Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Abduction & Murder of Ashley Estell Part 1: Stranger Danger

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The Abduction & Murder of Ashley Estell Part 1: Stranger Danger · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Gone Cold.
0:02
Speaker 2: Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:05
Speaker 3: Listener discretion is advised. Stranger danger is a catchy phrase
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Speaker 3: that warns children of the risks of going off with
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Speaker 3: adults they don't know. Hearing the term for some of
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Speaker 3: us brings up memories of public service announcements telling children
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Speaker 3: to be wary of adult strangers giving out candy, looking
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Speaker 3: for their lost puppy, or offering a ride home without
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Speaker 3: knowing a safe word. Stranger dangers etymology doesn't go back
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Speaker 3: as far as one might think. In the nineteen fifties,
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Speaker 3: the FBI distributed a poster warning of the dangers of
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Speaker 3: strange men with bad intentions. The top red boys and
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Speaker 3: girls color the page memorize the rules. On the colorable
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Speaker 3: warning was an obviously evil man hiding behind a tree
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Speaker 3: with his fedora pulled down low, his arm extended, and
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Speaker 3: holding a bag of candy toward a little girl walking alone.
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Speaker 3: For your protection, the poster read, remember to turn down
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Speaker 3: gifts from strangers and refuse rides offered from strangers. Though
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Speaker 3: this simple literature was arguably well intended, it failed to
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Speaker 3: suggest that a malevolent unknown person wasn't always so obvious.
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Speaker 3: He could look as normal as a teacher or churchgoer.
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Speaker 3: Many of the following efforts by law enforcement, local and
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Speaker 3: federal made the same mistake, and others went so far
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Speaker 3: as to cast at least some blame on the child
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Speaker 3: for not knowing or not following the rules.
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Speaker 2: Remember the story about the little girl in the paper. Hello,
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Speaker 2: little lady, all alone, aren't you? Wouldn't you like to
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Speaker 2: go for a ride with me? How bya some ice cream? Well,
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Speaker 2: nobody ever saw her again. It was in the headlines
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Speaker 2: and on the radio. You probably heard it.
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Speaker 4: They police believe she was kidnapped. They have no clues
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Speaker 4: to the identity of the stranger in the shabby car.
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Speaker 4: Nobody thought to take the license number of the car.
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Speaker 4: And if you see any of the that's the way
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Speaker 4: it happened.
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Speaker 2: And just look at how sad it made her mother
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Speaker 2: and father. I had to tell them about it all
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Speaker 2: because she forgot what they had told her about strangers.
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Speaker 2: Remember the kids who get in trouble with strangers, those
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Speaker 2: who forget what they've been told, and the ones who
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Speaker 2: think they know more than their parents and teachers.
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Speaker 3: Though these many public service posters, brochures, and films warned
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Speaker 3: of Dangerous Strangers. It wasn't until nineteen fifty that a
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Speaker 3: particularly slick and apparently very talented policeman came up with
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Speaker 3: the rhyming term that virtually every United States citizen is
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Speaker 3: now familiar with. On Thursday, September fourth, nineteen fifty eight,
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Speaker 3: in Austin, Minnesota, teachers, school officials, pta representatives, city officials,
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Speaker 3: and members of the Mower County Health Board enthusiastically watched
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Speaker 3: the premiere of a film created by the local police
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Speaker 3: department titled Mister Stranger Danger, the brainchild of the head
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Speaker 3: of the local police Department's juvenile division, Robert Baumgart. Local newspaper,
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Speaker 3: The Austin Daily Herald, called the production first class. The
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Speaker 3: film was named after its villain, a slovenly dressed man
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Speaker 3: donning a wide brimmed straw hat portrayed by an anonymous officer.
