Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Slaying of Teresa Branch Part 1 of 2: Into the Night

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The Slaying of Teresa Branch Part 1 of 2: Into the Night · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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  Speaker 1: The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
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  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. In nineteen eighty six, Dallas came
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  Speaker 1: to lead the nation's major cities as far as the
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  Speaker 1: overall crime rate, and Fort Worth saw a thirty percent
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  Speaker 1: increase each month for six months compared to the year before.
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  Speaker 1: That increase concerns major crimes, defined as vehicle theft, burglary, robbery, assault, rape,
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  Speaker 1: and murder. Though Arlington is perhaps unjustifiably left out of
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  Speaker 1: the popular moniker the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex, by nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty six, it was a modestly large city at two
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand residents. The crime rate in Arlington, of course,
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  Speaker 1: was overshadowed by the larger cities, But that year the
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  Speaker 1: staggering number of major crimes prompted city officials to propose
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  Speaker 1: the allocation of funds to doing something about the problem.
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  Speaker 1: But exactly what that something was they couldn't agree on.
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  Speaker 1: While some argued for a larger, more modernized police force,
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  Speaker 1: others pointed out the lack of a correlation between the
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  Speaker 1: number of officers and the crime rate. Whatever the case,
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  Speaker 1: crime is nibbling away at us. Arlington City councilman Dick
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  Speaker 1: Malick commented in eighty seven the previous year had taken
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  Speaker 1: quite a toll on the city. At that time, many
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  Speaker 1: normal folks and grifters alike blamed Satan worship for violent crime,
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  Speaker 1: and some studies since have taken a slightly more scientific approach,
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  Speaker 1: suggesting lead pollution and poisoning could account for at least
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  Speaker 1: a portion of the problem. In the nineteen seventies and
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, there was certainly a correlation there, but there
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  Speaker 1: was a simpler answer, one that could almost always be
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  Speaker 1: found alongside a rising crime growth. For Arlington, Texas, that
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  Speaker 1: was certainly a factor, But when considering the effects of
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  Speaker 1: violent crime, not everything can be explained as a factor
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  Speaker 1: or statistic. When a depraved act is senseless motiveless, save
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  Speaker 1: the most depraved of intentions, the ramifications can be devastating.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of lives were taken in North Texas in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, and a lot of lives ruined as
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  Speaker 1: the result. Although there is no way to measure the
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  Speaker 1: ripple effects left by a crime like murder, one that
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  Speaker 1: took place in eighty six left as clear a path
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  Speaker 1: of destruction in its wake as Arlington, Texas had ever
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  Speaker 1: seen the murder of eighteen year old Teresa Branch. While
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  Speaker 1: stationed in Barcelona, Spain with the US Navy, Kenneth John
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  Speaker 1: Branch met Mercedes Doncion Guerriro. A whirlwind romance ensued, and
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  Speaker 1: after marrying, they welcomed a son, Claudio, into the world.
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  Speaker 1: Not long after, the couple moved to Oakland, California, where
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  Speaker 1: their daughter, Teresa Lnet Branch, was born on October twenty second,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven. In the early nineteen seventies, the Branches
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  Speaker 1: moved to Texas, where Kenneth had grown up, though they
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  Speaker 1: opted to settle in the growing city of Arlington rather
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  Speaker 1: than the rural digs where he was raised in northeast
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  Speaker 1: Wise County. The family settled into a modest brick home
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  Speaker 1: they had built on the city's west side at a
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  Speaker 1: time when the area was still mostly fields and vacant lots.
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  Speaker 1: Before long, Mercedes and Kenneth had another boy, who they
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  Speaker 1: named John. By the nineteen eighties, the Branch family was
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  Speaker 1: well established in Arlington, living their lives as normally as
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  Speaker 1: anyone else there during that particular period of time, especially
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  Speaker 1: for working class families. This meant Claudio, Teresa, and John
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  Speaker 1: grew up as latchkey kids, left at home or to
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  Speaker 1: rome on their own while the folks were at work.
