Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Dardeen Family Massacre

Transcript

The Dardeen Family Massacre · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: In November of nineteen eighty seven, police officers entered a
0:10
Speaker 1: small trailer home outside Ina, Illinois and discovered a crime
0:14
Speaker 1: scene so brutal it would haunt investigators for decades. You see,
0:20
Speaker 1: inside the bedroom they found a pregnant mother, her three
0:23
Speaker 1: year old son, and a newborn infant, all killed and
0:27
Speaker 1: carefully tucked beneath blankets in bed. At first, police believed
0:32
Speaker 1: the missing husband and father, Keith Dardeen, was responsible for
0:35
Speaker 1: the murders, but soon his body was also discovered, and
0:39
Speaker 1: quickly the case transformed into one of the most disturbing
0:42
Speaker 1: and baffling unsolved murder mysteries in Illinois history. This is
0:49
Speaker 1: the story of the Dardine Family massacre.
0:53
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
0:56
Speaker 2: and Grim.
0:57
Speaker 1: A true crime podcast. I gotta get in my like
1:28
Speaker 1: normal normal voice, not my intro voice. They're a little different,
1:31
Speaker 1: aren't they.
1:32
Speaker 2: They are a little different, Like I talk.
1:34
Speaker 1: Normally, like up here, but like when I'm doing the intros,
1:36
Speaker 1: it's like down here. This is the story of the
1:38
Speaker 1: Darting family massacre. Whereas if I'm just reading it normally,
1:41
Speaker 1: this is the story of the Dardine family massacre, it's
1:44
Speaker 1: a little different.
1:45
Speaker 2: You do good though, Well.
1:46
Speaker 1: I'm glad I do good. I'm glad you appreciate that,
1:48
Speaker 1: and I like the compliment. But it's just interesting how
1:51
Speaker 1: that works, you know, it is I got my serious
1:54
Speaker 1: voice on or something.
1:55
Speaker 2: I don't know. Do you remember back in the day
1:57
Speaker 2: when I worked at Sears.
1:58
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, way back in the day.
2:00
Speaker 2: Way back in the day, and I was like super
2:03
Speaker 2: good at doing the announcement on the maths or whatever. Yeah,
2:07
Speaker 2: and yeah, I had like a different voice I used
2:10
Speaker 2: on there, and it was so interesting.
2:11
Speaker 1: I think it's funny how different voices get brought up
2:13
Speaker 1: all over the place because you don't even have to
2:15
Speaker 1: be like using your voice in a profession. You have
2:18
Speaker 1: different voices. You'll speak to your children in different tones.
2:22
Speaker 1: You have different tones if they're doing good or if
2:25
Speaker 1: they're in trouble, or your dog or on the phone
2:28
Speaker 1: or it all changes.
2:29
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, they say, if you talk to your dog
2:31
Speaker 2: in like a normal voice or sociopaths, right, something, you're
2:35
Speaker 2: supposed to be talking to your pets and little baby voices.
2:39
Speaker 1: Well, who goes up to their dog and goes, oh
2:41
Speaker 1: my god, you're so cute. I just want to pet
2:43
Speaker 1: you all day. No, you go, oh my god, you
2:46
Speaker 1: cute like that's that's how you do it. If you
2:49
Speaker 1: don't do it like that, you're clearly there's something wrong.
2:54
Speaker 1: But we also other than voices, we do have something
2:57
Speaker 1: else we want to announce this weekend is our wedding anniversary.
3:02
Speaker 2: It sure is.
3:03
Speaker 1: We've been married for how long? Sixteen years, big old sixteen.
3:07
Speaker 2: Together, twenty one damn years.
3:09
Speaker 1: A long time. It's a long time, and hopefully there's
3:12
Speaker 1: more to come.
3:13
Speaker 2: I'm sure there is. Hopefully. My hopefully is gracious. Yeah,
3:17
Speaker 2: we've had to work for those years though it's not
3:21
Speaker 2: always easy, but it's totally worth it.
3:23
Speaker 1: No relationship is easy, and I think if anyone out
3:25
Speaker 1: there is saying, oh my god, like it's been so
3:27
Speaker 1: perfect this whole time, they're lying. Nicole and I fight. Nikole,
3:32
Speaker 1: You get at each other's nerves all the time. It's
3:34
Speaker 1: just working through it.
3:35
Speaker 2: I honestly think if you and I didn't fight, that
3:38
Speaker 2: there would be a problem, probably because one of us
3:41
Speaker 2: would just not care enough to try to solve I
3:44
Speaker 2: think so.
3:45
Speaker 1: I think so too. That's a good way of putting it.
3:46
Speaker 2: So. But I mean, maybe some people legitimately don't fight.
3:49
Speaker 2: I don't know, but in our relationship we don't haves
3:52
Speaker 2: shit out. There's going to be a problem for sure.
3:55
Speaker 1: For sure. So the reality, at least for us, and
3:58
Speaker 1: I'm sure for many people out there, the world isn't perfect.
4:01
Speaker 1: We're just letting you know that. Keep on going, you
4:04
Speaker 1: can still be good. M h. But I have a
4:06
Speaker 1: not so good story today.
4:08
Speaker 2: I know, how are you to segue? The world's good?
4:11
Speaker 2: But let's talk about some murder.
4:13
Speaker 1: Yes, the world is good, but not everyone's good. And
4:16
Speaker 1: so I'm going to talk about someone who did some
4:18
Speaker 1: dark shit. But yeah, the Dardine family massacre. It is
4:23
Speaker 1: a very dark story. And I'm going to warn you
4:26
Speaker 1: now there is a situation here. I kind of already
4:29
Speaker 1: mentioned it in the intro. There is a the death
4:33
Speaker 1: of a pregnant woman and the death of her very
4:38
Speaker 1: newborn infant. So I will tell you that right now.
4:42
Speaker 2: That's so going to be pretty harsh.
4:44
Speaker 1: A little bit of a warning for you ahead of time.
4:47
Speaker 2: Trigger warning.
4:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you're ready, should we dive in?
4:50
Speaker 2: I'm ready, all right.
4:52
Speaker 1: Well, in nineteen eighty seven in Ina, Illinois, USA, this
4:56
Speaker 1: was the kind of place where people expected to know
4:58
Speaker 1: their neighbors. The village sat in the southern part of
5:01
Speaker 1: the state, tucked into Jefferson County, among farmland, with wooded
5:05
Speaker 1: stretches of back roads and long highways cutting through quiet
5:09
Speaker 1: rural communities. It was small, isolated, and for many families,
5:13
Speaker 1: very peaceful. Here. People worked steady jobs, they attended church
5:17
Speaker 1: on Sunday, and lived at a slower pace than the
5:20
Speaker 1: city's further north. But beneath that quiet surface, something in
5:24
Speaker 1: the region had started to slowly change. You see, by
5:29
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen eighties, violent crime in Jefferson County had
5:32
Speaker 1: begun climbing at a very alarming rate. In fact, over
5:36
Speaker 1: only a handful of years, roughly fifteen homicides had shaken
5:40
Speaker 1: the surrounding communities. So for an area with such a
5:43
Speaker 1: small population, the number felt massive by comparison. Murders that
5:48
Speaker 1: would normally dominate conversations for years were now suddenly being
5:52
Speaker 1: followed by more violence before residents even had a chance
5:55
Speaker 1: to process the last tragedy, and with that, fear slowly
5:59
Speaker 1: began creeping into everyday life. One case in particular deeply
6:04
Speaker 1: unsettled many locals, and it was the rape and murder
6:06
Speaker 1: of a ten year old girl. Now, the crime absolutely
6:10
Speaker 1: horrified the regent and completely shattered the sense of safety
6:13
Speaker 1: many people once associated with the small town of southern Illinois.
6:17
Speaker 1: Parents soon became much more protective. Doors that once stayed
6:21
Speaker 1: unlocked at night were suddenly being checked twice before bed,
6:25
Speaker 1: and people started paying closer attention to unfamiliar vehicles being
6:28
Speaker 1: parked along any sort of rural road, or even strangers
6:32
Speaker 1: who were wandering through town.
6:34
Speaker 2: That's terrifying because that's a lot.
6:36
Speaker 1: It is a lot, and that fear it only grew
6:39
Speaker 1: after more murders occurred in nineteen eighty five, ones that
6:42
Speaker 1: were committed by an eighteen year old named Thomas Odle
6:45
Speaker 1: in nearby Mount Vernon now See. Thomas murdered multiple people,
6:51
Speaker 1: members of his own family in fact, in a crime
6:53
Speaker 1: so brutal it became impossible for people in Jefferson County
6:56
Speaker 1: to ignore. And the whole reality that this terrible violence
7:00
Speaker 1: could happen so close to home shook a lot of people.
