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The I-70 Killer · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: In the quiet spring of nineteen ninety two, a string
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of brutal murders unfolded along the quiet towns and highways
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of America's Midwest. One by one, small business clerks were targeted,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: ambushed in broad daylight, and shot execution style. Being left
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: behind with little evidence and even fewer answers, The killer
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: seemed to vanish into the interstate traffic each and every time,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: earning the chilling nickname the Ie seventy Killer. Three decades later,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: their identity still remains a mystery, and the deadly events
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: still haunts the road that they once prowled. This is
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the unsolved story of the Eye's seventy Killer.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Grim, a true crime podcast. Warning the following yes material
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: more mature audience listener discretion.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to Wicked and grib true crime.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we've had some people who are like they've
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: got the intro downpacked and memorized. We've seen people lip
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: sync it before as their red can't put it in
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: their stories or send it to us. We do record
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a new one every time. It's not the same thing
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: that gets replayed. Yeah, which I mean.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: You could easily just put something in there, but it's
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: kind of fun.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: We're also recording anyways, we can just say it again. Yeah,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: sometimes we put a little bit of a different spin
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: on it, but usually it's the same.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Or if one of us has a cold, then you're
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: aware right away.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: That too, too. Got to love the fact that you
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: actually rely on your voice and your sound for something
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: like a podcast.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: It when I get sick, it makes me kind of
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: panic a bit more like oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: It's just I don't know. It's like your livelihood a
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: little bit too.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: That's true because I mean, if you lose your voice,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: if you're still if your body's still fine, you can
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: go into work, right mm hmm. And here, if you
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: lose your voice but your body is still fine, you
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: can't go into work. It's like no one's going to
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: be able to hear me.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Well yeah, and especially too with like photo shoots, I
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: can't really do them with no voice either, So that's true.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: So yeah, now.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: People rely on you, and we rely on you guys
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: for listening to the show, and people like Anika Wilson,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Sassy Chicks, Tiff Amber Malpin, Justine, Meghan Lowry, Tabitha Colvin,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Lauren kpe Hart, Prinita Sandela, Samantha Mayhew are all people
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: we rely on. Because they just signed up over on Patreon,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: they're getting behind the scenes and exclusive content. So thank you, yeah,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: thank you very very much. How'd you like my segue
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: that time? That's good. I just went right into the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: games without even talking.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: About, oh we're going there.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: It was an aggressive one. Are you excited for this case?
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but something else. We're going golfing?
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, holy shit, we're going to a driving range. Is
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: that considered golfing? I don't going to a driving range, that's.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Just going to a driving range. We last time we
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: golf was high school because we did have gym together
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a pee and we actually had golf in one of
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: our classes. And I think you or I haven't been
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: since no, and that was a long ass time ago. Yeah,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that was half our lifetime ago.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And now we live about you.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Know, more than actually shit a.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Few minutes away from a golf course. So we're gonna
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: go see if we are into it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know. So it's gonna be a good day.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Some true crime, some coffee.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: And some golf hockey is kind of over for us,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: so we're going golfing.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Hockey is not over. It's over for the second I know.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. And the Stanley Cup runs still going.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: We are still watching that, so and I do have
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to say I did pick a new team for it,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: not for standard cheering, just for the Stanley Cup because
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the Canucks are out. I am cheering for the Winnipeg
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Jets to win the Cup this year. Okay, well we
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: both are. We both are.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we both kind of picked that team only, and
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I think only because we felt they also have a
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: good chance.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: And I do like hellabuck though he is kind of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: shitting the bed in the playoffs.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the last two games. That's so sad. Pressure's got
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: to maybe or something.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean with him versus you know, Bennington,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: it's like the Keene Canada versus US thing all over
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the nations. Yeah, if you know, you know, but yeah,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: if you're not a hockey person, probably doesn't make sense
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and you probably don't care to hear about it while
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you're trying to like, let's get to the case, so
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: let's go, let's do that, Let's do exactly that. All right,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you ready, okay. In the spring of nineteen ninety two,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: a shadow slipped quietly along America's highways, a figure who
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: targeted unsuspecting store clerks in small, quiet shops scattered across
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the Midwest. This was no ordinary criminal. The man who
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: became known as the I seventy Killer left behind a
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: trail of devastation across Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri, killing six
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: people in less than one month with chilling precision. His
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: method was always the same, a sudden execution style gunshot
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: to the back of the head, a small amount of
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: cash taken, and then he'd vanished back into the endless
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: ribbon of the Interstate. Now to understand the I seventy Killer, though,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: you first have to understand his hunting grounds. The Interstate seventy.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: It isn't just any road. It's a massive stretch of
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: highway running east to west across more than two thousand,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: one hundred miles of the United States. From the crowded
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: streets of Baltimore, Maryland, to the rugged landscapes of Utah.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I seventy cuts straight through the heart of the country
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: in the Midwest. It winds through Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the very states where the killings would take place. These
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: highways are a lifeline for commerce and travel, but they
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: also offer something darker, obscurity. On any given day, thousands
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of cars flow through the rest stops, the gas stations,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: in small town shopping plazas, or whatever you may find.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Drivers come and go without notice, blending into the endless movement.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: It's easy to arrive unnoticed, and even easier to leave unnoticed.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: The killer seems to have figured this out and understand
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: this perfectly. He didn't choose crowded malls or bustling city streets. Instead,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: he struck at small specialty shops tucked just off the highway,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: placed where only one employee might be working, where security
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: cameras or any other measurements were almost non existent, and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: where an outsider wouldn't raise any immediate suspicion. So to
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: say the least, it was the perfect environment for someone
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: who wanted to kill quickly and then slip away and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: disappear into the rolling miles of asphalt in Cornfield and
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: just go now. The first known victim of the I
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: seventy killer was a woman by the name of Robin Flauder,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: a twenty six year old store manager with a bright
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: future ahead of her. On April eighth, nineteen ninety two,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Robin was covering an afternoon shift at the Paylist's Shoe source,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: located at seven three two five Pendleton Pike in Indianapolis, Indiana.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: She hadn't planned to work that day. She was stepping
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: in for an employee who had called out. The Paylist's
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: store was quiet, sitting on the outskirts of the city,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: with minimal staff and no security cameras. The only precaution
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: was a simple door buzzer that chimed whenever anyone entered
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  Speaker 1: the store. That afternoon, Robin was working alone. Police would
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: later reconstruct a rough timeline of what happened. The last
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: known transaction at the red occurred at one twelve PM,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: a customer purchased a pair of men's shoes and a
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: pair of women's as well, short time after tragedy would strike.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Investigators believe that the killer entered the store, likely pretending
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to browse and be a patron, but once he confirmed
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Robin was alone, he led her to the back stock
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: room at gunpoint. There, using a twenty two caliber pistol,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: he shot her execution style in the back of the head,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: not once, but twice. He then emptied the register, but
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: it still estimated that he stole less than a few
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars. He then fled through the rear exit, disappearing
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: before anyone could react. That is some scary shit, yep.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Do you know.
