Latest / Crime and Horror / Shoe print cracked her murder investigation wide open - MrBallen

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Shoe print cracked her murder investigation wide open - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Before dawn. In March of nineteen ninety seven, a police
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Speaker 1: captain was patrolling the outskirts of a small town in
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Speaker 1: North Carolina when up ahead he saw there was this
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Speaker 1: jeep parked on the shoulder of the highway with its
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Speaker 1: headlights on. Now, the vehicle was suspicious enough that the
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Speaker 1: captain pulled over and he walked up to the jeep,
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Speaker 1: and as he got closer to it, he heard the
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Speaker 1: engine running and he saw the driver's side window was down.
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Speaker 1: But when he walked around to that side of the car,
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Speaker 1: he saw nobody was inside. However, as he was standing there,
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Speaker 1: a cell phone on the passenger seat began to ring.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:35
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
0:38
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Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our weekly outloads. Okay, let's
1:04
Speaker 1: get into today's story. In the early morning hours of Saturday,
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Speaker 1: March twenty ninth, nineteen ninety seven, a blonde, twenty six
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Speaker 1: year old waitress named Kim Medlin carried a tray of
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Speaker 1: filet mignon through a topless bar in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Speaker 1: All wearing a leotard and tights, she made her way
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Speaker 1: through the cigar smoke filled room, past the stage where
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Speaker 1: all the half naked women were busy pole dancing. Kim
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Speaker 1: worked here at the men's club three or four nights
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Speaker 1: a week, and for the most part, she liked the job.
1:51
Speaker 1: It paid well, and by working the night shift, it
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Speaker 1: left her day is free so she could focus on
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Speaker 1: her two real passions, which were taking care of her
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Speaker 1: horses and decorating her brand new house. So Kim and
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Speaker 1: her husband, Bridger had recently bought a seven acre plot
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Speaker 1: of land outside the nearby town of Monroe, where Bridger
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Speaker 1: had actually grown up. They'd spent the past year building
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Speaker 1: their dream home, including a barn for their three horses,
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Speaker 1: and now that the construction was done, they had finally
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Speaker 1: started moving in and decorating. Now, as Kim delivered the
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Speaker 1: filet mignons to a table of middle aged businessmen, she
2:23
Speaker 1: glanced over at the clock on the wall, and she
2:26
Speaker 1: felt a surge of excitement when she saw that there
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Speaker 1: was less than an hour left in her shift. Kim
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Speaker 1: had the next three days off, and she planned to
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Speaker 1: use all that free time to finish some of the
2:35
Speaker 1: smaller moving projects that still needed to get done, like
2:38
Speaker 1: just unpacking boxes and hanging some pictures. So she flashed
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Speaker 1: the businessman a smile and then went to check on
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Speaker 1: her other tables. An hour later, a little after two am,
2:51
Speaker 1: Kim walked out the back entrance of the bar, now
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Speaker 1: wearing a baggy sweatshirt instead of her work uniform, and
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Speaker 1: she called out a goodbye over her shoulder to some
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Speaker 1: coworkers and then walked over to where her red jeep
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Speaker 1: was parked along the side of the building. She got in,
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Speaker 1: dropped her purse onto the cowprint seat cover on the
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Speaker 1: passenger seat, turned on the car, and then turned on
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Speaker 1: some music for the hour long drive home. Half an
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Speaker 1: hour later, Kim drove south down Old Charlotte Highway, a
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Speaker 1: secluded two lane road that was pretty much deserted at
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Speaker 1: this hour. She used to find this commute kind of relaxing,
3:24
Speaker 1: but lately it had been making her nervous to be
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Speaker 1: driving alone late at night, and the reason for that
3:30
Speaker 1: was because a couple of weeks ago, while she was
3:32
Speaker 1: driving home from work around this same time of night,
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Speaker 1: she'd been involved in a really scary road rage incident.
3:38
Speaker 1: Another vehicle had come up from behind and started tailgating
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Speaker 1: her and honking their horn at her repeatedly for really
3:44
Speaker 1: no apparent reason. Kim had been afraid that this was
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Speaker 1: a customer from the men's club who was now following
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Speaker 1: her home, and it freaked her out so much that
3:51
Speaker 1: she'd actually pulled over into a convenience store parking lot
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Speaker 1: because she saw there was a police car parked in
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Speaker 1: there as well, and so she'd gone right over to
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Speaker 1: the officer to ask for her help. He'd promise to
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Speaker 1: go and try and track down this road rager, and
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Speaker 1: he'd even sent out a broadcast over the police radio
4:07
Speaker 1: telling all the other officers to keep an eye out
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Speaker 1: for Kim's car on the night she was working in
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Speaker 1: case anyone gave her more trouble. And so now, even
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Speaker 1: though you know that road rager had never been caught.
4:17
Speaker 1: Kim did feel better knowing that the police had her back,
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Speaker 1: but again, because the road rager had not been caught,
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Speaker 1: she was still a bit scared about driving home alone.
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Speaker 1: So tonight, to calm her nerves, she fished out her
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Speaker 1: cell phone out of her purse and just called her husband, Bridger.
