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Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and
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with me as always is a man who's been let loose from his noose that's kept him hanging around. Here is the captain. and
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it's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
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Today we are still sipping on this hazy IPA called Boneface Killer from Tactical
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Brewing. Very fittingly featuring a Skeletor type character imagery on the beautiful beer can art. And Tactical has
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some of the very, very best beer can art in all of the business. Pour this one in
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a glass cuz she got good body. Garage grade four and 3/4 bottle caps out of five. And let's give some thanks and
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praise to our good garage friends. First up, a cheers to Amy Burch in Lewisville,
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Texas. >> And a big tall cans in there to Sophie and Minnesota. >> Next up, we have Jen Daly in Oyola,
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Indiana. And last, but certainly not least, we have a triple cheers to Dave, Nikki, and Randy, and Northern Utah.
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Everyone we just mentioned, they helped us out with this week's beer fund. Gave us a beer for the show, and for that, we
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thank you. Yeah, BWR beerun. For everything true crime, check out true crimegar.com. If you need more content,
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then check out our show, Off the Record, on Patreon or Apple Podcast subscription, and we will tickle your
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ear balls. And that's enough of the business. All right, everybody, gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's
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talk some True Crime. When we left off here, Captain, we have two unsolved murders. And in my humble
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garage opinion, they are eerily similar in nature and in the details. And it seems like the detectives agreed as well
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back in 1992 when they were conducting their investigations. regarding the investigation to the second murder of in
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this series here is Mary Ellen Wise and we talked at length about her abduction and then being moved to two different
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banks to make transactions and then later her body being found. But one thing that we will read in the papers
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and see on the news when the detectives are asking for help or being probed themselves and being asked about the the
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case in the investigation is detectives explained why the lack of forced entry mattered in the Mary Ellen Wise case.
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And they stated clearly that if Mary Ellen did not know her abductor, it would mean that she opened her door to a
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stranger. This would be in complete contrast to something that her family said to investigators. They're saying
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she would not, this was not her nature. She was very, very cautious, a very cautious person. She would not open her
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door to a stranger. So that either means a, like we talked about in episode 1, perhaps the asalent approached her while
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she was in the garage, garage door open. She's doing laundry. We know that there
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certainly had to have been a lot of activity in that garage based off of blood evidence. Clear signs of a
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struggle. And again, we talked about her dogs. So either this was somebody that she knew and she did let in. the dogs
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didn't perceive any kind of threat. They perhaps went out to the garage together
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and then the attack happened or the asalent had to approach the victim inside of that garage on that morning.
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>> Well, like I said, if they left the door open, maybe it's a sneak attack or maybe
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there's some ruse. And in the first murder, because of the some of the items left behind, the duct tape, the gloves,
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and then the eyewitnesses seeing this small truck with possibly possibly a toolbox in the back. It makes me wonder
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if there's some kind of connection to a handyman or handyman service. About a week after the murder of Mary Ellen
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Wise, an anonymous letter was sent to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. Now, we don't have the
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complete contents of this letter, and to my knowledge, I don't think it's ever been made public. Now, we don't know
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what was discussed in the letter, what was mentioned, or how or the length of the letter other than what law
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enforcement has chose to make public. And what they've made public is that in one portion of this letter, the writer
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offered an opinion about the killer's identity and mentioned a young man who was a boxer
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and a dog owner. And what I am here to tell you all of these years later is while very interesting, the letter did
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not solve the case, it just simply became part of the long uneasy paper trail. Just another fragment of this
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story. As investigators reviewed the pattern in Mary Ellen's case, abduction, forced bank withdrawals, a body left in
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a rural area, they increasingly considered whether her murder could be connected to other crimes, possibly
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committed by the same person who had killed Ruth How just 8 months prior. >> But these are different locations. So,
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and I understand that there's similarities, but there's similarities in a lot of crimes. What What do you
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think sparks the interest or the speculation that it's the same perpetrator? Well, these are different
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areas, but if I'm reading my notes correctly here, you do have one agency that is involved in So, you have
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multiple agencies that are involved in these investigations, but one agency that's involved in both. And so I think
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it's easier to draw a line from A to B when you have investigators working crimes that not only appear to be
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similar in nature, but also they're they're similar in victimology, they're also similar in the fact that
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they took place within just an eight or nine month span of time. >> And do these victims have similar looks?
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I think it might be a stretch to say yes, but I also would I would say that they don't look crazy dissimilar from
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one another. But keep in mind, when you have two cases with no rape or sign of sexual assault, I don't think that the
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the the appearance of the victim is what >> the perpetrator was honing in on. And
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and look, the bank activity in both is very interesting. It's it's not completely
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off the radar, right, that somebody's abducted and then taken to a bank, but it doesn't happen that often. And in
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this case, it happened in both of these cases. And so where I say the victimology is very similar, it's
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similar in the nature that >> these individuals had access to funds and clearly that's what the perpetrator
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wanted. If you want me to go into full profiler mode here, >> what I what I see is somebody who
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changed and adapted to the situation. Okay. So, we both agreed that the first crime was has indicators that suggest
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that it's well thought out and it's well planned. However, what was the outcome?