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  Speaker 2: I noticed that when I'm in a store or somewhere,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: if there's only one person working, I like almost so
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: nervous for them because I feel that you should have
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: two people at all times kind of thing.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I agree, it's a safety measure. Right now, there are
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: different you know, things that are written into you know,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: procedures and stuff for safety. Is like, okay, if you
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: need help, like there's other stores beside you or across
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the street, there's other people quote unquote technically around, but
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: they're not in the same building. They're not there to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: see or hear. What if you slip and fall off
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: or ladder? For say, yeah, right, I feel.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: A mall might be okay, you know when everyone's inside
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: and you're like walking around the circle and all these
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: stores have their storefront. But even like an outside mall
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: isn't a safe I don't know, but it costs so
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: much more for a business owner to have two people working,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: That's true, what do you do?
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: It's funny because working in like industrial places that I
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: did before I was a first aid attendant and the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: regulations where you have to have one first aid attendant
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: on site. Mm hm, Well what happens if that first
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: aid attendant is the one that gets hurt? Oh?
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Shit?
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that went through my mind so many times because
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: like I was working in like very dangerous areas, right,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: like giant saws and massive equipment, and you're the one.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: What if I'm the one that gets hurt? Oh, then
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: you're just fucked exactly. So. But at the same time,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: it's like how far do you push those countermeasures too, because,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: like you said, it's going to cost those store clerks
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: or the business owners extra money, money that they probably
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: couldn't afford or stay to stay open in many cases.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: It's so messed up though, how everything is regarding money, right,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: and I think it it comes to people's safety.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: The world revolves around it, and they say money is
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the root of all evil, and it makes sense it
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: does now. For hours, no one realized anything was wrong.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Some customers who came in during the afternoon even didn't
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: see an employee year round and swipe some shoes off
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the shelves, unaware that Robin was actually lying dead just
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: a few steps away from them.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Shit.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: It wasn't until around two twenty one pm that help
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: finally arrived. A worker from the neighboring Speedway gas station
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: entered the Paylass to check after one store manager couldn't
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: reach Robin by phone. Finding the shop empty in the
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: cash registered drawer hanging open, the employee quickly called the police.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: When officers arrived, they did a sweep of the store,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and they discovered Robin's body in the storage room. She's
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: there dead. The scene was chilling, and at first the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: investigators assumed it was a robbery gone wrong, a tragic
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: but not unheard of type event. No one suspected that
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: they were looking at the first victim in a much
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: larger pattern of violence that was about to sweep across
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the Midwest. As police campassed the area, a nearby paint
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: store manager came forward with an eerie Sighting before the murder,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: he had noticed a disheveled man in a green coat
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: sitting on a curb across from the Payless shoes. He
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: was rifling through a bag and staring at the store.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: The man had lingered for about thirty or forty minutes,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: talking and giggling to himself. Right before the sirens wailed
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: and the police came, the witness saw him attempt to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: hitchhike towards the nearby interstate. Just three days after Robin's murder,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: the killer struck again, but this time there were two
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: victims instead of one. On April eleventh, nineteen ninety two,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: in Wichita, Kansas, a small bridle shop called Labride Elegance
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: became the site of the next attack. The shop was
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: located at four to six y one three East Kellogg Drive,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: not far from the busy intersection of I thirty five
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: and I seventy. Like the payless store, it was an unassuming,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: lightly staffed business, a vulnerable target hidden in plain sight.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: That Saturday evening, thirty two year old Patricia Majors, the
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: store owner, and her employee, twenty three year old Patricia Smith,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: they are both Patricia's, had agreed to stay late to
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: accommodate a male customer who needed to pick up a
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Cumberland for the for an event. Now, the store's normal
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: closing time was around six pm, but The two women
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: waited inside, expecting a routine transaction. What they got instead
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: was a nightmare. Sometime around fifteen, a man knocked on
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the locked front door, believing he was the expected customer.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: One of the women let him inside, but he wasn't
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: there for a pickup. Armed with a twenty two caliber
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: semi automatic pistol, the man forced both women back into
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the office. There he executed them two gunshots to the
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: back of their heads. Like Indianapolis, the cast register was emptied,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: but only a small amount of money was missing. The
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: killer might have escaped unnoticed if not for a small
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: twist of fate. The real customer arrived to pick up
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: that cumber Bund. I think, I said Cumberland. At first
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: it's a cumber Bund. Just minutes later, oh.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Okay, here I was wondering, did he like set this
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: up that he was the customer?