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Speaker 3: The production starred only policemen, with the exception of the
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Speaker 3: children in it, of course, and for a few years
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Speaker 3: was shown only to grades third through six. That changed
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Speaker 3: after September seventh, nineteen sixty three, when four year old
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Speaker 3: Barbara Ann Fossou and five year old Melissa Anne Lee
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Speaker 3: disappeared from their Minneapolis, Minnesota neighborhood. That early evening, their
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Speaker 3: badly decomposed bodies were found lying face down in heavy
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Speaker 3: brush ten miles west of the city near Plymouth. Nearly
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Speaker 3: a month later. Police could not determine their cause of death,
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Speaker 3: nor if the girls were sexually assaulted. That case remains
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Speaker 3: unsolved at the time of this recording. In April of
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Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, Barbara and Melissa's obvious abduction and murder
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Speaker 3: caused parents, school officials, and police to begin showing Mister
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Speaker 3: Stranger Danger to grades one and two as well. The
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Speaker 3: film spread and inspired many others, and between those public
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Speaker 3: service productions, the FBI's continued efforts and news outlets across
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Speaker 3: the nation reporting the catchy phrase Stranger Danger stuck. Even
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Speaker 3: though most organizations or agencies releasing the material had no
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Speaker 3: idea the origin of the term. The concept really took
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Speaker 3: off in the nineteen eighties.
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Speaker 1: That's Jenny, but that's not Jenny's dead. If she gets
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Speaker 1: into that car, you may be looking at Jenny for
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Speaker 1: the last time.
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Speaker 3: I'm McGruff, the crime Dog.
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Speaker 1: Let me show you something. See that playground. A lot
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Speaker 1: of kids there every day in this country, sixty kids disappeared,
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Speaker 1: some run away, but a lot of kidnapped by strangers
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Speaker 1: or even by people. Lay know. Almost twenty thousand kids
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Speaker 1: a year, twenty thousand kids, one kid at a time.
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Speaker 1: Maybe your kid on your street, just like Jenny. You know,
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Speaker 1: your kids can learn to protect themselves against crime at home,
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Speaker 1: at school, on the street. Very nice going, Jenny. She's
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Speaker 1: going to tell her folks about this, and you can
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Speaker 1: light them a gruff. Learn how to keep your family
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Speaker 1: and your community safe and help pick up by that crime.
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Speaker 3: That era was a perfect storm for stranger danger. As
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Speaker 3: the media cycle began its slow journey into the twenty
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Speaker 3: four to seven news cycle, we have today unfounded allegations
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Speaker 3: of child rape and sacrifice during the course of devil
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Speaker 3: worship had god fearing Americans everywhere lighting torches, grabbing pitchforks,
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Speaker 3: and looking through a distorted kaleidoscope lens created by drifting
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Speaker 3: television evangelists, fear mongering politicians, glory seeking psychologists, and hack
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Speaker 3: TV newsmen like Heraldo Rivera. A silver lining in the
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Speaker 3: nation's increased exposure to a news cycle during this period
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Speaker 3: was the fact that there were far more reported cases
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Speaker 3: of missing and abducted children at least a certain type,
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Speaker 3: and mass mobilization efforts led to new laws and advocacy
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Speaker 3: directed at both parents and children. But stranger danger was
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Speaker 3: perhaps nearly as misleading as satanic panic, simply a continuation
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Speaker 3: of the past's public service failures that resulted in paranoia
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Speaker 3: behavior and still placed blame on the child to some degree.
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Speaker 3: These days, we all know, hopefully that it's never the
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Speaker 3: child's fault, and also hopefully are tuned in to the
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Speaker 3: reality that most children are abducted or harmed by some
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Speaker 3: way one they know. In the early nineties, however, while
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Speaker 3: the era of stranger danger was still thriving, the community
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Speaker 3: of Plano, a Dallas suburb that at the time had
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Speaker 3: about one hundred and fifty thousand residents and the lowest
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Speaker 3: crime rate in Texas, was rocked by an unimaginable crime,
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Speaker 3: a crime that by all indications, heightened the fear that
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Speaker 3: strange men with candy and hats pulled low were lurking
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Speaker 3: behind trees at local parks or slowly driving neighborhoods in
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Speaker 3: windowless vans, waiting patiently for the right opportunity to strike.
