Waffle House is a name many associate with fluffy waffles and late-night comfort food. Since its start in 1955, it has served billions of waffles across America. But behind the familiar yellow signs and comforting breakfasts, there’s a darker side. This popular chain has, unfortunately, become a backdrop for some truly unsettling and violent events. Whether it’s the 24/7 operating hours or locations in high-crime areas, Waffle House has seen its share of tragedy. Let’s look at 10 of the most disturbing deaths connected to this iconic restaurant.
10. The Antioch Waffle House Shooting
In the early hours of April 22, 2018, a quiet Nashville neighborhood was shattered by violence. At 3:19 am, Travis Reinking, wearing only a green jacket, arrived at a Waffle House. Armed with an assault-style rifle, he tragically shot and killed two people in the parking lot before even stepping inside.
Once in the restaurant, Reinking continued his rampage, killing two more customers and injuring others. A brave customer managed to tackle Reinking and disarm him. Reinking fled, leading to a 34-hour manhunt. Police found him hiding naked in the woods nearby. Though diagnosed with severe schizophrenia, he received a life sentence without parole.
9. The South Florida Waffle House Executions
The year 2002 saw a horrific crime unfold in South Florida. Former Waffle House employee Jimmy Mickel and his roommate, Gerhard Hojan, planned to rob the restaurant where Mickel once worked. Barbara Nunn, an employee working that night, was the sole survivor. She recounted how Mickel and Hojan forced the employees into the kitchen freezer and shot them at close range.
Two employees died, each shot once in the head and once in the throat. Nunn, also shot in the head and left for dead, managed to survive. She walked to a nearby gas station, and the clerk called for help. Another employee, not present during the attack, mentioned no prior signs of hostility from Mickel, making this brutal robbery even more shocking.
8. The Biloxi Waffle House Murder
An ordinary shift turned tragic for a Waffle House employee on November 27, 2015. A customer, later identified as Johnny Max Mount, apparently wanted to smoke, which was against Waffle House policy. When his hostess told him that smoking wasn’t allowed, an argument ensued. The argument ended almost as quickly as it had begun when Mount pulled out a pistol and shot the hostess in the head.
Mount didn’t try to evade arrest. Police found him sitting in the same spot where he had gunned down an innocent woman. Inexplicably, Mount would go on to plead “not guilty” to the charge of first-degree murder.
7. Toddler Killed at Florida Waffle House
This tragedy doesn’t qualify as a murder, but the details are just as horrific as any homicide. On March 14, 2019, three-year-old Jeremiah Rios was killed when his father, Guillermo Montoya Rios, ran him over. The Rios family was about to drive out of a Waffle House parking lot. Both parents believed that Jeremiah was buckled safely inside the family vehicle with his six siblings. Unfortunately, they were mistaken.
According to the local Sheriff’s office, Jeremiah’s death was quickly ruled accidental, and it was ascertained that Mr. Rios was not intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. Horrifically, less than a month later, another one of the Rios’s children died in an unrelated drowning incident.
6. The Gainesville Waffle House Slaying
Craig Brewer was, by all accounts, a generous and well-liked man, popular among his family and friends. That’s why it came as a surprise when he was mercilessly slain during a petty argument at a Waffle House in Gainesville, Florida. Brewer had been paying for other customers’ meals, handing out cash, and giving generous tips to the restaurant staff when he encountered a woman who wasn’t very pleased by Brewer not paying for her meal.
According to witnesses, the conversation between Brewer and the woman grew heated. Ezekiel Hicks, who was sitting with the woman, left the restaurant and returned carrying a 9mm handgun. Hicks fired multiple rounds at Brewer’s head, turning what had been an act of generosity into a deadly encounter.
5. Family Found Dead at Georgia Waffle House
Early one morning in November of 2020, first responders found a man and his infant child deceased in a Waffle House parking lot. A woman, unconscious but alive, was also pulled from the car the father and son were found in; all three had apparently been victims of carbon monoxide poisoning.
