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

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Speaker 1: One morning in twenty twelve, a young man was looking
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Speaker 1: out his backyard in West Virginia when he noticed something
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Speaker 1: in his garden. So, over the past couple of days
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Speaker 1: there had been really heavy rainfall and it had basically
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Speaker 1: turned his backyard into like a swamp, but in particular
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Speaker 1: in the garden in his backyard, there was almost like
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Speaker 1: a sinkhole forming from all the water.
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Speaker 2: 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.
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Speaker 2: 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.
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Speaker 2: And he dropped it and backed up in horror.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 1: today's story. Around noon on Saturday, April twenty fourth, twenty ten,
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Speaker 1: a sixty four year old sales clerk named Kathy Goebel
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Speaker 1: grabbed a suit jacket off the rack at a high
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Speaker 1: end men's store in Charleston, West Virginia.
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Speaker 2: She carried it.
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Speaker 1: Over to a customer and then she helped him put
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Speaker 1: it on in front of the mirror, and after he
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Speaker 1: was dressed, the man smiled at his reflection and said
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Speaker 1: it looked great. So Kathy had worked at the store
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Speaker 1: now for ten years, and she really loved working there.
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Speaker 1: I mean everything about it was great. The staff was
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Speaker 1: like family, you know. She was very people oriented and
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Speaker 1: was great at building relationships with customers. In fact, she
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Speaker 1: was so good at building relationships that men from all
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Speaker 1: over town would come to the store specifically to see
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Speaker 1: Kathy when they needed a new suit. However, this man
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Speaker 1: she was currently helping wasn't like all the other customers.
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Speaker 1: His name was doctor Harry King, and he was a
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Speaker 1: radiologist and he had been a regular at the store
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Speaker 1: for many years. And even though he was married, and
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Speaker 1: even though Kathy herself was in a long term relationship,
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Speaker 1: these two were actually having an affair. Harry had a
2:34
Speaker 1: lot of money and he really enjoyed showering Kathy with
2:37
Speaker 1: expensive gifts. In fact, he had even paid to have
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Speaker 1: her kitchen redone and just a couple of weeks ago,
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Speaker 1: he'd taken her on a trip across the country to
2:45
Speaker 1: San Francisco. Now, when Kathy went on that trip, she
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Speaker 1: had told her longtime boyfriend Fred Farrell that it was
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Speaker 1: actually just a girl's trip to.
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Speaker 2: Visit an old friend.
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Speaker 1: And even though she did feel bad about lying to him,
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Speaker 1: Kathy really didn't know how long her relationship with Fred
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Speaker 1: was going to last anyway, so it sort of seemed
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Speaker 1: like maybe it's not worth trying to protect it. Kathy
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Speaker 1: and Fred had been dating for about two years and
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Speaker 1: Fred was definitely a nice guy, but recently he had
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Speaker 1: asked Kathy to marry him, and you know, she definitely
3:14
Speaker 1: was not sure about that and told him, you know,
3:16
Speaker 1: I don't know, I have to think about it. So
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Speaker 1: the big reason why Kathy was definitely on the fence
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Speaker 1: about marriage in general was actually because Kathy had been
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Speaker 1: divorced twice already. She also liked having her own house
3:28
Speaker 1: and her own life and not being tied to just
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Speaker 1: one man. But she couldn't bring herself to actually break
3:35
Speaker 1: up with Fred when he proposed, and so she was
3:37
Speaker 1: sort of in this holding period now, and she figured that,
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Speaker 1: you know, as long as her affair with Harry stayed
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Speaker 1: a secret, nobody would get hurt. So Kathy carried Harry's
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Speaker 1: new suit over to the cash register, and as she
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Speaker 1: rang it up, Harry leaned over the counter and asked
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Speaker 1: if she wanted to go grab lunch, and Kathy smiled
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Speaker 1: and said sure. About an hour later, Kathy came back
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Speaker 1: to the store after her lunch break, and inside she
4:02
Speaker 1: saw there was a young woman standing at the back
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Speaker 1: of the store by a rack of shirts. The woman's
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Speaker 1: clothes were a bit ragged, and she just she looked
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Speaker 1: out of place, like she wasn't the typical clientele for
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Speaker 1: the store, And as Kathy got closer to her, she
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Speaker 1: realized it was her coworker's daughter, Jessica Fisher, and Jessica
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Speaker 1: really put Kathy on edge because Jessica had a drug problem,
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Speaker 1: and every once in a while she would come into
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Speaker 1: the store and she would ask Kathy for some of
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Speaker 1: Kathy's X annex, and Kathy felt bad for her, so, even
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Speaker 1: though she knew it was a bad idea and it
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Speaker 1: was wrong to do this, she usually would give Jessica
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Speaker 1: some of hers annex. But today Jessica looked so sick
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Speaker 1: and so agitated that Kathy really had to face the truth.
