Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Bathroom Slayings Part Three: Juanita Carroll

Transcript

The Bathroom Slayings Part Three: Juanita Carroll · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Gone Call. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. In Abilene, more than three years
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: had passed since December nineteen seventy three, when respected junior
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: high school teacher and widow Geneva Jackson was found beaten, stabbed,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and left to drown in her own bathtub. After years
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of interviews, several less than promising leads, and years of
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: on again, off again investigation, the case remained open, the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: killer remained unidentified, and life in the west central Texas
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: city had slowly returned to normal, although it would be
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: many years before Geneva's murder would leave. The forefront of
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: southwest Abilene residence Mines plenty two still remembered the nineteen
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: sixty seven case of Sharon K. Watts, who was also
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: found murdered in the bathroom of her apartment just south
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: of downtown. Many folks, in fact, still wondered if her
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and Geneva's slangs were connected. Then in the spring of
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, history appeared to repeat itself when officers
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: were called to another modest home on the city's central
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: southwest side, just over a mile from the apartment of
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Sharon Watts, and within two miles of the home of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Geneva Jackson. Inside, they found a fifty nine year old
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: woman dead in her bathroom under circumstances that seemed pretty
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: straightforward to the public, but had detectives struggling to explain
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: what they were seeing. That confusion perhaps led to at
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: least one devastating mistake, and ten years after the horror
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: began with Sharon Watts, Abylenians were once again forced to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: reckon with the question of whether her and Geneva's killer,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: if they were the same person, had struck again before
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: her death became one of Abilene's most puzzling police investigations.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Juanita Malden Carroll lived a quiet, ordinary life. She was
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: born on December thirteenth, nineteen seventeen, in Arkansas to Wesley
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and Maudi Maudlin, just months after the United States entered
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: World War One and at a time when automobiles were
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a luxury for most families. Her birthplace was a rural,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: small world made up of farms, one room churches, and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: a close knit community. Much of Juanita's childhood was spent
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: eking through the Great Depression, a time that shaped a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: generation that became well known for their resilience and self reliance.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: On April fifteenth, nineteen forty three, in the midst of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: World War II, Juanita married Willard Carroll. During the war,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Willard served as a sergeant in the United States Army
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Air Corps and was stationed in Warrington, England. He crossed
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the Atlantic aboard the RMS Queen Mary, which had been
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: converted into a troop transport that carried thousands of American
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: servicemen to the European theater. While overseas, Willard supervised a
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: mechanical engineering shop responsible for maintaining and repairing the engines
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of B seventeen Flying Fortress bombers. The work was critical
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to the Allied war effort, ensuring the aircraft remained mission
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: ready for bombing campaigns over occupied Europe and Nazi Germany.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Following the war, Juanita and Willard began building their life
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: together in Lubbock, Texas. In nineteen fifty three, they welcomed
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: their only child, a son named Willard Junior, who they
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: called Bill. Five years later, in nineteen fifty eight, the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: family relocated from northwest Texas to Abilene, where Wanita focused
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: on raising Bill and creating a home while Willard established
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: himself in the highway construction industry. Over the next several years,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Willard had a successful career building highways throughout Texas. He
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: eventually founded Smcar, Incorporated, a company specializing in highway construction
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: products and equipment. Among his most significant innovations was the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: stake chaser marking flag, a simple but highly effective device
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: that greatly improved efficiency in highway paving projects and the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: marking of underground utility lines. Protected by US patent, the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: invention became widely used throughout the United States and in
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: several foreign countries. Within the construction industry. It became so
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: closely associated with its inventor that many simply referred to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the marker as Willard's whiskers. More than half a century later,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: s my Car Incorporated remains a Carroll family owned business.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: After more than twenty years together, Janita and Willard's marriage
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: came to an end. Court records show that she filed
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: for divorce in nineteen sixty four. During the proceedings, Juanita
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: was awarded custody of their son, while Willard was ordered
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: to pay fifteen dollars a week in child support. The
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: divorce was finalized later that year. Within months, Willard remarried.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Whether his marriage to Juanita had been failing for years
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: or whether events moved quickly after the divorce is something
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the public record doesn't say. Whatever the case, Juanita stayed
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: behind in Abilene to rebuild her life as a single
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: mother as her former husband moved on. Following the divorce,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Juanita accepted a position as a secretary with Safeway Stores,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: one of the nation's largest grocery chains. Before computers became commonplace,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: nearly every aspect of office work was done by hand.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Juanita typed correspondence, prepared payroll records, maintained inventory logs, and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: handled the steady flow of paperwork between local stores and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: district management. The position offered Juanita much more than just
