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E204: The Murder of Jessica Briggs and Conviction of Anthony Sanborn Part 2
4.1k Plays2 years ago
On May 24th, 1989, the body of 16-year-old Jessica Briggs was pulled from the waters of Casco Bay in Portland, Maine. For some time afterward there were no names suspects; that is, until law enforcement honed in on Briggs’ ex-boyfriend— Anthony Sanborn, also 16. Despite the fact that no forensic evidence from the scene matched Sanborn, there were three witness statements that would seem to provide motive AND put him at the scene. Based upon those statements, although Sanborn continued to state his innocence, he was convicted. Decades later, with the Innocence Project involved, a new investigation was launched and Sanborn was granted a post-conviction hearing. What private investigator Kevin Cady uncovered would turn everything on its head. Join me as I go through the case piece-by-piece with Bob Motta, host of Defense Diaries and co-host of The Docket.
Special thanks to Kevin Cady for allowing me to interview him for our coverage. Your insight and expertise were invaluable.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Coffee and Cases'
00:00:16
Speaker
Oh.
00:00:36
Speaker
Welcome to coffee and cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Alison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
Community Involvement in Missing Persons Cases
00:00:45
Speaker
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.
00:00:55
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 to keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
Revisiting Tony Sanborn's Case
00:01:13
Speaker
In our last episode, you heard me begin to tell Bob Motta of defense diaries about the conviction of Tony Sanborn in the murder of Jessica Briggs. If you haven't yet listened to episode 203, please go back and listen to it. In it, you'll hear about the testimony that led to the conviction of Tony Sanborn and about his fight to prove his innocence since that time.
00:01:38
Speaker
In today's episode, you'll hear more about the result of that fight and even more wild truths that came to light thanks to the investigation done by Kevin Cady, who I spoke with to gain so much valuable information for last episode and for this one.
00:01:57
Speaker
Since Bob Motta, with whom I spoke during that first part of this episode, is very much focused on facts and just the facts without getting into the speculations, I end my discussion with him with the end of our discussion of the case itself. However, I will then alone do a little more speculative exploring by describing other potential perpetrators that Kevin Cady and I discussed.
00:02:26
Speaker
Again, before starting, I urge you to listen to our last episode for the first half of this case. In addition, you may be interested in following up by re-listening to episodes 197 and 198 on the Connecticut River Valley Killer, as well as episode 113 on Valerie Brooks to help form your opinion.
Doubts on Key Testimony
00:02:49
Speaker
Now, let's jump right back in where we left off our discussion with Margaret Bragdon telling the court that it is now her belief that Hope Cady never saw what she originally said that she did.
00:03:05
Speaker
Because of the post-trial juror interviews, we obviously know that it was Hope Cady's testimony that had swayed the jury into convicting Sanborn. But there was even more discovered during this new investigation, Bob. For example, there was a box of evidence
00:03:20
Speaker
with everything from witness statements to police reports to a photo lineup. This was a lineup that Kevin Cady told me he was very interested in because it had been, according to him, discarded when no one who was shown the lineup chose Tony Sanborn as the perpetrator. This box of evidence was discovered in the attic of a retired detective's home.
00:03:45
Speaker
And Sanborn's attorneys argued that some of the evidence had never been turned over to defense lawyers in Sanborn's original trial. Here's why Kevin Cady explains why that photo lineup finally found in that box was of particular interest to him.
00:04:02
Speaker
They were showing, so back then, the main state pier, half of it was part of Bath Ironworks. Bath Ironworks in Maine, they build and repair Navy destroyers and ships. They build them.
00:04:22
Speaker
the Navy has their ships built. So back then Portland and then Bath, Bath Ironworks and Bath Main is a huge shipyard where they laid a keel and all that stuff. Portland was a repair facility. So when Jessica Briggs is seeing on a bike with another guy going down the pier the night she's killed,
00:04:45
Speaker
There's a bus taking night shift at midnight back to Bass, which is 25 minutes north of Portland. And they have all these people that saw this happen because they're looking at Jessica Briggs. She was cute.
00:05:00
Speaker
wearing a skirt or whatever she was wearing. And they were like, wow, look at
Questioning Witness Credibility
00:05:05
Speaker
her, everybody. Look, look, look, all these guys, right? And so they were showing, the detectives were showing Tony Sanborn's photo lineup. So he's one of six.
00:05:16
Speaker
and no one picked Tony out so they stopped showing it they just said well that entire bus nobody they said that no that he was not with her that was not Tony Sanborn so you know when it comes to that that photo lineup
00:05:32
Speaker
And that's what we were looking for. When we went back to Portland PD, we couldn't find, that was the one big thing I wanted to see was this photo lineup. You know, and the thing with photo lineups, they can't be suggestive. Everybody has to look sort of the same. You know, no one can have a tattoo on their forehead. You know, there's rules to those lineups, and we could never find it. And then, you know, it turned out to be at Jim Daniels' house.
