# True Crime Cases So Chilling They Defy Logic | 259

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 19 Jun 2026, 50 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO6954239105.mp3

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## Transcript

[0:00] On a quiet Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2016, a young
[0:04] woman stepped out of her mother's home in Princeton, MA.
[0:08] She had planned to go for a walk along the wooded roads she'd
[0:11] known since childhood, but she never came back.
[0:15] Vanessa Marcotte, a 27 year old Google account manager living in
[0:19] New York City, was slain that day.
[0:23] What followed was an 8 month investigation, a painstaking
[0:27] manhunt, and a legal resolution that brought some measure of
[0:31] justice. Vanessa Marcotte was born on
[0:36] June 17th, 1989 in Leominster, MA, the only child of John and
[0:42] Rosanna Marcotte. She grew up in the Worcester
[0:46] County area, attended the Bancroft School in Worcester,
[0:49] and graduated with honors from Boston University in 2011.
[0:55] After college, Marcotte built her career in digital marketing,
[0:59] working at Wordstream, a Boston based online advertising
[1:03] startup, and then at Vistaprint. In January 2015, she landed what
[1:10] her family described as her dream job, an account manager
[1:14] position at Google's New York City office.
[1:18] Colleagues remembered her as warm and enthusiastic, known for
[1:22] her volunteer work and love of Boston sports.
[1:25] Outside the office, Marcotte devoted time to charitable
[1:28] causes, volunteering at food banks, tutoring high school
[1:32] students and supporting Boston Children's Hospital.
[1:38] Though she'd made her home in New York, Marcotte maintained
[1:41] deep ties to Massachusetts. She regularly visited her mother
[1:45] and aunt in Princeton, a quiet, small rural town of fewer than
[1:49] 4000 residents in Worcester County.
[1:52] It was a place that felt safe, where people walked the wooded
[1:56] roads without a second thought. That sense of security would be
[2:01] shattered on August 7th, 2016. On that Sunday afternoon,
[2:08] Marcotte left her mother's house on Brook Station Road.
[2:11] Sometime around one that afternoon, she was planning to
[2:14] walk before catching a commuter bus back to New York later that
[2:17] evening. According to witnesses, she
[2:20] stopped at the Mountainside Market on Hubbardston Road for a
[2:23] drink and was last seen alive walking while talking on her
[2:27] cell phone. Around 1:15, another witness
[2:30] reported seeing a vehicle following Marcotte on the road,
[2:34] turning around and then following her again.
[2:37] When several hours passed and Marcotte hadn't returned, her
[2:41] family called the police. Authorities launched an
[2:45] immediate search at approximately 8:15 that evening.
[2:49] Search teams with dogs discovered her body in a heavily
[2:52] wooded area off the road less than half a mile from her
[2:56] mother's house. Officials immediately classified
[3:00] the case as a slaying. Marcotte's body was unclothed,
[3:04] and she had burns to her face, hands and feet.
[3:10] An autopsy determined that the cause of death was
[3:12] strangulation. She had also suffered blunt
[3:15] force trauma to her head, including a fractured nose, as
[3:19] well as crushing injuries to her throat.
[3:22] Her clothing, cell phone and earbuds were missing and were
[3:26] never recovered, with the authorities believing that these
[3:29] had been taken as some sort of sick trophy by the attacker.
[3:34] Authorities determined that Marcotte had fought back
[3:36] fiercely. Cell phone data showed her phone
[3:39] was either shut off or disabled at 2:11 in the afternoon.
[3:44] Investigators believe that was likely close to the exact time
[3:47] of her death. In the days following the
[3:51] attack, investigators opened a 24 hour tip line and were
[3:55] flooded with more than 1300 tips from the public.
[3:59] Early on, authorities stated that Marcotte's attacker was a
[4:04] male who would likely have had scratches, cuts, and bruises on
[4:08] his face and arms. They didn't believe Marcotte
[4:11] knew the perpetrator, suspecting instead a completely random
[4:15] attack. By November 2016, investigators
[4:20] released a crucial detail. They were seeking information
[4:24] about a dark colored SUV seen parked on the road at the time
[4:28] and location of the killing. In February 2017, the Worcester
[4:34] County District Attorney revealed that DNA recovered from
[4:37] Marcotte's hands had been analyzed and a suspect profile
[4:41] created. Based on the evidence and
[4:44] witness descriptions, authorities identified the
[4:47] suspect as a Hispanic male in his late 20s to early 30s.
[4:52] He was believed to be of average height with an athletic build
[4:55] and short hair or a shaved head who either owned or had access
[4:59] to a dark colored SUV. The critical break came through
[5:04] an extremely lucky break combined with a very observant
[5:07] police officer. A trooper with the Massachusetts
[5:10] State Police Detective Unit spotted a driver in Worcester
[5:14] who matched the suspects description.
[5:17] He was also driving a dark SUV consistent with the vehicle that
[5:22] witnesses from the day of the attack had uniformly reported.
[5:28] The trooper wrote the license plate number on his hand and
[5:31] followed up the next day by visiting the driver's home.
[5:35] That driver was Angelo Colon Ortiz, a 31 year old Worcester
[5:40] man Cologne Ortiz provided ADNA sample which matched the DNA
[5:45] found on Marcotte's hands. He was arrested on April 14th,
[5:50] 2017 and arraigned 4 days later at Leominster District Court
[5:55] with bail set at $10 million. Angelo Colon Ortiz had been born
[6:01] in Puerto Rico and moved to Worcester only about a year
[6:04] before the attack. He had no prior criminal record,
[6:09] was married with three children, and worked as a delivery driver
[6:13] for a third party contractor that provided trucking services
[6:17] for FedEx. That job made him familiar with
[6:20] Princeton and the surrounding towns.