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: a paycheck. It provided stability and independence as she rebuilt
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: her life in Abilene while raising Bill on her own. Then,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: in November nineteen seventy six, Juanita put her own life
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: on hold. She left her job as a secretary with
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Safeway Incorporated and returned earned to Arkansas to care for
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: her seventy nine year old father as his health declined.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: The decision meant leaving behind the independent life she had
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: worked hard to build in Apoilene. By then, Bill had
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: grown into adulthood and was pursuing a life of his own,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a Bible major at Harden Simmons University and a lay
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: preacher preparing for the ministry. He no longer lived at home.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: How long Juanita remained in Arkansas isn't entirely clear, but
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: when she eventually returned to Texas, she did so as
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: quietly as she had left. There were no phone calls,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: no announcement that she was back. In fact, Bill later
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: recalled that he hadn't even known his mother had returned
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: until he happened to see her driving down the street
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: one day. That chance encounter underscored just how distant their
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: relationship had become. Although they lived the same city, their
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: lives had grown almost entirely separate. By the spring of
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, Juanita was living alone seven eighty two
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Ballinger Street, a modest, four room bungalow built in nineteen
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: forty eight. The small house sat quietly among others just
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: like it, shaded by mature trees along a peaceful residential
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: street where little ever seemed to disturb the routine of
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: daily life. Those who knew Juanita described her as quiet, independent,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and intensely private. She maintained only a small circle of
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: friends and often came and went without telling anyone where
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: she was headed. Since returning from Arkansas, she remained unemployed.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Without a job or a predictable schedule. It wasn't unusual
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: for days or even weeks to pass without neighbors or
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: friends seeing her. Solitude wasn't unusual for one name, it
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: was simply the life she had chosen. On the afternoon
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of Sunday, April twenty fourth, nineteen seventy seven, nothing seemed
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: out of the ordinary in Juanita Carroll's central Southwest Abilene neighborhood.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Resident tended to their yards, children played in the spring sunshine,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: and traffic drifted quietly and slowly along Ballinger Street. Alongside
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: a woman described only as Missus Roy Brown of Brownwood,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Juanita's friend, Odessa Cornelison, stopped by her house. What should
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: have been an ordinary Sunday visit became the beginning of
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: one of Abilene's most unusual death investigations. When Odessa and
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Missus Brown arrived Juanita's white Ford Or nineteen sixty four
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Ford Galaxy five hundred sat in the driveway, and the
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: house appeared exactly as it always did. There was nothing
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: to suggest that tragedy had unfolded inside. As the pair approached,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: they noticed that the screen doors were secured, even though
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: no one answered. Curious, they raised the closed but unlocked
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: garage door. Inside, they found the door leading from the
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: garage into the kitchen and den standing open. Almost immediately
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: they were met by the unmistakable odor of natural gas
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: drifting from inside the house. The fumes were so overpowering
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: that Missus Brown remained outside, but Odessa stepped inside. Cautiously.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: She called out for Juanita. There was no reply. As
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: she reached the rear of the house, she made her
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: way to the bathroom. There she found her friend Juanita
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: sat in a chair, fully clothed, with her hands tied
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: together behind her back and legs bound. She'd also been gassed.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: A gas heater in the bathroom was still on, allowing
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: natural gas to flow freely into the small room and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: throughout the house. Odessa immediately backed away, and the Abilene
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: police were summoned to the scene. Within minutes of being
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: called to the neighborhood where fifty nine year old Juanita
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Carroll was found bound to a chair, gagged and deceased
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: in the bathroom of her home. The quiet residential street
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: filled with patrol cars, detectives, firefighters, and emergency personnel. Curious
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: neighbors watched from their front yards as officers secured the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: scene and kept the onlookers at a safe distance from
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a house that could easily become the epicenter of a
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: devastating explosion. Jim Watts was the first officer through the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: front door. The smell of natural gas inside the home
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: was powerful. Following the odor to the bathroom, he immediately
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: shut off the source. As firefighters ventilated the small house,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the Abilene police prepared to document everything exactly as it
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: had been found. A set of names familiar with similar investigations,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: particularly the cases of Sharon Watts and Geneva Jackson, made
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: their way to Ballinger Street. Justice of the Peace Silas Clark,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: who arrived shortly after first responders, was among them. After
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: pronouncing Juanita Carroll dead, he ordered her body transported to
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Hendrick Memorial Hospital for an autopsy, but withheld an official
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: ruling on the cause of death until a report could
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: be completed. Before she was moved, Clark studied the scene.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: The small bathroom presented a disturbing picture. Juanita remained seated
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: upright in a straight backed chair. One of her legs
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: had been secured with a pair of pantehose to the chair,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the other with a woman's belt. Her arms had been