00:06:02
Speaker
So Sanborn's defense also uncovered copies of interviews with others of Sanborn's friends with a note on top that read, and this is according to an article for WGME Channel 13, which is a CBS affiliate, quote, statements not sent as discovery per request of Detective Young, March 26, 90, to be changed to narrative reports, end quote.
00:06:29
Speaker
Now, Bob, my understanding is that that would mean basically full statements would be condensed down to short blurbs paraphrased by law enforcement. And it's literally written by the cop. So like in the Gacy case, for all five of Gacy's confessions, none of them were taped, none of them were handwritten by Gacy, they were paraphrased.
00:06:59
Speaker
by a cop. So, you know, it's a major difference in terms of somebody writing something out by hand and a cop saying, OK, well, this is what I remember them saying based on my notes. You know what I'm it's it's a very different thing. And, you know, it's getting filtered through the mind of the cop. You know what I'm saying? It's they're two completely different things. So, yeah, you were right. Like narratives are basically just what the cops remember from the notes of what was said to them by a witness. Right.
00:07:27
Speaker
So Sanborn's attorneys, they appealed to the Brady Doctrine named after the Supreme Court case, which again, from my understanding, basically says that in a trial, the prosecution has a duty to give the defense all evidence that could help the defendant. This would obviously have included the information that was found in the officer's attic and the information that the main witness's credibility could have been undermined.
00:07:54
Speaker
They have this obligation that they knew. Then there's the recanting of the statements made also by the other two witnesses in the original trial. So the sometime roommate, Jerry Rossi, he recanted saying that he had penned the murder on Sanborn because he was threatened by police that if he didn't, they
Witness Recantations and Police Coercion
00:08:17
Speaker
would arrest him instead.
00:08:19
Speaker
And that if he went along with what they said, he would get immunity. And then the other friend, Glenn Brown, he's now stating that he was threatened with charges in an unrelated case if he didn't implicate Sanborn. Right. So, I mean, there's, there's all, everybody is saying I, I, I lied originally. Right. So I got railroaded, completely railroaded.
00:08:45
Speaker
Absolutely. And recall that he was the one who told police that Sanborn and Briggs had rekindled their relationship the night before the murder, but that they had argued and Jessica had left. And that's what gave motive that Tony was mad and he was looking for her. So in the original trial, law enforcement produced a written statement from Brown implicating Sanborn. Here is Kevin Cady explaining the problem with that written statement.
00:09:14
Speaker
So I interviewed Glenn Brown. And Glenn, I had a written statement. It was actually type written. And there was no handwritten statement. But what would happen back then, probably they still do it at Portland Media. I don't know. But they'd bring in a sonographer, and the sonographer would take notes. And then they'd draw up a two-page statement that says whatever
00:09:44
Speaker
This is what I have to say, and you sign it. Well, this wasn't signed, and when I showed it to him, he said, well, I didn't write a statement because back then I couldn't read or write. I'm like, how do you make this stuff up? He said, look, I didn't write a statement, so if they typed a statement, I never saw it, and I never signed one, and that's not signed.
00:10:06
Speaker
He did testify against Tony, saying that Tony, at some point, they were together and said, Tony pulled a knife out and said, I can't remember what was said, attributed to Tony by Glenn Brown, but it had to do with, I stabbed Jessica with this knife, or worse of that effect.
00:10:29
Speaker
And he says, look, I'm going to tell you right now, he had charges pending. We're going back to how police work was done. You tell us something good will help you out. And lo and behold, you're going to testify and your charges will be reduced or
00:10:52
Speaker
I don't know what happened with them, but I probably, you know, they went away. And he said, look, I'm going to, I'll testify right now. I lied. I committed perjury. They can charge me with it. You know, in 2017, they charged me with it, but I lied.
00:11:10
Speaker
In fact, according to reporter Kelly Wheel, Brown was, quote, functionally illiterate at the time and had never read the written version of the report the police claimed he made, end quote.
00:11:22
Speaker
They had a whole list of other suspects. Everybody from FBI behavioral experts actually came in and they said, no, this looks like the work of a serial killer. There was another Portland street kid who had been infatuated with Jessica. There was an incarcerated male who admitted to the murder.
00:11:44
Speaker
There was someone who had assaulted Hope Cady actually in the days after Jessica Briggs's murder. He had assaulted her with a razor blade. And then, you know, the fact that the blood at the scene doesn't match Sanborn, the hair doesn't match Sanborn, neither of the semen samples. It seems pretty clear that there is reasonable doubt.
