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The Murders of Regina Grover & David Larson · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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Speaker 1: The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
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Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised.
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Speaker 2: In Fort Worth, Texas. The unsolved homicides of several women
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Speaker 2: and girls in the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties were
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Speaker 2: lumped into two separate categories. Most are either theorized as
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Speaker 2: or known to have been abductions. The first set, as
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Speaker 2: they'd eventually be considered, began with the rape, beating, and
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Speaker 2: strangulation murder of thirty eight year old Mildred May on
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Speaker 2: February fourth, nineteen sixty seven, followed by twenty one year
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Speaker 2: old Becky Martin on February seventh, nineteen seventy three, who
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Speaker 2: most likely also died of strangulation, but since her remains
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Speaker 2: were skeletonized, there was no definitive way for medical examiner
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Speaker 2: Felix Quotes to be sure. On February seventeenth, nineteen seventy four,
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Speaker 2: seventeen year old Carla Walker was abducted, raped and strangled
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Speaker 2: to death, and the crimes became known as the February Slangs,
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Speaker 2: dubbed so by local newspapers. But they weren't the last
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Speaker 2: to fit into the category, which was a sort of
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Speaker 2: working theory of a serial rapist and killer's preferred time
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Speaker 2: to strike. On February eighteenth, nineteen seventy seven, twenty five
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Speaker 2: year old June Ward was found slain, also strangled to
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Speaker 2: death and sexually assaulted, But unlike the other cases, June
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Speaker 2: was mutilated with the axe end of a weapon thought
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Speaker 2: to have been a carpenter's hammer, though she wasn't killed
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Speaker 2: in February, but instead on January twenty third, nineteen seventy eight,
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Speaker 2: Seventeen year old Lesha McGee's murder was classified by some
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Speaker 2: in the press as part of the so called February Slangs,
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Speaker 2: the killing matching only the murder of June Ward in
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Speaker 2: its sheer brutale. Perhaps Lesha was beaten, stabbed multiple times
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Speaker 2: in the abdomen, and her throat deeply slashed. On February fourth,
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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three, twenty six year old Christi Tower was
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Speaker 2: abducted as she left her serving job at Billie Bob's
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Speaker 2: honky Tonk. She was then bound at the wrists with
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Speaker 2: electrical wire before being strangled to death with the same
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Speaker 2: rocks and brush had been placed over her body. All
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Speaker 2: but one of these cases, that of Carla Walker, remained unsolved.
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Speaker 2: When a new slew of killings started later in the year,
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Speaker 2: it was as if the February slangs never happened. The
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Speaker 2: preceding murders, although many strikingly similar, were rarely if ever
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Speaker 2: compared in the press or commented on by police as
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Speaker 2: being potentially connected. In November of nineteen eighty five, another
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Speaker 2: so called series of murders began in fort Worth and
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Speaker 2: would go on to claim about a dozen women and
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Speaker 2: one teenaged girl. These murders weren't given an attention grabbing title,
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Speaker 2: but would much later become colloquially known to locals as
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Speaker 2: the eighties murders. One of the first victims of the
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Speaker 2: eighties murders was twenty one year old Sandra Bush, who
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Speaker 2: disappeared on November seventeenth, nineteen eighty three, and was eventually
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Speaker 2: found partially unclothed and covered by wood debris. She'd been
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Speaker 2: strangled with a cord. On September thirtieth, nineteen eighty four,
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Speaker 2: firefighters responded to the scene of a blaze at a
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Speaker 2: southwest fort Worth above garage apartment. The body of the
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Speaker 2: homes occupant, twenty three year old Catherine Davis, was found
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Speaker 2: in a remote Field in Tarrant County a few months later,
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Speaker 2: only a few weeks after her moneer, on October nineteenth,
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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four, twenty nine year old Marilyn Hartman was
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Speaker 2: found deceased at her home. The cause of death strangulation.
