Latest / Crime and Horror / BYU coed murder took 25 years to solve... - MrBallen

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BYU coed murder took 25 years to solve... - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: One evening in March of 1974, an investigator in Salt
0:03
Speaker 1: Lake City, Utah, sat across an interrogation table from a
0:07
Speaker 1: man who claimed he had psychic powers. Now, the investigator
0:11
Speaker 1: had naturally been quite skeptical of this man and his powers,
0:14
Speaker 1: but the man began giving him a bunch of very
0:17
Speaker 1: specific visions about the case the investigator was trying to solve.
0:21
Speaker 1: And in fact, some of the information he was revealing
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Speaker 1: was enough to make the investigator wonder, could this man
0:28
Speaker 1: actually be a psychic? Or was he the killer? But
0:32
Speaker 1: before we get into today's story, if you're a fan
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Speaker 1: of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:06
Speaker 1: On March 11th, 1974... 22-year-old Barbara Rockey sat at a
1:29
Speaker 1: desk in her bedroom in Provo, Utah, writing furiously. And
1:33
Speaker 1: as she was writing, eventually she paused for a minute
1:35
Speaker 1: to reread what she had written, but she wasn't quite
1:37
Speaker 1: happy yet, so she added a few more lines. The
1:40
Speaker 1: letter she was writing was for her roommates, and she
1:43
Speaker 1: knew it had to be perfect, because Barbara was saying goodbye.
1:47
Speaker 1: So Barbara was a junior at Brigham Young University, or BYU,
1:50
Speaker 1: which was a very religious school where most students were
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Speaker 1: practicing Mormons, but not Barbara. She had chosen to go
1:57
Speaker 1: to BYU because of religion, but really just because she
2:00
Speaker 1: was fascinated by it and thought going to a school
2:03
Speaker 1: structured around faith would be very interesting. But when she
2:06
Speaker 1: actually got there, she immediately felt out of place because
2:10
Speaker 1: her classmates went to church every week for hours at
2:12
Speaker 1: a time, and they all followed a pretty strict set
2:15
Speaker 1: of behavioral rules and values, which wasn't really Barbara's thing.
2:19
Speaker 1: Barbara was from California and considered herself more of a
2:23
Speaker 1: free spirit who liked exploring new ideas and trying new things.
2:26
Speaker 1: So over the last three years, Barbara had felt both
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Speaker 1: frustrated and also alienated by the other students' very rigid lifestyles.
2:34
Speaker 1: She'd been hoping that that would change with her new
2:36
Speaker 1: living situation. She'd just moved in with seven other girls
2:39
Speaker 1: in January. But now, just two months into that, it
2:42
Speaker 1: was already very obvious that those girls did not like her.
2:46
Speaker 1: They were just as religious as the rest of the
2:48
Speaker 1: kids at BYU. And they seemed to think Barbara was
2:50
Speaker 1: weird for doing things like dating around and experimenting with
2:55
Speaker 1: different religions. It just didn't make sense to them. So
2:58
Speaker 1: Barbara had decided that instead of trying to change her
3:01
Speaker 1: roommate's minds, she would just lean in to this kind
3:04
Speaker 1: of weird behavior, as they called it. Barbara basically started
3:08
Speaker 1: making them uncomfortable on purpose, like by saying she prayed
3:12
Speaker 1: to the devil, which totally shocked them. And after a while,
3:15
Speaker 1: Barbara had really got the sense that these girls... They
3:18
Speaker 1: weren't just weirded out by her. They were now actively
3:22
Speaker 1: scared of her, which really alienated Barbara a whole lot more.
3:25
Speaker 1: And so all of that was why Barbara was now
3:27
Speaker 1: writing this letter. She was telling her roommates that she
3:30
Speaker 1: was just going to go ahead and leave campus for
3:32
Speaker 1: a while to be with people that actually understood her.
3:35
Speaker 1: And the people she was thinking of were people like
3:38
Speaker 1: Richard Finder, a self-proclaimed psychic that Barbara had connected with
3:42
Speaker 1: after she had called into a radio show where Richard
3:44
Speaker 1: had been giving psychic readings. And the two of them
3:47
Speaker 1: had connected immediately. Because even though Richard was almost a
3:50
Speaker 1: decade older than her, he understood Barbara in a way
3:54
Speaker 1: that no one else in her life did. And ever since,
3:56
Speaker 1: they'd had this really intense relationship that felt both romantic
4:00
Speaker 1: and spiritual at the same time. But since Richard lived
4:04
Speaker 1: far away, most of their relationship so far had been
4:07
Speaker 1: over the phone. And so Barbara thought it might be
4:09
Speaker 1: nice to be physically closer to Richard and also his
4:12
Speaker 1: circle of friends. But there was another reason Barbara wanted
4:15
Speaker 1: to get away from BYU. and that was because she
4:18
Speaker 1: had started to feel unsafe being a young woman on
4:21
Speaker 1: a college campus. So recently, there had been some scary
4:24
Speaker 1: national news stories about college women being attacked on campus.
4:28
Speaker 1: One student in Washington State had been beaten and almost
4:31
Speaker 1: killed in her dorm room in January, and another woman
4:34
Speaker 1: had gone missing the following month. And even though these
4:37
Speaker 1: attacks had not literally happened at BYU, it still freaked
4:41
Speaker 1: Barbara out. I mean, especially because these women who had
4:43
Speaker 1: been targeted... just looked a lot like her physically, with
4:47
Speaker 1: long dark hair and sort of similar features. And so
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Speaker 1: as a precaution, Barbara had been taking judo classes at
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Speaker 1: school and even got her best friend, Jerry Hicker, to
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Speaker 1: help her buy a gun. Except Barbara had actually lost
5:00
Speaker 1: her gun recently. She'd not been able to find it
5:02
Speaker 1: for the last few weeks. She'd reported it missing to
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Speaker 1: the campus police, but she really had no idea where
5:08
Speaker 1: it went. But for now, Barbara forgot about the gun
5:11
Speaker 1: and just took a deep breath and finished up her
5:12
Speaker 1: goodbye letter. Then she glanced over at the clock and
5:15
Speaker 1: saw it was almost 10 a.m. and so she had
5:17
Speaker 1: to get to class. So she grabbed the letter and
5:20
Speaker 1: put it inside of her purse where she also was
5:22
Speaker 1: holding a turquoise necklace, which she planned to sell that day.
5:26
Speaker 1: It was the single most valuable thing that she owned
5:28
Speaker 1: and she was going to pawn it to get some
5:30
Speaker 1: seed money to leave town. She'd figure out her actual
5:33
Speaker 1: destination based on how much she got for it. As
5:36
Speaker 1: Barbara threw her bag over her shoulder and got ready
5:39
Speaker 1: to leave, she heard a car pull into the driveway outside.
