Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Disappearance of Kristy Lynn Booth

Transcript

The Disappearance of Kristy Lynn Booth · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:05
Speaker 1: Karen Silkwood had a purpose. She was headed to a
0:09
Speaker 1: crucial meeting that would blow the whistle on the billion
0:11
Speaker 1: dollar nuclear corporation she worked for. Instead, she died in
0:16
Speaker 1: a concrete culvert on a dark, desolate stretch of highway
0:20
Speaker 1: just outside of Crescent, Oklahoma, to discredit her authorities in
0:24
Speaker 1: the institution Karen sought to expose called her nothing more
0:28
Speaker 1: than an emotionally disturbed and sexually promiscuous drug abuser, but
0:33
Speaker 1: in her death, she became a martyr for feminism, environmentalism,
0:38
Speaker 1: and pro labor movements. From the creators of Gone Cold, Texas,
0:44
Speaker 1: True Crime comes Silkwood, a story that remains one of
0:47
Speaker 1: the most explosive conspiracies in twentieth century America and became
0:52
Speaker 1: the inspiration for a critically acclaimed movie. Silkwood dives deep
0:56
Speaker 1: into twenty eight year old whistleblower Karen silkwood relentless fight
1:00
Speaker 1: for truth and the chilling events that followed, betrayal, danger,
1:05
Speaker 1: and a mysterious, unsolved death that still haunts the nation
1:08
Speaker 1: five decades later. Seeking justice, Karen went up against a
1:12
Speaker 1: corporate goliath and paid the ultimate price. With no known witnesses.
1:17
Speaker 1: What happened to Karen Silkwood on that cold November night.
1:21
Speaker 1: Was it an accident? Was she silenced for knowing too much?
1:26
Speaker 1: Or something far more sinister? In a world where profits
1:31
Speaker 1: are placed above safety, Silkwood takes you inside a gripping
1:34
Speaker 1: true tale of corporate greed, government cover ups, and the
1:38
Speaker 1: deadly secrets inside a nuclear industry titan. Don't miss this
1:43
Speaker 1: eye opening journey into one of the most powerful stories
1:46
Speaker 1: of our time. Find Silkwood on your favorite podcast platform
1:50
Speaker 1: and hit that subscribe button now. Some secrets are too
1:54
Speaker 1: dangerous to stay hidden. The Gone Cold podcasts may contain
2:03
Speaker 1: violent or graphics subject matter. Listener discretion is advised.
2:09
Speaker 2: On Monday, February fourth, nineteen eighty, a Midland County Sheriff's
2:14
Speaker 2: deputy working the beat discovered in nineteen seventy seven maroon
2:18
Speaker 2: and white AMC pacer abandoned just outside Midland city limits.
2:24
Speaker 2: Cosmetically both inside and out, the car appeared to be fine,
2:28
Speaker 2: probably left there as the result of a mechanical problem.
2:32
Speaker 2: The deputy thought still there was a procedure to follow.
2:37
Speaker 2: He ran the plates to make sure it hadn't been
2:39
Speaker 2: stolen or involved in a crime, and when he found
2:42
Speaker 2: out neither was the case. The lawman pulled away in
2:45
Speaker 2: his cruiser to continue his patrol duties. The following day,
2:50
Speaker 2: when he saw the pacer hadn't moved, the deputy called
2:54
Speaker 2: dispatch and advised the owner to be notified so they
2:58
Speaker 2: could come get the vehicle before it was impounded. Tom Booth,
3:02
Speaker 2: Senior and his son showed up to take care of
3:05
Speaker 2: the situation. The car belonged to his daughter, nineteen year
3:09
Speaker 2: old Christy Lynn Booth. Tom didn't know where Christy was,
3:14
Speaker 2: but assumed she had left the vehicle there to ride
3:17
Speaker 2: with friends and had since been staying with them, which
3:21
Speaker 2: she was known to do regularly. Christie still lived at home,
3:26
Speaker 2: but didn't necessarily agree with her parents' expectations the whole
3:31
Speaker 2: our house, our rules thing. Still, she wasn't a bad kid.
3:36
Speaker 2: At that age, it was normal to push for independence
3:39
Speaker 2: and not letting your folks in on every little thing
3:42
Speaker 2: you do goes with the territory. Christy was fine, Her
3:47
Speaker 2: father thought she always was. Police eased his mind further.