[6:23] Cell phone records confirmed he was in the area on the afternoon
[6:27] Vanessa was killed. Despite having no criminal
[6:31] history, accounts from people who knew Colin Ortiz painted a
[6:35] troubling picture. Neighbors in Worcester described
[6:38] him as someone who frequently made vulgar and inappropriate
[6:41] comments to people in the neighborhood.
[6:44] He also worked under the assumption that Spanish is a
[6:47] very rare language that no one else speaks.
[6:50] Colleagues reported that he would make disturbing comments
[6:53] in Spanish to them on the job, and that they would report him
[6:57] and pretend they weren't proficient in the language.
[7:00] Despite this, he kept working, and it seems like he was widely
[7:04] known to be something of a ticking time bomb.
[7:09] Angelo's defense lawyers must have realized that there was no
[7:12] chance of success on a substantive, factual basis going
[7:15] to trial, so they threw their Hail Mary pass.
[7:19] Colon Ortiz's defense team challenged the DNA evidence,
[7:23] arguing that a language barrier had prevented him from
[7:26] understanding his rights when he provided the sample.
[7:30] His attorneys claim police didn't send a trooper with
[7:33] adequate Spanish skills and failed to properly translate a
[7:36] consent form. In January 2022, a judge denied
[7:42] the motion to suppress the genetic evidence, allowing the
[7:45] case to proceed. Notably, Angelo was proficient
[7:49] enough to maintain employment in an English language setting,
[7:53] which shows you how little chance of success they had on
[7:55] this. On October 26th, 2022, more than
[8:01] six years after Vanessa Marcotte's death, Angelo
[8:05] appeared in Worcester Superior Court and pleaded guilty to all
[8:08] charges. The plea deal had been requested
[8:11] by the Marcotte family, who wanted to spare themselves the
[8:15] ordeal of a trial. Under the terms of the plea
[8:18] deal, he won't be eligible for parole until he's 81 years old.
[8:27] In the fall of 1987, Boise, ID was still, in many ways, a small
[8:32] town. Violent crime wasn't something
[8:35] most residents worried about, and the community along Vista
[8:39] Ave. knew its neighbors well. Among the most familiar faces in
[8:43] the Vista Village Shopping Center was 65 year old Joyce
[8:47] Casper, owner of Casper's Vista Hallmark and Gift Shop.
[8:52] She'd been a fixture in the area for years, running what had
[8:55] originally been a drug store with a soda fountain where local
[8:58] kids would stop in after school. Joyce was also well known for
[9:02] her tireless work ethic. She routinely stayed late at her
[9:06] shop, tidying and organizing after the doors closed at 9 each
[9:10] evening. It was a habit that made her
[9:13] predictable and tragically, deeply vulnerable to predators.
[9:19] In the weeks leading up to October 13th, 1987, something
[9:23] disturbing happened. Joyce reported to the Boise
[9:27] Police Department that a young man, whom she described as being
[9:30] in his early 20s, had attempted to assault her in the parking
[9:34] lot behind her store. Joyce didn't go down easily.
[9:39] She slapped the man across the face and he backed off just
[9:42] enough for her to get into her vehicle and drive away.
[9:46] Police investigated but couldn't identify the attacker, and the
[9:50] incident remained unresolved. Then came the early morning
[9:55] hours of October 13th. A passerby discovered Joyce's
[9:59] body inside her car near the intersection of Day Drive and
[10:03] Robert St. This was just a few 100 feet
[10:06] from her shop and close to a set of railroad tracks.
[10:10] Local news reported that the attack left the community
[10:13] stunned and without a suspect in custody.
[10:16] Fear spread extremely quickly. What followed was one of the
[10:21] most painstaking investigations in Boise Police Department
[10:24] history. Detectives from the Violent
[10:27] Crimes Unit and Special Victims Unit threw themselves into the
[10:30] case, ultimately investigating and eliminating approximately
[10:34] 150 suspects. They traveled to other states,
[10:39] worked overtime and lost sleep, but despite their efforts, there
[10:44] was little movement in the case. DNA testing was in its infancy
[10:49] in the late 1980s and wasn't yet viable for forensic purposes.
[10:53] Complicating matters even further.
[10:56] Further, there were no security cameras, no witnesses, and
[11:01] little physical evidence beyond biological material collected at
[11:04] the scene. Given the forensic technology at
[11:08] the time, the case ended up going cold, though the lead
[11:12] detective continued to advocate for new forensic techniques to
[11:15] be applied even after retiring. The case was formally
[11:21] reactivated in 2005, and in 2017, two new detectives began
[11:26] working on it full time. Using new forensic technology,
[11:31] they sent DNA collected from the original crime scene to a
[11:34] private forensics lab that could generate a physical profile from
[11:38] genetic material. The results indicated the
[11:41] suspect was a male of Latino descent, possibly of Puerto
[11:45] Rican or Colombian origin, with brown or Hazel eyes and dark
[11:50] hair. A computer generated composite
[11:53] was released to the public in October 2017, but it didn't
[11:57] produce leads. In 2019, the police again turned
[12:02] to a new technology, retaining A genetic genealogy company to
[12:07] attempt to identify a suspect. By the spring of 2023, the
[12:13] investigation had narrowed to a specific family in the Treasure
[12:16] Valley area. Detectives flew to Southern
[12:19] California to obtain DNA samples from the two sons of a man named
[12:24] Frank Rodriguez. Those samples were analyzed by
[12:27] the Idaho State Police forensic lab, and they confirmed a
[12:31] genetic match to the crime scene evidence.