7:04
Speaker 1: So ultimately these were no longer crimes people watched unfold
7:09
Speaker 1: on television, you know, in distant cities, saying like, oh,
7:12
Speaker 1: that would never happen here. These were very much so
7:15
Speaker 1: happening nearby. So by nineteen eighty seven, residents across the
7:19
Speaker 1: area had started adapting to a new normal. Some, for example,
7:24
Speaker 1: openly carried shotguns in their trucks. Families became more cautious
7:28
Speaker 1: about letting children play outside unattended, people locked their doors
7:31
Speaker 1: during daytime, and conversations about crime they became very common
7:37
Speaker 1: at dinners, church and gas stations all throughout the county
7:40
Speaker 1: where people were just having casual conversation.
7:43
Speaker 2: It almost sounds like it is what it is now exactly.
7:46
Speaker 2: It's just way earlier than it probably needed to be,
7:49
Speaker 2: I guess for sure.
7:51
Speaker 1: So even in a rural place like Ena, paranoia was
7:53
Speaker 1: beginning to settle in and like you say, probably earlier
7:56
Speaker 1: than many other places. And for one young family living
7:59
Speaker 1: just out side of the village limits, that fear would
8:02
Speaker 1: soon become something much worse. It was just north of Ena,
8:07
Speaker 1: near Route thirty four and beside a set of railroad
8:09
Speaker 1: tracks where there sat a beige and white mobile home
8:13
Speaker 1: surrounded by woods. Inside that mobile home lived twenty nine
8:17
Speaker 1: year old Russell Keith Dardine and his wife Ruby Elaine Dardine.
8:23
Speaker 1: Plus they had their three year old son Peter and
8:26
Speaker 1: another child due to arrive within weeks. They were very quiet, polite,
8:30
Speaker 1: deeply religious people who were focused almost entirely on their
8:34
Speaker 1: small family. Even their names reflected how simple and personal
8:38
Speaker 1: their lives were. Though their legal first names were Russell
8:41
Speaker 1: and Ruby, nearly everyone knew them as Keith and Elaine,
8:45
Speaker 1: which is what I'll be referring to them as now.
8:47
Speaker 1: The couple married in August of nineteen seventy nine in Albion, Illinois.
8:52
Speaker 1: Keith had grown up in Mount Carmel, while Elaine was
8:54
Speaker 1: originally from Albion. Friends and relatives described them as soft
8:58
Speaker 1: spoken people who genuinely enjoyed being around each other. They
9:02
Speaker 1: were not known for partying, fighting, or causing problems, and
9:05
Speaker 1: instead they kept mostly to themselves and lived a routine
9:08
Speaker 1: life centered around work, church, and family. Music was also
9:12
Speaker 1: a major part of their life too. At their local
9:15
Speaker 1: Baptist church, Keith often sang in front of the congregation
9:18
Speaker 1: while Elaine played piano right beside him. People who knew
9:22
Speaker 1: them remembered the pair as being warm, welcoming. They were
9:27
Speaker 1: the kind of young couple that volunteered their time and
9:29
Speaker 1: rarely had anything negative to say about anyone. Else or
9:32
Speaker 1: people had negative things to say about them. Either, it
9:34
Speaker 1: was none of that. Keith's friend Kevin Harris would later
9:38
Speaker 1: describe them as quote two of the nicest people you'd
9:41
Speaker 1: ever want to meet. End quote.
9:44
Speaker 2: Of course, it's always the nicest people right Then.
9:48
Speaker 1: In July of nineteen eighty four, the couple began to
9:50
Speaker 1: expand their family when they welcomed their first son, Peter
9:54
Speaker 1: Sean Dardine, into the world. Friends say Keith adored being
9:58
Speaker 1: a father, and Peter quickly beca came the center of
10:00
Speaker 1: the household, and then by nineteen eighty seven, the family
10:04
Speaker 1: was preparing to welcome their second child into the world.
10:08
Speaker 1: At the time, Elaine was approximately seven months pregnant, and
10:11
Speaker 1: the couple had already discussed names for the baby, and
10:13
Speaker 1: some reports suggest they planned to name the child Casey
10:18
Speaker 1: if it was a girl, while others mentioned the name
10:20
Speaker 1: Ian if it was a boy. Now, Keith worked as
10:23
Speaker 1: a treatment plant operator for the rend Lake Water Conservatory District.
10:28
Speaker 1: The job was steady and respectable, though not exactly glamorous.
10:32
Speaker 1: Coworkers remembered him as being dependable and financially very careful.
10:36
Speaker 1: He was practical, responsible and constantly thinking about his family's future.
10:41
Speaker 1: Elaine worked at an office supply store in nearby Mount Vernon,
10:45
Speaker 1: and like Keith, she was known as hard working and kind.
10:48
Speaker 1: There were no reports of major arguments or any sort
10:51
Speaker 1: of criminal behavior or affairs or instability inside their home
10:55
Speaker 1: or between the two whatsoever. It was in nineteen eighty
10:58
Speaker 1: six when Keith purchased their Beajian white mobile home just
11:03
Speaker 1: outside Ena. Now that trailer sat in a somewhat isolated
11:07
Speaker 1: area along Route thirty seven, with railroad tracks running nearby
11:11
Speaker 1: and wooded stretches surrounding the property. It was not luxurious
11:15
Speaker 1: by any means, but it was meant to be a
11:16
Speaker 1: place where the family could settle down and begin to
11:19
Speaker 1: build their future together. However, not long after moving into
11:22
Speaker 1: their home outside Ena, Keith began telling people that he
11:26
Speaker 1: no longer felt safe there. At first, the concern may
11:29
Speaker 1: have sounded excessive to some, but Ina was still a
11:32
Speaker 1: small rural community, and the Dardines were not living in
11:35
Speaker 1: a high crime neighborhood by any sort of big city standard,
11:38
Speaker 1: so why was he concerned. Keith just couldn't shake the
11:42
Speaker 1: feeling that something around them was changing. Though the violent
11:46
Speaker 1: crimes happening throughout Jefferson County were weighing very heavily on him,
11:50
Speaker 1: and unlike many people who tried to ignore it, Keith
11:53
Speaker 1: seemed to internalize every single story. Friends and family later
11:58
Speaker 1: remembered him as becoming increasing cautious and even paranoid during
12:02
Speaker 1: this time. One story that came out from relatives involved
12:06
Speaker 1: a young woman showing up at their home asking to
12:08
Speaker 1: use the phone, and Keith reportedly refused to let her
12:12
Speaker 1: inside because he worried the situation might be a setup
12:16
Speaker 1: for a robbery or home invasion. Someone scoping the home,
12:18
Speaker 1: you know, seeing what's inside.
12:20
Speaker 2: Honestly, that's smart.
12:21
Speaker 1: It is, But it was clear that all the violence
12:24
Speaker 1: happening through the region only fueled his anxiety. Like there
12:27
Speaker 1: was his guard was up for a reason now. The
12:30
Speaker 1: murder of that ten year old girl deeply disturbed him too,
12:33
Speaker 1: and so did the idea of this individual Thomas Odle
12:37
Speaker 1: and his family murders happening near Mount Vernon. It also
12:39
Speaker 1: hit him hard. Stories about break ins, other assaults, and
12:43
Speaker 1: killings spread constantly through the area during the mid nineteen eighties,
12:47
Speaker 1: and Keith reportedly began locking doors obsessively and paying very
12:51
Speaker 1: close attention to any unfamiliar people who were around the property. Eventually,
12:56
Speaker 1: he even started openly talking about leaving, and Keith told
12:59
Speaker 1: it mother Joanne Dardine, that he regretted ever moving to Ina,
13:04
Speaker 1: and he said that he wanted to move back to
13:05
Speaker 1: Mount Carmel where he had grown up, even if it
13:08
Speaker 1: meant quitting his job before finding another one.
13:12
Speaker 2: Oh, I kind of hate this.
13:14
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing though, with that statement, it was
13:17
Speaker 1: a very bold statement coming from Keith, because he's known
13:20
Speaker 1: to be I mentioned this already, very financially responsible and
13:24
Speaker 1: very cautious. So you're talking about walking away from steady
13:27
Speaker 1: work without another job lined up. That was completely out
13:32
Speaker 1: of character for him, unless, obviously he truly believed that
13:36
Speaker 1: his family was in fact in danger living in this area.
13:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had some sort of like intuition or got
13:42
Speaker 2: feeling or something, right, but exactly Obviously, it's very easy
13:47
Speaker 2: to be like, oh, I'm just overreacting as well, right
13:50
Speaker 2: in your head and you're just playing all these like
13:52
Speaker 2: scenarios and oh, but the fact that he thought about
13:55
Speaker 2: leaving kind of is just going to break my heart,
13:57
Speaker 2: I think.
