Latest / Least of These / MURDERED: Carla Walker with Crime with Holly

Transcript

MURDERED: Carla Walker with Crime with Holly · Least of These

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: hello and welcome back everyone to another episode of Crime with Holly.
0:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It's your girl Holly and I am finally back with a normal full length episode for you all.
0:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to say thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to everyone who had left a kind comment they message me privately or said a prayer for my sweet paparoni.
0:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Last episode I mentioned that the vet found a mass in my dog stomach that they believed was stomach cancer and they were requesting additional ultrasound.
0:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Just an update on all of that for you guys we went ahead we paid for the very intense and extensive ultrasound where my dog had to be sedated so that they could get good photos and
0:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And those images were then sent to a specialist for their opinion on what is going on with our dog.
0:55
[SPEAKER_00]: They found an 11.5x14.9 cm mass on Bindy's spleen.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is consistent with a certain kind of cancer and I know I'm totally gonna botch.
1:09
[SPEAKER_00]: How to say this, I forgot to look it up, but it's a human, guyosarcoma.
1:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe it's how it's said.
1:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I probably botched it.
1:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I should have looked it up, but I didn't.
1:18
[SPEAKER_00]: However, the vet was shocked that this hasn't spread to her liver.
1:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't look like it was anywhere else in her body other than on the spleen.
1:29
[SPEAKER_00]: He said that it appeared that there was like a membrane or something wrapped around the tumor almost protecting it and he was very, very shocked with how she was still maintaining her normal life.
1:44
[SPEAKER_00]: To put it all into perspective,
1:46
[SPEAKER_00]: That 11 and a half by 14.9 centimeter mass is like the size of a normal sized mango.
1:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is just chillin in her body and my dog has given nothing away that there is any kind of issue.
2:00
[SPEAKER_00]: We have opted to just kind of keep an eye on her and we didn't want to put her through surgeries and expensive chemo that we honestly can't afford.
2:12
[SPEAKER_00]: She's nine, she's had an amazing life, and I feel like that would just really be hard on her body and recovery, so we have just decided that we are going to keep an eye on her.
2:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Since she is acting completely normal.
2:24
[SPEAKER_00]: For now, we are just going to give her so much love.
2:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We spent some days being really upset, heartbroken, crying.
2:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But we've decided that we need to suck it up, because we don't want her to sense that energy and feel our sadness and feel like she has to cheer us up.
2:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They say that dogs can sense those kinds of things and so we are just giving her lots of love.
2:46
[SPEAKER_00]: We are spoiling her so much and just watching for signs that things are getting worse.
2:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I thank you all so much for giving me some grace and being so kind with your words.
2:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we dive into the details of today's case, I do have a Patreon shoutout to give.
3:06
[SPEAKER_00]: A major shoutout and a major big huge thank you to our newest Patreon member Rachel.
3:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for joining the family and also for lifting my spirits this week.
3:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It has been a rough week, but I'll tell you that put a smile on my face.
3:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate you so much and I'm so excited to have you as a part of my special little crime family.
3:29
[SPEAKER_00]: If you all want to be like Rachel, you can join the Patreon family for just $2 a month, and when you join, you not only show me love and support, but you also get every single episode ad free.
3:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That's old episodes and all new episodes going forward.
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: visit www.patreon.com slash crime with holly or visit the link in the description of this episode to join.
3:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you again Rachel, you rock.
4:00
[SPEAKER_00]: All right y'all, so with all of that said, let's get into today's case.
4:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to give a brief warning that this episode will contain information involving sexual assault and rape.
4:13
[SPEAKER_00]: If that is triggering for you, please just skip over this episode.
4:17
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of those cases that was solved decades later thanks to DNA, and I've set it in the past, but these are some of my favorite cases to cover.
4:27
[SPEAKER_00]: because it proves that you cannot hide forever and that there is always hope for these cold cases to be solved.
4:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So without further ado, let's get into it.
4:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Today's episode is on the murder of Carla Walker.
4:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
5:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla Jan Walker was born on January 31, 1957 to her parent's latent and Doris Walker.
5:14
[SPEAKER_00]: She grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and was one of five children in a very close-knit family.
5:21
[SPEAKER_00]: From the very beginning, Carla was inseparable from her older sister Cindy.
5:27
[SPEAKER_00]: The two shared a bedroom for Carla's entire life and wherever one went, the
5:35
[SPEAKER_00]: In Family Photos Cindy and Carla are almost always side by side, best friends in every sense of the word.
5:43
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time of her death, Carla was just 17 years old and a junior in high school.
5:49
[SPEAKER_00]: She was a popular cheerleader with a wide circle of friends and a personality that people gravitated towards.
5:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Those who knew her described her as a little spitfire, she was funny, sweet, and full of life, but also tough, stubborn, and determined.
6:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Physically, Carla was small.
6:09
[SPEAKER_00]: She stood at 4 foot 11 and weighed 100 pounds, but her size never held her back.
6:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla had big dreams, one of which was to some day become a veterinarian, and she carried herself with confidence far beyond her years.
6:27
[SPEAKER_00]: When Carla turned 16, she told her parents that she wanted a brand new Monning Carlo as her first car, and they made it happen.
6:37
[SPEAKER_00]: That car quickly became her pride and joy, something that she cherished and took great care of.
6:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla often spent her free time cruising around town in her Monte Carlo with her girlfriends.
6:51
[SPEAKER_00]: that was just what teenagers did back then I was just having this conversation with my husband when I was telling him about this case and we also used to go cruising around town in our cars that used to call it in Salem organ cruising the gut.
7:06
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a name that my mom called it back when she was in high school so this has always been a very popular thing for teenagers.
7:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it is anymore but it was back then.
7:18
[SPEAKER_00]: These teenagers, they would drive up and down the city streets with no real destination.
7:23
[SPEAKER_00]: They would meet up with different friend groups hopping between parking lots, talking, laughing, and enjoying the simple freedom that came with being young and carefree.
7:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla wasn't just popular.
7:36
[SPEAKER_00]: She was admired.
7:38
[SPEAKER_00]: She was stunningly beautiful and was dating Western Hills high schools star football player Rodney McCoy.
7:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney was a senior.
7:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla was a junior and together they were the couple that everyone noticed.
7:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You could call them the it couple if you really wanted to because that was them.
8:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla had everything a teenager could dream of.
8:04
[SPEAKER_00]: She was well-liked, popular, a cheerleader, beautiful, and dating the quarterback of the football team.
8:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Texas, where football is practically a religion, that meant something.
8:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So there was Carla, cheeryed on the sidelines while her handsome boyfriend threw touchdown passes under the Friday night lights.
8:25
[SPEAKER_00]: If that doesn't sound like something straight out of a movie or a romance novel, I don't know what does.
8:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But for Carla and Rodney, what they had felt was real.
8:37
[SPEAKER_00]: They truly loved each other.
8:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a few months before her murder Rodney had given Carla a promise ring, a small but meaningful symbol of how serious he was about their relationship and that he wanted to be with her for the long haul.
8:53
[SPEAKER_00]: On February 16, 1974, Western Hills High School held its annual Valentine's Day dance.
9:00
[SPEAKER_00]: It had been the talk of the school for months.
9:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Girls had been shopping for weeks trying to find the perfect dress, and if your boyfriend forgot to ask you to the dance, well, he probably was going to hear about it, or he wasn't going to be your boyfriend for much longer.
9:17
[SPEAKER_00]: For the students at Western Hills, this dance was a big deal.
9:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla was especially excited.
9:25
[SPEAKER_00]: She couldn't wait to get dressed up and spend the evening dancing with Rodney at one of his final high school dances before he graduated.
9:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Earlier that day Rodney had worked a morning shift at a local gas station, and as soon as he got off he rushed home to get ready and then jumped into his mom's Ford LTD to go pick up Carlo.
9:48
[SPEAKER_00]: About halfway to Carly's house, Rodney realized his mistake.
9:53
[SPEAKER_00]: He realized that he had forgotten Carly's corsage back at the house.
9:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Not wanting to show up empty handed, he quickly turned the car around and hurried back to grab it.
10:05
[SPEAKER_00]: By the time he finally arrived at Carly's house, she was pretty upset.
10:11
[SPEAKER_00]: They were going to be officially late to the dance, but after Rodney apologized and explained what had happened, he carefully penned the corsage onto Carla's dress and just like that, her anger seemed to melt away.
10:26
[SPEAKER_00]: After posing for a few photos for her family, the couple headed out to a romantic dinner before making their way to Western Hills High School.
10:36
[SPEAKER_00]: When they arrived, the gym had been transformed into a sea of red and pink.
10:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Hearts hung everywhere and decoration celebrating love covered the room.
10:48
[SPEAKER_00]: The theme for the dance was love is a kaleidoscope.
10:55
[SPEAKER_00]: All night long, Carla and Rodney laughed with friends, danced until their hearts were pounding and soaked up every moment together.
11:04
[SPEAKER_00]: As the dance came to an end, the couple invited another pair of friends to go for a drive.
11:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Their plan was to meet up with others from the dance at Taco Bell, which was a popular late night hangout spot for the teens in town.
11:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Around 1230 AM, Rodney dropped the other couple off back at their car at the school.
11:32
[SPEAKER_00]: From there, he and Carla continued cruising down Camp Booye Boulevard, neither of them had a strict curfew.
11:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla's parents trusted Rodney and usually allowed them to decide when they wanted to head home.
11:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Normally, they were responsible about it, but since this was such a big night out, it was expected that they might stay out a little later than usual, so there was no rush.
11:59
[SPEAKER_00]: They were just enjoying the night driving around, talking, and spending a little more time together.
12:05
[SPEAKER_00]: At one point, Karla needed to use the restroom, so Rodney pulled into the parking lot of a nearby bowling alley.
12:13
[SPEAKER_00]: After she came back to the car, the two of them lingered there in the dark and quiet parking lot.
12:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Quickly, one thing led to another, and Carly ended up laying back with her head pretty much resting on the armrest of the passenger door.
12:29
[SPEAKER_00]: She used her purse behind her head like a pillow, with Rodney practically on top of her while they were making out and getting hot and heavy.
12:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But their perfect night was about to come to a terrifying halt.
12:45
[UNKNOWN]: You
12:57
[SPEAKER_00]: In the early morning hours of February 17th, 1974, 17-year-old Carla Walker was sitting in the passenger seat of her boyfriend Rodney McCoy's car in the parking lot of a local bowling alley.
13:11
[SPEAKER_00]: The two teenagers were making out enjoying the last moments of what had been a perfect night out, and then suddenly everything changed.
13:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Without warning, the passenger door was violently yanked to open.
13:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Their heads nearly fell out of the car as the door flew wide.
13:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney said when he looked up, there was a man standing over them holding a pistol.
13:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Before Rodney could even react, the man struck him in the head with the butt of the gun.
13:41
[SPEAKER_00]: The attacker then shoved the pistol inside the car holding it inches from Rodney's face and pulled the trigger three times, but the gun never fired.
13:52
[SPEAKER_00]: When it failed to go off the man began beating Rodney repeatedly with the pistol while trying to drag Carla from the car.
14:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla screamed as she watched Rodney being bludgeoned.
14:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Desperate to make the violent stop, she told the man that she would go with him just please stop hitting Rodney.
14:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney already badly injured was doing everything he could to stay conscious.
14:17
[SPEAKER_00]: As the man pulled Carla away, she screamed Rodney go get my dad.
14:30
[SPEAKER_00]: He would later say he wasn't sure how long he was unconscious, but when he finally came to, there was only one thought in his mind.
14:38
[SPEAKER_00]: He needed to go get Mr. Walker.
14:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, Karla lived only around the corner from the bowling alley.
14:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Back at the Walker home, Karla's parents were inside plain dominoes with relatives while her siblings sat nearby watching television.
14:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Then around 1am, they heard a car hit the curb as it sped into the driveway.
14:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Moments later, Frantic pounding erupted on the front door with screams of Mr. Walker, Mr. Walker, helped me behind it.
15:07
[SPEAKER_00]: When Carliscer Cindy and her younger brother Jimmy opened the door, they were met with a horrifying sight.
15:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney stood there covered in blood.
15:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Blood ran down as face and soaked into a shirt, and a deep cut stretched across his right cheek.
15:23
[SPEAKER_00]: In a panic, he kept shouting, they took her, they took her.
15:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Through the chaos, he tried to explain what had happened.
15:31
[SPEAKER_00]: That they had been at the bowling alley when someone suddenly grabbed Carla.
15:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla's father, Layton Walker, immediately grabbed his pistol and rushed to the bowling alley while the rest of the family called police from the Walker residents.
15:44
[SPEAKER_00]: When officers arrived, Rodney was taken to the hospital where he received stitches for the wounds in his head.
15:50
[SPEAKER_00]: While there, he told the Fort Worth Police Department everything he could remember.
15:55
[SPEAKER_00]: When investigators asked if he knew the man who attacked them, Rodney said no.
16:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And from what he could tell, it didn't appear that Carla recognized this man either.
16:05
[SPEAKER_00]: By the time, Layton Walker arrived at the bowling alley, Carla was long gone.
16:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla's younger brother, Jimmy, would later say that the bottom of the world fell out at their house that night.
16:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Cindy spent the night on the couch hoping, praying that Carla would somehow come home.
16:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time a car drove down the street, Cindy would jump up and run to the window, hoping it would be Carla being dropped off.
16:30
[SPEAKER_00]: But every time she was disappointed.
16:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Over the next several days, the walker home became the center of an intense investigation.
16:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Officers from the Fort Worth Police Department, the Terrent County Sheriff's Office, the FBI, and the Texas Rangers all moved in and out of the house as they worked the case, and Rodney was there through it all.
16:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Every night he slept in Carla's bed hoping that somehow there would be news.
16:58
[SPEAKER_00]: he couldn't stop thinking about where she was and what might have been happening to her.
17:04
[SPEAKER_00]: On that first night, investigators returned to the bowling alley parking lot, but they found very little evidence.
17:10
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing left behind was Carlos Perse, which had fallen from the car when the door was ganked open and alongside it, a magazine from a pistol.
17:20
[SPEAKER_00]: With almost nothing to go on
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney was the only witness, but he couldn't give police a clear description of the attacker.
17:32
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't know what the man looked like, what kind of vehicle he might have been driving, or even which direction he had taken Carla.
17:40
[SPEAKER_00]: With no leads and no suspects, please begin searching random areas around Fort Worth, hoping that they might get lucky, hoping that they would stumble upon something.
17:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Four days later, they did, but it wasn't the outcome that anyone had been hoping for.
17:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Karla's body was discovered roughly nine miles from the bowling alley in a culvert along a remote stretch of road.
18:06
[SPEAKER_00]: For anyone unfamiliar, a culvert is a tunnel or a pipe that allows water to flow beneath a road or a railroad.
18:15
[SPEAKER_00]: In this case, it was a tunnel nearly 30 feet long and tall enough for a person to stand inside.
18:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Police immediately knew the victim was Carla.
18:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Jack Bolton, a crime scene investigator with the Fort Worth Police Department, was among the first on the scene.
18:34
[SPEAKER_00]: He later recalled being the first person to climb down into the culvert.
18:38
[SPEAKER_00]: From a distance, he said Carla almost looks like she was sleeping, but it was immediately clear that a violent struggle had taken place, and it was clear that Carla had fought for her life.
18:51
[SPEAKER_00]: She was found lying on her back, her dress torn, and pushed up.
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Deep, cuts, and gashes covered her thighs and legs, and there were bruises around her neck.
19:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators carefully documented every inch of the scene, photographing, measuring, and collected any evidence that they could find.
19:12
[SPEAKER_00]: When Carla's body was taken to the morgue for autopsy, detectives collected her clothing and took great care to preserve everything properly.
19:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And what makes that particularly remarkable is that this investigation happened way before DNA testing even existed.
19:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet investigators still handled the evidence carefully, understanding that science was always evolving.
19:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And decades later, that careful work would prove to be incredibly important.
19:44
[SPEAKER_00]: The medical examiner ultimately concluded that Karla had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.
19:51
[SPEAKER_00]: When Karla's parents went to formally identify her body, her younger brother Jimmy waited outside.
19:57
[SPEAKER_00]: He later recalled hearing his mother's screams from inside the building.
20:01
[SPEAKER_00]: A sound he said no one should ever have to hear.
20:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney learned the devastating news while he was with Karla's older sister Cindy.
20:11
[SPEAKER_00]: The two clung to each other overwhelmed with grief.
20:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a few days later, Karla was laid to rest.
20:19
[SPEAKER_00]: The funeral home was completely packed.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a single seat was empty and many mourners were forced to stand outside.
20:29
[SPEAKER_00]: investigators attended the service as well, quietly photographing the crowd.
20:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They believed there was a real possibility that the killer might be there sitting among the mourners trying to blend in.
20:41
[SPEAKER_00]: For Carla's closest friends who were still teenagers themselves, the day would be forever burned into their memories.
20:49
[SPEAKER_00]: The funeral was open casket and many struggled to process what they were seen.
20:55
[SPEAKER_00]: In an instant, their care-free teenage lives were replaced with fear and uncertainty.
21:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Students at Western Hills High School no longer wanted to gather at their usual hangout spots.
21:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Cruising up and down camp, Bui Boulivard, something that had once felt fun and harmless, now felt dangerous.
21:15
[SPEAKER_00]: They were scared.
21:17
[SPEAKER_00]: They were worried someone else might be next.
21:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Karla's story dominated local newspapers along with urgent pleas for anyone with information to come forward.
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: But in 1974, investigations looked very different than they do today.
21:35
[SPEAKER_00]: There were no cell phones to track, no surveillance cameras on every corner to check, and DNA testing was still years away from being developed.
21:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators were forced to rely on what was considered cutting edge at the time.
21:50
[SPEAKER_00]: One of those methods was hypnosis.
21:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Desperate for answers, police brought in a hypnotherapist to work with Rodney McCoy.
21:59
[SPEAKER_00]: While hypnosis has always been controversial, both then and now, investigators hoped it might help unlock details buried deep in Rodney's memory.
22:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Under hypnosis Rodney repeated the same account he had given from the beginning.
22:16
[SPEAKER_00]: A man had opened the corridor, struck him with a gun, and taken Carla.
22:22
[SPEAKER_00]: But during the session, he was able to provide additional details.
22:27
[SPEAKER_00]: He described the attacker well enough for police to create a composite sketch.
22:32
[SPEAKER_00]: He also recalled the man wearing a cowboy hat and speaking with what he described as a cowboy-like accent.
22:40
[SPEAKER_00]: This detail caught investigators attention.
22:44
[SPEAKER_00]: The annual rodeo had recently taken place in the area, bringing large numbers of out-of-town visitors into Fort Worth.
22:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives began looking into rodeo contestants, workers, clowns, and even carnival staff, but the search produced no solid leads.
23:02
[SPEAKER_00]: With no suspects emerging, investigators continue to focus heavily on Rodney himself.
23:09
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the last known person to see Carla alive and detective scrutinized every detail of his story.
23:17
[SPEAKER_00]: The questioning was intense and relentless.
23:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Different investigators took turns pressing him, challenging his memory and looking for inconsistencies.
23:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney later described how uncomfortable and isolating it felt to be asked the same questions
23:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives questioned why he had initially told Carla's family that they had taken her when he later insisted there had only been one attacker.
23:49
[SPEAKER_00]: They also asked why he had gone to the walker home instead of going directly to police.
23:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney couldn't clearly explain why he used the word they.
23:59
[SPEAKER_00]: He said that in his mind it had always been one single person.
24:04
[SPEAKER_00]: He also explained that the walker home was much closer than the police station, which was roughly 20 minutes away and the walker home was minutes away.
24:13
[SPEAKER_00]: He had simply followed Karla's last instruction to go get her father.
24:20
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, Rodney was just 18 years old, injured, terrified, and in shock he did the first thing he could think of.
24:30
[SPEAKER_00]: In many ways Rodney was both a witness and a victim of a horrific crime.
24:36
[SPEAKER_00]: While trying to grieve the loss of his girlfriend and the future he believed they would share, he was also under constant scrutiny.
24:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Which that must have been incredibly brutal and traumatic for Rodney to go through.
24:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators spoke with everyone who knew the couple trying to determine whether there had been any problems in their relationship or tension on the night of the dance.
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But again and again, people describe the same thing.
25:06
[SPEAKER_00]: A happy couple enjoying a perfect night.
25:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Friends recalled Rodney being deeply devoted to Carla.
25:14
[SPEAKER_00]: They said he was crazy about her and could not imagine him ever hurting her.
25:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Even Carl is on family spoke highly of Rodney.
25:23
[SPEAKER_00]: They cared about him, they trusted him completely, and believed why he told them about that night.
25:30
[SPEAKER_00]: In their minds, there was no scenario where Rodney would ever hurt Carla.
25:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney even took two police polygraph tests and passed both tests with flying colors.
25:42
[SPEAKER_00]: To understand how investigators approached this case, we need to go back for a moment.
25:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Back to a piece of evidence that was found lying in the parking lot next to Carla's purse.
25:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a magazine from a handgun.
25:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators determined that it came from a rooger pistol.
26:00
[SPEAKER_00]: This detail was significant because experts explained that with the way that that particular firearm was designed.
26:09
[SPEAKER_00]: The magazine could easily fall out of the gun if the gun were used to strike someone repeatedly in the head.
26:17
[SPEAKER_00]: That findings supported Rodney's account that he had been hit repeatedly in the head with the pistol before the attacker pointed at him and pulled the trigger.
26:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Only for the weapon to fail to fire.
26:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Please requested federal assistance to determine how many people in the Fort Worth area had purchased Ruger pistols.
26:37
[SPEAKER_00]: To their surprise, the number was relatively small.
26:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Only
26:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives personally interviewed every single person on that list.
26:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Each cooperated fully providing alibis for the night that Carla was killed, and they allowed their firearms to be examined.
26:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Of those 40 people, police selected 20 of them to take polygraphs and they all passed.
27:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing tied any of them to Carlos murder.
27:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite exhaustive interviews, countless searches, and growing fear throughout the community, the case remained unsolved.
27:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And for Carlos family, life had to somehow continue, even without answers.
27:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Before Carla's murder, her older sister Cindy had been excitedly planning her wedding, which was scheduled for late spring of 1974.
27:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla was meant to stand beside her as the maid of honor.
27:40
[SPEAKER_00]: After the tragedies, Cindy didn't want to go through with the wedding, but her family encouraged her to move forward.
27:47
[SPEAKER_00]: They believed it was what Karla would have wanted.
27:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Karla's parents tried to remain strong for their children.
27:55
[SPEAKER_00]: They rarely spoke about what had happened, doing their best to create a sense of normalcy despite the devastating loss that hung over their home.
28:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Behind closed doors, however, the grief was overwhelming.
28:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Carlos' mother Doris would retreat to the bathroom to cry quietly so that her other children wouldn't see her in pain.
28:16
[SPEAKER_00]: The absence of answers only deepened that heartache.
28:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators continued chasing every lead that came in.
28:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, about two months after Carlis Murtler, a potential break emerged.
28:31
[SPEAKER_00]: In April of 1974, a known serial offender named Tommy Raid Nealand was arrested after a woman he abducted in Orlington managed to escape.
28:42
[SPEAKER_00]: When he was taken into custody, he confessed to multiple killings, including the murder of two hitchhikers in Oklahoma and another woman in Texas.
28:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Police began to consider whether he could be responsible for Carla's death.
28:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney was brought in to participate in a voice line-up, and he listened as Nealand and four other men each spoke the same word the attacker had allegedly used.
29:10
[SPEAKER_00]: come with me.
29:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney identified Newland, but there was a major problem.
29:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Newland never confessed to killing Carla.
29:21
[SPEAKER_00]: He openly admitted to his other crimes and investigators believed that if he had been responsible for Carla's murder, he likely would have admitted that as well.
29:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Without a confession or physical evidence linking him to the case,
29:36
[SPEAKER_00]: No charges were filed, and once again, the investigation stalled.
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Three years later, another shocking development occurred.
