Latest / This is monsters / Shoe print cracked her murder investigation wide open

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Shoe print cracked her murder investigation wide open · This is monsters

0:00
Speaker 1: Before dawn in March of 1997, a police captain was
0:03
Speaker 1: patrolling the outskirts of a small town in North Carolina
0:06
Speaker 1: when up ahead he saw there was this Jeep parked
0:09
Speaker 1: on the shoulder of the highway with its headlights on. Now,
0:12
Speaker 1: the vehicle was suspicious enough that the captain pulled over
0:16
Speaker 1: and he walked up to the Jeep. And as he
0:18
Speaker 1: got closer to it, he heard the engine running and
0:20
Speaker 1: he saw the driver's side window was down. But when
0:23
Speaker 1: he walked around to that side of the car, he
0:25
Speaker 1: saw nobody was inside. However, as he was standing there,
0:29
Speaker 1: a cell phone on the passenger seat began to ring.
0:32
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
0:35
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0:38
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0:40
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0:43
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Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
1:04
Speaker 1: into today's story. In the early morning hours of Saturday,
1:28
Speaker 1: March 29th, 1997, a blonde 26-year-old waitress named Kim Medlin
1:33
Speaker 1: carried a tray of filet mignon through a topless bar
1:36
Speaker 1: in Charlotte, North Carolina, all wearing a leotard and tights.
1:40
Speaker 1: She made her way through the cigar-smoke-filled room past the
1:43
Speaker 1: stage where all the half-naked women were busy pole dancing.
1:46
Speaker 1: Kim worked here at the men's club three or four
1:48
Speaker 1: nights a week, and for the most part, she liked
1:50
Speaker 1: the job. It paid well and By working the night shift,
1:54
Speaker 1: it left her days free so she could focus on
1:56
Speaker 1: her two real passions, which were taking care of her
1:59
Speaker 1: horses and decorating her brand new house. So Kim and
2:03
Speaker 1: her husband Bridger had recently bought a seven acre plot
2:06
Speaker 1: of land outside the nearby town of Monroe, where Bridger
2:09
Speaker 1: had actually grown up. They'd spent the past year building
2:11
Speaker 1: their dream home, including a barn for their three horses.
2:14
Speaker 1: And now that the construction was done, they had finally
2:16
Speaker 1: started moving in and decorating. Now, as Kim delivered the
2:20
Speaker 1: filet mignons to a table of middle-aged businessmen, she glanced
2:24
Speaker 1: over at the clock on the wall, and she felt
2:26
Speaker 1: a surge of excitement when she saw that there was
2:28
Speaker 1: less than an hour left in her shift. Kim had
2:30
Speaker 1: the next three days off, and she planned to use
2:33
Speaker 1: all that free time to finish some of the smaller
2:35
Speaker 1: moving projects that still needed to get done, like just
2:38
Speaker 1: unpacking boxes and hanging some pictures. So she flashed the
2:42
Speaker 1: businessmen a smile and then went to check on her
2:44
Speaker 1: other tables. An hour later, a little after 2 a.m.,
2:51
Speaker 1: Kim walked out the back entrance of the bar, now
2:53
Speaker 1: wearing a baggy sweatshirt instead of her work uniform, and
2:56
Speaker 1: she called out a goodbye over her shoulder to some
2:58
Speaker 1: co-workers and then walked over to where her red Jeep
3:01
Speaker 1: was parked along the side of the building. She got in,
3:04
Speaker 1: dropped her purse onto the cow print seat cover on
3:06
Speaker 1: the passenger seat, turned on the car, and then turned
3:09
Speaker 1: on some music for the hour-long drive home. A half
3:15
Speaker 1: an hour later, Kim drove south down Old Charlotte Highway,
3:18
Speaker 1: a secluded two-lane road that was pretty much deserted at
3:21
Speaker 1: this hour. She used to find this commute kind of relaxing,
3:24
Speaker 1: but lately it had been making her nervous to be
3:27
Speaker 1: driving alone late at night. And the reason for that
3:29
Speaker 1: was because a couple of weeks ago, while she was
3:32
Speaker 1: driving home from work around this same time of night,
3:35
Speaker 1: she'd been involved in a really scary road rage incident.
3:38
Speaker 1: Another vehicle had come up from behind and started tailgating
3:41
Speaker 1: her and honking their horn at her repeatedly for really
3:44
Speaker 1: no apparent reason. Kim had been afraid that this was
3:46
Speaker 1: a customer from the men's club who was now following
3:49
Speaker 1: her home. And it freaked her out so much that
3:51
Speaker 1: she'd actually pulled over into a convenience store parking lot
3:54
Speaker 1: because she saw there was a police car parked in
3:56
Speaker 1: there as well. And so she'd gone right over to
3:58
Speaker 1: the officer to ask for help. He'd promised to go
4:01
Speaker 1: and try and track down this road rager. And he'd
4:04
Speaker 1: even sent out a broadcast over the police radio telling
4:07
Speaker 1: all the other officers to keep an eye out for
4:09
Speaker 1: Kim's car on the night she was working in case
4:12
Speaker 1: anyone gave her more trouble. And so now, even though,
4:15
Speaker 1: you know, that road rager had never been caught, Kim
4:18
Speaker 1: did feel better knowing that the police had her back.
