Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / Mary Till: The Dallas/Fort Worth ‘80s Murders Part 4

Transcript

Mary Till: The Dallas/Fort Worth ‘80s Murders Part 4 · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: The Gone Call podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
0:05
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. When the fort Worth Police sat
0:11
Speaker 1: down for a meeting to discuss forming a task force
0:14
Speaker 1: in early January nineteen eighty five, they knew they'd be
0:18
Speaker 1: concentrating on a total of four cases. The late September
0:22
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four disappearance of twenty three year old Catherine Davis,
0:26
Speaker 1: the late October disappearance of Cindy Heller, also twenty three
0:31
Speaker 1: years old, the early December disappearance of twenty one year
0:35
Speaker 1: old Angela Ewert, and the brutal murder of fifteen year
0:38
Speaker 1: old sarah An Koshka, who vanished from southwest fort Worth
0:43
Speaker 1: but whose body was found in far southwest Dallas later
0:48
Speaker 1: on the very day the task force was formed. Cindy
0:52
Speaker 1: Heller's missing persons case became a homicide case when a
0:55
Speaker 1: positive identification came through. Her body had been discovered by
1:00
Speaker 1: children on the campus of Texas Christian University the day before.
1:05
Speaker 1: Just a couple weeks later, in late January nineteen eighty five,
1:09
Speaker 1: the body of Catherine Davis was found in far south
1:12
Speaker 1: fort Worth, about a half a mile north of Crowley
1:15
Speaker 1: City limits. Then, the newly formed unit was responsible for
1:20
Speaker 1: the investigation of four murders. As the body of twenty
1:24
Speaker 1: year old Lisa Griffin was found on the day the
1:26
Speaker 1: task force launched and won disappearance as Angela Ewart was
1:31
Speaker 1: yet to be found, her case anyway, was being handled
1:35
Speaker 1: as if it were a murder. Foul play was obvious.
1:40
Speaker 1: Seemingly unable to catch a break, the Special Homicide Task
1:44
Speaker 1: Force's hands were full and growing fuller. Feared they'd add
1:49
Speaker 1: more victims to their unfortunate roster. Had detectives and officers
1:53
Speaker 1: in a constant state of nausea and overwhelmed by the
1:57
Speaker 1: idea of telling another family member, another mother or father,
2:02
Speaker 1: that their loved one or child had been murdered. The
2:06
Speaker 1: realization that they were probably looking at multiple killers didn't
2:10
Speaker 1: help settle their stomachs any After piecing together connections and similarities,
2:16
Speaker 1: the local press seemed convinced a serial killer was on
2:19
Speaker 1: the loose, while hard boiled and sleep deprived detectives strung
2:24
Speaker 1: yarn depends above photographs of their victims on a giant corkboard.
2:30
Speaker 1: Whether literally or figuratively, connecting the dots led to something
2:34
Speaker 1: they likely expected. The addition of a murder from an
2:38
Speaker 1: outside jurisdiction that had begun unfolding more than a year
2:42
Speaker 1: before the case of Mary Elizabeth Till. On Friday August nineteenth,
2:58
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, a black nineteen eighty one Mazda A
3:02
Speaker 1: Rex seven was reported abandoned at fifty nine sixty nine
3:06
Speaker 1: Highland Village Drive at the Highland of Village Apartments in
3:10
Speaker 1: South Dallas. The interior of the vehicle had been burned,
3:15
Speaker 1: and although the extent of the damage within was never
3:18
Speaker 1: expounded upon, the car was most often described as burned out.
3:24
Speaker 1: Stuffed in the passenger side seat were two diamond rings
3:27
Speaker 1: and a wristwatch, leading the Dallas Police to believe the
3:31
Speaker 1: jewelry was stashed with the intent to retrieve later. According
3:36
Speaker 1: to the department, because detectives in the auto theft unit
3:40
Speaker 1: were off for the weekend, the license plate number wasn't
3:44
Speaker 1: ran through the system until the following Monday. When the
3:48
Speaker 1: number was finally checked. It turned out the vehicle belonged
3:51
Speaker 1: to a woman who'd been reported missing earlier on the
3:55
Speaker 1: day it was bound, twenty seven year old Mary Till.
