Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Murder of Cheryl Callaway Part 1: Big City Crime

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The Murder of Cheryl Callaway Part 1: Big City Crime · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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As I'm sure you know it's Girl Scout Cookie season. Hi. I'm Alice.
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If you can help me again this year, I'd really appreciate it.
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The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter. Listener discretion is
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advised. In October of two thousand and seven, demolition began on Arlington,
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Texas's Festival Marketplace, a mall that opened in the early nineteen seventies under the
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name Forum three oh three. Fort Worth Judge Bill Harris, who was an
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Arlington police officer in the nineteen seventies, worked as a security guard at the
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mall for extra income he was off duty. In a two thousand and seven
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article in the local newspaper, the fort Worth Star Telegram, Judge Harris shared
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his disappointment with what Forum three o three had become in the years since he
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worked there. Once a nice place to shop or hang out, he said.
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By the time it was renamed Festival Marketplace in nineteen ninety eight, the
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mall had long been known as a not so desirable place for shopping families.
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Theft, drug activity, and violence pervaded Forum three o three by the late
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nineteen eighties as the Dallas Fort Worth Arlington Metroplex saw steep rise in crime,
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and it never left. Just before Judge Bill Harris began working security there as
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an off duty policeman, when Arlingtonians considered the Forum three o three Mall a
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new and safe place to visit, one of the city's most depraved and senseless
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murders took place. It's a case two former Arlington policemen remember well and in
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fact think of often, even after the fifty years that have now passed to
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me, when I look back, it was kind of phenomenal that in five
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years Mike and I were together, we only had one unsolved murder and that
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was it. That's the one that got away. And we worked some really
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I mean weird cases, but one we wanted to clear the most we were
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never able to. So I mean, even today, it still sticks with
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me, and I'm sure it does him. As well. That's Mike Layman
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in nineteen seventy four, he was a detective for the Crimes against Persons Unit
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at the Arlington Police Department. And as you heard Detective Layman say, he
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solved all but one of the cases. He worked alongside his sergeant Mike Adair.
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That's about it. All the time, Mike, we told you that
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now we had one unsolved homicide and that was it, you know it,
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I will say haunted, but it was always I still is, you know,
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I still think about it. But the brutal slang of eighteen year old
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Cheryl and Callaway in the parking lot of the Forum three zero three Mall was
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much more than the one that got away for Detective Layman and Sergeant Adair.
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They got to know the Callaway family, of course, and the lawmen saw
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their pain and suffering firsthand. They also got to know Cheryl. Yeah,
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she was such a you know, well lid, real hard working, good
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daughter. You know. She wasn't now, you know, living a dangerous
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lifestyle or anything like that. Just shopping, you know. The early nineteen
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seventies were a transformative time for Arlington, Texas. After the completion of the
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Dallas Fort Worth Turnpike. In the late nineteen fifties, the modest city had
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boomed, and the popular grew by nearly five hundred percent and then another one
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hundred percent by nineteen seventy, reaching a population of ninety thousand and growing steadily.