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: But no, no, now, According to his statement, the man
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: entered the store and was immediately confronted by the gunman inside.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: The killer tried to force him into the back room
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: as well, likely to execute him along with two women,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: but the customer refused and bolted instead, fleeing the parking
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: lot are fleeing into the parking lot. He didn't call
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: police immediately, though, he was overwhelmed and confused, but eventually
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: made an anonymous call. About an hour later. Police arrived
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: and they found the store keys still dangling in the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: front door lock. In the back room, both Patricia Majors
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and Patricia Smith were found shot. Patricia Majors was found
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: pronounced dead at the scene, but Patricia Smith, however, was
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: found fatally wounded and still clinging to life. She was
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: rushed to hospital but died later that night.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Here, I was like, oh my gosh, does she live?
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: This fucker though, Like, is he doing this? I mean,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: I'm sure we'll kind of find out or if he's
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: doing numerous is he doing it for the killings or
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: the money because he's getting pennies basically for these people's lives.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, So.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: I think it's definitely probably more than just for the money,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: because that is some sort of asshole that think someone's
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: life is worth like a couple hundred bucks.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: We'll definitely talk about that, So don't worry, kay. Now.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: For the first time though, this is important, investigators had
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: a living witness the man who stumbled into the attacker right,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and with his help they were able to create a
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: composite sketch of the suspect. The man was described as
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: a white male, approximately five to seven, around one hundred
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: and fifty pounds, short, dull red hair combed forward, slight
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: stubble on his face, with a brown jacket and dark pants.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, he got a real good look at him, he did.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Now there would be a sketch that was made, and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: it would become the face of the investigation in the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: months to come. Ballistics tests also quickly confirmed what some
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: detectives already feared. The gun used to kill both Patricia's
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: match the one that ended Robin's life just days earlier.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: As well. It was now official a serial killer was
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: on the loose, and he was far from done. After
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the back to back killings of three young women, the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: pattern seemed clear until the killer made an unexpected move.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: On April twenty seventh, nineteen ninety two, more than two
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: weeks after the Wichita double homicide, the I seventy killers
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: struck again, but this time the victim was a male.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Michael McCown age forty, was working alone at Sylvia's Ceramics.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: His mother's small ceramic shop located at two six one
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: five South third Street in Terry Hout, Indiana, just off
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Interstate seventy. Michael wasn't originally supposed to work that day,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: a pattern the killer seemed to exploit again and again,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: but had decided to come in after a chiropractor appointment
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: earlier that morning. At around four PM, a customer entered
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the store and made a horrifying discovery. Michael was lying
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: just inside the front area, dead from a gunshot wound
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: to the back of the head. Police determined that the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: attack had been sudden and close range. Evidence suggested that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Michael had been stalking shelves, possibly retrieving a small ceramic
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: house for a customer, when the killer crept up behind
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: him and pulled the trigger. Gunpowder stippling from around the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: wound indicated that the pistol had been fired from less
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: than four inches away, nearly contacting him when the shot
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: was fired.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: That's crazy, and he wouldn't have even known what was coming.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I don't think no, probably not, uh huh.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Just doing his job and then someone just walks in
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: and boom.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, brig Unlike the previous murders, the cast register wasn't
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: touched this time, Approximately fifty dollars remained inside there, and
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Michael's personal money about fifteen bucks, was still in his pocket,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: only his wallet was missing. This presented a puzzle for
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the investigators. Was the I seventy killer changing his behavior
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: or had Michael simply not been the intended target. Some
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: theorized that Michael, who had long brown hair and wore
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: a small earring, might have been mistaken for a woman
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: from behind the store's name, Sylvia Ceramics, could have reinforced
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: a false assumption potentially. However, family members later clarified that
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: at the time of his death, Michael had cut his
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: hair short, making it much less likely that he would
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: be confused for a female employee, especially at close range.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: When the killer attacked right right now. I mean there
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: is a whole thing around gender and identity. But so
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: we're talking assuming someone's gender from behind. Did the killer
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: do that? Get it wrong? The family doesn't think so, okay. Additionally,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: given the killer's usual method of leading victims to the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: back room, Michael's murder seemed to be more upper opportunistic.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: That that's the word I was looking for. There you go.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: He was attacked at the shop floor, right out front,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: right without any effort to isolate him.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: When people would find him instantly when they came in exactly.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: It raised disturbing new possibilities about the killer's mindset. Maybe
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: he was less picky than initially believed. Maybe it wasn't
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: about gender at all, but about control, vulnerability, and opportunity.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Either way, by the time Michael's body was found, the
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: killer was already gone, disappearing once again into the open
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: roads of the Midwest. The next killing came just days later,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: and once again the victim was a young woman who
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: hadn't originally been scheduled to work that day. On May third,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Nancy Kitts Miller, a twenty four year
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: old college graduate, was managing the boot Village store at
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: the Boya Hills Plaza in Saint Charles, Missouri, a busy
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: shopping center located just off Interstate seventy. Nancy was bright, energetic,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: with big plans in her life. She had recently graduated
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: with a degree in geography from Oklahoma State University and
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: had just accepted a job offer at the Defense Mapping
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Agency in Saint Louis. Her new career was only a
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: few weeks away, but on that Sunday afternoon, she was
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: filling in for a coworker who had called in sick.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Nancy opened the store around noon, and by two thirty pm,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: several shoppers had seen her helping a customer, a man
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: matching the earlier composite description, white male, medium height, slender bill,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: dull or light brown hair, and minutes later, new customers
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: entered the shop, only to find it eerily empty. When
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: they've entered into the back office, they made a chilling discovery.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Nancy was dead shot, execution style in the back of
