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Hot Pursuit: A True Crime Podcast Collaboration (Part 2)
2.5k Plays4 months ago
Welcome to Hot Pursuit, a summer true-crime collaboration, where we dive deep into the world of true crime. We’ve gathered many incredible true-crime podcasters to bring you a multi-part series that’s all about the heat of the chase. We'll explore cases where justice was relentlessly pursued, delve into crimes that occurred during the scorching summer months, and highlight cold cases that desperately need some heating up. From heart-pounding pursuits to stories of perseverance and determination, this collaborative effort aims to shed light on cases that have captivated the public’s imagination and those that need your attention now more than ever.
In episode 1 you’ll hear from the following podcasters (in order); if you enjoy listening, please check out their podcasts by clicking their link below:
Fresh Hell https://freshhellpodcast.com/
The Trail Went Cold https://www.trailwentcold.com/
Suffer the Little Children https://linktr.ee/stlcpod
Music City 911 https://musiccity911.com/
Already Gone https://www.instagram.com/alreadygonepod/
Sirens: A Southern True Crime Podcast Https://bit.ly/TheSirensNetwork
Www.thesirenspodcast.com
Everything Scary https://linktr.ee/everythingscary
Private Dicks https://linktr.ee/privatedicks
In episode 2 you’ll hear from the following podcasters (in order); if you enjoy listening, please check out their podcasts by clicking their link below:
The Dark Oak Podcast The Dark Oak | Podcast on Spotify
thedarkoak.com
Key to the Case https://linktr.ee/keytothecase
True Crime Creepers https://linktr.ee/TrueCrimeCreepers
Vintage Homicide https://linktr.ee/vintagehomicidepodcast
Excuse Me, That’s Illegal www.linktr.ee/excusemethatsillegal.pod
Beyond the Rainbow https://beyondtherainbowpodcast.com
Murder and Mimosas https://linktr.ee/murder.mimosas.pod?utm_source=linktree_admin_share
Coffee and Cases https://linktr.ee/coffeeandcases
Method and Madness Method & Madness Podcast (methodandmadnesspodcast.com)
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Transcript
Introduction to the True Crime Summer Series
00:00:17
Speaker
Welcome back to Hot Pursuit, a summer true crime collaboration where we continue our exploration of the tales of relentless chases and summer crimes that kept us on the edge of our seats. I'm your host, Alison, from Coffee and Cases podcast. And today we bring you the final part of our special series. And with me is my friend, Kristin, from True Crime Creepers. Today, we're turning up the heat even more with fresh tales from our fellow true crime podcasters. These stories capture the essence of pursuit, the relentless drive to uncover the truth, solve the unsolvable, and bring justice to those who need it most.
Dark Oak Podcast: Robin Gardner Case
00:00:58
Speaker
Get ready for another round of intense, intriguing, and unforgettable true crime stories. Let's dive into the final part of Hot Pursuit.
00:01:10
Speaker
Let's begin our fresh pursuit with the Dark Oak podcast, where they cover mysteries, but with a purpose. Their charity called Branch of Hope Foundation shows their unwavering dedication. Hello, shiver seekers. Are you ready to follow us into the unknown? I'm Cynthia. And I'm Stephanie. You have found the Dark Oak. In today's episode, we will tell you about the tragic story of Robin Gardner, who disappeared from the beautiful Caribbean island of Aruba while visiting with her travel companion, Gary Giordano. Gary says Robin was lost to a freak snorkeling accident, but Robin's friends and family believe Gary is to blame.
00:02:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Dark Oak, the mystery podcast with purpose. Each month through our charity called the Branch of Hope Foundation, we give back to a nonprofit organization related to the first episode of the month. The stories we cover provide entertainment and excitement, but we never want to lose touch with the human side of each story. To find out more, head to our website at thedarkoak.com. Well, Cynthia, this is so funny. A summer collaboration. I'm so excited. This is awesome. I know. and I want to thank the girlies from True Crime Creepers and and Coffee and Cases for inviting us to be part of this collab. Kristen and Allison, you guys rock. I love the idea that we're all out trying to support each other. That's amazing. I agree. So today I thought I could let our gorgeous listeners in on our latest summer case, which is dropping hot right now.
00:02:53
Speaker
Oh, look at you bringing in the sum of fun with the hot hats. Now, this may not be a case you're super familiar with, but I know you recognize the name Natalie Holloway. I absolutely do was just listening to a podcast on her the other day. It's incredible. I cannot believe they finally convicted Van der Sloot. Oh, my gosh. Thank goodness. Van der Schute. Yeah, he's disgusting. But did you also know that Robin Gardner is a beautiful American blonde woman who vanished in the Caribbean island of Aruba? I don't think I've heard of this case. It's the perfect summer case for us. In August of 2011, 35-year-old Robin traveled to Aruba with her 50-year-old travel companion, Gary Giordano, who was a possible secret lover. Okay, this sounds a little scandalous. A little.
00:03:44
Speaker
Two days into their trip, Robin vanished. Now Robin was described as a total girly girl and someone who appeared to have it all together. She loved to travel, she loved her two cats, Coby and Toonsie, and she enjoyed shows like The Real Housewives of New York. She also enjoyed the finer things in life and took pride in her appearance. Unsurprisingly, she also liked being treated like a lady. Okay, I think I'd be her friend. Yeah, she sounds pretty hip. In 2009, Robin began dating Richard Forrester, who she met on Match dot.com. They were together two and a half years before Robin's trip to Aruba. According to Richard, it was an instant connection. He said, quote, she was outgoing and very friendly. She got along with everybody. She loved to play tennis, run and stay active.
00:04:28
Speaker
And Richard paints a picture ah of a fairy tale romance. But unbeknownst to Richard, Robin was still active on Match dot.com. Oh my. After two and a half years. After two and a half years. She didn't just forget to cancel because I did actually forget to cancel. ah But I wish I could say that was the case. But unfortunately, she was very active. Oh. Because this is where she met Gary Giordano. Oh my goodness. OK. And it's hard to tell if they were an intimate relationship or more of a transactional one. There are a lot more details to this, but let's just say their relationship fell somewhere between friendship and dating. I don't know, I feel like there may be a third option there as there was some insinuation that maybe Robin was even an escort. But honestly, there's no evidence to back up any of this, so we don't know. We just know they had some kind of intimate relationship.
00:05:24
Speaker
Did Richard know about Gary's existence? Richard was clueless about Gary's existence, ok which makes this even harder. Robin and Gary carried on this relationship for a year before Robin's disappearance. Okay, so this was like a long time of keeping secrets. Long time of keeping secrets. Over the year Robin and Gary were in contact, Gary was consistently asking Robin to join him on exotic trips and was a little short tempered whenever Robin would say no, which is concerning.
00:05:56
Speaker
It has some red flags, for sure. Robin had always declined on any of these trips up to this point, but things changed for her when her life took a bit of a rocky turn. Robin lost her job as a dental coordinator and this took a toll on her. It really kind of got her down. Sure, it's a hit to the pride for sure, sure. It was during this tumultuous time, right after a fight with Richard, that Robin made what I think is a terrible lapse in judgment and a pretty knee-jerk decision to go to Aruba with Gary.
00:06:27
Speaker
Had she ever met Gary in person before? No, not that I know of. Okay. Gary seems to say, of course, after the fact that they were very, very close, yet he's never provided any evidence that they've met each other outside of this arranged meeting. And where did Richard think she was going? Richard thought she was going to Florida to meet with her parents, which would not have been unusual. As a matter of fact, going to Orlando to meet her parents so okay where we were recording from. That's right. So he's thinking she's in Florida with her family. Meanwhile, she's in Aruba with Gary, who she's just meeting for the first time in person. Yeah. Okay. Tell me more.
00:07:06
Speaker
On the second day of their trip at approximately 3 p.m., Robin and Gary popped in for lunch at the Rum Reef Barn Grill on Baby Beach, which is a beach surrounding a protected lagoon on the south side of Aruba. Luckily, the restaurant had incredible video footage. Wow, we never hear about that. Which is like the holy grail of true crime mystery podcasts. Yeah, every single case we're like, guess what? The cameras weren't working. The cameras were blurry. the The perpetrator walked between fence posts at the exact same time the camera was trying to focus all the things but there is actual
00:07:45
Speaker
Footage now there is an actual footage of her disappearance or again this infamous snorkeling episode But we get all the details before and after okay, that's amazing it is Robin was wearing a tightly fitted multicolored striped full-length dress with sandals and she had any full face of makeup I'm talking the mascara the eyeliner the lipstick and and her hair was perfectly done. She had beautiful blonde hair, lightly curled with extensions.
00:08:17
Speaker
So to me, it doesn't exactly sound like beach going gear. That's not what I would wear to the beach, but it might be what I would wear like if I were on a date at a bar with somebody I was potentially seeing. Sure. And she looked amazing. Absolutely. But again, not something that I would necessarily wear to the beach. OK. Gary was wearing a black shirt, shorts, socks, and tennis shoes. Only a few minutes after Robin and Gary are seated at the restaurant, Robin goes to the ladies' room, has gone for only two minutes. At almost the exact same time, a Facebook message from Robin appears in Richard's inbox. It reads, quote, I love you. I care about you. We'll sort this out when I get back.
00:08:59
Speaker
Oh, so it sounds like she might be having some second thoughts about where she is. I think so too. And the fact that she had to go to the restroom to send this, which again, I don't know for sure, but based on the time stance, it is appears that that's where she send this message. I wonder was she trying to hide that message from Gary for some reason.
Key to the Case: Lopez Richardson's Disappearance
00:09:18
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, my imagination is playing out several different types of scenarios, but they all make me sad. And none of them good. Yeah. Exactly. But whatever it is, it's clear that from Robin, we're sensing maybe a little bit of remorse, a little bit of guilt. Sure. And and she loves Richard. Sure. Absolutely. At 4.13, the couple leaves the restaurant. The two go into a dive shop, but don't make any purchases. They then head back to their rental car and pull it around behind the restaurant to go to the beach.
