Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
E227: Ann Gotlib
3.7k Plays10 months ago
June 1st, 1983 began as an exciting day for 12-year-old Ann Gotlib since it was the first day of summer vacation. She spent the day with various friends before making a short bike ride home. But it was a ride during which Ann disappeared. Sadly, law enforcement were not short on potential suspects— even though it is a case that remains open to this day.
If you are interested in bonus content for our show or in getting some Coffee and Cases swag, please consider joining Patreon. There are various levels to fit your needs, all of which can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/coffeeandcases
Recommended
Transcript
Childhood Recollections and Safety Perceptions
00:00:00
Speaker
When I was young and my parents had divorced, my mom and I moved to a trailer on the outskirts of town. The trailer was situated in front with a country road and across the fence and a field in the back near an interstate.
00:00:15
Speaker
Even though there was access to a major road, the home still felt safe. Safe enough that I would often ride my bike alone along the country road in front of my house. There were only a couple of times I recall my mom feeling scared because of the location of our home. Once was returning home from church on a Sunday night to find that our trailer door was wide open. I remember sitting in the car terrified while my mom went inside to check every room and closet.
Introduction to Anne Gottlieb Case
00:00:44
Speaker
In that instance, she ended up deciding that she must have left the door cracked when we rushed out for church and the wind had blown it open further. Another time I recall is late one night there being a knock and crying at the front door. Someone had a car that had broken down on the interstate behind her house and the woman had come to the closest home with a light on, hours, to make a phone call.
00:01:07
Speaker
Even though my mom helped the woman, I could see that there was some fear in my mom's eyes, not knowing if this woman were truly alone, as she said. In both of those cases, my mother and I were still safe, despite the potential of the opposite circumstance. Armed with that sense of safety, I would ride my bike down those roads in front of my house, even going further than I knew I was supposed to.
00:01:33
Speaker
It never crossed my mind that going too far away from the watchful eyes of neighbors could lead to disastrous consequences. And for me, it didn't, but I'm one of the lucky ones. Our case today will prove that danger can lurk anywhere, even in very public places, even in broad daylight. This is the case of Anne Gottlieb.
00:02:14
Speaker
So.
Engaging Listeners in Cold Case Discussions
00:02:33
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:02:53
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. I'm assuming from your introduction that Ann is a child, so we're doing a child case today? That is correct, yes.
00:03:19
Speaker
So prepare yourself. I know these are a lot harder. And Maggie, I am bringing you this week another case that was a suggestion from one of our listeners. I actually have about seven case suggestions that I'm currently working on at the moment. So some are in the stages of research, some in the stages of interviews, but this was one of them that I was working on.
00:03:44
Speaker
And it is another case actually that is local to us since it happened in Louisville, Kentucky.
Anne Gottlieb's Family Background
00:03:51
Speaker
Okay. And makes it a little more scary and a little more real. Yeah. Our case today does include some graphic and disturbing details. So listener discretion is advised.
00:04:08
Speaker
Now, normally at this point, I start with some background information on the individual at the center of our case this week. But this time, because of what you mentioned, her being a child, I'm going to take it a step back and tell you about her parents since Anne was only 12 years old at the time our case took place in 1983. Okay.
00:04:31
Speaker
Reporter Andrew Wolfson gave this background information in his article for the Louisville Courier-Journal on Anne's case. And in that article, he tells us that Anatoly Gotlib, Anne's father, was born in 1938 in Kiev, Ukraine, though his family actually fled to Siberia only a few years later in 1941 when the Nazis invaded.
00:04:58
Speaker
Oh, wow. Were they Jewish? They were. Yes. So there, once they returned to Ukraine.
00:05:06
Speaker
Anatoli studied engineering at Kiev Polytechnic, which is not the same Polytechnic that we talked about with Dyatlov Pass. Okay. Because I couldn't remember what, I remembered Polytechnic and I was like, wait, is this, and it wasn't the same one. They were quite like 35 hours apart. So not even close, but Anatoli did return to Ukraine and he also married Ludmilla, his wife in 1970.
00:05:33
Speaker
And their daughter, Anne, was born a year later in 1971.
Anne's Disappearance and Investigation Beginnings
00:05:38
Speaker
Do you know, I wonder sometimes if, which I'm sure they do, but like people in other countries, they're like, Allison, that's a really strange name. That's really, that's difficult to say. What is this? Yeah. Well, much like the decision that Anatoly's family faced when he was younger,
00:05:58
Speaker
Anatoly, Ludmilla, and daughter Anne were facing oppression in the Soviet Union. So, like his parents, the family immigrated to safety. Anatoly moved his family in 1980 to the United States. And she, so Anne was pretty, I mean, not old, but old enough to remember all of that by then. Right. Mm-hmm.
00:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, and here in the US, Anatoly got a job working for the construction and engineering company, the Bechtel Group, and specifically he worked for Bechtel Petroleum. Okay. So smart guy. Young Anne Gottlieb, only around 10, like I said, nine or 10 at the time of the move, she adapted quickly and she was actually able to speak fluent Russian and English. And from what I read,
00:06:53
Speaker
pretty well without an accent. Oh, wow. She made some close friends. She loved to ride her bike. She did well in school. She spent quite a bit of time actually in the Jewish community center in Louisville, which wasn't very far from the family's home on Gerald Court. What is a Jewish community center? Is it just like a church or like a synagogue rather?
00:07:18
Speaker
I think it's more like a YMCA type of place. So for the Jewish community in Louisville, a place where they could
00:07:32
Speaker
socialize, exercise, different things like that. So luckily, I mean, moving here, she had things like that where it could help her with adapting and the rest of the family. Fast forward to June 1st, 1983.
00:07:51
Speaker
The then five foot one inch, 85 pound, red haired, gray eyed, 12 year old Anne Gottlieb was so excited because it was the first day of summer vacation. Oh yeah. That's a very exciting day. So random, but today we're state testing in Kentucky right now, which is exhausting.
00:08:13
Speaker
And at the end of the day after we were done testing, I put on the other teacher that was in the room with me like a 10-minute meditation video and it was like
00:08:24
Speaker
Think of the happiest moment and visualize this moment. Soak it in, feel the happiness. And at first I was like, oh, the day my baby was born. And then I was like, no, that's going to make me sad. So then I was like, the first day of summer break when the bell rings on the last day of school. Yes. Yeah. For those of you out there listening,
00:08:47
Speaker
The first day of summer vacation, this is an excitement that we feel every year as an educator. It says a feeling of freedom and endless possibilities. Endless naps. That's right.
00:09:03
Speaker
So on Anne's first day of summer vacation, she had spent the day at the Jewish Community Center on Dutchman's Lane. She had taken a bus there and she had this great day of fun playing tennis with her friend Rachel Podkirsky until Rachel's mom actually had picked the girls up.
00:09:25
Speaker
And she had dropped Anne off at home. And from there, Anne had gotten on her bike to ride to another friend's house, Tanya Okmiansky. And there she wanted to watch television with her friend.
00:09:41
Speaker
So this is like perfect day for a 12 year old, right? Up to this point. According to an article by Jennifer Bailey for WLKY, missing persons detective Mike Perry told her the following, quote, they stayed there for about an hour or so.
00:10:00
Speaker
Anne's mother called and told Anne to come home. Both girls left the apartment and rode down Bashford Manor Lane, where they got to the
Theories and Sightings: Anne's Whereabouts
00:10:10
Speaker
parking lot of the Bashford Manor Mall at 3600 Bardstown Road. At that time, to my understanding, Anne's friend said, I'll see you, waved goodbye to Anne, end quote.
00:10:25
Speaker
So they're watching television, Anne's mom calls and says, hey, go ahead and head this way, head home. And so the two girls kind of ride in the same direction toward Anne's home. And by the way, this mall, it's like a block or so away from Anne's house. I mean, very close.
00:10:48
Speaker
There were some initial reports that Anne may have gone inside the mall. Maggie, you'll understand this. To a pet store, to pet a kitten.
00:10:58
Speaker
Yes, I would also stop by to pet a kitten or a dog. You would always. But I mean, we don't know for sure if she did, but there were reports that she did. We only know that Anne was last seen between 5.30 and 6 p.m. on June 1st and that Anne's friend made it home while Anne Gottlieb did not.
00:11:26
Speaker
Sensing something was wrong when Anne didn't return, the family actually went out looking for her. And eventually they found Anne's bike propped against a brick wall at the Bashford Manor Mall outside of Bacon's department store. Oh, so like she did just like run in for a second. And that's what it looked like. Yeah, like she had just left the bike there to run in the mall, but there was a singular detail.
00:11:53
Speaker
about the way the bike was left that told her family they needed to immediately call law enforcement that someone had taken Anne. Interesting, I'm intrigued.
00:12:07
Speaker
In an article for WLKY published on May 7th, 2015, reporter Jennifer Bailey's interviewed FBI agent Ed Armento, who told her how the bike itself told them that this was a case of a likely abduction. Quote, all of her friends and family told us that she never used the kickstand. Whenever she went anywhere with the bike, she laid the bike down on its side. Never.
00:12:36
Speaker
employed the kickstand. When we found the bike, it was leaning against the wall of Bacon's department store at the Bashford Manor Mall. The kickstand was down, which gave us reason to believe that whoever put the bike against the wall was not in Gottlieb." End quote. And you know, I think that's something that
00:12:57
Speaker
would be very memorable for a kid to do. Like, oh, I'm stepping over Ann's back again in the yard because she's just, you know, laid it down or whatever. I did not read this in multiple sources, but one source did say that the kickstand was broken and that that's why she didn't normally use it.