13:58
Speaker 1: Well, they did actually put the mobile home up for
14:00
Speaker 1: sale in nineteen eighty seven. Okay, they were looking at
14:04
Speaker 1: leaving the home was up for sale. They wanted the
14:06
Speaker 1: children to grow up somewhere else, somewhere safer, and Elaine's
14:10
Speaker 1: current pregnancy only made the urgency stronger. You know, get
14:13
Speaker 1: out of here and get into a place quick. Before
14:15
Speaker 1: you know you're you're dealing with a new infant and
14:17
Speaker 1: selling the house and all that sort of thing. But
14:20
Speaker 1: before they ever had a chance to move, something happened
14:22
Speaker 1: inside their home that would terrify even veteran investigators. The
14:28
Speaker 1: first sign that something was wrong came in the morning
14:31
Speaker 1: of November eighteenth, nineteen eighty seven. Now, on this day,
14:36
Speaker 1: Keith was supposed to report to work, just like he
14:38
Speaker 1: had always done. He was not the type of person
14:41
Speaker 1: to show up without calling a head first, right, He's
14:44
Speaker 1: always going to make sure that he notifies work if
14:46
Speaker 1: he's going to be late or misses the day, whatever.
14:49
Speaker 1: So when he failed to arrive for his scheduled shift,
14:51
Speaker 1: people noticed almost immediately. Now, at first, it may not
14:55
Speaker 1: have seemed like an emergency. Employees assumed maybe he was
14:57
Speaker 1: just running late, dealing with a car problem, handling something
15:00
Speaker 1: at home, who knows, right, But as the morning dragged on,
15:04
Speaker 1: concerns started to build. More and more repeated calls were
15:08
Speaker 1: made to the Dardeine home outside Ena, too, but no
15:11
Speaker 1: one was ever answering. Eventually, the concern over the silence
15:14
Speaker 1: became much more serious, serious enough that the supervisor decided
15:19
Speaker 1: to contact Keith's parents in Mount Carmel to ask whether
15:23
Speaker 1: they had heard from him. However, they didn't, and soon
15:26
Speaker 1: Keith's dad down contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff's office and
15:31
Speaker 1: arranged to meet with the deputies at Keith and Elaine's
15:35
Speaker 1: home for a welfare check, and Don reportedly brought a
15:38
Speaker 1: spare key with him as well to access the home.
15:41
Speaker 1: The drive to the property honestly must have felt painfully long,
15:44
Speaker 1: but when they arrived nothing initially looked off. There were
15:48
Speaker 1: no smashed windows, no signs of forced entry, no indication
15:51
Speaker 1: of any sort of chaos spilling outside the home or
15:55
Speaker 1: inside the home or anything. It just looked normal. However,
15:58
Speaker 1: one detail did stand out. Keith's read nineteen eighty one
16:03
Speaker 1: Plymouth Carr was gone from the driveway. His truck, however,
16:07
Speaker 1: was still there. It was odd and it brought up
16:09
Speaker 1: a few questions, but still the first thing that they
16:12
Speaker 1: needed to see was if they could have any sort
16:14
Speaker 1: of contact made with the family or anyone inside. So
16:18
Speaker 1: deputies began moving carefully around the property while dawn waited nearby,
16:22
Speaker 1: and at some point officers looked through the trailer window
16:25
Speaker 1: using the flashlights, and what they saw inside when they
16:28
Speaker 1: did this was well spine chilling. Through the dim interior
16:34
Speaker 1: of the bedroom, they could see what looked like people
16:37
Speaker 1: laying beneath the blankets on a waterbed, but there was
16:40
Speaker 1: no response when they knocked or called out. They just
16:43
Speaker 1: laid there motionless, and when deputies entered the home, they
16:48
Speaker 1: stepped into one of the most horrifying crime scenes many
16:51
Speaker 1: of them had ever witnessed.
16:54
Speaker 2: Now.
16:54
Speaker 1: They entered through a back door which was reported to
16:57
Speaker 1: be either unlocked or partially open, depending on whatever account
17:01
Speaker 1: you read, but there were no obvious signs that the
17:04
Speaker 1: killer had forced entry through the residents. But inside the bedroom,
17:08
Speaker 1: where they saw the people laying under covers, the scene
17:11
Speaker 1: waiting for officers was almost impossible to process. There, laying
17:16
Speaker 1: together on the waterbed was Elaine Dardine, with her three
17:21
Speaker 1: year old son Peter, and a brand newborn infant. All
17:26
Speaker 1: three had suffered catastrophic blunt force trauma injuries. All three
17:32
Speaker 1: were dead, Yet despite the brutality of the attack, the
17:37
Speaker 1: victims had been carefully tucked beneath blankets afterwards, almost as
17:41
Speaker 1: if someone had attempted to stage the scene to resemble
17:44
Speaker 1: a family sleeping peacefully, But nothing about the room itself
17:49
Speaker 1: felt peaceful. Blood was spread all throughout the home, and
17:55
Speaker 1: investigators would later believe that the killer had actually attempted
17:57
Speaker 1: to clean parts of the crime scene before leave too.
18:01
Speaker 1: The violence had been so extreme, extreme enough that even
18:05
Speaker 1: experienced officers reported struggling emotionally after seeing the bedroom that day.
18:11
Speaker 1: Elaine had been bound and gagged with duct tape. Some
18:15
Speaker 1: reports suggest Peter may have also been restrained at some
18:17
Speaker 1: point too, though those accounts vary a little bit. What
18:21
Speaker 1: investigators could say with certainty was that both Elaine and
18:24
Speaker 1: Peter had been beaten to death using a baseball bat
18:27
Speaker 1: found at the scene, and that bat itself belonged to Peter.
18:32
Speaker 1: His father, Keith, had given that small bat to his
18:35
Speaker 1: son earlier that year as a birthday present.
18:38
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this just keeps getting more and more horrible.
18:41
Speaker 1: But now, during the attack, that birthday present was the
18:45
Speaker 1: weapon used to kill the family.
18:47
Speaker 2: Holy, that's evil.
18:48
Speaker 1: The investigators realized something even more terrifying, and something I
18:52
Speaker 1: already mentioned and alluded to, but now it's time to
18:55
Speaker 1: address it directly. It seems Elaine had gone into labor
18:59
Speaker 1: during the assault. The trauma inflicted on her body had
19:03
Speaker 1: triggered a premature birth. It was the body's defense, trying
19:06
Speaker 1: to protect the child, a means of keeping it away
19:09
Speaker 1: from danger. If Elaine was going to die, maybe the
19:13
Speaker 1: body could birth the child and save the child. Elaine
19:18
Speaker 1: had been approximately seven months pregnant at the time, far
19:21
Speaker 1: long enough that the baby may have been medically viable
19:24
Speaker 1: if born under proper supervision or normal circumstances. But instead,
19:29
Speaker 1: sometime during the attack, Elaine delivered the infant inside the trailer.
19:34
Speaker 1: A newborn baby girl was then murdered moments after she
19:39
Speaker 1: was born, using the very same baseball bat on her
19:43
Speaker 1: mother and brother. The realization of this situation stunned investigators.
19:50
Speaker 1: The sheer violence of this attack was honestly almost incomprehensible,
19:55
Speaker 1: and yet despite the savagery, several details made this case
20:00
Speaker 1: even stranger. Nothing seemed to be stolen. Cash remained inside
20:05
Speaker 1: the home, Jewelry was untouched electronics, including a VCR a camera.
20:10
Speaker 1: They were not taken. There were no signs of a
20:12
Speaker 1: robbery gone wrong or anything like that. This looked like
20:15
Speaker 1: a very deliberate and personal attack on the Dardines, one
20:20
Speaker 1: that was focused specifically on the family themselves. But the
20:24
Speaker 1: biggest mystery inside the trailer was not what investigators found,
20:27
Speaker 1: but what they did not find. See, Keith himself was
20:31
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. He was gone, and from their perspective,
20:34
Speaker 1: the fact seemed to point towards him as being the
20:37
Speaker 1: one responsible. So very quickly roadblocks and search efforts began.
20:43
Speaker 1: Law enforcement started trying to track Keith's possible movements, while
20:47
Speaker 1: also contacting family members and people who knew him. Officers
20:51
Speaker 1: questioned whether he may have snapped under stress, fled after
20:55
Speaker 1: the murders, and possibly intended to disappear entirely. Keith's mother,
21:00
Speaker 1: Joanne Dardine, refused to believe that her son could have
21:03
Speaker 1: done something so monstrous. Family members described Keith as being
21:08
Speaker 1: deeply devoted to his wife and his son. Friends echoed
21:12
Speaker 1: the same thing repeatedly, saying Keith was quiet, responsible, and
21:16
Speaker 1: very protective of his family. Nothing in his history suggested
21:20
Speaker 1: any violence like this, especially something as bad as this. Still,
21:25
Speaker 1: investigators had to follow the evidence that they had in
21:27
Speaker 1: front of them, and the missing Plymouth car, for example,
21:30
Speaker 1: became one of the central focuses of that search. Officers
21:34
Speaker 1: spread information about the vehicle through the area while investigators
21:37
Speaker 1: continued to examine the home, but it was so hard
21:41
Speaker 1: to understand. The sheer level of violence inside felt excessive,
21:46
Speaker 1: even for a personal family annihilation. Then there was the
21:50
Speaker 1: issue of staging. The bodies had been very carefully covered.