[12:36] Frank Rodriguez had moved to Idaho from Massachusetts as a
[12:39] teenager and was living just a few blocks from Joyce's shop at
[12:42] the time of the attack. He would have been around 17
[12:46] years old in October 1987, loosely fitting the age range
[12:50] and physical description Joyce had given police after the
[12:53] earlier assault attempt. Investigators came to believe
[12:57] that Rodriguez was likely the same man who'd tried to attack
[13:00] Joyce weeks before her death. They believed that it may have
[13:04] been an act of retaliation after she fought him off in the
[13:08] previous attack. Police described Frank as
[13:12] severely mentally ill with what they characterized as a rage
[13:15] component. His Idaho criminal record
[13:18] included a 1995 aggravated battery conviction, amongst
[13:22] other charges. Unfortunately, though, Rodriguez
[13:28] would never face justice for the horrific crime against Joyce.
[13:32] In 2007, for reasons which aren't fully understood,
[13:36] Rodriguez decided to pull the curtains on his life, taking his
[13:40] secrets with him to the grave. Investigators also noted that
[13:44] given the nature of the crime, they found it difficult to
[13:48] believe this was Rodriguez's only serious offense.
[13:52] Law enforcement agencies across the country began reviewing
[13:55] unsolved cases for possible connections, but as of yet,
[14:00] there have been no other cases identified.
[14:04] For the Casper family, they'd finally reached the end of a
[14:08] story they'd been waiting decades to finish, but it was
[14:11] bittersweet since the man responsible would never be held
[14:14] accountable. Still, as one of her surviving
[14:17] children put it, knowing for certain what happened brought a
[14:20] sense of relief that had eluded them for most of their adult
[14:24] lives. In the early morning hours of
[14:28] October 1st, 1974, a 21 year old man named Daniel Walker pulled
[14:34] his Volkswagen van off Interstate 40, roughly 60 miles
[14:38] West of Needles, CA. He was crossing the Mojave
[14:42] Desert and he'd picked up a hitchhiker earlier that evening
[14:45] near Cajon Pass. The young passenger, 18 year old
[14:50] Ken Robinson, needed a ride to Texas, and Daniel had apparently
[14:55] altered his route out of California to help him get
[14:57] there. It was a simple act of
[15:00] generosity from a man who, by all accounts, was known for
[15:04] exactly that kind of thing. The newspaper headlines that
[15:08] followed his death would note that he was always doing favors
[15:12] for people, and this particular favor would be his last.
[15:17] But if you're expecting this to be the usual story of a Good
[15:20] Samaritan meeting a dark fate at the hands of a hitchhiker, think
[15:24] again. Daniel parked the van along the
[15:28] shoulder of the Interstate so they could both get some sleep.
[15:32] Robinson settled into the back, shielded by Daniel's belongings
[15:36] and gear. At approximately 6:00 in the
[15:39] morning, Daniel was jolted awake by a stranger.
[15:43] Before he could make sense of what was happening, the intruder
[15:46] shot him multiple times. According to the account later
[15:50] pieced together by investigators, Daniel begged for
[15:53] his life during the attack. Robinson, hidden among the cargo
[15:58] in the rear of the van, wasn't noticed by the attacker.
[16:03] He managed to escape after the gunman fled, eventually flagging
[16:07] down a passing motorist and calling for help.
[16:10] First responders transported Daniel to a local hospital, but
[16:14] his injuries were too severe. He died that day, just two weeks
[16:18] shy of his 22nd birthday. The San Bernardino County
[16:23] Sheriff's Department opened an investigation immediately.
[16:27] Robinson provided a description of the suspect and his vehicle,
[16:31] but investigators couldn't develop any meaningful leads.
[16:34] While suspicion was clearly initially on Robinson, he was
[16:38] very quickly cleared of any wrongdoing in the matter.
[16:43] When the police began to investigate, they quickly found
[16:46] that the crime scene didn't fit neatly into a common motive.
[16:50] Daniel's van, keys and money had been ripped from his pants
[16:53] pocket, yet other valuables were left behind.
[16:57] This was a detail that suggested either panic or something more
[17:01] erratic than a straightforward robbery.
[17:04] Despite the eyewitness account and physical evidence, the case
[17:08] went cold. It would stay that way for
[17:11] nearly half a century. Daniel's slaying devastated his
[17:16] family. His younger brother, Doug, was
[17:18] just 15 years old at the time. Doug later recalled that there
[17:22] had been tension between Daniel and their father, which had led
[17:26] to Daniel going out West. Their father, according to Doug,
[17:31] never truly recovered and blamed himself for the chain reaction
[17:35] that would ultimately lead to Daniel's death.
[17:40] For decades, the Walker family adhered to a painful tradition
[17:44] of trying to forget and move on. But despite this, Doug wouldn't
[17:48] give up. In 2010, Doug traveled to the
[17:52] Inland Empire in Southern California and retraced his
[17:55] brother's final steps. Cold case detectives pulled
[17:59] Daniel's file at that time, but they couldn't make any headway.
[18:05] It wasn't until much later that Doug channeled his decades of
[18:08] grief and research into a book titled Daniel, My Brother
[18:13] Mystery in the Mojave. Interestingly, the book was
[18:17] co-authored with Ken Robinson, the hitchhiker who'd survived
[18:21] that night. The two men had stayed in
[18:23] contact over the years and bonded over the shared desire to
[18:27] see justice done for Daniel, a fact that I personally find
[18:32] heartwarming in an otherwise very dark case.
