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

Transcript

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

0:00
Speaker 1: Before dawn in March of 1997, a police captain was
0:03
Speaker 1: patrolling the outskirts of a small town in North Carolina
0:06
Speaker 1: when up ahead he saw there was this Jeep parked
0:09
Speaker 1: on the shoulder of the highway with its headlights on. Now,
0:12
Speaker 1: the vehicle was suspicious enough that the captain pulled over
0:16
Speaker 1: and he walked up to the Jeep. And as he
0:18
Speaker 1: got closer to it, he heard the engine running and
0:20
Speaker 1: he saw the driver's side window was down. But when
0:23
Speaker 1: he walked around to that side of the car, he
0:25
Speaker 1: saw nobody was inside. However, as he was standing there,
0:29
Speaker 1: a cell phone on the passenger seat began to ring.
0:32
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:35
Speaker 1: fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format.
0:38
Speaker 2: Then you've come to the right place because that's all
0:40
Speaker 2: we do and we upload two, three, even four times
0:43
Speaker 2: every week.
0:44
Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, the next time
0:46
Speaker 1: you go on vacation with the like button and all
0:48
Speaker 1: your friends, be sure to take lots of pictures. But
0:52
Speaker 1: when you post those pictures on social media, be sure
0:55
Speaker 1: you Photoshop.
0:56
Speaker 2: Out the like button.
0:57
Speaker 1: Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all
0:59
Speaker 1: notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.
1:03
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:26
Speaker 1: In the early morning hours of Saturday, March 29, 1997,
1:30
Speaker 1: a blonde 26-year-old waitress named Kim Medlin carried a tray
1:34
Speaker 1: of filet mignon through a topless bar in Charlotte, North Carolina,
1:37
Speaker 1: all wearing a leotard and tights. She made her way
1:41
Speaker 1: through the cigar-smoke-filled room past the stage where all the
1:44
Speaker 1: half-naked women were busy pole dancing. Kim worked here at
1:47
Speaker 1: the men's club three or four nights a week, and
1:49
Speaker 1: for the most part, she liked the job. It paid
1:52
Speaker 1: well and By working the night shift, it left her
1:54
Speaker 1: days free so she could focus on her two real passions,
1:57
Speaker 1: which were taking care of her horses and decorating her
2:01
Speaker 1: brand new house. So Kim and her husband Bridger had
2:04
Speaker 1: recently bought a seven acre plot of land outside the
2:07
Speaker 1: nearby town of Monroe, where Bridger had actually grown up.
2:10
Speaker 1: They'd spent the past year building their dream home, including
2:12
Speaker 1: a barn for their three horses. And now that the
2:15
Speaker 1: construction was done, they had finally started moving in and decorating. Now,
2:19
Speaker 1: as Kim delivered the filet mignons to a table of
2:22
Speaker 1: middle-aged businessmen, she glanced over at the clock on the wall,
2:25
Speaker 1: and she felt a surge of excitement when she saw
2:27
Speaker 1: that there was less than an hour left in her shift.
2:30
Speaker 1: Kim had the next three days off, and she planned
2:32
Speaker 1: to use all that free time to finish some of
2:34
Speaker 1: the smaller moving projects that still needed to get done,
2:38
Speaker 1: like just unpacking boxes and hanging some pictures. So she
2:42
Speaker 1: flashed the businessmen a smile and then went to check
2:44
Speaker 1: on her other tables. An hour later, a little after
2:50
Speaker 1: 2 a.m., Kim walked out the back entrance of the bar,
2:53
Speaker 1: now wearing a baggy sweatshirt instead of her work uniform,
2:56
Speaker 1: and she called out a goodbye over her shoulder to
2:58
Speaker 1: some co-workers and then walked over to where her red
3:01
Speaker 1: Jeep was parked along the side of the building. She
3:03
Speaker 1: got in, dropped her purse onto the cow print seat
3:06
Speaker 1: cover on the passenger seat, turned on the car, and
3:08
Speaker 1: then turned on some music for the hour-long drive home.
3:15
Speaker 1: A half an hour later, Kim drove south down Old
3:17
Speaker 1: Charlotte Highway, a secluded two-lane road that was pretty much
3:20
Speaker 1: deserted at this hour. She used to find this commute
3:23
Speaker 1: kind of relaxing, but lately it had been making her
3:26
Speaker 1: nervous to be driving alone late at night.
3:28
Speaker 2: And the reason for that was.
3:30
Speaker 1: Because a couple of weeks ago, while she was driving
3:32
Speaker 1: home from work around this same time of night, she'd
3:35
Speaker 1: been involved in a really scary road rage incident. Another
3:38
Speaker 1: vehicle had come up from behind and started tailgating her
3:41
Speaker 1: and honking their horn at her repeatedly for really no
3:44
Speaker 1: apparent reason. Kim had been afraid that this was a
3:46
Speaker 1: customer from the men's club who was now following her home.
3:50
Speaker 1: And it freaked her out so much that she'd actually
3:52
Speaker 1: pulled over into a convenience store parking lot because she
3:55
Speaker 1: saw there was a police car parked in there as well.
3:57
Speaker 1: And so she'd gone right over to the officer to
3:59
Speaker 1: ask for help. He'd promised to go and try and
4:02
Speaker 1: track down this road rager. And he'd even sent out
4:05
Speaker 1: a broadcast over the police radio telling all the other
4:07
Speaker 1: officers to keep an eye out for Kim's car on
4:10
Speaker 1: the night she was working in case anyone gave her
4:13
Speaker 1: more trouble.