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Speaker 1: When he answered, he told her that he was actually
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Speaker 1: on the road too. He was still driving back from
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Speaker 1: a gig djaying at a prom and a town two
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Speaker 1: hours away, but he was almost home. After chatting for
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Speaker 1: a few minutes, Bridget told Kim that he was actually
4:44
Speaker 1: pulling into their driveway and that he would call her
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Speaker 1: right back once he got inside the house. So Kim
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Speaker 1: said fine and said goodbye, and they hung up and
4:52
Speaker 1: she kept on driving. Then about fifteen minutes later, so
4:56
Speaker 1: a little before three am, her phone rang and it
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Speaker 1: was Bridger again calling back like he had promised he would,
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Speaker 1: and he asked Kim if she was close, and she
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Speaker 1: told him that she was just passing by Union Station restaurant,
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Speaker 1: which meant she was maybe about twenty minutes away from home.
5:09
Speaker 1: Bridger said he was pretty tired and he was getting
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Speaker 1: ready for bed, and in case he was asleep by
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Speaker 1: the time she got in. He wished her good night,
5:16
Speaker 1: and Kim said good night back, and then she hung
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Speaker 1: up and she put her phone down on the passenger seat.
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Speaker 1: But just as Kim turned her attention back towards the road,
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Speaker 1: a sudden bright light almost blinded her. She looked in
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Speaker 1: the rear view mirror and saw headlights right behind her.
5:33
Speaker 1: About an hour later, Kim's husband, Bridger, sat up in
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Speaker 1: bed and looked over at the clock on his nightstand.
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Speaker 1: It was three point fifty nine a m. An hour
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Speaker 1: after having spoken to Kim. I mean, she should have
5:44
Speaker 1: been home twenty minutes after that phone call, and she
5:47
Speaker 1: still wasn't back. So he got out of bed and
5:49
Speaker 1: he checked every room in their two story house, but
5:52
Speaker 1: Kim wasn't in any of them. There was no sign
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Speaker 1: of her. Then Bridger looked out the window and he
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Speaker 1: saw her jeep wasn't in the driveway either. At this point,
6:00
Speaker 1: he hurried into the kitchen and he picked up the
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Speaker 1: phone and he dialed him cell phone number and it
6:05
Speaker 1: rang a few times, and then a strange male voice answered.
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Speaker 1: Bridger asked who he was speaking to, and the man
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Speaker 1: told him he was a police officer with the Monroe
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Speaker 1: Public Safety Department. Bridger asked him, okay, well, where's my wife,
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Speaker 1: and the officer told him that he didn't know. He
6:22
Speaker 1: had just come across a red jeep idling on the
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Speaker 1: side of the road and found this phone inside of
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Speaker 1: it and it was ringing, and so he answered it,
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Speaker 1: but he said there's nobody here. Several minutes later, So
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Speaker 1: this is a little bit after four am. On March
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Speaker 1: twenty ninth, nineteen ninety seven, Assistant Chief Bobby Hulk, a
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Speaker 1: police investigator with the Monroe Public Safety Department, drove north
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Speaker 1: along Old Charlotte Highway. He drove his patrol car pass
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Speaker 1: parking lots and houses until he reached the very edge
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Speaker 1: of town, and finally he saw what he was looking for,
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Speaker 1: a red jeep parked along the opposite side of the
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Speaker 1: road with another patrol car parked right behind it. He
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Speaker 1: pulled a U turn and parked on the shoulder, and
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Speaker 1: as he got out of his car, he recognized Captain
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Speaker 1: David Simpson standing there waiting for him. Simpson told Chief
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Speaker 1: Hulk that he had just found this jeep idling on
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Speaker 1: the side of the road about fifteen minutes ago, with
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Speaker 1: its headlights on, and he had walked up there had
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Speaker 1: been nobody inside of it, but when he looked in
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Speaker 1: there was a cell phone and it began to ring,
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Speaker 1: and so, you know, acting on instinct, he answered the
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Speaker 1: phone and it was a man named Bridger Medlin who
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Speaker 1: was calling saying, I'm looking for my wife. This is
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Speaker 1: her phone. She hasn't come home. And Captain Simpson also
7:33
Speaker 1: said that he actually recognized this jeep from a random
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Speaker 1: run in he had had two weeks earlier outside of
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Speaker 1: a convenience store with Kim Medlin, and so he put
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Speaker 1: it together and he's like, Okay, Bridger's calling, this is
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Speaker 1: definitely Kim's car, but Kim's nowhere to be found. And
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Speaker 1: Hulk actually recognized Kim's name because he actually happened to
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Speaker 1: be friends with Kim's husband, Bridger, And so he pulled
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Speaker 1: out his flashlight and he began looking inside the jeep,
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Speaker 1: and right away he saw there was a wallet lying
