year-old Dina began trying on hats none of them would fit not even those made for adults this was something serious and this trip would soon be the turning point for massive changes in the little girl’s life
Dina was diagnosed with hydrocephalus most commonly known as water on the brain this is a serious condition that comes from excess cerebrospinal fluid building up in the brain it causes massive amounts of pressure in the skull and can result in headaches double vision poor balance and mental impairment sometimes in babies it can cause increased head size if left untreated it can interfere with brain function and eventually lead to death following Her diagnosis Dina would endure four surgeries to alleviate the fluid in her brain much of that time she lived with a shaved head and was ridiculed by her classmates she turned to her mother for stability and depended on her for affection in total Dina underwent eight surgeries to implant shunts into her brain heart and abdomen before she was 13 years old although her middle and high school years were difficult Dina joined the cheering squad for a year and played flute in the school band Connie later remarried soon the new family of three packed up and moved to Houston Texas Dina graduated from Kingwood High School in Houston in 1987.
She went on to attend Marist College in Poughkeepsie New York where she pursued a bachelor’s in psychology and intended on getting her Masters during her sophomore year she met her future husband John Schlosser it took John a year to work up the courage to as seen out although the two were very much attracted to one another it’s questionable whether or not Jon was in the relationship for the right reasons the young man took his future in-laws tuition money skip school and never earned a degree in fact John went as far as to fake a graduation party which was quickly uncovered as a sham it should be mentioned that several Publications have a picture falsely attributed to John Schlosser this man here is not John Schlosser this is John Schlosser but if you know the name of this other blonde man let us know in the comment section down below we feel bad he’s had his picture wrongly associated with this case for years at this point Dina’s mother later divorced her second husband and moved to Chicago around 1989.
Dean and John soon followed her there and in 1990 Dina’s mother married her third husband Mick McCauley who worked as a mental health counselor in 1991 Dina and John finally tied the knot the two were described by Mick as a very connected very attached in some ways very romantic Dina graduated in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Northern Illinois University even with a degree Dina also struggled with steady employment she quit her job with Visa because the customer acted rudely towards her she walked off during her shift at Ameritrade because a client lied to her she quit her job at a nursing home because she didn’t like the way that patients were treated eventually John didn’t want Dina working anymore however John fared no better he turned down employment opportunities for years if they did not fit his interest in computer science one example being a stable and well-paying position at hitachi’s Dallas office that a close friend had set up for him John turned down this position because he wanted to be in charge of an I.T Department a position he was completely under qualified for the schlossers moved into low-cost housing that Dina’s birth father Bob Lightner helped them obtain during this time
Dina suffered three miscarriages and the couple were very worried that they could never have a child together however in 1995 Dina became pregnant with the couple’s first daughter Brianna and then in 1997 their second daughter Kelsey was born in 2000 the schlossers packed up and moved to a big house in Fort Worth Texas where John found a great job in the computer science field where he made six figures a year Dina stayed home to take care of her two daughters but things were far from ideal for the couple Dina suffered from minor postpartum depression which she treated with medication however after she felt better from being on the medication she was convinced she was cured it would subsequently stop taking her meds John eventually left his dream job to focus on a freelance Consulting practice this didn’t exactly pan out the way that he thought it would and soon the couple ran into money problems unemployed and
with her house in foreclosure the family packed up and moved into a small apartment in West Plano Texas in 2002. John and Dina grew up Catholic but never regularly attended church in 2002 the schlossers began attending a fundamentalist church called The Water of Life Ministries after Dina learned of it from a neighbor the church was run by veterinarian turned preacher named Doyle Davidson who claimed that God spoke to him in Visions according to his website Doyle served as a hospital corpsman in the United States Navy during the Korean
War having spent 27 months in Yokosuka Japan after his return to the states he was one of 30 students admitted to the University of Missouri school of veterinary medicine in 1958. in August just prior to entering veterinary school he was rotating the tires on his car and he claimed that the presence of God fell upon him and he heard the Lord say quote I don’t want you to be a veterinarian I want you to be a minister of the Gospel end quote he did not obey God that day and continue with his plans to become a
