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thank you [Music] [Music] thank you foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who
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captain the only thing I know is I know nothing it's good to be seen and good to
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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign we start off Today's Show by going
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through an old newspaper article we won't go through every word every sentence every paragraph however this I
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find to be by far the best article ever written about the Nancy eagleson unsolved homicide case
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the article is titled girl Slayer remains at large polding crime still unsolved and this is from five years
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after the murder took place and it's written by a Lima News staff writer by the name of Jean Rockwell who did
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gangbusters work on this article because again I believe it to be the best and most thorough and it's rather updated as
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well as you will see as we go through this article and it reads somewhere a man walks the streets outwardly as
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inconspicuous as anyone but with the burden of knowing five years ago he molested and murdered a young Paulding
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High School girl subjected her little sister to a lasting emotional shock and blemished the family
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this man more horrible than any fictional monster Shot 14 year old Nancy Lee eagleson to death following a
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criminal assault on the evening of November 13 1960. perhaps in such a twisted personality there is no capacity
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for regret or remorse or perhaps his waking and sleeping hours are haunted by the memory of what he has done the
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history of such crime reveals many motives for the slang of a rape victim usually the victim is slain to prevent
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future identification of the attacker sometimes the force of the attack itself is sufficient to cause death Nancy was
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brutally shot in the head by her unknown assailant no clues to the murderer have
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turned up after five years of Investigation by the Paulding County Sheriff's department at 7 40 PM that
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Sunday Nancy and her sister Cheryl then five were we're walking along Jackson Street in Northeast Paulding on their
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way home from a movie their father Don operated a bowling alley in Paulding on the weekends and during the week he was
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employed at International Harvester in Fort Wayne he was at the bowling alley that night
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their mother Betty also worked and instead of waiting for their father the girls decided to walk home from the
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movie since Mrs eagleson would be home at that time Mrs eagleson was asked last week
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about the crime and about the failure of police to solve it Mrs eagleson said Cheryl now 10 years
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old is still terrified by the memory of that never to be forgotten night quote I can talk about it now Mrs
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eagleson said but Dawn doesn't say very much about it it really broke him up they say a woman can adjust to something
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like Nancy's death better than a man or can cover their feelings more or something maybe that's the way it is
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with me I hide the hurt keep it inside Mrs eagleson said Cheryl has deep emotional scars from the events of that
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night Cheryl loved Nancy the mother noted they were inseparable but Cheryl has changed
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now she isn't a loving child anymore she's afraid to get close to anyone emotionally for fear she might lose them
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as she lost Nancy Nancy would have been 19 now her mother said and in college the bereaved mother
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said she does not bling police or the sheriff's department for their failure to solve the crime I believe they did
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the best they could do she said she thinks the Slayer is from Paulding or immediate area
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he has to be she declared he knew his way around too well however her husband believes the killer was a
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hunter not from the area probably staying in a motel and committed the crime on the spur of the
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moment melting back into his home region when it was over Mrs eagleson still gets
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a lot of calls mostly from cranks saying they know the identity of the Slayer none of them have proven authentic Mrs
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eagleson's Theory the crime is that the girls were seen by the killer as they were sipping Cokes in a local restaurant
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on their way home from the matinee movie along Jackson Street Cheryl said the man
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slowed the car and ask the girls if they wanted to ride she said Nancy replied no we're only a
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few doors away from home Cheryl said the man stopped the car and asked Nancy directions he got out of the
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auto Cheryl recalled and came around the front in the full glare of the headlights he
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grabbed Nancy by the arm and during the ensuing struggle pushed his victim to the ground Cheryl said she tried to grab
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the man by the shoulders but he struck her in the stomach knocking her to the ground
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she said she did not see the man strike Nancy but he placed her inside the car opposite the driver's seat the man got