According to authorities, the man and woman found in the car were both employees of the Waffle House. The man, Christopher McKinzie, had finished his shift at 12:30 am. His girlfriend wasn’t set to finish work until 2:30, so McKinzie decided to sleep in his car while he and his baby waited for the girlfriend. When the girlfriend joined them, the car had already been running for two hours and was filled with toxic fumes.
4. Body Dumped Behind a Georgia Waffle House
In late 2017, Fulton County police received a call about an abandoned vehicle behind a local Waffle House. When they arrived at the scene, officers made a grim discovery: the body of 58-year-old Toni Abad was found in the vehicle’s trunk.
Abad, who worked at a Publix grocery store, agreed to give one of her young coworkers a lift home. The coworker, De’Asia Page, instructed Abad to drive to a remote location where Page’s boyfriend was waiting. The boyfriend, Jared Kemp, beat Abad to death with a baseball bat. Page and Kemp then stashed Abad’s body in the trunk of her own car and drove to a nearby Waffle House, where they left the car and Abad’s mangled body. As if this heinous crime couldn’t get any more macabre, it was later revealed that the motive for Abad’s killing had been petty theft.
3. The Waffle House Killers
Greenville County, South Carolina, became the unfortunate link for two separate, chilling killers with a Waffle House connection. Todd Kohlhepp, a serial killer arrested after a woman was found captive on his property, had met one of his earlier victims at a Waffle House near his home. Her body was later discovered buried in Kohlhepp’s backyard.
Around the same period, in the same area, a man named Markius Yeargin attacked and killed Henrietta Crawford. He set her body on fire to conceal his crime and then discarded her remains behind another Waffle House location in Greenville County. Though Crawford was the first victim that Yeargin was known to have killed, he had previously been arrested for two separate instances of violent rape.
Yeargin and Kohlhepp’s atrocities are not connected. Still, the fact that one of their victims made contact with her killer at a Waffle House and another was hidden behind a Waffle House remains eerie, if nothing else.
2. The Columbia Waffle House Gang Fight
Gang violence is a pervasive problem, affecting many communities across the United States, so it’s no surprise that a Waffle House in Columbia, South Carolina, played host to a bloody altercation between opposing gang members. What makes this occasion so disturbing is that one of the victims of the gang dispute was a 15-year-old boy named Brian Wright.
According to investigators, Wright knew that the men he was with were gang members. Like any teenager, Wright had likely made a number of impulsive decisions leading up to the gun battle that took his life, but no child deserves to have their life cut short by a bullet to the head. Brian Wright is just one of many minors who have been affected by gang violence and one of many who have met their end in a Waffle House parking lot.
1. The Raleigh Waffle House Murder-Suicide
On December 15, 2018, Jason Griffith killed his wife’s lover, his mother-in-law, and then himself. The first of three shootings took place in front of a Waffle House in Raleigh, North Carolina. Griffith pulled up alongside his wife, Emma, and her lover, John Wright, and shot into their vehicle. Both John and Emma were hit, but Emma survived the attack. Jason raced away from the scene and was later found dead in his and Emma’s home, killed by a self-inflicted gunshot.
Five days later, Jason Griffith’s mother-in-law was found dead, and further investigation revealed that she, too, had been a victim of Jason’s rage. What started as a cut-and-dry crime of passion at a Waffle House spiraled into a confusing web of family feuds, a disputed inheritance, and a love triangle.
Waffle House undoubtedly holds a special place in American dining culture, known for its all-day breakfast and welcoming atmosphere. However, as these tragic stories show, it has also been the backdrop for some incredibly disturbing events. These incidents remind us that darkness can unfortunately touch even the most familiar places. While millions enjoy their meals at Waffle House without incident, it’s important to remember the lives tragically cut short in these very locations.
What are your thoughts on these incidents? Do you have any Waffle House stories (good or bad) to share? Leave your comment below and join the conversation.
