# Cold Case Files They Can’t Close – 2 Hour Marathon | 185

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 26 Feb 2026, 2 h 06 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO6556203939.mp3

Join me for a 2 hour true crime marathon, and don't forget to hit that follow but and turn on notifications. Episode 185 of the true crime podcast btw. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ 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

## Transcript

[0:00] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here with another episode in my long
[0:03] running unsolved mystery series. Before we begin, don't forget to
[0:07] hit like and subscribe and the notification bell and turn on
[0:12] all notifications if you haven't done so already.
[0:17] On the afternoon of February 9th, 1989, a 20 year old
[0:21] University of Florida junior named Tiffany Sessions told her
[0:25] roommate she was heading out for a power walk.
[0:28] It was something she'd been doing regularly since returning
[0:30] from Christmas break, a daily routine along a familiar route
[0:34] near her off campus apartment in Gainesville.
[0:37] She left sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon,
[0:41] wearing red sweatpants, a white pullover sweatshirt with Aspen
[0:46] printed on the collar, and tennis shoes.
[0:49] She had a black Sony Walkman and a distinctive 2 tone Rolex watch
[0:53] on her wrist. She didn't take her wallet, her
[0:57] keys, or her identification. She expected to return within
[1:02] the hour, but she never came back.
[1:05] And by around 7 that evening, Tiffany's roommate, Kathleen
[1:09] Freza knew something was wrong. She drove along Tiffany's usual
[1:14] walking route, searching for any sign of her.
[1:18] When she found nothing, she called the Alachua County
[1:21] Sheriff's Office and then Tiffany's parents, Patrick and
[1:25] Hillary Sessions. It was the beginning of one of
[1:28] the largest missing person searches in the history of
[1:31] Florida and a case that more than three decades later, still
[1:35] hasn't been fully resolved. Tiffany Sessions was born on
[1:41] October 29th, 1968, and her mom, who was in the Air Force,
[1:46] largely raised her on her own as they moved around the country.
[1:51] By the time she reached college, Tiffany had grown into an
[1:54] independent and driven young woman.
[1:57] She was studying finance at the University of Florida with
[2:00] ambitions of one day running her own company.
[2:03] Her father, Patrick, was a prominent South Florida real
[2:07] estate developer who oversaw some of the largest building
[2:10] projects in the state, and she hoped to work with him one day.
[2:15] She lived in the Casablanca E Condominiums on SW 35th Place,
[2:20] about 5 miles from the main campus, in what would later be
[2:25] seen as a potential vector of attack.
[2:27] Her walking route took her along a wooded stretch of road near
[2:30] clusters of student apartment buildings.
[2:35] In 1989, there was no standardized protocol for
[2:38] missing persons cases in Florida.
[2:41] Hillary later recalled that investigators initially
[2:44] suggested Tiffany might simply be out with friends, a response
[2:48] she found frustrating because it didn't match her daughter's
[2:51] character. There was no evidence of a
[2:54] struggle at Tiffany's apartment and no indication she'd left the
[2:58] parking lot area voluntarily for any extended trip.
[3:02] Some witnesses reported seeing a woman matching Tiffany's
[3:05] description speaking to individuals inside a vehicle
[3:09] near her walking route, and the woman may have gotten into the
[3:12] car. However, the witnesses weren't
[3:15] certain, and authorities never confirmed whether the person was
[3:18] actually Tiffany. What was clear from the start
[3:22] was that despite what the cops initially said, this wasn't a
[3:26] voluntary disappearance. Her personal belongings were
[3:29] still in her apartment. Her car was still parked
[3:33] outside. Everything pointed to someone
[3:35] taking her against her will. If the initial law enforcement
[3:40] response was slow to gain traction, Tiffany's father more
[3:44] than compensated. Patrick Sessions threw every
[3:47] resource and connection he had into finding his daughter.
[3:51] Within a week of Tiffany's disappearance, he organized a
[3:54] massive search that even included members of the Miami
[3:57] Dolphins. Volunteers wore white T-shirts
[4:01] emblazoned with Tiffany's name and a toll free hotline number.
[4:05] And at the peak of the campaign, that hotline was receiving up to
[4:09] 600 calls a day. Patrick didn't stop there,
[4:13] retaining the services of a team of private investigators that
[4:17] specialized in missing persons cases.
[4:20] He got Tiffany's picture printed inside every pizza delivery box
[4:23] in Alachua County so that everyone would be familiar with
[4:27] her appearance. He organized a press conference
[4:30] featuring Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, John Walsh, and
[4:34] future Florida Governor Jeb Bush, launching the case into
[4:38] the national spotlight. When the local Sheriff's Office
[4:42] advised that people were trying to contact them by fax, but that
[4:46] they didn't have a fax machine, Patrick bought one for their
[4:50] office. Her case appeared on national
[4:53] television and Patrick offered a hefty quarter $1,000,000 reward
[4:57] for information on his daughter. Despite this massive private
[5:02] investigation, along with the public investigation, the effort
[5:06] tragically turned up nothing. For years, a convicted criminal
[5:11] named Michael Christopher Knickerbocker drew attention as
[5:15] a possible suspect. Knickerbocker was serving 5
[5:18] consecutive life sentences for a series of brutal crimes against
[5:22] women and girls. While in prison, he reportedly
[5:26] told fellow inmates that he'd slain Tiffany, claiming he'd
[5:31] chained her to a tree near Gainesville.
[5:34] He claimed that he later disposed of her body in the
[5:37] Caloosahatchee River near Fort Myers.
[5:40] He also claimed her sweatshirt was buried outside of
[5:42] Gainesville, and in 2002, a blood soaked garment was found
[5:47] in the area. The results of forensic testing
[5:50] on that piece of clothing was never released, and there's
[5:53] nothing to indicate that it was related to the case at this
[5:56] point. Patrick Sessions himself went
[6:00] public in 1994 with his belief that Knickerbocker was involved,
[6:05] but upon further investigation, there was a significant problem
[6:08] when it turned out Knickerbocker wasn't living in Gainesville at
[6:11] the time of Tiffany's disappearance.
[6:14] His known crimes were all committed near victims who lived
[6:17] proximate to him, and investigators began to have
[6:20] doubts. I assume they also had some
[6:24] other reasons to suspect he wasn't involved, but given that
[6:27] this is an active and ongoing investigation, we may never
[6:31] know. When directly confronted by
[6:35] detectives, Knickerbocker never confessed to the crime, but he
[6:39] did provide some information. He admitted to writing an
[6:43] anonymous letter claiming responsibility, though he
[6:46] wouldn't speak on his motives for this.
[6:50] In my view, I suspect that this guy was just a sicko who, having
[6:54] been locked up for life, wanted a way to further victimize
[6:57] innocent people. Also, I say this with the
[7:01] benefit of hindsight, since the other prime suspect seems to fit
[7:04] the facts scenario of her case much better than Knickerbocker.
[7:10] The real breakthrough came decades later, driven in part by
[7:13] a woman who'd never forgotten the case.
[7:16] Sadie Darnell had been an employee of the Alachua County
[7:19] Sheriff's Office when Tiffany disappeared in 1989.
[7:24] Though she was never assigned to the case, she stayed in touch
[7:27] with Patrick Sessions over the years, sending him letters of
[7:31] encouragement. When Darnell was elected sheriff
[7:34] in 2006, she established the county's first cold case unit,
[7:39] with Tiffany's case being marked as high priority.
[7:43] The key development began in 2012 when advancing forensic
[7:47] technology allowed investigators to link DNA evidence to a man
[7:51] named Paul Rawls. But this wasn't in connection to
[7:55] Tiffany's case, but rather in connection to the slaying of
[7:58] Elizabeth Foster. Foster was a 21 year old Santa
[8:03] Fe Community College student whose body was found in a
[8:06] shallow grave in 1992. She was found roughly a mile
[8:11] from where Tiffany had disappeared three years earlier.
[8:15] Interestingly, Hilary Sessions had always believed the two
[8:17] cases were connected, and it turned out she may have been
[8:21] right. Paul Rolls had a deeply troubled
[8:25] history. Born in 1948 in Wilkinsburg,
[8:29] Pennsylvania, he grew up in a severely dysfunctional
[8:32] household. His father, a veteran, was
[8:36] extremely violent and his mother suffered from serious mental
[8:40] illness and was in and out of institutions.
[8:45] In 1972, Rolls entered Linda Feta's Miami apartment and
[8:50] strangled her. He was convicted and sentenced
[8:53] to life in prison, but under the light sentencing laws of the
[8:57] era, he was paroled in 1985. After his release, he moved to
[9:02] the Gainesville area, where he worked for a company that
[9:05] delivered construction equipment.
[9:08] That job placed him directly along the route Tiffany Sessions
[9:11] walked every afternoon, and chillingly, records showed that
[9:15] Rolls didn't report to work the day Tiffany vanished.
[9:19] If he was the perpetrator, given that Tiffany had a fairly set
[9:22] schedule for her power walks, he could have lurked in the woods
[9:26] waiting for her to come by. In 1994, Rolls kidnapped a 15
[9:32] year old girl from her family's apartment in Clearwater, binding
[9:36] her with duct tape. After forcing her into his car
[9:38] at knifepoint, he drove her 200 miles away to Jacksonville,
[9:43] where it became apparent that he wasn't going to let her live.
[9:47] But in a moment of remarkable courage, the teenager managed to
[9:51] escape by unlocking the front door and moving a tire he'd use
[9:55] to barricade it while he wasn't looking.
[9:58] She remains the only known survivor among roles as victims,
[10:02] and for this crime he was convicted of kidnapping and
[10:05] indecent assault and sentenced to 19 years in prison.
[10:10] Now I just have to jump in here with my personal commentary,
[10:13] since at this point he was already convicted in relation to
[10:16] the Linda Fida case. I really have to question how
[10:20] someone like this was only given 19 years, meaning that he could
[10:24] have very likely been out prowling the streets once again.
[10:29] Thankfully though, Rolls Reign of terror was effectively over
[10:33] since he died of lung cancer in prison in February 2013.
[10:37] After his death, investigators gained access to items from his
[10:41] cell, including a calendar and address book that catalogued his
[10:44] victims. The book listed Linda Fida as
[10:47] his first crime and also contained what appeared to be a
[10:51] reference to Elizabeth Foster. It also contained the notation
[10:55] #2 February 9th, 1989, which investigators believe referred
[11:02] to the date of Tiffany Sessions disappearance and identified her
[11:06] as Rolls as second victim. I'll come back to this in a
[11:09] second though, since I don't think this necessarily is a
[11:13] strong circumstantial evidence as the cops believe it is.
[11:18] In February 2014, exactly 25 years after Tiffany disappeared,
[11:24] Sheriff Darnell held a press conference announcing Roles as
[11:28] the prime suspect. She described the circumstantial
[11:31] evidence as overwhelming, though she acknowledged that a direct
[11:35] connection between Roles and Tiffany didn't exist.
[11:38] Investigators conducted extensive searches in areas
[11:41] associated with Roles as other crimes, including a two week dig
[11:46] near the site where Foster's body had been found.
[11:49] At one point, sniffer dogs gave strong alerts at several spots,
[11:54] but further excavation revealed the dogs had been reacting to
[11:58] buried septic tanks from an old trailer park.
[12:01] Additional searches in 2020 on a tract of commercial timberland
[12:06] prompted by tips matching the descriptions of Tiffany and
[12:08] Rolls also yielded no new evidence.
[12:12] Notably, Tiffany's Rolex watch has been flagged by the
[12:16] manufacturer so that any attempt to sell or pawn it will trigger
[12:21] a notification, but it's never surfaced, her body has never
[12:25] been found, and she's been excluded from over 150 Jane Doe
[12:29] cases across the United States. Personally, I think the big
[12:35] break may come from that flagged Rolex, which may still be owned
[12:39] by an entirely innocent party. This is speculation on my part,
[12:43] but I suspect he may have sold it for pennies on the dollar
[12:46] immediately after the crime. Perhaps one day the owner of
[12:50] that watch or their relative might attempt to sell it, which
[12:56] could trigger a break that confirms Rolls as the culprit.
[13:01] As for that diary connection, I think it's possible that Rolls
[13:04] may have sought to claim an additional victim without
[13:07] actually being involved. We know that he was the sort of
[13:10] person who took pride in his sick acts, and he may have
[13:13] sought to inflate his victim count, as many individuals like
[13:17] this tend to do. That said, this has to be
[13:21] balanced against the fact that he was absent from work on the
[13:24] day she disappeared, as well as his prior and subsequent crimes.
[13:32] There's a gap in one of the most important paintings in the
[13:35] history of Western art, and it's been there for over 90 years.
[13:39] The Ghent Altarpiece, also known as the Adoration of the Mystic
[13:43] Lamb, was completed in 1432 by the brothers Hubert and Jan Van
[13:49] Ike. It's widely considered the first
[13:52] major oil painting in European art, a groundbreaking work that
[13:57] changed how artists thought about color, light and realism.
[14:02] It sits today in Saint Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium.
[14:06] But if you visit and look at the lower left panel, what you're
[14:10] seeing isn't a Van Ike original, it's actually a copy.
[14:15] And more interestingly perhaps, it's a copy by a man that some
[14:19] believe was in on the heist. The real panel, known as the
[14:23] Just Judges, was stolen on the night of April 10th, 1934, and
[14:28] it hasn't been seen since. The panel depicted mounted
[14:32] horsemen riding toward the Altarpieces central scene, where
[14:36] a lamb stands on an altar as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice.
[14:41] The figures are believed to include Duke Philip the Good of
[14:44] Burgundy and possibly the Van Dyke brothers themselves.
[14:49] What happened to it is one of the most tantalizing mysteries
[14:52] in art crime history, and despite decades of
[14:55] investigation, nobody's been able to solve it.
[15:00] On the morning of April 11th, 1934, a bell ringer arrived at
[15:05] Saint Bavo's Cathedral to begin his daily rounds.
[15:09] After a few hours, he noticed the lock on the door to the
[15:12] Chapel had been forced open. When he entered, 2 panels were
[15:16] missing from the altarpiece, the just Judges from the interior
[15:21] side, and the painting of Saint John the Baptist from the
[15:24] exterior. The panels had been set
[15:27] back-to-back in an oak frame braced with iron bars, and the
[15:32] entire double sided unit was gone.
[15:36] It was roughly 5 feet tall and a foot and a half wide, making it
[15:39] no small feat for anyone to remove in the dark.
[15:43] What followed was a disastrously bungled response, a master class
[15:48] and what not to do following a major art heist.