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Speaker 1: open on the passenger seat, and when he looked inside
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Speaker 1: the wallet, there were credit cards, there was cash, but
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Speaker 1: there was like this clear section of the wallet where
8:08
Speaker 1: obviously you would slide your driver's license, and there was
8:12
Speaker 1: nothing there. So it very much looked like her license
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Speaker 1: had been pulled out on purpose. Now, their initial theory was, okay, well,
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Speaker 1: maybe Kim got pulled over by a police officer and
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Speaker 1: took out her license to hand to the cop. But
8:25
Speaker 1: in a department to smallest Monroe's, there were only a
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Speaker 1: few officers on duty at this time of night, and
8:30
Speaker 1: when Assistant Chief Hulk asked Captain Simpson, had any of
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Speaker 1: the on duty officers pulled anybody over that night, Simpson
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Speaker 1: was already all over it. He had checked, and he
8:40
Speaker 1: said no, none of our officers pulled anybody over. So
8:44
Speaker 1: this made Hulk wonder if maybe Kim had been pulled
8:47
Speaker 1: over by somebody posing as a cop. There had actually
8:50
Speaker 1: been dozens of reports over the years of so called
8:53
Speaker 1: blue light bandits pretending to be police officers in order
8:56
Speaker 1: to harass drivers, especially young women. Those his cases were
9:00
Speaker 1: really quite rare, even though they did happen, so Hulk
9:03
Speaker 1: didn't want to jump to any conclusions quite yet. Just then,
9:06
Speaker 1: Hulk heard a truck engine and saw headlights approaching up
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Speaker 1: the highway, so he set the wallet back down on
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Speaker 1: the seat and then walked over to where a black
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Speaker 1: pickup truck was now pulling to a stop right behind
9:18
Speaker 1: Hulk's car, a tall man with blonde hair got out
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Speaker 1: of the driver's seat, and right away Hulk knew who
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Speaker 1: it was. It was his friend and Kim's husband, Bridger,
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Speaker 1: and Bridger looked frantic and he demanded to know what
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Speaker 1: had happened to his wife, but Hulk told him to
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Speaker 1: calm down, that they were here to try to figure
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Speaker 1: out what happened to his wife and where she went.
9:38
Speaker 1: Hulk went on to say that look like we showed
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Speaker 1: up and we just found her car here, But there
9:43
Speaker 1: were no broken windows or slash tires or any sign
9:46
Speaker 1: of a struggle, so it was possible that maybe Kim
9:49
Speaker 1: just ran into car trouble and maybe she went out
9:51
Speaker 1: to go find help. But then, without asking for permission,
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Speaker 1: Bridger pushed past Hulk and just climbed right inside of
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Speaker 1: the jeeps driver's seat and said, well, let's test your
10:01
Speaker 1: theory right now and see whether the car was working.
10:03
Speaker 1: Hulk told him to get out of the jeep, but
10:05
Speaker 1: Bridger just totally ignored him, and then he put his
10:08
Speaker 1: wife's car in drive and moved it forward a few inches.
10:11
Speaker 1: Then he put it in reverse and he drove it backward,
10:13
Speaker 1: ultimately parking it in its original place, showing that they
10:16
Speaker 1: worked just fine. And even though at this point Hulk
10:19
Speaker 1: was kind of annoyed with Bridger for what he had
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Speaker 1: just done, he couldn't help but think this is bad.
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Speaker 1: Something's going on here, And so Hulk walked over to
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Speaker 1: his car and he radioed the dispatcher for reinforcements, and
10:30
Speaker 1: he asked them to bring a police dog so they
10:32
Speaker 1: could try to track him sent in case she left
10:34
Speaker 1: on foot. A few minutes later, two more police cars
10:46
Speaker 1: pulled up to the scene and a few officers and
10:49
Speaker 1: a police dog got out. Hulk opened the doors to
10:51
Speaker 1: the jeep, and the dog went in and sniffed around,
10:54
Speaker 1: you know, getting familiar with the scent of Kim's belongings.
10:57
Speaker 1: Then the dog seemed to pick up a trail on
10:58
Speaker 1: the ground, and so the officers told Bridger, who clearly
11:01
Speaker 1: wanted to go with them, to stay put. You stay
11:04
Speaker 1: with your truck, And then they followed the dog down
11:07
Speaker 1: the road for about one hundred yards or so until
11:09
Speaker 1: it turned onto a driveway. Hulk and the others followed
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Speaker 1: the dog up this long driveway towards a small house
11:15
Speaker 1: nestled in the trees right off the highway, and the
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Speaker 1: dog sniffed all the way up to the garage and
11:20
Speaker 1: then stopped. That was where Kim's trail ended, and so
11:23
Speaker 1: Hulk went up to the house and rang the doorbell,
11:26
Speaker 1: and a minute later a man answered, and despite the
11:28
Speaker 1: late hour, he looked totally awake and not particularly surprised
11:32
Speaker 1: to see cops at his door. Hall casked the man
11:34
Speaker 1: who he was and whether or not he had seen
11:37
Speaker 1: or heard anything unusual in the past couple of hours
11:40
Speaker 1: near his property. The man said his name was Nathan Harget,
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Speaker 1: and about an hour ago, so maybe around three forty
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Speaker 1: five am, he'd been woken up by a strange car
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Speaker 1: loitering near his garage. Nathan said he hadn't recognized the car,
11:53
Speaker 1: but he noticed that it had Texas plates and that
11:55
Speaker 1: there also had been a woman with blonde hair in
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Speaker 1: the back seat. Hall cast Nathan for permission to search
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Speaker 1: his property, and Nathan told them to go right ahead,
12:03
Speaker 1: and so Hulk directed the other officers to search the
12:06
Speaker 1: inside of the house while he clicked on his flashlight
12:09
Speaker 1: and headed over to the garage. When he got there,
12:12
Speaker 1: he turned the handle of a door on the side
12:14
Speaker 1: of the garage and he found it was unlocked, so
12:16
Speaker 1: he pushed the door open and he shined his flashlight inside,
12:20
Speaker 1: but all he saw was a truck and some gardening tools.