29:47
[SPEAKER_00]: A man named Jimmy Dean Sasser walked into a police department near Nashville, and he claimed that he had killed Carla Walker.
29:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Fort Worth authorities were notified, and the district attorney even moved forward with an indictment.
30:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Sasser spent eight months in the Terran County jail.
30:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, he admitted the truth.
30:11
[SPEAKER_00]: He had fabricated the entire story using details he had read in newspaper articles to make his confession sound believable.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: His own mother later stated that he had a history of getting drunk and falsely confessing to different crimes.
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: For Carlos family, it was yet another devastating blow.
30:31
[SPEAKER_00]: False confessions like this can be incredibly cruel, raising hope for answers only to take it away again.
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: As time passed, the case went ice cold.
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: after graduating high school Rodney chose not to attend college.
30:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, he left Fort Worth all together and moved to Alaska to work on the north slope oil fields.
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Stain in the city where Carla had been taken felt unbearable.
31:00
[SPEAKER_00]: He carried deep guilt over what had happened that night, haunted by thoughts of what Karla must have endured in her final moments.
31:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Years later he would say those thoughts never truly left him.
31:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Even after Rodney moved away, some people in the community continue to wonder if he could somehow have been responsible.
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile Karla's family kept hoping that one day the truth would come out.
31:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Cindy eventually had a daughter of her own and she named her Carla Jan, an honor of her sister that she missed so deeply.
31:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The little girl even shared the same fiery spirited personality, something Cindy would later joke about as her sister's way of keeping her on her toes.
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: While some family members tried to move forward, Karla's younger brother Jimmy struggled with intense anger and grief.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: At one point he even spent the night inside that culvert where Karla's body had been found, hoping that the killer might return so that he could confront him himself.
32:08
[SPEAKER_00]: As he grew older, Jimmy channeled that rage into a career in law enforcement.
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Determined to seek justice not only for Karla, but for other victims as well.
32:18
[SPEAKER_00]: He eventually joined the Fort Worth Police Department.
32:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, Jim's dream of being a police officer and helping solve his sister's case was cut short when he was diagnosed with a genetic eye condition that eventually left him legally blind.
32:35
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1987, Carla's father, Layton Walker, passed away.
32:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim later moved back into the family home to care for his mother, and after her death, he chose to buy the house and remain there, holding onto the quiet hope that one day, someone might come to the front door with a guilty conscience and finally confess, but that day never came.
33:00
[SPEAKER_00]: As the years slowly passed, the original investigators retired and Karla's case was placed on a shelf in a cold-case unit surrounded by hundreds of other unsolved murders waiting for answers.
33:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Many people began to lose hope that the case would ever be solved, but Karla's brother never did.
33:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim had hoped to see justice served while his parents were still alive.
33:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and while that might have felt like a setback or discouraging to some, it didn't for Jim, and he kept pushing on.
33:40
[SPEAKER_00]: He continued pushing for answers, refusing to let his sister's story be forgotten.
33:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Then in 2005, a new opportunity emerged.
33:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Detective Sarah Waters was assigned to review several cold cases, and one of the first files she opened was Carla Walker's.
34:00
[SPEAKER_00]: By that time, science had advanced dramatically.
34:05
[SPEAKER_00]: DNA testing had become one of the most powerful tools available to investigators.
34:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Detective Waters sent Carla's carefully preserved dress to the crime lab for examination.
34:16
[SPEAKER_00]: The first time the evidence had ever been re-analyzed since it was originally collected decades earlier.
34:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators discovered a stain on the fabric and began testing multiple areas.
34:31
[SPEAKER_00]: As expected, Rodney McCoy's DNA was present, which made sense given the two had been together shortly before Carlo was abducted.
34:40
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was also something else.
34:43
[SPEAKER_00]: They found DNA from an unidentified male.
34:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, the genetic profile was incomplete.
34:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't strong enough to identify a suspect on its own, but it could be used to compare against other samples and potentially eliminate individuals from the investigation.
35:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Still after decades of uncertainty, it was the first real scientifically the case had ever seen.
35:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Over the following years, investigators collected DNA samples from numerous potential suspects.
35:19
[SPEAKER_00]: One by one in detective waters was able to eliminate each individual using the incomplete DNA profile.
35:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Even the known serial offender Tommy Ray Neilland, once considered a possible suspect, was ultimately ruled out.
35:36
[SPEAKER_00]: For more than a decade, detective waters remain committed to the case relentlessly searching for new leads and new names to investigate.
35:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But by 2015, she had reached the limits of what the available technology could offer.
35:52
[SPEAKER_00]: With no additional avenues to pursue, she retired from the department.
35:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Before leaving, she told her supervisor that solving Carlis Murtre would likely require
36:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, it would only take three more years for that prediction to prove true.
36:11
[SPEAKER_00]: In January of 2018, Fort Worth Detective Leo Wagner received a phone call from Carla's younger brother Jim Walker.
36:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He pressed her to take another look at his sister's case.
36:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim believed time was running out, that whoever had killed Carla was likely aging, ill, or nearing the end of their life.
36:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Detective Wagner agreed to review the file, but she was very candid with him.
36:40
[SPEAKER_00]: She warned Jim not to get his hopes up.
36:44
[SPEAKER_00]: She promised that she would go through the case thoroughly, making sure every detail had been examined and every possible lead had been
36:53
[SPEAKER_00]: If there was nothing new to pursue, she told him that he would have to accept that reality.
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Wagner partnered with Detective Jeff Bennett, and together they began an exhaustive review of the investigation.
37:08
[SPEAKER_00]: combed through every page of the file, looking for overlooked details of individuals who might not have been fully vetted decades earlier.
37:17
[SPEAKER_00]: They revisited suspects who had previously been ruled out.
37:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And if they felt that the original reasoning was insufficient, they added those names back to the list for renewed scrutiny.
37:30
[SPEAKER_00]: By the time they finished, they had compiled a list of 83 men who would need to be reinvestigated.
37:38
[SPEAKER_00]: The list included former boyfriends, classmates, neighbors, acquaintances, and even male staff members who had worked at the high school.
37:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives tracked down as many of these individuals as possible.