4:01
Speaker 1: Mary Elizabeth Till was born on April twenty fifth, nineteen
4:05
Speaker 1: fifty six to parents Leo and Bette Till she graduated
4:10
Speaker 1: from Eastern Hills High School in the city where she
4:13
Speaker 1: was born and raised, fort Worth. Though friends described Mary
4:18
Speaker 1: as sweet and innocent, friendly and outgoing, they made a
4:22
Speaker 1: point of also describing her as careful and aware. By
4:26
Speaker 1: the time she was twenty seven, Mary had worked for
4:30
Speaker 1: and been laid off from Bell Helicopter, one of the
4:33
Speaker 1: area's largest employers at the time, and had been amicably
4:38
Speaker 1: divorced in nineteen eighty Though she was loath to look
4:43
Speaker 1: for the baden people and undoubtedly trusting, she'd been around
4:47
Speaker 1: the block and was anything but naive to the dangers
4:51
Speaker 1: of the world. Still, Mary viewed her hometown and the
4:55
Speaker 1: surrounding areas, as many did at the time, as a
4:58
Speaker 1: safe place where looking behind your back at every move
5:02
Speaker 1: was far from a necessity. That was big city stuff.
5:07
Speaker 1: After being laid off from Bell Helicopter in nineteen eighty two, however,
5:11
Speaker 1: Mary found herself working in the big city of Dallas
5:15
Speaker 1: as a legal secretary for Carrington, Coleman, Slowman and Blumenthal,
5:20
Speaker 1: a law firm there. Though the pay left much to
5:24
Speaker 1: be desired, especially compared to her former job, Mary was
5:29
Speaker 1: figuring the whole thing out. She was able to work
5:32
Speaker 1: some overtime and had found a parking lot that charged
5:35
Speaker 1: much less than the one closer to her job. It
5:39
Speaker 1: was a five block walk that Mary eventually discovered probably
5:44
Speaker 1: wasn't the best way to fix her parking problem, as
5:48
Speaker 1: perhaps for the first time, she found herself constantly looking
5:52
Speaker 1: over her shoulder. With friends, she had discussed changing back
5:57
Speaker 1: to a closer parking lot. She was, Mary told them,
6:02
Speaker 1: but life went on until she found one, and the
6:05
Speaker 1: young woman was focused, determined, and hard working. The days
6:12
Speaker 1: leading up to the disappearance of Mary Till were like
6:15
Speaker 1: any others. On Saturday, the thirteenth of August, she and
6:19
Speaker 1: her friend Carrie relaxed by the pool at the holly
6:22
Speaker 1: Ridge Apartments in Northeast Arlington, the complex where Mary lived.
6:28
Speaker 1: The two spoke about work, Carrie's children, and life in
6:31
Speaker 1: general while eating lunch. The following Monday, after work, Mary,
6:37
Speaker 1: an outgoing and gregarious young woman, visited her friend and
6:41
Speaker 1: co worker ray Lean in fort Worth. They went and
6:45
Speaker 1: picked up some tacos in the Meadowbrook neighborhood and returned
6:49
Speaker 1: to ray Lean's to watch a football game. The Dallas
6:52
Speaker 1: Cowboys versus the La Rams. Mary liked football and was
6:57
Speaker 1: knowledgeable about the subject. Likely she was pleased with the
7:01
Speaker 1: exhibition game's outcome, as the Cowboys wiped the floor with
7:05
Speaker 1: the Rams with the thirty one to seven final score.
7:10
Speaker 1: Still very close to her ex husband's sister, Michelle, Mary
7:14
Speaker 1: spent the following evening with her. After washing Mary's car,
7:19
Speaker 1: they popped some popcorn, nestled into the couch, and watched
7:23
Speaker 1: television for the rest of the night. The following night,
7:27
Speaker 1: Mary met a friend at the Arlington Club, Bobby McGee's,
7:32
Speaker 1: over drinks. They discussed his divorce, which was pending at
7:36
Speaker 1: the time. Early on the morning of the next day, Thursday,
7:40
Speaker 1: August eighteenth, nineteen eighty three, Mary phoned her former sister
7:45
Speaker 1: in law, a kind of routine wake up call. Michelle
7:48
Speaker 1: later said. Then, at about eight forty five am, Mary
7:53
Speaker 1: called Tom Thompson, her supervisor at the law firm, to
7:57
Speaker 1: tell him she was on her way to work but
7:59
Speaker 1: was going to be a little late. At about nine am,
8:03
Speaker 1: a couple at the Holly Ridge apartments saw Mary till
8:08
Speaker 1: but she never showed up for work, and when she
8:11
Speaker 1: still hadn't the next day, her boss notified the Dallas
8:15
Speaker 1: Police immediately after, they also reported their daughter missing. Mary's
8:21
Speaker 1: parents found her cat safe and sound at her Arlington apartment.