3:53
Speaker 2: Christy was an adult. She was probably just out partying
3:56
Speaker 2: or something. Tom knew it wouldn't be the first time
4:01
Speaker 2: he started the seventy seven pacer right up and drove
4:04
Speaker 2: it away. The car probably nagged at the back of
4:08
Speaker 2: his mind, But of the many scenarios that ran through
4:11
Speaker 2: Tom's head, none of them involved harm coming to his
4:15
Speaker 2: little girl. His brain wouldn't work that way, not when
4:19
Speaker 2: it came to his kids. Not yet first established as
4:48
Speaker 2: a railroad station marking the middle of the line between
4:51
Speaker 2: Dallas and al Paso, the town of Midway's name was
4:55
Speaker 2: changed to Midland in eighteen eighty four since there were
4:58
Speaker 2: other towns in Texas already named Midway. The following year,
5:04
Speaker 2: when Midland County was organized, the city of Midland was
5:08
Speaker 2: naturally named the county's seat. As a railroad town, Midland's
5:13
Speaker 2: ranchers maintained the local economy through ups and downs until
5:18
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty three, when oil gushed from Santa Rita well
5:22
Speaker 2: number one. Within six years, Midland was home to the
5:27
Speaker 2: offices of thirty six oil companies and thousands of oil
5:31
Speaker 2: filled workers paved and lighted streets. Quickly followed the oil boom,
5:36
Speaker 2: and though the decreased demand for crude brought on by
5:39
Speaker 2: the Great Depression put about a third of Midland's workforce
5:43
Speaker 2: out of a job, as the recession came to an end,
5:46
Speaker 2: work slowly returned. Then World War II happened. The demand
5:53
Speaker 2: for oil was at an all time high, and the
5:55
Speaker 2: addition of an Army Air Force base further stimulated the
5:59
Speaker 2: local enemy. Midland transformed from a small town to a
6:04
Speaker 2: full fledged city, the skyline of which could be seen
6:07
Speaker 2: from thirty miles away, a fact that eventually lent itself
6:11
Speaker 2: to one of Midland's slogans, the Skies the Limit. After
6:16
Speaker 2: yet another decades long slump beginning in nineteen sixty, the
6:21
Speaker 2: city's oil economy bounced back in the early seventies as
6:25
Speaker 2: the result of the Arab oil embargo and federal deregulations.
6:30
Speaker 2: Because of this new boom, more high rise office buildings
6:33
Speaker 2: joined the Midland skyline, and to accommodate the influx of
6:37
Speaker 2: oil field workers, housing and apartment buildings filled the area.
6:43
Speaker 2: Like many Texas oil towns, Midland became a mix of
6:46
Speaker 2: old money entrepreneurs and working class folks, keeping the whole
6:51
Speaker 2: thing upright. With an approximate population of seventy thousand, five
6:56
Speaker 2: hundred by nineteen eighty, building contractors struggled to keep up
7:01
Speaker 2: with housing demands. Many folks were living out of their
7:05
Speaker 2: cars or intent Cities, the other oil city immediately to
7:10
Speaker 2: Midlands Southwest, Odessa was well known by that time as
7:15
Speaker 2: a hotbed of a particular brand of violent crime, a
7:19
Speaker 2: particular brand of homicide, as is the case with any
7:24
Speaker 2: spike in population, and especially when mixed with the uncomfortable
7:29
Speaker 2: conditions in which they were living. Midlands crime rate going
7:33
Speaker 2: into nineteen eighty had also been growing, and, though kept
7:37
Speaker 2: as a much better secret, rivaled that of Odessa even
7:42
Speaker 2: in the number of murders. But missing persons cases from
7:46
Speaker 2: the period, whether or not foul play was suspected, are
7:50
Speaker 2: tougher to grasp. Christie Booth's disappearance perhaps was the most
7:55
Speaker 2: mysterious among them. Lynn Booth was born on December twenty sixth,
8:02
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty in Santa Ana, California, to parents Tom Booth,
8:07
Speaker 2: Senior and Myra Booth. A proud United States Marine, Texas
8:13
Speaker 2: born and raised, Tom Booth had been stationed all over
8:16
Speaker 2: the nation and the world. He retired as a Master
8:20
Speaker 2: sergeant in nineteen seventy five after spending a few years
8:24
Speaker 2: in Odessa as a marine recruiter. Shortly thereafter, the Booths
8:29
Speaker 2: moved about twenty miles northeast to Midland, where he began
8:33
Speaker 2: operating an armored car business called TMK Services. Christy, the
8:39
Speaker 2: baby of the Booth family, had a brother Tom Junior
8:43
Speaker 2: or Tommy, and sister Kathy. A happy child, Christy was
8:48
Speaker 2: always up to something, and often that something included her sister.
8:53
Speaker 2: As kids, they were always together and always driving their
8:57
Speaker 2: brother crazy. Christy was quick to tell her siblings off
9:01
Speaker 2: if they annoyed her, but even quicker to forgetting the
9:05
Speaker 2: entire ordeal, with the expectation that they also forget. She
9:10
Speaker 2: loved to laugh, her sister Kathy said, but also loved
9:14
Speaker 2: to argue, a Booth family trait. She added in her
9:19
Speaker 2: teenage years, this character trait would expand to include authority figures,
9:24
Speaker 2: namely her parents. After all, what's a good adolescence without
9:28
Speaker 2: a little rebellion. At Lehigh School, Christie had plenty of friends.
9:35
Speaker 2: She was kind, outgoing, and very involved in extra curricular activities.
9:41
Speaker 2: Quite the artist, Christie was a member of the school's
9:44
Speaker 2: art club. During her senior year, she spent time in
9:48
Speaker 2: both the Future Teachers of America and the Future Homemakers
9:52
Speaker 2: of America, the former of which seemed to be Christie's
9:55
Speaker 2: most likely path out of high school as a senior
10:00
Speaker 2: through the home Economics cooperative education program she was also
10:04
Speaker 2: a part of. Christie earned minimum wage and academic credit
10:08
Speaker 2: for spending three hours a day at Anson Jones Elementary
10:12
Speaker 2: as a teacher's aide. After college, perhaps Christie might become
10:17
Speaker 2: an elementary school teacher herself. The career path wasn't set
10:22
Speaker 2: in stone, however, she was young and had plenty of
10:26
Speaker 2: time to figure it all out. After graduating from Lehigh
10:30
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy nine, Christy Booth was a typical teenager,
10:34
Speaker 2: navigating her way through the ups and downs and ins
10:37
Speaker 2: and outs of transitioning into life as an adult. She
10:41
Speaker 2: got a job as a cocktail waitress at a local
10:44
Speaker 2: joint called the Great Gatsby. She blared loud rock and
10:48
Speaker 2: roll from the speakers of her nineteen seventy seven AMC Pacer,
10:53
Speaker 2: usually stuff like fog Hat, Boston or Styx. At nineteen,
10:59
Speaker 2: Christy full of life, fearless, and maybe too trusting of
11:04
Speaker 2: a world from which she'd been sheltered. After all, at
11:08
Speaker 2: that age, you're invincible. Nothing bad, nothing bad ever happens.