4:14
Speaker 2: And so now, even though, you know, that.
4:15
Speaker 1: Road rager had never been caught, Kim did feel better
4:18
Speaker 1: knowing that the police had her back. But again, because
4:22
Speaker 1: the road rager had not been caught, she was still
4:24
Speaker 1: a bit scared about driving home alone. So tonight, to
4:27
Speaker 1: calm her nerves, she fished out her cell phone out
4:30
Speaker 1: of her purse and just called her husband, Bridger. When
4:32
Speaker 1: he answered, he told her that he was actually on
4:35
Speaker 1: the road too. He was still driving back from a gig,
4:37
Speaker 1: DJing at a prom in a town two hours away,
4:40
Speaker 1: but he was almost home. After chatting for a few minutes,
4:43
Speaker 1: Bridger told Kim that he was actually pulling into their
4:45
Speaker 1: driveway and that he would call her right back once
4:47
Speaker 1: he got inside the house. So Kim said fine and
4:50
Speaker 1: said goodbye, and they hung up, and she kept on driving.
4:53
Speaker 2: Then, about 15 minutes later.
4:55
Speaker 1: So a little before 3 a.m., her phone rang. And
4:58
Speaker 1: it was Bridger again, calling back like he had promised
5:01
Speaker 1: he would. And he asked Kim if she was close,
5:03
Speaker 1: and she told him that she was just passing by
5:05
Speaker 1: Union Station Restaurant, which meant she was maybe about 20
5:08
Speaker 1: minutes away from home. Bridger said he was pretty tired
5:11
Speaker 1: and he was getting ready for bed, and in case
5:13
Speaker 1: he was asleep by the time she got in, he
5:15
Speaker 1: wished her goodnight. And Kim said goodnight back, and then
5:18
Speaker 1: she hung up, and she put her phone down on
5:20
Speaker 1: the passenger seat. But just as Kim turned her attention
5:23
Speaker 1: back towards the road, a sudden bright light almost blinded her.
5:27
Speaker 1: She looked in the rearview mirror and saw headlights right
5:30
Speaker 1: behind her. About an hour later, Kim's husband Bridger sat
5:36
Speaker 1: up in bed and looked over at the clock on
5:38
Speaker 1: his nightstand. It was 3.59 a.m., an hour after having
5:42
Speaker 1: spoken to Kim. I mean, she should have been home
5:44
Speaker 1: 20 minutes after that phone call, and she still wasn't back.
5:48
Speaker 1: So he got out of bed, and he checked every
5:50
Speaker 1: room in their two-story house, but Kim.
5:52
Speaker 2: Wasn't in any of them. There was no sign of her.
5:55
Speaker 1: Then Bridger looked out the window, and he saw her
5:57
Speaker 1: Jeep wasn't in the driveway either. So at this point,
6:00
Speaker 1: he hurried into the kitchen, and he picked up the phone,
6:03
Speaker 1: and he dialed Kim's cell phone number.
6:05
Speaker 2: And it rang a few times. And then a strange
6:08
Speaker 2: male voice answered. Bridger asked who he was speaking to.
6:11
Speaker 1: And the man told him he was a police officer
6:14
Speaker 1: with the Monroe Public Safety Department. Bridger asked him, OK, well,
6:17
Speaker 1: where's my wife? And the officer told him that he
6:21
Speaker 1: didn't know. He had just come across a red Jeep
6:23
Speaker 1: idling on the side of the road and found this
6:26
Speaker 1: phone inside of it.
6:27
Speaker 2: And it was ringing. And so he answered it. But
6:29
Speaker 2: he said, there's nobody here.
6:36
Speaker 1: Several minutes later, so this is a little bit after
6:38
Speaker 1: 4 a.m. on March 29, 1997, Assistant Chief Bobby Halk,
6:43
Speaker 1: a police investigator with the Monroe Public Safety Department, drove
6:46
Speaker 1: north along Old Charlotte Highway. He drove his patrol car
6:50
Speaker 1: past parking lots and houses until he reached the very.
6:53
Speaker 2: Edge of town.
6:54
Speaker 1: And finally, he saw what he was looking for, a
6:56
Speaker 1: red Jeep parked along the opposite side of the road,
6:59
Speaker 1: with another patrol car parked right behind it. He pulled
7:02
Speaker 1: a U-turn and parked on the shoulder, and as he
7:04
Speaker 1: got out of his car... he recognized Captain David Simpson
7:08
Speaker 1: standing there, waiting for him. Simpson told Chief Hulk that
7:11
Speaker 1: he had just found this jeep idling on the side
7:13
Speaker 1: of the road about 15 minutes ago with its headlights on,
7:16
Speaker 1: and he had walked up, there had been nobody inside
7:18
Speaker 1: of it, but when he looked in, there was a
7:21
Speaker 1: cell phone, and it began to ring. And so, you know,
7:24
Speaker 1: acting on instinct, he answered the phone, and it was
7:27
Speaker 1: a man named Bridger Medlin, who was calling, saying, I'm
7:29
Speaker 1: looking for my wife, this is her phone, she hasn't
7:31
Speaker 1: come home. And Captain Simpson also said that he actually
7:34
Speaker 1: recognized this Jeep from a random run-in he had had
7:38
Speaker 1: two weeks earlier outside of a convenience store with Kim Medlin.
