Latest / FBI Files / They Slept in a Culvert. The Manhunt Ended Where the Road Ran Out.

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They Slept in a Culvert. The Manhunt Ended Where the Road Ran Out. · FBI Files

0:06
Speaker 1: A Labor Day weekend turned into a nightmare of murder
0:10
Speaker 1: as a cross-country crime spree terrorized the nation. A pair
0:16
Speaker 1: of suspected spree killers traveled through state after state, leaving
0:20
Speaker 1: murder victims in their wake. Working against time, the FBI
0:25
Speaker 1: and local authorities marshaled their resources to stop the killings.
1:00
Speaker 2: In a small Ohio community, an elderly woman and a
1:04
Speaker 2: teenage boy disappeared. Because they vanished within hours of each other,
1:09
Speaker 2: police believe the cases were linked. But they didn't know how.
1:13
Speaker 2: I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.
1:17
Speaker 2: A trail of stolen vehicles and murder victims across seven
1:21
Speaker 2: states led the FBI in a hunt for two serial killers.
1:25
Speaker 2: Their only hope of stopping them was to anticipate the
1:29
Speaker 2: killers Next move.
1:37
Speaker 1: August 29th, 1994. Summer was drawing to a close in
1:42
Speaker 1: the small town of Port Washington, Ohio. The peaceful farming
1:47
Speaker 1: community was dotted with isolated rural homes. A 79-year-old widow,
1:53
Speaker 1: Ruth Loder, lived alone. Those of her family that lived
1:58
Speaker 1: nearby kept a close eye on Mrs. Loader since she
2:01
Speaker 1: was battling with cancer. When she heard footsteps in the kitchen,
2:10
Speaker 1: she thought it might be her granddaughter returning to see
2:12
Speaker 1: her before she went to sleep. She discovered strangers instead.
2:28
Speaker 3: The following morning.
2:40
Speaker 1: The Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office received an urgent call from Mrs.
2:44
Speaker 1: Loader's sister. As was their routine, Mrs. Loader's sister and
2:50
Speaker 1: son-in-law came to check on the sick woman but found Mrs.
2:53
Speaker 1: Loader and her car missing. Sheriff Walter Wilson, a detective
2:58
Speaker 1: lieutenant at the time, was the lead investigator.
3:02
Speaker 3: Family members had seen Mrs. Loader the evening prior to
3:06
Speaker 3: the morning of her disappearance. She was fine at that time.
3:11
Speaker 3: They had indicated to us that Mrs. Loader was recovering
3:14
Speaker 3: from cancer surgery, that she definitely needed medication, which was
3:18
Speaker 3: left behind.
3:21
Speaker 1: The family was worried since Mrs. Loader was so weak.
3:26
Speaker 1: She would become very ill if she was without her
3:28
Speaker 1: medication for long. Marks on the back door and damage
3:34
Speaker 1: to the door frame indicated it had been kicked in.
3:39
Speaker 1: The forced entry told the sheriff that the frail woman
3:41
Speaker 1: had not left of her own free will. Mrs. Loader's
3:46
Speaker 1: purse was left behind, but her cash was missing, along
3:49
Speaker 1: with the keys to her red Buick. Sheriff Wilson immediately
3:55
Speaker 1: issued an all-points bulletin for the widow and her car.
4:02
Speaker 1: He knew that they'd have the best chance of finding
4:04
Speaker 1: her alive if they acted quickly.
4:07
Speaker 3: We felt very early on that Mrs. Loader obviously had
4:11
Speaker 3: been kidnapped. We immediately began a massive search for Mrs.
4:15
Speaker 3: Loader and her car. And that involved all of the
4:20
Speaker 3: area law enforcement agencies, It involved numerous fire department personnel.
4:26
Speaker 3: Citizens from the area came out in droves and helped
4:30
Speaker 3: with the search for Mrs. Logan.
4:36
Speaker 1: Concerned over her fate, the community was united in its pursuit.
4:39
Speaker 1: The command center was formed in the Port Washington fire station,
4:46
Speaker 1: where authorities worked with volunteers to plan the urgent search
4:49
Speaker 1: for the alien woman. If she didn't have her medicine soon,
4:52
Speaker 1: her condition could become critical. They had to find the
4:57
Speaker 1: grandmother before it was too late.
5:02
Speaker 4: Mrs.
5:02
Speaker 3: Loader was pretty well known in that area. It's a
5:05
Speaker 3: very good family. They're very highly thought of, and everyone
5:10
Speaker 3: was very concerned for her and felt obligated and really
5:16
Speaker 3: sincerely wanted to try to find her to help her.
5:21
Speaker 1: Mounted reserve units geared up to comb rougher terrain on horseback.
