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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Triple Russellville Murder · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

• 0:46
  Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: On the night of December second, nineteen seventy six, three girls,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: thirteen year old Teresa Williams, fourteen year old Crystal Danita Parton,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: and thirteen year old Cynthia Maybray, we're hanging out together
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: at the Fairview of State's apartment.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: In Russellville, Arkansas.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: At some point that day all three girls disappeared. No
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: one was quite sure what happened that day. All three
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: girls lived in the same neighborhood and all of them
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: disappeared at around the same time. Cynthia was last seen
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: at her home in Fairview Estates on December second, at
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: approximately five thirty pm. Teresa and Crystal were also reported
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: missing that day by their families. I have read about
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: this story over the years, but it turns out there's
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of this story that never made it into
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: any media reports. Most media reports that I've read indicate
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: that three girls were hanging around when a strange man
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: approached them and asked them if they wanted to get
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: into his car and drink some alcohol, and they reluctantly accepted.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: The things that.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: I've read online make it seem like this could have
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: been a case of stranger abduction. But as we're going
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: to see, there is much more to this story that
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: we uncovered. It turns out that the girls had made
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: a plan to run away. Cynthia's mother, Doris Parton, told
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: police she was aware that the girls had a plan.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: She believed that her daughter may have run away from
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: home and that she and her two friends were believed
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: to be headed for Fort Hood, Texas. The last time
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: her mother saw Cynthia, she was wearing blue jeans, a
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: white top, and a blue coat with a fur collar.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Part of the story was true, those three girls did
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: get into a car with a man, a man they
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: knew and trusted. Then no one ever saw any trace
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: of the girls again until ten years later Thanksgiving Day
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: of nineteen eighty six, when a couple, Boy Duncan and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: his wife Bernice, were deer hunting south of Rock Cemetery
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: when they found a human skull laying near a tree.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: This was just the beginning of an investigation into an
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Ozark serial killer. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past seven
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: years of making my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: learned that there's no such thing as a small town
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of messages from
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: people all around the country asking for help with an
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: eight seven four four six one four five, or you
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: can send us a message on Instagram at Helen gonepod.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Before we get into
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: the forensics, we have to go back to nineteen seventy
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: six and try to understand how and why a serial
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: killer kept slipping through the police's fingers and escaping justice.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: One person whose name came up early in the investigation
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: was James B. Grinder, sometimes known as JB. Teresa Williams's
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: cousin had told police back in nineteen seventy six that
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: he saw James with Theresa that day, but when police
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: talked to James, he told them yes, he had seen
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: the three girls. He claimed that he dropped them off
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: at the interstate exit for Pottsville. James told police that
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: the girls had told him they were running away to Oklahoma,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: and James said he had an alibi he had been
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: at his girlfriend, Donna's house.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Since the victim's remains.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Had not been found and James Grinder had an alibi,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: police assumed the girls were runaways. The investigative notes indicate
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: that at the time police interviewed James, he refused to
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: take a polygraph test, so in their investigative notes, they
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: said they believed he was not being truthful about what
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: had actually happened to the girls. But at the end
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: of the day, the original investigators did not believe that
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: he was capable of killing them, they let him go.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: That was in nineteen seventy six, but by nineteen eighty six,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: James was a suspect in another murder, this time in Missouri.
