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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Nina Ingram Part 1 · 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
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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
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Speaker 1: considered evidence and point to the challenges of verifying facts
1:10
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
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Speaker 1: that anyone who has not been convicted of a crime
1:24
Speaker 1: is guilty of any wrongdoing. Thanks for listening.
1:29
Speaker 2: It was April twenty first, two thousand and six, and
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Speaker 2: twenty one year old college student Nina Ingram was coming
1:35
Speaker 2: home after a long day.
1:37
Speaker 3: Nina had a very busy life. She was two years into.
1:40
Speaker 2: Her business degree at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville, Arkansas.
1:45
Speaker 3: She also worked at Walmart.
1:47
Speaker 2: She was part of the Lost Prevention team, basically a
1:50
Speaker 2: security officer. That night, Nina had worked her shift at
1:54
Speaker 2: the Walmart supercenter on Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard in Fayetville.
1:58
Speaker 2: She got off work at nine pm, picked up some
2:01
Speaker 2: fast food, and then went to hang out with her
2:03
Speaker 2: boyfriend Josh Stewart at his apartment. They hung out for
2:07
Speaker 2: a little while, but Josh later told detectives that Nina
2:11
Speaker 2: seemed quiet, like something may be on her mind. She
2:15
Speaker 2: said that nothing was wrong, she was just tired. When
2:18
Speaker 2: she left Josh's house between ten thirty and eleven pm,
2:22
Speaker 2: she was driving Josh's pickup truck. Josh later told police
2:25
Speaker 2: they often swapped vehicles. Surveillance camera showed that Nina pulled
2:29
Speaker 2: into her apartment complex a little after ten pm. She
2:33
Speaker 2: got out of her vehicle and walked toward her unit,
2:36
Speaker 2: Unit one on the ground floor of the Law Quad
2:39
Speaker 2: apartment complex. The officer would later observe from what he
2:42
Speaker 2: saw on camera that as Nina left the vehicle and
2:45
Speaker 2: walked toward her apartment that nothing seemed to be out
2:48
Speaker 2: of the ordinary. But the next day, April twenty second,
2:52
Speaker 2: no one heard from Nina. She didn't respond to her
2:54
Speaker 2: boyfriend's text. Josh also tried to call her and left
2:57
Speaker 2: several boys mails, but Nina never replied, and then she
3:01
Speaker 2: didn't show up to give her brother Nelson a ride
3:04
Speaker 2: to school, which Nina did often. When she failed to
3:08
Speaker 2: show for her shift that day at Walmart that was
3:10
Speaker 2: supposed to start at one pm, her family started to
3:13
Speaker 2: get seriously worried. At around two pm, Nina's other brother, Noah,
3:19
Speaker 2: and his roommate Chad Williams, drove over to Nina's apartment
3:22
Speaker 2: to check on her. They knocked on the door, but
3:25
Speaker 2: Nina didn't answer. Nina had two cats, family members later
3:30
Speaker 2: told police she had a habit of opening the front
3:32
Speaker 2: window just a crack so that the cats could get
3:35
Speaker 2: some mayor. The window to the right of the front
3:37
Speaker 2: door was open about two to three inches and unlocked,
3:41
Speaker 2: so her brother pushed the window all the way open
3:43
Speaker 2: and crawled into the kitchen. Chad waited outside why Noah
3:48
Speaker 2: unlocked the door and the dead bolt, which were both locked.
3:52
Speaker 2: Seconds later, he heard Noah scream. Chad went in through
3:56
Speaker 2: the now unlocked front door and raced back into Nina's bedroom.
4:00
Speaker 2: He and Noah saw her lying face up on the
4:03
Speaker 2: bed with what Chad described as very visible red scratches
4:07
Speaker 2: and bruises around her neck. Chad told police he knew
4:11
Speaker 2: immediately that Nina was dead. This case involves a lot
4:18
Speaker 2: of twists, and turns. But we're going to try to
4:20
Speaker 2: figure out was Nina Ingram murdered by a serial killer?
4:24
Speaker 2: Was this a random attack, or was it someone she knew.
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Speaker 2: I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making
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Speaker 2: my true crime podcast, Helen Gone, I've learned that there's
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Speaker 2: no such thing as a small town where murder never happens.
