Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Slaying of Teresa Branch Part 2 of 2: Ripple Effects

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The Slaying of Teresa Branch Part 2 of 2: Ripple Effects · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. After the murder of Teresa Branch,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the community was in shock, particularly those who lived in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the eighteen year old's immediate neighborhood in West Arlington. Though
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the Texas city had seen its fair share of violence
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in the preceding couple years, Teresa's hit home. She was
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  Speaker 1: the all American girl next door, a victim in the
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  Speaker 1: strongest sense of the word. To explain the tragedy in simple,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: though perhaps cliche terms, and like Teresa, her neighbors had
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: never been scared to roam their own streets. The Reverend
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Leon Sanders, who led the church where the teenager's body
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  Speaker 1: was found in the parking lot Harmony Baptist, said he'd
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: lived in the area for eleven years and nothing remotely
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  Speaker 1: like it had ever occurred. Kids played in that park
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: all the time, He said. Everyone always felt comfortable and
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  Speaker 1: safe in the neighborhood, but not anymore. One Branch family
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  Speaker 1: neighbor said she felt helpless scared because she had teenaged
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  Speaker 1: daughters of her own. Immediately following Teresa's murder, she organized
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  Speaker 1: a reward fund. If it takes money to make someone
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: come forward, she said, then give him money. At Slideel
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: High School in Wise County, where Teresa Branch excelled as
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a senior, a counselor from North Texas State University in
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Denton visited to speak with her classmates about their grief.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Everyone in the school was affected. Teresa had been a
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  Speaker 1: major fundraising force for the senior class's trip to Hawaii,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: which was to take place after graduation in June. Her
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  Speaker 1: classmates were living with her death now, and when it
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: came time to go to Hawaii, they would relive the trauma.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And then there's the victim's boyfriend, Tim Maxwell. He'd gotten
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a call from Teresa's uncle the day after her body
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: was found. It crushed him, but as a routine procedure,
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  Speaker 1: it was the job of the Arlington police to look
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: into him first, which meant Tim's grief was exacerbated by suspicion.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: The ripple effects left by the rape and murder of
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  Speaker 1: Teresa Branch had no end in sight. Detectives wanted Tim
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to take a polygraph examination, but his father wasn't having it.
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  Speaker 1: He quickly got his son, a lawyer who was to
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  Speaker 1: be present wherever and whenever the cops wanted to speak
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  Speaker 1: with him. Tim Maxwell had nothing to do with his
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: sweetheart's brutal sexual assault and murder, But with little to
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  Speaker 1: nothing to go on in the get go, detectives had
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  Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on them to solve the case,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and they wanted to make damn sure that if it
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  Speaker 1: was Tim, they didn't mess it up. On two day day,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: April twenty second, nineteen eighty six, however, the Arlington Police
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Department received a call that would alter the course of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: their investigation. After seeing news coverage of the murder of
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: eighteen year old Teresa Branch, a man who lived in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: her neighborhood came forward with what was likely the most
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: useful information detectives would ever receive in the case. Sometime
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: between eight thirty and eight forty five, the night Teresa
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: was slain, on his way home after going to the store,
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  Speaker 1: this man was driving down Avon Hill Drive, about a
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  Speaker 1: block south of West Arkansas Lane, when he saw what
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: he thought was a mannequin in someone's front yard. The
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  Speaker 1: witness noticed it had a blue top and white bottoms
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  Speaker 1: and appeared to be wearing a blonde wig. Thinking it
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  Speaker 1: was some kind of prank, he continued his drive, he
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  Speaker 1: sees another vehicle approach in his rear view mirror and
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  Speaker 1: pull over near where he saw the mannequin. As he continued,
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  Speaker 1: the vehicle now out of sight, a voice inside his
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  Speaker 1: head wouldn't let what he saw go, so he turned around.