5:26
Speaker 1: Local police and neighbors searched fields and woods for any
5:28
Speaker 1: trace of her or the missing car. Sheriff's deputies from
5:34
Speaker 1: a neighboring county brought in canine units hoping to pick
5:36
Speaker 1: up a scent. The Ohio State Highway Patrol ordered their
5:42
Speaker 1: aircraft to scan roads from above. The extensive search turned
5:49
Speaker 1: up no trace of Mrs. Loader or her car. Special
5:55
Speaker 1: collections were taken at restaurants and grocery stores to help
5:58
Speaker 1: pay for additional personnel. Deputies alerted the media while family
6:03
Speaker 1: members posted flyers in neighboring towns hoping to get the
6:06
Speaker 1: word out beyond the local community. That afternoon, A woman
6:14
Speaker 1: who knew Mrs. Loader called the sheriff's office with information
6:17
Speaker 1: and came in for an interview. She told investigators that
6:24
Speaker 1: she'd seen Mrs. Loader's red Buick in town at about
6:27
Speaker 1: 11 p.m. the previous evening. She thought it was strange
6:32
Speaker 1: that the ailing woman would be driving that late. Though
6:39
Speaker 1: the light was dim, she could see that a young
6:41
Speaker 1: man was driving the car. The witness tried her best
6:49
Speaker 1: to help a police artist construct a composite sketch from
6:52
Speaker 1: what she could remember of the brief encounter. In the
7:01
Speaker 1: area surrounding Port Washington, Ohio, concern that a criminal could
7:05
Speaker 1: be on the loose spread fear in a community that
7:07
Speaker 1: was not used to locking their doors. Police showed the
7:13
Speaker 1: composite sketch at every interview. But no one could identify
7:19
Speaker 1: the man depicted in the drawing. The day ended with
7:27
Speaker 1: no new leads. On day two of Mrs. Loader's disappearance,
7:35
Speaker 1: a deputy entered her case into the NCIC, the National
7:39
Speaker 1: Crime Information Center. a computer system linking 57,000 law enforcement
7:44
Speaker 1: agencies across the country. That same day, the sheriff's office
7:53
Speaker 1: fielded a call from some concerned parents. Their 16-year-old high
7:59
Speaker 1: school sophomore had also disappeared from Tuscarawas County. In nearby Newcomerstown,
8:09
Speaker 1: three miles from the house where Mrs. Loader disappeared, a
8:13
Speaker 1: worried father and stepmother told a sheriff's deputy their son
8:16
Speaker 1: was missing. His family and his former employer had not
8:21
Speaker 1: heard from him for three days. A. 22 caliber handgun
8:30
Speaker 1: was also missing from the house. The parents gave authorities
8:35
Speaker 1: a photograph of the missing boy. Eric Elliott.
8:40
Speaker 3: It seemed kind of ironic at the time that we
8:43
Speaker 3: would have Mrs. Loader missing and that we would also
8:46
Speaker 3: have a juvenile reported missing within that short distance.
8:53
Speaker 1: Ohio investigators wondered if there was any connection between the
8:56
Speaker 1: two disappearances from the same county. Just 36 hours after Mrs.
9:01
Speaker 1: Loader's abduction, Sheriff Wilson received another call. 650 miles west
9:10
Speaker 1: in Fulton, Missouri, police found a red Buick stuck in
9:14
Speaker 1: a farmer's muddy field. When they ran its Ohio plates
9:20
Speaker 1: through the NCIC, they discovered it was Mrs. Loader's stolen car.
9:26
Speaker 1: The farmer had not seen who had abandoned it. The
9:30
Speaker 1: car's keys were missing, but the doors were unlocked. Among
9:37
Speaker 1: the items officers found inside was a green soda bottle
9:41
Speaker 1: and a sandwich wrapper labeled Goshen Dairy Store. They towed
9:45
Speaker 1: the vehicle to the station for further examination. Lieutenant Timothy
9:52
Speaker 1: Daimler from the Calloway County Sheriff's Office in Fulton, Missouri,
9:55
Speaker 1: was assigned to lead the investigation. His department's first task
10:00
Speaker 1: was to check the car's locked trunk.
10:03
Speaker 5: We weren't sure exactly what we were going to find.
10:06
Speaker 5: We had a missing lady from Ohio, and this was
10:09
Speaker 5: her car, so we were under the assumption that very
10:12
Speaker 5: possibly we may find a body when we opened up
10:15
Speaker 5: the trunk.
10:18
Speaker 1: Investigators needed to open it without damaging evidence or injuring
10:22
Speaker 1: the woman if she was unconscious inside. An auxiliary deputy
10:28
Speaker 1: who was a locksmith was called in. They discovered the
10:38
Speaker 1: trunk was empty. After three days of searching, hope of
10:45
Speaker 1: finding Mrs. Loader alive was beginning to fade. On September 1st,
10:52
Speaker 1: an FBI evidence recovery team from Kansas City was called
10:55
Speaker 1: in since the missing woman's car had crossed state lines.
11:00
Speaker 1: Agents worked with local authorities processing Mrs. Loader's car for
11:04
Speaker 1: forensic details. They gathered several sets of prints and hairs.
11:12
Speaker 1: In Ohio, the foreign prints were entered into an automated
11:15
Speaker 1: fingerprint system, but no matches were found. Sheriff Wilson prepared
11:21
Speaker 1: to travel to Missouri. On a hunch, he took along
11:24
Speaker 1: a photo of the missing teenager, Eric Elliott.
11:29
Speaker 3: At the time, it was nothing concrete as far as
11:32
Speaker 3: connecting Mrs. Loader's disappearance and Mr. Elliott's report of his
11:37
Speaker 3: son missing. However, I felt that since we're going to
11:40
Speaker 3: Callaway County, it would make sense to maybe obtain a
11:44
Speaker 3: photograph of the missing juvenile and take with us.
11:49
Speaker 1: Mrs. Loader's son-in-law joined the sheriff to help in the investigation.
11:55
Speaker 1: The Missouri official did not recognize the photo, but the
11:58
Speaker 1: Ohio sheriff did recognize the sandwich wrapper found in the car.
12:04
Speaker 1: It was from Goshen Dairy, a store near Mrs. Loader's house.
12:10
Speaker 1: Her son-in-law said the family kept her vehicle clean. Perhaps
12:16
Speaker 1: Eric Elliott, who also lived close to the store, had
12:19
Speaker 1: left the wrapper in the car.
12:23
Speaker 5: They had a photograph of Elliott with them, and we
12:25
Speaker 5: decided to cover Kingdom City, which, where they would have
12:30
Speaker 5: gotten off the interstate.
12:33
Speaker 1: Ohio and Missouri investigators checked exits along nearby I-70, a
12:37
Speaker 1: major east-west route in the region. They hoped someone at
12:43
Speaker 1: the rest stops would be able to confirm that Elliot
12:45
Speaker 1: had been in the area. They spoke to dozens of
12:51
Speaker 1: employees and travelers. Late in the afternoon, their efforts finally
12:57
Speaker 1: paid off. They found one person who remembered seeing the
13:01
Speaker 1: teenager the day before. Unfortunately, authorities found no one who
13:06
Speaker 1: remembered seeing Mrs. Loader or her car. For the first time,
13:12
Speaker 1: investigators considered 16-year-old Eric Elliott as a suspect in her abduction.