12:23
Speaker 1: There was no sign of camp. By the time dawn
12:27
Speaker 1: broke around six am that morning, this had become officially
12:30
Speaker 1: a missing person's case, so police began to search up
12:33
Speaker 1: the woods around the old Charlotte Highway with help from
12:36
Speaker 1: members of the community. Meanwhile, Hulk and Simpson went back
12:40
Speaker 1: to the station to speak to one of the dispatchers
12:42
Speaker 1: who had been on duty that night. After speaking to
12:44
Speaker 1: that homeowner, Nathan and searching his house in his garage,
12:48
Speaker 1: he had been ruled out as a suspect, so now
12:51
Speaker 1: they were focused on finding that car with the Texas
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Speaker 1: plates that Nathan had seen loitering outside of his garage.
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Speaker 1: So they were hoping that maybe there was a report
12:59
Speaker 1: of traffic stop or maybe a suspicious car in the
13:02
Speaker 1: area or anything that might help figure out who was
13:06
Speaker 1: driving that car. But the dispatcher said again that really
13:09
Speaker 1: there had been no stops nothing that night. However, there
13:13
Speaker 1: had been one incident in the area that night. It
13:16
Speaker 1: was around two am, so it was about an hour
13:19
Speaker 1: before Kim was last heard from. They'd gotten a call
13:22
Speaker 1: about a car that had run into a ditch not
13:24
Speaker 1: too far from where Kim's jeep was found. Hulk asked
13:26
Speaker 1: who had responded to that call, and the dispatcher said
13:29
Speaker 1: it was Car four ninety one, which was driven by
13:32
Speaker 1: a young rookie officer named Josh Griffin. Halk immediately gave
13:36
Speaker 1: Officer Griffin a phone call and asked if he had
13:38
Speaker 1: seen or heard anything unusual while he was out responding
13:42
Speaker 1: to that car in the ditch, but Griffin said no.
13:45
Speaker 1: He actually said that his shift was over around the
13:47
Speaker 1: time that driver had flagged him down for help, so
13:50
Speaker 1: he had actually just called for a tow truck, and
13:52
Speaker 1: when it got there, maybe a little bit after two
13:54
Speaker 1: thirty am, Griffin said he just went home. Haulk hung
13:58
Speaker 1: up the phone feeling pretty disappointed. Bridger said the last
14:01
Speaker 1: time he heard from his wife Kim was around three am,
14:03
Speaker 1: So if this car was already being towed away by
14:06
Speaker 1: two thirty am, then it definitely was not the same
14:09
Speaker 1: car that Nathan saw loitering outside of his garage, and
14:13
Speaker 1: the driver of that car in the ditch was likely
14:16
Speaker 1: not a suspect. Hulk's sighed in frustration. But then another
14:20
Speaker 1: idea occurred to him. He asked Captain Simpson to elaborate
14:23
Speaker 1: on that random run in he had had with Kim
14:26
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks earlier. Now, this was sort of
14:28
Speaker 1: a long shot to bring it up again, but Hulk
14:30
Speaker 1: wondered if maybe the same driver from the road rage
14:34
Speaker 1: incident could have maybe come back and, you know, maybe
14:38
Speaker 1: chased Kim off the road or something. Simpson said he
14:40
Speaker 1: would go dig up the report that he had filed
14:42
Speaker 1: on the incident, and then he left to go find it.
14:45
Speaker 1: About half an hour later, Hulk sat at his desk
14:48
Speaker 1: reading through a copy of the road rage police report.
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Speaker 1: It said that in the very early morning hours of Saturday,
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Speaker 1: March fifteenth, so exactly two weeks before Kim's disappearance, Kim
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Speaker 1: had pulled into a convenience store and flagged down Captain
15:01
Speaker 1: Simpson and another officer named Roger Griffin. So Officer Josh
15:05
Speaker 1: Griffin is the one who responded to the car stuck
15:07
Speaker 1: in the ditch. Officer Roger Griffin is actually Josh's father,
15:12
Speaker 1: and he was with Captain Simpson that night. So the
15:14
Speaker 1: report said that Simpson and his partner Roger Griffin had
15:18
Speaker 1: actually caught up with the car that was harassing Kim
15:20
Speaker 1: a little bit further down the road. There were two
15:22
Speaker 1: men inside the car, Eric Williams and George Connell, and
15:26
Speaker 1: they claimed that they thought Kim was actually the one
15:29
Speaker 1: harassing them by flashing her lights at them, and so
15:32
Speaker 1: to Simpson and to Griffin, it seemed like a big misunderstanding,
15:36
Speaker 1: so the officers had just let them go. But Hulk,
15:39
Speaker 1: now looking at this through a very different lens, felt
15:41
Speaker 1: like he needed to speak to Eric and George regardless,
15:44
Speaker 1: and so in the report he found the contact information
15:47
Speaker 1: for Eric and George and he called them both up.