37:53
[SPEAKER_00]: During interviews, they asked nearly every man if they would consent to providing a DNA sample, hoping that one comparison might finally match the unknown profile, and they all were excluded as being involved.
38:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Running out of leads and unsure where to turn next, detectives decided to take a different approach.
38:14
[SPEAKER_00]: They shared Carlos Case on Facebook hoping that renewed public attention might generate fresh information, and the response was overwhelming.
38:24
[SPEAKER_00]: People began sharing the post widely, offering theories, memories, and suggestions about possible suspects or overlook details.
38:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But among the many comments, one in particular caught investigators' attention.
38:40
[SPEAKER_00]: A woman came forward saying she believed she might know who killed Carla.
38:45
[SPEAKER_00]: She told police that years earlier while still married, she had discovered a hidden metal box in her home.
38:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Inside were numerous newspaper clippings all related to Carla's abduction, murder, and funeral.
39:01
[SPEAKER_00]: The discovery had always struck her as unsettling.
39:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Her ex-husband had grown up just a few blocks from where the Walker family home was, and seen him keep such detailed articles about the case had felt strange at the time.
39:17
[SPEAKER_00]: After seeing the renewed publicity online, she decided it was something investigators needed to know.
39:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives began looking into the man she identified, Stephen Claire.
39:29
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time of Carla's murder, Stephen had been 17 years old, and at one point he had attended the same high school.
39:38
[SPEAKER_00]: While he and Carla weren't close friends, they were acquainted, and her younger brother Jim had known him.
39:46
[SPEAKER_00]: When detectives eventually brought him in for questioning, decades later, Stephen was now in his 60s.
39:53
[SPEAKER_00]: He acknowledged that he had kept newspaper clippings about Carla's case, but insisted that they were not the only items stored in the box.
40:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He explained that he had saved articles about various people and events in his life, including family members, co-workers, and others who had passed away, as a way of preserving memories.
40:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Stephen also provided an alibi, stating that he had not been living in the area at the time of the murder.
40:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators were able to verify his account.
40:25
[SPEAKER_00]: and he willingly submitted a DNA sample.
40:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Within a short time, testing ruled him out.
40:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Once again, detectives were left with no clear suspect and found themselves returning to the massive case file searching for answers that still seemed just out of reach.
40:44
[SPEAKER_00]: One person investigator still couldn't completely rule out was Rodney McCoy himself.
40:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Although an unknown male DNA profile had been found on Carlos Clothing, Rodney's DNA was also present, which was expected given that the two had been together shortly before her upduction, but still, detectives had to consider every possibility.
41:14
[SPEAKER_00]: As the new investigative team continued digging through decades' worth of files, they uncovered another troubling detail.
41:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Three anonymous letters had been sent to the Fort Worth Police Department shortly after Carlis Baudi was discovered.
41:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Each letter claimed that Rodney was responsible for her murder.
41:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators couldn't be sure what to make of them.
41:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It was possible the real killer had written the letters in an attempt to deflect suspicion and a point blame elsewhere.
41:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was also possible that the author knew something.
41:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps they had seen or heard something that night, and were too afraid to come forward publicly.
41:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, the letters added another layer of uncertainty to a case that already had far too many unanswered questions.
42:05
[SPEAKER_00]: On top of that, detectives began closely reviewing Rodney's original statement to police.
42:11
[SPEAKER_00]: He had told investigators that he was knocked unconscious during the attack, woke up roughly five minutes later and then drove straight to the walker home.
42:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But when they compared his account to the timeline provided by Carlos family, there appeared to be a gap.
42:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Based on the estimated time of the attack and the moment Rodney arrived at the house, there was potentially 30 to 45 minutes that could not be fully accounted for.
42:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators also noted that the drive from the bowling alley.
42:42
[SPEAKER_00]: To the remote culvert where Carlos' body was eventually discovered, and then to the Walker residence, could be completed in about that same amount of time.
42:53
[SPEAKER_00]: There were other inconsistencies that raised questions as well.
42:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Ronny had initially told the family, they took her, suggesting more than one attacker.
43:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Later, his story focused on a single man.
43:09
[SPEAKER_00]: He also claimed that the attacker had pointed the gun directly at his face and pulled the
43:20
[SPEAKER_00]: However, detectives reviewing the case years later, believed the specific type of firearm involved would not have allowed the trigger to be pulled repeatedly in that manner.
43:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to say, it is a possibility that Rodney remembered things differently.
43:38
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a traumatic, traumatic situation, and to be able to remember everything perfectly as his life literally shattered and was being ripped away,
43:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It is understandable that, you know, some details might be off, but investigators weren't sold on his innocence.
43:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Karla's brother Jim also shared a detail that had always troubled him.
44:01
[SPEAKER_00]: When Ronnie arrived at the house that night, the cut on his face already appeared to be coagulated rather than actively bleeding.
44:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Something that could suggest more time had passed than Ronnie initially reported.
44:15
[SPEAKER_00]: taken individually, each of these details might be explained.
44:19
[SPEAKER_00]: But together, they created a timeline that didn't fully align, and added yet another layer of uncertainty to an already complicated investigation.
44:30
[SPEAKER_00]: In August of 2019, detectives Leo Wagner and Jeff Bennett brought Rodney McCoyon for questioning for the first time since taking over the case.
44:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Over the years, whenever new investigators reviewed the file, Rodney had always been cooperative.
44:47
[SPEAKER_00]: He consistently answered their questions and agreed to speak with them, but this time felt different.
44:53
[SPEAKER_00]: When Rodney walked into the police station detective later said he appeared worn down, almost defeated after decades of scrutiny.
45:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He answered their questions and once again, maintain the same account of what had happened that night.
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, Wagner and Bennett couldn't shake an unsettling feeling.
45:13
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a possibility, however slim it was, that they might be sitting face-to-face with Carla's killer.
45:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But suspicion alone wasn't enough.
45:25
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no new evidence linking Rodney to the crime, nothing that would justify an arrest after all these years.
45:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, once again, he was allowed to leave.
45:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives were left with no choice but to continue searching, revisiting every theory, every name, every possibility in hopes that somewhere, somehow the truth was still waiting to be uncovered.
45:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, in an unexpected twist, help came from an outside department.
45:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul Holes, a well-known figure in the true-crime world and former cold-case investigator reached out to detectives.
46:07
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not familiar with him, Paul Holes played a critical role in identifying the Golden State Killer, and later became the host of the show, The DNA of a Murderer.
46:18
[SPEAKER_00]: He had built a reputation for using cutting-edge forensic techniques to solve cases that had once seemed impossible.
46:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, he wanted to help solve correlas.
46:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul and his production team offered to feature the case on the show, focusing on a powerful, but expensive method that had not yet been used in the investigation.
46:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Genealogical DNA testing.
46:44
[SPEAKER_00]: To make it possible, the show's producers contributed $18,000 to cover the cost.
46:53
[SPEAKER_00]: For the first time ever, detective sent not only Carla's dress, but the rest of her clothing to a lab in California for advanced testing.
47:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And once again, that careful evidence preservation from 1974 proved invaluable.
47:10
[SPEAKER_00]: When scientists began analyzing the items, they made a critical discovery.
47:16
[SPEAKER_00]: On the strap of Carla's bra, they found a single perfectly preserved sperm cell.
47:24
[SPEAKER_00]: From that one cell they were able to generate a complete male DNA profile.
47:29
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a breakthrough.
47:31
[SPEAKER_00]: detectives immediately compared the profile to every DNA sample they had previously collected in the case, and every single person was positively ruled out.
47:42
[SPEAKER_00]: They uploaded the profile into codis, the National DNA database, still no match.
47:48
[SPEAKER_00]: with no direct hit, Paul holds suggested the next step, sending the sample for genealogical analysis, a method that could identify relatives of the unknown suspect through public DNA databases, but there was a risk.
48:04
[SPEAKER_00]: The remaining DNA sample was extremely small, and every time testing is done, part of that sample is consumed.
48:14
[SPEAKER_00]: When the lab performed the genealogical testing, they used up the entire sample.
48:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the end, they found nothing.
48:23
[SPEAKER_00]: No usable matches, no leads.
48:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And after decades of waiting, it felt like yet another devastating setback.
48:48
[SPEAKER_00]: After decades of dead ends and set back after set back, detectives, Wagner, and Bennett refused to give up.
48:55
[SPEAKER_00]: They held on to the belief that one day they would solve Karla's murder.
49:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Even after the genealogical testing failed, and the original DNA sample had been completely used up, there was still one last, 80-bitty, glimmer of hope.
49:12
[SPEAKER_00]: lab technicians had identified another microscopic trace of DNA on the same bra strap.
49:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But this sample was in terrible condition.
49:24
[SPEAKER_00]: It was degraded, incomplete, and mixed.
49:28
[SPEAKER_00]: The kind of evidence most labs would consider unusable.
49:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, that's when a new player entered the case.
49:36
[SPEAKER_00]: David Middleman, the CEO of Authorum, reached out after seen the episode about Coralis case.
49:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Authorum specializes in exactly this kind of challenge using advanced genome sequencing to recover usable DNA profiles from even the smallest most damaged samples.
49:56
[SPEAKER_00]: In May of 2020, detectives made a decision.
49:59
[SPEAKER_00]: They would take the risk.
50:01
[SPEAKER_00]: They sent that final, fragile piece of evidence to authorum, knowing it was their last shot.
50:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if this didn't work, there was nothing left.
50:12
[SPEAKER_00]: But the possibility that it could work outweigh everything else, so they waited.
50:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And just five weeks later,
50:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Authorum called, they had done it, from that teeny, degraded sample they were able to build a full DNA profile.
50:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And through genealogical mapping, they traced it back to a family name, Mick Kerley.
50:38
[SPEAKER_00]: The moment detective Bennett heard that name.
50:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything clicked.
50:42
[SPEAKER_00]: He immediately began flipping through all of the old binders searching through that list of 83 previously identified names, because he knew he had seen that name before.
50:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And there it was, suspect number 22.
50:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Glenn Samuel McCurley Jr.
51:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Glenn had already been investigated years earlier because he owned a Ruger 22 caliber pistol, the same type of gun linked to the magazine found at the scene.
51:16
[SPEAKER_00]: At that time, Glenn told investigators his gun had been stolen.
51:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He passed a polygraph test and was ultimately ruled out, but now 46 years later,
51:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives weren't just looking at a suspect, they were looking at the man who's DNA matched the evidence.
51:37
[SPEAKER_00]: After nearly half a century, they finally knew who killed Carla, but knowing wasn't enough.
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: They still needed to prove it, so detectives devised a plan.
51:49
[SPEAKER_00]: An officer was sent to McCurley's home under the pretense of a welfare check.
51:55
[SPEAKER_00]: The house was located just a few miles from the very bowling alley where Carla had been abducted decades earlier.
52:02
[SPEAKER_00]: When the officer knocked on the door a woman answered, Mrs. McCurley.
52:08
[SPEAKER_00]: She told them that her husband was in the backyard, and moments later, Glenn McKirley Jr walked around the side of the house towards the front porch.
52:19
[SPEAKER_00]: On body cam footage, you can see him approaching the officer, and he jokingly throws his hands up with a big grunt on his face and says, officer, I didn't do anything wrong.
52:30
[SPEAKER_00]: He thought that he was making a joke, but in reality, investigators were closing in.
52:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Glenn told the officers that he had lived in Fort Worth since the 1970s and worked as a long haul truck driver.
52:44
[SPEAKER_00]: The interaction was casual and very uneventful.
52:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the officers left.
52:51
[SPEAKER_00]: But what Glenn didn't know was that investigators were about to come back.
52:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Under the cover of darkness detectives conducted what is known as a trash pole, collecting discarded items from outside the home in hopes of recovering DNA.
53:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Two weeks later, the call came in.
53:10
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a match.
53:13
[SPEAKER_00]: DNA recovered from a McDonald's straw and Glen McCurley Jr's trash match the DNA found on Carla Walker's clothing.
53:26
[SPEAKER_00]: On September 10, 2020, detectives returned to the McCurley home.
53:30
[SPEAKER_00]: This time, they were direct.
