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The Killer Who Stole Baby Dolls · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine stepping into just a horrifically violent crime scene.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You look around and you see valuables left out on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the table. Cash is completely untouched.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Untouched.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And the family pets are quietly waiting in the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: next room, totally unharmed.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Which is so strange for that kind of scene.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Exactly. The whole scene just defies every expectation of a
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: standard robbery. But the killer did take the time to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: steal just one.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Incredibly specific thing.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this part is wild.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Two hyper-realistic baby dolls. So today for this deep dive,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: we are looking at an unsolved case where the missing
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: items tell a much darker, much more complex story than
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: like the physical evidence left behind.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: They really do. And to understand the anomaly of those
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: missing items, you kind of have to understand the environment
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: where this all took place. Right.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: The setting is super important here.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: It really is. So it is Monday, January 21st, 2008.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And you are in Salina, Kansas.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: And the Midwestern atmosphere is just heavy. It's a freezing, gray,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: heavily overcast afternoon.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. Sounds bleak.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Totally bleak. And because it's a federal holiday, kids are
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: out of school, many adults are off work, so the
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: neighborhoods are just eerily quiet.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Like a ghost town.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's the definition of a bitter winter day where
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: people stay inside, you know, they keep their curtains drawn
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: tight and just avoid the cold at all costs.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: And that atmosphere actually perfectly mirrors the everyday life of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: our victim.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So 56-year-old Beverly Logan was a certified nursing assistant. She
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: spent her days dedicating herself to caring for the elderly
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: at the local Presbyterian Manor.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: By all accounts, from those who loved her, she was
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: a gentle, intensely shy woman.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she preferred the quiet company of animals over crowds.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: She had a Yorkshire terrier named Jen, two birds, and
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: this distinct, deep-seated love for goats.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Which is such an endearing detail. But her social circle
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: was incredibly tight-knit, functioning with a level of caution that
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Kind of bordered on the extreme.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: She kept her life very intentionally quiet and guarded.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Right. But those who knew her well described this really beautiful,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: contrasting detail. When she felt entirely safe, surrounded by trusted
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: family members, she would occasionally break out of her shell
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: and do a little jig.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Across the room. That's so sweet.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: It was. Just a flash of unexpected joy in an
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: otherwise highly regimented existence.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: But, you know, that flash of joy makes the events
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of that afternoon... even harder to reconcile.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Because by 1.15 p.m., that guarded existence was just completely shattered.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So Beverly had been recovering from a severe bout of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the flu, but she was finally feeling better and was
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: scheduled to work the 2 p.m. shift at the manor.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: And since she didn't drive, her daily routine relied heavily
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: on a local rideshare bus service. The timeline of her
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: morning here is brutally narrow.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's walk through that timeline.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: So she called the bus service between 10 and 10.30 a.m.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: to schedule her pickup. And around that exact same time,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: she spoke with her sister on the phone. Her mother
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: reported speaking to her a bit later at 11.50 a.m.,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: though phone records couldn't definitively confirm that specific call.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Right. But regardless of that final call, we know as
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: an absolute fact that at 1.18 p.m., the scheduled bus
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: arrived outside her house.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: And the driver waits outside in the freezing cold, 1.25 p.m. 1.30 p.m.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Just waiting.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. By 1.35 p.m., Beverly hasn't emerged from the house.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: So assuming she changed her mind or caught another ride,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the driver leaves.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Which, you know, her coworkers at the manor instantly recognize
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: as a massive red flag. Oh, absolutely. A no-call no-show
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: is a severe deviation from Beverly's baseline behavior. It simply
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: isn't something she would ever do.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Never.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: So when their frantic calls go unanswered, the anxiety peaks.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: By 3.30 p.m., they contact the Salina Police Department to
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: request an immediate welfare check.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: And this transforms a quiet winter afternoon into an active
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: criminal investigation.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so our mission in this deep dive is to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: decode the contradictory clues left behind in a dark house,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: examine the secret life of a quiet woman, and ask you,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the listener, to help connect the dots of a case
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: that has baffled law enforcement for over a decade.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Let's walk through it exactly as the investigators did. So
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Detective Melissa Short arrives on the scene just before 4 p.m.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: And this is her very first homicide investigation, right?