4:39
Speaker 2: I've received hundreds of messages from people all around the
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Speaker 2: country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them,
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Speaker 2: their families, and their communities. If you have a case
4:49
Speaker 2: you'd like me and my team to look into, you
4:51
Speaker 2: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder
4:53
Speaker 2: line at six seven eight seven four four six one
4:57
Speaker 2: four or five. That's six seven eight seven four four six,
5:01
Speaker 2: one four or five. Or you can send us a
5:03
Speaker 2: message on Instagram at Helen gonepod. This is Helen Gone
5:08
Speaker 2: Murder Line. Immediately after Nina's brother Noah and Chad found
5:56
Speaker 2: Nina's body at around two nineteen pm, Chad called the police.
6:01
Speaker 2: Detectives raised to the scene at the Law Quad apartments.
6:04
Speaker 2: They started taping up the crime scene and canvassing residents,
6:07
Speaker 2: but it was a pretty quiet apartment complex.
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Speaker 3: Police found out.
6:11
Speaker 2: Only a few neighbors knew Nina and they hadn't seen
6:14
Speaker 2: anything out of the ordinary. Nina was very close to
6:18
Speaker 2: her family. Her mother, Judy, told a local news station
6:22
Speaker 2: that her daughter did not drink or do drugs. She
6:25
Speaker 2: called Nina quote an outstanding Christian girl with no enemies
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Speaker 2: end quote. Nina Ingram was born and raised in Lillian, Texas.
6:35
Speaker 2: Right before she started her freshman year of high school,
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Speaker 2: she moved to Fayettville, Arkansas, with her mom and two
6:40
Speaker 2: of her brothers. Even though her father and other brothers
6:43
Speaker 2: stayed behind in Texas, she stayed in close contact with them.
6:48
Speaker 2: Detectives talked to police at the walmart where Nina worked.
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Speaker 2: They determined she was well liked by most of the staff.
6:55
Speaker 2: A friend of hers named Freddie Hollingsworth told detectives he
6:58
Speaker 2: wondered if Nina could have been targeted by someone she
7:01
Speaker 2: busted for shoplifting, but detectives found that unlikely. Of course,
7:06
Speaker 2: they wanted to talk to Nina's boyfriend, Josh. Pretty Much
7:09
Speaker 2: everyone said Nina and Josh were very happy together and
7:12
Speaker 2: had a great relationship. A friend of Nina said they'd
7:16
Speaker 2: considered moving in together, and Nina had even talked to
7:19
Speaker 2: one coworker about possibly marrying Josh, though things weren't perfect.
7:24
Speaker 2: Another coworker told police Josh had recently gone through Nina's
7:28
Speaker 2: phone to see who she had been talking to. When
7:31
Speaker 2: detectives interviewed Josh, they asked about the night of Nina's death.
7:36
Speaker 2: Josh said that on April twenty first, Nina called him
7:39
Speaker 2: from work. She told him she would come by his
7:42
Speaker 2: place afterwards and some food.
7:44
Speaker 3: He said.
7:45
Speaker 2: She arrived shortly after her shift at Walmart with Firehouse
7:48
Speaker 2: subs and a Taco Bell bag. Josh said Nina ate
7:51
Speaker 2: the Taco Bell food and he ate the Firehouse sub food.
7:55
Speaker 3: He said they hung out for a little while.
7:57
Speaker 2: He estimated she left his place between ten thirty and
7:59
Speaker 2: eleven PM. Throughout the investigation, Josh was completely cooperative. He
8:05
Speaker 2: also voluntarily gave his DNA to police. He let investigators
8:09
Speaker 2: know he was available to talk with them at any time.
8:12
Speaker 2: Law enforcement quickly cleared him. One big question that detectives
8:19
Speaker 2: had was how did the killer get in. Detectives began
8:23
Speaker 2: formulating a theory that Nina's attacker had lay in wait
8:26
Speaker 2: for her near her door when she came home that night.
8:29
Speaker 2: And then rushed her as she went into her apartment.