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in and drove away as Cheryl screamed Mrs eagleson said Cheryl told her the man smelled like he had been drinking but
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her theory is that the girl smelled chloroform or some similar substance which accounted for Nancy's submission
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after the Frantic struggle Mrs eagleson theorizes her daughter was not killed where the body was found but
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elsewhere then was left by the Slayer where she was discovered by the hunters Paulding County Sheriff John Keeler was
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asked last week if the case is closed he said certainly not these cases are never
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closed every now and then we get a lead in a possible suspect we check out these
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leads thoroughly but so far no luck at all Keeler said he was convinced the Slayer was not from the Paulding area
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the man is sick the sheriff observed he can't help himself he would have killed again we would have had another slaying
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on our hands if he were a local man Cheryl described the man who killed her sister as about five feet eight inches
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tall heavy with a belly like Santa Claus he wore horn rimmed glasses possibly with thick lenses that made his eyes
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appear larger than normal she stated she believed he was crippled a man who broke out of Michigan City
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Indiana prison a month before Nancy was killed and who subsequently was executed
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in Tulsa Arizona for a similar crime was checked and cleared of the Paulding slang another man from the Paulding area
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charged with rape in Napoleon and acquitted was consequently convicted of a rape sling in Detroit Michigan his
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method of operation was similar to the mans who killed Nancy but he also was investigated and cleared so the man who
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slew Nancy Lee eagleson is still at large free to commit another crime police officials believe he will or has
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that he acted under a compulsion a mental illness it could not help himself officers stress this certainly does not
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excuse the man but points to the dire necessity of his apprehension well there's so much there
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to unpack so let's do some of that if you don't mind what's your theories on if this man is
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local or not here's the thing if the two things that the family has told us and this is things that have been
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told To Us by people outside of the family as well if the phone lines were cut to the eagleson home that night
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if in fact somebody did try to abduct Cheryl weeks after Nancy's murder I think those
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not just point to but for me seal the deal that this was a local guy everything outside of that
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tells me that this was somebody that was looking for a victim and may have traveled to this area and found the
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victim there that night unfortunately right we we could have an individual that has to travel here for work
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and so that they would be back in the area multiple times to me it's too Brazen you're going to leave an
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eyewitness that sees you that possibly like I said in church school somewhere is able to identify you the other thing
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that's tricky too because it no longer exists to this day but back in 1960 it's my understanding that there was a
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hospital in the area and I've been told that it may have been between the abduction
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location and where Nancy eagleson's body was eventually found which is very weird to me again that
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drive felt very quick to me it almost felt like somebody abducted her and either had to stop at this location or
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stopped at this location for some reason right would have passed the hospital and again I believe that it was on Route
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111. so could somebody have been in the area for work because they were working at that
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hospital or could they have been visiting a loved one or a friend or somebody that they knew that was in the
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hospital now I don't know if law enforcement did this but I'm I'm guessing no because
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within two days they're saying we're out of stand still I'm going to the restaurant and just asking it was any
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was there any single male eating alone that possibly saw them go into the restaurant and then oh they're leaving
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I'm gonna follow them out or look for locals um local hotels or motels and see if there
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was any single men staying in the area that would give me at least some kind of lead to to go on the other thing that is
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bizarre here too Captain is that you could have a situation where somebody spotted the girls walking alone or
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spotted the girls as the mother suspects sipping sodas at the restaurant and decides then and there hey I'm going
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to take one of these girls right and the reason why I say that that seems to be likely
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is that according to Cheryl's accounts and it was key to me to read that article because we see how Cheryl's
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accounts kind of I don't want to use the word change but she seems to be able to fill in some
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of the blanks later as she got older she was 10 at the time of that article it was 1965.