21:55
Speaker 1: Parts of the scene appeared to be clean, valued items
21:58
Speaker 1: they remained untouched. Some investigators suspected the crime scene felt
22:03
Speaker 1: strangely controlled and methodical rather than something impulsive like Whoever
22:07
Speaker 1: did this took their time, but until Keith was located,
22:11
Speaker 1: police could not rule him out. He was still suspect
22:14
Speaker 1: number one. Friends and relatives recalled how quickly suspicion spread
22:19
Speaker 1: throughout the community about Keith. Rumors traveled fast in a
22:23
Speaker 1: small rural area like this, and some people privately began
22:27
Speaker 1: to wonder if Keith had hidden a violent side that
22:30
Speaker 1: nobody knew about. And remind you, this is only hours
22:35
Speaker 1: after the incident. Rumors are spreading so quickly others. Meanwhile,
22:40
Speaker 1: they believed that there was no chance that he could
22:42
Speaker 1: have harmed his family. This was all going back and
22:44
Speaker 1: forth while police are still trying to process what is happening,
22:48
Speaker 1: and then while the speculation was beginning to spread like wildfire,
22:52
Speaker 1: and only about seven hours into the investigation, everything changed
22:57
Speaker 1: because Keith's missing Plymouth was located. It was found abandoned
23:03
Speaker 1: in Benton, Illinois, around ten to eleven miles away from
23:06
Speaker 1: the family's home near Ena. However, the car had not
23:10
Speaker 1: been dumped deep in the woods or hidden among some
23:13
Speaker 1: desert back road or anything. It had been left near
23:16
Speaker 1: the Benton Police Department and courthouse. It was right in
23:20
Speaker 1: the same area. The location almost felt like it was
23:25
Speaker 1: very deliberate. It was chosen. It was a very brazen spot.
23:28
Speaker 1: Potentially it was even taunting. Whoever abandoned the vehicle there
23:33
Speaker 1: either wanted it to be found quickly or simply didn't
23:36
Speaker 1: care enough about the risk involved. It was either of
23:38
Speaker 1: those two, and when officers examined the car, they discovered
23:44
Speaker 1: an enormous amount of blood evidence inside the vehicle, so
23:47
Speaker 1: much so that the amount and placement of the blood
23:50
Speaker 1: suggested something violent. It happened in or around the car itself,
23:54
Speaker 1: potentially even another murder. Investigators soon actually began considering the
24:00
Speaker 1: possibility that Keith had been attacked while inside this vehicle,
24:04
Speaker 1: possibly even shot there or transported to the car after
24:08
Speaker 1: already being injured, and so suddenly the theory that Keith
24:12
Speaker 1: had murdered his family and fled didn't quite seem to
24:17
Speaker 1: fit this narrative that they were already going for. But
24:21
Speaker 1: investigators still did not know where Keith was, But that
24:25
Speaker 1: answer came the following day. On November nineteenth, hunters searched
24:30
Speaker 1: the area near rend Lake College, and they discovered a
24:34
Speaker 1: body lying in a wheat field roughly a mile from
24:37
Speaker 1: the Dardine's home, and it was Keith. Keith had been
24:41
Speaker 1: shot multiple times. He suffered gunshot wounds to the head
24:45
Speaker 1: and face, with some accounts describing the wounds to the
24:48
Speaker 1: cheek and skull. But the gunshots were not the only
24:50
Speaker 1: injuries investigators found see Keith had also been sexually mutilated.
24:56
Speaker 1: His genitals had been severed from his body, cut on
25:00
Speaker 1: off in an act that investigators believe pointed towards an
25:03
Speaker 1: intensely personal or even sexually motivated level of violence. The
25:09
Speaker 1: brutality of this shocked even experience investigators who are already
25:13
Speaker 1: reeling from the crime scene that they found earlier in
25:16
Speaker 1: the home, and with this discovery, needless to say, Keith
25:21
Speaker 1: was no longer the prime suspect.
25:24
Speaker 2: What the actual shit is happening here?
25:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know this is a wild one.
25:29
Speaker 2: Listening to this, I just feel like my jaw just
25:32
Speaker 2: keeps hitting the frickin' ground.
25:34
Speaker 1: Well, you haven't said much so far, you're some sort
25:37
Speaker 1: of state of shock.
25:37
Speaker 2: I feel like I am in just shock here because
25:40
Speaker 2: it just keeps getting worse and worse. And then there's
25:42
Speaker 2: so many things too, like with Keith. Keith, like I
25:46
Speaker 2: feel this is his worst nightmare. And then even for
25:49
Speaker 2: a few hours or a day or whatever, he was
25:51
Speaker 2: even being thought to have done this. So that just
25:55
Speaker 2: breaks my fucking heart.
25:57
Speaker 1: Well, to be fair, any sort of spouse or initial
26:00
Speaker 1: family member who would be missing from a scenario like
26:03
Speaker 1: that would obviously be suspect number one. It's not on
26:06
Speaker 1: Keith himself, it's just pattern of recognition in the previous
26:10
Speaker 1: history of crime.
26:10
Speaker 2: And I can understand why they thought this because especially
26:13
Speaker 2: with like all of his you know, three family members
26:16
Speaker 2: just laid to rest with so much care in the
26:19
Speaker 2: bed and under the covers and stuff like. That's bizarre.
26:22
Speaker 2: That really does point to someone knowing them.
26:25
Speaker 1: It does very personal, right.
26:27
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:28
Speaker 1: And then Keith, on the other hand, he is not
26:31
Speaker 1: laid to rest in that manner. He's dumped in a field,
26:35
Speaker 1: not only that, mutilated in a way where his genitals
26:37
Speaker 1: are removed from his own body, which again is very
26:41
Speaker 1: personal suggesting.
26:43
Speaker 2: So it's very just hard to comprehend what the hell
26:47
Speaker 2: happened here and who the hell did this? Like, it's
26:50
Speaker 2: really it's kind of a brain it's.
26:53
Speaker 1: A mind fucker.
26:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, how do I say
26:56
Speaker 2: that without saying the efford? And then you just went
26:59
Speaker 2: in there.
26:59
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, okay, I'll do it a little nicely. Just
27:02
Speaker 1: call me Chris Angel because it's like I'm the mind
27:04
Speaker 1: freak or something.
27:04
Speaker 2: I don't know.
27:05
Speaker 1: There was a joke there. I didn't really deliver it well,
27:07
Speaker 1: but you got by the Yeah. But ultimately, though, like
27:10
Speaker 1: investigators were now, they were facing basically the idea of
27:13
Speaker 1: a whole new scenario that someone else wiped out the family.
27:17
Speaker 1: Then they possibly moved between well they did move between
27:20
Speaker 1: multiple crime scenes. They abandoned a bloodied vehicle right in
27:24
Speaker 1: front of a fucking police station too, and then disappeared
27:27
Speaker 1: without leaving any sort of motive or anything behind. Now,
27:32
Speaker 1: the problem was that almost every piece of evidence raised
27:35
Speaker 1: another question. Inside Keith's car, for example, investigators found blood
27:39
Speaker 1: evidence that suggested violence had occurred in or around the
27:43
Speaker 1: vehicle itself. They couldn't be certain. So had Keith been
27:47
Speaker 1: abducted from their home while Elaine and Peter were still alive,
27:51
Speaker 1: then maybe killed in the car, or maybe he had
27:55
Speaker 1: already been dead before the attack inside the home even began.
27:59
Speaker 1: It's really hard hard to say how this all played out. Now.
28:03
Speaker 1: Investigators considered both of those possibilities, and some theorized the
28:06
Speaker 1: killer may have forced Keith from the home first, then
28:11
Speaker 1: murdered him elsewhere, then returned to the home to attack
28:15
Speaker 1: Elaine and Peter others, though they believed Keith may have
28:18
Speaker 1: been alive during at least part of the assault and
28:21
Speaker 1: possibly witnessed or maybe was forced to witness what happened
28:25
Speaker 1: to his family before being killed himself.
28:27
Speaker 2: Oh, that would just be horrible.