[15:51] News of the theft leaked immediately and an estimated
[15:55] 1500 members of the public flooded into the Chapel,
[15:59] trampling through the scene and obliterating any forensic
[16:02] evidence. Hilariously, the Ghent Police
[16:05] Commissioner showed up briefly before leaving to take lead on
[16:08] an investigation at a separate robbery at a nearby cheese shop.
[16:13] No fingerprints were collected. No photographs were taken.
[16:18] A note left on the altarpiece's frame read in French that the
[16:23] panels had been taken by Germany due to the Treaty of Versailles.
[16:28] It was a red herring designed to suggest the theft was German
[16:31] political revenge, referencing the return of several altarpiece
[16:35] panels to Belgium under the treaty's reparation terms. 19
[16:42] days after the theft, the Bishop of Ghent received a ransom
[16:45] demand for 1,000,000 Belgian francs.
[16:48] If the church didn't pay, the panels would be destroyed.
[16:53] The letter was signed with the cryptic initials Dua.
[16:57] The Bishop was willing to negotiate, but the Belgian
[17:00] public prosecutor and the Minister of Justice refused to
[17:03] authorize payment. Higher ups in the Catholic
[17:07] Church were willing to put forward the money, but the
[17:10] Belgian authorities frowned upon this as setting a dangerous
[17:13] precedent. Nevertheless, the Bishop
[17:16] cooperated outwardly and continue to delicate back and
[17:19] forth with the anonymous extortionist.
[17:23] As a gesture of supposed good faith, the thief returned the
[17:27] Saint John the Baptist panel, leaving it in the checked
[17:31] luggage department of the Ghent train station.
[17:34] This revealed that the original double sided panel had been
[17:37] sliced vertically in half, separating the two painted
[17:41] surfaces. This good faith effort by the
[17:44] criminal brought the authorities back on board, with some money
[17:48] being set aside for the ransom. A total of 12 letters were
[17:53] exchanged, each containing strange instructions and coded
[17:56] language. At one point, a priest of Saint
[18:00] Laurentius parish in Antwerp was designated to hand over the
[18:04] money. The police gave him a parcel
[18:07] containing only 25,000 francs instead of the demanded million.
[18:12] A taxi driver later arrived at the rectory with a torn
[18:15] newspaper page matching one previously sent by the thief as
[18:19] identification. Despite this, due to the massive
[18:23] disparity in the amounts offered, the negotiation stalled
[18:27] and no exchange was completed. On November 25th, 1934, just
[18:34] seven months after the theft, a stockbroker named Arsene
[18:38] Godertier collapsed from cardiac arrest while delivering a
[18:42] political speech. He was rushed to his brother in
[18:45] law's house, where he summoned his lawyer for a private
[18:49] meeting. According to the lawyer,
[18:52] Godertier whispered that he alone knew where the Mystic Lamb
[18:55] was hidden. He directed his lawyer to a
[18:58] specific drawer in his writing desk at home, marked with the
[19:02] word mutuality, and then he died before being able to say more.
[19:08] The lawyer and his widow eventually searched his study,
[19:12] and inside the desk they found carbon copies of all 12 ransom
[19:15] letters sent to the Bishop. There was also a 13th letter
[19:19] that had never been mailed, and it contained A haunting clue.
[19:24] The panel rested in a place where neither Gaudertier nor
[19:27] anyone else could remove it without drawing public
[19:29] attention. Police concluded that Gaudertier
[19:33] had been the thief, or at least the mastermind behind the ransom
[19:36] scheme, but the investigation was disastrous.
[19:41] Suspiciously, his lawyer waited over a month to report the
[19:44] findings to the police, and in the meantime, Gaudertier's widow
[19:49] had ransacked his study and burnt all his papers.
[19:54] The case didn't end with Gaudertier's death, and if
[19:58] anything, it only grew stranger. One of the biggest questions is
[20:02] whether Gaudertier could have acted alone.
[20:05] He was an overweight man and suffered from poor eyesight,
[20:09] which would have made it extremely difficult to remove a
[20:11] large panel from a high position on the altarpiece in total
[20:15] darkness. The physical demands almost
[20:18] certainly required at least one accomplice, yet none was ever
[20:21] identified. Some investigators have pointed
[20:25] to two men named as possible accomplices.
[20:28] And here it gets weird again. Both of them died within weeks
[20:32] of God or TA, and police never conducted any investigation into
[20:36] their deaths. This suggests that someone may
[20:40] have put a hit out on the Co conspirators, with some
[20:43] believing that it may have been someone from within the police
[20:46] force itself. Then there's the question of
[20:50] motive. Since Godertier was incredibly
[20:52] wealthy, he was worth more than 3,000,000 Belgian francs in his
[20:56] accounts at the time of his death, so he clearly didn't need
[21:00] the money. He was one of the wealthiest men
[21:03] in Belgium and therefore was one of its most trusted citizens.
[21:09] Also, as I was editing this, I realized this Simpsons reference
[21:12] is now probably quite obscure, so I feel the need to clarify
[21:17] that the line was actually a joke.
[21:20] And funny enough, as I was finishing this video up, I
[21:24] realized that my explanation was yet another Simpsons reference.
[21:28] But let's rally and get back on track.
[21:32] One hypothesis holds that he harbored A grudge against the
[21:36] Catholic Church because his father was ousted from a
[21:39] high-ranking civilian role in the church when he was young.
[21:43] According to this theory, the theft was an elaborate act of
[21:46] revenge against the specific Bishop.
[21:49] But others believe this doesn't quite hold up, given that
[21:52] Gotertier was himself deeply involved in Catholic life and
[21:56] church related charities. A more dramatic theory ties the
[22:01] theft to the rise of the regime in Germany.
[22:04] The Austrian painter came to power in Germany just one year
[22:07] before the panel disappeared, and he had a serious fascination
[22:11] with the Ghent Altarpiece. Some researchers believe
[22:15] Godertier and his associates were working on behalf of a
[22:18] German agent and that the theft was commissioned to secure the
[22:21] panel for the Fuhrer himself. While this theory was popular at
[22:26] the time, after the fall of the Third Reich it was discovered
[22:30] that the Germans had sent a detective to Belgium
[22:33] specifically to solve the case. The purpose of locating the
[22:37] panel was to give it as a birthday gift for the leader
[22:40] himself, sometime after 1940 when Belgium was occupied by
[22:45] Germany. Personally, I don't think it
[22:48] makes a lot of sense that they would go through these efforts
[22:51] if they already had the painting.
[22:55] Still another theory implicates the diocese itself, and this
[22:58] theory relies on Godartier being a good Catholic who wanted to
[23:01] help out even in an underhanded way.
[23:05] According to this line of thinking, local clergy had lost
[23:08] money through a failed investment and orchestrated the
[23:12] theft to recoup losses through ransom.
[23:15] Under this theory, they expected the costs of the art to be
[23:18] recouped through the Vatican or through the Belgian state during
[23:22] the ransom. At any rate, since the
[23:25] investigation was so poor and forensic accounting wasn't what
[23:28] it is today, we will never know for sure.
[23:33] One of the strangest chapters in the saga involves Yef van der
[23:36] Weken, the Belgian art restorer who created the replacement copy
[23:40] that hangs in the cathedral today.
[23:42] He was brilliant at his craft but had a documented history of
[23:46] moonlighting as an art forger. His game was simple.
[23:51] He would offer to restore an aging piece of art, but he would
[23:55] actually create a virtually identical copy, returning the
[23:59] fraudulent art to the owner and keeping the original.
[24:03] Notably, he began working on his replacement in 1939, entirely of
[24:08] his own accord and without any Commission from the church or
[24:12] the state. He based his reproduction on a
[24:15] 16th century copy that had been made for Philip the Second, the
[24:20] Habsburg king of Spain, who was then the ruler of what is now
[24:24] Belgium. The Belgian government
[24:27] eventually purchased his finished work in 1957.
[24:31] What makes von der Veycken suspicious, aside from his other
[24:35] art thefts, is a cryptic poem he inscribed on the back of his
[24:39] replica. Written in Flemish, it
[24:42] translates roughly to a declaration of having acted out
[24:45] of love and duty, and of having borrowed from the quote UN quote
[24:50] dark side. Nobody has satisfactorily
[24:53] explained what this means, and some theorists have speculated
[24:57] that van der Waiken actually had access to the original panel.
[25:03] Notably, the Ghent Police Department still assigns a
[25:06] detective to the case, and the bishopric continues to receive
[25:10] tips every year. This isn't an entirely cold
[25:13] investigation either, and there has been some fairly recent
[25:17] activity in the case. For instance, in 2019, the
[25:21] authorities actually excavated a square in central Ghent after a
[25:26] theory emerged that the panel might be buried beneath it, but
[25:30] they found absolutely nothing. Over 90 years later, the Just
[25:35] Judges remains one of the most sought after missing artworks in
[25:38] the world. And there's a good reason for
[25:41] this. The speculative value of the
[25:44] panel is presently thought to be around $100 million, which makes
[25:49] this simple operation one of the biggest art heists in history.
[25:55] On the evening of October 24th, 1953, the city of La Crosse, WI
[26:01] was wrapped up in one of those picture perfect autumn Saturdays
[26:05] that small town America does so well.
[26:08] The local college football team had just taken on River Falls in
[26:12] their annual homecoming game, and nearly everyone in town
[26:15] seemed to be at the stadium or celebrating somewhere nearby.
[26:19] It was the kind of night where nothing bad was supposed to
[26:22] happen, not in a place or time like this.
[26:26] But while lacrosse cheered and socialized, something terrible
[26:29] was unfolding in a quiet neighborhood on Hoschler Drive.
[26:34] Evelyn Hartley was 15 years old, a junior at Central High School
[26:39] and by all accounts, the kind of teenager any parent would have
[26:42] been proud to raise. She carried a straight A
[26:45] average, participated in drama club and numerous school
[26:49] activities, sang in the choir at the First Presbyterian Church
[26:53] and played piano. Like many teenagers of the time,
[26:58] she occasionally worked as a babysitter to provide a bit of
[27:01] money to go out with her friends.
[27:04] Her father, Richard Hartley, was a biology professor at Wisconsin
[27:08] State College, and the family had relocated from Charleston,
[27:12] IL to Lacrosse in 1949. Evelyn was the youngest of four
[27:18] children, though the family had already endured tragedy when one
[27:22] of her older brothers died of polio in 1946.
[27:26] That Saturday night, Evelyn had taken a babysitting job at the
[27:30] home of Viggo Rasmussen, a colleague of her father at the
[27:34] college. The Rasmussen's regular
[27:36] babysitter had plans to attend the homecoming game, so Evelyn
[27:40] was brought in as a replacement, a decision that would prove
[27:44] fateful. She arrived to look after the
[27:47] couple's 20 month old daughter, Janice, bringing along school
[27:51] books with the plan to study while she slept.
[27:54] The arrangement included a routine check in call to her
[27:57] parents around 8:30 that evening.
[27:59] It was the sort of simple trusting agreement families made
[28:02] without a second thought in the 50s.
[28:07] When 830 came and went without a phone call, Evelyn's parents
[28:10] grew uneasy and her father tried calling the Rasmussen house
[28:14] multiple times and got no answer.
[28:18] By around 9:00, Richard Hartley drove over to check on his
[28:22] daughter. The lights inside were on and
[28:24] the radio was still playing, but the doors were locked and Evelyn
[28:28] wasn't answering, which sparked this professor to drastic
[28:32] action. Richard entered through a
[28:34] basement window and found the living room in disarray.
[28:37] Furniture had been toppled over, Evelyn's school books were
[28:41] scattered, and her broken glasses and one shoe lay on the
[28:45] floor, with her other shoe later found in the basement.
[28:50] The baby was sleeping peacefully in her crib, completely
[28:53] unharmed, but Evelyn was gone when police arrived.
[28:59] The scene told a grim story. All the windows were locked
[29:03] except one in the basement at the back.
[29:06] The screen had been removed and was leaning against the exterior
[29:09] wall and a short step ladder belonging to the Rasmussen's was
[29:13] positioned beneath it. Primarks were found on several
[29:17] other windows. Sneaker footprints were
[29:20] discovered in the basement window box and inside the living
[29:23] room. Initially, it was unclear what
[29:25] had been caused by Richard's attempts to gain entry and what
[29:29] had been caused by the intruder. Unfortunately, since Richard
[29:34] wasn't yet ruled out as a suspect, this likely caused
[29:37] investigative delays. Blood matching Evelyn's type was
[29:42] found near the basement window and outside in the yard, quickly
[29:46] establishing what direction the perpetrator likely fled in about
[29:50] 100 feet from the house. Handprints were found on a
[29:53] neighbor's garage, providing further evidence and a more
[29:57] accurate starting point for further investigations.
[30:01] Tracking dogs picked up Evelyn's scent and followed it for two
[30:05] blocks, where the trail abruptly ended.
[30:08] Investigators concluded she'd likely been placed into a
[30:11] vehicle and driven away by her abductor.
[30:16] One neighbor reported hearing screams around 7:00 but had
[30:20] assumed that this was just some kind of horseplay that was
[30:23] getting out of hand. Unfortunately, due to this
[30:27] incorrect assumption, she didn't alert the authorities at the
[30:31] time, unintentionally giving as much as an hour and a half lead
[30:35] to the abductor. 2 days after the disappearance, a local man
[30:40] named Ed Hofer came forward with a crucial account.
[30:44] Around 7:15 that evening, he'd nearly been struck by a speeding
[30:48] dark green 2 tone Buick sedan heading West.
[30:52] Inside, he'd seen two men and a girl, with one man driving while
[30:56] the other sat in the back seat with the girl who was slumped
[31:00] forward against the front seat. Hofer had assumed they were
[31:04] headed to the homecoming game and didn't realize what he'd
[31:07] witnessed until news broke. What followed was one of the
[31:12] largest missing person searches in Wisconsin history.
[31:16] Over 2000 volunteers joined the effort, including law
[31:19] enforcement officers, National Guard members, Boy Scouts, and
[31:24] students and faculty from Lacrosse State College.
[31:28] Hunters were told to remain on alert for anything suspicious,
[31:31] and local farmers were urged to search their properties.
[31:36] The Air Force was brought in to provide aerial support,
[31:39] supported by civilian operators who volunteered their time and
[31:42] their planes to the effort. Investigators also launched a
[31:48] wide-ranging vehicle inspection program aimed at checking every
[31:51] car in Lacrosse County, though this would be controversial.
[31:56] Recent graves were even reopened to determine whether Evelyn's
[31:59] remains had been concealed within them.