[18:35] The book was published in October 2023, nearly 49 years to
[18:40] the month after Daniel's death. And then, just like that,
[18:44] something happened. On November 15th, 2023, just
[18:50] weeks after Doug's book was published, the San Bernardino
[18:54] County Sheriff's Department Cold Case Team reopened the
[18:57] investigation. Detectives obtained new
[18:59] information and identified a suspect, Thomas Creech, a 73
[19:05] year old serial predator who is currently incarcerated in Idaho.
[19:09] Thomas Creech was a name that sent shock waves through the
[19:12] Walker family and the true crime world, since he's potentially
[19:16] one of the most prolific predators in history.
[19:20] Born in Dayton, OH in 1950, Creech grew up in an unstable
[19:25] household marked by domestic conflict that ended in his
[19:28] parents divorce. He ran away from home as a
[19:32] teenager and became a drifter, and by the time he was in his
[19:35] mid 20s, he'd compiled A staggering record of violence
[19:39] across multiple states. He'd been convicted of five
[19:42] slayings in Idaho, Oregon and California.
[19:46] Beyond those convictions, authorities believed strong
[19:49] evidence linked him to at least six additional victims.
[19:53] At various points, Creech himself had claimed
[19:56] responsibility for as many as 42 killings, though he later
[20:00] revised that number downward to 26.
[20:04] Unfortunately, as with many of these predators, they seem to
[20:08] think a higher victim count is some sort of badge of honor.
[20:12] Many of his confessions included outlandish claims involving
[20:16] occult rituals and contracts for a motorcycle gang.
[20:20] This made it difficult for investigators to separate fact
[20:23] from fabrication. Though they do believe there's
[20:26] at least a kernel of truth to his additional confessions.
[20:31] What connected Creech to Daniel Walker were what the San
[20:34] Bernardino County Sheriff's Department described as details
[20:38] from statements Creech had made to law enforcement.
[20:42] Working in collaboration with the ADA County District
[20:45] Attorney's Office in Idaho, cold case detectives were able to
[20:49] corroborate those details against the known facts of the
[20:52] case. The timing of the identification
[20:55] was notable because it came just days before an Idaho parole
[20:59] board was set to consider whether to commute Creech's
[21:02] death sentence to life in prison.
[21:05] Ada County prosecutors characterized the Walker case as
[21:08] further proof of Creech's unrepentant brutality.
[21:13] Creech's defense team pushed back hard on the allegations.
[21:17] His public defender called the case against him extraordinarily
[21:21] thin, but this wasn't at a trial.
[21:24] Rather, this was a clemency hearing in an attempt to stop
[21:28] his execution. The attorney argued that it
[21:31] relied entirely on unspecified details that Creech had
[21:35] supposedly provided long ago, and that we're only now being
[21:39] used against him. The defense pointed out that law
[21:42] enforcement had tried to link Creech to Daniel's slaying as
[21:45] far back as 1975, and they'd never been able to make the
[21:50] connection stick. The clemency hearing itself
[21:53] became a spectacle. The Idaho Commission of Pardons
[21:57] and Parole deadlocked 3 to 3 on whether to grant Creech relief.
[22:02] Under the rules of the state, this meant that his death
[22:04] sentence stood. Governor Brad Little declined to
[22:08] intervene, and the warrant was signed, with Creech's execution
[22:12] scheduled for February 28th, 2024.
[22:17] But on that day, in a remarkable turn, the execution failed
[22:23] despite the best efforts of those involved.
[22:26] Medical staff spent nearly an hour attempting to establish an
[22:30] intravenous line, trying 8 different locations on Creech's
[22:34] arms, hands and legs. But his veins collapsed each
[22:39] time the execution was called off, and Creech was returned to
[22:43] his cell. A second date was set for
[22:46] November 13th, 2024, but a federal judge granted a stay
[22:52] just one week before allowing time for Creech's legal
[22:55] challenges to proceed. His attorneys argued that a
[22:59] second attempt would constitute cruel and unusual punishment,
[23:03] and that the botched first attempt had left him with post
[23:06] traumatic stress disorder. Idaho's prison system
[23:11] subsequently suspended all executions while it retrofitted
[23:15] its chamber to accommodate alternative methods, including a
[23:18] firing squad. As of late 2025, Creech remains
[23:24] on death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution,
[23:28] his legal battles ongoing, his fate unresolved.
[23:33] Daniel Walker's story is, at its core, about the terrible
[23:37] randomness of violence and the unimaginable burden it leaves
[23:41] behind. The identification of Thomas
[23:43] Creech as the suspected perpetrator brought a measure of
[23:48] resolution, but it didn't bring closure in any neat or
[23:52] satisfying sense. Creech has never been formally
[23:57] charged with Daniel's slaying, and given his existing sentence
[24:01] and the legal complexities surrounding his case, it's
[24:04] unclear whether he ever will be. Further, some have noted that
[24:08] the publicly known evidence to connect him to the slaying is
[24:11] rather flimsy. Given that there will likely
[24:14] never be a trial in this matter, it's unclear if we will ever
[24:18] know why the authorities are so certain that Creech is the
[24:21] perpetrator. Personally, it's very hard for
[24:25] me to consider this case fully solved based on the evidence we
[24:28] currently have. That said, it looks like we've
[24:31] reached the end of the line in terms of the official
[24:33] investigation, and this conclusion, though not fully
[24:37] certain, will likely be the resolution to the case.