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  Speaker 1: Teresa Branch was an athletic girl, and growing up with
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  Speaker 1: two boys, she could hold her own and then some,
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  Speaker 1: both physically and verbally. In fact, she became a formidable
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  Speaker 1: opponent to her brothers during arguments and scuffles. Teresa was
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  Speaker 1: also quite smart and equally strong willed, Mixed with her
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  Speaker 1: having free reign and essentially making her own rules. That
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  Speaker 1: strong will bill became a problem when teenage hormones began raging.
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  Speaker 1: While a sophomore at Sam Houston High School in Arlington,
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  Speaker 1: Teresa began getting into trouble here and there enough that
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  Speaker 1: Mercedes and Kenneth Branch had to deal with her before
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  Speaker 1: it was too late, meaning before Teresa screwed up her
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  Speaker 1: entire high school education. Kenneth's father, Jr. Branch had been
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  Speaker 1: a Wise County sheriff years before, and was now raising
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  Speaker 1: cattle and growing crops on a two hundred acre farm
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  Speaker 1: outside Decatur near the small town of slide L, later
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  Speaker 1: described by her brother Claudio as salt of the earth people.
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  Speaker 1: Mercedes and Kenneth figured that was the best place for
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  Speaker 1: Teresa to go to keep her in line, So besides
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  Speaker 1: weekends and holidays, Teresa became a farm girl. As an
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  Speaker 1: ex sheriff and a farmer, her grandfather was tough, although
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  Speaker 1: his strong will and stubbornness sometimes clashed with Teresa's. And
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  Speaker 1: in spite of the culture shock of moving from a
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  Speaker 1: relatively large city to a small, rural Texas town, she
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  Speaker 1: began thriving. In fact, she excelled in the smaller school
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  Speaker 1: At Slidel High, Teresa fit in immediately and became popular
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  Speaker 1: among the close knit group of students. She not only
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  Speaker 1: became a straight A student, but she also got involved
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  Speaker 1: in about as many extracurricular activities as one person could handle.
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  Speaker 1: Teresa was a cheerleader, a physical education aid to the
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  Speaker 1: elementary school coach, and by the time she was a senior,
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  Speaker 1: a class treasurer, a teacher's aide, and president of the
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  Speaker 1: local chapter of the Future Farmers of America. She was
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  Speaker 1: voted the senior class favorite, most beautiful, and the girl
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  Speaker 1: with the friendliest smile. It was easy to like Teresa.
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  Speaker 1: Not only was she at ease around practice anyone, but
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  Speaker 1: she could also carry on a conversation with an older
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  Speaker 1: adult as easily as her peers, and her sense of
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  Speaker 1: humor was keen. The outgoing teenager loved cutting up and laughing.
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  Speaker 1: Teresa's future looked bright, and she was eager to complete
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  Speaker 1: her SATs, graduate and move on to either the University
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  Speaker 1: of Texas at Arlington or bought her fashion college. In
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  Speaker 1: early nineteen eighty six, at the Wise County Fair, Teresa
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  Speaker 1: Branch won the Grand Champion Seamstress Award for a dress
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  Speaker 1: she created. It was that dress that she wore to
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  Speaker 1: the slide L High Junior Senior Prom on the night
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  Speaker 1: of Friday, April eighteenth, where, in lieu of attending with
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  Speaker 1: her on again, off again boyfriend, Tim Maxwell, she took
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  Speaker 1: her little brother, John, who was fifteen years old at
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  Speaker 1: the time, and a friend who didn't have a date.
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  Speaker 1: She did meet up with her boyfriend at the prom
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  Speaker 1: after party, and they made arrangements to hang out the
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  Speaker 1: following night after she returned from taking John back home
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  Speaker 1: to Arlington, but Teresa never made it back to Wise County.
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  Speaker 1: What drives someone to commit the unthinkable? How does an
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  Speaker 1: ordinary person transform into a serial killer? If you've ever
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: been curious about the twisted psychology behind the world's most
• 8:34
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• 8:38
  Speaker 1: for you. From Jeffrey Dahmer to Ted Bundy to the Nightstalker.