5:43
Speaker 1: Which was a relief, because she'd actually let her best
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Speaker 1: friend Jerry borrow her car to go skiing the other day,
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Speaker 1: and she had been hoping he would drop it off
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Speaker 1: before she left for class, and so clearly, that's what
5:53
Speaker 1: he was doing. And so Barbara hurried out her front door,
5:56
Speaker 1: and sure enough, there was her car, and there was
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Speaker 1: Jerry climbing out and waving her keys, basically being like, hey,
6:02
Speaker 1: I'm back. As Jerry handed the car keys back over
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Speaker 1: to Barbara, he asked her if they were still on
6:08
Speaker 1: for hanging out later. But Barbara was busy thinking about
6:11
Speaker 1: getting to class and the logistics of selling her necklace.
6:14
Speaker 1: She had decided that Salt Lake City would have more
6:16
Speaker 1: pawn shops that would pay better, and it was also
6:18
Speaker 1: less than an hour north. And so now that Jerry
6:21
Speaker 1: had dropped her car off, she could drive up there
6:23
Speaker 1: right after class. And so, you know, Barbara just kind
6:25
Speaker 1: of nodded at Jerry and whatever he was saying, and
6:27
Speaker 1: then she took the keys, jumped in her car, and
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Speaker 1: she was off. Over an hour later, Barbara was sitting
6:35
Speaker 1: in her social work class, waiting for the teacher to
6:37
Speaker 1: dismiss them. And as she was sitting there, she began
6:40
Speaker 1: to hear some students whispering behind her. And as they did,
6:43
Speaker 1: even though she couldn't quite hear what they were saying,
6:46
Speaker 1: she began to feel her face get red. Because even
6:48
Speaker 1: though she didn't know if they were talking about her,
6:51
Speaker 1: if they were, it certainly would not be the first time.
6:53
Speaker 1: People talked about her a lot. So Barbara just did
6:56
Speaker 1: her best to try to ignore them. And then as
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Speaker 1: soon as the teacher said they could go, she jumped
7:00
Speaker 1: up and shoved her books into her bag. And then
7:03
Speaker 1: she hurried out of the building to where her car
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Speaker 1: was parked. She got in and pulled out of the lot.
7:07
Speaker 1: And as she made her way down the street, she
7:10
Speaker 1: actually felt a wave of excitement. She couldn't wait to
7:13
Speaker 1: sell this necklace and finally get out of this place.
7:20
Speaker 1: About three hours later, Barbara's best friend Jerry walked up
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Speaker 1: the sidewalk to Barbara's house. He thought they had plans
7:26
Speaker 1: to meet up that afternoon, but Barbara never showed. And
7:29
Speaker 1: Barbara did not usually just blow off plans without calling,
7:33
Speaker 1: so now he was actually at her house just to
7:35
Speaker 1: make sure she was okay. And now Jerry noticed that
7:38
Speaker 1: her car was not in her driveway. So he just
7:41
Speaker 1: stood there for a minute, wondering if maybe he should
7:43
Speaker 1: go in and ask her roommates where she was. But
7:46
Speaker 1: he ultimately decided against it and just instead headed back
7:49
Speaker 1: to his place. But after beginning the walk back to
7:52
Speaker 1: his place, he passed by an apartment complex down the
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Speaker 1: street from Barbara's place and he stopped because he could
7:59
Speaker 1: clearly see Barbara's car parked in the lot, which was
8:02
Speaker 1: definitely out of the ordinary. because Jerry was sure she
8:05
Speaker 1: did not know anybody who lived there. And so now,
8:08
Speaker 1: really starting to worry about Barbara, Jerry walked up to
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Speaker 1: her car to check it out, and when he looked inside,
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Speaker 1: he saw there was a note. And so he just
8:17
Speaker 1: opened up her car, because he found it was unlocked,
8:19
Speaker 1: and he grabbed the note, and he began to read it.
8:22
Speaker 1: And as he did, he felt his heart rate start
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Speaker 1: to pick up. An hour later, Jerry ran into the
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Speaker 1: campus police station, with Barbara's roommates following right behind him.
8:31
Speaker 1: After finding the note inside of Barbara's car, Jerry had
8:35
Speaker 1: gone back to Barbara's house to show it to her
8:37
Speaker 1: roommates and ask if they had seen her, because now
8:39
Speaker 1: he was worried that this note was some kind of
8:42
Speaker 1: suicide note. The note was a goodbye letter that Barbara
8:45
Speaker 1: apparently had written, and it said that she was leaving
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Speaker 1: to be with her people, and the tone of it
8:50
Speaker 1: was just kind of alarming. Now, Jerry could tell her
8:53
Speaker 1: roommates thought that he was overreacting to this note, but
8:57
Speaker 1: they had ultimately agreed to come with him to the
8:59
Speaker 1: police to just make sure everything was okay. And so
9:01
Speaker 1: as soon as the officer on duty came out, Jerry
9:04
Speaker 1: explained to him that he had had plans with Barbara
9:07
Speaker 1: that day and she had not shown up, which was
9:09
Speaker 1: very uncharacteristic. And then he explained how he found her
9:12
Speaker 1: car and then also this letter and his concerns about
9:14
Speaker 1: this letter. And the officer on duty said, OK, you know,
9:17
Speaker 1: we'll look into it. And so over the next few hours,
9:20
Speaker 1: the campus police did look into it. They reached out
9:23
Speaker 1: to some other kids on campus and also to Barbara's family.
9:27
Speaker 1: But nobody had seen or heard from Barbara since that morning.
9:30
Speaker 1: And so the police continued to look into this. realizing
9:33
Speaker 1: this could be a missing persons case, but technically not
9:37
Speaker 1: enough time had passed to officially call it that. So
9:40
Speaker 1: in this first day, it was all just kind of preliminary.
9:44
Speaker 1: The next day, almost 50 miles north of the BYU campus,
9:48
Speaker 1: a worker for a Utah utility company hiked up a
9:51
Speaker 1: trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon, a hilly nature preserve on
9:54
Speaker 1: the outskirts of Salt Lake City. Officially, he was there
9:57
Speaker 1: to check on some water lines, but he was also
10:00
Speaker 1: you know, taking his time and enjoying himself. I mean,
10:02
Speaker 1: this area was beautiful. It was high up in the
10:05
Speaker 1: mountains and very remote and peaceful. So, this guy was
10:08
Speaker 1: genuinely shocked when he reached the top of the trail
10:11
Speaker 1: and saw he was not alone. There was a woman
10:14
Speaker 1: up there. But at first, the way his brain processed
10:16
Speaker 1: what he was seeing is he saw this woman... who
10:19
Speaker 1: was lying on the ground and she appeared to be
10:21
Speaker 1: nude or partially nude. And he thought, oh, she's sunbathing.