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Speaker 1: Heer Jessica had a serious addiction and she really had
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Speaker 1: to stop enabling it. So when Jessica invariably asked Kathy
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Speaker 1: if she had any pills on her, Kathy put her
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Speaker 1: foot down and said no.
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Speaker 2: Jessica did not take that well.
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Speaker 1: She started screaming at Kathy. It caused this huge scene.
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Speaker 1: There are other customers inside looking over, and at some
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Speaker 1: point Kathy's manager came running over to see what was
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Speaker 1: going on. Eventually, Jessica did sort of give up and
5:14
Speaker 1: she ran out of the store, but the whole encounter
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Speaker 1: really left Kathy feeling shaken up, and for the rest
5:19
Speaker 1: of her shift it was all she could think about.
5:24
Speaker 1: That night, just after the men's store closed at five pm,
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Speaker 1: Kathy came out the front door, accompanied by one of
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Speaker 1: her male coworkers. She was afraid that Jessica might be
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Speaker 1: out here waiting to confront her, and so she had
5:35
Speaker 1: asked one of the other shoe salesmen, a guy named
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Speaker 1: Charles March, to just walk her to her car. And
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Speaker 1: so now the two of them, Charles and Kathy, as
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Speaker 1: they exited the store and made their way across the lot,
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Speaker 1: they both were sort of on high alert, waiting to
5:49
Speaker 1: see if Jessica.
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Speaker 2: Was going to pop out somewhere.
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Speaker 1: But Kathy didn't see Jessica or anybody else lurking around,
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Speaker 1: so eventually she got to her suv. She said good
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Speaker 1: night to Charles, and then she climbed into her car.
6:00
Speaker 1: Once inside the car, she locked all the doors and
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Speaker 1: then exhaled in relief. She felt safe, and then as
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Speaker 1: 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
6:26
Speaker 1: she went to Fred's, Kathy actually planned to make another
6:28
Speaker 1: stop at the home of her ex husband, or one
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Speaker 1: of her ex husbands, David McCartney.
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Speaker 2: So Kathy and David.
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Speaker 1: Had been divorced for twenty years now, but they had
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Speaker 1: had two kids together, so they stayed in touch. A
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Speaker 1: few years ago, David had actually had a stroke, and
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Speaker 1: while 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.
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Speaker 2: Swing by see if he was doing okay.
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Speaker 1: So after hanging up with Fred and putting her phone
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Speaker 1: in her purse, she threw her car in gear and
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Speaker 1: she drove off towards David's house. A few hours later,
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Speaker 1: around eight thirty pm, Kathy was chatting on the phone
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Speaker 1: with her friend Laura while she drove toward her boyfriend
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Speaker 1: Fred's apartment. She had just been at David's house and
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Speaker 1: she had helped him with some chores, and then after
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Speaker 1: she had left, she had swung by Walmart to pick
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Speaker 1: up some food and cleaning supplies, and now she was
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Speaker 1: telling Laura that she was actually sort of looking forward
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Speaker 1: to cleaning up Fred's apartment and then just having some
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Speaker 1: alone time, you know. That night afterwards, Kathy eventually reached
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Speaker 1: Fred's apartment, and so she parked her SUV in the driveway,
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Speaker 1: and she's still on the phone with Laura, and she
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Speaker 1: walked up towards Fred's apartment. But as she was unlocking
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Speaker 1: the door, she looked and noticed there was someone walking
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Speaker 1: towards her, and so she told Laura that she had
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Speaker 1: to go, and she hung up, and she pushed the
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Speaker 1: apartment door open. Two days later, on the morning of Monday,
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Speaker 1: April twenty sixth, Kathy Goebel's thirty six year old son,
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Speaker 1: Jason McCartney, knocked on the door of her house, which
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Speaker 1: was located on a quiet suburban road. That morning, Jason
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Speaker 1: had gotten a call from Kathy's boss saying that she
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Speaker 1: hadn't 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
8:13
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
8:19
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,
8:25
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.
