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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Lori Murchison [From the Archives] · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
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Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
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Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
1:03
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
1:06
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
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Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
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Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
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Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
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Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:31
Speaker 2: On September one, nineteen ninety five, a police officer in
1:35
Speaker 2: Fort Smith, Arkansas, pulled over a vehicle. A man named
1:39
Speaker 2: Jerry Cogan was driving and his girlfriend, twenty four year
1:42
Speaker 2: old Laurie Murchis, was the passenger. Laurie worked at a
1:47
Speaker 2: local nursing home. She had a four year old daughter
1:49
Speaker 2: named Brittany, and she adored her little girl. But Laurie
1:53
Speaker 2: had been battling an addiction to drugs, according to what
1:57
Speaker 2: her friends told police, mainly to crank or methamphetamines and
2:01
Speaker 2: Laurie also drank alcohol. Because of that, Laurie had been
2:05
Speaker 2: moving around a little. She had been living on and
2:08
Speaker 2: off with her mother, Nancy Murchison, and also sometimes staying
2:12
Speaker 2: at different local motels. Her mother, Nancy, had been taking
2:17
Speaker 2: care of Laurie's daughter. Laurie and Jerry were out at
2:20
Speaker 2: a bar that night when the officer pulled them over.
2:23
Speaker 2: He believed that both of them had been drinking, so
2:26
Speaker 2: he placed Jerry under arrest for DUI and Laurie for
2:30
Speaker 2: suspicion of public intoxication. Laurie was taken to the Sebastian
2:34
Speaker 2: County Jail. She was released some time after five am
2:38
Speaker 2: on September second. She told detectives that she planned to
2:42
Speaker 2: get money and come back to bail Jerry out. Jerry
2:46
Speaker 2: had given her fifty dollars, but Laurie needed more. Another
2:50
Speaker 2: inmate later told detectives that she heard Laurie talking to
2:54
Speaker 2: other women in the holding cells about finding a bail
2:57
Speaker 2: bond place. Laurie also specifically told jailers she was going
3:02
Speaker 2: to pick up her paycheck from the Oaks Lodge nursing
3:04
Speaker 2: home where she had been working, cash it, and come
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Speaker 2: back to bail Jerry out. Most recently, Laurie had been
3:12
Speaker 2: staying with Jerry at the Continental Motel in Fort Smith.
3:16
Speaker 2: Between two and four pm on September second, Laurie went
3:19
Speaker 2: to the office of the Continental Motel to get a
3:21
Speaker 2: key to her room. This is according to an April
3:24
Speaker 2: two thousand and five Times Record report. Laurie's mother said
3:28
Speaker 2: that she last talked to Laurie on September second. She
3:32
Speaker 2: said that when she talked to her on the phone,
3:34
Speaker 2: Laurie told her that she and Jerry were planning on
3:36
Speaker 2: moving out of Nancy's house, that they had found a
3:39
Speaker 2: room at a local motel. Laurie said that she would
3:43
Speaker 2: come to NaN's house the next day to pick Brittany up,
3:47
Speaker 2: but she never returned to the jail, and she did
3:50
Speaker 2: not pick up her paycheck at the nursing home. The
3:53
Speaker 2: last time she was seen alive was at the Continental
3:56
Speaker 2: Motel when she picked up a key to her room.
4:00
Speaker 2: After that, she left that motel. None of her close
4:03
Speaker 2: friends or family ever heard from Laurie Murchison again. Her
4:07
Speaker 2: family had no way of knowing where she was, or
4:10
Speaker 2: that the hunt for this missing mother would eventually involve
4:14
Speaker 2: charges of corruption at the highest levels of State government.
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Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making
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Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Healing Gone, I've learned that there
4:25
Speaker 2: is no such thing as a small town where murdered
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Speaker 2: never happens. I've received hundreds of messages from people all
4:32
Speaker 2: around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder
4:35
Speaker 2: that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If you
4:39
Speaker 2: have a case you'd like me and my team to
4:41
Speaker 2: look into, you can reach out to us at our
4:43
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four
4:47
Speaker 2: four six one four five that's six seven eight seven
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Speaker 2: four four six one four or five, or you can
4:54
Speaker 2: send us a message at Helen gonpod. This is Helen
4:58
Speaker 2: Gone Murder Line. Days went by, Laurie Murchison never showed
5:46
Speaker 2: up to pick up her daughter, Brittany. According to media
5:49
Speaker 2: reports at the time, Laurie had been making regular trips
5:54
Speaker 2: back and forth to Wilburton, Oklahoma. This was happening for
5:58
Speaker 2: some time prior to her disappearance. A friend of hers
6:02
Speaker 2: told police that Laurie had disappeared before and that she
6:05
Speaker 2: had stayed gone for as long as a month at
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Speaker 2: a time. But Laurie's mother, Nancy, was worried because she
6:13
Speaker 2: told detectives even if Lourie didn't come by, she always
6:18
Speaker 2: checked in, and Nancy believed she would never stay out
6:20
Speaker 2: of communication with her daughter for that long. Nancy officially
6:24
Speaker 2: reported Lourie missing on September fifth, nineteen ninety five. Police
6:29
Speaker 2: talked to people who claimed they had seen Laurie walking
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Speaker 2: around in different locations. They confirmed she was released from
6:36
Speaker 2: jail at approximately five forty am on September second. In
6:41
Speaker 2: the day's following Laurie's disappearances, missing posters went up describing
6:45
Speaker 2: Laurie and the last clothes. She was seen in a
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Speaker 2: white sleeveless cotton shirt cut off blue denim shorts, white socks,
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Speaker 2: black sandals, a gold oval shaped knuckle ring on her
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Speaker 2: left index finger, and a cross necklace on a black ribbon.
