Latest / Crime and Horror / Suit saleswoman got into her own killer's car - MrBallen

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Suit saleswoman got into her own killer's car - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: One morning in 2012, a young man was looking out
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Speaker 1: his backyard in West Virginia when he noticed something in
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Speaker 1: his garden. So over the past couple of days, there
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Speaker 1: had been really heavy rainfall, and it had basically turned
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Speaker 1: his backyard into like a swamp. But in particular, in
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Speaker 1: the garden in his backyard, there was almost like a
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Speaker 1: sinkhole forming from all the water. And he noticed there
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Speaker 1: was something in the hole, and it almost looked like
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Speaker 1: it could be plastic. And so feeling curious, the young
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Speaker 1: man left the house and yeah, sure enough, there was
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Speaker 1: what appeared to be the top of a plastic bag
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Speaker 1: that had been tied up that was in this hole.
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Speaker 1: And so he reached down and he pulled this bag
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Speaker 1: out of the ground and it was pretty heavy and
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Speaker 1: he opened it up and looked inside and he dropped
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Speaker 1: it and backed up in horror. But before we get
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Speaker 1: into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark,
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Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. Around noon on Saturday, April 24th, 2010,
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Speaker 1: a 64-year-old sales clerk named Kathy Goble grabbed a suit
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Speaker 1: jacket off the rack at a high-end men's store in Charleston,
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Speaker 1: West Virginia. She carried it over to a customer, and
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Speaker 1: then she helped him put it on in front of
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Speaker 1: the mirror. And after he was dressed, the man smiled
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Speaker 1: at his reflection and said it looked great. So Kathy
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Speaker 1: had worked at the store now for 10 years, and
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Speaker 1: she really loved working there. I mean, everything about it
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Speaker 1: was great. The staff was like family. You know, she
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Speaker 1: herself was very people-oriented and was great at building relationships
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Speaker 1: with customers. In fact, she was so good at building
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Speaker 1: relationships that men from all over town would come to
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Speaker 1: the store specifically to see Kathy when they needed a
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Speaker 1: new suit. However, this man she was currently helping wasn't
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Speaker 1: like all the other customers. His name was Dr. Harry King,
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Speaker 1: and he was a radiologist, and he had been a
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Speaker 1: regular at the store for many years. And even though
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Speaker 1: he was married, and even though Kathy herself was in
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Speaker 1: a long-term relationship, These two were actually having an affair.
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Speaker 1: Harry had a lot of money and he really enjoyed
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Speaker 1: showering Kathy with expensive gifts. In fact, he had even
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Speaker 1: paid to have her kitchen redone. And just a couple
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Speaker 1: of weeks ago, he'd taken her on a trip across
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Speaker 1: the country to San Francisco. Now, when Kathy went on
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Speaker 1: that trip, she had told her longtime boyfriend, Fred Farrell,
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Speaker 1: that it was actually just a girl's trip to visit
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Speaker 1: an old friend. And even though she did feel bad
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Speaker 1: about lying to him, Kathy really didn't know how long
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Speaker 1: her relationship with Fred was going to last anyway, so
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Speaker 1: it sort of seemed like maybe it's not worth trying
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Speaker 1: to protect it. Kathy and Fred had been dating for
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Speaker 1: about two years, and Fred was definitely a nice guy,
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Speaker 1: but recently he had asked Kathy to marry him, and,
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Speaker 1: you know, she definitely was not sure about that and
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Speaker 1: told him, you know, I don't know, I have to
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Speaker 1: think about it. So the big reason why Kathy was
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Speaker 1: definitely on the fence about marriage in general was actually
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Speaker 1: because Kathy had been divorced twice already. She also liked
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Speaker 1: having her own house and her own life and not
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Speaker 1: being tied to just one man. But she couldn't bring
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Speaker 1: herself to actually break up with Fred when he proposed,
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Speaker 1: and so she was sort of in this holding period now.
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Speaker 1: And she figured that, you know, as long as her
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Speaker 1: affair with Harry stayed a secret, nobody would get hurt.
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Speaker 1: So Kathy carried Harry's new suit over to the cash register,
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Speaker 1: and as she rang it up, Harry leaned over the
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Speaker 1: counter and asked if she wanted to go grab lunch.
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Speaker 1: Kathy smiled and said, Sure. About an hour later, Kathy
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Speaker 1: came back to the store after her lunch break, and
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Speaker 1: inside she saw there was a young woman standing at
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Speaker 1: the back of the store by a rack of shirts.