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Well, there was a security camera at the ATM. There was someone who may have spotted the suspect's vehicle. And so
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what do I if if I'm that guy or the perpetrators and I want to do a repeat, but I what am I going to want to do? I'm
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going to want to eliminate all of the things that could have got me caught in the first one. And I'm going to want to
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exploit all of the things that I did that that people have no witness of. So, I don't want to drive my if if if I'm
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sitting here going, "Oh, yeah. I killed that lady and [ __ ] my red truck was spotted at the orange grove,
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>> right? >> Guess what I don't want to do this time is use my vehicle. I Mary Ellen Wise,
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abducted eight, nine months later, was abducted using her vehicle. >> What else do I not want to do?" I I mean
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you did the report is that the an ATM was accessed in Mary Allen Wise's case, but did the perpetrator make Mary Allen
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Wise do that? Because what I think is a difference here, and I couldn't find verification of it, I think that the
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drive I think that the ATM withdrawal in Mary Ellen Wise's case was a drive up ATM.
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>> Mhm. And what what else is different in this the second case that that didn't go
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well for the perpetrator in the first one? He actually got money from the withdrawals in the second case. The
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first case he didn't. What did police tell us about the first case? They think that it was actually the perpetrator,
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the abductor who was attempting to access that ATM. Who accesses the ATM and who who completes the withdrawal at
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the drive-thru was the victim. So to me, the all the similarities tell me it's the same
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person. The things that are different tell me that they're different for a reason that he is evolving. He's trying
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to get better. >> So because there's no sexual assault, that's probably not the motivation.
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So is it just simply the motivation is monetary? >> Yeah. Cash box stolen at the first one.
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uh bank card used at the first one. This one we have we have a withdrawal and a bank card used again in the second one.
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Now keep in mind this is Mary Alan Wise is killed abducted and killed on November 2nd 1992 and her body was found
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what 8 days later. So let's go on our timeline here to November 21st 1992. So, we're now in the sta same month, same
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general area of Florida when a discount ticket salesman, his name Antonio Zuko, was beaten to death at a location on
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West US Highway 192. So, tourist stopping to ask for directions and to do some shopping. So
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they stop. They find this Antonio Zuko, the victim, age 50 at the time, in the bathroom of his ticket shop in tourist
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information center. An undisclosed amount of cash and a number of tickets to area attractions were taken along
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with Zuko's wallet. Deputies think that the murder weapon may have been a hammer. The Oyola Sheriff's Office was
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the lead investigating agency on this one. So in different parts of the country, especially in the 90s and
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especially in Florida, you would have these places that they would sell tickets to area attractions.
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And Florida being a huge tourist destination, you're going to have a lot of these people that they're they're
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basically vendors that sell the tickets. They make a little bit of money for selling the tickets. And um this is what
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Antonio's business was. And it appears to detectives that somebody came in there with the intent of robbing him.
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But he's not abducted, >> right? >> But but also keep in mind if the intent was robbery that
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>> cash is on hand. >> I'm not going to argue that, >> right? But I what I would argue is I I'm
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looking for the part of in the piece of this story that tells me that the killer
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didn't think that he had to kill Antonio Zuko. I'm looking for the part of of where Antonio Zuko fights back or puts
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the puts the robber in a position where he thinks he has to kill to get out of there or severely injure the individual.
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that part of the story. We don't have any good witnesses, so we don't have that part of the story.
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>> But is it also something very simple, just the size and weight of the victim or like you said, the aggression back?
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It's more risky to try to abduct this individual. >> One of the the major reasons for murder
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would be to cover up another crime. And then how many time it's always you see it in the movies all the time, but it's
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all it's a sad fact of life with these evil people that commit crimes. They don't think the way that you and I think
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they don't see the victim as a human being that has a family and is pro and is a great guy and all these good
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things. They don't see that. They don't care. That's it's leave no witnesses. Who knows what Antonio could have told
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us about the person who robbed him and attacked him if he would have been around to tell us.
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>> Well, there's a there's a possibility there's no disguise. This uh killer could have just saw this as an
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opportunity. But would I be correct in saying that if you're law enforcement, you're looking for an individual more
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like the I70 killer than a Ted Bundy? >> Yes. um the brutality of these attacks,
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especially with the type of instrument used on Mary Allen Wise and now Antonio Zuko,
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>> right? >> I mean, it's it's Ted Bundy without the rape portion of it. >> The motivation seems to be simply money.
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>> Yes. But I also think that there there's a reason for the killing and it's either
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the the if if these are connected, we need we need to be very clear about that. If these are connected, there
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needs to be a reason for the killing. Could it just simply be leave no witness? Very likely. Could it be that
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the individual thinks that they could be identified later or that they know any of these victims? or
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I believe in very rare occasions the killer just can't stop themselves. It's part of
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it's part of it. And I can't tell you without more information if I feel strongly about that here, but it could
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just be part of it. And now we have to introduce to everyone another individual named Bonnie Goodson. and she lived a
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life that took her across several corners of this great country before it ended in a way that no family should
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ever have to imagine. Bonnie Goodson was born in Enkott, New York, and over time
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her life carried her far from her hometown. Eventually, she made her way to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. From there,
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she relocated again, this time to central Florida, moving to CM, Florida in 1975.
