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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Rex Terrell · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:46
Speaker 1: School of Humans. Helen Got Murder Line actively investigates cold
0:52
Speaker 1: case murders in an effort to raise public awareness invite
0:55
Speaker 1: witnesses to come forward and present evidence that could potentially
0:58
Speaker 1: be further investigated by law enforcement. While we value insights
1:03
Speaker 1: from family and community members, their statements should not be
1:06
Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
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Speaker 1: inherent in cold cases. We remind listeners that everyone has
1:14
Speaker 1: presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
1:17
Speaker 1: Nothing in the podcast is intended to state or imply
1:21
Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
1:24
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:30
Speaker 2: In the early morning hours of July thirtieth, nineteen seventy seven,
1:34
Speaker 2: Charles Alvin Botwright was hanging out with his cousin Ronnie
1:38
Speaker 2: Lewis at the home of another cousin of theirs named
1:41
Speaker 2: Lloyd Harryman in Wesley, Arkansas. According to police statements, the
1:46
Speaker 2: three cousins stayed up all night drinking beer and catching up.
1:50
Speaker 2: They were having a good time, and early in the
1:52
Speaker 2: morning they decided to go fishing in an area called
1:55
Speaker 2: war Eagle, which is about twenty two miles away At
1:59
Speaker 2: around five am. They piled into Charles's truck and started driving,
2:03
Speaker 2: but they needed some food, so on the route they
2:06
Speaker 2: decided to stop by the Fredericks seven to eleven to
2:09
Speaker 2: buy some hot dogs to roast during their fishing trip.
2:12
Speaker 2: The Frederick's Grocery and Service station was located at the
2:15
Speaker 2: intersection of Highway sixty eight and twenty three in the
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Speaker 2: northwest portion of Huntsville, Arkansas. In a small town, it's
2:23
Speaker 2: a popular destination to get early morning gas or late
2:26
Speaker 2: night snacks, and back in nineteen seventy seven, it was
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Speaker 2: opened twenty four hours a day. As Charles, Lloyd, and
2:35
Speaker 2: Ronnie pulled up to the store, two women pulled up
2:38
Speaker 2: right behind them. Charles told police they talked to the
2:41
Speaker 2: two women briefly. The women were driving a Jeep and
2:45
Speaker 2: had a sick pig in the back of their car
2:47
Speaker 2: that was sedated. One of the women made a comment
2:50
Speaker 2: about taking the sick pig to the vet, and as
2:53
Speaker 2: they were chatting, Lloyd, Charles, and the other woman walked
2:56
Speaker 2: into the store together and according to Charles, walked back
3:00
Speaker 2: toward the meet counter. The way that the store was
3:03
Speaker 2: laid out was that there was a checkout counter located
3:06
Speaker 2: in the middle of the store. It's U shaped with
3:08
Speaker 2: a cash register in stools inside it. At first, they
3:12
Speaker 2: couldn't see anyone inside the store, but then Charles said
3:16
Speaker 2: that as he got closer to the checkout area, while
3:19
Speaker 2: the other woman and Ronnie were falling behind them, Lois said,
3:23
Speaker 2: it looks like someone is heard up there. At that point,
3:27
Speaker 2: Charles said that he walked up to the left side
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Speaker 2: of the register and saw a man's feet sticking out.
3:33
Speaker 2: The man was twenty year old University of Arkansas student
3:37
Speaker 2: Rex Terrell, who worked the overnight shift at Frederick's. He
3:41
Speaker 2: was lying in a pool of blood and, according to
3:44
Speaker 2: the police report, flouncing around trying to get up. He
3:48
Speaker 2: was gasping for breath. It looked like Rex had been
3:52
Speaker 2: shot multiple times. One of the women tried to give
3:56
Speaker 2: him mouth to mouth resuscitation, but it was too late.
3:59
Speaker 2: He died there on the floor of that gas station
4:02
Speaker 2: in a pool of his own blood. While they were
4:05
Speaker 2: trying to save Rex, his coworker, Sally Dobson, showed up
4:09
Speaker 2: to start her shift. She told police she got there
4:11
Speaker 2: at around five forty or five forty five am. Sally
4:15
Speaker 2: told police that one of the women in the jeep
4:18
Speaker 2: stopped her as she was coming in and told her
4:20
Speaker 2: there was a boy in there hurt really bad, and
4:23
Speaker 2: that's when she said she saw Rex laying on the
4:25
Speaker 2: floor and saw all the blood. The police asked Sally
4:29
Speaker 2: if she noticed anything unusual about the register. She said
4:33
Speaker 2: that it was fixed like she would fix it if
4:36
Speaker 2: she had to leave for a short while. She said
4:39
Speaker 2: there was nothing unusual about that setup. She told police
4:43
Speaker 2: afterwards that Rex had set the register up like that before,
4:47
Speaker 2: but then there's no more detail about that, so I
4:50
Speaker 2: wonder why Rex and Sally would have made the decision
4:54
Speaker 2: to leave the register that way. Unfortunately, there's no more
4:56
Speaker 2: follow up about this in the police report, and Sally
5:00
Speaker 2: told police something else. She said that she believed that
5:03
Speaker 2: the store's owner, mister Frederick, had decided that this would
5:06
Speaker 2: be the last weekend that the store stayed open all night.
5:10
Speaker 2: But there's nothing more about that decision either or why
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Speaker 2: it was made. Was it just a practical decision or
5:17
Speaker 2: could it have had something to do with safety? And
5:19
Speaker 2: police noted that nothing appeared to have been taken from
5:22
Speaker 2: the store, So if robbery wasn't the motive, what was
5:27
Speaker 2: Sally and all the rest of Rex's coworkers, as well
5:30
Speaker 2: as his family, friends, and the whole community, wanted to
5:32
Speaker 2: know who would want to shoot a likable, kind and
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Speaker 2: hard working young man with seemingly no enemies and leave
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Speaker 2: him there to die in a pool of his own blood.