7:01
Speaker 2: Laurie was white, with brown hair that was bleached blonde,
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Speaker 2: and brown eyes. She did have several distinctive tattoos, including
7:09
Speaker 2: a tattoo of a unicorn on her left shoulder, a
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Speaker 2: tattoo of a heart with an arrow piercing it on
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Speaker 2: her left breast, and a rose tattoo on her left ankle.
7:18
Speaker 2: Laurie also wore dentures and had several teeth missing. Police,
7:23
Speaker 2: of course had to consider the possibility that Lurie had
7:26
Speaker 2: gone missing voluntarily, but this seemed unlikely given the fact
7:31
Speaker 2: she never picked up her last paycheck from work. Detective Barrows,
7:35
Speaker 2: one of the investigators on the case, met with Laurie's mother, Nancy.
7:40
Speaker 2: Nancy gave detectives information about some of Laurie's close friends.
7:44
Speaker 2: Nancy later told The Times Record that Laurie was scared
7:49
Speaker 2: worried about something that she had seen or heard in
7:51
Speaker 2: the weeks before her disappearance. A few weeks before her
7:55
Speaker 2: daughter went missing, Nancy told police that Laurie came home
7:59
Speaker 2: afraid that someone was going to come after her, saying
8:02
Speaker 2: things like they're gonna off me. Nancy said she didn't
8:06
Speaker 2: know who or what Laurie was talking about or what
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Speaker 2: could have scared her, and police weren't getting much from
8:13
Speaker 2: Laurie's friends. None of them had heard from her, and
8:15
Speaker 2: no one seemed to know where she had gone. Laurie
8:19
Speaker 2: had been talking to some female prisoners in jail before
8:21
Speaker 2: she was released. They told police they heard Lurie talking
8:26
Speaker 2: about a local bonding agency, so it seemed like Laurie
8:30
Speaker 2: had been planning on getting out of jail, picking up
8:32
Speaker 2: her paycheck, and bailing out her boyfriend, but there were
8:35
Speaker 2: a lot of dead ends. We did a Foyer request
8:38
Speaker 2: for Laurie's case file, but we only got part of
8:41
Speaker 2: it covering the first few weeks of the investigation. An
8:45
Speaker 2: officer from the Fort Smith Police Department went to the
8:48
Speaker 2: Midland Motel, the motel where Laurie was living before she
8:51
Speaker 2: moved to the Continental, but no one had seen her there.
8:55
Speaker 2: Police were able to figure out that on the night
8:58
Speaker 2: Laurie was arrested, she and her boyfriend Jerry, went to
9:01
Speaker 2: a bar called Shooters. They were hanging out there from
9:04
Speaker 2: around seven to around eleven PM or midnight, right before
9:08
Speaker 2: they were pulled over by police. Police checked local hospitals, motels,
9:13
Speaker 2: and rehabs, but no one had seen Laurie Murchison. Police
9:17
Speaker 2: also talked to Laurie's boyfriend, Jerry. He said he had
9:21
Speaker 2: no idea where his girlfriend had gone. Police did say
9:24
Speaker 2: he was cooperative and they cleared him pretty quickly. Nancy
9:29
Speaker 2: did tell police that Jerry had told her that since
9:32
Speaker 2: he and Laurie had been together, they hadn't been to
9:34
Speaker 2: any bars. Now obviously this wasn't true because Laurie and
9:39
Speaker 2: Jerry were at shooters and they were intoxicated when they
9:42
Speaker 2: were picked up. But there are a lot of reasons
9:45
Speaker 2: why Jerry might have told this small white lie to
9:48
Speaker 2: Laurie's mother. Jerry Cogan was working at a glass plant
9:52
Speaker 2: in Midland. He came in and talked to detectives, and
9:55
Speaker 2: apparently he was very cooperative. He said he was as
9:58
Speaker 2: shocked as anyone else when Laurie never showed up to
10:01
Speaker 2: come bail him out. During this time, detectives did get
10:04
Speaker 2: a report that a body was found a white female
10:07
Speaker 2: in Salasaw Creek in Oklahoma, but it was not Laurie.
10:13
Speaker 2: Laurie had been at work at the nursing home on Friday.
10:16
Speaker 2: A friend of hers named Ronda had seen her there,
10:19
Speaker 2: but Ronda said that was the last time that she
10:21
Speaker 2: saw Laurie. Laurie never came back. Police wondered could someone
10:26
Speaker 2: at the nursing home have wanted to hurt Laurie. During
10:32
Speaker 2: this time, Captain J. C Ryder, one of the investigators
10:36
Speaker 2: on the case, interviewed a confidential informant. This was someone
10:39
Speaker 2: who was in jail in Ozark. Now. This person told
10:42
Speaker 2: him Laurie had been having a sexual relationship with a
10:46
Speaker 2: married man who worked with her at the nursing home,
10:48
Speaker 2: and that the married man's wife was violent and it
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Speaker 2: threatened to kill Laurie. J. C. Rider interviewed the married man.
10:56
Speaker 2: This person denied having a relationship with Laurie. They said
10:59
Speaker 2: they had never had more than a casual conversation with her.