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Speaker 2: There was no sign of her.
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Speaker 1: She wasn't there, and there was no sign of her purse,
8:35
Speaker 1: which she brought with her everywhere, and then when he
8:38
Speaker 1: went into the garage, she saw that her SUV was
8:40
Speaker 1: also missing. So at this point Jason pulled out his
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Speaker 1: phone and he called his mother's boyfriend Fred to see
8:46
Speaker 1: if maybe she was with him, but Fred said no,
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Speaker 1: and in fact, he said he hadn't heard from her
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Speaker 1: since Saturday evening. Fred said he'd gotten home the day
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Speaker 1: before on Sunday from his fishing trip, but when he
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Speaker 1: got home, he'd found Kathy's cell phone or spare car
9:01
Speaker 1: keys and her medication just sitting on his kitchen counter.
9:04
Speaker 1: But Kathy herself was not there, and also neither was
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Speaker 1: her car. And so at this point Jason had a
9:10
Speaker 1: really bad feeling that something wasn't right here, but he
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Speaker 1: knew who to call, his childhood friend, Detective Brian Carper
9:17
Speaker 1: of the Knaw County Sheriff's Department. Summertime tastes like my
9:26
Speaker 1: Mochi premium ice cream wrapped in sweet, chewy dough. One
9:30
Speaker 1: of my favorite summer moments is bringing out my many
9:33
Speaker 1: boxes of my Mochi after a backyard barbecue and handing
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Speaker 1: it out to my family. In these boxes, they're easy
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Speaker 1: to pass around. Everybody gets to pick a flavor. It's
9:42
Speaker 1: the perfect cool treat to wrap up a warm summer evening.
9:46
Speaker 1: It's really becoming one of my family's summer traditions that
9:49
Speaker 1: everybody seems to enjoy. The Strawberry flavor is strawberry ice
9:53
Speaker 1: cream made with real fruit. It's the perfect trifecta of creamy,
9:57
Speaker 1: chewy and chill cookies. And the cream is cookie flavored
10:01
Speaker 1: ice cream with cookie pieces, the classic summer flavor. And
10:05
Speaker 1: there's a new flavor, Cotton Candy. It's cotton candy flavored
10:09
Speaker 1: ice cream wrapped in pink dough.
10:11
Speaker 2: Plus, my Mochi is.
10:12
Speaker 1: Only around seventy calories per piece and is gluten free.
10:17
Speaker 1: It's easy to share because Mymochi comes in a box
10:20
Speaker 1: with six individual snacks. Taste the joy in every bite
10:24
Speaker 1: of my Mochi ice cream. Look for the purple box
10:27
Speaker 1: of My Moochy ice Cream in the freezer isle of
10:29
Speaker 1: your local grocery store. Later that morning, Detective Carper walked
10:35
Speaker 1: up to the door of Fred Ferrell's apartment, which was
10:38
Speaker 1: on the other side of town from Kathy's house. Carper
10:41
Speaker 1: had spoken to Jason and he had found out that
10:43
Speaker 1: his mother had left her belongings here at Fred's apartment
10:46
Speaker 1: on Saturday night, and no one had heard from her
10:49
Speaker 1: in the forty hours since then. Also, her silver Honda
10:52
Speaker 1: sub was nowhere to be found. So Carper had been
10:56
Speaker 1: friends with Jason for decades, and in that time, not
10:59
Speaker 1: only did he become close obviously with Jason, but also
11:02
Speaker 1: 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
11:21
Speaker 1: his mid seventies answered the door, and he invited Carper
11:24
Speaker 1: inside and they sat down at the kitchen table. Carper
11:27
Speaker 1: began by asking Fred when was the last time he
11:29
Speaker 1: had spoken to Kathy, and he told him that Kathy
11:32
Speaker 1: had called him on Saturday night while he was off
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Speaker 1: on a fishing trip, and that she had told him
11:37
Speaker 1: that she was going to go over to his apartment
11:39
Speaker 1: while he was away and clean it for him so
11:41
Speaker 1: that when he got home it would be nice and tidy.
