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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Rhonda Hinson · 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.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: On December twenty second, nineteen eighty one, around one to
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: one fifteen am, a driver was going down a dark
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: road Mineral Springs Mountain Road near the town of Valdez,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: North Carolina. It was a dark, snowy night and there
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: was fresh snow on the ground from the night before.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: The driver saw beige dots in two ten parked on
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: the side of the road. They slowed down to check
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: out what was happening. They were thinking if another driver
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: was stranded on the side of the road like that,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: they could be in big trouble. They saw that the
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: car had run into an embankment and that the driver's
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: door was open. As they approached the car, they realized
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: that the car was still running. Next to the car
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: in a ditch was the body of a young woman,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: nineteen year old Ronda Henson. She was lying on her
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: back with her arms by her side. She looked peaceful,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: like she had been starting to make a snow angel,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: except for the bullet hole in her chest.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: I'm Catherine Townsend.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Over the past seven years of making my true crime podcast,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Helling Gone, I've learned that there's no such thing as
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: a small town where murdered never happens. I have received
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: and their communities.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: If you have a case you'd like me and my
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: team to look into, you can.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: at six seven eight seven four four six one four five.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: or you can send us a message on Instagram.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: At Helen Gonepod.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. The driver of the
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: car called nine to one one and the police rushed
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: to the saint. From the beginning, the whole town was
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: trying to figure out what happened to Ronda Henson. This
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: was a very strange set of circumstances. Ronda had been
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: driving home from her company Christmas party at the American
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Legion Hall in Hickory, North Carolina. She headed west on
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Interstate forty and took the exit for her home, Mineral
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Springs Mountain Highway through fifty. Then she turned right and
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: drove up the hill toward home. As she was climbing
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: that hill, she was shot once through the chest, and
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: the bullet had taken a long and kind of strange trajectory.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: It went through the trunk of her dots in two
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: ten and then through the back seat, the front seat,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: and eventually through Ronda's chest, exiting through the front of
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: her chest, nicking her heart and lump. The shot was
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: fatal and would have killed Ronda almost instantly. Police were
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: able to figure out the shot hit while she was driving.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: She was going around twenty five miles per hour at
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: the time, and after she was shot, her car rolled
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: into the embankment. The car had then rolled down the hill,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: a little bit across the highway and finally.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: Lodged in a ditch. She was only half a mile
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: from home.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Police wondered had her shooting been accidental, did a hunter
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: fire off a stray bullet? And was she just a
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: victim of a very unlucky circumstance, or was it someone
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: she knew, someone who stalked and killed her. Investigators said
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: that given her injury, Ronda could not have gotten out
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: of the car on her own, so it's assumed that
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: someone dragged her body out into the snow and placed
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: her on her back with her arms at her side.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: But who.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Ronda Henson was born on December thirteenth, nineteen sixty two
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: and grew up in Valdez, so she had lived in
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: that area pretty much her entire life. She was very
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: close to her family and her parents, Judy and Bobby,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: and her brother Robbie. She still lived at home with them.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Ronda had graduated from high school. Valdez didn't have a
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: high school, so Ronda attended a consolidated school called East
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Burke High School. Ronda's mother, Judy, said that in high school,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Ronda was very involved in sports, including basketball, track, in tennis,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: and that everyone loved her daughter. After graduation, Ronda worked
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: as a clerical worker for a local steel company. In
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the weeks before Ronda's death, her parents were noticing that
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: something seemed wrong. Ronda appeared distracted and uneasy, as though
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: she were carrying a secret she didn't know how to share.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Ronda Henson had a boyfriend named Greg McDowell. She started
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: dating him during her junior year, and they seemed to
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: get serious pretty fast.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: At first.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: The local Record newspaper said that they seemed like an
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: ideal match, but Ronda's mom, Judy, told several media outlets,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: including Unsolved Mysteries, which did an episode about the case,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: that Greg would write Ronda notes, notes that she said
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: became more and more irate, because she said Greg would
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: get jealous and feel like Ronda wasn't giving him enough attention.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Some of the notes from Greg were normal and sweet,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: like the one that read happy to your anniversary, thanks
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: for making me so happy, but another reportedly read quote,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I apologize for pushing you. I really lost my temper