00:09:49
Speaker
Now the dive shop owner remembers them parking the car and thinking it was strange because this part of the beach was not typically an area where tourists would visit to either sit on the beach or to snorkel because the beach was covered in rocks and reef and this is the last time we see the couple. Everything else is unfortunately not on camera. But the car is, so then getting out of the car is on camera. Correct, okay. The next thing we see on camera is Gary at 616, so full two hours after they were seen on camera before. And he's making his way back to the restaurant. And as he's walking, he's knocking in on a few doors. Robin is not with him.
00:10:29
Speaker
Gary doesn't look alarmed or panicked. He isn't jogging or running or pounding on doors. He's just walking along knocking on doors, which is important to note based on what we find out next. Let me ask you a quick question. When they got out of the car, was she wearing a bathing suit or was she wearing a bathing suit under her dress? She was not wearing a bathing suit under her dress. So she's wearing a full length dress. According to Gary, she took off her dress and sandals and left them on the beach. Now, after no one answers the knocks on the door, Gary eventually makes it to the back of the restaurant where he speaks to the kitchen staff, telling them to call for help because Robin has been involved in a catastrophic snorkeling incident and is now missing. But he's just meandering calmly, not running, not acting like his partner just went missing. That's correct. Okay.
00:11:17
Speaker
Gary tells patrons at the restaurant and eventually the police that he asked Robin if she wanted to go for a swim. Without answering him, she got into the water with her snorkel mask and Gary followed, also wearing his snorkel mask. According to Gary, he found the water current too strong for him. So he tapped Robin's leg and motioned back to the shore. He said she acknowledged him and so he turned around and without looking back the entire time to see if she was following him, he swam to the shore. And according to him, at this moment he felt like he was fighting for his life, yet never turned around to check on his snorkel buddy.
00:11:52
Speaker
OK, that's ah suspicious. Suspicious. When he reached the shore, he finally thought it was a good idea to turn around and see if Robyn was with him, which she wasn't. Now, if you got out of the water and your snorkely partner was not with you, what's something that you think you would do? I think I would look for my partner who's obviously in some trouble in this rough water. I think that sounds so incredibly reasonable. Unfortunately, Gary did not do that. He did not look for her at the shore. He did not reenter the water. He also did not go get additional gear because it turns out he was a certified diver with dive equipment in his car. Stephanie, he was not.
00:12:38
Speaker
He did not do any of those reasonable things. Okay. No, you're a certified, hold on, let's go. Certified diver, you've got somebody lost in the water. You have your equipment and you don't go back in looking for them. He claimed it would have been and dangerous for him to reenter the water. Well, yes, maybe so, but it's also dangerous for her to be lost in the water. Or even stand at the shore and look for her. He of his own admission says he didn't even wait at the shore. He just, oh, she's not there. I'm going to go for a nice leisurely walk and knock on doors. Well, according to him, it was a run. However, according to the video footage, it was a stroll. I mean, OK, I wasn't there, but this seems not right.
00:13:18
Speaker
not loving it. Yeah, not loving it. Now later in an interview with Dr. Phil, Gary is asked why he didn't simply call for emergency services on his cell phone. He said he didn't know the emergency service number in Aruba. In case you're interested, it is 911. Well, and you know, if I were in another country and an emergency happened, I don't think I'd stop and be like, now, what is their number? I think I would just try 911 right or wrong. I would try all of them. They're almost all subversion and 999, 911, 900. Try some numbers. While screaming for help, while running to get help, like all of the things that he's not doing. All of the things that he's not doing. Yeah, let's just say that.
00:14:00
Speaker
And again, I want to reiterate, as he's knocking on these doors, he's not running, he's not jogging, he is walking. Casually walking. I mean, maybe he's in shock. I mean, I don't know. Lots of questions here, and unfortunately this is also where I have to leave you. OK, so for all the details, you have to come check out the two parter. Stephanie's amazing at research and these details that nobody's ever heard of before. So I know what you're going to be doing right now is telling me all the rest that you haven't filled me in on. Listen, we've got a hot two parter right now at the Dark Oak podcast. You can find us at the dark oak dot com on Spotify, on Apple Music or anywhere you love to listen to your podcast.
00:14:44
Speaker
Again, I want to thank Kristin and Allison. You guys are amazing and Shiver seeking listeners. We love you and we can't wait to see you again soon. Thanks for listening guys. Have an awesome summer. Bye.
00:15:07
Speaker
Joining us next is Key to the Case, whose passion for justice burns brightly in every episode, covering unsolved and lesser known disappearances and suspicious deaths. Hi, listeners. I'm Sam from Key to the Case, an Unsolved True Crime podcast that highlights lesser known cases. Each Sunday, I tell my co-host, Sean, along with listeners, about either an unsolved murder or disappearance, and we discuss the case. All right, let's dive in. Lopez Richardson was 32 years old at the time of his disappearance in 2021. Lopez grew up in the small town of Clarksdale, Mississippi, and Clarksdale is often referred to as a birthplace of the blues. It has a rich musical heritage with several legendary blues musicians having lived or performed there. Music was important to Lopez from a young age, and he was well versed in the history of Clarksdale.
00:16:07
Speaker
Lopez has been described as artistically gifted. When I looked at his work, some of his art, it appeared that he could create art in many forms using different mediums, but it seemed that painting was really his true passion. After high school, Lopez enrolled in Kohoma Community College located in Clarksdale, and it was here where he met his future wife. Now, in some reports, her name has been withheld by her choice and some more recent coverage. She has used her name, but just to err on the side of caution, we will call her T, which is the first letter of her first name.
00:16:48
Speaker
T told Paramount Plus has never seen again that when she met Lopez, she had a young son and Lopez was great with him right away. Lopez really treated him as if it were his own child and they developed a special bond. T and Lopez eventually married and they had a daughter together in 2011, whom Lopez adored. And overall, I got the impression that Lopez put being a father first in life and he really doted on his daughter and his stepson and they adored him as well.
00:17:21
Speaker
In July 2014, Lopez and T decided to make a move to Houston, Texas. Although they loved Mississippi, they were ready for a change and were possibly looking for different opportunities beyond what Clarksdale could provide. Once they arrived in Houston, Lopez got a job working as a mechanic and a friend of his was in a motorcycle club. So Lopez became very interested in motorcycles. He joined this motorcycle club and he began working on motorcycles in addition to cars, I think just kind of in his spare time. Did they have any family in Houston?
00:18:01
Speaker
My understanding is that their family was rooted in Mississippi, both of their families. So I don't believe they had any family in Houston, but they definitely had a couple of friends there. It sounded like when they moved there and then they both made more friends while they were there. In July 2020, Lopez got into a motorcycle accident and sustained pretty severe injuries to his leg and foot. And during surgery, metal pins were inserted into some of the bones in his foot, and they were still present at the time of his disappearance. This injury made it more difficult for Lopez to get around or to walk great distances.
00:18:43
Speaker
After moving to Houston, the relationship between Lopez and T began to fall apart. So they made the difficult decision to separate, although they did not get divorced. At that point, Lopez decided to move to Rosenberg, Texas, because that would bring him closer to where his work was. And Rosenberg sits about 58 miles or 93 kilometers away from spring, Texas and the greater Houston area. And that is where tea lives. So they're about almost 60 miles apart from each other.
00:19:18
Speaker
Even though Lopez and T were separated, they still maintained a friendship. There didn't appear to be hostility between them at all. And I can imagine this benefited their daughter and T's son for them to see that despite their separation, they could still have a positive relationship. Fast forward a bit to 2021 and Lopez began to merge his artistic talent with his love for tattoos. We already talked about how he was an artist, but he also loved tattoos. He had quite a few on his body and he decided to become a tattoo artist with the aspiration of opening his own shop, which he ultimately did very shortly before his disappearance.
00:20:03
Speaker
His business was called Dear Life Tattoos in Rosenberg, and by all accounts, the shop was doing well. Lopez and T had an arrangement where their daughter would split time between them. So on July 5th, 2021, their daughter was with Lopez until he called T and asked if he could drop their daughter off with her. Lopez did not state why, but he also didn't give off any red flags at that time or act strangely. So to date, we don't really know exactly why he cut his time short with her, but we have an idea. We will have an idea.
00:20:44
Speaker
After Lopez dropped their daughter off around 11 p.m., T talked with him a few times on the phone until July 7th, so a few days after their exchange. During some of these phone calls, Lopez made alarming statements. He told T that he got involved with some of the wrong people and that he disrespected the wrong person. So did he upset someone within the motorcycle gang? Yes. My understanding is that this was at least one person within the motorcycle club. and They're referred to as a club, not a gang. So it was someone within there. I think T has a good idea of who this person was or who the people were. She has not ever named them publicly. I don't blame her for not naming them publicly, but yeah, you can imagine in a conversation where
00:21:36
Speaker
your ex tells you this, the father of your child, you're going to be asking those questions. Well, who are you talking about? What do they say? So I think more details were relayed than we know. So she didn't release the information of this person who she thinks it was after he disappeared. No, because she said she thinks she knows who it was, but she isn't certain. So she's not going to put someone's name out there and say that when she's not a hundred percent certain, or even if she was, that's something that she has relayed to the police, but she doesn't necessarily need to put their name out there. I mean, she's probably, probably a little bit concerned about her safety and her daughter's safety too.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely think she's concerned. Yeah. And I think that's why she wasn't using her name in the beginning. She's using it a little bit more now when she speaks, but I think she was concerned during those phone calls. Lopez also indicated that he wouldn't get a chance to apologize. Although he spoke with his daughter during his last phone call and he told her that he was very sorry. Then he said goodbye. I love you. When I heard this, I was wondering what he was apologizing for, what happened that was so concerning that he seemed to be scared. T remarked that saying goodbye was unusual for Lopez. He typically just said, see you later at the end of a conversation. So this felt like it had some finality to it. It felt a little more permanent to her.
00:23:13
Speaker
About 20 minutes after that final phone call, one of Lopez's fellow motorcycle members called T and asked if she'd heard from Lopez because they were a little worried about him. They were trying to get in touch with him. She found this timing to be odd, but could it be that he was in communication with some of the members? He was making statements similar to those he made to T. That could draw concern. So on July 7th, that was the last known time that Lopez was heard from, and the last time he was known to be seen was actually July 5th when he dropped his daughter off around 11 p.m. in Spring, Texas with T.