11:44
Speaker 1: And when Carper looked around the apartment he was in,
11:46
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
12:01
Speaker 1: on Sundays the day before, Kathy hadn't been there, but
12:05
Speaker 1: several lights in his apartment had been left on, a
12:08
Speaker 1: window was open, and some of Kathy's things had been
12:11
Speaker 1: left out on the counter. And also the apartment was
12:13
Speaker 1: clearly very clean, so it seemed like she had been
12:16
Speaker 1: here at least for a while, but she was not
12:18
Speaker 1: 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
12:25
Speaker 1: to Kathy, and Carper returned back to Fred and he said,
12:29
Speaker 1: you know, did it strike he was 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
12:38
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
13:08
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
13:13
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
13:18
Speaker 1: the table and headed for the door, Carper grabbed Kathy's
13:22
Speaker 1: car keys off the counter and put them in his pocket.
13:25
Speaker 1: Later that afternoon, back at the Canau County Sheriff's office,
13:28
Speaker 1: Detective Carper looked over a copy of Kathy's phone records.
13:32
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 coworkers, 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 five pm on Saturday,
13:51
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
13:55
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
14:08
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.
14:21
Speaker 2: After work that night.
14:24
Speaker 1: A short while later, Detective Carper was sitting in the
14:26
Speaker 1: living room of Kathy's ex husband, David McCartney, and David
14:30
Speaker 1: told the detective that he had heard about Cathy's disappearance
14:32
Speaker 1: from their son, Jason, and he was shocked to hear
14:35
Speaker 1: about it because he'd actually seen Kathy on the night
14:38
Speaker 1: she vanished. He told Carper that on Saturday, after Kathy
14:42
Speaker 1: had gotten off of work, she had come over to
14:44
Speaker 1: his house and when she was there, she had helped
14:46
Speaker 1: him pay some bills that he had forgotten about, in
14:49
Speaker 1: part because his memory was not that great ever since
14:51
Speaker 1: his stroke. But he said Kathy hadn't really stayed very
14:54
Speaker 1: long at his house before she said she just had
14:56
Speaker 1: to leave, and then she had gone. And Carper really
14:59
Speaker 1: didn't to make of this because now it was clear
15:02
Speaker 1: that David, at least so far, was the last person
15:05
Speaker 1: to have seen Kathy in person. But Carper really wasn't
15:09
Speaker 1: seeing a motive here, I mean, if anything, all he
15:11
Speaker 1: was seeing is that David felt an enormous amount of
15:13
Speaker 1: appreciation and gratitude toward his ex wife. And then on
15:17
Speaker 1: top of that, I mean, David was not exactly young,
15:20
Speaker 1: and also he had some pretty serious mobility issues from
15:23
Speaker 1: the stroke he had had, and so Carper really wasn't
15:25
Speaker 1: even sure that somebody in David's condition would be able
15:29
Speaker 1: to hurt or kidnap Kathy, even if he had really
15:32
Speaker 1: wanted to. And also, Carper had to remind himself that
15:35
Speaker 1: he still wasn't even sure if anyone had hurt or
15:38
Speaker 1: kidnapped Kathy. After all, it's only been a couple of
15:40
Speaker 1: days now, and it was entirely possible that maybe she
15:44
Speaker 1: was safe somewhere and she would turn up and that
15:46
Speaker 1: this was just a big misunderstanding.
15:48
Speaker 2: However, there was still.
15:49
Speaker 1: One more person that Carper really wanted to follow up
15:52
Speaker 1: with before he drew any initial conclusions, and that was
15:55
Speaker 1: the last person on Kathy's call records, Laura Henderson. Later
16:00
Speaker 1: that same day, Carper sat down across from Laura Henderson
16:03
Speaker 1: in her living room, and Laura seemed really upset when
16:07
Speaker 1: Carper told her that she may have been the last
16:09
Speaker 1: person to speak to Kathy before she disappeared. At some point,
16:12
Speaker 1: he asked Laura whether Kathy had said anything on that
16:15
Speaker 1: last phone call about what she was up to that night,
16:18
Speaker 1: or if she had had any recent issues with anyone,
16:20
Speaker 1: or you know, anything anything odd, and Laura she shook
16:24
Speaker 1: her head and said no, But then she stopped and
16:27
Speaker 1: she said, well, actually, there was one thing about that
16:29
Speaker 1: call that had stuck out to her as being a
16:31
Speaker 1: little bit strange. She said, the last thing Kathy had
16:34
Speaker 1: said before hanging up was We're going into Fred's apartment.