• 8:43
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• 8:45
  Speaker 1: chilling minds of histories most terrifying murderers. As the layers
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  Speaker 1: are peeled back, find out what compelled them to commit
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• 9:05
  Speaker 1: that's Mind of a Serial Killer. Follow now wherever you
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  Speaker 1: get your podcasts. On the morning of Saturday, April nineteenth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, eighteen year old Teresa Branch made the
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  Speaker 1: approximately one hour twenty minute drive to Arlington, Texas from
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  Speaker 1: northeast Wise County. She and her friend and schoolmate, Lisa
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  Speaker 1: Freeman made it just in time. Her fifteen year old brother, John,
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  Speaker 1: who'd accompanied Teresa to her prom the night before, had
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  Speaker 1: a soccer game to get to. After Teresa and Lisa
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  Speaker 1: visited a friend in Arlington, they headed back to her
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  Speaker 1: parents' house on the nineteen hundred block of Westover Drive. There,
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  Speaker 1: Teresa loaded up some of her things in the back
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  Speaker 1: of the red Pontiac Sunfire hatchback her grandparents had given
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  Speaker 1: her as a graduation present. At around one pm, they
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  Speaker 1: were ready to head back to Slidel. They drove off
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  Speaker 1: but only made it a couple miles when the sunfire
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  Speaker 1: broke down. As they were about to get on Interstate
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  Speaker 1: Loop eight twenty. In a nearby convenience store parking lot,
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  Speaker 1: Teresa called her dad, Kenneth Branch, from a payphone. He
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  Speaker 1: quickly met her and Lisa there, jump started the car,
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  Speaker 1: and followed them back home. Once back at the house,
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth popped the hood of Teresa's car and began diagnosing it.
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  Speaker 1: After several hours, just past eight pm, he told his
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  Speaker 1: daughter that the vehicle ought to be all right to
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  Speaker 1: make the trip back to Slidel. There was still a
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  Speaker 1: little sunlight left in the day, and intending to use it,
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  Speaker 1: the teenagers got back on the road fast. At almost
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  Speaker 1: eight thirty pm, about one and a half miles from
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  Speaker 1: the home at South Bowen Road and West Pioneer Parkway,
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  Speaker 1: Teresa's red Sunfire once again stalled. Just as it did,
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  Speaker 1: a good samaritan pulled up in a brown nineteen seventies
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  Speaker 1: Buick Skyhawk. The man jump started Teresa's car, and, figuring
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  Speaker 1: they couldn't risk breaking down much farther away, they headed
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  Speaker 1: back to her parents' house. On the way back, Teresa
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  Speaker 1: turned off West Pioneer Parkway and on to Cornerstone Lane,
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  Speaker 1: a shortcut that wound through the Cornerstone apartments and that
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  Speaker 1: ends across the road, leading directly to the street where
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  Speaker 1: the Branches lived. But the car didn't make it that far.
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  Speaker 1: It once again stalled. While Teresa made her way through
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  Speaker 1: the apartment complex, just a mile away from where it
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  Speaker 1: had minutes before, she scanned the immediate area looking for
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  Speaker 1: a payphone, a communication's necessity in a time before cell phones.
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  Speaker 1: Neither Teresa nor Lisa could see one. Lisa suggested they
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  Speaker 1: knock on the door at one of the complex's units
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  Speaker 1: to ask if they could use their phone. But this
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  Speaker 1: wasn't small town slideel. Teresa told her, you don't do
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  Speaker 1: that here in Arlington, especially where they happened to break down.
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  Speaker 1: She continued, it wasn't the best area of the city,
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  Speaker 1: Teresa told her friend, meaning the apartment complex itself. Because
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  Speaker 1: of Teresa's perception of the area, she came up with
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  Speaker 1: a plan. Lisa will stay with the car and make
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  Speaker 1: sure no one steals all her belongings out of it,
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  Speaker 1: and she'ld jog the half mile back to the house
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  Speaker 1: to get her dad. It should only take ten minutes
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  Speaker 1: tops to run there. Teresa told her friend, this is
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  Speaker 1: the neighborhood where the eighteen year old grew up a
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  Speaker 1: free range kid. Making the quick trip home across West
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  Speaker 1: Arkansas Lane, then past Harmony Baptist Church and the houses
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  Speaker 1: in between there and home was nothing to her. She
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  Speaker 1: was at ease. Teresa had roamed this area for years.