00:23:55
Speaker
After that, T's calls and texts began to go unanswered, which raised concerns for T. We have to keep in mind the alarming statements Lopez made, but also that they frequently communicated. They have a child together, but they were still friends too. So it was very much normal for them to talk either on the phone or through text on a regular basis. T's concern continued to grow, so she began searching around Rosenberg with a few others in an attempt to locate him. But when she was unsuccessful, she decided to report him as a missing person to the Rosenberg police on July 8th.
00:24:37
Speaker
Before an investigation could even really begin, Lopez's truck, a Dodge Ram, was discovered abandoned in the woods around 12.45 p.m. on July 9th. So that was the day after T reported him missing. Strangely, his truck was in the town of Howe, Texas, which is located north of Dallas and near the Texas Oklahoma border, almost 330 miles away from Rosenberg or about a five hour drive away. Howe is a small town with a population of approximately 3700. And according to T, she didn't know anyone there. And as far as she knew, neither did Lopez.
00:25:20
Speaker
There was no reasonable explanation for why his vehicle would have been and how. If you'd like to hear the rest of this case, along with other lesser known cases, search for Q the case, wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:25:38
Speaker
Here's Kristin and Mogab from True Crime Creepers, a true crime enthusiast and her true crime newbie friend whose investigations are always thorough, entertaining, and most of all, compelling.
True Crime Creepers: Brian Shafer's Vanishing
00:25:51
Speaker
Welcome to a little mini episode of True Crime Creepers where we talk about all the real life creeps from serial killers to con artists. I'm Kristin, the true crime fanatic who loves to tell these stories. And I'm Mogab, the true crime newbie who hasn't heard any of them. So we're doing something a little different today. Usually, we go pretty in-depth with these cases. Most of our episodes run anywhere from like one to two hours. But today, we're doing quite a shortened version of a normal episode. Oh, that's fun. Where I will be telling you about the disappearance of Brian Shafer, where a man walks into a bar in Columbus, Ohio.
00:26:31
Speaker
I know. I'm going to be there literally tomorrow. And then literally vanishes. He is never seen again. in The Ugly Tuna Saluna. Oh, the Ugly Tuna Saluna.
00:26:50
Speaker
Say it isn't so. This is going to be more of an overview than what we usually do, but this is such a bizarre story. I can't wait to get into it with you. So Brian Shafer was a 27-year-old medical student at Ohio State University in Columbus. The Ohio State University. Oh, sorry. The Ohio. Caddy corner from the big tuna saloon. like Yes. Yes. So he and his girlfriend, Alexis Wagner, they had plans to spend spring break in Miami, but they were and they were really looking forward to that trip. Alexis was also a medical student, and they just deserve some time to let loose and relax.
00:27:27
Speaker
And some people said that Brian was even planning on maybe proposing to Alexis on this trip. So this trip was a big deal for both of them. Now, a few days before the trip, Brian and his roommate, William Clint Florence, decided to go out. This was March 31, 2006. Alexis was in Toledo for the weekend visiting her parents before their Miami trip. like This is, like I think, Friday. They're leaving Monday to go on their trip. But Brian did call her around 10 p.m. that night. He sounded normal. He told her if he loved her, told her he'd see her Monday morning when they left for their trip. So Brian and Clint hit up Columbus's university district and go to the ugly tuna saluna bar.
00:28:11
Speaker
They took a few shots. They had a few beers. Then they left the Ugly Tuna to go to the Arena District and then the Short North District. Jess, you are speaking all of my favorite places in Short North. OK, so correct me if I'm wrong, it seemed to me like all of that was within like about a 10-minute drive of each other, like University District. Yeah, it's like all right there. OK. It's all downtown, little. Hops. Okay. Hop around. Perfect. So they ran into Clint's friend, Meredith Reed, and they decided to all go back to the Ugly Tuna, so she drove them back there. And now the entrance, have you been there? Like the original one that's like two stories, not the Tuna Saluna 2 that apparently, because this one apparently closed down.
00:28:54
Speaker
Didn't know there was tuna saloon. It happened to the ugly tuna. So the entrance to the ugly tuna is on the second floor of this like large building in the gateway complex. So the three of them, so it's Meredith, Clint, and Brian, the three of them are seen on security footage riding the escalator up to the second floor at 1.15 AM. 40 minutes later, so just a few minutes before closing time, like 155. Brian is seen like in the corner of the security tape, like near the front door, chatting with a few women. This is like right at the top of the escalators. But then he walks off camera. He doesn't go down the escalators. He just walks off camera, presumably back inside. And he's never seen again. Really?
00:29:43
Speaker
Meredith and Clint said that after they got separated from Brian, they figured he just left the bar without telling them. He did live within walking distance, so it wouldn't be that weird. They'd tried calling him a few times over the weekend, but never got a hold of him. b Brian's parents were also calling him all weekend, as was Alexis, and everyone was starting to get really worried. They had already kind of started to search for him by Sunday. They were going to the gateway complex. They were checking dumpsters and everything. But it wasn't until Monday morning when Alexis showed up at the airport for their trip to Miami just hoping that Brian would still show up. like Maybe he had yeah freaked out about something and needed some space or some time alone or whatever, but he's not going to miss this trip. But he didn't show up. and so That was when the alarm was finally sounded. Alexis knew for sure something was very wrong and she called to report him missing.
00:30:37
Speaker
ah A large search of the area was ordered. As soon as he was reported missing, there was up to 50 police officers searching for him. They scoured the CCTV footage from Ugly Tuna and the surrounding businesses looking for him. They were able to account for every single person that walked into the ugly tuna. They were able to find them on security footage leaving every single person except for Brian. Where did he go? That is really the question because the escalator was really the only way out of the bar and he wasn't on it.
00:31:13
Speaker
Now, there was a back door. This was not like a public exit, but they did have another like way out of the bar. Like a fire. Yeah, it was this freight elevator, but that elevator led to this construction site. And we'll kind of get into the construction site a little bit, but the- Literally, the that everything there is under construction all of the time. well and Like a concept. My understanding is they're not like digging a hole and pouring concrete at this. They're like renovating a building and like most of the renovations were kind of already done because some people are like, oh, maybe he they poured concrete over him. But i it's my understanding that there was no concrete poured like after this. So that didn't really make sense, but I'm not 100%.
00:32:04
Speaker
They questioned Brian's friends and relatives. They gave everyone polygraph tests. Will everyone accept his roommate Clint, the one that had been out with him that weekend? Well, that seems weird. He's the only person who refused to take the test. which did feel weird to people. And I'm like, I don't want to hold this that against him too bad because we all know that polygraph tests are unreliable and that can kind of blow back on you in not a good way. And maybe he knew that in 2006. But it feels odd. Forget this was 2006. That feels so long ago. I know. And also those two women that Brian was seen chatting with on the surveillance tape, they were never questioned either. Dang.
00:32:49
Speaker
Everyone remained hopeful that Brian would turn up, but when his credit cards and cell phone weren't used one time in more than a year, that hope started to dwindle. And it's now been almost 20 years and no sign of Brian Shaper. Oh, 20 years. Whoa. I know. There was one sighting in 2020 of this homeless man that looked to be like an American man in Tijuana, Mexico, and he looked a lot like Brian. ah So people were like, oh my God, is that Brian Shafer? Is that Brian Shafer? But the FBI ran facial recognition and determined that it wasn't him. And other than that, there's been like no signs, no sighting. Nobody can even figure out how he left the bar.
00:33:32
Speaker
So I wanted to go through like a few of the theories of what maybe happened to him. Wait, what happened to ah Alexis? Like she goes to the airport. She's not there. She called the police and reported him missing. But I'm like, she's not going to Miami and she's like. No, no, no, no, she didn't go to Miami. She did. She has now like gotten remarried and she has kids and kids and everything. um But yeah, no, she did not. She did not get on the plane. She called the police. Yeah. I think she just showed up at the airport hoping that he would be there. Like, hoping. Yeah. Yeah. So one theory is the accidental death and concealment theory, which I just don't see how there's any way this was accidental. And then his body has been concealed for all of this time. Yeah, especially with literally no joke, all of the construction on High Street all of the time.
00:34:27
Speaker
Yeah, so that's one reason why people were thinking like concealment because they're like, okay, there's this active construction site. And so maybe he like stumbled back there taking the freight elevator down through the back and stumbled out and tripped and then they poured and fell and knocked his head and fell in a hole and then they poured concrete over him unknowingly and now he's like buried in the foundation of this building. but That just seems like so ah not plausible. and Also, it seems like you can check for that kind of stuff. and Also, I did read that the construction was basically over by that time and so it would be very
00:35:13
Speaker
like It just doesn't seem very likely that that's what happened. But not none of these options seem likely. Like none of them do. Okay, option one, he's disappeared out of thin air. Option two. He's buried in concrete in the foundation of this building. yeah yeah So option two is voluntary disappearance. That Brian just chose to disappear. He was having a lot going on in his life. He had recently lost his mother to cancer and they were like really, really close.
00:35:45
Speaker
Um, so that could have kind of triggered this flight instinct, I suppose. Um, but everybody close to Brian, including Alexis, his dad, his brother, like everybody said, there's no way that he's leaving, not to mention. And you keep it up this long. And, and also one a year disappearing and being completely off the grid. That is so hard and it takes so much planning and he'd been drinking all night. He'd been taking shots. He'd been drinking beers. If you are planning to enact this like foolpro plan foolproof plan that's so good that you've been able to completely disappear, no credit cards were used, no cell phone was used, like and never found either. They didn't find your like cell phone and stuff. Well, and if that's my plan, I'm not going out the night before where there are security cameras. Right. Or I am for like an alibi or whatever, but like I'm not getting drunk.
00:36:40
Speaker
Yeah. And then disappearing and then actually making that work. And then even so- And missing a trip to Florida. Even if that's true, okay, for that to be true, he would have had to get out of the ugly tuna by and avoid all the security cameras getting out of there. So like how would he have done that? You know, like, i don't yeah. OK, so obviously the last couple theories are like foul play theories. So um was he abducted by somebody? But even then, how did he get out of the bar? Well, I mean, we've done cases where like someone's body's in a suitcase or a trash can or.
