Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Disappearance of Elizabeth Ann Campbell Part 2
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, before we get started, I need to make
- 0:03Speaker 1: a correction. Last episode, I misspoke and said that Tom
- 0:08Speaker 1: and Samsuon Campbell originally reported Elizabeth missing to police in
- 0:13Speaker 1: Copper's Cove, which is incorrect. They reported her missing to
- 0:17Speaker 1: the Lampasas police, who themselves later involved law enforcement in
- 0:22Speaker 1: Copper's Cove. By the time you're hearing this, I've already
- 0:27Speaker 1: made the changes to the episode, but I wanted to
- 0:29Speaker 1: let those of you who have already listened know as
- 0:33Speaker 1: to avoid any confusion it might cause this episode. Sorry
- 0:37Speaker 1: about that. The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or
- 0:41Speaker 1: graphics subject matter. Listener discretion is advised. After their daughter
- 0:48Speaker 1: Elizabeth disappeared, Tom and Samsoon Campbell spent years trying to
- 0:53Speaker 1: find her. They searched extensively along Highway one ninety between Lampassas,
- 0:59Speaker 1: where they live and Copper's Cove, where Elizabeth was last seen,
- 1:04Speaker 1: but found little more than a deer bone. No sign
- 1:08Speaker 1: of their missing daughter could be found, no clothing, no jewelry,
- 1:13Speaker 1: school books, or purse, all items Elizabeth was known to
- 1:17Speaker 1: be carrying as she tried to make her way home
- 1:19Speaker 1: from Colleen to Lampassas. Though they had a heated argument
- 1:24Speaker 1: the night Elizabeth vanished. Her boyfriend, Ricky Ray was never
- 1:28Speaker 1: a suspect in the eyes of law enforcement, and though
- 1:31Speaker 1: the rumor mill cast its doubts about his innocence, Ricky's
- 1:35Speaker 1: alibi was as solid as they come. In fact, he'd
- 1:39Speaker 1: been at work alongside Elizabeth's sister later that night, and
- 1:43Speaker 1: it even mentioned their fight to her. His involvement was
- 1:47Speaker 1: virtually impossible when a young woman matching Elizabeth's description was
- 1:53Speaker 1: seen in various places from Copper's Cove to Garland. Samsoon
- 1:58Speaker 1: and Tom searched strip club ubs, massage parlors, and stopped
- 2:02Speaker 1: to sex workers to see if they had any information.
- 2:06Speaker 1: No one did. They'd written politicians and various law enforcement
- 2:11Speaker 1: agencies across the United States hung up flyers from Lampasas
- 2:15Speaker 1: to El Paso and from San Antonio to Dallas. At
- 2:20Speaker 1: some point, the case left the hands of the Lampasas
- 2:23Speaker 1: police and the Copper's Cove police took over the investigation entirely.
- 2:29Speaker 1: The Campbells attempted to look into every lead that came
- 2:32Speaker 1: in over the toll free tip line they had put
- 2:35Speaker 1: in at the house. After the television show unsolved Mysteries
- 2:39Speaker 1: ran a segment on Elizabeth's case. There were plenty to
- 2:43Speaker 1: check out. Early on, the family began selling property, cattle,
- 2:48Speaker 1: and other possessions to pay for their efforts. Still, no
- 2:52Speaker 1: sign of their daughter was ever found, or so Tom
- 2:56Speaker 1: and Samson thought for more than three years after their
- 3:00Speaker 1: lives and the lives of Elizabeth's four siblings were turned
- 3:04Speaker 1: upside down. At three thousand or so residents in nineteen ninety,
- 3:35Speaker 1: the unincorporated West Texas community Ozona is small. As the
- 3:41Speaker 1: one and only town in Crockett County, a sign welcomes
- 3:44Speaker 1: visitors or far more likely passers through Ozona, the biggest
- 3:50Speaker 1: little town in the world. On May sixth, nineteen ninety two,
- 3:55Speaker 1: for the family of a missing Lampassas woman, that motto
- 3:58Speaker 1: became truer than it had ever been. That Wednesday, at
- 4:03Speaker 1: the Crockett County Sheriff's office in Ozona, as they did
- 4:06Speaker 1: some last minutes scrounging for items to sell at a
- 4:09Speaker 1: county wide surplus goods auction, deputies rummaged through a lost
- 4:14Speaker 1: and Found box, a catch all for items unclaimed that
- 4:18Speaker 1: the department had been using since the nineteen seventies. In
- 4:22Speaker 1: the lost and found they stumbled upon something they weren't
- 4:26Speaker 1: quite sure what to make of, a maroon leather clutch
- 4:29Speaker 1: purse filled with identifying items. It was in good condition,
- 4:34Speaker 1: appearing to have never been left out in the elements
- 4:38Speaker 1: inside the purse were the credit card, social security card,
- 4:42Speaker 1: and driver's license of a woman named Elizabeth Ann Campbell.