4:20
Speaker 1: But again, because the road rager had not been caught,
4:23
Speaker 1: she was still a bit scared about driving home alone.
4:26
Speaker 1: So tonight, to calm her nerves, she fished out her
4:29
Speaker 1: cell phone out of her purse and just called her husband, Bridger.
4:32
Speaker 1: When he answered, he told her that he was actually
4:34
Speaker 1: on the road too. He was still driving back from
4:37
Speaker 1: a gig, DJing at a prom in a town two
4:39
Speaker 1: hours away, but he was almost home. After chatting for
4:42
Speaker 1: a few minutes, Bridger told Kim that he was actually
4:44
Speaker 1: pulling into their driveway and that he would call her
4:47
Speaker 1: right back once he got inside the house. So Kim
4:50
Speaker 1: said fine and said goodbye, and they hung up, and
4:52
Speaker 1: she kept on driving. Then, about 15 minutes later, so
4:56
Speaker 1: a little before 3 a.m., her phone rang, and it
4:59
Speaker 1: was Bridger again, calling back like he had promised he would.
5:02
Speaker 1: And he asked Kim if she was close. And she
5:03
Speaker 1: told him that she was just passing by Union Station Restaurant,
5:07
Speaker 1: which meant she was maybe about 20 minutes away from home.
5:09
Speaker 1: Bridger said he was pretty tired and he was getting
5:11
Speaker 1: ready for bed. And in case he was asleep by
5:14
Speaker 1: the time she got in, he wished her good night.
5:16
Speaker 1: And Kim said good night back. And then she hung
5:18
Speaker 1: up and she put her phone down on the passenger seat.
5:21
Speaker 1: But just as Kim turned her attention back towards the road,
5:25
Speaker 1: a sudden bright light almost blinded her. She looked in
5:28
Speaker 1: the rearview mirror and saw headlights right behind her. About
5:34
Speaker 1: an hour later, Kim's husband Bridger sat up in bed
5:37
Speaker 1: and looked over at the clock on his nightstand. It
5:39
Speaker 1: was 3.59 a.m., an hour after having spoken to Kim.
5:43
Speaker 1: I mean, she should have been home 20 minutes after
5:45
Speaker 1: that phone call, and she still wasn't back. So he
5:48
Speaker 1: got out of bed and he checked every room in
5:51
Speaker 1: their two-story house, but Kim wasn't in any of them.
5:53
Speaker 1: There was no sign of her. Then Bridger looked out
5:56
Speaker 1: the window and he saw her Jeep wasn't in the
5:58
Speaker 1: driveway either. So at this point, he hurried into the
6:01
Speaker 1: kitchen and he picked up the phone and And he
6:03
Speaker 1: dialed Kim's cell phone number. And it rang a few times.
6:07
Speaker 1: And then a strange male voice answered. Bridger asked who
6:10
Speaker 1: he was speaking to. And the man told him he
6:12
Speaker 1: was a police officer with the Monroe Public Safety Department.
6:16
Speaker 1: Bridger asked him, OK, well, where's my wife? And the
6:19
Speaker 1: officer told him that he didn't know. He had just
6:22
Speaker 1: come across a red Jeep idling on the side of
6:24
Speaker 1: the road and found this phone inside of it. And
6:27
Speaker 1: it was ringing. And so he answered it. But he said,
6:30
Speaker 1: there's nobody here. Several minutes later, so this is a
6:38
Speaker 1: little bit after 4 a.m. on March 29th, 1997, Assistant
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Speaker 1: Chief Bobby Halk, a police investigator with the Monroe Public
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Speaker 1: Safety Department, drove north along Old Charlotte Highway. He drove
6:49
Speaker 1: his patrol car past parking lots and houses until he
6:52
Speaker 1: reached the very edge of town. And finally, he saw
6:55
Speaker 1: what he was looking for, a red Jeep parked along
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Speaker 1: the opposite side of the road with another patrol car
7:00
Speaker 1: parked right behind it. He pulled a U-turn and parked
7:03
Speaker 1: on the shoulder. And as he got out of his car,
7:06
Speaker 1: he recognized Captain David Simpson standing there waiting for him.
7:09
Speaker 1: Simpson told Chief Hulk that he had just found this
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Speaker 1: Jeep idling on the side of the road about 15
7:14
Speaker 1: minutes ago with its headlights on and he had walked up.
7:17
Speaker 1: There had been nobody inside of it. But when he
7:20
Speaker 1: looked in, there was a cell phone and it began
7:22
Speaker 1: to ring. And so, you know, acting on instinct, he
7:25
Speaker 1: answered the phone and it was a man named Bridger
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Speaker 1: Medlin who was calling saying, I'm looking for my wife.
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Speaker 1: This is her phone. She hasn't come home. And Captain
7:33
Speaker 1: Simpson also said that he actually recognized this Jeep from
7:36
Speaker 1: a random run-in he had had two weeks earlier outside
7:39
Speaker 1: of a convenience store with Kim Medlin. And so he
7:42
Speaker 1: put it together and he's like, okay, Bridger's calling. This
7:45
Speaker 1: is definitely Kim's car, but Kim's nowhere to be found.
