Latest / Hell and Gone: Murder Line / Hell and Gone Murder Line: Rex Terrell [From the Archives]

Transcript

Hell and Gone Murder Line: Rex Terrell [From the Archives] · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans.
0:49
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line actively investigates cold case murders in
0:53
Speaker 2: an effort to raise public awareness, invite witnesses to come forward,
0:57
Speaker 2: and present evidence that could potentially be further investigated by
1:00
Speaker 2: law enforcement. While we value insights from family and community members,
1:05
Speaker 2: their statements should not be considered evidence and point to
1:08
Speaker 2: the challenges of verifying facts inherent in cold cases. We
1:12
Speaker 2: remind listeners that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty
1:16
Speaker 2: in a court of law. Nothing in the podcast is
1:19
Speaker 2: intended to state or imply that anyone who has not
1:22
Speaker 2: been convicted of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing.
1:26
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
1:30
Speaker 3: In the early morning hours of July 30th, 1977, Charles
1:35
Speaker 3: Alvin Boatwright was hanging out with his cousin Ronnie Lewis
1:39
Speaker 3: at the home of another cousin of theirs named Loy
1:41
Speaker 3: Harriman in Wesley, Arkansas. According to police statements, the three
1:46
Speaker 3: cousins stayed up all night, drinking beer and catching up.
1:50
Speaker 1: They were having a good.
1:51
Speaker 3: Time, and early in the morning, they decided to go
1:54
Speaker 3: fishing in an area called War Eagle, which is about
1:58
Speaker 3: 22 miles away. At around 5 a.m., they piled into Charles'
2:01
Speaker 3: truck and started driving, but they needed some food. So
2:05
Speaker 3: on the route, they decided to stop by the Frederick
2:08
Speaker 3: 7-Eleven to buy some hot dogs to roast during their
2:11
Speaker 3: fishing trip.
2:12
Speaker 1: The Frederick's Grocery and Service.
2:14
Speaker 3: Station was located at the intersection of Highway 68 and
2:18
Speaker 3: 23 in the northwest portion of Huntsville, Arkansas. In a
2:22
Speaker 3: small town, it's a popular destination to get early morning
2:25
Speaker 3: gas or late night snacks. And back in 1977, it
2:29
Speaker 3: was open 24 hours a day. As Charles, Loy, and
2:35
Speaker 3: Ronnie pulled up to the store, two women pulled up
2:38
Speaker 3: right behind them.
2:39
Speaker 1: Charles told police they talked to the two women briefly.
2:43
Speaker 3: The two women were driving a Jeep and had a
2:45
Speaker 3: sick pig in the back of their car that was sedated.
2:49
Speaker 3: One of the women made a comment about taking the
2:51
Speaker 3: sick pig to the vet. And as they were chatting, Loy, Charles,
2:55
Speaker 3: and the other woman walked into the store together and,
2:58
Speaker 3: according to Charles, walked back toward the meat counter. The
3:02
Speaker 3: way that the store was laid out was that there
3:04
Speaker 3: was a checkout.
3:05
Speaker 1: Counter located in the middle of the store.
3:07
Speaker 3: It's U-shaped with a cash register and stools inside it.
3:11
Speaker 3: At first, they couldn't see anyone inside the store. But
3:15
Speaker 3: then Charles said that as he got closer to the
3:18
Speaker 3: checkout area, while the other woman and Ronnie were following
3:21
Speaker 3: behind them, Louie said it looks like someone is hurt
3:25
Speaker 3: up there. At that point, Charles said that he walked
3:28
Speaker 3: up to the left side of the register and saw
3:31
Speaker 3: a man's.
3:32
Speaker 1: Feet sticking out.
3:33
Speaker 3: The man was 20-year-old University of Arkansas student Rex Terrell,
3:38
Speaker 3: who worked the overnight shift at Frederick's. He was lying
3:41
Speaker 3: in a pool of blood and, according to the police report,
3:45
Speaker 3: flouncing around, trying to get up. He was gasping for breath.
3:50
Speaker 3: It looked like Rex had been shot multiple times.
3:54
Speaker 1: One of the women tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,
3:58
Speaker 1: but it was too late.
3:59
Speaker 3: He died there on the floor of that gas station
4:02
Speaker 3: in a pool of his own blood. While they were
4:05
Speaker 3: trying to save Rex, his co-worker Sally Dobson showed up
4:08
Speaker 3: to start her shift. She told police she got there
4:12
Speaker 3: at around 5.40 or 5.45 a.m. Sally told police that
4:17
Speaker 3: one of the women in the Jeep stopped her as
4:18
Speaker 3: she was coming in and told her there.
4:20
Speaker 1: Was a boy in there hurt really bad.
4:22
Speaker 3: And that's when she said she saw Rex laying on
4:25
Speaker 3: the floor and saw all the blood. The police asked
4:29
Speaker 3: Sally if she noticed anything unusual about the register. She
4:33
Speaker 3: said that it was fixed like she would fix it
4:36
Speaker 3: if she had to leave for a short while. She
4:38
Speaker 3: said there was nothing unusual about that setup. She told
4:42
Speaker 3: police afterwards that Rex had set the register up like
4:45
Speaker 3: that before, but then there's no more detail about that.
4:50
Speaker 3: So I wonder why Rex and Sally would have made
4:53
Speaker 3: the decision to leave the register that way.
4:55
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, there's no more follow-up about this in the police report.