13:22
Speaker 1: Missouri deputies also continued to canvas the rural Fulton area,
13:26
Speaker 1: inquiring if neighbors had seen anything unusual. At the house
13:33
Speaker 1: closest to the field where Mrs. Loader's car was found,
13:36
Speaker 1: an officer knocked on the door of an elderly couple,
13:39
Speaker 1: William and Flossie Brewer. He heard their dog, but the
13:44
Speaker 1: couple appeared to be out. Since their car was not
13:47
Speaker 1: parked outside, the deputy continued on. Authorities checked dozens of homes,
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Speaker 1: but found no one close by who had seen Eric
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Speaker 1: Elliott or Mrs. Loader.
14:01
Speaker 5: I was on my way home After finishing that up,
14:05
Speaker 5: I received a page from the communications center that they
14:09
Speaker 5: wanted me to call them immediately. They told me that
14:12
Speaker 5: they had found two bodies at a farmhouse out on
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Speaker 5: County Road 147.
14:18
Speaker 1: It was the home of William and Flossie Brewer, the
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Speaker 1: house closest to the field where Mrs. Loder's car was
14:24
Speaker 1: found earlier that day. Authorities believe the two crimes were
14:29
Speaker 1: likely connected. Three days after Mrs. Loader's disappearance, sheriff's detectives
14:35
Speaker 1: found the bodies of 86-year-old William Brewer and his 76-year-old
14:39
Speaker 1: wife Flossie in the basement of their home. Each had
14:42
Speaker 1: multiple gunshot wounds. They were slumped over.
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Speaker 6: They were near the door.
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Speaker 5: She had her hands tied behind her back with what
14:50
Speaker 5: appeared to be a telephone cord, and he was on
14:54
Speaker 5: her right slumped over also, and his cane was standing
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Speaker 5: there right beside him.
15:04
Speaker 1: The detective also found the couple's dog faithfully guarding their
15:07
Speaker 1: lifeless bodies. An autopsy later determined that both Mr. and Mrs.
15:12
Speaker 1: Brewer had each been shot three times in the head
15:15
Speaker 1: with a. 22, the same caliber weapon missing from Eric
15:19
Speaker 1: Elliott's home. The 16-year-old suspected in the disappearance of Mrs.
15:26
Speaker 1: Loader now became a suspect in the double homicide.
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Speaker 5: There was no indication that the suspect had spent any
15:33
Speaker 5: length of time in the house before this occurred. So
15:36
Speaker 5: from the evidence, it pointed us that it had happened
15:39
Speaker 5: relatively quickly.
15:42
Speaker 1: Investigators found no signs of forced entry. In the basement,
15:48
Speaker 1: the door to the outside was covered with cobwebs, indicating
15:51
Speaker 1: it had not been opened. It was yesterday. Investigators spoke
15:56
Speaker 1: with the Brewer's son. He said the couple's Oldsmobile was missing,
16:01
Speaker 1: along with several rifles. All were entered into the NCIC.
16:09
Speaker 1: The son added that his mother's bedspread was also missing.
16:15
Speaker 1: Technicians worked the scene until 5 a.m. On the floor
16:20
Speaker 1: near the front entrance, investigators found two distinct sets of
16:23
Speaker 1: footprints foreign to the house. One appeared to be a
16:28
Speaker 1: tennis shoe, the other a hiking boot. Investigators suspected the
16:36
Speaker 1: double homicide was likely connected to Mrs. Loader's disappearance. What
16:42
Speaker 1: they didn't know was if 16-year-old Eric Elliott and a
16:46
Speaker 1: companion had become spree killers. By September 2nd, 1994, Four
16:54
Speaker 1: and a half days had passed since the ailing Ruth
16:56
Speaker 1: Loader was forced from her Ohio home without her medication.
17:02
Speaker 1: She was missing and presumed dead since her stolen car
17:05
Speaker 1: was found abandoned in Missouri, 150 yards from where police
17:09
Speaker 1: discovered a slain elderly couple. Authorities suspected an Ohio teenager
17:15
Speaker 1: named Eric Elliott and at least one companion were responsible
17:18
Speaker 1: for the crimes, but they had no direct evidence. Lieutenant
17:24
Speaker 1: Timothy Daimler of the Callaway County, Missouri Sheriff's Department recalled
17:27
Speaker 1: that citizens in the surrounding areas were stunned.
17:32
Speaker 5: These are people that live in the rural community. They're
17:35
Speaker 5: used to leaving their doors unlocked. They do know everybody.
17:40
Speaker 5: And I think it was somewhat of a realization that, unfortunately,
17:46
Speaker 5: even though you do live in a rural community, that
17:48
Speaker 5: you still have to lock your doors and pay attention
17:50
Speaker 5: to when strangers are in your neighborhoods.
17:53
Speaker 1: With two confirmed homicides and a likely third in as
17:56
Speaker 1: many days, local authorities turned to the FBI for help.
18:04
Speaker 1: Special Agent Peter Christ of the FBI's Canton, Ohio resident
18:07
Speaker 1: agency was assigned the case. To catch up with the
18:11
Speaker 1: suspected spree killer and his companion, they needed an idea
18:15
Speaker 1: of where Eric.
18:16
Speaker 7: Elliott might be heading. We were trying to get as
18:19
Speaker 7: much background information as we could. We were looking for relatives. uncles, aunts, cousins, friends,
18:25
Speaker 7: we were convinced that they were heading across the country.
18:28
Speaker 7: And we just needed to know everybody that there was
18:30
Speaker 7: a possibility that they would stop and visit, to either
18:33
Speaker 7: visit to say hello or get any kind of financial
18:35
Speaker 7: or moral support.