[24:41] Given how prolific Creech's crimes were, I do also have to
[24:45] question if he himself even fully remembers if he took
[24:48] Daniel's life. On a warm June day in 1976, a
[24:54] trio of fishermen on the Oswego River made a grisly catch.
[24:59] Instead of fish, they found a human body drifting toward the
[25:02] surface, bound to heavy cinder blocks beneath the murky water.
[25:07] It was a chilling scene, a young man, clearly the victim of foul
[25:12] play, deliberately weighted down as if someone intended for him
[25:16] never to be discovered. The clues that would be
[25:19] discovered would hint that this John Doe may have been mixed up
[25:23] in the chilling world of organized crime.
[25:28] The body was discovered in mid June 1976 in the town of
[25:31] Lysander, New York, just north of an area called Three Rivers.
[25:36] Local authorities determined the remains were a white male,
[25:40] approximately 25 to 35 years old, about 5 feet 10 inches
[25:45] tall, and £130. He had been in the water for an
[25:49] estimated 2 weeks, enough time that decomposition had set in
[25:54] and made immediate identification impossible.
[25:57] A length of rope was used to tie the body to two cinder blocks,
[26:01] anchoring it to the riverbed. Those blocks were traced to a
[26:06] nearby company, suggesting the perpetrator source them locally.
[26:11] The victim's head was wrapped in part of a light colored shirt, a
[26:14] grim sign of what likely befell him in his last moments.
[26:18] In other words, someone had suffocated him, likely using
[26:23] that very cloth, then tried to hide the crime by sinking his
[26:27] body in the river. Once the body was recovered,
[26:31] investigators noted distinctive physical features of the victim.
[26:35] He was a slender man with medium length brown hair and a
[26:38] prominent angular nose. He had a thin mustache or
[26:42] stubble of dark brown facial hair, as if he hadn't shaved for
[26:46] a few days. There were no tattoos, scars, or
[26:51] obvious identifying marks on the body.
[26:55] Despite the lack of identification, the victim's
[26:58] clothing and personal items provided intriguing clues.
[27:02] He was dressed in layered clothes, a beige cashmere V-neck
[27:06] sweater over a dark blue ribbed turtleneck.
[27:10] He wore blue jeans with a wide brown belt and brown leather
[27:12] designer boots. He also wore a particularly fine
[27:16] pair of underwear, which was only available in a few
[27:19] department stores in New York State.
[27:23] Other personal effects compounded the mystery.
[27:27] He wore a gold neck chain with two interesting charms. 1 was an
[27:31] Italian mono cornuto, A horned hand symbol designed to ward off
[27:35] the evil eye, and the other was a tiny horn shaped cornichello,
[27:40] again worn for luck. The Italian charms hinted that
[27:44] the victim had a familial connection to Italy.
[27:49] In an effort to identify the victim, investigators collected
[27:53] as much forensic information as possible.
[27:56] Fingerprints were unfortunately not available due to the
[27:58] condition of the remains, but dental records were obtained.
[28:03] They showed the man had extensive dental work, including
[28:07] many fillings and crowns, indicating he had seen a dentist
[28:11] regularly in his life. At a much later date, his DNA
[28:15] profile was also secured and entered into databases, though
[28:19] no match has ever been found to a missing person or family
[28:22] member as of yet. With the trail turning cold, law
[28:28] enforcement sought the public's help.
[28:30] A disturbing forensic facial reconstruction was commissioned
[28:33] to put a face to the victim's remains, using the skull to
[28:37] approximate his features. The clay reconstruction depicted
[28:41] a Caucasian male with a long, thin nose and medium length
[28:45] brown hair, consistent with the medical examiner's findings.
[28:50] Hoping someone might recognize this face, investigators
[28:53] circulated images of the reconstruction in newspapers and
[28:56] law enforcement bulletins. Unsurprisingly, this depiction,
[29:02] which bears more in common with one of those disturbing Austrian
[29:05] or Bavarian Alpine demon masks, didn't solve this case.
[29:12] With this case being unsolved for half a century.
[29:16] Despite such distinctive identifying features, a number
[29:20] of theories have proliferated about this case.
[29:23] One prevalent idea centers on the method of disposal.
[29:27] Tying a body to cinder blocks and dumping it in a river is a
[29:31] method reminiscent of an organized crime hit.
[29:36] And this isn't just online sleuths claiming this either,
[29:40] but rather this has been the main focus of the investigation.
[29:44] The presence of Italian good luck charms on the victim
[29:47] further fuels this line of thought.
[29:49] It's an enticing theory that paints the John Doe as possibly
[29:53] a mob associate or victim of a gang hit.
[29:56] However, no direct evidence has ever emerged linking him to
[30:00] known organized crime, and law enforcement has not confirmed
[30:04] any Mafia connection. The Mafia theory remains
[30:08] speculative, born from the circumstances more than from
[30:11] concrete proof. Another theory suggests that
[30:16] this man was involved in the Mafia in perhaps a much less
[30:19] direct way. Under this theory, he may have
[30:22] invited the vampire into his home, so to speak, by taking out
[30:26] a loan from someone associated with a criminal organization.
[30:30] He may have been unable to pay the exorbitant interest rate, or
[30:34] he may have simply refused to pay directly, leading to him
[30:38] being found in a river. Another theory is that the John
[30:43] Doe wasn't local at all, but a traveler or transient who met a
[30:47] deadly fate far from home. Under this theory, he may have
[30:52] been an Italian tourist who had embarked on a tour across
[30:56] America. During the 1970s.
[30:59] It was common for young people to hitchhike, and in a grim
[31:03] twist, this openness led to many people being targeted by serial
[31:07] predators. However, the authorities appear
[31:11] to consider this to be a much less likely scenario.