4:59
Speaker 3: And Sally told police something else. She said that she
5:02
Speaker 3: believed that the store's owner, Mr. Frederick, had decided that
5:06
Speaker 3: this would be the last weekend that the store stayed
5:09
Speaker 3: open all night. but there's nothing more about that decision
5:12
Speaker 3: either or why it was made. Was it just a
5:15
Speaker 3: practical decision or could it have had something to do
5:18
Speaker 3: with safety? And police noted that nothing appeared to have
5:21
Speaker 3: been taken from the store. So if robbery wasn't the motive,
5:25
Speaker 3: what was? Sally and all the rest of Rex's coworkers,
5:29
Speaker 3: as well as his family, friends, and the whole community
5:32
Speaker 3: wanted to know who would want to shoot a likable, kind,
5:36
Speaker 3: and hardworking young man with seemingly no enemies and leave
5:40
Speaker 3: him there to die in a pool of his own blood.
5:45
Speaker 1: I'm Katherine Townsend.
5:46
Speaker 3: Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast,
5:49
Speaker 3: Hell and Gone, I've learned that there is no such
5:51
Speaker 3: thing as a small town where murder never happens. I've
5:55
Speaker 3: received hundreds of messages from people all around the country
5:58
Speaker 3: asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
6:02
Speaker 3: their families, and their communities. If you have a case
6:05
Speaker 3: you'd like me and my team to look into, You
6:07
Speaker 3: can reach out to us at our Hell and Gone
6:09
Speaker 3: Murder Line at 678-744-6145.
6:10
Speaker 1: That's 678-744-6145.
6:10
Speaker 3: Or you can send us a message on Instagram at hellandgonepod.
6:14
Speaker 3: This is Hell and Gone Murder Line.
6:42
Speaker 2: Thank you.
7:09
Speaker 3: Police rushed to the scene and talked to the witnesses,
7:12
Speaker 3: the women with the sick pig and the three cousins, Ronnie, Boy,
7:15
Speaker 3: and Charles. Ronnie told pretty much the same story as.
7:19
Speaker 1: The other guys.
7:20
Speaker 3: He said that Charles had come running out of the
7:22
Speaker 3: gas station and gotten him and said there was a
7:25
Speaker 3: boy in the store that had been hurt real bad.
7:28
Speaker 3: Ronnie said, quote, I went into the store and saw
7:31
Speaker 3: the boy lying in a pool of blood. He kept
7:33
Speaker 3: trying to get up and we had to hold him
7:35
Speaker 3: down as we thought that that would be the best
7:37
Speaker 3: thing for him. Police reported that Rex was wearing a
7:49
Speaker 3: Levi's brown belt with a gold buckle and a white
7:52
Speaker 3: and blue and red check shirt, and that he was
7:55
Speaker 3: lying on his back, about six feet away from the
7:57
Speaker 3: checkout counter, with his left arm folded across his chest.
8:01
Speaker 3: The report noted that Rex's clothing was not in disarray
8:04
Speaker 3: or torn, and that the scene showed, quote, In fact,
8:12
Speaker 3: other than Rex's body, there were no real signs of
8:15
Speaker 3: a physical struggle in the store at all.
8:17
Speaker 1: It didn't look like a fight had broken out.
8:20
Speaker 3: Someone had walked in and for some reason decided to
8:23
Speaker 3: shoot Rex, and police needed to figure out why. They
8:28
Speaker 3: determined that Rex had been shot multiple times, once in
8:31
Speaker 3: the left side, once in the shoulder, and once in
8:34
Speaker 3: the arm. And near the body, they found three expended.
8:37
Speaker 3: 38 caliber cartridges with the brand name Remington Peters. When
8:42
Speaker 3: police were talking to the witnesses, all of their stories
8:46
Speaker 3: were basically exactly the same. But before they left the scene,
8:50
Speaker 3: Ronnie told police that Loy and Charles had mentioned seeing
8:53
Speaker 3: a car, a black 1971 Camaro or Firebird, headed from
8:59
Speaker 3: the direction of the store going east on Highway 68
9:01
Speaker 3: toward Huntsville.
9:03
Speaker 1: In addition to the Camaro, police were also exploring.
9:06
Speaker 3: Leads on other vehicles in the area and looking to
9:09
Speaker 3: talk to anyone who went into or came by the
9:12
Speaker 3: store that night.
9:13
Speaker 1: And it didn't take long to find them. A lot
9:16
Speaker 1: of people had.
9:17
Speaker 3: Come in and out of the store on the night
9:18
Speaker 3: Rex was shot, including some police officers. Carl Richardson Goodman Jr.
9:24
Speaker 3: told police that he and another officer went into Frederick's
9:28
Speaker 3: at approximately 3.20 a.m. Carl said that they went to
9:32
Speaker 3: the store to exchange some milk that they had bought
9:34
Speaker 3: from Fredericks that was for some reason undrinkable. He said
9:37
Speaker 3: they spoke briefly to Rex and noticed that his eyes
9:40
Speaker 3: were bloodshot. But he said they only talked about exchanging
9:43
Speaker 3: the milk, and then the officers left. Mike Atwell, a
9:47
Speaker 3: Madison County deputy, said that he had also been on
9:50
Speaker 3: duty the night of the shooting. According to police records,
9:54
Speaker 3: He was one of the officers who responded to a
9:56
Speaker 3: call about a body earlier that night, which he said
9:59
Speaker 3: ended up just being a drunk person. He said by
10:02
Speaker 3: the time police had dealt with that drama and got
10:04
Speaker 3: the drunk person under control, it was 4.43 a.m., according
10:08
Speaker 3: to the.
10:08
Speaker 1: Police log sheet.
10:10
Speaker 3: This is a small town, so if you wanted to
10:13
Speaker 3: buy early morning gas, Frederick's was one of the only
10:16
Speaker 3: stations in town. Mike said in his statement he is
10:19
Speaker 3: a gas-conscious person, always checking the gas levels in his cruiser.
10:23
Speaker 3: So he thought about buying gas from Frederick's and was
10:25
Speaker 3: kind of looking in the direction of the 7-Eleven store
10:28
Speaker 3: as he went past it.