11:03
Speaker 2: When Captain Rider asked who would have a reason to
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Speaker 2: make up a story like that, this person gave the
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Speaker 2: name of someone who was married to one of his
11:11
Speaker 2: family members, someone with a grudge against him. He said
11:15
Speaker 2: he didn't know if this guy would know about the
11:16
Speaker 2: disappearance of Lurie since this person was in jail in Ozark.
11:21
Speaker 2: Captain Rider said after reviewing the information, he believed that
11:25
Speaker 2: the married man was being truthful about not having a
11:28
Speaker 2: relationship with Laurie. Captain Rider also spoke to the man's wife.
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Speaker 2: She said she had no knowledge of an affair between
11:35
Speaker 2: him and Laurie, so that possibility of Laurie having an
11:39
Speaker 2: affair with a married man that led to her death
11:41
Speaker 2: was apparently ruled out. Police investigated another man, someone with
11:46
Speaker 2: a long criminal record, including aggravated robbery, burglary, assault and battery.
11:51
Speaker 2: This person was one of Lurie's acquaintances, but apparently this
11:56
Speaker 2: was another dead end. Nancy told police about some friends
12:00
Speaker 2: of Lourie's, a man named Floyd who was nicknamed Corky,
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Speaker 2: and his wife Sue. Nancy Murchison said Sue told someone
12:10
Speaker 2: that one night Laurie showed up at her house with
12:12
Speaker 2: two men in a red car. Sue denied telling Nancy
12:16
Speaker 2: this when police asked her about it, but Corky said
12:20
Speaker 2: Sue had told him that same story. So who were
12:24
Speaker 2: these two men, what did they want? And could they
12:27
Speaker 2: have had anything to do with Lurie's disappearance. Another detective,
12:31
Speaker 2: Detective Reese, called the Razorback cab company, trying to retrace
12:35
Speaker 2: Lori's steps after she was released from jail. He figured
12:39
Speaker 2: out that a driver had picked her up at a
12:41
Speaker 2: local bonding company. The driver told police he took Lurie
12:45
Speaker 2: to a local Taco bell to pick up her car,
12:48
Speaker 2: but the driver said that Lourie's car was not there.
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Speaker 2: The cab driver said at this point, Laurie was upset
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Speaker 2: and surprised because she said the police had told her
12:58
Speaker 2: they were not going to tow the car, so the
13:01
Speaker 2: driver told police that after that, Laurie had him drive
13:04
Speaker 2: her to a local apartment complex. The Weregond Courts, so
13:08
Speaker 2: detectives went to that apartment complex they found a man
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Speaker 2: named Billy Aaron. Billy told them that he knew someone
13:16
Speaker 2: who may have information about Loriie. This person's name was Jimmy.
13:20
Speaker 2: He was living in an apartment in that complex, and
13:23
Speaker 2: Jimmy was living on and off with a woman named
13:25
Speaker 2: Mary Chipman who went by the nickname Cricket. Jimmy's exact
13:30
Speaker 2: address was kind of a mystery. He said. He stayed
13:33
Speaker 2: sometimes in Van Buren with a woman, some of the
13:35
Speaker 2: time with his mom, and part of the time in
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Speaker 2: another house. Billy said Jimmy and Cricket fought a lot,
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Speaker 2: that Cricket had kicked you out of his house from
13:44
Speaker 2: time to time, and that at that point Jimmy ended
13:48
Speaker 2: up crashing with Billy. In fact, a lot of what
13:51
Speaker 2: unfolded next would center on that apartment complex, the Ragon Court,
13:56
Speaker 2: and on apartment number eighty seven, where Billy said Jimmy
13:59
Speaker 2: and Cricket were living, and according to Billy, they also
14:03
Speaker 2: all hung out regularly at Shooters, the bar where Laurie
14:06
Speaker 2: and Jerry were last seen before they got arrested. Billy's
14:10
Speaker 2: story was that Jimmy had come over to his place
14:13
Speaker 2: and that they were drinking one night. Billy said they
14:16
Speaker 2: happened to be watching TV and a news story about
14:19
Speaker 2: Lourie's disappearance came on. Billy said Jimmy told him that
14:22
Speaker 2: he recognized Laurie. Billy said Jimmy had seen Laurie at
14:27
Speaker 2: a party at Cricket's place, which he said was apartment
14:30
Speaker 2: number eighty seven, where they were doing drugs. He said
14:33
Speaker 2: Kirky was there too that night, and at that party,
14:37
Speaker 2: Laurie was sitting in a chair. Laurie overdosed and died.
14:42
Speaker 2: Billy said, quote, Cricket went ape, shit, started throwing shit,
14:46
Speaker 2: throwing everybody out, flipping out and all this. That's when
14:49
Speaker 2: they picked her up and carried her outside. He said
14:52
Speaker 2: that they carried her out like she was drunk, put
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Speaker 2: her in the vehicle like she was drunk, and he
14:57
Speaker 2: drove off end quote. He is in reference to Corky,
15:01
Speaker 2: by the way, because according to Jimmy's story, Corky drove
15:05
Speaker 2: off somewhere and buried the body. Billy said that Jimmy
15:09
Speaker 2: told him he didn't know where they went and that
15:11
Speaker 2: he didn't have a lot of other details. Billy said, quote,
15:15
Speaker 2: he said, at least you ought to have the decency
15:17
Speaker 2: to tell somebody or just let somebody know. That's what
15:20
Speaker 2: he said there in my house end quote. Later, the
15:24
Speaker 2: Fort Smith Police Department interviewed Cricket, but they said she
15:28
Speaker 2: was actually living in apartment number ninety nine. At first,
15:31
Speaker 2: police said Cricket seemed uncooperative, but she eventually told police
15:35
Speaker 2: that on the night Laurie was arrested, she was out
15:38
Speaker 2: with her boyfriend. She said Laurie had stopped by her
15:41
Speaker 2: residence while she was out and talked to her babysitter,
15:43
Speaker 2: then Laurie left. Cricket said she never saw Laurie that night.