10:24
Speaker 1: Like that's what she's doing up here. But then he's like,
10:27
Speaker 1: it's March, it's cold and she's face down and she's
10:30
Speaker 1: definitely totally naked. And then he took a few more
10:33
Speaker 1: steps forward and his brain kind of processed what he
10:36
Speaker 1: was seeing, at which point he just gasped, turned around
10:39
Speaker 1: and ran back to his car to go alert the police.
10:54
Speaker 1: Within the hour, Captain Pete Hayward, with the Salt Lake
10:57
Speaker 1: City Sheriff's Office, drove his cruiser along a remote access
11:00
Speaker 1: road that led to Big Cottonwood Canyon. So Hayward normally
11:04
Speaker 1: loved being in nature. All he really did in his
11:06
Speaker 1: spare time was hunt and fish. But right now, the
11:09
Speaker 1: scenery and remote location were actually kind of an inconvenience,
11:13
Speaker 1: because he needed to get to his destination quickly, and
11:15
Speaker 1: that was just very hard to do out here. Hayward
11:18
Speaker 1: had just gotten a call about a woman who'd been
11:20
Speaker 1: found dead in the canyon by a worker for a
11:23
Speaker 1: utility company. And while a few responders were actually already
11:26
Speaker 1: there securing the scene, Hayward knew they wouldn't be able
11:30
Speaker 1: to really do anything until he got there. Because when
11:33
Speaker 1: he worked a murder case, every single detail had to
11:36
Speaker 1: go through him. A few minutes later, Hayward saw some
11:39
Speaker 1: police cars up ahead on the side of the road
11:42
Speaker 1: and also a deputy waiting by a trailhead. And so
11:44
Speaker 1: he pulled over, got out, and then followed the deputy
11:47
Speaker 1: up a steep trail for about 300 yards. and he
11:50
Speaker 1: was pretty out of breath by the time he saw
11:52
Speaker 1: a few other crime scene techs and officers gathered around
11:55
Speaker 1: a bush, where underneath the bush there was a body
11:58
Speaker 1: of a naked woman lying face down on the ground.
12:00
Speaker 1: Hayward walked over and crouched down to examine the body,
12:04
Speaker 1: and right away he could see at least three bullet
12:06
Speaker 1: wounds in the woman's back. But other than that, he
12:09
Speaker 1: didn't see any other injuries, and there were no clear
12:12
Speaker 1: signs of decomposition. His best guess was that this woman
12:15
Speaker 1: had been there for maybe a day or so, which
12:17
Speaker 1: was actually sort of a miracle when he thought about it.
12:19
Speaker 1: I mean, this time of year, nobody came out to
12:22
Speaker 1: this area, and if it hadn't been for that utility worker,
12:25
Speaker 1: I mean, she might not have been found for months.
12:28
Speaker 1: Hayward looked next to the body, and he saw the
12:30
Speaker 1: woman's clothes and shoes were right nearby, and each item
12:32
Speaker 1: was actually folded very neatly, which struck him as a
12:35
Speaker 1: little bit strange. Hayward pulled on a glove and began
12:38
Speaker 1: examining the clothing, and he could see that there was
12:40
Speaker 1: really nothing ripped or damaged. And also, as Hayward kind
12:43
Speaker 1: of walked around the immediate area... He noticed the whole
12:46
Speaker 1: scene was just as neat as the clothes. There was
12:49
Speaker 1: no gun anywhere, and no marks in the dirt or
12:52
Speaker 1: signs of a struggle or a fight, and there was
12:54
Speaker 1: no indication that the body had been dragged around, and
12:57
Speaker 1: so Hayward felt pretty confident that this woman was likely
13:00
Speaker 1: shot and killed in the exact spot she was found in.
13:04
Speaker 1: Hayward stood in the middle of the trail and considered
13:06
Speaker 1: everything he was seeing. The neatly folded clothes could have
13:09
Speaker 1: been removed during consensual sex, and then maybe things turned violent.
13:13
Speaker 1: Or that could mean the woman was maybe forced to
13:15
Speaker 1: undress at gunpoint. Either way, Hayward's gut told him that
13:19
Speaker 1: this woman's killer was someone she knew. Because the thing was,
13:22
Speaker 1: getting up here from the road was not easy. I mean,
13:25
Speaker 1: Hayward was pushing 50 and knew he was not in
13:27
Speaker 1: the best shape. But even for somebody who was young
13:30
Speaker 1: and fit, it would be hard to force another person
13:33
Speaker 1: all the way up a trail like this. It made
13:35
Speaker 1: more sense that this woman had first walked up willingly
13:40
Speaker 1: with someone she likely trusted. and then that person killed
13:43
Speaker 1: her once they were up there. But Hayward knew, you know,
13:46
Speaker 1: his theory didn't mean much until he figured out who
13:48
Speaker 1: this woman was. She didn't seem to have a purse
13:51
Speaker 1: with her, and there was no ID in the pockets
13:53
Speaker 1: of her folded clothes. So Hayward waved some other officers
13:56
Speaker 1: over to help him flip her body over so they
13:59
Speaker 1: could look underneath her. And when they did that, Hayward
14:02
Speaker 1: saw there were a few bullets gathered in the dirt.
14:05
Speaker 1: They'd clearly gone straight through this woman from the shots
14:07
Speaker 1: in her back. And so Hayward quickly told a tech
14:10
Speaker 1: to go ahead and photograph and bag the bullets for
14:13
Speaker 1: testing and also to get some of the dirt that
14:15
Speaker 1: the bullets had been lodged in in case there was
14:17
Speaker 1: some other evidence mixed in. So investigators in the 1970s
14:21
Speaker 1: did not rely on DNA yet, but they could test
14:24
Speaker 1: for things like clothing fibers or hairs and potentially connect
14:28
Speaker 1: that material to suspects. And so after giving his team
14:30
Speaker 1: their marching orders, Hayward took a deep breath and then
14:33
Speaker 1: headed back down the trail. He needed to go find
14:36
Speaker 1: this woman's name. The next day, Wednesday, March 13th, Hayward
14:44
Speaker 1: hustled down a hallway towards a meeting room at the
14:46
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City Sheriff's Office. He was bleary-eyed and basically
14:50
Speaker 1: running on adrenaline because he'd been working this case non-stop
14:53
Speaker 1: since the day before. And he'd just come from a
14:56
Speaker 1: meeting with the ballistics expert who told him the gun
14:59
Speaker 1: that killed this woman was likely a. 357 caliber. Now,
15:03
Speaker 1: this was obviously great for the investigation. However, a. 357
15:07
Speaker 1: was not particularly uncommon, so it didn't really narrow things
15:11
Speaker 1: down a whole bunch. However, Hayward had uncovered something that
15:15
Speaker 1: was major for the investigation, and that was the victim's identity.