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the head, just like the victims before.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Man, this guy is just on a freakin' rampage here.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now. Once again, only a small amount of cash
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: was missing from the register. Nancy's purse, sitting close by,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: was untouched. There's no sign of a struggle, no indication
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: that she had fought back. Witnesses helped refine the composite
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: sketch even further, reinforcing earlier details, giving police more confidence
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: that the same man was responsible for the string of murders. Still,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: despite multiple witnesses and a growing public awareness, the killer
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: once again just slipped away without a trace, blending back
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: into the maze of highways that Chris crossed across the country.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: On May seventh, nineteen ninety two, just four days after
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Nancy Kitzmiller's murder, the I seventy killer struck again for
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: what would become the last confirmed time along the interstate.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: The target this time was Sarah Blessing, a thirty four
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: year old shop owner in Raytown, Missouri, a suburb just
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: east of Kansas City. Sarah had recently opened a small
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: business called Store of Many Colors, located in Woodson Village
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: shopping center, about two miles from the interstate. Her shop
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: was quiet new age boutique and sold herbal remedies, crystals,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: and spiritual wellness items. That evening, at around six fifteen pm,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Tim Hickman, who owned a neighboring video rental store, noticed
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: an unfamiliar man loitering around the shop center. The men
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: seemed slightly at a place, wearing a gray sports coat,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and it was too heavy for that warm spring day.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: He was also seen peering into Hickman's front store window
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: before eventually walking next door to Sarah's shop. Moments later,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Hickman heard a sharp pomping noise, a sound that he
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: would later realize was a gunshop. Oh brutal. He rushed
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: outside and caught a glimpse of the man calmly exiting
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the store of many colors rounding the corner of the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: building without hurrying. The stranger walked across the parking lot,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: climbed an embankment, and disappeared into the neighborhood streets, heading
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: roughly towards Interstate seventy. When Hickman entered Sarah's shop, he
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: found a terrible scene. Sarah was lying face down at
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the back of her store, dead from a single gunshot
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: wound to the head. Like the other victims, she appeared
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to have been led towards the back room before being killed.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Small amount of cass was missing from the register, but
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: valuables and other money remained untouched. Hickman's eyewitness account helped
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: police refine their composite sketch yet again even further. Additional
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: witnesses also reported seeing a man matching the same general
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: description near the shopping center around the time of the killings,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: reinforcing the pattern investigators had begun to build. With Sarah's death,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the Midwest bree came to a chilling pause. Over the
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: course of just one month, from April eighth to May seventh,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two, the I seventy killer had murdered
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: six people across three states. Each victim was shot in
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the back of the head with the same twenty two
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: caliber fire arm, and each killing occurred in a small,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: low traffic retail store situated near a major highway entrance.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Police departments across Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri scrambled to coordinate
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: their investigation. Forensic ballistics confirmed the same gun had been
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: used in every crime. The media was warned of a
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: serial killer stocking the I seventy corridor, but despite increased security,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: public warnings, and heavy media coverage, the killer seemed to
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: vanish without any sort of trace, just as quickly as
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: he appeared. Now By the time Sarah Blessing's murder shocked
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the small town of Raytown, Missouri, investigators had already realized
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: that the killings were not random acts of violence. A
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: clear and chilling pattern was starting to emerge, one that
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: stretched across hundreds of miles in connecting the six innocent
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: victims to a single, unknown predator. The first thing detective
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: noticed was the similarity between the victims. Five out of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: six were young women, typically with their in their early
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: twenties or the early thirties, with dark hair and petite builds.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: There were employees of small specialty shops, shoe stores, ceramic shops,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: bridal boutiques, the kind of businesses that usually only staff
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: one worker at a time. The sole male victim, Michael McCown,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: initially puzzled investigators. In some theorized he was mistaken for
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: a woman, as I mentioned earlier, especially given the store's name,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Sylvia's Ceramics, and reported it. Reports that he had even
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: worn an earring which helped reinforce that also the potential
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: long hair, But I digress. However, family members confirmed you
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: know the short one, short hair right. What remained, though consistent,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: was every victim was working alone at a shop located
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: just off these highway entrances. In every case, the killer
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: used that same twenty two caliber semi automatic pistol to
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: execute his victims with a shot to the back of
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the head. There was no prolonged violence, no clear sign
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: of any sort of struggle, and no meaningful theft. Only
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: small amounts of petty cash really, or few hundred dollars
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: at most purses, wallets, large valuables were often left behind,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: while the money was generally only ever taken from the registers.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Witnesses who had spotted the suspect before the murders described
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: him in similar ways, a white male of average build, thin,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: dull or red light brown hair, often stubbled or slightly unkept.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: On two occasions, people observed him loitering around shopping classes,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: talking and laughing to himself, behavior that at the time
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: seemed odd but harmless. Man hindsight, of course, suggested something
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: much darker. Man, either mentally and well, or so detached
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: from reality that he could carry out murders in broad
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: daylight without any sign of panic and in fact just
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: laughed about it instead.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: I was honestly just thinking that, how he's just doing
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: this literally and like during the day when people are around.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: He's not hiding shit at all.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: No, he's not.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: He just is just going in doing his thing and
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: leaving like it's no big deal. Yeah, which is wild. Now.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I did mention the ballistics test done on the bullets,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: confirming that the same weapon was fired on each of
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: the six crimes, linking them together beyond any reason of doubt.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Right now, on each of these bullet casings. The ballistics
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: tests also found traces of corundum and roote, materials commonly
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: used in metal polishing and industrial grinding, so basically polishing
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: type compound. Okay. So this discovery hinted at two possibilities.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Either the killer worked in an industrial environment where those
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: materials were present, okay, or he was a gun hobbyist