16:39
Speaker 1: Not I'm going into Fred's apartment, but we're going into
16:43
Speaker 1: Fred's apartment.
16:44
Speaker 2: We like she was with someone.
16:46
Speaker 1: Carper was sort of surprised by this because his understanding
16:49
Speaker 1: is that Kathy had gone to Fred's apartment to clean
16:52
Speaker 1: it by herself based on what she had sort of
16:54
Speaker 1: communicated to Fred, and so he asked Laura if she
16:57
Speaker 1: had any idea who this other person was that she
16:59
Speaker 1: could have been with, and Laura said no. She said
17:03
Speaker 1: that Kathy had made no mention of there being another
17:05
Speaker 1: person with her on the entire call. In fact, the
17:08
Speaker 1: first mention of there being this other person was basically
17:11
Speaker 1: right at the end of the call when she had
17:14
Speaker 1: hung up. She basically had said to Laura up, were
17:16
Speaker 1: going in, and then she had hung up, And so
17:19
Speaker 1: Carper spoke with Laura for a few more minutes, and
17:21
Speaker 1: then shortly after he left her house, his cell phone
17:24
Speaker 1: rang and when he answered it, it was an officer
17:27
Speaker 1: on the line who said he had found Kathy's suv.
17:30
Speaker 1: It had been abandoned on the highway about fifteen miles
17:33
Speaker 1: outside of town. Carper said he would be there right
17:36
Speaker 1: away later that same Monday afternoon. So we're still just
17:41
Speaker 1: forty eight hours after the last time anyone.
17:43
Speaker 2: Had seen or heard from Kathy.
17:45
Speaker 1: Carper parked on the side of the highway in a
17:47
Speaker 1: wooded area outside of Charleston, and through his windshield he
17:51
Speaker 1: saw a silver Honda SUV parked a few yards ahead
17:54
Speaker 1: 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.
18:10
Speaker 2: Car had broken down.
18:11
Speaker 1: All the doors were locked, so Carper pulled Kathy's spare
18:14
Speaker 1: key that he had grabbed out of Fred's apartment out
18:17
Speaker 1: of his pocket and he used it to unlock the
18:19
Speaker 1: driver's side door. There was nobody inside the car and
18:22
Speaker 1: there was no sign of a struggle. There was no
18:25
Speaker 1: blood anywhere, and also Kathy's purse was not inside either.
18:29
Speaker 1: So Carper had to wonder if maybe Kathy had been
18:32
Speaker 1: driving along this road and then her car, you know,
18:35
Speaker 1: ran into some trouble and she walked off to get
18:37
Speaker 1: help when nobody had stopped. However, just to make sure,
18:41
Speaker 1: Carper sat in the driver's seat and he used his
18:43
Speaker 1: spare key and he tried the engine just to see
18:46
Speaker 1: if it would work. And as soon as he turned
18:48
Speaker 1: the key, the car started. The car was running just fine,
18:51
Speaker 1: and he also saw there was a half a tank
18:53
Speaker 1: of gas left. So at first glance, it appeared like,
18:57
Speaker 1: you know, this didn't really make any sense. You know,
18:59
Speaker 1: why is this car abandoned here with the white towel
19:01
Speaker 1: in the windows signifying that this car has broken down
19:05
Speaker 1: when the car works just fine or appears to work
19:08
Speaker 1: just fine. And so Carper at this point he began
19:10
Speaker 1: to think, like, this is a sign that Kathy likely
19:14
Speaker 1: had not.
19:15
Speaker 2: Disappeared by choice. Here.
19:16
Speaker 1: There was just no good reason why she would have
19:19
Speaker 1: driven fifteen 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,
19:27
Speaker 1: Like why.
19:28
Speaker 2: Would she do that?
19:29
Speaker 1: And so to Carper, it seemed like the most plausible
19:31
Speaker 1: explanation here was that Kathy had been abducted and whoever
19:35
Speaker 1: had done it also dumped her car out here with
19:38
Speaker 1: the towel in the window, just to throw off investigators.