10:29
Speaker 1: But in the end, he decided against it.
10:32
Speaker 3: He said that he was driving past Frederick's at around
10:35
Speaker 3: 4.55 a.m. And he said that he noticed a van
10:38
Speaker 3: parked there. Mike said he didn't notice any movement inside
10:42
Speaker 3: the store.
10:43
Speaker 1: But then.
10:43
Speaker 3: at around 6 a.m., he got the call about the
10:46
Speaker 3: shooting at Frederick's and responded to the scene. That's when
10:49
Speaker 3: he remembered seeing the van. Police tried to track the
10:53
Speaker 3: van down. In police reports, it says that officers tracked
10:57
Speaker 3: two brown vans that had been in the area at
10:59
Speaker 3: the time, but they figured out that neither of them
11:02
Speaker 3: were connected to the crime. A few days later, on Tuesday,
11:06
Speaker 3: August 2nd, Sheriff Ralph Baker told a local paper, the
11:09
Speaker 3: Springfield News Leader, that police had no leads. He said, quote,
11:14
Speaker 3: we don't have anything good going at all, end quote.
11:17
Speaker 3: And he stated that they had no suspects. When it
11:21
Speaker 3: came to motive, Sheriff Baker told a local newspaper that
11:25
Speaker 3: although there was no sign that the Frederick's Register had
11:28
Speaker 3: been tampered with, The police had a theory that the
11:31
Speaker 3: shooter may have come in there to rob the store
11:33
Speaker 3: and had, quote, gotten scared off. According to the documents
11:37
Speaker 3: we were able to obtain via FOIA, Rex was shot
11:41
Speaker 3: in the arm, the shoulder, and the left side with
11:44
Speaker 3: a high-caliber weapon. Whoever shot him seemed to have made
11:48
Speaker 3: a decision at some point to finish the job. Sheriff
11:52
Speaker 3: Ralph Baker told the Madison County Record that the victim
11:55
Speaker 3: was shot with a.
11:56
Speaker 1: 357 or.
11:56
Speaker 3: 38 caliber weapon But what if robbery wasn't the motive?
12:02
Speaker 3: Could this have been personal? Rex Terrell was born on
12:10
Speaker 3: January 13, 1957. He had three brothers and a sister,
12:14
Speaker 3: and everyone seemed to love him. Police interviewed a lot
12:18
Speaker 3: of people who knew Rex, and none of them said
12:20
Speaker 3: they could think of any reason why anyone would want
12:22
Speaker 3: to hurt him. He was a hardworking student at the
12:25
Speaker 3: University of Arkansas and worked several jobs to make ends meet.
12:29
Speaker 3: including at a local poultry plant and the job at Frederick's.
12:33
Speaker 3: His family was fairly new to the area. They lived
12:36
Speaker 3: in Florida for years and had all moved to Huntsville
12:39
Speaker 3: shortly before Rex was killed. Rex had no local known enemies.
12:48
Speaker 3: So police wondered, what was Rex doing before he came
12:51
Speaker 3: in for his shift? Did something happen earlier that night?
12:55
Speaker 3: And they found out that the night he was shot,
12:57
Speaker 3: Rex had a double date. Rex went out with his friend,
13:01
Speaker 3: Jim Patnaud, and Jim's girlfriend, Susan Geerman, and Jim's sister,
13:06
Speaker 3: Debbie Pierce. Susan told police that around 6.30 p.m. that
13:10
Speaker 3: the four of them went to the 71 drive-in in Springdale, Arkansas.
13:14
Speaker 3: She said they only caught the last 20 minutes of
13:17
Speaker 3: the first movie and then watched a movie called Sugarland Express.
13:21
Speaker 3: She said they didn't stay for the last feature. They
13:23
Speaker 3: were just hanging out and drinking beers, and then Jim, Debbie,
13:27
Speaker 3: and Susan split a joint. but Susan told police that
13:30
Speaker 3: Rex refused any marijuana. Then they piled in Rex's car
13:35
Speaker 3: to get back to Huntsville because Rex had to start
13:37
Speaker 3: his shift at Frederick's. He normally worked the 12.30 a.m.
13:41
Speaker 3: to 6.30 a.m. shift, but he had spoken to his boss, Mr. Frederick,
13:45
Speaker 3: that night and asked if he could come to work
13:47
Speaker 3: an hour late because he had a date.
13:50
Speaker 1: His boss said that was fine.
13:52
Speaker 3: On the way back to Huntsville, Susan said that Rex
13:56
Speaker 3: dropped her and Jim off at Jim's house She said
13:58
Speaker 3: they got into Jim's car and went up to Frederick's
14:01
Speaker 3: to get some gas. She said they hung around for
14:04
Speaker 3: a few minutes. She said Rex was there too, talking
14:06
Speaker 3: about being early for work. She estimated that at that time,
14:10
Speaker 3: it was about 1.20 a.m. That was the last time
14:14
Speaker 3: she saw Rex. Susan said that Jim took her home
14:17
Speaker 3: after that. And when she talked to him the next day,
14:20
Speaker 3: he told her that after dropping her off, he had
14:23
Speaker 3: driven back to Frederick's and had a sandwich and talked
14:25
Speaker 3: to Rex for a while. Police asked Susan about the
14:29
Speaker 3: various vehicles witnessed near the gas station. They asked if
14:32
Speaker 3: she knew anyone in town who owned a Buick Firebird, Camaro,
14:36
Speaker 3: or Trans Am. She mentioned a local woman who owned
14:40
Speaker 3: a black Firebird, but the description of the vehicle sounded
14:43
Speaker 3: very distinctive, gold pinstriping and an eagle on the hood,
14:47
Speaker 3: and neither of the witnesses had mentioned those details. Police
14:55
Speaker 3: talked to Jim's sister, Debbie Pierce, She said that the
14:58
Speaker 3: date with Rex had been a setup by her brother.