15:20
Speaker 1: It was 22-year-old Barbara Rocky. So Hayward's team had put
15:25
Speaker 1: a broadcast out over the news the night before about
15:28
Speaker 1: the discovery of this body. And after they had put
15:30
Speaker 1: that out, they had gotten a call from the BYU
15:33
Speaker 1: police about a student of theirs who had gone missing
15:36
Speaker 1: a day earlier. And just a few hours ago, some
15:39
Speaker 1: of this missing student's classmates had come up to Salt
15:42
Speaker 1: Lake City to identify the body, and they had confirmed
15:45
Speaker 1: it was Barbara. Now, Hayward had spoken to some of
15:48
Speaker 1: those kids already, and he had some other officers contacting
15:51
Speaker 1: Barbara's family. But right now, Hayward was on his way
15:54
Speaker 1: to get a formal statement from a young man named
15:57
Speaker 1: Jerry Hicker. Jerry was one of the people who identified
16:00
Speaker 1: the body, and he was the first person to report
16:03
Speaker 1: Barbara missing. So Hayward was hoping he would have information
16:07
Speaker 1: that could point them towards Barbara's killer. Minutes later, Hayward
16:11
Speaker 1: sat down at a conference table across from Jerry. And
16:14
Speaker 1: from the looks of it, Jerry was very rattled. He
16:16
Speaker 1: kept shaking his head and looking away like he was
16:19
Speaker 1: trying not to cry. But Hayward was not a particularly
16:23
Speaker 1: gentle interviewer. so he didn't waste time with condolences or tissues,
16:27
Speaker 1: especially because Jerry was an obvious suspect. He was Barbara's
16:31
Speaker 1: closest friend at school, apparently, and Hayward was sure Barbara
16:35
Speaker 1: was killed by somebody she trusted. So he just bluntly
16:38
Speaker 1: told Jerry that he needed to know every single thing
16:41
Speaker 1: that happened on the day Barbara went missing. Jerry was
16:44
Speaker 1: sort of caught off guard by this level of bluntness,
16:47
Speaker 1: but he took a shaky breath and then explained how
16:50
Speaker 1: he'd borrowed Barbara's car the day before and then dropped
16:53
Speaker 1: it back off at her place on Monday morning around
16:55
Speaker 1: 10 a.m. And then he went to the library for
16:58
Speaker 1: a few hours. He then said he was supposed to
17:00
Speaker 1: meet up with Barbara. They had plans for later that
17:02
Speaker 1: day to hang out, but Barbara didn't show up. And
17:05
Speaker 1: when he went to her house to check on her,
17:07
Speaker 1: her car was gone. And so he began walking back
17:10
Speaker 1: home again when he actually saw her car down the
17:13
Speaker 1: block outside of an apartment complex that he didn't understand
17:16
Speaker 1: she would be at. Like he didn't think she knew
17:18
Speaker 1: anybody who lived over there. And he said he walked
17:20
Speaker 1: up to the car, looked inside, and saw there was
17:23
Speaker 1: a note. He tried the door handle. It was open.
17:25
Speaker 1: He reached inside, got the note out, and he read it.
17:27
Speaker 1: And he said it was a pretty disturbing note. He
17:29
Speaker 1: thought it was maybe a suicide note. Hayward nodded. He
17:33
Speaker 1: had seen the note. The BYU police had given it
17:35
Speaker 1: to him. It did seem to be from Barbara, telling
17:38
Speaker 1: her roommates she was leaving town to be with people
17:40
Speaker 1: who she fit in with. But the note was kind
17:43
Speaker 1: of vague, and Hayward really wasn't sure what to make
17:45
Speaker 1: of it just yet. You know, it could be a
17:47
Speaker 1: suicide note. or it could be something entirely ordinary. And
17:50
Speaker 1: the truth was, he wasn't actually even sure that Barbara
17:53
Speaker 1: had really written the letter. Maybe her killer had written
17:56
Speaker 1: the letter. Maybe whoever murdered Barbara was attempting to make
17:59
Speaker 1: her disappearance look like a suicide, or maybe imply that
18:03
Speaker 1: she had run away in the hopes that police would
18:05
Speaker 1: never find her body. And so Hayward had sent the
18:08
Speaker 1: letter off to a handwriting expert to see what they thought. Now,
18:11
Speaker 1: Hayward asked Jerry about his relationship with Barbara, and Jerry
18:14
Speaker 1: explained that the two of them hung out a ton
18:16
Speaker 1: and She had gravitated towards him since she felt sort
18:19
Speaker 1: of unwelcome at school and around her roommates, who didn't
18:22
Speaker 1: really like her because she wasn't religious like they were.
18:25
Speaker 1: Jerry also told Hayward that Barbara had made the conflict
18:28
Speaker 1: with her roommates much worse by intentionally saying sacrilegious things
18:33
Speaker 1: in order to freak them out. So he said there
18:35
Speaker 1: was a lot of tension between them, and it had
18:37
Speaker 1: gotten so bad that at one point he had tried
18:40
Speaker 1: to find Barbara another place to live. This made Hayward
18:43
Speaker 1: perk up. I mean, knowing that Barbara had a potential
18:46
Speaker 1: domestic conflict was an interesting lead. Even though a group
18:49
Speaker 1: of young, devout Mormon women were not necessarily obvious murder suspects,
18:53
Speaker 1: it was definitely worth looking into. Maybe one of them
18:56
Speaker 1: had been so horrified and outraged by Barbara's teasing that
19:00
Speaker 1: they'd snapped and tried to hurt her. Hayward didn't have
19:02
Speaker 1: any other questions for Jerry, so he stood up and
19:05
Speaker 1: told him he could go. He wasn't ready to eliminate
19:07
Speaker 1: anybody as a suspect just yet, but so far, Jerry
19:10
Speaker 1: seemed pretty unlikely. He had an alibi and he was
19:13
Speaker 1: also the one who reported Barbara missing. And considering it
19:16
Speaker 1: was complete luck that her body was even found at
19:19
Speaker 1: all in the area that it was, you know, it
19:21
Speaker 1: really would have been in the killer's best interest to
19:24
Speaker 1: keep quiet and hope her body was never found. So
19:27
Speaker 1: why would Jerry go to police at all if he
19:29
Speaker 1: was the killer? So Hayward headed out the door to
19:31
Speaker 1: wrangle some officers. They needed to go to Provo and
19:34
Speaker 1: have another word with Barbara's roommates. The next afternoon, just
19:46
Speaker 1: two days after Barbara was found in the canyon, Hayward
19:48
Speaker 1: pulled up to a pawn shop on the outskirts of
19:50
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City. If he thought he was tired yesterday, well,
19:54
Speaker 1: he was absolutely exhausted now because a lot had happened
19:57
Speaker 1: in the last 24 hours. They'd gotten in touch with
20:00
Speaker 1: Barbara's family, who were obviously shocked and devastated, but they
20:04
Speaker 1: didn't have any useful information for the investigation. They didn't
20:08
Speaker 1: know much about Barbara's friends or life at school, so
20:11
Speaker 1: they couldn't say if anybody would have wanted to hurt her.