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Her very first. Talk about tension. The patrol officer who
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: initially responded directs her to the front door, which is
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: found slightly ajar.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: That's already terrifying.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: And a single ominous detail stands out before she even
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: steps across the threshold. There's a small amount of blood
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: on the exterior door handle.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, God.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Inside, the house is... Plunged into darkness, every single curtain
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: is tightly drawn against that January chill. The only light
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: source is a solitary lamp left on in the living room.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: So Detective Short has to rely on her flashlight to
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: navigate the open layout of the kitchen and dining room.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And the beam of that flashlight sweeps across the
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: floor and reveals just a horrific scene. Right.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Beverly is lying motionless on the ground. And she is
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: completely nude. having been stabbed approximately 25 times.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: That's brutal.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: And there are significant defensive wounds on her hands, showing
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: that she fought her attacker desperately.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: She really fought back. Yeah.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Near her body lies a small piece of plastic, seemingly
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: snapped off the handle of the murder weapon during the struggle.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: But the knife itself is nowhere to be found.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Right. The weapon is just gone. And, you know, forensic
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: analysts evaluate crime scenes to establish a behavioral narrative.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: What does that mean exactly?
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Well, a standard home invasion leaves a specific, recognizable signature.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Usually you see forced entry, ransacked bedrooms, and stolen valuables.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: But this scene defies all those expectations.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Completely. The pets, Jen the Yorkie and the birds, they're unharmed.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Cash is sitting out in the open, totally ignored. The
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: jewelry Beverly was wearing wasn't removed.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: It's like looking at an equation that simply doesn't balance. Exactly.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: And despite the front door being left ajar, there is
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: absolutely no sign of forced entry on any of the
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: windows or doors. Right.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: So if it's a robbery, why is the cash still there?
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: If it's a targeted hit by a professional, the house
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: is usually pristine and the violence is efficient, right?
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. A professional hit looks completely different.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: So this scene is this chaotic middle ground that contradicts
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: standard criminal profiles. I mean, why would a killer leave
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the house in such a bizarre, interrupted state?
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: And that concept right there of interruption is the absolute
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: key to understanding the killer's movements.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, how so?
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Two major clues support this behavioral analysis. First, investigators check
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: the bathroom. They find blood in the sink and a
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: wet towel hanging up.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: So she was interrupted.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Exactly. This tells forensic teams that Beverly was attacked, or
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the attack began, just after she showered to get ready
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: for her 2 p.m. shift.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: It also reveals a chilling detail. the killer paused to
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: wash their hands in her sink before fleeing the house.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Just casually washing up?
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: That's horrifying. And the second clue is where the behavioral
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: profiling gets really fascinating. Over near the front door, there's
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: a pile of items just dumped on the floor.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: And it's not just a random mess knocked over during
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: a struggle, right?
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. It's a very specific collection. It's
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: an empty Dylan's grocery bag, a partially empty Pepsi bottle,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: a water bottle... Various papers, a pair of lavender pajamas,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: gray and black shoes, a pink clothing item, a tissue,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: and a pill bottle.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So what does that tell analysts?
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: They view this through the lens of crime scene staging
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: versus a crime of opportunity. The killer didn't just drop
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: a grocery bag. They actively emptied it.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they dumped out Beverly's personal items, her pajamas, her medication,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: her drinks, because they desperately needed a container.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Meaning stealing something large wasn't part of their original plan.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Something happened inside that house that made the killer
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: suddenly realize they needed to carry something out.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Like what?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Could be their own bloody clothes, the broken knife, or
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: something else entirely.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: And the timeline makes that entire sequence of events terrifying.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, the killer enters, commits a brutal and prolonged murder,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: washes their hands in the victim's sink, empties a grocery bag,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: finds whatever they need to steal, and vanishes.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: All within a one- to two-hour window. Right.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: On a federal holiday, when the neighborhood is full of
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: people home from work and school, nobody sees a suspect,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: nobody hears a scream.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Which forces investigators to rely heavily on victimology.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Which is the deep study of the victim's personality, routines,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and habits to understand how the crime occurred.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Right. And Beverly's sense of caution was legendary among her family.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: She kept doors locked constantly.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: If you knocked on her door, you would literally see
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the curtains shift as she meticulously checked your identity before
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: even considering turning the deadbolt.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she was that careful.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: She frequently only spoke to unexpected visitors through a locked
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: screen door.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: We are talking about her ultimate comfort zone. A highly
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: security-conscious woman with intense shyness would never open her front
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: door to a stranger. Never. Never.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: It defies all logic that she would open it while
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: entirely nude, having just stepped out of the shower. Exactly.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: And current lead investigator, Detective Aaron Carswell, developed two primary
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: theories based on this victimology.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, what's theory one?
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Theory one suggests someone she knew intimately knocked on the door.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Because she trusted them, she let them in. Perhaps she
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: rejected a sudden sexual advance and the situation devolved into
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: fatal violence.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: But she was actively getting ready for work. It's incredibly
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: hard to believe a shy person would invite a guest
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: inside while she was in the middle of showering and dressing.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Right, which is why Detective Carswell tends to lean toward
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Theory 2.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Which is?