15:01
Speaker 1: She said that Rex picked her up.
15:03
Speaker 3: At around 9.05 p.m., and that at that point, they
15:06
Speaker 3: stopped at the Frederick store, where they bought some beer
15:08
Speaker 3: and had a few drinks. This was when, according to Debbie,
15:12
Speaker 3: Rex asked his boss if he could come in an
15:14
Speaker 3: hour late, and his boss agreed. She said that Rex
15:17
Speaker 3: drove her back home at around 1.15 a.m.
15:19
Speaker 1: And walked her to the door.
15:21
Speaker 3: At that time, Debbie said he told her he had
15:23
Speaker 3: a good time, but that he had to get back
15:25
Speaker 3: to work, and he left. But there is another detail
15:29
Speaker 3: about Debbie Pierce in this police report. Debbie Pierce was married.
15:46
Speaker 3: Debbie Pierce, who Rex went out with on a date
15:48
Speaker 3: a few hours before he was murdered, was legally married
15:52
Speaker 3: but separated from her husband. She told police they had
15:55
Speaker 3: a young son. and that although they had split, there
15:58
Speaker 3: was no animosity between her and her husband. There was
16:02
Speaker 3: no reason to believe that he was involved in Rex's killing.
16:07
Speaker 1: So was this random or personal?
16:10
Speaker 3: Either way, once word got out that there was a
16:12
Speaker 3: killer on the loose, local residents were terrified. Sheriff Ralph
16:17
Speaker 3: Baker told multiple sources that he was closing down a
16:20
Speaker 3: local Girl Scouts camp that was near the store and
16:23
Speaker 3: sending 98 girls home as a precautionary measure. The Rex
16:28
Speaker 3: Terrell Reward Fund was established August 10, 1977, by the
16:32
Speaker 3: American Savings and Loan Association in Huntsville. Local businesses donated money.
16:36
Speaker 1: The community came together.
16:38
Speaker 3: To support Rex's family. As we said earlier, Rex was
16:43
Speaker 3: very well liked in the community, but there had been
16:46
Speaker 3: one incident at a nearby softball field, Huntsville Softball Park.
16:51
Speaker 3: In May of 1977, Rex was there when a fight
16:54
Speaker 3: broke out. Rex's friend Jim, who was out with him
16:57
Speaker 3: on the double date the night Rex was shot, told
17:00
Speaker 3: police that a man named Ronnie Gwynn was drunk at
17:03
Speaker 3: the park and that after the fight broke out, Ronnie
17:05
Speaker 3: was arrested. A trooper named Tom Brown of the Arkansas
17:08
Speaker 3: State Police arrested Ronnie and took him to the sheriff's office.
17:12
Speaker 3: Jim told police that on July 31st, the day after
17:16
Speaker 3: Rex's shooting, he was with a friend of his named
17:18
Speaker 3: George Edgeman. They were hanging out at Frederick's when Ronnie
17:22
Speaker 3: Gwynn came into the business and said that his boss
17:24
Speaker 3: had bought him a. 357 Magnum and he wasn't going
17:27
Speaker 3: to take any shit from anybody anymore. At that point,
17:31
Speaker 3: Jim said that Ronnie was talking about the incident in
17:34
Speaker 3: May at the ballpark and that Jim said, quote, I
17:37
Speaker 3: heard today that a guy had been shot and that
17:39
Speaker 3: everybody on the Frederick softball team was going to get it.
17:42
Speaker 3: Since this thing happened the other night at Frederick's about Rex,
17:45
Speaker 3: I'm really scared. I was with Rex the night before
17:49
Speaker 3: he was killed.
17:50
Speaker 1: End quote. So it seemed as though.
17:52
Speaker 3: Jim was concerned that maybe Rex's shooting had happened in
17:55
Speaker 3: retaliation to the ballpark incident, that maybe Frederick's employees.
17:59
Speaker 1: Were being targeted somehow.
18:02
Speaker 3: Police talked to Jim's friend, George Edgeman, who backed up
18:05
Speaker 3: his story and told police that he had gone down
18:07
Speaker 3: to Frederick's at around 7 p.m. on Sunday, the 31st
18:11
Speaker 3: of July, the day after Rex was killed. George said, quote,
18:15
Speaker 3: And he repeated what Jim had said, that Ronnie was
18:17
Speaker 3: telling them that he had a.
18:18
Speaker 1: 357 Magnum now and nobody was going to touch him again.
18:39
Speaker 3: But then George said that Ronnie behaved as though he
18:42
Speaker 3: had no animosity.
18:44
Speaker 1: Against Tom Brown, the trooper who arrested him.
18:47
Speaker 3: And according to police reports, it doesn't seem like Ronnie
18:50
Speaker 3: had made any threats about Rex specifically. Unfortunately, this is
18:55
Speaker 3: one of just many times in the police report where
18:58
Speaker 3: it seems as though investigative leads were just completely dropped
19:02
Speaker 3: because there's no more about the ballpark incident or any
19:05
Speaker 3: follow-up after this. Police knew that Rex had been shot
19:10
Speaker 3: multiple times and that the manner of death was homicide.
19:14
Speaker 3: The sheriff made a comment in the newspaper about the
19:17
Speaker 3: bullet being from a. 38 caliber or. 357, and police
19:21
Speaker 3: did try to track down the murder weapon. On Sunday,
19:24
Speaker 3: July 31st at around 1 p.m., the employee of a
19:28
Speaker 3: tire shop about 300 yards west of the homicide scene
19:31
Speaker 3: called police to tell them they found a. 38 special
19:35
Speaker 3: cartridge case outside their business. Police took the casing in
19:39
Speaker 3: for testing, but were unable to find anything of evidentiary value.