00:13:20
Speaker
So it's almost as though when they see that, they're thinking somebody took Ann and then posed her bike here. Somebody else has placed it here. Within days, Ann's parents, Anatoly and Ludmilla Gottlob, made public pleas through the media for the return of their sweet Ann.
00:13:39
Speaker
tips and theories Maggie came flooding in. Of course, as with most of the cases that we cover, not all of those theories were legitimate, nor well-founded. For example, there was a theory that Anne had been kidnapped by people working for the Russian government because they were trying to either punish her father Anatoly or force him back to Russia. Why?
00:14:07
Speaker
I have no idea why this rumor started, but the rumor that perpetuated that theory was that the company that Anatoly worked for here in the US, it was rumored to have ties with the CIA. And so with Anatoly's original Russian roots, this theory was born.
00:14:28
Speaker
But Anne's parents and others have dismissed this theory completely, basically arguing that had he had some sort of knowledge that the Russian government wanted, then he wouldn't have been allowed to immigrate here in the first place. That's a very good point. Yes. Another theory was that Anne had decided to run away of her own free will.
00:14:51
Speaker
I know, and the quote unquote support for this theory was that at the time she went missing, she was reading a book called Still Missing. And in the book, a mother is very upset after it appears that her son was abducted and his bike was left behind, leaned against a brick wall. Okay, so similar. It is eerily similar. I will give it that, but
00:15:19
Speaker
I feel like you can't discount coincidence in this case because most people in the early eighties, most kids in the early eighties had a bike as their transportation. So it's not that uncommon to say the bike was left leaning against a brick wall. Especially if like your neighborhood is as Anne sounds that it was and you could quickly bike from your house to the mall, to your friend's house, you know, not so country like where we grew up. Right.
00:15:48
Speaker
And those close to Ann said that she wasn't experiencing any anxiety at the time. But I will say, according to an entry on Ann's disappearance that was published on the website, the Resource Center for Cold Case Missing Children's Cases, it did say that Ann was upset after her most recent birthday when very few of her classmates has shown up. But like upset enough to run away? That's what I'm saying.
00:16:16
Speaker
I know, that doesn't make sense to me. And then I did read, this was according to the Charlie Project, there were several reported sightings of Anne after her disappearance near the Brighton Beach neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, which is quite a distance away. It is a neighborhood which, according to that article, had a high concentration of Russian immigrants, but none of those sightings were ever substantiated. And all of this leads us to the big question,
00:16:46
Speaker
What is the likelihood that a 12 year old could have run away of her own free will and have covered her tracks so well that in all of the years since and without a dime of money on her could have remained undetected? So I'm assuming because we have the theories about her potentially running away in the soddings in maybe New York that we've never found a body. We have not. Hmm.
00:17:16
Speaker
I just think the running away theory and she's living in Brooklyn, I think that would just be so hard to do. I feel like I would end up slipping up. Even if I changed my name, I would end up making a mistake or people are going to connect that and be like, oh, this is probably
00:17:39
Speaker
this Anne girl that's missing and they would tell somebody something. I just think that would be hard to live that out your whole life. Yeah. And if you have no money and you're 12 years old, how are you getting there? Right. And that means even more people would know and that's even more people who would have to keep a secret.
00:18:01
Speaker
Because you would have had to hitchhike, I'm assuming. So they would say, oh yeah, I saw that girl. I gave her a ride. Yeah, I don't get it. And had she hitched a ride with somebody, she wouldn't have left her bike with the kickstand down. That's true. Another theory arose about three days after Anne's disappearance when, according to the Charlie Project, a police bloodhound picked up Anne's scent near a ditch by the mall.
00:18:30
Speaker
Trailing that scent, the bloodhound, not once, but twice, led law enforcement to the window of an apartment across the street from the mall.
00:18:44
Speaker
The person who rented that apartment was Esther Okmoyanski, the grandmother of Tanya Okmoyanski, Anne's first friend. Yeah, and the last person to see Anne alive. However, Esther maintained that not only had she not seen Anne that day, but that Anne had never even ever visited her apartment.
00:19:07
Speaker
I wonder if maybe the friend had like clothing of hers, you know, borrowed a sweatshirt or something like that. And that's what the dog picked up. See, I thought that too, but when, so law enforcement, they did look into this lead.
00:19:24
Speaker
And it ended up that all of the family had solid alibis. They were all cleared of involvement. But their explanation for trailing the scent there twice was that they believed the bloodhound had been distracted by the smell of food cooking. Which, number one, okay, of course I've been there. I've been distracted by the scent of food cooking. But how often have we seen that kind of mistake happen with bloodhounds? Never.