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: who modified and maintained his own weapon. Okay.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Either way, one thing became clear. Robbery wasn't the real motive.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: The thefts were likely a smoke screen, a way to
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: make the crime seem like an ordinary stick up for
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: some cash. Okay.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: So the cash or money didn't even matter at.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: All, didn't seem like it. No, it was all about
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: the killings. Yes, I mean there was cash left over it,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: many of them. They are different things. Sure he was
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: using the cash, I mean, why wouldn't he, But it
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: wasn't the motive. You know, gosh that.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: But when you hear about serial killers and stuff, lots
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: of times it's more drawn out killings, right, So this
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: just like going in and boom doing it and leaving
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: it just seems like off to me a little bit.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: It's different. It's very different. You're right, because usually they
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: get the call saud of the torture, the power dynamic,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Making wearing the out of people and stuff.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, making them beg or you know, tying them up
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: or capturing them, like you say, torturing them whatever it
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: is that having the power over someone. This is just
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: you're done. Yeah, without them even knowing.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Well, the one guy, yeah, I didn't even know. Yeah,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: he was just like grabbing something from a freaking shelf
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: and just gone exactly.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: So what the uh the thought behind that is? I
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: have no clue. Yeah, because it's so different. It is
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: so The spree along Interstate seventy revealed a killer who
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: was methodical, confident, and dangerously mobile, and, as investigators would
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: soon discover, he might not have stopped with these Midwest killings.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: This may not have been the end.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, shit, I just remember something you said from
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: the freaking intro. This shit isn't solved. I'm pissed now
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: because I'm just sitting here waiting to get the full
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: story in the solved and shit and it's not coming.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, this is unsolved. Correct? I said it
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: at the intro? You did, and I.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Forgot I was just assuming this was solved and this
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: motherfucker was caught.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: No, if you're this far in and you two are
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: just discovering that it's unsolved, I did tell you at
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the intro. We didn't rediscuss it at the beginning, but
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: in the intro I did say it's unsolved brutal. So
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: what investigators figured out, though, was that this may not
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: have been the end. He may have just moved on
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: to a different area.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: See, after the murder of Sarah Blessing in May of
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, the killings along Interstates seventy they appeared
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: to stop. For a while. It seemed like the I
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: seventy killer had simply vanished into the endless web of highways.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: But then about a year later, and about several hundred
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: miles south, new murders began, one that took early similar
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: feels with it. In the fall of nineteen ninety three,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: authorities in Texas faced a string of settling cases. Once again,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the victims were women working along small shops located near
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: major interstates. Once again, the murders involved execution style shootings,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and once again the cash stolen was minimal, suggesting robbery
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: wasn't the real motive for the first of these Texas cases.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: It occurred in September. On the twenty fifth in nineteen
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: ninety three, in Fort Worth, Mary Anne Glasgock, a fifty
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: one year old woman, was found dead inside her antique store,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Emporium Antiques, near the I thirty interstate, not far from
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: where the busy I thirty five corridor is. She'd been
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: shot in the head. Her pants were found partially removed,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and while a small amount of money was taken, it
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: was clear that the crime was not just about theft.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: A few weeks later, on November one, nineteen ninety three,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: twenty two year old Amy Vess was working the evening
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: shift at Dancer's Closet, a dance work store in Arlington, Texas.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Like the victims in the Midwest, she wasn't supposed to
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: be working that night. She'd been called in to cover
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: for someone else. At some point between six fifteen and
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: six point thirty, a man entered the store. It led
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Amy to the back room, and there shot her twice,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: once in the neck and once in the back of
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the head. Amy was somehow able to call nine one
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: one after being shot, but she tragically slipped into a
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: coma and died the next day. Holy. The fact that
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: she was able to call is unreal. Yeah. Then on
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: January fifteenth, nineteen ninety four, another attack occurred, but this
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: time the victim survived. Vicki Webb, a thirty five year
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: old woman working at Alternatives gift shop in Houston, had
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: just opened her store for the day when a man entered.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: They spoke casually for a while before he asked her
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: to retrieve a small picture frame. As she turned to
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: help him, the man shot her in the back of
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the neck. Miraculously, Vicki didn't die. Though initially paralyzed, she
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: survived by pretending to be dead as the attacker rifled
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: through the cash register. When he returned, he attempted to
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: fire a second shot into her head, but the gun misfired.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Whoa startled by the noises from a neighboring business, the
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: man fled the scene.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay, And the fact that she I don't know,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: I can't imagine getting shot. That would be unbelievably painful,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: I'm sure, And then having the wits about you to
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: just pretend like that did get in That's well, this
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: guy is still in your shop like in your cash
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: register and stuff.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Exactly so, not only because she survived, but because of that,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Vicky is one hundred and ten percent or badass no
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: today hitting now. VICKI would later identify her shooter from
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: a police sketch, and chillingly, she pointed to the composite
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: created for the I seventy killer, saying, that's the guy.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: That's him. Despite this, Texas authorities hesitated to officially link
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the cases. The main reason ballistic evidence suggested the weapon
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: used in the Texas killings was different from the gun
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: you in the nineteen ninety two spree. Now, some investigators
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: argue that the killer could have simply switched guns, knowing
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: that the police had already publicized details about his previous
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: weapon totally. Others pointed to a significant similarities in victims' profile, methods, behaviors, etc.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Saying that it was was it the same man? A
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: few detectives believed it was almost certainly the same, while
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: others remained unconvinced.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: What kind of makes sense to me that it is
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: the same. I agree, because I can't imagine that guy
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: would just stop.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Oh right right?