5:44
Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past seven years of making
5:48
Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there
5:51
Speaker 2: is no such thing as a small town where murder
5:54
Speaker 2: never happens. I've received hundreds of messages from people all
5:57
Speaker 2: around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder
6:00
Speaker 2: that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If you
6:04
Speaker 2: have a case you'd like me and my team to
6:06
Speaker 2: look into, you can reach out to us at our
6:08
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four
6:11
Speaker 2: four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven
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Speaker 2: four four six one four five, or you can send
6:18
Speaker 2: us a message on Instagram at Helen gonepod. This is
6:23
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line. Police rushed to the scene and
7:10
Speaker 2: talked to the witnesses, the women with a sick pig
7:13
Speaker 2: and the three cousins Ronnie, Boy and Charles. Ronnie told
7:18
Speaker 2: pretty much the same story as the other guys. He
7:20
Speaker 2: said that Charles had come running out of the gas
7:23
Speaker 2: station and gotten him and said there was a boy
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Speaker 2: in the store that had been hurt real bad. Ronnie said, quote,
7:29
Speaker 2: I went into the store and saw the boy lying
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Speaker 2: in a pool of blood. He kept trying to get up,
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Speaker 2: and we had to hold him down as we thought
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Speaker 2: that that would be the best thing for him. Charles
7:39
Speaker 2: said that one of the women was trying to give
7:41
Speaker 2: Rex mouth to mouth, but that he died right there
7:44
Speaker 2: before help arrived. End quote. Police reported that Rex was
7:49
Speaker 2: wearing a Levi's brown belt with a gold buckle and
7:52
Speaker 2: a white and blue and red check shirt, and that
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Speaker 2: he was lying on his back about six feet away
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Speaker 2: from the checkout counter, with his left arm folded across
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Speaker 2: his chest. The report noted that Rex's clothing was not
8:03
Speaker 2: in disarray or torn, and that the scene showed quote
8:07
Speaker 2: no signs of any physical struggle end quote. In fact,
8:12
Speaker 2: other than Rex's body, there were no real signs of
8:15
Speaker 2: a physical struggle in the store at all. It didn't
8:18
Speaker 2: look like a fight had broken out. Someone had walked
8:21
Speaker 2: in and for some reason decided to shoot Rex, and
8:24
Speaker 2: police needed to figure out why. They determined that Rex
8:29
Speaker 2: had been shot multiple times, once in the left side,
8:32
Speaker 2: once in the shoulder, and once in the arm. And
8:35
Speaker 2: near the body, they found three expended thirty eight caliber
8:38
Speaker 2: cartridges with the brand name Remington Peters. When police were
8:43
Speaker 2: talking to the witnesses, all of their stories were basically
8:46
Speaker 2: exactly the same. But before they left the scene, Ronnie
8:50
Speaker 2: told police that Boy and Charles had mentioned seeing a car,
8:54
Speaker 2: a black nineteen seventy one Camaro or a Firebird headed
8:58
Speaker 2: from the direction of the store, going east on Highway
9:01
Speaker 2: sixty eight toward Huntsville. In addition to the Camaro, police
9:05
Speaker 2: were also exploring leeds on other vehicles in the area
9:08
Speaker 2: and looking to talk to anyone who went into or
9:11
Speaker 2: came by the store that night, and it didn't take
9:14
Speaker 2: long to find them. A lot of people had come
9:17
Speaker 2: in and out of the store on the night Rex
9:19
Speaker 2: was shot, including some police officers. Carl Richardson Goodman Junior
9:24
Speaker 2: told police that he and another officer went into Frederick's
9:28
Speaker 2: at approximately three twenty am. Carl said that they went
9:31
Speaker 2: to the store to exchange the milk that they had
9:33
Speaker 2: bought from Fredericks that was for some reason undrinkable. He
9:37
Speaker 2: said they spoke briefly to Rex and noticed that his
9:39
Speaker 2: eyes were bloodshot, but he said they only talked about
9:43
Speaker 2: exchanging the milk and then the officers left Mike Atwell,
9:47
Speaker 2: a Madison County deputy, said that he had also been
9:50
Speaker 2: on duty the night of the shooting. According to police records,
9:54
Speaker 2: he was one of the officers who responded to a
9:56
Speaker 2: call about a body earlier that night, which he said
9:59
Speaker 2: ended up just being a drunk person. He said, by
10:02
Speaker 2: the time police had dealt with that drama and got
10:04
Speaker 2: the drunk person under control, it was four forty three
10:07
Speaker 2: am according to the police logsheet. This is a small town,
10:12
Speaker 2: so if you wanted to buy early morning gas, Fredericks
10:15
Speaker 2: was one of the only stations in town. Mike said
10:18
Speaker 2: in his statement he is a gas conscious person, always
10:21
Speaker 2: checking the gas levels in his cruiser, so he thought
10:24
Speaker 2: about buying gas from Fredericks and was kind of looking
10:26
Speaker 2: in the direction of the seven to eleven store as
10:28
Speaker 2: he went past it, but in the end he decided
10:31
Speaker 2: against it. He said that he was driving past Fredericks
10:34
Speaker 2: at around four or fifty five am, and he said
10:37
Speaker 2: that he noticed a van parked there. Mike said he
10:40
Speaker 2: didn't notice any movement inside the store, but then at
10:43
Speaker 2: around six am, he got the call about the shooting
10:46
Speaker 2: at Frederick's and responded to the scene. That's when he
10:49
Speaker 2: remembered seeing the van. Police tried to track the van down.
