# 2 Hours of SOLVED True Crime Cases You Need To Know | 203

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 12 Apr 2026, 2 h 13 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1961032263.mp3

Join me for 2 hours of solved true crime cases. Episode 203 of the podcast btw, and a compilation of previous episodes on YT from mid-2025. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 unsolved mysteries, true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, disturbing cases, true crime analysis, hidden clues, infamous crimes, real crime stories, forensic evidence, heists, art theft

## Transcript

[0:00] On the morning of May 21st, 1980, a horrifying discovery
[0:04] shattered the calm in the small town of Ayer, Massachusetts.
[0:08] Inside her own home, 48 year old Katharina Wright's brow lay
[0:12] dead, brutally stabbed approximately 30 times and
[0:17] bludgeoned with a blunt object. The viciousness of the attack
[0:21] and the mystery of who could have done it cast a long shadow
[0:24] over the community. It would take nearly 45 years, a
[0:28] winding journey marked by injustice, perseverance and
[0:32] scientific breakthroughs, before the truth behind Katharina's
[0:36] slaying would finally come to light.
[0:41] Katharina was a hard working wife and mother of two who lived
[0:45] with her husband in a trailer home on the outskirts of Eyre.
[0:48] Family members described her as a loving mother and a proud
[0:52] grandmother. On that fateful spring morning,
[0:56] Katharina's husband left for work around 7:10 AM, expecting a
[1:00] day like any other. By 10:45 AM, Katharina's body
[1:05] was found inside their home, the victim of a savagely violent
[1:09] crime. Investigators determined that
[1:14] Katharina was slain in the narrow window after her
[1:17] husband's departure, likely closer to the earlier end of
[1:20] that time frame. She had suffered 30 stab wounds,
[1:25] five of which punctured her heart, and had also been struck
[1:29] repeatedly while still alive, indicating A brutal struggle.
[1:34] There were no obvious signs of forced entry, but the inside of
[1:38] the home told a story of chaos and violence.
[1:42] Furniture was overturned, blood stains were found throughout,
[1:46] and all evidence pointed towards a fierce fight.
[1:51] One of the weapons, a bloodied kitchen knife, was discovered
[1:55] tossed in a wastebasket. Investigators also noted a
[1:59] possible motive. Katharina's purse was missing,
[2:03] along with a large sum of cash she was known to keep hidden in
[2:06] a linen closet. It appeared that robbery might
[2:09] have been the primary factor in the attack, adding a layer of
[2:13] cold blooded calculation to the ferocity of the crime.
[2:19] Early on, police focused their attention on a neighbor named
[2:22] Kenny Waters. Kenny lived next door with his
[2:25] girlfriend and worked as a chef at a local diner where Katharina
[2:28] was a frequent customer. In fact, it was common knowledge
[2:32] among some diner staff and locals that Katharina kept
[2:35] significant cash reserves in her home since she didn't trust
[2:39] banks. This rumor put a target on her
[2:42] back and, in the eyes of investigators, made Kenny a
[2:46] person of interest. He was familiar with the
[2:49] victim's routine in the layout of her home, and he had at least
[2:53] indirect knowledge of her cash stash.
[2:58] Police brought Waters in for questioning shortly after the
[3:00] attack. He had a seemingly solid alibi.
[3:04] He claimed he'd been at work until 8:30 AM that morning, then
[3:08] at the local courthouse by 9:00 AM for an unrelated matter.
[3:13] Co workers and records initially backed up his story, and
[3:17] officers examined his clothing and body on the day of the
[3:19] slaying and found no cuts or blood on him.
[3:23] With no physical evidence tying him to the scene, Waters was
[3:27] released and the investigation continued without an immediate
[3:31] arrest. This wouldn't be the last time
[3:34] Kenny would be hearing from the cops for two years.
[3:39] Katharina's slaying went unsolved.
[3:42] Then, in October 1982, a dramatic twist changed
[3:46] everything. A man named Robert Osborne, by
[3:50] then the boyfriend of Kenny's ex-girlfriend Brenda, came
[3:54] forward to police. He claimed he had information on
[3:58] the attack and implied that Kenny was the culprit.
[4:01] By many accounts, Osborne was motivated by the reward money
[4:05] associated with the case, though this is simply an allegation and
[4:09] nothing was ever proven. Brenda Marsh and another former
[4:16] girlfriend, Rosanna Perry, were interrogated for hours about
[4:20] their knowledge of the slaying. Both initially insisted that
[4:23] Kenny was a good guy who wouldn't do anything of the
[4:26] sort. However, investigators leaned on
[4:29] them heavily and implied that the two women may have actually
[4:33] been involved before, during, or after the event.
[4:39] Eventually, under this significant pressure, both women
[4:43] changed their stories and told investigators what they wanted
[4:46] to hear. Brenda said Kenny came home on
[4:49] the morning of May 21st, 1980 with a long scratch on his face.
[4:55] Rosanna claimed Kenny had made remarks about stabbing a woman
[4:58] and stealing her money. These statements were the
[5:01] breakthrough authorities had been waiting for, or so they
[5:05] thought. Fingerprints at the crime scene
[5:10] did not match Waters, but despite this, prosecutors now
[5:14] felt they had enough to charge Kenny.
[5:16] He was arrested in 1982, and after a trial that relied
[5:21] heavily on those shaky witness testimonies, Waters was
[5:24] convicted of Katharina's slaying in May 1983.
[5:29] Kenny Waters vehemently maintained his innocence and one
[5:33] person above all believed him, his sister, Betty Ann Waters.
[5:39] In an extraordinary act of extreme devotion or pure
[5:42] insanity, Betty Ann, a working mom who hadn't completed high
[5:46] school, decided to go ham. She put herself through college
[5:51] and then law school solely to free her brother.
[5:54] And just to give you some context here, this is 7 years
[5:57] combined of study, all to write this injustice.
[6:03] Over the next 18 years, she doggedly pursued justice,
[6:07] working with the Innocence Project to re examine the
[6:10] evidence. By the late 1990s, DNA testing
[6:14] technology had advanced dramatically from what was
[6:17] available. In 1980, Betty Ann managed to
[6:21] locate crucial evidence from the crime scene that had been
[6:24] preserved, the blood stains collected from Katharina's home.
[6:29] In 2000. Those samples were tested for
[6:32] DNA and the results were unequivocal.
[6:35] The blood was not Kenny's. Nearly two decades after his
[6:39] conviction, Kenny Waters was officially exonerated and his
[6:44] 1983 conviction was vacated. In March 2001, he walked out of
[6:49] prison after spending 18 years locked up for a crime he did not
[6:53] commit. Tragically, though, there was no
[6:57] happily ever after for Kenny. Just six months after his
[7:01] release from prison, he died in an accident and never got to see
[7:05] the true resolution to this case.
[7:09] After 2001, the slaying of Katharina Wright's brow became a
[7:13] cold case, but it was never forgotten and a new generation
[7:17] of investigators wanted to right the wrongs of this case.
[7:21] That said, for 20 years, basically nothing happened on
[7:26] the case until the introduction of a little technology called
[7:30] forensic genealogy. Detectives partnered with
[7:36] forensic specialists from Paraben Nano Labs, a company
[7:39] renowned for genetic genealogy work.
[7:43] By reconstructing family trees and zeroing in on the overlaps,
[7:47] they identified 2 possible suspects, brothers from
[7:50] Massachusetts, both of whom had already died.
[7:54] To differentiate between the two, police located living
[7:58] family members, a relative of each brother, and obtained
[8:02] voluntary DNA samples from them. The result was definitive, and
[8:07] the evidence showed it was an overwhelming statistical match
[8:10] to the older brother, Joseph Leo Boudreaux.
[8:16] In June 2025, the District Attorney publicly announced that
[8:20] Boudreaux had been identified through DNA as the person
[8:23] responsible for Katharina's slaying.
[8:26] Unfortunately, Boudreaux would never face trial as he had died
[8:31] in 2004 at age 61, but after nearly half a century, the case
[8:37] was officially considered solved based upon the blood found in
[8:40] the household. Boudreaux was a long time
[8:45] Massachusetts resident who was born in 1943.
[8:49] In the 1970s, Boudreaux worked in the Framingham area and had a
[8:54] history of violence. He was convicted of armed
[8:57] robbery in 1975. In 1980, he was 37 years old and
[9:03] had no known personal connection to her.
[9:07] Not long after Katerina's slaying, Boudreaux moved N to
[9:10] Maine in 1987, where he lived out the rest of his life.
[9:16] Despite extensive queries, investigators have found no link
[9:20] between Boudreaux and either Waters or Osborne.
[9:25] Some have speculated that Boudreau may have been a patron
[9:28] of the diner and overheard idle chatter about Katharina's habit
[9:32] of storing money at her house. Others have speculated that
[9:36] Katarina may have simply believed this was what Boudreaux
[9:39] came for and revealed the money to him.
[9:42] Under this theory, she was slain afterwards to cover up the
[9:45] robbery. Whatever the case, the full
[9:51] truth will never be known and certain elements of this case
[9:54] will continue to remain an unsolved mystery.
[10:01] On a chilly evening in March 1974, a quiet Pittsburgh suburb
[10:06] was shaken by a terrible discovery.
[10:09] Police found the lifeless body of 23 year old Annette Tokars
[10:13] lying in a shallow Creek in Hopewell Township.
[10:17] The young woman had been forcefully drowned, a brutal end
[10:21] that sent shock waves through the community.
[10:24] For Tokarz's family, it was the beginning of a nightmare that
[10:28] police now officially claim has been solved.
[10:32] And as you may have guessed from my phrasing, I'm not entirely
[10:35] convinced. But we'll get to that.
[10:40] The tragedy unfolded on March 6th, 1974.
[10:45] That night, Annette crossed paths with fate in the most
[10:48] devastating way. She had been out that evening,
[10:52] and according to one acquaintance, she was last seen
[10:55] leaving a local bar with an unidentified man.
[10:59] When she didn't return home, concern grew quickly.
[11:03] The next morning, police officers made a grim discovery
[11:07] in Hopewell Community Park. They found Annette's body face
[11:11] down in a shallow Creek within the park grounds.
[11:16] Investigators determined that she had been forcibly held
[11:19] underwater until she drowned. The serene park, normally a spot
[11:24] for picnics and neighborhood gatherings, was now a chilling
[11:28] crime scene cordoned off by yellow tape.
[11:33] Unfortunately, Annette's family learned of her death in the most
[11:36] heartbreaking and impersonal way from a television news report.
[11:41] Her mother was watching the nightly news when the announcer
[11:44] spoke of an unidentified young woman found dead in Hopewell
[11:48] Township. Realizing with horror that it
[11:51] might be her missing daughter, Annette's mother was soon
[11:55] confronted with the unthinkable confirmation.
[11:58] The family's worst fears were realized at the morgue when they
[12:01] identified the Jane Doe as Annette.
[12:06] In the immediate aftermath of the slaying, local law
[12:10] enforcement sprang into action, determined to find whoever was
[12:14] responsible. Detectives interviewed friends,
[12:18] acquaintances and witnesses who had seen Annette in her final
[12:21] hours. Early on, one name caught their
[12:25] attention. Cornelius McCoy McCoy was a man
[12:30] who knew Annette and had reportedly seen her on the night
[12:33] of March 5th, 1974, just hours before her body was found.
[12:39] He told police that he last saw Annette leaving a bar with
[12:42] another man, which immediately made McCoy both a key witness
[12:46] and a potential suspect. In fact, for a time,
[12:50] investigators focused on McCoy as the prime suspect.
[12:57] Despite their suspicions, police in 1974 struggled to build a
[13:01] case against McCoy or anyone else.
[13:04] The forensic science of the era was primitive by today's
[13:07] standards. Investigators had to rely on old
[13:11] fashioned detective work, interviews, alibis and
[13:15] circumstantial clues. McCoy claimed he was innocent,
[13:20] and indeed, he had told police that Annette left with another
[13:23] man, hinting that someone else might be responsible.
[13:29] Detectives followed other leads, too.
[13:32] They took note of Annette's on and off boyfriend, a man named
[13:35] Wilkie Sims, who was interviewed at the time.
[13:39] Sims told police he hadn't seen Annette in two months and that
[13:43] he had been out of town in West Virginia when she was slain.
[13:47] Notably, it appears that this alibi wasn't meaningfully
[13:50] checked out at the time, which you're going to want to keep in
[13:53] mind for later. With no physical evidence to tie
[13:58] anyone to the crime and conflicting accounts of
[14:01] Annette's last movements, the case hit a wall.
[14:05] The police lacked the proof needed to charge McCoy, Sims, or
[14:09] anyone else, and as the months went by, the trail grew colder.
[14:16] As 1974 turned into 1975 and then into the late 1970s,
[14:21] Annette Tokarz's case languished without resolution.
[14:25] The community of Hopewell Township was unnerved that the
[14:28] perpetrator hadn't been brought to justice, but leads were
[14:32] virtually non existent. Annette's family continued to
[14:36] grieve and wonder, keeping her memory alive even as the
[14:40] investigation stalled and the case officially went cold.
[14:46] The cops continued to believe that Cornelius was likely,
[14:49] though not certainly responsible, given that he was
[14:53] the last person who had seen her.
[14:55] Cornelius passed away around 2007, taking any secrets he had
[15:00] with him to the grave. With McCoy dead and no new
[15:05] information, it seemed the truth of what happened that night in
[15:08] 1974 might never be known. But Annette's case was never
[15:13] completely forgotten. Her sisters and other loved ones
[15:17] carried the hope that someday they might get answers.
[15:21] They held on to the idea that Annette's life mattered and that
[15:25] someone out there knew what happened.
[15:28] Little did they know it would take over 5 decades and a new
[15:32] generation of detective work before that hope was apparently
[15:36] realized. The stage was set for what has
[15:40] been claimed to be an extraordinary breakthrough.
[15:43] However, it would require advancements in science and the
[15:47] sheer persistence of a detective who refused to let the case stay
[15:50] cold. In 2017, a seasoned investigator
[15:57] named Patrick Young came across Annette Tokarz's case file while
[16:01] working at the Beaver County Detective Bureau.
[16:04] Young, who had been in law enforcement since the mid 1990s,
[16:08] had a passion for cold cases and a knack for uncovering long
[16:12] buried clues. When he learned about Annette's
[16:15] unsolved slaying, he was intrigued and moved.
[16:19] Here was a 23 year old woman whose life had been brutally cut
[16:23] short and for over 40 years no one had answered for the crime.
[16:28] Young made a decision that would change everything.
[16:31] He would dedicate himself to finding out who ended the life
[16:34] of Annette. Chief Detective Young carefully
[16:39] reviewed the old case notes, photographs and reports.
[16:43] He noted the names of the people involved, including Cornelius
[16:47] McCoy and Walton Sims, and the dead ends that earlier
[16:51] detectives had faced. One thing in the file stood out
[16:54] to him, a leopard print coat that Annette had been wearing on
[16:58] the night of her death. That coat had been collected as
[17:02] evidence back in 1974. Thanks to careful preservation,
[17:07] it remained intact in the police archives.
[17:11] Young wondered if modern forensic technology could reveal
[17:14] something that 1970s science could not.