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Speaker 3: Thirty five years to the day after police in Austin,
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Speaker 3: Minnesota released their film Mister Stranger Danger, seven year old
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Speaker 3: Ashley Estelle was abducted and murdered. Ashley Nicole Estelle was
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Speaker 3: born on January thirtieth, nineteen eighty six, to parents Diana
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Speaker 3: and Richard. Throughout childhood, Ashley was a busy kid. She
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Speaker 3: participated in dancing and singing, among plenty of athletic activities.
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Speaker 3: Swimming was one of her favorites. Her friend Kimberly later
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Speaker 3: said she was quite a fast swimmer. In fact, Ashley
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Speaker 3: the smart little girl. She was loved chocolate. She was
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Speaker 3: born in Des Moines, Iowa, where her father, Richard, was
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Speaker 3: senior vice president of the insurance company American Republic Insurance
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Speaker 3: from nineteen seventy two to nineteen eighty eight. After he
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Speaker 3: became executive vice president of United Insurance Companies, Incorporated. Richard,
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Speaker 3: his wife, Diana, daughter Ashley, and their older child, Brett,
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Speaker 3: moved to North Texas, specifically to Dallas's northeastern outlier, the
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Speaker 3: city of Plano after they moved there in the late
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Speaker 3: nineteen eighties. Plano served the Estelle family's needs well. The
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Speaker 3: community was quiet, safe, and far enough away from downtown
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Speaker 3: Dallas to hold the hustle and bustle of the big
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Speaker 3: city at Bay. The Estelles were the typical, happy, all
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Speaker 3: American middle class family. Ashley's godfather, Ron Berry, who lived
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Speaker 3: in Des Moines, said both parents just put an absolute
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Speaker 3: number one priority on parenting. They're just a great family unit.
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Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety three, Ashley Nicole Estelle was a seven
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Speaker 3: year old second grade student at Mitchell Elementary whose teacher
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Speaker 3: described her as intelligent and well liked. According to her mother, Diana,
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Speaker 3: Ashley was very outgoing and made friends everywhere she went.
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Speaker 3: She got the most out of life every day, her
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Speaker 3: mother said. In photos, brown haired and brown eyed, Ashley
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Speaker 3: is always brimming with a smile. Late in the summer
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Speaker 3: of nineteen ninety three, that smile and all the other
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Speaker 3: wonderfully innocent things that made Ashley Ashley, was taken away
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Speaker 3: from the Estelle family at the hands of someone unknown,
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Speaker 3: someone debraved. In its heyday, long before Dallas began swallowing
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Speaker 3: up every modest town at its boundaries, Plano was far
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Speaker 3: more than a suburb serving the behemoth city. Although the
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Speaker 3: first attempt at staking claim to the area in the
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Speaker 3: early eighteen forties resulted in the death of settlers at
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Speaker 3: the hands of the land's rightful owners, Wichita, Caddo and
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Speaker 3: Comanche natives. Further attempts were met with trade negotiations, that is,
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Speaker 3: until the colonizers decided a blood bath suited them better.
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Speaker 3: The folks indigenous to the area were forced to flee,
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Speaker 3: most to Oklahoma after disease and violence at the hands
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Speaker 3: of the settlers was introduced and wrought. Soon after settlement
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Speaker 3: was successful, cattle ranching became the area's economic rock. It
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Speaker 3: wasn't long before a mineral store came to town, then
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Speaker 3: a post office the year after eighteen fifty two, the
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Speaker 3: authorities of which approved the city's name of Plano Spanish
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Speaker 3: for Flat. Those were followed closely by a public school system, mills, factories,
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Speaker 3: and of course, the railroad. Even after a merciless fire
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Speaker 3: destroyed almost the entirety of Plano in eighteen eighty one,
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Speaker 3: the residents rebuilt and the small city continued to thrive.