11:14
Speaker 2: But as Christie's sister Kathy later said, something bad did
11:18
Speaker 2: happen spark something uncommon this holiday? With just the right
11:32
Speaker 2: gift from Uncommon Goods, the busy holiday season is here. Well,
11:37
Speaker 2: I'm here to tell you how you might alleviate some
11:40
Speaker 2: of the stress that goes along with holiday gift buying.
11:43
Speaker 2: Uncommon Goods is jam packed with out of the ordinary
11:47
Speaker 2: gifts that inspire joy, wonder and delight and elicit that
11:52
Speaker 2: it's exactly what I wanted reaction. They have the perfect
11:56
Speaker 2: gift for every single person on your list. Erica and
12:00
Speaker 2: I recently ordered unique holiday gifts for the kids from
12:04
Speaker 2: Uncommon Goods. Search and find puzzles, DIY lipgloss kits, and
12:09
Speaker 2: my personal favorite, a DIY bubblegump kit made right here
12:13
Speaker 2: in the good old US of A. There's plenty there
12:16
Speaker 2: for the adults on your list as well. Because shopping
12:20
Speaker 2: at Uncommon Goods means you're supporting both artists and small
12:23
Speaker 2: independent businesses, you'll find lots of original, often handmade, and
12:29
Speaker 2: always absolutely remarkable gifts. To get fifteen percent off your
12:33
Speaker 2: next gift, go to uncommon Goods dot com slash gone Cold.
12:38
Speaker 2: That's Uncommon Goods dot com slash gone Cold for fifteen
12:42
Speaker 2: percent off. Don't miss out on this limited time offer
12:46
Speaker 2: uncommon goods, We're all out of the ordinary. Saturday, February second,
12:53
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty was just like any other day for Christie Booth,
12:58
Speaker 2: with the exception of a couple things. One she took
13:01
Speaker 2: her car to have it serviced, nothing unusual, but not
13:05
Speaker 2: necessarily routine either. And two, she didn't feel like going
13:10
Speaker 2: to work. Instead, she felt like dancing. Perhaps it was
13:15
Speaker 2: the weather. Though the temperature had reached a comfortable fifty
13:19
Speaker 2: nine degrees that afternoon, it started to fall fast as
13:23
Speaker 2: soon as the sun began to set. Like the night before,
13:27
Speaker 2: the temperature wouldn't stop dropping until it hit the mid twenties.
13:32
Speaker 2: Whatever the case, Christy didn't let anyone in on her
13:35
Speaker 2: plans as she left the house at around seven pm.
13:39
Speaker 2: I'm going to work, Christie announced she wasn't. After meeting
13:44
Speaker 2: up with a couple friends, Christie headed to Dimensions, a
13:48
Speaker 2: nightclub popular among Midland's young adults, particularly the cool crowd.
13:54
Speaker 2: Connected to air Park Lane's Bowling Alley. Dimensions had a
13:57
Speaker 2: bar running along one side of the club, a dance
14:01
Speaker 2: floor and scattered tables throughout. There was a small booth
14:05
Speaker 2: off to the side where a DJ spun popular music
14:08
Speaker 2: of the time, ranging from rock to disco. Christie's friend,
14:13
Speaker 2: Ron Farrenberg, dropped her and another friend off there early
14:17
Speaker 2: that evening. He left Dimensions in Christie's nineteen seventy seven
14:22
Speaker 2: AMC Pacer to run an errand inside Dimensions, Christie and
14:28
Speaker 2: her friend grabbed a drink and a table. Christie laid
14:31
Speaker 2: her coat across the back of a chair and kicked
14:34
Speaker 2: off her shoes, a common habit of hers. She preferred
14:38
Speaker 2: to go barefoot, definitely while driving and even while dancing.
14:43
Speaker 2: The two young women proceeded to live it up supremely competent.
14:48
Speaker 2: As her sister Kathy later described her, Christy danced the
14:52
Speaker 2: night away, taking small breaks back at the table to
14:56
Speaker 2: catch her breath and refresh herself. At about ten t
15:00
Speaker 2: thirty pm, she left the table to dance with a
15:03
Speaker 2: muscular man donning a mustache and goateee. Plenty of folks
15:08
Speaker 2: noticed Christy on the dance floor that night, but at
15:11
Speaker 2: approximately ten fifty, when the nineteen year old's friend scanned
15:16
Speaker 2: the club to catch sight of her, she was nowhere
15:19
Speaker 2: to be seen. At first, Christie's friend figured she just
15:23
Speaker 2: stepped outside to catch her breath, maybe smoke a cigarette.
