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The Slaying of Susan Leigh Wolfe · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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If you've been listening to Gone Cold for a while, you might have heard
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me talk about the fact that the city of Fort Worth has around one thousand
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unsolved and cold cases dating back to nineteen fifty nine. But there are hundreds
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of thousands of folks in and around Cowtown who have no idea to help raise
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awareness, which will hopefully lead to more advocacy and funding for the Fort Worth
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Police Cold Case Support Group. Several individuals have joined together to organize an event
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called Thal the Cold Cases at one pm on Saturday, April twenty ninth,
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twenty twenty three. Advocates, family members of victims, and others will meet
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at the Tarrant County Courthouse located at one hundred Weatherford Street and walk approximately one
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mile to where the Fort Worth Police's Cold Case unit is located one thousand Calvert
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Street. There will be plenty of free parking on the blocks surrounding the courthouse
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and relatively cheap paylots nearby as well. If you are able, please mark
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your calendar and come out to show your support. No matter how old or
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how cold, the victims of these unsolved homicides and missing persons cases and their
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families deserve Justice. We'll provide a link to the Facebook events page for thal
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the Cold Cases in the show notes. Thanks y'all, and I hope to
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see you there now onto the episode. The Concold Podcast may contain violent or
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graphics subject matter. Listener discretion is advised. The Lucas Report is a document
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released in April nineteen eighty six by then Texas Attorney General Jim Maddox listing many
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of the slangs Henry Lee Lucas and Oddas Elwood Tool confessed to following or arrests
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in June nineteen eighty three and April nineteen eighty three, respectively. Alongside those
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victims are painstakingly researched and documented accounts of Lucas and Tools proven whereabouts, which
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most often show that neither of the men could have possibly committed the hundreds of
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murders in which they collectively confessed. The accounts that cannot prove these two men
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were not in the area in which a given murder occurred most often show it
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is incredibly unlikely they could have been, usually to the point of near impossibility.
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But a year before that report was released, reporter Hugh Ainsworth's article in
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The Dallas Times Herald exposed the confessions of Henry Lee Lucas as a hoax,
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though it isn't widely known. Ainsworth's article and the grand jury proceedings McClelland County
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District Attorney Vic Fizell was holding in an attempt to end the Lucas farce was
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largely based on the work that Bob and Joyce Lemons started when Lucas confessed to
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the nineteen seventy five murder of their daughter, Deborah Sue Williamson. Bob Lemons
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had uncovered plenty of evidence proving the serial confessors could not have killed his stepdaughter.
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Law enforcement agencies around Texas, among other states, refused to acknowledge the
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work of Bob and Joyce Lemons, Vic Fizell and Hugh Ainsworth, and accused
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the latter two of concocting quote a neat little deal to get some pr end
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quote they had no credible evidence. Authorities from across the lone Star state said
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jurisdictions it seemed, became fueled by embarrassment and fractured pride in their choice to
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ignore the evidence by labeling the efforts of vic Zell particularly political showboating and a
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three ring circus, State and local police defended their choices to clear the cases
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from the books, even as it became known that Lucas was often given access
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to case files just before giving confession statements. The Austin Police Department was among
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those. On June thirteenth, nineteen seventy eight, nineteen year old Billy Dale
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Mitchell was brutally stabbed to death with a dull kitchen knife in the bedroom of
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the house he shared with his parents. Austin Homicide Division's Sergeant Dusty Heskeue defended
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he and Sergeant Wan Gonzalez's work closing that case. The sergeant said, Henry
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Lee Lucas led them to Billy's house while Toole drew a diagram of the inside.
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Lucas, Sergeant heskew said, had waited in the car while Ottus stabbed
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the nineteen year old more than one hundred times and washed the home's kitchen knife
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in the bathroom sink. Only evidence made it crystal clear that Lucas and Tool
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hadn't even met when Billy Dale Mitchell was slain. The two first ran into
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each other in February of nineteen seventy nine. In fact, more than eight
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months later. There is also substantial proof that it would have been quite a
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feat for audust Tool to have killed the subject of another case the Austen police
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had cleared as the result of his confession, the September third, nineteen seventy
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nine rape and shooting of Sharon Lynn's Shilling. The twenty seven year old San
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Marcus woman was found lying in the intersection of East fourth and Waller Streets with
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a shotgun wound to the right side of her abdomen. She died in a
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hospital ten days later. According to the Austin Police, Tool gave them several
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details that matched the place Sharon was shot, a vacant lot just feet away
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from the intersection where she dragged herself, but at the same time he was
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almost certainly in Jacksonville, Florida, on that Memorial Day in nineteen seventy nine.