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. So the defense closed by asking the judge to set bail after hearing all of the testimonies that they had presented, but without yet hearing statements made by the prosecution or testimony from the detectives or
00:12:24
Speaker
the former Assistant Attorney General.
Sanborn's Bail Decision
00:12:27
Speaker
And Fairfield, Sanborn's defense, she stated, quote, Mr. Sanborn has been in custody for 27 years for a murder he didn't commit. Hope Katie was their only witness. My burden here is, is there a likelihood of success? This is the state's case, is Hope Katie, that's it.
00:12:45
Speaker
So to keep a man in jail for one second longer just perpetuates this miscarriage of justice that has happened to this wonderful human being. He is deserving of bail. I would urge the court to admit him to bail right now. So this stops now." End quote. Wow. Love that. Judge Wheeler took a recess to read the affidavits. When she returned, she made the following statement, quote,
00:13:15
Speaker
I do find that there is a reasonable likelihood of success on the petition, and I find that for purposes of bail. Because here we have had a 13 and 14-year-old child who was unstable in DHHS's custody, a runaway, someone who should not have been interviewed by the police without her guardian, and her guardian was Ms. Bragdon, and she was not involved in the interviews. And quite frankly, I wouldn't have wanted to go forward on a case based on her testimony.
00:13:45
Speaker
And it has been conceded that she is and was a material witness in the case. She's the only eyewitness in this case. She's the only, well, I think it's fair to say, the only hard evidence against Mr. Sanborn. And I found her today to be credible. I found her still to be very nervous.
00:14:03
Speaker
And as for her eyesight, I find that she did have significant eyesight problems back when she, at the time all of these events were going on, she wore glasses. I believe Ms. Bragdon told the state, either through the police or through the district, through the Attorney General's office, that there were eye problems. And that was not disclosed to the defense, so that the defense could not properly cross examine an eyewitness on something that, as crucial as her eyesight.
00:14:30
Speaker
Now, in terms of setting bail, I've had reports of Mr. Sanborn as an ideal prisoner. I don't know how he was able to maintain, I don't know if I brought it with me, I don't know how he was able to maintain himself through his 27 years of imprisonment, but I read from a letter from Garrett Vale, who worked in Maine State Prison,
00:14:49
Speaker
and knew Mr. Sanborn for 11 years. And he says, what is clearer and clearer all the time to me is that Tony Sanborn is a man of quiet courage, immense patience, and profound integrity. It's the only reason I can understand now, accepting that is how I can understand how he survived over all these years." End quote.
00:15:09
Speaker
Judge Wheeler then stated, quote, quite frankly, when I walked into the courtroom and saw a middle-aged man sitting in Mr. Sanborn's place and knowing that this happened when he was 17 years old, this is only a bail hearing. So I cannot apologize to you, Mr. Sanborn, at this time. All I can say is that there is a reasonable likelihood that you will succeed on the petition and I'm going to set bail. End quote. All right. And she set it at $25,000 cash or surety.
00:15:39
Speaker
Sanborn said to Judge Wheeler at the bail hearing, quote, to have the guts that you did. And I don't know where your stance is or what you believe in. And I know at this stage you can't tell me, but thank you for being someone because I didn't believe in anything in the system. So thank you, end quote. To which Justice Wheeler responded, quote, thank you.
00:16:01
Speaker
I understand you've lost your faith in the justice system and my only goal is to give everyone a sense that justice was done and to give everyone a fair trial, fair hearing, and I hope you leave here with that conviction today." According to an interview by Maine Public with the original prosecutor Pam Ames, she was in utter shock
00:16:21
Speaker
saying, quote, I am completely aghast that a judge would only hear part of the story and not even know the facts of the case. The fact that the judge did not hear from any witness from the state on the bail argument is completely unheard of and unprecedented, end quote.
00:16:37
Speaker
The state also felt as though that statement from the judge crossed the line, asking that she recuse herself because of the statement, something she declined to do, because the state said that this seeming apology, quote, created a perception that she had already decided in favor of Sanborn, end quote.
00:16:56
Speaker
Sounds like a good judge to me. Yeah, yeah. And of course, Pam Ames, she says, I'm in shock, you know, that a judge would set bail and not hear any witnesses from the state is unprecedented and unheard of. What else do you need to hear? Right? What else do you need to hear? Like, honestly, I cannot stand prosecutors like that. Like, just like,
00:17:22
Speaker
They're still gonna die on that hill. They'd rather have an innocent Pearl. Like, she's hearing it too. Like, either it's one of two things. Either Ames knew it then, which makes her an awful human being, or she's hearing it now and just rejecting it.