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Speaker 2: Then thirty two year old Catherine Jackson was found strangled
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Speaker 2: to death in the bathtub inside her apartment on November
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Speaker 2: twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four. Two weeks later, twenty one
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Speaker 2: year old Angela Ewart disappeared after purchasing gasoline at a
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Speaker 2: seven to eleven convenience store in the Wedgwood neighborhood of
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Speaker 2: Fort Worth. These heinous crimes were only the beginning of
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Speaker 2: a series of arduous and seemingly interminable investigations. Fort Worth
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Speaker 2: Police detectives carried out and ultimately failed to uncover the
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Speaker 2: evidence to bring most of them to resolution. It was
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Speaker 2: not for a lack of effort. A multi department task
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Speaker 2: force was created solely for the purpose of solving these crimes.
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Speaker 2: The forty member task force included the best and brightest
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Speaker 2: from the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, the Texas Rangers, local FBI,
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Speaker 2: and other state and federal agencies. Although town talk, local lore,
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Speaker 2: and even a couple law enforcement officers subscribed to the
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Speaker 2: belief that the eighties murders were all at the hands
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Speaker 2: of a single, devilish but criminally brilliant serial killer, and
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Speaker 2: in later years perhaps solely at the hands of two
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Speaker 2: such men working independently, the probable reality was much more
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Speaker 2: frightening that many different madmen were responsible. The next eighties
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Speaker 2: murder was similar to the previous cases in that it
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Speaker 2: stumped even the most seasoned investigators, but also quite different
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Speaker 2: from the rest in another striking and brazen way. Not
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Speaker 2: ten minutes before the body of time, twenty one year
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Speaker 2: old Regina Grover was discovered in northwest Fort Worth a
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Speaker 2: couple days before Christmas nineteen eighty four, several miles to
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Speaker 2: the south, the body of her boyfriend, twenty six year
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Speaker 2: old David Larson was also found. On the afternoon of Sunday,
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Speaker 2: December twenty third, nineteen eighty four, twenty six year old
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Speaker 2: David Dale, Larson's roommate Danny, arrived at the apartment they shared,
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Speaker 2: located at twenty five oh nine park Hill Court West
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Speaker 2: in south fort Worth. Both David and Danny were fixtures
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Speaker 2: in the downtown restaurant and bar scene, a tight knit
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Speaker 2: bunch of young workers who knew each other. For the
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Speaker 2: most part. Danny had been out all night partying after
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Speaker 2: getting off work well after midnight, and then at a
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Speaker 2: friend's place. When Danny went to work his bartending shift
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Speaker 2: at Billy Miner's Saloon off Third Street downtown, David, who
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Speaker 2: also worked there waiting tables, hadn't made it in for
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Speaker 2: his shift. After a while, Danny was sent home to
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Speaker 2: check on David, a relatively short drive about four miles away.
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Speaker 2: At approximately two forty five pm, Danny arrived. He could
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Speaker 2: hear the stereo playing inside the apartment even before he entered,
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Speaker 2: and when he turned the knob, the door was unlocked.
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Speaker 2: David was usually responsible. He was always on time and
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Speaker 2: rarely missed a shift, but Danny thought perhaps he'd tied
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Speaker 2: on a good one the night before and was sleeping
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Speaker 2: it off. After all, he'd gone on a date with
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Speaker 2: his girlfriend, Regina, and sometimes the Saturday night life in
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Speaker 2: fort Worth had a way of pulling you in and
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Speaker 2: keep you captive until you had no business even walking upright.
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Speaker 2: As Danny made his way to David's room, nothing caught
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Speaker 2: his eye. The apartment was in its usual condition, neat
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Speaker 2: for a couple of bachelors, but the occasional empty beer
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Speaker 2: can could be seen on an end table or kitchen counter.
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Speaker 2: After walking in, Danny could see his roommate's silhouette under
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Speaker 2: the blanket on his bed. He pulled it back. The
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Speaker 2: body of David Larsen laid there, completely unclothed, bloodied and beaten,
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Speaker 2: his skull bashed in. Danny hurriedly phoned the Fort Worth
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Speaker 2: Police officers arrived at the scene minutes after the call.
