Who was Tillie Lavix, and what really happened to her?
With coffees and pastries in hand, a small group gathered at Haunt Coffee in Wilkes-Barre to answer that question.
“This one is one that I feel like is probably somewhat solvable,” said coffee shop owner Jamie Gatts.
Gatts and co-host, Jess Baranousky, were dressed in their signature khaki trench coats to lead a recent True Crime Tuesday presentation. They discussed the murder of Tillie Lavix. The 75-year-old Wilkes-Barre woman was found stabbed in her Miners Mills home in January 1966.
Twice a month they tackle one solved and one unsolved case from the region, digging into the details with anyone who stops in and pulls up a chair.
“We’ve been astounded by the number of cases locally that are unsolved,” Gatts said.
During True Crime Tuesdays on Oct. 15, a small, attentive crowd gathered in the shop to learn about Lavix.
Her death was initially ruled accidental, then in 1996 officials reopened the case and the coroner ruled it a homicide. No one has ever been charged for her murder.
At the start of their presentation, Gatts and Baranousky focused on Lavix and her life in Wilkes-Barre.
Baranousky described Lavix as a matriarch. She said Lavix and her husband, Andrew, had 10 children, five of whom passed before the age of 25. When her daughter Marion's husband, George, died in 1965, Lavix stepped in to help raise her grandsons.
"Tillie was the matriarch of this big family and was really trying to take care of them," Baranousky said.
Baranousky says they always try to discuss the victims first, even in solved cases where a perpetrator may have gained notoriety over the years.
“I always tie it back to the Chris Watts case…it would always irritate me because the victim was treated almost as a second thought,” she said, invoking the Watts family case from 2018.
She said Chris Watts became the focus of media attention after he pleaded guilty to the murder of his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young children in Frederick, Colorado.
“It became the Chris Watts case, not the Shannann Watts case,” she said. “I think we’re trying to avoid doing that.”
True Crime Origins
Baranousky started out as a customer at Haunt, a coffee shop and paranormal bookstore in Wilkes-Barre. Then she and Gatts bonded over their interest in true crime.
They began True Crime Tuesdays a few months ago and focus on local crimes and cases. So far, they’ve discussed the murder of John Leonard, a cab driver from the Poconos; and the disappearance and murder of Wilkes-Barre teenager Joan Marie Dymond and others.
Joan was 14 years old when she disappeared from the Andover Street Park on June 25, 1969. Her remains were discovered in 2012 and were identified 10 years later through genetic genealogy testing.
They have run into challenges as they prepare for each presentation — namely with crimes that occurred before the Agnes flood in 1972.
“Agnes wiped out a lot of our documentation,” Baranousky said. “There’s so many cases that ... you get so far, and then it’s ‘destroyed in Agnes flood."
Thankfully, in the case of Lavix, additional newspaper reporting in 1996 brought the case back into accessible records.
Even with solved cases from the region, Gatts feels it is important to keep that part of the area’s history alive.
“Some of these cases…even people who have lived in the area for a long time had no idea about some of these cases,” Gatts said.
While some may think it strange to look into the darker parts of the region’s history, Baranousky said it has actually helped her appreciate the community more.
“Whenever we do a case, it’s unfortunately because something bad has happened and there’s a family that’s grieving, but we also see a community coming together,” she said. “I think in looking at the bad things that have happened here, we also get a greater appreciate for the good things.”
The next True Crime Tuesday is Oct. 29 at Haunt Coffee, 720 Wilkes-Barre Township Boulevard, Wilkes-Barre.