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She built a working life that placed her in a position of trust and familiarity in the community. She became a manager
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at a CMI truck accessory store, also referred to as the truck accessory superstore. Now, by the early 1990s,
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Bonnie was not only working, but pushing herself forward in a very personable personal way. She had recently returned
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to school through adult education classes. And after doing that while working her job,
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continuing her work responsibilities and her home life responsibilities, she managed to graduate and received a
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degree in June of 1992. Our timeline, we are now in November of 1992. This was the kind of milestone. This degree was
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supposed to be the kind of milestone that tends to mark a new chapter in someone's life. This was certainly proof
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that she was still building something for herself. She was also a wife and a mother. But then in late 1992, her life
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was broken by violence. On Monday, November 30th, Bonnie Goodson was at the truck accessory store located at 205
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South Bermuda Avenue. We've heard that that road name before, >> right? >> This in CMI, it was an afternoon. It's
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daylight, an ordinary time of day when people would be out shopping, working, running
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errands, as such and such. At some point between 1:30 p.m. and 300 p.m., a robbery occurred inside the store.
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During that robbery, Bonnie was attacked. Police said she had been beaten unconscious,
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struck with a blunt instrument. Two city employees entered the store and found her there, and she was airlifted to the
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hospital at about 300 p.m. that afternoon. An undetermined amount of cash was missing from the store. And an
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early description of the scene and the investigation from police made it clear that they were trying to piece together
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what happened and who was responsible. Their words were, "We are at the scene and we are scraping for clues." This is
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as they put it to the press. >> Right. Do we have any eyewitness that sees any vehicle
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>> here? We have very little in the way of any type of witnesses and same it's very
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similar in that regard to the Antonio Zuko murder that took place really just days prior to this where it appears
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somebody entered a building, entered a business, a store and attacked a robbed and killed the solo individual inside
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that business. Bonnie was taken to the Orlando Regional Medical Center, listed in critical condition. The injuries, of
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course, were severe. She underwent multiple surgeries. She spent hours in the intensive care unit as doctors
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fought to save her. And despite those efforts, she died that night around 9:45 p.m. after several hours of of what they
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were hoping would be lifesaving surgeries. And that'd be tough, too, cuz as as a doctor, you're going, "Okay, I
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can save this life, but also we might be able to get justice if we're able to save her and she's able to tell us what
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happened." >> Absolutely. In the aftermath of this, the CMI police asked the public for
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help, emphasizing this little narrow window of when the attack occurred, right? They were asking anyone who had
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been in or near the truck accessory superstore at 205 South Bermuda Avenue between 1:30 p.m. and 300 p.m. on
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November 30th, 1992. What remains clearest in this telling is not only the brutality of this specific crime, a
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senseless homicide committed during an afternoon robbery, but also the shape of the life it cut short. a mother with two
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daughters, a woman who had just celebrated the achievement of finishing her education in June of '92, only to be
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taken before she could fully step into whatever would come next for her. We only have small amounts of information,
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but I don't think that I need to point them out here that we have strong similarities to the Zuko murder that
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took place just days prior. And speaking of similarities, the grim symmetry between Ruth House's still unsolved case
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from February of 92 and Mary Ellen Wise's case continue to stand out to police even clearer, in fact much, much
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clearer, as their investigations would drag on. And those there would be both women were kidnapped, both were
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connected to bank withdrawals, and both were ultimately found dead in an outdoor
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rural location in Florida. But as we know, Captain similarities do not by themselves
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deliver a conviction. They do however shape how people, family members, detectives, journalists understand what
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might have happened and who might be responsible. >> Right? The year of 1992 would cast a long dark shadow over
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central and southern Florida, linking a series potentially linking a series of brutal unsolved crimes with an unnerving
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thread of similarity. All right, we are back. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling
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your brother. Talk tall can hands in the air. Cheers to the people in the back. >> You know, thanks for telling your uncle.
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That would be your mother's brother. >> Yeah, if if she has one. >> But this these crimes to me, it makes
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you wonder, is just the killing the motivation and the money is an afterthought? Well, I
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abducted her. I should take the money. I have her. I'm not I haven't killed her yet, but I
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>> I'm glad you bring that up because that's hard for a lot of people to comprehend that idea because murder is
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obviously such a much more consequential, heinous crime than robbery. But we are not criminals. We do
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not think like criminals. So when this hits your ears, remind yourself that you're not a criminal and that they call
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it psycho for a reason, >> right? that it's not easily understood. So where where this sort of thinking
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would work out is into a different type of crime. And this is something that we were educated by the FBI on. So what we
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were told by an FBI agent, retired now, Jeffrey Reinick, who investigated a lot of crimes, uh, child murders, sexual
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crimes, crimes that were sexual in nature, rape, and things of that, serial rapist. Mhm.