[17:18] The original investigators had no way to test the coat for DNA.
[17:22] But now, decades later, that was about to change.
[17:28] Detective Young sent Annette's clothing and other preserved
[17:31] evidence for advanced forensic testing.
[17:34] In the lining of that leopard print coat, analysts discovered
[17:37] a stain that yielded a small quantity of DNA.
[17:42] It was a stunning find. And if the Authority's theory is
[17:46] accepted as correct, it's essentially A genetic
[17:49] fingerprint left behind by the perpetrator.
[17:53] Given the nature of the stain, investigators believed it likely
[17:57] came from the perpetrator during a violent encounter.
[18:01] This was the first major piece of physical evidence in the
[18:04] case. However, there was a catch.
[18:08] When the forensic team tried to analyze the DNA for
[18:11] identification, they ran into limitations.
[18:14] They couldn't extract a full DNA profile and thus weren't able to
[18:18] use the CODIS database to search for matches.
[18:23] Instead of being discouraged, Young took a more manual
[18:26] approach. His first thought was to re
[18:28] examine the prime suspect from decades earlier.
[18:32] By 2017, McCoy was deceased, but Detective Young located some of
[18:37] Mccoy's surviving relatives and asked for DNA cheek swabs.
[18:42] If McCoy had been the perp, his family members would share some
[18:46] genetic markers with the DNA from the crime scene.
[18:50] Mccoy's family members were eager to prove his innocence and
[18:53] the results were conclusive. There was no match whatsoever.
[18:58] The unknown DNA didn't appear to come from McCoy, effectively
[19:02] ruling out the man who had once been the prime suspect.
[19:08] By the early twenty 20s, investigative genetic genealogy
[19:12] had emerged as a powerful tool for solving cold cases.
[19:16] Detective Young decided it was time to try what was then still
[19:19] an unconventional approach on Annette's case.
[19:23] This genealogical research LED Detective Young to several
[19:26] individuals who turned out to be relatives of the person who left
[19:30] DNA on Annette's coat. Using those genetic leads, Young
[19:36] built out family trees and zeroed in on a particular family
[19:40] name that kept appearing Sims. This was a familiar name from
[19:44] the original case file. In fact, Wilkie Sims, Annette's
[19:49] ex-boyfriend, had been mentioned in the 1974 investigation notes.
[19:56] Detective Young now had a strong circumstantial case pointing to
[19:59] Sims. However, solid proof was needed
[20:03] to conclusively tie the DNA to him.
[20:07] There was an immediate complication.
[20:09] Sims couldn't be interrogated or asked for ADNA sample because he
[20:13] had died in 2015, but even death wouldn't let him escape
[20:17] scrutiny. Young found that Sims had
[20:19] children, and one of them could potentially provide the key to
[20:23] confirm his guilt. In 2023, armed with a court
[20:28] order, the detective obtained adna sample from one of Walton
[20:31] Sims's sons. Young sent the two samples, one
[20:36] from the crime scene and one from the relative, to a
[20:39] laboratory for analysis. The waiting period was tense,
[20:43] but the results were definitive. Wilkie Sims had left the genetic
[20:48] material there. Beaver County authorities
[20:51] publicly named Walton Sims, the former boyfriend who had long
[20:55] been in the case files shadows, as the perpetrator.
[21:01] OK, so if you're a regular viewer of any of my channels, I
[21:04] suspect you may already have guessed that I was going to add
[21:07] some additional commentary at the end of this segment.
[21:10] Personally, I have a lot of problems accepting that Wilkie
[21:13] Sims did it, and I suspect this wouldn't have been said
[21:17] officially if the man was still alive at the time.
[21:23] Although investigators link the coat DNA to The Sims family,
[21:26] Wilkie Sims was a documented ex-boyfriend of Annette's and
[21:30] everyone accepts this to be fact.
[21:33] This offers a straightforward and potentially innocent
[21:35] explanation for his genetic material to appear on her
[21:39] clothing. Normal consensual contact could
[21:43] easily explain how this sort of biological material ended up on
[21:47] the coat. Further, there's no evidence to
[21:52] indicate that this biological material actually came from the
[21:55] night of the attack. Wilkie Sims claimed that he was
[21:59] in West Virginia at the time, and if the biological evidence
[22:03] was found fresh with evidence of an indecent assault, this would
[22:07] be entirely different. In that case, I think the
[22:12] evidence would be sufficient to say that he was likely the
[22:14] responsible party, but that's not the evidence as it's
[22:18] presented to us. Crucially, there's nothing
[22:23] whatsoever in the way of independent corroboration to
[22:26] make this theory work. For example, there's no reliable
[22:30] eyewitness placing Sims with Annette that night.
[22:33] Further, yet, there are no other forensic links tying him to the
[22:37] scene whatsoever. Given those gaps, a jury could
[22:41] reasonably accept innocent explanations for the DNA and
[22:45] conclude the evidence doesn't eliminate reasonable doubt.
[22:49] However, here, of course, there never will be a jury, and the
[22:52] evidence will never be subjected to the rigors of a trial based
[22:57] on the evidence alone. I just simply don't see that
[23:01] there's enough here to stop investigating this case.
[23:05] It's very possible that the true monster that attacked Annette
[23:08] that night can now rest easily knowing the case is fully
[23:11] closed. Anyway, this isn't the first
[23:16] time I've seen this sort of weak logic applied to cold cases
[23:19] where the supposed perpetrator is already deceased.
[23:22] It offers a convenient excuse to close out a cold case while
[23:26] placing the blame on someone who can no longer say anything to
[23:30] counteract what the authorities say.
[23:33] It may give some comfort to the families involved, but upon
[23:36] closer examination, in a case like this, it shouldn't, since
[23:41] there would have never been enough evidence to convict Sims.
[23:47] It was a cool spring night in May 1985 when 18 year old
[23:51] Christine Gallegos headed out into the Salt Lake City dusk,
[23:56] unaware that her life was about to be tragically cut short.
[24:00] Christine told her loved ones she was hitchhiking to work that
[24:03] evening, a common practice at the time, hoping to catch a ride
[24:07] downtown. Young and full of plans for the
[24:10] future, she had recently gotten engaged to her high school
[24:14] sweetheart and was looking forward to starting a family.
[24:18] But Christine would never make it to her job that night.
[24:23] Within hours, the worst had happened.
[24:26] She vanished and by the early morning of May 16th her lifeless
[24:30] body was discovered in a weedy field on the West side of town.
[24:37] In the pre dawn darkness, around 4:00 in the morning, a passerby
[24:40] stumbled upon a horrific scene at 1384 S Jefferson St.
[24:45] This was just West of an old minor League Baseball park known
[24:49] then as Dirk's Field and saw a lot of early morning foot
[24:52] traffic. There lay Christine Gallegos,
[24:56] brutally attacked and left in the shadows of the Ballpark
[24:59] neighborhood. The violence inflicted on the
[25:02] teenager was shocking, and she was subjected to a number of
[25:06] forms of assault before ultimately being shot in the
[25:09] head twice. Evidence at the scene indicated
[25:12] that Christine had fought desperately for her life.
[25:15] Investigators noted clear signs of a struggle, including a trail
[25:19] of blood leading toward the street, suggesting she tried to
[25:23] escape her attacker before collapsing.
[25:28] In the aftermath of the discovery, investigators worked
[25:31] tirelessly to find the man who did this to Christine.
[25:36] They scoured the field and its surroundings for clues,
[25:39] collecting anything that might lead to the perpetrator.
[25:43] Physical evidence was gathered, including biological evidence
[25:47] from an unknown male, and leads were chased down.
[25:52] For Christine's grieving family, the days after May 16th, 1985
[25:57] were a blur of anguish and unanswered questions.
[26:02] Police interviewed friends, acquaintances and possible
[26:05] witnesses, and they even considered whether a serial
[26:08] predator might be on the loose. Curiously, there appeared to
[26:14] have been no real attempt to cover up the crime scene and as
[26:18] mentioned, this area received heavy foot traffic.
[26:22] This led to an early theory that the perpetrator may have been an
[26:25] out of towner who acted opportunistically.
[26:29] Despite exhaustive early efforts, no credible suspect
[26:33] emerged. The forensic tools of the mid
[26:35] 1980s were limited and DNA profiling was in its infancy.
[26:40] Further, no databases of offenders DNA yet existed.
[26:44] Investigators had some physical evidence but no way to identify
[26:48] the assailant with it at the time.
[26:51] As weeks turned into months and then years, Christine's case
[26:55] grew cold. The Salt Lake City police and
[26:58] Utah State authorities periodically revisited the file
[27:01] over the years, submitting samples for new rounds of
[27:04] testing as technology advanced. Still, each promising lead
[27:09] ultimately fizzled, and the trail remained frustratingly
[27:12] cold. For nearly 40 years, Christine
[27:18] Gallegos lingered in the cold case files, with her case
[27:22] unsolved but never forgotten by either her family or the
[27:26] investigation team. Detectives changed over time,
[27:30] but they passed on the commitment to solve Christine's
[27:33] case to each new generation of investigators.
[27:37] Meanwhile, Christine's family endured an agonizing wait for
[27:41] answers. Her mother, Leah Gallegos, woke
[27:45] up every day to the painful reality that her daughter's
[27:48] attacker was unknown and unpunished.
[27:51] Leah later shared that not a day went by that she didn't think of
[27:55] Christine, and she often found herself in tears over the lost
[27:58] opportunities for the life the two of them could have shared.
[28:02] As decades passed, it seemed possible that the truth of what
[28:06] happened on that spring night in 1985 might never be uncovered.
[28:13] Yet behind the scenes, investigators refused to give up
[28:17] on the case. By the 2010's, DNA technology
[28:21] had leaped forward A critical piece of evidence, the unknown
[28:25] male DNA profile from Christine's case, was uploaded
[28:29] into the National Coda System, which houses DNA from convicted
[28:33] offenders. Unfortunately, no match was
[28:36] found, implying that Christine's attacker had no detectable
[28:40] criminal record that included DNA sampling.
[28:45] The big breakthrough finally came in 2023, nearly 4 decades
[28:50] after Christine's slaying. That year, Salt Lake City police
[28:55] and the Utah Cold Case Review Board decided to apply cutting
[28:59] edge forensic technology to the old evidence.
[29:03] Detectives took a fresh look at the case and decided to use a
[29:06] new technology called forensic genetic genealogy to attempt to
[29:10] connect the dots from the DNA. In brief terms, this technique
[29:15] involves sending the DNA to specialized labs that can build
[29:18] a genetic profile and compare it against public databases to find
[29:23] family connections. The hope is to identify
[29:26] relatives of the unknown person and triangulate back to a
[29:30] potential suspect. And yes, of course, before you
[29:36] comment, I know all the regulars out there definitely know what
[29:40] genetic genealogy is after I've talked it up about 50 different
[29:44] times. But there's still some people
[29:47] out there who are unfamiliar with the tech, so I've got to
[29:50] include at least a brief explanation.
[29:55] The Salt Lake City police partnered with Othrum, a Texas
[29:59] based forensic DNA lab known for cracking cold cases with this
[30:03] technique. Late in 2023, Othrum scientists
[30:07] were given the task of analyzing the DNA from Christine's case
[30:11] with their advanced tools. By early 2024, Othrum had
[30:15] developed a detailed DNA profile and zeroed in on a family line.
[30:20] Detectives built out a family tree from the data,
[30:23] painstakingly working their way through possible relatives of
[30:27] the unknown suspect. Before long, they had a name
[30:31] that hadn't appeared in any part of the investigation before
[30:35] Ricky Lee Stallworth. Stallworth's DNA didn't exist in
[30:39] criminal databases, but the process indicated that he was
[30:43] the likely perpetrator. Investigators were stunned.
[30:49] In reviewing old case files, they confirmed that this man's
[30:52] name had never once come up back in 1985 or in the years
[30:56] afterwards. He was truly a hidden figure,
[30:59] someone who had flown under the radar for 40 years to be
[31:04] absolutely sure they had the right man.
[31:06] Detectives sought out Stallworth's living relatives
[31:09] for adna comparison. One of his children agreed to
[31:13] provide a voluntary DNA sample, and it confirmed a match,
[31:18] proving that the crime scene DNA was indeed tied to the
[31:21] Stallworth family. The mystery man was a mystery no
[31:24] more. After decades of uncertainty,
[31:28] police finally had their suspect.
[31:33] Ricky Lee Stallworth was identified as the person
[31:35] responsible for Christine's slaying.
[31:38] But this revelation came with A twist.
[31:41] Stallworth had been a 27 year old US Air Force airman
[31:44] stationed at Hill Air Force Base north of Salt Lake City at the
[31:48] time of the attack in 1985. He was a young serviceman living
[31:53] in Layton, UT, not far from where Christine lived.
[31:57] Though there's no evidence the two ever knew each other,
[32:01] investigators believe it was a chance encounter, A predatory
[32:05] man cruising the city and an innocent young woman looking for
[32:08] a ride. Tragically, by the time police
[32:12] uncovered Stallworth's name in 2023, they were too late to
[32:16] confront him. Ricky Lee Stallworth had died
[32:21] just a few months earlier in July 2023, of natural causes at
[32:27] the age of 65. The suspect had literally taken
[32:31] his secrets to the grave, and detectives later voiced their
[32:35] frustration that he slipped through their fingers by a
[32:38] matter of months. As they dug into Stallworth's
[32:43] background, a disturbing pattern emerged.
[32:46] It turned out that Stallworth had a dark side, largely hidden
[32:50] behind a facade of an ordinary life.
[32:53] In the last years of his life, he had drawn police attention
[32:56] for prowling the city's main thoroughfare, State Street, in
[33:00] the early morning hours. Investigators discovered that he
[33:04] earned an ominous nickname, the State Street Stalker, because he
[33:09] was known to cruise around late at night and approach women with
[33:12] indecent offers. According to one retired
[33:17] detective, Stallworth would tell his wife that he was stepping
[33:20] out for the night, then disappear until dawn.
[33:24] However, aside from a non violent fraud conviction much
[33:28] later in 2020, Stallworth had managed to avoid any serious
[33:32] criminal charges during his lifetime.
[33:35] In other words, he left virtually no official trace that
[33:38] would connect him to violent crimes.
[33:42] Piercing together the events of that night, detectives now
[33:45] believe that on May 15th, 1985, Ricky Lee Stallworth likely
[33:50] noticed Christine as she was hitchhiking and offered her a
[33:54] ride. She probably accepted, seeing no
[33:57] obvious warning signs. Notably, it's been speculated
[34:01] that he may have worn his Air Force uniform to enhance his
[34:04] credibility and put Christine at ease, though this, of course,
[34:08] has never been confirmed. Instead of taking her to work,
[34:14] Stallworth drove the 18 year old to a secluded area near the
[34:18] ballpark, an area dark and quiet enough at night to hide sinister
[34:22] deeds. There he attacked her, a sudden
[34:26] onslaught of violence. Christine was indecently
[34:29] assaulted and beaten, but she did not go quietly.
[34:34] The evidence of defensive wounds and the blood trail indicates
[34:37] she fought back hard, even managing to scramble out of the
[34:41] vehicle in a bid to escape. In response, Stallworth shot her
[34:46] twice in the head and stabbed her, silencing her resistance in
[34:50] a final brutal act. He then fled into the darkness,
[34:54] leaving Christine to die on the roadside.