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: fastened individually to the chair using strips of nylon and cloth.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Across her mouth, a strip of fabric held what appeared
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: to be a wat of kleenex in place. Peace Justice
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Clark noted that the gag appeared to have been partially
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: worked free before her death, suggesting she may have struggled
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: in her final moments. Clark spent time quietly examining the
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: bathroom before offering his assessment, and based on what he observed,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: he described the scene as looking like an execution before
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: a single piece of evidence was disturbed. Crime scene photographers
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: documented every room. Detectives immediately began treating the house as
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: a homicide scene. They found more questions than answers. Items
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: from Juanita's purse lay scattered across the floor. Nothing of
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: value was obviously missing, but no one could say for sure.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Detectives found no clear signs of a violent struggle and
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: no immediately apparent motive for the crime. In the bathroom,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: they noted the position of the chair, examined the bindings,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: and after searched the house for fingerprints, fibers, hares, and
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: any other evidence that might identify another person who had
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: been inside. Every doorway, window, and piece of furniture was examined. Outside,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: another team of detectives began the equally important task of
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: reconstructing Juanita's final days. Lieutenant Dwayne Pyburn assumed a leading
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: role in the investigation. While offic and detectives spread through
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood interviewing residents. Pieburn remained cautious with the media,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: as he always did. He refused to discuss many of
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the details they uncovered inside, declined to speculate about the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: exact cause of death, and would not say whether they
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: believed a weapon had been used. Releasing too much information,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: he explained, could compromise the investigation before detectives had the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: opportunity to follow the evidence wherever it led. Meanwhile, police
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: canvassed the neighborhood asking whether anyone had seen unfamiliar vehicles,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: heard an argument smelled natural gas or noticed anyone coming
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: or going from Juanitita Carroll's house. If she had been murdered,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: which seemed almost certain, every passing hour reduced the likelihood
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of identifying the person responsible. Knowing this, the police acted fast.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: For the veteran detectives working the case, other thoughts lingered
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: in the back of their minds. Ten years earlier, Sharon K.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Watts had been found dead inside the bathroom of her
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Poplar Street apartment. Not far away. Six years after that,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Geneva Jackson was discovered murdered in the bathtub of her
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Edgemont Drive home, also very close. Now only three years later,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: they found themselves standing inside another bathroom investigating the death
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of another woman. Janita's body was transported to Hendrick Memorial
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Hospital for an autopsy. Detectives expected the examination to confirm
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: what they believed the crime scene had already told them
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: that the woman had been murdered and preceded. Following that assumption,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: they divided the investigation into two separate paths. One team
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: remained focused on the physical evidence colored while another began
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: reconstructing Juanita's life, hoping to discover who she had seen,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: spoken with or trusted. During the days leading up to
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: her death, Lieutenant Piburn directed detectives to begin with the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: people who knew her. Best friends described Juanita as a quiet,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: private woman who rarely sought attention and perhaps avoided it altogether.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Neighbors echoed that description, telling detectives she generally kept to
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: herself and was seldom seen entertaining visitors. Her routine had
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: become even quieter after leaving her job at Safeway several
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: months earlier. Just before leaving for and returning from Arkansas
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: to care for her ailing father, they interviewed Juanita's former husband,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Willard Carroll, and her son Bill, along with everyone known
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: to have spoken with her recently. They searched for disagreements,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: financial problems, love interests, or whatever else might provide a motive.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Nothing stood out. There was no indication that she feared
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: anyone or believed she was in danger. If she was
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: carrying any burdens during those final weeks, anything overwhelming her,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: she kept it to herself. Friends couldn't think of anyone
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: who might have wanted to harm the victim, let alone
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: a reason that person might have for doing it. The
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: more detectives learned about Juanita's life. The more puzzling the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: crime scene became, they were desperate for answers. At the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: same time, forensic evidence from the house was being processed.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: The bindings, gag fibers, fingerprints, and other physical evidence was
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: submitted to the Texas Department of Public Safety for examination.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Detectives hoped the testing would identify who had been inside
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the house or reveal trace evidence that might point them
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: in the direction of someone who had. But it was
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the autopsy results that Justice of the Peace Silas Clark
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: was chomping at the bit to see. The elected official,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: who was in the business of farm equipment before becoming
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Justice of the Peace, needed to determine not only how
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Juanita had died, but whether she had suffered injuries before
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: her death or whether natural gas alone had caused it.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Medical examiners documented every injury and searched for evidence that
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Juanita had been assaulted or forcibly restrained. While detectives waited