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  Speaker 2: On the early morning of January eighth, nineteen eighty four,
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: twenty five year old Julianne Helton's parents were worried. Julianne
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: had gone out to a party in New Cambria the
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: night before on January seventh, but then she never came home,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: so they filed a missing persons report, and the Missouri
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: State Highway Patrol ran across her abandoned car at the
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Marsoline junction in Macon County, Missouri. There were signs that
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: her car had been sabotaged. Julianne's purse was also missing,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: so now police immediately suspected foul play in Julianne's death.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: After searching for her for several days, on January eleventh,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four, two volunteer searchers and railroad workers found
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Julianne's body in a field near the Santa Fe railroad tracks,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: about eight miles away from where her car had been found.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Julianne was fully clothed, but police later determined she had
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: been raped, beaten, and stabbed. Her hands had been tied
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: together with bailing twine, they were bound together in front
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  Speaker 2: of her, and there were defensive wounds on her right hand.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: Now, according to.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Media reports, police did find fingerprints on Julianne's car. Some
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: of the reports stated they were a match to James Grinder.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure what happened to those fingerprints, if they
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: were lost, if they were ever tested, or even if
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: it's true that they were a match to James Grinder.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, with insufficient evidence,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: police apparently decided they couldn't make a case against him,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: so James Grinder was released. Still, after Julie's murder, there
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: was a renewed interest in James Grinder, and investigators in
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Arkansas went back to question everyone they had spoken to
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: ten years earlier. They were trying to do a deep
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: dive into a man they believed might be a serial killer.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: James B. Grinder was born in nineteen forty five.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: There's not a ton known about his childhood, but he
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: lived in Arkansas for a long time, and he had
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: what can best be described as kind of a messy
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: love life. At the time of the girl's disappearances, he
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: was dating different women. In nineteen seventy six, James was
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: involved with at least two women, Donna Hanson and Joanne Hinton.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: He stayed on and off with both of them. Joanne
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Hinton lived in the Fairview Estates Complex, the same complex
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: as the three girls who went missing. Jo Anne had
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: a daughter from a previous relationship named Sandra. Sandra was
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: born in nineteen sixty three. She gave birth to James's son,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: James Junior, in nineteen seventy. After the three girls disappeared,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: James moved and settled in Macon County, Missouri, where he
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: reportedly married and had a daughter in nineteen eighty, though
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: he and the girl's mother did eventually separate. At the
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: time of his arrest, he was working as a woodcutter.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Sames Grinder had a criminal history in Arkansas. He had
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: a lifetime pattern of stealing things, especially cars. In August
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: of nineteen seventy six, according to the case file, he
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: stole a septic tank truck, and then he and an
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: accomplice also stole cars, including a nineteen sixty seven Ford Galaxy,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: a nineteen sixty six Plymouth Belvedere, a gold Ford Mustang,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: and some tools and supplies. They stole a lot of
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: different items. In addition to cars, they also stole from
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: a school. They would grab calculators and typewriters. They vandalized
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: a trailer in the back of the school where they
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: got eight track tapes, cameras, and a knife set. So
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: coming back to the three missing girls, it turns out
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: that the three girls, Cynthia, Crystal, and Teresa were planning
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: on running way from home for a reason. They had
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: been stealing welfare checks from apartments in the Fairview complex
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: and they had also, according to what a witness told police,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: been stealing items from stores for James Grinder. They would
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: steal things like jewelry and electronics. James would then fence
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: the items for them and of course take a cut
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  Speaker 2: of the profits. One of the victims of this scam
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  Speaker 2: was a woman named Helen Freeman. She also lived in
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  Speaker 2: the Fairview apartment complex. She told police the last time
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: she saw the girls was on December first. She claimed
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: that on that day she didn't get her welfare check
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  Speaker 2: as usual, so the next day, on December second, she
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  Speaker 2: asked the mailman about it. The mailman said he was
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: sure that he had put that check in her box
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  Speaker 2: the day before. She told police one of the three
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: girls had stolen the check, and several witnesses told police
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  Speaker 2: they had seen the girls at a nearby grocery store
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  Speaker 2: trying to cash that welfare check. Apparently the store refused
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  Speaker 2: to cash it. Then, according to witnesses, the three girls
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  Speaker 2: were really freaked out by this. They thought they were
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  Speaker 2: going to get into big trouble. So after the store
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  Speaker 2: refused to cash the checks, they went back to joe
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  Speaker 2: Aanne Hinton's house and tried to burn the checks. Joe
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  Speaker 2: Anne Hinton was living on and off with James Grinder.