15:49
Speaker 2: Then Cricket changed her story. This time she said she
15:52
Speaker 2: was out with another guy. Police said she never mentioned
15:57
Speaker 2: this other guy before, and they were asking her a
15:59
Speaker 2: lot of questions about her story and why it changed.
16:02
Speaker 2: They searched Cricket's room and seized items described as drug paraphernalia,
16:07
Speaker 2: but Cricket was never arrested or charged in connection with
16:10
Speaker 2: Laurie's death, and after the initial few weeks it seemed
16:14
Speaker 2: like Laurie's case went cold. No trace of Laurie was
16:18
Speaker 2: found and no body. But then Lourie Murchison made headlines
16:23
Speaker 2: again because there was a big development in the case
16:27
Speaker 2: from a very unexpected source. News broke that the FBI
16:32
Speaker 2: was investigating the prosecutor for Sebastian County, Ron Fields, of
16:36
Speaker 2: dealing drugs and of ordering the murder of Lorie Murchison,
16:41
Speaker 2: and that the person who ron Fields allegedly ordered to
16:45
Speaker 2: murder Laurie Murchison was one of the investigators on the case,
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Speaker 2: the police captain j c Ryder. In the weeks following
17:04
Speaker 2: Laurie Murchison's disappearance, police were questioning people at a nearby
17:09
Speaker 2: apartment complex. They found a man named Billy, who claimed
17:12
Speaker 2: that Laurie overdosed at the residence of a woman named
17:15
Speaker 2: Cricket in a room at the Ragencourt apartment complex, and
17:19
Speaker 2: that they carried her lifeless body out in a vehicle.
17:23
Speaker 2: Billy claimed that Jimmy was afraid to tell the authorities
17:26
Speaker 2: because Jimmy was afraid that he would be charged with
17:29
Speaker 2: her death and disposal of her body. Then the case
17:33
Speaker 2: went quiet for years, but then all of a sudden.
17:38
Speaker 2: Around two thousand and five, Laurie Murchison made headlines again
17:43
Speaker 2: because there was a huge development in the case from
17:45
Speaker 2: a very unexpected source. News broke that the FBI was
17:50
Speaker 2: investigating the prosecutor for Sebastian County, Ron Fields, of dealing
17:54
Speaker 2: drugs and of ordering the murder of Lorie Murchison, and
17:58
Speaker 2: that the person Ron Fields allegedly ordered to murder Laurie
18:03
Speaker 2: was one of the investigators on the case, the police
18:05
Speaker 2: Captain J. C. Rider. I want to back up a
18:09
Speaker 2: minute and talk about ron Fields, because there is a
18:12
Speaker 2: massive controversy about ron Fields that is still unresolved. We've
18:17
Speaker 2: talked about him briefly before when we were talking about
18:19
Speaker 2: the unsolved murder of Melissa Witt. Ron Fields was close
18:23
Speaker 2: to Captain J. C. Rider of the Fort Smith Police Department,
18:27
Speaker 2: and Captain J. C. Rider later made news for becoming
18:30
Speaker 2: involved in the Melissa Witt cold case.
18:33
Speaker 1: J C.
18:33
Speaker 2: Rider and Ron Fields have a lot of history. Ron
18:37
Speaker 2: Fields served as the Sebastian County prosecutor for eighteen years.
18:41
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety, he was a point by then Arkansas
18:45
Speaker 2: Governor Bill Clinton to become Arkansas Attorney General. During the
18:49
Speaker 2: time ron Fields was the prosecutor. He was very publicly
18:52
Speaker 2: anti drug He helped write laws that required longer prison
18:56
Speaker 2: sentences for drug abusers. He led the twelfth Judicial Drug
19:00
Speaker 2: Task Force in Western Arkansas. Ron Fields actually started in
19:06
Speaker 2: Arkansas the practice of requiring prosecutors rather than police to
19:11
Speaker 2: get search warrants in drug cases. This meant that ron
19:14
Speaker 2: Fields or one of his deputies actually went on drug
19:17
Speaker 2: raids with the police. Now, his supporters said that this
19:21
Speaker 2: made sure the evidence was all gathered by the book,
19:24
Speaker 2: and to be fair, the conviction rate in Arkansas for
19:27
Speaker 2: drug offenses did go up under ron Fields. His critics
19:31
Speaker 2: said the fact that he personally went on those drug
19:33
Speaker 2: raids was a massive red flag for other reasons which
19:37
Speaker 2: we'll get to a little later. Ron Fields was also
19:41
Speaker 2: a close friend of Republican Congressman A. SA SA Hutchinson.
19:45
Speaker 2: ASA Hutchinson, of course, served as US Attorney and later
19:48
Speaker 2: went on to become the forty six governor of Arkansas.