8:32
Speaker 2: When Nina's brother Noah arrived, the door was locked. He
8:35
Speaker 2: specifically told detectives he had to unlock two locks, both
8:39
Speaker 2: the regular door lock and the dead bolt to let
8:42
Speaker 2: chat in. No signs of struggle Inside Nina's apartment, there
8:46
Speaker 2: seemed to be nothing out of place, but to be fair,
8:50
Speaker 2: the living room was barely sparse, with just a love seat, barstool, bookshelf,
8:54
Speaker 2: and a few other items, so it is possible the
8:57
Speaker 2: killer could have forced Nina inside that apartment and back
9:00
Speaker 2: to her bedroom without necessarily knocking things over. Nina had
9:05
Speaker 2: been brutally strangled, but there were no signs of sexual
9:09
Speaker 2: assault and nothing had been taken from her apartment, at
9:12
Speaker 2: least nothing obvious. Nina's purse was found near her body.
9:17
Speaker 2: There was five dollars inside that purse, so the motive
9:20
Speaker 2: did not appear to be robbery. There was a cigarette
9:24
Speaker 2: butt found in a flower pot outside. Detective said it
9:28
Speaker 2: appeared to have been there for some time. Nina's keys
9:31
Speaker 2: with her key ring were also found inside the apartment,
9:35
Speaker 2: so we're wondering how did the killer get in, but
9:38
Speaker 2: also how did the killer get back?
9:40
Speaker 3: Out.
9:42
Speaker 2: The cracked window at Nina's apartment had a screen on it.
9:46
Speaker 2: Noah had removed it to crawl through the window because
9:48
Speaker 2: the door was locked. After he was done, he left
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Speaker 2: the screen lying outside. Police noted the back bathroom window
9:55
Speaker 2: was also unlocked, but detectives said it was difficult to
9:58
Speaker 2: open and they didn't see any of the dust there undisturbed,
10:03
Speaker 2: so the killer likely came in and out through either
10:06
Speaker 2: the front door or front window. Unfortunately, police found no fingerprints.
10:12
Speaker 2: They did find something in a dumpster outside, a single glove.
10:16
Speaker 2: They tested a hair on that glove and found that
10:18
Speaker 2: it didn't match Nina's DNA and they were unable to
10:21
Speaker 2: find a match for it. Detectives noticed a footprint that
10:25
Speaker 2: seemed to be out of place against the back of
10:27
Speaker 2: the front door. They saw a scuff mark about thirty
10:31
Speaker 2: one inches from the bottom of that door, but they
10:33
Speaker 2: were unable to find more footprints from the interior in
10:36
Speaker 2: the front kitchen. In the report, it stated that was
10:39
Speaker 2: possibly because there were layers of dust and cat hair
10:42
Speaker 2: on the kitchen floor, which made it difficult to get
10:45
Speaker 2: any imprints. Did Nina's assailant kick the door shut behind him,
10:50
Speaker 2: or could that have been a random print from some
10:52
Speaker 2: time before this. Detectives had no idea that surveillance footage
10:58
Speaker 2: in Nina's apartment complex showed her arriving home in Josh's
11:02
Speaker 2: white pickup truck just before ten fifteen pm. However, according
11:07
Speaker 2: to the police report, the quality of the footage was
11:10
Speaker 2: so poor detectives couldn't really identify any other vehicles in
11:14
Speaker 2: the parking lot during that crucial time period. The detectives
11:17
Speaker 2: did ask the FBI to enhance a couple of images,
11:20
Speaker 2: but there's no indication that that led to anything. When
11:24
Speaker 2: Nina got out of her car, it appeared on that
11:28
Speaker 2: surveillance tape that she was alone, but the surveillance footage
11:32
Speaker 2: did not reach her apartment door. One thing that Josh
11:37
Speaker 2: said about his and Nina's last night together was that
11:40
Speaker 2: she seemed to be in a little bit of a
11:42
Speaker 2: quiet mood that night, and several other people she saw
11:44
Speaker 2: that day said she was acting like something might be wrong.
11:49
Speaker 2: Josh also told detectives before Nina left his house that night,
11:53
Speaker 2: she used his computer to communicate with someone. He did
11:56
Speaker 2: not know who that person was, so police got search
11:59
Speaker 2: warrants for both Josh and Nina's computers, a Compact Presario
12:03
Speaker 2: twenty one hundred laptop.