15:27
Speaker 2: At that particular time, it was around thirty five degrees,
15:32
Speaker 2: so perhaps she had just needed to cool off. Christie
15:35
Speaker 2: certainly planned to come back, since she left her blue
15:38
Speaker 2: denim coat and shoes behind. In fact, Christy had brought
15:43
Speaker 2: two pairs of shoes, the pair she wore in maroon
15:47
Speaker 2: colored dress shoes with three inch high wooden heels, and
15:51
Speaker 2: a pair of brown sandals, presumably to dance in should
15:55
Speaker 2: she get busted going barefoot in the club. Christie, anyway,
16:00
Speaker 2: couldn't be found, and presumably her friend left shortly after
16:04
Speaker 2: searching for her. Two days later, on Monday, February fourth,
16:09
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty, a Midland County sheriff's deputy found Christie's nineteen
16:14
Speaker 2: seventy seven maroon and white AMC pacer abandoned about two
16:19
Speaker 2: miles south of Interstate twenty, just off a state highway
16:22
Speaker 2: leading out of town SH three forty nine, also known
16:26
Speaker 2: as Rankin Highway. Still there the next day, the deputy
16:31
Speaker 2: got word to Christie's father, Tom Booth, to come pick
16:34
Speaker 2: it up. When Tom Booth Senior and his son went
16:38
Speaker 2: to get it, they started it right up and drove
16:40
Speaker 2: it to Tom Senior's business, a local armored truck and
16:44
Speaker 2: security company. Christy's brother, Tom Junior or Tommy, was a mechanic,
16:50
Speaker 2: so he inspected the car to see what might have
16:52
Speaker 2: led to its abandonment. The Pacer had enough gas to
16:56
Speaker 2: go at least three or four more miles, Tommy discovered,
17:00
Speaker 2: and there appeared to be absolutely nothing wrong mechanically. The
17:05
Speaker 2: situation was certainly odd. It was unusual for Christy to
17:09
Speaker 2: just leave her car off the side of a highway,
17:12
Speaker 2: at least as far as Tom knew. He also knew
17:16
Speaker 2: his daughter had a habit of staying with friends for
17:18
Speaker 2: days at a time, so naturally he figured that's why
17:22
Speaker 2: he hadn't seen her in a few In the next
17:25
Speaker 2: couple of days, however, Tom Booth learned his daughter had
17:29
Speaker 2: never made it to work after leaving the house at
17:31
Speaker 2: seven pm the previous Saturday. Now worried, he called the
17:36
Speaker 2: Midland Police Department and reported Christie missing. The discovery of
17:42
Speaker 2: Christie's Pacer and the car itself became an investigative priority,
17:48
Speaker 2: sort of. After speaking with the friend Christy was with
17:52
Speaker 2: a dimensions the last time she was known to have
17:54
Speaker 2: been seen, and others who saw her there detectives learned
17:59
Speaker 2: her friend Ron when Fahrenburg had used the car while
18:02
Speaker 2: she was in the club. Because Christie had taken her
18:05
Speaker 2: vehicle to Murphy's Service station for maintenance early on the
18:09
Speaker 2: day she vanished, police had her mileage on a receipt.
18:14
Speaker 2: When the car was found abandoned, it had been driven
18:17
Speaker 2: two hundred and sixty eight miles since that morning, far
18:20
Speaker 2: more than Christie drove that day. A majority of those
18:24
Speaker 2: were obviously driven by the man who borrowed her Pacer. Ron,
18:29
Speaker 2: it seemed, had a lot of questions to answer. Police
18:34
Speaker 2: quickly discovered he had a criminal record, and the newspapers
18:37
Speaker 2: would go on to consistently refer to Ron as an
18:40
Speaker 2: ex convict. At eighteen years old. In June of nineteen
18:44
Speaker 2: seventy eight, Ron Fahrenburg was arrested alongside four others in
18:49
Speaker 2: a hospital drug theft. Ron, who was absent without leave
18:53
Speaker 2: from Fort Leonard Wood Army Base at the time, was
18:57
Speaker 2: sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison, but
19:00
Speaker 2: was out a year later, since he was arrested and
19:03
Speaker 2: charged with public intoxication in Columbus, Indiana in August of
19:08
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine. The reason for the mystery mileage was
19:13
Speaker 2: apparently never determined, even after police interviewed Ron Fahrenberg multiple times.
19:20
Speaker 2: Rumors around Midland have certainly accounted for them, as they
19:24
Speaker 2: suggest Ron used Christie's car to travel out of town
19:27
Speaker 2: on a drug run, something never publicly confirmed by police
19:32
Speaker 2: but certainly reported by the media. Ron anyway told detectives
19:37
Speaker 2: that he arrived back at Dimensions at eleven PM to
19:40
Speaker 2: pick up Christie and her friend, but said that neither
19:44
Speaker 2: were anywhere to be found, so he left the club
19:47
Speaker 2: alone in Christie's car. After driving it around town for
19:52
Speaker 2: however long, Ron abandoned the Pacer after it started having
19:56
Speaker 2: mechanical issues, he said. Some reports say he claims to
20:01
Speaker 2: have run out of gas. Unsurprisingly, Ron Fahrenberg was a
20:06
Speaker 2: prime suspect for the disappearance of Christy Lynn Booth at
20:10
Speaker 2: the get Go. However, neither the police nor Tom Booth
20:15
Speaker 2: believed the seventy seven Pacer had anything to do with
20:18
Speaker 2: whatever happened, meaning there were probably no bloodstains or signs
20:23
Speaker 2: of a struggle inside the vehicle. Christie's sister, Cathy has
20:28
Speaker 2: also said she doesn't believe Ron Fahrenberg was responsible. After
20:33
Speaker 2: passing a polygraph examination, and because they had no evidence
20:37
Speaker 2: against him, the twenty year old was put on the
20:40
Speaker 2: back burner. Without any other suspects, the Midland Police Department
20:46
Speaker 2: had to take a different investigative route. For now. It
20:51
Speaker 2: was important for detectives to get inside Christie's head. The
20:55
Speaker 2: nineteen year old was hot headed, but she'd left the
20:58
Speaker 2: Booth home in good Spears, seemingly not upset with anyone.