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Speaker 3: The population there grew at a snail's pace. In eighteen ninety,
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Speaker 3: it was around twelve hundred and increased to only thirty
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Speaker 3: seven hundred by nineteen sixty, but at the tail end
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Speaker 3: of the Great Sun Belt migration that had begun right
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Speaker 3: after World War II, Plano's population had grown almost four
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Speaker 3: hundred percent by the nineteen seventy census to almost eighteen thousand.
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Speaker 3: Besides the invasion of the Northerners, Dallas's middle class fled
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Speaker 3: beyond the limits of the metropolis throughout those years and
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Speaker 3: virtually sealed Plano's fate as a suburb of the big city.
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Speaker 3: Like so many others. Still, Plano is home to the
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Speaker 3: corporate headquarters of many major companies like Fredo Lay Snack Foods,
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Speaker 3: for example, has its own symphony orchestra, and is called
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Speaker 3: the balloon Capital of Texas due to the annual Plano
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Speaker 3: Balloon Festival, where hot air balloons take flight in September
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Speaker 3: of every year while spectators on the ground listen to
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Speaker 3: live music and enjoy food and handmade merchandise booths. On
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Speaker 3: the morning of Saturday, September fourth, nineteen ninety three, the
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Speaker 3: Estelle family made their way to Carpenter Park in northwest Plano, Texas.
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Speaker 3: Their twelve year old Brett Estelle was participating in the
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Speaker 3: thirteenth annual Plano Invitational Soccer tournament. With a high of
15:08
Speaker 3: ninety degrees, it was a hot day in Texas, but
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Speaker 3: it was Labor Day weekend and everyone was outside enjoying
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Speaker 3: the holiday. The soccer tournament was a big drawl, with
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Speaker 3: over two hundred and seventy six teams participating from all
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Speaker 3: over Texas and out of state, including teams from as
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Speaker 3: far away as Washington State. Hundreds of children were competing
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Speaker 3: in the matches that day, and parents lined up on
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Speaker 3: the outside of each field, watching the games and cheering
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Speaker 3: on their little ones. In addition, there were two uniformed
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Speaker 3: police officers providing security. Everything at the suburban park seemed
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Speaker 3: normal safe. It was certainly a typical weekend outing for
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Speaker 3: the Estelle family. Parents, Diana and Richard were very athletic,
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Speaker 3: and their children followed in their parents' footsteps. At eleven
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Speaker 3: twenty am, as Diana and Richard watched Brett, seven year
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Speaker 3: old Ashley walked over to a playground just a few
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Speaker 3: yards away where other young children were playing. She was
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Speaker 3: within sight of her parents, but around noon they could
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Speaker 3: no longer see Ashley on the playground. They frantically searched
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Speaker 3: for her, but she was nowhere to be found. The
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Speaker 3: Estelles reported their daughter missing at twelve fifteen pm. Officials
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Speaker 3: with the Plano police and fire departments quickly set up
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Speaker 3: a command post at Carpenter Park's recreation center, and a
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Speaker 3: ground search to look for Ashley was quickly launched. Searchers
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Speaker 3: immediately began looking for the brown haired, brown eyed seven
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Speaker 3: year old, who was last seen wearing black sneakers, black shorts,
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Speaker 3: and a black shirt with animal print. Meanwhile, at the
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Speaker 3: request of police, Diana and Richard Estelle headed home to
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Speaker 3: be by the phone, which rang off the hook with
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Speaker 3: reporters seeking comment rather than someone with news pertaining to
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Speaker 3: the whereabouts of Ashley. A friend stayed with the Estelles
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Speaker 3: and screened calls back at Carpenter Park, Dallas police helicopters
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Speaker 3: scoped out trails, remote fields, and small wooded areas in
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Speaker 3: the vicinity. Dozens of volunteers showed up to help search
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Speaker 3: the area around the park Later that afternoon. They showed
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Speaker 3: photographs to nearby residents as they went door to door