18:39
Speaker 1: Agents asked one of Eric Elliott's friends to come in
18:41
Speaker 1: for questioning. The friend told them that Elliott had recently
18:46
Speaker 1: become very close to a young ex-convict named Lewis Gilbert.
18:51
Speaker 1: He said that Gilbert and Elliot had spent a lot
18:53
Speaker 1: of time together over the past few weeks. Both had
18:57
Speaker 1: been complaining about how boring life was in the small
19:00
Speaker 1: town and that there was no reason for them to stay.
19:05
Speaker 1: Gilbert was estranged from his wife and son, and Elliot
19:08
Speaker 1: wished to visit his birth mother in California. I just
19:11
Speaker 1: got out of jail. The friend added that the pair
19:13
Speaker 1: mentioned they wanted to do something that would make them
19:16
Speaker 1: go down in history and planned to start by stealing
19:19
Speaker 1: a car. The last time he saw them was five
19:25
Speaker 1: days ago, when Gilbert and Elliot were walking along railroad
19:28
Speaker 1: tracks behind Mrs. Loader's house. Because Elliot was a troubled teen,
19:36
Speaker 1: Agent Crisp believed that he probably looked up to 22-year-old
19:39
Speaker 1: Lewis Gilbert, since Gilbert appeared to do as he pleased.
19:44
Speaker 7: At the point when Gilbert befriended Elliot, he had been
19:48
Speaker 7: released from jail two weeks prior to that, had a
19:51
Speaker 7: criminal history, had had a history of getting in trouble.
19:55
Speaker 7: And at that point, we sort of felt that maybe Mr.
19:57
Speaker 7: Elliot was in awe or enamored with Mr. Gilbert because
20:01
Speaker 7: he did have that kind of criminal history background.
20:05
Speaker 1: Investigators dug deeper into Lewis Gilbert's past. The 22-year-old had
20:10
Speaker 1: served time for stealing a boat and breaking and entering.
20:16
Speaker 1: He had also been convicted of physically abusing his three-month-old son.
20:22
Speaker 1: Though agents still lacked concrete evidence that Gilbert and Elliot
20:25
Speaker 1: were traveling together, they needed to find them as soon
20:28
Speaker 1: as possible to prevent any more killing.
20:31
Speaker 7: Our biggest concern at this point was that we suspected
20:34
Speaker 7: these two of Mrs.
20:36
Speaker 1: Loader's disappearance.
20:38
Speaker 7: They were strong suspects in the killings and the double
20:41
Speaker 7: homicide in Missouri, and we were very concerned that this
20:45
Speaker 7: kind of activity would continue all the way across the country.
20:50
Speaker 1: Sheriff Wilson's first step was to see if anyone had
20:53
Speaker 1: seen Gilbert with Elliot at the Goshen Dairy Store, close
20:56
Speaker 1: to Mrs. Loader's Ohio home. Missouri investigators had found a
21:01
Speaker 1: sandwich wrapper from the store in Mrs. Loader's abandoned vehicle.
21:04
Speaker 1: Does this look familiar to you? Yeah, one of our
21:08
Speaker 1: wrappers to our sandwich. The clerk identified the wrapper. She
21:13
Speaker 1: also remembered selling the sandwich and some soda to Gilbert
21:16
Speaker 1: and Elliot just after Mrs. Loader disappeared. Authorities now had
21:22
Speaker 1: confirmation the young men were traveling together. Thank you. But
21:26
Speaker 1: five days had already passed since the spree killers had
21:29
Speaker 1: begun their cross-country ramble. the FBI quickly secured arrest warrants
21:35
Speaker 1: for kidnapping and burglary in the Ruth Loder disappearance. Though
21:40
Speaker 1: agents believed the pair was also responsible for the double
21:43
Speaker 1: homicide in Missouri, authorities still lacked evidence to formally charge
21:47
Speaker 1: them with those crimes. Agents weren't about to wait for
21:53
Speaker 1: someone to call in. Anticipating Gilbert and Elliot's westward movement,
21:57
Speaker 1: the FBI visited Gilbert's mother in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, on September 3, 1994.
22:02
Speaker 1: The agent warned her that her son and his friend
22:07
Speaker 1: were armed fugitives suspected of driving a stolen Oldsmobile with
22:11
Speaker 1: Missouri plates. It was possible that the pair would visit
22:15
Speaker 1: her for help. The FBI had just missed them. Gilbert
22:29
Speaker 1: and Elliot had arrived at 2 a.m. the previous day.
22:34
Speaker 1: Gilbert claimed the Oldsmobile they were driving belonged to a friend.
22:39
Speaker 1: They said they were headed to California. The pair spent
22:42
Speaker 1: the day and left a few hours before the agent arrived.
22:48
Speaker 1: Cooperating with the FBI, she described the clothes the pair
22:51
Speaker 1: was wearing and gave agents addresses of other relatives. Authorities
22:56
Speaker 1: feared that if they didn't catch up with them soon,
22:58
Speaker 1: the spree killers would strike again.
23:01
Speaker 7: That was one of the most frustrating things about this
23:03
Speaker 7: whole investigation. It just appeared that we were always a
23:07
Speaker 7: half a day or a day behind them, and that's
23:09
Speaker 7: probably one of the most frustrating things. We just couldn't
23:12
Speaker 7: get ahead of them.
23:14
Speaker 1: Because Eric Elliott was a minor, investigators needed court permission
23:18
Speaker 1: to distribute his photo. They got the go-ahead 36 hours
23:22
Speaker 1: after the double homicide in Missouri. Lieutenant Daimler added it
23:26
Speaker 1: to the nationwide bulletins for the fugitive.
23:30
Speaker 5: I was scared to see where they were going to
23:32
Speaker 5: end up next and who they were going to kill next.
23:35
Speaker 5: And I wanted to do everything I could to help
23:39
Speaker 5: get those people off the street because it was apparent
23:43
Speaker 5: to me that they didn't care who they killed.