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: The killer was already inside. Whoa. Yeah, they might have
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: been an overnight guest. someone she implicitly trusted to be
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: in her home while she went about her morning routine.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: So she goes to take her shower, steps out, and
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the violence erupts in her most vulnerable moment.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And if the killer is someone in her inner circle,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: we have to look closely at what they took in
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: that improvised Dylan's grocery bag.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Because when the family was finally allowed back into the home,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: they noticed exactly what was missing.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: It wasn't the cash on the counter. It wasn't electronics.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: It was two highly specific Ashton Drake baby dolls.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Just to give you an idea, these are from collections
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: called Tiny Miracles and Truly Real. These are not standard
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: plastic toys you buy at a big box store.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: They are 8 to 10 inches tall. They feature real hair,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: meticulously painted lifelike hands, and are coated in a special
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: vinyl designed to mimic the exact weight and feel of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: human skin.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: They're incredibly realistic.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: And they retail for about $ 80 to $ 100 each.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: They are literally designed to look and feel exactly like
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: premature infants. Out of everything in that house, out of
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: all the easily pawnable valuables, these are the two items
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: the killer takes.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: It's so bizarre. You really have to ask yourself, is
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the killer a bizarre collector who knew she had these
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: specific dolls? Or is this a massive red herring to
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: confuse the police?
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: It's a huge question.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Because taking lifelike baby dolls from a scene of absolute
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: slaughter feels like claiming a highly specific psychological trophy. Right.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Taking a substitute child from a violent crime scene completely
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: shifts the psychological profile of the suspect.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: It moves the needle away from a standard burglary gone
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: wrong or even a typical crime of passion and points
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: towards something deeply obsessive and disturbed.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Fortunately, the killer left behind more than just a psychological puzzle.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Because Beverly fought back so fiercely, investigators found physical evidence.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, DNA under her fingernails.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: But this is where the forensic science gets incredibly complicated,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: because it wasn't a standard DNA profile. It was YSTR DNA.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Right. To explain that, think of standard DNA like a
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: full name. It gives you the first, middle, and last name,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: pointing to one specific, unique individual on the entire planet.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: YSTR DNA is just the last name. It only identifies
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: a male paternal line. A father, a son, a brother,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: and an uncle will all share the exact same YSTR profile.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: So it's a fantastic tool for ruling a suspect out,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: but it's terrible for pointing the finger at one specific
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: guy in a courtroom.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly. If the sample doesn't match, you know with absolute
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: certainty that person is innocent.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: And law enforcement immediately used this tool to test their
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: prime suspect, right?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: They did. Victor Logan, Beverly's second husband.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: She was entirely estranged from him and had previously filed
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: protective orders against him due to a history of domestic violence.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Right. And he also had a rap sheet for theft
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: and narcotics.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: So on paper, he is the perfect suspect for an
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: escalating domestic homicide.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: He really is. But investigators track Victor down to a
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: motel across town. He claims he was in that room
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: all day.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: And when detectives examine his body for defensive wounds... Knowing
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Beverly fought for her life, they find absolutely nothing. No cuts,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: no scratches, no bruising.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Nothing. And when the lab runs the YSTR DNA profile,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: it completely excludes him. Wow. Yeah. Victor Logan is definitively
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: not the killer.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: With the ex-husband's DNA entirely excluded, investigators hit a brick wall.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: So to find a new lead, they had to look
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: past the quiet CNA they thought they knew and dig
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: into a completely hidden aspect of her life.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: And this is where the case takes a turn. This
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: intensely shy woman who loved goats and dancing had a
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: secret hobby.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: She and her friend Kelly were pen pals with incarcerated men.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. They used websites specifically designed to connect the public
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: with inmates.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: And they didn't just write letters from the safety of
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: their homes. They actively drove out to maximum security Kansas
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: prisons like Hutchinson, Eldorado, and Leavenworth for in-person visits.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Which just blows the suspect pool wide open. The focus
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: immediately shifts to a man named Clyde, a parolee who
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: had served time for second-degree murder and burglary.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: In the summer of 2006, after being released, Clyde actually
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: took a bus to Salina and stayed at Beverly's house
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: for a couple of days.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Right. And Beverly later confided in a friend that they
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: had a sexual relationship during that visit, but that Clyde
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: was aggressively pushy, selfish, and heavily pressured her into things
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: she didn't want to do.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: So we have a paroled murderer who has been inside
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the house, knows her daily routine, and has a documented
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: history of sexual aggression.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: He fits the profile perfectly.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: It sounds like an exact match for Detective Carwell's theory
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: of an overnight guest who turned violent.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: It does, but forensic reality shuts the theory down entirely.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: What happened?