21:04
Speaker 2: Had she been, detectives might have decided Christie left of
21:07
Speaker 2: her own free will, but it seemed obvious to them
21:10
Speaker 2: she did not, especially considering the words of her mother, Myra.
21:16
Speaker 2: She went out of town one time to Abilene, Myra
21:19
Speaker 2: told the Midland Reporter Telegram. But she called and told
21:22
Speaker 2: us she was there. It was absolutely not like her
21:26
Speaker 2: daughter to leave without telling them, she added. Though they
21:31
Speaker 2: had dragged their feet getting Christie Booth's description out in
21:34
Speaker 2: the media, police finally did after several days had been lost.
21:40
Speaker 2: Christy was a white female, stood five feet seven inches
21:44
Speaker 2: tall and weighed approximately one hundred and fifteen pounds. The
21:48
Speaker 2: description in the newspaper read she had pierced ears, reddish
21:53
Speaker 2: brown hair, and blue eyes. On the right side of
21:56
Speaker 2: Christie's abdomen was a birthmark, and she had a missing tooth.
22:01
Speaker 2: She was last seen wearing Levi's blue jeans, a white blouse,
22:05
Speaker 2: and a purple checked vest. Also, after days had gone by,
22:11
Speaker 2: the Midland Police and others organized searches to try and
22:14
Speaker 2: locate Christie Lynn Booth. When they began investigating the disappearance
22:32
Speaker 2: of nineteen year old Christie Booth, police got leads immediately.
22:38
Speaker 2: A bartender where Christie was a cocktail waitress, told police
22:41
Speaker 2: he had heard a rumor she'd found some money and
22:44
Speaker 2: went to California to be with a boyfriend. Midland Police
22:49
Speaker 2: Captain Billy d Ray said they were investigating all angles,
22:53
Speaker 2: but added that nothing had been confirmed. The California boyfriend
22:58
Speaker 2: rumor was eliminated quickly, since this young man had left
23:02
Speaker 2: the state several days before Christie vanished. She couldn't have
23:06
Speaker 2: gone with him anyway, There had been no reason for
23:09
Speaker 2: her not to tell her family if she did. Other
23:13
Speaker 2: rumors that came their way included sightings of Christi in Odessa,
23:18
Speaker 2: married and in Arizona pregnant, and somewhere or with the
23:22
Speaker 2: Unification Church in Ozona, Texas. One dark rumor put Christie
23:29
Speaker 2: in the bottom of an area well details of none
23:33
Speaker 2: could be substantiated. More than anything, detectives wanted to speak
23:38
Speaker 2: with the man Christie was last seen dancing with. He
23:42
Speaker 2: was white, with a muscular build, a mustache, and goateee. Reportedly,
23:48
Speaker 2: the man drove a silver Pontiac trans am. Shortly after
23:52
Speaker 2: Christie was reported missing, the Midland County Sheriff's Office and
23:56
Speaker 2: Texas Ranger Charlie Hodges began assisting. Midland Police Chief Wayne
24:02
Speaker 2: Gideon also insisted four of his detectives were assigned to
24:06
Speaker 2: the case full time. The friend Christy had been with
24:10
Speaker 2: the last night she was seen was interviewed several times
24:14
Speaker 2: and even put under hypnosis in hopes to obtain further details.
24:19
Speaker 2: Several unnamed individuals were also asked to take polygraph examinations.
24:26
Speaker 2: Not far from Dimension's nightclub was a wooded lover's Lane
24:30
Speaker 2: that became a primary area of interest, but searches resulted
24:34
Speaker 2: in no clues. Fields around Dimensions were the focus of
24:39
Speaker 2: extensive search efforts. Of course, in mid February nineteen eighty,
24:44
Speaker 2: the area was swarming with sheriff's deputies, police officers, and
24:48
Speaker 2: Texas Rangers, many who had volunteered their time, and vehicles
24:54
Speaker 2: on dirt bikes, ATVs and doune buggies. Searchers spread out
24:58
Speaker 2: and combed the field, the crackling sounds of thick brush
25:02
Speaker 2: and brittle tumbleweeds at every step. Several theories had to
25:07
Speaker 2: be kept in mind as the efforts played out, because
25:11
Speaker 2: the temperatures had plummeted into the low twenties overnight on
25:15
Speaker 2: February second, nineteen eighty, the night Christie vanished. Some had
25:19
Speaker 2: theorized she was drunk, made her way outside, and for
25:23
Speaker 2: whatever reason, wandered off. Then the theory went, she crawled
25:27
Speaker 2: under something to try and escape the elements, and instead
25:31
Speaker 2: succumbed to them. But even as they bounced that idea
25:35
Speaker 2: back and forth, most of the investigators knew it probably wasn't.