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>> One thing he taught us was that often times when you're looking for a serial rapist, you may only have one actual
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rape or at least only one in your file that's made it to your file because we do know unfortunately due to the the the
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shame and the embarrassment and and how the person is victimized that some assault victims will not even come
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forward. But what he said is that oftent times what he would find is that his perpetrator would be locked up or have
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been charged with other crimes that are not rape. And so that would be things of
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burglary or robbery where the offender broke into a home or an apartment with the intent of sexually assaulting or
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raping the female individual that's inside that dwelling. >> Right. But because the person woke up,
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startled the burglar or the break-in or the wouldbe rapist, fought him off, managed to call police, police show up,
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any number of reasons, the person doesn't get charged with rape because they didn't commit the sexual assault or
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the rape. Even though that was their intent when they broke into the home, they get charged with breaking and
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entering or robbery or burglary because they got caught inside the home or caught fleeing the home.
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>> Right? And so that goes along to with what you're thinking and where again rape, sexual assault much more heinous
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than just breaking in and hoping to steal some valuables. But it goes to intent. Now intent is very hard to
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prove. Intent is also very difficult to get a direct line of insight on for these individuals. Again, they call it
00:26:03
psycho for a reason. We finished up 1992 before the break. Talks in the air. But
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1993 in Central and South Florida is going to start off very differently. Thank God.
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We're now at January 22nd, 1993 on our timeline. This was a day that did not go as planned for one individual and that
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individual is a one Curtis Huff Jr. So, the story I'll summarize, but as printed
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in the Orlando Sentinel under the headline, motel owner shoots robber. Again, this is in CMI, Florida. And we
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are at the Maple Leaf Motel on West US Highway 192. Oh, also another road that we have mentioned in previous cases thus
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far in the telling of this true crime story. So, this is a framed This is framed as an account of a robbery
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attempt that didn't go the way the attacker expected because the motel owner, Hamemed Jaba, this is my dude,
00:27:09
this guy is a dude. He refused to stop fighting even after he had been badly injured by the robber, by his attacker.
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Deputies said the incident happened on a Friday afternoon inside the motel office. Jabailey was confronted by
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Curtis Huff Jr. a 24 year old from CMI, Florida. According to Jaba and what he told police, Huff came in acting like a
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normal customer asking about buying discount tickets to local attractions. H where have we heard that before?
00:27:46
Ticket sales. For a moment, Jubilee said it looked like an ordinary interaction until Huff abruptly escalated the
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situation by throwing coffee into Jaba's face. So, the store owner is blinded by
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this hot coffee and shocked. And he says that is when Huff Jr. attacked him with
00:28:09
a tire iron and Huff beat him in the head with it hard enough to leave him with multiple head injuries and cuts.
00:28:17
The assault was so severe that later witnesses would describe Jaba as drenched in blood and unrecognizable.
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But even so, deputies said the beating wasn't the end of it. In the chaos, Curtis Huff Jr. produced a gun. What
00:28:33
followed, investigators believed, was a violent struggle in close quarters for control of that weapon. What ends up
00:28:41
happening here is Curtis Huff Jr. fires three shots during the course of this time that the two men are grappling.
00:28:52
None of these shots thankfully hit Jamealey. Our dude Juba manages to wrench the gun
00:28:58
away from Curtis Huff Jr. And now the balance of power has changed, my friends. Two more shots were fired, but
00:29:07
this is not while the gun is in the hands of Curtis Huff Jr. Jailey's got control of this firearm. So by the time
00:29:15
the struggle broke apart, Curtis Huff Jr. had been hit. Detectives said that he was struck in the right calf, but the
00:29:22
scene did not end neatly. So after he's hit, the robber, later identified as Curtis Huff Jr., attempts to flee.
00:29:31
Now, our victim, even though he's he's shot Huff Jr., he's very badly injured. So, he collapses briefly, and I think
00:29:38
this gives Huff the opportunity to try to get out of there. Jaba, soaked in his own blood, keeps fighting. He gets up
00:29:47
with sheer willpower and he goes outside after Huff Jr. And so, it there's a lot
00:29:55
going on right here, right now. But you have two people that know Hameid Jaba. They pull up. This is Eric and Jane
00:30:02
Albury. They pulled up for what they would typically do. They they would do this often. They would drop in for a
00:30:08
quick visit to say hello to their friend, but instead they pull up in their vehicle and they see their friend
00:30:13
who they don't recognize because he's drenched in blood coming out of his own business and he's holding a gun. So,
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they're freaking out. Hammed is yelling at the guy who's attempting to flee on foot through the parking lot, but he's
00:30:27
hobbling because he's been shot in the leg. And he's trying, Jaba is trying to shoot him again, but because there's so
00:30:34
much blood on the gun and on his hands, he couldn't quite get >> the hammer pulled back.