23:47
Speaker 1: Despite the best efforts of authorities, the urgent hunt for
23:50
Speaker 1: the suspected killers stretched into its sixth day. On September 4th, 1994,
23:58
Speaker 1: 165 miles west of Gilbert's mother's house in Oklahoma. A
24:03
Speaker 1: dirt biker was riding the rural trails around Draper Lake,
24:06
Speaker 1: just outside of Oklahoma City. His ride was cut short
24:13
Speaker 1: when he discovered a woman's body amongst the trees. As
24:19
Speaker 1: he raced to summon police, he rode around an Oldsmobile
24:22
Speaker 1: with Missouri plates. Almost a week after Mrs. Loader's abduction
24:27
Speaker 1: in Ohio, the nationwide hunt for two suspected killers would continue.
24:35
Speaker 1: By September 4th, 1994, six days had elapsed in the
24:39
Speaker 1: FBI's massive nationwide search for a pair of suspected spree killers.
24:46
Speaker 1: Lewis Gilbert and Eric Elliott were wanted for a possible
24:49
Speaker 1: murder in Ohio and a confirmed double homicide in Missouri.
24:53
Speaker 1: The fugitives were last seen in Oklahoma heading west. That
25:00
Speaker 1: same day, Oklahoma City police responded to a call from
25:04
Speaker 1: a dirt biker who had discovered a woman's body near
25:06
Speaker 1: Draper Lake. Officers secured the crime scene, then called in
25:12
Speaker 1: homicide detectives. They interviewed the biker who had made the discovery.
25:20
Speaker 1: Homicide inspector Bob Beemo of the Oklahoma City Police Department
25:24
Speaker 1: was assigned the case.
25:27
Speaker 4: Once we come upon the immediate scene where the body
25:30
Speaker 4: was located, I observed the young woman to be in
25:36
Speaker 4: a kind of bent over backwards and caught between a tree.
25:41
Speaker 1: The victim was a white female in her 30s. Investigators
25:45
Speaker 1: found no identification on or near the body. But a
25:48
Speaker 1: manager at a nearby marina later identified her as his
25:52
Speaker 1: missing employee, Roxy Rudder.
25:55
Speaker 4: As a part of our investigation, Another vehicle had been
25:59
Speaker 4: found a short distance away from where the victim had
26:03
Speaker 4: been located. And we didn't know if this was a
26:06
Speaker 4: part of the crime or not, although we did secure
26:08
Speaker 4: the area around this vehicle.
26:11
Speaker 1: When detectives checked the Oldsmobile's Missouri plates with the NCIC,
26:15
Speaker 1: they discovered the car had been reported stolen from the Brewers,
26:19
Speaker 1: the double homicide victims from Missouri. Oklahoma investigators immediately notified
26:25
Speaker 1: authorities back east. to Tuscarawa's county sheriff, Walter Wilson, in Ohio,
26:32
Speaker 1: it appeared that Gilbert and Elliott had struck again.
26:36
Speaker 3: They had recovered Missouri's stolen vehicle, and they also had
26:41
Speaker 3: another murder victim. It's just another terrible feeling that's really
26:45
Speaker 3: hard to describe that obviously this tragedy continues.
26:53
Speaker 1: Oklahoma police crime technicians gathered evidence from the vehicles. they
26:58
Speaker 1: recovered several unused. 22 caliber bullets. A pawn shop receipt
27:05
Speaker 1: from a local Oklahoma City store was also found. Prints
27:11
Speaker 1: lifted from inside and outside the car matched both Gilbert
27:14
Speaker 1: and Elliott's. Oklahoma medical examiners determined that Ruttle's death had
27:21
Speaker 1: occurred in the last day or two since there was
27:24
Speaker 1: little decomposition. Death had been inflicted by a. 22 caliber weapon.
27:34
Speaker 1: Detectives notified the woman's devastated husband. He informed them that
27:39
Speaker 1: her two-toned pickup truck was also missing. Investigators listed it
27:46
Speaker 1: as stolen and added its information to the growing NCIC
27:49
Speaker 1: report on Gilbert and Elliot. Detectives also took the receipt
27:55
Speaker 1: found in the brewer's car to the Oklahoma City pawn
27:58
Speaker 1: shop that issued it. Two video games and a socket
28:03
Speaker 1: wrench set had been pawned the day before the murdered
28:05
Speaker 1: woman was found. They showed the receipt to an employee.
28:12
Speaker 1: He vaguely remembered Gilbert and Elliot, but he had something
28:15
Speaker 1: else that might be stronger than memory. The pawn shop
28:20
Speaker 1: was equipped with a 24-hour surveillance camera. The videotape confirmed
28:26
Speaker 1: his story. September 3rd was the last confirmed sighting of
28:30
Speaker 1: Gilbert and Elliot. The FBI issued two more warrants for
28:34
Speaker 1: the suspected killers for unlawful interstate flight. Agent Peter Crist
28:39
Speaker 1: and his team were frustrated that after six days, four victims,
28:42
Speaker 1: and thousands of man hours, the killers remained a half
28:45
Speaker 1: day ahead of the FBI.
28:47
Speaker 7: A lot of things were going through my mind. Number one,
28:52
Speaker 7: we didn't want another double homicide. We didn't want another
28:56
Speaker 7: killing anyplace. And we were, I guess, what I kept
28:59
Speaker 7: thinking about, what have I not done? What lead have
29:03
Speaker 7: I not sent out? Let me look everything over again
29:06
Speaker 7: to see maybe if we can somehow get ahead of
29:08
Speaker 7: these guys instead of being behind them for a half
29:10
Speaker 7: a day or a day.
29:13
Speaker 1: The nationwide hunt for Gilbert and Elliot intensified. Law enforcement
29:18
Speaker 1: agencies mobilized additional helicopters to search for Roxy Ruggles' two-toned
29:22
Speaker 1: pickup truck on routes heading west. Long-haul truck drivers were
29:28
Speaker 1: also notified to report any sightings on the road or
29:31
Speaker 1: at rest stops. Hundreds of calls poured into police in Oklahoma, Missouri,
29:37
Speaker 1: and Ohio.