10:54
Speaker 2: In police reports, it says that officers tracked two brown
10:57
Speaker 2: vans that had been in the area at the time,
11:00
Speaker 2: but they figured out that neither of them were connected
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Speaker 2: to the crime. A few days later, on Tuesday, August second,
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Speaker 2: Sheriff Ralph Baker told a local paper, the Springfield Newsleader,
11:11
Speaker 2: that police had no leads. He said, quote, we don't
11:14
Speaker 2: have anything good going at all end quote, and he
11:18
Speaker 2: stated that they had no suspects when it came to motive.
11:22
Speaker 2: Sheriff Baker told a local newspaper that although there was
11:26
Speaker 2: no sign that the Frederick's register had been tampered with,
11:29
Speaker 2: the police had a theory that the shooter may have
11:32
Speaker 2: come in there to rob the store and quote gotten
11:35
Speaker 2: scared off. According to the documents we were able to
11:38
Speaker 2: obtain via Foya, Rex was shot in the arm, the shoulder,
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Speaker 2: and the left side with a high caliber weapon. Whoever
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Speaker 2: shot him seemed to have made a decision at some
11:49
Speaker 2: point to finish the job. Sheriff Ralph Baker told the
11:53
Speaker 2: Madison County Record that the victim was shot with a
11:56
Speaker 2: three fifty seven or thirty eight caliber weapon. But what
12:00
Speaker 2: if robbery wasn't the motive? Could this have been personal?
12:08
Speaker 2: Rex Tarrell was born on January thirteenth, nineteen fifty seven.
12:12
Speaker 2: He had three brothers and a sister, and everyone seemed
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Speaker 2: to love him. Police interviewed a lot of people who
12:18
Speaker 2: knew Rex, and none of them said they could think
12:20
Speaker 2: of any reason why anyone would want to hurt him.
12:23
Speaker 2: He was a hard working student at the University of
12:26
Speaker 2: Arkansas and worked several jobs to make ends meet, including
12:30
Speaker 2: at a local poultry plant and the job at Frederick's.
12:33
Speaker 2: His family was fairly new to the area. They lived
12:36
Speaker 2: in Florida for years and had all moved to Huntsville
12:38
Speaker 2: shortly before Rex was killed. Rex had no local known enemies,
12:48
Speaker 2: so police wondered what was Rex doing before he came
12:51
Speaker 2: in for his shift. Did something happen earlier that night?
12:55
Speaker 2: And they found out that the night he was shot,
12:57
Speaker 2: Rex had a double date. Rex went out with his
13:00
Speaker 2: friend Jim Patnaud and Jim's girlfriend Susan Gearman, and Jim's
13:06
Speaker 2: sister Debbie Pierce. Susan told police that around six thirty
13:10
Speaker 2: pm that the four of them went to the seventy
13:12
Speaker 2: one drive in in Springdale, Arkansas. She said they only
13:15
Speaker 2: caught the last twenty minutes of the first movie and
13:18
Speaker 2: then watched a movie called Sugarland Express. She said they
13:21
Speaker 2: didn't stay for the last feature. They were just hanging
13:24
Speaker 2: out and drinking beers, and then Jim, Debbie, and Susan
13:27
Speaker 2: split a joint, but Susan told police that Rex refused
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Speaker 2: any marijuana. Then they piled in Rex's car to get
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Speaker 2: back to Huntsville because Rex had to start his shift
13:38
Speaker 2: at Frederick's. He normally worked the twelve thirty am to
13:41
Speaker 2: six thirty am shift, but he had spoken to his boss,
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Speaker 2: mister Frederick that night and asked if he could come
13:47
Speaker 2: to work an hour late because he had a date.
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Speaker 2: His boss said that was fine. On the way back
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Speaker 2: to Huntsville, Susan said that Rex dropped her and Jim
13:57
Speaker 2: off at Jim's house. She said they got into Jim's
13:59
Speaker 2: car and went up to Frederick's to get some gas.
14:02
Speaker 2: She said they hung around for a few minutes. She
14:05
Speaker 2: said Rex was there too, talking about being early for work.
14:08
Speaker 2: She estimated that at that time it was about one
14:11
Speaker 2: twenty am. That was the last time she saw Rex.
14:15
Speaker 2: Susan said that Jim took her home after that and
14:18
Speaker 2: when she talked to him the next day, he told
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Speaker 2: her that after dropping her off, he had driven back
14:23
Speaker 2: to Fredericks and had a sandwich and talked to Rex
14:25
Speaker 2: for a while. Police asked Susan about the various vehicles
14:30
Speaker 2: witnessed near the gas station. They asked if she knew
14:33
Speaker 2: anyone in town who owned a Buick, Firebird, Camaro or Transam.
14:38
Speaker 2: She mentioned a local woman who owned a black Firebird,
14:41
Speaker 2: but the description of the vehicle sounded very distinctive, gold
14:44
Speaker 2: pinstriping and an eagle on the hood, and neither of
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Speaker 2: the witnesses had mentioned those details. Police talked to Jim's sister,
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Speaker 2: Debbie Pierce. She said that the date with Rex had
14:59
Speaker 2: been a setup by her brother. She said that Rex
15:02
Speaker 2: picked her up at around nine oh five pm and
15:05
Speaker 2: that at that point they stopped at the Frederick store
15:07
Speaker 2: where they bought some beer and had a few drinks.
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Speaker 2: This was when, according to Debbie, Rex asked his boss
15:13
Speaker 2: if he could come in an hour late, and his
15:15
Speaker 2: boss agreed. She said that Rex drove her back home
15:18
Speaker 2: at around one fifteen am and walked her to the door.