[34:58] Hours later, her body was found and the long hunt for justice
[35:03] began, all while Stallworth continued on with his life as if
[35:07] nothing had happened. He continued to serve in the Air
[35:11] Force, hold jobs after retiring from service, and raise
[35:15] children, all while hiding the evil acts he had committed.
[35:21] Unfortunately, Stallworth may have spent his last moments at
[35:24] peace knowing that he had gotten away with it, at least in this
[35:28] lifetime. For 22 years, Gerald Forsman was
[35:36] little more than a ghost to those who loved him.
[35:39] The Michigan man vanished in the early 2000s with no explanation,
[35:44] leaving his family desperate for answers.
[35:48] It took the chance discovery of a skeleton in a Tennessee forest
[35:52] and some cutting edge DNA sleuthing to finally unravel
[35:55] what happened. When human remains were found
[35:59] off a quiet Rd. in Knoxville in 2020, nobody imagined they
[36:03] belonged to a long lost son from Michigan.
[36:06] That was until forensic genealogy linked those bones to
[36:10] a name. Gerald John Forsman grew up in
[36:15] Livonia, MI, but by the early 2000s he had drifted out of his
[36:20] family's life. Born in 1958, Forsman was in his
[36:25] mid 40s when he effectively disappeared.
[36:28] At the time, public records indicate he was living in
[36:31] Knoxville, TN, though it's not clear why he moved there or what
[36:36] circumstances led to his sudden absence.
[36:39] What is clear is that after the early 2000s, his relatives in
[36:43] Michigan never saw or heard from him again.
[36:47] Forsman had essentially vanished without a trace, and for over 2
[36:51] decades, his family was left with painful uncertainty about
[36:54] his fate. It's unclear whether a formal
[36:59] missing persons report was ever filed for Gerald Forsman.
[37:02] After all, as an adult, he had the freedom to move without
[37:05] notifying anyone. But either way, no one was able
[37:09] to locate him during those long years.
[37:11] And to his loved ones, he was simply gone.
[37:15] They were left wondering if he might still be alive somewhere
[37:19] or if something terrible had happened.
[37:22] The mystery of Gerald's whereabouts lingered unresolved
[37:26] year after year. On May 20th, 2020, human remains
[37:33] were found in a wooded area near a residential St. called
[37:36] Overbrook Drive in Knoxville. The location, a quiet section of
[37:41] South Knoxville not far from the Tennessee River, seemed an
[37:45] unlikely place to find a human skeleton hidden among the trees.
[37:50] At the time, investigators had no idea whose remains they had
[37:54] recovered or that this discovery would ultimately be linked to a
[37:58] Michigan cold case. Police and forensic experts
[38:03] responded to the scene and collected the skeletal remains,
[38:07] along with a number of personal items found nearby.
[38:10] The unknown individual appeared to have been wearing multiple
[38:13] layers of clothing, which were still at the site.
[38:17] Investigators recovered a pair of windbreaker pants, a pair of
[38:21] dark dress pants and a pair of Wrangler jeans, suggesting the
[38:26] person had dressed in several layers.
[38:29] There was also a Navy zip up hoodie and even a fragment of a
[38:33] glove with a John Deere logo, hinting at the man's attire and
[38:37] perhaps his work or interests. Most promising to investigators
[38:41] was a wallet found among the clothes, but unfortunately its
[38:45] contents had been ruined by exposure and time.
[38:51] The papers inside were torn, waterlogged and illegible,
[38:54] yielding no name or ID, only a faded Big Lots store logo on one
[38:59] scrap. In other words, nothing at the
[39:02] scene immediately answered that critical question about this
[39:06] unknown individual's identity. The remains were transported to
[39:12] the Knox County Regional Forensic Center for a closer
[39:15] examination. Forensic pathologist determined
[39:19] that the deceased was an older adult male, likely between 55
[39:23] and 70 years of age at the time of death.
[39:26] From the skeleton, they estimated his height to be
[39:29] somewhere around 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 8 inches.
[39:35] Given the advanced state of decomposition, however, there
[39:38] was no way to tell exactly how or when he had died.
[39:42] The cause of death could not be determined from the bones alone,
[39:46] and there were no obvious clues pointing to foul play or natural
[39:49] causes. The mystery remained intact.
[39:54] Investigators knew a few details about the unknown man's physical
[39:57] characteristics, but nothing about his identity or story.
[40:04] Despite these initial findings, putting a name to the remains
[40:07] proved to be a daunting challenge.
[40:09] Police didn't have any of the usual identifiers to work off
[40:13] of, as there were no useful fingerprints or recognizable
[40:16] facial features left. Further, while his teeth were
[40:20] still available for forensic testing, unfortunately, the
[40:25] dental records didn't yield a match.
[40:28] Investigators also compared the case against numerous missing
[40:31] person reports, hoping one of them might describe a man of the
[40:35] same age range and circumstances.
[40:38] But no matches turned up. All conventional methods of
[40:42] identification had failed to reveal who this person was.
[40:47] The case was entered into the name US System, and this man
[40:51] became yet another unresolved John Doe case with little
[40:55] potential for resolution. For a few years, the
[40:58] unidentified bones from Knoxville sat in limbo while
[41:02] authorities had no new leads. By 2023, with the trail still
[41:08] cold, investigators decided to try a new approach that has been
[41:12] revolutionizing cold case investigations.
[41:15] I'll give you a second here to figure out what method they turn
[41:18] to. You guessed it, they turned to
[41:22] forensic genetic genealogy to crack this one wide open.
[41:26] The Knox County Regional Forensic Center submitted adna
[41:29] sample from the unknown man's remains to Othrum.
[41:33] Othrum scientists painstakingly developed adna profile from the
[41:37] skeletal evidence and then used forensic grade genome sequencing
[41:41] to search genealogical databases.
[41:44] In August 2025, the effort finally paid off.
[41:49] Othrum's team reported that they had found potential familial
[41:52] matches pointing to relatives in Michigan.
[41:56] This was the breakthrough investigators had been hoping
[41:59] for. Knox County officials contacted
[42:02] the individuals in Michigan that the genealogical research had
[42:05] flagged. In speaking with these family
[42:08] members, detectives learned that one relative had a long lost
[42:12] family member named Gerald Forsman who fit the profile.
[42:17] He was a man from Livonia who would have been in his 60s by
[42:20] now and whom they hadn't seen in over 2 decades.
[42:24] In fact, one contacted person said they had not seen Gerald in
[42:27] 22 years. To confirm the hunch, one of
[42:32] Gerald Forsmann's relatives provided a fresh DNA sample to
[42:36] serve as a direct comparison. The result was definitive and
[42:40] there was a familial match. The once unidentified John Doe
[42:45] was Gerald John Forsman, finally giving a name to the bones found
[42:50] in the woods. After more than 20 years of not
[42:53] knowing if Gerald was dead or alive, his family at last had an
[42:58] answer. The man who had vanished in the
[43:01] early 2000s had indeed passed away, and his remains had been
[43:05] quietly resting in Tennessee for who knows how long before they
[43:09] were discovered. Now that Gerald Forsman has
[43:14] finally been identified, the case has shifted from a question
[43:18] of who he was to the deeper questions of how and why he
[43:21] died. As you'll recall, the Knox
[43:24] County Regional Forensic Center was unable to determine the
[43:28] exact cause and manner in which he perished.
[43:31] Reconstructing Gerald Forsman's final days will be one of the
[43:35] most delicate and challenging tasks for investigators.
[43:40] If investigators can find out who he was involved with in his
[43:43] last days, they may be able to start piercing together exactly
[43:47] what happened to him personally. Evidence from the recovery scene
[43:53] suggests that Gerald Forsman may have been experiencing
[43:56] homelessness at the time of his death.
[43:59] When his remains were found in Knoxville, investigators noted
[44:03] that he was dressed in multiple layers of clothing.
[44:06] He was found wearing windbreaker pants, dark dress pants,
[44:10] Wrangler jeans, a Navy hoodie, amongst other items on him and
[44:15] in the vicinity. Such layering is often a sign of
[44:18] living without stable shelter, since homeless people frequently
[44:22] wear all of their clothing at once for both warmth and
[44:25] protection as well as convenience.
[44:28] The presence of these mismatched layers, combined with the fact
[44:32] that Forsman's remains were found in a wooded area, seems to
[44:36] suggest he was sleeping rough in the forest.
[44:41] That said, this doesn't mean he necessarily died of exposure or
[44:45] something similar. Based on the latest data I was
[44:49] able to find, homeless people experienced serious violence at
[44:53] a rate of around 20 times greater than the general
[44:56] population. That said, the forensic
[45:00] pathologist who initially reviewed the skeleton found no
[45:03] signs of violence, bringing statistics in yet again,
[45:08] homeless people experience addictions at a much greater
[45:11] rate than the general population.
[45:13] That said, we don't know for certain if Gerald himself had
[45:17] any problems with substance usage, though of course,
[45:20] circumstantially there's an elevated chance this is the
[45:23] case. Thus, if this was the case,
[45:27] Gerald's passing may have been the result of substance usage,
[45:30] though again, there's no direct evidence to support this at
[45:36] present. While Gerald Forsman may have
[45:38] his name back, the unsolved mystery of what happened to him
[45:41] continues on at present. In November 1993, the
[45:46] disappearance of nine year old Angie Houseman gripped the Saint
[45:49] Louis community. Angie stepped off her school bus
[45:53] on a quiet suburban street just a few doors away from her home
[45:57] and then vanished without a trace.
[46:00] Her family and neighbors launched a desperate search as
[46:02] fear spread through the neighborhood, with hundreds of
[46:05] volunteers and police scouring the area for any sign of the
[46:08] missing girl. For 9 agonizing days, loved ones
[46:13] in law enforcement held out hope.
[46:16] But when a Deer Hunter finally stumbled upon Angie's body bound
[46:19] to a tree in a remote wildlife preserve, the community's worst
[46:24] nightmare became reality. The case would remain one of the
[46:28] region's most haunting cold cases for over 25 years, until a
[46:32] tiny piece of DNA evidence finally brought the perpetrator
[46:35] to justice. On Thursday, November 18th,
[46:40] 1993, Angie Houseman stepped off her school bus at about 4:00 PM
[46:45] in Saint Anne, Missouri. She was only nine years old,
[46:49] walking the short distance to her house on a seemingly
[46:52] ordinary afternoon. But somewhere between the bus
[46:56] stop and her front door, less than a block away in broad
[47:00] daylight, Angie vanished That evening when she still hadn't
[47:05] arrived home. Her worried mother and
[47:08] stepfather contacted the police at around 7:00 that evening,
[47:12] reporting Angie is missing. What began as a frantic search
[47:17] by family quickly escalated into a massive police operation.
[47:21] Within days, the Major Case Squad of Greater Saint Louis was
[47:25] activated to assist the Saint Anne police in the
[47:28] investigation. As hours turned into days with
[47:31] no sign of Angie, the community's concern turned to
[47:35] panic. Dozens of law enforcement
[47:38] officers and volunteers combed the neighborhood, knocked on
[47:41] doors and scoured nearby parks and backyards.
[47:46] Despite these efforts, there were no witnesses, no clues, and
[47:50] no answers. Nine days after Angie
[47:56] disappeared, the search came to a tragic end.
[47:59] On November 27th, 1993, a Deer Hunter exploring the Bush
[48:04] Wildlife Conservation Area in Saint Charles County stumbled
[48:08] upon a horrifying scene. He found Angie's lifeless body
[48:13] in the woods, tied tightly to a tree and partially covered by
[48:17] snow in the cold late November air.
[48:20] I'm going to spare you most of the details here because they're
[48:23] horrific. But she was subjected to an
[48:25] indecent assault and biological evidence was left behind by the
[48:29] predator. And seriously, when I say don't
[48:32] look up the details here, I'm not joking.
[48:36] I wish I could unread what I read.
[48:40] In the months and years after Angie's slaying, investigators
[48:44] struggled to find the perpetrator and bring him to
[48:46] justice. The crime had been so brazen and
[48:49] cruel that many feared it could happen again.
[48:53] In fact, just a few weeks after Angie's death, another local
[48:57] girl was abducted and slain, sparking fears of a serial
[49:01] predator on the loose. However, this case was quickly
[49:05] wrapped up and the perpetrator was definitively proven not to
[49:08] have been involved in Angie's case.
[49:12] By the late 1990's, the trail had gone cold and Angie's case
[49:17] haunted detectives for decades, remaining officially open but
[49:21] with no meaningful developments. Meanwhile, Angie's family and
[49:26] the community kept her memory alive.
[49:28] Sadly, her mother Diane lived the rest of her life in grief,
[49:33] passing away in 2016 without ever seeing justice for her
[49:38] daughter. In 2019, more than 1/4 century
[49:44] after Angie's tragic passing, the long-awaited breakthrough
[49:48] finally came. On February 27th, 2019, a senior
[49:54] forensic scientist at the Saint Charles County Crime Lab made a
[49:58] stunning discovery. There was previously undetected
[50:02] DNA on the torn remnants of Angie's undergarments.
[50:05] Advanced testing had lifted A genetic profile that
[50:08] investigators in the 1990s could never have obtained with the
[50:12] forensic science of the time. The DNA belonged to two
[50:18] individuals. One was Angie herself and the
[50:22] other was an unknown male profile now identified through
[50:25] the national CODIS database. The match pointed to a man who
[50:29] was thankfully already behind bars.
[50:33] His name was Earl Webster Cox, a 61 year old convicted predator
[50:38] who had grown up in the Saint Louis area.
[50:41] At the time of Angie's abduction, Cox had been living
[50:44] just a few blocks away from her home in Saint Anne.
[50:48] He was a former Air Force airman who had been dishonorably
[50:51] discharged in the 1980s for committing disturbing and
[50:54] unnatural acts against minors. By 2019, he was in federal
[50:59] custody at a medical facility in North Carolina, serving time due
[51:03] to his role in an international ring producing this disgusting
[51:07] content. Investigators in shock at the
[51:13] DNA results collected a fresh DNA sample from Cox to double
[51:17] check the match. It confirmed that Cox's genetic
[51:21] fingerprint was on Angie's clothing, a probability of
[51:24] coincidence so low that it was virtually impossible anyone else
[51:28] could be responsible. After 26 years of mystery,
[51:33] prosecutors finally had their suspect.
[51:36] In June 2019, Saint Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lomar
[51:41] announced charges in relation to the slaying of Angie Houseman.
[51:47] There was also a lingering possibility that Cox hadn't
[51:50] acted alone. Investigators hinted that
[51:53] someone else might have been involved, but to date no other
[51:56] accomplice has been publicly identified or charged.
[52:02] Facing the mountain of evidence against him, Earl Cox eventually
[52:06] chose to admit his guilt rather than go to trial.
[52:10] In August 2020, he pleaded guilty to 1st degree slaying in
[52:15] Angie's case on the condition that he would avoid the state
[52:18] sponsored DP. Personally, with the level of
[52:23] evidence against him, I don't see why they didn't just go full
[52:27] bore and seek the DP, but given his age and health, it's
[52:31] unlikely that it ever would have been done.