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: for results, they continued interviewing everyone who knew the victim.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: At first, those interviews produced little that appeared unusual. Gradually, however,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: a different picture of Juanita's final months began to making shape.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Several people described her as increasingly withdrawn after leaving her
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: longtime position at Safeway and returning from Arkansas. She had
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: come back to Abilene unemployed, and some friends believed she
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: was struggling with periods of depression. Still, many simply remembered
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: her as private and independent. While opinions differed, the interviews
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: introduced a possibility investigators had scarcely considered when they first
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: entered the house, what if no one else had been there.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: The medical findings and witness interviews began leading detectives in
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: a different direction than homicide. The autopsy confirmed that Juanita
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: had died from the innhilation of natural gas. Although the bindings,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: gag and bizarre condition of the bathroom remained deeply troubling,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: medical examiners found no injuries clearly demonstrating that another person
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: had overpowered her before her death. Detectives returned to the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: physical evidence with a new perspective. They re examined everything
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: down to Juanita's position in the chair. The more they looked,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the more their original assumptions began to change. Peace Justice
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Clark had initially described the scene as resembling an execution.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Piburn had opened the investigation as a homicide. Friends
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: and family remained convinced Juanita had been murdered, but now
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: detectives found themselves asking whether those first impressions were wrong.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: After her body was autopsied, police began to re examine
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the way Juanita Carroll was bound and started to believe
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: it appeared consistent with someone binding themselves rather than being
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: restrained by another person. Detectives also concluded the gag had
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: not prevented her from breathing and appeared to have been
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: loosened before her death. Gradually, the homicide investigation became a
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: death investigation. Abilene police no longer believed Juanita had been murdered. Instead,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: they concluded she had died by suicide. The announcement stunned
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: those following the case. Only days earlier, the Abilene Police
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Department was sure Juanita was the victim of murder. Now
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the official explanation had changed. According to detectives, Juanita had
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: bound her own legs to the chair, secured the gag,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: turned on the bathroom heater without lighting it, bound both
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: of her hands separately, and died from the effects of
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: natural gas. Justice of the peace niece. Silas Clark officially
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: ruled the death a suicide after a two hour meeting
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: with Abilene Police Captain George Sutton. The reason Juanita had
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: done this, they believed, was easily explained, staging the scene
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to look like a homicide. Detectives theorized was financially motivated
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: by making her death appear to be the work of
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: a killer rather than her own actions. They said, Juanita
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: may have hoped her family, particularly her son, would be
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: able to collect the payout on her life insurance policy.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: The autopsy findings and the absence of evidence placing another
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: person inside the Ballinger Street home ultimately outweighed the disturbing
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: appearance of the scene to detectives. All the evidence supported
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: that one conclusion. For many of Juanita's friends, the ruling
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: answered very little. Plenty disagreed with the conclusion. Death from
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: natural gas exposure is not instantaneous. As oxygen levels fall,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: a person typically becomes increasingly weak, confused, and drowsy before
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: eventually losing consciousness. The exact timeline depends on the concentration
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: of gas and the amount of oxygen remaining in the room.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Unlike a suicide, by gunshot, for instance, The time it
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: takes to die by natural gas exposure gives the individual
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: time to reconsider, and often the person does. Many of
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Juanita Carroll's friends struggled to reconcile the official explanation of
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: suicide with the woman they believed they knew, And even
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: if she had bound her own legs to the chair
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and secured a gag over her mouth, how did she
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: then bind her own hands separately behind her back. Detectives
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: had begun describing the bindings as not that tight, suggesting
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Juanita could have easily tied them herself, though they never
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: explained exactly how she tied the last hand, and never
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: seemed to consider the bindings had become not that tight
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: as she struggled to free herself before this determination. Anyway,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the bindings were never described this way by police, a
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: description that certainly left much to be desired as it
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: was also, Folks likely wondered, if this supposed plot had
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: been so meticulously planned, why had she used different materials
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to bind each appendage instead of being prepared by having
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: a single type of binding. The lack of injuries too
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: hardly explained The official theory had Juanita been threatened to
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: comply at gunpoint or even knife point, a killer could
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: have easily tied her to the chair with different objects
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: they had found in that very bathroom. Perhaps she feared
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: more for her life if she did not comply then
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: if she did. If an intruder or someone she had
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: deemed trustworthy enough to let enter her home had told
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Juanita to do what they say or be killed, she