7:42
Speaker 1: And so he put it together and he's like, okay,
7:44
Speaker 1: Bridger's calling. This is definitely Kim's car, but Kim's.
7:47
Speaker 2: Nowhere to be found.
7:49
Speaker 1: And Hulk actually recognized Kim's name because he actually happened
7:52
Speaker 1: to be friends with Kim's husband, Bridger. And so he
7:55
Speaker 1: pulled out his flashlight and he began looking inside the Jeep.
7:57
Speaker 1: And right away, he saw there was a wallet lying
8:00
Speaker 1: open on the passenger seat. And when he looked inside
8:03
Speaker 1: the wallet, there were credit cards, there was cash, but
8:06
Speaker 1: there was like this clear section of the wallet where
8:09
Speaker 1: obviously you would slide your driver's license and there was
8:12
Speaker 1: nothing there. So it very much looked like her license
8:15
Speaker 1: had been pulled out on purpose. Now, their initial theory was, okay, well,
8:18
Speaker 1: maybe Kim got pulled over by a police officer and
8:21
Speaker 1: took out her license to hand to the cop. But
8:25
Speaker 1: in a department as small as Monroe's, there were only
8:27
Speaker 1: a few officers on duty at this time of night.
8:30
Speaker 1: And when Assistant Chief Hulk asked Captain Simpson, had any
8:33
Speaker 1: of the on-duty officers pulled anybody over that night, Simpson
8:37
Speaker 1: was already all over it.
8:38
Speaker 2: He had checked.
8:39
Speaker 1: And he said, no, none of our officers pulled anybody over.
8:43
Speaker 1: So this made Hulk wonder if maybe Kim had been
8:46
Speaker 1: pulled over by somebody posing as a cop.
8:49
Speaker 2: There had actually been dozens.
8:50
Speaker 1: Of reports over the years of so-called blue light bandits
8:54
Speaker 1: pretending to be police officers in order to harass drivers,
8:58
Speaker 1: especially young women. Those cases were really quite rare, even
9:02
Speaker 1: though they did happen, so Hulk didn't want to jump
9:04
Speaker 1: to any conclusions quite yet. Just then, Hulk heard a
9:07
Speaker 1: truck engine and saw headlights approaching up the highway. So
9:11
Speaker 1: he set the wallet back down on the seat and
9:13
Speaker 1: then walked over to where a black pickup truck was
9:16
Speaker 1: now pulling to a stop right behind Hulk's car. A
9:19
Speaker 1: tall man with blonde hair got out of the driver's seat,
9:21
Speaker 1: and right away Hulk knew who it was.
9:23
Speaker 2: It was his friend and Kim's husband, Bridger.
9:27
Speaker 1: And Bridger looked frantic. And he demanded to know what
9:30
Speaker 1: had happened to his wife. But Hulk told him to
9:33
Speaker 1: calm down that they were here to try to figure
9:36
Speaker 1: out what happened to his wife and where she went.
9:39
Speaker 1: Hulk went on to say that, look, like we showed
9:41
Speaker 1: up and we just found her car here. But there
9:43
Speaker 1: were no broken windows or slashed tires or any sign
9:46
Speaker 1: of a struggle. So it was possible that maybe Kim
9:49
Speaker 1: just ran into car trouble and maybe she went out
9:51
Speaker 1: to go find help. But then, without asking for permission,
9:55
Speaker 1: Bridger pushed past Hulk and just climbed right inside of
9:58
Speaker 1: the jeep's driver's seat and said, well, let's test your
10:01
Speaker 1: theory right now and see whether the car was working.
10:03
Speaker 1: Hulk told him to get out of the Jeep, but
10:05
Speaker 1: Bridger just totally ignored him. And then he put his
10:08
Speaker 1: wife's car in drive and moved it forward a few inches.
10:11
Speaker 1: Then he put it in reverse and he drove it backward,
10:13
Speaker 1: ultimately parking it in its original place, showing that it
10:16
Speaker 1: worked just fine. And even though at this point Hulk
10:19
Speaker 1: was kind of annoyed with Bridger for what he had
10:21
Speaker 1: just done, he couldn't help but think, this is bad,
10:24
Speaker 1: something's going on here. And so Hulk walked over to
10:26
Speaker 1: his car and he radioed the dispatcher for reinforcements. And
10:30
Speaker 1: he asked them to bring a police dog so they
10:32
Speaker 1: could try to track Kim's scent in case she left
10:34
Speaker 1: on foot. A few minutes later, two more police cars
10:46
Speaker 1: pulled up to the scene and a few officers and
10:49
Speaker 1: a police dog got out.
10:50
Speaker 2: Hulk opened the.
10:51
Speaker 1: Doors to the Jeep and the dog went in and
10:53
Speaker 1: sniffed around, you know, getting familiar with the scent of
10:56
Speaker 1: Kim's belongings.
10:57
Speaker 2: Then the dog seemed to pick up a trail on
10:58
Speaker 2: the ground.
10:59
Speaker 1: And so the officers told Bridger, who clearly wanted to
11:01
Speaker 1: go with them, to stay put, you know, stay with
11:04
Speaker 1: your truck. And then they followed the dog down the
11:07
Speaker 1: road for about 100 yards or so until it turned
11:10
Speaker 1: onto a driveway. Hulk and the others followed the dog
11:12
Speaker 1: up this long driveway towards a small house nestled in
11:15
Speaker 1: the trees right off the highway. And the dog sniffed
11:18
Speaker 1: all the way up to the garage and then stopped.