8:25
Speaker 1: Clothes were in the dryer, dishes were clean in the dishwasher,
8:30
Speaker 1: and the bed was made. Everything was normal except the
8:34
Speaker 1: fact that Mary was gone. Her mother, Bet noticed that
8:39
Speaker 1: the only things missing were a beige blouse, beige slacks,
8:43
Speaker 1: a pair of Tope sandals and a matching purse and
8:47
Speaker 1: a gold and brown Tope bag. There was nothing to
8:50
Speaker 1: suggest Mary had left on her own. To the contrary,
8:54
Speaker 1: In fact, everything looked as if she planned to be
8:57
Speaker 1: back after work. It's unclear what steps law enforcement took
9:02
Speaker 1: to try and locate Mary during the first few days
9:05
Speaker 1: of her disappearance, since no reports showed up in the
9:09
Speaker 1: Dallas Morning News until after police found out the burned
9:12
Speaker 1: out Mazda Arex seven at the Highland Village apartments in
9:16
Speaker 1: South Dallas belonged to her. It was that discovery, four
9:21
Speaker 1: days after Mary Till vanished, that led the cops to
9:24
Speaker 1: say they now had a greater indication to suspect foul play.
9:29
Speaker 1: As Dallas Police spokesperson Ed Spencer put it, they were
9:33
Speaker 1: working under the assumption that Mary was abducted from the
9:36
Speaker 1: lot she parked at for work east of Central Expressway downtown.
9:42
Speaker 1: In the absence of the body, We're not investigating it
9:45
Speaker 1: as a murder, spokesperson Ed Spencer continued, from a technical standpoint,
9:50
Speaker 1: we're working it as a missing person spark something uncommon
10:03
Speaker 1: this holiday With just the right gift from Uncommon Goods.
10:07
Speaker 1: If you've still got holiday shopping to do, don't panic.
10:10
Speaker 1: I've got the secret source for unique and original gifts.
10:14
Speaker 1: Instead of going after the gift that screams last minute,
10:18
Speaker 1: find something that inspires joy, wonder and delight. At Uncommon
10:22
Speaker 1: Goods dot com. You'll even find something for those hard
10:26
Speaker 1: to buy four folks on your list. Let's say you've
10:29
Speaker 1: got a whiskey lover. At Uncommon Gooods dot com, you'll
10:33
Speaker 1: find a whiskey making kit I've got my eye on.
10:36
Speaker 1: Using your own vodka and the provided wood chips and botanicals,
10:40
Speaker 1: orange peel, chai mix, cinnamon, cocoa beans, coffee beans, and
10:45
Speaker 1: bird's eye chili, your whiskey lover will have a unique
10:48
Speaker 1: and delicious whiskey on their hands in three to four weeks.
10:52
Speaker 1: You'll also find gifts for kids, sports fans, and book lovers,
10:57
Speaker 1: among so many others at Uncommon Goods. To get fifteen
11:01
Speaker 1: percent off your next gift, go to Uncommon Gooods dot
11:04
Speaker 1: com slash Gonecold. That's Uncommon Goods dot com slash gone
11:09
Speaker 1: Cold for fifteen percent off. Don't miss out on this
11:13
Speaker 1: limited time offer Uncommon Goods. We're all out of the ordinary.
11:20
Speaker 1: The week following her disappearance, a five thousand dollars reward
11:24
Speaker 1: was offered for information leading to Marytill's whereabouts, supplied mostly
11:29
Speaker 1: by anonymous donors. Then, like Mary herself, her name vanished
11:34
Speaker 1: from newspapers and television newscasts. Meanwhile, Leo and Bet Till struggled.