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Sergeant Haskewed told a reporter for the Austin American Statesman that if all he
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and the other detectives were simply trying to do was get cases off the books,
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they'd have closed another case in which Henry Lee Lucas confessed and directed them
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to the location of the abduction. This claim, however, is markedly transparent
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and insulting to the intelligence of any human being able to add the numbers two
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and two. While there were no witnesses to refute Lucas and or tools involvement
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in the other cases, the department had cleared the shotgun slang of Sharon Lynn
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Schilling and the overkill st abbing murder of Billie Dale Mitchell. There was a
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reliable witness to the abduction of University of Texas student Susan Lee Wolf. Residence
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of Austin's North Loop neighborhood often complained of the poorly lit streets, and on
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Wednesday, January ninth, nineteen eighty, the overcast night sky concealed the glow
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of the half moon still. When a Franklin Boulevard man walked outside to feed
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his dogs just before eleven pm, he looked up as a woman walking on
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the street seemed to have dropped something and knelt down to pick it up.
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Just as she did, a two door vehicle with two male passengers pulled up
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beside her. In a flash. One of the men, who wore a
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trench coat, sprang from the vehicle, grabbed the woman and forced her into
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the car through the driver's side door. Putting her through the passenger side door
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likely was an impossibility, since the door and side panels had major damage,
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something the witness immediately noticed since he was an autobody repair man. The car
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that took the young woman sped off quickly. The witness jumped in his car
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and began tailing the men he would later tell detectives. Eventually, however,
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he lost sight of the vehicle, which he reported was in nineteen seventy one
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to nineteen seventy two Dodge Polara reddish or maroon in color with a white top.
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When the witness returned home, he immediately called the cops. Officers arrived
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at the scene of the abduction shortly thereafter and found a University of Texas co
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op shopping bag stuffed with women's clothing. An All Points bulletin with a description
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of the assailant's car was broadcast to patrol cruiser radios all over the city.
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Austin Police Chief Frank Dyson had his men scrambling. The department already had five
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unsolved murders thought to be motivated by rape in the past year, and Chief
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Dyson's stomach nodded at the thought of another, but the detriment to his emotional
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health paled in comparison to that of the family of the abducted young woman,
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when the following day, a tragic and unthinkable discovery transformed the case into a
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murder investigation. At about eight thirty am on Thursday, January tenth, nineteen
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eighty, in the Chestnut neighborhood of Austin, just east of downtown, the
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resident of a property located on the two thousand block of East seventeenth Street headed
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to the garage to get her car. Out of the corner of her eye.
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In the gravel alley that ran behind her and her neighbor's homes was something
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out of place, unusual enough to catch her attention out of her peripheral.
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When her eyes focused in, the resident was shocked. It was the body
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of a woman, bloodied and unclothed from the waist up. She ran inside
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her home and called police. An officer arrived at the scene minutes later and
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cordoned off the alley around the body. Even before the medical examiner performed an
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autopsy, it was clear this victim had been through a series of terrifying and
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excruciatingly painful acts at the hands of her killer or killers. The body was
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quickly identified as twenty five year old Susan Lee Wolf. She'd been beaten,
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raped, strangled, and executed with a single gunshot to her left temple.
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It was estimated Susan was killed not long after midnight. Susan Lee Wolf was
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born in Washington, d c. To parents Thomas and Patricia, on January
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thirteenth, nineteen fifty four. In the U. S. Air Force,
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her mother, Patricia Maywulf, was stationed for a time in Germany, it
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appears, and though everything in between is elusive, it is known that the
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woman worked as a civilian employee in the claims office at Bergstrom Air Force Base
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in Travis County, just southeast of Auston. It appears as though Susan got
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her caring and concerned side from her mother, who was said to have helped
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a co worker out of an abusive relationship. Susan's father had seen many places
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and experienced many things in his life after his birth in Corbin, Kentucky,
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and formative years in Nashville, Tennessee, which included time in both the Navy
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and Air Force. After that, he engrossed himself in foreign service studies at
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Georgetown University in d C, which, along with his double military service,
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led to stints of the unknown kind in the CIA. When he decided to
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finally take it easy, at least a little. He worked in DC for
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the National Science Foundation and the US Office of Education. But Thomas Herndon Wolfe
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loved Texas. In nineteen sixty seven, when offered the position of assistant to
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the dean of the Graduate School of the University of Texas in the state capital,
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the decision to take the job was easy. Eventually, mister wolf would
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spearhead many environmental causes in his beloved adopted city, including the restoration and preservation
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of state and city parks. Though Austin and his work at the University of
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Texas was important to him, nothing held Thomas's love and adoration like his daughter.