00:37:24
Speaker
Yeah. And so there was a lot of like, was anybody carrying anything that could have concealed him? Was he in like trash can? Yeah. So maybe somebody like hurt him and then somehow, but it's like everybody that went into the bar was accounted for leaving. So it's not like anybody hurt him and then is hiding in there. waiting to take him out with the trash later. Like, how sure can you be? It's security cameras in 2006. Yeah, that's true. Are you really able to one-for-one identify? They said that they did. Especially when everyone's dressed like bros in 2006. Right. And the security cameras, they are pretty grainy. Like, you got to know exactly what you're looking for. Yeah. Right.
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. So I guess that's possible if like somebody hurt him. It would have had to have been upstairs or on the bar or they lured him down that freight elevator and for some reason, like lured him over to maybe that construction site area just because it's like isolated. Well, if they lured him out the freight elevator, they could have taken him anywhere and killed him. Right. Like it doesn't necessarily have to be the construction site because that's the back way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, but like a why? You know, but if you don't know who, it's hard to know why. That's crazy. The biggest mystery to me is this ugly tuna saloon in number two. I'd like more information on that. Well, so I tried to look up like I was trying to like Google Maps like the ugly tuna saloon because I wanted to see like, OK, what's this escalator situation? Like, what does this building look like? And I actually had to look up the address because the ugly tuna saloon is closed. And now there's the ugly tuna saloon too.
00:38:58
Speaker
And ah it's open and it's it's all downstairs. It's like it's not in the same place. That's not as fun. OK, so the last and most like sensational theory that gets people all excited is the smiley face killer theory. hu So there is this like supposed. serial killer or group of serial killers that people call the smiley face killers. um and This actually got pretty recently, like it's gotten put in the news again. There was like this big thing about the smiley face killers being in all these different cities like last year. But anyways, it's like all of these
00:39:47
Speaker
men, like Brian's age men, were being found killed or dead. And by their body, there would be some sort of graffiti with like a smiley face on there. And so these two, I think they were like FBI agents. They were like retired though. I mean, I'm like retired like police officers or or FBI agents or something. They came up with this theory that all of these murders were being done by this like group of serial, this like team of serial killers that they call the smiley face killers. and
00:40:18
Speaker
And most people, I think, just kind of figure that like a smiley face is a – because the smiley faces also didn't always look the same. They weren't always drawn the same. some Sometimes they had a circle around them, like the head. Sometimes it was just like the two eyes and the smile. It was different colors. it like There was not no pattern to it. So people are like – most of law enforcement I think is like, well, A smiley face is like the most common graffiti symbol. Like, yeah, exactly. Like, you're going to see that everywhere. um And like there was no connection between these bodies. And so there's a lot of debate on whether or not the serial the smiley face killers are are even real. But they they were supposed to be or supposedly active in this area. And there was, I think, a smiley face found near
00:41:09
Speaker
the area or like near the ugly tuna, maybe. There's never been any like definitive connection to b Brian's case, but he does fit like the demographics of what people think the smiley face killers are after, which is like young college age men. you know and Especially after they've been drinking at bars, like that was a big thing. so A lot of people, like most of these deaths are always chalked up to being like accidents. But people are like, what if these aren't? Because they're like drunk men you know leaving bars and dying. Yeah, because the ugly tuna is known for a fishbowl the size of my entire head. Well, they're also known for having a happy hour from 8 to 10, where they sell ridiculously strong drinks for $1. So yeah they have a $10 minimum for a credit card. So you have to buy 10 of those to pay for the credit card.
00:42:01
Speaker
So there is a lot like there was a lot of really like interesting cuz the they were there was a big thing in Austin last year where they were really trying to say that it possibly the smiley face killers or if not then then a serial killer was active in Austin cuz all of these college-age men from Rainey. Yeah, it was like when we went to Rainey Street for your bachelor. You were like, are we still going to Rainey Street? I was like, I think there's a serial killer active around here. I don't really think that anymore. I am more kind of inclined to believe that these are accidental drownings because they're like in Lady Bird Lake, which is like right down from Rainey Street. But same thing in Columbus. These smiley face killers were like supposedly active there and so maybe
00:42:50
Speaker
brian like Brian was killed and then dumped like in the water you know nearby. Is there water nearby? Yeah. Well, maybe that's where he is. ah So those are kind of the theories, but just none of them are like super compelling. None of them are like, oh yeah, that's probably what happened. like It's so just kind of frustrating and confusing. And there's a lot more to this case, obviously, but we are already going over our time. So I couldn't get you know as deep into it as I usually like to. But that is the disappearance of Brian Shafer. Man, I did not know about that. Yeah. All right, well, check out True Crime Creepers. We hope you'll check us out. Bye, peeps and creeps.
00:43:33
Speaker
but Feel the heat rise with the hosts from Vintage Homicide as we join them in the exploration of various perspectives of crimes of the past. Welcome to Vintage Homicide with your hosts, me, Ruby Wild. And Miss Mayday. And we bring you historic homicide cases with deep dives into everything from the forensics used to solve the crimes as well as pivotal events that were occurring at the time and so much more.
Vintage Homicide: June Maloney's Suspicious Death
00:43:58
Speaker
Let's dive into today's case. We're starting this out in New York in March of 1967 with June Fisk Maloney. She was a practicing nurse and she was on her way to living her best life at the age of 26. She had left her allegedly abusive husband, Joseph Maloney, of five years with a report even at one point he had attempted to stab her through the roof of her convertible car. That charge was never brought forth because she withdrew her complaint. She and her two children with
00:44:26
Speaker
Joseph, Joseph Jr. and Patricia, who went by Patty, moved into a two-bedroom apartment, and she was moving on with her life, even seeing a new man. Joseph had previously been married to a woman named Joan Howland, and that couple also had two children. From the lack of information I could find about him with that family, I'm guessing they never had any contact after their divorce. So we're just going to unfortunately have to leave Joan in the past, and we're going to focus on June and their family. So it was their son's fifth birthday. Again, this is Joseph Jr. And we're in May of 1967. That was a reason for them to get together and just to get along, have a good day for the celebration. Unfortunately, she started to feel ill after the party. And so the next day, her friend, Wanda Mordenga,
00:45:12
Speaker
She went to her house to check on her and she saw that Joe was already there checking on her and he had brought a doctor with him. Now Joe was convinced that she was just suffering from food poisoning from the party or anything that she ate before or after. But the doctor was not so sure that it was food poisoning. This was even more so evident when she fell into a coma the following day. She was brought to the hospital and while at the hospital, the doctors were banging their heads against a wall trying to figure out what was making June sick. Joe thought he had the answer. He said that because of Larry impending divorce and her living alone with the two kids, she was depressed and suicidal and he believed that she was ill and fell into a coma because she tried to take her own life. Insert the red flags, shining even brighter when June finally succumbed to her illness on June 5th. So this was you know two weeks of her from May to June. She was in a coma, ill, and died. And so they performed an autopsy on her and discovered that she had actually been poisoned with methanol. Methanol is not the ethanol that we drink. it's It's still an alcohol, but not... Yeah. So like you said, the alcohol that we drink is actually ethanol, which is made by fermenting simple sugars, and then it's distilled. The distillation process is how we get the strength of alcohol and its purity. Methanol is a more simple form of alcohol, but it's really toxic to humans, even in really small doses. The good thing is that normal distillation and fermentation to create alcohol that we drink, methanol doesn't really occur during that process. It can maybe in small trace amounts, but it's still safe to consume.
00:46:54
Speaker
originally how methanol was created was produced through the destructive distillation of wood. And that's why it was originally termed wood alcohol. As far as methanol and its effects on the body, it is actually not necessarily the methanol that is the thing that's harmful. It's really what it converts into when the body breaks it down. So it reduces into formaldehyde and formic acid. Both of those things are the things that cause the cellular hypoxia, which is cell death. It's really famous for making people blind. And we say being blind drunk, right? This is a function of it attacking the optic nerve, even as little as 10 milliliters of pure methanol can potentially cause blindness. And a lethal dose is only about 30 milliliters of methanol.
00:47:46
Speaker
The scary thing about methanol, its taste and smell is almost indistinguishable from ethanol. It's not really easy to detect the difference. In industry, methanol is widely used as like a denaturant additive. We use it in the lab a lot. it's it's Because it's very similar in chemical properties, it's a denaturant. So we would use it for a disinfectant. It's in things like antifreeze, paint removers, windshield wiper fluid. It's a very common solvent. It's a good solvent. And poisonings can happen as an accident, but generally, there's labeling.
00:48:27
Speaker
that would indicate that this poison is present. So poison themselves and it's even rarer as a suicide attempt. However, some alcoholics will intentionally consume methanol as an alternative to ethanol. That's just out of desperation. In the US, during prohibition, When alcohol was not available, methanol poisoning became very common with the consumption of bootlegged alcohol because they were cutting ethanol with methanol. So if they didn't get the ratio correct, they were using too much methanol and it was poisonous. In June's case, classic case of methanol poisoning, usually you don't notice for like 12 to 24 hours just because it feels like an extreme buzz.
00:49:11
Speaker
similar to ethanol. But then after that, you'll experience an extreme headache, dizziness, weakness, and it's like a really bad hangover, essentially. But then that's followed by nausea, vomiting, and then eventually blurring of your vision and blindness. And then with severe poisonings, you can have um seizures or fall into a coma and June's case also death. Right. And because of this, Joe being the prime suspect, he was promptly arrested and charged with her murder. Now, during the course of the investigation, to determine how he was able to accomplish such a poisoning, they started talking to the family and the friends of the family.
00:49:50
Speaker
and They found Neil Dunkelberg, and he was a basement chemist with a story to tell. Joseph had asked Neil if he knew of a poison that was odorless, tasteless, and untraceable, telling his friend that he wanted to get rid of a stray dog. Neil was weirded out by this and basically told Joseph, no, and then further told his family, never allow Joseph into our basement. That's where my chemistry lab is, and he's weirding me out. Unfortunately, the Dunkelberg family went on vacation and he left his sister to house sit, but he didn't tell her about the warning of Joseph. And so she didn't know about the ban and she allowed Joseph to go into the basement to collect whatever he wanted. This is apparently where he got the methanol.
