Darlene Flynn, World's Largest Shoe Collector Beaten To Death By Boyfriend

Darlene Flynn, a world-record collector who lived in a Menifee home packed with more than 15,000 shoes and shoe-themed items, once said she would be surrounded by shoes when she dies, according to The Press-Enterprise.
That prediction came true on Monday, July 22, but in a way she likely never imagined; she was beaten with a baseball bat at her Stone Lane home and found dead in her backyard pool.

Her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Justin Charles Smith, was charged Thursday with murder in Flynn's death.

Smith is alleged to have used a baseball bat as the weapon, court records show.

Smith was scheduled for arraignment Thursday afternoon but did not enter a plea.
He sat in the jury box in a Riverside courtroom wearing orange jail clothes and shackles, his head bowed, looking older than his 29 years, as a crowd of journalists trained their cameras on him.

His arraignment is now set for Aug. 8 and he is being held with bail set at $1 million.

After the hearing was over, he looked into the audience and appeared to blink back tears.

He mouthed the words, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Flynn, 58, was in the Guinness Book of World Records for her collection and had been the subject of newspaper articles and television shows about collectors.

Her trove of shoes filled every room of her home.
There was a bird house made out of a boot hanging from the eaves, and decorative shoes in her yard and filling her garage.

"I am very crazy obsessed with shoes," Flynn had said on a show about collectors on the cable television channel TLC.
"I'll be surrounded by shoes when I die."