7:49
Speaker 1: And Hulk actually recognized Kim's name because he actually happened
7:52
Speaker 1: to be friends with Kim's husband, Bridger. And so he
7:55
Speaker 1: pulled out his flashlight and he began looking inside the Jeep.
7:57
Speaker 1: And right away, he saw there was a wallet lying
8:00
Speaker 1: open on the passenger seat. And when he looked inside
8:03
Speaker 1: the wallet, there were credit cards, there was cash, but
8:06
Speaker 1: there was like this clear section of the wallet where
8:08
Speaker 1: obviously you would slide your driver's license and there was
8:12
Speaker 1: nothing there. So it very much looked like her license
8:15
Speaker 1: had been pulled out on purpose. Now, their initial theory was, okay, well,
8:18
Speaker 1: maybe Kim got pulled over by a police officer and
8:21
Speaker 1: took out her license to hand to the cop. But
8:25
Speaker 1: in a department as small as Monroe's, there were only
8:27
Speaker 1: a few officers on duty at this time of night.
8:30
Speaker 1: And when Assistant Chief Hulk asked Captain Simpson, had any
8:33
Speaker 1: of the on-duty officers pulled anybody over that night, Simpson
8:37
Speaker 1: was already all over it. He had checked. And he said, no,
8:41
Speaker 1: none of our officers pulled anybody over. So this made
8:44
Speaker 1: Hulk wonder if maybe Kim had been pulled over by
8:47
Speaker 1: somebody posing as a cop. There had actually been dozens
8:50
Speaker 1: of reports over the years of so-called blue light bandits
8:54
Speaker 1: pretending to be police officers in order to harass drivers,
8:58
Speaker 1: especially young women. Those cases were really quite rare, even
9:01
Speaker 1: though they did happen, so Hulk didn't want to jump
9:04
Speaker 1: to any conclusions quite yet. Just then, Hulk heard a
9:07
Speaker 1: truck engine and saw headlights approaching up the highway. So
9:11
Speaker 1: he set the wallet back down on the seat and
9:13
Speaker 1: then walked over to where a black pickup truck was
9:16
Speaker 1: now pulling to a stop right behind Hulk's car. A
9:19
Speaker 1: tall man with blonde hair got out of the driver's seat,
9:21
Speaker 1: and right away Hulk knew who it was. It was
9:24
Speaker 1: his friend and Kim's husband, Bridger. And Bridger looked frantic.
9:29
Speaker 1: and he demanded to know what had happened to his wife.
9:31
Speaker 1: But Hulk told him to calm down that they were
9:34
Speaker 1: here to try to figure out what happened to his
9:37
Speaker 1: wife and where she went. Hulk went on to say that, look,
9:40
Speaker 1: like we showed up and we just found her car here,
9:43
Speaker 1: but there were no broken windows or slash tires or
9:46
Speaker 1: any sign of a struggle. So it was possible that
9:49
Speaker 1: maybe Kim just ran into car trouble and maybe she
9:51
Speaker 1: went out to go find help. But then without asking
9:54
Speaker 1: for permission, Bridger pushed past Hulk and just climbed right
9:58
Speaker 1: inside of the Jeep's driver's seat and said, well, let's
10:00
Speaker 1: test your theory right now and see whether the car
10:03
Speaker 1: was working. Hulk told him to get out of the Jeep,
10:05
Speaker 1: but Bridger just totally ignored him. And then he put
10:08
Speaker 1: his wife's car in drive and moved it forward a
10:10
Speaker 1: few inches. Then he put it in reverse and he
10:12
Speaker 1: drove it backward, ultimately parking it in its original place,
10:15
Speaker 1: showing that it worked just fine. And even though at
10:18
Speaker 1: this point Hulk was kind of annoyed with Bridger for
10:20
Speaker 1: what he had just done, he couldn't help but think,
10:23
Speaker 1: this is bad, something's going on here. And so Hulk
10:26
Speaker 1: walked over to his car and he radioed the dispatcher
10:28
Speaker 1: for reinforcements. And he asked them to bring a police
10:31
Speaker 1: dog so they could try to track Kim's scent in
10:34
Speaker 1: case she left on foot. A few minutes later, two
10:45
Speaker 1: more police cars pulled up to the scene and a
10:48
Speaker 1: few officers and a police dog got out. Hulk opened
10:51
Speaker 1: the doors to the Jeep and the dog went in
10:53
Speaker 1: and sniffed around, you know, getting familiar with the scent
10:55
Speaker 1: of Kim's belongings. Then the dog seemed to pick up
10:58
Speaker 1: a trail on the ground. And so the officers told Bridger,
11:00
Speaker 1: who clearly wanted to go with them, to stay put,
11:03
Speaker 1: you know, stay with your truck. And then they followed
11:06
Speaker 1: the dog down the road for about 100 yards or
11:08
Speaker 1: so until it turned onto a driveway. Hulk and the
11:11
Speaker 1: others followed the dog up this long driveway towards a
11:14
Speaker 1: small house nestled in the trees right off the highway.
11:17
Speaker 1: And the dog sniffed all the way up to the
11:18
Speaker 1: garage and then stopped. That was where Kim's trail ended.