00:50:29
Speaker
Now, all of this together, the circumstantial evidence in her poisoning in Neal's account was enough for the jury to believe that he was guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison starting September 1967. Now, Joseph pled insanity, and this allowed him to be sent to Rochester State Mental Hospital in New York, and that was for an evaluation. So anytime somebody pleads insanity, as we know, they have to get evaluated by multiple psychiatrists to determine whether or not they serve their time in a mental institution or in the prison system. Unfortunately, it only took two weeks for Joseph to escape this mental hospital. And that's because in the past, he had been a janitor at that hospital. So he knew all of the ins and outs, and he figured out how he could leave completely undetected. There was no side of the man until 1973, when bartender Michael O'Shea had to call the guardie to his house in Dublin because he had been burgled. Guardie is like, it's the same as our police. They're their own kind of... Yes, that's correct. ...history.
00:51:28
Speaker
So the Gardi, that's an informal name. It means the guard. Originally, the formal title is the Garda Shi'ahana, which means like the guardians of peace. So it's really pretty. It takes its name after its French counterpart. which is also the Guardians of Peace, but in French. It changed from originally, it was called the Civic Guard under the English, and then Ireland adapted its own police force in its own Irish titling. so
00:51:59
Speaker
so security like What happened is when he called them for his house, they took his fingerprints for elimination purposes, and that's where they had a surprise. This man, Michael O'Shea, was really Joseph Maloney, and that's because they matched his prints to those that they had on an FBI-wanted poster. Unfortunately, this didn't mean that he immediately was arrested for any means. And that's because Ireland didn't have an extradition treaty to the United States. So Ireland couldn't hold him and they had to let him go. So you can't be arrested in Ireland for something that you did in the United States.
00:52:33
Speaker
This is the way that Michael was living his life in Ireland. You would have no idea that he was a fugitive from the United States, because from the mid-1970s through the 1980s, he ran a place called the Capard House. It was a mansion in the sleeve-bloom mountains. He had renovated the home to make it a resort, and he cleaned out the lake, and that's because he wanted it to be a sanctuary for outdoor enthusiasts to come, and they can shoot and fish on the property. He was throwing lavish parties. He was living the high life and he didn't live on that property. He had two homes in Dublin with his third wife, Sheila. There of course were tales going around. I mean, it's really hard to keep the rumor mill down, especially after his fingerprints were taken and they figured out that he was Joseph Maloney. Michael told tales all the time. He was saying, oh, I'm ex-military and I'm this and I'm that. And he even lied about his age.
00:53:25
Speaker
According to his marriage license to Sheila, he said that he was seven years younger than what he was. And so anybody that knew him knew that he had, according to him, lived way too many lives for somebody who looked like he was in his mid-40s. There was even rumors about the fact that he was wanted in America for killing his wife, but everybody just thought that they were rumors. And Michael never told Sheila who he was, just kind of shined on what was happening in America. And that would explain her shock when Michael was finally arrested in 1985 for the murder of June. And that's because there was finally a treaty of extradition and effect from Ireland to America. This was finally in 1985, right? But negotiations of an extradition treaty between Ireland and the United States
00:54:11
Speaker
They began as early as like the mid-70s. The whole purpose of it was to widen the extent of Ireland's extradition arrangements, which up until then had only been confined to Europe. This was its first bilateral extradition treaty with the United States. The whole purpose of it was because, one, we didn't have one. There was an obvious gap in relations between Ireland and the United States. Ireland's extradition commitments only included other European countries, and that was based on the European Convention on Extradition. And so there were several European countries like the UK, Austria, Germany, Hungary,
00:54:47
Speaker
The object of this treaty was to basically increase that cooperation between the US and Ireland in combating crime and bringing justice to suspected criminals who sought to avoid prosecution by leaving US jurisdiction and going to Ireland because Ireland was basically seen as a safe haven for American criminals. In negotiating the terms of the treaty, there was a lot of care taken to ensure that The terms complied with the original extradition act that Ireland had in 1965, which basically limited offenses for extradition to those which are punishable by both countries for a period of more than one year. So the crime has to be a sentence of more than one year in both countries. So that's like the minimum requirement. Following this treaty, basically five people were wanted for prosecution in the United States.
00:55:40
Speaker
They submitted requests to Ireland to get them extradited in accordance with the treaty. Two people basically were subsequently extradited, and that was because of all of the challenges in the courts. Of these five people requested for extradition, one of which was Joe Maloney, because he had been living in Ireland under the alias of Michael O'Shea. He was finally apprehended at that time by Irish authorities under the extradition treaty. But unfortunately, he was released from custody because the treaty started to completely collapse.
00:56:14
Speaker
And this was mostly because of a lot of the appeals and there was a lot of Irish Supreme Court cases that were basically fighting the extradition to the United States and other countries. And so basically the Supreme Court released Maloney and they got it wrong once again. in a series of several extradition cases where there were appeals that went to the Irish Supreme Court. So with that precedent being sent that regardless of this treaty, the Irish government would set them free. Basically, Ireland continued to be seen as a
00:56:51
Speaker
haven for fugitives from justice. So in 1986, Maloney walked out of an Irish prison so and went on the lam. Now we have, and that's where he faded into the ether until a new investigative podcast recently released called Runaway Joe. It's brought to you by Tim Desmond and Papaval Barter. And they were able to discover that Joseph actually died in 2005 at the age of 70. Sheila Chandler, his third wife, confirmed the account before she too died in 2010 and she never told anywhere where he had been buried. So if you're looking for a good multi-part in-depth coverage of this case, go ahead and check it out. There was like a whole thing they had moved to Berlin and I want to say Turkey and it was all about them jumping all around and it was a huge... Yeah. He moved to other countries that didn't have extradition to the United States. Just in case Ireland and the United States picked it back up again, they were also able to determine that Joseph had not four, so the two previous to Joan and the two to June, but he had six children, two from Joan, two from June, and two from affairs that he had while he was married to June. And this was all developed by the help of DNA. And the children were only now recently all aware of each other, and they all started to get into contact.
00:58:06
Speaker
So we know that this is short and sweet. It's just a tease of what we offer over at Vintage Homicide. So while you're adding new podcasts to your summertime listen library, go ahead and give us a follow. And we're not going to cut you completely off from our little dad jokes. So Miss Mayday, what is the best asset for a fugitive? Yes. His lie. I don't know what. Get it? and its Oh, okay. That's a bad gadget. Get it. Get those two. Liability. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Well, thank you.
00:58:45
Speaker
When the chase gets hot, the stories get hotter and funnier. Take a hardcore look at soft core crimes with Leroy from Excuse Me. That's illegal. What's up everybody? Leroy here, host of the Petty Crime Podcast. Excuse me? That's illegal. And have I got a hot story for you that just screams summer? This tale takes us to New York. Gotta to love New Yorkers.
Excuse Me, That's Illegal: The Slurpee Thief
00:59:11
Speaker
Hey watch it pal, I'm walking over here. Car horns blaring everywhere, lots of traffic. I've never been, that's just what I picture when I hear of New York.
00:59:21
Speaker
To narrow it down, this crime happens in Chelsea, which is a neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan. And of course, it goes down at everyone's favorite summer spot. At least mine. And that's 7-Eleven. Cause that's where the Slurpees are at, baby! Ah, slurpees. Often imitated, never duplicated. There are so many imposters out there, and none of them taste quite as sweet. Just kidding, they're all basically the same. It's not a complicated recipe. Slush with some artificial syrup flavoring in there. They got hundreds of flavors. Every convenience store seems to sell them these days. 7-Eleven is the only place that can officially call them a slurpee.
00:59:59
Speaker
Circle K is the big convenience store in my area. Their slushies aren't bad. And they call them frosters. Anywho, this fine 7-Eleven establishment is located at 194 7th Avenue. That's between West 21st and 22nd Streets. Imagine being a cabbie in New York City. That'd be a nightmare. All those numbers sound confusing as heck. I checked out images of this place. It's your typical 7-Eleven. Fluorescent lighting, sweaty hot dogs and taquitos. Spinning around collecting dust and disease on those rollers. Big gulps, pizza slices, cigarettes, potato chips, energy drinks, and a big ol' slurpee machine of course. It's beside a place called Fancy Nail and Spa. Fancy spelled F-A-N-C-I-E.
01:00:48
Speaker
The sign out front says they also give foot and back rubs. Nice. ah We have a couple reviews to read for the 7-11, not the nail spa. This place gets 2.8 out of 5 stars, our lowest rating yet. And that is out of only 23 reviews. Let's see what this is all about. Joel B gave this one star a few years ago and said quote, their team is not friendly. They are very confrontational. The store owner said she is the owner and can talk to anyone however she wants. She don't have no respect. And I wouldn't recommend no one to support their madness. They are disrespectful all over wanting to charge me for a hot dog before I received it.
01:01:30
Speaker
then tell me to stand in line to pay for my drink after." Shaking my head, good luck. End quote. Let's get another one from Steve S. He says, poor management. Employees are always late to their shift. Roaches and rats running around the store floor. Quit my job on December 26th of 2018. There are no benefits for employees either. Okay, I guess we have to take that with a grain of salt as he sounds like a former disgruntled employee. So that's the store we're dealing with, a busy 7-Eleven in New York City, with rude employees and an alleged roach and rat infestation. With all that taken into account, Let's Be Flies on the wall of this store back in the hot and humid summer of 2016. It's Sunday, August 28th. It's 3.45 p.m. and one of the employees is on the phone with the cops. Enough is enough. He's calling the NYPD to report a theft.
01:02:26
Speaker
The police show up and manager Havim Mahisi explains to them what's been going down. You see, for over three weeks now, some guy has been walking into the store, filling up a small cup at the self-serve Slurpee stand, then strutting out without paying for it. This isn't a teenager either. They described him as being in his 30s or 40s. And I love the balls on this guy. A little more info about the layout of the store. The Slurpee stand is located at the very back. So he grabs the drink, then he has to walk the length of this place with the icy treat to get out of there. There's a photograph of the Slurpee station. It's stocked with all the different sized cups with lids and those thick jumbo straws. And the flavors. Oh man, the flavors. Wild cherry, Hawaiian punch, blue raspberry, Sour Patch Kids, Coca-Cola, and Skittles.