20:13
Speaker 1: And they'd had no idea if she had been planning
20:16
Speaker 1: to leave campus for any reason. But apparently, she was.
20:20
Speaker 1: Because the handwriting expert had come back and confirmed the
20:24
Speaker 1: note was authentic, and Barbara did write it. So her
20:27
Speaker 1: plans to leave appeared to be genuine, which is what
20:30
Speaker 1: the note basically was about, if you read it literally.
20:32
Speaker 1: But for Hayward, after speaking to Jerry, who talked about
20:35
Speaker 1: the tension between Barbara and her roommates and how she
20:39
Speaker 1: didn't fit in, And also, after Hayward literally spoke to
20:42
Speaker 1: all seven of Barbara's roommates, and they all actually admitted
20:46
Speaker 1: they did not like Barbara, it made Hayward think that
20:49
Speaker 1: the letter from Barbara should be interpreted literally, that she
20:53
Speaker 1: was just trying to flee campus and get away. In particular,
20:57
Speaker 1: from her roommates. But the roommates all had solid alibis
21:00
Speaker 1: for the day Barbara went missing. So for now, you know,
21:04
Speaker 1: Hayward basically had to rule out the roommates. But Hayward
21:07
Speaker 1: was not that upset about this because the roommates had
21:10
Speaker 1: actually given him another lead. According to one of the roommates,
21:13
Speaker 1: right before Barbara had disappeared, she had mentioned that she
21:17
Speaker 1: planned to pawn a turquoise necklace that she owned in
21:21
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City. So Hayward and some other officers had
21:24
Speaker 1: spent the whole day canvassing pawn shops in that area
21:27
Speaker 1: to see if maybe she had actually gone through with it. Now,
21:30
Speaker 1: so far, Hayward had not found the necklace or, you know,
21:33
Speaker 1: found the the pawn shop that maybe Barbara went to,
21:37
Speaker 1: but he was very hopeful, maybe too hopeful in some ways. Because,
21:41
Speaker 1: you know, aside from this necklace lead, the investigation really
21:44
Speaker 1: was kind of losing steam. They had searched and fingerprinted
21:47
Speaker 1: Barbara's car, but had not found anything significant. They'd also
21:51
Speaker 1: gotten the autopsy back, and it was mostly unhelpful. The
21:54
Speaker 1: medical examiner had actually counted five gunshot wounds, not just three,
21:58
Speaker 1: so more than Hayward had thought, but they couldn't confirm
22:01
Speaker 1: whether or not Barbara was sexually assaulted. And also, the
22:05
Speaker 1: forensics report had come back and they had not been
22:08
Speaker 1: able to collect any fingerprints at the scene. And so
22:10
Speaker 1: all of this was swirling around in Hayward's head as
22:13
Speaker 1: he stepped into this particular pawn shop and he asked
22:16
Speaker 1: the woman behind the counter if they had recently purchased
22:19
Speaker 1: a turquoise necklace. And to his shock, the woman said, yes.
22:24
Speaker 1: And then she gestured towards a glass case behind the
22:26
Speaker 1: counter where Hayward could see a long white necklace lined
22:30
Speaker 1: with turquoise stones on a red felt pad. About a
22:35
Speaker 1: half an hour later, Hayward was back behind the wheel
22:38
Speaker 1: of his cruiser, and his heart was pounding and his
22:40
Speaker 1: mind was racing so fast he could barely pay attention
22:43
Speaker 1: to the road. Because Hayward finally had a real trail here.
22:49
Speaker 1: The shop clerk's description of the person who had sold
22:52
Speaker 1: that turquoise necklace matched Barbara perfectly. Not only that, the
22:57
Speaker 1: shopkeeper also had a receipt for the sale that showed
23:00
Speaker 1: Barbara was at the store on March 11th at 12.50 p.m.
23:05
Speaker 1: the same day she went missing. But the most incredible
23:08
Speaker 1: part of this new lead was that Barbara had apparently
23:11
Speaker 1: told this clerk that she was in a hurry because
23:14
Speaker 1: her boyfriend was circling the block outside. And this was
23:19
Speaker 1: huge because Hayward and his team had spoken to a
23:21
Speaker 1: lot of people in Barbara's life and no one had
23:24
Speaker 1: mentioned a boyfriend. Now, unfortunately, the pawn shop worker had
23:28
Speaker 1: not gotten a look at this person, this boyfriend that
23:31
Speaker 1: Barbara was talking about. So Hayward had just taken the
23:34
Speaker 1: necklace and the receipt for evidence, and now he was
23:37
Speaker 1: rushing back to the precinct to make some calls. He
23:40
Speaker 1: needed to see if anybody in Barbara's life knew about
23:43
Speaker 1: this boyfriend, and maybe had just failed to mention it
23:46
Speaker 1: for some reason. But as soon as Hayward parked and
23:49
Speaker 1: hurried inside the precinct, he was stopped by a deputy,
23:52
Speaker 1: and this deputy seemed as excited and frazzled as Hayward felt.
23:56
Speaker 1: The deputy told Hayward that he wasn't going to believe this,
23:59
Speaker 1: but they had been continuing their background interviews... And some
24:02
Speaker 1: of Barbara's friends said that Barbara had mentioned a boyfriend
24:07
Speaker 1: named Richard. This was great news for Hayward. I mean,
24:10
Speaker 1: he was literally looking for exactly this information. But this
24:14
Speaker 1: actually was not the reason why the deputy was so
24:17
Speaker 1: worked up, just the fact that she had a boyfriend.
24:20
Speaker 1: He explained that Richard was Richard Finder, a supposed psychic
24:24
Speaker 1: from California who just happened to be in town on
24:28
Speaker 1: a ski vacation at the same time Barbara was killed.
24:32
Speaker 1: And the reason they knew that was because Richard had
24:34
Speaker 1: just called the station completely out of the blue and
24:38
Speaker 1: offered to help. A few hours later, Hayward sat down
24:45
Speaker 1: across an interrogation table from 30-year-old Richard Finder. Richard had
24:50
Speaker 1: on glasses and he had a goatee and he seemed
24:52
Speaker 1: very confident and also quite eager to help. But to Hayward,
24:56
Speaker 1: he just felt like he was putting on an act.
24:58
Speaker 1: he felt certain that Richard had to be Barbara's killer.