25:40
Speaker 2: So I'm afraid she has met with some problem, one
25:44
Speaker 2: Texas ranger commented, while another said, someone knows something about this,
25:49
Speaker 2: and maybe someday they'll tell us. Of the forty law
25:53
Speaker 2: enforcement officers who had participated in the searches, not a
25:56
Speaker 2: one found any sign of Christie Booth. Meanwhile, the missing
26:02
Speaker 2: young woman's family was sick from worry. After remarking that
26:07
Speaker 2: Christie always let them know her whereabouts. Her father Tom
26:11
Speaker 2: said he felt like she'd been kidnapped. Every day, He added,
26:15
Speaker 2: he expected to open the mailbox to find a note
26:18
Speaker 2: from someone professing to have Christie held captive, alongside directions
26:23
Speaker 2: on how to proceed. The idea perhaps was optimistic, hopeful.
26:30
Speaker 2: He and his wife just kept praying and waiting. He
26:33
Speaker 2: told a reporter for the Midland newspaper. A bank that
26:37
Speaker 2: Tom Booth Senior provided his armored car services to, the
26:42
Speaker 2: First National Bank began a reward fund on the family's behalf.
26:47
Speaker 2: It stood at five thousand dollars just days after the
26:50
Speaker 2: media began picking up Christie's disappearance. During the searches on
26:56
Speaker 2: February twentieth, eighteen days after Christie was last seen, police
27:02
Speaker 2: had received an anonymous call from another person who claimed
27:06
Speaker 2: she had gone to California. Though he was supposed to
27:10
Speaker 2: call back with her exact location, the anonymous color, of course,
27:14
Speaker 2: never did. Another witness who had been at Dimensions the
27:18
Speaker 2: night Christie disappeared, called in a tip, leading police to
27:22
Speaker 2: search another field in North Midland on the last week
27:25
Speaker 2: of February. There was ultimately no sign of Christie there,
27:30
Speaker 2: but curiously they did find an empty hole that had
27:33
Speaker 2: been dug out. However, they did not say how fresh
27:37
Speaker 2: the hole was, nor did they comment on its size.
27:42
Speaker 2: A couple days later, Midland Police Captain of Detectives Billy
27:46
Speaker 2: D Ray said that after an extensive and expensive investigation
27:51
Speaker 2: that consisted of approximately twenty five hundred man hours, they'd
27:55
Speaker 2: exhausted all leads on the case. Media concerning the disappearance
28:00
Speaker 2: of Christie Booth ceased for a month. In a Midland
28:04
Speaker 2: Reporter Telegram article that ran on March thirtieth, nineteen eighty,
28:09
Speaker 2: Captain Ray called the investigation dead ended. Police were fairly
28:14
Speaker 2: certain that Christy had to have gotten into a vehicle,
28:17
Speaker 2: perhaps to smoke some pot, or perhaps forced in a
28:21
Speaker 2: way that drew no attention. Though the weather was exaggerated
28:25
Speaker 2: in the newspaper reports, it was a cold night, so
28:29
Speaker 2: while the club was packed, there weren't many folks loitering
28:32
Speaker 2: around outside. Without evidence. Though the theories lacked substance, they
28:39
Speaker 2: were pure speculation, but still far more educated than other avenues.
28:45
Speaker 2: Psychics jumped on the case, but none could offer anything
28:49
Speaker 2: that helped. One predicted Christie was nearby and would be
28:53
Speaker 2: home within three days, but their visions were obviously not
28:58
Speaker 2: of this particular missing person, and only led to further
29:02
Speaker 2: suffering for the Booth family. The ringing phone jolted Tom
29:08
Speaker 2: Senior's sense of hope, only for it to be crushed
29:11
Speaker 2: along with the realization that the call is a prank.
29:15
Speaker 2: Myra Booth, on the other hand, was keeping her hopes
29:18
Speaker 2: at a low but even keel. Publicity of the case
29:22
Speaker 2: had brought with it senseless cruelty that cannot be explained
29:26
Speaker 2: or understood by anyone other than those who dealt it.
29:30
Speaker 2: All they wanted was Christie back, either alive or to
29:34
Speaker 2: give her a proper burial. By May of nineteen eighty
29:40
Speaker 2: only one detective was working the Christie Booth case, Sergeant
29:45
Speaker 2: ed Ward, like all the rest, was at a roadblock.
29:49
Speaker 2: A year after the disappearance, in February of nineteen eighty one,
29:53
Speaker 2: the case had become personal for Sergeant Ward since she
29:58
Speaker 2: had gone missing. Her parents had to say, discovered unprocessed
30:01
Speaker 2: film in a camera and in it was the most
30:04
Speaker 2: recent photograph of Christie. That photograph hung on the wall
30:09
Speaker 2: over Sergeant Ward's desk. At the end of the month,
30:13
Speaker 2: a human skull and bones were unearthed by a road
30:16
Speaker 2: crew in the county just southwest of Midland, and although
30:20
Speaker 2: the Booth family briefly believed they might get answers, the
30:24
Speaker 2: remains turned out to be ten to twelve years old.