19:44
Speaker 3: They pulled two bullets from Rex's body, but those bullets
19:48
Speaker 3: were described as mutilated. And even though Rex had been
19:52
Speaker 3: shot three times, they could not find that third bullet.
20:02
Speaker 3: Police continued to look for anyone in the community who
20:05
Speaker 3: saw anything out of the ordinary on the night of
20:07
Speaker 3: the shooting. A man came forward who said he was
20:11
Speaker 3: headed to work in the early morning hours of July
20:13
Speaker 3: 30th at the Huntsville Ready Mix Cement Company, which was
20:16
Speaker 3: located just across the highway from Frederick's. The man said
20:20
Speaker 3: as he was waiting to make a left turn into
20:22
Speaker 3: the driveway of his workplace, he was waiting on a
20:26
Speaker 3: slow moving vehicle.
20:27
Speaker 1: And while he was waiting, he.
20:28
Speaker 3: Glanced over to Frederick's and saw a boy at the
20:31
Speaker 3: front door of Frederick's looking out of the store.
20:47
Speaker 1: He said that he noticed vehicles parked by the store.
20:50
Speaker 3: One of them was a white Chevrolet pickup around a
20:53
Speaker 3: 1966 model. He also noticed a Toyota four-wheel drive vehicle
20:58
Speaker 3: and a green Nova that he thought was Rex's parked
21:01
Speaker 3: in front of Frederick's. This sounded like it could be
21:04
Speaker 3: a promising lead, but from the description of the vehicles
21:07
Speaker 3: that we got from the police reports, reading through this,
21:10
Speaker 3: it seems likely that he was describing the two women
21:12
Speaker 3: and the three cousins since they were driving a pickup
21:15
Speaker 3: truck and a Jeep.
21:17
Speaker 1: Even though this happened.
21:18
Speaker 3: In a pre-surveillance camera era and even in the early
21:22
Speaker 3: morning hours, it struck me reading this, there was a
21:25
Speaker 3: lot of activity happening in and around this store. There
21:28
Speaker 3: were witnesses, including police officers, who came to the store
21:32
Speaker 3: or drove by all the way up until a few
21:34
Speaker 3: minutes before 5 a.m. All of them said it seemed
21:37
Speaker 3: like Rex was fine. With so much time accounted for
21:41
Speaker 3: and the fact that Rex was bleeding to death on
21:43
Speaker 3: the floor when the three cousins and two women arrived,
21:47
Speaker 3: It seems very likely that whatever happened to Rex happened
21:50
Speaker 3: a few minutes before they got there.
21:53
Speaker 1: Police continued to look for the Camaro.
21:56
Speaker 3: They interviewed a man who owned a 1977 black Camaro
22:01
Speaker 3: with no pinstriping. He said that he had been at
22:04
Speaker 3: Frederick's on the 29th at approximately 10.30 p.m.
22:07
Speaker 1: With a friend of his. He said they got a Coke.
22:10
Speaker 3: He dropped his friend off at home, and then he
22:12
Speaker 3: was home.
22:13
Speaker 1: By 10.45 p.m.
22:15
Speaker 3: The man, David Gaskell, said that after that he stayed
22:18
Speaker 3: there and did not go out again. He said he
22:21
Speaker 3: didn't know Rex Terrell. He said he did know Rex's sister,
22:25
Speaker 3: but he said he had no involvement in anything that.
22:28
Speaker 1: Happened to Rex. David did give police.
22:31
Speaker 3: The names of some other people who owned similar cars,
22:34
Speaker 3: including two people who owned black Trans Ams.
22:37
Speaker 1: And a woman who owned a blue 1976 Camaro.
22:41
Speaker 3: Natalie Wilhite was another worker at Frederick's who gave an
22:44
Speaker 3: interview about Rex. She said, quote, I'm very upset over
22:48
Speaker 3: Rex being killed because I can't understand why someone would
22:51
Speaker 3: want to do that to Rex. He was quiet and
22:54
Speaker 3: I thought he didn't have any enemies at all, end quote.
22:57
Speaker 3: Natalie said that Rex had invited her to go water
23:01
Speaker 3: skiing with him on the Saturday before the murder, but
23:04
Speaker 3: she said she ended up not going. She said she
23:06
Speaker 3: never ended up going out with him socially. She said
23:10
Speaker 3: that on the night of the shooting, she had gone
23:11
Speaker 3: to a haunted house with some friends. After she and
23:15
Speaker 3: her friends got back to Huntsville, they went riding around
23:18
Speaker 3: and stopped at Frederick's at around 3 a.m.
23:21
Speaker 1: She said that she was close to the store owner, Mr.
23:23
Speaker 3: Frederick, and his family. She said while she was at
23:26
Speaker 3: the store that night, she talked to Rex and.
23:28
Speaker 1: Then went home.
23:30
Speaker 3: I mentioned her interview because police asked her something else.
23:32
Speaker 3: They asked her if she'd ever seen any drug dealing
23:35
Speaker 3: inside the store. She said that she had not. That's
23:38
Speaker 3: the only mention I can find in the whole case
23:40
Speaker 3: file that indicated police were exploring any angle connected to drugs.
23:45
Speaker 3: But there's no evidence that there was drug dealing inside
23:48
Speaker 3: the store. From the case file, Rex occasionally drank but
23:52
Speaker 3: did zero drugs. He didn't even smoke pot, according to
23:55
Speaker 3: statements given by his friends and his father. Police interviewed
23:59
Speaker 3: the owners of the various vehicles mentioned and ran the plates,
24:03
Speaker 3: but they came back with nothing. It seemed as though
24:06
Speaker 3: the investigation hit a dead end. Rex Terrell's family posted
24:11
Speaker 3: a statement in the personal section of the Madison County
24:13
Speaker 3: Record on August 4th, just a few days after Rex
24:16
Speaker 3: was killed. Their statement read, quote, The family of Rex
24:20
Speaker 3: Terrell want to thank the people of this area for
24:23
Speaker 3: their wonderful expressions of sympathy extended to a family of
24:27
Speaker 3: new corners.