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Speaker 1: The woman's clothes were a bit ragged, and she just
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Speaker 1: looked out of place, like she wasn't the typical clientele
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Speaker 1: for the store. And as Kathy got closer to her,
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Speaker 1: she realized it was her co-worker's daughter, Jessica Fisher. And
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Speaker 1: Jessica really put Kathy on edge, because Jessica had a
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Speaker 1: drug problem. And every once in a while, she would
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Speaker 1: come into the store and she would ask Kathy for
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Speaker 1: some of Kathy's Xanax. Kathy felt bad for her, so
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Speaker 1: even though she knew it was a bad idea and
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Speaker 1: it was wrong to do this, she usually would give
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Speaker 1: Jessica some of her Xanax. But today, Jessica looks so
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Speaker 1: sick and so agitated that Kathy really had to face
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Speaker 1: the truth here. Jessica had a serious addiction and she
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Speaker 1: really had to stop enabling it. So when Jessica invariably
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Speaker 1: asked Kathy if she had any pills on her, Kathy
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Speaker 1: put her foot down and said no. And Jessica did
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Speaker 1: not take that well. She started screaming at Kathy. It
5:03
Speaker 1: caused this huge scene. There are other customers inside looking over.
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Speaker 1: And at some point, Kathy's manager came running over to
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Speaker 1: see what was going on. Eventually, Jessica did sort of
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Speaker 1: give up and she ran out of the store. But
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Speaker 1: the whole encounter really left Kathy feeling shaken up. And
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Speaker 1: for the rest of her shift, it was all she
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Speaker 1: could think about. That night, just after the men's store
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Speaker 1: closed at 5 p.m., Kathy came out the front door
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Speaker 1: accompanied by one of her male co-workers. She was afraid
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Speaker 1: that Jessica might be out here waiting to confront her.
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Speaker 1: And so she had asked one of the other shoe salesmen,
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Speaker 1: a guy named Charles March, to just walk her to
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Speaker 1: her car. And so now, the two of them, Charles
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Speaker 1: and Kathy, as they exited the store and made their
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Speaker 1: way across the lot... They both were sort of on
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Speaker 1: high alert, waiting to see if Jessica was going to
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Speaker 1: pop out somewhere. But Kathy didn't see Jessica or anybody
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Speaker 1: else lurking around, so eventually she got to her SUV,
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Speaker 1: she said goodnight to Charles, and then she climbed into
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Speaker 1: her car. Once inside the car, she locked all the
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Speaker 1: doors and then exhaled in relief. She felt safe. And
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Speaker 1: then as she started the engine, she called her longtime boyfriend, Fred.
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Speaker 1: Fred was actually out of town on a fishing trip,
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Speaker 1: and when he answered... Kathy told him that she was
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Speaker 1: going to stop by his apartment that night and just
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Speaker 1: clean it up for him before he came home. Now,
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Speaker 1: Fred told her that she really didn't have to do that,
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Speaker 1: but she insisted. She said she would head over there
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Speaker 1: later that night, and then she hung up. But before
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Speaker 1: she went to Fred's, Kathy actually planned to make another
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Speaker 1: stop at the home of her ex-husband, or one of
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Speaker 1: her ex-husbands, David McCartney. So Kathy and David had been
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Speaker 1: divorced for 20 years now, but they had had two
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Speaker 1: kids together, so they stayed in touch. A few years ago,
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Speaker 1: David had actually had a stroke. And, you know, while
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Speaker 1: he survived the stroke, his health still never fully recovered.
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Speaker 1: And he wasn't remarried and didn't have anybody taking care
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Speaker 1: of him. So Kathy would often stop by to help
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Speaker 1: him out whenever she could. And so that was her
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Speaker 1: plan for tonight, to just swing by, see if he
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Speaker 1: was doing okay. So after hanging up with Fred and
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Speaker 1: putting her phone in her purse, she threw her car
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Speaker 1: in gear and she drove off towards David's house. A
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Speaker 1: few hours later, around 8.30 p.m., Kathy was chatting on
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Speaker 1: the phone with her friend Laura while she drove toward
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Speaker 1: her boyfriend Fred's apartment. She had just been at David's
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Speaker 1: house and she had helped him with some chores. And
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Speaker 1: then after she had left, she had swung by Walmart
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Speaker 1: to pick up some food and cleaning supplies. And now
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Speaker 1: she was telling Laura that she was actually sort of
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Speaker 1: looking forward to cleaning up Fred's apartment and then just
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Speaker 1: having some alone time, you know, that night afterwards. Kathy
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Speaker 1: eventually reached Fred's apartment. And so she parked her SUV
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Speaker 1: in the driveway and she's still on the phone with Laura.
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Speaker 1: and she walked up towards Fred's apartment, but as she
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Speaker 1: was unlocking the door, she looked and noticed there was
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Speaker 1: someone walking towards her. And so she told Laura that
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Speaker 1: she had to go, then she hung up, and she
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Speaker 1: pushed the apartment door open. Two days later, on the
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Speaker 1: morning of Monday, April 26th, Kathy Goebel's 36-year-old son, Jason McCartney,
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Speaker 1: knocked on the door of her house, which was located
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Speaker 1: on a quiet suburban road. That morning, Jason had gotten
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Speaker 1: a call from Kathy's boss saying, saying that she hadn't
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Speaker 1: come into work and she also wasn't answering her phone,
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Speaker 1: which just was not like her. Jason had tried calling
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Speaker 1: his mother too, but she hadn't answered him either. So
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Speaker 1: now he was at her house to make sure she
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Speaker 1: was okay. But no one was answering the door. So
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Speaker 1: Jason pulled out his own key and he let himself inside.