19:51
Speaker 1: Two days later, on the morning of April twenty eighth,
19:53
Speaker 1: twenty ten, Detective Carper walked into the men's clothing store
19:57
Speaker 1: where Kathy worked. Now by this point he had already
19:59
Speaker 1: spoke to Kathy's co workers once on the day that
20:02
Speaker 1: she was reported missing, but now that he had learned
20:04
Speaker 1: from Laura that there was apparently someone else with her
20:07
Speaker 1: on Saturday night, he now really wanted to question everybody
20:12
Speaker 1: again to see if they had any idea who this
20:14
Speaker 1: other person might have been. So he tracked down Kathy's
20:18
Speaker 1: manager and he asked her if he could speak to
20:20
Speaker 1: her and ask her a few more questions, and she
20:22
Speaker 1: said sure, and she led him over to a quiet
20:25
Speaker 1: part of the store where the customers wouldn't hear them,
20:27
Speaker 1: and so Carper he pulled out his notepad and he
20:29
Speaker 1: asked her, the manager, to walk through what Kathy did
20:33
Speaker 1: during her final shift and be as detailed as possible.
20:37
Speaker 1: The manager said it had been a pretty normal day
20:39
Speaker 1: Kathy had come in around nine am and helped out
20:41
Speaker 1: a few customers. The only thing that stuck out to
20:44
Speaker 1: her was that at some point in the afternoon another
20:47
Speaker 1: coworker's daughter had come into the store, and Kathy and
20:51
Speaker 1: his daughter had gotten into a really big argument, like
20:54
Speaker 1: a very public, nasty argument. Now, the manager said she
20:58
Speaker 1: really had no idea what the fight was he about,
21:01
Speaker 1: but just if they wanted to follow up, the daughter's
21:04
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
21:29
Speaker 1: doctor Harry King. Later that same day, Carper sat down
21:33
Speaker 1: inside of an interrogation room with Harry King, and Harry
21:36
Speaker 1: seemed really nervous. When Carper asked if he knew why
21:40
Speaker 1: he was there, Harry said yes. Harry then put his
21:43
Speaker 1: head in his hands and he said, you know, I
21:45
Speaker 1: know I should have come in sooner, but I was
21:47
Speaker 1: just afraid of what was going to happen. He explained
21:50
Speaker 1: that he and Kathy were not just friends, they were
21:53
Speaker 1: having an affair. He said that even gone on a
21:55
Speaker 1: trip to San Francisco together a couple of weeks ago,
21:58
Speaker 1: and they both lied to their respective partners about it.
22:00
Speaker 1: Carper was really surprised by this, and right away he
22:03
Speaker 1: wondered if maybe Kathy's boyfriend Fred had found out about
22:07
Speaker 1: the affair and killed Kathy out of jealousy, or maybe
22:11
Speaker 1: things had gone bad between Harry and Kathy, you know,
22:13
Speaker 1: their affair had gone south and Harry had killed her.
22:17
Speaker 1: I mean, it did seem really suspicious that Harry clearly
22:20
Speaker 1: knew Kathy was missing, but hadn't come forward to the police.
22:23
Speaker 2: He had to be asked to come in.
22:26
Speaker 1: So Carper asked Harry to just go ahead and explain
22:29
Speaker 1: where he had been on Saturday night, and Harry said
22:31
Speaker 1: he'd been at home all night with his wife, and
22:34
Speaker 1: so Carper asked if he could speak to Harry's wife
22:37
Speaker 1: to verify his alibi, and immediately Harry pleaded with the
22:40
Speaker 1: detective not to bring his wife into this, you know,
22:43
Speaker 1: doesn't want to give up that he's having an affair here.
22:45
Speaker 1: But eventually he seemed to understand that without an alibi,
22:49
Speaker 1: he was the primary suspect here, so he agreed and gave.
22:52
Speaker 2: Carper his wife's phone number.
22:55
Speaker 1: A few days later, on May first, so a week
22:57
Speaker 1: after Cathy was last seen and she's still miss saying,
23:00
Speaker 1: Carper walked up the steps of a cheap motel on
23:03
Speaker 1: the edge of town. He'd finally tracked down Jessica Fisher,
23:06
Speaker 1: the co worker's daughter who had gotten into a fight
23:09
Speaker 1: with Kathy at the men's clothing store on the day
23:11
Speaker 1: she disappeared, and this motel was apparently where she was staying,
23:15
Speaker 1: and so Carper figured out which room was Jessica's, and
23:18
Speaker 1: then he knocked on the door, and then a moment later,
23:20
Speaker 1: the door opened and there was Jessica.