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  Speaker 2: He was also there that day. Helen told police she
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  Speaker 2: talked to joe Ane Hinton about all this. She said
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  Speaker 2: joe Anne had made a comment to her about the
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: girls leaving town by the way. Helen also later told
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: police she saw joe Anne at a later date wearing
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: what she describes as a jacket she said was very
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: similar to the jacket that one of the girls was
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: wearing on the day they disappeared, a jacket with a
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: fur Caller Police talked to Sandra, joe Anne's daughter, who
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: had been around the girl's age when they disappeared. By
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: the time of the interview in nineteen eighty four, Sandra
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: was twenty one years old. She told them bluntly that
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: James was crazy, weird, dirty, a thief, and that he
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: had threatened to kill her mother on several occasions. She
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: told law enforcement James had an interest in young girls,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: that he had tried to sexually assault his niece when
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: she was aged twelve or thirteen. Sandra said she was
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: the best friends with Crystal, Teresa, and Cynthia. She said
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: they all hung around together at Fairview Estates. Sandra said
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: that James made vulgar comments about them sometimes and would
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: try to hang around with them when they were with Sandra.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: She said at one point he made a comment to
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: her about wanting to have the girls over because he
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: wanted some young stuff. Sandra talked about how James got
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: the three girls involved in his check cashing scam and
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: in his theft. He would drive them around the places
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  Speaker 2: they wanted to go. He got them to steal things
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: from stores and give it to him to sell. Police
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: asked Sandra what she remembered about that day in nineteen
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: seventy six, the day when the girls disappeared. She said
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: that she remembered James driving Cynthia, Crystal, and Teresa to
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: a local store to try to cash those welfare checks.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: In fact, she said she went with them to the
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: store to cash the checks, she distinctly remembered getting refused.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Said that the five of them, her James, Cynthia, Crystal,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: and Teresa stopped at Walmart after that to buy cigarettes
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: because someone wanted them. Then, she said they drove back
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  Speaker 2: to Fairview, where James and the girls let her out
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: of the car. Sandra said she remembered that Crystal, Cynthia,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: and Teresa were worried about getting busted for that check scamp.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: They asked James to drive them to the interstate. Sandra
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: said originally she was supposed to run away with the girls,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: but she decided against it, so in the end they
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: dropped her back at home. Sandra told police she tried
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: to talk her friends out of running away, but.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: In the end she couldn't.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: She remembers the last time she saw her three friends
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: was around sundown. She said they were leaving in the
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: car with James in his blue and white Chevy. She
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: never saw Teresa, Cynthia, or crystal again. Sandra said that
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: that night, James stayed out all night. This was confirmed
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: by her mother, Joanne, who told him best gators the
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: same thing.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: They said.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: James didn't come back until around nine am the next morning,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: and when he did, Sandra asked him what happened to
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: the girls. He said he drove the girls to the
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Interstate Highway in Pottsville, gave them twenty dollars, and that
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: was it.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Joanne told police.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: When James came back to the house, he was wearing
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: different clothes than he had on when he left. He
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: told her he'd had car trouble. He was covered in
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: grease and oil and wearing a long sleeved shirt. When
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Joanne asked him about it, James said he got the
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: t shirt at Donna's house. He said he would contact
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: the girl's parents and let them know that he'd dropped
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: them off of the Pottsville exit, and apparently that was
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: the end of the topic. But Joanne said James would
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: sometimes wake up screaming in the dark after that, telling
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: her I see three shallow graves. She told police that
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: when he did that, she would tell him the only
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: way he could be seeing that is if he killed
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: those girls. She said she asked him point blank if
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: he killed them, and that he denied it. Joanne told
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: police James wasn't really violent with her, but others definitely
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: saw his dark side. Sandra told police she knew he
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: had an interest in young girls. She said on one occasion,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: James tried to rape her. She said he was giving
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: her a ride somewhere, and then he pulled over to
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: the side of the road and pulled a gun out