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The father often and fondly recalled the events in Susan's life that best reflected
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who she was at her core, from catching her first flyball at a softball
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game and the smug confidence it gave the little girl, to her first heartbreak
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as a teenager. Susan was bold, introspective, courageous, and determined to
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follow through with whatever she set her mind. To During her senior year at
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John H. Reagan High School, Susan began working as a volunteer for the
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Austin State Hospital, the oldest psychiatric institution in Texas and known until nineteen twenty
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five as the Texas State Lunatic Asylum. Patricia and Thomas Wolfe were not keen
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on their daughter's decision to take work at the facility, but again, when
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Susan put her mind to something, that something was going to happen. After
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her graduation in nineteen seventy three, she began a paid position at Austin State
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Hospital. For years, Susan worked the swing shift as a mental health aide,
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and her mother and father continued to worry about her safety. The young
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woman was also taking the preliminary science courses required to become a University of Texas
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nursing student, while putting herself on a tight budget so she could pay for
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college on her own. I was really proud of her, her father said.
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I had a chance to sit down and tell her that. At Christmas,
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we just had a general conversation about what she was trying to do and
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what we could do to help. I thought she needed to know I respected
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what she had done, he continued, It takes rock determination, and she
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had rock determination. Being around patients that sometimes required physical restraint was hardly the
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only fear Susan's parents had. The young woman rode her bike around town and
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to and from work, which was almost two miles from her mid century built
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bungalow at two twelve Franklin Boulevard. It was the from work part that bothered
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them, since getting off at eleven PM meant she rode home in the darkness
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of the night. Susan, to the horror of Thomas and Patricia, also
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hitchhiked frequently. She trusted the community more than the community deserved to be trusted,
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her father would later comment. While her parents were constantly sick with worry
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over their daughter's habits, Susan did all these things without fear, her father
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said. When she was callously and savagely raped and murdered, she'd been looking
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forward to two big days. Her twenty sixth birthday was the following Sunday,
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and the day after that, on Monday, January fourteenth, nineteen eighty,
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she was to start what she'd worked so hard for. That day, Susan
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was to begin nursing school. Just hours before she was abducted. In fact,
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Susan had been interviewed and had been hired for a work study program at
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the nursing school's learning center. The Austin police were learning the details of what
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happened the night Susan Lee wolf was snatched off the street as they scrambled defined
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the real life version of what was among the best vehicle descriptions they'd ever gotten
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out of a witness. When the young woman was abducted, she'd been walking
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to a friend's house on forty ninth Street to spend the night, since her
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house had just been fumigated for cockroaches. Presumably her roommate, Robert, a
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nurse, had also left for the night. He was picked up and interviewed
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by the cops for several hours the day Susan's body was found and then released
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after giving what head of Austin Police Homicide Unit, Lieutenant Roger Napier called a
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lengthy statement. Nothing is publicly known about what he said. On Friday,
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January eleventh, nineteen eighty, detectives brought in both the neighbor who had witnessed
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the abduction of Susan Wolfe and a hypnotist to see if they could learn more
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about what had happened. It's unknown to us if the hypnosis produced more details
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about the men or the crime, except for the following couple details. It
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is reported that the witness, an autobody repairman, called the Dodge Polara a
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nineteen seventy instead of a nineteen seventy one or nineteen seventy two. During the
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session, based on the hypnosis and his previous reports, a police sketch artist
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drew a composite of both the car and the suspects, but only the former
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was released, which was probably for the best, as composite sketches often implicate
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the innocent in lieu of finding the guilty. But even before the hypnosis session,
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the witness had second guest himself when he first noticed Susan. Perhaps she
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wasn't bending down to pick something up at all, but instead may have been
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ducking in an attempt to hide from the oncoming car. The two toned Dodge
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Polara, remember, had major damage to the passenger side door, as if
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it had been t boned. The witness's second guests gave the cops something to
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work with. It was conjecture, but perhaps they'd driven past Susan before and
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cat called or attempted to coax her to go with them. Maybe the young
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woman knew and feared her abductors. After all, They told reporters there was
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no reason for a car to be cruising the neighborhood if they didn't live there
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or know someone who did. Austin Police homicide Sergeant Mike Gideon said they'd verified
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the perpetrators lived in the area where they forced Susan into their vehicle, judging
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by the calls they had received, and because Franklin Boulevard was a road seldom
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traveled. Those calls came in after the release of a sketch of the assailant's
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car was published in the Austin American St Statesmen and shown on local television news.