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  Speaker 1: At eight thirty pm, now almost completely dark outside, Teresa
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  Speaker 1: branch sprinted off into the night. As thirty minutes passed,
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  Speaker 1: then an hour, Lisa began panicking. Teresa said it was
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  Speaker 1: a quick jaunt home, and the drive back, of course
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  Speaker 1: even faster, but so much time had passed. At an
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  Speaker 1: hour and a half with no signs of her friend,
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  Speaker 1: Lisa rummaged through Teresa's purse for her parents phone number.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't there, of course, since Teresa no doubt had
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  Speaker 1: that number memorized long ago, but she did find the
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  Speaker 1: number of Teresa's Arlington best friend, who they had visited
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  Speaker 1: earlier in the day. Teresa's description of the neighborhood as
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  Speaker 1: not so desirable. Ringing in her head, Lisa took a
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  Speaker 1: deep breath, got out of the car and approached a
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  Speaker 1: couple fellow teenagers loitering around the laundromat. Was there a
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  Speaker 1: payphone nearby? She asked ked They pointed to one behind them.
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  Speaker 1: It was right there the whole time, had Teresa only known?
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  Speaker 1: Lisa called Teresa's friend, who gave her Kenneth and Mercedes
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  Speaker 1: Branch's phone number. She called them and explained what had happened.
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  Speaker 1: She told them their daughter was supposed to have been
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  Speaker 1: back long before. As Kenneth quickly picked up Lisa and
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  Speaker 1: rushed back to the house, Mercedes Branch began phoning Teresa's friends,
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  Speaker 1: but none had seen her. Then. At approximately ten twenty pm,
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth frantically called the Arlington Police. About five minutes after
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  Speaker 1: he did, another phone call came into the department, a
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  Speaker 1: call that was disturbing. Between nine and nine fifteen on
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  Speaker 1: the night of Saturday, April nineteenth, nineteen eighty six, four
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  Speaker 1: teenagers headed out cruising. They pulled through the driveway of
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  Speaker 1: Harmony Baptist Church Church. The drive of the church runs
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  Speaker 1: north to south. The church sits between two rows of
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  Speaker 1: houses in which the backyards faced the place of worship,
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  Speaker 1: and lies about one hundred and fifty feet off West
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  Speaker 1: Arkansas Lane. The drive and parking lot of the church
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  Speaker 1: were only as lit as the back porch lights of
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  Speaker 1: those houses. There was no lighting along the drive or
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  Speaker 1: over the parking spaces. In other words, the entirety of
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  Speaker 1: the Harmony Baptist Church lot was fairly secluded and more
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  Speaker 1: or less pitch black. When the teenagers, two boys and
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  Speaker 1: two girls first pulled through the church, using the parking
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  Speaker 1: lot as a turnaround off del Rio Drive at its
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  Speaker 1: south end, they saw what looked to be a body.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe it was a joe or some drunk just sleeping
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  Speaker 1: one off the boy's thought, and the girls, who hadn't
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  Speaker 1: seen anything, didn't believe it when the boys mentioned it. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they they were just trying to frighten them. They decided
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  Speaker 1: to circle around the church another time, then another, and
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  Speaker 1: yet another. On their fourth pass through, the teens drove
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  Speaker 1: close enough to see blood on the female body and
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  Speaker 1: an amount forming a small pool on the ground around it.
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  Speaker 1: None of them knew what to do. They were scared.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of immediately calling the police, the four teens drove
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  Speaker 1: about four miles away to a pool hall on South
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  Speaker 1: Cooper Street, where they contemplated what they had just seen. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: just shy of an hour after they saw the body,
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  Speaker 1: the two girls talked one of the boys into calling
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  Speaker 1: the police. When Arlington police officers arrived at Harmony Baptist Church,
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  Speaker 1: they immediately located the body and cordoned off the area.
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  Speaker 1: The victim was laying partially on her side, face down.
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  Speaker 1: She'd succumbed to a gun shot wound to the top
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  Speaker 1: of her abdomen, later found to have traveled just under
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  Speaker 1: the heart and directly through her body. It was obvious
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  Speaker 1: to both responding officers and detectives that the projectile that
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  Speaker 1: killed this female was of a high caliber, likely fired
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  Speaker 1: from a handgun and fired at close range. At the scene,
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  Speaker 1: That's about all they could deduce with any level of confidence,
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  Speaker 1: But the cops had plenty of thoughts racing through their heads.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't look like it was a premeditated killing, Arlington
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  Speaker 1: Police spokesman Jim Willett later remarked, it appears to have
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  Speaker 1: been a random attack. That's especially bothersome. He continued, there
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  Speaker 1: were two possibilities that entered the minds of the responding detectives.