01:03:17
Speaker
Way better selection than I'm used to. I never knew they had the Skittles flavor. It's featured on a sign that has the catchy slogan, Slurp the rainbow? Taste the rainbow. Clever. So this is a selfish act indeed, but hey, at least he grabs a small cup each time. They sell a small for $1.79. How much is that little bit of artificial slush this guy's taking actually worth? 25 cents? Who's Robin Who over here? By the time DNA Info New York sat down for an interview with a fired-up manager in early September, the petty thief with slurpy water in his veins had been helping himself to the ice-cold beverage for over a month. Employees weren't sure what to make of this guy the first few times, then it became crystal clear. He's just a jerk. Manager Havim quote, we thought, maybe he doesn't understand.
01:04:09
Speaker
Maybe he has a mental problem or something. But no, he's totally normal. After we spoke with him, he 100% understands. He's doing it on purpose." end quotee Another employee chimed in and said, quote, It's just a hassle. But what are you going to do, you know? It's a slurpee. End quote. Exactly. You can kind of see their predicament here. You don't want to tackle the guy over a two dollar drink. In the grand scheme of things, it's not really a big deal. This being New York, I'm sure they deal with these small thefts on a regular basis. It's the habitualness of it all that has them up in arms. The guy's coming in almost daily. He's a regular and it's become a part of their day. A cereal slurpee thief. It's great. Maybe this guy's poor and can't afford the tasty treat. Or maybe it's all a game for him.
01:04:58
Speaker
He enjoys the angered employee's reactions. It's just a big joke. I'm going with the latter. Let's get yet another manager have been quote on his way out. He shows the cup and says goodbye. He shows the cup like he's laughing at us. End quote. Okay, it's official. It's definitely a joke to this man. Instead of just trying to sneak out with anyone knowing in a final FU to the employees, he raises his glass and bids them farewell. I love the showmanship. Thanks guys. See you tomorrow. The best. The and NYPD say they'll keep an eye out for the guy, but let's be honest. They're not looking. Surely they have more serious crimes to contend with.
01:05:39
Speaker
The store is going to have to take matters into their own hands. Take a more aggressive approach. Keep an eye out, and when they see him, cut the guy off before he makes the long walk to the back of the store and refuse him service at the Slurpee station. That shouldn't be hard, right? Wrong. The Slurpee Bandit is just too sneaky. Final Manager Havim quote. We tried to catch him, but whenever the store is busy, he sneaks inside and takes a cup and then leaves. It's like he's watching us from outside." Oh man, we're dealing with a criminal mastermind. With the amount of effort the Slurpee Bandit puts into these mini heists, I say just let him have it. Maybe even flip the script on him. Kill him with kindness. He seems to get off on angering the employees, so when they see him, they should ask how his day's going. Chat about the weather. It's a hot one today, isn't it?
01:06:30
Speaker
Give him flavor recommendations. As he's leaving, tell him to have a nice day or or say, thank you. Come again. See you tomorrow. Or just go, hey, enjoy. That one's on me, bro. He'd probably lose interest or actually start feeling bad. Lipstickalley.com covered this story. Yes, I have only the best sources. And the message boards were getting lit up. A few people were on the store side, but an overwhelming majority were siding with the bandit. Swedishchickx3 said, to be honest, I really don't care if someone wants to steal a bunch of slurpees. The story is hilarious. And we should just let him keep doing what he's doing. 877cashnow says, I hope he's stealing the Pina Colada flavor. That one is so good.
01:07:19
Speaker
They went on to say, I think I might know who it is. If there was a reward, I'm turning him in. Someone should track her down an interrogator. La La Sharp has a good idea. She said, they should do like the BSS. They blow up an image of the person stealing along with a blow up of the person's face and place it on the window to put him or her on blast for others to identify and I guess humiliate the person to the point he might not ever enter again. I don't know what the BSS is, some store I guess, but that's a good idea. Try to shame him into stopping. That might backfire and turn the guy into a local celebrity though. Just adding more fuel to the fire. To my knowledge, the serial slurpee bandit in New York City was never caught. At least if he was, it didn't make any headlines. Police probably would have just urged him to stop and told him if he didn't, they could nail him for petty theft, mischief, all the usual stuff.
01:08:15
Speaker
I'm sure over time he just lost interest and moved on. Either way, I'm raising a glass to the cereal slurpy bandit, because I like his style. Enjoy the rest of your summer, everyone, because I know I will.
Beyond the Rainbow: Mia Henderson's Story
01:08:30
Speaker
In our next segment from Beyond the Rainbow podcast, our host CJ helps us turn up the heat in our investigation of crimes committed by and against the LGBTQ plus community. Hey there! I'm CJ from Beyond the Rainbow, true crimes of the LGBTQ+. Your gender and sexual identity doesn't matter for you to listen to my podcast. In fact, I'd say at least 50% of my listeners identify as straight allies. So welcome! Woohoo! Are there any basketball fans in the house?
01:09:06
Speaker
Well regardless of whether you are or not I do have a story for you and in my opinion it's always important we give voices to the victims. At the beginning of the year 2014 NBA Superstar Reggie Bullock had three sisters and one brother. The pro team Reggie was best known for being part of was the Detroit Pistons. Reggie's now with the Houston Rockets. He's called a small forward with his height being 6'6 and weight around 205 pounds and quite frankly that's not very small to me. In the summer of 2014 Reggie lost one of his sisters. She was murdered. This sister Mia Henderson was born as Kevin Long. Kevin Long is what her dead name would be.
01:10:00
Speaker
And just in case you aren't quite sure what a dead name is, it's a person's given name that they no longer wish to be called, therefore the name is dead. And since Mia was assigned male at birth, it stands to reason she most likely suffered from gender dysphoria, that is up until her transitioning into a female. For my research, I often equate gender dysphoria to wearing underwear that are six times too tight, 24-7. It's a discomfort that nags at the person who has to bear it. Relief from it only really comes from hormone therapy and later gender reassignment surgery. I hope that helps some to understand. I had to compare it to something so I could get a grasp of it when I first started my podcast.
01:10:54
Speaker
Although not too long ago, I did speak with a trans woman who told me not all trans folk go through gender dysphoria. And I guess that perplexed me. And I should have asked her, then why bother? If it isn't physically or mentally unbearable to be the gender you were assigned, why would anybody want to put themselves through the heartbreak of possibly being ostracized? Not just by friends and family, but by a good portion of society? Not to mention screwing with your hormones and having any surgical procedure done to your body if it's not a necessary procedure for good mental and physical health. But I didn't ask her, so I really don't have an answer. Which is why I'd say a good portion of trans folk do suffer from gender dysphoria and nobody should ever have to be uncomfortable in the body they were born in.
01:11:51
Speaker
In the summer of 2014, 26-year-old Mia was living in Baltimore, Maryland. July 16, Mia was hanging out on a street. It was well known as a place sex workers frequented. This was in northwest Baltimore. Mia was a survival sex worker, and she'd been arrested twice before. This was for allegedly selling her body for sex. Regardless of having a wealthy, famous brother, she just might have been too proud to ask him for handouts.
01:12:26
Speaker
A neighbor who lived in the area Mia was working said she had looked out her window around 5am and she saw Mia duck into an alleyway with a light-skinned black man. The man was wearing a white t-shirt, a white baseball cap, and blue jeans. The neighbor said that the man was looking around as though he were nervous. An hour later, at 6 AM, Mia's body was found. She'd been stabbed to death. That same neighbor who witnessed Mia walking into the alleyway with the sketchy-looking man had said she had seen Mia in the same spot many times in the early morning hours for months leading up to her death. After Mia's autopsy report came back, the medical examiner found DNA from a potential suspect under her fingernails.
01:13:21
Speaker
Police arrested and charged a 42-year-old very dark-skinned man named Sean Oliver with Mia's murder. Sean ended up going to trial and even though it seemed that the prosecutor had an airtight case against him, especially with Sean's DNA under Mia's fingernails, the DNA was easily explained away by Sean. He told the court that the night before, he and Mia had consensual sex. Phone records seemed to confirm what Sean was claiming. The jury acquitted him of Mia's murder. And with Sean no longer a suspect for Mia's murder, her case went cold.
01:14:06
Speaker
The day Reggie Bullock received the news of Mia's murder, he took to social media to mourn the loss of his brother Kevin. Critics came down hard on him for using Mia's dead name and non-preferred pronouns. But since this, Reggie has used his platform to speak out in favor of the LGBTQ community, and especially trans folk. And as a side, tragedy hit again for Reggie Bullock in 2019. He lost to another sister in Baltimore. 22-year-old Kyosha was also murdered. Rest in power, Mia in Kyosha.
01:14:47
Speaker
Again, this was CJ from Beyond the Rainbow, true crimes of the LGBTQ. And I want you to know, you matter. Remember, it's not a crime to be gay, bi, trans, or to live your truth.
Murderer Mimosas: Robin Farnsworth Cold Case
01:15:02
Speaker
Unless you're a murderer. Here to heat things up even more is the mother-daughter duo from Murderer Mimosas, who sip mimosas and hone their investigative skills each week. Welcome to Murder Momosas. I'm Danica and I'm Shannon. Today we are part of a collaboration talking about the summertime and we decided to pick out a case that has been cold for quite a while and could use the heat to bring it back to life. We're going to talk about Robin Farnsworth.