[32:02] A reward fund was established and community members quickly
[32:05] contributed over $6000, equivalent to roughly 80,000
[32:10] today. In terms of evidence, a pair of
[32:13] undergarments which may have belonged to Evelyn were found
[32:15] during the search, though this connection could never be
[32:18] definitively proven. Perhaps the most significant
[32:22] physical evidence was a pair of size 11 blood stained Goodrich
[32:26] sneakers. The suction cup pattern on the
[32:29] soles closely matched the footprints at the crime scene,
[32:32] and the blood matched Evelyn's type.
[32:35] The Goodrich company identified the shoe model as the hood
[32:38] mogul, sold across 5 Midwestern states.
[32:42] A denim jacket was also recovered nearby, and both items
[32:46] were displayed to an estimated 10,000 people across the region,
[32:51] but nobody could identify them. In May 1954, authorities took
[32:57] the extremely controversial step of administering mass lie
[33:01] detector tests to male students and faculty at Central High
[33:05] School. They'd plan to test over 1700
[33:09] individuals but halted after roughly 300.
[33:12] Facing significant backlash and threats of lawsuits, Evelyn's
[33:17] father and Vigo Rasmussen both took polygraphs and passed, and
[33:21] they were both eventually completely ruled out as
[33:23] suspects. In a cruel twist, the Hartley
[33:27] family became the targets of an extortion attempt when a young
[33:31] man tried to sell them fabricated information.
[33:35] He was subsequently arrested for this and convicted for a variety
[33:38] of offenses as a result of this disturbing attempt to enrich
[33:42] himself from the tragedy. The most famous suspect emerged
[33:48] in 1957 when Ed Gein was arrested in Plainfield, WI,
[33:53] roughly 100 miles away. And I should make it clear here
[33:57] right from the start that he's often been depicted as
[33:59] definitively being responsible for Evelyn's disappearance, but
[34:04] more on that shortly. In fact, as you'll see, I
[34:08] personally believe that there's absolutely nothing to suggest
[34:11] that he was involved in this crime in any way whatsoever.
[34:16] That said, after police discovered human remains and
[34:20] horrifying artifacts in his home, a connection to Evelyn's
[34:24] disappearance seemed plausible at 1st Ed.
[34:27] Gein had been born in Lacrosse, reportedly had family nearby,
[34:32] and some residents claimed to have seen him in the city on the
[34:34] day Evelyn vanished. However, detectives determined
[34:38] he wasn't in Lacrosse that night, and Evelyn didn't match
[34:42] his known victim profile. His 2 confirmed victims were
[34:46] women in their 50s, and most of his other confirmed crimes
[34:50] primarily revolved around grave robbery.
[34:53] Notably, even the graves he robbed were from women who
[34:56] resembled his mother, not from anyone around Evelyn's age.
[35:02] Investigators found no physical evidence linking him to Evelyn,
[35:06] and he passed a polygraph test. Further, Gean wasn't known for
[35:10] working with others, and if Hofer's witness statement is
[35:13] accurate, two men were involved in this crime.
[35:17] He was officially cleared in November 1957, but despite this,
[35:22] speculation has persisted for decades, most recently through a
[35:26] fictionalized portrayal in the 2025 Netflix series.
[35:30] In this story, Ed Gein is depicted as the perpetrator,
[35:34] despite no solid evidence supporting that narrative.
[35:39] And honestly, I really have to question that decision by
[35:41] Netflix since they clearly used a real case to enhance this
[35:45] narrative, which is somewhat morally questionable to say the
[35:49] least. On the other hand, I do have to
[35:53] acknowledge that this is how I found out about her case, and as
[35:57] with any cold case, more attention is generally a good
[36:01] thing. However, that effect may be
[36:04] somewhat mitigated by the fact that Evelyn's case isn't
[36:07] portrayed as a cold case in the Netflix series.
[36:12] Over the years, investigators questioned more than 3500 people
[36:16] and dealt with dozens of false confessions.
[36:19] The cases most tantalizing lead didn't surface until 2004, when
[36:24] a man named Mel Williams came forward with something
[36:27] extraordinary. In 1969, Williams had been
[36:32] recording a band performing at a local bar, as was the style at
[36:36] the time. He'd left his reel to reel tape
[36:39] running long after the music stopped, and it inadvertently
[36:43] captured a roughly 7 minute conversation.
[36:47] On this tape, there was a man identifying himself as Clyde
[36:50] Peterson, a man named Jack Golfair, and an unnamed third
[36:55] party, all implicated in Evelyn's slaying.
[37:00] Another man at the bar pressed Peterson on the details, and the
[37:04] conversation claimed Evelyn had been buried in Lafarge,
[37:07] Wisconsin. In a very odd move, Mel Williams
[37:12] had tossed the tape in a box and forgotten about it for decades,
[37:16] until the 50th anniversary of the disappearance made
[37:19] headlines. Authorities described it as the
[37:22] best lead they'd ever received. But there was a serious problem.
[37:28] Peterson, Golfair and the unnamed third man, we're all
[37:32] dead. By the time the recording
[37:34] actually surfaced, Golfair had actually pulled the curtains on
[37:38] himself in Christmas Day 1967, which some believe may be
[37:43] related to the crime he allegedly committed.
[37:47] Despite the passage of time, the Lacrosse Police Department
[37:51] maintains that the investigation is still open.
[37:54] Some original physical evidence, including the sneakers and
[37:58] jacket, has reportedly been misplaced over the decades.
[38:03] However, other materials have been preserved and Evelyn's
[38:06] dental records remain available should her remains ever be
[38:09] located. In what may be the only thing
[38:13] approaching a silver lining in this tragic case, the
[38:16] Rasmussen's daughter Janice later came to believe that
[38:20] Evelyn had saved her life. While this is of course
[38:23] unconfirmed, all evidence suggests that Evelyn fought back
[38:27] and likely forced the home invader or invaders to flee
[38:30] immediately. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here.
[38:36] Just jumping in with a quick reminder to hit the like and
[38:39] subscribe buttons and the notification bell if you're
[38:41] enjoying my content. Also, don't forget that you can
[38:45] help out my channel further by supporting through the YouTube
[38:48] membership or the Patreon. Gary Driscoll was born on April
[38:56] 18th, 1946, and he'd go on to carve out a place in rock
[39:00] history that most musicians can only dream about, even if he
[39:04] never became a star himself. His journey began in 1965 when
[39:09] he joined Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, a band fronted by a
[39:13] young Ronnie James Dio, who'd later become one of heavy metals
[39:17] most iconic voices. The group cycled through a
[39:21] series of name changes, the Electric Elves, The Elves,
[39:25] before settling on Elf in 1969. Through every transformation,
[39:31] Driscoll remained behind the kit, anchoring the music with a
[39:35] rhythm and Blues influence style that set him apart from harder
[39:38] edged drummers of the era. Elf caught the attention of Deep
[39:43] Purple bassist Rodger Glover, who produced all three of the
[39:47] band's studio albums. They weren't arena filling
[39:50] superstars by any stretch, but they built a solid following and
[39:54] a respectable touring circuit across the Northeast.
[39:58] Everything changed in 1975 when Deep Purple's legendary
[40:03] guitarist Richie Blackmore came calling.
[40:06] Blackmore had grown restless and disillusioned with Deep Purple,
[40:10] and he saw in Dio the perfect front man for his next venture.
[40:15] He recruited the entire core of ELF to form what would become
[40:18] Rainbow. The resulting debut album,
[40:22] Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, was a critical success that still
[40:26] holds up decades later, and Driscoll's drumming was a key
[40:29] part of its foundation. But here's the cruel twist.
[40:34] The album never led to a tour, and Blackmore fired everyone
[40:38] except Dio almost immediately after the recording sessions
[40:41] wrapped. The widely accepted explanation
[40:45] is that Driscoll's more relaxed style didn't mesh with the
[40:48] harder direction Blackmore envisioned.
[40:51] He was replaced by Cozy Powell, a thunderous British rock
[40:55] drummer who fit Blackmore's vision more neatly.
[40:59] Former band members were furious, feeling they've been
[41:02] used as leverage to secure their legendary front man services and
[41:06] then discarded. Unfortunately, that first
[41:10] Rainbow album would prove to be the high watermark of Gary
[41:13] Driscoll's career. The years following his
[41:18] dismissal from Rainbow weren't kind to Driscoll professionally.
[41:22] He played with a number of regionally acclaimed bands in
[41:25] the Northeastern United States throughout the late 70s and
[41:28] early 80s, but none of these efforts LED anywhere
[41:31] significant. Regardless of his lack of
[41:34] mainstream success, he was still highly respected and was, in
[41:37] essence, still able to live his dream, at least to a degree.
[41:42] By the mid 80s, though, it became clear that he was never
[41:45] going to get another shot at rock immortality.
[41:49] He settled into a modest life in Newfield, NY, a rural community
[41:53] about 9 miles South of Ithaca in the Finger Lakes region.
[41:58] He took up tile installation and supplemented his income with
[42:02] occasional session drumming. People who knew him in Ithaca
[42:05] remembered him as easygoing and friendly, a regular at local
[42:09] bars where he was still able to bask in his star power.
[42:14] He wasn't bitter about how things had gone by any means.
[42:17] He was just a guy who'd had his shot at the big time, came close
[42:22] and was now getting by. But as the years dragged on,
[42:27] Driscoll was lured by the appeal of quick money, a turn that
[42:30] would eventually cost him his life.
[42:34] The circumstances surrounding Gary Driscoll's slaying are
[42:37] rooted in the local drug trade operating out of downtown
[42:40] Ithaca. In the mid 1980s, Driscoll's
[42:44] close friend Robert Galenas ran a coke operation from his
[42:48] basement apartment on East State Street.
[42:51] Galenus had known Driscoll for roughly 35 years, and according
[42:56] to trial testimony, Driscoll was involved in Galenus operation as
[43:00] a buyer and seller. This was a far cry from the
[43:04] Rock'n'roll stage, but it was the world Driscoll inhabited
[43:07] during the final stretch of his life.
[43:10] Galenus operation attracted a volatile cast of characters, and
[43:15] one of them was John Joseph Schillingford.
[43:18] He was a 37 year old local man who'd become a persistent and
[43:22] aggressive customer. On May 26th, 1987, which
[43:27] happened to be Schillingford's birthday, he'd come to Galenas's
[43:31] apartment looking to get his fix.
[43:34] An argument erupted when Schillingford wanted to be
[43:36] fronted the goods without paying, citing that he needed to
[43:40] party on his birthday. Galenas refused, and the
[43:44] confrontation was heated enough that Galinus essentially banned
[43:48] Schillingford from the apartment forever.
[43:52] Schillingford was known to be locked and loaded, which he
[43:55] claimed was for protection against other dealers he had
[43:58] slighted in the past. By early June, the tension
[44:03] around Galinus's apartment had become so severe that Galinus
[44:07] and his girlfriend, Lynette Tome, had to take drastic
[44:10] measures. They started sleeping at a local
[44:13] motel to avoid being disturbed by junkies showing up at all
[44:17] hours. Which, hey, if you're not into
[44:19] that, don't operate a trap house.
[44:23] On the evening of June 7th, 1987, Driscoll stopped by the
[44:28] apartment as the couple were heading out to their hideout for
[44:31] the night. They told him he was welcome to
[44:33] stay if he wanted to, and Driscoll remained behind in the
[44:37] basement apartment. It's unknown why he stayed at
[44:40] the apartment given the clear and present danger, and this
[44:43] would be the last confirmed time anyone saw him alive.
[44:48] Around midday on June 8th, 1987, Galinas returned to his
[44:53] apartment and found Gary Driscoll's body.
[44:55] He immediately called the authorities.
[44:58] The scene that greeted investigators was horrific.
[45:02] Driscoll, aged 41, had been severely beaten, cut with a
[45:07] knife and then shot multiple times in the head.
[45:11] An autopsy confirmed the injuries were consistent with a
[45:14] prolonged and violent struggle, suggesting that he had been
[45:18] deliberately kept alive as long as possible.
[45:22] Items appeared to have been taken from the scene, suggesting
[45:25] robbery may have played a role in the attack.
[45:29] However, given the nature of the business Gallinas was operating
[45:32] out of his apartment, it may not come as a surprise that the
[45:35] nature and quantity of what was taken was never ascertained.
[45:40] The sheer brutality of the event sent shock waves through the
[45:44] local community, and when news eventually spread through the
[45:50] rock music world as well. Police quickly focused their
[45:55] attention on John Schillingford and there was physical evidence
[45:59] tying him to the crime. Driscoll's car was found
[46:02] abandoned several miles north of the apartment at the Cayuga
[46:06] Shopping Center, and Schillingford's fingerprints
[46:08] were identified on the vehicle. A gun that matched the weapon
[46:12] used in the shooting was recovered on a roadway near the
[46:15] scene, its grip broken, and it matched the Roscoe Schillingford
[46:19] was known to carry. Schillingford was arrested and
[46:23] charged with the slaying, as well as robbery and weapons
[46:26] offenses. But what happened next would be
[46:29] disastrous. But keep that weapon in mind,
[46:33] because let's just say it was going to be a bit of a problem
[46:35] for the prosecution, to put it very mildly.
[46:40] The trial of John Chillingford took place in the summer of 1988
[46:44] at the Tompkins County Courthouse, and it was troubled
[46:47] from the start, to put it mildly.
[46:50] The prosecution's key witness, Robert Galinas, proved deeply
[46:54] problematic on the stand. As one might expect facing his
[47:00] own pending drug charges, Galenas repeatedly invoked his
[47:03] Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination during nearly
[47:07] two hours of testimony. This actually ended up
[47:11] frustrating both the prosecution and the defense, since Galenas
[47:15] completely shut down cross examination by taking the 5th
[47:20] The Ithaca Journal, the local paper reported that the defense
[47:24] attorney expressed open exasperation with the witnesses
[47:28] refusal to answer questions, calling the proceedings A
[47:31] charade. But the defense attorney really
[47:35] didn't need any testimony whatsoever from this alleged
[47:38] local kingpin, since he had a much better defense in mind.
[47:44] But it was the physical evidence that ultimately doomed the
[47:46] prosecution's case, and Schillingford's defense attorney
[47:50] mounted A forceful challenge to the weapons evidence.
[47:53] The weapon had been found on a roadway with its grip shattered,
[47:57] and grip fragments were also discovered in a field.
[48:01] The defense alleged that police investigators had planted pieces
[48:04] of the broken grip at the crime scene.