53:33
[SPEAKER_00]: They told Glenn that they were investigating Carlos murder and that he had come up in the original investigation because of his firearm.
53:41
[SPEAKER_00]: To eliminate him, they said that they just needed to get a DNA sample.
53:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Glenn pushed back claiming that they had already done that years ago, but his wife immediately corrected him.
53:52
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, no, they didn't honey, they didn't have DNA back then.
53:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And just like that, his story began to unravel.
53:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Detectives asked if he could remember what he was doing that week, Carla was murdered, and Glenn stumbled through an answer claiming that he had been with his wife.
54:08
[SPEAKER_00]: But once again, Mrs. McCurley spoke up.
54:11
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, no, I was in midland that weekend.
54:15
[SPEAKER_00]: She explained that she had been visiting her parents and clearly and vividly remembered being out of town when Carla was abducted and killed.
54:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Glenn ultimately agreed to provide a DNA sample and it came back exactly as expected, a match.
54:35
[SPEAKER_00]: On September 21st, 2020, Glenn McCurley Jr. was arrested for Karla's murder.
54:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Before the arrest was finalized, Detective sat down with him and showed him a photo of Karla.
54:47
[SPEAKER_00]: He initially denied ever seen her ever knowing her, but after more than an hour of questioning, he broke.
54:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Glenn admitted that on that night, in 1974, he had been drinking and was out looking for someone
55:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He confessed to pistol whipping Rodney, to abducting Carla, but he refused to admit to sexually assaulting her, instead claiming that they had consensual sex before he strangled her.
55:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators also learned that the gun he had once claimed was stolen, had never been stolen at all.
55:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He had it hidden for decades, and the investigators were able to retrieve it.
55:28
[SPEAKER_00]: When Carlos siblings Jim and Cindy learned that their sister's killer had finally been identified, the emotions were overwhelming, but there was another devastating realization.
55:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Glenn had lived just a mile and a half from the family home.
55:44
[SPEAKER_00]: For years he had been right there, driving past, living his life while they waited for answers.
55:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim called Rodney to tell him the news and in that moment everything changed for Rodney too.
55:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Because after decades of suspicion, after years of people quietly wondering if he had been responsible, the truth was finally clear.
56:06
[SPEAKER_00]: He hadn't hurt Carla.
56:08
[SPEAKER_00]: He had been telling the truth all long.
56:10
[SPEAKER_00]: For nearly 50 years, Rodney McCoy lived under a shadow of doubt.
56:15
[SPEAKER_00]: People questioned his story.
56:17
[SPEAKER_00]: They questioned his memory.
56:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Some even believed he had been involved.
56:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, he could finally breathe.
56:24
[SPEAKER_00]: The man responsible was behind bars.
56:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Carla was finally getting justice, something that Rodney once feared would never happen.
56:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Although Glenn McCurley confessed he initially pled not guilty.
56:38
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2021, 47 years after Carla Walker was taken and murdered the trial began.
56:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodney was the first to take the stand.
56:49
[SPEAKER_00]: He was followed by DNA experts, investigators, and the many people who had spent decades trying to
56:57
[SPEAKER_00]: prosecutors played glins recorded confession in court.
57:01
[SPEAKER_00]: But before the defense could even begin presenting their case, on day three, Glenn changed his plea to guilty.
57:10
[SPEAKER_00]: He was sentenced to life in prison, and in that courtroom, after nearly half a century of pain, frustration, and unanswered
57:26
[SPEAKER_00]: But one moment stood out above all the rest.
57:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Jim Walker, Carla's younger brother walked over to embrace Glenn McCurley's son, who was sobbing after hearing his father confess.
57:41
[SPEAKER_00]: two families both shattered in different ways.
57:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that moment connected by grief, it's hard to even imagine what that felt like.
57:51
[SPEAKER_00]: My heart truly goes out to everyone involved.
57:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, everyone except Glenn McCurley.
57:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Even after his confession, questions still lingered.
58:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators began to think that he may have been responsible for other murders.
58:08
[SPEAKER_00]: During that initial questioning where he confessed to the authorities, they had asked him why he chose the area that he did to place Karla's body.
58:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And Glenn said that he had left her near a building.
58:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Something that wasn't true,
58:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So detectives pressed him, was there another victim, and he denied it.
58:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But when asked again, he responded that he was pretty sure Karla was the only victim, and that answer wasn't enough.
58:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators began comparing other cold cases.
58:47
[SPEAKER_00]: One of them was Becky Martin, a young woman abducted exactly one year before Karla.
58:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Her remains were also found in a culvert in the same general area.
58:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there were two more names, Christy Towers and Angel E. Wirt.
59:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Both women had been abducted, sexually assaulted, and strangled, but none of them were left near a building, which raised a chilling question, was there another victim no one had connected yet?
59:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, they may never get the answers about whether he was involved in those three other cases or even more, because in July of 2021, Glenn McCurly died in prison, and with him any remaining secrets likely died too.
59:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Today Rodney McCoy still says he dreams about Carla, and he still misses her.
59:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And even after all these years you can see it in his eyes, the love he still carries for her and the life that they never got to live, some wounds never fully heal.
59:53
[SPEAKER_00]: But after nearly 50 years, at least now there is truth and finally justice.
59:59
[SPEAKER_00]: This case is a strong reminder that closure and justice is coming for many of these families that have been waiting for decades.
1:00:07
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a reminder to never give up hope and never give up fighting for the truth, because what is done in dark will always come to light.
1:00:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Crimesters, that is all that I have on this week's episode, make sure that you are a part of my private Facebook group.
1:00:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find it by searching Crime with Holly Podcast Discussion Group.
1:00:27
[SPEAKER_00]: In there, I share all information and pictures pertaining to the cases that I cover, and I also encourage all members to share all things through Crime.
1:00:37
[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to keep up with all that is happening in my life, you can find me on Instagram at Crime a Hullie and if you would like more true crime content, you can find me on TikTok at crimewithhullie.podcast.
1:00:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you guys again for all the love and the support over the last few weeks with my dog, and it just truly means so much.
1:00:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I will see you all next time, but always remember to be aware and take care.
1:01:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye-bye.
1:01:23
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.