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Speaker 1: And then once he was inside, he began walking all around,
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Speaker 1: calling out for his mom, searching every room, but there
8:32
Speaker 1: was no sign of her. She wasn't there. And there
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Speaker 1: was no sign of her purse, which she brought with
8:36
Speaker 1: her everywhere. And then when he went into the garage,
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Speaker 1: he saw that her SUV was also missing. So at
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Speaker 1: this point, Jason pulled out his phone and he called
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Speaker 1: his mother's boyfriend, Fred, to see if maybe she was
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Speaker 1: with him. But Fred said no. And in fact, he
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Speaker 1: said he hadn't heard from her since Saturday evening. Fred
8:53
Speaker 1: said he'd gotten home the day before on Sunday from
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Speaker 1: his fishing trip. But when he got home, he'd found
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Speaker 1: Kathy's cell phone, her spare car keys, and her medication
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Speaker 1: just sitting on his kitchen counter. But Kathy herself was
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Speaker 1: not there. and also neither was her car. And so
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Speaker 1: at this point, Jason had a really bad feeling that
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Speaker 1: something wasn't right here. But he knew who to call,
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Speaker 1: his childhood friend, Detective Brian Carper of the Kanawha County
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9:28
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Speaker 1: In these boxes, they're easy to pass around. Everybody gets
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9:44
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9:47
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10:11
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10:19
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10:26
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10:29
Speaker 1: aisle of your local grocery store. Later that morning, Detective
10:34
Speaker 1: Carper walked up to the door of Fred Farrell's apartment,
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Speaker 1: which was on the other side of town from Kathy's house.
10:40
Speaker 1: Carper had spoken to Jason and he had found out
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Speaker 1: that his mother... had left her belongings here at Fred's
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Speaker 1: apartment on Saturday night, and no one had heard from
10:49
Speaker 1: her in the 40 hours since then. Also, her silver
10:52
Speaker 1: Honda SUV was nowhere to be found. So, Carper had
10:56
Speaker 1: been friends with Jason for decades. And in that time,
10:59
Speaker 1: not only did he become close, obviously, with Jason, but
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Speaker 1: also with Jason's mom. So, because he knew Kathy fairly well,
11:06
Speaker 1: he knew this whole situation was just very out of
11:08
Speaker 1: character for her. And so, right away, he's thinking, this
11:11
Speaker 1: has got to be something serious. And so, with a
11:14
Speaker 1: sense of urgency, Carper knocked on Fred's apartment door, and
11:17
Speaker 1: a few seconds later, a spry, active-looking man in his
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Speaker 1: mid-70s answered the door, and he invited Carper inside, and
11:25
Speaker 1: they sat down at the kitchen table. Carper began by
11:27
Speaker 1: asking Fred when was the last time he had spoken
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Speaker 1: to Kathy, and he told him that Kathy had called
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Speaker 1: him on Saturday night while he was off on a
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Speaker 1: fishing trip, and that she had told him that she
11:37
Speaker 1: was going to go over to his apartment while he
11:40
Speaker 1: was away and clean it for him, so that when
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Speaker 1: he got home, it would be, you know, nice and tidy.
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Speaker 1: And when Carper looked around the apartment he was in,
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Speaker 1: he did notice that it was clean. In fact, it
11:49
Speaker 1: was like spotless, as if the entire apartment had been
11:52
Speaker 1: scrubbed top to bottom. But Carper didn't call attention to that. Instead,
11:56
Speaker 1: he just told Fred to go on. And so Fred
11:59
Speaker 1: said that when he'd come home from the fishing trip
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Speaker 1: on Sunday, so the day before, Kathy hadn't been there.
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Speaker 1: But several lights in his apartment had been left on,
12:08
Speaker 1: a window was open, and some of Kathy's things had
12:10
Speaker 1: been left out on the counter. And also, the apartment
12:13
Speaker 1: was clearly very clean, so it seemed like she had
12:16
Speaker 1: been here at least for a while, but she was
12:18
Speaker 1: not there anymore. And so Carper glanced over at Fred's counter,
12:21
Speaker 1: and he did see there was a phone, a pill bottle,
12:23
Speaker 1: and a set of spare car keys that clearly belonged
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Speaker 1: to Kathy. And Carper returned back to Fred, and he said,
12:29
Speaker 1: you know, did it strike you as odd that she
12:31
Speaker 1: was gone but left behind these really important items? And
12:34
Speaker 1: Fred just said, no, it actually wasn't odd that Kathy
12:37
Speaker 1: was sometimes quite forgetful. However, when Fred said this, he
12:42
Speaker 1: distinctly looked away from Carper. Like he wasn't meeting him
12:46
Speaker 1: eye to eye when he said that Kathy was forgetful.
12:48
Speaker 1: And so Carper began to think that Fred seemed pretty nervous.
12:52
Speaker 1: And it also definitely had not escaped him that Fred
12:55
Speaker 1: had also just referred to Kathy in the past tense.