25:01
Speaker 1: After all, it actually was not unusual for murderers to
25:05
Speaker 1: actually insert themselves into the murder investigation to sort of,
25:10
Speaker 1: you know, see what's going on and maybe deflect blame
25:13
Speaker 1: away from themselves. And so for Hayward, he felt like
25:15
Speaker 1: that was exactly what Richard was doing, you know, calling
25:18
Speaker 1: in to offer up his supposed psychic services. But also,
25:22
Speaker 1: Hayward had spent the last couple of hours digging into Richard.
25:25
Speaker 1: And he also discovered that he owned a. 357 pistol,
25:29
Speaker 1: the same kind of gun that had killed Barbara. And
25:32
Speaker 1: on top of that, he found out the place where
25:34
Speaker 1: Richard was staying was in Salt Lake City, very close
25:37
Speaker 1: to Big Cottonwood Canyon, where Barbara's body was found. It
25:40
Speaker 1: was just too many coincidences. And so Hayward was prepared
25:44
Speaker 1: to get extremely tough with Richard to get a confession.
25:48
Speaker 1: But Hayward got a few of his background questions out
25:50
Speaker 1: of the way first. And after asking Richard how he
25:53
Speaker 1: knew Barbara... Richard explained that they had connected after she
25:56
Speaker 1: had heard him speak on the radio. And he said
25:59
Speaker 1: that they'd actually never been physical, but they'd had a
26:02
Speaker 1: deep spiritual relationship. After that, Hayward cut to the chase
26:06
Speaker 1: and just asked Richard point blank why he had called
26:08
Speaker 1: the station. And at that point, Richard became very serious
26:12
Speaker 1: and said that he needed to come forward because he
26:15
Speaker 1: had a feeling about what had happened to Barbara. He said,
26:18
Speaker 1: you know, he was a psychic and he had a
26:20
Speaker 1: vision of that the gun, the murder weapon, had been
26:23
Speaker 1: thrown in some water somewhere. Hayward couldn't believe what he
26:26
Speaker 1: was hearing because, you know, the police had not announced
26:30
Speaker 1: the murder weapon was missing. Richard shouldn't have known they
26:33
Speaker 1: were looking for the murder weapon, but clearly he did.
26:36
Speaker 1: So at this point, Hayward did not ask more questions
26:39
Speaker 1: about what his vision said. Instead, he demanded that Richard
26:43
Speaker 1: account for every single hour of his day on Monday,
26:46
Speaker 1: March 11th, the day that Barbara went missing. And for
26:49
Speaker 1: the first time, Richard actually seemed genuinely thrown off. He
26:53
Speaker 1: just sort of stared back at Hayward in what seemed
26:55
Speaker 1: to be complete shock. And then he said he didn't
26:58
Speaker 1: kill Barbara. He said he couldn't have. He was with
27:00
Speaker 1: his friends the whole day. Hayward just kind of glared
27:03
Speaker 1: at Richard and then slid a pad of paper over
27:05
Speaker 1: to him to write down his friends' information so they
27:08
Speaker 1: could follow up. And as he watched Richard hurry to
27:10
Speaker 1: jot down some names and numbers, Hayward felt sure this
27:14
Speaker 1: was their guy. There was just a mountain of circumstantial
27:17
Speaker 1: evidence here against him. But he knew they needed something
27:20
Speaker 1: more concrete to actually make an arrest. So Hayward first
27:23
Speaker 1: would have to check out Richard's alibi and then also
27:26
Speaker 1: test Richard's personal gun, his. 357, against the bullets that
27:30
Speaker 1: had killed Barbara. So he told Richard that for now
27:34
Speaker 1: he could go, but they would need to take a
27:36
Speaker 1: look at his gun. A few weeks later, Hayward sat
27:40
Speaker 1: at his desk in the sheriff's office staring at some
27:42
Speaker 1: ballistics results from Richard's gun. And it would turn out
27:46
Speaker 1: it was definitely not the gun that killed Barbara. And
27:49
Speaker 1: Hayward literally couldn't remember a time when he'd been more, frankly,
27:52
Speaker 1: shocked and disappointed. I mean, he really had Richard pegged
27:57
Speaker 1: as the killer. Richard basically was his only suspect. And
28:01
Speaker 1: he was a great one, especially since they had checked
28:03
Speaker 1: on his alibi and it didn't really hold up. The
28:06
Speaker 1: friends he said he was with that whole day actually said, well,
28:10
Speaker 1: we were with him, but not the whole day. So basically,
28:13
Speaker 1: there were large chunks of time on the day she
28:15
Speaker 1: went missing when Richard was unaccounted for. Hayward sighed and
28:20
Speaker 1: reminded himself that, you know, just because the gun he
28:23
Speaker 1: owned wasn't a match, it didn't mean Richard was innocent.
28:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it's possible he used a different. 357 and
28:31
Speaker 1: then just ditched the weapon. Still though, Hayward couldn't believe
28:34
Speaker 1: they were back to square one like this. He felt
28:37
Speaker 1: like he had done everything he could at this point.
28:39
Speaker 1: He talked to who he needed to talk to. He'd
28:41
Speaker 1: analyze the evidence they'd gotten, and he had really nothing
28:44
Speaker 1: to show for it. Hayward was used to closing cases
28:47
Speaker 1: and giving families the answers they wanted, and now he
28:50
Speaker 1: was worried he was not going to be able to
28:52
Speaker 1: do that. And sure enough, over the coming months and
28:55
Speaker 1: then years, you know, Hayward did continue to investigate this case,
29:00
Speaker 1: but the leads got fewer and fewer, and then eventually
29:03
Speaker 1: he got promoted, and then before long he was pulled
29:06
Speaker 1: into other cases, and eventually Barbara's case just went cold.
29:20
Speaker 1: In the fall of 2005, so over 25 years after
29:25
Speaker 1: Barbara's murder, Detective Todd Park sat on the floor by
29:28
Speaker 1: his desk in the Salt Lake City Sheriff's Department. Around
29:31
Speaker 1: him on the floor, it was covered with crime scene
29:34
Speaker 1: photos and interviews and evidence logs from the 1974 investigation
29:37
Speaker 1: of Barbara Rockey. murder. Park was a brand new homicide detective,
29:43
Speaker 1: and he had taken on this case after getting a
29:44
Speaker 1: call from one of Barbara's sisters, begging the sheriff's office
29:48
Speaker 1: to reopen it. And Park wasn't sure if it was
29:50
Speaker 1: maybe just new guy enthusiasm, but he was already pretty
29:54
Speaker 1: obsessed with trying to solve it. He really wanted to
29:56
Speaker 1: find some answers for the Rocky family, since they'd been
29:59
Speaker 1: wondering what happened to Barbara for now over two decades.
30:02
Speaker 1: And Park actually felt pretty optimistic about it. Because even
30:06
Speaker 1: though during the original investigation, they hadn't relied on DNA testing,
30:11
Speaker 1: you know, they couldn't really even do DNA testing. Despite that,
30:14
Speaker 1: the investigators at the time had done a rape kit
30:18
Speaker 1: and saved all the evidence from the scene, like Barbara's
30:21
Speaker 1: clothes and even the dirt that was underneath her body.