[31:14] Though this may just be based on simple statistics and
[31:17] demographics, there were way more Italian Americans and
[31:21] Italian immigrants in New York State than Italian hitchhikers
[31:25] in the 70s. Another plausible angle is that
[31:30] the Onondaga County John Doe originated in Canada in the
[31:34] 1970s Southern Ontario, especially Hamilton, and the
[31:39] Montreal region across the border in Quebec had significant
[31:43] mafia activity. He could have been in America on
[31:47] a job for one of these mafia families.
[31:50] If the victim was Canadian, that could help explain why he never
[31:54] appeared in American missing persons files.
[31:59] Ultimately, the case will be cracked whenever the local cold
[32:02] case team decides to send his genetic information away for
[32:05] genealogical testing. Until that time, the Onondaga
[32:10] County John Doe will remain a complete unknown and the person
[32:14] or group who did this to him will keep getting away with it.
[32:22] Hey everyone, Jimmy here, just reminding you to hit the like
[32:26] button and the notification bell and turn on all notifications.
[32:30] Also, don't forget to hit that share button and send this video
[32:34] to two people you know. I'm constantly working on
[32:37] putting out new content, and the best way you can ensure that
[32:40] continues is by clicking that share button and helping the
[32:44] audience grow. On a cold evening in December
[32:50] 2017, a high school auditorium in Bailey, Co buzzed with
[32:55] anticipation for a concert. 17 year old Maggie Long was
[33:00] supposed to be there, helping manage the event and even
[33:03] bringing homemade cookies for the audience.
[33:06] But as the opening act began, Maggie was nowhere to be found.
[33:10] Instead, just a few miles away, firefighters were battling a
[33:15] blaze at her family's home, a fire that would reveal A
[33:19] horrific crime and leave a community in shock.
[33:23] This is the story of Maggie Long's slaying, an unsolved case
[33:28] that has perplexed investigators and fueled numerous theories in
[33:32] the years since. That fateful night, December
[33:37] 1st, 2017, began like any other day for Maggie Long, a senior at
[33:42] Platte Canyon High School. That afternoon, she left school
[33:47] briefly to head home, intending to change clothes and pick up
[33:50] some cookies for the concert she was helping organize.
[33:53] At the school, Maggie was known as a responsible and involved
[33:58] student, so when she failed to return to the concert, those who
[34:02] knew her immediately sensed something was wrong.
[34:06] Her older sister, Connie, later said she had a gut feeling
[34:09] something was wrong since Maggie would never just skip out on an
[34:13] event she was managing. As time passed with no sign of
[34:17] Maggie, Connie tried calling her phone but got no answer.
[34:23] Growing increasingly anxious, she drove toward their family's
[34:26] rural property. When Connie arrived around 7:20
[34:30] PM, she was met with a scene of chaos.
[34:34] The long house was engulfed in flames and emergency vehicles
[34:38] swarmed the driveway. Firefighters kept the family
[34:42] back as they fought the blaze, and it wasn't until hours later
[34:46] that authorities confirmed their worst fear.
[34:51] Around 7:00 PM on December 1st, a 911 caller reported a fire and
[34:56] disturbance at the long residence outside Bailey.
[35:00] Firefighters arrived to find the house engulfed in flames.
[35:04] After the blaze was extinguished, responders
[35:07] discovered Maggie's remains in the charred house and it was
[35:10] immediately clear her death was no accident.
[35:14] Investigators determined that Maggie had been brutally
[35:16] attacked and that the fire was deliberately set to cover up the
[35:20] crime. In fact, investigators
[35:23] discovered multiple ignition points in the house, showing the
[35:26] perpetrators determination to erase evidence.
[35:30] Evidence at the scene showed she had struggled with her
[35:33] assailants before being overpowered and horrifyingly,
[35:37] she was set on fire while still alive.
[35:39] According to the coroner's findings, the perpetrators also
[35:44] stole a number of items from the home, including numerous weapons
[35:48] and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
[35:51] They also made off with a small safe that they apparently were
[35:54] unable to crack on sight. This suggested the intruders
[35:58] targeted the longhouse expecting to find valuables and weapons,
[36:02] and they were willing to use extreme violence to get away
[36:05] with their loot. Despite a multi agency task
[36:10] force, months passed with no arrests or major breakthroughs.
[36:15] Early on, authorities released composite sketches of three male
[36:19] suspects seen around the long property that day, but so far
[36:25] none have been identified. Investigators tracked down
[36:29] numerous tips and persons of interest, including some local
[36:33] individuals with troubled or violent histories, but every
[36:37] lead eventually went nowhere. Then an unexpected lead emerged
[36:42] from 700 miles away in Missouri in mid 2018.
[36:47] A similar case in Missouri, where a young woman was attacked
[36:51] and set on fire during a burglary, caught investigators
[36:55] attention as a possible connection.
[36:58] The two men arrested in Missouri were in their 20s, which led
[37:02] Colorado detectives to investigate whether they had
[37:05] ever been in Colorado around the time of Maggie's death.
[37:09] Ultimately, however, no solid link between the Missouri
[37:13] criminals and Maggie's slaying could be established.
[37:19] From the outset, investigators believed Maggie's slaying was a
[37:23] burglary gone wrong. In their estimation, this was
[37:26] essentially A botched robbery that turned deadly.
[37:30] The item stolen and the apparent focus on the family safe
[37:34] suggested the intruders specifically targeted the long
[37:37] home for its valuables. They believe that Maggie's
[37:41] unexpected arrival likely provoked the violent
[37:44] confrontation. However, in 2021, the FBI
[37:51] announced a very different possible motive.