28:30
Speaker 1: Now, to complicate it further, According to the coroner's forensic estimates,
28:34
Speaker 1: all members of the family likely died within roughly an
28:37
Speaker 1: hour of each other. Yet when the bodies were first discovered,
28:41
Speaker 1: investigators believed Elaine and Peter and the newborn had been
28:45
Speaker 1: dead for approximately twelve hours, while Keith's body he appeared
28:49
Speaker 1: to have been deceased much longer, somewhere between twenty four
28:52
Speaker 1: and thirty six hours, So the window from the corner
28:57
Speaker 1: tightens it further than what was estimated at first. Even still,
29:00
Speaker 1: thanks to the results of the coroner's report, we don't
29:03
Speaker 1: actually know if Keith was killed first or after, so
29:07
Speaker 1: that discrepancy it created an enormous amount of confusion for
29:11
Speaker 1: investigators trying to reconstruct the murders chronologically. Then there was
29:16
Speaker 1: also the issue of the crime scene itself being cleaned
29:18
Speaker 1: and staged. Whoever committed the murders didn't seem like they
29:22
Speaker 1: were rushed, but investigators could not figure out who was responsible,
29:27
Speaker 1: who could operate like that. Even FBI profilers reportedly struggled
29:32
Speaker 1: with the case because it refused to fit neatly into
29:34
Speaker 1: any sort of familiar category. The violence inside the home
29:38
Speaker 1: looked emotional and deeply rage driven, yet other aspects of
29:43
Speaker 1: the crime appeared more controlled and calculated. Some investigators even
29:47
Speaker 1: began wondering whether more than one killer could have been involved,
29:51
Speaker 1: but no matter how they looked at the crime, there
29:53
Speaker 1: was just no clear answers. There was only theories. As
29:59
Speaker 1: details of the Dardine's murders spread across southern Illinois, fear
30:03
Speaker 1: took over the region even more. People were not just
30:06
Speaker 1: disturbed by the violence itself. They were disturbed by how
30:09
Speaker 1: impossible the crime scene was to understand, and because investigators
30:13
Speaker 1: cannot explain why it happened, many residents became terrified that
30:17
Speaker 1: it could happen again. In Ina and the surrounding communities,
30:22
Speaker 1: Rumors spread almost immediately. Some people believed the killer had
30:26
Speaker 1: to be a local, Others thought a drifter or a
30:29
Speaker 1: serial killer had passed through the area. Stories became exaggerated
30:33
Speaker 1: with every retelling, especially surrounding the brutality of the crime
30:36
Speaker 1: scene and Keith's mutilation, and it didn't take long for
30:40
Speaker 1: the murders to take on an almost mythic or urban
30:43
Speaker 1: legend quality throughout Jefferson County, and with it, residents began
30:48
Speaker 1: changing their daily routines. Gun sales reportedly increased as people
30:52
Speaker 1: armed themselves out of fear. Security systems became more common
30:56
Speaker 1: in homes, Parents stopped letting their children roam more freely outs.
31:00
Speaker 1: Students who once were hanging around outdoors after sporting events
31:04
Speaker 1: or school activities were now quickly being escorted to vehicles
31:08
Speaker 1: by parents and teachers alike. The psychological impact on the
31:12
Speaker 1: community alone was enormous, and people kept asking the same question,
31:18
Speaker 1: If a quiet family like the Dartines could be targeted,
31:21
Speaker 1: then who was truly safe now. To top it all off,
31:25
Speaker 1: the location of the murders only intensified that fear see.
31:29
Speaker 1: Their home sat along Route thirty seven near railroad tracks,
31:34
Speaker 1: an area where vehicles and strangers could pass through unnoticed
31:38
Speaker 1: at almost any hour of the day or night. So
31:41
Speaker 1: to many residents, the killer could have been anyone, a local,
31:46
Speaker 1: a traveler, a drifter, or even someone who had quietly
31:49
Speaker 1: blended into the community for years. And despite the intensity
31:53
Speaker 1: of the investigation, answers were still not coming. So as
31:57
Speaker 1: the weeks passed, detectives continued chasing theory after theory, trying
32:01
Speaker 1: desperately to uncover a motive that made sense for the
32:04
Speaker 1: unimaginable violence inflicted on the Dardine family, But every direction
32:08
Speaker 1: they pursued seemed to collapse into another dead end now.
32:12
Speaker 1: Investigators at first approached the case the same way they
32:15
Speaker 1: would any other sort of major homicide, start with the
32:18
Speaker 1: most likely explanations and work outward from there, which is
32:21
Speaker 1: why Keith was initially thought to be a suspect. But
32:24
Speaker 1: the deeper they dug into the murders, the stranger the
32:26
Speaker 1: case became. Robbery was one of the first theories largely
32:30
Speaker 1: ruled out, and drug involvement was also soon examined very closely.
32:35
Speaker 1: Investigators did find a small amount of marijuana inside the
32:39
Speaker 1: Dardine home, but it was nowhere near enough to suggest
32:42
Speaker 1: trafficking or organized drug activity, more like personal use recreational amount.
32:48
Speaker 1: Detectives still explored the possibility that Keith or someone connected
32:52
Speaker 1: to him had become entangled with dangerous individuals, but friends
32:55
Speaker 1: and family consistently described the Dardines as extremely straight laced people.
33:02
Speaker 1: No evidence ever surfaced showing Keith or Lane being involved
33:06
Speaker 1: in any sort of drug dealings. Gambling was also another avenue.
33:10
Speaker 1: Investigators explored papers related to sports bettings were reportedly found
33:15
Speaker 1: inside the home, raising questions about the possible idea of
33:18
Speaker 1: gambling debts, but again detectives could not find evidence suggesting
33:23
Speaker 1: that Keith owed money to dangerous people or was involved
33:26
Speaker 1: in any sort of debt large enough to explain the
33:30
Speaker 1: savagery of murders like this. It was again recreational level.
33:34
Speaker 1: Then investigators began looking into the family's personal relationships. They
33:38
Speaker 1: examined the possibility of affairs, secret relationships, or hidden conflicts.
33:43
Speaker 1: Rumors also spread through the community that Keith may have
33:45
Speaker 1: actually been involved in an affair or possibly struggling with
33:49
Speaker 1: hidden aspects of his own sexuality, and that speculation mostly
33:53
Speaker 1: came from the mutilation that was inflicted on his body,
33:56
Speaker 1: which may be interpreted as potentially carrying a sexually or
34:00
Speaker 1: humiliating motive, but investigators found no evidence supporting any of
34:06
Speaker 1: those theories. At one point, the rumors began circulating that
34:11
Speaker 1: the murders were connected to a Satanic cult activity see
34:16
Speaker 1: During the time the nineteen eighties, the United States was
34:19
Speaker 1: in the middle of a well known situation that was
34:22
Speaker 1: very widespread called the Satanic Panic, and especially brutal crimes
34:27
Speaker 1: were often linked to rumors of ritual killings or occult groups.
34:32
Speaker 1: So because of the extreme violence involved in this scenario,
34:35
Speaker 1: many people became convinced that the murders had to involve
34:38
Speaker 1: cult activity. Now, investigators explored that possibility very seriously and
34:43
Speaker 1: seriously enough to bring in outside opinions, but ultimately those
34:47
Speaker 1: theories were also rejected. Investigators were at a point in
34:51
Speaker 1: the case where any theory was a good theory, honestly,
34:54
Speaker 1: because there was simply no good direction for them to go.
34:58
Speaker 1: So some investigators wondered whether the family had been targeted
35:01
Speaker 1: by mistake. Others believed someone may have been obsessed with Elaine.
35:05
Speaker 1: Keith's mother, Joanne, believed that it was possible someone had
35:09
Speaker 1: tried to pressure Keith into criminal activity and retaliate it
35:12
Speaker 1: after he refused. Keith's best friend shared similar beliefs that
35:17
Speaker 1: someone may have wanted Keith involved in something dangerous and
35:20
Speaker 1: became enraged when he just refused to cooperate. There were
35:24
Speaker 1: also reports of a mysterious visitor seen near the property
35:27
Speaker 1: before the murders happened, though accounts varied and nothing was
35:31
Speaker 1: ever conclusively tied to the case. But despite the endless theories,
35:36
Speaker 1: one idea kept resurfacing among investigators. This didn't feel random.
35:42
Speaker 1: That's what they knew. The killer appeared to know exactly
35:45
Speaker 1: what they wanted to do. They had controlled the scene,
35:49
Speaker 1: They moved between locations, They cleaned portions of the trailer.
35:52
Speaker 1: They left valuables untouched. The violence seemed focused directly on
35:56
Speaker 1: the family themselves, and yet investigators still had zero answers.