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Speaker 3: in the neighborhoods surrounding the park. The efforts lasted well
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Speaker 3: into the evening, but at about nine PM, as it
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Speaker 3: became completely dark outside, Ashley had still not been located
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Speaker 3: and the search was called off until morning, at least
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Speaker 3: for the volunteers. That afternoon and that night, not a
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Speaker 3: clue as to the girl's whereabouts was found. Officer Bill
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Speaker 3: Bonds with the Plano Police lamented that there were no
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Speaker 3: witnesses Ashley's disappearance. The policeman said, was being investigated as
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Speaker 3: a missing person's case because there was no evidence indicating
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Speaker 3: a kidnapping. No one had seen or heard an abduction
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Speaker 3: take place. Officer Bonds remarked that she could have gone
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Speaker 3: home with friends. A Stelle family friend, Bob Vlack, however,
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Speaker 3: assured WFAATV reporters that scenario was unlikely. He believed Ashley
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Speaker 3: was abducted from the park. She's a very bright, precocious child,
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Speaker 3: Black said, I don't think you would go off on
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Speaker 3: her own. The following day, it became an unimaginable and
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Speaker 3: dark certainty that the Estelle family friend was right. At
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Speaker 3: about eight a m. Sunday morning, now September fifth, nineteen
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Speaker 3: ninety three, the search for Ashley resumed as over five
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Speaker 3: hundred people showed up at the Carpenter Park Recreation Center
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Speaker 3: to assist in the efforts. As the morning went on,
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Speaker 3: the number of volunteers and the search party grew to
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Speaker 3: over one thousand as people arrived from all over Dallas,
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Speaker 3: from as far away as Fort Worth and from the
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Speaker 3: many surrounding suburban areas of both. At about noon, a
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Speaker 3: little over six miles northeast of the park, in a
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Speaker 3: wooded area just off a gravel road, a football field's
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Speaker 3: length south of Highway one twenty one and a half
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Speaker 3: mile east of Custer Road, a family who had joined
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Speaker 3: the so discovered Ashley's body. As the news spread that
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Speaker 3: the seven year old had been found deceased, dozens of
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Speaker 3: volunteers at the command post joined hands and began to pray.
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Speaker 3: It's terrible. The children are not safe no matter where
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Speaker 3: they are. One of the volunteers told the Dallas Morning
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Speaker 3: News as she wept. We think we're in a safe community,
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Speaker 3: but now that this has happened, we know there's no
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Speaker 3: safe place anywhere, said another kids some who knew Ashley
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Speaker 3: and some who didn't, were shocked anyone would do such
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Speaker 3: a thing to a child. It was obvious the seven
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Speaker 3: year old girl had met with foul play, of course,
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Speaker 3: since her body was found so far away from where
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Speaker 3: she was last seen Carpenter Park, but police at the
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Speaker 3: moment were staying mum. The discovery of Ashley's body left
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Speaker 3: the entire community in a state of shock, even the
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Speaker 3: local police who were tasked with investigating the homicide. The
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Speaker 3: Plano Police department's chaplain said that it was especially traumatic
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Speaker 3: for officers who have young children around the same age
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Speaker 3: as Ashley. The chaplain, Pastor Case, said that although everyone
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Speaker 3: thinks of the cops as tough guys, trained and seasoned
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Speaker 3: to handle the worst humanity has to offer, dealing with
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Speaker 3: the death of children is devastating to them. Pastor Case
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Speaker 3: said he had been with the department since nineteen seventy
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Speaker 3: six and he'd never seen anything like this. Virtually all
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Speaker 3: of the policemen that day had experienced something they never
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Speaker 3: had before. We had big, burly policemen out there crying
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Speaker 3: at the scene, Plano Police Lieutenant Mike Morland told the
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Speaker 3: Dallas Morning News. He added, we're policemen, but we're also parents.