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  Speaker 1: When he again caught sight of the vehicle, the witness
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  Speaker 1: saw two men carrying the mannequin and putting it in
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  Speaker 1: the back seat of the car, which was a large
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  Speaker 1: yellow or gold Sedan, an older model he estimated was
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  Speaker 1: a nineteen sixty six to nineteen seventy. The vehicle pulled
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  Speaker 1: off and headed north and then turned east on West
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  Speaker 1: Arkansas Lane. When the witness got to the corner there,
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  Speaker 1: the car was no longer in sight because it had
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  Speaker 1: been dark. He couldn't give detectives many specific details of
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  Speaker 1: the car or the men, but this call was filled
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  Speaker 1: with clues. Just a day before, Arlington Police spoke person
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  Speaker 1: Jim Willett lamented about the lack of leads, and now
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  Speaker 1: he told reporters the department was very optimistic they'd solve
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  Speaker 1: the case sooner rather than later. Detectives Reuben Poente and
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  Speaker 1: Mike Basillo were competent that they knew Teresa Branch's exact movements.
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  Speaker 1: On that night, They and other officers were running alibi
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  Speaker 1: and background checks on around ten suspects. Neither of the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: policemen would say what led to the investigative one pint eighty.
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  Speaker 1: They were keeping that quiet for now. Outside the investigation,
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  Speaker 1: the ripple effects continued. Just before the big lead came
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: detective's way. An article about the four teenagers who found
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  Speaker 1: Teresa's body ran in newspapers across the United States. When
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  Speaker 1: asked if they would reinterview them, Officer Willett answered affirmatively,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: but his primary reason for giving the article quotes was
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: to chastise the teens. If their actions were symptomatic of
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: our society, the policeman said, we're in big trouble. We're
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  Speaker 1: talking about the same dinghy teenagers who didn't seem to
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  Speaker 1: realize the gravity of the situation or didn't really seem
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  Speaker 1: to care. Will It remarked, there's a possibility that the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: woman may have still been alive during the elapsed time.
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  Speaker 1: That statement, according to a spokesperson for the County Medical
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  Speaker 1: Examiner's office, was not true. The reporter, to his credit,
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  Speaker 1: lent an ear of sympathy to the four teenagers themselves.
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  Speaker 1: It felt bad, one of them said. Hearing folks say
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  Speaker 1: if you'd reported it, maybe she would have lived. Schoolmates
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  Speaker 1: were heavily criticizing them. A guy in my biology class
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  Speaker 1: said he probably would have gotten out to see if
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  Speaker 1: she was alive. One of the youths said, but they
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  Speaker 1: were scared, he explained, not knowing whether the killer was
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  Speaker 1: still around, hiding and waiting to strike again. Nobody knows
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  Speaker 1: what they would do in a situation like that until
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  Speaker 1: it happens, he added. We froze. We were all shaking.
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  Speaker 1: None of us knew what to do. When offering a
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  Speaker 1: reason for the delay in reporting Teresa's body to the police,
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  Speaker 1: another boy said, I was afraid they'd think we did it.
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  Speaker 1: The teenagers said the talk that they simply tried to
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  Speaker 1: ignore the entire thing was not true. Rather, they simply
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  Speaker 1: didn't know how to handle it. Rumors persisted that the
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  Speaker 1: four teenagers had been drinking. It's unclear whether they were
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  Speaker 1: or not, but the rumors either way added to the stigma. Regardless,
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  Speaker 1: they fully cooperated with detectives during the investigation, and had
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  Speaker 1: even returned a Harmony Baptist church the night Teresa was
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  Speaker 1: killed to give statement to police. Although further rumors suggested
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  Speaker 1: they might have had something to do with Teresa's murder,
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  Speaker 1: no evidence exists against them, and as hard as the
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  Speaker 1: police were coming down on them, it seems likely at
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  Speaker 1: least one of them would have cracked if they did.
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  Speaker 1: By Friday, April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty six, somewhere between
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and one hundred and fifty people had been
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  Speaker 1: interviewed in the Teresa Branch murder case, witnesses, persons of interest,
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  Speaker 1: potential suspect, and family and friends among them. Recanvassing the
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  Speaker 1: scene had been a successful move. Detective Reuben Poente said
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't just one place, the Harmony Baptist Church parking lot.