[48:06] Specifically, the police file indicated fragments of the grip
[48:11] were reportedly found on the carpet of the apartment days
[48:14] after the initial search. This was problematic because
[48:18] there was an extremely thorough search immediately after the
[48:20] crime was reported, and the grip fragments weren't there then.
[48:26] This was a devastating blow to the prosecution's credibility,
[48:30] so much so that it eventually resulted in a special prosecutor
[48:33] launching an investigation into the conduct of the police.
[48:37] The defense lawyer was ultimately successful in having
[48:40] all the physical evidence related to the weapon discarded.
[48:44] That meant that the jury had a star witness who took the 5th at
[48:48] every possible occasion and no weapon.
[48:52] By way of reminder, the prosecution has to prove their
[48:55] case beyond a reasonable doubt, and with the foundations of the
[48:59] case gone, they were essentially working on vibes alone.
[49:05] Because of this, the jury ended up acquitting Schillingford on
[49:07] all offenses, potentially setting a guilty person free.
[49:13] In the decades since the acquittal, the slaying of Gary
[49:16] Driscoll has taken on a life of its own.
[49:19] In certain corners of the Internet and in the rock
[49:22] community. Some accounts have suggested
[49:25] that Driscoll was flayed alive, though there's no credible
[49:28] evidence to support these extreme claims.
[49:31] One particularly persistent theory involves A ritualistic
[49:35] satanic sacrifice, a rumor that appears to trace back largely to
[49:39] statements made by Jeff Fenholt. He was Driscoll's former Bible
[49:44] black bandmate who later became a born again Christian and an
[49:48] evangelist. He repudiated all his previous
[49:51] affiliations with the metal scene and claimed that the music
[49:55] was the work of the devil, at least in the way it was
[49:58] generally played. But he theorized that this
[50:01] weapon that was released on the world could be repurposed into
[50:05] Christian heavy metal, transforming this allegedly
[50:09] satanic music into something godly.
[50:13] Fenholt claimed Driscoll was to be his drummer on an upcoming
[50:16] album, and that the forces of the Dark Prince decided to take
[50:20] him out to stop him from spreading the good word.
[50:24] Under this theory, the perpetrators were actually
[50:27] cultists who were into heavy metal music.
[50:31] Unsurprisingly, contemporaneous newspaper reports from Ithaca,
[50:35] however, describe nothing of the sort, and there's no indication
[50:39] that law enforcement ever investigated A cult angle.
[50:44] More grounded theories focus on the slaying being connected to
[50:47] the business operating out of Gelinas's apartment.
[50:51] Some accounts indicate that a second suspect, described as a
[50:54] person of interest, fled the United States before charges
[50:58] could be brought. This individual has never been
[51:02] publicly identified by authorities and no further
[51:05] arrests have ever been made. Others believe that the police
[51:09] had, in essence, framed the perpetrator, though I do need to
[51:15] stress that Shackleford was found not guilty in a court of
[51:19] law. At the end of the day, Gary
[51:23] Driscoll's case is in essence, not only an unsolved mystery,
[51:28] but an unsolvable mystery. Given the evidence tampering
[51:32] that took place, any potential future trial would be tainted by
[51:36] the investigative misconduct. Further, if Schillingford was
[51:40] actually the one who committed the crime, double jeopardy is in
[51:44] play and he couldn't be brought to trial again regardless.
[51:49] That said, I don't necessarily think the evidence supports the
[51:53] fact that he actually committed the crime at all.
[51:56] Gary was staying in a trap house that was so dangerous that
[52:00] Galenas and Tome had decided that it wasn't safe to stay
[52:03] there overnight. Schillingford was just one of
[52:06] many distraught addicts who attended the apartment and
[52:10] apparently caused serious problems.
[52:13] There's also the fact that an unknown quantity of substances
[52:16] were taken as well, which may indicate that a business rival
[52:20] may have hit the apartment. It's also possible that Galinas
[52:24] may have tried to double cross his supplier and that he was
[52:28] actually the intended target of the attack.
[52:32] Paul Fugate was a veteran park Ranger at Arizona's Chiricahua
[52:35] National Monument. On Sunday, January 13th, 1980.
[52:40] The 41 year old Fugate was on duty at the monuments visitor
[52:44] center when he stepped outside to hike a nearby trail.
[52:49] He told a colleague he was going to do a trail and left wearing
[52:53] his National Park Service uniform, including his Ranger
[52:57] badge and a green jacket, expecting to be back soon.
[53:01] However, Paul never returned from this routine patrol.
[53:05] By nightfall, concern began to grow extremely rapidly.
[53:10] A seasonal park employee staying at Paul's residence became
[53:13] alarmed when he did not come home after dark and alerted the
[53:16] park Superintendent. That evening.
[53:19] The Superintendent and two others searched nearby trails
[53:22] with flashlights, calling out Paul's name in the cold Canyon
[53:25] air, but found no trace of him. The following morning, a full
[53:30] scale search was launched. On January 14th, 1980, the
[53:35] Cochise County Sheriff's Office organized a search and rescue
[53:38] operation, soon joined by National Park Service personnel
[53:43] and other agencies. Over the next two weeks, an
[53:47] intensive search effort scoured Chiricahua's rugged terrain.
[53:51] Teams of Rangers and volunteers, eventually numbering over 20
[53:55] people and a search dog, combed the trails and canyons, assisted
[54:00] by a National Guard helicopter. Overhead would be rescuers
[54:05] rappelled into steep, rocky crevices and fanned out in a
[54:08] line to inspect every ravine and gully within at least 1/2 mile
[54:12] radius of the visitor center. Despite these exhaustive
[54:16] efforts, not a single piece of evidence was found.
[54:19] One set of footprints initially raised hope until searchers
[54:23] realized the prints belonged to one of their own team members.
[54:27] Aside from that, the search turned up nothing.
[54:31] No clothing, no equipment, and no sign of Paul Fugate.
[54:36] After roughly 2 weeks, the official ground search was
[54:40] scaled back, with Paul still missing.
[54:43] In the months and years following his disappearance,
[54:46] volunteer search parties occasionally combed the
[54:49] Backcountry beyond the initial grid, checking remote trails and
[54:53] even old mine shafts. Tips and purported sightings of
[54:57] the missing Ranger trickled in from around the country, but
[55:00] none led to a breakthrough. In one instance, a man spotted
[55:05] in New Mexico turned out to be a different individual, and a
[55:09] report of someone resembling Paul in the Florida Keys also
[55:13] proved false. Despite the Fugate family's
[55:17] persistence, no physical evidence of Paul Fugate has ever
[55:20] been recovered. To this day, he remains the only
[55:24] National Park Service Ranger to vanish without a trace and never
[55:28] be found. From the outset, law enforcement
[55:33] suspected that Fugate's disappearance involved foul
[55:36] play. After the fruitless initial
[55:38] search, authorities began treating the case as a possible
[55:42] crime rather than a lost hiker incident.
[55:46] A formal missing person investigation was opened in 1980
[55:50] and has technically remained open ever since.
[55:53] Early on, a notable lead emerged.
[55:56] About five days after Paul went missing, a park volunteer named
[56:00] Richard Horton recalled A disturbing site from the day of
[56:04] January 13th. Horton and his wife had been
[56:07] driving in the area when they passed a pickup truck speeding
[56:10] away from the scene. Personally, I find it weird that
[56:15] this memory took five days to resurface.
[56:17] But hey, that's just me, and maybe I'm too skeptical.
[56:21] In the brief glimpse, Horton believed he may have seen Paul
[56:25] Fugate slumped between two men in the truck's cab, traveling at
[56:28] high speed. Investigators found this account
[56:31] compelling enough that at the end of January 1980, they
[56:35] arranged for Horton to undergo hypnosis to dredge up details of
[56:39] the memory. Under hypnosis, Horton described
[56:43] the vehicle as a dark green pickup with a camper shell.
[56:47] He stated that the driver was a bearded man in his 30s wearing a
[56:51] Plaid shirt and a second man in the truck was wearing a green
[56:55] jacket resembling the Park Service coat Fugate had.
[57:00] Horton recalled that Paul looked sad and dejected, as if he were
[57:04] semi conscious or being held against his will.
[57:08] There were even reports from other park staff around that
[57:10] time of skid marks on a dirt road near the faraway ranch area
[57:15] and potential signs of a scuffle in the dirt.
[57:18] This lent some credence to the abduction theory, but despite
[57:22] these leads, no suspects were identified.
[57:26] If Paul had indeed been kidnapped or slain on January
[57:29] 13th, the perpetrators had a head start before investigators
[57:33] honed in on that scenario. Law enforcement pursued various
[57:37] tips and theories in the ensuing months, but progress was
[57:41] elusive. In July 1983, the Cochise County
[57:46] Sheriff's Office publicly stated that new information had LED
[57:50] them to conclude Paul had been slain.
[57:54] They made an official announcement that the arrest of
[57:57] more than one person was imminent.
[58:00] This clearly raised hopes that the mystery was on the verge of
[58:02] being solved. However, no arrests were ever
[58:06] made in connection with the case, and the leads underlying
[58:10] that 1983 announcement apparently ultimately went cold.
[58:16] Given that the investigation is still open, the true nature of
[58:19] this announcement and why it never led to an arrest remains
[58:23] unknown. However, before this 1983
[58:29] announcement, there was a slight hiccup in the case since he was
[58:33] missing in the line of duty. Paul's wife, Dodie Fugate,
[58:37] continued to be paid his salary, a source of apparent contention
[58:41] in the Park Service. In early 1981, Howard Chapman,
[58:46] the Park Service's Western Regional director, reviewed the
[58:50] case and made a harsh determination.
[58:53] He declared that Paul Fugate had likely voluntarily abandoned his
[58:57] position. This bureaucratic ruling treated
[59:00] the disappearance not as an on duty tragedy, but as an apparent
[59:04] desertion. The Park Service formally fired
[59:08] Paul retroactively for being absent without leave, halted the
[59:12] salary payments to his wife, and even demanded that she return
[59:15] the wages paid. And to add insult to injury, the
[59:20] Park Service wanted significant interest payments on everything
[59:23] that had been previously paid out.
[59:26] This seems to be an incredibly harsh and bizarre stance to have
[59:30] taken given the circumstances of the case, but as you'll see in a
[59:34] couple minutes, Paul may not have been liked by the higher
[59:38] ups. After an outcry, the service
[59:41] agreed not to force an immediate repayment, but instead planned
[59:45] to recoup that sum from Fugates federal retirement account.
[59:50] Dodi Fugate was informed she had no right to appeal this decision
[59:54] because, in a Kafka esque twist, any appeal needed to be filed
[59:58] personally by the employee himself within 20 days.
[1:00:04] This was an impossible condition given that Paul was, of course,
[1:00:07] missing. Dodi fought back, seeking
[1:00:11] support from officials and lawmakers.
[1:00:14] The case caught the attention of Arizona Senator Barry
[1:00:16] Goldwater's office. And his office applied pressure
[1:00:20] on the Park Service to reconsider its stance.
[1:00:23] In 1986, six years after Paul's disappearance, the Park Service
[1:00:29] finally revisited the case in depth.
[1:00:32] After examining every report, witness statement, and search
[1:00:36] record, the 1986 review team concluded there was no evidence
[1:00:41] that Paul Fugate had staged his own disappearance.
[1:00:45] Further, they found no evidence that he was still somewhere out
[1:00:48] there, alive and living his best life.
[1:00:53] In the absence of definitive answers, several theories have
[1:00:56] emerged about what happened to Paul Fugate.
[1:00:59] Investigators and those who knew Fugate agree on one point.
[1:01:03] Foul play is the most likely explanation.
[1:01:07] Both the evidence in the broader context suggests that Paul
[1:01:10] probably encountered dangerous individuals on his hike and met
[1:01:13] with violence. The Chiricahua National Monument
[1:01:17] is not only remote and mountainous, but also lies in
[1:01:20] Cochise County, about 80 miles north of the Mexican border.
[1:01:26] In 1980, the region was beginning to see increased
[1:01:29] activity from substance traffickers using routes through
[1:01:32] the Chiricahua corridor. This is an area historically
[1:01:36] used by smugglers moving all manner of illicit cargo
[1:01:39] northward. Paul had gone hiking in the
[1:01:42] Faraway Ranch section of the monument, which was and remains
[1:01:47] A relatively secluded area. In fact, Faraway Ranch and the
[1:01:53] surrounding terrain would later gain notoriety as a haven for
[1:01:56] smuggling. Decades after Fugate's
[1:01:59] disappearance in 2014, a park employee was violently assaulted
[1:02:05] at Faraway by cartel affiliates, underscoring the real dangers
[1:02:09] present in that area. Given this context, a prevalent
[1:02:13] theory is that Paul accidentally stumbled upon smugglers or other
[1:02:17] criminals on January 13th, 1980, after which he was permanently
[1:02:23] silenced. Another theory, considered early
[1:02:26] on but largely discredited by the evidence, is that Paul
[1:02:30] Fugate intentionally disappeared of his own free will.
[1:02:34] In the initial stages of the investigation, some officials
[1:02:38] posited that Fugate might have become disillusioned with his
[1:02:41] job or personal life and chosen to walk away forever.
[1:02:46] This idea was partly fuelled by Fugate's personality and
[1:02:49] history. He was known as a bit of a non
[1:02:52] conformist within the Park Service, famously one of the
[1:02:55] first Rangers to defy the agency's strict grooming
[1:02:58] standards years before. He had even been briefly fired
[1:03:03] in 1970 for not cutting his hair, only winning back his
[1:03:07] position after a legal battle that lasted until 1976.
[1:03:14] Because of this maverick streak, some wondered in 1980 if Paul
[1:03:18] had grown tired of the Park Service's rules or of other
[1:03:21] aspects of his life. There was talk of marital strain
[1:03:25] and even speculation that Paul might have secretly followed an
[1:03:28] allegedly pregnant girlfriend to another city.
[1:03:32] However, no credible evidence ever supported the notion that
[1:03:36] Fugate disappeared deliberately. In fact, tangible evidence
[1:03:40] strongly contradicts it. When authorities searched
[1:03:43] Fugate's home, they found that he had left behind virtually
[1:03:47] everything important to him. He left his wallet around $300
[1:03:51] in cash, an extensive and valuable weapon collection, high
[1:03:56] end camera equipment, and even an antique truck he was in the
[1:04:00] process of restoring. Nothing was missing except Paul
[1:04:04] himself, a fact that implies he had fully expected to return.
[1:04:09] While it's impossible to completely rule out that Fugate
[1:04:12] could have vanished by choice, the consensus today is that this
[1:04:16] theory is highly implausible given the circumstances.