00:19:51
Speaker
that these particular bloodhounds, right, you know, police bloodhounds, would be specifically trained not to be distracted. That'd be like if you said a drag dog was distracted by a Chick-fil-A. Right! Yeah!
00:20:07
Speaker
Oh, just kidding. Yeah, we hit on a scent. Unless it was maybe, you know, I still can't believe in training because Anthony and I did have that happen to us the last time that we went to Mexico. They had a drug dog that was in training and it smelled of Anthony as he went by. So we had to empty all our bags and be checked by TSA. Oh. And they were like, we're sorry. He's still in training. He's done that about four times today. Oh.
00:20:35
Speaker
So maybe was that? Maybe? I don't know. I didn't read that it was in training, but we'll give it the benefit of the doubt. There were calls also that came in about two Russian women who were seeing accompanying a young redheaded Russian girl going to get some passport photos.
00:20:55
Speaker
and that they seemed in a rush. This was actually shortly after Ann's disappearance, several weeks, but shortly after that was reported by multiple people because the first photography center that this trio stopped in was unable to help them get the passport photos and had suggested a different photographer. And that photographer told this to police as well, but we don't know whether or not, or how,
00:21:23
Speaker
that lead may have been discounted other than reading that it was. Some theories focused on the potential of child predators.
Investigation into Predators and Suspects
00:21:36
Speaker
According to reporter Shay McCallister for WHAS 11, more theories explored were a 26 year old man from Somerset who had previously kidnapped a child and tied them up with shoestrings. Another lead that was explored was a man from Louisville who was under investigation for raping a child. So they're really looking at all the potential avenues. Then Maggie.
00:22:06
Speaker
a much more concretely fleshed out theory arose. Around 2 p.m. on the day Anne went missing, there had been a man at the Jewish Community Center who had gone on
00:22:24
Speaker
A rampage. That's the best word I can think of. To terrorize young girls. Oh. On June 1st, 1983. He had molested a 10 year old girl on the jogging track at the center. Okay. This wasn't, this wasn't the rampage I was picking and picturing. I was thinking like he got him, Adam was staring at chairs and things. Okay. Yeah. It's worse than that. Okay. Yes. That happened on the jogging track at the center from there.
00:22:52
Speaker
He went on to expose himself to two six-year-old girls. This was on a residential street just a couple of miles from the mall.
00:23:04
Speaker
And the way it connects with Anne was that she had been playing tennis at the Jewish Community Center around the same time that this man had been there. So it led law enforcement to question, had he seen Anne at the center and chosen to victimize her? Had he followed her?
00:23:24
Speaker
I mean, you can see why he became a suspect. Do we know who this man is? Did we find him? We do find him. Okay. Let me tell you a little bit more about him first. Okay. So police initially, they were just armed with a description of the man that they had from the three victims, the 10 year old girl. So traumatizing. Can you imagine that? I don't know if it's okay to admit to this.
00:23:47
Speaker
I would strangle somebody who did that to my child. They had at least a description. And according to an article on Anne's case on that website, the Resource Center for Cold Case Missing Children's Cases, they described a man in his 40s wearing athletic shoes and a quote, floppy white golf hat, end quote. Sketches of this man were posted, prompting on June 3rd, only two days later,
00:24:15
Speaker
two teenage girls who had witnessed something, they said. Oh. On June 1st, they said that they had been crossing a field walking toward the mall when they saw a man force a small girl into the wooded area near the Royal Arms Apartments on Bashford Manard Lane, and they had initially said that they believed that this was like a parent child. Mm-hmm.
00:24:42
Speaker
But then, seeing the sketch and hearing about Anne's disappearance, now they wondered if what they had witnessed was actually Anne's abduction. Oh, good word. And also traumatizing. Yes. They too said that the man was wearing a light colored, they called it a fishing hat instead of a golf hat. However, the search of the woodlands where they said that they saw this man and a young girl going into the woods,
00:25:12
Speaker
they searched it for a period of multiple days in multiple locations and it produced no sign of Anne. Luckily though their search didn't end there. They also after they
00:25:25
Speaker
sent the sketch out, had several people call in with the license plate of the man that they had seen committing these crimes a few days before. So people saw him do things and then had jotted down his license plate as he was driving away. This man's name was Ralph Barry Barber, a 42 year old from Nicholasville, Kentucky. No surprise Maggie, he had a history of arrests for sexual offenses.
00:25:55
Speaker
According to the resource center for cold case missing children's cases, quote, he was actually arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in 1965. Oh, we're going way back. Yeah. And even had to be treated for sexual impulse disorder in 1978.
00:26:14
Speaker
According to reports, he admitted to molesting the child at the Jewish Community Center and also for exposing himself to the two young six-year-old children. He should have been in an institution after the first incident. He even admitted to abusing a half dozen other children in Kentucky and Indiana. However, Barbara denied involvement in the Gottlieb case.