24:28
Speaker 1: We feel proud.
24:30
Speaker 3: That we live in such a beautiful country among so
24:33
Speaker 3: many nice people, end quote. No one was arrested or
24:37
Speaker 3: charged in connection with Rex's murder. There were no suspects
24:41
Speaker 3: publicly named, and it seemed as though the case went cold.
24:45
Speaker 3: And over the years, police gave out pretty much zero information.
24:50
Speaker 3: But police did give us access to the complete case
24:53
Speaker 3: file after our FOIA request, and we discovered that back then,
24:57
Speaker 3: police had explored another motive other than robbery in 1978.
25:02
Speaker 3: Police found out via a confidential source that a man
25:06
Speaker 3: named Roger John Harvey might have information related to Rex's shooting.
25:12
Speaker 3: Roger worked at the Easterling Wood Products Lumber Company in
25:15
Speaker 3: Huntsville at the time of Rex's murder. According to the reports,
25:19
Speaker 3: he was interviewed by the Sheriff Ralph Baker and Sergeant
25:23
Speaker 3: Doug Fogley of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division.
25:27
Speaker 1: Doug Fogley contacted Roger.
25:29
Speaker 3: And said in his report that at first, Roger was
25:33
Speaker 3: extremely wary of officers and did not want to discuss
25:36
Speaker 3: any potential information that he had. But, quote, after being
25:40
Speaker 3: explained the mechanics of a prosecutor's subpoena, end quote, basically
25:44
Speaker 3: after police told him they would compel him to give
25:47
Speaker 3: the information one way or another, Roger said that he
25:50
Speaker 3: did have crucial information about the shooting. Roger, quote, reluctantly said,
25:56
Speaker 3: said that a reliable source in a position to have
25:59
Speaker 3: personal knowledge, whose name he didn't specify, told him that
26:03
Speaker 3: a man named Joe Dobson murdered Rex. Joe lived in
26:08
Speaker 3: Madison County. The reason that Roger gave for why Joe
26:12
Speaker 3: killed Rex? Allegedly, Rex was, quote, carrying on an affair
26:17
Speaker 3: with Joe's wife, Sally Dobson, end quote. Now, Sally Dobson
26:22
Speaker 3: was someone police had already talked to because she worked
26:26
Speaker 3: with Rex as a cashier at Frederick's 7-Eleven grocery store,
26:30
Speaker 3: and she was one of the first people to arrive
26:32
Speaker 3: at the scene as Rex was gasping for air. The
26:35
Speaker 3: report ended by stating, quote, After obtaining this limited information,
26:40
Speaker 3: Sheriff Ralph Baker decided investigation should continue.
26:44
Speaker 1: Into the allegations made by Harvey. End quote.
26:49
Speaker 3: But even though the sheriff himself suggested this lead should
26:52
Speaker 3: be investigated, there's nothing else in the case file that
26:55
Speaker 3: indicates that happened.
26:57
Speaker 1: And it seems likely that nothing did happen.
27:00
Speaker 3: Police did not reveal who the anonymous source was or
27:04
Speaker 3: if they even found out who it was. There's no
27:07
Speaker 3: evidence that they ever followed up with this person or
27:10
Speaker 3: talked to Sally Dobson again or followed up with her husband,
27:13
Speaker 3: Joe Dobson.
27:14
Speaker 1: If they did, it's not part of the case file.
27:18
Speaker 3: But from what we saw, there's also nothing else in
27:21
Speaker 3: the case file that indicates that Sally and Rex were
27:23
Speaker 3: anything more than co-workers. Then, just three months after police
27:28
Speaker 3: got that lead, on August 29, 1978, Sergeant Fogley requested
27:33
Speaker 3: that the investigation be put on inactive status, saying that
27:38
Speaker 3: no new investigative leads were forthcoming.
27:41
Speaker 1: In that same.
27:41
Speaker 3: Typed report, he said that the FBI was pursuing a
27:45
Speaker 3: lead in regards to the case and that if that
27:48
Speaker 3: investigation proved fruitful, the case could be reopened at any time.
27:56
Speaker 3: The case file does show that before pausing their investigation,
28:00
Speaker 3: police were trying to find the weapon that was used
28:03
Speaker 3: to kill Rex, the one that left behind the three.
28:06
Speaker 1: 38 caliber bullet cartridge cases.
28:09
Speaker 3: In March of 1979, they questioned a man named Lee
28:12
Speaker 3: Remington about a Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver and
28:16
Speaker 3: how he got it into his possession. He told the
28:19
Speaker 3: police he had bought the gun from his brother-in-law, 31-year-old
28:22
Speaker 3: Henry Otto Kukin. At first, Lee said he got the
28:26
Speaker 3: weapon around two years ago. Later, he said it would
28:30
Speaker 3: have had to have been possibly the late summer of
28:32
Speaker 3: 1978 because that's when he was working.
28:34
Speaker 1: Overtime and had extra money.
28:36
Speaker 3: He said he paid his brother-in-law, Henry, $ 80 for the gun.
28:41
Speaker 3: At the time, Henry lived in Pierce, Missouri, and Henry
28:44
Speaker 3: told Lee that he had bought.
28:46
Speaker 1: The gun from a man named Leroy Finney, a sheetrock
28:49
Speaker 1: hanger from Monet, Missouri.