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: And these are very similar and they're quite odd too.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, So, I mean, who's to say that. Yeah,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: maybe he just got rid of that gun and got
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: a new one, right, Maybe he was in a situation
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: where like maybe he's coming up and there's some police ahead,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: and he just quickly chucked it in the river, got
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: through the police block or whatever he needed to do,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: and then went and purchased a new one later.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Well, and especially too, if he's into guns, because I
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: think one of the things he was saying he could
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: be like a gun connoisseur or something. Yeah, then it
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: makes sense that he would.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Have different ones too, exactly.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: And he's not doing I feel like he's not I
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: don't this is terrible wording, but not doing as good
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: of a job with these ones, where like he's shooting them,
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: they're not going right in the head. So he's getting
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: s neck and this one's only the neck and she
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: doesn't even die and stuff.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's getting sloppyest what you mean, right, Yeah? Yeah, Okay, No,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I agree, you're right. Regardless for the families of the
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Texas victims and for the loan survivor, Vicky Webb, the
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: similarities they were too strong to ignore. A man had
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: been traveling the highways, targeting women in vulnerable places, moving
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: from city to city like a ghost, and whoever he was,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: he had managed to keep himself hidden from law enforcement
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: for more than a year. For decades, law enforcement and
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: amateur sleuths alike have combed through leads looking for the
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: man who terrorized small towns shops along the interstates. Over
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the years, a handful of names have risen to the surface,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: some briefly, others with chilling credibility. Yet no suspect has
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: ever been formally charged in the I seventy murders. One
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: of the earliest serious leads came in nineteen ninety two,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: when authorities arrested a man by the name of Donald
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Waterhouse in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Waterhouse had murdered his own
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: mother and stepfather that February, shooting them both in the
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: head with a twenty two caliber weapon at grim parallel
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: to the I seventy killers method. Adding to suspicion, Waterhouse abandoned.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: His abandoned vehicle was found near East Saint Louis, not
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: far from Interstate seventy. At first, it seemed like a
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: major break in the case. Ballistic tests in Waterhouse's background
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: gave investigators hope, but over time inconsistencies emerged. By that summer,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: authorities announced that Waterhouse was no longer considered a viable suspect.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: He was, however, sentenced to fifty years in prison for
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the murder of his family, but the link to the
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: I seventy killings fell apart. Sorry, what exactly was the link?
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Was it that he just had shot them.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: In the head? The killing was similar? Yes? Okay?
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I feel like, I don't know, if you're
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: going to shoot your family, which is just horrible, that
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: would kind of be the way that someone would think
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: to do it.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: It's hard to say. It depends on the situation, right,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: was this a rage killing? Did he want to see
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: their eyes? Did he do it in their sleep?
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Was he a bit more of a coward and he
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't like face them and yeah, when they're sleeping. It
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: all depends on the profile of the perpetrator. But he
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: did shoot them in the head with a twenty two
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: caliber weapon, okay? And then his car was found abandoned
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: not far from the I seventy.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Did he look like the guy?
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not too sure. I don't think so.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: It's hard to say yeah. Now, another name surfaced in
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the mid nineteen nineties, Robert Craig Cox. Now Robert was
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: a former former Army ranger, and he had a criminal
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: history that made him a compelling suspect. In nineteen eighty eight,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: he was convicted of aggravated assault on kidnapping in California.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: He was also considered a prime suspect in the nineteen
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: seventy eight murder of a disney worker in Florida, although
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: that connection was later overturned. Now, at the time of
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: the I seventy murders, Robert was living in Springfield, Missouri,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: not far from several of the murder scenes. He was
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: even suspected of in the disappearance of three women in
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Springfield in nineteen ninety two. Yet, despite the circumstantial ties,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: no concrete evidence ever linked Robert to the I seventy killings,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: and he has consistently denied any involvement. Now, perhaps one
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: of the most chilling possible connections, though, is a man
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: by the name of Herb Baucemeister Bowmeister. There we go, Bowmeister,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: the notorious Fox Hollow farm killer. Now, Herb was a
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: successful Indianapolis businessman with a respectable family life on the surface.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Behind closed doors, however, he was a predator who targeted
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: young men, many of whom were found buried on his
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: property after his death. Now police have considered Herb a
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: possible match for the I seventy killer based on several factors.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: He lived in Indianapolis during the time of the murders.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: He matched the physical description with the average height, the
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: red tinted hair, the slight build. He even had extensive
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: experience cruising highways and public spaces for his victims. Some
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: investigators even believe that Herb could be linked to the
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: I seventy Strangler, a different case entirely, which was a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: series of murders involving young men found along the interstate
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighties. So this is the I seventy killer,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: that's the I seventy strangler. However, the victim profiles don't
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: line up perfectly. Herb primarily targeted young men, while the
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: I seventy killer prayed almost exclusively on women. Now, Herb
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: died of suicide in nineteen ninety six, leaving behind a
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: vague and apologetic note but no direct confession to any
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: sort of murders. Other theories Sworld II. Some investigators have
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: sped sculated that the I seventy killer may have had
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: military ties, explaining his ability to move quickly across multiple states.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Others suggest he might have been a traveling salesman, a
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: truck driver, or a construction worker, jobs that offered easy
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: access to interstates and freedom to vanish each time after
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: a crime occurred. There's even a theory that the killer
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: parked in nearby residential neighborhoods and walked to his targets,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: keeping his vehicle out of sight to avoid witnesses and
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: security cameras. When it comes to the I seventy killer,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: hard physical evidence has always been frustratingly scarce. Yet the