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Speaker 3: You can't help but have your thoughts turn inward at
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Speaker 3: a moment like this. The police chaplain spent the day
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Speaker 3: Ashley's body was found counseling Plano police officers who were
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Speaker 3: having trouble dealing with the tragedy, which was almost all
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Speaker 3: of them, but no one could have possibly felt or
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Speaker 3: even imagined the anguish Richard and Diana Estelle were feeling
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Speaker 3: after her body was found in an undeveloped, wooded area
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Speaker 3: more than six miles from where she was last seen.
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Speaker 3: Ashley Estell's parents, of course, were inconsolable. On the night
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Speaker 3: of Sunday, September fifth, nineteen ninety three, the day of
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Speaker 3: the discovery, Ashley's father, Richard, made his way to the
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Speaker 3: Collin County Medical Examiner's office, where he passed uscitively identified
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Speaker 3: his daughter's body. Richard and Diana released a statement Sunday
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Speaker 3: evening that read, in part, this day surely is the
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Speaker 3: saddest and darkest in our lives. Officer Bill Bonds of
23:15
Speaker 3: the Plano Police Department confirmed that day that Ashley's death
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Speaker 3: was being investigated as a homicide, but as the body
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Speaker 3: was still being examined, he refused to comment on the
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Speaker 3: condition or possible cause of death. Bonds did note that
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Speaker 3: the FBI was already assisting in the investigation, and that
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Speaker 3: they had numerous leads, but little tangible information on a
23:41
Speaker 3: suspect thus far. Lieutenant Steve Nagi added that the police
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Speaker 3: were hoping the public could help them out on this one.
23:50
Speaker 3: Lieutenant Mike Morland asked parents who had cameras at the
23:53
Speaker 3: soccer match to review their photos and videotapes for any
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Speaker 3: clues related to Ashley's disappearance from the park that day.
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Speaker 3: Police also wanted to speak with folks who might have
24:05
Speaker 3: traveled down the somewhat remote gravel road off of which
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Speaker 3: Ashley's body was found. We want to know if there
24:12
Speaker 3: was a one legged grasshopper down that road, Lieutenant Moreland
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Speaker 3: told parents and teachers gathered at an emergency meeting at
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Speaker 3: Ashley's school, Mitchell Elementary, more than five hundred area residents
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Speaker 3: packed the school's auditorium on Monday, September sixth, nineteen ninety three,
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Speaker 3: Labor Day, to listen and discuss what's next. Plaino's police
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Speaker 3: Chief Bruce Glascock, alongside the school district's superintendent Jim Surrat,
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Speaker 3: called for the area school's curriculum to include and reinforce
24:48
Speaker 3: good safety habits for the children. Parents too, should teach
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Speaker 3: their children that a dangerous stranger might look normal and
24:57
Speaker 3: seem well intentioned. Local pta would begin an effort to
25:02
Speaker 3: collect the cash required to build a fence enclosing the
25:05
Speaker 3: school yard. Those gathered considered and plans were made to
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Speaker 3: provide counseling for the children. As the kids became aware
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Speaker 3: of what happened to their schoolmate, many began asking parents
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Speaker 3: to pick them up so they didn't have to walk
25:21
Speaker 3: or ride the bus. Others asked to sleep with their
25:25
Speaker 3: folks at night. They didn't understand why someone would do
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Speaker 3: such a thing to Ashley. The trauma was readily apparent.
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Speaker 3: Barbara Lindsay, who todd Ashley in the first grade, stated
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Speaker 3: that during the meeting, emphasis was on the welfare of
25:43
Speaker 3: the children that had parents especially emotional, but Barbara's reassurance
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Speaker 3: that the school district would have counselors on hand to
25:52
Speaker 3: help them go through their grieving process was comforting. Still,
25:57
Speaker 3: many in attendance were overcome. Ashley's violent death had opened
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Speaker 3: their eyes. Some said they felt the community had taken
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Speaker 3: safety for granted, almost speaking as if Ashley Estelle's blood
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Speaker 3: was on their hands. Nothing, however, could be farther from
26:17
Speaker 3: the truth. There was only one person to blame Ashley's killer.