15:21
Speaker 2: At that time, Debbie said he told her he had
15:23
Speaker 2: a good time, but that he had to get back
15:25
Speaker 2: to work and he left. But there is another detail
15:29
Speaker 2: about Debbie Pierce in this police report. Debbie Pierce was married.
15:46
Speaker 2: Debbie Pierce, who Rex went out with on a date
15:48
Speaker 2: a few hours before he was murdered, was legally married
15:52
Speaker 2: but separated from her husband. She told police they had
15:55
Speaker 2: a young son and that although they had split, there
15:58
Speaker 2: was no animosity between her and her husband. There was
16:02
Speaker 2: no reason to believe that he was involved in Rex's killing,
16:07
Speaker 2: so was this random or personal? Either way? Once word
16:12
Speaker 2: got out that there was a killer on the loose,
16:14
Speaker 2: local residents were terrified. Sheriff Ralph Baker told multiple sources
16:19
Speaker 2: that he was closing down a local Girl Scouts camp
16:22
Speaker 2: that was near the store and sending ninety eight girls
16:24
Speaker 2: home as a precautionary measure. The Rex Terror Reward Fund
16:29
Speaker 2: was established August tenth, nineteen seventy seven, by the American
16:32
Speaker 2: Savings and Loan Association in Huntsville. Local businesses donated money.
16:36
Speaker 2: The community came together to support Rex's family. As we
16:41
Speaker 2: said earlier, Rex was very well liked in the community,
16:45
Speaker 2: but there had been one incident at a nearby softball field,
16:48
Speaker 2: Huntsville Softball Park in May of nineteen seventy seven. Rex
16:53
Speaker 2: was there when a fight broke out. Rex's friend Jim,
16:56
Speaker 2: who was out with him on the double date the
16:58
Speaker 2: night Rex was shot, told police that a man named
17:01
Speaker 2: Ronnie Gwinn was drunk at the part and that after
17:04
Speaker 2: the fight broke out, Ronnie was arrested. A trooper named
17:07
Speaker 2: Tom Brown of the Arkansas State Police arrested Ronnie and
17:10
Speaker 2: took him to the Sheriff's office. Jim told police that
17:14
Speaker 2: on July thirty first, the day after Rex's shooting, he
17:17
Speaker 2: was with a friend of his name, George Edgman. They
17:19
Speaker 2: were hanging out at Frederick's when Ronnie gwyn came into
17:22
Speaker 2: the business and said that his boss had bought him
17:25
Speaker 2: a three fifty seven magnum and he wasn't going to
17:27
Speaker 2: take any shit from anybody anymore. At that point, Jim
17:32
Speaker 2: said that Ronnie was talking about the incident in May
17:34
Speaker 2: at the ballpark, and that Jim said, quote, I heard
17:37
Speaker 2: today that a guy had been shot, and that everybody
17:39
Speaker 2: on the Frederick softball team was going to get it
17:42
Speaker 2: since this thing happened, and the other night at Frederick's
17:45
Speaker 2: about Rex, I'm really scared. I was with Rex the
17:48
Speaker 2: night before he was killed. End quote. So it seemed
17:51
Speaker 2: as though Jim was concerned that maybe Rex's shooting had
17:54
Speaker 2: happened in retaliation to the ballpark incident, that maybe Frederick's
17:58
Speaker 2: employees were being targeted somehow. Police talked to Jim's friend,
18:03
Speaker 2: George Edgemon, who backed up his story and told police
18:07
Speaker 2: that he had gone down to Frederick's at around seven
18:09
Speaker 2: pm on Sunday, the thirty first of July, the day
18:12
Speaker 2: after Rex was killed. George said, quote, Ronnie Gwyn asked
18:16
Speaker 2: me about the victim, if he had said anything about
18:19
Speaker 2: who shot him, if he was still alive, et cetera,
18:21
Speaker 2: and asked what evidence the police had in the case.
18:24
Speaker 2: He also wanted to know where the victim was shot,
18:26
Speaker 2: if we knew who did it, how many times he
18:29
Speaker 2: was shot, Questions of this nature end quote. And he
18:32
Speaker 2: repeated what Jim had said that Ronnie was telling them
18:35
Speaker 2: that he had three fifty seven magnum now and nobody
18:37
Speaker 2: was going to touch him again, but then George said
18:41
Speaker 2: that Ronnie behaved as though he had no animosity against
18:44
Speaker 2: Tom Brown, the trooper who arrested him, and according to
18:48
Speaker 2: police reports, it doesn't seem like Ronnie had made any
18:51
Speaker 2: threats about Rex specifically. Unfortunately, this is one of just
18:55
Speaker 2: many times in the police report where it seems as
18:59
Speaker 2: though investigative leads were just completely dropped because there's no
19:03
Speaker 2: more about the ballpark incident or any follow up After this.
19:08
Speaker 2: Police knew that Rex had been shot multiple times and
19:12
Speaker 2: that the manner of death was homicide. The sheriff made
19:15
Speaker 2: a comment in the newspaper about the bullet being from
19:18
Speaker 2: a thirty eight caliber or three fifty seven, and police
19:21
Speaker 2: did try to track down the murder weapon. On Sunday,
19:24
Speaker 2: July thirty first, at around one pm, the employee of
19:28
Speaker 2: a tire shop about three hundred yards west of the
19:30
Speaker 2: homicide scene called police to tell them they found a
19:34
Speaker 2: thirty eight special cartridge case outside their business. Police took
19:38
Speaker 2: the casing and for testing, but were unable to find
19:41
Speaker 2: anything of evident cherry value. They pulled two bullets from
19:46
Speaker 2: Rex's body, but those bullets were described as mutilated, and
19:50
Speaker 2: even though Rex had been shot three times. They could
19:54
Speaker 2: not find that third bullet. Police continued to look for
20:04
Speaker 2: anyone in the community who saw anything out of the ordinary.