- 4:47Speaker 1: Other unnamed items found inside were all dated prior to
- 4:51Speaker 1: April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty eight, the day this young
- 4:55Speaker 1: woman vanished without a trace, but now finally there was.
- 5:01Speaker 1: After entering Elizabeth's information into a computer, Crockett County Chief
- 5:06Speaker 1: Deputy Alton Davis discovered that the bag belonged to a
- 5:09Speaker 1: person missing from Copper's Cove, almost two hundred and thirty
- 5:14Speaker 1: miles to the east. Chief Deputy Davis immediately called the
- 5:18Speaker 1: police department there and reported what he had found. Soon
- 5:22Speaker 1: after the discovery, Samson and Tom Campbell were informed, and
- 5:27Speaker 1: when they learned what was found inside the purse, they
- 5:30Speaker 1: told police that it appeared a hairbrush, lipstick, and her
- 5:33Speaker 1: keys were missing. Over the next couple weeks, Crockett County
- 5:38Speaker 1: Sheriff Jim Wilson had a photo of the purse printed
- 5:41Speaker 1: in the local paper to see if anyone remembered giving
- 5:44Speaker 1: it to police, since there was no record of such.
- 5:48Speaker 1: In fact, by every indication, it appeared as though Elizabeth's
- 5:52Speaker 1: name had never been checked. After the purse was turned
- 5:55Speaker 1: over to police. The Crockett County Sheriff said he felt
- 5:59Speaker 1: certain and it was turned in before he had taken
- 6:01Speaker 1: office and had implemented a new property room record keeping
- 6:05Speaker 1: process at that time. If he was right, that meant
- 6:09Speaker 1: the purse was found and turned in sometime between April
- 6:13Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen eighty eight and January first, nineteen eighty nine.
- 6:18Speaker 1: The Campbell family was frustrated. Why hadn't Elizabeth's name been
- 6:23Speaker 1: checked when the purse was first turned in. Why hadn't
- 6:27Speaker 1: the contents of the lost and Found box been revisited
- 6:30Speaker 1: when Sheriff Wilson's new policies were put in place at
- 6:33Speaker 1: the beginning of nineteen eighty nine. In June of nineteen ninety,
- 6:38Speaker 1: sam Soon had even stopped at the Crockett County Sheriff's
- 6:41Speaker 1: office and personally gave deputies a flyer that not only
- 6:45Speaker 1: described Elizabeth Campbell by name, but also had a description
- 6:50Speaker 1: of her purse. The mother had been standing mere feet
- 6:54Speaker 1: from the only physical evidence in her daughter's missing person's case.
- 6:58Speaker 1: She wouldn't know it for two more year. Now, more
- 7:02Speaker 1: than four years after Elizabeth was last seen, and her
- 7:05Speaker 1: case was as cold as they come. The cops, three
- 7:08Speaker 1: and a half hours away and Copper's Cove desperately needed
- 7:11Speaker 1: to find out when and by whom the purse was found.