30:28
Speaker 2: Eight months later, Ron Fahrenberg, the man who had borrowed
30:32
Speaker 2: Christie's car the night she was last seen, was murdered
30:36
Speaker 2: at age twenty one. On October nineteenth, nineteen eighty one,
30:41
Speaker 2: seventeen year old Kevin Howerton shot Fahrenburg in the head
30:46
Speaker 2: after a heated argument. Many have speculated, and continued to
30:51
Speaker 2: speculate that Ron Fahrenberg's murder is somehow connected to Christie's disappearance,
30:57
Speaker 2: discounting that the man appeared to be heavily caught up
31:00
Speaker 2: in the drug trade, an occupation that is known to
31:03
Speaker 2: sometimes end in early death. But considering two other suspects
31:09
Speaker 2: were also killed the very same year Christie vanished nineteen eighty,
31:14
Speaker 2: the speculation came easy. One suspect died in an auto crash,
31:19
Speaker 2: rumor has it the result of cut brake lines, and
31:23
Speaker 2: the other was killed in an oil field accident. The
31:27
Speaker 2: names of these individuals were not released, and the manners
31:31
Speaker 2: of death were common enough to make identifying these suspects
31:35
Speaker 2: a near impossible and certainly irresponsible task. News pertaining to
31:41
Speaker 2: Christie's disappearance once again came to a dead stop, and,
31:45
Speaker 2: as it seemed to be from the very beginning, remained cold.
31:50
Speaker 2: That is until a man sometimes called the one Eyed Drifter,
31:54
Speaker 2: inevitably touched the case. The case of missing person Christy
32:11
Speaker 2: Lynn Booth heated up from time to time. Dental records
32:16
Speaker 2: for Christie were available, so they were often compared to
32:19
Speaker 2: Jane does around the country. None of these ever panned out.
32:24
Speaker 2: In early nineteen eighty four, just in time for the
32:27
Speaker 2: fourth anniversary of the disappearance of Christie Booth, the Midland
32:31
Speaker 2: Police Department got their shot at interrogating a man who
32:35
Speaker 2: had been confessing to virtually every unsolved murder from the
32:38
Speaker 2: mid seventies up until his final arrest. On June eleventh,
32:42
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three, on their home turf, Henry Lee Lucas
32:48
Speaker 2: readily confessed to killing Christie. But unlike many law enforcement
32:53
Speaker 2: agencies across the state and to their credit, Midland wasn't
32:57
Speaker 2: leaving Lucas alone in a room with the five while
33:00
Speaker 2: they grabbed a cup of coffee at the station. The
33:04
Speaker 2: confessor couldn't give detectives much information about the case, and
33:09
Speaker 2: the details he did give didn't corroborate what little they knew.
33:13
Speaker 2: Lucas remembered that the bar where he abducted Christie was
33:17
Speaker 2: off Interstate twenty, for instance. However, I twenty is on
33:21
Speaker 2: the south end of Midland, while Dimension's nightclub was on
33:25
Speaker 2: the north end. Still, detectives thought they'd give Old Henry
33:29
Speaker 2: another shot. Dimensions had since closed its doors, and upon
33:35
Speaker 2: driving Lucas around the area it once was, he was
33:39
Speaker 2: unable to point it out as the spot the crime
33:41
Speaker 2: took place. He also couldn't lead them to where he'd
33:45
Speaker 2: put Christie's body. Ultimately, they decided Lucas was simply enjoying
33:51
Speaker 2: his time in the Midland Spotlight, which probably included the
33:55
Speaker 2: strawberry milkshakes and guided tours around town Henry loved so much. Interestingly,
34:02
Speaker 2: in the nineteen eighty six Lucas Report put out by
34:05
Speaker 2: Texas Attorney General Jim Maddox, Lucas's partner in crime, Ottis
34:10
Speaker 2: Elwood Tool is named as a potential suspect for Christie's disappearance.
34:17
Speaker 2: The following year, nineteen eighty five, brought with it another
34:21
Speaker 2: glimmer of hope for answers when Christy was compared to
34:25
Speaker 2: the remains of an unidentified female found near a river
34:28
Speaker 2: in Oklahoma in April of nineteen eighty, just a couple
34:32
Speaker 2: of months after she vanished, But the body ended up
34:36
Speaker 2: not being hers, and the lead didn't make the newspapers.