00:26:44
Speaker
and claimed he never touched or harmed her when she disappeared. He also had an airtight alibi for the time that she was reportedly abducted." And those two teenage girls who had said that they saw the same man with a girl going into the woods actually recanted their statements.
00:27:10
Speaker
And that alibi that he had, that solid alibi, was that he had driven from Louisville to Lexington, Kentucky, and had visited a trophy shop. It's just so scary saying names of cities in your state that we know. Especially when you get to the smaller towns that we know. So the reason why his alibi is airtight is because this trophy shop
00:27:39
Speaker
multiple employees at that trophy shop place him there between 5.30 and 6, which is the time that Anne had disappeared. And they actually remember because it was right at closing time. And so, you know, if you've ever worked in retail and somebody walks in right before closing time, that's when he had walked in and he had a plaque that he wanted engraved. And so he had given them his name. Uh,
00:28:09
Speaker
And so that's why his alibi seemed legitimate.
00:28:15
Speaker
the Resource Center for Cold Case Missing Children's Cases website. They also said that the police, even while they were kind of following that lead, they were also searching empty apartments and homes in the area. They were even checking their closets and refrigerators in those homes. They checked fields, they checked creeks, and they found no clues. Wow, so it's almost like she did just disappear. Mm-hmm.
00:28:45
Speaker
Police even wondered if Anne's disappearance had been connected to an abduction and sexual assault of a 15-year-old from Gardner Lane Shopping Center that had occurred just one day after Anne's disappearance. So here's another shopping center. Here's another young child who was abducted and sexually assaulted, but police were never able to catch the perpetrator in that crime. Oh.
00:29:12
Speaker
Then a few months later, in January, 1984, another name first came across the desks of law enforcement, Gregory Lewis Oakley Jr. Oh, so many names. Well, you know what we say about people's names. But Oakley became a focus because in September, 1983, and remember Ann disappears,
00:29:39
Speaker
June 1st, 1983. So we're talking just a couple months after. In September, 1983, Oakley had broken into a home about a mile and a half from where Anne disappeared. In the home, he had threatened a young 13 year old girl with a knife and demanded that she undress. She resisted. What's wrong with people? I know. I know.
00:30:07
Speaker
You know, at times I find myself thinking how much worse the world is today. And then I'm reminded that it's always been bad. Yeah, exactly. Always has been. So he threatened her with a knife and demanded that she undress. She resisted. And as a result, he stabbed her in the back before fleeing. Luckily, she survived.
00:30:34
Speaker
And not only was she able to describe the man in detail, but also describe the vehicle that he drove away from, which allowed police to track him down, and it was Oakley. Law enforcement though, Maggie, I don't know if you're ready for this. If you thought that last one was bad,
00:30:53
Speaker
Wait till I tell you about this one. Law enforcement found a sordid background from Oakley that was quite shocking at his actions, at how long it had been going on, and at how he had barely gotten any punishment for his actions. An article about Ann's case by the Associated Press notes that Oakley had grown up in pine
00:31:23
Speaker
Apple, not pineapple, Pine, Apple, Alabama, and that he had a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Auburn University. So very smart. Very. And while I don't know if there were any crimes previous to July, 1979, from that point on, there are many.
00:31:46
Speaker
According to a wave three story published December 4th, 2008 in Alabama in July, 1979, Oakley was identified as a suspect in the attempted abduction of a 13 year old girl. And he had used a hypodermic needle to try to sedate her before she went, as he's trying to use it, she was able to fight back and then was able to flee.
00:32:15
Speaker
Then also in July 1979, in Alabama, Oakley assaulted another 13-year-old female, injecting her with catamine as a sedative, again, sexual assault, and then fleeing the scene.
00:32:37
Speaker
So he's, I get the sense that he's using the drugs that he would have access to as a vet. Yeah. That's what I was about to say. I feel like he's using his veterinarian knowledge. Two years later in November, 1981, still in Alabama, Oakley assaulted another 13 year old, his own stepdaughter. Yes.
00:33:08
Speaker
Before the sexual assault, he injected her with Demerol. Oh, ma. Yes. For this plea, because he pled guilty to assault, he only ended up getting two years probation. But- What is wrong with the justice system?
00:33:34
Speaker
Yeah, and that was because his charges were reduced to second degree assault because he agreed to plead guilty. With his charges though, Oakley lost his veterinary license and had moved to Louisville in 1982 where he took a job as a USDA meat inspector. So he would travel around to inspect various slaughterhouses.