11:21
Speaker 2: That was where Kim's trail ended.
11:23
Speaker 1: And so Hulk went up to the house and rang
11:25
Speaker 1: the doorbell.
11:26
Speaker 2: And a minute later, a man answered.
11:28
Speaker 1: And despite the late hour, he looked totally awake and
11:31
Speaker 1: not particularly surprised to see cops at his door. Hulk
11:34
Speaker 1: asked the man who he was and whether or not
11:36
Speaker 1: he had seen or heard anything unusual in the past
11:39
Speaker 1: couple of hours near his property. The man said his
11:41
Speaker 1: name was Nathan Hargett, and about an hour ago, so
11:44
Speaker 1: maybe around 3.45am, he'd been woken up by a strange
11:48
Speaker 1: car loitering near his garage. Nathan said he hadn't recognized
11:52
Speaker 1: the car, but he noticed that it had Texas plates,
11:55
Speaker 1: and that there also had been a woman with blonde
11:57
Speaker 1: hair in the back seat. Hulk asked Nathan for permission
12:00
Speaker 1: to search his property, and Nathan told them to go
12:03
Speaker 1: right ahead. And so Hulk directed the other officers to
12:06
Speaker 1: search the inside of the house, while he clicked on
12:08
Speaker 1: his flashlight and headed over to the garage. When he
12:11
Speaker 1: got there, he turned the handle of a door on
12:13
Speaker 1: the side of the garage and he found it was unlocked.
12:16
Speaker 1: So he pushed the door open and he shined his
12:19
Speaker 1: flashlight inside, but all he saw was a truck and
12:22
Speaker 1: some gardening tools.
12:23
Speaker 2: There was no sign of Kim.
12:26
Speaker 1: By the time dawn broke around 6 a.m. that morning,
12:29
Speaker 1: this had become officially a missing persons case. So police
12:32
Speaker 1: began a search of the woods around the old Charlotte
12:34
Speaker 1: Highway with help from members of the community. Meanwhile, Hulk
12:39
Speaker 1: and Simpson went back to the station to speak to
12:41
Speaker 1: one of the dispatchers who had been on duty that night.
12:44
Speaker 2: After speaking to that homeowner.
12:45
Speaker 1: Nathan, and searching his house and his garage, he had
12:48
Speaker 1: been ruled out as a suspect. So now they were
12:51
Speaker 1: focused on finding that car with the Texas plates that
12:54
Speaker 1: Nathan had seen loitering outside of his garage. So they
12:57
Speaker 1: were hoping that maybe there was a report of a
13:00
Speaker 1: traffic stop or maybe a suspicious car in the area
13:03
Speaker 1: or anything that might help figure out who was driving
13:06
Speaker 1: that car. But the dispatcher said again that really there
13:10
Speaker 1: had been no stops, nothing that night.
13:12
Speaker 2: However, there had.
13:13
Speaker 1: Been one incident in the area that night. It was
13:16
Speaker 1: around 2 a.m., so it was about an hour before
13:19
Speaker 1: Kim was last heard from. They'd gotten a call about
13:22
Speaker 1: a car that had run into a ditch not too
13:24
Speaker 1: far from where Kim's Jeep was found. Hulk asked who
13:27
Speaker 1: had responded to that call, and the dispatcher said it
13:29
Speaker 1: was car 491, which was driven by a young rookie
13:33
Speaker 1: officer named Josh Griffin. Hulk immediately gave Officer Griffin a
13:37
Speaker 1: phone call and asked if he had seen or heard
13:39
Speaker 1: anything unusual while he was out responding to that car
13:42
Speaker 1: in the ditch. But Griffin said no. He actually said
13:45
Speaker 1: that his shift was over around the time that driver
13:48
Speaker 1: had flagged him down for help, so he had actually
13:51
Speaker 1: just called for a tow truck, and when it got there,
13:53
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit after 2.30 a.m., Griffin said he
13:56
Speaker 1: just went home. Hulk hung up the phone feeling pretty disappointed.
14:00
Speaker 1: Bridger said the last time he heard from his wife
14:02
Speaker 1: Kim was around 3 a.m. So if this car was
14:04
Speaker 1: already being towed away by 2.30 a.m., then it definitely
14:08
Speaker 1: was not the same car that Nathan saw loitering outside
14:11
Speaker 1: of his garage. And the driver of that car in
14:15
Speaker 1: the ditch was likely not a suspect. Hulk sighed in frustration,
14:19
Speaker 1: but then another idea occurred to him. He asked Captain
14:22
Speaker 1: Simpson to elaborate on that random run-in he had had.
14:25
Speaker 2: With Kim a couple of weeks earlier.