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: of his boot.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: But Sandra said she.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Was somehow able to wrestle that gun away from him
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: and actually turn the gun on him.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: She said after that she.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Forced James to drive her home at gunpoint. Needless to say,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: my heart completely goes out to in addition to the
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: three victims, to Sandra what she was experiencing at home
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: and how brave she was to pull a gun on
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: her own stepfather. It turned out that a lot of
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: people in and around Fairview Estates knew about the girl's
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: plans to run away and saw them with James on
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: the night of December second. An. Investigators stated in their
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: report there was also an attempt to mislead them. Apparently
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: a friend of James's, a trucker contacted the Russellville Police
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Department and told them he had picked up three runaways
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: and they were at an address in Oklahoma. Investigators later
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: concluded that address was false and that the driver quote
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: had probably made the calls at the request of James Grinder,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: and that the information was totally false end quote.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: So it's hard for me.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: To imagine why James Grinder wasn't immediately arrested, or at
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: least why he wasn't a major early suspect. It's possible
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: that at the time they disappeared, maybe some of the
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: young women who knew about the check cashing scams didn't
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: tell police what they knew because maybe they were worried
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: about getting in trouble themselves. But after Julianne's murder in
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four, people started talking. Police had a ton
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: of circumstantial evidence, but still no bodies. Then came the
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: gruesome discovery of Teresa, Cynthia and Crystal's bodies on Thanksgiving
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Day in nineteen eighty six. After the deer hunting couple
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: found the skull, they went back the next day. They
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: picked the skull up and actually ended up taking it
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: to a local grocery store, where an employee contacted Pope
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: County authorities. Investigators went to the area where the skull
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: was found and kept searching. They found more remains. They
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: included a pelvic bone, a piece of a lower tailbone,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: and some cloth. They also found a huge mass that
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: had more bones, clothing, and roots all tangled up in it.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: They found one almost complete human skeleton wearing a decomposing
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: coat and underwear over a two hundred foot area. Once
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: they spread out, they found more and more bones. The
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: remains that they found included a lower jaw with thirty
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: five teeth, a partial skeleton in clothing including a piece
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: of black cloth, a black and green overcoat, a great
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: flavored chapstick, a pair of pants with white bleached spots, gloves,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: a pink comb, a blue sack, a wool scarf, backpacks,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: an empty roll of tape, some bags of potato chips,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: and two pairs of underwear and a handkerchief. I'm listing
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: all of these items because someone out there might recognize
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: some of them, and honestly, he got away with this
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: for many years, and I think it's very possible that
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: there could be more victims out there. Police believe those
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: bodies were buried in a shallow grave, but then over
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: the years removed, either due to animals dragging them or
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: a massive flood that had hit that area in nineteen
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: eighty two. Investigators also found a weapon. They found an
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: old number ten shotgun shell casing with nine buck shot
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: near the bodies, but police later stated they don't believe
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: that gun had any part in the murders.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: The girls had been stabbed, not shot.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: There were a lot of bones to go through. A
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: state medical examiner initially concluded the remains belonged to three
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: females in between the ages of twelve and fourteen. This
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: made police believe they had found the three bodies of Teresa,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Crystal and Cynthia, but later investigators announced there had been
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: a mistake.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: There were only two bodies found, not three.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Police stated they had confirmed through dental records the two
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: sets of remains belonged to Teresa Williams and Crystal Parton,
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: and police confirmed the girls were not shot. Both of
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: them had been fatally stabbed in the neck, so they
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: had found Teresa Williams and Crystal Parton, but there was
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: still no sign of Cynthia. Maybrey now police knew for
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: sure these three girls had not run away. Police suspect
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: did James Grinder A lot of people, though believed that
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: James Grinder did not act alone, that one or more
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: other people may have been involved. Another name that came
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: up in investigative reports was an acquaintance of James named
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Tony Wilson. Tony was living in the woods behind the
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Fairview Complex at the time of the girl's disappearances. Meanwhile,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: the links between James Grinder and the three missing girls