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  Speaker 1: He added, though police were still not ready to divulge
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  Speaker 1: what their main witness had told them. The news slowed
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  Speaker 1: as the investigation ramped up, but the heat wouldn't last.
• 9:10
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• 9:14
  Speaker 1: ordinary person transform into a serial killer? If you've ever
• 9:19
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• 9:22
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• 9:26
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• 9:30
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• 9:33
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• 9:38
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• 9:41
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• 9:46
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• 9:51
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• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Now wherever you get your podcasts. On the first week
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  Speaker 1: of May nineteen eighty six, using Teresa's Pontiac Sunfire, police
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  Speaker 1: and Terence County Crime Stoppers filmed a reenactment of Teresa's murder.
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  Speaker 1: Police continued to hold back their witness, but when the
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  Speaker 1: reenactment aired the following week, it both confirmed that they
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  Speaker 1: did in fact get vital witness statements and revealed detective's
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  Speaker 1: theory based on that account, though it wasn't portrayed as
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  Speaker 1: such in the crime stopper's piece. Considering Teresa's head injury,
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  Speaker 1: one of three scenarios seemed likely. Either the men in
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  Speaker 1: the car threw something out the window at her, rendering
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  Speaker 1: her unconscious, swung a weapon such as a bat at
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  Speaker 1: her as they drove past, or one got out of
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  Speaker 1: the vehicle and struck Teresa. Whichever was the case, and
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  Speaker 1: considering the witness it seems they got spooked by oncoming headline,
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  Speaker 1: fled and returned to an unconscious Teresa Branch. They loaded
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  Speaker 1: her up in the back seat of the car, thought
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  Speaker 1: to be a large sedan, possibly a sixty six to
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  Speaker 1: seventy Pontiac Catalina, drove north up Avon Hill Drive, turned
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  Speaker 1: right on West Arkansas Lane, then hung another right about
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  Speaker 1: sixty five feet up and drove into the dark parking
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  Speaker 1: lot of the church, perhaps turning off the vehicle's lights
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  Speaker 1: as they did in the southeastern corner of the lot.
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  Speaker 1: They raked Teresa before shooting and killing her. Also portrayed
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  Speaker 1: in the production was someone else. Detectives wanted to speak
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  Speaker 1: with the Good Samaritan who had jump started Teresa's car
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  Speaker 1: the time before the last He was described as a
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  Speaker 1: sandy haired, white male in his mid thirties to early forties,
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  Speaker 1: with a slender build and dressed in a T shirt
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  Speaker 1: and blue jeans. Though the reenactment inspired others who had
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  Speaker 1: seen the Good Samaritan help and then drive off in
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  Speaker 1: the opposite direction of the one Teresa and Lisa went,
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  Speaker 1: the man himself apparently has never come forward. At this point,
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  Speaker 1: police had conducted hundreds of interviews, it was readily apparent
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  Speaker 1: their primary theory, a theory supported by everything they knew. However,
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  Speaker 1: little that was involved a stranger. The crime most likely
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  Speaker 1: was one of sheer chance and opportunity. After the crime stoppers,
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  Speaker 1: peace ran anyway. Media on the case went quiet until
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  Speaker 1: another ripple, this one as destructive as is imaginable, found
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  Speaker 1: its way to another victim. A letter to the Voices
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  Speaker 1: of the People column of the Fort Worth Star Telegram,
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  Speaker 1: published on May eleventh, nineteen eighty six, further displayed the
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  Speaker 1: desperation of the Branch family. The letter, sent in by
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  Speaker 1: two Teresa's great uncle, Malcolm Branch, appealed to both the
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  Speaker 1: killer and anyone who knew what had happened, such as
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  Speaker 1: an accomplice. Malcolm pleted with the killer to turn themselves in,
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  Speaker 1: and with any person who had any information to come
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  Speaker 1: forward and help police end the uncertainty and injustice. Although