[52:34] And I say this for a specific strategic purpose since as
[52:37] you'll recall, there was a mention of someone else
[52:39] potentially being involved. Facing down a trial where his
[52:44] life was legitimately on the line may have forced him to name
[52:47] the name of his potential accomplice, if one existed.
[52:54] But all that said, no case is a slam dunk.
[52:57] So perhaps simply ensuring this sick excuse for a human being
[53:00] would never be on the streets again, no matter what, was good
[53:04] enough. After all, had the prosecution
[53:08] missed their one shot, it's theoretically possible that he
[53:11] would have one day become a free man once again.
[53:17] A judge sentenced the 63 year old Cox to life in prison
[53:20] without the possibility of parole.
[53:23] For the Houseman family and the investigators who had pursued
[53:25] the truth for so long, it was a moment of both relief and
[53:30] sorrow. In late 2024, while serving his
[53:34] life sentence, the 66 year old Cox died of natural causes in a
[53:39] Missouri prison hospital, a fate which was all too good for him.
[53:47] On a chilly autumn morning in 1994, eighteen year old Bonnie
[53:51] Craig set out for an early morning college English class in
[53:54] Anchorage, AK. She never arrived, and by
[53:58] afternoon a hiker discovered a young woman's body face down in
[54:02] the waters of McHugh Creek, a rugged area about 10 miles South
[54:07] of the city. It was Bonnie, and she had been
[54:10] subjected to an indecent assault, viciously beaten, and
[54:15] left for dead in that frigid Creek.
[54:18] This slaying rattled Anchorage, and outraged residents wouldn't
[54:22] forget the young woman whose life was stolen in such a
[54:25] senseless and evil manner. This gruesome discovery shocked
[54:29] the community and launched an investigation that would span
[54:31] nearly 2 decades. From the start, detectives faced
[54:37] a perplexing scene. Because Bonnie's body was found
[54:41] in a remote Creek and showed signs of drowning, authorities
[54:44] initially considered the possibility of an accidental
[54:47] fall. However, evidence of foul play
[54:50] quickly emerged. Bonnie's school belongings were
[54:54] missing, her hands bore bruises and cuts consistent with
[54:57] defensive wounds, and an indecent assault examination
[55:01] found biological evidence. This quickly dispelled that
[55:05] initial theory that her passing was an accident.
[55:10] Investigators pieced together Bonnie's final known movements
[55:14] as a University of Alaska freshman, she usually walked
[55:17] through the pre dawn dark to catch a bus to her early class.
[55:23] On September 28th, 1994, a driver saw her heading toward
[55:27] the bus stop at around 5:20, but she never made it onto the bus.
[55:32] Sometime during that short walk, she vanished, and no one
[55:36] witnessed the attack or abduction itself.
[55:39] Neighbors later reported a suspicious vehicle in the area,
[55:43] and an anonymous caller claimed Bonnie was seen talking to two
[55:46] men in a car at the bus stop, but these leads went nowhere.
[55:51] Whoever had attacked her left few traces beyond the DNA
[55:55] evidence, which with the forensic technology of the time,
[55:59] wasn't quite as powerful a piece of evidence as it is today.
[56:06] Clues from the scene painted a grim picture of what happened.
[56:09] It appeared Bonnie had been overpowered and then thrown from
[56:12] a 30 foot Cliff into the Creek, likely in an attempt to hide the
[56:16] brutal crime. The autopsy found a dozen wounds
[56:20] on her head, including a severe blow at the base of her skull
[56:25] that couldn't have come from the fall down the slope.
[56:28] In fact, some of her blood was discovered on the leaves at the
[56:31] top of the embankment, indicating she was already
[56:34] bleeding profusely before her body landed in the water below.
[56:40] Despite an intensive investigation, the trail to
[56:43] Bonnie's attacker soon grew cold.
[56:46] Police conducted hundreds of interviews and ran down
[56:49] countless tips. Bonnie's face became familiar on
[56:53] posters and the sides of city buses as her family and
[56:56] authorities pleaded for information, emphasizing that
[56:59] even the smallest tip could crack the case open.
[57:03] The attack was one of the most notorious cases Anchorage had
[57:06] ever seen, yet no viable suspect emerged.
[57:11] Investigators looked at several individuals, but DNA and alibis
[57:16] ruled them all out. The answer finally came from a
[57:21] leap in forensic science. All the while, the unknown
[57:25] assailant's DNA profile from the crime scene sat waiting for a
[57:29] match. In late 2006, more than 12 years
[57:33] after Bonnie's slaying, that profile hit a match in the
[57:37] national database. A routine DNA sample taken from
[57:41] an incarcerated felon on the East Coast matched the DNA from
[57:45] Bonnie's case, and the cold case had cracked open at last.
[57:50] The DNA belonged to 36 year old Kenneth Dionne, a former Army
[57:55] paratrooper who had lived in Alaska in the early 1990s.
[57:59] At the time of the hit, Dionne was serving a prison sentence in
[58:03] New Hampshire for robbery. He had indeed been in Anchorage
[58:07] around 1994. In fact, he was on probation
[58:11] after a prior robbery conviction and had been released from an
[58:14] Alaska prison just months before Bonnie's death.
[58:20] Yet Dionne had never been on investigators radar until this
[58:23] moment, and the forensic match was virtually certain.
[58:27] After years of mystery, science had finally revealed the
[58:31] perpetrator's identity. Dionne was indicted for Bonnie's
[58:35] slaying in 2007 and extradited back to Alaska to face charges.
[58:43] Nearly 17 years after Bonnie's death, Kenneth Dionne went on
[58:47] trial in Anchorage in May 2011. Bonnie's smiling portrait was
[58:52] shown to the jury as prosecutors retold the story of her long
[58:55] unsolved death. Prosecutors then presented a
[58:59] powerful case built on compelling forensic evidence.
[59:03] The autopsy showed that Bonnie's wounds came from a violent
[59:06] beating, not an accident, and the blood found atop the Cliff
[59:10] further disproved any notion that her fall was unintentional.
[59:15] Investigators described how Dion, then 25 years old at the
[59:19] time of the crime, likely spotted Bonnie on her early
[59:22] morning walk and abducted her. He then drove her out to the
[59:27] secluded Creek to carry out his horrific acts.
[59:32] Dion's defense team did not dispute that his DNA was
[59:35] present, but they offered an alternate explanation for the
[59:38] events that's basically guaranteed to piss everyone off.
[59:42] They claimed that Dionne and Bonnie had a consensual
[59:44] encounter early that morning, and that she later slipped and
[59:48] fell from the Cliff to her death by accident.
[59:52] This theory, however, was undermined by the physical
[59:55] evidence and by Bonnie's own character.
[59:59] She had been in love with her long distance boyfriend at the
[1:00:01] time, and wasn't the kind of person to engage in a reckless
[1:00:05] interaction with a stranger early in the morning on the way
[1:00:08] to class. Dionne perhaps hadn't hired a
[1:00:13] star defense team to represent him either, because his own
[1:00:16] statements to the cops after he was brought in undermined their
[1:00:20] theory of the case. When first questioned by police
[1:00:24] after the DNA match, Dionne had claimed he'd never even met
[1:00:28] Bonnie. Undermining this trash tier
[1:00:30] theory crafted by his defense. Moreover, the extensive injuries
[1:00:36] and signs of struggle made the accident story impossible to
[1:00:39] believe. After a three-week trial full of
[1:00:44] emotional testimony, the jury rejected the defense's version
[1:00:47] of events. In June 2011, they found Kenneth
[1:00:52] Dion guilty on all charges, and that October, a judge sentenced
[1:00:57] him to 124 years in prison. At the sentencing, authorities
[1:01:03] noted that Dion's prior violent offenses and probation
[1:01:06] violations meant he should never have been free in 1994.
[1:01:11] This was a bitter reminder that Bonnie's slaying would have been
[1:01:14] prevented had he been properly jailed earlier.
[1:01:19] Spurred by this case, Alaska lawmakers in 2007 passed what
[1:01:23] became known as the Bonnie Craig Law, requiring DNA to be
[1:01:28] collected at the time of all felony arrests.
[1:01:32] In the years since, many other states have followed suit by
[1:01:34] implementing similar DNA on arrest laws so that violent
[1:01:38] offenders are identified sooner. The logic was simple.
[1:01:43] If such a policy had existed earlier, Dionne's DNA from his
[1:01:47] prior arrests would have been on file and the match could have
[1:01:50] caught him much sooner. The defense strategy in Bonnie
[1:01:56] Craig's case stands out as one of the most unsettling aspects
[1:01:59] of the entire case. Aside from the crime itself, the
[1:02:03] claim that Bonnie had willingly engaged in a consensual
[1:02:06] encounter was both cruel and didn't even potentially match
[1:02:10] the evidence. The physical evidence, from her
[1:02:14] extensive defensive injuries to the blood found at the cliff's
[1:02:18] edge painted a reality of the terror she was forced to endure
[1:02:22] in her last moments. To suggest otherwise forced her
[1:02:27] loved ones to relive the horror while hearing her memory
[1:02:30] distorted in court. It reduced Bonnie to a narrative
[1:02:35] that contradicted both her character and the clear facts of
[1:02:38] the case. And Simply put, the defense
[1:02:42] raised didn't have the air of reality for her family.
[1:02:46] Sitting through such testimony must have been excruciating.
[1:02:51] Rather than simply attempting to prove he wasn't guilty, these
[1:02:54] defense lawyers dragged the family through yet another layer
[1:02:57] of trauma for no reason whatsoever.
[1:03:00] And before you comment, I do fully understand that the duty
[1:03:04] of defense counsel is to raise all possible defenses for their
[1:03:08] client, but what they raised here in this instance wasn't
[1:03:12] even theoretically possible on the basis of the evidence, and
[1:03:16] they had no evidence to prove it wasn't.
[1:03:22] It was a sunny spring day in 1991, and the Hibbs family
[1:03:26] started their morning like any other.
[1:03:29] Joy Hibbs, a 35 year old mother of two, cuddled in bed with her
[1:03:34] husband, their children, and a new puppy.
[1:03:38] No one could have imagined that by early afternoon their happy
[1:03:41] home would be a disturbing crime scene.
[1:03:44] Around one O clock on April 19th, 1991, Joy's 12 year old
[1:03:50] son David stepped off his school bus after an early dismissal and
[1:03:55] immediately sensed something was wrong.
[1:03:58] His mom's car was still in the driveway when it shouldn't have
[1:04:00] been, and smoke was billowing from the back of their home.
[1:04:05] Panicked, David tried to rush inside, but thick smoke and heat
[1:04:09] pushed him back. Realizing his mom was likely
[1:04:12] still inside, he sprinted to neighbors for help While flames
[1:04:16] consumed the house. Firefighters arrived and battled
[1:04:20] the blaze. When the fire was finally
[1:04:23] extinguished, they discovered Joy's lifeless body on a bed in
[1:04:27] David's own bedroom. What began as a happy morning
[1:04:32] for Joy and her family turned into the worst nightmare
[1:04:35] imaginable. Joy Hibbs was a devoted wife and
[1:04:40] mother of two who lived in Croydon, PA, a suburb in Bucks
[1:04:44] County. She worked as a medical
[1:04:46] assistant and had moved N from Florida years earlier with her
[1:04:51] high school sweetheart turned husband, Charlie.
[1:04:55] She loved fishing, riding on the back of Charlie's motorcycle,
[1:05:00] and doting on her children, Angie and David.
[1:05:03] The Hibs family was living an unassuming American dream, and
[1:05:07] Joy was the center of their world.
[1:05:12] In the immediate aftermath, authorities initially suspected
[1:05:16] Joy might have perished from an accidental house fire.
[1:05:19] The idea of foul play seemed far fetched at first, given that
[1:05:23] there were no obvious signs of forced entry or struggle
[1:05:26] apparent to the responding officers.
[1:05:29] For two days, the family and investigators operated under the
[1:05:33] grim assumption that a tragic blaze had stolen Joy's life.
[1:05:38] However, a closer look by the county coroner upended that
[1:05:41] theory. Now, I generally don't like to
[1:05:45] get into the nitty gritty details, but here it's necessary
[1:05:48] to discuss the case, so I'll try to do it as respectfully to the
[1:05:52] victim as possible. An autopsy revealed unmistakable
[1:05:57] evidence of a slaying. Joy had been stabbed multiple
[1:06:00] times and viciously beaten, suffering several broken ribs.
[1:06:05] She had been strangled as well, and in fact, a computer's
[1:06:08] electrical cord was later identified as the likely
[1:06:11] ligature used to asphyxiate her. Tellingly, the autopsy found no
[1:06:17] smoke in Joy's lungs, meaning she was already dead when the
[1:06:20] fire consumed the house. This was no accident, and it was
[1:06:26] clear someone had eliminated Joy and then set the house ablaze to
[1:06:29] destroy evidence and mask the crime.
[1:06:32] Investigators also noted that Joy's wallet was found emptied
[1:06:35] of cash, an odd detail since she had withdrawn money from the
[1:06:40] bank earlier that very morning. The missing money suggested a
[1:06:44] possible robbery motive or a staged cover up, and in the
[1:06:47] weeks that would follow, the cops would essentially
[1:06:51] erroneously decide that Charlie did it, even if there was no
[1:06:55] evidence linking him to the crime.
[1:06:58] This is just guesswork on my part, but the attack appeared to
[1:07:02] be highly personal, so it's likely they simply thought the
[1:07:05] husband did it. Fire Marshall soon confirmed
[1:07:09] that the blaze had been deliberately set.
[1:07:12] In fact, there were four separate points of origin for
[1:07:15] the flames inside the house, including spots in the kitchen,
[1:07:19] a hallway, and even the bedroom where Joy's body was found.
[1:07:24] Such a pattern could only mean arson, and the perpetrator had
[1:07:28] clearly attempted to burn down the home in an effort to destroy
[1:07:31] evidence. From the very start, detectives
[1:07:37] hunting for Joy's attacker honed in on a suspect uncomfortably
[1:07:40] close to home. Neighbors reported that around
[1:07:44] the time of the fire, a blue Chevrolet Monte Carlo was seen
[1:07:48] sloppily parked outside the Hibs residence facing the wrong way
[1:07:53] on the street. It was an odd sight that stuck
[1:07:56] in witnesses minds. Investigators soon learned that
[1:07:59] a former neighbor of the Hibs family, 25 year old Robert
[1:08:03] Atkins, owned Monte Carlo, but in a different color.
[1:08:08] Atkins had lived just two doors down from Joy's home and he was
[1:08:12] no stranger. In fact, he had occasionally
[1:08:15] sold small amounts of St. cabbage to Joy and her husband
[1:08:18] Charlie, in the past. This connection, plus the
[1:08:22] unusual car sighting, put Atkins on the detective's radar almost
[1:08:27] immediately. Just two days after the event,
[1:08:32] officers went to question Robert Atkins.
[1:08:34] He refused to let them into his apartment, but one detective
[1:08:38] noticed a dark colored Monte Carlo in the parking area.