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Because of its position smack dab in the middle of a metropolis and a
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relatively large up and coming city, Arlington's growth into a modest sized city was
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inevitable. The theme park Six Flags Over Texas had opened up there shortly after
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the turnpike did. Two state of the art shopping malls were completed in nineteen
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seventy. Arlington was named home of the state's new baseball team, the Texas
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Rangers, in nineteen seventy two. In most timelines of Arlington history in nineteen
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seventy four, you'll find only two events listed. One, the opening of
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DFW Regional Airport, didn't even happen in Arlington, but no one would argue
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it didn't affect the city. The other is Sheryl Anne Callaway's murder. The
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senseless and gratuitous crime left such an impression on the people of Arlington, Texas,
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in fact, that one police captain later remarked it was the department's introduction
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to big city crime. On August sixth, nineteen fifty five, Billy Euleith
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Calloway and Elna Calloway, who went by her middle name Rose, welcomed into
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the world their second child, and we did a lot of background on Cheryl
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and found out she was named after a TV show. Billy Calloway was a
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big fan of the television series Waterfront starring Preston Foster, a crime drama about
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tugboat captain John Herrick, whose eldest son was a detective for the San Pedro,
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California Police Department. As a result, Herrick became involved in seaborn criminal
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investigations like apprehending escaped convicts and busting smuggling rings. The tugboats named Cheryl Ann
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and the Cheryl Anne. He loved that TV show, and that's Whydy named
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Sharyl Anne. Her mom doesn't come off as the type to go along with
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something she doesn't approve of, so it's safe to say she loved the name
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too. Billy Callaway was an officer in the US Navy and served in World
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War Two before settling down in Arlington, Texas and taking a job as a
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surveyor with the Army Corps of Engineers. Cheryl's mother, Rose, whose father
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founded the newspaper the Arlington Citizen Journal, was enamored with her newborn girl,
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just as she'd been with Cheryl's sister a few years earlier. In nineteen fifty
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eight, the couple welcomed a boy into the world. Cheryl had about as
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normal and healthy a childhood as is imaginable for the time. She was born
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and raised in Arlington during what was perhaps its most formative years, but still
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got to enjoy the city's downtown when it was still archetypal and lined with drug
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stores, fivendimes, and mon pop hardware shops. The neighborhoods surrounding downtown were
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quiet and slow, lined with kids playing ball out on the streets. Cheryl
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was right alongside them. She might have been known as a little shy when
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she was a girl, but that girl could run, and she'd taken home
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that title of Hide and Seek champion enough times to prove it. A charming
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and sweet little girl, Cheryl kept a positive outlook on life. She always
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saw the best in people and never had anything negative to say about her friends
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or anyone else she met for that matter, she had a soft spot for
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those in need, the downtrodden, and the underdogs. Cheryl was the type
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of kid who was always on the go, her father said, a sentiment
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her mother also testified to. Not only was Cheryl unlikely to sit around and
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wait for something to happen, but she also never gave up when she set
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her mind to something. Whether she was trying to master the hula hoop or
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tackle roller skating, Cheryl was persistent do or die. As Rose later described
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her daughter's determination. By junior high school, Cheryl had become quite a tomboy.
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But when high school rolled around, one friend of her said she did
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a one eighty and traded in the dirty kneed blue jeans for designer pairs and
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her ragged T shirts for fashionable blouses. Throughout her life, Cheryl's friends considered
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her a central figure in their circles, and at Arlington's Sam Houston High she
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was actively engaged in the Texans, a drill team that supported the school's various
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sports teams, The Texans. Cheryl was athletic and loved her time with the
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Texans, choreographic drills and perfecting her own dance routines. She attended and graduated
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from Sam Houston in nineteen seventy three. Although Cheryl didn't make bad grades,
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her father, Billy, remarked that she wasn't really a school person, so
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he wasn't surprised when his daughter decided not to go to college. Instead,
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Cheryl continued working at the Dairy co on West Pioneer Parkway, a job she
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had picked up just before she graduated. Cheryl charmed customers and won the hearts
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of her fellow employees, all who later commented that she was always dependable,
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happy, and got along with everyone. When Cheryl's little brother, Tommy,
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also went to work at the Dairy Queen, she kept him in line.
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Cheryl scolded him, particularly for customer interactions she deemed less than satisfactory. Eleven
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months after taking the job in January of nineteen seventy four, Cheryl was doing
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well at the Dairy Queen, but it wasn't solely because she was a standout
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employee. At some point after becoming employed there, she'd begun dating the store's
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twenty one year old manager, Clint Harris. The two hit it off,
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and the romance, which had developed fast, was growing more intense by the
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day. Clint often wrote Cheryl passionate poems proclaiming his love for and devotion to
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her. One hundred thousand Sundays and love evenings, all worthy lifetimes of my
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love. One of them read, in part, it isn't difficult to imagine
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Cheryl fanning herself with the notes as her immaculate smile pushed up her flush rosy
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cheeks into her piercing blue eyes. It was that kind of love. Clint's
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roommate, who went by the nickname Blue, described it as a love like
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when that's all that matters. Cheryl and Clint became engaged, and their wedding
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was to take place on June eighth, nineteen seventy four. They had already
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booked the church by the beginning of the year. Cheryl, her mother Rose
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said, was completely preoccupied with planning the ceremony, constantly asking her for advice
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on how to make her dress stand out as she referred to the bridal books
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and magazines scattered and spread out on her bed. She had everything to look
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forward to, a doting husband, a little house in the suburbs, and
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perhaps children of her own. Eventually, and unimaginable and tragic fate, however,
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befell Cheryl Ann Callaway before her plans for the future could be realized.