19:51
Speaker 2: He served from twenty fifteen to twenty twenty three. In
19:54
Speaker 2: two thousand and one, ASA Hutchinson took ron Fields with
19:58
Speaker 2: him to Washington, d C. Ron Fields became A. SA
20:02
Speaker 2: Hutchinson's special assistant at the Drug Enforcement Agency and later
20:06
Speaker 2: worked with Hutchinson in the Department of Homeland Security. According
20:10
Speaker 2: to The Arkansas Times, this position that ron Fields had
20:13
Speaker 2: with DA was very powerful. He worked on a coalition
20:17
Speaker 2: that battled terrorism and drug trafficking, and then in around
20:22
Speaker 2: two thousand and four two thousand and five, these accusations
20:24
Speaker 2: surfaced about J. C. Ryder and Ron Fields that according
20:28
Speaker 2: to media reports, these two men were allegedly involved in
20:31
Speaker 2: Lourie Murchison's murder. On May second, two thousand and five,
20:36
Speaker 2: officials at the Department of Homeland Security pulled ron Fields
20:39
Speaker 2: security clearance and then he was suspended from his position
20:43
Speaker 2: at the Department of Homeland Security. He appealed that decision
20:47
Speaker 2: but lost. Suddenly, ron fields days in Washington were numbered
20:53
Speaker 2: the FBI continued their investigation. Ron Fields went back to
20:57
Speaker 2: Fort Smith ASA. Hutchinson also left Washington at around that time.
21:03
Speaker 2: This connection between ron Fields and Lori Murchison was allegedly J. C. Rider.
21:09
Speaker 1: J C.
21:09
Speaker 2: Rider was also a powerful figure in Arkansas. He had
21:12
Speaker 2: been in the department since nineteen seventy five and was
21:15
Speaker 2: head of the Department's Major Crimes Unit until his retirement
21:18
Speaker 2: in two thousand and two. So suddenly the FBI have
21:21
Speaker 2: announced they were investigating claims that ron Fields had allegedly
21:25
Speaker 2: been involved in drug dealing and that he ordered J. C.
21:28
Speaker 2: Rider to kill Laurie Murchison and to dump her body.
21:32
Speaker 2: J C. Rider was subpoena to Washington, d c. To
21:35
Speaker 2: appear in front of a grand jury convened by the
21:38
Speaker 2: Public Corruption Section of the Department of Justice. Now, in
21:42
Speaker 2: the end, no charges were filed against J. C. Rider
21:46
Speaker 2: or Ron Fields, but it is hard to find any
21:49
Speaker 2: information out about exactly what went down during this investigation.
21:53
Speaker 2: We have made a Foyer request to the FBI for
21:56
Speaker 2: any and all case files involving investigations into ron Fields,
22:00
Speaker 2: but our request has been denied. Meanwhile, ron Field's lawyer
22:05
Speaker 2: Eddie Christian said the FBI investigation into ron Fields was
22:09
Speaker 2: the biggest witch hunt he'd ever seen. Eddie Christian was
22:12
Speaker 2: also J. C. Rider's attorney. He later told The Arkansas
22:16
Speaker 2: Times that the investigators were absolutely nuts. Eddie Christian told
22:22
Speaker 2: the Southwest Times Record in April two thousand and five, quote,
22:26
Speaker 2: I've known this guy, meaning ron Fields, for a long
22:29
Speaker 2: damn time. Let me tell you he's one of the
22:32
Speaker 2: most impoverished lawyers. I know he wears J. C. Penny suits.
22:35
Speaker 2: He does not live high on the hog. This boy's
22:38
Speaker 2: never made any money. I mean he's been a public
22:41
Speaker 2: servant and that's been about it, except for a short
22:43
Speaker 2: stant in private practice. It's crazy to accuse ron Fields
22:47
Speaker 2: of selling drugs or doing drugs end quote. Eddie Christian
22:52
Speaker 2: also claimed that FBI agents had harassed ron Fields and J.
22:56
Speaker 2: C Ryder's families. Ron Fields had other supporters. Jack Moseley,
23:02
Speaker 2: the former editor of the Times Record, wrote, I would
23:05
Speaker 2: sooner believe mother Teresa was an axe murderer than think
23:08
Speaker 2: Ron Fields could be guilty of using and trafficking in
23:11
Speaker 2: illegal drugs. I've never known a more straight error fellow
23:14
Speaker 2: than Fields, and the idea of him ordering a police
23:17
Speaker 2: officer to kill a missing woman in Fort Smith to
23:20
Speaker 2: keep her quiet about his alleged drug activities is even
23:23
Speaker 2: more ridiculous end quote. But it's interesting because in that
23:27
Speaker 2: same column, Jack Moseley wrote, quote Fields or one of
23:31
Speaker 2: his deputies personally went on almost every local drug rate
23:35
Speaker 2: in order to guarantee that evidence was properly gathered, protected
23:38
Speaker 2: and kept for use in criminal trials en quote. But
23:42
Speaker 2: The Arkansas Times reported that they had spoken to a lawyer.