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: few forensic breadcrumbs that did leave behind any help. It's
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: really hard to really do anything, though it is still
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: relied on today. At the heart of the case is
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: that twenty two caliber semi automatic pistol. The tests, as
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, confirmed that they were all used in the
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I seventy killings, connecting the same weapon. The ammunition recovered
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: was Cci brand twenty two caliber long rifle rounds common
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: and very easy to obtain, which made tracing them almost impossible,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: but there was something odd about the bullets themselves, as
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: I mentioned. On multiple shell casings, investigators found traces of
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: that abrasive material corundum and rogue roge sorryish and like
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: a polishing compound. Both substances are typically used in industrial
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: grinding and metalwork, but also known to be used by
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: gun enthusiasts who modify and maintain their firearms. See. This
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: led to the theories about something called fire lapping, a
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: process where bullets are coated with this with unabrasive and
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: are fired through the barrel to clean or slightly alter
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: the rifling of the firearm. It's a technique used by
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: hobbyists looking to tweak the performance of their guns. If
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: the killer was that knowledgeable about firearms, it pointed to
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: someone methodical, someone who took pride in preparation. Even investigators
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: eventually narrowed down the possible weapon models of two unusual guns,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: so it could possibly be the Introtex Scorpion or the
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Irma work Et twenty two. Both were rare and distinctive,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: particularly the Irma, a German made collector's piece modeled after
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: the historic World War One side arm. It wasn't the
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: kind of weapon an average street criminal would carry this
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: reinforce the growing belief that the I seventy killer was
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: not a petty robber but some something more far calculating
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: and as you mentioned, you know, having someone who's like
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: a connoisseur of guns, almost like a collector even. Yeah,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: but still this idea only gives a potential glimpse into
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: the mind of the killer and not exactly who they were.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: And it's frustrating to say that the police needed more
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: than that. Yeah, they sure did. Now. Originally, when the
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: I seventy killer first struck in nineteenninety two, law enforcement
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: agencies across Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri moved quickly to respond.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Task force They were formed almost overnight in hopes of
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: finding the culprit. Local police departments, state authorities, and the
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: FBI all began sharing information, a relatively new practice at
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: the time for serial crimes across state lines. At first,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: investigators were flooded with leads, witnesses, descriptions they poured in.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Composite sketches were created, ballistics linked the murders conclusively, and
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: yet as quickly as the evidence seemed to gather, it
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: led absolutely nowhere. One major early misstep was the public
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: release about the information on the killer's weapon. Authorities announced
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: that they believe the shooter was using that rare erma
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: E twenty two or Intertex scorpion, very specific distinctive guns.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: They also revealed the discovery of the polishing compound on
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the shell casings. While the attention to generate tips was good,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: you know, they're hoping that this information could help, it's
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: believed now that it had the opposite effect, that it
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: actually tipped off the killer. Okay, After the final confirmed
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Midwest murder of Sarah Blessing, the I seventy killers suddenly stopped,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: or at least changed his pattern so drastically that he
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: avoided further detection. Over the years, the case grew colder.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Despite being featured in major national shows like Unsolved Mysteries
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: America's Most Wanted, no arrests were made. The suspect pool
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: at one point included over sixty seven thousand names, and
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: it slowly shranked to a handful of persons of interest,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: and none of whom could ever be definitively tied to
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: the crimes. In twenty twelve, on the twentieth anniversary of
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: the spree, investigators renewed public attention to the case. They
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: revealed new forensic insight, like the likely weapon types, the
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: contaminated shell casings, behavioral profile. They put this back out there.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: They hope that the advance is in the forensic science,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: particularly the DNA technology, could finally crack the case. But
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: true momentum didn't build again until October twenty twenty one,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: when the Saint Charles Police Department announced the formation of
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: a new multi agency task force. This task force included
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: the FBI, ATF and multiple state local agencies from across Indiana, Missouri,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: and Kansas. Their goal to completely re examine the entire
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: investigation from scratch using modern methods. Among their new initiatives
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: submitting old physical evidence for DNA testing using highly sensitive
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: new techniques, creating an age progressed sketch of the killer,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: imagining how he might look in his sixties or seventies,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Reviewing thousands of pages of reports, evidence logs, and dispatch
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: records with fresh eyes, cross referencing cases that had similar patterns,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: including the unsolved murders in Texas that we talked about,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: and leaven even later incidences as far as in Indiana
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and one. For investigators, there is a
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: sense of cautious optimism. DNA technology has solved countless cold
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: cases once thought hopeless. Even the tiniest fragment of hair
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: or drop of blood, a touch of on a doorknob,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: who knows, could be enough to build a genetic profile
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: and match it through the genealogical Here we Go database now,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: as famously done to capture the Golden State killer. Right,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: so that's kind of what they're hoping potentially help solve
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: this now you can only help. Still, time is running out.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: If the I seventy killer was in his thirties or
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: four days during the original murder, he would likely be
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: in his sixties or even seventies today. He could still
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: be alive but aging, hiding in plain sight, just as
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: he was during that bloody spring in nineteen ninety two.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Or he could have died, taking the truth with him. Yep.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: For now, the task force continues its painstaking work, even today,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: after three decades have passed since the I seventy killers rampage.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Each victim left behind the family. They left behind friends, dreams,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: and futures that were brutally cut short. Each was simply
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: doing their job, living their life, and when a stranger
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: walked in, they stole everything. Robin Flounder was twenty six
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: years old working hard as a store manager at Peles