36:02
Speaker 1: So as months turned into years, the Dardane investigation slowly
36:06
Speaker 1: transformed from an active homicide case into one of Illinois's
36:10
Speaker 1: most haunted cold cases, but detectives never truly stopped working
36:15
Speaker 1: the case. From the very beginning, the investigation had been
36:19
Speaker 1: massive by southern Illinois standards. Around thirty detectives from multiple
36:23
Speaker 1: agencies became involved at different stages of the case, including
36:26
Speaker 1: the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Illinois State Police, and later
36:29
Speaker 1: even federal Resources. Investigators conducted well over one hundred interviews
36:35
Speaker 1: during the original phase alone, speaking to relatives, coworkers, church members, neighbors,
36:40
Speaker 1: and anyone else who may have crossed paths with the
36:42
Speaker 1: family in the days leading up to the murders, Every
36:46
Speaker 1: possible lead was documented. Investigators reportedly collected around one hundred
36:51
Speaker 1: and fifty pieces of evidence connected to the murders, and
36:54
Speaker 1: over time, the case files themselves grew enormous, eventually filling
36:59
Speaker 1: more than twenty binders containing reports, statements, forensic findings, photographs, timelines,
37:05
Speaker 1: and dead end theory theories, all accumulating over decades.
37:09
Speaker 2: Okay, they really did seem like they were doing all
37:13
Speaker 2: they could here to try to figure out who the
37:15
Speaker 2: hell did this.
37:15
Speaker 1: They were pushing hard, but no matter what they did, like,
37:17
Speaker 1: they couldn't identify a single clear suspect. That's the problem.
37:21
Speaker 1: There's no physical evidence definitively tying anyone to the crime scene.
37:25
Speaker 1: There was no fingerprints, no forensic breakthrough suddenly to solve
37:28
Speaker 1: this mystery. No witness came forward with critical information or anything.
37:33
Speaker 1: The case just simply stalled as cold as it gets.
37:37
Speaker 2: Which is honestly quite bizarre.
37:39
Speaker 1: It is, and for the Dardine family, the lack of
37:41
Speaker 1: answers became its own form of torment. Keith's mother, Joanne Dardine,
37:46
Speaker 1: refused to let the murders fade into obscurity. Over the years,
37:50
Speaker 1: she repeatedly pushed to keep the public attention on the case,
37:53
Speaker 1: believing somebody out there still knew the truth. Investigators themselves
37:58
Speaker 1: reportedly encouraged the family to continue speaking publicly because media
38:02
Speaker 1: attention remained one of the few ways to generate any
38:05
Speaker 1: sort of new leads. The murders eventually appeared on programs
38:09
Speaker 1: like America's Most Wanted in hope somebody might recognize details
38:13
Speaker 1: connecting someone or something to the crime, but no information
38:18
Speaker 1: ever helped progress the case, and every theory, well, it
38:22
Speaker 1: never fully fit the evidence. Then, during the nineteen nineties,
38:27
Speaker 1: investigators began considering another terrifying possibility. Maybe the Dardines had
38:33
Speaker 1: not been killed by someone local. It was in the
38:37
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties when investigators began looking closely at a man
38:40
Speaker 1: whose crimes had terrified communities across the United States. A
38:45
Speaker 1: man by the name of Angel Maderino Riscendez now Angel Rescendez,
38:52
Speaker 1: was a transient serial killer who traveled the country illegally
38:56
Speaker 1: by hopping freight trains, and because of that, he had
38:59
Speaker 1: become known as the railroad Killer. In fact, we even
39:02
Speaker 1: covered his story in June of twenty twenty five last year.
39:07
Speaker 2: Okay, yes we did now.
39:10
Speaker 1: His victims were often attacked in homes located near railroad tracks,
39:14
Speaker 1: and the murders were usually sudden, brutal, and seemingly random.
39:19
Speaker 1: Some victims were also beaten to death with blunt objects,
39:22
Speaker 1: and others were shot or sexually assaulted. Entire families even
39:27
Speaker 1: sometimes became targets of his. To investigators revisiting the dar
39:31
Speaker 1: Dean case, all these similarities were extremely difficult to ignore.
39:36
Speaker 1: Their homes sat directly beside railroad tracks near Route thirty seven,
39:40
Speaker 1: with freight trains regularly passing near the property. A transient
39:44
Speaker 1: killer moving to the area by rail could theoretically have
39:48
Speaker 1: spotted the home without ever attracting any sort of attention.
39:52
Speaker 1: The isolated location fit the type of vulnerable target that
39:57
Speaker 1: Risendez often chose, and, like the Dark Dean murders, many
40:01
Speaker 1: of Risenda's crimes involved overwhelming brutality and attacks carried out
40:05
Speaker 1: inside victims' homes. He often used weapons found at the
40:09
Speaker 1: scene rather than bringing his own too. He also committed
40:13
Speaker 1: murders in multiple states, making it difficult for investigators to
40:16
Speaker 1: connect cases quickly during the years that he was active,
40:19
Speaker 1: before any sort of widespread digital database and coordinated forensic
40:23
Speaker 1: systems became common. The idea made sense, and the idea
40:28
Speaker 1: that a drifter passing through on trains being responsible seemed
40:32
Speaker 1: very easy to accept, much easier to accept than the
40:35
Speaker 1: possibility that some local nearby had silently carried out the
40:39
Speaker 1: murders and then continued to live among everyone else afterwards.
40:43
Speaker 2: It honestly does make sense, but I felt it was
40:45
Speaker 2: weird they didn't steal anything or take anything, right, or
40:49
Speaker 2: the fact of how they tried to clean up, or
40:53
Speaker 2: how they laid the bodies. That also didn't really seem
40:56
Speaker 2: like it jived in my brain.
40:57
Speaker 1: That's true, you're right now, I mean, most, not all
41:00
Speaker 1: serial killers steal from crime scenes. They're there for a
41:03
Speaker 1: completely different motive, right, Yeah, But if you're a transient individual,
41:07
Speaker 1: you're someone who's you know, don't have the income, you're
41:10
Speaker 1: trying to find where you're going to sleep next. Hey,
41:12
Speaker 1: those valuable things are going to be a lot more enticing.
41:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he's probably fulfilling that crazy ass need of
41:18
Speaker 2: killing people, which is theft up in its own sense.
41:21
Speaker 2: But then he also does need, you know, income to
41:24
Speaker 2: live and eat.
41:26
Speaker 1: Now, as far as resendas, I don't remember. I don't
41:28
Speaker 1: recall if he ever stole anything from crime scenes. If
41:32
Speaker 1: I recall correctly, he might have stole small amounts of cash,
41:36
Speaker 1: not very much, like just a little bit here and there.
41:38
Speaker 2: I know I'd have to go back and re listen,
41:40
Speaker 2: but I feel like he did steal certain things and
41:43
Speaker 2: I also wouldn't have laid his victims in the in
41:46
Speaker 2: the bed, would he have.
41:47
Speaker 1: I don't think he would have know. So now, for investigators,
41:51
Speaker 1: Risendez also offered something the case desperately lacked, though, which
41:55
Speaker 1: was a suspect capable of that level of violence against
41:58
Speaker 1: strangers against a famine. But the deeper the investigators looked,
42:02
Speaker 1: the weaker this connection actually became, as detectives were unable
42:06
Speaker 1: to place him in Ina at the time of the murders.
42:09
Speaker 1: There was no forensic evidence that was produced that could
42:13
Speaker 1: connect him to the home Keith's Plymouth or the wheat
42:16
Speaker 1: field where Keith's body was discovered never produced anything either,
42:20
Speaker 1: and eventually this theory stalled out, just like the rest
42:23
Speaker 1: of the theories.
42:24
Speaker 2: Okay, I just have to say, though I just had
42:26
Speaker 2: this thought it also this would be would have been
42:29
Speaker 2: a very unique situation for even a serial killer. How
42:33
Speaker 2: the poor mother ended up giving birth right to this
42:38
Speaker 2: freaking brand new baby. So even to a serial killer,
42:43
Speaker 2: maybe they're like, holy shit, what did I just do
42:45
Speaker 2: when their moo completely changes or something, right, because they
42:49
Speaker 2: were just in the situation that they had some humanity
42:53
Speaker 2: and maybe I don't know, I think.
42:54
Speaker 1: You're expecting a lot of someone who's capable of such violence,
42:57
Speaker 1: if I'm honest, But it's not wrong.
43:00
Speaker 2: Even just that being so unique, I feel like could
43:03
Speaker 2: even change an AMMO potentially a serial killer.
43:07
Speaker 1: It could also worsen it. It could be something that
43:09
Speaker 1: they then want to search out and do again.
43:12
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Oh, if I'm.
43:14
Speaker 1: Going to play Devil's advocate here, if you go one way,
43:17
Speaker 1: you got to go the other two. And yeah, it
43:20
Speaker 1: could either it could get worse, it could get better.
43:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, but like, what kind of monster do you have
43:24
Speaker 2: to be that you literally just kill a brand new
43:27
Speaker 2: baby like that? I don't know. That is just so
43:30
Speaker 2: messed up.
43:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now. Eventually, when Rossendez did turn himself into the
43:35
Speaker 1: Texas Rangers in July of nineteen ninety nine, investigators hoped
43:39
Speaker 1: further questioning might establish a connection to the Dardine murders,
43:43
Speaker 1: but despite examining the possibility very carefully, authorities were unable
43:48
Speaker 1: to conclusively tie him to the case in any sort
43:50
Speaker 1: of capacity. But only months after the railroad killer theory faded,
43:55
Speaker 1: another serial killer entered the investigation in December of nineteen
44:01
Speaker 1: ninety nine, when investigators received what appeared to be the
44:04
Speaker 1: biggest break in the Dardian case, a drifter and serial
44:09
Speaker 1: killer named Tommy Lynn Sels had been arrested in Texas
44:12
Speaker 1: after murdering a thirteen year old girl and attacking another
44:16
Speaker 1: child who ultimately survived, and once he was in custody,
44:20
Speaker 1: Tommy began confessing to other crimes across the United States,
44:24
Speaker 1: and I mean a lot of other crimes. Tommy claimed
44:28
Speaker 1: responsibility for murders in multiple states stretching back years. He
44:34
Speaker 1: lived a transient lifestyle, drifted across the country, taking on
44:37
Speaker 1: temporary jobs, even riding freight trains, and disappearing for long
44:40
Speaker 1: periods of time, and investigators quickly realized his movements potentially
44:45
Speaker 1: placed him in numerous unsolved homicide investigations, including the Dardine murders.
44:53
Speaker 2: See.
44:53
Speaker 1: Tommy was known for extreme violence, home invasion, sexual sadism,
44:57
Speaker 1: and attacks involving blunt force. True some of his confirmed
45:01
Speaker 1: crimes involved entire families as well as weapons found at
45:05
Speaker 1: the scene itself, just like the baseball bat. He also
45:09
Speaker 1: frequently changed locations and left very little forensic evidence behind,
45:12
Speaker 1: making him difficult to track for years. So when Illinois
45:16
Speaker 1: investigators began questioning him about the Dardines. Tommy claimed he
45:20
Speaker 1: was actually responsible almost immediately, but the problem was his
45:24
Speaker 1: story kept changing. In one version, Tommy claimed he met
45:28
Speaker 1: Keith at a truck stop. In another, he said they
45:31
Speaker 1: met at a pool hall. Later, he claimed Keith had
45:33
Speaker 1: invited him back to the home for dinner, and according
45:36
Speaker 1: to that version of the confession, Tommy became enraged after
45:40
Speaker 1: Keith allegedly propositioned him for a threesome involving his wife.
45:45
Speaker 1: Then came another completely different version. This time Tommy claimed
45:49
Speaker 1: that he had never met the Dardines before the murders.
45:52
Speaker 1: He said he'd been riding freight trains through southern Illinois
45:55
Speaker 1: and noticed a for sale sign outside the home near
45:58
Speaker 1: the railroad tracks. According to Tommy, he approached the home
46:02
Speaker 1: pretending to be interested in buying the property, and at
46:05
Speaker 1: various points Tommy claimed Keith bound his own family, Elaine,
46:10
Speaker 1: had been sexually assaulted, Keith was secretly involved in a
46:13
Speaker 1: massive drug operation, and that the murder spiraled out of
46:15
Speaker 1: an argument inside the trailer. Some aspects of the confession
46:19
Speaker 1: initially sounded rather convincing to investigators, as Tommy appeared to
46:23
Speaker 1: know certain details about the crime scene that had been
46:27
Speaker 1: that had not widely been publicized, and one of the
46:29
Speaker 1: most discussed examples involved watermelon shaped ceramic decorations that were
46:34
Speaker 1: found inside the home, details some investigators believe were not
46:38
Speaker 1: public knowledge at the time. But as investigators examined his
46:41
Speaker 1: confessions more closely, serious problems began emerging. Tommy did not
46:47
Speaker 1: tell investigators one coherent version of events, and when investigators
46:51
Speaker 1: began comparing his statements against the actual crime scene evidence,
46:55
Speaker 1: got worse. In several instances, Tommy gave incoherent descriptions of
47:01
Speaker 1: very critical details. He reportedly described Elaine's body position very inaccurately.
47:08
Speaker 1: He also gave conflicting answers regarding where Keith had been
47:10
Speaker 1: positioned inside the car when he was shot, and other
47:14
Speaker 1: details investigators expected the real killer to know came back
47:18
Speaker 1: wrong or suspiciously vague. Some detectives also began worrying that
47:23
Speaker 1: Tommy was being unintentionally fed information during the questioning process.
47:30
Speaker 1: Investigators knew that over long interrogations, suspects could accidentally pick
47:35
Speaker 1: up on details through subtle prompts, reactions, or leading questions.
47:40
Speaker 1: For example, if they ask anything related to any sort
47:43
Speaker 1: of drug question, what did Keith offer you drugs, for example,
47:48
Speaker 1: that might lead Tommy to say, oh, Keith was involved
47:51
Speaker 1: in drug operations. He was definitely within many crime organizations.
47:55
Speaker 1: He was dealing, he was selling, a lot of people
47:57
Speaker 1: were after him things like that. Yeah, and the possibility
48:01
Speaker 1: became difficult to ignore with Tommy that this was the scenario.
48:05
Speaker 1: So within law enforcement itself, options became very divided. Some
48:09
Speaker 1: inspect investigators they remained very convinced that Tommy was in
48:12
Speaker 1: fact responsible, while others believed he was simply manipulating the system,
48:16
Speaker 1: the way he had done numerous times in other cases.
48:19
Speaker 1: Tommy had a documented history of confess confessing to crimes
48:22
Speaker 1: that he could not ultimately be linked to, sometimes seemingly
48:25
Speaker 1: for attention privileges, delays, or psychological control over investigators for
48:31
Speaker 1: I'm assuming strictly his own pleasure. Then of another obstacle emerged.
48:37
Speaker 1: Texas authorities refused to allow Tommy to leave death Row,
48:41
Speaker 1: where he was currently staying for his convictions, to travel
48:44
Speaker 1: to Illinois for a full walk through or deeper investigation
48:47
Speaker 1: into the murders. And without that opportunity, Illinois investigators were
48:51
Speaker 1: limited to how thoroughly they could challenge or verify his claims.
48:56
Speaker 1: And eventually prosecutors reached a conclusion. Despite the early optimism,
49:01
Speaker 1: there simply was not enough reliable evidence to charge Tommy
49:05
Speaker 1: with the murder of the Dardine family, so as the
49:09
Speaker 1: years passed, the investigation into the murders slowly became one
49:12
Speaker 1: of the most well known unsolved homicide cases in Illinois.
49:17
Speaker 1: Despite decades of work by investigators, no one has ever
49:21
Speaker 1: been arrested or charged for the killings of Keith, Elaine
49:25
Speaker 1: Peter and their newborn baby girl, and the case to
49:29
Speaker 1: this day still remains open. Over the years, investigators preserved
49:35
Speaker 1: evidence from the trailer, the Plymouth car, and the surrounding
49:38
Speaker 1: crime scenes in hopes that future forensic technology could eventually
49:41
Speaker 1: provide a breakthrough. Modern investigators discussed the possibility of DNA
49:47
Speaker 1: testing or forensic genealogy and how it could someday identify
49:51
Speaker 1: a suspect if enough usable biological evidence remained preserved from
49:54
Speaker 1: the scene. However, the case was complicated by age of
49:59
Speaker 1: the evidence, the number of people who had handled material
50:02
Speaker 1: over the years as well, and the fact that no
50:04
Speaker 1: obvious suspect had ever been definitively tied to the murders,
50:07
Speaker 1: so there was no direction to go, and to top
50:10
Speaker 1: it all off, the biggest problem investigators continued facing was
50:13
Speaker 1: still the motive. Again and again, detectives circle back to
50:17
Speaker 1: the same question, why would someone target the Dardine family.
50:22
Speaker 1: Nothing about Keith or Elaine's lives suggested that they were
50:25
Speaker 1: involved in major criminal activity. Investigators looked heavily into drugs, gambling, affairs,
50:31
Speaker 1: personal grudges, but none of those theories ever produced enough
50:35
Speaker 1: evidence to fully explain the brutality of the murders. They
50:38
Speaker 1: were exactly as people described them, kind, wholesome and a
50:42
Speaker 1: genuinely nice family, and so to this day, investigators still
50:47
Speaker 1: cannot fully explain several parts of the crime, whether one
50:51
Speaker 1: killer or multiple killers were involved, how the murders unfolded
50:54
Speaker 1: across multiple locations, why the bodies were arranged afterwards, why
50:58
Speaker 1: Keith's vehicle was abandoned near a police station, why he
51:01
Speaker 1: was mutilated, and why the family was even targeted in
51:04
Speaker 1: the first place. Those strange and unanswered questions are part
51:09
Speaker 1: of what has kept this case alive for nearly forty years.