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: were becoming more and more obvious. Police spoke to another
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: young woman, Carla Titterington. She was also around the same
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: age as the three victims. She told police she was
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: with the three girls at Joe Anne's house that night
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: and that another man, Tony Wilson, was also there, but
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: she said she wasn't sure if Tony left with James
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: and the girls. She just remembers him being there hanging
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: out at Joeanne's house. Police interviewed Tony Wilson in nineteen
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: eighty six as well. Tony said that at the time
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: of the disappearances, he had recently graduated from high school.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: He said he was homeless and living in a sleeping
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: bag behind the Fairview Estates. He said that he believed
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: that in December of nineteen seventy six, he drove to
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Montana before the holidays. He said he was with a
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: guy he knew who had family in Montana, but he
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: said he couldn't be sure of the dates. Tony said
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: he barely knew James Grinder, that he only knew of him.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: He said he had never ridden in his car, but
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: he saw one of the three missing girls get into
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: the car with him. The name of that victim is
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: redacted in the case file report. Tony also said he
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: was not at James's house on the night the girls vanished.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: This conflicted with other accounts by Carla and some others
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: who say Tony was around when the girls went missing.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: In the end, though Tony Wilson was given a polygraph
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: where he was asked if he was in the car
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: and the night the girls disappeared, if he was there
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: when the girls were killed, and if he knew who
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: killed the girls. The results were that he was deceptive,
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: but in the end there was zero indication that Tony
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: was riding in the car with the girls on the
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: day they disappeared, or that he was involved in any way.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: So in the end, the police had zero concrete evidence
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: against Tony Wilson and so that lead was dropped. Joe
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Anne and James's son, Jimmy Grinder Junior, was also interviewed
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: by police on December seventeenth, nineteen eighty six. Jimmy was
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: only six years old when the girls disappeared, so he
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: was also in the home. Not surprisingly, he told police
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: he didn't remember anything from that night, but he did
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: say that over the years he talked to his mother, Joanne,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: about the fact that all the girls went to Pottsville supposedly,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: and the girls didn't come back. He said that he
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: and his mother both believed that James had killed the girls,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: and he said he continued to believe that. Jimmy told
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: police quote, I'm afraid of him. You can't tell about him.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: He's crazy end quote. Jimmy said that he believed his
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: dad would hurt him to silence him. Jimmy also told
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: another wild story about his grandmother. Apparently, Jimmy said James
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: was running the check scam and giving the proceeds of
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: that scam to his mother, Jimmy's grandmother. On December second,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: he said James's mother was also spooked by the possibility
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: of getting caught. Jimmy said she told James they needed
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: to stop the scam. Jimmy said he actually saw James
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: grab his own mother and try to throw her inside
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: the trunk of his car. Police interviewed James's ex girlfriend,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Donna Harris, who he lived with off and on in
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six and who was his original alibi. According
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: to an interview in the case file, she told police
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: that in nineteen seventy six, when the three girls were killed,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: she was on and off with James, but that James
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: was also dating Joanne Hinton. It turned out that in
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine, Donna had talked to investigators again. This time,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: she admitted that she had lied about James being home
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: all night, but apparently either police didn't think this was
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: important or declined to further investigate this tip for other reasons.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Donna confirmed this information in nineteen eighty six. She said
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: that on December second or third, James came home very
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: late and said that if police asked, he wanted Donna
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: to say that she was with him in the car
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: with the three girls that they drove them to the
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Potsville exit and dropped them there. James also told Donna
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: he would give her two hundred dollars if she lied.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Donna stated that in the end, when she talked to
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: the sheriff, she told investigators the truth. There's no record
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: in the case file of investigators speaking to Donna in
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six, but they did ask her in nineteen
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: eighty six what was going through Donna's mind after James
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: told her he wanted her to lie to police. They
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: asked her, didn't she wonder why? Donna said James told
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: her he didn't want it admit that he had been