23:46
Speaker 2: They didn't name this person, but they said the source
23:49
Speaker 2: had been interviewed by the FBI and that the FBI
23:52
Speaker 2: were asking about money that was forfeited as a result
23:55
Speaker 2: of drug arrests. Now, this source said the DOJ threatened
23:58
Speaker 2: to pull the lawyer's license if he didn't give them
24:01
Speaker 2: the information they wanted about ron Fields. The source said
24:04
Speaker 2: they didn't have any information on ron Fields. They didn't
24:07
Speaker 2: know why this investigation was happening at all. But The
24:10
Speaker 2: Arkansas Times talked to other sources who said that ron
24:13
Speaker 2: Fields quote ran the police department, and that the fact
24:17
Speaker 2: that he carried a gun and accompanied police on drug
24:20
Speaker 2: raids was in fact a massive red flag and a
24:23
Speaker 2: conflict of interest. The source told the Times that he
24:27
Speaker 2: had seen statements from witnesses people who claimed that they
24:31
Speaker 2: had seen ron Fields use drugs. So what does any
24:35
Speaker 2: of this have to do with Lourie Murchison. Well. One
24:39
Speaker 2: of the allegations that federal investigators were looking into was
24:42
Speaker 2: whether ry Murchison may have had knowledge about ron Field's
24:46
Speaker 2: alleged drug activities and whether j. C Ryder went to
24:50
Speaker 2: question Laurie Murchison. The allegation was that he and ron
24:54
Speaker 2: Fields may have gone together to question Laurie. This federal
24:59
Speaker 2: investigation went on for two years. During that time, a
25:03
Speaker 2: lot of rock Field's supporters stated it was ridiculous to
25:06
Speaker 2: believe that Ronfield's impeccable character could ever be questioned and
25:10
Speaker 2: that his activities could be covered up. But later in
25:13
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, very ugly allegations surfaced again about
25:18
Speaker 2: ron Fields, allegations that he sexually assaulted his mentally disabled daughter,
25:23
Speaker 2: twenty six year old Bridget Dollar, and that the prosecutor's
25:26
Speaker 2: office declined to prosecute. On June twenty second, two thousand
25:30
Speaker 2: and seven, Bridget told the police in Fort Smith that
25:33
Speaker 2: her stepfather, ron Fields, had raped her. She came to
25:38
Speaker 2: police after first confessing the alleged sexual assault to a relative.
25:42
Speaker 2: The officer who interviewed Bridget, Christine Deeson, was quoted in
25:45
Speaker 2: The Arkansas Times. Bridget said she was sitting on the
25:49
Speaker 2: couch watching The Prices Ride on TV when ron Fields
25:52
Speaker 2: came in and quote pulled her off of the couch
25:55
Speaker 2: by her arm and took her to her mom's bedroom.
25:58
Speaker 2: He took off her clothes and put her on the bed.
26:01
Speaker 2: She said she knew what he was doing was wrong.
26:04
Speaker 2: She also told me it was painful. I asked her
26:07
Speaker 2: what made him stop. She said she thought his cell
26:10
Speaker 2: phone rang and he stopped to answer it. When asked
26:12
Speaker 2: what happened next, Bridget said that he put on his
26:15
Speaker 2: clothes and left. Bridget said that after that he would
26:19
Speaker 2: come on Tuesdays and do the same thing. She couldn't
26:22
Speaker 2: tell me how many times this happened, but said it
26:25
Speaker 2: was more than two. She said he told her not
26:28
Speaker 2: to tell or he would get in big trouble. End quote.
26:32
Speaker 2: Now this became a big story because not only did
26:35
Speaker 2: it involve a powerful politician and his former stepdaughter, but
26:39
Speaker 2: her mother, ron Field's ex wife, Claire, was at the
26:43
Speaker 2: time the prosecuting attorney for the city of Fort Smith.
26:47
Speaker 2: Bridget lived at home with her mother. She had never
26:50
Speaker 2: held a job and had an intellectual development disorder. She
26:53
Speaker 2: is described in court documents as a disabled and incapacitated adult.
26:58
Speaker 2: She has always had a family member appointed as a
27:00
Speaker 2: permanent guardian. Despite that, and despite the fact that police
27:05
Speaker 2: reviewed phone records and voice mails and said they believe
27:08
Speaker 2: Bridget ron Fields was never interviewed. The Arkansas Times kind
27:13
Speaker 2: of summed up the case progress in two thousand and
27:15
Speaker 2: eight by quoting an investigator who said of Ron Fields, quote,
27:20
Speaker 2: if he had been a janitor, he would have been
27:22
Speaker 2: arrested the next day end quote. According to the police
27:26
Speaker 2: record of the rape investigation that was quoted in the
27:29
Speaker 2: Arkansas Times, Claire boy and Gasser, ron Fields X's wife
27:33
Speaker 2: told police that ron was drinking heavily when he came
27:35
Speaker 2: back from Washington, d c. In two thousand and five,
27:38
Speaker 2: but she told investigators they were on good terms even
27:41
Speaker 2: after the divorce. She said the accusations had shocked her,
27:45
Speaker 2: but that she believed her daughter Bridget. She was willing
27:48
Speaker 2: to put herself and her daughter through whatever police and
27:51
Speaker 2: prosecution and cross examination they would need to go through
27:55
Speaker 2: to get justice. The investigators also believed that Bridget was
27:59
Speaker 2: telling the truth. So why wasn't Ron Fields prosecuted or
28:04
Speaker 2: even questioned? According to Arkansas law, it's a crime to
28:08
Speaker 2: have sexual intercourse with a person who is incapable of
28:12
Speaker 2: consent because she is mentally defective. That would mean a
28:15
Speaker 2: person who is incapable of understanding the nature and consequences
28:19
Speaker 2: of sexual acts. But in the memo quoted in the Times,
28:23
Speaker 2: the prosecutors wrote, Bridget understood what sex was. She knew
28:27
Speaker 2: that she did not want to go upstairs with Ron.
28:30
Speaker 2: But the memo stated this meant that mentally defective does
28:34
Speaker 2: not apply because she kind of understood what was happening.
28:37
Speaker 2: So apparently, because Bridget understood the concept of sex, the
28:42
Speaker 2: prosecutors believe she was not mentally defective, at least according
28:45
Speaker 2: to the law at the time. So the next question
28:48
Speaker 2: was if she understood what was happening, did she consent?