[1:04:21] Others have speculated that he may have fallen into a crevice
[1:04:25] or an abandoned mine shaft, or fallen victim to some sort of
[1:04:28] other natural hazard. Some have even suggested he
[1:04:32] could have been felled by an attack from a wild animal.
[1:04:35] All these theories though are completely unproven, and given
[1:04:39] the extensive searches for him, it seems likely some trace of
[1:04:43] him would have been found. At present, the most likely
[1:04:46] theory remains that he came upon some bad men from South of the
[1:04:50] border, and this is the theory I personally think is most likely.
[1:04:55] While it isn't evidence of course, I've read numerous
[1:04:58] accounts online about the inherent dangers in this area
[1:05:02] due to it being a corridor for international crime.
[1:05:05] I suspect that someone with a bit of a maverick streak like
[1:05:08] Paul may have been more likely to intervene on his own in a
[1:05:12] situation where he ought to have called for backup.
[1:05:16] Or perhaps he saw a situation where he simply had to
[1:05:19] intervene, given that someone was facing the imminent and
[1:05:22] immediate threat of harm. Also, just as a quick aside, the
[1:05:28] Park Service treating him like a common criminal and coming after
[1:05:31] his likely widow really rubs me the wrong way.
[1:05:35] After all, this is a guy who very well could have given his
[1:05:39] life up heroically in the line of duty.
[1:05:44] Ray Grekar was a respected District Attorney in Centre
[1:05:47] County, Pennsylvania, known for his meticulous and ethical
[1:05:51] approach to justice. In April 2005, just months
[1:05:55] before his planned retirement, the 59 year old prosecutor
[1:05:59] vanished without a trace. Nearly 20 years later, his
[1:06:03] disappearance remains 1 of Pennsylvania's most perplexing
[1:06:06] cold cases. On the morning of Friday, April
[1:06:09] 15th, 2005, Ray Greekar decided to take a day off from work.
[1:06:15] He told his live in girlfriend, Patty Fornicola, that he was
[1:06:19] going to enjoy the sunny weather with a drive to Lewisburg, a
[1:06:22] town about 50 miles east of his home in Bellefonte.
[1:06:27] Around 11:30 AM, Grikar called Patty to say he was driving
[1:06:31] along Route 192 and enjoying the ride.
[1:06:35] He told her I love you in what would be their last
[1:06:38] conversation. He promised to be home later
[1:06:42] that evening. But when Grikar did not return
[1:06:44] home that night, Patty became concerned.
[1:06:49] After several hours of unanswered calls, she called in
[1:06:52] to report him missing. Local police and state troopers
[1:06:56] were alerted that the District Attorney had failed to come
[1:06:58] home, an alarming and out of character situation.
[1:07:02] The next day, April 16th, authorities launched an urgent
[1:07:06] search for Grekar and his distinctive vehicle.
[1:07:10] Police even used a helicopter to scan roadways from above,
[1:07:14] looking for any sign of an accident involving his red and
[1:07:17] white Mini Cooper. That afternoon, a state trooper
[1:07:21] spotted Grekar's Mini Cooper parked in a dirt parking lot on
[1:07:24] the outskirts of Lewisburg, near an antique mall known as the
[1:07:28] Street of Shops. The car was about 45 miles from
[1:07:32] Grekar's home, just as he had indicated to his girlfriend, and
[1:07:36] was situated not far from the banks of the Susquehanna River.
[1:07:41] Investigators noted that there were no obvious signs of foul
[1:07:44] play at the scene, and the vehicle was locked with no
[1:07:47] damage to it whatsoever. However, some puzzling clues
[1:07:52] emerged. Grikar's cell phone was found
[1:07:55] inside the car, powered off and left behind on the seat.
[1:07:59] More strangely, ashes were discovered on the passenger side
[1:08:03] floor and the car smelled of tobacco.
[1:08:07] This was immediately deemed unusual because Grekar was a
[1:08:10] non-smoker who actively disliked the smell of tobacco smoke and
[1:08:15] was unlikely to allow anyone to smoke in his car.
[1:08:18] The car keys were missing and have never been found, and
[1:08:21] Grekar's wallet was also not in the vehicle.
[1:08:25] In another strange twist, his work laptop, which he often
[1:08:29] carried around even on his days off, was nowhere to be seen
[1:08:33] either. Multiple people later reported
[1:08:36] seeing a man resembling Ray Grikar in Lewisburg on the day
[1:08:40] he vanished. Witnesses recalled Grikar
[1:08:43] browsing in the street of Shops, Antique Mall and strolling down
[1:08:47] Market Street in the early afternoon.
[1:08:50] One shop owner even claimed that Grikar had visited the mall
[1:08:54] accompanied by an unknown dark haired woman, appearing as if he
[1:08:58] was waiting for someone. This lead was never confirmed,
[1:09:02] and police found no evidence that Grikar was having an affair
[1:09:06] or meeting a secret contact. Aside from these anecdotal
[1:09:10] sightings, nothing seemed to miss in Lewisburg that day.
[1:09:14] It was as if the District Attorney simply vanished into
[1:09:17] thin air, a sentiment Patty Fornicola, his girlfriend, would
[1:09:22] later echo throughout interviews.
[1:09:25] In the immediate aftermath of Grikar's disappearance, a
[1:09:29] massive investigation unfolded. Local law enforcement, joined by
[1:09:34] Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI, combed the area for
[1:09:38] clues. Search teams with canine units
[1:09:41] scoured the riverbanks and wooded areas, while dive teams
[1:09:45] plunged into the Susquehanna River looking for any sign of
[1:09:49] the missing DA. Helicopters buzzed overhead to
[1:09:53] survey the surrounding countryside from above.
[1:09:56] Despite these exhaustive efforts, the searches in those
[1:09:59] first days turned up nothing. No trace of Greek are himself.
[1:10:04] Investigators were left with only the abandoned car and a
[1:10:07] handful of perplexing hints. Over the next few weeks, tips
[1:10:12] poured in from the public and sightings were reported across
[1:10:15] multiple states. There was an unconfirmed
[1:10:18] sighting of a man matching Greekers description in Wilkes
[1:10:21] Barre, PA on April 18th, just a few days after he went missing.
[1:10:27] Still other reports from as far away as Texas and Illinois came
[1:10:31] in over the months that followed. 1 tipster even claimed
[1:10:35] to have seen Greekar in the audience of a taping of the
[1:10:38] Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago. However, none of these leads
[1:10:42] could be substantiated. Police tracked down many of the
[1:10:45] sightings, only to determine that the individuals spotted
[1:10:49] were not Ray Greekar or that the accounts were not credible.
[1:10:53] By early summer 2005, the case had grown cold, with Grekar's
[1:10:59] fate still completely unknown. As the investigation pressed on,
[1:11:05] a major break, or perhaps another mystery emerged in July
[1:11:10] 2005. On July 30th of that year, over
[1:11:15] three months after Ray Greaker disappeared, 2 fishermen on the
[1:11:19] Susquehanna River made a startling discovery.
[1:11:22] They found a laptop computer submerged in the shallow water
[1:11:26] beneath a bridge outside Louisbourg.
[1:11:28] It was soon identified as Greeker's missing county issued
[1:11:31] laptop. The device was found lodged
[1:11:34] against a bridge support under a highway bridge that spans the
[1:11:38] river between Louisbourg and the neighboring town of Milton.
[1:11:42] Notably, when divers retrieved the mud caked laptop, its hard
[1:11:46] drive was missing. That is to say, the drive had
[1:11:50] been physically removed from the machine.
[1:11:53] Investigators scoured the area for the missing hard disk, and a
[1:11:56] few months later, a broken computer hard drive was
[1:11:59] recovered on the riverbank downstream.
[1:12:02] The hard drive proved to be the one belonging to Grikar's
[1:12:05] laptop. Unfortunately, it was badly
[1:12:08] damaged by water and silt, and forensic analysts were unable to
[1:12:12] recover any data from it. The fact that the hard drive was
[1:12:16] separated from the laptop and apparently intentionally removed
[1:12:21] raised many additional questions.
[1:12:23] It suggested that someone, perhaps Ray himself or an
[1:12:27] unknown party, had taken steps to destroy the computer and any
[1:12:32] information it contained before tossing it into the river.
[1:12:36] The discovery of the laptop spurred investigators to dig
[1:12:39] deeper into Ray's digital footprint.
[1:12:43] A search of the home computer at Ray's residence revealed
[1:12:46] troubling evidence that someone had researched how to destroy
[1:12:49] computer data in the days or weeks prior to his
[1:12:52] disappearance. Internet searches had been made
[1:12:55] for phrases like how to wreck a hard drive and water damage to a
[1:13:00] notebook computer. In addition, records later
[1:13:04] indicated that Ray had purchased specialized data wiping
[1:13:07] software, presumably to overwrite the computer's hard
[1:13:11] drive contents. It appeared that either Ray or
[1:13:15] someone using his computer anticipated the need to damage
[1:13:18] or dispose of a hard drive. This revelation only deepened
[1:13:22] the mystery. Was Ray preparing to permanently
[1:13:25] erase sensitive information, and if so, what information and why?
[1:13:32] Or had an unknown perpetrator gained access to his home and
[1:13:36] done all this to cover their tracks?
[1:13:39] With the laptop and hard drive recovered, albeit yielding no
[1:13:42] readable data, physical evidence in the case essentially stalled.
[1:13:47] No other belongings of Grikar were ever found in the river.
[1:13:51] Notably, his wallet and car keys remained missing.
[1:13:56] Despite the lack of solid forensic evidence, investigators
[1:13:59] continued to pursue the case. But by 2006, however, leads were
[1:14:04] dwindling and years passed with no sign of Ray.
[1:14:09] In July 2011, after six years with no answers, Centre County
[1:14:14] authorities took the step of declaring Ray legally deceased.
[1:14:19] This legal declaration provided closure on paper for estate and
[1:14:22] administrative purposes, but it didn't reflect an actual
[1:14:26] resolution of the investigation. Ray's body had not been found,
[1:14:31] and the case was far from closed in the eyes of law enforcement.
[1:14:35] The Pennsylvania State Police and other agencies have
[1:14:38] repeatedly affirmed that the case remains open and active.
[1:14:43] From the outset, the disappearance of Ray presented
[1:14:46] investigators with an unsettling question.
[1:14:50] What happened to a well respected prosecutor in broad
[1:14:52] daylight in a quiet Pennsylvania town?
[1:14:57] Over the years, several key theories have emerged, each
[1:15:02] examined by authorities. All are rooted in the peculiar
[1:15:06] evidence, or lack thereof, left behind.
[1:15:10] While speculation has run rampant in forums and media,
[1:15:13] investigators have tried to ground their conclusions and
[1:15:16] facts. One of the initial lines of
[1:15:19] inquiry was that Grikar might have chosen to leave the world
[1:15:22] on a voluntary basis. This theory arose in part
[1:15:26] because of an eerie family coincidence.
[1:15:28] In May 1996, Ray's older brother, Roy Grikar, disappeared
[1:15:33] in Ohio under similar circumstances.
[1:15:37] Roy told his wife he was going out to run an errand and never
[1:15:40] returned. A week later, Roy's body was
[1:15:43] found in the Great Miami River. It was ruled that he did it
[1:15:47] himself by jumping into the river.
[1:15:50] Given that parallel, it was reasonable for police to ask if
[1:15:54] Ray Greicar could have followed the same tragic path.
[1:15:57] Investigators did consider whether depression or personal
[1:16:00] pressures might have driven Ray to end his life in the
[1:16:04] Susquehanna River, which flows not far from where his car was
[1:16:08] found. However, they found no solid
[1:16:11] evidence that Grekar was suffering from mental health
[1:16:14] issues at the time. Friends and family described him
[1:16:17] as upbeat and excited about his upcoming retirement and future
[1:16:20] plans. In fact, Grekar and Patty
[1:16:24] Fornicola had been actively planning a cross country road
[1:16:27] trip to celebrate his retirement.
[1:16:29] They even had specific plans to visit national parks and then
[1:16:33] spend time with Grikar's adult daughter in Washington state.
[1:16:37] Moreover, despite extensive searches, no body was ever
[1:16:42] recovered from the river or elsewhere.
[1:16:45] Police noted that if Grikar had jumped into the water, one might
[1:16:48] expect some trace clothing, shoes, or ultimately a body to
[1:16:53] turn up. But nothing ever did.
[1:16:57] To this day, there is no direct evidence that Ray Greicar
[1:17:00] perished this way, and authorities have not classified
[1:17:04] his case as such. Another theory claims that Ray
[1:17:09] chose to deliberately walk away and start a new life.
[1:17:13] Cases of high profile individuals vanishing
[1:17:15] intentionally are rare, but not unheard of.
[1:17:19] Some cite examples of officials or businessmen who faked their
[1:17:23] deaths to escape problems. In Ray's case, some have
[1:17:28] wondered if he might have been motivated to leave behind his
[1:17:31] identity due to undisclosed troubles or fears.
[1:17:36] Could he have staged the scene in Lewisburg, abandoning his car
[1:17:40] and destroying his laptop to mislead investigators, and then
[1:17:44] quietly slipped away? Investigators didn't dismiss
[1:17:48] this idea outright, especially given the evidence of the
[1:17:51] computer being wiped, an action that could fit with someone
[1:17:55] covering their tracks. They explored whether Ray had
[1:17:59] made any secret preparations for a getaway.
[1:18:02] The FBI assisted by examining Ray's financial records, looking
[1:18:07] for any signs of unusual transactions, hidden funds, or a
[1:18:11] stash of money that could finance a life on the run.
[1:18:15] However, despite the FB is far reaching investigative powers,
[1:18:20] they found nothing. There was no evidence that
[1:18:23] Grikar moved large sums of money or set up any secret accounts,
[1:18:27] and his bank accounts and credit cards saw no activity after
[1:18:31] April 2005. His passport was left at home,
[1:18:36] and there were no obvious withdrawals of cash prior to his
[1:18:39] disappearance. Taking on a completely new
[1:18:42] identity would also have required significant planning.
[1:18:46] By all accounts, Ray had not expressed a desire to leave, nor
[1:18:51] did he exhibit behavior consistent with someone
[1:18:53] preparing to vanish. Further, this would have meant
[1:18:57] giving up the significant pension from the job he was just
[1:19:00] about to retire from. Despite the lack of evidence,
[1:19:04] the authorities have never been able to specifically rule this
[1:19:07] out. The 3rd and perhaps most
[1:19:12] troubling theory is that Ray Greaker met with foul play.