12:58
Speaker 1: That she was forgetful, not that she is forgetful. almost
13:02
Speaker 1: like he already knew that she might be dead, even
13:05
Speaker 1: though at this point she was only missing. And so
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Speaker 1: to Carper, you know, all of this seemed really suspicious.
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Speaker 1: So he told Fred that he would have to come
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Speaker 1: down to the station right now for additional questioning. Fred
13:16
Speaker 1: agreed to it, and as the men stood up from
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Speaker 1: the table and headed for the door, Carper grabbed Kathy's
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Speaker 1: car keys off the counter and put them in his pocket.
13:25
Speaker 1: Later that afternoon, back at the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office,
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Speaker 1: Detective Carper looked over a copy of Kathy's phone records.
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Speaker 1: By this point in the day, they'd already interrogated Fred,
13:35
Speaker 1: but he was sticking to a story about the fishing trip.
13:38
Speaker 1: Carper had also gone to the men's store where Kathy
13:40
Speaker 1: worked and had spoken to her co-workers, but none of
13:43
Speaker 1: them had any clue where Kathy could have gone. One
13:45
Speaker 1: of the shoe salesmen confirmed that he had walked Kathy
13:48
Speaker 1: out to the parking lot around 5 p.m. on Saturday
13:50
Speaker 1: and he had watched her drive away, but that was
13:53
Speaker 1: the last time any of them had seen or heard
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Speaker 1: from her. But now, as Carper scanned the list of
13:58
Speaker 1: calls that Kathy had made and received that Saturday... He
14:02
Speaker 1: saw that after she had left work that night, she
14:04
Speaker 1: had answered two incoming calls. One was from a woman
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Speaker 1: named Laura Henderson, and the other was from her ex-husband,
14:11
Speaker 1: David McCartney. And so Carper wrote down both their names
14:15
Speaker 1: and then looked up their addresses. He was hoping that
14:18
Speaker 1: one of them could help fill in the gaps of
14:20
Speaker 1: what Kathy had done after work that night. A short
14:24
Speaker 1: while later, Detective Carper was sitting in the living room
14:27
Speaker 1: of Kathy's ex-husband, David McCartney. And David told the detective
14:31
Speaker 1: that he had heard about Kathy's disappearance from their son, Jason,
14:34
Speaker 1: and he was shocked to hear about it because he'd
14:36
Speaker 1: actually seen Kathy on the night she vanished. He told
14:40
Speaker 1: Carper that on Saturday, after Kathy had gotten off of work,
14:43
Speaker 1: she had come over to his house. And when she
14:45
Speaker 1: was there, she had helped him pay some bills that
14:47
Speaker 1: he had forgotten about, in part because his memory was
14:50
Speaker 1: not that great ever since his stroke. But he said
14:52
Speaker 1: Kathy hadn't really stayed very long at his house before
14:55
Speaker 1: she said she just had to leave and then she
14:57
Speaker 1: had gone. And Carper really didn't know what to make
15:00
Speaker 1: of this, because now it was clear that David, at
15:03
Speaker 1: least so far, was the last person to have seen
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Speaker 1: Kathy in person. But Carper really wasn't seeing a motive here.
15:10
Speaker 1: I mean, if anything, all he was seeing is that
15:12
Speaker 1: David felt an enormous amount of appreciation and gratitude toward
15:15
Speaker 1: his ex-wife. And then on top of that, I mean,
15:18
Speaker 1: David was not exactly young, and also he had some
15:21
Speaker 1: pretty serious mobility issues from the stroke he had had.
15:24
Speaker 1: And so Carper really wasn't even sure that somebody in
15:27
Speaker 1: David's condition would be able to hurt or kidnap Kathy,
15:31
Speaker 1: even if he had really wanted to. And also, Carper
15:33
Speaker 1: had to remind himself that he still wasn't even sure
15:36
Speaker 1: if anyone had hurt or kidnapped Kathy. After all, it's
15:39
Speaker 1: only been a couple of days now, and it was
15:42
Speaker 1: entirely possible that maybe she was safe somewhere, and she
15:45
Speaker 1: would turn up, and that this was just a big misunderstanding. However,
15:49
Speaker 1: there was still one more person that Carper really wanted
15:51
Speaker 1: to follow up with before he drew any initial conclusions.