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Shue Source in Indianapolis. She dreamed of starting a family.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: One day, she wasn't supposed to be working that afternoon,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: but she stepped up when a coworker called in sick,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: a simple act of responsibility that unknowingly placed her in
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: the killer's path. Patricia Major's thirty two in Patricia Smith
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: twenty three were at the beginning of new chapters in
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: their lives. Managers had opened lebride Elegance, proud to run
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: her own bridle shop, and Patricia Smith was a nursing
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: student in Wichita State University working part time as a
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: bridal consultant. They stayed late on Sunday night to help
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: a customer, showing kindness and dedication, and were instead met
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: with violence. Michael mccow forty had spent years traveling as
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: a musician before returning home to indian Apple to help
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: his mother run her ceramics shop. He was a fixture
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: in the community, kind, hard working, and loved by friends
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: and family. He wasn't even supposed to be at work
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: that day. He had thought about taking the day off,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: but duty simply called Nancy kits Miller twenty four was
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: a bright and ambitious young woman with a newly earned
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: geographic geography degree from Oklahoma State. She had just landed
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: a position at the Defense Mapping Agency and was weeks
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: away from starting her dream job. She picked up an
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: extra shift at Boot Village to help out a coworker,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: one final act of generosity that cost her everything. Sarah
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Blessing thirty seven, had just opened her own shop, store
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: of many colors, selling herbal remedies and spiritual goods. A
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: published poet and a believer in healing, she was trying
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: to build a life rooted in kindness and creativity. She
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: had been in business just three weeks when the killer
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: found her. And beyond them, there are others possible victims
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: of the I seventy Kis Killer who were residing in Texas,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: including Mary Anne glasgowck Amy Vess, and Vicki Webb, who
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: survived but carries her own haunting memories. Each of these
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: victims were loved, each had stories, talents, and futures that
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: will never fully be known. The I seventy killer left
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: behind more than shellcasings and crime scenes. He left behind
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: broken families, empty chairs at dinner tables, and decades of
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: unanswered grief. He ripped a hole through communities, one that
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: was never fully healed. When we talk about the need
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: for justice and cold cases like this, it isn't just
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: about solving a puzzle or closing a file. It's about
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: honoring each and every one of these victims, about giving
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: them dignity of being seen, remembered, and fought for, even
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: after all of these years. They weren't just names on
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: a list. They were people, and they deserve better than
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: to be forgotten instead of us just remembering the I
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: seventy killer. And that's the story for Tis.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a it's a piss off that he
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: is just getting away with all of this and I
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: don't know, murdering these people so coldly, and their families
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: and friends, never getting any closure, and the fact that
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: like a lot of them weren't even supposed to be
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: there just kills me. Or they were just you know,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: opening a new business and stuff. Oh no matter, anyway,
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: like anyone dies or whatever, they're going to have a story.
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: But still some of these just they're going to haunt
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: me fair enough.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: And the idea that this guy, honestly, he could be
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: out there right now in some mom and pop shop,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: you know, purchasing a bouquet of flowers for his daughter,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: granddaughter or graduation, whatever story you want to put together.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Don't do that. He could be standing in their shop
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: right now and he could just be thinking what he
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: could do, and he's like, I've done it before, I
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: could do it again.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: Well, it does seem so weird that he would just
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: randomly stop like that, But I mean, I guess you
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: never know what's going on that he could have like,
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: you know, I had a kid or or something. There
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: could have been something that made him stop.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Well, the general consensus is he didn't stop, he just
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: changed because of the information that was released to public.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, that it's the same gun. Here's a blistics testing,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: here's the possible models he's using, which, honestly, when they
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: release that, he then stops and then continues as killing
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in Texas with a different gun. It makes so much sense.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: So he could have even been someone that say has
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: gotten caught. He could be for like an other serial killer,
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: and we have no idea that he also did all
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: these or something, it's possible.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: In my head.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: I'm just like, I for some reason feel like he
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: did die, and I'm like, okay with that. But that's
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: just me like justifying how to get through this with
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: this terrible person.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, fair enough. I meant hopefully he's not
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: out there and live in a good life, live in
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: a good life and has the possibility of hurting someone else.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: It just I don't know. It's hard to fathom that
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: someone just walks into a store, knows literally nothing and
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: just like boom, like just shoot someone, yeah, and then
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: just with no remorse.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Really, just like like why it's.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: It's just it's fascinating to me right now. I really
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: would love to know like reasonings and stuff. It makes
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: no sense if if someone could go and do that.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: It doesn't. I wish I had answers for you, but
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: Huh.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: Sorry, I did say it was unsolved at the.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: Very you did, I know, and I did have that realization.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: I was like, baugh, well, hopefully you guys enjoy the story.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: If you got theories or anything like that, shoot us
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: a message or an email, who knows, whatever you need
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: to do to get a hold of us. We'd love
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: to read it. We'd love to see your thoughts on
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: this case. Want to check out any more of our
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: our links They're in the description of this post. We
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: have websites, social media's All that Good Stuff and Patreon.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: You can sign up for Patreon, where a new episode
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: will be released. Exclusive episode being released tomorrow at the
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: end of every month. Yeah, all that good good stuff. Hey,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: all that good good. You're good good. I'm rubbing off
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: on you. You are always so until next episode. Stay Wicked.