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Speaker 2: They immediately made note of the apartment's condition, which was
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Speaker 2: undisturbed by an intruder. There were no signs of forced
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Speaker 2: entry in David's room. The sheets beneath the young man's
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Speaker 2: body were soaked in blood. The cause of death was
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Speaker 2: readily apparent. He'd been bludgeoned in the head to death
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Speaker 2: with what police and Tarrant County medical investigator R. O.
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Speaker 2: Medford told the press was a large, heavy object. The
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Speaker 2: murder weapon was still the scene, according to a source,
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Speaker 2: and though the cops never specifically identified it, the object
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Speaker 2: is largely thought to have been a thick glass caraffe
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Speaker 2: full of coins. David died the medical examiner later determined
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Speaker 2: at about one am, other than the murder weapon clues
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Speaker 2: that the apartment were scant, but they did find one
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Speaker 2: thing that would soon prove to be an incredibly important discovery,
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Speaker 2: one that perhaps saved police many man hours that might
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Speaker 2: have otherwise been spent searching for the identity of another
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Speaker 2: victim that would soon be found. Danny and ctim David
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Speaker 2: Dale Larson didn't have a female roommate. In fact, they
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Speaker 2: had no other roommate in the apartment. However, police found
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Speaker 2: a purse the driver's license inside suggest that it belonged
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Speaker 2: to a young woman named Regina Grover. Just before three
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Speaker 2: pm on December twenty third, nineteen eighty four, a group
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Speaker 2: of seven preteen and teenaged boys were riding their bikes
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Speaker 2: on the bank of Marine Creek in northwest Fort Worth,
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Speaker 2: under the bridge near the thirty four hundred block of
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Speaker 2: Angle Avenue. One of the boys, twelve years old, spotted
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Speaker 2: what he thought was the arm and hand of a
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Speaker 2: mannequin in the shallow water. The rest was covered by
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Speaker 2: an old mattress, a television cabinet, and other various trash
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Speaker 2: that had been illegally dumped there. Thinking he would claim
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Speaker 2: the mannequin as his own. He yelled to a couple
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Speaker 2: friends and headed toward the discovery. But then he saw
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Speaker 2: a wristwatch and noticed the texture of soft skin the hand,
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Speaker 2: he realized belonged to a real person, not a dummy.
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Speaker 2: The boys rushed up the levee to find an adult.
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Speaker 2: The Fort Worth police were notified at pre twelve pm.
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Speaker 2: When detectives arrived, some began moving trash and debris from
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Speaker 2: atop the body, which belonged to a young woman. Besides
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Speaker 2: the wristwatch and a gold chain necklace, the body was
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Speaker 2: completely unclothed. There were no immediately apparent signs pointing to
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Speaker 2: how she might have died, with the exception of a
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Speaker 2: thin mark across her neck. Several crime scene investigators combed
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Speaker 2: the area surrounding the body after it was found. If
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Speaker 2: police discovered any clues, they successfully kept them from the
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Speaker 2: public's eye. The investigation of this scene was happening simultaneously
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Speaker 2: as the one around ten miles south, the scene of
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Speaker 2: the murder of twenty six year old David Larson, and
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Speaker 2: it didn't take the cops long to realize the two
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Speaker 2: murders were connected. Within the afternoon. In fact, The body
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Speaker 2: found in the shallow waters of Marine Creek beneath the
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Speaker 2: Angle Avenue Bridge was identified as belonging to twenty one
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Speaker 2: year old Regina Suzanne Grover, the deceased young man's girlfriend.