00:30:42
>> So, this is called in. This is the um it was a 38 caliber gun. And as said, Jabailey's thumb thumb kept slipping off
00:30:50
the hammer because it was too slick with blood from from him to [ __ ] it. And the
00:30:56
gun had already been fired five times by this point. So it seems like he was attempting for a sixth and maybe final
00:31:03
shot on this dude, but the blood coating his hands defeated him in the moment. So
00:31:08
police pull up, they they end up getting a LifeFlight helicopter for Curtis Huff Jr. and he is flown to
00:31:22
the same medical facility where one of our victims, Goodson, had passed away prior, that Orlando Medical Center. Now
00:31:32
Huff's injuries are far less severe than what Goodson's were, and he survives being shot, but now he's being arrested
00:31:41
for his robbery and assault on Kamid Jailey at the Maple Leaf Motel. The Oyola Sentinel wrote about Curtis Huff
00:31:52
Jr. and described him as a ticket salesman with a reputation for two things that did not seem to belong
00:31:59
together. charm and sudden violence. He was identified as a habitual violent felony offender. And of course, this
00:32:11
means he has a history and a pattern of violence that is recognized by our legal
00:32:18
system and he's been caught for these actions. Now, the short of this here, Captain, is that Curtis Huff Jr. would
00:32:27
plea no contest to the charges brought against him in his robbery attempt at the Maple Leaf Motel. They linked him to
00:32:38
another robbery. This was in the summer of 1992 when a ticket seller, again, an occupation we've already mentioned
00:32:47
before, was attacked inside their business and left hog tied. >> Now, I wish we had further details on
00:32:55
that. why this person was left alive. And it appears that that was not the intent here. I I don't believe he after
00:33:05
striking Hammed in the head with a tire iron and then pulling a gun. I don't I can't imagine that he his intent was to
00:33:13
leave Hammed alive. But regardless, what takes place here is he pleads no contest
00:33:21
to the crimes that we know he's absolutely guilty of. the Maple Leaf Motel attack, an attempted robbery,
00:33:29
>> to the one he's suspected of that they were going to charge him with, but they
00:33:33
don't charge him with that robbery from the summer of 92 in sort of a plea agreement.
00:33:39
>> So, he's going to be locked up. >> He's going to be locked up. But, but what's interesting here is we get we
00:33:45
have two witnesses now. >> Mhm. >> Right. The Hog Tide victim and and our dude Jailey. So these two cases, both
00:33:55
victims tell a story that starts off very similar of Curtis Huff Jr. doing something that it's it's routine
00:34:02
business, right? The victims say that he approached them simply wanted to buy tickets to an attraction. They both
00:34:10
describe described his demeanor as calm, friendly, and chatty. They say that the
00:34:16
type of person that's easy to talk to and the type of person that you can talk up and very quickly become familiar with
00:34:23
just simply within minutes. But both both of them said the the same thing that that comfortable moment didn't
00:34:32
last. And they said that the shift in this individual was not gradual. It was abrupt. They both of them said the same
00:34:41
words. He snapped. It was like he snapped. So, Patricia Bennett was the victim who was hog tied in the summer
00:34:49
robbery. She said that like his physical description changed, too. >> Well, we we've heard this from other
00:34:56
detectives. >> She said that when she she was looking at him when she believes it was that he
00:35:02
snapped. She says these are her words. It was like his nose spread and his eyes seemed to turn hard, very violent. It
00:35:13
wasn't only what he did, it was how quickly the person in front of me no longer matched the man who had been
00:35:19
chatting with me moments earlier. So, both of them simply say that he seemed to snap at the same time that he
00:35:26
demanded money and he became very violent right away. And Bennett, she says that the situation became almost as
00:35:37
non-negotiable. She says he's putting on rubber gloves and now I'm begging for my life.
00:35:45
>> Well, we have gloves in other cases as well. >> So, this this Curtis Huff Jr.
00:35:52
>> was designated as a habitual offender and this was tied to >> he's still fairly young. He's 24, but
00:36:01
this is tied to an earlier chapter in his life. He had served time in prison in Indiana for a string of Midwest
00:36:08
robberies that took place in the late 1980s. Again, a pattern reportedly looking
00:36:14
somewhat familiar to what's going on here in Florida. Well, at least the two we know he's guilty of. He was allowed
00:36:21
to serve out his parole once he's parrolled for those crimes. He was allowed to serve that out in uh the
00:36:30
state of Florida. He is originally from Vero Beach. As I understand it, he's a graduate of Vero Beach High School.
00:36:37
>> So, going back to his hometown to commit crimes. >> Well, I imagine that's probably why he
00:36:42
was allowed to serve his parole in that state because that's not typically the way these things go down. They don't
00:36:48
they don't really love you moving out of state in most cases. Once he's back in Florida, he found work as a ticket
00:36:56
salesman for area attractions. Again, this is a job that itself mirrors some of these robberies,
00:37:04
>> right? So, he would have an understanding of the layout, possibly understanding of how the business works,
00:37:10
how they collect money, >> and also, you know, while he's So, this is May of 1993. He attempted to rob the
00:37:20
motel in January. And after his arrest and they pull the bullet from his leg, he's of course he's he's a great guy,
00:37:30
Captain. He He was leading He's at the Oyola County Jail leading a Bible study group.
00:37:38
>> Oh. Oh, yeah. We probably shouldn't give him the maximum penalty, should we? He's
00:37:44
a man of God and he's trying to educate the other individuals and lead them to the light. Well, in fairness, the Bible
00:37:51
is a very violent book. >> It's It's Yes. The violence in the Bible is >> They crucified a guy.
