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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Lori Murchison · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

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