[1:08:41] It was the same make and model witnesses had described, though
[1:08:45] it was black rather than blue. Atkins was polite but
[1:08:50] uncooperative, and he denied any involvement and declined to take
[1:08:55] a polygraph test. Now, there are plenty of reasons
[1:08:59] to refuse to take a polygraph test, but he oddly claimed that
[1:09:03] his arm was injured, so he couldn't do it.
[1:09:08] Despite these red flags, the case against Atkins in 1991
[1:09:12] never solidified. One major reason was his alibi.
[1:09:17] Robert Atkins told police he was at home on the phone around the
[1:09:20] time of the attack, and he later took his family on a trip out of
[1:09:24] town that very afternoon. To back up his story, he pointed
[1:09:28] to a Co worker of his wife, April, who claimed she had
[1:09:32] called the Atkins house at around 1:00 in the afternoon on
[1:09:35] April 19th. She claimed that she had a long
[1:09:38] conversation with Robert, which, if true, would place him at home
[1:09:42] during the narrow window when Joy was slain.
[1:09:45] Furthermore, when detectives checked his story, it became
[1:09:49] evident that Atkins had left for a family trip almost immediately
[1:09:53] after the fire. With a seemingly credible alibi
[1:09:56] and no physical evidence tying him to the crime, Robert Atkins
[1:10:00] walked free and the trail began to go cold.
[1:10:06] Unbeknownst to Joy's grieving family, another factor was
[1:10:09] muddying the investigative waters.
[1:10:12] It turns out Atkins was working as a confidential informant for
[1:10:16] the local police in 1991. This stunning fact only came to
[1:10:21] light decades later, but it may explain why initial detectives
[1:10:25] pulled their punches when it came to scrutinizing him.
[1:10:29] According to reports, one of the lead investigators in 1991 was
[1:10:35] explicitly told to stay away from Robert Atkins because of
[1:10:39] his informant status. His cooperation was required in
[1:10:43] several major ongoing investigations against local
[1:10:46] criminal organizations, and the cops didn't want to jeopardize
[1:10:49] that situation. If true, this means a potential
[1:10:53] predator received a degree of protection in the critical early
[1:10:56] days of the case. Over the next 20 years, there
[1:11:00] were no significant updates in the case.
[1:11:05] However, a few developments kept hope alive, and in 2014 / 2
[1:11:11] decades after Joy's slaying, a media spotlight hit the case,
[1:11:15] bringing it back into public consciousness.
[1:11:18] The Huffington Post published an article about the case and even
[1:11:22] managed to interview Robert Atkins, who participated to
[1:11:26] plead his innocence. This brazen attempt to prove his
[1:11:30] innocence caught the attention of Bristol Township Police
[1:11:33] Sergeant Mike Slaughter. And yes, for my wrestling fans
[1:11:37] in the audience, I'll be referring to him as Sergeant
[1:11:41] Slaughter for the rest of this segment.
[1:11:44] Sergeant Slaughter began meticulously picking apart the
[1:11:47] old evidence and re interviewing witnesses.
[1:11:50] And as he began to dig, he realized there were a lot of
[1:11:54] loose threads. One of the first breakthroughs
[1:11:59] came from revisiting Joy's final days and the threats she faced.
[1:12:03] A former Co worker of Joy's revealed a chilling piece of
[1:12:07] forgotten information just days before the attack.
[1:12:11] An enraged man had called Joy at her workplace, angrily
[1:12:15] threatening her in 1991. This Co worker hadn't shared the
[1:12:19] story with police, though her husband Charlie had told the
[1:12:23] cops about it. Detectives at the time seem more
[1:12:27] focused on Charlie as a suspect and appear to have thought this
[1:12:31] was an attempt to deflect responsibility.
[1:12:36] Slaughter also re examined Atkins alibi and found cracks in
[1:12:40] its foundation. The phone call that was supposed
[1:12:43] to prove his innocence was scrutinized.
[1:12:46] It turned out that the timing of the call and the departure for
[1:12:49] his family trip didn't rule him out as cleanly as once thought.
[1:12:53] In fact, evidence suggested Atkins phone call and the drive
[1:12:58] north occurred later than he had LED police to believe.
[1:13:01] This meant the critical window around midday when Joy was
[1:13:05] attacked was still unaccounted for.
[1:13:10] And remember the blue Monte Carlo witnesses saw.
[1:13:14] Investigators learned that Robert Atkins had access not
[1:13:17] only to his own black car, but also to a relative's blue Monte
[1:13:21] Carlo. At the time, the color
[1:13:23] discrepancy that once cast doubt on the eyewitness car sightings
[1:13:27] was suddenly explained, removing another hurdle that had slowed
[1:13:31] the original case. Piece by piece, the once dormant
[1:13:35] case against Atkins was gaining new momentum.
[1:13:39] Then came the most damning testimony, straight from the
[1:13:42] person who knew Robert Atkins better than anyone, his ex-wife
[1:13:46] April. By 2014, April and Robert Atkins
[1:13:52] had been divorced for several years, and she was beyond the
[1:13:55] reach of his influence. Perhaps carrying decades of
[1:13:59] guilt and fear, April eventually decided to tell the truth that
[1:14:03] she had kept buried. In September 2016, she walked
[1:14:09] into the Bristol Township Police Department of her own accord and
[1:14:12] gave a recorded statement that blew the case wide open.
[1:14:16] April revealed that on April 19th, 1991, Robert had come home
[1:14:21] disheveled and covered in black soot.
[1:14:24] He was frantic and immediately told her to pack their young
[1:14:27] children and take an impromptu trip out of town.
[1:14:30] According to April, Robert confessed to her that he did it
[1:14:34] and fearing her volatile husband, April obeyed his
[1:14:38] instructions. April told investigators she
[1:14:41] hadn't learned that Joy was the victim until after they returned
[1:14:45] home days later. Even with April Atkins explosive
[1:14:50] statement, building a rock solid case took time.
[1:14:54] After all, it's important to remember that the authorities
[1:14:58] only have one chance to go after a criminal and prove the case
[1:15:02] beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence against Robert
[1:15:05] Atkins was still largely circumstantial, so investigators
[1:15:09] proceeded carefully. As part of this renewed push,
[1:15:13] authorities orchestrated a clever strategy to elicit
[1:15:16] incriminating words from Atkins himself.
[1:15:19] With April's cooperation, in late 2021 they set up a plan to
[1:15:24] make Atkins think that the authorities were closing in on
[1:15:27] him. Atkins was falsely led to
[1:15:31] believe that detectives had unexpectedly shown up at April's
[1:15:34] new home out of state, questioning her and even talking
[1:15:37] to her roommate about his past confession.
[1:15:41] This ruse was designed to rattle Robert, to make him think his
[1:15:44] long held secret was spilling out.
[1:15:46] And the trap worked. In December 2021, Robert's son,
[1:15:53] eager to prove his dad's innocence, asked Atkins what was
[1:15:56] going on, and Atkins nervously confessed that he was definitely
[1:16:00] going to jail for something he did.
[1:16:03] He initially said it was related to a fire, but then admitted
[1:16:07] that it was related to a stabbing.
[1:16:09] Robert's son, shocked by this confession, relayed what he had
[1:16:14] heard to the authorities, and it's notable here that the son
[1:16:18] actually resided with Robert and really believed in him.
[1:16:22] I can't imagine how hard it must have been for him to hear it
[1:16:25] straight from the horse's mouth that his beloved dad had
[1:16:28] actually taken an innocent person's life.
[1:16:33] On May 25th, 2022 / 31 years after Joy Hibs was slain, police
[1:16:40] finally showed up at Robert Atkins door with handcuffs.
[1:16:44] The one time neighbor, who had lived freely for decades was
[1:16:47] placed under arrest and charged with multiple counts related to
[1:16:51] the slaying and the arson. In early 2024, the trial of
[1:16:58] Robert Atkins commenced, over 30 years after Joy Hibbs lost her
[1:17:01] life. Rather than a jury trial, Atkins
[1:17:05] opted for a bench trial, placing his fate in the hands of a
[1:17:08] judge. Over 3 days, prosecutors
[1:17:12] presented the evidence that investigators had assembled
[1:17:15] piece by piece over the decades. In February 2024, Judge Wallace
[1:17:21] Bateman found Robert Atkins guilty on all counts and
[1:17:25] sentenced Robert Atkins to life behind bars.
[1:17:30] Notably, in a disturbing postscript, Joy's children David
[1:17:34] and Angie recounted how Atkins didn't just take their mom away.
[1:17:38] The fire that had burnt their house down had also taken almost
[1:17:42] all the visual documentation of their happy memories with their
[1:17:45] mom. This case really gets to me
[1:17:49] since by all rights, Atkins should have been locked up for
[1:17:52] his crimes back in 1991. Perhaps the most glaring failure
[1:17:57] was that Robert Atkins was a police informant at the time of
[1:18:00] the attack. Instead of treating him as a
[1:18:03] prime suspect, investigators were reportedly instructed to
[1:18:07] protect this source. Protecting an informant became
[1:18:11] more important than pursuing justice for joy.
[1:18:14] This not only shielded him from early scrutiny, but may have
[1:18:18] actively discouraged deeper investigation in the crucial
[1:18:22] first days when evidence and witness memories were still
[1:18:25] fresh. Further, this becomes
[1:18:29] particularly absurd when you realize that he was an informant
[1:18:32] against a substance that is now legalized in many parts of the
[1:18:36] country. While the initial investigation
[1:18:41] was clearly botched, Sergeant Slaughter was thankfully given
[1:18:44] enough evidence to piece together what actually happened.
[1:18:48] Atkins's alibi largely hinged on a phone call that supposedly
[1:18:52] placed him at home. Investigators accepted this
[1:18:55] explanation far too readily, even though the timing was shaky
[1:18:59] and should have raised questions.
[1:19:01] Witness accounts of a blue Monte Carlo outside the Hibs home also
[1:19:05] got dismissed because Atkins car was black.
[1:19:09] This was despite him having access to another family
[1:19:12] member's blue Monte Carlo. These missed connections showed
[1:19:15] a lack of thoroughness in testing his alibi and cross
[1:19:18] checking witness statements. Of course, I don't want to let
[1:19:23] April off the hook completely here, but given that the cops
[1:19:27] were willing to protect her violent husband, I understand
[1:19:30] her position. If she had gone to the
[1:19:33] authorities and told them what happened in April 1991, it's
[1:19:38] unclear to me if the cops would have even properly pursued
[1:19:41] Atkins at that time. It seems to me that they assumed
[1:19:45] Charlie did it, and also would have done basically anything to
[1:19:48] protect the cases they were relying on Atkins for.
[1:19:52] After all, the cases against the street pharmacists would have
[1:19:55] fallen apart if it was found out the confidential informant who
[1:19:59] was giving evidence had slain an innocent person.
[1:20:05] On a warm July evening in 1999, a father and daughter walking
[1:20:10] their dogs in rural Wisconsin came upon a horrifying sight.
[1:20:15] It was the battered body of a young woman lying lifeless in
[1:20:18] the first rows of a cornfield off a country Rd. in Raymond,
[1:20:22] Wisconsin. One of her arms was bent
[1:20:25] unnaturally behind her back, and it was immediately clear she had
[1:20:29] suffered grievous injuries. Investigators also observed Mark
[1:20:33] suggesting her body had been dragged about 25 feet off the
[1:20:37] road into the cornfield. A heavy rainstorm that night had
[1:20:41] washed away most clues, making forensic evidence scarce.
[1:20:45] Whoever she was, this young woman had endured a terrible
[1:20:49] fate, and her identity was a complete mystery.
[1:20:54] It was the beginning of a mystery that would take nearly
[1:20:56] 20 years to finally unravel. Forensic examiners cataloged a
[1:21:02] horrifying list of injuries. The young woman was malnourished
[1:21:06] and showed signs that she had been subjected to cruelty on a
[1:21:09] long term scale. With no identification on the
[1:21:13] body and no immediate matches to missing persons reports, the
[1:21:17] victim remained a Jane Doe. The local community refused to
[1:21:22] let her memory fade, and in October 1999, a funeral was held
[1:21:28] for the unnamed young woman and more than 50 people attended to
[1:21:32] pay their respects. It was a promise that although
[1:21:35] her name was unknown, she would not be forgotten anytime soon.
[1:21:42] Detectives spent years chasing leads in vain.
[1:21:45] Composite sketches and facial reconstructions of the Jane Doe
[1:21:49] were circulated, but no one recognized her.
[1:21:53] Police theorized that she might have been a runaway or perhaps
[1:21:56] from out of the area, which could explain why no missing
[1:22:00] persons report matched her. They compared her DNA and dental
[1:22:04] data against numerous missing women, but every lead was ruled
[1:22:08] out. In 2013, Hoping for a
[1:22:11] breakthrough, investigators had the Jane Doe's remains exhumed
[1:22:15] for advanced forensic testing. Isotope analysis of her hair and
[1:22:20] bones suggested she may have spent her life in a far off
[1:22:22] region such as Alaska, Montana, or Western Canada.
[1:22:27] It was an intriguing clue, but not enough to pinpoint her
[1:22:30] identity. Nearly two decades later, in
[1:22:35] late 2019, the cold case heated up dramatically.
[1:22:41] On September 23rd, 2019, Racine County investigators received a
[1:22:47] tip that a woman named Linda Sue LaRoche was bragging about a
[1:22:51] crime she committed a couple decades back.
[1:22:55] LaRoche, they learned, was a former nurse who had lived in
[1:22:58] the northwest suburbs of Chicago in the late 1990s.
[1:23:03] Within weeks of this tip, investigators gathered enough
[1:23:06] evidence to obtain an arrest warrant.
[1:23:09] On November 5th, 2019, police in Cape Coral, FL, where LaRoche
[1:23:16] had moved, arrested her in connection with the Jane Doe
[1:23:19] case. Laroche's arrest was a turning
[1:23:22] point. After 2 decades, authorities
[1:23:26] finally had a suspect and a chance to give the Jane Doe her
[1:23:30] name back. Acting on the new lead,
[1:23:35] investigators soon uncovered the identity of their Jane Doe.
[1:23:39] The tip about La Roche LED police to a long forgotten
[1:23:42] missing person, a 23 year old woman from McHenry, IL named
[1:23:47] Peggy Lynn Johnson. Peggy had never been officially
[1:23:51] reported missing. In fact, the only public notice
[1:23:55] of her disappearance was a small personal ad her aunt placed in a
[1:23:58] local newspaper in late 1999 pleading for Peggy to contact
[1:24:03] her family. By comparing DNA from Peggy's
[1:24:07] relatives to the Jane Doe, authorities confirmed that the
[1:24:10] unidentified victim was indeed Peggy Lynn Johnson.
[1:24:17] With the case cracked, investigators pieced together
[1:24:20] the tragic story of how Peggy came to live with LaRoche and
[1:24:24] what she endured. Peggy was a kind but naive and
[1:24:28] cognitively impaired young woman who became homeless at 18 after
[1:24:32] her mother's passing in 1994. That year, seeking help, she
[1:24:37] visited a medical clinic in McHenry where LaRoche worked as
[1:24:41] a nurse. LaRoche offered to take Peggy
[1:24:44] in, giving her a place to live in exchange for serving as a
[1:24:47] housekeeper and nanny for the LaRoche family.
[1:24:51] Grateful, and with nowhere else to go, Peggy agreed.