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  Speaker 1: their longing for some semblance of closure and accountability was strong,
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  Speaker 1: Teresa's immediate family was falling apart, struggling with the reality
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  Speaker 1: that nothing could bring her back. Mercedes Branch had kept
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  Speaker 1: it together immediately after her daughter's murder, but it quickly
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  Speaker 1: began consuming her. She fell deeper and deeper into depression
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  Speaker 1: and hopelessness as she mourned Teresa's loss. Mercedes did little
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  Speaker 1: but cry as she wandered around the house, seemingly aimless,
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  Speaker 1: and became progressively distant from the rest of the family,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: king time away and relaxation might help her son, Claudio
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  Speaker 1: tried to talk Mercedes into going to visit her sister
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  Speaker 1: in Barcelona, where she was born and raised. She missed Spain,
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  Speaker 1: he knew, but it was no use. She refused to
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  Speaker 1: leave her youngest, fifteen year old John, and Mercedes, Claudio said,
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  Speaker 1: continued despiral downward. Mercedes had adored her only daughter, and
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  Speaker 1: even if the police had made an arrest, Teresa was
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  Speaker 1: still gone. In late May, after becoming paranoid that she,
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  Speaker 1: like Teresa, would be raped and killed, Mercedes was admitted
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  Speaker 1: to the psychiatric Institute of Fort Worth, but after only
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  Speaker 1: four days, she demanded she be discharged. In an attempt
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  Speaker 1: to help his wife, on July fourth weekend nineteen eighty six,
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth Branch took Mercedes about one hundred and ten miles
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  Speaker 1: to Freestone County to look at lake front property they
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: might purchase later. At about five o'clock in the morning
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  Speaker 1: on their third day there, Sunday, July sixth, nineteen eighty six,
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  Speaker 1: while staying at the Fairfield Country Inn, Kenneth awoke to
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  Speaker 1: Mercedes having convulsions. He quickly contacted emergency response, and she
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  Speaker 1: was taken to an area hospital, where she died later
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  Speaker 1: that morning. Mercedes had swallowed approximately seventy amatryptolene tablets, a
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  Speaker 1: prescription antidepressant drug. The death was ruled a suicide. Just
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: two and a half months after Teresa was murdered. Whoever
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  Speaker 1: killed her, claimed another victim, fifty year old Mercedes Branch,
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  Speaker 1: if she couldn't have Teresa Claudio later told a reporter
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  Speaker 1: for the Fort Worth Star Telegram she didn't want to live.
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  Speaker 1: The effects of the slang were hardly over. Kenneth Branch's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: life was in shambles. He lost his daughter, his wife,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and his home. An incredibly serious mental health condition, having
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: schizophrenia can cause auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: thinking and behavior, or a mixture of any or all
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: of these things. Kenneth was diagnosed with schizophrenia earlier in life,
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  Speaker 1: but for the most part kept the symptoms at bay
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: with medication. It was Mercedes, their son Claudio, later said
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  Speaker 1: that kept him in line, meaning kept him regularly taking
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: his medication, as well as keeping him grounded and loved.
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  Speaker 1: But then his daughter Teresa was murdered, followed by Mercedes suicide.
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth could not cope. Who could. He disappeared for weeks
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: at a time, and once when he came back home,
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  Speaker 1: it turned out he'd spent around eighteen ten thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth was in and out of a state mental health facility.
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  Speaker 1: Claudia was already out of the house, which Kenneth lost
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and had to move himself and fifteen year old John
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  Speaker 1: in with his folks in Wise County. By early January
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, Kenneth Branch had lost almost everything. Less
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: than a year after Teresa's murder, although in a much
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  Speaker 1: different way, her killer or killers had claimed a third victim.
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth was living in an apartment void of furniture, struggling
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  Speaker 1: to keep his mental health in check. He'd lost his job.
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  Speaker 1: All he had was his disability check from the Navy.