14:27
Speaker 1: Now, this was sort of a long shot to bring
14:29
Speaker 1: it up again, but Hulk wondered if maybe the same
14:33
Speaker 1: driver from the road rage incident could have maybe come
14:36
Speaker 1: back and, you know, maybe chased Kim off the road
14:39
Speaker 1: or something. Simpson said he would go dig up the
14:41
Speaker 1: report that he had filed on the incident, and then
14:43
Speaker 1: he left to go find it. About half an hour later,
14:46
Speaker 1: Hulk sat at his desk reading through a copy of
14:49
Speaker 1: the road rage police report. It said that in the
14:51
Speaker 1: very early morning hours of Saturday, March 15th, so exactly
14:55
Speaker 1: two weeks before Kim's disappearance, Kim had pulled into a
14:59
Speaker 1: convenience store and flagged down Captain Simpson and another officer
15:02
Speaker 1: named Roger Griffin. So Officer Josh Griffin is the one
15:06
Speaker 1: who responded to the car stuck in the ditch. Officer
15:09
Speaker 1: Roger Griffin is actually Josh's father, and he was with
15:12
Speaker 1: Captain Simpson that night. So the report said that Simpson
15:16
Speaker 1: and his partner, Roger Griffin, had actually caught up with
15:19
Speaker 1: the car that was harassing Kim a little bit further
15:21
Speaker 1: down the road. There were two men inside the car,
15:23
Speaker 1: Eric Williams and George Connell. And they claimed that they
15:27
Speaker 1: thought Kim was actually the one harassing them by flashing
15:30
Speaker 1: her lights at them. And so to Simpson and to Griffin,
15:33
Speaker 1: it seemed like a big misunderstanding.
15:36
Speaker 2: So the officers had just let them go.
15:38
Speaker 1: But Hulk, now looking at this through a very different lens,
15:41
Speaker 1: felt like he needed to speak to Eric and George regardless.
15:44
Speaker 1: And so in the report, he found the contact information
15:47
Speaker 1: for Eric and George, and he called them both up.
15:50
Speaker 1: But it turned out they both had airtight alibis for
15:53
Speaker 1: the night of Kim's disappearance. But even still, it struck
15:56
Speaker 1: Hulk as very odd that Kim had gone missing from
15:59
Speaker 1: her car on the same road at the same time
16:02
Speaker 1: of night and on the same night of the week
16:04
Speaker 1: as the road rage incident just two weeks earlier. And
16:07
Speaker 1: he had a hard time believing it was all just,
16:08
Speaker 1: you know, one big coincidence. The next day, just after
16:16
Speaker 1: sunset on Sunday, March 30th, Hulk drove down Westwood Industrial Drive,
16:20
Speaker 1: a deserted dead-end street at the edge of town, about
16:23
Speaker 1: two miles from where Kim's Jeep was found. And as
16:26
Speaker 1: he was driving, he saw at the end of the
16:27
Speaker 1: street there were a couple of police cars parked there.
16:30
Speaker 1: And so he pulled his own car behind them, and
16:32
Speaker 1: he got out. He walked into the trees, where he
16:35
Speaker 1: could see the beams of several flashlights moving around in
16:37
Speaker 1: the darkness. And as he got closer, he saw officers
16:40
Speaker 1: putting up police tape around a small clearing. And then
16:44
Speaker 1: on the ground in that clearing, he saw a pair
16:46
Speaker 1: of feet in sneakers poking out from underneath a pile
16:49
Speaker 1: of roofing shingles and branches. The police had gotten a
16:52
Speaker 1: call earlier that evening from two men who were part
16:55
Speaker 1: of the community search effort for Kim. And they said
16:58
Speaker 1: to police that they had found a body in the
17:00
Speaker 1: woods in the spot, but they hadn't touched it. And
17:03
Speaker 1: so now with Hulk on the scene, the forensics team
17:06
Speaker 1: removed the shingles and branches that were covering the body
17:09
Speaker 1: and Hulk pulled out his flashlight and knelt down to
17:11
Speaker 1: get a better look. and he saw right away it
17:14
Speaker 1: was a deceased woman, and it was definitely Kim Medlin.
17:18
Speaker 1: She was only wearing a pair of shorts, a bra,
17:20
Speaker 1: and a sweatshirt that had been pulled up over her head.
17:23
Speaker 1: One side of her face was very badly beaten, and
17:26
Speaker 1: there were also cuts and bruises all over her neck,
17:29
Speaker 1: and there were some scrapes on her knees. And her
17:31
Speaker 1: necklace and wedding ring were still on, so her killer
17:34
Speaker 1: had not robbed her. Hulk stood back as the forensics
17:36
Speaker 1: team untangled Kim's sweatshirt from around her wrists so they
17:40
Speaker 1: could collect clippings of her fingernails in case she had
17:43
Speaker 1: Maybe scratched off a trace of her killer's DNA. And
17:45
Speaker 1: as Hulk watched one of these forensics officers go to
17:49
Speaker 1: put the sweatshirt inside of an evidence bag, he suddenly
17:52
Speaker 1: noticed something and shouted for the officer to stop. Hulk
17:55
Speaker 1: stepped closer and he shined his flashlight on the sweatshirt's
17:58
Speaker 1: fabric and it revealed a shoe print. And so he
18:01
Speaker 1: told the officers to send that sweatshirt to the crime lab.
18:05
Speaker 1: and see if they could figure out the size and
18:07
Speaker 1: type of shoe that had left that print. But while
18:10
Speaker 1: he would have to wait for those results, he knew
18:12
Speaker 1: he had a couple of other big clues to help
18:14
Speaker 1: narrow down a suspect. The first was the location of
18:17
Speaker 1: Kim's body. Westwood Industrial Drive was known as Lover's Lane,
18:22
Speaker 1: so basically a secluded, out-of-the-way spot where people often went
18:25
Speaker 1: to be alone. And the fact that Kim's killer had
18:28
Speaker 1: thought to take her there meant they were probably a
18:30
Speaker 1: local and familiar with the area. Now, it was still
18:33
Speaker 1: theoretically possible that she'd just been run off the road
18:36
Speaker 1: by some stranger for some reason, or, you know, maybe
18:39
Speaker 1: a customer had followed her home from work, or maybe
18:41
Speaker 1: it was a blue light bandit impersonating a police officer.