15:55
Speaker 1: And that was the last person on Kathy's call records,
15:58
Speaker 1: Laura Henderson. And so later that same day, Carper sat
16:01
Speaker 1: down across from Laura Henderson in her living room. And
16:04
Speaker 1: Laura seemed really upset when Carper told her that she
16:08
Speaker 1: may have been the last person to speak to Kathy
16:10
Speaker 1: before she disappeared. At some point, he asked Laura whether
16:13
Speaker 1: Kathy had said anything on that last phone call about
16:16
Speaker 1: what she was up to that night, or if she
16:18
Speaker 1: had had any recent issues with anyone, or, you know, anything,
16:22
Speaker 1: anything odd. And Laura, she shook her head and said no,
16:26
Speaker 1: but then she stopped and she said, well, actually, there
16:28
Speaker 1: was one thing about that call that had stuck out
16:30
Speaker 1: to her as being a little bit strange. She said
16:33
Speaker 1: the last thing Kathy had said before hanging up was,
16:36
Speaker 1: we're going into Fred's apartment. Not, I'm going into Fred's apartment,
16:41
Speaker 1: but we're going into Fred's apartment. We, like she was
16:45
Speaker 1: with someone. Carver was sort of surprised by this because
16:48
Speaker 1: his understanding is that Kathy had gone to Fred's apartment
16:51
Speaker 1: to clean it by herself based on what she had
16:54
Speaker 1: sort of communicated to Fred. And so we asked Laura
16:57
Speaker 1: if she had any idea who this other person was
16:59
Speaker 1: that she could have been with. And Laura said no.
17:02
Speaker 1: She said that Kathy had made no mention of there
17:04
Speaker 1: being another person with her on the entire call. In fact,
17:08
Speaker 1: the first mention of there being this other person was
17:10
Speaker 1: basically right at the end of the call when she
17:13
Speaker 1: had hung up. She basically had said to Laura, up,
17:16
Speaker 1: we're going in, and then she had hung up. And
17:19
Speaker 1: so Carper spoke with Laura for a few more minutes,
17:21
Speaker 1: and then shortly after he left her house, his cell
17:24
Speaker 1: phone rang. And when he answered it, it was an
17:26
Speaker 1: officer on the line who said he had found Kathy's SUV.
17:30
Speaker 1: It had been abandoned on the highway about 15 miles
17:33
Speaker 1: outside of town. Carper said he would be there right away.
17:38
Speaker 1: Later that same Monday afternoon, so we're still just 48
17:41
Speaker 1: hours after the last time anyone had seen or heard
17:44
Speaker 1: from Kathy, Carper parked on the side of the highway
17:47
Speaker 1: in a wooded area outside of Charleston. And through his windshield,
17:50
Speaker 1: he saw a silver Honda SUV parked a few yards
17:53
Speaker 1: ahead of him, right next to an exit. And right away,
17:56
Speaker 1: he recognized the license plate as being Kathy's. And so
18:00
Speaker 1: Carper got out of his car, and as he approached
18:02
Speaker 1: Kathy's SUV, he saw there was a white towel hanging
18:06
Speaker 1: out of the driver's side window, which was normally a
18:09
Speaker 1: signal that a car had broken down. All the doors
18:12
Speaker 1: were locked, so Carper pulled Kathy's spare key that he
18:15
Speaker 1: had grabbed out of Fred's apartment out of his pocket,
18:18
Speaker 1: and he used it to unlock the driver's side door.
18:20
Speaker 1: There was nobody inside the car, and there was no
18:23
Speaker 1: sign of a struggle, there was no blood anywhere, and
18:26
Speaker 1: also Kathy's purse was not inside either. So Carper had
18:30
Speaker 1: to wonder if maybe Kathy had been driving along this road,
18:33
Speaker 1: and then her car, you know, ran into some trouble,
18:36
Speaker 1: and she walked off to get help when nobody had stopped. However,
18:39
Speaker 1: just to make sure, Carper sat in the driver's seat
18:42
Speaker 1: and he used his spare key and he tried the
18:45
Speaker 1: engine just to see if it would work. And as
18:47
Speaker 1: soon as he turned the key, the car started. The
18:50
Speaker 1: car was running just fine. And he also saw there
18:52
Speaker 1: was a half a tank of gas left. So at
18:55
Speaker 1: first glance, it appeared like, you know, this didn't really
18:58
Speaker 1: make any sense. You know, why is this car abandoned
19:00
Speaker 1: here with the white towel in the windows signifying that
19:03
Speaker 1: this car has broken down when the car works just
19:06
Speaker 1: fine or appears to work just fine? And so Carper,
19:09
Speaker 1: at this point, he began to think, like, this is
19:11
Speaker 1: a sign that Kathy likely had not disappeared by choice here.
19:16
Speaker 1: There was just no good reason why she would have
19:19
Speaker 1: driven 15 miles out of town without her phone in
19:22
Speaker 1: the middle of the night, tell no one, abandon her
19:25
Speaker 1: car on the side of the highway, and just walk off. Like,
19:27
Speaker 1: why would she do that? And so to Carper, it
19:30
Speaker 1: seemed like the most plausible explanation here was that Kathy
19:33
Speaker 1: had been abducted. And whoever had done it also dumped
19:37
Speaker 1: her car out here with the towel in the window
19:39
Speaker 1: just to throw off investigators. Two days later, on the
19:52
Speaker 1: morning of April 28, 2010, Detective Carper walked into the
19:56
Speaker 1: men's clothing store where Kathy worked. Now, by this point,
19:59
Speaker 1: he had already spoken to Kathy's co-workers once on the
20:01
Speaker 1: day that she was reported missing. But now that he
20:04
Speaker 1: had learned from Laura that there was apparently someone else
20:07
Speaker 1: with her on Saturday night... He now really wanted to
20:10
Speaker 1: question everybody again to see if they had any idea
20:14
Speaker 1: who this other person might have been. So he tracked
20:17
Speaker 1: down Kathy's manager and he asked her if he could
20:19
Speaker 1: speak to her and ask her a few more questions.