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Speaker 2: Witnesses appeared almost immediately. A resident who lived in one
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Speaker 2: of the few houses close to the Angle Avenue Bridge
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Speaker 2: told police she heard someone screaming for help at four
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Speaker 2: thirty am. Others in the area corroborated this. Detective Danny
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Speaker 2: LaRue later said that it couldn't have been Regina, as
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Speaker 2: investigators believed she'd died several hours before that time. It's
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Speaker 2: not clear if the law man's comments were based on
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Speaker 2: the medical examiner's autopsy results or his own experience. Either way,
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Speaker 2: it's important to remember that forensic science in nineteen eighty
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Speaker 2: four wasn't where it is today. Perhaps considering the weather
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Speaker 2: is necessary and connected to that very fact. The day's
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Speaker 2: weather was ten degrees above average at its highest point,
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Speaker 2: but right at average at its lowest. Overnight, it didn't
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Speaker 2: come close to freezing. Most of the nighttime hours maintained
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Speaker 2: a temperature around forty degrees. That temperature, however, can absolutely
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Speaker 2: slow down rigor mortis. The day's peak temperature was sixty
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Speaker 2: five degrees and occurred right around the time Regina's body
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Speaker 2: was found. Marine Creek, where Regina's body partially laid for
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Speaker 2: several hours in shallow flowing water, was likely very cold.
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Speaker 2: Whatever the case, it would have been a fairly strange
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Speaker 2: coincidence if the woman heard screaming for help early that
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Speaker 2: morning was a different woman than the one whose body
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Speaker 2: was found in the creek the following afternoon. There were
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Speaker 2: two witness reports that detectives could not ignore. Some of
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Speaker 2: the witnesses who were reported a woman's screaming also saw
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Speaker 2: something when they went to see where the sounds originated,
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Speaker 2: a white Chevy Camaro. Residents of the apartment where the
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Speaker 2: body of David Larsen was found also reported seeing a
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Speaker 2: car parked outside his unit, a white Chevy Camaro. It
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Speaker 2: seemed police had an accurate description of the suspect's vehicle.
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Speaker 2: Between that and the fact that there were no signs
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Speaker 2: of a struggle at David's apartment, meaning Regina was most
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Speaker 2: likely killed elsewhere, law enforcement had two clues that were
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Speaker 2: at least reminiscent of certainties. Fort Worth Police homicide detectives
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Speaker 2: interviewed David Larsen's roommate Danny right off the bat, Of course,
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Speaker 2: he provided his alibi and was able to point them
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Speaker 2: in the direction of several of both David and Regina's friends,
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Speaker 2: though some had left town for the holiday, A couple
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Speaker 2: homicide detectives opted to work Christmas Day finding and speaking
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Speaker 2: with friends and coworkers of the murdered couple, around thirty
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Speaker 2: of them. Homicide detective Danny LaRue was heading up the investigation,
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Speaker 2: and among the detectives who worked through the holiday, no
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Speaker 2: one perhaps was as dead set on solving the many
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Speaker 2: murder cases that were stacking up at the Fort Worth
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Speaker 2: Police Department, but his resources seem to have been limited
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Speaker 2: concerning the murders of Regina Grover and David Larson, who
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Speaker 2: appear not to have been included in the cases worked
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Speaker 2: by the thirty member homicide task force that was investigating
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Speaker 2: the many other murders in the area, at least not
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Speaker 2: at first. LaRue had minimal help collecting his Christmas Day interviews.
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Speaker 2: Those who knew Regina and David unfortunately offered few leads.
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Speaker 2: David Dale Larson was born on December second, nineteen fifty eight,
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Speaker 2: in Mineral Wells, Texas. After the premature death of his
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Speaker 2: father in nineteen sixty seven, it appears David and his
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Speaker 2: mother moved to Fort Worth. He graduated from Western Hills
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Speaker 2: High School in nineteen seventy seven. By all accounts, David
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Speaker 2: was well lived and got along with just about everyone.
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Speaker 2: He had a lot of female friends, but I wouldn't
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Speaker 2: call them girlfriends. Linda Stoddard, a mutual friend of the couple,
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Speaker 2: told local newspaper The Star Telegram, he just had a
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Speaker 2: lot of friends. Danny's manager at Billy Miners, said he
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Speaker 2: wasn't the type to cause anyone any trouble. Linda said
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Speaker 2: David and Regina were a mellow couple who stayed in
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Speaker 2: their own circle of friends and generally at the places
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Speaker 2: those friends worked or hung out at, which were downtown
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Speaker 2: restaurants and bars. Regina Suzanne Grover born in Biloxi, Mississippi,
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Speaker 2: on February twenty sixth, nineteen sixty three, attended R. L.