00:34:01
Speaker
So I know that he's in Louisville then, but Louisville's a pretty big city. So I wonder were we able to put him near where Anne was last seen? I'll get to that. In September 1983, so I'm jumping back after Anne's disappearance and then I'll come back to your question. In September 1983, his crime spree began again when he attempted to abduct two
00:34:30
Speaker
Young females who were walking to school along Goldsmith Lane, only a few blocks from Bashford-Bannard Mall, where Ann Gottlob had disappeared three months earlier. It was also in September 1983 when Oakley had assaulted that young girl that he stabbed whom I just told you about. Side note, after he was charged for that crime with the stabbing in 1984, when he was already in jail,
00:35:00
Speaker
because he's awaiting trial for that crime in Jefferson County. He was also charged with the assault and attempted rape of a young girl in Hikes Point. Holy. Yeah. Repeat offender. Yeah. And in addition to all of that, Maggie, Shay McCallister from WHAS 11 noted that Oakley lived a block and a half from Anne Gottlieb and only two blocks from the mall at the time of Anne's disappearance. Okay.
00:35:31
Speaker
So yes, we can place him in that area. While in custody in 1984 for that attack on the young girl in late 1983, police actually questioned him about his potential involvement in the disappearance of Anne Gottlieb. He denied having anything to do with Anne. Well, obviously people, I don't think he'd be like, yeah, I kidnapped her. I took her here. Right. And he did fail his polygraph test.
00:36:02
Speaker
Again, I know, I know, polygraph, I get it. A piece of evidence that was quite damning to Oakley though, was that law enforcement discovered an ATM receipt from Liberty National Bank, which was right there at the mall at 3.50 PM on June 1st. So less than two hours before Anne Gottlieb disappeared from that location.
00:36:31
Speaker
However, Oakley explained that by saying, well, I had withdrawn the money and then I had immediately gone out of town on a business trip. Can we verify that he was out of town on the business trip? His girlfriend at the time said that he was out of town on the business trip. I don't know how, this is probably really mean of me to say it, but I'm gonna say it. I don't know how anyone could date someone like him.
00:36:59
Speaker
I don't think she knew at the time about his past. Okay. Because, you know, when he made that move to Kentucky. Yeah, he probably just kind of wanted to get away from all that. Changed his job, changed all of that. And then everything else that I told you about that happened really happened.
00:37:28
Speaker
after Anne's disappearance. Right? Those other crimes. So at the time when Anne's disappearance was being investigated, the girlfriend said, yep, he was away on a business trip. And I mean, it was true that he often traveled for his work with the USDA. I mean, he traveled all over Kentucky to West Virginia and to Texas.
00:37:54
Speaker
So it wasn't out of the question. But what made police skeptical of his alibi was that Oakley's cellmate, because remember he was in jail after those crimes from September 1983, his cellmate told police that Oakley had actually confessed to him
00:38:20
Speaker
that he had abducted and murdered Anne Gottlieb. You know, and I know a lot of the times inmates will say things that aren't true. Yes. But some of the times, you know, they do tell the truth.
00:38:39
Speaker
Why, why would you tell a person you've, a person you met in jail and a person you've probably only known for a short amount of time if you did commit a crime like that? Like, I just don't understand people. I know. Unless they just feel like they need to get it off their chest, right? Maybe. Well, here's what he said Oakley told him.
00:39:04
Speaker
This cellmate said that at some point in 1989, according to him, Oakley confessed to abducting Anne and sedating her using a drug called Towan. According to one source I read, the cellmate said that Oakley told him that she had overdosed or he had given her too much.
00:39:26
Speaker
Another source said that she had had some sort of adverse reaction to the Towan and that because of that Oakley admitted to strangling Anne. But either Towan because I'd never heard of it. And it says that it can cause respiratory distress or even death when taken in high doses. So I don't know which
00:39:54
Speaker
theory or story is the one that he heard. I read it in different sources. Both of them said Talwyn. Both of them said that he admitted to the cellmate that he had killed Anne, but how that death happened differed. But Maggie, the cellmate was given a polygraph test concerning what he said of Oakley's confession.
00:40:17
Speaker
and deception was indicated. Okay, so the polygraph says he's lying about it. Right. And I mean, you said it. We've seen this kind of deception many times before because they'll do it for a lighter sentence. Maybe it's to get transferred to a different location.
00:40:35
Speaker
for whatever reason. And when the lead detective from the Louisville Metro Police Department was asked to hand over all of his documentation on Anne's case to the FBI, so we're getting like the big guns coming in, it seemed like that was the end of the focus on the Oakley theory. I mean, ultimately,
00:40:55
Speaker
It appeared as though there just wasn't enough evidence to link him to Ann's case. Well, I do think that a lot of it is, if we're playing like a devil's advocate, kind of circumstantial, you know, with the bank withdrawal. I mean, he lived close by, so. Right. And he's a horrible human being. Yeah. Though there was enough to sentence him to a 30-year prison sentence for the attack in September 1983 with the other young girl.