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: and I'm sorry for being so st stupid. Please forgive
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: me end quote. Judy told the TV show that from
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: her conversations with Ronda. She believed that Greg was stressing
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: her daughter out. She said she had noticed in the
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: past that while Ronda was dating Greg, she was not
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: doing as well in school.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Her grades were dropping.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: But then after high school, Greg went to college at
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: North Carolina State University. After that, Ronda's mom said that
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: her daughter's behavior went more or less back to normal.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Then Ronda graduated, she got her first job, the clerical
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: job at the steel company. Greg's mother, Betty, actually worked
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: at the same steel company as Ronda. The Christmas party
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: on Friday, December twenty second was a big deal to Ronda.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: She was looking forward to it.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: She'd only been working at the steel company for three months,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: so this was her first ever office Christmas party as
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: a working woman. According to Unsolved Mysteries, Ronda had done
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: a couple of things that raised red flags to Judy
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: in the weeks before her disappearance. One thing was that
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Judy said Ronda started showering during the night, telling Judy
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: she felt dirty. And two Judy remembered that Ronda was
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: asking her mother's strange questions about relationships, including whether it
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: was ever acceptable to date a married man. Judy told
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: the program quote I said Ronda, There's never a time
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: that it's all right to go with a married man.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: The only thing that comes from that is people getting hurt.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: End quote.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Ronda's father, Bobby, worked nights at a bakery, and he
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: also reportedly told law enforcement that when he would leave
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: for work in the middle of the night, he saw
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Ronda's lights on in her room. He wondered what was
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: keeping his daughter up at night. One day, Ronda said
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: she had something to tell Bobby, he told the TV
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: show quote, I said, what is it, Ronda? I said,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: no matter whether it's good or bad, tell me. And
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: she said, I'll think about it. And she never did explain,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: never did tell me why what it was that she's
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: afraid to tell me?
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: End quote. Could Ronda have been dating a married man?
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Could that have been the reason why she was staying
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: up nights and behaving in a strange manner and taking
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: distance from her boyfriend, Or maybe Greg's jealousy was starting
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: to take a toll on her. On the other hand,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: this could have all been a complete coincidence. Judy and
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Bobby have no way of knowing for sure. The teenage
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: angst that Ronda experience could have been a clue. Then again,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: it could have been completely unrelated to her killing. And
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: it's always hard in hindsight because the temptation can be
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: there to find patterns or link events that aren't necessarily
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: related to the murder.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: Everything felt like a clue.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Police interviewed Ronda's friends and colleagues from the Christmas party.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: All them said Ronda was acting normally, nothing was amiss.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: She seemed to be having a really good time. Ronda
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  Speaker 2: left the party at around twelve thirty am with two
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: of her friends. Now at this point there was another
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: change in her routine, possibly something that could have been significant.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Ronda was supposed to stay over with a female friend
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: named Sherry Pittman, but instead she dropped her friends off
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: and eventually decided to go home instead. No one really
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: knows why she made that decision. So Ronda set out
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and drove her Dotson down Mineral Springs Road for the
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: ten mile trip home. Around one o'clock in the morning,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Ronda's mother woke up with a strange feeling. On December
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: twenty second. Judy told Unsolved Mysteries that at exactly one am, quote,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I woke up feeling panicky, scared because I felt like
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: something had happened to Ronda.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: I felt like Ronda was dead. I felt like she
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: had been in an automobile accident. End quote.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: She and her husband were so freaked out they started
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: turning on their police scanner and listening to see if
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: they could hear accident reports. Bobby, in desperation, called Jill Turner,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Ronda's best friend, to see if maybe Ronda was with her.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: He had no luck.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: They didn't hear anything until police broke the news in person.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Officers came to the family home at two thirty am
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  Speaker 2: to announce that Ronda had.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Been found dead.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Police started looking for witnesses who had been out on
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: the highway at that time. Police talked to one witness
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: who drove under the I forty bridge on the road
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: where Ronda was murdered. The witness told police that she
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: saw a car, a blue nineteen seventies model Chevrolet, facing
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: in a northerly direction with two white males in the vehicle.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: The witness stated that the Chabelle had damage on the
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: front part of the car. They described the driver as
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: a dark haired man with a medium build. A second