28:51
Speaker 3: Henry Kukin was listed as a potential suspect in police documents.
28:56
Speaker 3: In March of 1979, investigators took a. 38 caliber Special
29:01
Speaker 3: Smith & Wesson gun from his home. Police also collected
29:04
Speaker 3: spent casings from the Wesson Model 10 revolver that Lee
29:08
Speaker 3: Remington said he bought from Henry.
29:10
Speaker 1: According to a later report, testing showed.
29:13
Speaker 3: That Lee's weapon was not a match to the evidence
29:16
Speaker 3: taken from the crime scene. But the tests on the
29:19
Speaker 3: gun taken directly from Henry were less conclusive. According to
29:23
Speaker 3: the firearms examiner at the state crime laboratory, the bullets
29:27
Speaker 3: from that gun and from the casings taken from the
29:29
Speaker 3: crime scene were tested against each other, and they couldn't
29:32
Speaker 3: be sure if they were a match. The report stated, quote,
29:36
Speaker 3: there are similarities of individual markings noted on evidence and
29:40
Speaker 3: test specimens that indicate that they could have been fired
29:43
Speaker 3: in the same weapon. However, there are insufficient matching striations
29:48
Speaker 3: for a positive identification. This could be due to the
29:51
Speaker 3: lapse of time between the commission of the crime and
29:53
Speaker 3: the seizing of the suspect weapon, end quote. Years went
29:59
Speaker 3: by and nothing happened with the case. But then, decades
30:03
Speaker 3: later in 2015, police got what appeared to be a
30:07
Speaker 3: huge potential break. A man named Rory Gregory wrote a
30:11
Speaker 3: letter from prison, in which he said he had information
30:15
Speaker 3: about Rex's killing that he had held back for almost
30:18
Speaker 3: 40 years. Rory was in prison on unrelated charges, and
30:23
Speaker 3: Rory claimed... that back in June of 1977, he witnessed
30:27
Speaker 3: Rex's murder. A month after police received a letter from
30:37
Speaker 3: a prisoner that said he had information about Rex Terrell's death,
30:41
Speaker 3: they interviewed him.
30:42
Speaker 1: Rory Gregory said back.
30:44
Speaker 3: In the mid to late 70s, when he was 15
30:46
Speaker 3: or 16 years old, he was driving around in his
30:49
Speaker 3: dad's truck with a friend of his named Dale. He
30:52
Speaker 3: said Dale wanted to go to Fayetteville and score some drugs,
30:55
Speaker 3: but he said he knew his dad would be mad
30:57
Speaker 3: at him if he drove the.
30:58
Speaker 1: Car that far away.
30:59
Speaker 3: So they pulled over into a shopping center where they
31:02
Speaker 3: were talking to a guy named Wayne Starkey.
31:05
Speaker 1: Suddenly, a cop pulled in.
31:06
Speaker 3: Wayne was concerned that he was about to be arrested
31:09
Speaker 3: because he had some outstanding parking tickets. So Rory's story
31:13
Speaker 3: is that Wayne asked Dale and Rory to take his
31:15
Speaker 3: car so the police wouldn't impound it. And that car
31:19
Speaker 3: was a dark green 1970 Camaro. Rory's story is that
31:23
Speaker 3: he and Dale agreed to take the Camaro and Dale
31:27
Speaker 3: eagerly drove it to Fayetteville. According to Rory, as they
31:31
Speaker 3: drove through Huntsville, they stopped at the Frederick store. Rory
31:35
Speaker 3: said that as he was walking into the store planning
31:38
Speaker 3: on getting something to drink, that he heard three loud
31:41
Speaker 3: booms and saw Dale shooting some guy. He did not
31:45
Speaker 3: know the man's name. Rory said he said to Dale,
31:48
Speaker 3: what the hell is going on? But Dale looked at
31:50
Speaker 3: him like he was going to shoot Rory and told
31:53
Speaker 3: Rory to get.
31:54
Speaker 1: Back in the car.
31:55
Speaker 3: This detail was apparently enough for investigators to believe they
31:59
Speaker 3: needed to take another look at Rex's body. And so
32:03
Speaker 3: in March of 2020, Rex Terrell's body was exhumed from
32:07
Speaker 3: Albin Cemetery. KNWA ran a short news item on the story,
32:11
Speaker 3: saying the Madison County Sheriff's Office had exhumed Rex's body
32:14
Speaker 3: in Huntsville as part of a criminal investigation. The article
32:18
Speaker 3: stated at the time, the Sheriff's Office website lists Rex's
32:22
Speaker 3: unknown killer as the most wanted person in the county.
32:27
Speaker 3: Prosecuting attorney Matt Durrett confirmed that the body was being
32:30
Speaker 3: sent to Little Rock as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
32:34
Speaker 3: But police did not reveal what evidence led them to
32:37
Speaker 3: order that Rex's body be dug up. At the time,
32:41
Speaker 3: Sheriff Rick Evans told the Madison County Register that due
32:44
Speaker 3: to a gag order issued by a judge, he couldn't
32:47
Speaker 3: tell the newspaper anything about why the body was being
32:50
Speaker 3: exhumed or what evidence had led police to make that decision.
32:55
Speaker 3: But later, documents obtained via FOIA revealed that they found
32:58
Speaker 3: something when they dug the body up, a third bullet,
33:02
Speaker 3: one that had not been discovered in the initial investigation. Remember,
33:06
Speaker 3: Rex had been shot three times, but they only found
33:10
Speaker 3: two bullets in his body. But police still seem to
33:13
Speaker 3: be struggling with elements of Rory's story. He said that
33:17
Speaker 3: after the shooting, he and Dale drove off and that
33:19
Speaker 3: he was in complete shock. He said he had no
33:22
Speaker 3: idea why Dale had shot the cashier. He said they
33:25
Speaker 3: stopped to siphon some gas in Harrison and that eventually
33:28
Speaker 3: Dale dropped him off in Mountain Home at his house
33:31
Speaker 3: and threatened to shoot him if he ever said.