28:52
Speaker 2: The memo reads quote this question is very difficult to
28:55
Speaker 2: answer at this time. Victim is stated that the defendant
28:58
Speaker 2: would come to her home, grab her arm, pull her
29:00
Speaker 2: off the couch, and take her upstairs to perform sexual intercourse.
29:04
Speaker 2: How much force was exerted end quote. So in this
29:09
Speaker 2: memo they talk about a nineteen ninety five case and
29:12
Speaker 2: that it involved a fourteen year old in her stepfather.
29:15
Speaker 2: And apparently the Arkansas Supreme Court found that when an
29:19
Speaker 2: assailant has an in loco parenthous relationship to a victim,
29:23
Speaker 2: that the law regarding force is a little bit different.
29:26
Speaker 2: When someone is acting as a parent, the victim does
29:30
Speaker 2: not have to display what they call utmost physical resistance. Now,
29:35
Speaker 2: this would definitely seem to apply to Ronfield's and bridget
29:39
Speaker 2: dollar And yet six months after this alleged assault was reported,
29:43
Speaker 2: the prosecutor's office notified the police charges would not be filed.
29:48
Speaker 2: And this blows my mind. In the explanation letter, the
29:51
Speaker 2: prosecutor wrote, Bridget's mental deficiencies do not rise to the
29:55
Speaker 2: level of charging rape under the law. While in the
29:58
Speaker 2: prosecutor's opinion, Bridget was not lying, the office believed she
30:03
Speaker 2: would have perhaps insurmountable problems if she was cross examined
30:07
Speaker 2: if the case went to trial, and one of the
30:10
Speaker 2: main issues they kept debating was the question of force.
30:13
Speaker 2: Prosecutor's office stated the only force that Bridget talked about
30:17
Speaker 2: was when ron Fields grabbed her arm when she was
30:19
Speaker 2: on the couch and took her upstairs. Bridget did say
30:22
Speaker 2: she said no and slapped at him. However, the prosecutor's
30:25
Speaker 2: office believed she did have an opportunity to leave while
30:30
Speaker 2: ron Fields was undressing. Bridget's family were outraged. They believed
30:35
Speaker 2: the prosecutors were saying basically that Bridget wasn't mentally capable
30:40
Speaker 2: of testifying, but she was mentally capable of consenting sex.
30:45
Speaker 2: Claire's sister, Sarah Estraut, wrote to the prosecutor about Ron Fields.
30:50
Speaker 2: She wrote, quote, Ron Fields is a cunning lawyer who
30:53
Speaker 2: was accustomed to kicking indoors during drug raids. A terrified,
30:56
Speaker 2: mentally impaired young woman is no match for him. End quote.
31:01
Speaker 2: So no action was taken against ron Fields in the
31:04
Speaker 2: sexual assault case, and the FBI never conclusively linked him
31:08
Speaker 2: to Laurie Murchison's disappearance. The FBI investigation was ended with
31:13
Speaker 2: no progress on Laurie's case. Over the years, Nancy Murchison
31:21
Speaker 2: told The Times Record she would get anonymous calls from
31:23
Speaker 2: people claiming they knew what happened to Laurie. They would
31:27
Speaker 2: tell her that Laurie had been burned in a stove
31:29
Speaker 2: or put through a wood shipper, or that she had
31:32
Speaker 2: been fed to pigs. In two thousand, a new detective
31:36
Speaker 2: named Ron Lockhart was put on Laurie's case, and he
31:40
Speaker 2: started digging for answers. According to news reports, the new
31:51
Speaker 2: detective assigned to Laurie's case, Ron Lockhart, and his team,
31:54
Speaker 2: conducted interviews and they went under cover wearing wires. Ron
31:59
Speaker 2: Lockhart did not believe that the investigation into Ron Fields
32:03
Speaker 2: and J. C. Rider were justified. He said he found
32:06
Speaker 2: no evidence that either of them were involved in Laurie
32:09
Speaker 2: Murchison's disappearance. He called this investigation a waste of taxpayers
32:13
Speaker 2: money and a waste of time. He said he believed
32:18
Speaker 2: that the allegations against ron Fields had come from someone
32:21
Speaker 2: with a grudge. Others have suggested it could be someone
32:24
Speaker 2: Ron prosecuted in the past. Obviously, in a job like
32:28
Speaker 2: ron Fields, it goes without saying that you can make
32:30
Speaker 2: a lot of enemies. But that person or person's were
32:33
Speaker 2: never named. The FBI never filed any charges against Ron
32:38
Speaker 2: Fields or J. C. Ryder. The jury in Washington, d C.
32:42
Speaker 2: Heard testimony that it led to nothing. Over the years,
32:47
Speaker 2: Ron Lockhart developed a theory, one that seemed very similar
32:50
Speaker 2: to what Billy had initially told detectives, that Laurie had
32:54
Speaker 2: accidentally overdosed and then the person or people she was
32:57
Speaker 2: with got rid of her body. Every once in a while,
33:01
Speaker 2: Lourie's name pops up in headlines again. Back in two
33:04
Speaker 2: thousand and five, n WA News reported that someone had
33:08
Speaker 2: tipped off the Fort Smith police that Laurie's body was
33:11
Speaker 2: buried in salvageyard, so they went out and dug there.