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: with the three girls because they were miners and because
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: he claimed they had stolen a bunch of checks and
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: crossed the state line. He told Donna he didn't want
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: any part of that. He mentioned that the three girls
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: lived at Fairview. Donna said she was afraid of James.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: She said he had been abusive to her in the past,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: that he had beat her, and on one occasion, she said,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: he pulled a knife on her when she refused to
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: have sex with him. She said he cut her underwear
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: off with the butcher knife and put the knife to
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: her throat. Then Donna said James continued to curse at
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: her while he had sex with her. He pulled out
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: a gun and pointed it at her head while they
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: had sex. She told police, quote, if I didn't do
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: what he wanted that night, he would have killed me,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: and I know he would have end quote. She admitted
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: to police she was terrified of James. She said she
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: believed he was capable of coming back and hurting her
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: or hurting her children.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: But even with all of.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: This new information, and even after the bodies were found,
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: police somehow still did not feel like they had enough
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: evidence to arrest James Grinder, so once again he was free.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: James wasn't immediately charged with Julianne's murder either. Over the years,
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: there was some movement on the case. In nineteen ninety three,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: police got blood samples from James and another suspect named
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Wilfrid Swank, a former Macon City policeman who they suspected,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: but in the end charges were dropped against both men
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: when police said they didn't have enough evidence, and it
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: was later announced that wilfrid Swank, the former policeman, had
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: been cleared through DNA evidence, So once again the case
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: went cold until March of nineteen ninety eight, James Grinder
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: made news again when he, along with two other accomplices,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: were arrested for burglary. This was eighteen years after the
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: three girls disappeared and twelve years after Julianne was raped
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: and murdered. James spoke to police again. He was already
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: going to prison for the burglary, and in the end,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: when confronted with evidence, he confessed to Julian's murder, but
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: the details he gave at times didn't make sense. James
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: changed his story several times and later recanted completely. Law
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: enforcement absolutely believed they had the right person, but they
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: weren't convinced they had a slam duncan trial, and so
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: in June of nineteen ninety nine, Sheriff Robert Dawson took
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: a very unusual step by contacting doctor Lawrence Farwell, a
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: neuropsychiatrist and the inventor of a technique called brain fingerprinting.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: It's a very controversial method.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: The technology works a little bit like a lot of
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: detector test, but it involves hooking a suspect up to
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: an EKG and looking inside their brain while they are
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: asked questions about the crime, questions that supposedly only the
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: killer wouldn't know the answers to Lawrence Farewell had claimed
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: that the accuracy rate for these tests was one hundred
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: percent and that he got no false positives. Again, much
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: like polygraph tests, this technique is controversial. The company Brainwave
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Sciences was around in the media a lot in the
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: early two thousands. They ended up selling their technology to
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Singapore's police force. The Florida State Police has also reportedly
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: used the technology, but according to report on the Verge
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: that did a very deep dive into brain fingerprinting, it's
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: really kind of impossible to verify a lot of these
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: statistics because the testing is conducted by pretty much one person,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Lawrence Farewell. There hasn't been any large scale peer review
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: to my knowledge. Brain fingerprinting, by the way, is still used.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: It's not really a big thing in criminal cases. It's
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: used more for diagnosing mental health issues. In James's case, though,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: he voluntarily submitted to this test, So Lawrence attached electrodes
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: to James's head and had him sit in front of
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: a computer screen while he asked him questions about the murder.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: He took detailed EEG readings of brain activity asking specific
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: details about Julianne's rape and murder, and according to Lawrence Farewell,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: James failed. Lawrence later told a local newspaper quote, there
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: is no question that JB. Grinder raped and murdered Julianne Helton.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: The significant details of the crime are stored in his
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: brain end quote. With that confirmed, police believe they did
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: have enough evidence to make their case against James Grinder
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: for Julian's murder. James Grinder was convicted of Julianne Helton's
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: murder in nineteen ninety nine and sentenced to life in prison.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Questions remained about whether there could have been other people