11:23
Speaker 1: And so Hulk went up to the house and rang
11:24
Speaker 1: the doorbell. And a minute later, a man answered. And
11:28
Speaker 1: despite the late hour, he looked totally awake and not
11:31
Speaker 1: particularly surprised to see cops at his door. Hulk asked
11:34
Speaker 1: the man who he was and whether or not he
11:36
Speaker 1: had seen or heard anything unusual in the past couple
11:39
Speaker 1: of hours near his property. The man said his name
11:41
Speaker 1: was Nathan Hargett and about an hour ago, so maybe
11:45
Speaker 1: around 3.45 a.m., he'd been woken up by a strange
11:48
Speaker 1: car loitering near his garage. Nathan said he hadn't recognized
11:52
Speaker 1: the car, but he noticed that it had Texas plates
11:55
Speaker 1: and that there also had been a woman with blonde
11:57
Speaker 1: hair in the back seat. Hulk asked Nathan for permission
12:00
Speaker 1: to search his property and Nathan told them to go
12:03
Speaker 1: right ahead. And so Hulk directed the other officers to
12:06
Speaker 1: search the inside of the house while he clicked on
12:08
Speaker 1: his flashlight and headed over to the garage. When he
12:11
Speaker 1: got there, he turned the handle of a door on
12:13
Speaker 1: the side of the garage and he found it was unlocked.
12:16
Speaker 1: So he pushed the door open and he shined his
12:19
Speaker 1: flashlight inside, but all he saw was a truck and
12:22
Speaker 1: some gardening tools. There was no sign of Kim. By
12:26
Speaker 1: the time dawn broke around 6 a.m. that morning, this
12:29
Speaker 1: had become officially a missing persons case. So police began
12:32
Speaker 1: a search of the woods around the old Charlotte Highway
12:35
Speaker 1: with help from members of the community. Meanwhile, Hulk and
12:39
Speaker 1: Simpson went back to the station to speak to one
12:41
Speaker 1: of the dispatchers who had been on duty that night.
12:44
Speaker 1: After speaking to that homeowner, Nathan, and searching his house
12:47
Speaker 1: and his garage, he had been ruled out as a suspect.
12:50
Speaker 1: So now they were focused on finding that car with
12:53
Speaker 1: the Texas plates that Nathan had seen loitering outside of
12:56
Speaker 1: his garage. So they were hoping that maybe there was
12:59
Speaker 1: a report of a traffic stop or maybe a suspicious
13:02
Speaker 1: car in the area or anything that might help figure
13:05
Speaker 1: out who was driving that car. But the dispatcher said
13:08
Speaker 1: again that really there had been no stops, nothing that night. However,
13:13
Speaker 1: there had been one incident in the area that night.
13:16
Speaker 1: It was around 2 a.m., so it was about an
13:18
Speaker 1: hour before Kim was last heard from. They'd gotten a
13:21
Speaker 1: call about a car that had run into a ditch
13:24
Speaker 1: not too far from where Kim's Jeep was found. Hulk
13:26
Speaker 1: asked who had responded to that call, and the dispatcher
13:29
Speaker 1: said it was car 491, which was driven by a
13:32
Speaker 1: young rookie officer named Josh Griffin. Hulk immediately gave Officer
13:36
Speaker 1: Griffin a phone call and asked if he had seen
13:39
Speaker 1: or heard anything unusual while he was out responding to
13:42
Speaker 1: that car in the ditch. But Griffin said no. He
13:45
Speaker 1: actually said that his shift was over around the time
13:48
Speaker 1: that driver had flagged him down for help, so he
13:50
Speaker 1: had actually just called for a tow truck, and when
13:53
Speaker 1: it got there, maybe a little bit after 2.30 a.m.,
13:55
Speaker 1: Griffin said he just went home. Hulk hung up the
13:58
Speaker 1: phone feeling pretty disappointed. Bridger said the last time he
14:01
Speaker 1: heard from his wife Kim was around 3 a.m. So
14:04
Speaker 1: if this car was already being towed away by 2.30 a.m.,
14:07
Speaker 1: then it definitely was not the same car that Nathan
14:10
Speaker 1: saw loitering outside of his garage. And the driver of
14:14
Speaker 1: that car in the ditch was likely not a suspect.
14:17
Speaker 1: Hulk sighed in frustration, but then another idea occurred to him.
14:21
Speaker 1: He asked Captain Simpson to elaborate on that random run-in
14:25
Speaker 1: he had had with Kim a couple of weeks earlier. Now,
14:28
Speaker 1: this was sort of a long shot to bring it
14:29
Speaker 1: up again, but Hulk wondered if maybe the same driver
14:33
Speaker 1: from the road rage incident could have maybe come back and,
14:37
Speaker 1: you know, maybe chased Kim off the road or something.