00:41:25
Speaker
But he did not serve his full sentence. So he did serve until June of 2002. And that was when Oakley received a medical release from prison, which I didn't even know was a thing. And he moved back to Alabama. He had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
00:41:49
Speaker
and he actually did pass away just a few months after his medical release in October of 2002. Up until his death, Oakley maintained that he had no ties to Anne Gottlieb. According to an article in the Louisville Courier-Journal by Andrew Wolfson, Oakley wrote a letter to them stating, quote, I have never seen Anne Gottlieb in my life.
00:42:19
Speaker
end quote and said he had quote no reason to lie about this matter because I'm dealing with terminal lung cancer which has already metastasized end quote. So basically insinuating that if he had something to share about his involvement death is imminent and he has nothing to lose now and would admit to it. I mean again I can see why we would
00:42:49
Speaker
look into him, but I kind of see his point too. You know, death is on the doorstep. Why try to hide it? I mean, it's not like he's going to get a worse sentence. Right. Or something like that. Another lead surfaced in 1990 when a serial killer on death row named Michael Lee Lockhart confessed to Anne's abduction and murder.
Suspicions and Confessions
00:43:17
Speaker
He told authorities that he was stationed in Fort Knox at the time and that after killing Anne, he had buried her body on some land near Fort Knox. When authorities looked into his claim, he was stationed at Fort Knox in 1983 and Fort Knox is less than an hour's drive from Louisville. So this man,
00:43:44
Speaker
the serial killer, says when he was in the army at Fort Knox that he killed Ann and then buried her somewhere near Fort Knox. Yes, this is the story that he said. Yeah, it is close to there. It is. Okay, I'm gonna let you continue with this one before I say anything else. Well, I will say that like Oakley's cellmate, Lockhart also failed a polygraph.
00:44:14
Speaker
Why would you lie? Don't know. Subsequent searches of the areas that he had indicated around Fort Knox where the burial had happened didn't lead to any developments. And Lockhart was executed in December, 1997. So without more details, there are some who still believe his confession. In all,
00:44:43
Speaker
Law enforcement actually questioned between 30 and 40 different suspects over the years. Wow. And for years, there seemed to be lots of possibilities, but no clear leads pointing to one over another. They were all just theories.
00:45:06
Speaker
Then six more years passed, and it was now June 2008, the 25th anniversary of Anne's disappearance, and the police received a phone call from a woman who had been Oakley's girlfriend at the time of Anne's disappearance, and she had something to tell police. According to her, Oakley had left town for a work trip.
00:45:34
Speaker
So that was true, he had left town for a work trip. He made it sound like he left at a different time. He had actually left for the work trip on May 31st, 1983, but had returned home the following night on June 1st around 11 p.m., which was only five hours after Anne was last seen, plus
00:46:00
Speaker
This now threw his alibi of leaving town after that ATM withdrawal on June 1st into question. Yeah. So he said, no, I withdrew that money from the ATM at 350 and then I left town for the work trip. Now his girlfriend is saying, no, that's not true at all. He left town on the 31st. He came home on June 1st at 11 p.m.
00:46:31
Speaker
What's more, when he returned home, Maggie, she said that he had asked that she wash his clothes because they had traces of blood on them. Which didn't he work in like meats or whatever? He did. Yeah, that was not uncommon for him to get blood spatter on him.
00:46:51
Speaker
But she said that he usually wasn't concerned about immediately washing the clothes to get the blood stains out. So given the time that she said he returned, was this blood an indication of something similar?
00:47:07
Speaker
His ex-girlfriend also said that Oakley would often talk about Anne's disappearance. Oh, that's a definite sign of guilt. Especially whenever it would be in the media for an anniversary or something like that. And according to the Doe Network, quote,
00:47:25
Speaker
He said that if they didn't find her shortly, that she's gone, they would never find her." So was he just speculating? Or was he stating facts? In September 2008, law enforcement actually decided to follow back up with Oakley's former cellmate, the one who had previously said that Oakley confessed to him.
00:47:51
Speaker
25 years later, that cellmate told them essentially the same story of the confession. Which is crazy, because that's a good amount of time. Yes, of the overdose from the Towin injection, and that led police to kind of go back to that old adage in their mind of, you don't have to have a good memory if you're telling the truth. Right.
00:48:14
Speaker
Because like you said, 25 years. Yeah, a long time to remember a lie, you told. Exactly. You wouldn't remember a lie. But if it's the truth, you'd likely remember it. And this time, the cellmate passed the polygraph. And after all, you have to admit, the drugs that Oakley used
00:48:38
Speaker
I would imagine are not so commonplace that the average person would be able to fabricate a story with the technical name for a drug. Yeah, I had to Google that one. I had never heard of it. Yeah. I'd never heard of Talwin. So to fabricate the name of a drug, I mean, that doesn't make much sense.