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  Speaker 1: Either this female was purposefuly left in that spot so
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  Speaker 1: she could be easily found, or she was simply discarded
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  Speaker 1: after the motive was acted out, with absolutely no regard
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  Speaker 1: for when or by whom she'd be found. Two things, however,
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  Speaker 1: seemed clear at the get go. With no attempt to
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  Speaker 1: conceal the body, the heinous crime was likely carried out
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  Speaker 1: by a stranger or strangers. The victim was likely raped,
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  Speaker 1: as her white sweatpants were pulled down around her mid
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  Speaker 1: thighs and her blue sweatshirt was pulled up, though they'd
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  Speaker 1: have to wait for a pathologist's determination regarding that. Arlington
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  Speaker 1: police detectives were at a loss and trailed the clock
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  Speaker 1: by over an hour. After hearing the news that Teresa
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  Speaker 1: was missing, a branch family friend headed out and began
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: searching for the teenager herself. Just as she drove the
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  Speaker 1: route Teresa surely would have taken, she noticed the flashing
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  Speaker 1: lights of police cruisers, yellow and black crime scene tape,
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  Speaker 1: and officers moving about around Harmony Baptist Church, directly across
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  Speaker 1: the street from the apartments where Teresa left. Lisa and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: her car to jog home for help. She drove to
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  Speaker 1: the Branch home and alerted Teresa's parents to what she'd seen. Kenneth, Lisa,
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  Speaker 1: and the Branch family friend hopped in the car and
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  Speaker 1: headed straight to the church. It only took a minute
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  Speaker 1: to get there. When they did, the group was promptly
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  Speaker 1: greeted by a policeman. They were looking for his daughter,
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  Speaker 1: Kenneth told the officer, and after being directed to the
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  Speaker 1: other side of the church, a couple other policemen approached,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: one to talk to Kenneth and the other to Lisa.
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  Speaker 1: When the officer asked Lisa what Teresa had been wearing,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: she told him white sweatpants and a blue sweatshirt. That
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  Speaker 1: was what their victim was with daring, the police officer
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  Speaker 1: knew there was no easy way to proceed. He dismissed
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  Speaker 1: the teenager and joined his partner and Kenneth Branch. Teresa,
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  Speaker 1: the officers told him had been murdered. When the rest
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: of the family were told the unthinkable news, Teresa's mother Mercedes,
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  Speaker 1: her brothers Claudio and John, and grandparents Jr. And Flora,
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  Speaker 1: they struggled to believe it. Her friend Lisa, too, was crushed.
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  Speaker 1: None of it seemed real, but all of them were
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  Speaker 1: devastated by this great loss. The investigation, of course, began
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: right away. Officers combed the working and middle class neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: for clues. They went door to door seeking witnesses. Police
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  Speaker 1: could find no one who heard a gunshot or who
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: saw anything out of the ordinary. Arlington Police detective Mike Basillo,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: along with others, theorized immediately that a car was somehow
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: involved in the murder, but he didn't have any hard
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: evidence that was the case. Not yet. Even his information
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: became available, police kept a majority of the details of
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the case secret for some time. By Monday, April twenty first,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, officer Jim Willett said the department was
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: exploring several possibilities, but as of yet had come up
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  Speaker 1: with nothing likely. The primary possibility here was Teresa's on again,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: off again boyfriend, Tim Maxwell, with whom she was to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: meet that night back in Wise County. It was standard
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: procedure to check his alibi and for any potential motives
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  Speaker 1: he might have had to commit. The depraved act. Area
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  Speaker 1: sex offenders, too, were almost certainly at the top of
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the list. There really wasn't much else to go on.