[1:24:54] She lived under Laroche's roof for the next 5 years, but
[1:24:58] tragically, multiple witnesses later revealed that Peggy
[1:25:02] suffered horrific mistreatment during that time.
[1:25:06] Laroche's own children recalled their mother screaming at Peggy
[1:25:09] and even forcing her to sleep in a crawl space under the house
[1:25:12] instead of a bedroom. In custody, Lynda LaRoche tried
[1:25:18] to explain Peggy's passing, but her story shifted and crumbled
[1:25:22] under scrutiny. At first, LaRoche claims she had
[1:25:26] simply left Peggy at a gas station, saying she turned the
[1:25:29] young woman over to her grandmother at a payphone booth
[1:25:32] in 1999. This was quickly disproven when
[1:25:36] that relative told police she never saw Peggy or La Roche that
[1:25:39] day. Confronted with the lie, La
[1:25:43] Roche then admitted she had driven Peggy to rural Wisconsin
[1:25:47] and abandoned her by the roadside, insisting that Peggy
[1:25:51] was alive at the time. She also claimed that Peggy
[1:25:55] wasn't injured at all at the time of the drop off.
[1:25:58] Investigators knew this account did not align with the autopsy,
[1:26:02] which showed Peggy's severe, untreated injuries.
[1:26:08] Further testimony illuminated what likely happened on Peggy's
[1:26:11] final day. Laroche's ex-husband recounted
[1:26:15] that he came home one day in July 1999 to find Peggy lying on
[1:26:20] the floor unresponsive. LaRoche told him Peggy had taken
[1:26:24] too many pills and instructed him to take their children out
[1:26:27] of the house for ice cream. He complied, and when he
[1:26:31] returned later, Peggy was gone. In reality, toxicology tests
[1:26:37] found no trace of pharmaceuticals of any type in
[1:26:40] Peggy's body. The arrest of Lynda LaRoche
[1:26:45] marked the beginning of the end for this decades old mystery.
[1:26:49] In March 2022, a jury in Racine County deliberated over the
[1:26:54] evidence and found LaRoche guilty of Peggy Johnson's
[1:26:57] slaying and of hiding her corpse.
[1:27:01] She was later sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of
[1:27:04] parole. With the case solved, Peggy Lynn
[1:27:08] Johnson finally received a degree of the dignity she
[1:27:12] deserved in life. Her remains, once buried under
[1:27:16] the Jane Doe headstone, were exhumed and reburied in Illinois
[1:27:20] next to her mother's grave, thanks to donations from her
[1:27:24] adoptive community. Now her tombstone bears her real
[1:27:28] name, and the evils of Lynda LaRoche will forever be known to
[1:27:32] the world. In a somewhat cruel twist of
[1:27:37] fate, Lynda LaRoche is receiving much better treatment in prison
[1:27:40] than Peggy ever received living in Linda's home.
[1:27:44] Of course I'm not advocating for Linda to receive the treatment
[1:27:47] Peggy received, but damn this case really pisses me off.
[1:27:55] In the pre dawn chill of Thanksgiving weekend 2011,
[1:27:58] firefighters extinguished a car engulfed in flames behind a
[1:28:01] quiet Detroit alley, only to make a horrifying discovery.
[1:28:06] The vehicle was holding the charred remains of an individual
[1:28:09] who could only be identified by her dental records.
[1:28:13] The fire had been no accident, and it was deliberately set to
[1:28:17] cover up a brutal attack. For nearly seven years, the
[1:28:21] woman's family and the authorities had no answer, and
[1:28:24] the perpetrator remained at large while the case went cold.
[1:28:29] This is the story of what happened to a beloved
[1:28:31] grandmother, how an investigation stalled for years,
[1:28:36] and how a cold case was ultimately cracked to bring a
[1:28:39] monster to justice. On November 26th, 2011, the
[1:28:46] Saturday after Thanksgiving, authorities were alerted to a
[1:28:50] vehicle on fire in an alleyway on Buena Vista St. in Highland
[1:28:54] Park. Firefighters doused the flames
[1:28:57] and found a body in the back seat, wrapped in a comforter
[1:29:00] with the head down and feet up. A strong odor of gasoline
[1:29:04] indicated the blaze was intentionally ignited in the
[1:29:07] car's back seat. By the following week, news of
[1:29:11] the horrific crime had spread, and investigators combed through
[1:29:15] Helen's house for clues. The victim had been burned so
[1:29:19] badly that identification was impossible on site.
[1:29:23] Investigators trace the car's registration to Helen Gale, an
[1:29:27] 81 year old Southfield resident who lived alone, and dental
[1:29:30] records soon confirmed that the charred body was indeed Helen.
[1:29:38] From the very start, police treated Helen's death as
[1:29:40] intentional. The unusual circumstances an
[1:29:44] elderly woman's body found in a torched car miles from her home
[1:29:49] were immediate red flags. Detectives suspected that the
[1:29:53] perpetrator set the fire to destroy evidence and hinder
[1:29:56] identification of the victim. An autopsy later confirmed that
[1:30:00] Helen hadn't perished from the fire itself.
[1:30:04] She had been slain beforehand. The cause of death?
[1:30:07] Determined to likely be smothering.
[1:30:10] In other words, someone suffocated the 81 year old and
[1:30:14] then attempted to hide the crime by burning her body and vehicle.
[1:30:18] It was a shocking and calculated act, and it left the community
[1:30:22] stunned and fearful. Helen Gale wasn't a person
[1:30:27] anyone would expect to be targeted for violence.
[1:30:30] She was a vibrant senior who had dedicated over 30 years to the
[1:30:34] Southfield Parks and Recreation Department before retirement.
[1:30:38] In fact, Helen loved her work so much that she continued part
[1:30:42] time as the coordinator of a local dance program, staying
[1:30:45] involved in the community even in her 80s.
[1:30:48] Friends and colleagues recalled her as an extremely kind,
[1:30:52] energetic woman who was one of the sweetest people one could
[1:30:56] ever meet. She was also a mother and
[1:31:00] grandmother, deeply loved by her family.
[1:31:03] Just hours before her life was taken, Helen had enjoyed a
[1:31:07] Thanksgiving phone call with her daughter, Nancy, and everything
[1:31:11] seemed perfectly normal. The news that Helen had been
[1:31:15] violently slain later that night was utterly devastating to her
[1:31:19] family and neighbors, who struggled to imagine who could
[1:31:22] harm such a gentle soul. At Helen's home on Winchester
[1:31:28] St. in Southfield, investigators found disturbing evidence that
[1:31:32] the crime had started there. The scene inside the house
[1:31:35] pointed to a struggle and the bedroom showed signs of a
[1:31:38] violent attack. This suggested Helen was
[1:31:42] attacked and likely slain in her own home before being moved to
[1:31:45] the car. Several personal items were
[1:31:48] missing from the house, including Helen's identification
[1:31:52] wallet and a distinctive designer purse that her daughter
[1:31:56] had custom made for her as a gift.
[1:31:59] With a secondary crime scene now identified at the victim's
[1:32:02] residence, police began piercing together the timeline.
[1:32:07] The attacker probably assaulted Helen at home on the night of
[1:32:10] November 25th, then transported her body in her own car and set
[1:32:15] it ablaze early the next morning.
[1:32:20] Despite the perpetrators attempt to destroy evidence,
[1:32:23] investigators did recover some crucial clues.
[1:32:25] Near the burned car, not far from Helen's scorched Honda,
[1:32:30] police found a discarded blue bag with a gasoline can inside.
[1:32:34] Attached to this bag was a receipt, and on it was a name
[1:32:38] that immediately caught detectives attention.
[1:32:41] Incredibly, the name on the receipt was Darren Keener, one
[1:32:45] of Helen Gale's neighbors at the time.
[1:32:48] This was the first major break in the case, or so the
[1:32:51] detectives thought. When questioned back in 2011,
[1:32:57] Darren Keener admitted the gas can was his, but claimed it had
[1:33:01] been stolen from his back porch and placed in that blue bag by
[1:33:05] some unknown person. Police found this story highly
[1:33:08] dubious but did view it as a potential possibility.
[1:33:13] Keener was the obvious suspect, but the evidence back in 2011
[1:33:17] was too thin to charge him, and at any rate he seemed to be very
[1:33:21] helpful and cooperative. Having his name on a receipt at
[1:33:25] the scene was incriminating yet not definitive proof of
[1:33:29] involvement, and detectives lacked any hard evidence tying
[1:33:32] him directly to the crime. As a result, he remained free
[1:33:36] and the case went cold with years passing and no arrest.
[1:33:43] For years, Nancy Gale, Helen's daughter, waited in vain for
[1:33:47] answers. The case had gone cold, with
[1:33:50] crucial evidence destroyed in the fire and no new leads.
[1:33:55] The police didn't seem to be too interested in actually pursuing
[1:33:58] any form of justice. Yet Nancy Gale refused to let
[1:34:02] her mother's case be forgotten. In 2017, Nancy decided to take
[1:34:07] action on her own. She hired a private
[1:34:10] investigator, Scott Lewis, to re examine her mother's case.
[1:34:14] Lewis was a former investigative journalist who had both
[1:34:17] connections within the Police Department and could also be a
[1:34:20] thorn in their sides as well. Nancy and Lewis gathered all the
[1:34:26] evidence they could and launched a campaign to make the cops do
[1:34:30] something about this case. Lewis's involvement breathed new
[1:34:33] life into the investigation, prompting Southfield police to
[1:34:37] re engage with fresh urgency. In effect, it was the Gale
[1:34:41] family's persistence that forced a second look at evidence that
[1:34:45] might otherwise have gathered dust.
[1:34:47] Southfield police officially reopened Helen's case and
[1:34:51] enlisted the Oakland County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit to take
[1:34:55] a fresh look at the evidence. It had been nearly six years
[1:34:59] since the event, but investigators were determined to
[1:35:02] finally crack the case. With fresh eyes on the case,
[1:35:07] detective soon found new evidence and inconsistencies
[1:35:11] that had been missed. Back in 2011, everything began
[1:35:15] to stack up against Keener, especially after they revisited
[1:35:19] his alibi and gathered new witness testimony.
[1:35:22] Notably, there were a number of significant breakthroughs in the
[1:35:26] case as a result of this that really make me question the
[1:35:29] original investigation. I just need to reiterate here
[1:35:34] that a receipt with this guy's name on it was literally
[1:35:36] discovered at the scene of the crime.
[1:35:40] Despite this, there seems to have been little effort to
[1:35:42] actually dig any deeper into him and reveal what in retrospect
[1:35:46] looks like obvious inconsistencies.
[1:35:51] Keener's original alibi for the night of November 25th 2011 fell
[1:35:56] apart under renewed scrutiny. He had claimed he spent that
[1:36:00] weekend with his young daughter and then went to his mother's
[1:36:02] house. But when detectives talked to
[1:36:05] the child's mother, she confirmed that Keener didn't
[1:36:08] have their daughter on that Thanksgiving weekend at all.
[1:36:12] In other words, he had used his daughter as a cover for where he
[1:36:16] had been. This wasn't necessarily proof of
[1:36:19] his involvement, but it did prove that he had lied to the
[1:36:23] initial investigators despite being apparently helpful.
[1:36:28] This of course made the story about how the receipt got to the
[1:36:31] crime scene even more dubious than it already was.
[1:36:36] Also, I know I shouldn't be shocked by this given what
[1:36:38] Keener was capable of, but using his daughter as cover to commit
[1:36:42] this crime just amplifies the disgust I feel towards this guy.
[1:36:48] Cell phone records further undermined Keener's story.
[1:36:51] These records placed him in the vicinity of the Highland Park
[1:36:54] alley at around the time Helen's car was set on fire.
[1:36:59] Personally, I'm not sure how these cell phone records weren't
[1:37:02] initially obtained in 2011, given that a receipt with his
[1:37:06] name was found at the crime scene.
[1:37:09] Honestly, that's some real questionable police work right
[1:37:12] there. Notably, one acquaintance
[1:37:16] revealed that Keener frantically called her about 16 times on the
[1:37:19] night of the slaying. When she answered, he sounded
[1:37:22] distressed, and the next day she discovered a voicemail from him
[1:37:27] essentially confessing that he had done something terrible.
[1:37:31] He didn't say exactly what he had done, and he didn't say that
[1:37:34] it was a crime, even, but the timeline added up.
[1:37:40] All of these clues considered together painted a devastating
[1:37:44] picture of who was responsible for this sick act against this
[1:37:47] innocent grandmother. By early 2018, the authorities
[1:37:52] had assembled a strong circumstantial case indicating
[1:37:55] that Darren Keener had slain Helen Gale.
[1:37:59] They theorized that his reason for doing so was likely to steal
[1:38:02] money for feeding his substance habit.
[1:38:05] Confronted with this mountain of evidence, the wheels of justice
[1:38:09] finally began to turn, and Keener would find himself
[1:38:12] crushed under the full weight of the state coming down on him.
[1:38:18] In May 2018, nearly seven years after the attack, US Marshals
[1:38:23] located Keener in Toledo, OH and arrested him.
[1:38:27] He was extradited to Michigan to face charges, finally bringing
[1:38:31] the prime suspect into custody. Keener was soon arraigned on
[1:38:36] charges related to the crime, including the slaying itself,
[1:38:40] arson related charges, and charges related to substances he
[1:38:44] was found with. At a preliminary hearing in June
[1:38:48] 2018, prosecutors laid out the cold case evidence.
[1:38:52] They even played the confession voicemail using his own words
[1:38:56] against him in this pretrial conference.
[1:39:01] Confronted with this strong case, Keener chose to avoid a
[1:39:04] jury trial and accepted a plea deal by late 2018.
[1:39:09] In October 2018, Keener officially pleaded guilty to a
[1:39:14] variety of offenses and was sentenced to 12 to 50 years in
[1:39:18] prison. Disturbingly, under these terms,
[1:39:21] he must serve only 12 years before he can be eligible for
[1:39:25] parole, putting his earliest possible release at May 2030 for
[1:39:30] what he did. Darren Keener's guilty plea with
[1:39:35] a minimum sentence of just 12 years can definitely strike some
[1:39:39] as far too lenient for such a horrific crime.
[1:39:42] And I don't disagree considering Helen was smothered in her own
[1:39:46] home, her body stuffed into a car and set ablaze.
[1:39:50] In a just world, this guy should have got life in the slammer at
[1:39:54] minimum. But the reality is that
[1:39:57] prosecutors had to weigh the strength of their evidence.
[1:40:00] The case against Keener was almost entirely circumstantial
[1:40:04] and built on phone records, a discredited alibi, a gas can
[1:40:08] linked by receipt and a voicemail that was short of a
[1:40:12] confession. Now of course, I need to comment
[1:40:15] here that if the initial investigators had actually dug
[1:40:18] into Keener's lies, I think there's a good chance the case
[1:40:21] against him may have been much stronger.
[1:40:24] In the years this case spent, cold evidence was lost to the
[1:40:28] sands of time, meaning the prosecution couldn't present as
[1:40:31] strong a case as they could have otherwise.
[1:40:37] While these pieces combined to create a convincing picture,
[1:40:40] they weren't as definitive as DNA or direct eyewitness
[1:40:44] testimony. Prosecutors only get one chance
[1:40:47] to put a defendant on trial for a crime such as this.