00:17:39
Speaker
because she doesn't want to be cast in the light of, oh, yeah, I put an innocent guy in prison for 27 years. Either way, own it. We're all human. We make mistakes. Sometimes they get the wrong guy. Own it. Quit perpetuating the nightmare. I'll never get it with prosecutors why they do that. And it's more often than not. It really is. I have no stomach for it.
00:18:06
Speaker
Yeah. Well, the judge ends up not recusing herself. Good for
Sanborn's Plea Deal and Its Implications
00:18:10
Speaker
her. And with this setting of bail, Sanborn became the first convicted murderer ever released on bail in the state of Maine. When it came time to determine what to do with Sanborn, Sanborn accepted a plea deal. According to reporter Fred Bever from Maine Public, quote,
00:18:28
Speaker
In an apparent concession that the original sentence was not just, the plea deal included an unusual statement from prosecutors that in light of U.S. case law, Sanborn's original sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Sanborn's sentence was reduced to time served
00:18:47
Speaker
which when prison good conduct credit was factored in, which I didn't even know there was good behavior credit. I didn't, I didn't know what that was. I'll do that. But with it, it amounted to the equivalent of 42 years, three months, and nine days. The following was Judge Wheeler's final statement quote. So, and I recognize that too, that
00:19:10
Speaker
that this is not going to be very comforting to the victim's family. But all I can say is that my focus is on making sure that justice is achieved. And any decision I make is going to, there will be somebody who's going to be unhappy with what I decide and somebody who will be happy with what I decide. Very rarely do I make decisions that both people like. And to the family, I'm sorry that this may indeed reopen the question of who murdered Jessica. But if that's justice,
00:19:39
Speaker
So be it." And it feels strange to say that justice takes different forms like it does in this case. And I'm curious about what this means for Jessica Briggs since Sanborn took a plea deal that he can never go back to prison for these charges, no probation even, but it is still on his record.
00:19:59
Speaker
What does this mean in terms of testing evidence and convicting someone else in Jessica Briggs's murder? What does that justice look like? In a case like this where it seems there was a miscarriage of justice. And so he's being freed finally after all these years, but it's still on his record.
00:20:22
Speaker
And so a case closed, I guess, in terms of the law. So in a way, it seems just that he is now free, but in a way it doesn't, because if he didn't commit the crime, someone else did. And so what does that ultimately mean? That Jessica Briggs has not gotten justice in this guy. So
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's like you have cases like the West Memphis Three, same thing. You know, they all got out. They all did Alford, please, where they're basically saying, OK, we're not admitting guilt, but we acknowledge the fact that the state had enough evidence to get a conviction. And, you know, they're opting to say, all right, I'm choosing freedom because I can't trust the judicial system. I can't trust the courts. That's evident.
00:21:11
Speaker
I've been in here for 27 years, I'm not willing to take that chance again. I don't want a new trial, because ultimately, that's what it would have boiled down to. Had they followed through with the petition all the way, had he not decided to plead it out and take the deal, it would have gone to a new trial. And a guy who's done 27 years is like, man,
00:21:34
Speaker
Do I want to take the shot at this? You know, and it's like, yeah, like the question is, has justice been served? And the answer is no, it hasn't. I mean, I'm thankful that Sanborn's out. It clearly sounds like he was 100 percent railroaded, you know, but in the meantime, whoever killed Jessica Briggs is still out there. And, you know, I mean, we always go back to the victims on this and there's multiple victims, there's
00:22:01
Speaker
obviously Tony Sanborn, and there's obviously Jessica Briggs, and she never got justice, and he never got justice. So it's a sad case all around, and it's not as uncommon as you'd think it would be. And it's just one of those things where we're seeing them all the time. We're seeing it with Adnan Syed. That case is going on. That's still very much active. You're seeing it with Michael Peterson, like with the staircase guy.
00:22:31
Speaker
And it's like one of those things where he took an Alford plea, even though he didn't trust the system, he wasn't willing to go back. And you still have his family members or her family members, his ex-wife or his past wife's family saying, I think you killed her. Because the people, the victims and their families, they rely on law enforcement.
00:22:54
Speaker
completely, you know, whatever they say, Hey, look, you know, this is, we, we've got an ironclad case. We know we got the right guy. And then that becomes the reality, you know? And it's almost impossible to get them to think anything other than what law enforcement and the prosecutor told them originally, we got the right guy. Justice has been served. You know what I mean? And like trying to go back. So yeah, it's a sad, it's a sad thing, but you know, I'm thankful that he's out.