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but according to Cheryl's account the vehicle there was a vehicle parked at that P locks the old abandoned gas
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station no longer in operation on the corner that they passed before the vehicle approached them I am of the
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belief that that may be the same vehicle that the person saw the girls walking they walked past him he pulls up in the
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vehicle alongside of them following them he's he would have been following them very shortly after they walked past
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p-locks right now one could have spotted these girls and then decided to position themselves
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at P locks to intercept them before they get home to do that if that was in fact the
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Killer's plan to intercept them before they got home well then that means he already knew
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where the girls lived and so therefore he likely would be a local man or at least somebody that knew Nancy in some
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form or fashion or knew her family well and might know that the husband is not going to be there the the husband the
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father is going to be working at the bowling alley during this time selling person that's going to be home is the
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mother but again I know where you live so I'm going to intercept you now I think she made a great point because she
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brings up chloroform and what we were saying before is if you're taking your victim we're not talking about like a
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very small victim or a very young victim it is a child but she's 14. so she's going to have the capability of putting
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up a fight so the mom brings up a good point is it possible that this murderer grabbed her
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and then um was able to subdue her with chloroform and it could be a combination of both
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because she says well but I think my daughter was smelling the the eyewitness Cheryl
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the alcohol or chloroform it could be a combination of both this guy might have been heavily
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intoxicated and then started driving around looking for a victim a lot of times these types will ingest things
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like alcohol or drugs to build them up to a situation so that they don't chicken out or they don't
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they want to build themselves up to carry through with whatever it is their sick fantasy or plan is and then if it
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is in fact chloroform we're talking about a whole different level of premeditation one
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but two possible criminal sophistication as well this to me if it was in fact chloroform
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and we don't we simply don't know and until the case is solved we will not know but if it was chloroform then that
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tells me this guy has either done something like this before or he had been studying up on doing
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something like this and thought about it for a good deal of time studying doing research planning
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yeah I mean this is uh got an email the other day saying stop calling these murderers animals because
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that's not fair to animals that's probably not fair this is fair to the hyenas yeah this guy's a hyena I
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mean this guy's a real piece of [ __ ] and again I I I I lean towards the idea that
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the person was from that area originally but not anymore did not live in that area maybe a rental car that's a other
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thing rental car is it possible that this person had a rental car and then and that would be another thing that people
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could uh spend some time investigating the chloroform would also go along with the thought that maybe some portion of
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this man's clothing or the glasses were in fact some type of Disguise what's really weird to me is under hypnosis
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Cheryl says that the man was skinny but in this news article it's saying that she believed that he
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was a heavy man with a belly like Santa Claus so those are two very different things but we also know that it's not
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unterably uncommon for criminals to layer their clothing or to wear larger clothing than necessary to give the
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appearance a different physical appearance right and that's that's the tough thing too
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when you look at the composite sketch to me that not not the one where you're looking at him
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um you know face to face but the one where you're looking to him uh where he's on from the side to me it looks
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like he was almost like slicking back his hair again is that the way he wears his hair or is that a ruse this to me
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the composite sketch to me looks like one of two things or it could be a combo of both I guess it looks to me like
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somebody that is dressed to potentially go visit somebody at the hospital or to work there or it's a man
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that was still wearing his Sunday church attire and just remained in that attire
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throughout the day of Sunday and maybe went into town and went out to a restaurant right or you know and then
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spotted the girls somewhere as they walked it'd be interesting to know and it's too much to ask Cheryl to recall
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something like this there's no way that she would be able to recall this but it would be interesting to know if they