33:15
Speaker 2: That salvage yard was reportedly less than a mile from
33:18
Speaker 2: the motel where Laurie was last seen. Searchers were sent
33:22
Speaker 2: in to dig. In the end, they found no trace
33:25
Speaker 2: of Lourie. The Times Record did a follow up story
33:28
Speaker 2: on Laurie Murchison in twenty fourteen, coming up on the
33:31
Speaker 2: twenty year anniversary of her disappearance. They interviewed Ron Lockhart
33:36
Speaker 2: and he gave more details about his theory. Ron Lockhart
33:40
Speaker 2: said he had a suspect in mind, and it was J.
33:44
Speaker 2: C Ryder or Ron Fields or anyone connected to them.
33:47
Speaker 2: He told The Times Record it was someone who was
33:50
Speaker 2: in prison in Oklahoma. He said that he felt that
33:53
Speaker 2: he did have enough to charge this person with abuse
33:55
Speaker 2: of a corpse. He said he took the information he
33:58
Speaker 2: had to the Sebastian County prosecuting Attorney, but unfortunately he
34:02
Speaker 2: found out that it was too late. Ron Lockhart told
34:06
Speaker 2: the Times Record quote, back then there was enough evidence
34:09
Speaker 2: to file disposing of a corpse, but the statute of
34:12
Speaker 2: limitations had run over. But we did have a strong
34:15
Speaker 2: suspect that we felt like knew what happened with her.
34:19
Speaker 2: End quote. He said the detectives did interview their suspect
34:23
Speaker 2: in prison, that they asked the person where Laurie's body was,
34:27
Speaker 2: but in the end they weren't able to find her.
34:30
Speaker 2: At the time, Ron Lockhart said he believed someone might
34:34
Speaker 2: have dumped Loriie into the Arkansas River. He said, quote,
34:38
Speaker 2: it was a sad deal. We did everything we could do,
34:41
Speaker 2: and I feel confident I know what happened to her.
34:45
Speaker 2: Ron Lockhart said five different sources told him that a
34:49
Speaker 2: man whom you would not name, said Laurie died of
34:51
Speaker 2: a drug overdose and that this man worried about being
34:55
Speaker 2: charged with her death and disposal of her body. So
34:58
Speaker 2: my question is, are these the same people who were
35:02
Speaker 2: questioned in the early weeks of the investigation or someone else?
35:06
Speaker 2: And if this is where police have landed, if this
35:09
Speaker 2: is all they're going to do, then why won't they
35:11
Speaker 2: release the rest of the case file. Nancy Murchison said
35:15
Speaker 2: back then she still believes that Laurie was murdered. She
35:19
Speaker 2: can't forget what Laurie said in the weeks before she disappeared,
35:23
Speaker 2: especially that one time when Laurie came home and said
35:25
Speaker 2: that someone was planning to offer her. But could that
35:29
Speaker 2: have been Laurie's paranoia due to drug use or could
35:33
Speaker 2: it have been something more? After all, there was a
35:36
Speaker 2: lot that Nancy Murchison admitted she didn't know about what
35:39
Speaker 2: was going on with Lourie. She told the newspaper she
35:42
Speaker 2: didn't even know that Laurie was on drugs. In twenty twelve,
35:46
Speaker 2: she met with a volunteer group called the Cold Case Survivors,
35:49
Speaker 2: people whose relatives had been murdered or missing. They had
35:53
Speaker 2: regular meetings in Muldrow, Oklahoma. But I don't think that
35:57
Speaker 2: group still exists because a link to the organization's web
36:00
Speaker 2: page appears to be inactive. The latest update about Laurie's
36:08
Speaker 2: case from the Fort Smith Police Department came from a
36:11
Speaker 2: news report in twenty fourteen. It said a new detective
36:14
Speaker 2: had been assigned to Laurie's case, Detective David Williams. This
36:19
Speaker 2: person had been working in the Criminal Investigation division for
36:21
Speaker 2: a year and at that time in twenty fourteen, he
36:25
Speaker 2: told the newspaper there had been nothing new added to
36:28
Speaker 2: Laurie's case file in years. He said, quote that things
36:32
Speaker 2: hundreds of pages. I haven't even been able to make
36:35
Speaker 2: it through all that end quote. Laurie's mother, Nancy took
36:40
Speaker 2: custody of her daughter Brittany, who would now be in
36:43
Speaker 2: her thirdies. Nancy Murchison talked to the media several times
36:47
Speaker 2: over the years. She made public police for whoever killed
36:50
Speaker 2: Laurie or who was involved in any way to come forward.
36:54
Speaker 2: She said, even if it was an accident, she would
36:56
Speaker 2: want to know so that the family could have some
36:58
Speaker 2: kind of closure and they could put Laurie in the
37:01
Speaker 2: family plot. But in twenty seventeen, Nancy passed away, never
37:06
Speaker 2: knowing what happened to her daughter Laurie and never being
37:10
Speaker 2: able to bring her body home. Anyone with information on
37:14
Speaker 2: the disappearance of Laurie Murchison can call the Fort Smith
37:17
Speaker 2: Police Departments Criminal Investigation Division at four seven nine seven
37:21
Speaker 2: oh nine five one one six, or email Missing Persons
37:25
Speaker 2: at Fort SMITHPD dot org. I'm Katherine Townsend. This is
37:33
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a
37:36
Speaker 2: production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written
37:39
Speaker 2: and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
37:44
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and
37:47
Speaker 2: to James Wheaton for Legal Review. Noah camer mixed and
37:51
Speaker 2: scored this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Sale,
37:54
Speaker 2: Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and L. C. Crowley.
37:59
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