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Investigators track Clyde down about an hour and a half
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: east of Salina. They discover that on the exact day
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: of the murder, he was wearing a court-ordered ankle monitor.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He could not have been anywhere near Celina. His
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: DNA is tested, just to be thorough, and he is
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: completely ruled out.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Which sets off a deeply frustrating pattern for the police.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: They cast a massive net. They swab over 50 men.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: 50 men. Yeah.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: They test her prison contacts, her relatives, friends of relatives.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: They even test a random Taco Bell employee who happened
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: to be spotted walking near her house that day.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: And every single one of them is excluded by the
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: YSTR DNA. Over 50 men tested and 50 men cleared.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: It is a devastating dead end for the investigation.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: So frustrating. But while the investigation stalled on a forensic level,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the human cost of this crime compounded in the most
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: tragic way possible for the family.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this part is just, it's awful.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: The police completely botched the notification. They actually failed to
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: tell the family that Beverly had been murdered.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: The communication breakdown was staggering. It wasn't until Tuesday the 22nd,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: the entire day after the murder, that a family member
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: happened to be driving past Beverly's house on a routine errand.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: And they see police cruisers parked out front. They see
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the yellow crime scene tape flapping in the freezing wind.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: So panicked, they call a friend they know on the
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: police force, assuming there must be a standoff or a
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: medical emergency.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: And the friend assumes the family has already been briefed
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: by detectives.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Right. So that is how they find out Beverly is dead.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: By driving past crime scene tape.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: It's hard to fathom the psychological scar that kind of
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: shock leaves on a family. Beverly's niece, Nicole White, explains
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: that their lives are permanently altered.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Understandably so.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: To this day, they keep their blinds constantly closed. They
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: obsessively check the locks on their doors. They have been
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: stripped of their ability to trust anyone, knowing the killer
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: might still be someone in their periphery.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: And to try and bring some closure to that trauma,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Detective Carwell revived the case in 2018.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, what did he find?
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: He pulled every single piece of evidence from long-term storage.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: He read every single prison letter Beverly ever received to
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: look for overlooked threats.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: And what about the jewelry?
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: The jewelry Beverly was wearing was retested with modern forensic techniques,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: hoping to find a microscopic trace of the killer's DNA
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: left behind during the struggle. But? Sadly, the results showed
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: it only contained Beverly's own blood.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: What about genetic genealogy? Like the revolutionary technology that caught
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the Golden State Killer? We know they have DNA samples.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is the most heartbreaking forensic limitation of
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: the entire case. That YSTR sample collected from under her
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: fingernails was incredibly small to begin with. Oh no. The
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: initial round of testing back in 2008 consumed almost the
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: entire biological sample. There simply isn't enough material left to
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: build the full genetic profile required to run those complex
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: genealogical database searches today.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: That is devastating. But the fight for justice continues. Beverly's great-niece,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Kesa Wood has taken up the mantle.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: She has been incredible.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: She is out there filing Freedom of Information Act requests,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: constantly pushing the Salina Police Department for updates, and advocating
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to step in and
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: take over the case.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And a meeting in May of 2026 brought up the
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: hope of genetic genealogy again.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Really? How so?
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Well, if technology advances just a tiny bit further, perhaps
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: they can amplify that minuscule trace of DNA and finally
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: generate a usable profile.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: So there's still a chance.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: There is always a chance.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: As we step back from the forensics and the timeline,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: we are left with the core tragedy of January 21st, 2008.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: A gentle, intensely cautious caregiver, a woman whose life was
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: defined by looking after vulnerable people, was brutally betrayed in
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: her most vulnerable moment.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Stepping out of a shower in her own locked home,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: likely attacked by someone she trusted enough to let inside.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Her family has waited 18 years for answers. Someone listening
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: to this might hold the key.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. We know there were dating websites involved in Beverly's
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: life back then, older sites that no longer have accessible
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: long-term records.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: If you knew Beverly Logan... if you know who she
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: was talking to online in 2007 or 2008 or if
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: you have any information at all you are urged to
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: call 1-800-KS-CRIME or contact the salina police department directly at
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: 785-826-7210 please make the call but before.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: You go I want you to consider one final, deeply
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: unsettling detail. Investigators spent years focusing heavily on the men
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: in Beverly's life. The ex-husband, the prison pen pals, the
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: dating sites. Because the YSTR DNA proved the killer was male.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: But what if the key to this mystery isn't in
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: those prison letters at all?
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: You're thinking about the dolls.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: What if the killer came specifically for those two lifelike
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: baby dolls? We see the dumped grocery bag near the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: door as an improvised tool. The killer empties her belongings
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to create a container.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Could they have used that bag specifically to hide the
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: dolls on their way out? What kind of person targets
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: a substitute child from a scene of absolute slaughter?
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: It's a chilling thought.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: We've spent this entire time picturing a spurned romantic prospect
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: or a violent felon. But perhaps we should be picturing
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: a highly disturbed individual walking out into that freezing gray
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Midwestern sky, carrying a grocery bag with two incredibly lifelike
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: infants inside. Think about that dark psychological profile as you
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: go about your day.