23:23
Speaker 2: And Jessica did not look well. She was unbelievably skinny,
23:26
Speaker 2: like gaunt, skinny. She looked sick.
23:29
Speaker 1: In fact, you know, Carper basically assumed that, based on
23:32
Speaker 1: her physical appearance, she very likely was struggling with addiction.
23:36
Speaker 1: And so Carper, after introducing himself and confirming that this
23:39
Speaker 1: was in fact Jessica Fisher. He explained to her why
23:42
Speaker 1: he was there. He said that Kathy Goebel is missing,
23:46
Speaker 1: and we know you got into a fight with her
23:48
Speaker 1: on the day she vanished at the store where she works,
23:51
Speaker 1: and so he asked her to explain what the fight
23:54
Speaker 1: was about. After hearing all this, Jessica's eyes went wide,
23:57
Speaker 1: and she insisted that she had no idea what it
23:59
Speaker 1: hapen to Kathy. And when Carper pressed her again about
24:02
Speaker 1: why they had fought in the store that day, Jessica
24:05
Speaker 1: was kind of evasive at first, but then finally she
24:07
Speaker 1: just broke down and she admitted that she had been
24:10
Speaker 1: asking Kathy for drugs and Kathy had said no, and
24:13
Speaker 1: they had thought about it. She said that sometimes Kathy
24:15
Speaker 1: would give her x annax, but that day Kathy had refused,
24:19
Speaker 1: so Jessica said she got mad and sort of freaked out,
24:22
Speaker 1: and that was the fight. But Jessica swore that once
24:25
Speaker 1: another worker had intervened, she had just left the store
24:28
Speaker 1: and gone home and never seen Kathy again.
24:30
Speaker 2: 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 twenty ten,
25:00
Speaker 1: of weeks after Kathy Goebel disappeared, Detective Brian Carper was
25:03
Speaker 1: looking through a forensics report at his desk. Kathy's car
25:06
Speaker 1: that had been found on the side of the highway
25:08
Speaker 1: had been processed for evidence, but as this report showed,
25:12
Speaker 1: no DNA or fingerprints had been found inside or on
25:15
Speaker 1: it from anyone other than Kathy. Now this didn't mean
25:19
Speaker 1: that someone could not have dumped Kathy's car on the
25:22
Speaker 1: side of the road. It just meant that if that happened,
25:26
Speaker 1: whoever did it was very careful to cover their tracks,
25:29
Speaker 1: and forensic evidence was not going to help pin them down.
25:32
Speaker 1: And this was very frustrating for Carper because so far
25:35
Speaker 1: all his leads were sort of coming up dry. Doctor
25:38
Speaker 1: Harry King's wife had confirmed his alibi, and when Carper
25:42
Speaker 1: had spoken to her, she had seemed very upset to
25:44
Speaker 1: learn that her husband was having an affair, so Carper
25:47
Speaker 1: didn't think she would want to lie for him. She
25:49
Speaker 1: probably was telling the truth that he really was.
25:51
Speaker 2: There with her.
25:52
Speaker 1: Carper had questioned Kathy's two adult sons, Jason and Paul,
25:56
Speaker 1: but they both came in and passed polygraph tests and
25:58
Speaker 1: were ruled out as suspect. As for Jessica Fisher, the
26:02
Speaker 1: young woman who had gotten into a fight with Kathy
26:04
Speaker 1: in the store over Kathy not giving her Xanax pills, well,
26:08
Speaker 1: she had agreed to come in and take a polygraph,
26:10
Speaker 1: but she hadn't shown up and currently she was still MIA.
26:14
Speaker 1: And even though Kathy's boyfriend Fred and ex husband David
26:18
Speaker 1: both still seemed pretty suspicious, there really was nothing concrete
26:22
Speaker 1: tying them to Kathy's disappearance, and so as the weeks
26:25
Speaker 1: passed by, Carper just had no idea what happened to Kathy.
26:30
Speaker 1: There hadn't been any activity on her bank accounts or
26:32
Speaker 1: credit cards since the day she vanished, so it seemed
26:35
Speaker 1: pretty clear that she had not just run off, because
26:38
Speaker 1: you'd see transactions. However, it probably meant then that she
26:42
Speaker 1: was 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.
26:55
Speaker 2: A crime had even been committed. And so unless Kathy
26:58
Speaker 2: was found dead.