33:33
Speaker 1: Anything to anyone.
33:35
Speaker 3: But was Rory's letter credible? According to police records, they
33:40
Speaker 3: did check arrest records for Wayne Starkey. They eventually found
33:45
Speaker 3: his arrest record. He was booked under a different name.
33:48
Speaker 3: Police confirmed Wayne was arrested on that day, July 29th, 1977.
33:54
Speaker 3: So it's plausible that he could have given his vehicle
33:57
Speaker 3: to someone else. The details about the arrest matches, and
34:01
Speaker 3: Wayne Starkey did own a Camaro. And Rex was shot
34:06
Speaker 3: three times. But there were also some red flags. First
34:11
Speaker 3: of all, when police questioned Rory, he told them he
34:14
Speaker 3: had brought the letter he wrote in with him to
34:16
Speaker 3: refresh his memory. saying he didn't quite remember the details
34:19
Speaker 3: he wrote about. He said that it was the mid-70s,
34:22
Speaker 3: things were wild back then, everything was pretty fair game,
34:25
Speaker 3: and that he had trouble pinpointing even the year.
34:29
Speaker 1: And he had the.
34:29
Speaker 3: Time wrong, because initially, he said the shooting went down
34:33
Speaker 3: between 10 and 11 p.m. He said he was positive
34:36
Speaker 3: that he was back at home at his dad's trailer
34:38
Speaker 3: in Mountain Home by daybreak. And it wasn't until after
34:42
Speaker 3: police told him, that Rex had been shot at around
34:44
Speaker 3: 5 a.m., that he said his memory could have been wrong.
34:48
Speaker 3: It could have been early morning. Now, this still could
34:51
Speaker 3: have potentially matched the evidence because daylight was around 6.20 a.m.
34:56
Speaker 3: and Rex was killed around 5 a.m., so it might
34:58
Speaker 3: have just been later than Rory thought. But there were
35:02
Speaker 3: other factors because Rory made it clear in his letter
35:05
Speaker 3: that in return for his cooperation, he wanted to be
35:08
Speaker 3: let out of prison. So even if his information was credible,
35:12
Speaker 3: investigators did have to consider his motives. Police also noted
35:17
Speaker 3: in later reports that even if Rory was telling the
35:19
Speaker 3: partial truth, they all wondered if there had been a
35:23
Speaker 3: second person with him in the car that night at all,
35:27
Speaker 3: or could he have been alone? They stated that Dale,
35:30
Speaker 3: the friend who Rory said shot Rex, had been eliminated
35:34
Speaker 3: as a suspect. In the end, the bullet taken from
35:38
Speaker 3: Rex's body was too mutilated to be useful.
35:40
Speaker 1: For forensic testing.
35:42
Speaker 3: And even after exhuming a body, police were no closer
35:46
Speaker 3: to catching the killer. It's been almost 50 years since
35:51
Speaker 3: Rex Terrell was murdered at Frederick's. And to this day,
35:55
Speaker 3: no one has ever been publicly named as the suspect
35:58
Speaker 3: or arrested or charged in connection with his death. Not surprisingly,
36:02
Speaker 3: since so much time has passed, a lot of the
36:05
Speaker 3: people involved in this case are dead. Henry Cookin passed
36:09
Speaker 3: away in 2008 in Missouri. Rory Gregory, who wrote the letter,
36:13
Speaker 3: has passed away as well. So it seems as though
36:16
Speaker 3: police did find elements of Rory's story credible enough to
36:20
Speaker 3: order an exhumation, but the bullet they found was unable
36:23
Speaker 3: to help them conclusively identify the murder weapon or to
36:27
Speaker 3: get any more definitive proof. I wonder if there's any
36:30
Speaker 3: way to go back and find any sort of corroborating evidence.
36:34
Speaker 3: I find myself wondering about the other leads because so
36:37
Speaker 3: many appear to have been dropped, like how the sheriff
36:41
Speaker 3: said the information regarding Joe Dobson should be investigated further,
36:45
Speaker 3: but then there's no evidence that it ever was. Was
36:48
Speaker 3: there a relationship between Sally and Rex that went deeper
36:51
Speaker 3: than coworkers? There's nothing in the case file that indicates
36:55
Speaker 3: that there was, but like so many other leads, there's
36:59
Speaker 3: a lot we don't know about why police haven't dug deeper.
37:06
Speaker 3: I find myself wondering if there are other things missing
37:09
Speaker 3: from the case file. Is there someone else out there
37:12
Speaker 3: who knows something? Could there be justice for Rex Terrell
37:15
Speaker 3: 50 years later? I'm Katherine Townsend. This is Hell and
37:20
Speaker 3: Gone Murder Line. Hell and Gone Murder Line is a
37:24
Speaker 3: production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcast. It's written
37:28
Speaker 3: and narrated by me, Katherine Townsend, and produced by Gabby Watts.
37:31
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and
37:34
Speaker 1: James Wheaton for legal review.
37:36
Speaker 3: Noah Kammer mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song
37:40
Speaker 3: is by Ben Salit. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr,
37:44
Speaker 3: and L.C. Crowley. Listen to Hell and Gone ad-free by
37:47
Speaker 3: subscribing to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts.
37:51
Speaker 3: If you are interested in seeing documents and materials from
37:54
Speaker 3: the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at hellandgonepod.
37:58
Speaker 3: If you have a case you'd like me and my
38:00
Speaker 3: team to look into, you can reach out to us
38:02
Speaker 3: at our Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145.
38:04
Speaker 1: That's 678-744-6145. School of Humans.