00:38:00
>> They did. >> Yeah, >> that was part of it. >> That That's a little part of it. Yeah,
00:38:05
>> it's a little bit of a part of it. But so the judge thankfully sees through this BS of him being a Bible study
00:38:16
leader at the jail and he gets he receives 20 years a 20ear sentence and he will not be eligible for parole for
00:38:25
10 years of that. And look, this punishment was structured to ensure ensure a long stretch of confinement for
00:38:35
this individual. And I'm looking to see if I have in my notes here what the judge said at the sentencing because it
00:38:44
said, "Listen here, you little piece of shit." I don't have it the direct quote in my
00:38:49
notes here, but basically he's saying like when I look at you and I see you and I review what you are here being
00:38:58
charged with and the details of these crimes that there's something psychologically
00:39:04
wrong and violent with you. So while Curtis Huff Jr. is locked up. In 1995, Oyola County investigators officially
00:39:16
named Curtis J. Huff Jr. as a primary suspect in the murder of Ruth Halp, the chiropractor. They say that the
00:39:24
circumstantial evidence against him was substantial and damning. And then they also say that
00:39:31
there are similarities in that crime that mirror other crimes, unsolved crimes that they have in that area at
00:39:40
about that same time period. Those being the ones that we just got went through.
00:39:45
So let's go through this evidence here, Captain. First, the truck. Curtis Huff Jr. owned a red 1991 GMC Soma pickup
00:39:54
truck, matching the description of the vehicle seen near the orange grove where Ruth's body was found. Another witness
00:40:00
says that they saw a pickup truck near Antonio Zuko's business. Now, we don't get a great description of that pickup
00:40:07
truck other than a small pickup truck. We do know that tire tracks at the Hal crime scene where her body was found
00:40:13
matched for the BF Goodriidge tires that were found to be on Curtis Huff's truck.
00:40:21
A Children of the Sun cassette tape with no case was found inside of Curtis Huff's truck. Mhm.
00:40:29
>> Remember the empty case for that exact tape or well maybe not that exact tape
00:40:34
but >> right but a tape >> matching that was found near Ruth's body. ATM footage remember the physical
00:40:42
description provided by police after further analysis of that footage. A smaller man Curtis Huff Jr. is 5'4 in
00:40:50
tall. >> There you go. And this seems like a like a kind of not so important thing, but
00:40:59
they're saying he was known to wear hooded sweatshirts a lot. He grew up in Vero Beach.
00:41:05
>> He lived a short distance from the very bank where Ruth's ATM card was used. His
00:41:13
girlfriend at the time told police that he traveled there often to that bank. Footprints from Reebok sneakers were
00:41:21
found at the crime scene where Hout's body was found matched a pair of Reeboks that were seized from Curtis Huff's
00:41:30
father's home in St. Cloud where he was living at the time of his arrest. >> Well, well, well.
00:41:37
>> The Mike Greenwell appointment, the name used for the final appointment at Ruth's
00:41:42
office, Mike Greenwell was the name of a Boston Red Sox left fielder, as we said
00:41:47
earlier. Curtis Huff was an avid baseball fan who also played left field for a local softball team. Huff's
00:41:54
girlfriend in 1992 lived near Ruth Hout's chiropractic office. Furthermore, detectives verified that a cover, a
00:42:02
truck bed cover, the one on the bed of Huff's truck, had been purchased from the very store where Bonnie Goodson
00:42:11
worked and was murdered. And we know that Curtis Huff was also in the ticket business. And what did they find on him
00:42:20
when he was arrested? He had Antonio Zuko's business card in his wallet when he was arrested.
00:42:28
>> And you wonder if they're able to get any DNA off the glove that was found. >> It doesn't stop there. Huff's parents
00:42:36
knew Mary Ellen Wise. >> Can't stop. Won't stop. >> They lived across the street from her.
00:42:42
now, not at the time of her murder, but she she lived in that house for a long period of time. They knew her and they
00:42:49
said that Curtis Huff knew her as well. And it goes beyond that. His stepfather,
00:42:54
his name is John Harren, said that they were close, fairly close friends with Mary Allen Wise.
00:43:00
>> Mhm. and later told investigators that Curtis Huff knew Mary Allen knew Mary Ellen had been hurt in an auto accident
00:43:12
and received a large settlement. So remember we talked about her being severely injured in a car accident. She
00:43:21
from a lawsuit of that injury, from that car accident, they settled. The settlement was for, I believe, a million
00:43:29
or a little more than a million dollars. It took her 10 years to recover, physically recover. She had to damn near
00:43:36
teach herself to walk again, >> right? >> She spent a lot of time in hospitals, a
00:43:41
lot of surgeries to put her back together again. and she gets this settlement, but the settlement was a
00:43:49
stipen. They paid it out in monthly payments. And from my understanding, she received $1,500 a month. Oh, well, that
00:43:58
pretty much matches up with what's reported on how much was with withdrawn from her bank account on the day that
00:44:06
she was abducted. 500 bucks from an ATM, $1,000 for a check written for the drive-thru. Mhm.