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: involved in Julian's murder. In addition to the former policeman,
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: James had also named two brothers who he claimed were involved,
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: but police eventually dismissed charges on all three of those
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: other men due to lack of evidence. So James was
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: behind bars in Missouri, convicted of murder. Now, the police
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: in Arkansas wanted to talk to him again about the
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: night in nineteen seventy six when Teresa, Crystal and Cynthia
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: went missing. James was sent to Arkansas to face justice
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: in Pope County. At first, he tried to talk his
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: way out of it. He told police the same thing
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: he had told Donna, that he gave the three girls
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: a ride from Russellville to Pottsville, Arkansas, on.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: The day they went missing.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Then he gave them twenty dollars and left them at
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: the Interstate Police didn't buy his story, but they agreed
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: to cut a deal with him to take the death
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: penalty off the table if he confessed. He was already
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: in for life without the possibility of parole, so he agreed.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: James said the first part of the story about driving Teresa, Cynthia,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: and Crystal to a liquor store in buying them alcohol
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: was true. He said after they got into his car
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: that he took a drive to buy the alcohol and
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: went along with their story of running away, telling them
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: that he was going to help them. Instead, he drove
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: them to Brock Cemetery, where he raped Crystal and Teresa.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: After the rape, he claimed that he strangled Crystal and
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Teresa and then stabbed them in the neck before hiding
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: their bodies under some brush off a nearby dead end road.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: He claimed that at this point Cynthia was still alive.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: So he took her into the Ozark National Forest and
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: raped her. Then tried to beat her to death with
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: a soda bottle, but Cynthia was still alive, so instead
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: he beat her to death with a tire iron. He
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: admitted that he dug a shallow grave and covered Crystal
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: in Teresa's bodies with brush off of a dead end road,
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: but he said that he left Cynthia out in the
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: open in the forest. He said he did not attempt
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: to bury her body, it was just left out in
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: the open. In October of nineteen ninety eight, investigators stated
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: they knew who killed Cynthia, Teresa and Crystal James B. Grinder,
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: and that he was already in prison serving a life
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: sentence for Julie Helton's murder.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: James was charged with capital.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Murder, only one counts, since in Arkansas at the time,
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: capital murder was described as a premeditated homicide of two
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: or more people. James was convicted and sentenced to life
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: in prison. He later requested that his sentence be reduced.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: He claimed that police forced his confession. He also claimed
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: he didn't work alone, that there were others involved in
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: killing the three girls, but all of his petitions for
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: clemency were denied. No one believed him. I've read a
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: lot of comments saying it would have been impossible for
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: James to kill three young women alone, But I'm not convinced,
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: because James Grinder had developed trust with these girls, he
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: drove them around a lot, there was almost certainly alcohol involved,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: and it's certainly plausible that he alone could have overpowered
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: three young girls, especially given their ages and his claim.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: That he separated them.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: At around six foot one and one hundred and eighty
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: five pounds with a weapon, he had a significant physical advantage.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: James Grinder was sentenced to life in prison without the
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: possibility of parole. In twenty ten, James passed away in
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: prison of what was described as natural causes. He was
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: sixty five years old. Cynthia Maybury's body has never been found.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Her mother, Clara, passed away in twenty fourteen without ever
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: being able to lay her daughter to rest. The Russellville
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Police Department is still handling the case of Cynthia Maybury's
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: unrecovered remains. They have asked that anyone with any information
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: about Anthea's remains please contact them on four seven, nine, nine,
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: six eight three two three two. I'm Catherine Townsend. This
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Etaily's Perez Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: assistance and James Wheaton for legal review. Noah camer mixed
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: and scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sale.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and l. C.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: Crowley.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the
• 35:20
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• 35:24
  Speaker 2: are interested in seeing documents and materials from the case,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: you can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gone Pod.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: If you have a case she'd like me and my
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
• 35:38
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• 35:42
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• 35:52
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