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Speaker 2: Pascal High School in Fort Worth. At the time of
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Speaker 2: her death, Regina was working at Pepper's Restaurant and Bar
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Speaker 2: on West Seventh Street. She'd started working there as a
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Speaker 2: hostess only two weeks before fellow employee, Holly Nelson, commented
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Speaker 2: that she was always smiling and outgoing. Regina got to
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Speaker 2: know folks pretty quickly, Holly said. The amazing thing about
18:11
Speaker 2: her she only worked here a short time, but she
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Speaker 2: managed to touch everyone. The young woman's landlord thought Regina
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Speaker 2: was such a good person that he rented out to
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Speaker 2: her and above Grudge apartment at four thousand and nine
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Speaker 2: West sixth Street for reduced rent until she could get
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Speaker 2: on her feet. Regina and David were equally adored as
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Speaker 2: a couple, as passionate young sweethearts often do. They argued
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Speaker 2: a lot, but always made up fast, and they took
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Speaker 2: care of each other. If David had a few too many,
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Speaker 2: Regina took him home, and vice versa. Their friend Holly
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Speaker 2: said they had a very comfortable relationship. David and Regina's deaths,
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Speaker 2: she continued, had left their friends with an empty feeling. Many,
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Speaker 2: including Holly, had seen the couple the evening before, just
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Speaker 2: hours before they were killed. After extensive interviews with these
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Speaker 2: friends and many others, detectives were no closer to uncovering
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Speaker 2: a motive than they were the moment the bodies were found.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't robbery, that much was clear at the get go,
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Speaker 2: but after speaking with the folks closest to them, the
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Speaker 2: cops also learned they had no known enemies and that
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Speaker 2: they weren't in the drug scene, making a drug deal
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Speaker 2: gone wrong scenario incredibly unlikely. Like the comments he made
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Speaker 2: about the time of Regina's death, it's not clear if
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Speaker 2: Detective LaRue's remarks to fort Worth's Star Telegram reporters concerning
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Speaker 2: her cause of death are based upon the actual autopsy report.
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Speaker 2: While also continually skirting around the question of whether or
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Speaker 2: not Regina was raped, LaRue said she could have been
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Speaker 2: alive but unconscious when put in the water under the bridge,
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Speaker 2: suggesting the young woman died as the result of the
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Speaker 2: combination of drowning and strangling. Later, however, the medical examiner
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Speaker 2: seemed to contradict this when reporting that the autopsy indicated
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Speaker 2: Regina Grover had been strangled to death with a cord.
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Speaker 2: That particular detail, along with a few others, gave fort
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Speaker 2: Worth police detectives avenues to explore. In the time between
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Speaker 2: Regina and David's murders and the new year, another name
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Speaker 2: was added to the list of fort Worth murders. Fifteen
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Speaker 2: year old Sarah Kashka of nearby Denton, was visiting friends
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Speaker 2: at their Southwest fort Worth apartment in late December and
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Speaker 2: vanished after she was last seen walking across the street
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Speaker 2: toward a Wedgewood dairy queen at about eleven pm on
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Speaker 2: the thirtieth of the month. On December thirty first, nineteen
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Speaker 2: eighty four, the teenager's body was found in southwest Dallas.
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Speaker 2: Sarah had been stabbed repeatedly in her chest and neck.