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  Speaker 1: Teresa had no fear of violence when she set out
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  Speaker 1: jogging home that night, and why would she. It had
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: been her neighborhood since she was a small child. She
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: felt safe there. The neighborhood, too, was thought of by
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  Speaker 1: police as quiet and safe, a low crime area, and
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  Speaker 1: there'd been no recent reports of violence there. Also, witnesses
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  Speaker 1: were not forthcoming. Everywhere we turn, we hear the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: We didn't see anything. We didn't hear anything. Will It
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: told reporters for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Usually they
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: had threads that could be woven into leeds by this point,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: but the lawmen added they were coming up with nothing
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: but a big fat zero. As he spoke of the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: four teenagers who had waited nearly an hour to call
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: their discovery of Teresa's body into the police, will It's
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: frustration was palpable. The colder the trail, the harder it
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: is to follow, commented that hour might have cost them dearly. Still,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Terrant County Medical Examiner's Office spokesperson Bill Fabian said if
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the teens had reported what they had found immediately, the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: outcome wouldn't have changed. Teresa was already dead, though the
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: police believed the time of Teresa's death to have been
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: between eight thirty and eight forty five PM, going off
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: a timeline provided by her friend Lisa. The autopsy report
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: did not list an exact time of death. Arlington Police
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Detective Caleb Blank revealed that pathologists had found head trauma
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: during the autopsy, indicating that she was struck with a
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: blunt object before she was shot, and most likely rendered
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: unconscious from the blow. Results of the tests to determine
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: if Teresa was sexually assaulted were still not available. Detective
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Blank continued, Teresa was raped, but the police were loathed
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: to disclose that fact for some time. Though leads were
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: nonexistent at this point, detectives trudged On the next day, Tuesday,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: April twenty second, nineteen eighty six, funeral services for eighteen
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: year old Teresa Lonet Branch were held at the Coker
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Funeral Home in Decatur. All eleven of Teresa's senior classmates attended,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: opting to make up the day on a Saturday so
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: they could memorialize their good friend. They were hurt, angry, confused.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Many other students from the lower grades also showed up,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and of course Teresa's friends from Arlington and her family.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: So many people attended that they filled even the foyers
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: and hallways by the time it started. Burial at Sycamore
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Cemetery in Wise County, about nine miles from the funeral home,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: followed the service. Meanwhile, detectives and officers working the case
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: meant to strategize the direction the investigation should take. Of
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the eight detectives working the Teresa Branch case, four were
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: assigned to it full time. They gathered what little information
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: they had and brainstormed. The lawmen discussed theories things like
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: whether she was shot in the church parking lot or
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: elsewhere like a car, and then dumped there. Recreating Teresa's
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: exact movements was vital that much they knew, and they
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: were confident their idea of the route she took was correct.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Because Teresa's friend Lisa saw her leave the apartment complex,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: detectives knew which way she headed out for sure, and
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: their theory that she then crossed West Arkansas Lane and
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: began down Avon Hill Drive wasn't only because it was
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the most logical direct route she could have followed. In fact,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: this theory was based on an eye witness account. Although
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the day before, detectives were baffled, working with little more
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: than probabilities and unclear which direction to take the case.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: On Tuesday, the twenty second, that had changed, though they
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: still had neither a suspect nor a motive. A tip
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: called in that day gave the Arlington Police a new
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: sense of hope. That and the ripple effects of Teresa's
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: murder coming up on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime. If
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you have any information about the nineteen eighty six murder
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of Teresa Lunet Branch, please contact the Arlington Police Homicide
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Unit at eight one seven four five nine five seven
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: seven two, or if you wish to remain anonymous and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: possibly receive a reward of up to twelve hundred and
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: fifty dollars, please call Arrant County Crime Stoppers at eight
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: one seven four six nine eight four seven seven. For
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: your support at the Bombcity level on Patreon dot com,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: slash Gone Cold podcast, Thank you so much, Geneva m.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to join Gon Cold's mission to renew
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: the public's interest in unsolved homicides, missing persons cases, and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: other perplexing mysteries, you can support the show and listen
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: at free at Patreon dot com forward slash Gonecold podcast.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: You'll also find episodes exclusive to Patreon there, with more
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: to come in the near future. Words cannot express how
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: much we appreciate our patrons. Thank you so much for
• 27:45
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• 27:50
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• 27:53
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• 28:05
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen is much appreciated. Thanks for listening, y'all.