[37:54] Maggie may have been targeted for a very different reason.
[37:57] Her case was reclassified and agents began investigating
[38:01] whether bias against Maggie's Asian American background played
[38:05] a significant role in this crime.
[38:08] This shift brought additional federal resources to the case
[38:12] and raised the question of whether the extreme cruelty of
[38:15] the attack was driven by this factor.
[38:19] Now, I can't really comment on this much further since the
[38:22] authorities haven't released any evidence whatsoever as to why
[38:25] they have come to this potential conclusion.
[38:28] However, in general, when the FBI comes out and makes a
[38:32] statement like this, they have a very strong reason to believe
[38:35] that's the case. As of now, Maggie Long's slaying
[38:41] is still unsolved, standing as one of Colorado's most haunting
[38:44] cold cases. Nevertheless, neither her family
[38:48] nor law enforcement have given up.
[38:51] The reward for information leading to an arrest now stands
[38:55] at $75,000, contributed by the Long family and multiple
[39:01] agencies involved in the investigation.
[39:04] Further, given the potential motivation for this attack, the
[39:08] authorities are investigating similar crimes both in Colorado
[39:12] and across the nation. Anyway, Whether the motive was
[39:17] robbery or something much more sinister, this case is
[39:21] incredibly disturbing and the perpetrators need to be brought
[39:24] to justice as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Maggie's case
[39:28] hasn't gotten the attention it deserves, So if you're in a
[39:31] position to signal booster case, get out there and do it.
[39:35] With cold cases like these, the only way they seem to get solved
[39:40] is by ongoing and unrelenting attention to the case.
[39:47] On July 14th, 1882, a man named James Yost was hauling wood
[39:52] through the dry grasslands of West Turkey Creek Canyon in
[39:55] Arizona Territory when his dog started acting strangely.
[40:00] Nearing a peculiar cluster of five large oak trees that grew
[40:03] in a semicircle from a single root, Yost saw what he first
[40:07] took to be a man sleeping. But the dog's nervous snorting
[40:11] told a different story, and upon investigation, Yost found the
[40:15] lifeless body of one of the West's most notorious outlaws,
[40:19] Johnny Ringo. He was seated on a large Flat
[40:23] Rock within the embrace of the oaks, his back against a tree in
[40:27] an almost peaceful pose. But the scene was anything but
[40:31] peaceful. A single bullet had entered his
[40:34] right temple and exited the top of his head.
[40:37] His weapon was still in his hand and it looked very clear what
[40:41] happened. But as time went on, this clear
[40:44] cut scene became one of the Old West's greatest mysteries.
[40:50] Ringo was barefoot, his feet wrapped in makeshift bindings
[40:54] torn from his own undershirt. His horse, with his boots still
[40:58] tied to the saddle, wouldn't be found for another 11 days 2
[41:02] miles away. He wore 2 cartridge belts, but
[41:06] the one for his revolver was buckled upside down, an
[41:09] inexplicable mistake for a seasoned veteran of the Old
[41:12] West. Most disturbing of all was a
[41:15] small clean cut at the base of his scalp, as if someone had
[41:19] taken a piece of his head to prove that the deed was done.
[41:25] To understand how Johnny Ringo ended up under those oaks, you
[41:28] have to understand the man. He was born in Indiana in 1850.
[41:34] His life was defined by a profound early trauma.
[41:39] At the age of 14, while his family migrated W, he witnessed
[41:44] his father accidentally take a shotgun blast directly to the
[41:47] face. The family was forced to bury
[41:50] him on a hillside along the trail and move on, with little
[41:54] time to contemplate whether this was really an accident or not.
[41:58] This gruesome event created a dark psychological echo that
[42:03] would reverberate throughout Ringo's own life.
[42:08] In the years that followed, Ringo cultivated the persona of
[42:12] a refined, educated gentleman outlaw, a man who could quote
[42:16] Shakespeare and carried a small library of classic books.
[42:20] Many who knew him described him as a reserved, college educated
[42:24] man, though the truth was more complex.
[42:27] While well read, Ringo had very little in the way of formal
[42:31] schooling. This intellectual image was a
[42:34] performance, a charming mask for a disturbed and violent man who
[42:38] wanted to be known for something other than his willingness to
[42:41] blast his Roscoe. His outlaw career began in
[42:47] earnest in Texas, where he got his start committing some cold
[42:50] blooded slayings. After the heat got too hot under
[42:54] the Texas sun, he decided it was best to move on.
[42:59] After drifting to Arizona, he fell in with the loose
[43:02] confederation of rustlers known as the Cochise County Cowboys in
[43:07] Tombstone. His reputation for a foul temper
[43:11] was cemented by incidents like shooting a man simply for
[43:14] refusing a shot of whiskey in favor of beer.
[43:20] Ringo was not present for the famous showdown at the OK
[43:23] Corral, but in its aftermath, he became a chief antagonist of the
[43:28] ERB faction. He openly challenged Wyatt Earp
[43:31] and Doc Holiday to a fight on the streets of Tombstone, a
[43:35] confrontation that was only stopped when a constable
[43:38] intervened. The Irps, in turn, suspected
[43:41] Ringo was involved in the ambush that crippled Virgil Earp and
[43:45] the slaying of Morgan Earp. When Wyatt Earp began his
[43:49] infamous Vendetta Ride, Ringo, despite being an absolute
[43:54] psychopath, was deputized by the Sheriff of Tombstone to hunt him
[43:58] down. Faced with the scene in Turkey
[44:03] Creek Canyon, a coroner's jury quickly reached a verdict.