15:50
Speaker 1: But it turned out they both had airtight alibis for
15:53
Speaker 1: the night of Kim's disappearance. But even still, it struck
15:56
Speaker 1: Hulk as very odd that Kim had gone missing from
15:59
Speaker 1: her car on the same road at the same time
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Speaker 1: of night and on the same night of the week
16:04
Speaker 1: as the road rage incident just two weeks earlier, and
16:07
Speaker 1: he had a hard time believing it was all just
16:09
Speaker 1: one big coincidence. The next day, just after sunset on Sunday,
16:17
Speaker 1: March thirtieth, Hulk drove down Westwood Industrial Drive, a deserted
16:21
Speaker 1: dead end street at the edge of town, about two
16:23
Speaker 1: miles from where Kim's jeep was found, and as he
16:26
Speaker 1: was driving, he saw at the end of the street
16:28
Speaker 1: there were a couple of police cars parked there, and
16:30
Speaker 1: so he pulled his own car behind them and he
16:32
Speaker 1: got out. He walked into the trees, where he could
16:35
Speaker 1: see the beams of several flashlights moving around in the darkness,
16:38
Speaker 1: and as he got closer, he saw officers putting up
16:41
Speaker 1: police tape around a small clearing, and then on the
16:44
Speaker 1: ground in that clearing, he saw a pair of feet
16:47
Speaker 1: and sneakers poking out from underneath the pile of roofing
16:49
Speaker 1: shingles and branches. The police had gotten a call earlier
16:53
Speaker 1: that evening from two men who were part of the
16:55
Speaker 1: community search effort for Kim, and they said to police
16:59
Speaker 1: that they had found a body in the woods in
17:01
Speaker 1: the spot, but they hadn't touched it. And so now
17:03
Speaker 1: with Hulk on the scene, the forensics team removed the
17:06
Speaker 1: shingles and branches that were covering the body, and Hulk
17:09
Speaker 1: pulled out his flashlight and knelt down to get a
17:11
Speaker 1: better look, and he saw right away it was a
17:14
Speaker 1: deceased woman, and it was definitely Kim Medlin. She was
17:18
Speaker 1: only wearing a pair of shorts, a bra, and a
17:21
Speaker 1: sweatshirt that had been pulled up over her head. One
17:24
Speaker 1: side of her face was very badly beaten, and there
17:26
Speaker 1: were also cuts and bruises all over her neck, and
17:29
Speaker 1: there were some scrapes on her knees, and her necklace
17:31
Speaker 1: and wedding ring were still on, so her killer had
17:34
Speaker 1: not robbed her. Hulk stood back as the forensics team
17:37
Speaker 1: untangled Kim's sweatshirt from around her wrists so they could
17:40
Speaker 1: collect clippings of her fingernails in case she had maybe
17:43
Speaker 1: scratched off a trace of her killer's DNA. And as
17:46
Speaker 1: Hulk watched one of these forensics officers go to put
17:49
Speaker 1: the sweatshirt inside of an evidence bag, he suddenly noticed
17:52
Speaker 1: something and shouted for the officer to stop. Hulk stepped
17:55
Speaker 1: closer and he shined his flashlight on the sweatshirts fabric
17:59
Speaker 1: and reveal yield a shoe print, And so he told
18:02
Speaker 1: the officers to send that sweatshirt to the crime lab
18:05
Speaker 1: and see if they could figure out the size and
18:07
Speaker 1: type of shoe that had left that print. But while
18:10
Speaker 1: he would have to wait for those results. He knew
18:12
Speaker 1: he had a couple of other big clues to help
18:14
Speaker 1: narrow down a suspect. The first was the location of
18:17
Speaker 1: Kim's body. Westwood Industrial Drive was known as Lover's Lane,
18:22
Speaker 1: so basically a secluded out of the way spot where
18:25
Speaker 1: people often went to be alone, and the fact that
18:27
Speaker 1: Kim's killer had thought to take her there meant they
18:30
Speaker 1: were probably a local and familiar with the area. Now,
18:33
Speaker 1: it was still theoretically possible that she'd just been run
18:35
Speaker 1: off the road by some stranger for some reason, or
18:38
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a customer had followed her home from work,
18:41
Speaker 1: or maybe it was a blue light bandit impersonating a
18:44
Speaker 1: police officer. But the second big clue was that there
18:47
Speaker 1: was no sign of a struggle at Kim's jeep, and
18:50
Speaker 1: because of that, Halk did not think she had been
18:52
Speaker 1: kidnapped by a stranger. He thought it was far more
18:55
Speaker 1: likely that she had gotten out of her car for
18:57
Speaker 1: somebody that she knew and trusted. The very next day, Monday,
19:02
Speaker 1: March thirty, first Hulk sat down in an interrogation room
19:06
Speaker 1: with his friend and first murder suspect, Kim's husband, Bridger.