29:40
Speaker 4: But none led to.
29:47
Speaker 1: The fugitives' immediate whereabouts.
29:53
Speaker 7: Every time the phone rang, I was very concerned that
29:56
Speaker 7: it would be another body. And that's a terrible feeling
29:59
Speaker 7: when you're working a case like this, when you know
30:01
Speaker 7: what has happened up to that point and what you envision.
30:03
Speaker 7: The worst thing you can envision in your mind would
30:05
Speaker 7: happen if this thing continued. So every time the phone
30:08
Speaker 7: rang and somebody said it was for me, that was
30:10
Speaker 7: my biggest fear. That was the first thing that came.
30:12
Speaker 1: Into my mind.
30:12
Speaker 7: Oh, we found another body.
30:16
Speaker 1: The two suspected spree killers had chosen elderly people and
30:19
Speaker 1: women as their prey. And the FBI didn't know where
30:24
Speaker 1: or whom they would strike next. By September 5th, 1994,
30:31
Speaker 1: after a week of searching, the FBI and local law
30:34
Speaker 1: enforcement were no closer to finding two suspects in a
30:37
Speaker 1: killing spree that spanned three states. Agents believe that 22-year-old
30:43
Speaker 1: Lewis Gilbert and 16-year-old Eric Elliott were headed to the
30:47
Speaker 1: home of Elliott's mother in California, driving a stolen two-tone
30:51
Speaker 1: pickup truck with Oklahoma plates. Missouri Lieutenant Timothy Daimler feared
30:57
Speaker 1: the murder suspects would kill again if they decided to
31:00
Speaker 1: steal another car as they traveled west.
31:03
Speaker 5: I wasn't thinking serial killer at the time. I guess
31:07
Speaker 5: what was going through my mind at the time was
31:10
Speaker 5: that these guys didn't care who they killed, and I
31:14
Speaker 5: was thinking that we need to catch these people.
31:19
Speaker 1: News reports and bulletins alerted people in western states that
31:23
Speaker 1: the suspected killers were headed their way In New Mexico,
31:31
Speaker 1: state police criminal agent Daniel Becker first heard about the
31:35
Speaker 1: fugitives through the media.
31:38
Speaker 6: My initial thought was that the chances of them being
31:42
Speaker 6: apprehended in New Mexico were extremely slim because of the
31:45
Speaker 6: wide open spaces that we have and a relatively small
31:49
Speaker 6: amount of law enforcement that we have throughout the state.
31:56
Speaker 1: The same day the reports began to hit the news
31:59
Speaker 1: in New Mexico, Gilbert and Elliot stopped at the rural
32:02
Speaker 1: home of an older couple 15 miles south of Santa Fe.
32:12
Speaker 1: They claimed that the stolen two-tone pickup truck was low
32:15
Speaker 1: on gas. The couple agreed to help. The fugitives said
32:22
Speaker 1: they were on their way to California, but the woman
32:25
Speaker 1: was suspicious and she didn't see any luggage in the truck.
32:48
Speaker 1: To her, they seemed jumpy and left in a hurry
32:50
Speaker 1: when they heard the noise of nearby construction work. The
32:59
Speaker 1: woman reported the sighting to the New Mexico State Police.
33:03
Speaker 1: But by the time units arrived to investigate, the two
33:06
Speaker 1: young men were nowhere in sight. The following morning of
33:11
Speaker 1: September 6th, a New Mexico man reported another sighting to police.
33:18
Speaker 1: He claimed to have seen Gilbert and Elliot the previous night.
33:23
Speaker 1: The man told the officer that he first encountered them
33:25
Speaker 1: while driving on Highway 599 outside Santa Fe. The motorist
33:35
Speaker 1: saw two young hitchhikers and pulled over to pick them up.
33:38
Speaker 6: Hey, how's it going?
33:49
Speaker 1: Thanks for picking us.
33:51
Speaker 6: Up.
33:52
Speaker 1: They said their pickup truck had gotten stuck in the mud.
33:58
Speaker 1: He didn't realize who they were until he saw their
34:00
Speaker 1: photos on the news the next morning, describing them as
34:03
Speaker 1: suspected killers. The witness said he gave the pair a
34:09
Speaker 1: ride to the store where they bought food and gas.
34:14
Speaker 1: Later that night, he saw them again and drove them
34:16
Speaker 1: back to the place they had first met. It was
34:28
Speaker 1: a desolate part of the highway. The officer needed a
34:37
Speaker 1: landmark to estimate where the motorist had dropped the fugitives.
34:42
Speaker 1: The man said it was close to a small overpass.
34:47
Speaker 1: In the chance that the fugitives were still in the area,
34:49
Speaker 1: He alerted all area law enforcement. The New Mexico State
34:55
Speaker 1: Police were aware they had to move fast. Two units
35:04
Speaker 1: raced to the location to conduct a search for any
35:06
Speaker 1: trace of the suspected murderers. They found the overpass in
35:12
Speaker 1: a remote area. Reports had warned that the Ohio men
35:17
Speaker 1: were armed. Gilbert and Elliot would be tired and desperate
35:29
Speaker 1: after running and hiding for seven days with little money.
35:34
Speaker 1: Officers prepared for the worst. If the fugitives were still
35:41
Speaker 1: in the area, they had miles of shrubs and hills
35:44
Speaker 1: behind which they could conceal themselves and take aim at
35:47
Speaker 1: anyone approaching.
35:48
Speaker 6: Exactly.