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Speaker 2: The brutal murder of Sarah Ann Elizabeth Koshka, like Regina's
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Speaker 2: and David's, that would become known as the eighties murders,
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Speaker 2: and was seldom reported on after initial articles besides her
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Speaker 2: name alongside the others. In the first week of January
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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, the Homicide Task Force, investigating and attempting
21:48
Speaker 2: to connect the murders of several women and girls in
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Speaker 2: the Dallas, fort Worth and Arlington areas, gave homicide detective
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Speaker 2: Danny LaRue a potential lead. Was a member of fort
22:01
Speaker 2: Worth's Broadway Baptist Church, as were to other victims in
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Speaker 2: the recent rash of murders in the city. However, after
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Speaker 2: conferring with church officials, LaRue learned that only one was
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Speaker 2: an active member and not Regina, which made the connection
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Speaker 2: almost certainly a coincidence and nothing more. In fact, Regina
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Speaker 2: Grover hadn't stepped foot in the church for years, according
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Speaker 2: to officials there. Broadway Baptist Anyway was massive and home
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Speaker 2: to around two thousand congregants at the time. Although the
22:39
Speaker 2: Fort Worth Star Telegram had a hell of a time
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Speaker 2: letting it go, the lead was a dead end. Also
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Speaker 2: in January nineteen eighty five, two suspects were identified and arrested,
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Speaker 2: each for a specific case or cases in the so
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Speaker 2: called eighties murders. The arrests were made out of desperation,
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Speaker 2: based upon tips rather than evidence, because both men appeared
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Speaker 2: to have been completely innocent. One chosen simply because of
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Speaker 2: a difficult and sometimes reciprocally violent relationship with his father,
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Speaker 2: an area pastor, and the other because he didn't fit
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Speaker 2: inside the neat perfectly square box labeled societal norms most
23:26
Speaker 2: definitely not the one in Cowtown, Texas. There's no reason
23:31
Speaker 2: to go into their stories, but the Homicide Task Force's
23:35
Speaker 2: decision to arrest one of the men eventually cost the
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Speaker 2: city of Fort Worth twenty thousand dollars, an amount we
23:42
Speaker 2: know in October of twenty twenty three as fifty one
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Speaker 2: and a half thousand bucks. In late March of nineteen
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Speaker 2: eighty five, the Fort Worth Crime Commission, Chamber of Commerce,
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Speaker 2: Citizens Organized Against Crime, and the Fort Worth Rotary Club
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Speaker 2: began offering a reward of fifty thousand dollars worth almost
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Speaker 2: one hundred and forty thousand dollars at the time of
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Speaker 2: this recording for information that leads to the conviction of
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Speaker 2: the killer of any one of eight female victims Katherine Davis,
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Speaker 2: Cindy Heller, Katherine Jackson, Sarah Kashka, Angela Ewert, Ginger Hayden,
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Speaker 2: Lisa Griffin, or Regina Grover. A couple of these crimes
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Speaker 2: have since been solved, but glaringly missing from the reward
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Speaker 2: offer are Sandra Bush and Marilyn Hartman, the two black
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Speaker 2: victims that are often grouped into the eighties murders with
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Speaker 2: the white women and girl listed above. It's unclear why
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Speaker 2: this is the case, as unclear as the question of
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Speaker 2: why local media never mentioned the omissions, but someone caught
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Speaker 2: it about a week after the reward's announcement. Marilyn Hartman
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Speaker 2: name was added. Police said they added Maryland because they
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Speaker 2: realized the similarities her case shared with the rest, but
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Speaker 2: because Sandra Bush wasn't added a case that shared just
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Speaker 2: as many similarities, it seems more likely Marilyn Hartman's family
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Speaker 2: applied some pressure. On the week of May nineteenth, nineteen
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Speaker 2: eighty five, the murders of David Larson and Regina Grover
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Speaker 2: were the Crime Stoppers crime of the Week. On Tuesday
25:32
Speaker 2: of that week, the fort Or Star Telegram ran a
25:35
Speaker 2: brief crime Stoppers article about the case, and a local
25:39
Speaker 2: television news broadcast produced by Crime Stoppers aired, but not
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Speaker 2: without errors.