30:24
Speaker 1: Which meant... that with the current advancements in DNA technology,
30:29
Speaker 1: there was a good chance they could actually solve this thing.
30:31
Speaker 1: Park had already sent a few items over for testing,
30:34
Speaker 1: but while he waited for the results, he was going
30:36
Speaker 1: over the details of the case to get a sense
30:38
Speaker 1: of how it was investigated back in 1974. And he
30:41
Speaker 1: found it was a pretty unusual case. The murder had
30:44
Speaker 1: initially been investigated as a personally motivated crime. But while
30:48
Speaker 1: the case was cold, police had also begun to consider
30:51
Speaker 1: the idea that maybe Barbara had been murdered by the
30:54
Speaker 1: notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, that this was not personal,
30:58
Speaker 1: that she was just one of many victims. Ted Bundy
31:01
Speaker 1: had been arrested less than an hour away from where
31:03
Speaker 1: Barbara lived in Salt Lake City in 1975, just one
31:07
Speaker 1: year after her murder. And he had been killing college
31:10
Speaker 1: women all over the West Coast, including several in Utah
31:15
Speaker 1: the same year Barbara was killed. But investigators in the
31:18
Speaker 1: late 1970s had ruled Ted Bundy out after determining he'd
31:22
Speaker 1: been committing a different murder in Washington State at the
31:26
Speaker 1: same time Barbara was killed, so he could not have
31:28
Speaker 1: been her killer. But it was still possible that Barbara
31:31
Speaker 1: had been killed by a different serial killer in the area.
31:34
Speaker 1: 1974 is notoriously known as the Year of Fear because
31:39
Speaker 1: there were so many killers operating in the United States
31:42
Speaker 1: at that time. But as Park read through the notes...
31:45
Speaker 1: He found himself agreeing with the original investigator's first instincts,
31:48
Speaker 1: that Barbara's murder must have been personal. Also, just the
31:51
Speaker 1: amount of times Barbara was shot seemed emotionally charged. And
31:55
Speaker 1: so Park believed Barbara's boyfriend, Richard Finder, had to be
31:59
Speaker 1: the killer. I mean, after all, Richard had been in
32:02
Speaker 1: the area at the time of the murder. He basically
32:04
Speaker 1: had no alibi. And, you know, he brought up the
32:07
Speaker 1: fact that there was a missing murder weapon when the
32:10
Speaker 1: public didn't even know that. So he knows things about
32:12
Speaker 1: the crime scene that he shouldn't know. But Park felt
32:16
Speaker 1: like there were some other people in this case that
32:18
Speaker 1: also deserved a second look. Like Barbara's best friend, Jerry Hicker.
32:22
Speaker 1: It was true, he did have an alibi. And Barbara
32:24
Speaker 1: had told that pawn shop owner, you know, before she
32:27
Speaker 1: was killed, that she was with her boyfriend, which she
32:30
Speaker 1: would not have referred to Jerry as. But if this
32:33
Speaker 1: was as emotional a crime as Park thought it was,
32:36
Speaker 1: Jerry had to be considered. After all, he was Barbara's
32:39
Speaker 1: closest friend at school, and maybe he heard she was
32:42
Speaker 1: leaving town and got mad at her. And then Barbara's roommates,
32:45
Speaker 1: they all seemed to have solid alibis, but maybe one
32:48
Speaker 1: of them had gotten somebody else to kill Barbara. I mean,
32:51
Speaker 1: Park knew the original investigators hadn't found any evidence of that,
32:55
Speaker 1: but they also hadn't seemed to spend much time on
32:57
Speaker 1: the roommates one way or another. They just kind of
32:59
Speaker 1: quickly ruled them out. But Park also knew it could
33:02
Speaker 1: be someone that they hadn't even considered yet. like the
33:05
Speaker 1: utility worker who actually found the body, or maybe another
33:09
Speaker 1: student at BYU who didn't like Barbara and considered her
33:12
Speaker 1: an outsider or a weirdo. Park wasn't sure yet, but
33:15
Speaker 1: he was confident that they'd be able to pick up
33:18
Speaker 1: some DNA somewhere in the evidence, and once they did,
33:21
Speaker 1: they'd find their killer. Two years later, on an afternoon
33:30
Speaker 1: in October of 2007, Park paced around his office and
33:34
Speaker 1: periodically stopped to look at the phone on his desk.
33:36
Speaker 1: He was waiting for a call from the lab, and
33:38
Speaker 1: with each passing moment, he got more and more anxious.
33:42
Speaker 1: So at this point in Park's re-investigation of Barbara's murder,
33:46
Speaker 1: the DNA testing had basically gotten them nowhere. Over the
33:49
Speaker 1: last two years, the medical lab had gone over almost
33:53
Speaker 1: every single item from Barbara's case, like her rape kit
33:56
Speaker 1: swabs and her clothes. But they hadn't been able to
33:59
Speaker 1: get any DNA from anything. It either wasn't there or
34:03
Speaker 1: was just too old and not preserved well enough. And
34:06
Speaker 1: so the only thing left to test was the dirt
34:09
Speaker 1: that the original investigators collected from underneath Barbara's body. Park
34:13
Speaker 1: actually had not originally sent in the dirt because he
34:16
Speaker 1: didn't think it would have any DNA inside of it.
34:19
Speaker 1: But it was now the only piece of evidence that
34:21
Speaker 1: he had left. So Park knew that when the lab
34:24
Speaker 1: called this time, he'd either be on his way to
34:26
Speaker 1: finding the killer's name or his case would basically be over.
34:30
Speaker 1: But then, Park's phone finally rang. He immediately picked it up,
34:34
Speaker 1: and his mouth went dry when he heard it was
34:36
Speaker 1: the lab on the other end. And before Park could
34:38
Speaker 1: even ask them, they told him they had a profile.
34:42
Speaker 1: They'd been able to find traces of DNA in that
34:45
Speaker 1: dirt sample taken from under Barbara's body. And when Park
34:48
Speaker 1: finally got his hands on that DNA profile, and he
34:51
Speaker 1: ran it through their criminal database, he got a name.
35:00
Speaker 1: Based on DNA evidence and a decades-long investigation, here is
35:04
Speaker 1: a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Barbara Rockey
35:08
Speaker 1: on March 11, 1974. Just before noon, the killer watched
35:21
Speaker 1: Barbara pull up to the sidewalk in her car. The
35:23
Speaker 1: killer immediately walked over and jumped inside and smiled at Barbara,
35:28
Speaker 1: and she smiled right back. And together, they drove to
35:30
Speaker 1: the pawn shop in Salt Lake City that Barbara wanted
35:33
Speaker 1: to go to. When they got there, Barbara hopped out
35:37
Speaker 1: of the car and went inside. And once she was inside,
35:40
Speaker 1: the killer moved over to the driver's seat. And so
35:43
Speaker 1: they basically were going to drive the car from that
35:45
Speaker 1: point forward. And as the killer sat in the driver's
35:47
Speaker 1: seat waiting for Barbara, their heart was racing. They couldn't
35:52
Speaker 1: wait for her to get back outside and get in
35:53
Speaker 1: the car because the killer was in love with her.