35:54
Speaker 1: Officers were instructed to use extreme caution. The team wanted
36:03
Speaker 1: to bring them back alive. They scanned the dust for footprints,
36:14
Speaker 1: food wrappers and soda bottles. Anything that might indicate the
36:17
Speaker 1: suspected killers were still in the area. They approached one
36:25
Speaker 1: of six culverts underneath the highway. Carefully, they moved forward
36:36
Speaker 1: for a closer look. One officer spotted two men lying
36:43
Speaker 1: on the ground inside, apparently sleeping. One of the startled
37:12
Speaker 1: men appeared to be groping for his gun in the dark.
37:15
Speaker 1: In the next split second, officers had to decide whether
37:19
Speaker 1: they needed to use deadly force to stop the suspected
37:22
Speaker 1: spree killers. On September 6th, 1994, New Mexico State Police
37:29
Speaker 1: were within a few feet of murder suspects Lewis Gilbert
37:33
Speaker 1: and Eric Elliott. The fugitives reached for their weapons, but
37:39
Speaker 1: chose not to die. After a murder spree that took
37:46
Speaker 1: the lives of four victims in less than a week,
37:49
Speaker 1: the pair was arrested without a struggle. The 1,800-mile chase
37:54
Speaker 1: had ended. FBI Special Agent Peter Christ got the news
37:59
Speaker 1: of their arrest in Ohio.
38:02
Speaker 7: My reaction, of course, when I received that news was
38:04
Speaker 7: a tremendous sigh of relief. The first thing I wanted
38:08
Speaker 7: to know, it was after they'd been caught, were there
38:11
Speaker 7: any bodies, were there any unsolved homicides close to where
38:14
Speaker 7: they were arrested? Of course, the answer was no. Just
38:18
Speaker 7: a tremendous sigh of relief that this whole thing was
38:20
Speaker 7: finally over.
38:25
Speaker 1: Officers recovered a. 22 handgun and a green soda bottle
38:28
Speaker 1: at the campsite where the pair were apprehended. They also
38:33
Speaker 1: found the bedspread belonging to the murdered Mrs.
38:35
Speaker 4: Brewer.
38:39
Speaker 1: State police found Roxy Ruttle's stolen pickup two miles away
38:42
Speaker 1: near a racetrack in Santa Fe. Like their other two
38:48
Speaker 1: stolen vehicles, the truck was stuck in the mud. Examining fingerprints,
38:53
Speaker 1: crime scene and lab investigators matched personal items to the
38:56
Speaker 1: murdered woman in Oklahoma City. Investigators also found another green
39:02
Speaker 1: soda bottle, the same brand they had found under the
39:05
Speaker 1: culvert and in Ruth Loder's car. Eric Elliott and Louis
39:11
Speaker 1: Gilbert were taken to the New Mexico State Police District
39:14
Speaker 1: office in Santa Fe. If they could turn one against
39:20
Speaker 1: the other, their prosecution would be assured. 16-year-old Eric Elliott
39:27
Speaker 1: made one phone call to his father in Ohio and
39:30
Speaker 1: refused to say anything about the killings. Now it was
39:36
Speaker 1: Lewis Gilbert's turn. The ex-convict waived his rights and agreed
39:41
Speaker 1: to be interviewed. New Mexico State Police criminal agent Daniel
39:45
Speaker 1: Becker had little time to prepare.
39:49
Speaker 6: Gilbert revealed very little during the first hour of our
39:51
Speaker 6: interview about these killings. A couple times he made mention of,
39:56
Speaker 6: I asked him if he had did this out of,
40:00
Speaker 6: for some justifiable reason, or if he's a cold-blooded killer,
40:04
Speaker 6: and he responded by saying, one of those.
40:11
Speaker 1: Gilbert claimed that he didn't recall what had happened over
40:14
Speaker 1: the past five days.
40:18
Speaker 7: Did you murder him?
40:20
Speaker 1: He refused to say anything about the murders or Mrs.
40:23
Speaker 1: Loader's disappearance. Frustrated, the investigator left the room. A few
40:36
Speaker 1: moments alone was all Gilbert needed.
40:40
Speaker 6: After we had taken our first break, Gilbert began to
40:44
Speaker 6: open up a little bit more, and he actually made
40:47
Speaker 6: an admission that he had killed between one and five people.
40:51
Speaker 6: And when I had asked him why he had killed people,
40:53
Speaker 6: he said, for stupid reasons.
40:59
Speaker 1: Gilbert began by recounting the day he met the woman
41:02
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma. He said that he and Elliot struck up
41:10
Speaker 1: a conversation with Roxy Ruddle. and they found her fishing
41:13
Speaker 1: alone in a secluded area of Draper Lake near Oklahoma City.
41:22
Speaker 1: They told her that their car was stuck in the
41:23
Speaker 1: mud and needed a ride back to town.
41:28
Speaker 8: She offered to help and packed up her gear. Her
41:42
Speaker 8: pickup truck was parked just up the hill.
41:45
Speaker 1: Give me the keys. When her back was turned, Gilbert
41:52
Speaker 1: pulled the. 22 pistol Elliot had taken from his parents'
41:55
Speaker 1: Ohio home. Then Gilbert told Elliot to tie Ruttle's hands.
42:06
Speaker 1: Gilbert said Ruttle cried and asked him not to hurt her.
42:12
Speaker 1: Elliot stayed behind while Gilbert marched Ruttle into the woods.
42:23
Speaker 1: He told her to sit down at the base of
42:24
Speaker 1: a tree. Then he shot Roxy Ruttle. Now that Gilbert
42:41
Speaker 1: had admitted to one murder, the agent pressed him on
42:44
Speaker 1: the others. He asked the confessed killer to describe what
42:49
Speaker 1: had happened in Missouri the day before he got to Oklahoma.
42:54
Speaker 6: Gilbert advised me that they had been traveling through the
42:58
Speaker 6: state of Missouri, and the evening before the murders, they
43:01
Speaker 6: had parked the stolen vehicle that they had obtained in
43:05
Speaker 6: Ohio in what I was led to believe was a field.