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Speaker 1: This is the Parkridge Apartments in Fort Worth. In this complex,
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Speaker 1: in apartment B one seventy eight, the body of twenty
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Speaker 1: six year old David Larson was found the time two
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Speaker 1: forty five in the afternoon to So twenty third. Larson
26:01
Speaker 1: had been killed by a blow to the head. Witnesses
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Speaker 1: told police a white Camaro was seen parked outside this
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Speaker 1: apartment the night before the body was discovered. Five minutes
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Speaker 1: after finding the body of David Larson, police discovered the
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Speaker 1: nude and strangled body of twenty one year old Regina Grover,
26:16
Speaker 1: Larson's girlfriend. Her body was found in this creek at
26:20
Speaker 1: this lonely bridge at thirty four hundred Angle Avenue. The
26:24
Speaker 1: couple worked together here at Pepper's Restaurant at three thousand
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Speaker 1: West seventh Street. Police believe these brutal murders are definitely connected,
26:32
Speaker 1: and this week crime Stoppers will pay one thousand dollars
26:35
Speaker 1: for the arrest and indictment of those responsible for the
26:38
Speaker 1: murders of David Larsen and Regina Grover. If you have information,
26:42
Speaker 1: just called crime Stoppers at four sixty nine tips. That's
26:46
Speaker 1: four sixty nine tips.
26:52
Speaker 2: For decades, rumors swirled around Fort Worth suggesting David's roommate
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Speaker 2: had killed him and Regina. Those who knew Danny best
27:01
Speaker 2: vehemently protested the possibility, and anyway, as far as his
27:06
Speaker 2: alibi is concerned, there isn't any reason to believe he
27:09
Speaker 2: could have been responsible. The case began being seen less
27:14
Speaker 2: and less in the media, usually only receiving a brief
27:18
Speaker 2: mention alongside the other cases, the list of which grew
27:22
Speaker 2: until at least nineteen eighty six. Every mention of David
27:27
Speaker 2: and Regina in preceding news articles seemed to be accompanied
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Speaker 2: by another different lazy mistake examples of which include describing
27:36
Speaker 2: Regina as being quote partially buried in a field near
27:40
Speaker 2: Angele Avenue, David as found in the couple's apartment, Regina
27:46
Speaker 2: didn't live there, and that they were killed on the
27:49
Speaker 2: same night, but their bodies dumped on the opposite sides
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Speaker 2: of Fort Worth, end quotes. In January of nineteen eighty six,
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Speaker 2: an article the soul of one of these absurdly made
28:02
Speaker 2: mistakes appears in the Fort Worth Star Telegram titled FBI's
28:06
Speaker 2: profiles not much help in targeting women's killers. Contrary to
28:12
Speaker 2: what fort Police homicide detective Danny LaRue determined from dozens
28:17
Speaker 2: of interviews with Regina and David's friends, FBI profilers determined
28:22
Speaker 2: the deaths were probably drug related. The most helpful service
28:27
Speaker 2: FBI profilers provided Fort Worth Police homicide detectives was the
28:32
Speaker 2: fact that the eighties murders were not at the hands
28:35
Speaker 2: of a lone serial killer. One of the cases was
28:39
Speaker 2: solved relatively quickly and involved someone close to the victim.
28:46
Speaker 2: When he was identified by DNA as the killer of
28:49
Speaker 2: two other women. In two thousand five, Texas prison inmate
28:52
Speaker 2: and convicted killer Curtis Don Brown became an instant suspect
28:57
Speaker 2: and at least eighteen other unsolved murders. It is extraordinarily
29:02
Speaker 2: unlikely that Brown is responsible for all eighteen, but at
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Speaker 2: least one Fort Worth policeman couldn't help but think that
29:10
Speaker 2: he was a significant chunk of the area's population that
29:15
Speaker 2: keeps up with true crime, if even just locally, also
29:19
Speaker 2: began to think Curtis Don Brown was guilty of every
29:23
Speaker 2: murder under the sun that floats above the city where
29:26
Speaker 2: the West begins. But then in twenty twenty one, a
29:31
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy's cold case was solved in a Tarrant County
29:34
Speaker 2: court of law, and another monster took that grotesque glory
29:39
Speaker 2: away from Brown. In early twenty twenty two, while talking
29:45
Speaker 2: regularly with Skip Hollinsworth as he was writing his Texas
29:49
Speaker 2: Monthly article about the capture of Carla Walker's killer, Glenn
29:53
Speaker 2: Samuel McCurley and the potential for his involvement in other
29:57
Speaker 2: area cold cases, I talked myself out of believing McCurley
30:01
Speaker 2: was responsible for several local cold cases. But there are
30:06
Speaker 2: a few that Carla Walker's killer looks good for. As
30:10
Speaker 2: Skip and I bounced known facts and proximities off each other.