12:05
Speaker 3: They also took Nina's cell.
12:07
Speaker 2: Phone and looked through it, but apparently they found nothing
12:10
Speaker 2: of evidentiary value in any of those devices. There was
12:14
Speaker 2: one odd thing, which we'll come back to later. There
12:17
Speaker 2: was a message from someone named Joey. It read quote,
12:21
Speaker 2: I see be careful, be one hundred percent sea and
12:25
Speaker 2: they wrote sea like cya end quote. So who was
12:30
Speaker 2: Nina communicating with? Could Nina have been talking to her killer?
12:45
Speaker 2: A question detectives were trying to answer was was Nina's
12:49
Speaker 2: killer a stranger or someone she knew. There were a
12:53
Speaker 2: lot of men in Nina's orbit, male friends, co workers,
12:57
Speaker 2: and people who passed through the store every day, her
12:59
Speaker 2: friends told detectives. Because Nina was an attractive woman and
13:03
Speaker 2: she was a nice person, she got hit on a lot.
13:07
Speaker 2: Police talked to a census worker named Jianne Marillo. She
13:11
Speaker 2: had talked to Nina at her door on April nineteenth.
13:14
Speaker 2: Janne said before she talked to her, she had seen
13:17
Speaker 2: a tall, white, slender man with dark hair go into
13:20
Speaker 2: the apartment with Nina. She said the guy stayed in
13:23
Speaker 2: the back bedroom while she and Nina spoke. The census
13:26
Speaker 2: worker also said that every day that she was at
13:28
Speaker 2: that apartment complex, Nina's window was cracked open, and every
13:32
Speaker 2: time there was a cat sitting at the window. It's
13:36
Speaker 2: not clear whether or not police ever identified who this
13:40
Speaker 2: man was at Nina's apartment complex.
13:42
Speaker 3: We wondered if it.
13:43
Speaker 2: Could have been her boyfriend, Josh, but police talked to
13:45
Speaker 2: Josh and he said that he had not been to
13:47
Speaker 2: Nina's apartment complex in months. Normally Nina would stay at
13:50
Speaker 2: his place. It could have been Nina's brother, but nothing
13:54
Speaker 2: that we saw in the case file addresses this issue,
13:56
Speaker 2: so we don't know. Everyone in Nina's life was baffled
14:02
Speaker 2: about who could want to hurt her. Everyone seemed to
14:05
Speaker 2: love Nina. She seemed to have a truly kind heart,
14:08
Speaker 2: and she always went out of her way to help people.
14:11
Speaker 2: At the same time, some people who knew Nina described
14:15
Speaker 2: her as a loner. Police talked to her professors at school.
14:19
Speaker 2: They said that she was friendly, she would interact in class,
14:22
Speaker 2: but they said she didn't seem to have one particular
14:25
Speaker 2: friend or group of friends, that she mostly stayed to herself.
14:29
Speaker 2: At work, it was the same story. She was friendly
14:31
Speaker 2: and professional, but also no nonsense. We talked to Nina's cousin, Danielle,
14:37
Speaker 2: and she said Nina was a little bit misunderstood that way.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't that she was standoffish, she was just a
14:43
Speaker 2: little bit shy. Danielle said that Nina genuinely cared about
14:47
Speaker 2: people and she was a very good listener.
14:50
Speaker 4: The summer that she was fifteen, she came down and
14:53
Speaker 4: lived with us for the summer in Douglas. Came down
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Speaker 4: from Arkansas and at the time, my mother had a
14:59
Speaker 4: pizza restaurant, and Nina and I spent that whole summer
15:02
Speaker 4: working for my mom making pizzas, and we had so
15:04
Speaker 4: much fun. That was probably the best summers ever. And
15:08
Speaker 4: Nina was always a hard worker, though she never never
15:10
Speaker 4: shied away from doing a job.
15:12
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call her.
15:13
Speaker 4: An introvert her. She was a very social person, but
15:15
Speaker 4: she didn't need to be the spotlight. She was a
15:17
Speaker 4: really good listener. She didn't feel the need to have
15:20
Speaker 4: a lot of attention on her. But because of that,
15:23
Speaker 4: everyone really trusted her and wanting to be friends with her,
15:25
Speaker 4: because she just had a way of putting people at ease.