20:07
Speaker 2: On the night of the shooting, a man came forward
20:10
Speaker 2: who said he was headed to work in the early
20:12
Speaker 2: morning hours of July thirtieth at the Huntsville Ready Mixed
20:15
Speaker 2: Cement Company, which was located just across the highway from Fredericks.
20:19
Speaker 2: The man said, as he was waiting to make a
20:21
Speaker 2: left turn into the driveway of his workplace, he was
20:25
Speaker 2: waiting on a slow moving vehicle, and while he was waiting,
20:28
Speaker 2: he glanced over to Fredericks and saw boy at the
20:31
Speaker 2: front door of Fredericks looking out of the store. He said, quote,
20:35
Speaker 2: he looked like a wild person. He was in his twenties,
20:37
Speaker 2: approximately six feet tall, slim, long blonde hair. He acted
20:41
Speaker 2: real nervous. He would go back in from the front
20:44
Speaker 2: door and then come back again end quote. He said
20:48
Speaker 2: that he noticed vehicles part by the store. One of
20:50
Speaker 2: them was a white Chevrolet pickup around a nineteen sixty
20:54
Speaker 2: six model. He also noticed a Toyota four wheel drive
20:57
Speaker 2: vehicle and a green Nova that he thought was Rex's
21:00
Speaker 2: parked in front of Frederick's. This sounded like it could
21:04
Speaker 2: be a promising lead, but from the description of the
21:06
Speaker 2: vehicles that we got from the police reports, reading through this,
21:10
Speaker 2: it seems likely that he was describing the two women
21:12
Speaker 2: and the three cousins, since they were driving a pickup
21:15
Speaker 2: truck and a jeep. Even though this happened in a
21:19
Speaker 2: pre surveillance camera era and even in the early morning hours,
21:23
Speaker 2: it struck me reading this there was a lot of
21:25
Speaker 2: activity happening in and around this store. There were witnesses,
21:29
Speaker 2: including police officers, who came to the store or drove
21:32
Speaker 2: by all the way up until a few minutes before
21:35
Speaker 2: five am. All of them said it seemed like Rex
21:38
Speaker 2: was fine. With so much time accounted for, and the
21:41
Speaker 2: fact that Rex was bleeding to death on the floor
21:44
Speaker 2: when the three cousins and two women arrived, it seems
21:47
Speaker 2: very likely that whatever happened to Rex happened a few
21:51
Speaker 2: minutes before they got there. Police continued to look for
21:55
Speaker 2: the Camaro. They interviewed a man who owned a nineteen
21:59
Speaker 2: seventy seven black Camaro with no pin striping. He said
22:03
Speaker 2: that he had been at Frederick's on the twenty ninth,
22:05
Speaker 2: at approximately ten thirty pm with a friend of his.
22:08
Speaker 2: He said they got a coke, he dropped his friend
22:11
Speaker 2: off at home, and then he was home by ten
22:13
Speaker 2: forty five pm. The man, David Gaskell, said that after
22:17
Speaker 2: that he stayed there and did not go out again.
22:20
Speaker 2: He said he did know Rex Tarrel. He said he
22:23
Speaker 2: did know Rex's sister, but he said he had no
22:26
Speaker 2: involvement in anything that happened to Rex. David did give
22:30
Speaker 2: police the names of some other people who owned similar cars,
22:34
Speaker 2: including two people who owned black transams and a woman
22:37
Speaker 2: who owned a blue nineteen seventy six Camaro. Natalie Wilheit
22:42
Speaker 2: was another worker at Fredericks who gave an interview about Rex.
22:46
Speaker 2: She said, quote, I'm very upset over Rex being killed
22:49
Speaker 2: because I can't understand why someone would want to do
22:52
Speaker 2: that to Rex. He was quiet and I thought he
22:54
Speaker 2: didn't have any enemies at all. End quote. Natalie said
22:58
Speaker 2: that Rex had invited her to go water skiing with
23:01
Speaker 2: him on the Saturday before the murder, but she said
23:04
Speaker 2: she ended up not going. She said she never ended
23:07
Speaker 2: up going out with him socially. She said that on
23:10
Speaker 2: the night of the shooting, she had gone to a
23:12
Speaker 2: haunted house with some friends. After she and her friends
23:15
Speaker 2: got back to Huntsville. They went riding around and stopped
23:18
Speaker 2: at Frederick's at around three am. She said that she
23:22
Speaker 2: was close to the store owner, mister Frederick and his family.
23:25
Speaker 2: She said while she was at the store that night,
23:27
Speaker 2: she talked to Rex and then went home. I mentioned
23:30
Speaker 2: her interview because police asked her something else. They asked
23:33
Speaker 2: her if she'd ever seen any drug dealing inside the store.
23:36
Speaker 2: She said that she had not. That's the only mention
23:39
Speaker 2: I can find in the whole case file that indicated
23:42
Speaker 2: police were exploring any angle connected to drugs. But there's
23:45
Speaker 2: no evidence that there was drug dealing inside the store.
23:49
Speaker 2: From the case file, Rex occasionally drank, but did zero drugs.