19:10
Speaker 1: Bridger had been really pushy and really in some ways
19:13
Speaker 1: over involved in the investigation from literally the moment Kim's
19:17
Speaker 1: jeep was found. He'd messed with the crime scene by
19:20
Speaker 1: getting into the jeep without permission. And now Hulk had
19:23
Speaker 1: information that Bridger had lied about his alibi. So when
19:27
Speaker 1: Kim first went missing, Bridger had told the police that
19:30
Speaker 1: he got home around two thirty that morning, he called
19:33
Speaker 1: Kim for a brief chat a little before three, and
19:36
Speaker 1: then he immediately went to bed. But now a police
19:39
Speaker 1: officer had told Hulk that he had seen Bridger's black
19:42
Speaker 1: pickup truck driving around the center of town around two
19:46
Speaker 1: thirty am, which was nowhere near Bridger's house and nowhere
19:50
Speaker 1: near the route he would have taken to get back
19:52
Speaker 1: from his DJing gig. So once Hulk sat down immediately
19:55
Speaker 1: he could see that Bridger was visibly distraught. I mean,
19:59
Speaker 1: he's just I arned that his wife was found dead.
20:02
Speaker 1: But Hulk had a job to do, and so he
20:04
Speaker 1: cut right to the chase and he said to Bridger that,
20:07
Speaker 1: you know, hey, this other officer said they saw your
20:09
Speaker 1: truck driving around in town. It contradicts your alibi. Why
20:13
Speaker 1: did you lie? And right away Bridger exploded. He was
20:17
Speaker 1: so mad, and he shouted at Hulk that he couldn't
20:20
Speaker 1: believe at a time like this, you would accuse me
20:23
Speaker 1: of lying to you. You're insinuating that I hurt my wife.
20:26
Speaker 1: I didn't do this. He also yelled at Hulk for
20:28
Speaker 1: just wasting time looking at him as a suspect when
20:32
Speaker 1: there were so many clues pointing to a different story,
20:35
Speaker 1: like the lack of a struggle at the jeep and
20:38
Speaker 1: the rolled down window and missing driver's license, all of
20:40
Speaker 1: which made it look like a traffic stop gone wrong.
20:43
Speaker 1: Bridger said he knew Kim better than anybody, and she
20:46
Speaker 1: would never ever get out of her car in the
20:49
Speaker 1: middle of the night for a stranger, especially after that
20:52
Speaker 1: road ridge incident two weeks earlier. She was on edge.
20:55
Speaker 1: She never would have done that. When Hulk left the
21:05
Speaker 1: interrogation room a few minutes later, he told his team
21:08
Speaker 1: to track down security footage from around town on the
21:11
Speaker 1: night Kim was killed to see if there was proof
21:13
Speaker 1: that really Bridger was driving around when he said he
21:17
Speaker 1: was home, because right now they had no evidence to
21:19
Speaker 1: show he was lying, and they actually just had to
21:22
Speaker 1: let Bridger go. But when Bridger was leaving he'd been
21:25
Speaker 1: so angry and so defensive. It sort of made Hulk
21:28
Speaker 1: think that maybe Bridger did this. And in fact, the
21:31
Speaker 1: fact that Bridger had brought up that his wife would
21:34
Speaker 1: never have gotten out of the car in the middle
21:36
Speaker 1: of the night for a stranger, well, that only reinforced
21:39
Speaker 1: that she might have gotten out of the car for you, Bridger,
21:42
Speaker 1: because she knew and trusted you. But also Hulk was
21:45
Speaker 1: thinking that another person or group of people that Kim
21:49
Speaker 1: might have gotten out of the car for would be police. Now,
21:52
Speaker 1: Hulk already knew that there were no police that pulled
21:54
Speaker 1: anybody over that night, but somebody could have pretended to
21:57
Speaker 1: be a police officer, you know, a blue light. That
22:00
Speaker 1: was a theory that did sort of make sense. Hulk
22:03
Speaker 1: thought about that bulletin that had gone out over the
22:05
Speaker 1: police radio two weeks ago, you know, telling officers to
22:08
Speaker 1: be on the lookout for Kim's jeep at certain times
22:11
Speaker 1: of the night because of that road rage incident. Now,
22:14
Speaker 1: police radios were not private, so anybody with a police
22:17
Speaker 1: scanner could have been listening in and what they would
22:20
Speaker 1: have heard is, well, around this time of the night,
22:24
Speaker 1: this woman Kim often drives this road all by herself,
22:28
Speaker 1: and they basically could have just been waiting for her,
22:30
Speaker 1: knowing she was vulnerable. So Haulk picked up his phone
22:33
Speaker 1: and he began calling around to other police departments in
22:36
Speaker 1: the region, and he actually found out there had been
22:38
Speaker 1: two separate reports of blue light bandits harassing women recently. Now,
22:43
Speaker 1: one of the culprits had already been caught and he
22:45
Speaker 1: was in jail when Kim was killed, so it could
22:47
Speaker 1: not have been him, but the other suspect still hadn't
22:51
Speaker 1: been found. A couple of days later, on April fourth,
22:59
Speaker 1: Assistant Chief Bobby Hulk slammed down the phone in frustration
23:03
Speaker 1: and crossed another name off a list on his notepad.