15:28
Speaker 4: She just made people feel comfortable in their own skin.
15:31
Speaker 4: She didn't have to impress her or you know, put
15:34
Speaker 4: on a mask with her. She was just like, whoever
15:36
Speaker 4: you are, I love you.
15:41
Speaker 2: Reading between the lines of these police reports, it seemed
15:45
Speaker 2: like a lot of the men who knew Nina were
15:47
Speaker 2: attracted to her and wanted to ask her out, but
15:50
Speaker 2: either she was oblivious to it or she didn't want
15:53
Speaker 2: to encourage it. A co worker gave an example. They
15:56
Speaker 2: said one day, Nina had to go to court for
15:58
Speaker 2: some reason. Afterwards, she went straight to work her shift.
16:02
Speaker 2: They said that on that day, Nina was dressed up
16:04
Speaker 2: more formally. The co worker told investigators he made some
16:07
Speaker 2: kind of comment about her looking good that day and
16:10
Speaker 2: asking why she didn't dress like that every day. Nina
16:13
Speaker 2: said something about not wanting to be hassled. She didn't
16:16
Speaker 2: want people to ask her out. She just wanted to
16:19
Speaker 2: do her job. The coworker, by the way, was not
16:22
Speaker 2: the one who made the comments to Nina.
16:23
Speaker 3: He was just telling police what happened.
16:26
Speaker 2: Police spoke with the assistant manager at the walmart Nina
16:29
Speaker 2: worked at in Rogers, Bobby Blackbird. She talked about an employee,
16:34
Speaker 2: Casey Ake. Bobby said Casey played online poker with Nina
16:39
Speaker 2: and that quote, everyone knew he was crazy about her.
16:42
Speaker 3: End quote.
16:43
Speaker 2: Bobby said she believed Casey was in love with Nina.
16:47
Speaker 2: Casey had talked about asking Nina out, but then seemed
16:50
Speaker 2: to back off once Nina started dating.
16:52
Speaker 3: Her boyfriend Josh.
16:54
Speaker 2: After Nina died, detectives searched Casey's home and found nothing.
16:59
Speaker 2: But I did see when they talked about the search
17:01
Speaker 2: in their reports, they specifically mentioned taking a look at
17:05
Speaker 2: his shoes and then putting them back in the closet.
17:07
Speaker 2: They didn't find anything on that search, but they seemed
17:10
Speaker 2: to be clearly trying to figure out who left that
17:13
Speaker 2: footprint scuffed on Nina's door. According to Nina's autopsy, her
17:19
Speaker 2: cause of death was ligature strangulation. The manner of death
17:22
Speaker 2: was homicide. The medical examiner, doctor Charles Kocis, said that
17:27
Speaker 2: Nina was strangled with some type of ligature, something between
17:30
Speaker 2: one sixteenth and one eighth of an inch wide. The
17:34
Speaker 2: autopsy provided a few more clues. Whatever happened inside that apartment,
17:39
Speaker 2: it seemed to have been a violent struggle. Nina was
17:43
Speaker 2: five feet nine inches tall and weigh one hundred and
17:46
Speaker 2: fifty one pounds, so depending on how large her killer was,
17:50
Speaker 2: this might not have been an easy fight. By the
17:53
Speaker 2: time her body was found, rigor mortis had left the
17:56
Speaker 2: body and there was marked lividity. Police believed her killer
18:00
Speaker 2: murdered her on the bed and then left her there,
18:03
Speaker 2: and the time of death was consistent from when Nina
18:05
Speaker 2: got home on the night of the twenty first. Police
18:08
Speaker 2: believed her body had not been moved since then. The
18:12
Speaker 2: autopsy noted Nina had several scratches on the front of
18:15
Speaker 2: her neck, and scratches around the mouth and chin, mostly
18:19
Speaker 2: on the left side of her face, and distinct ligature
18:22
Speaker 2: grooves on both sides of her neck. One rumor that
18:26
Speaker 2: started going around after the murder was that Nina's throat
18:29
Speaker 2: had been slit. This was not true, but it was
18:33
Speaker 2: one that was repeated by people for years. I'm guessing
18:37
Speaker 2: that rumor might have started because of those marks that
18:40
Speaker 2: were found on Nina's neck at the crime scene. Chat
18:43
Speaker 2: said that they looked like cuts. According to the autopsy report,
18:48
Speaker 2: Nina had another heavy abrasion just below her left ear,
18:52
Speaker 2: and there were two more abrasions on her chest near
18:55
Speaker 2: the clavicle. Those two big bruises on her clavicle were unexplained.