18:45
Speaker 1: But the second big clue was that there was no
18:48
Speaker 1: sign of a struggle at Kim's Jeep. And because of that,
18:51
Speaker 1: Hulk did not think she had been kidnapped by a stranger.
18:54
Speaker 1: He thought it was far more likely that she had
18:56
Speaker 1: gotten out of her car for somebody that she knew
18:59
Speaker 1: and trusted. The very next day, Monday, March 31st, Hulk
19:04
Speaker 1: sat down in an interrogation room with his friend and
19:07
Speaker 1: first murder suspect, Kim's husband, Bridger. Bridger had been really
19:12
Speaker 1: pushy and really in some ways over-involved in the investigation
19:15
Speaker 1: from literally the moment Kim's Jeep was found. He'd messed
19:19
Speaker 1: with the crime scene by getting into the Jeep without permission,
19:22
Speaker 1: and now Hulk had information that Bridger had lied about
19:26
Speaker 1: his alibi.
19:27
Speaker 2: So when Kim first went missing.
19:29
Speaker 1: Bridger had told the police that he got home around 2.30
19:31
Speaker 1: that morning, he called Kim for a brief chat a
19:34
Speaker 1: little before 3.
19:36
Speaker 2: And then he immediately went to bed.
19:38
Speaker 1: But now, a police officer had told Hulk that he
19:41
Speaker 1: had seen Bridger's black pickup truck driving around the center
19:44
Speaker 1: of town around 2.30 a.m., which was nowhere near Bridger's house,
19:49
Speaker 1: and nowhere near him. near the route he would have
19:51
Speaker 1: taken to get back from his DJing gig. So once
19:54
Speaker 1: Hulk sat down, immediately he could see that Bridger was
19:57
Speaker 1: visibly distraught. I mean, he's just learned that his wife
20:00
Speaker 1: was found dead, but Hulk had a job to do.
20:03
Speaker 1: And so he cut right to the chase and he
20:05
Speaker 1: said to Bridger, That, you know, hey, this other officer
20:08
Speaker 1: said they saw your truck driving around in town. It
20:11
Speaker 1: contradicts your alibi. Why did you lie?
20:14
Speaker 2: And right away, Bridger exploded. He was so mad.
20:18
Speaker 1: And he shouted at Hulk that he couldn't believe at
20:21
Speaker 1: a time like this you would accuse me of lying
20:23
Speaker 1: to you.
20:24
Speaker 2: You're insinuating that I hurt my wife. I didn't do this.
20:27
Speaker 1: He also yelled at Hulk for just wasting time looking
20:30
Speaker 1: at him as a suspect when there were so many
20:33
Speaker 1: clues pointing to a different story. like the lack of
20:36
Speaker 1: a struggle at the Jeep and the rolled-down window and
20:39
Speaker 1: missing driver's license, all of which made it look like
20:41
Speaker 1: a traffic stop gone wrong. Bridger said he knew Kim
20:45
Speaker 1: better than anybody, and she would never, ever get out
20:48
Speaker 1: of her car in the middle of the night for
20:51
Speaker 1: a stranger, especially after that road rage incident two weeks earlier.
20:54
Speaker 2: She was on edge.
20:55
Speaker 1: She never would have done that. When Hulk left the
21:05
Speaker 1: interrogation room a few minutes later, he told his team
21:08
Speaker 1: to track down security footage from around town on the
21:11
Speaker 1: night Kim was killed to see if there was proof
21:13
Speaker 1: that really Bridger was driving around when he said he
21:17
Speaker 1: was home. Because right now they had no evidence to
21:19
Speaker 1: show he was lying and they actually just had to
21:22
Speaker 1: let Bridger go. But when Bridger was leaving, he'd been
21:25
Speaker 1: so angry and so defensive, it sort of made Hulk
21:28
Speaker 1: think that maybe Bridger did this. And in fact, the
21:31
Speaker 1: fact that Bridger had brought up that his wife would
21:34
Speaker 1: never have gotten out of the car in the middle
21:36
Speaker 1: of the night for a stranger, well, that only reinforced
21:39
Speaker 1: that she might have gotten out of the car for you, Bridger,
21:42
Speaker 1: because she knew and trusted you. But also, Hulk was
21:45
Speaker 1: thinking that another person or group of people that Kim
21:49
Speaker 1: might have gotten out of the car for would be police. Now,
21:52
Speaker 1: Hulk already knew that there were no police that pulled
21:54
Speaker 1: anybody over that night. but somebody could have pretended to
21:57
Speaker 1: be a police officer, you know, a blue light bandit.
22:00
Speaker 1: That was a theory that did sort of make sense.
22:03
Speaker 1: Hulk thought about that bulletin that had gone out over
22:05
Speaker 1: the police radio two weeks ago, you know, telling officers
22:08
Speaker 1: to be on the lookout for Kim's Jeep at certain
22:10
Speaker 1: times of the night because of that road rage incident. Now,
22:14
Speaker 1: police radios were not private. So anybody with a police
22:17
Speaker 1: scanner could have been listening in. And what they would
22:20
Speaker 1: have heard is, well, around this time of the night,
22:24
Speaker 1: this woman, Kim was often drives this road all by herself.