01:15:36
Speaker
So Robin was from the little town I graduated from in Bon Appe, Arkansas. She was a 15 year old mother. She had a little girl when she went missing. She was, I think I said she's 15, but she was 15 at the time. Her mother happened to call her in missing about four days later and they felt like she was a runaway because she had ran away before. And the police didn't really look into it, they just felt like she was a runaway. They didn't do anything they really should have done. And there wasn't really things anything about it until around March when two boys were arrested on another charge while they were arrested or sitting in jail. One of the young men, Donnie Temple, gave a statement to the jailer stating that he knew what happened to Robin, that Derek Grubbs,
01:16:33
Speaker
who was 18 at the time, had taken him out to a barn and showed him that Robin had been beaten, that he'd beat her and covered her with newspaper. The police did go out to the barn and they found decomposition and a purple fingernail, but they never found the body at that time. and That was all they did. They never looked any further for her at that time. In 1997, a hunter who was just a mile or so away from his home came across the remains of what was clearly a human skull with the job attached. He contacted the police to let them know because he also found very small shoes, which he thought was
01:17:19
Speaker
a child shoe. Very little was told to him at that time. He didn't hear much about it then. One officer did tell him that it was likely the remains of Robin Farnsworth from two years previous since this was the same general area where Donnie had given a statement to the jailer about Ben's body being despite the hunter keeping an eye on the news checking the newspaper nothing really was said about the remains that he found. Now it wasn't full remains but there was definitely enough for
01:17:56
Speaker
them to do some sort of testing. In March of 2003, just three years after leadership changed within the department, unclaimed and unlabeled box was found in the evidence room. When it was opened, there were bones inside. Again, it was unclear whose they could be because there was nothing labeling these. or tying them to any open cases. They sent the bones off to have them tested and it ended up being those of Robin Farnsworth. They had been unidentified remains for many years. Family had no idea that she had in fact been found. It was just very heartbreaking for family and the loved ones of Robin.
01:18:48
Speaker
especially her brother and her daughter who all this time had no information about where her mother had gone if she had in fact just ran away or if something sinister had happened. fact In fact, didn't her mother think that she had seen Robin at times? Yes, so when Donnie, you talked about his statement to the jailer, they spoke to Robin's mother who claimed that she saw Robin after the time that Donnie had claimed to see Robin's body in the barn. And since they at the time that he gave a statement was unable to find any evidence to confirm or deny, they
01:19:34
Speaker
really didn't take it any further. But it seems that considering we were talking about feet away from where Bonnie claimed to have seen Robin's body is where her remains were found that he was likely correct. But the sad thing is, despite this, there have been no arrests made and no real investigation done. Robin's family still has no idea what happened to Robin or had any justice in her death. An extremely sad event. Her daughter is grown and does not have any answers. She is pleaded on local television.
01:20:17
Speaker
Robin's brother has also pleaded on local television. He has made statements to newspapers. He even wrote an article asking for answers. The family feels that the only way this case will be solved is if someone who knows something becomes tired of holding their secret. Scary part is the person that is heavily under a suspicion, Derek Grubbs, is now available to have parole because of a change in 2013, the Supreme Court. He was a minor at the time that he was convicted on another crime. So he went from life in prison with no parole.
01:21:03
Speaker
the possibility of parole. That possibility is coming soon and it would be scary if he maybe had the hand in Robin's murder for him to walk. There's a whole lot more to Robin's case and the case that is tied to hers, Kenyatta's. I'm currently working on a book, No Immediate Cause, about the two young girls' cases and the possible link that may bind them together. If you would like to follow us on social media, Murder and Mimosas, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, X, whatever it is called now, and TikTok, you can keep up ah with the release of the book so that you can read in depth about this and come to your own conclusion. Could Derek have had a hand in Robin's death like he did Kenyatta's? Or is Robin the victim of someone completely different?
01:22:04
Speaker
Allison and Maggie from coffee and cases like they're coffee hot and their case is cold, but they're focused on bringing light to lesser known cases to let families know they are never alone. Hello from Coffee and Cases True Crime podcast, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold.
Coffee and Cases: Mary and Susie's Tragic Tale
01:22:22
Speaker
I'm Allison. And I'm Maggie, and you can check out new episodes of our podcast every Thursday on your favorite podcasting app to hear coverage of many lesser known cases that are screaming for justice just like this one. If you would like to hear our full coverage of this case, make sure to check out Coffee and Cases podcast episode 235, Mary and Susie Raker.
01:22:44
Speaker
Maggie, you know, as I do, that the earmark for the end of summer, in our minds as teachers, is when the school year starts back. Oh, I'm already having like the back to school nightmares. Oh, I forgot to make copies on the birthday. The copier is broken. Yeah. Yes. Well, on Labor Day, September 2nd of 1974 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, 15-year-old Mary Raker was about to do just that. She attended an all-girls high school out of town, and they were to start back to school the next day.
01:23:21
Speaker
She was getting everything together that she would need before she was to ride with another friend and that friend's family on the 45-minute drive to St. Francis High School in Little Falls that afternoon where Mary would be a sophomore. Mary had actually spent quite a bit of her time that summer with her grandparents who lived in the nearby town of Luxembourg. And Mary's parents, they could see some changes in Mary. There really is a marked move from child to young adult.
01:23:56
Speaker
I think from ages 13 really to 15 for Mary. I think it can be hard for parents to come to grips with that. I know my mother-in-law always says about Anthony, she put him to bed at 12 and then when he woke up at 13 she was like, who is this human that I have in my house? And so I think it's kind of hard for parents when kids start to change into a young adult instead of that child. Yeah. Mary's parents worried, I think as we all do, like you said, if the changes were normal teenage ones or if there was something deeper going on with Mary. Her mother told a reporter from CBS News, quote, I knew something wasn't right, but she wasn't saying what it was, end quote.
01:24:47
Speaker
Despite any growing pains or concerns, the family had actually spent a wonderful day on September 1st at a family reunion. The majority of the supplies had actually already been purchased for Mary to start school. In fact, it does sound like Mary's mother Rita believed, at least, that she had purchased everything that Mary needed already. And this last day before Mary was to go up to school, Rita actually was expecting that Mary would be helping a little bit around the house before making that drive. And it was likely a bit frustrating when Mary bounded into the room and insisted that she needed to go back to the department store, Zayers, to not only pick out a winter coat, but also to get a few more school supplies. She's prepared.
01:25:40
Speaker
Yeah. She wants to be prepared. She just wants the extra. The shopping center where Zayr's was located at 33rd Avenue and Division Street was about a mile walk from the Raker home. While Mary was only one of the Raker's six children, it was only Mary's younger 12-year-old sister Suzanne, who was called Susie or Sue by friends and family, who decided to go with her to the store.
01:26:11
Speaker
It actually makes sense to me the importance of, like we were saying, just the right school supplies, especially for students who loved school, and it seems like they did. According to an article for wjon.com, Mary wanted to be a teacher, and 12-year-old Susie, who was learning to play the violin, had dreams, I know, had dreams to be a doctor when she grew up. Also good for Susie. Yeah. So as they ran out the door to the store, they waved goodbye to their father, Fred, who was painting the family's home. So everybody's busy this day. Mom Rita told CBS News, quote, they left about 11 15 from what I recall that morning. They said they would be back early. Rita actually received a phone call from that family who was supposed to drive Mary to school.
01:27:02
Speaker
telling her that instead of them leaving during the early afternoon around 4pm, they would be heading to school just after dinner around 7pm. So a little bit of a delay and that news was perfect for Rita because that would give Mary plenty of time to go to their store and then come home and still be able to help out before leaving. However, since Mary wasn't there, for mom Rita to tell her the news right away. The phone call obviously was soon forgotten. Mary would obviously be back with plenty of time for Rita to let her know later. But the time when Mary was originally set to leave came and went.
01:27:49
Speaker
but Mary and Susie didn't return home. And that's quite a bit of time. That's like five hours. Right. And as far as Mary knew, she was supposed to leave for school around four. Mm-hmm. Soon it was dinner time. Still no sign of her daughters. Rita and her husband Frank grew extremely concerned. Rita told wjon.com, quote, I remember fixing supper that evening. And we generally ate around five o'clock. And when they weren't there, We knew something was wrong." end quote This was not like her children. So it makes sense, as Rita later told CBS News, quote, when it got to be 6.30, 7 p.m., my husband went to the police department to report that they were missing.
01:28:34
Speaker
Yeah, because like we said, that's a bit of time already. And remember that this was 1974, Maggie. So you can likely guess the police perspective on the report. Oh, they ran away. her Per an APM report. article published October 11th, 2016, and written by Jennifer Vogel a and Madeline Barron, quote, Fred and Rita had a hard time getting the case taken seriously by the St. Cloud Police Department, which believed the girls had simply run away, and later the Stearns County Sheriff's Office, which was in the middle of an election. It just seemed we couldn't move the powers that be, Raker said. So family members searched on their own.
01:29:18
Speaker
We were very frustrated at that time and angry about the whole thing," end quote. That's such a common theme for episodes or ah cases rather that we have covered. I just feel like Maybe lives could be saved if we took things seriously from the get-go. Right. And what is the problem with taking things more seriously? Exactly. Eventually, even though there are many mistakes that have long been noted about the investigation, some additional details were discovered. Here are some of the gaps that have been filled in thanks to sightings of Mary and Susie. A manager at a Shopco store saw Mary and Susie right before noon.
01:30:00
Speaker
An hour later, around 1 to 1.30 p.m. or just after, a neighborhood boy named Jacob Younger ran into the two girls in Zayers. Which makes sense because they left like around 11. Yes. And it's a mile away. hu So that takes a little bit of time yeah to walk. As the two girls continued on, he saw them headed toward the grocery section of Zaire, which from the descriptions, in my mind, sounds a lot like a Walmart because it had groceries, clothing, yeah and all kinds of other goods. I was picturing a Sears. Old Tommy Sears.
01:30:42
Speaker
Did Sears have groceries? I don't know. I don't think so. Maybe. That's just what's in your head. Yeah. Yeah. The grocery section of the store was closed for the holiday. Remember, this was Labor Day. but Interesting. But the section with winter coats could be accessed by walking through the grocery section. So that the details of that siding, plus it being by a neighbor who knew the girls, made sense, and that siding is trusted. So we at least know their whereabouts until around 1.30ish.
01:31:17
Speaker
But there was something that Jacob Younger overheard bits and pieces of in a private conversation between Mary and Susie that haunted him after their disappearance. Younger told a reporter with the Minneapolis Star in 1977 that he heard 12-year-old Susie say to her older sister, Mary, something like, quote, I don't want to go with that man. I don't like him. Let's not end quote. Oh, as Jacob Younger was leaving the store himself, he noticed a nervous looking man outside the store. think so but Well, here's the thing though, whether this is the man that Susie was referring to is unknown.