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: might have done just that. Killers, after all, likely aren't
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: worried about the moral dilemma of lying, regardless of her
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: friend's doubts and those of the public in general. The
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: suicide ruling closed the case, but it hardly ended the
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: questions surrounding it. From the moment officers stepped into the
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: small bathroom on Ballinger Street, almost everything about the scene
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: pointed them toward homicide. Detectives spent days collecting evidence while
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: searching for a killer. Friends couldn't understand why Juanita would
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: bind herself, secure a gag, and choose a slow, uncertain
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: death from natural gas when far simpler methods existed. Detectives
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: had also found Juanita's purse disturbed, its contents scattered, but
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: many items of considerable value were left behind. Nothing appeared
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: to be missing from the house. In fact, if Juanita
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: had indeed concocted such an intricate plan, why not get
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: rid of a few items that strengthened it. The door
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: leading from the house into the garage stood open, and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: although the overhead garage door was closed, it had been
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: left unlocked. The remainder of the house had been secured,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: even the screen doors, a detail that led some to
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: question why an apparent intruder would leave the garage accessible
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: while leaving the rest of the home locked tight. Detectives
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: theorized that the elaborate scene may have been staged to
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: disguise taking her own life so her son could collect
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: life insurance proceeds. The financial motive didn't work for everyone,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: and ultimately would prove to be impossible, as Juanita did
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: not have a life insurance policy. The police never offered
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: an alternative reason. What other possible motive could the woman
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: have had to make suicide look like a murder to
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: save herself? The shame seems like a stretch, since she
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and her son Bill were effectively estranged from one another.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: While the lack of motive for murdering the woman was
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: among the things detectives and peace Justice Clark cited as
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: further evidence of a staged homicide suicide. The lack of
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: a motive for staging it at all was as nonexistent,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: if not more, since a madman's motive to kill is
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: sometimes simply the act itself. Nearly fifty years later, questions
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: about the competence of the investigation continue. One in particular
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: is relevant were Abilene detectives themselves motivated to steer the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: case towards suicide in order to save themselves and the
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: public from the uncertainty and fear another unsolved bathroom slang
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: might have incurred. Over the span of less than ten years,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: three women were found dead inside their homes in Abilene
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: under circumstances that stunned even the most experienced policemen and officials.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: On September twentieth, nineteen sixty seven, twenty four year old
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Sharon K. Watts was discovered dead on the floor of
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: her apartment bathroom on Poplar Street, just south of downtown.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: She'd been beaten, possibly raped, and died of asphyxiation. No
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: motive could be found. On December fifteenth, nineteen seventy three,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: fifty six year old Geneva Jackson was found murdered inside
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the bathtub of her home on Edgemont Drive, less than
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: two miles south of Sharon's apartment. She was badly bludgeoned
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: in her head and face with a club or clublike object, dabbed,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: dragged unconscious to her bathroom, and placed face down in
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: her filled bathtub, where she drowned. Three years after that,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: on April twenty fourth, nineteen seventy seven, fifty nine year
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: old Juanita Carroll was found dead inside the bathroom of
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: her modest home on Ballinger Street, less than a mile
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: and a half from Sharon's apartment and roughly two miles
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: from Geneva's home. She was bound, gagged, and dead from
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: exposure to natural gas. All three homes were located within
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: only a few square miles of one another, on Abilene's
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: south and southwest sides. Each woman was single, two lived alone.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: In all three cases, detectives found no signs of forced entry,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: no clear indication of robbery, and no obvious suspect. Despite
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: extensive investigations, particularly on the Sharon Watts and Geneva Jackson cases,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: and not so much perhaps on the Juanita Carrol case,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: detectives were unable to identify a compelling motive. Instead, each
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: left police trying to reconstruct what had happened from a
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: handful of circumstantial facts, limited physical evidence, and, in Juanita's case,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: stretching speculation that failed to ease the public's mind, certainly
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: not the minds of her friends and family. During this time,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the competence of the Abilene Police Department was being called
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: into question. Could that have been a factor in the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: investigations of the deaths of Sharon Watts, Geneva Jackson, and
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Juanita Carrol. That's next time ungone Cold, Texas True Crime.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: If you have any information about the murder of Juanita Carrol,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: please call Abilene crime Stoppers at three two five six
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: seven six four seven seven. If you'd like to join
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: gon Cold's mission to shine a light on unsolved homicides
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: and missing persons cases, get the show at free and
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: have access to bonus content, you can at Patreon dot
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: com slash Gone Cold podcast. You can also support the
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: show by leaving a five star rating and written review
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen. However you
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: choose to support gone cold. We appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all,