14:39
Speaker 1: Simpson said he would go dig up the report that
14:41
Speaker 1: he had filed on the incident, and then he left
14:43
Speaker 1: to go find it. About half an hour later, Hulk
14:47
Speaker 1: sat at his desk reading through a copy of the
14:49
Speaker 1: road rage police report. It said that in the very
14:51
Speaker 1: early morning hours of Saturday, March 15th, so exactly two
14:56
Speaker 1: weeks before Kim's disappearance, Kim had pulled into a convenience
14:59
Speaker 1: store and flagged down Captain Simpson and another officer named
15:03
Speaker 1: Roger Griffin. So Officer Josh Griffin is the one who
15:06
Speaker 1: responded to the car stuck in the ditch. Officer Roger
15:09
Speaker 1: Griffin is actually Josh's father, and he was with Captain
15:13
Speaker 1: Simpson that night. So the report said that Simpson and
15:16
Speaker 1: his partner, Roger Griffin, had actually caught up with the
15:19
Speaker 1: car that was harassing Kim a little bit further down
15:21
Speaker 1: the road. There were two men inside the car, Eric
15:24
Speaker 1: Williams and George Connell. and they claimed that they thought
15:27
Speaker 1: Kim was actually the one harassing them by flashing her
15:30
Speaker 1: lights at them. And so to Simpson and to Griffin,
15:33
Speaker 1: it seemed like a big misunderstanding, so the officers had
15:36
Speaker 1: just let them go. But Hulk, now looking at this
15:39
Speaker 1: through a very different lens, felt like he needed to
15:42
Speaker 1: speak to Eric and George regardless. And so in the report,
15:45
Speaker 1: he found the contact information for Eric and George, and
15:48
Speaker 1: he called them both up. But it turned out they
15:51
Speaker 1: both had airtight alibis for the night of Kim's disappearance.
15:55
Speaker 1: But even still, it struck Hulk as very odd that
15:58
Speaker 1: Kim had gone missing from her car on the same
16:00
Speaker 1: road at the same time of night and on the
16:03
Speaker 1: same night of the week as the road rage incident
16:05
Speaker 1: just two weeks earlier. And he had a hard time
16:07
Speaker 1: believing it was all just, you know, one big coincidence.
16:14
Speaker 1: The next day, just after sunset on Sunday, March 30th,
16:18
Speaker 1: Hulk drove down Westwood Industrial Drive, a deserted dead-end street
16:22
Speaker 1: at the edge of town, about two miles from where
16:24
Speaker 1: Kim's Jeep was found. And as he was driving, he
16:26
Speaker 1: saw at the end of the street there were a
16:28
Speaker 1: couple of police cars parked there. And so he pulled
16:31
Speaker 1: his own car behind them, and he got out. He
16:33
Speaker 1: walked into the trees, where he could see the beams
16:35
Speaker 1: of several flashlights moving around in the darkness. And as
16:38
Speaker 1: he got closer, he saw officers putting up police tape
16:42
Speaker 1: around a small clearing. And then on the ground in
16:44
Speaker 1: that clearing, he saw a pair of feet in sneakers
16:48
Speaker 1: poking out from underneath a pile of roofing shingles and branches.
16:51
Speaker 1: The police had gotten a call earlier that evening from
16:54
Speaker 1: two men who were part of the community search effort
16:56
Speaker 1: for Kim. And they said to police that they had
16:59
Speaker 1: found a body in the woods in the spot, but
17:01
Speaker 1: they hadn't touched it. And so now with Hulk on
17:04
Speaker 1: the scene, the forensics team removed the shingles and branches
17:07
Speaker 1: that were covering the body and Hulk pulled out his
17:10
Speaker 1: flashlight and knelt down to get a better look. and
17:13
Speaker 1: he saw right away it was a deceased woman, and
17:16
Speaker 1: it was definitely Kim Medlin. She was only wearing a
17:19
Speaker 1: pair of shorts, a bra, and a sweatshirt that had
17:22
Speaker 1: been pulled up over her head. One side of her
17:24
Speaker 1: face was very badly beaten, and there were also cuts
17:27
Speaker 1: and bruises all over her neck, and there were some
17:29
Speaker 1: scrapes on her knees. And her necklace and wedding ring
17:32
Speaker 1: were still on, so her killer had not robbed her.
17:35
Speaker 1: Hulk stood back as the forensics team untangled Kim's sweatshirt
17:38
Speaker 1: from around her wrists so they could collect clippings of
17:41
Speaker 1: her fingernails in case she had Maybe scratched off a
17:44
Speaker 1: trace of her killer's DNA. And as Hulk watched one
17:47
Speaker 1: of these forensics officers go to put the sweatshirt inside
17:50
Speaker 1: of an evidence bag, he suddenly noticed something and shouted
17:53
Speaker 1: for the officer to stop. Hulk stepped closer and he
17:56
Speaker 1: shined his flashlight on the sweatshirt's fabric and it revealed
18:00
Speaker 1: a shoe print. And so he told the officers to
18:03
Speaker 1: send that sweatshirt to the crime lab and see if
18:05
Speaker 1: they could figure out the size and type of shoe
18:08
Speaker 1: that had left that print. But while he would have
18:10
Speaker 1: to wait for those results, he knew he had a
18:12
Speaker 1: couple of other big clues to help narrow down a suspect.