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Around seventy five collars reported to have previously seen the vehicle. One of
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them said they'd seen the Dodge Polara several times in the North Loop area.
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Whatever information police got from these tipsters is unknown, but to believe the quiet,
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low traffic street was somehow immune from opportunists seems less than logical. It's
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unclear if detectives truly believed the men lived in the area and were known to
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Susan as strong as they led on, or if they were strategically trying to
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quell the fears of North Loop neighborhood residence and the rest of Austin for that
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matter, by suggesting there was no boogeyman on the loose targeting random women,
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given the fact that they would withhold likely unrelated information that a predator later dubbed
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the Bandana rapists had raped several women in the North Austin area in nineteen seventy
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nine and then throughout nineteen eighty. In the first half of nineteen eighty one,
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the latter seems more plausible. That is, the cops most likely knew
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damn well that there was a good possibility Susan's abductors and killers were men who
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did not know Susan predators out for prey. Even though the Austin police had
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far more information and evidence about the abduction, rape, and slang of twenty
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five year old University of Texas students Susan Lee Wolf, suspects in the case
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were as elusive as they were in the five other sexual assault murder cases in
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the city and Travis County cases that had but a fraction of the evidence,
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if any at all, those cases are as follows. On or about October
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second, nineteen seventy nine, thirty four year old Sandrom Dubbs was stabbed repeatedly
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and mutilated after her vehicle broke down on Interstate thirty five in Travis County.
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Less than a month before, on September third, nineteen seventy nine, twenty
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seven year old Sharon Lynn Schilling was found severely wounded by a gunshot blast at
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an Austin intersection. Twenty year old Sidney Myers was discovered dead in her car
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behind an Austin nightclub called The Still on June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy nine.
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She'd been raped and strangled to death. Sidney's killer was eventually brought to
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justice, but when Susan Wolfe was slain, she was among the six unsolved
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cases. On March nineteen seventy nine, twenty year old Betty Boland Johnson was
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stabbed to death and her abdomen in the parking lot of her Austin apartment complex
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as she carried groceries inside. The attack on Betty shared many similarities with the
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rape of a woman just a few days before. Eighteen year old Deborah Sioux
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Reading's husband returned home from work to find her gagged, bound, cut,
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sexually assaulted, and strangled in their Austin apartment on January twenty second, nineteen
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seventy nine. All of these cases remain unsolved today, with the exception of
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Cindy Myers, regardless of whether over zealous police departments cleared some from the books
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using the bogus confessions of Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Elwood Tool. Several years
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later, although police and prosecutors believed they found Deborah Soux Reading's killer in twenty
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eighteen, the charges did not stick. The rate of sexual assaults against women
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in Austin had also risen significantly by nineteen seventy nine. Going into nineteen eighty,
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Susan's father, Thomas Wolfe, turned to the Austin American Statesman newspaper with
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a plea to the residents of the city. He asked they please help him
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find the distinct vehicle used to abduct his daughter. Meanwhile, police were scouring
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Austin and Travis County pawn shops looking for jewelry taken from the body of Susan
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Wolfe. Detectives and patrol officers were also canvassing both Susan's neighborhood from which she
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was abducted and the neighborhood where her body was found a little less than four
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and a half miles to the southeast. One of the four investigators assigned to
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Susan's case, homicide Sergeant Robert Jas, told reporters he was interested in the
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theory that Susan knew her killers, but seemed to be far from convinced that
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was the case. Besides a highly detailed description of the suspect car that was
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every CoP's dream, speculation was all they had to go on. Although a
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Crime Stoppers reward of one thousand dollars for information leading to the arrest and indictment
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of a suspect went into effect all but immediately the program began putting together a
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reenactment to be shown on the local television news the week of January twenty ninth,
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nineteen eighty, on Crime Stoppers Crime of the Week segment. On the
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evening of Sunday, January twentieth, nineteen eighty, Susan Lee Wolf's father and
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stepmother joined the local activist group called Women Take Back the Night for a march
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through the streets. The group was formed about six months before in response to
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the rash of sexual violence against and murders of Austin City and Travis County women.