veterinarian upon his graduation Doyle moved to North Texas and established a successful equine Veterinary practice 1968 was when Doyle claimed that God moved into his life and for two years an angel of the Lord rode in his car asking when he was going to preach the gospel in 1969 the Lord told him to sell his practice and Obey him and so on January 2nd 1970 the sale was finalized Doyle was more of a cult leader than an actual Pastor to give you a better idea of the kind of man that he was he preached that one of the victims of the
infamous Columbine shooting could have been spared if she just had more faith he also had a thing about women it would appear that he just didn’t like them very much why would you try to squirm away from me oh who knows come on I wasn’t trying to rape you no all right make it blank because the wedges and the winters they that’s what I am I see what you said never have been all right you were trying to run away from God and I wouldn’t let you run right right now are you going to be more honest Doyle also believed that a Jezebel
spirit had control over the city of Plano he taught that the spirit would attach to women who would then tempt men with their lurid behaviors now in the Bible Jezebel was a Phoenician princess in the 9th century who married Ahab Prince of Israel eventually they ruled his king and queen and Jezebel continued to worship the nature God Bal her citizens in the Yahweh Prophet Elijah despised such actions preparing herself to be executed by General jehu she applied makeup and dressed in finery before she was thrown over her balcony
and eaten by dogs Jezebel hated me I met more than one I met more than one Jezebel unfortunately Jezebel as great influence or leads most religions you better know she’s there Jezebel is all over the country all over the world I’ve been seeing in the spirit women with roads with a sash
um it amazes me it’s like you’re in my bedroom on the wall but it cannot be good you gotta bait there’s no television in there those grains nothing but I see them they’re all eloquently dressed with their gold color attire now basically what I say only the last two or three days have I been thinking
this must be Jezebel’s in our places in August of 1987 Doyle claimed that God spoke to him according to Doyle God told him that a woman in his congregation named Lisa Staton now belonged to him the only problem Lisa already had a husband named Jr and Doyle had been married to his wife Patty tinkle since 1952. different news sources have reported different versions of the story some state that Doyle and Lisa carried on an affair for years While others claim that Lisa and Jr both went into hiding some claim both are true and Lisa wanted to
be done with him another reported that a drunk Doyle was found in the state and home trying to choke the devil out of Lisa and that he was arrested for said incident either way Doyle can’t seem to keep Lisa’s name out of his mouth and often goes into misogynistic rants about her in his sermons on his website and in threatening emails directed at the poor woman and her husband her name is Lisa are you ready for this at least it’s a spot my wife is a [ __ ] how would you like for God to give you a wife that’s a SWAT
Lisa is a [ __ ] needless to say as the schlossers began getting more involved with Doyle things took a turn for the worst in their home life that you had actually discovered the church prior to the move to West Plano and were so captivated by Doyle that they would make the 120 mile round trip just to hear his teachings the preacher blamed bad luck on lack of faith rather than personal responsibility so Dina began to wonder if her lack of faith is what caused her family to have money issues during this time John started to believe
that evil spirits had attached to Dina he began to treat her more like an object than a person and demanded that she did as he said in reality Dina was suffering from extreme mental illness however Doyle preached that mental illness was demonic possession and that psychiatric medication was witchcraft as such Dina did not get the help that she so desperately needed members of the church would pray over her and attempt to cure her mental illness the family went to church sometimes as much as six nights a week and twice on Sundays
sometimes the sermons didn’t get out until well past 10 o’clock at night and Brianna and Kelsey would go without dinner during a visit to Texas the schlossers tried to sell Dina’s mother on the Water of Life Ministries now at Dina’s insistence Connie met with Doyle Davidson because she believed that she could lay hands on her mother and heal her Parkinson’s disease and of course you could not there are no official sources that confirm the story we are about to share but since a few Publications are claiming it to be fact
we felt we should address it now allegedly when Connie was dropped off at the airport someone had stolen her Parkinson’s medication from her purse supposedly It Was Dina believing that her mother was cured and no longer needed her medication for Parkinson’s unable to move Connie missed her flight she supposedly sat rigid in her own feces and urine all day and all night until an observant person in the airport terminal noticed she had not moved allegedly the Good Samaritan found the remnants of her pills stashed in her
luggage ones that allowed Connie to regain what bodily function she had lost this story is questionable for a couple of reasons one is that freezing in Parkinson’s disease most commonly lasts a few seconds while freezing can last several minutes there is no recorded evidence of someone with Parkinson’s freezing for hours also while not impossible to freeze while sitting down freezing happens most often when walking or doing a repetitive motion another issue with the story is that if Connie truly was frozen in place overnight and