00:23:22
Speaker
And, you know, I think that there's probably enough people behind him that he's going to be able to live a pretty decent life. Like he's not like going to come out and not have any, any ability to be able to do things, even with that conviction still on his record, because there's so much powerful evidence that he's innocent and he's got so many good people behind him. You know, that I think hopefully he'll have a decent life, but, you know, yeah, he's got, he does have a strong support system. So.
00:23:52
Speaker
Thank you so much Bob for joining me for helping me work my way through this case and all the legalities of it. No problem. So if you'd like to check out more from Bob and I promise all of his content is phenomenal. Make sure you check out the show notes for where you can find all of his projects.
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00:28:12
Speaker
Now I'm going to begin discussing other potential theories as to who murdered Jessica Briggs, and they are numerous.
Exploring Alternative Suspects
00:28:21
Speaker
If we believe that Jessica Briggs was not killed by Tony Sanborn, then someone else did it.
00:28:28
Speaker
Not sadly, in the eyes of the law, this case is closed, but I'd like to at least share some of the other potential theories. The individuals that I'm going to talk about, or many of them at least, are individuals who were known to law enforcement, even while their laser focus was on Sanborn.
00:28:49
Speaker
Ultimately, while I can't pretend to know who killed Jessica Briggs, my question is, shouldn't the fact that we have all of these other potential theories have meant that there was reasonable doubt from the beginning? Could one of these individuals be responsible?
00:29:09
Speaker
Alternative theory number one, years after Sanborn was found guilty, another member of the street kids confessed to Jessica's murder when interviewed by the FBI. This individual was a federal inmate from the same crowd as Sanborn and Briggs, and he claimed to have killed Briggs with a rug cutting tool before tossing her into the ocean.
00:29:37
Speaker
Then he later recanted saying he wanted to increase his sentence to move to a different part of the prison and that that's why he gave a false confession. I actually spoke about this theory with Kevin Cady and he too believes that this individual was lying to see what he could get from it.
00:29:59
Speaker
And Katie believes this because when this claim of killing Jessica Briggs didn't get him transferred, this individual killed his cellmate. So the transfer he wanted to happen did happen. Here's what Kevin Katie had to say about theory number one, the confession.
00:30:18
Speaker
So he's being interviewed in New Jersey in a federal prison by the FBI about a serial killer that's in Maine and New Hampshire.
00:30:31
Speaker
So he then says, I want to get something off my chest. I killed Jessica Briggs. I used a rug cutter, blah, blah, blah, and threw her off the pier. And I did it. So that gets forwarded. God, when was that? 2009, maybe? That's when that got replaced. And it was forwarded.
00:30:58
Speaker
That's Bill Stokes, who's now a state Supreme Court or a Superior Court judge, was an Assistant Attorney General back
00:31:07
Speaker
So he got the information from the FBI and said, Portland police, please investigate this. And they never did. They never looked into it and nothing was ever done. There was a follow-up by Bill Stokes. I've seen the emails. Did you look into this? Tell me what the outcome is. And it was just never, you know, it was never a priority and it was never looked into. He ended up, and I can't, God, I can't remember this guy's name, but he, the inmate ends up in,
00:31:37
Speaker
He's in federal prison and he goes to Springfield, Missouri, which is a medical facility, detention facility, because he's got some sort of medical issue. And he, so then he decides that if, and this comes from his attorney, and I read the court transcripts, he kills, he murders his cellmate.
00:32:02
Speaker
because he knows if he goes to Terro, Indiana, on death row, he'll get his own cell and his own TV. He killed his cellmate, so he's put on trial, certain trial for that, goes to, gets convicted, and goes to, he's in Terro, as far as I know, unless he's been executed, he's on death row in Terro, Indiana. He knew Tony, he was with Tony in, Tony Samborn in the Maine State Prison, and they had a kind of a,
00:32:31
Speaker
They had at one point, they were almost got into a fight in the yard or wherever they are. So yeah, it's interesting. And as part of the penalty phase, the jurors heard that he had confessed to this. Jessica Briggs homicide. And so as part of his penalty phase, they're deciding, are we going to execute you?
00:32:54
Speaker
And that was that that information was given to them and they and they know now what weight they gave it who knows but that was Yeah, do I think he did it? I don't I don't think he did it But that was never so that was another another angle now, you know, I can only go so far is
00:33:16
Speaker
You know, what did he say? We talked to his attorney at the time. I think he probably would have let us talk to him if we went out there, but my job wasn't so much to solve that homicide, but it was to show that Tony Sanborn didn't do it, so I could only go so far.
00:33:34
Speaker
Alternative theory number two, Jessica's friend told law enforcement that an unidentified man had threatened her with a knife the day before the murder took place. What's more, Hope Katie told police about a man named Dusty who had assaulted her in the days after Jessica's murder and had followed her around and actually attacked her with a razor blade.