51:14
Speaker 1: But despite all the theories, all the interviews, all the evidence,
51:17
Speaker 1: and all the years that have passed, the central mystery
51:20
Speaker 1: remains unchanged. Nobody is any closer to finding out who
51:24
Speaker 1: killed the Dartian family, and nobody has ever been able
51:29
Speaker 1: to explain why. And that's the story of the Dartian
51:33
Speaker 1: family massacre.
51:35
Speaker 2: What a frickin' piss off that this one is not solved.
51:39
Speaker 2: I know that just infuriates me. I'm pissed.
51:42
Speaker 1: Try researching it. I was getting like pissed off constantly.
51:46
Speaker 1: I was to like punch my computer at one point.
51:48
Speaker 2: Because it doesn't even seem like it's for a lack
51:50
Speaker 2: of effort at all. And I don't know, it just
51:54
Speaker 2: seems like it should be one that should be solved
51:57
Speaker 2: in my mind, but.
51:58
Speaker 1: There's there's no evidence that's the problem. They found nothing,
52:02
Speaker 1: no fingerprints, no DNA, and any DNA they have, I
52:05
Speaker 1: don't think that they've been able to link it or
52:07
Speaker 1: even go any sort of direction. If they even have DNA,
52:09
Speaker 1: I'm not certain.
52:10
Speaker 2: Huh. Well, and then just too like this sweet I
52:13
Speaker 2: feel like it's just this sweet, innocent family that is
52:17
Speaker 2: kind of almost just how do you even describe that
52:21
Speaker 2: they've kind of been put through the ringer in the
52:22
Speaker 2: sense of like all these little rumors and things that
52:26
Speaker 2: the investigators did have to look at. I get that,
52:29
Speaker 2: but like you know, affairs or like drug or gambling
52:32
Speaker 2: stuff like that sucks because I don't think that family
52:36
Speaker 2: had anything that they did that was bad or would
52:39
Speaker 2: have put.
52:39
Speaker 1: Them in danger in this way, or even deserved that
52:41
Speaker 1: label being pinned on them, even if it was temporarily
52:44
Speaker 1: and just questioned, you're right, what did they do? They
52:47
Speaker 1: were victims? Yeah, And yet because they were victims, the
52:51
Speaker 1: police don't know who killed them, so they have to
52:53
Speaker 1: go through all these possibilities. Maybe they're bad people, Maybe
52:57
Speaker 1: they're drug addicts, maybe they're gambling debts, maybe all these things.
53:01
Speaker 1: And because of that, all these stigmas could be getting
53:05
Speaker 1: attached to their name now, and they are because that's
53:07
Speaker 1: what I found in the research, all these possibilities of
53:09
Speaker 1: these different theories and angles. But thankfully the police have
53:13
Speaker 1: been able to essentially rule it out. Are they drug addicts? No,
53:17
Speaker 1: they had a little bit of weed. Who doesn't have
53:19
Speaker 1: a little bit of weed in their home? Sure, you
53:21
Speaker 1: might argue it's the eighties, it was illegal. It's still seventies.
53:24
Speaker 1: Look at the seventies, the decade prior. How many people
53:26
Speaker 1: were smoking weed? You can't tell me a lot of
53:28
Speaker 1: people in the eighties weren't smoke.
53:29
Speaker 2: But yeah, maybe they just had that to help.
53:32
Speaker 1: Them sleep or who knows, right, So weed is not
53:35
Speaker 1: bad in my mind, especially like they're good families. What
53:39
Speaker 1: I'm getting at, No matter what the police have found,
53:41
Speaker 1: they have not been able to prove that they or
53:43
Speaker 1: even question if they're not good, that they were.
53:47
Speaker 2: Into shady shit. But I don't disagree with the investigators.
53:50
Speaker 2: They did need to go through all of these roots.
53:53
Speaker 1: Yes, it makes sense, but to do so it also
53:56
Speaker 1: drags their name through the yah for the public such
53:59
Speaker 1: to a degree.
54:00
Speaker 2: And it's going to just frickin haunt the shit out
54:03
Speaker 2: of me that he had his house for sale, like
54:07
Speaker 2: they were potentially close to just you know, getting out
54:10
Speaker 2: of a situation that was about to arise, and it
54:14
Speaker 2: didn't go as quick as they had hope.
54:17
Speaker 1: I firmly believe that whoever is responsible, it is connected
54:20
Speaker 1: to the sale of the house or the house being
54:22
Speaker 1: up for sale.
54:22
Speaker 2: So if it wasn't for sale, you think this wouldn't
54:25
Speaker 2: have happened.
54:25
Speaker 1: I do think that because I think someone saw an
54:28
Speaker 1: opportunity to get inside the home because the house was
54:31
Speaker 1: for sale. Hey, I'm interested in buying, I want to
54:33
Speaker 1: check out your home.
54:34
Speaker 2: Like just knocked on the door, and they were very
54:36
Speaker 2: motivated to sell it, so they might have been like sure,
54:39
Speaker 2: like just yeah, let's have you can come and have
54:40
Speaker 2: a quick look exactly now.
54:43
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know for sure. I've not looked
54:45
Speaker 1: into this. I couldn't find anything, which is why I
54:47
Speaker 1: haven't really looked into us. But maybe there's a bit
54:49
Speaker 1: more of a rabbit hole I just haven't uncovered yet.
54:51
Speaker 1: But what about the realtor. Has anyone looked into the
54:54
Speaker 1: realtor on this at all? I don't know. Is there
54:56
Speaker 1: any sort of connection, not necessarily even the realtor being responsible,
55:00
Speaker 1: but maybe someone the realtor knew someone who had accessed
55:04
Speaker 1: to the realtor's keys, and maybe they got into the
55:06
Speaker 1: home that way.
55:08
Speaker 2: M M.
55:09
Speaker 1: Maybe the realator was showing the house to someone else.
55:13
Speaker 1: And I don't know. It's just I firmly believe that
55:16
Speaker 1: this individual is tied to the house being for sale.
55:21
Speaker 2: And do you think that this was a serial killer
55:23
Speaker 2: type thing?
55:25
Speaker 1: I do, do you? I think? I Mean, it's so
55:29
Speaker 1: hard to say that it's not. You're right next to
55:33
Speaker 1: a railroad, you're in the eighties, when you know, using railroads,
55:36
Speaker 1: especially for individuals who are committing crimes like this in
55:40
Speaker 1: an era where these crimes are much more prevalent. You
55:43
Speaker 1: can't tell me that it's not much more possible at
55:46
Speaker 1: the very least, that it's connected to the railroad system.
55:49
Speaker 1: A transient individual who sees a for sale sign and
55:51
Speaker 1: takes advantage of that one of the people they had suspected.
55:54
Speaker 1: Was it even Tommy, I can't remember me. I think
55:57
Speaker 1: mentioned the idea of the for sale sign too. I
56:00
Speaker 1: think that's huge. I think that is a big part
56:02
Speaker 1: of this missing piece of the puzzle.
56:05
Speaker 2: Honestly, it's just like devastating, like the fact that this happened, obviously,
56:11
Speaker 2: but also that it's not solved.
56:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, the unsolved. Someone tells me.
56:16
Speaker 2: To have a punishment for this, because holy.
56:20
Speaker 1: Hell, the person could still be alive out there living
56:24
Speaker 1: their life, working a normal job. Well, I guess they'd
56:26
Speaker 1: probably be retired or whatever, but chillin just enjoying their
56:29
Speaker 1: life and knowing what they did.
56:31
Speaker 2: Destroyed this beautiful family.
56:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, holy frig So, whoever did this?
56:37
Speaker 2: Fuck? You?
56:38
Speaker 1: Hope you rot. I hope that they one day figure
56:43
Speaker 1: out who did it. Whether it's through genetic genealogy or what.
56:47
Speaker 1: But it is still an open investigation. It is a
56:50
Speaker 1: cold case, but as far as I'm aware, they're still
56:53
Speaker 1: actively trying to find who's responsible.
56:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can only hope it gets solved. My gosh,
56:58
Speaker 2: it is definitely one that deserves to be solved.
57:00
Speaker 1: I agree. But anyways, thank you very much for being here.
57:04
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57:06
Speaker 1: No big corporation pulling, no strings. We research, we write,
57:10
Speaker 1: we tell you the stories, and because of you listening,
57:13
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57:15
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57:16
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57:19
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57:22
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57:27
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