00:44:14
>> And his stepfather, when John Harren was shown the ATM photo from the Ruth homicide, the stepfather says, "Look,
00:44:24
although the suspect's face isn't visible, the posture suggested to him that the person could very possibly be
00:44:31
his stepson." His exact words, "Very possibly could be my stepson." in regard to the Mary Ellen Wise case. Now, see,
00:44:40
now the detectives are starting to open up, but they need they collected, keep in mind, they're getting a lot of this
00:44:46
information, a lot of this evidence after the fact that he's arrested and then they get a search warrant for
00:44:53
Curtis Huff's father's home where he was living and they find some additional evidence there. This is all building and
00:44:59
building with this Curtis Huff thing. I think they had some suspicions that some
00:45:05
of these cases were connected, but now they have a lot of suspicions and they're being a little more vocal about
00:45:14
what their suspicions were early on in some of these investigations, stating that, look, when we were looking into
00:45:20
the Mary Ellen Wise case, the lead investigators stated very quickly that I don't think it's this the first time
00:45:28
this killer's acted. Two of the autopsy reports, okay, so you have those of Mary
00:45:34
Ellen Wise and Bonnie Goodson were described by the lead investigator as eerily similar. Both victims had 11
00:45:42
fractures to the skull and defensive breaks to the arms. Homicide by blunt force trauma to the head is relatively
00:45:51
uncommon, making a pattern like this stand out. Despite the mountain of circumstantial evidence, Curtis J. Huff
00:45:59
Jr. was never charged with the murders of Ruth Hout, Mary Ellen Wise, Bonnie Goodson, or Antonio Zuko. In Bonnie
00:46:09
Goodson's case, a witness saw a man walking away from the crime scene, but was unable to pick Curtis Huff out of a
00:46:16
lineup. Ultimately, prosecutors could not indict Huff for the Goodson murder, and the evidence across the other three
00:46:24
cases wasn't strong enough to charge him. But how much time is he going to spend?
00:46:29
>> Well, remember he he received a 20-year sentence. In the end, he served 12 years. So, using our highly
00:46:39
sophisticated garage math, that means that this guy gets out in 2005. And because law enforcement simply could
00:46:47
not get him for any of these murders, this 5'4 in [ __ ] stack built like a fireplug is free to roam and kill again,
00:46:55
>> right? and will I mean like you said charming with a very short fuse seems to
00:47:04
be very a unique characteristic. Well, and you know, and you hear in all fairness, we have to be clear, as we
00:47:12
were just very clear, he's not been charged in any of these murders, not been convicted of any of them. But you,
00:47:18
we heard this in John Wayne Gasey. We heard it with Ted Bundy. He didn't look like a killer. I would tell you that he
00:47:25
Curtis Huff Jr. does in pictures does not look like a killer to me either, >> right?
00:47:31
>> Doesn't mean that he isn't. These guys are not so easily spotted. So the years
00:47:37
passed since the 1992 murders. A new brutality shocked Vero Beach, Florida. This is in July of 2006 when 87year-old
00:47:46
Helen McFersonson was murdered in her home. >> Helen lived in Vero Beach for 60 years.
00:47:53
She was a homemaker and a member of the First Baptist Church. She was widowed in
00:48:00
2000. And so she spent her days at her home and in her neighborhood. On the evening of Friday, July 14th, 2006,
00:48:09
Helen's son Doug and her daughter-in-law took Helen to dinner at Swenson's restaurant. I love Swenson's. If you
00:48:17
have one near you, go to it immediately. >> Sponsor, but we >> Yeah, >> would love for them to sponsor the show.
00:48:25
>> I love this. I love the sloppy joe. All right. So, this Swinson's is on US Highway 1 in
00:48:33
Vero Beach. After dinner, what a good son. Taking mom out to dinner. Brings her back home, returns her to her home.
00:48:39
They're watching TV for a little bit, and then they leave. They say between 8 and 900 p.m.
00:48:46
>> Mhm. >> When they leave, good son reminds mom, "Lock your door." The next day,
00:48:52
Saturday, July 15th, a neighbor noticed a screen missing from Helen's door. So, she's got the screen door and then you
00:49:01
have the actual door. The screen is missing from that screen door. So, the neighbor calls the son, says, "Hey, your
00:49:09
the screen door is popped out or you might want to go check on your mom." He tries calling her.