30:14
Speaker 2: One case seemed particularly suited to Glenn Samuel mccurley's modus operandi,
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Speaker 2: the December twenty third, nineteen eighty four, early morning murders
30:24
Speaker 2: of David Larson and Regina Grover. As was the case
30:29
Speaker 2: with the murder McCurley was convicted of, a boyfriend was attacked,
30:33
Speaker 2: only this time killed, and a young woman was dumped
30:36
Speaker 2: many miles away from the scene of the abduction. Police
30:41
Speaker 2: had always theorized Regina and David knew their killer well,
30:45
Speaker 2: since there was no sign of forced entry, but it
30:47
Speaker 2: isn't difficult at all to find cases of random killings
30:51
Speaker 2: by strangers where that detail is also present. The evening
30:56
Speaker 2: before they were slain Saturday, December twenty second, nineteen eighty four,
31:01
Speaker 2: David and Regina had a date at the Keg, a
31:04
Speaker 2: restaurant and bar located on Camp Bowie Boulevard, a little
31:08
Speaker 2: less than two miles from the traffic circle where Carla
31:12
Speaker 2: Walker was abducted from the parking lot of the Ridgely
31:15
Speaker 2: Brunswick Bowling Alley. The couple was last seen alive at
31:19
Speaker 2: the Keg at around eleven PM. That's mccurley's stomping grounds.
31:25
Speaker 2: I told Skip Hollinsworth in an email. McCurley lived less
31:29
Speaker 2: than three miles away from the keg. The keg was
31:33
Speaker 2: also only about a mile from where the bar cheers
31:36
Speaker 2: used to be, the dumpster of which is where abducted
31:39
Speaker 2: and murdered young woman Christi Tower's purse was found. Christy Tower,
31:45
Speaker 2: who current fort Worth cold case detectives suspect might be
31:49
Speaker 2: a victim of Glenn Samuel McCurley was strangled with an
31:52
Speaker 2: electrical cord. Regina strangled with what was described only as
31:57
Speaker 2: a cord. The circumstances and similarities are hardly concrete and
32:03
Speaker 2: could be merely coincidental, of course, and not knowing if
32:07
Speaker 2: Regina was sexually assaulted, a detail neither confirmed nor denied
32:12
Speaker 2: by authorities, makes a connection difficult to theorize. Whatever the case,
32:19
Speaker 2: there is no indication of which this podcast is aware,
32:22
Speaker 2: that the murders of Regina Grover and David Larson are
32:26
Speaker 2: being actively investigated. If you have any information about the
32:33
Speaker 2: murders of David Dale Larson and Regina Suzanne Grover, please
32:38
Speaker 2: contact the fort Worth Police Cold Case Unit at eight
32:41
Speaker 2: one seven three nine two four three zero seven, or
32:45
Speaker 2: you can provide information by emailing Cold Case at fort
32:49
Speaker 2: WORTHPD dot com. If you'd like to fund testing that
32:54
Speaker 2: can help solve cold cases in Fort Worth, go to
32:58
Speaker 2: FWPD the Cold Case support dot org and donate. Find
33:05
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Speaker 2: featuring stories of mostly solved Texas crimes and the bad
33:53
Speaker 2: actors who perpetrated them. Patreon exclusives include the atrocious crimes
33:59
Speaker 2: of the Slayer Saint, the Odessa Lust murderer, and the
34:03
Speaker 2: monster responsible for Fort Worth's Riverside Village massacre. Thanks to
34:09
Speaker 2: everyone who supports us there, we appreciate it beyond words.
34:15
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, y'all,