20:22
Speaker 1: And she said, sure. And she led him over to
20:24
Speaker 1: a quiet part of the store where the customers wouldn't
20:26
Speaker 1: hear them. And so Carper, he pulled out his notepad
20:29
Speaker 1: and he asked her, the manager, to walk through what
20:32
Speaker 1: Kathy did during her final shift and be as detailed
20:35
Speaker 1: as possible. The manager said it had been a pretty
20:38
Speaker 1: normal day. Kathy had come in around 9 a.m. and
20:41
Speaker 1: helped out a few customers. The only thing that stuck
20:43
Speaker 1: out to her was that at some point in the afternoon,
20:47
Speaker 1: another co-worker's daughter had come into the store, and Kathy
20:51
Speaker 1: and this daughter had gotten into a really big argument,
20:54
Speaker 1: like a very public, nasty argument. Now, the manager said
20:58
Speaker 1: she really had no idea what the fight was even about,
21:01
Speaker 1: but just if they wanted to follow up, the daughter's
21:03
Speaker 1: name was Jessica Fisher. And so Carper, he wrote down
21:07
Speaker 1: Jessica's name and made a note to look into her.
21:09
Speaker 1: After that, he asked the manager if she had seen
21:12
Speaker 1: Kathy interact with basically anybody else that day, like any
21:15
Speaker 1: other meaningful interaction that he should know about. And the
21:18
Speaker 1: manager thought for a second and said, actually, yes, there
21:21
Speaker 1: was someone. She said that Kathy had gone out to
21:23
Speaker 1: lunch with a friend who also happened to be a
21:26
Speaker 1: regular customer at the store. She said his name was Dr.
21:29
Speaker 1: Harry King. Later that same day, Carper sat down inside
21:33
Speaker 1: of an interrogation room with Harry King, and Harry seemed
21:37
Speaker 1: really nervous. When Carper asked if he knew why he
21:40
Speaker 1: was there, Harry said yes. Harry then put his head
21:43
Speaker 1: in his hands, and he said, you know, I know
21:45
Speaker 1: I should have come in sooner, but I was just
21:47
Speaker 1: afraid of what was going to happen. He explained that
21:50
Speaker 1: he and Kathy were not just friends. They were having
21:53
Speaker 1: an affair. He said they'd even gone on a trip
21:55
Speaker 1: to San Francisco together a couple of weeks ago, and
21:58
Speaker 1: they'd both lied to their respective partners about Carper was
22:01
Speaker 1: really surprised by this, and right away he wondered if
22:04
Speaker 1: maybe Kathy's boyfriend, Fred, had found out about the affair
22:08
Speaker 1: and killed Kathy out of jealousy. Or maybe things had
22:11
Speaker 1: gone bad between Harry and Kathy, you know, their affair
22:14
Speaker 1: had gone south, and Harry had killed her. I mean,
22:17
Speaker 1: it did seem really suspicious that Harry clearly knew Kathy
22:21
Speaker 1: was missing, but hadn't come forward to the police. He
22:24
Speaker 1: had to be asked to comment. So, Carper asked Harry
22:27
Speaker 1: to just go ahead and explain where he had been
22:30
Speaker 1: on Saturday night. And Harry said he'd been at home
22:32
Speaker 1: all night with his wife. And so Carper asked if
22:35
Speaker 1: he could speak to Harry's wife to verify his alibi.
22:38
Speaker 1: And immediately, Harry pleaded with the detective not to bring
22:41
Speaker 1: his wife into this. You know, doesn't want to give
22:43
Speaker 1: up that he's having an affair here. But eventually, he
22:46
Speaker 1: seemed to understand that without an alibi, he was the
22:49
Speaker 1: primary suspect here. So he agreed and gave Carper his
22:53
Speaker 1: wife's phone number. A few days later, on May 1st,
22:56
Speaker 1: so a week after Kathy was last seen and she's
22:59
Speaker 1: still missing, Carper walked up the steps of a cheap
23:02
Speaker 1: motel on the edge of town. He'd finally tracked down
23:05
Speaker 1: Jessica Fisher, the co-worker's daughter, who had gotten into a
23:08
Speaker 1: fight with Kathy at the men's clothing store on the
23:11
Speaker 1: day she disappeared. And this motel was apparently where she
23:14
Speaker 1: was staying. And so Carper figured out which room was Jessica's,
23:18
Speaker 1: and then he knocked on the door. And then a
23:20
Speaker 1: moment later, the door opened, and there was Jessica. And
23:23
Speaker 1: Jessica did not look well. She was unbelievably skinny, like
23:27
Speaker 1: gaunt skinny. She looked sick. In fact, you know, Carper
23:30
Speaker 1: basically assumed that based on her physical appearance, she very
23:34
Speaker 1: likely was struggling with addiction. And so Carper, after introducing
23:37
Speaker 1: himself and confirming that this was in fact Jessica Fisher,
23:41
Speaker 1: he explained to her why he was there. He said
23:44
Speaker 1: that Kathy Goebel is missing and we know you got
23:47
Speaker 1: into a fight with her on the day she vanished
23:49
Speaker 1: at the store where she works. And so he asked
23:52
Speaker 1: her to explain what the fight was about. After hearing
23:55
Speaker 1: all this, Jessica's eyes went wide and she insisted that
23:58
Speaker 1: she had no idea what had happened to Kathy. And
24:01
Speaker 1: when Carper pressed her again about why they had fought
24:03
Speaker 1: in the store that day, Jessica was kind of evasive
24:06
Speaker 1: at first, but then finally she just broke down and
24:08
Speaker 1: she admitted that she had been asking Kathy for drugs
24:11
Speaker 1: and Kathy had said no and they had fought about it.