discovered by a Good Samaritan why would she then be able to take a flight back wouldn’t Emergency Services be called if she was found this way although this is unlikely if the story is true it shows the level of irrational belief in Doyle Davidson’s teachings to the point where Dina would risk her own Mother’s safety on Jan January 9 2004 Dina gave birth to another baby girl named Margaret whom they called Maggie the little girl was born at home with the help of a midwife because the schlossers didn’t have
health insurance now even though she only carried one baby who was Maggie Dina believed that she had given birth to twins and that the male twin had died the following day Dina was reading the Bible when she claimed that the word cut jumped off the page at her mentally exhausted and overwhelmed by the birth of her third child Dina attempted to take her life by cutting her wrists with a pair of scissors rather than bring his wife to the hospital John put Band-Aids on her cuts and insisted on keeping her home thinking that prayer would completely
heal her five days later CPS became involved in the schlosser’s lives the agency started investigating the family when Dina was spotted running down the street screaming with her daughter Kelsey chasing her on a bicycle meanwhile baby Maggie was left unsupervised at home in a crib her eldest Brianna was at school when CPS questioned her she claimed that cartoon characters on the TV were laughing at her and the offending cartoon Disney’s The Little Mermaid she was admitted to Green Oak psychiatric hospital where she
was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis after her diagnoses a psychiatrist urged Dina to seek extended treatment Dina did want the help but however her husband John refused he claimed that he prayed about it and decided that the best and safest place for his wife at home with her kids CPS decided that Dina could not be left alone with her children so the family had John’s sister move in with them despite John’s contempt for treatment Dina began taking Ativan and Haldol and things seemed to get better although the
schlossers felt that the prayer was actually healing Dina after her hospitalization CPS checked in with Dina and her family regularly over time the visits decreased until CPS decided to close the case entirely in August of 2004. John found a job and began leaving his wife alone with the kids unsupervised by this time it was reported that Dina had stopped taking her medication soon she began to deteriorate once more and would hiss and make animal noises at people on November 21st 2004 Dina told John that she wanted to give her
daughter away to God what she specifically meant by this was to give Maggie to Doyle Davidson you see Doyle was a bit of a creepy perv and like many false prophets tried to marry young girls at the time of our story Doyle would have been 72 years old nevertheless Dina trust Maggie and white and showed her to John who was pretty disturbed by this now as punishments John spanked Dina with a wooden spoon in front of their daughters that same day Dina and her parents chatted over the phone about Doyle Mick claimed that his
stepdaughter sounded feistier over the phone than before while Connie said she heard Euphoria in Dina’s voice Mick said to her unless we believe in Doyle like you believe in Doyle we can’t be close can we and Dina’s single word reply to this was agreed the following day started off as normal John went off to work in the couple’s 2 older girls now age 9 and 6 years old went off to school for the last three days and nights Dina tried to make sense of Matthew 5 30 which in some translations reads If thy right hand offend thee cut
it off and cast it from there for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell this is when things took a turn for the worst with gospel music blaring in the background Dina retrieved a 9-inch kitchen knife and began to saw Maggie’s arms from her body before eventually turning the knife upon herself she attempted to cut off her own arm but stopped after she cut herself a bit too deep Dina called John and told him that she hurt the baby before abruptly hanging up
unsure of what to do John first called Doyle Davidson who supposedly told him to call Children’s World Learning Center the daycare that Dina worked at before she had Maggie Carolyn Thomas picked up the phone at 11 50 am to a frantic John telling her that Dina said she had hurt their baby Carolyn asked several questions but ultimately called Dina herself Carolyn had worked with Dina for two years and thought of Dina as a good mom but the tone in John’s voice made her believe that Dina may have had another mental breakdown
Dina picked up the phone when Carolyn called the hymn he touched me played in the background as Dina greeted her in a very calm and collected manner Carolyn asked her what did she do to her baby Dina replied I killed her according to reports Emergency Services received a call from Carolyn’s co-worker which prompted operators to phone Dina the mother matter of factly told 911 dispatcher Steve Edwards that she cut off the arms of her baby daughter and then waited calmly in her living room for a police to arrive