23:53
Speaker 2: He didn't even smoke pot, according to statements given by
23:56
Speaker 2: his friends and his father. Police interviewed the owners of
24:00
Speaker 2: the various vehicles mentioned and ran the plates, but they
24:03
Speaker 2: came back with nothing. It seemed as though the investigation
24:07
Speaker 2: hit a dead end. Rex Terrell's family posted a statement
24:11
Speaker 2: in the personal section of the Madison County Record on
24:14
Speaker 2: August fourth, just a few days after Rex was killed.
24:17
Speaker 2: Their statement read quote, the family of Rex Terrell want
24:21
Speaker 2: to thank the people of this area for their wonderful
24:24
Speaker 2: expressions of sympathy extended to a family of New Corners.
24:28
Speaker 2: We feel proud that we live in such a beautiful
24:31
Speaker 2: country among so many nice people. End quote. No one
24:36
Speaker 2: was arrested or charged in connection with Rex's murder. There
24:40
Speaker 2: were no suspects publicly named, and it seemed as though
24:43
Speaker 2: the case went cold, and over the years police gave
24:47
Speaker 2: out pretty much zero information. But police did give us
24:52
Speaker 2: access to the complete case file after our foyer request,
24:55
Speaker 2: and we discovered that back then police had explored another
24:59
Speaker 2: motive other than robbery. In nineteen seventy eight, police found
25:03
Speaker 2: out via a confidential source that a man named Roger
25:07
Speaker 2: John Harvey might have information related to Rex's shooting. Roger
25:12
Speaker 2: worked at the Easterling Wood Products Lumber Company in Huntsville
25:16
Speaker 2: at the time of Rex's murder. According to the reports,
25:19
Speaker 2: he was interviewed by the Sheriff, Ralph Baker and Sergeant
25:23
Speaker 2: Doug Fogley of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division.
25:27
Speaker 2: Doug Fogley contacted Roger and said in his report that
25:31
Speaker 2: at first, Roger was extremely wary of officers and did
25:35
Speaker 2: not want to discuss any potential information that he had.
25:38
Speaker 2: But quote after being explained the mechanics of a prosecutor's
25:42
Speaker 2: subpoena UOTE. Basically, after police told him they would compel
25:46
Speaker 2: him to give the information one way or another, Roger
25:49
Speaker 2: said that he did have crucial information about the shooting.
25:54
Speaker 2: Roger quote reluctantly said that a reliable source in a
25:58
Speaker 2: position to have personal knowledge, whose name he didn't specify,
26:02
Speaker 2: told him that a man named Joe Dobson murdered Rex.
26:07
Speaker 2: Joe lived in Madison County. The reason that Roger gave
26:11
Speaker 2: for why Joe killed Rex allegedly, Rex was quote carrying
26:16
Speaker 2: on an affair with Joe's wife, Sally Dobson end quote.
26:21
Speaker 2: Now Sally Dobson with someone police had already talked to,
26:24
Speaker 2: because she worked with Rex as a cashier at Frederick's
26:28
Speaker 2: seven to eleven grocery store, and she was one of
26:31
Speaker 2: the first people to arrive at the scene as Rex
26:33
Speaker 2: was gasping for air. The report ended by stating, quote,
26:37
Speaker 2: after obtaining this limited information, Sheriff Ralph Baker decided investigation
26:43
Speaker 2: should can continue into the allegations made by Harvey end quote.
26:49
Speaker 2: But even though the sheriff himself suggested this lead should
26:52
Speaker 2: be investigated, there's nothing else in the case file that
26:55
Speaker 2: indicates that happened, and it seems likely that nothing did happen.
27:00
Speaker 2: Police did not reveal who the anonymous source was, or
27:04
Speaker 2: if they even found out who it was. There's no
27:07
Speaker 2: evidence that they ever followed up with this person, or
27:10
Speaker 2: talked to Sally Dobson again, or followed up with her husband,
27:13
Speaker 2: Joe Dobson. If they did, it's not part of the
27:16
Speaker 2: case file, but from what we saw. There's also nothing
27:20
Speaker 2: else in the case file that indicates that Sally and
27:23
Speaker 2: Rex were anything more than coworkers. Then, just three months
27:28
Speaker 2: after police got that lead, on August twenty ninth, nineteen
27:31
Speaker 2: seventy eight, Sergeant Fogley requested that the investigation be put
27:35
Speaker 2: on inactive status, saying that no new investigative leads were forthcoming.
27:41
Speaker 2: In that same typed report, he said that the FBI
27:44
Speaker 2: was pursuing a lead in regard to the case, and
27:47
Speaker 2: that if that investigation proved fruitful, the case could be
27:50
Speaker 2: reopened at any time. The case file does show that
27:58
Speaker 2: before pausing their investigation, police were trying to find the
28:02
Speaker 2: weapon that was used to kill Rex, the one that
28:05
Speaker 2: left behind the three thirty eight caliber bullet cartridge cases.