[1:19:16] If true, this would likely mean someone abducted or attacked him
[1:19:19] on April 15th and disposed of his body, making it look as if
[1:19:23] he simply walked away. There are several sub theories
[1:19:27] within this category, all of which have been investigated by
[1:19:31] the authorities. One possibility is that Ray was
[1:19:34] the victim of a crime of opportunity or an encounter that
[1:19:38] turned violent. Perhaps he met a stranger or
[1:19:42] even the unidentified woman some witnesses noted in Lewisburg and
[1:19:47] things took a deadly turn. The presence of cigarette ash in
[1:19:52] his car raised the question of whether someone else was in the
[1:19:55] vehicle with him that day. Could Ray have given a ride to a
[1:19:59] stranger or met someone who then overpowered him?
[1:20:04] However, the car itself showed no signs of struggle, making an
[1:20:09] attack in the vehicle less likely if an altercation
[1:20:12] happened elsewhere. No witnesses reported any
[1:20:15] disturbance. The lack of any obvious motive
[1:20:19] for a random person to target a small town DA in broad daylight
[1:20:24] has kept this line of thought speculative.
[1:20:27] Given Ray's role as a prosecutor, investigators
[1:20:31] naturally examined whether someone he had put behind bars
[1:20:33] sought revenge. During his twenty year career as
[1:20:37] DA, Grekar handled many serious cases and likely angered more
[1:20:42] than a few dangerous individuals.
[1:20:45] Early in the investigation, police ran through Ray's recent
[1:20:49] case list to see if any defendants or convicts had made
[1:20:52] threats or stood out as suspicious.
[1:20:55] They also looked at older cases that might connect.
[1:20:58] One notable angle was Grikar's involvement in prosecuting
[1:21:02] members of a motorcycle gang. In 2003, he had overseen a case
[1:21:07] against a Hells Angel smuggling ring, which led some to wonder
[1:21:11] if gang members might have sought retaliation.
[1:21:14] However, investigators consider this theory highly unlikely,
[1:21:19] given that organized crime tends to view prosecutors themselves
[1:21:23] as simple cogs in a machine. A widely discussed theory in the
[1:21:28] public realm centers on Ray's decision in 1998 not to
[1:21:32] prosecute Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
[1:21:37] If you're fortunate enough to be unfamiliar with Jerry Sandusky,
[1:21:41] let's just say he is the worst sort of human being imaginable
[1:21:45] and won't see the light of day for the rest of his life.
[1:21:49] In 1998, Ray had reviewed A complaint against Sandusky but
[1:21:53] declined to press charges after Sandusky's crimes came to light.
[1:21:58] The coincidence that Ray had vanished in 2005 led to rampant
[1:22:03] speculation. Some theorists claimed that Ray
[1:22:07] might have been silenced by individuals who wanted to cover
[1:22:09] up the scandal, or, conversely, that an ashamed Ray might have
[1:22:13] disappeared due to regret. Still another theory suggests
[1:22:18] that perhaps a parent sought revenge for Ray's refusal to
[1:22:21] prosecute Sandusky. However, law enforcement
[1:22:25] agencies directly involved in Ray's case have consistently
[1:22:29] found no evidence linking his disappearance to the Sandusky
[1:22:32] matter. In absence of any real evidence,
[1:22:35] the Sandusky theory remains entirely in the realm of
[1:22:39] conjecture. Based on the evidence as it
[1:22:43] stands, it seems to me that the theory that he orchestrated his
[1:22:47] own demise is the most likely to be true.
[1:22:51] The fact that he disappeared under circumstances that were
[1:22:53] eerily similar to that of his brother is one point in favor of
[1:22:57] this. Further, the Internet searches
[1:23:01] on how to destroy evidence were presumptively his searches until
[1:23:06] proven otherwise. While I will admit that someone
[1:23:10] could have broken in and placed these searches on his computer
[1:23:12] prior to his disappearance, there was no evidence of a break
[1:23:16] in whatsoever. I'd also like to add that if
[1:23:19] this was part of a broader conspiracy, I suspect someone
[1:23:23] who broke in would have placed much more direct search queries,
[1:23:28] if you catch my drift. Further, I suspect that Ray
[1:23:32] Grekar, being a prosecutor, would be more attuned to
[1:23:36] operational security than the average person.
[1:23:40] I also find the fact that he was about to retire potentially a
[1:23:43] significant point in favor of this theory.
[1:23:46] Ray Grekar was a man who was known to take his work laptop
[1:23:49] with him on his off days. He had a job that many people
[1:23:53] strive for and dream about, and this was all coming to an end.
[1:23:58] It's possible that this caused him more mental anguish than he
[1:24:02] led on to his friends and family members.
[1:24:05] And of course, it's necessary to say that just because someone
[1:24:08] appears happy to their friends and family doesn't necessarily
[1:24:11] mean much. After all, nobody knows exactly
[1:24:15] what a person is feeling inside their own head.
[1:24:22] On the morning of October 29th, 2004, a shocking scene unfolded
[1:24:27] at Wembley Point, a 21 story triangular office tower in
[1:24:31] northwest London. Office workers arriving for the
[1:24:34] day watched in horror as a young woman in the top floor cafeteria
[1:24:39] suddenly climbed onto a table, opened a window and leapt out.
[1:24:45] Her body was recovered shortly after 9:00 AM from the shallow
[1:24:49] River Brent at the base of the tower.
[1:24:52] Police quickly determined that the woman had fallen from the
[1:24:55] 21st floor and that her death was voluntary with no immediate
[1:25:00] evidence of foul play. Yet in the aftermath, 1
[1:25:04] perplexing fact would haunt investigators.
[1:25:07] Nobody knew who this well dressed, tragic jumper was.
[1:25:12] The unidentified woman appeared to be between 20 and 40 years
[1:25:16] old, of either African or Afro Caribbean descent, and stood
[1:25:20] around 5 foot 3. Witnesses described her as
[1:25:24] petite and well groomed, wearing layers of neat clothing on that
[1:25:28] brisk autumn morning. She wore a maroon zip up bomber
[1:25:32] jacket over a crew neck sweater and a thin black turtleneck,
[1:25:36] along with black pants, tights and a pair of black Skechers
[1:25:40] shoes on her fingers. She had two distinctive rings,
[1:25:44] one shaped like a cowry shell and a simple silver watch on her
[1:25:48] wrist. Investigators found no
[1:25:51] identification on the woman's body, no wallet, no phone, no
[1:25:57] cards or keys. This absence of ID combined with
[1:26:03] the traumatic manner of death posed an immediate challenge.
[1:26:08] Metropolitan Police officers treated the case as a non
[1:26:11] suspicious death, which unfortunately meant fewer
[1:26:14] resources were devoted to uncovering her identity.
[1:26:18] Officers recorded the basics, documenting the woman's
[1:26:22] description, her fingerprints and DNA in hopes she would
[1:26:26] perhaps be easy to identify. Early on, they also checked
[1:26:30] missing persons reports for any one of her description.
[1:26:34] But in 2004, with limited DNA technology and no immediate
[1:26:39] matches in police databases, those efforts yielded nothing
[1:26:43] conclusive. With no obvious signs of a
[1:26:46] crime, the investigation stalled quickly.
[1:26:50] The mystery woman's few possessions provided tantalizing
[1:26:53] clues, but also deepened the puzzle.
[1:26:57] On the table in the 21st floor cafe where she had sat, she left
[1:27:01] an assortment of items, some usual but one highly unusual.
[1:27:07] Those items were £5 in cash, an empty 10 pack of Marlboros, a
[1:27:13] black plastic bag, a Guardian newspaper and, most strikingly,
[1:27:18] A2 foot by 1 foot oil painting. If you're just listening, I put
[1:27:23] the painting up on the screen now and it looks a bit unusual
[1:27:27] and even slightly creepy to my eyes.
[1:27:31] That said, I'm not sure if that's because I knew the
[1:27:33] context of when and where it was found prior to seeing it, but
[1:27:37] I'll come back to this painting in a moment.
[1:27:40] Not a single item on the table bore her name or any personal
[1:27:44] detail. The seven day bus pass found
[1:27:47] among her things proved to be one of the most significant
[1:27:50] pieces of evidence. It had been issued just three
[1:27:54] days earlier, on Tuesday October 26th, 2004 at 7 O 7:00 AM from a
[1:28:01] ticket vendor on Seven Sisters Road in North London.
[1:28:05] This suggested she had travelled roughly 10 miles across the
[1:28:08] city, heading from the Seven Sisters area to Wembley,
[1:28:12] possibly as part of a regular route she took.
[1:28:16] The pass still had two days remaining on it, potentially
[1:28:19] implying she originally intended to continue using it through the
[1:28:23] end of that week. The oil painting left at her
[1:28:26] cafe table was perhaps the strangest clue of all.
[1:28:30] Described as a mostly abstract scene with bold tribal style
[1:28:34] patterns, the artwork depicts what looked like dancing or
[1:28:38] falling figures and a large, blank white, faceless shape in
[1:28:42] the center. Hauntingly, it's as if the
[1:28:45] painting itself symbolizes an unknown identity.
[1:28:50] Police circulated images of the distinctive painting, hoping
[1:28:53] someone might recognize it. Some speculated it was created
[1:28:58] by the woman herself or came from a local artist, but its
[1:29:02] origin remains unknown. The presence of the painting led
[1:29:06] to much speculation. Why would someone intent on
[1:29:10] ending herself carry a canvas with her to an office tower?
[1:29:14] One theory was that Wembley Point occasionally hosted art
[1:29:17] exhibitions, so maybe she was an artist familiar with the venue.
[1:29:22] This possibility, while unconfirmed, could explain how
[1:29:26] she knew there was a cafe on the top floor open to the public.
[1:29:30] Indeed, Co workers in the building noted that the 21st
[1:29:34] floor restaurant wasn't widely advertised outside, yet the
[1:29:38] woman found her way there with apparent ease.
[1:29:42] Witness accounts from that morning added a few more details
[1:29:45] about the woman's final moments. Two people who rode the elevator
[1:29:49] with her up to the 21st floor recalled that she looked
[1:29:53] intensely distressed. 1 even tried to lighten the mood by
[1:29:57] saying something like Cheer up, love.
[1:30:00] It might never happen as they ascended, but the woman remained
[1:30:05] silent and miserable. In the cafe, she bought a coffee
[1:30:10] and smoked a cigarette quietly by a window, leafing through
[1:30:14] that day's Guardian newspaper. Nothing about her behaviour
[1:30:18] overtly drew alarm until the very moment she jumped.
[1:30:23] The suddenness of her act left bystanders in shock.
[1:30:27] One cafe patron only feet away later described seeing the
[1:30:31] window left ajar and the woman simply gone in an instant.
[1:30:36] Those who witnessed the tragedy did not recognize the woman as a
[1:30:40] colleague or friend. In the hours and days following
[1:30:44] the death, no immediate leads emerged.
[1:30:47] No missing person report matching her description was
[1:30:50] filed either before or after October 29th, 2004.
[1:30:57] This LED people to start asking hard questions about what had
[1:31:00] happened. How could a woman seemingly in
[1:31:03] her 20s or 30s, with a job as implied by her attire and bus
[1:31:07] pass and presumably acquaintances, vanish from life
[1:31:12] without anyone reporting her missing?
[1:31:14] The lack of an ID and the absence of obvious family or
[1:31:18] friends coming forward meant the case quickly went cold.
[1:31:23] After a coroner's inquest confirmed the cause of death as
[1:31:26] self-inflicted by jumping, the unknown woman was eventually
[1:31:29] laid to rest with only a number marking her grave.
[1:31:34] For over a decade, the Wembley Point woman case saw little
[1:31:38] public progress. However, the mystery was never
[1:31:42] completely forgotten. Occasional media stories
[1:31:45] appeared about unidentified people and this young woman's
[1:31:49] death in a busy London office tower stood out as particularly
[1:31:52] baffling. Around 2018, a team of volunteer
[1:31:57] investigators and a charity called Locate International took
[1:32:01] a special interest in the case. These volunteers, including
[1:32:05] former police, researchers and concerned citizens, began re
[1:32:09] examining the evidence with fresh eyes.
[1:32:12] They combed through records, scoured the Internet for any
[1:32:15] mention of a missing person fitting the woman's profile, and
[1:32:19] even tracked down former Wembley Point workers to interview.
[1:32:24] More significant developments finally began to emerge in the
[1:32:27] early twenty 20s. In July 2021, an appeal was
[1:32:32] launched focusing on the mysterious oil painting Locate
[1:32:36] International, and police publicized the painting's image
[1:32:39] to art communities, hoping an artist or gallery might
[1:32:42] recognize its style. Then in October 2022, around the
[1:32:48] 18th anniversary of the death, London media picked up the story
[1:32:52] once again. A new lifelike composite image
[1:32:56] of the Wembley Point woman was released to the public, showing
[1:32:59] a young black woman with short dark hair and a calm expression.
[1:33:04] In late 20242 decades after the woman's death, investigators
[1:33:09] revealed new information that had surfaced, accompanied by
[1:33:13] another public appeal. According to Locate
[1:33:16] International, a witness came forward to report a crucial
[1:33:20] conversation. This man claimed that about two
[1:33:23] weeks before the incident, he had met a woman matching the
[1:33:26] Wembley Point woman's description near the office
[1:33:29] building and chatted with her. She appeared deeply upset and
[1:33:33] confided that she was distraught over her boyfriend's health
[1:33:36] problems, implying she was caring for a partner who was
[1:33:39] seriously ill. If true, it indicates the woman
[1:33:44] had a personal relationship and perhaps a caregiver role,
[1:33:48] suggesting there may be a boyfriend or his family out
[1:33:52] there who knew her. Authorities have appealed for
[1:33:56] that unknown boyfriend or anyone who might recall a friend's I'll
[1:33:59] partner around 2004 to step forward.
[1:34:05] Another line of speculation focuses on the woman's
[1:34:08] background and community ties. Public tips have repeatedly
[1:34:12] suggested she might have been connected to community or arts
[1:34:15] centers around the Seven Sisters neighborhood. 1 Tip mentioned
[1:34:20] the Chestnuts Community Center, which in the early 2000s hosted
[1:34:24] programs for West African immigrants and asylum seekers.
[1:34:28] The idea, which remains unverified, is that she could
[1:34:33] have been an asylum seeker from West Africa who had relatively
[1:34:37] few contacts in London. This theory might also account
[1:34:41] for why loved ones abroad wouldn't know where to begin
[1:34:44] looking if she went missing in the UK.