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On Wednesday, January thirtieth, nineteen seventy four, Cheryl Anne Callaway finished her
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shift at Dairy Queen at five pm. She'd asked her friend Lisa during lunch
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to accompany her on a shopping trip at the Forum three h three Mall,
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but Lisa declined because she had a date that evening. Cheryl drove home and
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peeled off her white Dairy Queen work uniform, changing into jeans and a football
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jersey bearing her name on the back. She ate dinner with her parents and
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brother before telling them that her car was dirty and she wanted to hit the
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car wash. Cheryl kept her car clean, so it wasn't unusual. She'd
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only had it a little over a month, having totaled her previous car.
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Cheryl told her father that after she cleaned the car, she planned to visit
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them all to buy some last minute items for a gift she was fashioning for
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her fiance, Clint, an arrowhead necklace. The next day was his birthday,
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and she was excited about the special, one of a kind present.
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Cheryl also wanted to surprise Clint for the occasion, so she asked her father
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if he'd be willing to put up decorations if she bought them. Of course
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he would, Billy told her the fact that he'd do anything for his little
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girl was implied. Cheryl headed off to wash her car and do some shopping
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at around six thirty pm at the car wash on South Cooper Street in Arlington.
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Cheryl washed her car spotless before heading to a friend's apartment. In a
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final attempt to get someone to join her on the shopping excursion. She drove
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to the Hollandale House apartments where her friend Charie lived, but, like Cheryl's
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other friend Lisa, Cherie also had plans for the evening and couldn't go.
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Cheryl then drove to the Forum three o three Mall. It was by this
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time completely dark outside, the evening, air crisp and the sky clear.
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A decade before Deborah Jane Rutledge was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in a
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field just east of Arlington's Forum three oh three Mall in nineteen eighty eight,
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and even longer before, newlywed Michael Levy was shot in the back and killed
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as he attempted to stop four teenaged shoplifters from leaving the mall. The large
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shopping structure was considered about as safe as anywhere else in the city. Being
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only a few years old in nineteen seventy four, it was more or less
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brand new and still exciting, especially for young folks. Located in the city's
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far east, the Forum three three mall was named after the road Spur three
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three or Pioneer Parkway. The place was certainly ahead of its time and boasted
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well over eight hundred thousand square feet of shopping space, state of the art
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movie theaters, an ice rink, and a large carousel for a mall also
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had an Amphitheatre, where country guitar legend and heathl star Roy Clark once played.
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Besides the larger names like Montgomery Ward and Leonard's Department stores, both with
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free standing autocentres, FOURUM three three boasted several dozen smaller diverse retailers like World
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Bazaar and American Indian Arts Center of Texas. The latter was exactly where eighteen
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year old Cheryl Callaway might find the items and ideas she needed for the gift
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she was making her fiance, Clint When she arrived at the mall, it
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was already dark outside, and Cheryl parked her car in the well lit parking
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lot and headed in. Once inside, Cheryl purchased some Native American style trinkets
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at one retailer and visited another store there to view necklaces like the one she
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was making for her fiance. She also bought some M and ms to snack
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on. As Cheryl was finishing up and getting ready to go back home,
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she ran into a friend and the two chatted briefly. At about eight pm,
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Cheryl exited the mall into the Northwest parking lot outside the entrance of Montgomery
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Ward Department store. She approached her car at the parking lot's upper level,
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no more than one hundred yards from wards, opened the driver's side door and
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tossed the bags containing the items she'd bought into the front seat. As she
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did, the door of the vehicle parked directly beside her opened, and in
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a split second, Cheryl Callaway was attacked. A couple walking to their car
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parked in the lower level heard Cheryl's screams. They later told police they looked
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at the direction of the commotion's origin and saw the attack the witnesses saw motions
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that appeared to be the man hitting Cheryl with his fists. The husband and
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wife thought the disturbance was a domestic issue, but it didn't matter. The
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attack was so violent in nature they knew they had to do something. The
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husband sprinted to Montgomery Ward Automotive Service Center at the end of the parking lot
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on the southwest side. At the payphone there, he quickly phoned the fort
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Worth Police, who received the call at eight eight pm. The Forum three
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three Mal, however, was under the jurisdiction of the Arlington Police, so
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fort Worth Dispatch had to relay the call to them. As they did,
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police asked the witness to return and get the license plate number. The man
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raced to his car, opened the trunk, grabbed a tire iron and ran
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to the scene. As he approached, he saw what he and his wife
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described as a clump fall right beside the vehicle, as if the man had
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dumped a bundle of laundry before fleeing. The witnesses rushed to inspect the bundle,
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which they knew was actually a young woman. The lifeless body, it
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was later determined of eighteen year old chryl Anne callaway, the entire attacked.