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were talking about walking home like if they were openly talking about that at any point in their evening and and the
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wrong person heard them caught wind that oh they might be by themselves and then
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you think about the idea that the phone lines were cut at the eagleson home if in fact that were true to me that makes
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me think well maybe the killer thought that they would end up Home Alone and thought of abducting Nancy there
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right then it makes me want to question the family was the mother supposed to be
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somewhere and not that's a very good question and here here's my thought on that I can't answer for the family but
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here's my suspicions so we know that the Father Don was working at the bowling alley which he
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regularly did on the weekends and what I've been told by everybody that knew Don they said that he worked at the
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bowling alley probably for a little extra money but it was also like that was his number one
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hobby it's fun right he likes the bowl he likes to hang out at the bowling alley probably got free bowling right
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and you know what's great about bowling alleys too they often sell beer we like beer and pretzels the thing here is
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don't forget the pretzels from my understanding is that it was very common for Dawn and his wife Betty the the two
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Eagles and adults the two Eagles and parents to go to the bowling alley and hang out together
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was this a night like you said captain that maybe Mrs eagleson was supposed to be at the bowling alley with her husband
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Don but for whatever reason it fell through or at the last minute she decided not to go if that's true if
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that is true and obviously somebody in the family could answer that to me I'd put a higher uh way higher
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percentage at this point that they know this individual if that was the case I mean it could be
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happenstance that here's this person in town sees these girls walking and they're they are walking because their
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father is working their mother is going to visit the father at work so that does put you in that happen
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stance but it starts at that point it would start leaning towards this idea that they
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might know this kidnapper they might know this murderer this murderer might be somebody
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uh family friend that maybe Cheryl just has not been able to maybe some of that doesn't come around
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as often anymore but again how much of what they were wearing and how they were doing their hair and
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all that stuff how much was that their identity and how much of it foreign [Music]
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all right we are back cheers to everybody cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain all right
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well we have praised the sheriff John Keeler for his efforts and for his wisdom and for his work ethic yes and
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for reaching out to others jurisdictions thinking outside of the box if you will
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that was something that wasn't done back then so we praised him for that we criticized him in his investigation for
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not being able to recover tire tracks at either the abduction scene or where Nancy was eventually found right we also
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criticized but said that maybe the newspaper is to blame for the weird statement of well the case is pretty
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much at a standstill just days into the investigation I did criticize him for saying that we
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don't know he's kind of discounting Cheryl's account that the man was wearing glasses which I think is a big
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misstep by the sheriff but here is a huge misstep and I don't know if Sheriff Keeler is to blame or who is to blame
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but somebody was certainly at fault here because in 1985 that's right we're jumping ahead 20 years in the timeline
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from 65 to 85 and why are we pointing to 1985 well that's because in 1985 Nancy's
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family discovered that the physical evidence that was collected at the scene where
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she was found was lost or misplaced or discarded the sheriff's office in Paulding County
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no longer had any evidence in Nancy's case now there were several persons or several agencies that were involved in
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the chain of custody of this evidence so it may not fall on the sheriff's department but
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who do you think's going to get the blame when evidence is missing it's going to be the investigating agency
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they are the ones that are charged with securing that evidence no matter who had
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it at what point yes they're going to get the blame but come on law enforcement do your job
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you're here to Serve and Protect and you're not protecting or serving by losing this evidence so where we are
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today and we're going to jump back here in a second but I want to focus on this now while we are talking about missing
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evidence because it will make sense we are trying to exhume Nancy eagleson that is for the purpose of collecting
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additional evidence right we mentioned that the lack of nail clippings we mentioned the lack of
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semen samples and we don't know if those are things that we are even going to be able to get