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Women are viewed as property in this society, viewed as helpless, willing
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victims. One organizer said, I don't think change is going to come from
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the government. I think it's going to come from all of us. Although
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the drizzling rain was relentless, about seventy five folks gathered and then walked in
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Susan's honor as Thomas and Mary Wolf passed out flyers featuring a brief synopsis of
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what happened to the young woman and the composite sketch of the vehicle her killers
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drove. Arrangements were being made to distribute the flyers to city workers, taxi
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companies, and tow truck services, though it is unclear if it ever happened.
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By the time of the march for Susan, more than nine thousand flyers,
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printed in both English and Spanish, had already been handed out across the
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county. Marchers on this day carried candles and held signs with messages like fight
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back, something can be done, It must be done. It's them or
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it's us, Susan Wolfe's father said. He continued, we can't have Susan
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back, but we must solve this. We must solve it quickly. In
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a seemingly angry letter to the editor of The Austin American Statesman published on January
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twenty third, nineteen eighty, a reader scathes reporters handling Susan's story, particularly
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the letter read in part quote, are your writers hired on their ability to
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sensationalize? Or do they learn these amateurish tricks on the job. The majority
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of your journalists right like budding authors of harlequin romances. The front page coverage
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of Sue Wolf's death on January eleventh is a perfect example. Please remember you
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are a newspaper, not a novel end quote. To be fair to the
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newspaper, they willingly printed this letter, And in Gonkold's personal experience, there
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are many newspapers across the state whose reporters are leaps and bounds ahead of The
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Austin American Statesman in terms of sensationalism in journalism, both then and now.
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But the letter, like the March a few days before its printing, seems
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more a product of the anger and frustration the public felt about the lack of
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resolution for the increasing number of acts of violence against women. The newspaper did
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print a lot of homicide detectives quotes, involving some pretty heavy speculation that ultimately
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appears to have gone nowhere. The next article about the Susan Lee wolf case
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was far more restrained and gave her father a louder voice than police. He
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praised the citizens of Austin for their help, love and support, and remarked
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that no matter the neighborhood or district, Austinites came through for his family in
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their time of need. The fact that they felt his outrage and anger touched
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mister Wolfe. He called for neighborhood watches and associations, crediting Susan for opening
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his eyes. Contrary to the efforts of Thomas Wolfe and others like the organization
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Women Take Back the Night, the violence and Austin continued, concentrated, mostly
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of course, on girls and women. Carol ann Etting was a retired recreations
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director at the Austin State Hospital and the daughter of a locally well known furniture
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store owner. At about ten thirty pm on Thursday, March twenty seventh,
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nineteen eighty, forty two year old Carol and her friend Bruce mccauliffe arrived at
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the Hollywood Bar on Austin's West fourth Street to do a little honky tonkin,
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she had told her mother earlier on the telephone. The two were in separate
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cars, and while Bruce had arrived a few minutes early and was waiting near
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the club's door, Carol pulled down a dimly lit alley to parker car.
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Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and echoed off the crowded street's brick and stone
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buildings. Bruce sprinted toward the alley he'd seen Carol pulled down, and was
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met by the woman at the corner of the building holding her bloodied chest.