11:42
Speaker 1: She brightened your day, Leo told a reporter for the
11:45
Speaker 1: Dallas Morning News. Where is she? What happened? How can
11:49
Speaker 1: anybody live with this nightmare? Several pieces of jewelry marry
11:54
Speaker 1: war on a daily basis were missing, and Leo wondered
11:57
Speaker 1: if his daughter had been killed in a robber. Bett added,
12:02
Speaker 1: if we don't find out something soon, we will be destroyed. Eventually,
12:07
Speaker 1: Leo and Bett moved all of Mary's things from her
12:10
Speaker 1: Arlington apartment to their Fort Worth home because it wasn't
12:14
Speaker 1: clear from where Mary went missing. Authorities in Arlington were
12:18
Speaker 1: also working the case, but neither them nor the Dallas
12:22
Speaker 1: Police had a single lead. Everyone who knew Mary insisted
12:28
Speaker 1: she would never have left on her own, and by
12:30
Speaker 1: November nineteen eighty three, police had changed their tune and
12:34
Speaker 1: said they were investigating as if the case was a homicide.
12:38
Speaker 1: The year ended with absolutely no further news, no leads,
12:43
Speaker 1: and presumably no tips. The new year came with a discovery.
12:50
Speaker 1: At about five thirty pm on Tuesday, January third, nineteen
12:54
Speaker 1: eighty four, two men hunting in a wooded area in
12:57
Speaker 1: the sixty two hundred block of Baraboo Drive in South
13:01
Speaker 1: Dallas discovered a decomposed body deep beneath the tall grass
13:06
Speaker 1: of a field in between the heavy woods and near
13:09
Speaker 1: a dried up creek bed. The men did not report
13:13
Speaker 1: their discovery until the following day, when their boss insisted
13:17
Speaker 1: they do so. On Wednesday, the fourth, the two hunters
13:22
Speaker 1: led police to the body, which was found less than
13:25
Speaker 1: a mile south of where the car of Mary Elizabeth
13:28
Speaker 1: Till was found at the Highland Village Apartments. Police tentatively
13:33
Speaker 1: identified the body as Mary because of personal effects found
13:38
Speaker 1: with it. Many searches for her had been conducted just
13:42
Speaker 1: north of the site, on the other side of Simpson
13:45
Speaker 1: Stuart Road, both immediately following the disappearance as standard procedure
13:51
Speaker 1: and on the advice of popular Dallas psychic John Ketchings.
13:56
Speaker 1: Later that day, the skeletal remains were positively identified as
14:00
Speaker 1: belonging to Mary Till through a dental records comparison. The
14:05
Speaker 1: psychic John Ketchings later said a reporter told him he
14:09
Speaker 1: had predicted the spot within yards, but according to police,
14:13
Speaker 1: he wasn't even close, and his description of the spot
14:17
Speaker 1: tall grass with woods and a creek nearby, could have
14:20
Speaker 1: described thousands of spots in South Dallas at the time. Besides,
14:26
Speaker 1: since the area searched at Catching's suggestion was adjacent to
14:30
Speaker 1: where the missing young woman's car was found, the vision
14:34
Speaker 1: wasn't much of a psychic feat. Dallas Homicide captain of
14:38
Speaker 1: Detective's Grant Lappin, said his unit treated tips from psychics
14:43
Speaker 1: the same way they treat tips from anyone else, but
14:46
Speaker 1: in his nineteen years on the job, not one clairvoyant
14:50
Speaker 1: vision has provided conclusive evidence of anything in any case.