- 7:16Speaker 1: Tom and Samsuon Campbell's minds were reeling with possibilities. They
- 7:21Speaker 1: wondered why the deposit slips were missing from Elizabeth's checkbook,
- 7:26Speaker 1: which was also inside the purse. Perhaps she had left
- 7:30Speaker 1: a trail behind her using them, Tom theorized, Speaking of
- 7:35Speaker 1: the purse, he continued, there's a good chance that she
- 7:38Speaker 1: left it in a restroom or roadside park just to
- 7:41Speaker 1: bring attention to herself. However, the checkbook and its missing contents,
- 7:46Speaker 1: along with all the other items found inside, provided no
- 7:50Speaker 1: clues as to the whereabouts of Elizabeth. Shortly after it
- 7:55Speaker 1: was found, and after the Copper's Cove police took custody
- 7:58Speaker 1: of it, the purse was sent to a Texas Department
- 8:01Speaker 1: of Public Safety crime lab to check for prints and
- 8:04Speaker 1: undergo other tests. Eventually, several sets of fingerprints were found
- 8:10Speaker 1: and sent to the FBI for further examination. They apparently
- 8:15Speaker 1: did little good. Sergeant Dan Austen, who was the Copper's
- 8:20Speaker 1: cove detective working the case at that point, knew that
- 8:24Speaker 1: knowing when and where the purse was found would offer
- 8:27Speaker 1: the greatest potential for clues, but it never happened. No
- 8:32Speaker 1: one ever came forward. It was the very first solid
- 8:37Speaker 1: clue in the case, but with the context of its
- 8:39Speaker 1: discovery unknown, the purse meant little in terms of followable
- 8:44Speaker 1: leads or workable theories. Six months later, Sergeant Austin told
- 8:49Speaker 1: reporters that the department hadn't received so much as a
- 8:52Speaker 1: crank call concerning the purse. While the Crockett County Sheriff's
- 8:58Speaker 1: Office wrapped up their te trubbling involvement in the Elizabeth
- 9:02Speaker 1: Ann Campbell case, one of their own cold cases was
- 9:06Speaker 1: heating up. When they left Seattle, Washington in nineteen eighty eight,
- 9:23Speaker 1: newlywed's Patricia Candice Walsh and Douglas Scott Ziskowski, twenty three
- 9:28Speaker 1: and twenty six years old, respectively, didn't bring any identification along.
- 9:34Speaker 1: They'd given up their belongings to travel and deliver the
- 9:37Speaker 1: word of Jesus Christ and this time, they were going
- 9:40Speaker 1: to Georgia. Hitchhiking to Georgia. After Patricia and Douglas's time there,
- 9:47Speaker 1: they felt it was their duty to continue to spread
- 9:49Speaker 1: the gospel out west, so they began traveling again. The
- 9:54Speaker 1: minister of Everyday Church in Seattle spoke with the couple
- 9:58Speaker 1: in January of nineteen as they were making their way
- 10:02Speaker 1: from Georgia. They were in El Paso, Texas, Patricia and
- 10:06Speaker 1: Douglas told him, and on their way to Arizona. No
- 10:10Speaker 1: one ever heard from them again. Two years later, in
- 10:15Speaker 1: April of nineteen ninety two, Douglas's parents, Mary and Gerald
- 10:19Speaker 1: Ziskowski visited El Paso to hand out missing persons flyers
- 10:24Speaker 1: and visit with law enforcement agencies, including the Texas Department
- 10:28Speaker 1: of Public Safety office there. Crockett County Sheriff's Office Deputy
- 10:33Speaker 1: Alton Davis had recently visited the DPS offices in El Paso,
- 10:38Speaker 1: following up on a lead in the case of an
- 10:40Speaker 1: unidentified male body they had found two years before in
- 10:44Speaker 1: nineteen ninety about three miles inside the Eastern County line
- 10:49Speaker 1: off Interstate ten West, about thirty miles east of Ozona,
- 10:54Speaker 1: when the Zeiskowskis handed the flyer to a Texas ranger
- 10:58Speaker 1: in El Paso. He reckeded that the descriptions in the
- 11:01Speaker 1: two cases matched. The following month, the John Doe in
- 11:06Speaker 1: Crockett County was identified by dental records as Douglas Ziskowski.
- 11:12Speaker 1: Since they now had a second missing person connected to
- 11:15Speaker 1: Douglas his wife, Patricia, they searched the area where his
- 11:19Speaker 1: body was found again but discovered nothing new. Patricia's mom
- 11:24Speaker 1: came to El Paso the June following Douglas's identification, but
- 11:29Speaker 1: would receive no answers. Neither she nor law enforcement knew.