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At the very most, police believe three minutes. In their efforts to tend
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to Cheryl, Neither the husband nor the wife were able to get the license
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plate number. Both were distraught. Thinking straight was difficult, if not impossible,
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due to the horror before them. Cheryl's sandy blonde hair, which hung
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to her waist, looked as if it had been dipped in blood. The
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witnesses later said the M and ms Cheryl had purchased earlier lay scattered all around
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her, among trash and debris, Cheryl's car keys, and several small pools
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of blood. Though in another case, the moments lost by the witness calling
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the wrong police department might be described as a precious few that wasn't so in
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this instance, Saving those moments still would not have saved Cheryl. Her injuries
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were too severe. Cheryl was pronounced dead upon her arrival at Arlington Memorial Hospital
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at eight thirty two pm. Later, Terrant County Medical Examiner Felix Quotes performed
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the autopsy on Cheryl's body. The outcome was nothing less than a portrait of
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a horrific and terrifying death, one that the victim had fought with all her
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might. At first, those who responded to the scene of the crime believed
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the eighteen year old had been shot. The many small punctures in her body
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looked like she'd been sprayed with shotgun fire. The murder weapon was, however,
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an ice pick. Cheryl and Callaway had been stabbed exactly forty six times
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in her right and left arms, neck, head, and chest, any
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of a large number of them, doctor quotes said could have been fatal alone.
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Her heart and lungs were penetrated multiple times, though it's been erroneously reported
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the ice pick had broken off at the handle in Cheryl's chest, it was
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found but in her neck, stuck in a vertebrae. To honor and memorialize
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Cheryl, a sizeable crowd gathered at More Funeral Home on Saturday, February second,
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nineteen seventy four, allowing standing room only for many of the guests.
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Inside the opened casket, Cheryl laid, clasping in her hands, a small
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bridal bouquet, the last gift from her fiance. She was buried at a
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family plot an hour and a half outside her hometown of Arlington, at the
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Oak Grove Cemetery just outside Walnut Springs. Her headstone is inscribed with the words
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beloved daughter. When a call went out over police band radio that Ryl and
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Callaway had been killed on the night of January thirtieth, nineteen seventy four,
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both detective Mike Lehman and his sergeant, Mike Adair heard the call. I
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believe Mike and I were coming back. Yeah. I think we'd taken a
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night course and we heard the radio traffic our number correctly, and we knew
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something had occurred at Form Mole. We had been going to night classes terrn
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County Junior College. I was had finished class and was back to back home
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when I got a call from my captain about the murder and they'd already worked
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the crime scene or we're at the crime scene out at Forum three h three,
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and I just went straight to the hospital to the emergency room and they
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had already pronounced Cheryl did. I was there while crime scene photographed her body
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and the doctors were looking at her. Both Adair and Layman were detectives on
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the Crimes against Persons Unit at the Arlington Police Department. The unit handled simple
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assaults to homicide and everything in between. The detectives got to work immediately.
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Their next stop was the scene of the crime. After that, I went
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back by the scene. As a matter of fact, all the stuff from
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the mts where they had tried to revive and treat Cheryl was still there,
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and they still had the particular area cordoned Dolph right there, but the scene
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had already been worked and photographed. The bad thing about it, that's probably
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so much different than what it is today. The malls didn't have video like
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they do now. Of course, nobody had cell phones in this video.
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Interviewing the witnesses was among the first duties. Well, we had a man
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and a young man and his wife were shopping there and they saw the guy
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attacker and they thought it was like in the best of disturbance or something like
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that. They didn't realize he was stabbing or they thought that he was beating
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her. A lot happened in the two or three minutes Cheryl was attacked.