43:10
Speaker 6: and they'd slept in the vehicle overnight, and the following
43:13
Speaker 6: morning or afternoon when they were about to leave, they
43:16
Speaker 6: realized the vehicle was stuck. So they needed to get
43:18
Speaker 6: another vehicle.
43:23
Speaker 1: As Missouri investigators believed, Gilbert and Elliot had simply walked
43:27
Speaker 1: to the closest house and saw a car in the driveway.
43:33
Speaker 1: It was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Brewer. Gilbert
43:39
Speaker 1: decided they'd ask to use the phone to call for
43:41
Speaker 1: a tow.
43:43
Speaker 8: Wanting to help, the brewers let the young men in.
43:59
Speaker 6: Once inside, they learned that they didn't have a telephone book,
44:02
Speaker 6: so they couldn't come up with a number to call
44:04
Speaker 6: for a wrecker, and it's at that point that Gilbert
44:06
Speaker 6: told me that he decided, or they decided, that they
44:08
Speaker 6: were going to kill the Brewers.
44:14
Speaker 1: They led the grandfather and grandmother into the basement. Then
44:17
Speaker 1: executed them. There was one more crime that Gilbert had
44:34
Speaker 1: not discussed. The elderly cancer patient from Ohio, Mrs. Loader,
44:44
Speaker 1: was still missing and presumed dead. No one knew what
44:49
Speaker 1: had become of her. On the evening of August 29th, 1994,
44:58
Speaker 1: Lewis Gilbert and Eric Elliott approached Mrs. Loader's Port Washington
45:02
Speaker 1: home to steal her car. Since no one answered when
45:10
Speaker 1: they knocked, they believed the house was empty. So they
45:19
Speaker 1: broke in to search for the car keys. After 10 minutes,
45:26
Speaker 1: they still hadn't found the key As they rummaged through
45:30
Speaker 1: the living room, they were startled when Mrs. Loader suddenly appeared.
45:36
Speaker 1: He claimed Mrs. Loader was still alive when he locked
45:38
Speaker 1: her in the trunk of her car and sped off.
45:46
Speaker 6: They got about four miles outside of town in a
45:50
Speaker 6: wooded area, and they pulled up alongside of a guardrail
45:54
Speaker 6: and parked, got outside, Gilbert told me that he opened
45:59
Speaker 6: the trunk and he picked up Mrs. Loader out of
46:02
Speaker 6: the trunk and they took her off the road near
46:06
Speaker 6: the guardrail about five feet from the side of the road.
46:11
Speaker 1: Gilbert said he forced Mrs. Loader to walk away from
46:14
Speaker 1: the car. He said he shot her with the same.
46:18
Speaker 1: 22 that had killed the others. We drove a little
46:22
Speaker 1: ways and.
46:25
Speaker 1: Gilbert had finished his description of the murders. but he
46:30
Speaker 1: hadn't told the agent where they could find the murdered
46:32
Speaker 1: Ohio woman.
46:35
Speaker 6: We knew it was crucial to find Mrs. Loader's body,
46:40
Speaker 6: both as evidence so this murder could be prosecuted and
46:44
Speaker 6: also just simply as closure for the family so that
46:49
Speaker 6: they could find her and make for proper arrangements for
46:53
Speaker 6: a funeral.
46:57
Speaker 1: Gilbert gave authorities directions to find Mrs. Loader's remains. 50
47:03
Speaker 1: people from the FBI and 12 different law enforcement and
47:06
Speaker 1: volunteer groups followed Gilbert's directions. They searched for the dead
47:13
Speaker 1: woman in fields and woods and hills for days. But
47:19
Speaker 1: the 79-year-old widow and mother of four was never found.
47:28
Speaker 1: Sheriff Walter Wilson continues to work the open case.
47:33
Speaker 3: When you work a murder case, you almost become part
47:38
Speaker 3: of a family, so to speak, because your goal, obviously,
47:41
Speaker 3: is to solve the crime, to help the victims, the
47:44
Speaker 3: surviving victims, as much as you possibly can. It's something, obviously,
47:49
Speaker 3: that will never, ever be forgotten. I have a high
47:53
Speaker 3: respect for the Loader family. Having got to know them
47:56
Speaker 3: very well, I feel bad to this day that we've
47:59
Speaker 3: not yet been able to recover Mrs. Loader's remains.
48:05
Speaker 1: 16-year-old Eric Elliott stood trial as an adult in Oklahoma.
48:10
Speaker 1: Elliott was found guilty of first-degree murder for his participation
48:14
Speaker 1: in the killing of Roxy Ruddell. He was sentenced to
48:17
Speaker 1: life without parole. In Missouri, after 57 years of marriage...
48:24
Speaker 1: the Brewers were laid to rest. Unlike the family of
48:28
Speaker 1: Ruth Loader, the Brewer family was able to have some
48:32
Speaker 1: closure for their tragic loss. After being sentenced to death
48:39
Speaker 1: for the murder of Roxy Ruddle in Oklahoma, Lewis Gilman
48:42
Speaker 1: was extradited to Missouri, where he stood trial for the
48:45
Speaker 1: murders of William and Flossie Brewer.
48:49
Speaker 6: Lewis, where's Ruth?
48:51
Speaker 1: Where's the lady in Ohio? Where's Ruth, Lewis? Give her
48:54
Speaker 1: family a break. He remained silent on the whereabouts of
48:59
Speaker 1: Ruth Loader's remains. Since the Ohio woman has not yet
49:04
Speaker 1: been recovered, there has been no trial date set to
49:08
Speaker 1: answer for her kidnapping and murder. For her family and friends,
49:13
Speaker 1: Gilbert and Elliot's actions are unconscionable.
49:17
Speaker 3: I've often thought, what, what goes through their mind or
49:20
Speaker 3: what causes them to do that, and I really, it's
49:24
Speaker 3: hard to understand or think what they're thinking other than
49:28
Speaker 3: obviously they have to be very evil people.
49:52
Speaker 1: Thank you.