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: witness said later in the morning they passed a blue
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: GM Chevrolet driving fast with one person at the wheel.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: That same witness saw Ronda's car pulled over on the
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: side of the road.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: They said that.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: They saw a white man standing near the driver's door,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: leaning into a woman. They thought that maybe it was
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: a drunk couple, so that witness drove on. Later under hypnosis,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the witness described the man as white with dark brown hair,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: between five ten and six feet tall. They also remembered
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: passing another car part further down the road from the scene.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: This was a black or blue transam. So who were
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: the men on the road that night. To this day,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: police don't know. They have never found them. So the
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: first theory that we have to explore is could this
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: have been a random accident. Test showed that Ronda had
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: been shot once with a high powered rifle. Police never
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: found the weapon, but they were able to determine that
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: it was a larger rifle and not, for example, a
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: small handgun. Ronda was killed with only a single bullet,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: the one that passed through the trunk of her car,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: the back of her car seat, and into her heart.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: One scenario that I've considered is that someone could have
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: been using high beams to shoot deer or some other
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: kind of game, and then their stray bullet hit the car.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Maybe they saw the car roll off the road and
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: went to see if Ronda was alive. Then maybe they
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: panicked and left the scene rather than call the police.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Because the bullet came through the rear of the car,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: it was initially possible to imagine a random shot from
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: someone near the road, or maybe from an overpass. However,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: several details at the scene raised serious doubts about the
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: idea of an accident. The main thing was that Ronda's
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: body was found outside the vehicle, placed neatly on the ground.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Her arms were described as deliberately arranged or placed at
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: her sides, meaning that she did not get into that
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: position by herself, though police couldn't say for sure if
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: she had been positioned that way on purpose, or if
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: potentially someone dragged her out of the car and dropped
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: her there in a more random fashion. Then there was
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: the open driver's door. Police say it was opened after
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: the shot was fired, and there were fingerprints that were
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: not Ronda's found on the door handle. There was no
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: sign of a struggle inside the car, and nothing appeared
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: to have been stolen. Investigators began to suspect that the
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: shooter was close enough to approach the car after firing,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: suggesting intent not randomness. If someone did target Ronda, judging
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: by the bullet path, the shooter would have had to
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: have been an excellent marksman. But police seemed to dropped
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: the random act of violence theory pretty quickly because of
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: the way Ronda's body was placed. They quickly moved on
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: to another theory, the possibility that Ronda could have been targeted.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: This case is technically still open, so our foyer requests.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Have unfortunately not come back.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: But over the years this case has had some prominent
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: media coverage. The reporter Larry J. Griffin published a serialized investigation.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: He did a ton of research, He interviewed Ronda's family members,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: and got access to her autopsy report. He posted parts
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: of it on The Wilkes Record, a local North Carolina newspaper.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Most of it is no longer online, but parts of
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: it are available on the Wayback Machine, and Larry has
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: also posted a lot of the Wilkes Record content on Facebook.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: At first, police reportedly believed this had been some sort
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: of an accident, that Rona had been the victim of
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: a random stray bullet, but again, the apparent placement of
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: the body and the fact that nothing was stolen made
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: this less convincing over time, so police began to seriously
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: consider the possibility that Ronda was being stalked by someone
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: she knew. Investigators began to suspect the killer might have
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: followed or intercepted Ronda, possibly someone familiar.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: With her routine and her route home.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Larry Griffin was able to get a copy of Ronda's
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: autopsy report and has posted part of that report online.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: According to the autopsy report, Ronda was fully clothed in
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: the outfit she so carefully styled for the party, a
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: sweater over a shirt, skirt, slip, braw underwear, panty, host
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: and choose. The back of her sweater, shirt and slip
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: were soaked with blood. Ronda had one small round bruise
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: about the size of a dime on her left side
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: under her breast. There was another area of bruising and
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: a four to five inch patch toward the middle of
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: the left breast. So her family wondered did that bruise
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: happen as a result of the shooting or was it
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: something that happened before. Could she have gotten into an
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: altercation with someone earlier that night. The patch of bruising
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: could have been a result of the impact when she
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: hit the steering wheel. There was no mention in the