- 11:34Speaker 1: Deer hunters had found Patricia near an isolated canyon off
- 11:38Speaker 1: Interstate fifteen in Utah in October nineteen ninety ten, months
- 11:43Speaker 1: after she and her husband were last heard from for years.
- 11:47Speaker 1: She would be listed as a Jane Doe there. When
- 11:51Speaker 1: she and Douglas's story aired on America's Most Wanted in
- 11:54Speaker 1: September of nineteen ninety two, the television show received a
- 11:58Speaker 1: call from someone who said Patria Tricia's body would be
- 12:01Speaker 1: found off mile marker forty nine in West Texas, though
- 12:05Speaker 1: they failed to specify whether that meant off of Interstate
- 12:08Speaker 1: ten near Van Horn or I twenty near Odessa. Neither,
- 12:13Speaker 1: of course, was true. Finally, in two thousand and three,
- 12:18Speaker 1: the body found in Utah was positively identified as belonging
- 12:23Speaker 1: to Patricia Walsh. Years before, and just months after Crockett
- 12:29Speaker 1: County John Doe was identified as Douglas Ziskowski. On September eleventh,
- 12:34Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, a man named Robert Ben Rhodes was
- 12:38Speaker 1: convicted in Illinois for the murder of a fourteen year
- 12:41Speaker 1: old girl named Regina k Walters. Regina ran away from
- 12:46Speaker 1: her mom's house in Pasadena, Texas, in early February of
- 12:50Speaker 1: nineteen ninety. Rhodes, a long haul trucker whose routes took
- 12:54Speaker 1: him across the western portion of the United States, all
- 12:58Speaker 1: over Texas, Flora, the Midwest, East Coast, and everywhere in between.
- 13:05Speaker 1: Was also known over the Cebee radio as Dusty and
- 13:08Speaker 1: Whips and Chains. At some point along their way, probably
- 13:13Speaker 1: not far from Pasadena, he picked up Regina and her
- 13:17Speaker 1: new boyfriend, Ricky Lee Jones. More than a month later,
- 13:21Speaker 1: Regina's parents began receiving mysterious and ominous phone calls about
- 13:26Speaker 1: their daughter, one specifying that her hair had been cut
- 13:29Speaker 1: off and that she'd been left in the loft of
- 13:31Speaker 1: an old barn. Was she alive, Regina's father, who lived
- 13:36Speaker 1: in Houston, wondered, but the caller hung up without answering
- 13:40Speaker 1: the question. Later traced that call came from a gas
- 13:44Speaker 1: station payphone in Ennis, Texas. More calls came in, including
- 13:50Speaker 1: some to Regina's mother in Pasadena. On September twenty ninth,
- 13:55Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, a farmer in Greenville, Illinois found human scale
- 14:00Speaker 1: remains in an old barn on his property. They were
- 14:04Speaker 1: quickly identified as belonging to a teenaged girl or young woman.
- 14:09Speaker 1: There was no clothing on the victim or anywhere nearby,
- 14:12Speaker 1: though there was still some hair on the head and
- 14:15Speaker 1: evidence of a recent haircut. Strangulation was the cause of death.
- 14:20Speaker 1: Bailing wire had been twisted around the victim's neck sixteen times,
- 14:25Speaker 1: then tightened using a tourniquet, nearly decapitating her. The dental
- 14:31Speaker 1: records of fourteen year old Regina Walters were eventually compared
- 14:35Speaker 1: to those of the unidentified skull, and they matched. Later,
- 14:40Speaker 1: her boyfriend Ricky's remains were found off Highway fifty nine
- 14:44Speaker 1: in Lamar County, Mississippi. Although they were not identified until
- 14:48Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. There was a bullet hole in
- 14:51Speaker 1: his skull. It wasn't until October nineteen ninety one that
- 14:56Speaker 1: a Houston detective saw the photos that the FBI cap
- 15:00Speaker 1: in their Robert Benrood's file. Images of a young teen naked,
- 15:06Speaker 1: shackled and cuffed with a choke chain around her neck
- 15:09Speaker 1: immediately caught his eye. She had very short hair, but
- 15:14Speaker 1: looked like his missing teenager turned murder victim, Regina Walters.