[44:08] They looked at the scene and figured that this was the work
[44:10] of one man, Johnny Ringo himself.
[44:14] This ruling was supported by a considerable amount of anecdotal
[44:18] evidence. The story about the so-called
[44:20] accident his dad had during the family's westward travels was
[44:24] well known and suggested a potential family history of this
[44:27] sort of event. In the months before his death,
[44:31] Ringo was reportedly in a deep state of despair.
[44:35] The herb vendetta had decimated the ranks of his friends and
[44:38] allies. Further, he had recently visited
[44:41] his family in California and had been met with a cool reception
[44:46] and politely told he wasn't welcome to stay there, leaving
[44:51] him feeling rejected. The freewheeling, lawless world
[44:55] he knew was vanishing, and he seemed to be vanishing with it.
[45:02] His final days were spent in a prolonged drunken stupor.
[45:06] He left Tombstone after the 4th of July celebrations with
[45:09] several bottles of booze and was last seen by a sheriff's deputy
[45:14] who noted that he was falling off his horse.
[45:17] More telling were Ringo's own premonitions.
[45:20] He had told a newspaper editor just weeks earlier that he only
[45:23] had a few weeks left at best, and he implied that this event
[45:26] could be caused by either himself or by his enemies.
[45:33] Despite the official ruling, the strange clues at the scene have
[45:36] fueled speculation of a slaying for over a century.
[45:40] Several suspects have been named, their motives rooted in
[45:44] the legendary feuds of Tombstone, AZ.
[45:49] The most famous and cinematic theory is that Wyatt Earp,
[45:52] perhaps accompanied by Doc Holiday, secretly rode back into
[45:57] Arizona to fill Ringo full of lead and complete his vendetta.
[46:02] Earp himself helped craft this narrative in his later years,
[46:06] even providing his biographer with a detailed account of a
[46:09] supposed duel. This story provides A satisfying
[46:13] dramatic conclusion to the Earp Cowboy War, pitting the two
[46:17] factions champions against each other in a final showdown.
[46:22] However, this theory completely falls apart under factual
[46:25] scrutiny. Since Ringo died in July 1882,
[46:29] Earp and his posse had fled Arizona as wanted men.
[46:32] Four months earlier, in March, Doc Holiday, the other supposed
[46:37] participant, attended court in Colorado the same day as Ringo
[46:41] perished. Wyatt Earp himself was
[46:44] documented to be in Colorado as well during this period, though
[46:48] his whereabouts are less ironclad.
[46:51] Further dispelling this account is the fact that both of these
[46:55] men were wanted outlaws in Arizona at the time, with
[46:59] substantial bounties on their heads.
[47:02] The consensus from historians is now that Wyatt Earp simply
[47:06] fabricated this event while he was building his own legend in
[47:10] the early 20th century. A far more plausible suspect was
[47:16] a man Ringo considered a friend, a very bad hombre named
[47:19] Buckskin. Frank Leslie Buckskin was a
[47:22] bartender, a scout, and a known psychopath who was in essence a
[47:27] serial predator before the terminology had been coined.
[47:31] The evidence against him is compelling.
[47:34] In November 1882, Leslie got into an argument with one of
[47:38] Ringo's good friends, a fellow outlaw named Billy Claiborne, to
[47:43] defend his honor. Buckskin promptly eliminated
[47:45] Claiborne, with some accounts having him finishing off the man
[47:49] in cold blood. Even after he posed no threat,
[47:53] Claiborne's dying words to those around him made it clear that he
[47:57] had seen Buckskin shoot Ringo. Years later, while serving a
[48:03] sentence for slaying his wife, Buckskin reportedly confessed to
[48:07] a prison guard that he had in fact eliminated Ringo.
[48:12] According to this account, Buckskin, Claiborne and Ringo
[48:15] were in the Turkey Creek area when the men got into an
[48:18] argument. Buckskin claimed he shot in
[48:21] self-defense. But this is a guy with a lot of
[48:24] bodies to his name, including completely innocent people, so
[48:28] take that with a grain of salt. A final, often overlooked
[48:34] suspect is a gambler named Michael O'Rourke.
[48:37] In 1881, O'Rourke eliminated a man in a nearby town over a
[48:42] minor disagreement, and an angry mob formed up to hunt him down.
[48:48] Johnny Ringo was amongst the members of this mob, and Wyatt
[48:52] Earp ended up stepping in to save O'rourke's life.
[48:55] Under this theory, this gambler saved by Earp may have done a
[49:00] favor for him by taking out Johnny Ringo.
[49:04] While the motive is clear, the most persuasive evidence is what
[49:08] happened after Ringo's death. 1 of Ringo's closest friends later
[49:12] haunted down and slew Michael O'Rourke.
[49:15] According to some, this can be seen as a verdict delivered by
[49:19] way of Old W Frontier Justice. In the end, the death of Johnny
[49:25] Ringo remains an unsolvable case.
[49:28] The official verdict is supported by his psychological
[49:31] state, but contradicted by the bizarre physical evidence and
[49:34] circumstantial evidence. While the theory blaming Wyatt
[49:38] Earp directly is a fiction, the cases against Frank Leslie and
[49:42] Michael O'Rourke have significant circumstantial
[49:44] evidence in their favor. However, unless we have some
[49:48] unlikely new evidence that surfaces, such as a journal
[49:52] entry with a very direct confession that matches the
[49:55] evidence, the truth will remain an unsolved mystery.

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