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth began getting into trouble with the law with charges
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: like theft and forgery, everything was upside down. Lives were
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: ruining like falling dominoes. In a May eighth, nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: seven fort Worth Star Telegram article, I Mike Basilla was
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  Speaker 1: quoted as saying a recent article on the case had
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: prompted a tipster's call, and that they were checking the lead,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: which will take several days if it ever went anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't far. The case grew cold, and with that
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Teresa's name disappeared from newspaper headlines. Meanwhile, the person or
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: persons who raped and killed Teresa continued to wreak havoc
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  Speaker 1: on the Branch family. Six years later, in March of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, Detective Jim Ford suggested Teresa's body had
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: been put on display in the parking lot of Harmony
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  Speaker 1: Baptist Church. Still, new leads were few and far in between.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: When DNA evidence and analysis became more of a standard
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: in law enforcement investigations, though still in its infancy, the
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Arlington Police Department tried going that route and began chasing
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: a lead that involved a man called the Animal. As
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: the twentieth century turned to the twenty first, the Arlington
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Police were quietly pursuing what seemed like a strong lead
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: in the Teresa Branch case. Jerry Walter McFadden, self nicknamed
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the Animal and better known as Jerry, was a massive
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: figure at over six feet tall and a weight of
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty pounds. By the age of twenty,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: McFadden had already been arrested a handful of times for
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: things like burglary and vandalism. At age twenty four, in
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: February of nineteen seventy three, he raped a woman of
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the same age in her home in Haskell, Texas, about
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  Speaker 1: fifty five miles north of Abilene. He was also charged
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: with threats in this crime. Two months later, he pleaded
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: guilty to aggravated rape and was sentenced to a maximum
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: of fifteen years in prison for the rape of a
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Denton County fourteen year old. That same year, McFadden was
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: also sentenced to fifteen years to run concurrently with the
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: other sentence. He only served five after being let out
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: on parole. Just months after and June of nineteen seventy nine,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: McFadden kidnapped an eighteen year old woman at knife point
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: in Anson, Texas. Twenty five miles north of Abilene. He
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: raped her twice before knocking her unconscious and fleeing. While
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: on the lamb for months, McFadden was indicted by a
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: grand jury, and he made his way up to Portland, Oregon. There,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: he murdered a twenty year old woman in her apartment.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Though he would not be identified as the killer for
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: decades until twenty nineteen. He was finally found and in
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Arizona jail in September of nineteen seventy nine. McFadden was
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: subsequently tried, convicted, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Again,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the thrice convicted rapist, only served five Just over two
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: weeks after the April nineteenth rape and shooting murder of
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: eighteen year old Teresa Branch On Sunday, May fourth, nineteen
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: eighty six, in Hawkins, Texas, eighteen year old Suzanne Harrison,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: twenty year old Gina Turner, and Brian Boone, also twenty,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: disappeared after visiting the area lake to hang out. Like
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Teresa Branch, one hundred and twenty miles to the west.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Suzanne Harrison was a stellar student, as the other missing
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: young folks had been when they attended their small town
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  Speaker 1: school Hawkins High. Massive searches ensued, but those searches were
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: not responsible for the discovery of Suzanne's partially nude body.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: The following day, she was found thirty miles northeast of
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  Speaker 1: Hawkins in a roadside park on Barnwell Mountain by a hiker.