Maggie lay in her crib in a back bedroom according to Plano Police Officer David Tilley quote she had an ashen gray look there were no arms and there was a lot of blood and quote she was rushed to the hospital but it was too late for her Naggy unfortunately suffered greatly in her final moments in addition to losing her arms Maggie suffered about 50 cuts to her face as she struggled for her life she was just 11 months old Dina was sitting at her computer table reading her Bible humming along to Christian hems some reports claimed that
she greeted the officers still holding the bloody knife other sources claimed that the knife was found protruding from her shoulder the mother told police that she was responsible for the baby’s injuries but declines to elaborate further she was taken into custody and charged with capital homicide hours after her arrest police heard her repeatedly chanting thank you Jesus thank you Lord during the trial it was brought up that Dina did not receive the help that she so clearly needed John had not been picking up her Haldol on a regular basis
due to his skewed religious beliefs Doyle Davidson was also president trial and he testified to the court that he believed mental illness was demonic he also stated that while Dina and John were regulars at his church he did not know them very well which is interesting considering that allegedly phone records show that John and Doyle talked on the phone multiple times that day due to viewer outcry after the trial Doyle’s television Ministry was canceled everywhere outside the Dallas Fort Worth area but this did not affect things much
because as of the date of this recording the Water of Life Ministries still has a presence on YouTube and other platforms psychologist Dave itself assessed Dina after she was arrested she told him that she had been watching the news when a disturbing story came on the story was about a boy who had been mauled by a lion somehow Dina took this as a sign of the Apocalypse Dina then said that she heard God telling her to cut the arms off of her baby she was convinced that a female demon whom she called Jezebel had
complete control over Maggie she claimed that she did what she had to do David Self determined that Gina had suffered from postpartum psychosis her first trial ended in a hung jury and in April of 2006 she was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity Dina was committed to North Texas State Hospital in Vernon where she was ordered to stay until she was no longer a threat to herself or others it was at this hospital she shared a room in the maple unit with Andrea Yates who you may remember from our previous episode
drowned her five kids in the family bathtub the two mothers eventually struck up a friendship according to Dina quote we talk about our past we talk about our memories our fun memories the things that our kids did end quote according to Andrea’s ex-husband Rusty Yates he hoped the two women could help one another through the long recovery process Dina and Andrea’s cases drew a lot of parallels due to the fact that they both dealt with postpartum psychosis religious zealotry and husbands that some people believe were at least
somewhat culpable John underwent a psychological evaluation after his two children were taken by CPS and put into foster care he was diagnosed with narcissistic personality traits and it was deemed that he failed to protect his kids from their mother CPS would allow Jon to regain custody of Brianna and Kelsey as long as his sister came to live with him John agreed to this and later got a divorce from Dina as part of the divorce Dina wasn’t able to have contact with him or their daughters but unlike Andrea Yates Adina wanted her
freedom on November 6 2008 it was announced by state district judge Chris oldner that Dina would be released into outpatient care as part of her release she would be required to see a psychiatrist once a week take medication be on physician-approved birth control and not have any unsupervised contact with children if she failed to comply the judge had the right to revoke her Freedom that’s exactly what happened in April of 2010 Dina was committed to the Terrell State Hospital after firefighters in Richardson Texas saw her
walking down the street at two in the morning seemingly very out of it she’d been seen screaming and singing religious songs as loudly as possible Dina was later released to outpatient status Dina stayed out of the public eye until 2012 when a Walmart Shopper snapped a photo of a checkout cashier whose face she found familiar the cashier was indeed Dina and within hours she was fired WFAA TV in Dallas reported that she was working under her maiden name at a Walmart in Terrell Texas words spread quickly on the internet and area
residents expressed disappointment in Walmart for hiring someone who committed such an act as of December 2020 Dina was ordered to remain committed to a state hospital John and his daughters went on to lead what appeared to be a normal life in Texas sharing a love for Disney on December 13 2014 John married a woman named Michelle his middle daughter Kelsey was married in 2021 with big sister Brianna serving as maid of honor on October 1st 2022 John Schlosser suffered a massive heart attack and was placed in the ICU at Texas Health in
Fort Worth he passed away on October 3rd after his life support was removed his funeral was held on October 8th at First Baptist Church Weatherford he was buried at Sea on a Carnival Cruise in December it was supposed to be the couple’s eighth anniversary vacation in a post on social media his wife wrote quote John Schlosser today I feel close to you I got to share you with the ocean you love it here my heart feels like it’s ripping but at the same time I am at peace I love you I miss you enjoy the float honey forever
quote