00:49:15
We're now at 5:30 5:45 p.m. the following day. can't get her on the phone. So, they decide
00:49:22
they're going to drive out there and check on mom. So, around 6 PM, unfortunately, they found Helen's
00:49:28
lifeless body in her bedroom, lying against the wall with blood on her face. The home and her bedroom had been
00:49:37
ransacked, things turned upside down. They called 911 immediately. The medical examiner revealed multiple injuries from
00:49:46
both strangulation and blunt force trauma inflicted with a sharpedged object. And the investigators on the
00:49:55
scene described the killing as among the most vicious they had ever seen. There were no gunshots, no stab wounds. Helen
00:50:03
had been beaten with an unknown object or instrument. They said she was not sexually assaulted. There were signs of
00:50:10
forced entry through the carport door. And they also noted in the report that there had been or according to the son
00:50:18
and the neighbor an attempted breakin 10 days prior that Helen did not report. >> So Curtis Huff Jr. gets out in 2005
00:50:30
after serving 12 years of his 20year sentence. Upon release, he moved to 582520th
00:50:39
Street in Vero Beach, about a mile from Helen's residence. He's living just north of a Target store and across from
00:50:47
the Ryan Wood shopping center. >> This guy's a real douchebag. >> These are places that Helen's son would
00:50:55
tell police that that she went frequently. And so he is suspected of involvement in prior
00:51:05
cases that have similarities and some of this is a lot of this really is the blunt force trauma along with the
00:51:12
robberies to his defense here. Captain investigators compared his fingerprints which obviously are going they are going
00:51:19
to have on file to partial prints that were recovered from Helen's crime scene. They did not match. What do we know
00:51:26
about if if Curtis Huff committed these prior murders? What do we know about that killer? He wear he wore gloves. So,
00:51:33
it's logical to assume that maybe he did. If he was in fact the person that broke into Helen McFersonson's home. The
00:51:42
case, just like the others, had been in and out of the news over the years. >> Well, and hold on for a second because
00:51:49
we have a handful of crimes that we see the similarities. We see the connections, but those are just the ones
00:51:57
we know of. This guy could be responsible for so many crimes. >> You're exactly right. And keep in mind,
00:52:04
he lived in a couple different states. And so he has >> So when did this start? I mean, and yes,
00:52:10
he's pretty young when he first gets locked up, but this could have started late teens. Well, you can track his
00:52:17
footprints to areas like Michigan, Indiana, and then regarding the charges that he gets convicted of and we know
00:52:26
he's later on parole for in Florida were for robberies in what's simply stated as
00:52:34
Midwest states. So, how far did he travel during that time? And like you said, >> yeah,
00:52:43
>> I think it's Look, I I don't know that he did all five of these. I feel very confident that he did two or four of
00:52:50
them. And if he did any of them at all and he's got other priors, like you said, I I it's it's very it would be
00:53:00
dumb not to question how many other cases could this guy be involved with. And if he is of the type that the
00:53:09
violence and the murder is part of it for him or that it's simply leave no witnesses.
00:53:14
>> Mhm. >> Does he have other homicides in and out of the state of Florida? This
00:53:20
case they have openly said they have openly said in some of these cases that Curtis Huff Jr. is a suspect. They've
00:53:27
also openly named him as a person of interest. So this is nothing new here with this guy. It's just a name that
00:53:34
most of us have never heard and crimes that need more awareness. A string of crimes that need more awareness outside
00:53:43
of this area. This case, just like just like so many that we've covered, has been in and out of the news since 2006
00:53:53
and the earlier crimes of 1992. >> Mhm. But there's been real not not any real movement on the cases even though
00:54:02
they've been in and out of the news since we are told that the cases are not cold and that law enforcement agencies
00:54:09
continue to work the cases. I would put together a task force on these five homicides led by a cold case expert.
00:54:17
Underline the word expert about 10 times. I believe that there are reasons to work some of these cases together and
00:54:24
others on the periphery. So these unsolved five homicides remain for the families more than cold case files.
00:54:33
These are ongoing stories without a endings without answers. Stories marked by very specific dates, spec specific
00:54:42
places and a reoccurring name that investigators had pointed to but never successfully carried through to a
00:54:50
prosecution. As of June of 2026, 34 years have passed since the terrible string of murders in 1992 and 20 years
00:55:00
since Helen McFersonson was killed in her home. The murders of Ruth Hal, Mary Ellen Wise, Bonnie Goodson, Antonio
00:55:10
Zuko, and Helen McFersonson remain officially unsolved. Investigators continue to ask the public for help,
00:55:19
hoping that one tip will finally break the silence. The families are still suffering, trapped in the torment of not
00:55:28
knowing, while a prime suspect in at least four of the cases was never brought to trial for them. For the
00:55:35
Indian River County Sheriff's Office, the promise to Helen's family remains firm. quote, "We're confident that we're
00:55:44
going to get there." End quote. So, in the quiet seaside community of Vero Beach, Florida, a shadow from the past
00:55:51
looms large. A chilling narrative of violence that has haunted families in this community for decades. This story
00:56:00
begins and ends with a man named Curtis Huff Jr., whose name is linked to a string of brutal, unsolved murders that
00:56:09
terrorized Central and South Florida. With a criminal history that already included an attempted murder conviction,
00:56:16
Curtis Huff Jr. is a central figure in a dark chapter of Florida's history. Want to thank everybody for joining us
00:56:34
here in the garage. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast and check out truecrimerg.com.
00:56:40
Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners? >> Yes, Captain. Let's go way back. This
00:56:46
title is from 1983. I love these old back pocket true crime paperbacks. >> Yeah. This one is titled Mass Murders:
00:56:56
Human Time Bombs. They explode in violence to kill by the dozen. This is way back when they still sold True
00:57:05
Detective Magazine. And this is from the files of True Detective Magazine. Mass Murderers from True Detective Magazine,
00:57:14
edited by Rose Mansenberg. You don't have to write down that title now. We will have it listed on our website on
00:57:21
our recommended page. Just go to true crimegar.com. And until next week, be good, be kind,
00:57:28
and don't limit.