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  Speaker 1: She'd been beaten, violently, sexually assaulted, and strangled to death
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  Speaker 1: with her own underwear after fighting her attacker and killer fiercely.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Not far from her body, searchers found Gina's clothing and underwear,
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  Speaker 1: but there was no sign of her or Brian. Efforts
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: on foot, horseback, ATVs, using tracking dogs and divers combing
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Lake Hawkins failed to locate them. Within days. Paroli Jerry
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Walter McFadden was detained for questioning concerning the whereabouts of
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Brian and Gina and for Suzanne's murder. He'd been living
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: in or City, not far from where the body was found.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Through a photo lineup a couple who'd been at the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: lake earlier on the day of the disappearances, McFadden as
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the man who tried to rob them. Police had run
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: a search of all area sex offenders and found McFadden's
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: name among them. Though he was charged with the robbery
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: a revocation of his parole. Of course, investigators said McFadden
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was not considered a suspect in the cases of the
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: murdered teenager and the missing twenty year olds, primarily because
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: his court appointed attorney blocked them from questioning him in
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the matter. On Saturday May tenth, nineteen eighty six, six
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: days after they'd gone missing, the bodies of Gina Turner
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and Brian Boone were found by searchers eight miles east
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: of where Suzanne Harrison had been found and about a
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: mile east of war City, in a ditch along Farm
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: to Market Road sixteen forty nine. Gina was shot once
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: in the chest, the bullet passing through her body. Brian
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: was shot once in the chest and twice in the head.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: McFadden was never convicted for their murders, but the following
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: year was convicted of the capital murder of Suzanne Harrison
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: and sentenced to death. He was executed by the state
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: of Texas in nineteen ninety nine. In two thousand and one,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Arlington police detective John Stanton came across Jerry Walter McFadden's
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: name in the Teresa Branch case file. He believed the
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: murder of Gina Turner resembled that of Teresa's, suggesting both
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: were left out on display after being raped and shot
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to death. It all fit, he said. Making the potential
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: connection even more striking was the fact that at the
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: time of Teresa's murder, McFadden had been working construction on
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: West Arkansas Lane, not far from where the crime took place.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: After locating seminole fluid taken from Teresa's body and McFadden's
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: blood sample, Detective Stanton sent the evidence to a Texas
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Department of Public Safety crime lab for comparison. The results
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: were released on April eighteenth, two thousand and one. McFadden
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: was not a match for the person who raped Teresa.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: The DNA profile from Teresa's case was entered into state
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and federal databases, including the FBI's Combined DNA Index System
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: or CODIS, but got no hits there either. Teresa Branch's
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: case once again sack cold, this time for almost two decades.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: In the mid two thousands, investigators tracked down Teresa Branch's boyfriend,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Tim Maxwell, after once again going over his movements. The
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: evening of April nineteenth, nineteen eighty six, Tim readily agreed
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: to provide Arlington cold case detectives with his DNA. He
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: was not a match to the DNA evidence in Teresa's case.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, the Arlington Police sentence evidence to Parabond
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Nanolabs in rest in Virginia. Parabond, among other things, provides
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: law enforcement with a service called DNA phenotyping, a tool
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: they developed that creates a composite sketch based on DNA.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: The scientifically and legally controversial process can provide a relatively
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: accurate representation of things like hair and eye color, and
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: skin color or pigmentation. Somewhat less so, what the DNA
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: composite sketch cannot show is the shape of the face.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Certainly not the shape affected by weight and body type,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: and probably not, at least not reliably, according to critics,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the shape of a face due to bone structure. The
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: faces from one case to the next are often remarkably
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: similar to one another, meaning there's a pretty good chance
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: your suspect is not going to look like the DNA
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: computer rendered composite sketch. But that doesn't mean the process
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: didn't help the Arlington Police Department at all. In fact,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the cops learned that their suspect, who they'd always assumed
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: was white European, was actually of Middle Eastern descent. After
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a tumultuous rest of his life, in May of twenty sixteen,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Kenneth Branch died at age seventy nine after he was
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: struck and killed by a car while crossing the street.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: It's unknown if the Arlington Police planned to utilize forensic
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: genetic genealogy in this case, a method that would likely
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: bring Teresa's killer to justice. If you have any information
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: about the nineteen eighty six murder of Teresa Lane Branch,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: please contact the Arlington Police Homicide Unit at eight one
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: seven four five nine five seven seven to two, or
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: if you wish to remain anonymous and receive a reward,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: please call Terrant County Crime Stoppers at eight one seven
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: four six ' nine eight four seven seven. Primary research
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: on the Teresa Branch case was by Amy Worley. I'd
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: like to give a warm thank you to Shannon d
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: V for your support at the Bombcity level on Patreon
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: dot com, forward slash Gone Cold podcast. It means the
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: world to us. If you'd like to join Gone Cold's
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: mission to renew the public's interest in unsolved homicides, missing
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: persons cases, and other perplexing mysteries. You can support the
• 28:38
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• 28:42
  Speaker 1: slash Gone Cold podcast. You'll also find episodes exclusive to
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Patreon there, with more to come in the near future.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Words cannot express how much we appreciate our patrons. Thank
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: you so much for your support. You can also support
• 28:59
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• 29:01
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• 29:10
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• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, y'all.