00:34:04
Speaker
Hope said that he took her to a basement and cut her arms with a razor. Obviously, I bring up these potential perpetrators here, the threatening with a knife and the man named Dusty with the razor blade because of the use of the sharp objects as the weapon of choice and that both happened around the time of Jessica Briggs's murder and in the same location.
00:34:31
Speaker
Former Assistant Attorney General Pam Ames was asked about why this other person, especially the named person who assaulted Hope Cady, was never considered a suspect. She replied, quote, I still don't see a connection between her being assaulted and her witnessing a homicide, end quote.
00:34:51
Speaker
Retired Portland detective James Daniels testified that he took written notes about what Hope had told him about Dusty, but that he never put that information into his report. Detective Daniels noted, quote, it wasn't made part of the case. It was part of my notes that were available for anyone to look at, but I didn't write a report and turn it in as something discoverable, end quote.
00:35:16
Speaker
Defense Attorney Amy Fairfield asked, quote, the fact that she, meaning Hope, the key witness against Tony Sanborn in the trial that convicted him, thought somebody else was the murderer other than Tony Sanborn, you don't think that's relevant? To which Detective Daniels replied that he thought Dusty and the Briggs murder were two separate incidents. Alternative theory number three.
00:35:46
Speaker
Although this potential theory is short, it bears noting, yet another friend, Robert Miller, stated that he tried to come to the police on three separate occasions to tell detectives that he had heard someone threatened to kill Jessica Briggs, only to be told all three times by law enforcement that they already had their subject.
00:36:15
Speaker
and that subject was Tony Sanborn. Alternative theory number four. FBI criminal profiler John Philpin looked into the Jessica Briggs murder. In his professional opinion, he believes that there is a sexual motivation to the murder and that her death is possibly the work of a serial killer.
00:36:40
Speaker
In his notes, he writes of the killer attacking Briggs with his right hand. Now, that may seem a small detail, but interestingly, it directly contradicts Jerry Rossi's statement, the fact that Philpon believes the killer is right-handed. You see, Rossi said that Sanborn, quote, grabbed her by the hair, slashed with his left hand, and stabbed her 11, 12 times, end quote.
00:37:09
Speaker
And you know, this theory that it was potentially a serial killer will break down into several theories because there are actually a few serial killers who may have potentially been linked to Jessica Briggs.
00:37:25
Speaker
This first alternative theory and theory number four is one of those. And it's one that Maggie brought us a case about just a few weeks back in episodes 197 and 198, the Connecticut River Valley Killer.
00:37:42
Speaker
In fact, not one, but two FBI or retired FBI criminal profilers believe that Briggs may have been the victim of this particular serial killer. Those two profilers are Greg McCreary and none other than John Philpin, the same FBI profiler who investigated the Connecticut River Valley case that Maggie brought up in that episode.
00:38:07
Speaker
According to Matt Burns' article in the Portland Press Herald from June 21, 2017, titled Two Crime Profilers for Anthony Sanborn Jr., Say Clues Suggest a Serial Killer, McCreary believes in the link because he, quote, described Briggs' killing as sexual in nature
00:38:28
Speaker
and is strikingly similar to the 1987 death of a Vermont woman believed to be the victim of the Connecticut River Valley Killer. That serial killer is believed responsible for seven
Connecting to Other Crimes
00:38:40
Speaker
deaths between 1978 and 1987." What's more, that killer has never been caught. So who's to say that the killing couldn't have continued past 1987?
00:38:55
Speaker
McCrary went on to say that Briggs's injuries, specifically the severing of her carotid artery, the near disembowelment, and puncturing of her jugular vein, quote, reflect an unusually severe underlying psychopathology typically evidenced by serially violent offenders. Therefore, there is a likelihood that Miss Briggs was the victim of a serial killer, end quote.
00:39:21
Speaker
McCrary further wrote, as mentioned in that same article, about the connections between Barbara Agnew, a known victim of the Connecticut River Valley Killer, and Jessica Briggs, saying, quote, Agnew sustained a strikingly similar pattern of injuries to that of Miss Briggs.
00:39:39
Speaker
While it would be premature to link this case without further in-depth analysis, these are the types of crimes that in the interest of justice should be cross-referenced and analyzed to determine whether or not they could be linked."
00:39:56
Speaker
I can also see a connection with victim Kathy Milliken that Maggie told us about, who had been stabbed more than 20 times to the neck and to the abdomen, the two sites of the worst wounds to Briggs as well. Recall that there were semen samples in Briggs's case that have yet to be linked to anyone, and we know that the Connecticut River Valley Killer was known to sexually assault his victims as well.