26:23
Speaker 3: It was announced that Shep's Dairy was offering a ten
26:26
Speaker 3: thousand dollars reward for information leading to the indictment of
26:30
Speaker 3: Ashley's killer, which was standard in the Dallas Fort Worth
26:34
Speaker 3: area at the time. Sheps almost always came through with
26:38
Speaker 3: such an offer, particularly when a child was involved. The company,
26:44
Speaker 3: Richard Estell worked for United Insurance Companies Incorporated, also began
26:49
Speaker 3: offering a reward twenty five thousand dollars. Following Labor Day.
26:56
Speaker 3: On Tuesday, September seventh, the Collin County medical exam William Rohrer,
27:01
Speaker 3: had completed his examination of Ashley's body and ruled that
27:05
Speaker 3: she had been strangled to death. Evidence showed that the
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Speaker 3: strangulation was ligature and not manual. Police declined to say
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Speaker 3: whether Ashley had also been sexually assaulted, and they refused
27:20
Speaker 3: to offer any more detailed information about her injuries. The
27:25
Speaker 3: cops told the local newspapers they didn't want to release
27:28
Speaker 3: anything that might hinder the investigation. Because another child was
27:35
Speaker 3: murdered less than two months earlier, fear in the community
27:39
Speaker 3: grew at the prospect of a serial child killer on
27:42
Speaker 3: the loose. Parents in Plano gathered at Ashley's school to
27:47
Speaker 3: meet with police, teachers and counselors to express their concerns
27:51
Speaker 3: and their grief. Police chief Bruce Glascock tried to reassure
27:56
Speaker 3: parents that their children were safe and that their doesn't
28:00
Speaker 3: seem to be a connection between the killings. This was
28:04
Speaker 3: likely two isolated incidents. As a side note, we'll discuss
28:09
Speaker 3: the other case, the July nineteen ninety three murder of
28:13
Speaker 3: eight year old Kim Newen. After Ashley's episodes, Funeral services
28:20
Speaker 3: for Ashley were held that Wednesday at Saint Andrew United
28:24
Speaker 3: Methodist Church in Plano, followed by a burial in Restland
28:29
Speaker 3: Memorial Park Cemetery of Dallas. More than eight hundred mourners
28:34
Speaker 3: crowded into the church to pay their respects to the
28:37
Speaker 3: family and to memorialize Ashley. Those who knew the family
28:43
Speaker 3: were left numb in many ways, unable to accept the
28:47
Speaker 3: horrific reality before them, but anger was the prevailing emotion.
28:54
Speaker 3: A former coworker of Richard Estelle and des Moines, Iowa,
28:57
Speaker 3: told the local newspaper that Ashley's death was the worst
29:01
Speaker 3: imaginable thing and that everyone up in Iowa who knew
29:05
Speaker 3: Richard was in a state of shock. I'm a firm
29:08
Speaker 3: believer in capital punishment, the coworker said, this is one
29:13
Speaker 3: case where the authorities should employ capital punishment as far
29:19
Speaker 3: as cookie cutter neighborhoods on a large scale. Plano was
29:23
Speaker 3: a fairly new community in nineteen ninety three, and the
29:27
Speaker 3: city had the lowest crime rate in the state. It
29:31
Speaker 3: was wholesome a place to fulfill the American dream of
29:35
Speaker 3: owning a house in the suburbs, raising a family in
29:38
Speaker 3: good schools, and children playing carefree outside. No one could
29:44
Speaker 3: have ever imagined something like this happening there. Several of
29:50
Speaker 3: Ashley Estelle's fellow students, however, had told their parents about
29:54
Speaker 3: being approached by strangers and in a suspicious manner for
29:58
Speaker 3: several months since. Two of those students independently gave police
30:04
Speaker 3: officers descriptions of a man that were very similar both
30:09
Speaker 3: children's accounts had happened during the two weeks prior to
30:13
Speaker 3: Ashley's abduction and murder. In the latest such encounter, the
30:18
Speaker 3: day before the abduction and murder of Ashley Estelle, a
30:22
Speaker 3: ten year old boy walking to school was called to
30:25
Speaker 3: by a man driving slowly next to him. The man
30:29
Speaker 3: asked the boy if he needed a ride. The boy
30:33
Speaker 3: was reluctant to accept, and sensing this, the man demanded
30:38
Speaker 3: he get in. The boy took off running and luckily escaped.