34:40
Speaker 2: A year later, in March of nineteen eighty six, was
34:43
Speaker 2: the next time Christie's name hit the headlines, and that
34:47
Speaker 2: was the problem, her father commented in that Midland Reporter
34:51
Speaker 2: Telegram article. Christie's case had been publicized in real time
34:56
Speaker 2: during the initial investigation, kind of which ended fast, but
35:01
Speaker 2: since police had done little more than run sporadic public
35:05
Speaker 2: pleas for information via Midland's Silent Witness program, a tool
35:10
Speaker 2: similar to crime stoppers, but even those were few and
35:14
Speaker 2: far in between over the years. Usually whenever remains were
35:20
Speaker 2: found or near the anniversary of Christie's disappearance, her family
35:25
Speaker 2: felt the trauma as if it were brand new. Perhaps
35:29
Speaker 2: the wound reopened too when other cases made headlines. In
35:34
Speaker 2: September of twenty twenty, when Glenn Samuel McCurley was arrested
35:37
Speaker 2: for the nineteen seventy four murder of seventeen year old
35:40
Speaker 2: Carla Walker in fort Worth. The similarities might not have
35:44
Speaker 2: been lost on Christie's loved ones. Carla had been abducted
35:49
Speaker 2: from the parking lot of a bowling alley, and Christie
35:52
Speaker 2: was most likely abducted from the parking lot of a
35:55
Speaker 2: bar connected to a bowling alley. Both crimes happened in
35:59
Speaker 2: the month of February. Unlike Christy, Carla's body was found
36:04
Speaker 2: three days after she was kidnapped, discarded in a cold
36:08
Speaker 2: concrete colvert. Details about her killer slowly leaked out through
36:14
Speaker 2: the media after his arrest and at his twenty twenty
36:18
Speaker 2: one trial, and perhaps his ties to Midland peaked the
36:22
Speaker 2: interest of Kathy Booth, Christie's sister. However, by nineteen eighty,
36:28
Speaker 2: sources say Glenn Samuel McCurley had no known reason to
36:32
Speaker 2: return to Midland. Two years before mccurley's arrest in twenty eighteen,
36:40
Speaker 2: Kathy Booth surely caught wind of another claim pertaining to
36:44
Speaker 2: her sister's case when a post on Reddit made a
36:47
Speaker 2: shocking claim. The post reads, in part quote, I first
36:53
Speaker 2: heard about Christy Lynn Booth from an investigator who visited
36:56
Speaker 2: my parents' home back in two thousand and three. The
36:59
Speaker 2: reason for him visit My mom had a friend named Jane,
37:03
Speaker 2: and they believed Jane was involved in Christy Lynn Booth's murder.
37:07
Speaker 2: I didn't know this beforehand, but Jane had confided in
37:10
Speaker 2: my mom about supposedly killing Christy Lynn Booth by striking
37:14
Speaker 2: her in the head. Her reason, Christy Lynn Booth rejected Jane.
37:19
Speaker 2: When the investigator came to our home, Jane was already dead.
37:24
Speaker 2: She had committed suicide in July or August of two
37:27
Speaker 2: thousand and three. After the meeting with the investigator, we
37:31
Speaker 2: never heard anything else about the case. End quote. This
37:36
Speaker 2: got folks talking, and later in the thread, the author
37:39
Speaker 2: claims Jane told her mother she was drunk and couldn't
37:42
Speaker 2: remember if she buried Christie's body or dumped it. Another
37:47
Speaker 2: person apparently posted that they'd also always heard that Jane
37:52
Speaker 2: wouldn't leave Christie alone, she killed her and hid the
37:56
Speaker 2: body in an abandoned well. This poster says his friend
37:59
Speaker 2: told it a week or two after Christy disappeared. This
38:04
Speaker 2: poster appears to be the same person who commented on
38:07
Speaker 2: some Facebook news posts about Christy Booth. In both the
38:12
Speaker 2: Reddit post and Facebook threads. He says he knew Jane
38:16
Speaker 2: from Tericho, a company that makes custom plastics such as
38:20
Speaker 2: ID cards and promotional products, where they both apparently worked.
38:26
Speaker 2: This person goes on to say they never asked their
38:28
Speaker 2: friend how they had this information that Jane killed Christy,
38:33
Speaker 2: and never says whether they went to the cops with it.
38:37
Speaker 2: There is no evidence supporting these claims that the police
38:40
Speaker 2: have made public. We were unable to find an obituary
38:45
Speaker 2: for anyone named Jane, anyone that fits a workable age range. Anyway,
38:50
Speaker 2: though that is not a deal breaker, since we've run
38:53
Speaker 2: into folks who've died with no obituary that ran after
38:56
Speaker 2: many times. Christie's immediate family, except her sister Kathy, died
39:03
Speaker 2: without ever getting answers, her father Tom Senior in February
39:08
Speaker 2: of two thousand and eight, mother Myra in November of
39:12
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, and brother Tommy in January of twenty fifteen.
39:18
Speaker 2: Forty four years after her disappearance, police are no closer
39:22
Speaker 2: to the whereabouts of Christie Booth than they were day one.
39:27
Speaker 2: If you have any information about the disappearance of Christy
39:31
Speaker 2: Lynn Booth, please contact Midland Crime Stoppers at four three
39:35
Speaker 2: two six nine four eight four seven seven, where you
39:39
Speaker 2: can remain anonymous and are eligible for a reward, or
39:44
Speaker 2: call the Texas Rangers at four three two four nine
39:47
Speaker 2: eight two one two zero. If you'd like to join
39:52
Speaker 2: Gone Cold's mission to renew the public's interest in unsolved homicides,
39:57
Speaker 2: missing persons cases, and other per play mysteries, you can
40:01
Speaker 2: support the show and listen ad free at patreon dot
40:05
Speaker 2: com forward slash Gone Cold Podcast. You'll also find episodes
40:10
Speaker 2: exclusive to Patreon there, with more to come in the
40:13
Speaker 2: near future. Words cannot express how much we appreciate our patrons.
40:18
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your support. You can also
40:22
Speaker 2: support Gone Cold by leaving a five star rating and
40:25
Speaker 2: written review on iTunes and Apple Podcasts, which will help
40:29
Speaker 2: the show reach more ears, bettering the chance someone with
40:33
Speaker 2: information about a case will hear it and come forward.
40:37
Speaker 2: A rating and written review wherever you listen is much appreciated.
40:42
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, y'all.