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: report of whether or not she was wearing a seatbelt.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Tears in Ronda's clothing matched the gunshot wounds, and the
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: autopsy report found quote no other significant external injuries are
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: appreciated end quote. The bullet had gone through the trunk lid,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: through the back seat, through the front seat, and then
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: hit Ronda in the chest, which killed her. Police were
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: able to determine she had been traveling uphill and going
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: about twenty five miles per hour when she was shot.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: After being shot, Ronda's car crashed against the embankment. Judy
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Henson's former sister in law, Linda Price.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Was an emt.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: She wrote some comments and questions for the police. One
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: of the things she asked was whether the bruise that
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Ronda had could have been something that happened earlier that night,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: or whether it definitely happened either as a result of
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: the car accident or the gunshot. Law enforcement said they
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: couldn't be sure. It was likely in their opinion that
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: the gunshot caused the bruising, but they couldn't rule out
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: the possibility that Ronda might have gotten into some sort
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: of physical altercation before that final fatal car ride. Either way,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: the gunshot was the cause of death. Now police were
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: exploring the possibility that someone was stalking Ronda. They were
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: putting together the timeline of event leading up to her shooting.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: On December twenty first, Ronda worked at Hickory Steele. During
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: her lunch hour that day, Ronda reportedly went shopping with
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: a guy named Mark. Now, Mark was the boyfriend of
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Ronda's best friend Jill, and the four of them, Jill, Mark, Ronda,
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: and Greg often doubledated or went out as part of
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: a group. They were all close friends. Mark wanted help
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: picking out a present for Jill, so Ronda and Mark
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: went together to the nearby mall. When he dropped her
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: back home that day, Ronda left the gray hoodie she
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: had been wearing in the back of Mark's car. Ronda
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: was excited about the Christmas party that Hickory Steele was
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: having on Friday night at the American Legion Hut. Again,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: this was her first office Christmas party ever. She had
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: only been there a few months. Everything was new and exciting.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Ronda's mother, Judy, kept a journal during this time. She
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: shared a lot of her entries with Larry Griffin, the reporter.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Judy remembered one of the things going on that week
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: was that Ronda wasn't sure whether or not to invite
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Greg with her to the party. Judy said Ronda made
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: many comments to her about Greg, saying, quote, Mom, if
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I invite him and every time I talk to anyone
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: else there, he's going to.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Be upset about it. End quote.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Judy wrote in her journal, quote, I don't think that
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Ronda really wanted to deal with his jealousy. I think
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: she had gotten tired of his demanding to know everything
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: she did, where she went, who she talked to, everything.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: End quote.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Judy Henson went shopping with her daughter at the Valley
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Hills Mall, where Ronda tried on some new outfits and
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: they had lunch. Ronda didn't end up finding an outfit,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: but she and her mom had a great time. Greg
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: continued to be a topic of conversation that day. Judy
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: said Ronda was worried about the fact that Greg was
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: coming home that day from college. She said Greg might
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: have called she was worried she wouldn't be home to
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: take his call and that he might get annoyed. They
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: got home from shopping and Ronda's brother, Robbie, said Greg
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: had been calling all day. Robbie told Ronda she needed
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: to call Greg back. Greg picked Ronda up that night
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: they went to a small Christmas party near Mineral Springs Mountain.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Ronda and Greg left for the party, but they were
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: away for less than an hour when Greg dropped her
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: back home. Judy said she asked her daughter about why
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: she came home so quickly, and that Ronda said something
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: about Greg being annoyed with her about the shopping trip.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: On December thirteenth, the week before Ronda was killed, she
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: had lunch with Greg and his family. Charles McDowell, Greg's
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: father was the senior pastor at a nearby church, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Betty worked at the same steel company as Ronda. Ronda's
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: birthday was December eleventh, so this was kind of a
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: holiday lunch slash birthday celebration for Ronda.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Greg gave her another necklace for her birthday.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: On Monday, December twenty first, nineteen eighty one, when Ronda
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: came home from work, she had a potted plant with
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: her as a gift from her boss at the steel company,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Don Colson. On Tuesday, December twenty second, the last day
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: of Ronda's life, there were some irregularities in her routine.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: First of all, it was snowing that morning, so normally
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Ronda drove her nineteen eighty one dots in two ten
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: to work, but on that morning, because of the snow,
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: she caught a ride with her coworker at Hickory Steele,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: a salesman named Wayne Chapman.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: But Wayne didn't pick her up at home.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: She walked to Exit one twelve to meet up with him,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: which was about half a mile from her house, and