- 15:19Speaker 1: Her hair was still long in the detective's photo, but
- 15:22Speaker 1: he recognized her nonetheless, and the three birthmarks on her
- 15:26Speaker 1: neck matched. Since there was such a dramatic change to
- 15:30Speaker 1: her appearance, he had to verify. He showed the photo
- 15:34Speaker 1: to Regina's father, Jerry. Jerry joylessly confirmed they now knew
- 15:40Speaker 1: Rhodes was their guy. Trucker logs and fuel receipts from
- 15:45Speaker 1: work revealed that the dates and location of Rhodes's stops
- 15:49Speaker 1: coincided with the calls made to Regina's parents. Regina's mother's
- 15:54Speaker 1: phone number had been posted on missing persons flyers, and
- 15:58Speaker 1: Jerry's number was written in a small spiral bound notebook
- 16:02Speaker 1: that belonged to Regina that was found among Rhodes's possessions.
- 16:08Speaker 1: The notebook contained careless bits of evidence, a juvenile drawling
- 16:12Speaker 1: of a gun and blood droplets, and little notes that
- 16:16Speaker 1: seemed to suggest plans things like water tank and fun
- 16:20Speaker 1: and hide. Rhodes was so nonchalant about all the depravity
- 16:25Speaker 1: he was getting away with he had even written out
- 16:27Speaker 1: the phrase Ricky is a dead man. This was all
- 16:31Speaker 1: evidence that had been collected from his apartment. When a
- 16:34Speaker 1: search warrant was carried out by the FBI on April sixth,
- 16:38Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, after they'd all but proven Rhodes was responsible
- 16:43Speaker 1: for Regina and Ricky's murders, he wasn't too difficult to find.
- 16:48Speaker 1: On April first, nineteen ninety, Rhodes had been arrested for
- 16:51Speaker 1: kidnapping and torturing a woman he picked up at Rip
- 16:54Speaker 1: Griffin's truck stop north of Phoenix, Arizona and Buckeye, after
- 16:59Speaker 1: a state troopers stopped to inspect his semi parked with
- 17:02Speaker 1: its hazards on just off Interstate ten. Inside the sleeper
- 17:07Speaker 1: of the truck, the woman was naked and shackled. Immediately
- 17:12Speaker 1: upon seeing the trooper, she began screaming frantically. For help.
- 17:17Speaker 1: Rhodes had welded rings to the back of the sleeper
- 17:20Speaker 1: compartment and attached chains to them. Instruments of torture surrounded
- 17:25Speaker 1: the woman. Leashes, handcuffs, whips, alligator clips, and dildos. Everything
- 17:32Speaker 1: was placed neatly. There were long hooked sticks for trapping victims,
- 17:37Speaker 1: bloody towels, a camera, a briefcase, and a horse bit.
- 17:43Speaker 1: The scene was appalling. In December nineteen ninety, Robert Ben
- 17:48Speaker 1: Rhodes accepted a generous plea bargain in Arizona. He pleaded
- 17:52Speaker 1: guilty to kidnapping and torturing and agreed to serve only
- 17:56Speaker 1: six years. The charges were sexual assault, aggravated assault, and
- 18:01Speaker 1: unlawful imprisonment. The sentence was light, but he was still
- 18:06Speaker 1: in prison when detectives working the Regina Walters and Ricky
- 18:10Speaker 1: Lee Jones cases discovered Regina's photo in his confiscated possessions,
- 18:15Speaker 1: and it gave them plenty of time to gather what
- 18:17Speaker 1: they needed to put him away for good, including her
- 18:20Speaker 1: fingerprint in the cab of his truck, a lucky break
- 18:24Speaker 1: because it had been steam cleaned since his arrest. Almost
- 18:29Speaker 1: two years later, he pleaded guilty to the murder of
- 18:32Speaker 1: Regina K. Walters in Illinois. He was never tried for
- 18:36Speaker 1: the murder of her boyfriend. Rhodes was required to give
- 18:41Speaker 1: his DNA in two thousand and three while imprisoned up North,
- 18:45Speaker 1: which matched previously unknown male DNA lifted from the body
- 18:49Speaker 1: of Patricia Candace Walsh. After a thorough investigation, authorities in
- 18:55Speaker 1: Utah placed charges against Rhodes, who was fifty nine years
- 18:59Speaker 1: old at the time time. Crockett County, Texas law enforcement
- 19:03Speaker 1: quickly followed suit and charged Roads with the murder of
- 19:07Speaker 1: Patricia's husband, Douglas Scott Ziskowski. By two thousand and nine,
- 19:12Speaker 1: the charges for Patricia's case were transferred to Crockett County,
- 19:16Speaker 1: and in October of that year, Rhodes was booked into
- 19:19Speaker 1: the Reagan County Jail to await trial for her and
- 19:22Speaker 1: Douglas's murders. In March of twenty twelve, after spending three
- 19:28Speaker 1: years in the Texas jail, he pleaded guilty to both
- 19:31Speaker 1: to avoid the death penalty, the same reason he had
- 19:34Speaker 1: pleaded out in the Regina Walters case. On January thirteenth,
- 19:40Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, somewhere near El Paso on Interstate ten Rhodes
- 19:44Speaker 1: had picked up Douglas and Patricia later that day. Most likely,
- 19:49Speaker 1: Rhodes shot Douglas three times in the head on the
- 19:52Speaker 1: side of I ten West in Crockett County and rolled
- 19:56Speaker 1: him down an embankment off the side of the highway.