18:16
Speaker 1: The first was the location of Kim's body. Westwood Industrial
18:19
Speaker 1: Drive was known as Lover's Lane, so basically a secluded,
18:23
Speaker 1: out-of-the-way spot where people often went to be alone. And
18:26
Speaker 1: the fact that Kim's killer had thought to take her
18:28
Speaker 1: there meant they were probably a local and familiar with
18:32
Speaker 1: the area. Now, it was still theoretically possible that she'd
18:35
Speaker 1: just been run off the road by some stranger for
18:37
Speaker 1: some reason, or You know, maybe a customer had followed
18:40
Speaker 1: her home from work, or maybe it was a blue
18:42
Speaker 1: light bandit impersonating a police officer. But the second big
18:46
Speaker 1: clue was that there was no sign of a struggle
18:48
Speaker 1: at Kim's Jeep. And because of that, Hulk did not
18:51
Speaker 1: think she had been kidnapped by a stranger. He thought
18:54
Speaker 1: it was far more likely that she had gotten out
18:56
Speaker 1: of her car for somebody that she knew and trusted.
19:01
Speaker 1: The very next day, Monday, March 31st, Hulk sat down
19:04
Speaker 1: in an interrogation room with his friend and first murder suspect,
19:09
Speaker 1: Kim's husband, Bridger. Bridger had been really pushy and really
19:12
Speaker 1: in some ways over-involved in the investigation from literally the
19:16
Speaker 1: moment Kim's Jeep was found. He'd messed with the crime
19:19
Speaker 1: scene by getting into the Jeep without permission, and now
19:22
Speaker 1: Hulk had information that Bridger had lied about his alibi.
19:27
Speaker 1: So when Kim first went missing, Bridger had told the
19:29
Speaker 1: police that he got home around 2.30 that morning... He
19:33
Speaker 1: called Kim for a brief chat a little before 3,
19:36
Speaker 1: and then he immediately went to bed. But now, a
19:38
Speaker 1: police officer had told Hulk that he had seen Bridger's
19:42
Speaker 1: black pickup truck driving around the center of town around 2.30 a.m.,
19:47
Speaker 1: which was nowhere near Bridger's house, and nowhere near his house.
19:50
Speaker 1: near the route he would have taken to get back
19:52
Speaker 1: from his DJing gig. So once Hulk sat down, immediately
19:55
Speaker 1: he could see that Bridger was visibly distraught. I mean,
19:59
Speaker 1: he's just learned that his wife was found dead, but
20:02
Speaker 1: Hulk had a job to do. And so he cut
20:04
Speaker 1: right to the chase and he said to Bridger, That,
20:06
Speaker 1: you know, hey, this other officer said they saw your
20:09
Speaker 1: truck driving around in town. It contradicts your alibi. Why
20:13
Speaker 1: did you lie? And right away, Bridger exploded. He was
20:17
Speaker 1: so mad. And he shouted at Hulk that he couldn't
20:20
Speaker 1: believe at a time like this you would accuse me
20:23
Speaker 1: of lying to you. You're insinuating that I hurt my wife.
20:26
Speaker 1: I didn't do this. He also yelled at Hulk for
20:28
Speaker 1: just wasting time looking at him as a suspect when
20:32
Speaker 1: there were so many clues pointing to a different story.
20:35
Speaker 1: like the lack of a struggle at the Jeep, and
20:38
Speaker 1: the rolled-down window and missing driver's license, all of which
20:41
Speaker 1: made it look like a traffic stop gone wrong. Bridger
20:44
Speaker 1: said he knew Kim better than anybody, and she would never,
20:48
Speaker 1: ever get out of her car in the middle of
20:50
Speaker 1: the night for a stranger, especially after that road rage
20:53
Speaker 1: incident two weeks earlier. She was on edge. She never
20:56
Speaker 1: would have done that. When Hulk left the interrogation room
21:06
Speaker 1: a few minutes later, he told his team to track
21:08
Speaker 1: down security footage from around town on the night Kim
21:11
Speaker 1: was killed to see if there was proof that really
21:14
Speaker 1: Bridger was driving around when he said he was home.
21:17
Speaker 1: Because right now they had no evidence to show he
21:20
Speaker 1: was lying and they actually just had to let Bridger go.
21:23
Speaker 1: But when Bridger was leaving, he'd been so angry and
21:26
Speaker 1: so defensive, it sort of made Hulk think that maybe
21:29
Speaker 1: Bridger did this. And in fact, the fact that Bridger
21:32
Speaker 1: had brought up that his wife would never have gotten
21:35
Speaker 1: out of the car in the middle of the night
21:36
Speaker 1: for a stranger, well, that only reinforced that she might
21:40
Speaker 1: have gotten out of the car for you, Bridger, because
21:42
Speaker 1: she knew and trusted you. But also, Hulk was thinking
21:45
Speaker 1: that another person or group of people that Kim might
21:49
Speaker 1: have gotten out of the car for would be police. Now,
21:52
Speaker 1: Hulk already knew that there were no police that pulled
21:54
Speaker 1: anybody over that night, but somebody could have pretended to
21:57
Speaker 1: be a police officer, you know, a blue light bandit.
22:00
Speaker 1: That was a theory that did sort of make sense.
22:03
Speaker 1: Hulk thought about that bulletin that had gone out over
22:05
Speaker 1: the police radio two weeks ago, you know, telling officers
22:08
Speaker 1: to be on the lookout for Kim's Jeep at certain
22:10
Speaker 1: times of the night because of that road rage incident. Now,
22:14
Speaker 1: police radios were not private, so anybody with a police
22:17
Speaker 1: scanner could have been listening in, and what they would
22:20
Speaker 1: have heard is, well, around this time of the night,
22:24
Speaker 1: this woman, Kim, was often drives this road all by herself.