22:28
Speaker 1: And they basically could have just been waiting for her
22:30
Speaker 1: knowing she was vulnerable. So Hulk picked up his phone
22:33
Speaker 1: and he began calling around to other police departments in
22:36
Speaker 1: the region. And he actually found out there had been
22:38
Speaker 1: two separate reports of blue light bandits harassing women recently. Now,
22:43
Speaker 1: one of the culprits had already been caught and he
22:45
Speaker 1: was in jail when Kim was killed.
22:47
Speaker 2: So it could not have been him. But the other
22:49
Speaker 2: suspect still hadn't been found.
22:57
Speaker 1: A couple of days later, on April 4th, Assistant Chief
23:00
Speaker 1: Bobby Hulk slammed down the phone in frustration and crossed
23:03
Speaker 1: another name off a list on his notepad. It had
23:06
Speaker 1: been five days since Kim's body was found, and all
23:09
Speaker 1: the leads he'd had at the start of the investigation
23:12
Speaker 1: were now coming back as dead ends. When he tracked
23:14
Speaker 1: down surveillance footage from the night of Kim's disappearance, there
23:17
Speaker 1: was no sign of her husband Bridger's truck driving through
23:20
Speaker 1: town until 4 a.m., after Kim's Jeep had been found
23:23
Speaker 1: by police. So the officer who claimed to have seen
23:26
Speaker 1: Bridger's truck driving around at 2.30 did appear to have
23:30
Speaker 1: been mistaken, as Bridger said. Hulk also had reached out
23:33
Speaker 1: to Kim's manager and co-workers at the bar she worked at,
23:36
Speaker 1: thinking maybe her killer might have been a patron who
23:38
Speaker 1: followed her home. But none of them knew of any
23:41
Speaker 1: problems she had had with customers. Meanwhile, Hulk's team had
23:44
Speaker 1: spoken to a man who worked the night shift at
23:46
Speaker 1: a business that was near where Kim's Jeep had been found.
23:49
Speaker 2: He said he had left work a little before 3 a.m.
23:52
Speaker 2: on the night that Kim disappeared.
23:54
Speaker 1: And as he was waiting to turn onto Old Charlotte Highway,
23:58
Speaker 1: he had seen her red Jeep go past. And right afterwards,
24:01
Speaker 1: he saw another car that was going in the other
24:04
Speaker 1: direction make a sort of sudden sharp three-point turn and
24:08
Speaker 1: speed right after the Jeep. The man had said that
24:11
Speaker 1: this other car had lights on the roof and reflective
24:14
Speaker 1: tape on the rear, and he thought or at least
24:16
Speaker 1: assumed it was a police car, but he didn't get
24:19
Speaker 1: a good look at the markings. Now, Hulk knew that
24:22
Speaker 1: every single Monroe police officer that was on duty that
24:24
Speaker 1: night was accounted for, and they hadn't pulled anybody over.
24:27
Speaker 2: At the time that Kim went missing.
24:29
Speaker 1: However, this new information certainly did support the theory that
24:33
Speaker 1: maybe Kim's killer was posing as a police officer, that
24:37
Speaker 1: they were a blue light bandit. So, Hulk had spent
24:40
Speaker 1: the past couple of days trying to track down witnesses
24:43
Speaker 1: who had seen that other blue light bandit who was
24:46
Speaker 1: recently reported in a nearby town but had never been caught.
24:49
Speaker 1: But he kept coming up dry. Nobody knew anything that
24:52
Speaker 1: could help track down that suspect. So it seemed like
24:55
Speaker 1: the investigation was really starting.
24:57
Speaker 2: To slow down. But then Hulk's phone rang. And he
25:00
Speaker 2: answered it.
25:01
Speaker 1: And it was an expert from the forensics lab who
25:03
Speaker 1: had just finished analyzing that shoe print that had been
25:06
Speaker 1: found on Kim's sweatshirt. And so Hulk leaned forward in
25:09
Speaker 1: nervous anticipation as the expert told him the results. And
25:13
Speaker 1: when he did, Hulk knew exactly how to find Kim's killer.
25:23
Speaker 1: Based on that shoe print, witness testimony, and other forensic evidence,
25:27
Speaker 1: this is what police believe happened to Kim Medlin on
25:30
Speaker 1: March 29, 1997. Around 3 a.m., the killer was driving
25:43
Speaker 1: down Old Charlotte Highway. They'd been prowling around for hours,
25:46
Speaker 1: pulling over young women for minor traffic infractions or sometimes
25:50
Speaker 1: for doing nothing wrong at all. And as they drove,
25:52
Speaker 1: they saw a familiar red Jeep pass by. The killer
25:56
Speaker 1: had seen that Jeep coming down this road several nights
25:58
Speaker 1: a week, and they'd sort of grown obsessed with the
26:01
Speaker 1: young blonde woman who was driving it. And now they
26:04
Speaker 1: decided it was finally time to do something about that.
26:08
Speaker 1: So they pulled an abrupt three-point turn and raced after
26:11
Speaker 1: the Jeep and flipped on their car's flashing lights.
26:15
Speaker 2: Pretty soon, the Jeep pulled over onto the shoulder, and
26:17
Speaker 2: the killer got out of their car and walked up
26:20
Speaker 2: to the driver's side window.
26:21
Speaker 1: The woman inside naturally rolled down the window and she
26:24
Speaker 1: handed over her driver's license, which said her name was
26:27
Speaker 1: Kim Medlin.