28:09
Speaker 2: In March of nineteen seventy nine, they questioned a man
28:12
Speaker 2: named Lee Remington about a Smith and Wesson modelton revolver
28:15
Speaker 2: and how he got it into his possession. He told
28:19
Speaker 2: the police he had bought the gun from his brother
28:21
Speaker 2: in law, thirty one year old Henry otto Kuchen. At first,
28:25
Speaker 2: Lee said he got the weapon around two years ago. Later,
28:29
Speaker 2: he said it would have had to have been possibly
28:31
Speaker 2: the late summer of nineteen seventy eight, because that's when
28:34
Speaker 2: he was working over time and had extra money. He
28:36
Speaker 2: said he paid his brother in law, Henry, eighty dollars
28:39
Speaker 2: for the gun. At the time, Henry lived in Pierce, Missouri,
28:44
Speaker 2: and Henry told Lee that he had bought the gun
28:46
Speaker 2: from a man named Leroy Finney, a sheet rock hangar
28:49
Speaker 2: from Moname, Missouri. Henry Kuchin was listed as a potential
28:54
Speaker 2: suspect in police documents. In March of nineteen seventy nine,
28:58
Speaker 2: investigators took a thirty eight caliber special Smith and Wesson
29:01
Speaker 2: gun from his home. Police also collected spent casings from
29:06
Speaker 2: the Wesson Model ten revolver that Lee Remington said he
29:09
Speaker 2: bought from Henry. According to a later report, testing showed
29:13
Speaker 2: that Lee's weapon was not a match to the evidence
29:16
Speaker 2: taken from the crime scene, but the test on the
29:19
Speaker 2: gun taken directly from Henry were less conclusive. According to
29:23
Speaker 2: the firearms examiner at the State Crime Laboratory, the bullets
29:27
Speaker 2: from that gun and from the casings taken from the
29:29
Speaker 2: crime scene were tested against each other, and they couldn't
29:32
Speaker 2: be sure if they were a match. The report stated, quote,
29:36
Speaker 2: there are similarities of individual markings noted on evidence and
29:40
Speaker 2: test specimens that indicate that they could have been fired
29:43
Speaker 2: in this weapon. However, there are insufficient matching striations for
29:48
Speaker 2: a positive identification. This could be due to the lapse
29:51
Speaker 2: of time between the commission of the crime and the
29:53
Speaker 2: seizing of the suspect weapon end quote. Years went by
30:00
Speaker 2: and nothing happened with the case. But then decades later,
30:04
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, police got what appeared to be a
30:08
Speaker 2: huge potential break. A man named Rory Gregory wrote a
30:11
Speaker 2: letter from prison in which he said he had information
30:15
Speaker 2: about Rex's killing that he had held back for almost
30:18
Speaker 2: forty years. Rory was imprisoned on unrelated charges, and Rory
30:23
Speaker 2: claimed that back in June of nineteen seventy seven, he
30:27
Speaker 2: witnessed Rex's murder. A month after, police received a letter
30:37
Speaker 2: from a prisoner that said he had information about Rex
30:40
Speaker 2: Terrell's death, they interviewed him. Rory Gregory said back in
30:44
Speaker 2: the mid to late seventies, when he was fifteen or
30:46
Speaker 2: sixteen years old, he was driving around in his dad's
30:49
Speaker 2: truck with a friend of his named Dale. He said
30:52
Speaker 2: Dale wanted to go to Fayetteville and score some drugs,
30:55
Speaker 2: but he said he knew his dad would be mad
30:57
Speaker 2: at him if he drove the car that far away,
30:59
Speaker 2: so they pulled over into a shopping center where they
31:02
Speaker 2: were talking to a guy named Wayne Starkey. Suddenly a
31:05
Speaker 2: cop pulled in. Wayne was concerned that he was about
31:08
Speaker 2: to be arrested because he had some outstanding parking tickets.
31:11
Speaker 2: So Rory's story is that Wayne asked Dale and Rory
31:15
Speaker 2: to take his car so the police wouldn't have pounded,
31:17
Speaker 2: and that car was a dark green nineteen seventy Camaro.
31:22
Speaker 2: Rory's story is that he and Dale agreed to take
31:25
Speaker 2: the Camaro, and Dale eagerly drove it to Fayetville. According
31:29
Speaker 2: to Rory, as they drove through Huntsville, they stopped at
31:33
Speaker 2: the Frederick Store Rory said that as he was walking
31:37
Speaker 2: into the store planning on getting something to drink, that
31:40
Speaker 2: he heard three loud booms and saw Dale's shooting some guy.
31:44
Speaker 2: He did not know the man's name. Rory said he
31:47
Speaker 2: said to Dale, what the hell is going on? But
31:50
Speaker 2: Dale looked at him like he was going to shoot
31:52
Speaker 2: Rory and told Rory to get back in the car.
31:55
Speaker 2: This detail was apparently enough for investigators to believe they
31:59
Speaker 2: needed to take another look at Rex's body, and so
32:03
Speaker 2: in March of twenty twenty, Rex Tarrell's body was exhumed
32:07
Speaker 2: from Albn Cemetery. KNWA ran a short news item on
32:11
Speaker 2: the story, saying the Madison County Sheriff's Office had exhumed
32:14
Speaker 2: Rex's body in Huntsville as part of a criminal investigation.
32:18
Speaker 2: The article stated at the time, the Sheriff's office website
32:21
Speaker 2: list Rex's unknown killer as the most wanted person in
32:25
Speaker 2: the county. Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett confirmed that the body
32:30
Speaker 2: was being sent to Little Rock as part of an
32:31
Speaker 2: ongoing criminal investigation, but police did not reveal what evidence
32:36
Speaker 2: led them to order that Rex's body be dug up.
32:39
Speaker 2: At the time, Sheriff Rick Evans told the Madison County
32:43
Speaker 2: Register that due to a gag order issued by a judge,
32:47
Speaker 2: he couldn't tell the newspaper anything about why the body
32:50
Speaker 2: was being exhumed or what evidence had led police to
32:53
Speaker 2: make that decision. But later documents obtained via FOYA revealed
32:58
Speaker 2: that they found something when they dug the body up,
33:00
Speaker 2: a third bullet, one that had not been discovered in
33:03
Speaker 2: the initial investigation. Remember, Rex had been shot three times,
33:09
Speaker 2: but they only found two bullets in his body. But
33:12
Speaker 2: police still seemed to be struggling with elements of Rory's story.
33:16
Speaker 2: He said that after the shooting, he and Dale drove
33:18
Speaker 2: off and that he was in complete shock. He said
33:21
Speaker 2: he had no idea why Dale had shot the cashier.