[1:34:47] Similarly, the cowry shell ring she wore is a style often
[1:34:51] associated with femininity and fertility in some African
[1:34:54] cultures. This has led to speculation that
[1:34:58] she may have faced personal challenges like a longing for
[1:35:02] children, or that she may have lost a child.
[1:35:07] At the end of the day, though, everything with this unknown
[1:35:10] woman remains almost entirely speculative.
[1:35:15] Given the distinct painting she was found with, I suspect the
[1:35:19] best chance of identifying her is if someone comes forward who
[1:35:23] recognizes the painting. This may be the one break in the
[1:35:27] case required for all the other evidence to fall into place and
[1:35:32] for the case to be solved. Alternatively, there's also the
[1:35:36] possibility of familial DNA technology being used to connect
[1:35:41] her to her relatives. However, if she was a W African
[1:35:45] asylum seeker with no family in the UK, this vastly reduces the
[1:35:49] chances of this being an effective investigative method
[1:35:52] at present. Albert Kite was always punctual,
[1:35:57] so when he didn't show up for work on Monday May 24th 2004,
[1:36:01] his colleagues knew something was definitely wrong.
[1:36:05] That afternoon, police arrived at his quiet Aurora, Co
[1:36:09] townhouse to perform a welfare check and discovered a basement
[1:36:13] of horrors beyond human comprehension.
[1:36:18] The 53 year old lay deceased face down on the floor and all
[1:36:22] evidence indicated he had been subjected to unimaginable acts
[1:36:26] for hours. This was the start of a chilling
[1:36:29] unsolved mystery that haunts Aurora to this day.
[1:36:34] Al had been a hard working man with a comfortable life.
[1:36:38] He was known for his kind, helpful nature among friends and
[1:36:41] Co workers. By 2004, the 53 year old was
[1:36:46] looking forward to a new chapter.
[1:36:49] He had recently begun A promising relationship with a
[1:36:51] woman named Linda and he was searching for a new roommate to
[1:36:55] rent his basement apartment. Nothing in his life foreshadowed
[1:36:59] the terror that was about to be unleashed.
[1:37:02] He soon found an eager applicant for the vacant room.
[1:37:06] On May 19th, 2004, a man calling himself Robert Cooper responded
[1:37:11] to AL's newspaper ad, claiming he had just moved from the East
[1:37:15] Coast for a job with Wells Fargo.
[1:37:18] The man met Al in person, paid a security deposit and half a
[1:37:22] month's rent up front, and received a house key.
[1:37:25] It all seemed like a routine rental arrangement.
[1:37:28] During one visit, AL's girlfriend Linda was at the
[1:37:31] house, but the prospective renter slipped away before Linda
[1:37:35] could get a good look at him. She did notice he appeared
[1:37:40] middle-aged with dark hair and walked with a limp using a cane.
[1:37:45] Still, everything about Robert Cooper seemed normal enough and
[1:37:50] Al was glad to have a new tenant lined up.
[1:37:53] He had no idea that he was letting one of the most depraved
[1:37:56] predators possible into his home.
[1:38:00] Unbeknownst to AL, Robert Cooper had approached several other
[1:38:03] landlords in the area that same week, each time presenting a
[1:38:07] slightly different persona. One landlord recalled a man of a
[1:38:11] similar age with no limp in an Eastern European accent.
[1:38:16] Another remembered an older man who walked with a cane and spoke
[1:38:19] without an accent. Neighbors of Al later reported
[1:38:22] similarly strange encounters with the new tenant.
[1:38:26] One neighbor's greeting was ignored entirely and another saw
[1:38:29] the man on a walking trail moving without any limp at all.
[1:38:33] It was as if he were a chameleon, altering his age,
[1:38:37] accent and behavior to deflect suspicion.
[1:38:43] Saturday, May 22nd, 2004 began normally for Al.
[1:38:48] That morning he drove Linda to the airport for a week long
[1:38:51] trip. After seeing her off, he spent
[1:38:53] the day doing household chores. Around 3:30 PM, when Linda's
[1:38:58] flight landed, she called Al and found him in good spirits.
[1:39:03] He said he had just finished fixing a leaky pipe in his
[1:39:06] basement. With a neighbor's help.
[1:39:08] They wished each other a nice weekend, anticipating that they
[1:39:11] would be reunited soon. Tragically, that brief phone
[1:39:16] call was the last time anyone is known to have spoken to Al
[1:39:20] Sometime over the next two days, the man calling himself Robert
[1:39:23] Cooper returned to AL's home to carry out his cruel plan.
[1:39:30] On Monday morning, May 24th, AL's absence at work set off
[1:39:34] alarms. Concerned Co workers contacted
[1:39:38] his sister and Aurora police were dispatched to check on him.
[1:39:42] Officers arrived to find no answer at the door.
[1:39:46] After entering the house, they discovered AL's lifeless body on
[1:39:50] the basement floor. I don't generally get into the
[1:39:53] gruesome details for cases like this, but let's just say the
[1:39:57] level of violence visited upon Al might make a medieval
[1:40:01] inquisitor nauseous. The perpetrator had gone to
[1:40:06] great lengths to cover his tracks, several of AL's own
[1:40:10] kitchen knives, a glass and even the key that this so-called
[1:40:14] Robert Cooper had been given. Were found soaking in a bleach
[1:40:18] filled sink as if to destroy fingerprints and DNA.
[1:40:23] The house had been wiped down with bleach and bleach had been
[1:40:26] dumped down all the drains. In an effort to wash away any
[1:40:29] trace evidence before fleeing, the perpetrator stole AL's
[1:40:34] wallet, cell phone and pickup truck.
[1:40:37] Early on Sunday. The suspect was caught on an ATM
[1:40:41] camera wearing a ski mask and gloves, withdrawing about 1000
[1:40:45] bucks using AL's debit card. He then abandoned AL's truck a
[1:40:50] few blocks away and discarded the stolen cell phone in a pay
[1:40:53] phone booth. In a final act of caution, the
[1:40:57] perpetrator even took out AL's trash, presumably just in case
[1:41:02] any trace elements of his existence from the previous
[1:41:04] visits were found within. With the crime scene secured,
[1:41:10] detectives focused on the mysterious renter as the prime
[1:41:13] suspect. Tracking him down, however,
[1:41:17] proved nearly impossible. The rental application Robert
[1:41:20] Cooper had filled out was completely fraudulent.
[1:41:24] The name was an alias. The listed address was a
[1:41:27] building at a local campus, not a residence.
[1:41:31] The Social Security number belonged to an elderly woman in
[1:41:34] another state and the reference phone number was for a
[1:41:37] retirement home. Everything was bogus information
[1:41:41] and unfortunately Al being a trusting and honest guy, clearly
[1:41:46] just went with his gut feeling. Investigators also discovered
[1:41:52] that the phone Cooper used to contact Al was a prepaid burner
[1:41:56] phone bought 2 months earlier and activated about 30 days
[1:41:59] after purchase. By waiting a month to activate
[1:42:02] it, the suspect ensured the store's surveillance footage of
[1:42:06] the phone purchase had been deleted, leaving police no video
[1:42:10] of him buying it. This level of pre planning
[1:42:13] astonished detectives at every turn.
[1:42:16] The perpetrator had anticipated how to obscure his trail.
[1:42:21] Despite the perpetrators precautions, police did obtain a
[1:42:24] sample of his DNA from that drop of blood on the stairs.
[1:42:29] Frustratingly, when they ran the profile through national
[1:42:32] databases, it matched no known offender.
[1:42:37] The case had turned into a baffling whodunit, a shape
[1:42:41] shifting suspect who vanished without a trace, leaving only an
[1:42:45] alias and an unknown DNA profile behind.
[1:42:51] Piercing together, witness accounts gave investigators A
[1:42:54] hazy picture of who Robert Cooper was, at least in terms of
[1:42:58] physical appearance. Notably, the descriptions of the
[1:43:01] man were quite generic, for lack of a better term.
[1:43:05] By most descriptions, he was a white male of average height
[1:43:08] with a medium build and medium brown to dark brown hair.
[1:43:12] Witnesses placed him somewhere between his late 30s and 50s and
[1:43:17] noted that his appearance and behavior could change.
[1:43:21] Some recalled A slight Eastern European accent and that he
[1:43:25] walked with a limp aided by a cane, while others remembered no
[1:43:29] accent and no limp at all. Clearly, the suspect was adept
[1:43:34] at deception, altering his persona to avoid leaving any
[1:43:37] consistent impression. Investigators even consulted
[1:43:41] experts for insights, and the knots used to bind Al were so
[1:43:45] precise that one expert theorized the perpetrator might
[1:43:48] have had military or nautical training.
[1:43:53] Notably, the perpetrator also conducted a form of foot
[1:43:56] whipping which is popular in the Old World but almost entirely
[1:44:00] unknown in the States. This technique can leave someone
[1:44:03] with a permanent, pronounced limp.
[1:44:06] Further, it's a technique which is still commonly used in
[1:44:09] Russian prisons. Combined with the Eastern
[1:44:12] European accent and the occasional limp, I have to
[1:44:16] speculate whether Robert Cooper may have experienced a similar
[1:44:19] technique used on him, or perhaps, given the extreme
[1:44:24] lengths he took to cover his tracks, he knew how to feign the
[1:44:28] symptoms of undergoing foot whipping.
[1:44:30] Anyway, let's get back to the investigation for the moment,
[1:44:34] but I'll have more to say about my own personal theories on this
[1:44:37] disturbing case shortly. Perhaps unsurprisingly,
[1:44:43] detectives also struggled to identify anything approaching a
[1:44:47] motive in this case. The brutality suggested deep
[1:44:50] anger or a personal vendetta, yet they found no one in AL's
[1:44:54] life who had a reason to hurt him.
[1:44:57] While the perpetrator did take some money, the ferocity of the
[1:45:01] attack far exceeded a typical robbery.
[1:45:04] Investigators came to believe that the true motive was the
[1:45:07] thrill of the ACT itself. According to investigators, this
[1:45:11] was likely an opportunistic predator who selected Al simply
[1:45:15] to satisfy a craving for violence.
[1:45:18] They believed that he would have done this to any person who had
[1:45:21] agreed to rent A room to him and handed over the keys.
[1:45:25] Al just happened to be the unlucky person who went through
[1:45:28] with the deal. Over the years, various theories
[1:45:33] have emerged about who Robert Cooper really was.
[1:45:38] Some suspect he was a professional hitman or ex
[1:45:41] military operative, given his discipline and meticulous
[1:45:44] planning. Others theorize an international
[1:45:48] connection, noting the unusual foot whipping method and hints
[1:45:52] of an Eastern European background.
[1:45:55] Another view is that he was an uncaught serial predator who had
[1:45:59] honed his skills on other victims in favor of this.
[1:46:03] The way he canvassed multiple rental homes suggests a predator
[1:46:07] searching for the perfect target.
[1:46:11] Even though the trail is cold, the case remains open.
[1:46:16] Investigators have also turned to new technology in hopes of
[1:46:19] finally unmasking the perpetrator.
[1:46:23] In 2017, Aurora police released adna based composite image of
[1:46:29] the suspect, showing what he might have looked like at
[1:46:32] various stages in life. Notably, he presented himself as
[1:46:36] various ages to the people he met, so his exact age is
[1:46:40] unknown. The DNA analysis suggested the
[1:46:44] suspect had fair skin and European ancestry, consistent
[1:46:48] with witness impressions. Unfortunately, the specifics of
[1:46:52] his European ancestry haven't been publicly released, though I
[1:46:56] suspect that this is because this is an active and ongoing
[1:46:59] investigation. The authorities have retained A
[1:47:04] genetic genealogy company in relation to this crime and may
[1:47:08] currently be working on building out his family tree.
[1:47:12] One theory I've considered is that the drop of blood found at
[1:47:15] the crime scene wasn't accidental at all, but
[1:47:18] intentionally placed there by the perp as a red herring.
[1:47:22] Given the extremely meticulous nature of the crime, leaving
[1:47:25] behind a single drop of blood feels strangely inconsistent.
[1:47:31] It's plausible Robert Cooper planted this blood knowing
[1:47:34] authorities would latch onto it as a definitive clue.
[1:47:38] By introducing DNA from someone entirely unrelated, he could
[1:47:42] have effectively diverted the investigation down a false path.
[1:47:47] Authorities have been relying heavily on this DNA sample to
[1:47:50] identify their suspect, confident it's the key to
[1:47:54] solving the case. It's unsettling to consider, but
[1:47:58] entirely possible that this small drop of blood was yet
[1:48:03] another trick played by this chameleon predator.
[1:48:08] While I clearly find this theory compelling, it does have its
[1:48:12] weaknesses. Transporting someone else's
[1:48:15] blood without contaminating it with your own DNA is a risk.
[1:48:19] The smallest mistake could result in a mixed sample, which
[1:48:23] would raise immediate red flags for investigators.
[1:48:26] Sourcing the blood is another major hurdle.
[1:48:29] Unless the perpetrator had access to medical waste,
[1:48:32] vulnerable individuals, or illicit sources, obtaining A
[1:48:36] viable and uncontaminated sample would be logistically complex
[1:48:40] and risky. I feel I'm also obliged to
[1:48:44] mention Occam's razor here. The simplest and most likely
[1:48:47] explanation is that the perpetrator was injured during
[1:48:51] the attack and unknowingly left a trace behind.
[1:48:55] That said, I'm not sure to what degree Occam's Razor can be
[1:48:59] applied to this case due to the fact that we know Robert Cooper
[1:49:03] engaged in multiple layers of deception in a quote UN quote
[1:49:08] normal case. Mentioning that the unknown DNA
[1:49:11] profile found at the scene could be from someone else would
[1:49:15] basically be absurd. But the slaying of Alkyte by
[1:49:18] this unknown sinister figure is no normal case.
[1:49:22] Not even close. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here.
[1:49:29] Just shouting out all my subscribers, members and
[1:49:31] patrons. Also got to take a moment to
[1:49:34] plug Lazy Chill True Crime, which is available on YouTube
[1:49:37] itself or in audio form as a podcast.
[1:49:41] Just search up Lazy Chill True Crime on YouTube or wherever you
[1:49:45] get your podcasts. In June 19, 7618 year old David
[1:49:53] Stack set out to hitchhike from Broomfield, Co to California.
[1:49:57] He was a recent High School graduate with a free spirited,
[1:50:01] adventurous personality and a knack for making friends
[1:50:04] wherever he went. David came from a large family
[1:50:08] and hoped to visit his siblings in Northern California,
[1:50:11] including a brother who worked as a Carpenter there.