22:28
Speaker 1: And they basically could have just been waiting for her
22:30
Speaker 1: knowing she was vulnerable. So Hulk picked up his phone
22:33
Speaker 1: and he began calling around to other police departments in
22:36
Speaker 1: the region. And he actually found out there had been
22:38
Speaker 1: two separate reports of blue light bandits harassing women recently. Now,
22:43
Speaker 1: one of the culprits had already been caught and he
22:45
Speaker 1: was in jail when Kim was killed. So it could
22:47
Speaker 1: not have been him, but the other suspect still hadn't
22:51
Speaker 1: been found. A couple of days later, on April 4th,
22:59
Speaker 1: Assistant Chief Bobby Hulk slammed down the phone in frustration
23:03
Speaker 1: and crossed another name off a list on his notepad.
23:06
Speaker 1: It had been five days since Kim's body was found,
23:09
Speaker 1: and all the leads he'd had at the start of
23:10
Speaker 1: the investigation were now coming back as dead ends. When
23:14
Speaker 1: he tracked down surveillance footage from the night of Kim's disappearance,
23:17
Speaker 1: there was no sign of her husband Bridger's truck driving
23:20
Speaker 1: through town until 4 a.m., after Kim's Jeep had been
23:23
Speaker 1: found by police. So the officer who claimed to have
23:26
Speaker 1: seen Bridger's truck driving around at 2.30 did appear to
23:30
Speaker 1: have been mistaken, as Bridger said. Hulk also had reached
23:33
Speaker 1: out to Kim's manager and co-workers at the bar she
23:36
Speaker 1: worked at, thinking maybe her killer might have been a
23:38
Speaker 1: patron who followed her home. But none of them knew
23:41
Speaker 1: of any problems she had had with customers. Meanwhile, Hulk's
23:44
Speaker 1: team had spoken to a man who worked the night
23:46
Speaker 1: shift at a business that was near where Kim's Jeep
23:48
Speaker 1: had been found. He said he had left work a
23:51
Speaker 1: little before 3 a.m. on the night that Kim disappeared.
23:54
Speaker 1: And as he was waiting to turn onto Old Charlotte Highway,
23:58
Speaker 1: he had seen her red Jeep go past. And right afterwards,
24:01
Speaker 1: he saw another car that was going in the other
24:04
Speaker 1: direction make a sort of sudden sharp three-point turn and
24:08
Speaker 1: speed right after the Jeep. The man had said that
24:11
Speaker 1: this other car had lights on the roof and reflective
24:14
Speaker 1: tape on the rear, and he thought or at least
24:16
Speaker 1: assumed it was a police car, but he didn't get
24:19
Speaker 1: a good look at the markings. Now, Hulk knew that
24:22
Speaker 1: every single Monroe police officer that was on duty that
24:24
Speaker 1: night was accounted for, and they hadn't pulled anybody over
24:27
Speaker 1: at the time that Kim went missing. However, this new
24:31
Speaker 1: information certainly did support the theory that maybe Kim's killer
24:34
Speaker 1: was posing as a police officer, that they were a
24:38
Speaker 1: blue light bandit. So Hulk had spent the past couple
24:41
Speaker 1: of days trying to track down witnesses who had seen
24:44
Speaker 1: that other blue light bandit who was recently reported in
24:47
Speaker 1: a nearby town but had never been caught. But he
24:50
Speaker 1: kept coming up dry. Nobody knew anything that could help
24:52
Speaker 1: track down that suspect. So it seemed like the investigation
24:56
Speaker 1: was really starting to slow down. But then Hulk's phone rang.
25:00
Speaker 1: And he answered it. And it was an expert from
25:02
Speaker 1: the forensics lab who had just finished analyzing that shoe
25:05
Speaker 1: print that had been found on Kim's sweatshirt. And so
25:08
Speaker 1: Hulk leaned forward in nervous anticipation as the expert told
25:12
Speaker 1: him the results. And when he did, Hulk knew exactly
25:16
Speaker 1: how to find Kim's killer. Based on that shoe print,
25:24
Speaker 1: witness testimony, and other forensic evidence, this is what police
25:28
Speaker 1: believe happened to Kim Medlin on March 29, 1997. Around
25:41
Speaker 1: 3 a.m., the killer was driving down Old Charlotte Highway.
25:44
Speaker 1: They'd been prowling around for hours, pulling over young women
25:47
Speaker 1: for minor traffic infractions or sometimes for doing nothing wrong
25:51
Speaker 1: at all. And as they drove, they saw a familiar
25:54
Speaker 1: red Jeep pass by. The killer had seen that Jeep
25:57
Speaker 1: coming down this road several nights a week, and they'd
26:00
Speaker 1: sort of grown obsessed with the young blonde woman who
26:02
Speaker 1: was driving it. And now they decided it was finally
26:06
Speaker 1: time to do something about that. So they pulled an
26:09
Speaker 1: abrupt three-point turn and raced after the Jeep and flipped
26:12
Speaker 1: on their car's flashing lights. Pretty soon, the Jeep pulled
26:16
Speaker 1: over onto the shoulder, and the killer got out of
26:18
Speaker 1: their car and walked up to the driver's side window.