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Ronda had no jacket. Apparently Greg had one of her jackets,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: and she had left her gray hoodie in Mark's car
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: during the shopping trip, so on that day she wore
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: a green and gold Green Bay Packer jacket. A neighbor
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: saw Ron walk past his house wearing that jacket. While
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: she was walking to the meet up point, she ran
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: into a guy who lived nearby named Brian Lowman. She
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: later told her mom that he asked her out, but
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: that she told him she already had a boyfriend. Right
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: after that, she ran into another man named Bill Gladden.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Bill was riding by with his wife and their dog,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: a poodle inside the car. They gave Ronda a lift
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: up the road to the exit on inter State BOARDY,
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: where she met Wayne, her coworker. She later told her
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: mother she made a split second decision to accept the
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: ride because this wasn't just a single man. He had
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: a woman in a poodle inside the car, and that
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: made her feel more secure. She went to work at
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Hickory Steele and it seemed like just an average day
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: at work.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Ronda called her mom, Judy, which was typical for them.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: That's when Ronda told her about Brian asking her out
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: that morning and her saying no. She mentioned that Greg
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: was taking her at lunch to go shoe shopping. At noon,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Ronda went on her lunch break with one of her
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: coworkers who saw Greg parked in a blue Chevy. They
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: went out and she came back after lunch. The rest
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: of the day, from what we know, continued as normal,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: and then Wayne Chapman dropped Ronda off at five thirty PM.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: By now Ronda was in full party prep mode. According
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: to phone records, She called Greg and that call lasted
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: about three minutes.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: Twelve minutes later, Ronda.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Took another call from Greg, and this phone call also
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: lasted around three minutes. Police asked Judy if she heard
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: the contents of these brief phone conversations, but Judy said
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: she really didn't. Judy told law enforcement that Ronda took
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: the calls in her bedroom so that she would have
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: some privacy.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Judy did say that while Ronda was getting ready, she
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: made a comment.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: About Greg trying to pull a guilt trip on her,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: but she said she was determined to have a good
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: time at the party. Ronda finished getting ready and walked
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: out of the door at around six thirty pm. Her
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: plan was to pick up her friend and coworker, Sherry,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: the same person who she was planning on spending the
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: night with. Ronda drove out in her Dotson into the night.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Her family never saw her alive again. As we said,
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: witnesses told police she.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: Had a good time at the party.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: She was in a great mood when she set off
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: home at around twelve thirty am. According to Larry Griffin reports,
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Ronda arrived back at Sherry's house around midnight.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: She asked to use the phone to.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Call Greg After that phone call, she decided to drive
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: back home and then along that route she was fatally shot.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Police did talk to two witnesses who said they had
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: seen Ronda and her car on Mineral Springs Road with
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: an unidentified man. So police had a strange set of circumstances.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: The single shot fired, the wild bullet trajectory, but then
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: the fact that the car door was open and Ronda's
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: body was pulled out. But police did not have a
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: ton of physical evidence. They did find fingerprints on Ronda's
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: driver's side door, fingerprints that are unidentified. They believe these
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: fingerprints may have come from the killer. Unfortunately, they may
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: never be identified because the Burke County Sheriff's Department has
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: admitted there were some major mistakes made with some of
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: the evidence in this case. They lost crucial evidence, including
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: the trunk lid of Ronda Henson's nineteen eighty one dots
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: in two ten and the fingerprints. The ones that were
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: taken from the car driver's side door were also reportedly
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: accidental destroyed. This was obviously devastating for Ronda Henson's family.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Ronda's parents also started asking questions about the gray hoodie,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: the one that was in the back of Mark's car.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: We know that the hoodie was in Mark's car on
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: December eighteenth, nineteen eighty one, the day of the shopping trip,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: but then on the morning of December twenty third, nineteen
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: eighty one, when investigators were doing an inventory on her vehicle,
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: investigators found that same gray hoodie on the sun deck
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: of her car. Her parents say they didn't believe it
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: was in her car when she left home on the
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: evening of December twenty second, nineteen eighty one, to head
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: out to the Christmas party, so they wondered how did
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: that sweatshirt get there from Mark's nineteen seventy seven Buick
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Regal to Ronda's car. There was something else found in
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Ronda's car, something that her parents claim wasn't in the
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: car when she left for the party, a stuffed animal