[1:40:50] If they went for a first degree charge and lost, there'd be no
[1:40:54] second attempt and Keener would have simply walked free and
[1:40:58] there's nothing anyone could have done.
[1:41:01] The plea deal, though unsatisfying, ensured a
[1:41:04] conviction in prison time rather than risking an acquittal.
[1:41:09] In this light, the outcome reflects the delicate balance of
[1:41:13] the legal system. It's about securing
[1:41:15] accountability within the constraints of available
[1:41:18] evidence. However, given the heinous
[1:41:21] nature of the crime, I suspect that he may end up serving
[1:41:24] something closer to the full sentence.
[1:41:31] As the late afternoon sun cast long shadows on a quiet Florida
[1:41:35] St. in the sleepy Gulf Coast town of Punta Gorda, two
[1:41:39] teenagers stepped off their school bus.
[1:41:42] They expected to find their older sister at home, but
[1:41:45] instead, on October 1st, 2001, Tara Sidorovich's siblings
[1:41:51] walked into an eerie scene inside their house.
[1:41:55] The front door was left ajar, the television was still
[1:41:59] playing, and 19 year old Tara's car sat in the driveway with her
[1:42:04] purse still inside. Tara herself was nowhere to be
[1:42:08] found and muddy footprints were tracked across the floor.
[1:42:12] These prints matched none of her family members and hinted that a
[1:42:16] stranger had been in the home and that something had gone
[1:42:19] terribly wrong. There were no signs of forced
[1:42:23] entry, suggesting that Tara had willingly opened the door to
[1:42:26] whoever came by that day. Tara Siderevich was a lively,
[1:42:33] responsible teenager who had her whole life ahead of her.
[1:42:36] She worked at a local jewelry store and was adored by friends
[1:42:40] and family, and she was looking forward to a bright future.
[1:42:44] It was unthinkable that she would simply disappear on her
[1:42:47] own as her loved one's concern grew by the hour.
[1:42:51] Police initially approached the case like a typical missing
[1:42:53] person situation, hopeful that Tara might turn up safe and
[1:42:57] sound for a short time. Investigators entertained the
[1:43:01] possibility that the 19 year old had voluntarily gone somewhere
[1:43:05] without telling anyone. Tara had even mentioned plans to
[1:43:09] pick up her paycheck from work that day, which suggested she
[1:43:13] fully intended to return home later.
[1:43:16] But as hours turned into days with no sign of her, that
[1:43:19] optimism faded and the cops started to take the case
[1:43:23] seriously. In the days and weeks after
[1:43:28] terror vanished, a massive search effort engulfed the
[1:43:31] community. Charlotte County deputies combed
[1:43:34] through woods and fields with sniffer dogs, and volunteers set
[1:43:38] up search parties. Yet no trace of terror turned
[1:43:41] up. Investigators did discover one
[1:43:45] puzzling clue inside the house, Some of Tara's jewelry was
[1:43:49] missing. This supported a theory that a
[1:43:52] robbery had occurred, and perhaps Tara had interrupted a
[1:43:55] burglary in progress and the intruders harmed her when she
[1:43:59] confronted them. After 9 agonizing months of
[1:44:04] uncertainty, the mystery took a tragic turn in July 2002.
[1:44:11] About 10 miles from Tara's home, investigators found a hastily
[1:44:15] buried grave in a wooded area off Burnt Store Rd.
[1:44:20] Inside, they discovered skeletal human remains that forensic
[1:44:23] tests soon confirmed to be Tara Siderevich.
[1:44:27] An autopsy determined that she had died from blunt force trauma
[1:44:30] to her ribs. Despite recovering Tara's
[1:44:36] remains and a flurry of investigative activity,
[1:44:39] authorities struggled to pin down a suspect in 2002.
[1:44:43] They interviewed friends, neighbors and anyone who might
[1:44:47] know something, but no one had a motive for doing this to the
[1:44:51] good-natured young woman. There was little physical
[1:44:54] evidence to go on and even public pleas for help brought no
[1:44:58] breakthroughs. Early on, suspicion had swirled
[1:45:04] around 2 men who were among the last to see Tara alive.
[1:45:09] These were 34 year old Philip Barr, a septic tank repairman,
[1:45:14] and his 30 year old employee David McManus.
[1:45:18] The pair had visited Tara's house around midday on October
[1:45:21] 1st under the pretence of fixing a plumbing problem, but at the
[1:45:26] time, detectives had no proof tying them to the crime, so they
[1:45:29] remained free and apparently in the clear.
[1:45:34] By 2007, six long years had passed since Tara's slaying with
[1:45:40] no arrests, and the trail had gone ice cold.
[1:45:44] That year, a newly elected sheriff in Charlotte County put
[1:45:47] fresh focus on cold cases, and Tara's unsolved slaying was at
[1:45:52] the top of the list. A team of veteran detectives re
[1:45:55] examined every detail and re interviewed witnesses.
[1:45:59] They zeroed back in on Philip Barr and David McManus,
[1:46:03] suspecting that the passage of time might persuade someone to
[1:46:06] talk. Their hunch was right, and an
[1:46:09] unexpected tip from a jailhouse snitch would soon blow the case
[1:46:12] wide open. A man named Michael Artel, who
[1:46:18] had once shared a jail cell with Philip Barr, contacted
[1:46:21] authorities in 2007 with alarming information.
[1:46:25] Artel told detectives that Barr had spoken about being involved
[1:46:29] in a slaying of someone who fit Tara's description.
[1:46:32] Notably, Barr was in jail at the time on a check fraud offense, A
[1:46:36] twist of fate that put him in Artel's path and ultimately
[1:46:39] helped crack the case. Artel recognized the story from
[1:46:43] a true crime TV segment about Tara's disappearance and
[1:46:47] realized he might know who was responsible.
[1:46:50] His bombshell tip gave investigators the lead they
[1:46:53] desperately needed after years of dead ends.
[1:46:57] It was the first significant break in the case in a long
[1:46:59] time, and detectives wasted no time chasing it down.
[1:47:06] With this new information in hand, detectives dug deeper into
[1:47:09] Barr and Mcmanus's lives. What they found was a web of
[1:47:13] circumstantial evidence that suddenly clicked into place.
[1:47:17] Multiple witnesses had reported seeing a truck belonging to Barr
[1:47:21] near Tara's home around the time she went missing. 1 Charlotte
[1:47:25] County officer even remembered spotting Barr frantically
[1:47:28] scrubbing out the interior of that truck less than a day after
[1:47:31] Tara vanished. Then came the most disturbing
[1:47:34] revelation. Barr's ex-girlfriend revealed
[1:47:38] that on the afternoon of the attack, she saw him loading a
[1:47:41] large bundle into his truck. When she pressed him, Barr
[1:47:46] claimed the bundle was actually just a hog.
[1:47:51] Armed with these witness accounts in the earlier clues,
[1:47:54] authorities were finally ready to act.
[1:47:57] In October 2012, eleven years after Tara was slain, a
[1:48:02] Charlotte County grand jury indicted Philip Barr and David
[1:48:06] McManus on charges in the first degree.
[1:48:10] Law enforcement coordinated a multi state effort to capture
[1:48:13] the two suspects. McManus had left Florida and was
[1:48:17] living in Cumberland, MD, so US Marshals and local police
[1:48:21] tracked him down there and placed him under arrest.
[1:48:25] Barr was located and arrested in Florida.
[1:48:29] After more than a decade of frustration and grief, Tara's
[1:48:32] family got the news they had long-awaited. 2 men were finally
[1:48:37] in custody, accused of her slaying.
[1:48:42] Prosecutors decided to try Barr and McManus separately,
[1:48:46] beginning with Philip Barr's trial in 2015.
[1:48:50] In that courtroom, jurors heard damning testimony from witnesses
[1:48:54] like Michael Artel and Barr's former girlfriend.
[1:48:58] The defense argued that there was no direct physical evidence
[1:49:01] linking Barr to the crime, but the circumstantial evidence was
[1:49:04] overwhelming. Barr continued to insist he had
[1:49:08] no involvement in Tara's death, but the jury wasn't convinced.
[1:49:12] After deliberating, the jury found Philip Barr guilty in
[1:49:16] October 2015. He was sentenced to life in
[1:49:20] prison. The mandatory punishment for
[1:49:22] first degree in Florida when the big state sponsored DP isn't
[1:49:26] pursued. For Tara's family, who had
[1:49:31] waited so long, that verdict was a moment of immense relief.
[1:49:35] David McManus went to trial about a year and a half later,
[1:49:39] in early 2017. His trial lasted nearly six
[1:49:43] weeks and presented much of the same evidence implicating him as
[1:49:47] Barr's accomplice. This time, the jury needed less
[1:49:51] than an hour of deliberation to reach a verdict.
[1:49:54] They found McManus guilty as well, and the judge immediately
[1:49:58] handed down a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
[1:50:02] For the second time, Tara's family sat in a courtroom and
[1:50:05] saw justice done. Notably, neither Barr nor
[1:50:11] McManus ever admitted responsibility or showed a shred
[1:50:15] of remorse for what they had done.
[1:50:17] But for the Siderevich family, those guilty verdicts marked the
[1:50:21] end of a long and painful chapter. 16 years after she
[1:50:26] disappeared, they finally saw justice served.
[1:50:30] Both men, now middle-aged, will spend the rest of their lives
[1:50:34] behind bars, having all the time in the world to contemplate
[1:50:38] whether their evil act was worth it.
[1:50:43] Given the position that each man took at trial, Tara's family
[1:50:46] never really found out the why behind the crime.
[1:50:53] On August 31st, 2003, the Sepic family home in Carlsbad, NM was
[1:50:59] filled with the promise of a beautiful Labor Day weekend.
[1:51:03] Friends and family were gathering for a cookout and
[1:51:06] enjoying the final days of summer.
[1:51:08] But at 2:15 that afternoon, the phone rang and their world was
[1:51:13] shattered by just 6 words from their daughter's roommate.
[1:51:17] Have you talked to Katie today? Those words marked the beginning
[1:51:21] of an unimaginable catastrophe for Dave and Jay Anne Sepic, a
[1:51:26] nightmare that would end in the discovery that their daughter
[1:51:28] had been taken from them. It was a brutal, senseless act
[1:51:32] of violence that stole a vibrant young woman from the world.
[1:51:37] But from the depths of that personal tragedy rose a national
[1:51:41] revolution in law enforcement. Katie Sepic's death and her
[1:51:46] family's refusal to let her be forgotten would expose a deadly
[1:51:50] flaw in the American justice system and ultimately forge a
[1:51:53] legacy that has saved countless lives.
[1:51:59] At 22 years old, Katie was just beginning a new chapter, having
[1:52:03] recently enrolled in the MBA program at New Mexico State
[1:52:06] University in Las Cruces. The night of Saturday, August
[1:52:11] 30th, 2003 began like any other for a graduate student.
[1:52:17] Katie was out with friends at a party.
[1:52:19] After getting into an argument with her boyfriend, she stormed
[1:52:23] out, deciding to walk the five or six blocks back to her
[1:52:26] apartment. In her anger, she left without
[1:52:30] her purse, her keys, or her cell phone.
[1:52:33] It was the last time anyone who knew her would see her alive.
[1:52:38] The next morning, a group of target shooters made a
[1:52:40] horrifying discovery at an old abandoned city dump site on the
[1:52:44] outskirts of Las Cruces. They found the partially clothed
[1:52:50] and burned body of a young woman.
[1:52:52] A few agonizing hours after that first phone call, the Sepic
[1:52:57] family's worst fears were confirmed.
[1:53:00] It was Katie, and an autopsy would later reveal the full
[1:53:04] horrific scope of the attack. Now, normally I wouldn't get
[1:53:08] into the details here, but given what happens in this case and
[1:53:12] the changes it brought about, I think it's important to know the
[1:53:16] monster we're dealing with. She had been subjected to the
[1:53:19] most disgusting form of assault, strangled, and then her body was
[1:53:24] set on fire. In the midst of their paralyzing
[1:53:29] grief, detectives gave the Sepic family a single, crucial piece
[1:53:33] of information that offered a sliver of hope.
[1:53:36] Katie had fought back against her attacker desperately and
[1:53:40] fiercely. Under her fingernails,
[1:53:43] investigators found traces of his skin and blood, and from
[1:53:47] this, a complete, viable DNA profile.
[1:53:52] The profile was immediately uploaded to CODIS, the national
[1:53:55] database operated by the feds, But unfortunately, nothing came
[1:54:00] back. The family and the police held
[1:54:04] on to the same belief. A person this violent would
[1:54:08] surely be arrested for another crime.
[1:54:10] His DNA would be taken, and the system would flag him as a
[1:54:14] match. They waited for the cold hit
[1:54:17] that would bring them justice. But for three long years, there
[1:54:21] was only silence. The weekly database searches
[1:54:25] came back empty, leads dried up, and the investigation went cold,
[1:54:30] leaving the Sepic family trapped in an agonizing limbo of
[1:54:34] unanswered questions. This frustrating silence wasn't
[1:54:37] simply bad luck, it turned out. It was the direct result of a
[1:54:41] fundamental systemic flaw in how the nation's most powerful crime
[1:54:45] fighting tool was being used. The CODIS database, which held
[1:54:49] millions of DNA records, was tragically incomplete.
[1:54:55] At the time, nearly every state, including New Mexico, only
[1:54:59] collected DNA samples from offenders after they had been
[1:55:02] convicted of a felony and were entering the prison system.
[1:55:06] This created a dangerous and often lengthy gap.
[1:55:10] A violent criminal could be arrested for multiple serious
[1:55:12] crimes, but as long as they weren't convicted and
[1:55:15] incarcerated, their DNA would never be entered into the
[1:55:18] system. Simply put, someone who
[1:55:22] committed one of the worst crimes imaginable could get bail
[1:55:26] because their DNA wasn't yet logged in the national database.
[1:55:31] Cady's case would become the prime exhibit of this deadly
[1:55:34] loophole. The most painful irony of the
[1:55:39] Cady Sepic case is that the perpetrator was in police
[1:55:42] custody just months after her slaying.
[1:55:45] In November 2003, a man named Gabriel Avila was arrested for
[1:55:49] aggravated burglary in New Mexico.
[1:55:52] The man, whose DNA was under Katie's fingernails, was clapped
[1:55:55] in cuffs, yet he remained completely invisible to her
[1:55:59] investigators. Because the law only required
[1:56:02] DNA collection upon conviction, no sample was taken from the
[1:56:06] perp at the time of his arrest. He was eventually released on
[1:56:11] bond and remained free for another 18 months before finally
[1:56:16] being convicted and sent to prison for that burglary in
[1:56:19] November 2004. This fact would later haunt
[1:56:23] Katie's parents and fuel their crusade for wider justice.
[1:56:28] And there's a particularly haunting quote from Katie's
[1:56:31] mother that honestly, I wish I could read verbatim.
[1:56:36] But this platform wouldn't allow it, and I don't want to diminish
[1:56:39] its impact. Basically, though, her mom asked
[1:56:43] lawmakers how many other young women he committed horrific
[1:56:46] assaults against in the 18 months he was out.