00:40:25
Speaker
Alternative theory number five is another serial killer. This one is Glenn Brown Rogers. Glenn Rogers is believed to have been in Portland at the time with either a circus or a traveling carnival. Rogers was known to have used his position within the carnival to travel the country, explaining his name of the cross-country killer.
00:40:50
Speaker
He has at least five known victims, but Roger's sister once told a reporter that her brother spoke of killing at least 55. Roger's himself claims a number upwards of 70. His most well-known victims, or potential victims, are ones based on claims he has made rather than solid proof. You see, Roger's claims that he was hired to kill Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman
00:41:20
Speaker
Yes, that Nicole Brown Simpson, O.J. Simpson's ex-wife. Most of Roger's victims had been stabbed to death.
00:41:31
Speaker
You may remember his name as one theory that was thrown out in the Valerie Brooks case that we covered in episode 113. However, I questioned his involvement in that particular case since all of his known murders occurred between 1993 and 1995. Valerie's case happened on December 31st, 1990. If he is linked to Jessica Briggs, her case would have been even earlier in 1989.
Potential Suspects: Rogers and Yvonnetz
00:42:01
Speaker
And I cannot tell from the images of Jessica, as I haven't really seen one in vivid color. But Rogers seemed to gravitate toward redheads for his victims. What makes him interesting in this particular case is that some law enforcement believe that Glenn Rogers may have actually committed some of the murders that were attributed to Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer.
00:42:28
Speaker
Could this be another such case of mistaken identity where Rogers committed a murder, but it is being potentially attributed to the Connecticut River Valley Killer? After all, Rogers was touring with the circus between 1989 and 1993. A final serial killer alternative theory. Alternative theory number six is Richard Marc Yvonnetz.
00:42:55
Speaker
Evanis was first on the radar of law enforcement because of his history of arrests from exposing himself and masturbating in front of women. However, he then progressed to murder.
00:43:09
Speaker
While most of his known murder victims were from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, when he was finally caught, founder of the University of Virginia Law School's Innocence Project, Deidre Inright, believes Evonitz may have been responsible for other murders prior to his known ones.
00:43:29
Speaker
In fact, there's one murder she believes he is responsible for that took place around 30 minutes away from the Briggs murder and less than a year earlier.
00:43:40
Speaker
On July 6th, 1988, a young 12-year-old named Sarah Margaret Cherry was babysitting at home in rural Bowdoin, Maine. She had been abducted, bound, sexually assaulted with sticks, stabbed, and then strangled with a scarf.
00:43:59
Speaker
Her body was left there in the woods where it would be discovered a few days later. Some witnesses recalled seeing a white Toyota Corolla in the area where her body was later discovered. While Dennis DeShane was convicted of her murder, he has always maintained his innocence and continued to appeal the conviction.
00:44:23
Speaker
Despite the conviction, Enright believes that Evonitz may have actually been the killer. He had access to a white Toyota Corolla like the one described, the MO of the crime fit with Evonitz, and Evonitz was nearby as he served as a sonar tech on the USS Kelsch with the US Navy.
00:44:46
Speaker
That boat was based in Portland, Maine from May 8, 1988 until May 31, 1989 because the boat was, according to an August 7, 2022 article by Colin Woodard for centralmaine.com, undergoing a refit at the Bath Iron Works facility.
00:45:10
Speaker
Now, I'm hoping that name triggers something in your brain because that is the very same peer from under which Jessica Briggs's body was pulled. While the MO was different for Briggs than for Yvonnet's other victims, you can see why many believe he is at least a potential suspect.
00:45:32
Speaker
I spoke with Kevin Cady not only about motive, but also about some of these theories. Specifically, I asked him whether he thought the murder of Briggs were sexually motivated or motivated by rage. Here was his response.
00:45:48
Speaker
So I know that we had experts, behavioral, FBI type behavioral experts, look at this crime scene and the evisceration and her throat's literally, she's almost decapitated. And she's been to her, one eye is swollen up black and blue. So it wasn't a first time
00:46:22
Speaker
There was hair in her, between her fingers, belonging to a male. So yeah, it was brutal.
00:46:40
Speaker
And I guess because of what you said, how it was kind of clear that this wasn't someone's first time, I did read that, I think his name was John Philpin, the criminal profiler. Yeah, that he believed that it was the work of a serial killer. And I think he was thinking about the Connecticut River Valley Killer, I think was the specific one he was thinking about. But do you think there's any possibility for a theory like that?
00:47:10
Speaker
Well, one of the things that piqued my interest is there was a navy ship in port, and I'm hearing, so there's a book that's written by Diane Fanning, and it's called Into the Water.