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It doesn't seem like much time, but most attack stuff last that long.
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Though nothing was set in stone, one of the first determinations both Sergeant Adair
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and Detective Layman came to after talking to the witnesses was that Cheryl's killer had
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boxed her in. These are to show you than it is to describe it.
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If you can imagine like a vehicle's front end pointing one direction with the
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car door open, and then another car pulling up with the front of the
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vehicle the opposite direction, and if you opened the car doors, you would
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see that would create like a box. She couldn't have gotten out, you
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know, she would have been between the two doors and cars. She was
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kind of trapped in there. Responding officers and paramedics had arrived at the scene
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fast, missing their chance to tail the assailant by likely only seconds. The
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person who attacked Cheryl, the witnesses told officers, was a black male,
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young and tall, with a strong build. He was extremely well dressed and
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neat, wearing a light colored ruffle cut shirt with flower print and dark colored
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trousers. His hair was a medium length Afro style, the witnesses reported.
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As he fled the scene, the suspect sat upright and held his posture well.
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The man's car was described as a black over white late model luxury car,
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perhaps the witness has said an Oldsmobile Cutlass SS. An all Points bulletin
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was issued for a car matching the description. The Dallas Police Department speedily sent
26:18
a helicopter to aid in the search. Detectives Mike Layman and Mike Adair would
26:26
be working Cheryl Anne Callaway's case full time, at least for a while.
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While Cheryl was out shopping, her fiance, Clint had called the home she
26:37
shared with her parents and brother twice. He was almost off work and he'd
26:44
be damned if he was going to spend his Birthday Eve without his sweetheart.
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They'd have Cheryl call him back when she returned from the mall, they told
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him both times. As they heard the wailing of sirens in the distance,
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Billy and Rows Callaway looked at each other, both having the thought that Cheryl
27:03
had been in an auto accident. Now, they reassured themselves. Then the
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sirens drew nearer and nearer, until the Arlington Police arrived at their doorstep.
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Their minds were racked with terrible scenarios, though none anywhere close to resembling the
27:23
horrible reality. When officers told them what had happened to Cheryl, it was
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impossible to believe, impossible to even isolate a single thought to follow. There
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was no manual, nothing, to instruct them through the worst day of their
27:40
lives. It was unfathomable, but it eventually set in. Cheryl's mother phoned
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Clint at Dairy Queen to relay the news. His entire world, too was
27:53
shattered. He and his roommate Blew would later return to the scene in so
28:00
of clues, with perhaps the unspoken notion of taking care of the monster responsible
28:07
themselves. Meanwhile, the cops were in a race against the clock. Clues
28:15
and evidence that the scene were lacking, Though a lone fingerprint thought to belong
28:19
to the killer was found on Cheryl's car. Sergeant Adair and Detective Layman knew
28:26
the case wasn't going to be easy. A motive wasn't readily apparent, not
28:30
by a long shot robbery it was clear wasn't the motive. Not only was
28:37
Cheryl an unlikely target for someone looking for a score, her purse and the
28:44
twenty five dollars therein were found laying in the parking lot beside her car When
28:48
police responded, Her keys and of course car were also not taken. The
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attack against Cheryl was incredibly brutal and seemed personal interviews with those close to the
29:03
victim were going to be important. There were no signs that the attacker had
29:08
attempted to sexually assault Cheryl or abduct her. It was possible, however,
29:15
that due to the witnesses acting fast and attempting to respond to the attack on
29:19
the young woman, the perpetrator's plans were cut short. An open mind was
29:26
vital, something Layman and Adair knew all too well. Still, some things
29:33
had to go on the back burner. Over the course of the initial investigation,
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Detectives Mike Layman and Sergeant Mike Adair were determined, dogged, and diligent
29:45
in their efforts to find Cheryl's killer and bring them before Justice. Will pick
29:52
up from here and explore subsequent investigations on the next episode of Gone Cold.
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If you have any information about the nineteen seventy four murder of eighteen year old
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Cheryl Ann Callaway, please contact the Arlington Police Department's Homicide Unit at eight one
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seven four five nine five seven seven to two. We'd like to thank former
30:18
Arlington policeman Mike Layman and Mike Adair for their contributions to this episode, and
30:25
we'd also like to thank Kathleen Barnett for making that happen. If you like
30:30
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