35:57
Speaker 1: And they had decided that today... they were finally going
36:00
Speaker 1: to make their relationship physical. So when Barbara came outside
36:04
Speaker 1: and hopped in the passenger seat of the car after
36:06
Speaker 1: selling her necklace, the killer very excitedly turned to her
36:09
Speaker 1: and said, hey, there's some trails nearby. Why don't we
36:12
Speaker 1: go for a hike? Barbara clearly hesitated, like she didn't
36:15
Speaker 1: really want to do this. But the killer knew Barbara
36:18
Speaker 1: was leaving Utah, and they knew she had written a
36:20
Speaker 1: goodbye note and was selling the necklace for funds to
36:23
Speaker 1: leave for good. So they kind of guilt tripped her.
36:26
Speaker 1: They said, look, like, Let's go enjoy the beautiful countryside
36:29
Speaker 1: before you leave town. Barbara shrugged and said, OK, fine.
36:33
Speaker 1: And so the killer very excitedly drove the car over
36:36
Speaker 1: to the canyon and parked near a picnic area. Then
36:39
Speaker 1: the two of them got out. And as they began
36:41
Speaker 1: walking towards the trail, the killer reached down and touched
36:44
Speaker 1: the outside of their pocket just to make sure the
36:46
Speaker 1: gun that they had stolen from Barbara was still there. Now,
36:50
Speaker 1: they didn't know if they were going to use the
36:52
Speaker 1: gun or not, but they just wanted to make sure
36:53
Speaker 1: it was there and ready. And so for a while,
36:56
Speaker 1: the killer and Barbara just hiked along this trail, you know,
36:59
Speaker 1: just chatting and making their way up and enjoying the scenery.
37:03
Speaker 1: But at some point, the killer just couldn't wait any longer.
37:06
Speaker 1: They had to make their move. And so they stopped
37:08
Speaker 1: Barbara and the killer after making sure nobody else was around.
37:12
Speaker 1: They moved forward and kind of made their move. They
37:15
Speaker 1: They touched Barbara in a way that was very clearly
37:18
Speaker 1: meant to be romantic. But immediately Barbara kind of recoiled
37:22
Speaker 1: and jumped back and told the killer that she didn't
37:24
Speaker 1: want that, which immediately made the killer incredibly angry. And
37:29
Speaker 1: so the killer stepped towards her again and could see
37:32
Speaker 1: Barbara had this alarmed look on her face, which made
37:34
Speaker 1: them even more angry. So they pulled out Barbara's gun
37:37
Speaker 1: and they aimed it at her and then told her
37:39
Speaker 1: to take off her clothes. And Barbara, I mean, she
37:42
Speaker 1: was horrified, but, you know, she did as she was told.
37:45
Speaker 1: But she intentionally was taking her time. As she took
37:47
Speaker 1: off a piece of clothing, she would painstakingly fold it
37:50
Speaker 1: very neatly, all the while begging the killer not to
37:54
Speaker 1: do this. And then after taking off all of her
37:57
Speaker 1: clothes and stacking them next to her, you know, she
38:00
Speaker 1: continued to plead with the killer. But the killer was
38:03
Speaker 1: so humiliated and so angry. that they decided enough was enough.
38:08
Speaker 1: And they shot Barbara right in the chest. And she
38:11
Speaker 1: crumpled to the ground and they fired wildly several more
38:14
Speaker 1: times until Barbara went still. And then once Barbara was
38:18
Speaker 1: either dead or dying on the ground, the killer just
38:21
Speaker 1: panicked and turned and ran back down the trail, back
38:24
Speaker 1: to Barbara's car. They hopped in and they drove back
38:27
Speaker 1: to Provo and the BYU campus. But on the way there,
38:31
Speaker 1: they stopped and ditched Barbara's purse and the gun. And
38:34
Speaker 1: then when they actually got to Provo, the reason they
38:36
Speaker 1: parked Barbara's car down the road near that other apartment
38:39
Speaker 1: complex was so that when the killer got out of
38:42
Speaker 1: the car, Barbara's seven roommates would not see them doing so.
38:46
Speaker 1: Then they fled, leaving Barbara's note in the car. Barbara's
38:49
Speaker 1: note was not a suicide note. It was a literal
38:52
Speaker 1: goodbye note that she had written for her roommates. But
38:55
Speaker 1: the killer figured it sort of seemed like a suicide note,
38:58
Speaker 1: so if they left it here, when they came back
39:00
Speaker 1: to find the car... and find the note inside of it,
39:04
Speaker 1: they could tell the police that this seems like maybe
39:07
Speaker 1: Barbara has killed herself. It would send the police in
39:10
Speaker 1: a direction that would hopefully not lead back to the killer.
39:14
Speaker 1: It would turn out Barbara's killer was her best friend,
39:17
Speaker 1: Jerry Hicker. The original investigators didn't suspect Jerry at first,
39:22
Speaker 1: mainly because of his cooperation, and since he was the
39:25
Speaker 1: one who also first reported her missing. But they did
39:28
Speaker 1: begin to get suspicious of him when he eventually revealed
39:32
Speaker 1: his violent streak. The year after he killed Barbara, he
39:36
Speaker 1: was connected to a few different rape cases on campus.
39:39
Speaker 1: But they didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest
39:41
Speaker 1: until decades later when the lab finally found DNA in
39:46
Speaker 1: the soil from the 1974 crime scene. They were able
39:49
Speaker 1: to match that profile to Jerry's DNA, which they had
39:52
Speaker 1: on file from his involvement in another unrelated crime. And
39:56
Speaker 1: so ultimately, Jerry killed Barbara with her own gun, which
40:00
Speaker 1: he had helped her buy so she could protect herself
40:03
Speaker 1: from killers just like him. By the time Jerry was
40:07
Speaker 1: arrested in 2007, he was dying of cancer. He confessed
40:11
Speaker 1: to Barbara's murder for a reduced sentence and served five
40:14
Speaker 1: years before he was released. He died in 2014. Thank
40:26
Speaker 1: you so much for watching. Let me know what you
40:28
Speaker 1: thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we
40:31
Speaker 1: have a whole playlist of true crime episodes ready for
40:34
Speaker 1: you to binge right now. So click here and give
40:37
Speaker 1: them a watch. All right, until next time, see ya.