- 20:00Speaker 1: After that, it's believed he held Patricia captive, raping and
- 20:04Speaker 1: torturing her for more than a week before ultimately shooting
- 20:08Speaker 1: her with a twenty two caliber rifle four times in
- 20:10Speaker 1: the head and neck and dumping her off the side
- 20:13Speaker 1: of the road in a remote area of Millard County, Utah.
- 20:18Speaker 1: Some believe Robert Ben Rhodes, who came to be known
- 20:22Speaker 1: as the truck Stop Killer, is responsible for the disappearance
- 20:25Speaker 1: of Elizabeth Ann Campbell because the body of one of
- 20:41Speaker 1: his victims was found near Ozona, Texas, where at the
- 20:45Speaker 1: Crockett County Sheriff's Office the purse of Elizabeth Ann Campbell
- 20:49Speaker 1: was discovered in nineteen ninety two. Some speculate that serial
- 20:53Speaker 1: killer Robert Ben Rhodes is responsible for her disappearance. His
- 20:58Speaker 1: known trucking routes in Texas at the time consisted of
- 21:02Speaker 1: Interstate ten from El Paso to Houston, a ride which
- 21:06Speaker 1: directly passes Ozona. Usually, it appears roads might take either
- 21:11Speaker 1: Interstate thirty five or I forty five to the Dallas
- 21:14Speaker 1: Fort Worth area, a trail that does not pass Coppera's
- 21:18Speaker 1: Cove from where Elizabeth went missing. However, there are routes
- 21:23Speaker 1: such as Highway one ninety that might have served the
- 21:26Speaker 1: killer as off the beaten path, hunting grounds of which
- 21:31Speaker 1: led to other highways where he could get back on track.
- 21:35Speaker 1: Strange phone calls in the case also mirror those roads
- 21:39Speaker 1: made to the families of his victims or, in this case,
- 21:42Speaker 1: the police. On the night Elizabeth disappeared, a caller reported
- 21:47Speaker 1: seeing a juvenile female matching her description walking down Highway
- 21:51Speaker 1: one ninety toward Colleen, the opposite way Elizabeth was supposed
- 21:56Speaker 1: to have been going, which was back home to Lampassas.
- 22:00Speaker 1: When the cops tried to follow up on this tip,
- 22:02Speaker 1: it turned out the caller gave them a bad address
- 22:05Speaker 1: and false name. They claimed they were making the call
- 22:09Speaker 1: from a residence, but police later found out it came
- 22:12Speaker 1: from a payphone located on Clark Road in Copper's Cove.
- 22:17Speaker 1: While the idea of Robert ben Rhoades as Elizabeth Campbell's
- 22:21Speaker 1: killer appears to have been first speculated by the public.
- 22:25Speaker 1: The Copper's Cove Police have confirmed that they've looked into him,
- 22:29Speaker 1: they've never publicly released their findings. Alongside the human trafficking possibility,
- 22:36Speaker 1: Roads appears to be on a short list of theories.