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I've been shot where Carol Ann Ettings's last words. Although her alleged killer was
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indicted and tried more than two years later, jurors decided the words of the
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two criminal witnesses who implicated and testified against their supposed cohort, an Austin salvage
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yard owner, for reduced sentences, was not enough to convict him. Some
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have since theorized that the murder of Carol Ann etting was a hate crime since
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she was a lesbian and about to enter a well known lesbian bar in broad
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daylight. On the morning of Friday, June twenty seventh, nineteen eighty,
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sixteen year old Elaine mccoiston disappeared while out on a bike ride. Later that
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day, her bicycle was found in the brush alongside Middle Fiskville Road, smashed
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as if a collision had taken place, but it was much worse than a
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hit and run. More than a month later, on August sixth, teenagers
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found Elane's body at a so called Lover's Lane near Waco, more than one
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hundred miles to the north. Later, it was discovered a car full of
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teenaged boys had forced the sixteen year old girl off the road, abducted her,
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and repeatedly raped her in the vehicle, and then at a nearby home
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in which they held her captive for that very purpose. After kicking one of
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the men in the groin, according to a later confession, one of the
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teenagers, seventeen year old Reuben Castillo Teo, choked Elaine to death. He
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and seventeen year old Nemesio Carmona were convicted more than a year later, On
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Wednesday, July ninth, nineteen eighty, the body of an unidentified woman was
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found near Flugerville, just northeast of Austin. Travis County Medical Examiner doctor Roberto
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Bayardo determined the woman was stabbed twenty seven times in the arms, back,
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chest, abdomen, and thighs with what was most like a screwdriver. Though
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she was fully clothed, her pants had been pulled down to her thighs.
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Doctor Bayardo said there were no signs of sexual assault. Almost a year later,
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investigators for the Travis County Sheriff's Office identified the woman as twenty five year
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old Juanita Velasquez Mada, who had gone missing from Piadras Negras, Mexico.
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It seems unlikely that any of these crimes, those that occurred both before and
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after, are connected to the slang of Susan Lee Wolf. However, perhaps
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another one that was once attributed to Henry Lee Lucas and otis elwood tool is.
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On the early evening of Tuesday, November fifth, nineteen eighty, Patricia
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Stapleton became worried when she and her husband Robert couldn't reach her mother, Mildred
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McKinney. The seventy three year old woman would neither pick up the telephone nor
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answer her daughter's knocks on the door of her apartment located on Sherborne Street in
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southwestern Williamson County. After several failed attempts to get Mildred to the door,
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Patricia entered inside. Tables were turned over, drawers pulled completely out of their
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dressers and cabinets. The contents strewn across the home it had been ransacked.
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In the bedroom was as nightmarish a scene as they come. The bedclothes were
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disheveled and stained with what appeared to be blood. A straight lined blood spatter
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pattern stained the walls, headboard, and ceiling. Under an overturned upside down
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chair with an end table stacked on top laid the body of Patricia's mother,
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Mildred. Patricia became frantic and ran from the apartment. When a Williamson County
35:15
Sheriff's officer arrived, he too was shocked by the scene. It was obvious
35:21
the deceased elderly woman had been badly beaten. She was laying face down and
35:27
unclothed save the left sleeve of her pink nightgown. Which appeared to have been
35:32
violently ripped off of her. After back up was called in, investigators took
35:38
note of the scene surrounding Mildred's body. A jar of vassoline laid on the
35:45
floor near her, and on the bed was a lamp, the base of
35:49
a rotary telephone, and the woman's alarm clock. All the items were dusted
35:54
for Prince jewelry and other potential valuables were missing from the home. Later at
36:04
autopsy, Travis County Medical Examiner doctor Roberto Bayardo documented the hell Mildred McKenney went
36:12
through. Her wrists had been bound behind her with a length of cloth torn
36:17
from a pillow case, a telephone cord, and nylon pantyhose, the latter
36:23
two of which stretched down to her legs and ankles, binding them causing major
36:30
bruising and swelling to the appendages. What appeared to be a pull from a
36:35
closet light was tied around both of the woman's thumbs and wrapped around Mildred's right
36:40
thumb was what investigators called a sticky pink ribbon. Around Mildred's neck was another
36:49
torn length of pillowcase, this one used as a ligature Mildred's upper body,
36:55
face, and neck had extensive bruising and lacerated. The woman had been violently
37:02
raped. Injuries suggested that whoever raped her also used something approximately the width of
37:10
a baseball bat to further sexually torture the woman, since she was determined to
37:16
be alive when those injuries occurred. Seamen samples were collected, as was a
37:23
set of fingerprints from the alarm clock, but investigators had no leads and the
37:30
case went cold. The brutal murder of Mildred McKinney happened under Williamson County Sheriff
37:37
Jim Boutwell's watch, less than three years before he got his hands on Henry
37:44
Lee Lucas, his meal ticket to fame. In November nineteen eighty three,
37:51
Lucas and Otis Elwood Toole discussed the heinous crime over a conference call set up
37:57
by Boutwell, but the two agree they did not remember committing the act,
38:02
but Sheriff Boutwell didn't relent. After being shown the crime scene photos. The
38:08
following month, Tool suddenly remembered that he had indeed killed Mildred McKinney and confessed.