14:56
Speaker 1: Though Catchings had been retained for fifty Bucks by a
14:59
Speaker 1: friend of the Till family. It appears Mary's parents were
15:03
Speaker 1: less than impressed with his involvement. He wasn't right, not really,
15:07
Speaker 1: Bet Till, the victim's mother, said. On Thursday, January fifth,
15:13
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, the Dallas County Medical Examiner announced that
15:17
Speaker 1: Mary had died as the result of a gunshot wound
15:20
Speaker 1: to her head. Her parents were crushed. They'd already endured
15:26
Speaker 1: a holiday season without their daughter. When they chose not
15:29
Speaker 1: to celebrate, how could they. Leo's health had begun declining
15:35
Speaker 1: after Mary vanished, and the discovery of her body and
15:38
Speaker 1: her loss at the hands of such extreme violence further
15:42
Speaker 1: diminished the man's wellness. Bet told a Dallas Morning News
15:47
Speaker 1: reporter that she was too bitter to cry. The four
15:51
Speaker 1: and a half months of overwhelming uncertainty were over replaced
15:55
Speaker 1: by debilitating anguish. Were not living, were just exists? Leo
16:01
Speaker 1: Till remarked. The investigation was moving slowly. It was steeped
16:07
Speaker 1: in few facts but many unanswered questions. It was easy
16:13
Speaker 1: to theorize when Mary Till was accosted and abducted. Police
16:17
Speaker 1: believed it probably happened at the parking lot in downtown Dallas,
16:21
Speaker 1: where she parked to go to work. Whether that was
16:24
Speaker 1: based on evidence is unknown, but it was virtually impossible
16:29
Speaker 1: to know where she'd been killed, was at the field
16:31
Speaker 1: where she was found or some other location. Mary might
16:36
Speaker 1: be considered flashy, though she only wore a lot of
16:39
Speaker 1: jewelry because the pieces were family heirlooms with sentimental value
16:44
Speaker 1: to her. Still, police stopped mentioning the motive of robbery
16:49
Speaker 1: after the body was discovered, presumably meaning the personal effects
16:53
Speaker 1: found on a skeletal remains they spoke of were the
16:57
Speaker 1: woman's jewelry. But even if they'd made that clearer, there
17:02
Speaker 1: were still countless questions. Was Mary a random victim or
17:07
Speaker 1: targeted and stocked by someone who knew her or her habits.
17:12
Speaker 1: Either way, the Dallas police had no suspect. The twenty
17:16
Speaker 1: seven year old woman had been dating around some and
17:20
Speaker 1: police had interviewed men she'd met at various Arlington nightclubs
17:24
Speaker 1: while she was still missing and presumably after her body
17:27
Speaker 1: was found. By mid month January nineteen eighty four, the
17:32
Speaker 1: Till family hired a private investigator, and a reward for
17:36
Speaker 1: information leading to an arrest and conviction grew to ten
17:40
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, which is equivalent to more than thirty thousand
17:44
Speaker 1: dollars at the time of this recording in December twenty
17:47
Speaker 1: twenty four. Friends, family, and police all believed that someone
17:52
Speaker 1: out there knew something and that the reward would bring
17:55
Speaker 1: that person forward, but it never happened. Another crime with
18:01
Speaker 1: an Arlington connection occurred just a few months after Mary
18:05
Speaker 1: Till's body was discovered just after midnight on Saturday, March third,
18:10
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four in a far east fort Worth field
18:14
Speaker 1: behind the Bell Helicopter facility in Hurst. Passers by driving
18:19
Speaker 1: Arlington Bedford Road found the body of a woman. The
18:23
Speaker 1: body was identified as twenty three year old Arlington woman
18:27
Speaker 1: Cheryl Ann Taylor the following Wednesday. She'd been missing since
18:31
Speaker 1: March first or second. At autopsy, Tarrant County medical examiners
18:37
Speaker 1: determined the cause of Cheryl's death to have been strangulation.
18:41
Speaker 1: She'd also been severely beaten all over her body with
18:45
Speaker 1: a large undisclosed object and sustained massive head injuries. Cheryl
18:51
Speaker 1: had been raped, besides a man, being cleared of her
18:55
Speaker 1: sexual assault and murder by way of polygraph examination, an
19:00
Speaker 1: unfortunate reality in police investigations at the time, little else
19:05
Speaker 1: has ever been reported about this still unsolved crime. Mary
19:11
Speaker 1: Till's case had gone cold not long after her body
19:14
Speaker 1: was found, and it didn't heap back up until connections
19:18
Speaker 1: to and similarities between several other cases in Fort Worth
19:23
Speaker 1: were discovered about a year later, when a special Homicide
19:27
Speaker 1: task Force was formed to tackle the investigations of a
19:30
Speaker 1: small group of missing and murdered women. The task force,
19:45
Speaker 1: investigating the murders of twenty three year olds Catherine Davis,
19:49
Speaker 1: Cindy Heller and Cheryl Taylor, twenty one year old Regina Grover,
19:54
Speaker 1: twenty year old Lisa Griffin, and fifteen year old Sarah Kashka,
19:58
Speaker 1: as well as the disappear, pearance and presumed slang of
20:01
Speaker 1: twenty one year old Angela Ewert, stumbled upon a series
20:06
Speaker 1: of connections between some of their victims. When these connections
20:10
Speaker 1: were realized, and due to a few similarities, the case
20:14
Speaker 1: of twenty seven year old Mary Elizabeth Till also became
20:18
Speaker 1: another of great interest to the special investigative unit. The
20:24
Speaker 1: Apparel Mart was located in Dallas Market Center on Stemmen's
20:28
Speaker 1: Freeway and was a hub for international clothing retailers and designers.