23:06
Speaker 1: It had been five days since Kim's body was found,
23:09
Speaker 1: and all the leads he'd had at the start of
23:10
Speaker 1: the investigation were now coming back as dead ends. When
23:14
Speaker 1: he tracked down surveillance footage from the night of Kim's disappearance,
23:17
Speaker 1: there was no sign of her husband, Bridger's truck driving
23:20
Speaker 1: through town until four am, after Kim's cheep had been
23:23
Speaker 1: found by police, so the officer who claimed to have
23:26
Speaker 1: seen Bridger's truck driving around at two thirty did appear
23:30
Speaker 1: to have been mistaken, As Bridger said, Hulk also had
23:33
Speaker 1: reached out to Kim's manager and co workers at the
23:35
Speaker 1: bar she worked at, thinking maybe her killer might have
23:37
Speaker 1: been a patron who followed her home, but none of
23:40
Speaker 1: them knew of any problems she had had with customers. Meanwhile,
23:44
Speaker 1: Hulk's team had spoken to a man who worked the
23:46
Speaker 1: night shift at a business that was near where Kim's
23:48
Speaker 1: cheep had been found. He said he had left work
23:51
Speaker 1: a little before three am on the night that Kim disappeared,
23:54
Speaker 1: and as he was waiting to turn onto Old Charlotte Highway,
23:58
Speaker 1: he had seen her red jeep go past, and right
24:00
Speaker 1: afterwards he saw another car that was going in the
24:04
Speaker 1: other direction make a sort of sudden, sharp three point
24:07
Speaker 1: turn and speed right after the jeep. The man had
24:10
Speaker 1: said that this other car had lights on the roof
24:13
Speaker 1: and reflective tape on the rear, and he thought, or
24:16
Speaker 1: at least assumed, it was a police car, but he
24:19
Speaker 1: didn't get a good look at the markings. Now Hulk
24:21
Speaker 1: knew that every single Monroe Police officer that was on
24:24
Speaker 1: duty that night was accounted for, and they hadn't pulled
24:27
Speaker 1: anybody over at the time that Kim went missing. However,
24:30
Speaker 1: this new information certainly did support the theory that maybe
24:33
Speaker 1: Kim's killer was posing as a police officer, that they
24:37
Speaker 1: were a blue light bandit. So Hulk had spent the
24:40
Speaker 1: past couple of days trying to track down witnesses who
24:43
Speaker 1: had seen that other blue light bandit who was recently
24:46
Speaker 1: reported in a nearby town but had never been caught,
24:49
Speaker 1: but he kept coming up dry. Nobody knew anything that
24:52
Speaker 1: could help track down that suspect, so it seemed like
24:55
Speaker 1: the investigation was really starting to slow down. But then
24:59
Speaker 1: Hulk's phone rang and he answered it, and it was
25:01
Speaker 1: an expert from the forensics lab who had just finished
25:04
Speaker 1: analyzing that shoeprint that had been found on Kim's sweatshirt,
25:08
Speaker 1: And so Hulk leaned forward in nervous anticipation as the
25:11
Speaker 1: expert told him the results, and when he did, Hulk
25:14
Speaker 1: knew exactly how to find Kim's killer based on that shoeprint,
25:24
Speaker 1: witness testimony, and other forensic evidence. This is what police
25:28
Speaker 1: believe happened to Kim Medlin on March twenty ninth, nineteen
25:31
Speaker 1: ninety seven, around three am. The killer was driving down
25:43
Speaker 1: Old Charlotte Highway they'd been prowling around for hours, pulling
25:47
Speaker 1: over young women for minor traffic infractions or sometimes for
25:50
Speaker 1: doing nothing wrong at all. And as they drove they
25:53
Speaker 1: saw a familiar red jeep pass by. The killer had
25:56
Speaker 1: seen that jeep coming down this road several nights a week,
25:59
Speaker 1: and they sort of grown obsessed with the young blond
26:02
Speaker 1: woman who was driving it, and now they decided it
26:05
Speaker 1: was finally time to do something about that, so they
26:08
Speaker 1: pulled an abrupt three point turn and raced after the
26:11
Speaker 1: jeep and flipped on their car's flashing lights. Pretty soon,
26:15
Speaker 1: the jeep pulled over onto the shoulder, and the killer
26:18
Speaker 1: got out of their car and walked up to the
26:20
Speaker 1: driver's side window. The woman inside naturally rolled down the
26:23
Speaker 1: window and she handed over her driver's license, which said
26:27
Speaker 1: her name was Kim Medlin, and then she politely asked
26:30
Speaker 1: what the problem was, and the killer just told her
26:32
Speaker 1: to get out of the car. Now Kim was visibly confused,
26:36
Speaker 1: but she did as she was told, and once she
26:39
Speaker 1: was out of the car, the killer slapped a pair
26:41
Speaker 1: of handcuffs onto her wrists and then dragged her over
26:44
Speaker 1: to their car and tossed her in the back seat.