24:14
Speaker 1: She said that sometimes Kathy would give her Xanax, but
24:17
Speaker 1: that day Kathy had refused. So Jessica said she got
24:20
Speaker 1: mad and sort of freaked out and that was the fight.
24:23
Speaker 1: But Jessica swore that once another worker had intervened, she
24:27
Speaker 1: had just left the store and gone home and never
24:29
Speaker 1: seen Kathy again. Like, that really was all it was. Now,
24:33
Speaker 1: Carper's reaction to this is, it sounded an awful lot
24:36
Speaker 1: like Jessica was telling the truth. But he still asked
24:38
Speaker 1: her if she would take a polygraph test, just to
24:41
Speaker 1: be sure. And she said, yes, of course. And so
24:44
Speaker 1: Carper gave her his business card, and they agreed on
24:47
Speaker 1: a date and time for her to come into the
24:48
Speaker 1: station for that test. But when that date and time
24:52
Speaker 1: rolled around... Jessica never showed up. In May of 2010,
24:59
Speaker 1: so a couple of weeks after Kathy Goebel disappeared, Detective
25:02
Speaker 1: Brian Carper was looking through a forensics report at his desk.
25:06
Speaker 1: Kathy's car that had been found on the side of
25:08
Speaker 1: the highway had been processed for evidence, but as this
25:11
Speaker 1: report showed, no DNA or fingerprints had been found inside
25:15
Speaker 1: or on it from anyone other than Kathy. Now, this
25:18
Speaker 1: didn't mean that, you know, someone could not have dumped
25:21
Speaker 1: Kathy's car on the side of the road. It just
25:24
Speaker 1: meant that if that happened, whoever did it was very
25:27
Speaker 1: careful to cover their tracks, and forensic evidence was not
25:30
Speaker 1: going to help pin them down. And this was very
25:32
Speaker 1: frustrating for Carper, because so far, all his leads were
25:36
Speaker 1: sort of coming up dry. Dr. Harry King's wife had
25:39
Speaker 1: confirmed his alibi, and when Carper had spoken to her,
25:43
Speaker 1: she had seemed very upset to learn that her husband
25:45
Speaker 1: was having an affair. So Carper didn't think she would
25:48
Speaker 1: want to lie for him. She probably was telling the truth,
25:50
Speaker 1: that he really was there with her. Carper had questioned
25:53
Speaker 1: Kathy's two adult sons, Jason and Paul, but they both
25:56
Speaker 1: came in and passed polygraph tests and were ruled out
25:59
Speaker 1: as suspects. As for Jessica Fisher, the young woman who
26:03
Speaker 1: had gotten into a fight with Kathy in the store
26:05
Speaker 1: over Kathy not giving her Xanax pills, well, she had
26:08
Speaker 1: agreed to come in and take a polygraph, but she
26:11
Speaker 1: hadn't shown up, and currently she was still MIA. And
26:14
Speaker 1: even though Kathy's boyfriend, Fred, and ex-husband, David, both still
26:19
Speaker 1: seemed pretty suspicious... there really was nothing concrete tying them
26:23
Speaker 1: to Kathy's disappearance. And so as the weeks passed by,
26:26
Speaker 1: Carper just had no idea what happened to Kathy. There
26:30
Speaker 1: hadn't been any activity on her bank accounts or credit
26:32
Speaker 1: cards since the day she vanished, so it seemed pretty
26:35
Speaker 1: clear that she had not just run off because you'd
26:38
Speaker 1: see transactions. However, it probably meant then that she was
26:42
Speaker 1: being held captive or something, or maybe she was dead,
26:45
Speaker 1: but Carper just didn't know. And so this was a
26:47
Speaker 1: pretty unusual case because... Carper did have several pretty solid suspects,
26:53
Speaker 1: but no actual evidence that a crime had even been committed.