38:16
Lucas two soon came around and gave a videotaped statement admitting his role,
38:22
which he said was raping the seventy three year old woman and burglarizing the home.
38:30
Lucas was indicted on a burglary charge in the case, tool for capital
38:35
murder in January nineteen eighty four. Neither were ever tried. In two thousand
38:42
and four, after previous investigations based upon DNA recovered from the scene and from
38:47
Mildred's body failed, Williamson County Sheriff's Office Detective Lee Cooper received a call from
38:54
the victim's daughter and subsequently pulled the file to reinvestigate. Cooper found mouth,
39:01
throat, vaginal, and anal swabs at the Travis County Medical Examiner's office and
39:07
send them to the Texas Department of Public Safety's crime lab. A partial DNA
39:14
profile was obtained from the evidence enough to eliminate a suspect, but the detective
39:20
left the department before comparing his primary suspects to the profile. Detective John Foster
39:28
took over the case in two thousand and seven and was able to eliminate the
39:31
two prime suspects. It wasn't until two thousand and ten after DPS forensic scientist
39:39
Kimberly Clement was assigned the case and developed a full DNA profile that DNA would
39:46
qualify for CODUS and be uploaded there. In two twelve, the profile hit
39:53
on a Garland, Texas man. Stephen Allen Thomas, was twenty two years
40:00
old when seventy three year old Mildred McKinney was slain, and in twenty twelve
40:07
he was required to give the state his DNA upon his arrest for a federal
40:12
drug violation. When investigators went to interview the man in Dallas, DNA search
40:19
warrant in hand, Thomas told them he'd spent most of his life in Austin.
40:23
Thomas himself was staying about nine miles from the home of Mildred McKinney in
40:29
nineteen eighty, presumably at his parents' house, which matches that distance. He
40:36
was familiar with the area. Mildred lived in Williamson County, which has since
40:40
become a part of the city of Austin. His brother lived within a couple
40:45
miles of her residence. In fact, but Thomas told investigators he'd never seen
40:52
Mildred or her house and certainly did not burglarize, rape, and kill her.
40:58
A buckle swab was taken to make a long story short. Stephen Allen
41:04
Thomas matched the profile taken from the scene of Mildred McKinney's murder, and his
41:08
prince matched those found on the alarm clock in her home. At fifty six
41:15
years old. In twenty fourteen, he was convicted of capital murder in the
41:21
unfathomably depraved crime or rather, Thomas's DNA profile matched one of the four unknown
41:30
male profiles found at the scene. Defense attorneys for Thomas disingenuously suggested to the
41:38
jury that Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Elwood Tool could be two of those profiles
41:44
and another suspect the third of the four. Lucas and Tool. Defense said
41:51
inclosing arguments knew many details about the crime scene. What counsel left out was
41:58
the fact that Jim Maddox's Lucas report, released in nineteen eighty six, refuted
42:04
with proof the serial confessor's story and that Williamson County Sheriff Jim Boutwell had shown
42:10
the men the crime scene photos. And that's not to mention Lucas and Tools
42:15
DNA profiles are in state and federal databases. The method of operations here and
42:24
victim Mildred McKinney, you're likely thinking, are not similar to the abduction and
42:30
murder of Susan Lee wolf earlier in nineteen eighty. However, there are some
42:37
interesting details to consider. Stephen Allen Thomas worked for his brother's pest control company,
42:44
Thomas Pest Control, during this period. In fact, Mildred was targeted
42:51
by Thomas after he scoped out valuables in her home as he sprayed for bugs,
42:57
though the company that did the work has never been released in public reports.