30:43
Speaker 3: Police had commented before that they were interested in two
30:47
Speaker 3: types of vehicles, but needed to play those cards close
30:50
Speaker 3: to the chest for the time being. As police began
30:54
Speaker 3: their investigation into who was responsible for abducting and strangling Ashley,
31:00
Speaker 3: hundreds of tips poured in, especially from parents present at
31:05
Speaker 3: the soccer tournament that day, who handed over more videotapes
31:10
Speaker 3: than police were able to immediately review. Police spokesman Carl
31:15
Speaker 3: Duke said detectives and officers were sifting through them every day,
31:20
Speaker 3: but there were no solid leads on any suspects. Another
31:25
Speaker 3: officer said more than two hundred lead sheets had been
31:29
Speaker 3: filled out by Tuesday morning, September seventh, and they continued
31:33
Speaker 3: to pour in. A number of people at the park
31:37
Speaker 3: said they saw Ashley playing on the playground, but unfortunately
31:41
Speaker 3: there were no confirmed sightings of her being abducted. The
31:46
Speaker 3: cops were at the same point they were on Saturday afternoon,
31:50
Speaker 3: just after Ashley disappeared, Officer Bill Bonds told reporters. He
31:56
Speaker 3: added that a couple of people say they saw Ashley
31:59
Speaker 3: walking with the redheaded girl, someone they were struggling to identify.
32:05
Speaker 3: It's unclear if they ever did. In fact, more than
32:10
Speaker 3: thirty five detectives, some on loan from Dallas, were working
32:14
Speaker 3: the Ashley Estelle case, with the FBI also assisting. Still,
32:20
Speaker 3: public pressure to catch the killer was mounting. Extensive media
32:26
Speaker 3: coverage of the case was spreading across the state and
32:30
Speaker 3: the nation, but as the weak trudged on, investigators continued
32:35
Speaker 3: to say that they didn't have any suspects as of yet.
32:40
Speaker 3: One detective did say, however, that they had looked at
32:44
Speaker 3: many sites around the area where Ashley's body was located,
32:48
Speaker 3: and that they did find bits and pieces of different
32:50
Speaker 3: items near the body and the surrounding area that they
32:55
Speaker 3: were sorting through as possible evidence, including a couple pieces
32:59
Speaker 3: of rope. As police continued to sift through photographic accounts
33:06
Speaker 3: and tips called in by the public, the investigation into
33:10
Speaker 3: Ashley's kidnapping and murder was going nowhere, slowly but surely,
33:15
Speaker 3: until one man's strange behavior and pertinent criminal past caught
33:21
Speaker 3: the attention of detectives. That's next time on Gone Cold.
33:29
Speaker 3: If you have any information about the abduction and murder
33:32
Speaker 3: of Ashley Nicole Estelle, please contact Texas Crime Stoppers by
33:37
Speaker 3: calling seven to one three two to two tips. That's
33:42
Speaker 3: seven one three, two two two eight four seven seven.
33:47
Speaker 3: You can remain completely anonymous if you have not already,
33:53
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33:57
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34:01
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34:32
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34:52
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, y'all.