[1:56:51] Finally, in December 2006, more than three years after Katie was
[1:56:55] slain, the system worked as it was designed to, but only after
[1:57:00] an agonizing delay. As a convicted felon now serving
[1:57:04] time in the New Mexico Correction System, Gabriel Avila
[1:57:07] was required to submit ADNA Sample.
[1:57:11] His profile was processed and uploaded to CODIS.
[1:57:14] Almost immediately, the system lit up and matched the genetic
[1:57:18] information found under Katie's fingernails.
[1:57:22] Armed with the irrefutable match, detectives confronted
[1:57:26] Avila in prison. The genetic evidence was just
[1:57:29] the beginning. They had also found other
[1:57:32] incriminating items, including a diamond ring Katie had been
[1:57:36] wearing inside his truck and tire tracks near her body that
[1:57:40] were a match to his vehicle. Faced with this mountain of
[1:57:44] evidence, Avila confessed to everything.
[1:57:49] The prosecutor on the case was the District Attorney for Donna
[1:57:52] Anna County, a woman named Susanna Martinez.
[1:57:56] With the DP still a legal option in New Mexico, she used it as a
[1:58:00] powerful bargaining chip to avoid a trial and the potential
[1:58:05] to receive that big state sponsored DP.
[1:58:08] Gabriel Avila pleaded guilty to absolutely everything.
[1:58:12] Combined with his previous nine year sentence for burglary, he
[1:58:16] was sentenced to serve almost 80 years in prison at minimum.
[1:58:21] Notably, this District Attorney would later become the Governor
[1:58:24] of New Mexico and would also play a major role in turning
[1:58:28] this tragedy into something that would save so many lives.
[1:58:33] With the perpetrator behind bars for life, Dave and Jay Anne
[1:58:37] Sepic turned their full attention from seeking justice
[1:58:40] to preventing injustice. They dove into researching the
[1:58:44] law and fully grasped the conviction versus arrest
[1:58:47] loophole that had allowed their daughter's predator to remain
[1:58:51] free. They realized that if law
[1:58:53] enforcement collected DNA upon felony arrest, treating it just
[1:58:58] like a modern fingerprint, it could change everything.
[1:59:02] It could solve cold cases sooner, exonerate innocent
[1:59:06] people who were wrongly accused, and take violent repeat
[1:59:09] offenders off the streets before they could claim more victims.
[1:59:16] The family became tireless advocates, sharing their story
[1:59:19] in the halls of the New Mexico State Legislature, and by the
[1:59:23] end of 2006, their efforts paid off.
[1:59:27] The state passed the first Katie's Law, which mandated DNA
[1:59:30] collection for arrests involving a specific subset of violent
[1:59:34] felonies. The law's impact was both
[1:59:37] immediate and stunning, and less than two hours later, a man was
[1:59:41] arrested for a robbery and found to have committed a double
[1:59:44] slaying. In 2011, with the help of that
[1:59:48] former prosecutor turned governor Susanna Martinez, this
[1:59:53] law was expanded out to include this requirement for all felony
[1:59:57] arrests. But the sepics weren't done yet.
[2:00:02] And they took their fight to the nation's capital and to state
[2:00:05] houses across America. Their powerful story, backed by
[2:00:10] the clear data of success from New Mexico, created a
[2:00:13] groundswell of support. In 2012, Congress passed the
[2:00:18] federal Katie Sepic Enhanced DNA Collection Act, which provided
[2:00:23] grant funding to incentivize other states to adopt similar
[2:00:26] laws. The movement had significant
[2:00:29] critics and the constitutional debate eventually reached the
[2:00:33] nation's highest court. In 2013, the US Supreme Court
[2:00:37] held that the law was constitutional for a serious
[2:00:40] offence and was a normal police booking procedure, much like a
[2:00:44] fingerprint or a photograph. As of now, these laws have been
[2:00:48] passed in 25 states, with new states joining the movement
[2:00:52] routinely and catching numerous offenders this way.
[2:00:57] Sadly, of course, none of this brings Katie herself back or
[2:01:00] makes the pain any less real to her family.
[2:01:04] However, her memory lives on in the innumerable lives that have
[2:01:07] been saved in her name. On April 20th, 1989, a shocking
[2:01:16] scene unfolded in the quiet woods of rural Virginia.
[2:01:20] A local Turkey hunter stumbled upon the body of 61 year old
[2:01:24] Ethel Kidd, bound upright to a tree just a few miles from her
[2:01:28] home. Police had scoured those woods
[2:01:31] in the days following Ethel's disappearance, yet here she was
[2:01:35] now. This was evidence that the
[2:01:37] perpetrator had likely returned later to dump her body in an
[2:01:41] area that had already been searched, A brazen move
[2:01:44] seemingly meant to taunt investigators.
[2:01:48] Ethel had vanished 8 days prior, and the condition of her remains
[2:01:52] added another layer of horror. She had been indecently
[2:01:56] assaulted and strangled, yet her body showed almost no signs of
[2:02:00] decomposition, indicating she'd been stored somewhere cold in
[2:02:04] the interim. To the tight knit community, it
[2:02:08] was unthinkable that such a heinous crime could happen in
[2:02:11] their backyard, and with a perpetrator bold enough to
[2:02:14] flaunt this evil. This gruesome discovery marked
[2:02:18] the start of a perplexing mystery that would take years to
[2:02:21] finally solve. And the shock twist that did
[2:02:25] solve it still has some people, namely myself, questioning what
[2:02:29] actually happened till this day. Ethel Kidd was a 61 year old
[2:02:36] mother of five who had recently built a dream retirement home
[2:02:39] with her husband Gilbert in the rural community of Burr Hill,
[2:02:42] VA. She was a devoted wife, mother,
[2:02:46] and grandmother who truly loved the simple pleasures of country
[2:02:50] living. The area was about 70 miles
[2:02:53] outside of the nation's capital, offering a peaceful retreat not
[2:02:57] far from their children and grandchildren.
[2:03:01] Ethel's world revolved around her family, and she looked
[2:03:04] forward to spending her golden years doting on her
[2:03:07] grandchildren and enjoying the quiet life near her loved ones.
[2:03:12] Unfortunately, those plans would be cut short in the most
[2:03:15] devastating way imaginable. April 12th, 1989 began like any
[2:03:23] other day for Ethel. She spent the morning visiting
[2:03:26] her daughter, who lived just up the road, and returned home
[2:03:29] around 2:00 that afternoon. A neighbor later recalled seeing
[2:03:34] her stopping to check her mailbox at the roadside at
[2:03:36] around that time. Ethel's husband was out of town
[2:03:40] on business that day, but nothing seemed to miss that
[2:03:43] afternoon as she settled back in at home.
[2:03:46] The next morning, however, Ethel failed to show up for her
[2:03:49] routine coffee visit with her daughter, and repeated phone
[2:03:53] calls to her house went unanswered.
[2:03:56] By 9:30 on the morning of April 13th, Ethel's worried son-in-law
[2:04:01] arrived at her property to check on her.
[2:04:04] He found Ethel's car parked in the driveway and the front door
[2:04:08] left unlocked, which was alarming since Ethel was known
[2:04:11] to keep her doors secured. Lying in the grass was a map,
[2:04:18] oddly out of place, as if dropped or discarded by someone
[2:04:21] passing through. Inside the house, everything was
[2:04:24] normal and undisturbed, and there were no signs of a
[2:04:28] struggle and no sign of Ethel herself.
[2:04:32] Concerned family and neighbors alerted authorities, and police
[2:04:35] quickly organized extensive searches of the surrounding
[2:04:38] fields and woods. Yet the initial search turned up
[2:04:42] nothing, and Ethel Kid had seemingly vanished without a
[2:04:45] trace. Investigators ended up picking
[2:04:50] up that oddly out of place map, and what they found in it was
[2:04:53] shocking. They found motel stationary
[2:04:56] tucked in it with disturbingly suggestive phrases scribbled on
[2:05:01] it in completely indistinct normal looking handwriting.
[2:05:05] And keep in mind my specific phrasing here, because it'll be
[2:05:09] important as we go forward in this case and analyze the
[2:05:12] shocking twist that cracked it wide open.
[2:05:16] They suspected the perpetrator had been using these phrases to
[2:05:20] proposition strangers along the highway.
[2:05:23] This bizarre collection of notes and plans was immediately
[2:05:26] recognized as a critical piece of evidence.
[2:05:30] The list written by the perp laid out steps for the crime in
[2:05:33] an eerily matter of fact way, including preparations for a
[2:05:37] disguise, obtaining a fake identity and selecting a
[2:05:41] location. Further, there was also a
[2:05:45] cryptic notation saying HCTPSG short forms thought to mean
[2:05:50] handcuffs, tape and surgical gloves by the investigators.
[2:05:57] Besides the map and its creepy contents, forensic examiner's
[2:06:01] noted a few other clues. The cord used to tie Ethel was a
[2:06:06] type of heavy drapery cord only found in hotels and hospitals,
[2:06:10] not the kind of rope available at a local store.
[2:06:14] Additionally, microscopic fibers on Ethel's clothing were
[2:06:18] consistent with the upholstery from a 1970s model Chrysler car.
[2:06:23] All of these clues painted a picture of a calculated predator
[2:06:27] who had put considerable thought into the crime, but who had
[2:06:31] likely unknowingly left significant clues behind.
[2:06:35] However, despite having this intriguing evidence,
[2:06:38] investigators still didn't know who they were looking for.
[2:06:42] Unbeknownst to the perp, the evidence he left behind would
[2:06:46] eventually provide the key to catching him.
[2:06:51] In the months and years that followed, authorities chased
[2:06:54] down numerous leads but struggled to pinpoint the person
[2:06:57] responsible. Criminal profilers believed that
[2:07:00] the attacker was likely an opportunistic predator.
[2:07:04] A profile determined that he was probably a white male in his 30s
[2:07:08] or 40s who travelled for work, stayed in motels and prowled
[2:07:13] rural highways looking for victims.
[2:07:16] The brazenness of the crime and the suggestive phrases hinted
[2:07:20] that he might have approached other women before escaping
[2:07:23] unnoticed. At one point, a regional task
[2:07:29] force even examined whether Ethel's abduction and slaying
[2:07:32] might be connected to a string of similar unsolved cases in
[2:07:35] Virginia. But ultimately, no solid link or
[2:07:39] suspect emerged, and the serial offender theory was put aside.
[2:07:44] By the early 1990s, despite exhaustive efforts, the case of
[2:07:49] Ethel Kidd had gone cold, leaving her family devastated
[2:07:53] and the community on edge. In a bid to revive the
[2:07:57] investigation, authorities even sought help from the media.
[2:08:02] Ethel's story was featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries in
[2:08:05] late 1991, but no useful tips came from that initial
[2:08:09] broadcast. But as I've mentioned before on
[2:08:13] this channel, a segment on Unsolved Mysteries often paid
[2:08:17] dividends over time, and reruns were seen by 10s of millions of
[2:08:21] people over the years. In 1995, six years after Ethel's
[2:08:28] slaying, an unexpected breakthrough finally came in the
[2:08:32] form of that Unsolved Mysteries dividend.
[2:08:35] When the segment about the case re aired on the Lifetime channel
[2:08:38] in 1995, one anonymous viewer noticed something startling.
[2:08:44] This anonymous tipster phoned the Unsolved Mysteries hotline
[2:08:48] to report that the strange handwriting in the perpetrators
[2:08:52] list looked eerily familiar. According to this caller, it
[2:08:57] belonged to a man named Edward Beverly who had once lived in
[2:09:01] the Burr Hill area. According to the tipster, this
[2:09:05] individual had abruptly moved away shortly after Ethel's
[2:09:08] death. Now, I've just got to jump in
[2:09:12] here and say that I've always been skeptical of the
[2:09:15] handwriting angle. In this case, it feels far too
[2:09:18] flimsy to hinge a breakthrough on, especially when people often
[2:09:21] see what they want to see in handwriting samples.
[2:09:25] A list written by the perpetrator could easily have
[2:09:28] traits that overlap with dozens of people in a small community.
[2:09:33] What strikes me more is the possibility that the anonymous
[2:09:37] tipster wasn't really relying on handwriting at all.
[2:09:41] Maybe they already suspected Edward Beverly, but use the
[2:09:44] handwriting as a safe excuse to bring his name forward without
[2:09:48] outing themselves as someone with inside knowledge.
[2:09:51] In that sense, the handwriting was more of a smokescreen used
[2:09:54] as a way to pass along a name without getting too close.
[2:10:00] I can't help but wonder if the so-called anonymous tipster
[2:10:03] wasn't some random viewer at all, but maybe a cop or someone
[2:10:08] nudged along by one. It's entirely possible an
[2:10:11] officer who already suspected Edward Beverly wanted a way to
[2:10:14] push his hunch to the forefront of the investigation.
[2:10:18] Getting a quote UN quote credible tip from the public
[2:10:21] would give them cover. But that's just complete
[2:10:24] speculation on my part, and it's always possible that someone
[2:10:28] anonymous did indeed recognize Beverly's writing.
[2:10:34] Acting immediately on this tip, investigators dug into Beverly's
[2:10:37] background and discovered a telling coincidence.
[2:10:41] At that very moment, Beverly was sitting in a Tennessee prison
[2:10:45] serving time for an armed robbery conviction.
[2:10:48] He was 51 years old and had previously resided in Ethel's
[2:10:52] community around the time of the attack.
[2:10:55] Once Beverly was on law enforcement's radar, the
[2:10:58] evidence against him mounted swiftly.
[2:11:01] Handwriting experts confirmed that the scrawled To Do List
[2:11:04] found in the map was indeed written in Beverly's hand.
[2:11:09] Not long after DNA testing conclusively matched Beverly to
[2:11:13] the biological evidence from the indecent assault on Ethel, his
[2:11:18] fingerprints likewise matched latent prints lifted from some
[2:11:21] of the crime scene items. In a final damning twist, 2 of
[2:11:25] Beverly's own nephews came forward to identify the
[2:11:28] recovered map as the very one their uncle always kept in his
[2:11:32] car. Investigators believe that on
[2:11:36] April 12th, 1989, Beverly spotted Ethel working in her
[2:11:41] yard and seized the opportunity to approach her under false
[2:11:44] pretenses. He likely pretended to be lost
[2:11:48] and asked for directions with the map in hand as a prop,
[2:11:51] taking advantage of Ethel's good nature towards a stranger in
[2:11:55] need. With the tip and the forensic
[2:11:58] evidence now connecting all the dots, Virginia authorities
[2:12:01] charged Beverly before he could be released from his Tennessee
[2:12:05] prison term. Beverly was extradited back to
[2:12:10] Virginia to face trial, and nearly a decade after Ethel's
[2:12:14] life was taken, a jury found him guilty of her slaying and
[2:12:18] related charges. In 1998, he was sentenced to
[2:12:22] multiple life terms in prison, three life sentences, ensuring
[2:12:27] that this violent predator would never walk free again.
[2:12:32] Beverly would ultimately perish behind bars from cancer in 2008
[2:12:36] while serving out his life sentences.
[2:12:39] He never expressed any remorse for his actions, despite being
[2:12:43] found guilty, and maintained his innocence against all
[2:12:46] conceivable evidence.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.