26:47
Speaker 1: Then the killer got in the driver's seat of their
26:48
Speaker 1: car as Kim began crying and insisting that she didn't
26:52
Speaker 1: do anything wrong why was she being arrested, But the
26:54
Speaker 1: killer wasn't listening. Their mind was racing as they realized
26:58
Speaker 1: that even though they'd been dreaming about this moment for weeks,
27:02
Speaker 1: they actually didn't really have a plan for what they
27:04
Speaker 1: would do next, and so after a moment, they pulled
27:07
Speaker 1: over and just idled for a minute while they figured
27:09
Speaker 1: out what their next move was going to be, and
27:11
Speaker 1: then an idea came to them. They put their car
27:14
Speaker 1: and drive and continued down the highway, and as they
27:18
Speaker 1: turned onto a secluded dead end road, Kim in the
27:22
Speaker 1: back seat suddenly got very quiet, and so the killer
27:25
Speaker 1: picked up on that and looked in the rear view
27:27
Speaker 1: mirror and saw her moving around fiddling with something behind
27:31
Speaker 1: her back, and the killer suddenly realized that in all
27:34
Speaker 1: their excitement, they'd forgotten to lock the rear doors. The
27:38
Speaker 1: Killer immediately tried to lock their doors with the power locks,
27:42
Speaker 1: but before they could, the rear door opened and Kim
27:45
Speaker 1: jumped out of the moving car, and so the killer
27:48
Speaker 1: came to a hard stop. They leapt out of the
27:50
Speaker 1: car and they ran back for Kim, who was lying
27:53
Speaker 1: in the middle of the road. You know, her hands
27:55
Speaker 1: are still cuffed behind her, And without even thinking, the
27:57
Speaker 1: killer lifted up their flashlight and they smashed it into
28:01
Speaker 1: Kim's head and then they stomped on her back and
28:04
Speaker 1: broke her neck. But the killer wasn't done. They reached
28:07
Speaker 1: down and they put their flashlight around Kim's neck, basically
28:12
Speaker 1: put it up against her throat, and then they pulled
28:14
Speaker 1: back on their arms, basically creating sort of a noose
28:17
Speaker 1: around her neck with this flashlight, and they held it
28:20
Speaker 1: like that and they pulled as tight as they could
28:23
Speaker 1: until Kim stopped moving. After that, they dragged her body
28:26
Speaker 1: off the road and into the woods, where they removed
28:29
Speaker 1: her handcuffs and covered her body with branches and debris
28:32
Speaker 1: to hide it. Then the killer went home and cleaned
28:35
Speaker 1: up their car, making sure there was no evidence that
28:38
Speaker 1: would tie them to the murder. But they didn't realize
28:41
Speaker 1: they had actually left behind one crucial piece of evidence
28:44
Speaker 1: at the scene, that shoe print on Kim's sweatshirt. The
28:48
Speaker 1: print had a very distinct V shaped pattern on the tread,
28:52
Speaker 1: which made it very easy to identify, and so weeks later,
28:55
Speaker 1: the forensics lab traced that print back to a shoe
28:58
Speaker 1: that was made by the Third Good Company, a supplier
29:01
Speaker 1: of military and uniform footwear, and that particular model happened
29:06
Speaker 1: to be the exact same shoe issued to officers in
29:09
Speaker 1: the Monroe Public Safety Department, which meant Kim's killer was
29:13
Speaker 1: not just posing as a police officer, they were a
29:17
Speaker 1: police officer. The killer was Officer Josh Griffin, the off
29:22
Speaker 1: duty rookie copp who had responded to a car in
29:24
Speaker 1: a ditch about a half an hour before Kim went missing.
29:28
Speaker 1: It would turn out Josh had learned the details about
29:30
Speaker 1: Kim's vehicle and late night driving patterns from his father,
29:34
Speaker 1: Officer Roger Griffin, after his father told him about that
29:38
Speaker 1: road rage incident that he and Captain Simpson had responded
29:41
Speaker 1: to on March fifteenth, and so Josh had basically been
29:44
Speaker 1: on the lookout for Kim's cheap ever since. Josh Griffin
29:48
Speaker 1: was arrested on May thirtieth, nineteen ninety seven, about two
29:51
Speaker 1: months after Kim's murder. He was eventually convicted of first
29:54
Speaker 1: degree kidnapping and murder and sentenced to life in prison.
29:58
Speaker 1: As for his motive, the best we can off Ufer
30:00
Speaker 1: is he became obsessed with Kim and Detector. Thank you
30:12
Speaker 1: so much for watching. Let me know what you thought
30:14
Speaker 1: of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have
30:16
Speaker 1: a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for you
30:19
Speaker 1: to binge right now, so click here and give them
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Speaker 1: a watch. All right, until next time, see you