43:01
Susan Wolfe's home was fumigated for cockroaches the day she was abducted and slain
43:08
logistics are also of interest. Susan lived about eleven miles from Mildred McKinney,
43:15
and Stephen Allen Thomas is said to have lived about nine miles from the seventy
43:21
three year old, which is the distance from there to where his parents lived.
43:27
Susan lived three miles south of Thomas's parents. Austin is no Houston,
43:34
but these are striking coincidences for a big city. Thomas was well known for
43:39
threatening people with guns, beating his girlfriends, and even choking them non consensually
43:45
during sex, but of course the convicted murderer's DNA profile is in codis,
43:53
so if he had anything to do with the murder of Susan Lee Wolf,
43:58
it would mean evidence from her case has not been entered into that database.
44:02
The few most recent articles about Susan's case say nothing about evidence testing. Given
44:10
the controversies that began in two twelve surrounding the Austin Police Department's crime lab,
44:17
which included outdated, incorrect procedures and the misinterpretation of results anyway, cast ample
44:24
doubt about the results of any work on Susan's case that might have been performed
44:30
there. It's unclear if the estimated five thousand cases handled at the Austin crime
44:37
Lab and suggested for re review were ever looked at, and the Austin Police
44:42
Department's DNA lab was closed in June of two sixteen. Stephen Allen Thomas,
44:50
sixty four years old at the time of this recording, awaits execution on death
44:54
row, located at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
45:02
during a brief mention of Susan Lee Wolf in a nineteen eighty five article about
45:07
Henry Lee Lucas Sergeant Dusty Heskew commented that they'd have looked into Lucas a little
45:14
more if they didn't have a couple other suspects that were in prison, But
45:19
the Austin police left open the possibility of charging the serial confessor in the future
45:24
by stating Lucas had led them to the location where Susan was abducted, and
45:30
by throwing in a quick mention that the man known as the one Eyed Drifter
45:35
was driving a car at the time that matched the description of the one she
45:39
was forced into. Oddly, and very interestingly, Henry Lee Lucas could take
45:45
the cops straight to the spot Susan was kidnapped, but struggled with another crime
45:51
he'd confessed to in Austin, Lucas couldn't lead law enforcement to the body of
45:55
a missing sex worker. Detectives believe held he'd forgotten where he put her he
46:02
told them at some point. In Austin mythology, Susan slang was seldom mentioned
46:10
without speaking of another of the city's brutal cases, even though they happened six
46:15
years apart and are most certainly not connected. In September of twenty fourteen,
46:22
a short report on Fox seven Austin covered Susan's case alongside another University of Texas
46:30
student, Connie Bibbs nineteen eighty six murder. The article neither provided any hope
46:37
of the case being solved, nor an update on whether modern DNA testing of
46:42
evidence was being done. Following that report, a short blurb on Austin Monthly's
46:49
website featuring the city's most well known unsolved crimes also lumped Connie Bibb and Susan
46:54
Wolfe together. There is one seemingly major d tale in the very brief piece.
47:01
We've not been able to corroborate, and we believe it's completely wrong,
47:06
so we will refrain from repeating it. Another incorrect detail in that piece,
47:12
anyway, strengthened our decision to do so. The publication lists both women's middle
47:19
names as Lee. Connie's, however, is Jane. The murder of twenty
47:25
five year old University of Texas student Susan Lee wolf remains unsolved. We've been
47:32
told the Austin Police Department's Cold Case unit reopened the investigation just a few months
47:37
prior to the recording of this episode, and that evidence had been sent for
47:43
testing. If you have any information about Susan's case. Please contact the Austin
47:50
Police Cold Case and Missing Person's Unit through the department's Homicide tipline at five one
47:55
two four seven seven three five eight A, or call the Capital Area Crimestoppers
48:02
hotline at five one two four seven two eight four seven seven. Special thanks
48:09
to Morgan for bringing us Susan's story. If you have not already, look
48:16
for Gone Cold on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter by searching Gone Cold and
48:21
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48:37
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48:46
Leaving us a five star rating and written review on iTunes particularly helps Goncold's visibility.
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The more folks who find us and listen, the greater chance someone with
48:58
information about a case here's the show and comes forward with what they know.
49:04
Every little bit helps, and we appreciate you'all support immensely, however you choose
49:08
to give it. Sources for This episode can be found in the Episodes show
49:14
notes. Thanks for listening, y'all.