26:57
Speaker 1: And so unless Kathy was found dead or alive, or
27:00
Speaker 1: some new evidence was uncovered, it would be impossible to
27:04
Speaker 1: charge anyone in connection with her disappearance. And so as
27:08
Speaker 1: weeks turned to months, and Kathy just continued not to
27:12
Speaker 1: turn up, the case ultimately went cold. Two years later,
27:17
Speaker 1: on April 25th, 2012, Detective Carper trudged through the mud
27:21
Speaker 1: and puddles in the parking lot of the police station
27:23
Speaker 1: and then wiped his shoes on the mat outside the
27:25
Speaker 1: front door. It had been raining for days now, and
27:28
Speaker 1: the rivers and the creeks around Charleston had all flooded,
27:31
Speaker 1: and the whole city was basically a swampy mess. As
27:34
Speaker 1: Carper walked to his office, an officer suddenly ran up
27:38
Speaker 1: to him and said that a 911 call had just
27:40
Speaker 1: come in and Carper would definitely want to hear about.
27:44
Speaker 1: The officer said that according to this caller, all the
27:46
Speaker 1: rain they had been having had unearthed a human body
27:50
Speaker 1: that clearly had been buried at some point on the
27:53
Speaker 1: edge of town. And as he explained where this body
27:56
Speaker 1: had been found, Carper's heart began to race. He understood
28:00
Speaker 1: why the officer had brought this to him specifically. Because
28:03
Speaker 1: that body had to be Kathy Goebel. Based on the
28:13
Speaker 1: place of burial and other forensic evidence, this is what
28:16
Speaker 1: police believe happened to Kathy Goebel on the night of
28:19
Speaker 1: April 24, 2010. Around 8.30 p.m., the killer was waiting
28:31
Speaker 1: outside of Fred's apartment. They knew Kathy would be coming
28:34
Speaker 1: by that night, and soon they saw the headlights of
28:37
Speaker 1: her SUV coming up the street. As Kathy got out
28:40
Speaker 1: of her car with a plastic grocery bag and a
28:42
Speaker 1: phone to her ear, the killer approached the doorstep and waved. Kathy,
28:46
Speaker 1: who was still on the phone, she sort of seemed
28:47
Speaker 1: surprised to see the killer. But, you know, nonetheless, she
28:50
Speaker 1: continued talking on the phone and she didn't say anything
28:53
Speaker 1: to the killer. She just continued to unlock the door,
28:55
Speaker 1: open it up and sort of gestured for the killer
28:58
Speaker 1: to come on in with them. Once inside, Kathy set
29:01
Speaker 1: the shopping bag and a few of her other things
29:03
Speaker 1: down on the counter. And then once she'd hung up
29:05
Speaker 1: the phone, she asked the killer, what were they doing there?
29:08
Speaker 1: And the killer just asked her if she would take
29:10
Speaker 1: a drive somewhere with them. And Kathy seemed a little
29:13
Speaker 1: confused by the request, but said okay. The killer waited
29:17
Speaker 1: for a few minutes while Kathy cleaned up the apartment,
29:19
Speaker 1: because that was something she said that she wanted to do.
29:22
Speaker 1: And then once she was done, they both left the apartment,
29:24
Speaker 1: they got in the killer's car, and the killer drove
29:27
Speaker 1: them to another house, way out on the edge of town.
29:30
Speaker 1: And once they were there, they went inside, and the
29:33
Speaker 1: killer asked Kathy if she wanted to have sex with them.
29:36
Speaker 1: And Kathy said no. And this rejection sent the killer
29:40
Speaker 1: into like an instant rage. And they grabbed her, they
29:43
Speaker 1: tied her up, and they strangled her. Then they buried
29:46
Speaker 1: her in a shallow grave in their backyard. But two
29:50
Speaker 1: years later, the killer's son noticed something in their backyard
29:54
Speaker 1: after all this heavy rain, and when he went out
29:57
Speaker 1: there to see what was in the middle of the yard,
29:59
Speaker 1: he found her body. The shoe salesman, Charles March, who
30:03
Speaker 1: ironically had been the one to walk Kathy out to
30:06
Speaker 1: her car on the day she vanished, to keep her
30:08
Speaker 1: safe from Jessica Fisher after that fight. He was the
30:11
Speaker 1: person that she trusted to keep her safe. He was
30:15
Speaker 1: her killer. It would turn out Charles, who at no
30:19
Speaker 1: point was even considered as a suspect in this case,
30:23
Speaker 1: actually had a history of stalking women, and investigators believe
30:26
Speaker 1: he'd grown obsessed with Kathy while working with her, and
30:29
Speaker 1: then he eventually killed her when she rejected his advances.
30:33
Speaker 1: Charles March was arrested on April 25, 2012, and charged
30:37
Speaker 1: with Kathy's murder. He pled guilty and was sentenced to
30:40
Speaker 1: life in prison. However, he died of cancer in prison
30:43
Speaker 1: just two years later in 2014. Thank you so much
30:55
Speaker 1: for watching. Let me know what you thought of today's
30:57
Speaker 1: episode in the comments. And remember, we have a whole
31:00
Speaker 1: playlist of true crime episodes ready for you to binge
31:03
Speaker 1: right now. So click here and give them a watch.
31:06
Speaker 1: All right, until next time, see ya.