19:01
Speaker 2: This is just a guess on my part. I think
19:04
Speaker 2: it is possible that Nina's killer could have sat on
19:07
Speaker 2: her or pressed their knees down onto her chest. The
19:10
Speaker 2: medical examiner noted she had petikia or hemorrhaging in her eyes, face,
19:15
Speaker 2: left leg, and left arm that were consistent with strangulation
19:19
Speaker 2: or asphyxia. Particial hemorrhaging was also present on the interior throat, muscles,
19:24
Speaker 2: and larynx. In addition, her hyoid bone was damaged. There
19:29
Speaker 2: were no defensive wounds on Nina's hands and no trauma
19:33
Speaker 2: to any part of the body except the neck, chest,
19:36
Speaker 2: and face. The contents of her stomach were consistent with
19:40
Speaker 2: her last meal from Taco Bell. More and more in
19:43
Speaker 2: investigators were thinking Nina came home and right when she
19:47
Speaker 2: was at her door, or right after she came inside,
19:50
Speaker 2: the killer pounced. Her cell phone was found still in
19:53
Speaker 2: her pocket, so she never had a chance to even
19:56
Speaker 2: try to call for help. The attack must have come
19:59
Speaker 2: as a complete shock, and detective still had.
20:02
Speaker 3: No murder weapon.
20:03
Speaker 2: They found a belt in the kitchen trash can, but
20:06
Speaker 2: there was no DNA found on it except for Nina's.
20:09
Speaker 2: Presumably it was also ruled out as the murder weapon
20:12
Speaker 2: because it was too wide. Remember the murder weapon was
20:15
Speaker 2: one sixteenth to one eighth of an inch wide. They
20:19
Speaker 2: also tested other things in the house, including the mini
20:21
Speaker 2: blind cords, but again they found no foreign DNA. All
20:26
Speaker 2: of the fingerprints they found in the apartment were Nina's
20:29
Speaker 2: except for one partial palm print, and it was not
20:32
Speaker 2: a match to anyone in the DNA database. So, along
20:35
Speaker 2: with no murder weapon, police still didn't have a motive.
20:40
Speaker 2: It did not appear that Nina had been sexually assaulted.
20:43
Speaker 2: She was found fully clothed, wearing a blue Royals T shirt, jeans,
20:47
Speaker 2: and a jogging suit jacket. She had her broad and
20:50
Speaker 2: underwear on. They appeared to have been undisturbed. There was
20:54
Speaker 2: semen found in Nina's vagina, but the fluids were found
20:57
Speaker 2: to have been a mixture of her DNA and Josh's DNA.
21:01
Speaker 2: He told the investigators they had consensual sex the night
21:04
Speaker 2: before when she stayed over at his place. Again, there
21:07
Speaker 2: were no signs of sexual assault or of trauma to
21:09
Speaker 2: her vaginal area. There was no blood or semen found
21:12
Speaker 2: rectley or orally. Investigators also found no blood or semen
21:17
Speaker 2: on her t shirt, jean jacket, shoes, bra or underwear.