20:33
Speaker 1: For decades. There, regular folks also had the opportunity to
20:38
Speaker 1: break into modeling or simply make a few bucks on
20:41
Speaker 1: a one time modeling gig to supplement college tuition or
20:45
Speaker 1: other costs. Both Mary and Angela Ewart did some modeling
20:50
Speaker 1: for the Apparel Mart, Mary a one time gig in
20:53
Speaker 1: the fall of nineteen eighty two and Angela beginning in
20:57
Speaker 1: March of nineteen eighty four. Though Angela started out answering
21:00
Speaker 1: telephones for the company she eventually modeled for in nineteen
21:06
Speaker 1: eighty three, the year Mary was killed, Lisa Griffin explored
21:10
Speaker 1: enrolling at the Fashion Merchandising School located within the Apparel Mart,
21:15
Speaker 1: the same type of degree Cindy Heller had obtained from
21:18
Speaker 1: Texas Christian University in fort Worth. Catherine Davis had come
21:23
Speaker 1: to Dallas from Oxford, Mississippi, to pursue a career in
21:27
Speaker 1: fashion and modeling, and had only ended up in fort
21:30
Speaker 1: Worth because of a boy she followed there. At the
21:34
Speaker 1: time of her disappearance, she was venturing back into that
21:37
Speaker 1: world and had plans to move back to Dallas with
21:40
Speaker 1: another young woman. Similarities between Mary Till's case and some
21:46
Speaker 1: of those in Fort Worth were also not lost on investigators,
21:50
Speaker 1: though she disappeared from southwest Fort Worth. The body of
21:54
Speaker 1: fifteen year old Sarah Kashka was found in far southwest Dallas,
21:59
Speaker 1: not too far from Interstate twenty. About fifteen miles to
22:03
Speaker 1: the east is where Mary's body was found. Also not
22:06
Speaker 1: far off Interstate twenty, Lisa Griffin's case was eventually solved,
22:12
Speaker 1: but before it was detectives with the Task Force couldn't help,
22:16
Speaker 1: but note that she was killed with a single gunshot
22:19
Speaker 1: wound to the head, just like Mary too, But as
22:23
Speaker 1: far as Mary's case was concerned, it seemed Cindy Hellers
22:27
Speaker 1: matched the closest. Both women's cars were found in apartment complexes,
22:33
Speaker 1: and both had been set on fire inside, done as
22:37
Speaker 1: if in an attempt to destroy evidence, and theirs weren't
22:41
Speaker 1: the only area murder cases in which the car had
22:44
Speaker 1: been burned out. At about six thirty five pm on
22:50
Speaker 1: March thirty first, nineteen eighty five, twenty nine year old
22:53
Speaker 1: Darla Taylor left her house on the five hundred block
22:57
Speaker 1: of Hawthorne Lane in Grand Prairie, Texas. The family was
23:01
Speaker 1: having omelets for dinner, and Darla needed more of the
23:04
Speaker 1: staples of such a meal. Eggs and sausage. Driving her
23:09
Speaker 1: father's maroon Lincoln town car, she drove the couple blocks
23:13
Speaker 1: to Safeway to pick up the items. Witnesses placed Darla there,
23:19
Speaker 1: but she was never seen alive again. When she didn't
23:23
Speaker 1: return home, her husband, who was bowling, was contacted. He
23:28
Speaker 1: called the Grand Prairie police right away and reported his
23:31
Speaker 1: wife missing. Four hours after Darla Taylor left her house,
23:36
Speaker 1: the Lincoln town car was found on fire in the
23:39
Speaker 1: parking lot of the Treetop apartments, about a half mile
23:43
Speaker 1: west of the grocery store. A paper grocery sack with milk, eggs,
23:48
Speaker 1: and sausage was still inside. As police searched both for
23:53
Speaker 1: Darla and the culprit responsible for her disappearance, John Taylor
23:57
Speaker 1: pleaded for his wife's safe return. He would drop charges,
24:02
Speaker 1: he said if his wife was returned safely to him,
24:06
Speaker 1: but the madman who'd accosted her had already done his worst.