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: she and Greg had bought while on vacation together at
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: Myrtle Beach. Police never really addressed or answered any questions
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: about how these items made it into Ronda's car, and
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: her family have not been able to get answers about
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: chain of custody, of evidence, or many other things from
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: the police. Judy Henson has stated the family has asked
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: to see Ronda's clothes, but she said the police said no. Eventually,
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: state authorities became involved in the case, but Judy said
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: they haven't had much luck in communication with them either.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Judy Henson told Larry Newell the reporter, that they have
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: been told by an SBI investigator that the case should,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: in her words, be quote put back in the drawer
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: where it.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: Belongs end quote. Even though they.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Lost Ronda's trunk, which is obviously a catastrophe, police did
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: get some early clues.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Police told Judy.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: And Bobby they were able to determine that the bullet
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: was fired from somewhere behind the car and on a
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: slight elevation, something like an overpass or a hill or bank. That,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: combined with the neat placement of Ronda's body, leads many
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: to think the shooter was close enough to walk up
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: to the car afterward, rather than some distant random hunter.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Police have interviewed all of Ronda's friends, including Greg and Mark,
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: over the years. There have been reports that Greg took
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: two polygraphs, that the first was inconclusive and the second,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: taking years later, he passed. Of course, polygraph tests are
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: not admissible in court for a reason, and the refusal
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: to take them, or even failing them, is not indicative
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: of guilt.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: It's just an investigative tool.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Neither Greg Mark, nor anyone else connected to them has
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: ever been arrested or charged in any way with Ronda's shooting.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Police did talk to Greg's family. Judy has stated law
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: enforcement interviewed Greg's mother, Betty, and that she allegedly told
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: them she and Greg had had questions about Larry, Greg's father,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: but law enforcement apparently concluded Betty's statements could have come
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: as a result of her very acrimonious breakup with Greg's
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: father and allegations of infidelity. There is no suggestion that
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: anyone in Greg's family were involved in Ronda's shooting in
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: any way. Police are still appealing to the public for
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: any information on Ronda's case. The reward for any information
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: on Ronda's case started at five thousand dollars set by
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: the town of Valdiz, but then the Burke County Sheriff,
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: in cooperation with other law enforcement and governmental agencies, has
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: announced a combined reward of up to ninety four thousand,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: seven hundred dollars for information leading to the arrest and
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: conviction of anyone responsible for Ronda's death. Judy Henson told
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Fox News in twenty fifteen that she and her husband
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: have differing opinions about what could have happened to their daughter.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Her husband believed that it was.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Quote just a random shot by some people in the
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: area playing around with a rifle end quote, but Judy
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: said she continues to believe that her daughter was targeted.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: I read a comment somewhere talking about the case. It said, basically,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: if the shooting was deliberate, it was the luckiest shot
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: in the world, and if it wasn't deliberate, it was
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: the unluckiest. And I agree with that sentiment. And investigators
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: are still divided on which scenario fits here. They still
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: don't know if Ronda's shooting was accidental or murder. I
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: have considered another possibility that it could have been somewhere
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: in the middle. Maybe the two guys the witness saw
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: that night were driving around and fired off a shot,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: either in road rage or as a joke, and.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Their shot killed Ronda.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Or maybe it was someone firing shots from the highway.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: If someone did hit her by accident, they may have
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: gone down to check on her, and then when they
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: realized she was dead, panicked, and fled the scene. If
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Ronda Henson had lived today, she would be in her sixties.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: Judy said that while she.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Still hopes and prays that someone would come forward with
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: information that could help lead to answers about what really
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: happened to Ronda, she clings to that final memory of
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: her daughter dressed up to go out to that party.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: She was so excited about dressed in the sweater and
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: skirt that her mom helped her pick out and buy.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Judy said, quote, she looked the most beautiful I had
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: ever seen her on that night. When we saw her again,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: it was in a funeral home. End quote. I'm Catherine Townsend.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: by Etiis Perez. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: research assistance and James Wheaton for legal review. Noah Camera
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song is by
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Ben Sale. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: LC Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: to the iHeart True Crime Plush channel on Apple Podcasts.
• 34:02
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  Speaker 2: the case, you can follow the show on Instagram.
• 34:08
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• 34:09
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• 34:11
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