21:21
Speaker 2: They tested other items, including the bedding, the bed and
21:24
Speaker 2: her miniblinds for blooder semen, but found no trace on
21:27
Speaker 2: any of them either. Detectives did find some hairs inside
21:31
Speaker 2: the apartment, but forensic testing showed they were all either
21:34
Speaker 2: Nina's hairs or her cat's hairs. Detectives were canvassing the
21:39
Speaker 2: apartment complex because maybe her killer didn't rush her inside
21:44
Speaker 2: the apartment. Maybe it was someone she knew and they
21:47
Speaker 2: knocked on the door and she let them in. Did
21:50
Speaker 2: her killer lock the door behind themselves, because if so,
21:54
Speaker 2: that would presumably mean they would need a key. Police
21:57
Speaker 2: obviously considered this possibility. They were trying to figure out
22:01
Speaker 2: who had keys to Nina Ingram's apartment. On April twenty third,
22:05
Speaker 2: the day after Nina's body was found, police talked to
22:08
Speaker 2: the management company for the apartment complex, Mansfield Properties. They
22:12
Speaker 2: found out that the maintenance worker for that complex was
22:15
Speaker 2: a thirty one year old man named Billy Gray. They
22:18
Speaker 2: went to his house and he voluntarily agreed to come
22:20
Speaker 2: to the Fville Police Department for an interview. They asked
22:23
Speaker 2: Billy about service request for Nina's apartment apartment number one.
22:27
Speaker 2: Billy Gray said he had been to that apartment complex
22:30
Speaker 2: in recent weeks to make repairs to apartments number five
22:33
Speaker 2: and number forty two. Apartment five, by the way, was
22:36
Speaker 2: Nina's upstairs neighbor, but he said he did not remember
22:39
Speaker 2: making any repairs in apartment number one. He said all
22:43
Speaker 2: repairs were documented by the property management company and that
22:46
Speaker 2: before repairs were made they had to fill out work orders.
22:50
Speaker 2: They also kept a record of problems that were reported
22:52
Speaker 2: by tenants. Billy said on April fourteenth, he checked out
22:57
Speaker 2: the law Quad Master keys to make some repairs in
22:59
Speaker 2: the complex. Billy Gray showed detectives the place where the
23:03
Speaker 2: master keys were kept at the Garden Park apartment shop.
23:06
Speaker 2: He also voluntarily gave DNA samples. Police searched Billy's residence
23:11
Speaker 2: after he gave his consent. They found nothing of evidentiary value,
23:15
Speaker 2: so he was also cleared. When detectives talked to the
23:18
Speaker 2: manager of Mansfield Properties, he also said something else that
23:22
Speaker 2: I found interesting. He said that Nina's unit, apartment number
23:25
Speaker 2: one had been rented to a construction company for two
23:28
Speaker 2: months and then it sat vacant for a month before
23:31
Speaker 2: Nina moved in. Police got the name of the guy
23:34
Speaker 2: who rented the apartment for the company. His name was
23:36
Speaker 2: Henry Jordan Junior. They apparently did more investigating into the
23:41
Speaker 2: company and its records, but they didn't see to find
23:44
Speaker 2: any leads there. They found one glove in that dumpster
23:47
Speaker 2: outside Nina's apartment, but the DNA on the glove was
23:51
Speaker 2: never identified, another dead end. The investigation seemed to stall,
23:58
Speaker 2: but in twenty twelve, six years after Nina Ingram was murdered,
24:02
Speaker 2: someone was arrested. Nina's family laid her arrest in a
24:18
Speaker 2: pastel high neck dress, probably to camouflage the ligature marks
24:23
Speaker 2: on her neck. Over the years, her mother, Judy Ingram,
24:27
Speaker 2: spoke out about the devastating loss of her daughter. She
24:30
Speaker 2: encouraged people to keep Nina's memory alive. She wrote a
24:34
Speaker 2: book about Nina's life and death called The Brightest Star.
24:37
Speaker 2: In two thousand and nine, Nina's mom told a local
24:39
Speaker 2: news station quote, I know it's been three years, but
24:42
Speaker 2: I'm not giving up in any way, shape or form.
24:45
Speaker 2: I know someone out there knows something, and that person
24:48
Speaker 2: needs to come forward.
24:50
Speaker 3: Nina deserves it. End quote. Police didn't say much. Over
24:55
Speaker 3: the years.
24:55
Speaker 2: There would be updates on anniversaries of the murder, but
24:58
Speaker 2: detectives would simply say, as they often do, this case
25:02
Speaker 2: was an open and active investigation. The detective working the
25:05
Speaker 2: case at the time said, quote, we just need that
25:08
Speaker 2: one break end quote. Detectives identified several people of interest
25:14
Speaker 2: over the years, but in the end made no arrests.