24:11
Speaker 1: On Tuesday, April second, nineteen eighty five, the body of
24:15
Speaker 1: Darla Taylor was discovered in a field about three and
24:19
Speaker 1: a half miles south of her home at Carrier Parkway
24:22
Speaker 1: and Interstate twenty. She'd been shot once in her chest
24:26
Speaker 1: and once in her head, having left a series of
24:30
Speaker 1: missteps and a trail of evidence behind him, twenty two
24:34
Speaker 1: year old Wallace Joscelyn Junior was arrested, charged with, and,
24:39
Speaker 1: after a first trial ended in a hung jury, finally
24:43
Speaker 1: convicted for Darla's murder. The Tarrant County District Attorney declined
24:48
Speaker 1: to risk trying the case as capital murder, even though
24:52
Speaker 1: the fact that he stole her purse was an aggravating factor.
24:57
Speaker 1: Joscelyn was sentenced to life in prison. Whoever killed Mary
25:02
Speaker 1: Till in nineteen eighty three and Cindy Heller in nineteen
25:05
Speaker 1: eighty four left behind virtually no evidence, though if their
25:10
Speaker 1: bodies were found sooner, perhaps more would have been discovered.
25:15
Speaker 1: What's also striking about the Darla Taylor case when compared
25:19
Speaker 1: with the cases out of Fort Worth and Dallas, is
25:22
Speaker 1: the fact that everything took place less than ten miles
25:25
Speaker 1: from where the body of Sarah Kashka was found. Whilas
25:30
Speaker 1: Joscelyn Junior was also wanted for crimes in Oklahoma, heinous crimes,
25:35
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a later episode. In the
25:40
Speaker 1: Dallas Fort Worth Arlington Metroplex, there seemed to have been
25:44
Speaker 1: an all out assault on women. But in the midst
25:48
Speaker 1: of the disappearances and slangs unfolding, a young man also
25:53
Speaker 1: became a victim of the endless violence. Before we continue
25:58
Speaker 1: with the story of twenty one year old Angela Ewert,
26:01
Speaker 1: we're going to re release an older episode that is
26:04
Speaker 1: relevant to the eighties murders. Even if you've already listened,
26:09
Speaker 1: it's a good idea to revisit the cases of Regina
26:12
Speaker 1: Grover and David Larson in the context of this series.
26:17
Speaker 1: That's next time on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime. Oddly,
26:23
Speaker 1: Mary's case is listed on the fort Worth Cold Case
26:26
Speaker 1: Units web page. If you have any information about the
26:30
Speaker 1: murder of Mary Elizabeth Till, please call them at eight
26:34
Speaker 1: one seven three nine two four three zero seven or
26:39
Speaker 1: contact the Dallas Police Cold Case Squad at two one
26:42
Speaker 1: four sixt' seven one three six six ' one. We'd
26:49
Speaker 1: like to thank Lily C for upgrading her Patreon support
26:53
Speaker 1: from baum City to clutch City. Thank you so much.
26:57
Speaker 1: If you'd like to join Gone Cold's mission to renew
27:00
Speaker 1: the public's interest in unsolved homicides, missing persons cases, and
27:05
Speaker 1: other perplexing mysteries, you can support the show and listen
27:09
Speaker 1: at free at patreon dot com Forward Slash Gone Cold podcast.
27:14
Speaker 1: You'll also find episodes exclusive to Patreon there, with more
27:19
Speaker 1: to come in the near future. Words cannot express how
27:22
Speaker 1: much we appreciate our patrons. Thank you so much for
27:26
Speaker 1: your support. You can also support Gone Cold by leaving
27:30
Speaker 1: a five star rating and written review on iTunes and
27:33
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, which will help the show reach more ears,
27:37
Speaker 1: bettering the chance someone with information about a case will
27:41
Speaker 1: hear it and come forward. A rating and written review
27:45
Speaker 1: wherever you listen is much appreciated. Thanks for listening, y'all.