33:24
Speaker 2: He said they stopped to siphon some gas in Harrison
33:27
Speaker 2: and that eventually Dale dropped him off in Mountain Home
33:30
Speaker 2: at his house and threatened to shoot him if he
33:32
Speaker 2: ever said anything to any one. But was Rory's letter
33:37
Speaker 2: credible According to police records, they did check arrest records
33:42
Speaker 2: for Wayne Starkey. They eventually found his arrest record. He
33:46
Speaker 2: was booked under a different name. Police confirmed Wayne was
33:50
Speaker 2: arrested on that date, July twenty ninth, nineteen seventy seven,
33:54
Speaker 2: so it's plausible that he could have given his vehicle
33:57
Speaker 2: to someone else. The details about the arrest matches, and
34:01
Speaker 2: Wayne Starkey did own a Camaro and Rex was shot
34:06
Speaker 2: three times, but there were also some red flags. First
34:11
Speaker 2: of all, when police questioned Rory, he told them he
34:14
Speaker 2: had brought the letter he wrote in with him to
34:16
Speaker 2: refresh his memory, saying he didn't quite remember the details
34:20
Speaker 2: he wrote about. He said that it was the mid seventies.
34:22
Speaker 2: Things were wild back then, everything was pretty fair game,
34:25
Speaker 2: and he had trouble pinpointing even the year. And he
34:29
Speaker 2: had the time wrong because initially he said the shooting
34:32
Speaker 2: went down between ten and eleven PM. He said he
34:35
Speaker 2: was positive that he was back at home at his
34:38
Speaker 2: dad's trailer in Mountain Home by daybreak, and it wasn't
34:41
Speaker 2: until after police told him that had been shot at
34:44
Speaker 2: around five am that he said his memory could have
34:47
Speaker 2: been wrong. It could have been early morning. Now, this
34:51
Speaker 2: still could have potentially matched the evidence, because daylight was
34:54
Speaker 2: around six twenty am and Rex was killed around five am,
34:58
Speaker 2: so it might have just been later than Rory thought.
35:01
Speaker 2: But there were other factors. Because Rory made it clear
35:05
Speaker 2: in his letter that in return for his cooperation, he
35:08
Speaker 2: wanted to be let out of prison, so even if
35:10
Speaker 2: his information was credible, investigators did have to consider his motives.
35:15
Speaker 2: Police also noted in later reports that even if Rory
35:19
Speaker 2: was telling the partial truth, they all wondered if there
35:22
Speaker 2: had been a second person with him in the car
35:25
Speaker 2: that night at all, or could he have been alone.
35:29
Speaker 2: They stated that Dale, the friend whom Rory said shot Rex,
35:33
Speaker 2: had been eliminated as a suspect. In the end, the
35:37
Speaker 2: bullet taken from Rex's body was too mutilated to be
35:40
Speaker 2: useful for forensic testing, and even after e Zomos being
35:43
Speaker 2: a body police were no closer to catching the killer.
35:49
Speaker 2: It's been almost fifty years since Rex Tarrell was murdered
35:52
Speaker 2: at Frederick's, and to this day, no one has ever
35:56
Speaker 2: been publicly named as a suspect or arrested or charged
35:59
Speaker 2: in connection with his death. Not surprisingly, since so much
36:03
Speaker 2: time has passed, a lot of the people involved in
36:05
Speaker 2: this case are dead. Henry Kochan passed away in two
36:09
Speaker 2: thousand and eight in Missouri. Rory Gregory, who wrote the letter,
36:13
Speaker 2: has passed away as well. So it seems as though
36:16
Speaker 2: police did find elements of Rory's story credible enough to
36:20
Speaker 2: order an exhumation, but the bullet they found was unable
36:23
Speaker 2: to help them conclusively identify the murder weapon or to
36:27
Speaker 2: get any more definitive proof. I wonder if there's any
36:30
Speaker 2: way to go back and find any sort of corroborating evidence.
36:34
Speaker 2: I find myself wondering about the other leads, because so
36:37
Speaker 2: many appear to have been dropped, Like how the sheriff
36:41
Speaker 2: said the information regarding Joe Dobson should be investigated further,
36:45
Speaker 2: but then there's no evidence that it ever was. Was
36:48
Speaker 2: there a relationship between Sally and Rex that went deeper
36:51
Speaker 2: than co workers? There's nothing in the case file that
36:54
Speaker 2: indicates that there was. But like so many other leads,
36:59
Speaker 2: there's a lot we don't know about why police haven't
37:02
Speaker 2: dug deeper. I find myself wondering if there are other
37:08
Speaker 2: things missing from the case fault. Is there someone else
37:11
Speaker 2: out there who knows something? Could there be justice for
37:15
Speaker 2: Rex Terrell fifty years later? I'm Catherine Townsend. This is
37:20
Speaker 2: Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line is a
37:24
Speaker 2: production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written
37:28
Speaker 2: and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
37:31
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her research assistance and
37:34
Speaker 2: James Wheaton for legal review. Noah camer mixed and scored
37:38
Speaker 2: this episode. Our theme song is by Ben Salek, Executive
37:42
Speaker 2: producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley. Listen
37:46
Speaker 2: to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing to the iHeart
37:48
Speaker 2: True Crime Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. If you are
37:52
Speaker 2: interested in seeing documents and materials from the case, you
37:55
Speaker 2: can follow the show on Instagram at Helen Gone Potty.
37:58
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
38:00
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
38:02
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder line at six seven eight
38:05
Speaker 2: seven four four six one four five. That's six seven
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Speaker 2: Humans