26:21
Speaker 1: The woman inside naturally rolled down the window and she
26:24
Speaker 1: handed over her driver's license, which said her name was
26:27
Speaker 1: Kim Medlin. And then she politely asked what the problem was.
26:31
Speaker 1: And the killer just told her to get out of
26:33
Speaker 1: the car. Now, Kim was visibly confused, but she did
26:37
Speaker 1: as she was told. And once she was out of
26:39
Speaker 1: the car, the killer slapped a pair of handcuffs onto
26:42
Speaker 1: her wrists and then dragged her over to their car
26:45
Speaker 1: and tossed her in the back seat. Then the killer
26:47
Speaker 1: got in the driver's seat of their car As Kim
26:50
Speaker 1: began crying and insisting that she didn't do anything wrong,
26:53
Speaker 1: why was she being arrested? But the killer wasn't listening.
26:56
Speaker 1: Their mind was racing as they realized that even though
26:59
Speaker 1: they'd been dreaming about this moment for weeks, they actually
27:02
Speaker 1: didn't really have a plan for what they would do next.
27:05
Speaker 1: And so after a moment, they pulled over and just
27:08
Speaker 1: idled for a minute while they figured out what their
27:10
Speaker 1: next move was going to be. And then an idea
27:12
Speaker 1: came to them. They put their car in drive and
27:15
Speaker 1: continued down the highway. And as they turned onto a
27:19
Speaker 1: secluded dead-end road, Kim in the back seat suddenly got
27:23
Speaker 1: very quiet. And so the killer picked up on that
27:26
Speaker 1: and looked in the rearview mirror and saw her moving around,
27:30
Speaker 1: fiddling with something behind her back. And the killer suddenly
27:33
Speaker 1: realized that in all their excitement, they'd forgotten to lock
27:36
Speaker 1: the rear doors. The killer immediately tried to lock their
27:40
Speaker 1: doors with the power locks, but before they could... The
27:43
Speaker 1: rear door opened and Kim jumped out of the moving car.
27:47
Speaker 1: And so the killer came to a hard stop. They
27:50
Speaker 1: leapt out of the car and they ran back for Kim,
27:52
Speaker 1: who was lying in the middle of the road. You know,
27:54
Speaker 1: her hands are still cuffed behind her. And without even thinking,
27:57
Speaker 1: the killer lifted up their flashlight and they smashed it
28:00
Speaker 1: into Kim's head. And then they stomped on her back
28:04
Speaker 1: and broke her neck. But the killer wasn't done. They
28:07
Speaker 1: reached down and they put their flashlight around Kim's neck,
28:11
Speaker 1: basically put it up against her throat. And then they
28:14
Speaker 1: pulled back on their arms, basically creating sort of a
28:17
Speaker 1: noose around her neck with this flashlight. And they held
28:20
Speaker 1: it like that. And they pulled as tight as they
28:22
Speaker 1: could until Kim stopped moving. After that, they dragged her
28:26
Speaker 1: body off the road and into the woods where they
28:28
Speaker 1: removed her handcuffs and covered her body with branches and
28:32
Speaker 1: debris to hide it. Then the killer went home and
28:35
Speaker 1: cleaned up their car, making sure there was no evidence
28:38
Speaker 1: that would tie them to the murder. But they didn't
28:40
Speaker 1: realize they had actually left behind one crucial piece of
28:44
Speaker 1: evidence at the scene, that shoe print on Kim's sweatshirt.
28:48
Speaker 1: The print had a very distinct V-shaped pattern on the tread,
28:52
Speaker 1: which made it very easy to identify. And so weeks later,
28:55
Speaker 1: the forensics lab traced that print back to a shoe
28:58
Speaker 1: that was made by the Thorogood Company, a supplier of
29:01
Speaker 1: military and uniform footwear. And that particular model happened to
29:06
Speaker 1: be the exact same shoe issued to officers in the
29:09
Speaker 1: Monroe Public Safety Department, which meant that Kim's killer was
29:13
Speaker 1: not just posing as a police officer. They were a
29:17
Speaker 1: police officer. The killer was Officer Josh Griffin, the off-duty
29:22
Speaker 1: rookie cop who had responded to a car in a
29:24
Speaker 1: ditch about a half an hour before Kim went missing.
29:28
Speaker 1: It would turn out Josh had learned the details about
29:30
Speaker 1: Kim's vehicle and late-night driving patterns from his father, Officer
29:35
Speaker 1: Roger Griffin, after his father told him about that road
29:38
Speaker 1: rage incident that he and Cassie Simpson had responded to
29:42
Speaker 1: on March 15th. And so Josh had basically been on
29:45
Speaker 1: the lookout for Kim's Jeep ever since. Josh Griffin was
29:48
Speaker 1: arrested on May 30th, 1997, about two months after Kim's murder.
29:53
Speaker 1: He was eventually convicted of first-degree kidnapping and murder and
29:56
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison. As for his motive, the
29:59
Speaker 1: best we can offer is he became obsessed with Kim
30:02
Speaker 1: and attacked her. Thank you so much for watching. Let
30:13
Speaker 1: me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments.
30:16
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
30:18
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now. So click
30:21
Speaker 1: here and give them a watch. Alright, until next time,
30:24
Speaker 1: see ya.