00:47:27
Speaker
And it has to do with this murder suspect, Richard Mark Yvonnex, E-V-O-N-I-T-Z. And he's from Spotsylvania, Pennsylvania. Well, he was in the Navy. And in 1989, right about that time, he was in Portland, because his ship was in Portland being decommissioned, because his ship was going to be
00:47:54
Speaker
given to the Philippines. And in looking at time frames, the ship had left. But it doesn't mean that he wasn't on it. The speaker was being decommissioned. He was a sonar man. So you don't need a sonar man on the ship, the ship's decommissioned. But there is this book by Diane Fanning, and I've talked to her. So what he did is he murdered
00:48:25
Speaker
Two or three girls, he abducted and murdered two or three girls, and all of his victims went into the water, into some sort of water, which is interesting. There's one girl, how he ended up killing himself, he got chased, he was down in, I think maybe Sarasota, Florida, and the sheriff's office chased him to arrest him and he killed himself, but he'd said he'd killed others besides the ones he was known for.
00:48:54
Speaker
like that's with similar, you know, like with the, no, it wasn't, it wasn't that, that blitz type, you know, this oration and, and so splashing. So, you know, so he's, you know, there's, there's a, well, there's also some thought process that Glenn Rogers,
00:49:14
Speaker
was in Portland at the time because he was with the part of the Bailey Circus. Glen Rogers is in prison in Florida now, but he did a slew of, uh, of burgers. And there's, you know, it's hard to, you know, pin down whether he was actually here. I heard he was here and, you know, the train comes in and they got the elephants to go up the street and, you know, and he's, he's in Portland, but, um, yeah. So again, Mike,
00:49:46
Speaker
did Tony do it or not do it? And if the evidence shows that he did it, that's the way it is. But it was a brutal murder.
00:49:58
Speaker
Alternative theory number seven, this theory was brought up as well in my conversation with Katie that there had been another male at the youth center who seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with Jessica Briggs.
Investigating New Leads
00:50:11
Speaker
Might that obsession and her lack of response have prompted an attack? Here's what Katie said about this potential theory. The other...
00:50:24
Speaker
He was a juvenile at the time and he was in the youth center with Jessica and Tony. He had gotten out but what he had in his mind or he was dating Jessica and he thought that they were engaged
00:50:45
Speaker
even though they're 16, and you're going to get married when she gets out. Well, he runs into her a week before the murder. He runs into her on Congress Street in Portland at a 7-Eleven, and he's buying something. He sees her and says, hey, you're supposed to be my fiancé. When did you get out of the youth center? She goes, oh, I got out a month and a half ago. And he went.
00:51:12
Speaker
No.
00:51:30
Speaker
that we could never determine how he said he cut his finger or cut himself shaving. I don't know what his excuse was, but he had, but he had blood on his sneakers and we could never, we could never determine how that blood was ever tested or whether it was eliminated as being justice. Speaking of the Maine Youth Center, alternative theory number eight is the worker from the center whom Tony had seen in the car with Jessica Briggs that prompted the breakup.
00:52:00
Speaker
So far as I know, he wasn't even considered a possible suspect by law enforcement. Again, here's what Katie said about this theory as well. To lend credence to this, word gets out somehow prior to this murder. And this guy is investigated by Department of Corrections. The Maine State Department of Corrections investigators
00:52:29
Speaker
He did it, and they had forwarded all the investigative reports and conclusions to the Cumberland County DA's office for prosecution. I've read it. I read the reports that they sent to the DA's office, and it was literally like eight weeks before the murder. So I'm like, well, why wasn't this guy interviewed?
00:52:56
Speaker
to say he was interviewed, and he was in Nevada, or he was in California when the murder happened. I mean, where is that? Then, of course, we have a final theory, theory number nine of the man seen riding bikes with Jessica Briggs by the busload of people on the night she was murdered. While I do not have a physical description of the man to compare with all of our alternative theories, we do know from Katie
00:53:23
Speaker
that the lineup was created after that sighting and that none of the individuals on the bus identified Sanborn as the man they had seen. Could the man have been one of these other potential theories? Without someone coming forward with memories or information, I fear that we may never know.
00:53:46
Speaker
Just as Bob and I discussed, justice looks different in this case than we normally expect. It isn't tidy. It isn't clear. And as of right now, there don't seem to be any answers nor guarantees.
00:54:01
Speaker
other than that there is definitely more work that needs to be done and that we have a duty to continue to push for answers. If you have any information to share concerning the Briggs murder, please contact the Portland, Maine Police Department at 207-874-8479.
00:54:25
Speaker
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00:54:55
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
00:55:18
Speaker
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