01:32:06
Speaker
photographs as well as bulletins were sent out, according to WJON files, to quote, all major cities and five upper Midwest states and to every state crime bureau, end quote. So even though there's a lot written about bungling the investigation, at least some information was shared. Conveyed early on. Yeah. Descriptions of the two girls and what they were last seen wearing, Mary in jeans, an army fatigued jacket with raker on the front pocket, and her green wire rimmed glasses, and Susie in blue corduroy pants, a short white cotton jacket, and gold wire rimmed glasses were also distributed.
01:32:53
Speaker
Then the days and the weeks passed, Maggie, with no additional words or details. The girls were seen in theirs and then nothing that we can verify. And it it saddens me that the Raker family who had just celebrated a reunion was now so disjointed. Just shy of four weeks after the girls' disappearance, the family received additional news around 2 p.m. on September 28th, 1974. Two teenage boys had been in the quarry area near Waite Park and had stumbled upon a body. The body that was discovered was 12-year-old Susie's body. Again, this was around 2 p.m.
01:33:47
Speaker
When police responded, they found her fully clothed, but her body had been placed under a bush in some tall grass about 13 yards from the quarry. She had been stabbed 13 times. Wow. Yes. In surveying the area, police also located clothing, but the clothing wasn't Susie's. It was clothing that matched Mary's outfit that she was last seen wearing. Obviously they know we've got to do more in-depth searching in this area. And after searching the waters below, that is where they located around 6 PM that same day, 40 feet below the surface of the water, 15 year old Mary's body as well.
01:34:39
Speaker
Mary found nude, had been stabbed six times. So very violent ends these girls met. Very. Neither girl had defensive wounds. And because of decomposition, investigators were unable to tell whether either girl had been sexually assaulted. Of the clothing collected, they found Mary's pants and underwear on the cliffs of the quarry in a way that led them to believe that the perpetrator had tried to throw them into the water below as well. Which makes me think maybe there was some type of assault. Her her bra had been cut off of her and cut into four pieces.
01:35:31
Speaker
Rita Raker told St. Cloud Times reporter David Un's, quote, we definitely went through all those emotions of just fear, first of all, because we didn't know who it was, and then anger that so little seemed to be done at the time, and it seemed like nobody knew what to do, end quote. One thing was clear now, though, Maggie, passing off the girl's disappearance as a runaway situation. could no longer be an excuse. Now they needed a real and thorough investigation. With this revised focus, Maggie, if you got chills before, a chilling discovery was made in a place that was right under everyone's noses the whole time. Mary's diary. Stop it. She had written the following message, quote,
01:36:29
Speaker
Should I die, I ask that my stuffed animals be given to my sister. And if I am murdered, see that justice wins over. I have a few reasons to fear for my life. What I ask is important." End quote. Holy cow. Yeah. So that tells you this was not something that was sudden a random attack or Bruce Bechtold, the Stearns County Sheriff's Chief Deputy in 2016 told a reporter from TwinCities.com, quote, it's pretty significant to look at that. You certainly can't rule that out because what 15 year old girl writes that, end quote.
01:37:21
Speaker
Mom Rita Raker told Fox 9, quote, she wrote it to our family and she said, see that justice wins over. That's hard. That was my child, end quote. I mean, my jaw's on the floor. Mm-hmm. And especially since so much time would pass without any convictions, without any justice. Struggles would continue to plague the investigation. Some of those noted by Care 11 include lost police reports, evidence kept in detectives desks rather than inevident in and suspect names which were given to police who were never interviewed at all. And in all the years since,
01:38:14
Speaker
there hasn't been enough evidence to charge anyone with the crime. But that doesn't mean that there aren't theories based on the investigation over the last 50 years that gives us hope for answers. To hear the rest of the case, including information about the investigation and those theories, check out Coffee and Cases podcast. Until then, stay together and stay safe.
01:38:44
Speaker
Bringing us to a close is Dawn from Method of Madness podcast, where pursuit of the truth takes center stage, exploring every angle with intense dedication to immersive storytelling, insight, and advocacy.
01:39:00
Speaker
Kristen stepped outside the trailer into the hot, humid August night, closing the door behind her. She headed toward the road. It was dark, around 11.30 p.m., with only the soft, glowing light from nearby homes guiding her way and a blanket of stars above. As the grass met the roadway, Kristin placed a barefoot onto the pavement. There was no smooth, white sidewalk, and the pebbles were rough under her feet as she walked on the side of Route 139 in the rural town of Ovid, New York. She was dressed in a red and white striped, sleeveless sweater and white capri pants.
01:39:38
Speaker
To her right, a few modest houses. To her left, a cornfield. The headlights from oncoming traffic would momentarily blind her as they passed by. It wasn't a heavily trafficked road. Most of the passerby at that time of night were driving home from work. at the nearby Army Depot or from Willard Asylum. Some were headed to the local bar for a
Conclusion and Thematic Reflections
01:40:02
Speaker
nightcap. A few witnesses in those passing cars later said they saw the 20-year-old woman walking on the side of the road. She didn't appear to be in distress. One local man reported that he saw a green or blue car pull up next to Kristen, as if stopping to chat with her.
01:40:20
Speaker
Behind it was another car. Just after midnight, Kristen had turned around and was walking back toward the trailer. Witnesses later said they saw two men in their 20s walking about 50 yards behind her.
01:40:37
Speaker
Who those two men were, who owned the green or blue car, is still a mystery nearly 39 years later. Kristen never made it back to the trailer that night and nobody else came forward saying they saw anything. At least one person heard what they described as a blood-curdling scream coming from near the cornfield after midnight. It took until the next afternoon for Kristen to be reported missing by the young man she'd been visiting that week. The New York State Police called Kristen's parents back in Minnesota, and her younger brother Kyle remembers painfully how his mother Phyllis, upon hearing that her daughter was missing, cried out, She's dead. I know it. Kristen's father Mike immediately took a flight to New York and joined the search for his only daughter.
01:41:27
Speaker
That Friday, two days after Kristen had taken her walk, she was found. Firefighters, police, and volunteers had combed the area and found Kristen's body in that cornfield adjacent to the very road she'd walked on the night of August 14th, 1985. She was naked with multiple stab wounds. She'd put up quite a fight, but was no match for whoever she came across that night. It was a shock to the residents of the tiny village in the Finger Lakes region of New York State.
01:42:01
Speaker
How did a 20-year-old woman from out of town end up murdered, left in a cornfield? Why was she out walking so late at night, and why wasn't she wearing shoes? Kristin came from a loving family of four. Their suburban home was outside Minneapolis in Burnsville, Minnesota. Kristin was a visitor to Ovid, hoping to strike up a romance with the young man she'd met just five months earlier while visiting Captiva Island in Florida on spring break. Jim Vermeersch was a 19-year-old who was working down in Captiva temporarily, and after corresponding with Kristin for months, he invited her to his parents' home in Ovid, New York that summer. It promised to be a fun week in the sun, swimming, fishing, barbecues, but nothing went according to plan.
01:42:53
Speaker
When Kristen arrived in Ovid on August 12, 1985, she was surprised to find out she wouldn't be staying with Jim at his family home. Instead, he'd recently rented out a trailer located next to a local bar, the Golden Buck, and the two were going to stay there for the week. Kristen was a sport and embraced her surroundings, though she was immediately left confused and hurt when Jim spent most of his time working and telling her he'd taken on extra shifts. Two days into Kristen's stay, she used a payphone at the Golden Buck and called her mom back home, telling her she was cutting her trip short. Phyllis O'Connell didn't pry, but wishes to this day that she had.
01:43:39
Speaker
Later that night, Jim and several of his friends sat drinking and smoking pot inside the trailer. Kristen, feeling ignored and wondering why she'd been invited out there in the first place, spoke with one of the party guests and was told that Jim had at least one girlfriend there in Ovid. Kristen was known to take night walks, and it wasn't unusual for her to do so that night. She left the trailer to get some air and clear her head and intended on returning. All of her belongings, including her purse, suitcase, and shoes, were back at the trailer. Who did she encounter that night during her walk? Who would want to harm this beautiful, kind young woman? After Kristen's body was found, police said they ruled out Jim and his friends as suspects, despite the fact that none of them called the police until she'd been missing for over 13 hours.
01:44:35
Speaker
Rumors began swirling around the tiny rural village, and to this day, they still do. Was Kristen's murder the result of her having seen something she shouldn't have? Murmurs of a drug business that ran from Captiva Island up to Ovid led skeptics to wonder if Kristin, who was always on the straight and narrow, had unknowingly walked into a questionable situation. Or was it jealousy, a green-eyed monster who saw the Brooke Shields look alike as a threat? Another theory was that Kristin was killed by three local men known as the Pig Roasters.
01:45:13
Speaker
On the night of Kristen's murder, before anyone even knew she was missing, a local woman said she'd been sitting at a table in her kitchen when her stepbrother and his friends came home, covered in blood. But they claimed it was from slaughtering a pig for a pig roast. As of 2024, there have been several lead investigators that have had Kristen's case. Advocates have pleaded with New York State Police to use an outside forensics lab to test the evidence that was found in the cornfield, Kristen's clothing, and the hairs that were found. Kristen's mother, Phyllis O'Connell, is now 84 years old. She tells me personally, nearly every week, that she just wants to know, before she dies, who is responsible.
01:46:02
Speaker
I vowed that after she was found there that I would never rest, never, until I find out who did this to her and who killed her. This, I just can't believe if anybody really knew her, they would have killed her.
01:46:24
Speaker
This case was brought to you by Method and Madness, a true crime podcast. I'm Dawn, and you can listen to this show on your favorite podcast platform. Find more at methodandmadnesspodcast.com. Thank you.
01:46:45
Speaker
And that concludes our special series called Hot Pursuit. These stories have taken us through the grueling efforts of those who refuse to let the flames of justice die out. From summer crimes to cold cases, the pursuit of justice is a journey that demands resilience and determination. A heartfelt thank you to all the podcasters who contributed to this collaboration. Your dedication to uncovering information about and to sharing these stories is truly inspiring. Remember, the pursuit of justice doesn't end with us. And if any of the cases we've discussed resonate with you, share the stories, spread the word, and keep the search for truth alive.
01:47:27
Speaker
Stay connected with our podcasters by liking and following their shows, which are listed in our show notes. Thank you for joining us on this journey. Until next time, stay vigilant, stay informed, and remember that together we can keep the fire of justice burning brightly.