- 22:41Speaker 1: Although Rhodes appears to be a viable suspect in Elizabeth's disappearance,
- 22:46Speaker 1: one important witness report perhaps makes it unlikely. In an
- 22:51Speaker 1: October nineteen eighty eight Austin American Statesman piece about the case,
- 22:55Speaker 1: a witness at the seven eleven where she was last
- 22:58Speaker 1: seen reported they saw her outside near the payphone before
- 23:02Speaker 1: getting into a white car with a maroon landau roof,
- 23:06Speaker 1: a description that later expanded to white or silver possibly
- 23:11Speaker 1: later descriptions say a Pontiac or GMC. Oddly, the car
- 23:17Speaker 1: was reported as heading back to Colleen, which is the
- 23:21Speaker 1: same direction she was seen walking down the highway according
- 23:24Speaker 1: to the person who called and provided a false name
- 23:27Speaker 1: and address the night Elizabeth was last seen. Had the
- 23:32Speaker 1: information about the maroon topped car been louder at the
- 23:36Speaker 1: time of Elizabeth's disappearance, it might have led to further leads. Instead,
- 23:41Speaker 1: it was only mentioned once or twice. In July of
- 23:45Speaker 1: two thousand and one, the Copper's Cove Police received a
- 23:48Speaker 1: tip after a rerun of the Unsolved Mysteries episode with
- 23:52Speaker 1: a segment about Elizabeth Campbell aired just one The department
- 23:58Speaker 1: never expounded upon the name of the call or whether
- 24:01Speaker 1: the lead was exhausted. One of the stranger tips that
- 24:05Speaker 1: came along over the years involved a phone call to
- 24:08Speaker 1: a Lampasas hospital. The tipster was a former hospital worker
- 24:13Speaker 1: when they called it in apparently about a week after
- 24:17Speaker 1: Elizabeth's disappearance, a male caller to the hospital asked if
- 24:22Speaker 1: her body had arrived in the ambulance. Yet it's unclear what,
- 24:27Speaker 1: if anything, came of this lead. Beginning in the early
- 24:31Speaker 1: two thousands, however, the tips slowed to a near stop.
- 24:36Speaker 1: Stories about Elizabeth's disappearance were few and far in between,
- 24:41Speaker 1: but when the media coverage did come, the pain the
- 24:44Speaker 1: family still felt was palpable and fresh with every anniversary article.
- 24:49Speaker 1: Her sister, carol Anne carries unwarranted guilt. Elizabeth would have
- 24:54Speaker 1: had her car that night if Carol Anne hadn't borrowed it.
- 24:58Speaker 1: Tom Elizabeth's father, seems to have lost the desire to
- 25:02Speaker 1: speak with the press, often relying on Sam Soon, Elizabeth's mother,
- 25:07Speaker 1: to do the talking. He died at age eighty three
- 25:11Speaker 1: on June thirteenth, twenty eighteen, without any answers. Tom muttered
- 25:17Speaker 1: these last words to sam Soon, you find anything about Elizabeth.
- 25:22Speaker 1: Her reply was no, to which he could only respond
- 25:26Speaker 1: with tears. Sam Soon often wonders aloud if she's a
- 25:30Speaker 1: bad person and asks why she's being punished, constantly haunted
- 25:35Speaker 1: and tormented by the uncertainty, but most of all the
- 25:38Speaker 1: pain of losing her youngest child. Still, she continues to
- 25:44Speaker 1: look for her daughter. If you have any information about
- 25:49Speaker 1: the disappearance of Elizabeth Ann Campbell, please call the Copper's
- 25:53Speaker 1: Cove Crimestoppers at two five four five four seven one
- 25:58Speaker 1: one or Belle Cams crime Stoppers at two five four
- 26:02Speaker 1: five two six eight four seven seven. You can also
- 26:06Speaker 1: submit a tip online. We'll provide a link in this
- 26:09Speaker 1: episode's show notes. If you'd like to join Gon Cold's
- 26:15Speaker 1: mission to shine a light on unsolved homicides and missing
- 26:18Speaker 1: persons cases, get the show at free and have access
- 26:22Speaker 1: to bonus content. You can at Patreon dot com Slash
- 26:26Speaker 1: Gone Cold podcast. You can also support the show by
- 26:31Speaker 1: leaving a five star rating and written review on Apple
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