[1:50:15] With little money on hand, he chose to hitch rides across the
[1:50:18] West, a common practice in the 1970s when many people saw
[1:50:23] hitchhiking as a relatively Safeway to travel.
[1:50:27] Of course, as we know now, this once common practice ended up
[1:50:31] being exploited by predators. On June 1st, 1976, David
[1:50:38] departed with a backpack, optimistic about the road ahead.
[1:50:42] As the weeks passed, with no word from David, his family grew
[1:50:46] deeply concerned. His relatives in California
[1:50:50] confirmed that he never arrived, and at first, his parents and
[1:50:54] siblings tried to remain hopeful.
[1:50:57] They wondered if David might have changed plans, gone on a
[1:51:00] side adventure, or simply taken longer than expected.
[1:51:05] But by Midsummer, it was very clear that something was very
[1:51:07] wrong. Unbeknownst to his loved ones,
[1:51:12] David's journey had come to a tragic end in Utah.
[1:51:17] On June 10th, 1976, a worker at a landfill near Wendover on the
[1:51:22] border with Nevada discovered the body of a young man.
[1:51:27] Authorities in Toole County responded and began
[1:51:29] investigating the death. The victim was a white male,
[1:51:33] around 17 to 20 years old, with shoulder length brown hair and
[1:51:37] brown eyes. He wore a tan shirt, patched
[1:51:41] blue jeans, and a black belt, but he had no identification on
[1:51:45] him. The medical examiner noted the
[1:51:49] young man's build and features, including a small scar on his
[1:51:53] forehead and a slight deformity in one toe.
[1:51:57] For investigators at the time, however, none of these clues
[1:52:00] were enough to reveal the young man's name.
[1:52:03] In hindsight, those details would later line up with David
[1:52:06] Stack's description. The autopsy revealed he met a
[1:52:10] violent end, with two bullet holes noted in the John Doe's
[1:52:14] skull. Investigators kept the specific
[1:52:17] detail of the wounds secret from the public, a strategy often
[1:52:21] used to filter out false leads. They announced only that a John
[1:52:26] Doe had been found slain near Wendover.
[1:52:30] Police canvassed the area and learned that a hitchhiker
[1:52:33] resembling the victim was reportedly seen in town on June
[1:52:36] 9th, the day before the body was found.
[1:52:40] It appeared that David made it that far West, likely catching
[1:52:44] rides along Interstate 80. But somewhere near the Utah
[1:52:48] Nevada border, he met a deadly fate.
[1:52:52] Initial efforts to identify the slain teenager were
[1:52:55] unsuccessful. In the 1970s, there were no
[1:52:59] national databases linking missing persons with
[1:53:01] unidentified remains. Despite being in the next state
[1:53:06] over, the description of the John Doe in Utah never made its
[1:53:10] way to authorities in Colorado at the time, so nobody connected
[1:53:14] the dots. With no name and no suspects,
[1:53:18] the investigation stalled. The unknown young man was buried
[1:53:22] in a pauper's grave in Toole County, and the case went cold.
[1:53:28] For decades, David Stack's family endured the pain of not
[1:53:32] knowing what happened to him. His parents and siblings never
[1:53:36] stopped wondering if he might be alive somewhere.
[1:53:39] Year after year, they held out hope, and David's mother passed
[1:53:43] away in 2011, still believing her son could return one day.
[1:53:48] The family's search was made harder by the fact that David's
[1:53:51] case had no leads whatsoever. He was simply last seen heading
[1:53:55] West, and then he vanished. The Colorado Bureau of
[1:53:59] Investigation kept his case on file, and the family continued
[1:54:03] to publicize his story in hopes of a lead, but nothing surfaced.
[1:54:09] Over the years, information about David's disappearance
[1:54:13] slowly made its way into various police files and missing persons
[1:54:17] networks. Likewise, the unidentified Toole
[1:54:20] County John Doe case remained on file in Utah, though without
[1:54:25] anyone to advocate for him in that capacity, this case
[1:54:29] received little attention. In 2010, the unidentified
[1:54:36] victims details were entered into the Name US Database, a
[1:54:40] centralized repository designed to match missing people with
[1:54:43] unknown remains across the country.
[1:54:46] This was and remains a game changer that can connect cases
[1:54:50] with just a few keystrokes, something that had been
[1:54:53] virtually unimaginable in the 1970s.
[1:54:56] It would prove crucial, but the pieces didn't fall into place
[1:55:00] immediately. In 2014, two cold case
[1:55:06] detectives in Utah revisited the old John Doe file and used Name
[1:55:11] US to search for potential matches.
[1:55:14] David Stack's profile surfaced. He was the right age, had
[1:55:18] vanished in 1976 while hitchhiking, and his physical
[1:55:22] description was similar to the unknown victim.
[1:55:25] Investigators compared dental records from the John Doe with
[1:55:29] David's dental records that were on file.
[1:55:32] The similarities were striking enough that in May 2015, the
[1:55:36] authorities exhumed the unknown body from its grave to obtain
[1:55:40] DNA samples. David's siblings provided their
[1:55:44] DNA for comparison as well. After a few weeks of analysis,
[1:55:49] the results confirmed what detectives had strongly
[1:55:51] suspected. In August 2015, authorities
[1:55:56] publicly announced that the John Doe found in Utah back in 1976
[1:56:02] was indeed David Stack. Nearly 39 years after his death,
[1:56:08] David finally got his name back, and these two previously
[1:56:11] unconnected cases fully intersected.
[1:56:16] The news brought a mix of heartbreak and closure to his
[1:56:19] family. They were devastated to finally
[1:56:22] have confirmation of the painful fate they had long feared.
[1:56:26] Still, they were grateful to at least know the truth and to be
[1:56:30] able to reclaim David's remains for a proper burial.
[1:56:35] His body was returned to his family, and he was finally laid
[1:56:39] to rest under his own name. With David's identity
[1:56:44] established, the case was officially reopened in 2015.
[1:56:49] Investigators now had new avenues to explore, and they
[1:56:52] could attempt to retrace David's path.
[1:56:54] They could connect the two files and try to find witnesses who
[1:56:58] might remember seeing him or recall any suspicious
[1:57:01] individuals on the road that summer.
[1:57:04] The challenge, however, was enormous given the passage of
[1:57:08] time, and as of now, it appears that no further meaningful leads
[1:57:12] have ever been found in this matter.
[1:57:15] No perpetrator has ever been publicly identified, and the
[1:57:19] motive for this brutal attack remains entirely unknown.
[1:57:24] There are several theories about what might have happened.
[1:57:27] The most likely scenario is that David accepted a ride from
[1:57:30] someone who then turned violent. It could have been a robbery or
[1:57:35] something much darker that ended in a slaying.
[1:57:39] Unfortunately, these sorts of predators like to target young
[1:57:42] hitchhikers during this time period.
[1:57:45] Some even speculate that he might have fallen victim to a
[1:57:48] serial predator who preyed on hitchhikers in that era.
[1:57:54] Perhaps just as disturbingly, it may well have been a solitary
[1:57:57] act of violence by a stranger passing through the area.
[1:58:01] Unfortunately, the final pieces of the puzzle for justice in
[1:58:04] David Stack's story remain out of reach.
[1:58:08] Given the lack of additional forensic evidence, it now
[1:58:12] appears that the best opportunity to truly resolve
[1:58:14] this case would be if someone remembers something they saw in
[1:58:18] 1976. Heather Sellers was a 20 year
[1:58:26] old woman living with family in Spartanburg, SC.
[1:58:30] She had some previous troubles with addiction, but according to
[1:58:33] her family, she had gotten her life together in the previous
[1:58:37] year. On September 24th, 2002,
[1:58:42] Heather's grandmother dropped her off for an evening shift at
[1:58:45] the Waffle House near Hwy. 9 and Interstate 85.
[1:58:50] Heather carried an overnight bag, planning to stay at her
[1:58:53] aunt's house after work. Tragically, she never made it
[1:58:57] home that night. After finishing work, Heather
[1:59:01] met up with her ex fiance, 22 year old Jonathan Vick.
[1:59:07] They had broken off their engagement just two weeks
[1:59:09] earlier, but we're still seeing each other despite the breakup.
[1:59:13] That evening, the 2 visited 2 local bars, a place called the
[1:59:18] Rainbow Lounge and another called Cocktails and Dreams.
[1:59:23] Those outings were the last confirmed sightings of Heather.
[1:59:27] She never returned to her aunts and she never showed up to
[1:59:30] collect her last paycheck at the Waffle House.
[1:59:35] Heather's family realized immediately that something was
[1:59:38] wrong when she failed to come home or call.
[1:59:41] Disappearing without a word was completely out of character for
[1:59:44] her. Heather was in regular touch
[1:59:46] with her relatives and wouldn't drop out of contact like that.
[1:59:50] Alarmed, her family reported her missing to the Spartanburg
[1:59:54] County Sheriff's Office and quickly mobilized to search.
[1:59:58] They contacted friends, drove along Heather's usual routes,
[2:00:02] and put up missing person Flyers around town.
[2:00:06] Despite these efforts, the early searches turned up nothing.
[2:00:09] No clues to what happened at all.
[2:00:14] From the start, Jonathan Victoria became the primary
[2:00:17] focus of the investigation. He was the last person known to
[2:00:21] have seen Heather alive, as witnesses had spotted them
[2:00:25] together on the night she disappeared.
[2:00:28] Heather and Victoria's relationship had been
[2:00:30] tumultuous, and she had confided to family that Victoria was
[2:00:34] abusive during their time together.
[2:00:37] Further, their breakup 2 weeks before had been extremely tense,
[2:00:41] and she advised her family that she was scared.
[2:00:46] Naturally, detectives questioned Victoria right away, and he
[2:00:50] denied any involvement and claimed he didn't know where
[2:00:52] Heather went that night. With no physical evidence in the
[2:00:56] early stages and no body, police couldn't charge him, but their
[2:01:02] suspicion remained. Investigators also considered
[2:01:06] other possibilities. For a time they looked at a
[2:01:10] potential connection to another missing woman in the area.
[2:01:14] One of Heather's Co workers at the Waffle House, 32 year old
[2:01:18] Michelle Whitaker, had vanished in August 2002, just a month
[2:01:23] before Heather. This coincidence raised fears of
[2:01:26] a serial predator and even speculation that Victoria might
[2:01:30] somehow be involved in both cases.
[2:01:34] However, in 2008, Whitaker was found alive and well.
[2:01:38] She had left the state voluntarily and was apparently
[2:01:41] unaware that people back home thought she was missing.
[2:01:47] In October 2005, three years after Heather vanished, A
[2:01:51] dramatic turn of events cast new suspicion on Victoria.
[2:01:55] That fall, Jonathan Vick was arrested and charged with an
[2:01:59] unrelated crime, the 1995 slaying of a local woman named
[2:02:04] Dana Satterfield. Satterfield, a 27 year old
[2:02:08] hairdresser, had been slain in her Roebuck, South Carolina
[2:02:12] beauty salon. In 2006, Victoria was convicted
[2:02:17] of that slaying and sentenced to life in prison.
[2:02:21] For Heather's loved ones and the authorities, this revelation was
[2:02:25] chilling. It confirmed that the man they
[2:02:28] suspected in her disappearance was undeniably capable of truly
[2:02:33] evil and heinous acts. Following Victoria's conviction,
[2:02:39] Spartanburg authorities revisited Heather's cold case in
[2:02:43] 2006. They discovered an abandoned car
[2:02:47] that had been registered to Victoria, and inside it, they
[2:02:50] found blood stains and a few strands of long blonde hair.
[2:02:55] Investigators indicated that this evidence was believed to
[2:02:58] belong to Heather, though it's unclear from the sources what
[2:03:02] forensic testing was done at that time.
[2:03:05] That said, it was the most significant clue yet,
[2:03:08] potentially suggesting that Heather met with foul play at
[2:03:12] the hands of Jonathan Vick. Even so, the evidence alone
[2:03:17] wasn't enough to bring charges. By way of reminder, the
[2:03:22] prosecution only gets one shot to prove their case beyond a
[2:03:25] reasonable doubt. The defense, on the other hand,
[2:03:29] has to prove absolutely nothing whatsoever.
[2:03:32] It may be helpful for their case to attempt to push back the
[2:03:35] evidence of the prosecution, but there are no reverse onuses
[2:03:39] placed upon the defendant in our legal system.
[2:03:45] The inherent problem with the blood stains in a hair strand
[2:03:48] being found in Vick's vehicle is that she had been his
[2:03:51] girlfriend. It doesn't take a brilliant
[2:03:53] defense attorney to see how a plausible, innocent explanation
[2:03:57] for the presence of these materials could exist.
[2:04:00] To complicate matters even further, strictly speaking, the
[2:04:04] only evidence that Heather is deceased is circumstantial.
[2:04:11] Notably, the authorities thought the same and emphasized that
[2:04:15] they couldn't move forward without more definitive proof.
[2:04:19] Today, Jonathan Vick remains the prime suspect in Heather Sellers
[2:04:23] disappearance. Nearly all signs point to him,
[2:04:27] from Heather's troubled history with Vic, to the fact he was
[2:04:31] last with her and the apparent traces of her blood in his
[2:04:35] vehicle. Alternative theories have been
[2:04:39] explored, but they seem less likely both to the authorities
[2:04:44] and to casual observers such as myself.
[2:04:47] Some have wondered if Heather might have simply left town due
[2:04:51] to her fear of Victoria, and simply didn't let anyone know so
[2:04:56] as to minimize any chance that she'd be tracked down.
[2:05:00] Theoretically, it's possible that she did this for the
[2:05:04] protection of the people around her as well, as Victoria was
[2:05:07] capable of extreme violence and had threatened her.
[2:05:12] She may have been worried that giving anyone her location could
[2:05:15] make those people targets for reprisals as well.
[2:05:19] However, this of course is just speculation and there's no
[2:05:22] evidence to indicate that this was the case.
[2:05:26] This narrative is also challenged by the fact that she
[2:05:28] could have come forward after Victoria was convicted, though
[2:05:32] perhaps she had established a new and separate identity by
[2:05:34] that point. Another theory revolves around
[2:05:40] Heather's history of substance use.
[2:05:42] While she was reported to be clean at the time of her
[2:05:45] disappearance, witnesses reported believing that she was
[2:05:49] under the influence on the night in question.
[2:05:52] This has LED some to believe that she may have suffered from
[2:05:55] an accidental overdose. As of 2025, the disappearance of
[2:06:01] Heather Sellers is still unsolved.
[2:06:04] If she's alive, Heather would be 42 years old today, though
[2:06:08] sadly, the consensus is that she almost certainly isn't.

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