25:17
Speaker 3: They talked to.
25:17
Speaker 2: Neighbors, friends, family members, and a lot of other people,
25:21
Speaker 2: including a guy who lived nearby in the woods and
25:24
Speaker 2: someone who randomly fired a bullet into a nearby apartment.
25:27
Speaker 2: They took DNA from a lot of people, but as
25:31
Speaker 2: I read through this case file, I wondered what DNA
25:35
Speaker 2: they were comparing because they got cheek swabs from a
25:38
Speaker 2: lot of different people, but it's really not clear in
25:41
Speaker 2: the case file what those swabs were being compared to.
25:45
Speaker 2: It's one of the things that we're going to try
25:46
Speaker 2: to figure out as this investigation goes forward. Danielle, Nina's cousin,
25:52
Speaker 2: said she grieves for the life that Nina lost.
25:55
Speaker 4: So I could imagine her and josphing together and having
25:57
Speaker 4: a beautiful family, and like, those are just things I'll
26:01
Speaker 4: never know now, and we probably would have been raising
26:03
Speaker 4: kids together and going through life together. And I'll never
26:07
Speaker 4: know how she would have been there for me going
26:09
Speaker 4: to my divorce, how she would have been there to
26:12
Speaker 4: celebrate my kid's smile, so what her kids would have
26:15
Speaker 4: been like like, I'll just never know those things.
26:23
Speaker 2: Over the years, the case grew cold, even though it
26:26
Speaker 2: was a big deal in northwest Arkansas, one of the
26:29
Speaker 2: only unsolved murder cases in that region since the nineteen seventies.
26:33
Speaker 2: One of the other cases was the University of Arkansas
26:35
Speaker 2: student known a Dirkmeyer. Her name will come up later
26:39
Speaker 2: in this investigation in a way that I never saw coming.
26:43
Speaker 2: Six years passed with no big breaks, and then in
26:47
Speaker 2: April twenty twelve, after the new detective was assigned to
26:50
Speaker 2: the case, suddenly there was an arrest of someone who
26:54
Speaker 2: no one with knowledge of the case had ever heard of,
26:57
Speaker 2: a man named Rico Cone. How Rico Cone got onto
27:02
Speaker 2: the police radar is very controversial.
27:05
Speaker 3: It's something that to my knowledge, has not been reported
27:09
Speaker 3: on in full.
27:10
Speaker 2: Next week, we're going to cover the arrest and trial
27:13
Speaker 2: of Rico Cone, the evidence against him, and a crazy
27:17
Speaker 2: connection to the murder of Nonah Dirtmeyer, who some people
27:20
Speaker 2: believe was murdered by a serial killer who killed Nina Ingram.
27:26
Speaker 2: Was it someone random, a stranger she offended in some
27:30
Speaker 2: way as the police in twenty twelve seemed to believe,
27:33
Speaker 2: or could it have been someone much closer to her,
27:38
Speaker 2: someone she let in, someone she trusted, And finally, is
27:42
Speaker 2: her killers still alive and out there?
27:47
Speaker 3: I'm Katherine Townsend.
27:49
Speaker 2: This is Helen Gone Murder Line.
27:53
Speaker 3: Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of
27:55
Speaker 3: Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
27:57
Speaker 2: It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced
28:00
Speaker 2: by Gabby Watts. Special thanks to Amy Tubbs for her
28:03
Speaker 2: research assistance and James Wheaton for legal review. Noah Camera
28:07
Speaker 2: mixed and scored this episode. Our theme song is by
28:10
Speaker 2: Ben Salek, Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and
28:14
Speaker 2: LC Crowley. Listen to Helen Gone ad free by subscribing
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Speaker 2: to the iHeart True Crime Plus.
28:19
Speaker 3: Channel on Apple Podcasts.
28:20
Speaker 2: If you were interested in seeing documents and materials from
28:23
Speaker 2: the case, you can follow the show on Instagram at
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Speaker 2: Helen Gone Pod. If you have a case you let
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Speaker 2: me and my team to look into, you can reach
28:32
Speaker 2: out to us at our Helen Gone Murder line at
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