26:28
Speaker 2: And then she politely asked what the problem was.
26:30
Speaker 1: And the killer just told her to get out of
26:33
Speaker 1: the car. Now, Kim was visibly confused, but she did.
26:37
Speaker 2: As she was told.
26:38
Speaker 1: And once she was out of the car, the killer
26:41
Speaker 1: slapped a pair of handcuffs onto her wrists and then
26:43
Speaker 1: dragged her over to their car and tossed her in
26:46
Speaker 1: the back seat. Then the killer got in the driver's
26:48
Speaker 1: seat of their car As Kim began crying and insisting
26:51
Speaker 1: that she didn't do anything wrong, why was she being arrested?
26:54
Speaker 2: But the killer wasn't listening. Their mind was racing as
26:57
Speaker 2: they realized that even.
26:59
Speaker 1: Though they'd been dreaming about this moment for weeks, they
27:02
Speaker 1: actually didn't really have a plan for what they would
27:04
Speaker 1: do next. And so after a moment, they pulled over
27:07
Speaker 1: and just idled for a minute while they figured out
27:09
Speaker 1: what their.
27:10
Speaker 2: Next move was going to be.
27:11
Speaker 1: And then an idea came to them. They put their
27:14
Speaker 1: car in drive and continued down the highway. And as
27:18
Speaker 1: they turned onto a secluded dead-end road, Kim in the
27:22
Speaker 1: back seat suddenly got very quiet. And so the killer
27:25
Speaker 1: picked up on that and looked in the rearview mirror
27:28
Speaker 1: and saw her moving around, fiddling with something behind her back.
27:32
Speaker 1: And the killer suddenly realized that in all their excitement,
27:35
Speaker 1: they'd forgotten to lock the rear doors. The killer immediately
27:39
Speaker 1: tried to lock their doors with the power locks, but
27:42
Speaker 1: before they could.
27:43
Speaker 2: The rear door opened.
27:44
Speaker 1: And Kim jumped out of the moving car. And so
27:47
Speaker 1: the killer came to a hard stop. They leapt out
27:50
Speaker 1: of the car and they ran back for Kim, who
27:52
Speaker 1: was lying in the middle of the road. You know,
27:54
Speaker 1: her hands are still cuffed behind her. And without even thinking,
27:57
Speaker 1: the killer lifted up their flashlight and they smashed it
28:00
Speaker 1: into Kim's head. And then they stomped on her back
28:04
Speaker 1: and broke her neck.
28:05
Speaker 2: But the killer wasn't done.
28:07
Speaker 1: They reached down and they put their flashlight around Kim's neck,
28:11
Speaker 1: basically put it up against her throat. And then they
28:14
Speaker 1: pulled back on their arms, basically creating sort of a
28:17
Speaker 1: noose around her neck with this flashlight.
28:20
Speaker 2: And they held it like that. And they pulled as
28:22
Speaker 2: tight as they could until Kim stopped moving.
28:25
Speaker 1: After that, they dragged her body off the road and
28:27
Speaker 1: into the woods where they removed her handcuffs and covered
28:30
Speaker 1: her body with branches and debris to hide it.
28:33
Speaker 2: Then the killer went.
28:34
Speaker 1: Home and cleaned up their car, making sure there was
28:37
Speaker 1: no evidence that would tie them to the murder. But
28:40
Speaker 1: they didn't realize they had actually left behind one crucial
28:43
Speaker 1: piece of evidence at the scene, that shoe print on
28:46
Speaker 1: Kim's sweatshirt. The print had a very distinct V-shaped pattern
28:51
Speaker 1: on the tread, which made it very easy to identify.
28:54
Speaker 1: And so weeks later, the forensics lab traced that print
28:58
Speaker 1: back to a shoe that was made by the Thorogood Company,
29:00
Speaker 1: a supplier of military and uniform footwear.
29:04
Speaker 2: And that particular.
29:04
Speaker 1: Model happened to be the exact same shoe issued to
29:08
Speaker 1: officers in the Monroe Public Safety Department, which meant that
29:12
Speaker 1: Kim's killer was not just posing as a police officer.
29:16
Speaker 2: They were a police officer.
29:19
Speaker 1: The killer was Officer Josh Griffin, the off-duty rookie cop
29:23
Speaker 1: who had responded to a car in a ditch about
29:25
Speaker 1: a half an hour before Kim went missing. It would
29:28
Speaker 1: turn out, Josh had learned the details about Kim's vehicle
29:31
Speaker 1: and late-night driving patterns from his father, Officer Roger Griffin,
29:36
Speaker 1: after his father told him about that road rage incident
29:39
Speaker 1: that he and Captain Simpson had responded to on March 15th.
29:43
Speaker 1: And so Josh had basically been on the lookout for
29:45
Speaker 1: Kim's Jeep ever since. Josh Griffin was arrested on May 30th, 1997,
29:51
Speaker 1: about two months after Kim's murder. He was eventually convicted
29:54
Speaker 1: of first-degree kidnapping and murder and sentenced to life in prison.
29:58
Speaker 1: As for his motive, the best we can offer is
30:00
Speaker 1: he became obsessed with Kim and attacked her.
30:11
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
30:13
Speaker 2: you thought of today's episode in the comments.
30:16
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
30:18
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now.
30:20
Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. Alright, until
30:24
Speaker 2: next time, see ya.