26:59
Speaker 1: Or alive, or some new evidence was uncovered, it would
27:03
Speaker 1: be impossible to charge anyone in connection with her disappearance.
27:07
Speaker 1: And so as weeks turned two months and Kathy just
27:11
Speaker 1: continued not to turn up, the case ultimately went cold.
27:16
Speaker 2: Two years later.
27:17
Speaker 1: On April twenty fifth, twenty twelve, Detective Carper trugged through
27:20
Speaker 1: the mud and puddles in the parking lot of the
27:22
Speaker 1: police station and then wiped his shoes on the mat
27:25
Speaker 1: outside the front door. It had been raining for days now,
27:28
Speaker 1: and 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 nine to one one
27:40
Speaker 1: call had just come in and Carper would definitely want
27:42
Speaker 1: to hear about it. The officer said that, according to
27:45
Speaker 1: this caller, all the rain they had been having had
27:48
Speaker 1: unearthed a human body that clearly had been buried at
27:52
Speaker 1: some point on the edge of town, and as he
27:54
Speaker 1: explained where this body had been found, Carper's heart began
27:58
Speaker 1: to race. He understood why the officer had brought this
28:01
Speaker 1: to him specifically because that body had to be Kathy
28:05
Speaker 1: Goebel based on the place of burial and other forensic evidence.
28:16
Speaker 1: This is what police belief happened to Kathy Goebel On
28:18
Speaker 1: the night of April twenty fourth, twenty.
28:20
Speaker 2: Ten, around eight thirty pm.
28:29
Speaker 1: The killer was waiting outside of Fred's apartment. They knew
28:33
Speaker 1: Kathy would be coming by that night, and soon they
28:36
Speaker 1: saw the headlights of her SUV coming up the street.
28:39
Speaker 1: As Kathy got out of her car with a plaster
28:41
Speaker 1: grocery bag and a phone to her ear, the killer
28:43
Speaker 1: approached the doorstep and waved and Kathy, who was still
28:46
Speaker 1: on the phone, she sort of seemed surprised to see
28:48
Speaker 1: the killer, but you know, nonetheless, she continued talking on
28:51
Speaker 1: the phone, and she didn't say anything to the killer
28:54
Speaker 1: as she just continued to unlock the door, open it
28:56
Speaker 1: up and sort of gestured for the killer to come
28:58
Speaker 1: on in with them. Once in, Kathy set the shopping
29:01
Speaker 1: bag and a few of her other things down on
29:03
Speaker 1: the counter, and then once she'd hung up the phone,
29:06
Speaker 1: she asked the killer what were they doing there, and
29:09
Speaker 1: the killer just asked her if she would take a
29:10
Speaker 1: drive somewhere with them, and Kathy seemed a little confused
29:14
Speaker 1: by the request but said okay. The killer waited for
29:17
Speaker 1: a few minutes while Kathy cleaned up the apartment because
29:19
Speaker 1: 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 into.
29:40
Speaker 2: Like an instant rage, and.
29:42
Speaker 1: They grabbed her. They tied her up, and they strangled her.
29:45
Speaker 1: Then they buried her in a shallow grave in their backyard.
29:49
Speaker 1: But two years later, the killer's son noticed something in
29:54
Speaker 1: their backyard after all this heavy rain, and when he
29:56
Speaker 1: went out there to see what was in the middle
29:58
Speaker 1: of the yard, he found her. The shoe salesman Charles Marsh,
30:03
Speaker 1: who ironically had been the one to walk Kathy out
30:06
Speaker 1: to her car on the day she vanished to keep
30:08
Speaker 1: her safe from Jessica Fisher. After that fight, he was
30:11
Speaker 1: the person that she trusted to keep her safe. He
30:15
Speaker 1: was her killer. It would turn out Charles, who at
30:19
Speaker 1: no 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 2: Charles March was arrested.
30:35
Speaker 1: On April twenty fifth, twenty twelve, and charged with Kathy's murder.
30:38
Speaker 1: He pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. However,
30:41
Speaker 1: he died of cancer in prison just two years later
30:44
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen.
30:54
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
30:56
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
30:58
Speaker 1: the comments, and remember, we have a whole playlist of
31:00
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31:04
Speaker 2: Click here and give them a watch. All right, until
31:07
Speaker 2: next time, see ya.