00:48:59
Speaker
As a result, in December 2008, the Louisville Metro Police Department held a press conference where they officially named Oakley as the prime suspect in Anne's disappearance. According to an article from WLKY by Jennifer Baileys on May 7th, 2015, quote, he was a suspect early on in the case, but the problem was he had an alibi from his girlfriend.
00:49:24
Speaker
When he passed away, the girlfriend provided significant information to the police department, which implicated him in the case." And that was from FBI agent Ed Armento. Missing person detective Mike Perry said in that same article from 2015 that he planned to retest the evidence because
00:49:47
Speaker
he said, quote, there was a fingerprint taken off the bicycle that was reviewed through the records at the time with no match. But if he hadn't been arrested, then his fingerprint wouldn't have been in there. I know. So that is true. But he had, and I don't know how much interstate
00:50:12
Speaker
communication there was then because Oakley had been arrested in Alabama. Yeah. So, and I'll tell you, he said that in 2015 that he was going to retest the fingerprints and especially if they've named Oakley as the prime suspect and we know his history.
00:50:30
Speaker
I actually didn't read any update on whether that fingerprint matched Oakley nor any of the other leads that police followed. And I don't think, I mean, I have no idea obviously, but I feel like that wouldn't take a lot of effort. Right.
00:50:47
Speaker
And if we have it, why not say that we have it? Despite work still needing to be done to establish conclusive evidence, LMPD Major Barry Wilkerson told WHAS 11 Shay McCallister, quote, I think I have every bit of probable cause to make the arrest if he were alive, end quote. So basically saying if Oakley were still alive, he has probable cause.
00:51:18
Speaker
But if that were true, Anne's parents, they actually wanted a posthumous conviction against Oakley. However, her parents were denied their request by the Commonwealth attorney.
00:51:32
Speaker
In fact, it's my understanding that, unless this has changed in the last couple of years, that her family has actually never seen the evidence that police have against Oakley. And I know that the police, I don't know if they released all of it. They did actually release some of it just a couple of years ago. But again, I've never read whether the fingerprints were tied to Oakley or what it is that make them so convinced that he was the perpetrator.
00:52:00
Speaker
As a result from the research I've done, her family, they're not fully convinced of this deduction that was made by police, especially because the case remains an open one. So Maggie, what are your thoughts?
00:52:20
Speaker
I honestly am leaning towards Oakley. I just feel like there was so much evidence that pointed in his direction, but I'm curious if we're saying he is a suspect while we haven't ran the fingerprint. That's my one kind of holdup. Right. Like why not at least say this case is closed? Why would you deny the family, the posthumous conviction? Yeah. And because I feel as an investigator, you would want as many closed cases as possible. Exactly.
00:52:50
Speaker
Why not wrap it up? Give them some closure. Finally put this case to rest. Why keep it open? Exactly. For quite some time after Anne's disappearance, her parents kept the same phone number, just in case. Because they held on to some small hope that she could be alive and one day reach out. But in the aftermath, her parents didn't speak much about her case.
00:53:16
Speaker
The reason why they were private about it is likely addressed in one of the few interviews they did about the case. It's in a WHAS article by Kayla Moody that was updated on January 1, 2018. Here's what Moody wrote.
00:53:32
Speaker
We went through these cases just to see if there was something we missed, some piece of the puzzle that we really needed to put in place. And that's kind of what happened with the Anne Gottlieb case." LMPD Major Barry Wilkerson said, 34 years since Anne Gottlieb's disappearance, one piece of that puzzle is still missing, the same piece missing from her mother's heart.
Legacy and Continued Search for Closure
00:53:55
Speaker
Anne's body has never been found. It weighs heavily in our hearts and
00:54:00
Speaker
And I don't think time ever heals anything, she said. It's like living with disease or constant pain. You just learn to live with it and keep it to yourself and not to impose it on other people. I'm always thankful for the community support that we had during this time, especially when it happened. I was flooded by letters, by prayers and donations. I'll never forget that. I remember telling myself if she's found, I'm going to sit down and answer every letter.
00:54:31
Speaker
But unfortunately, that never happened." While the Golub family didn't get answers, Anne's disappearance, among other public missing children's cases at the time, actually led to the creation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in an attempt to not only raise awareness, but to strengthen communication among departments in such cases.
00:54:56
Speaker
Anne's case was one of the first missing child posters that the NCMEC produced, and her case was one of the first to use a billboard to raise awareness. Sadly for Anne's parents, the tips that resulted were not enough to bring closure. That is something her family still desperately needs.
00:55:20
Speaker
Anyone with information is asked to call the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department at 502-574-7111 or the Federal Bureau of Investigation Louisville, Kentucky office at 502-263-6000.
00:55:39
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
00:56:08
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.