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once we exhume her it would seem unlikely but there's a possibility given its you
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know it's unlikely because it's been 62 years and things get lost to to time and
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decay but the other idea here Captain is could some of these items because this evidence was personal items these were
00:26:00
personal items in nature compared to uh with our victim here could some of these
00:26:06
items be have been buried with her it's certainly a possibility it's something that we're very hopeful
00:26:14
that that that that possibility remains and it's pot again this is not maybe something that the family would know and
00:26:21
so can be hopeful of because Cheryl again was five at the time so she's not gonna just there's no way she's going to
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remember every single detail and you know mom lived a very long life unfortunately Betty is no longer with us
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but keep in mind these are things that parents could forget or be unaware of at the time
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there's a lot going on they just lost a child unexpectedly so again it's something that we're hopeful for and
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that's why somebody like porchlight that's why we are jumping in we are getting involved
00:27:01
you know we can't save Nancy eagleson we can't help Nancy this isn't Quantum Leap
00:27:07
where we can go back in time and right a wrong or protect somebody or save someone
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what we can do is try to help and save the sisters that are still alive to this day Cheryl can
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you imagine she's the level of victim that she is how victimized she has been and traumatized she has been all of
00:27:32
these years if we can find some form of justice for the Eagles and family it will be a big win not for porchlight
00:27:40
it will be a big win for Paulding County and this community and the Eagles and family yeah big win
00:27:48
and but so much frustration still to the state this Captain will bring us to December 1st 2010 and this is reporting
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from the local newspaper which is called the Paulding County Progress and they're
00:28:03
doing a ongoing story of continuing to cover the Nancy eagleson case and investigation and they're doing this
00:28:12
article and it's a rather lengthy one but it's featuring a man named Don rodenhouse now Don rodenhouse says that
00:28:21
he was a Witness to the abduction and this is very strange to me this is something that I'm incredibly curious
00:28:31
about so Don rodenhouse says that he pulls up and he sees two people in a vehicle that
00:28:41
look like they are fighting and he says his sister is with him and the sister who's riding shotgun
00:28:49
tells Don hey that's you know that doesn't look like two adults that looks like a little girl right because I think
00:28:57
Dawn thought maybe it was just a some kind of domestic right situation yeah boyfriend girlfriend two adults fighting
00:29:06
what have you but then little sis points out no that doesn't appear to be a grown-up that appears to be a little
00:29:14
girl and Don says it's the flailing arms that he and his sister saw Nancy eagleson
00:29:22
fighting this man back he's holding her by like the hair or the the head and trying to push her down maybe to conceal
00:29:31
her from any passerbys or people in the area as he's fleeing from the abduction scene right
00:29:40
but he says that while he the abductor is trying to push Nancy down Nancy is trying to throw
00:29:49
smacks or punches at the attacker and this would be kind of like a a sidearm I guess you will it's like a
00:30:00
swimming motion almost and he says that they the vehicle was was speeding quite heavily which makes
00:30:08
sense that the man would have been fleeing from the abduction scene with the victim in his car
00:30:14
and Don says that they gave Chase they tried to follow the vehicle but at some point the vehicle lost them
00:30:23
now he says that the following morning he reported this to the authorities saying that when he woke up the next day
00:30:34
he learned that of the murder remember Nancy was found overnight and when he learned of the murder and
00:30:42
where they found Nancy's body he knows where he was driving he says he was driving on Route 111 where Nancy was
00:30:49
abducted from he contacts the police and says tells them the story that we just told you and he says
00:30:59
to throw a little shade here on the Sheriff's Department back in 1960 he says that he doesn't
00:31:06
believe that they they may not have taken him seriously because he says at no point did they ever follow up with
00:31:13
him that he reported the information and they never approached him again to ask him to tell his story again and he says
00:31:22
that back in 1960 he believed that he could have described the vehicle in great detail
00:31:30
now why he didn't describe it in great detail when he spoke to the sheriff on the day when he reported it I don't know
00:31:38
but his words make it sound like either he wasn't prompted to do so or decided not to do so because he thought that
00:31:45
they would follow up here becomes the problem we a lot of problems we were privy to
00:31:53
some some Insider information in this case and the portion of the Sheriff's Office file on Nancy eagleson's case
00:32:02
does not reveal that Don rodenhouse reported this the day after Nancy was killed now he
00:32:11
very very well may have but there's nothing indicating that he did this other than this newspaper
00:32:18
article his own words so when I hear a story like this I go this is very problematic for me
00:32:27
one his story is problematic but it's problematic for me as a Storyteller here in the garage
00:32:33
I don't know how to take this Captain is this simply a guy that's tried to do a good deed try to help somebody out back
00:32:40
in 1960 and has come forward all these years later and is still trying to help out is this just a good guy
00:32:46
or we've seen this before it wouldn't be the first time and if it is the case it won't be the last time it
00:32:55
could be the case that this man just injected himself into the investigation he wants to know what law enforcement
00:33:02
knows yeah he's a local so he'd know the area but the thing that he has gone for
00:33:07
him is his sister was with him so isn't that a pretty solid Alibi for the time of the crime it would be if he
00:33:15
in fact did report this back in 1960 right if we could find proof positive that he didn't report it back then or if
00:33:21
we could find proof positive that she didn't back his story in 1960 or nobody else backed the story in 1960
00:33:28
when we want to know why 50 years later he's telling this story it the other problem too
00:33:37
is the details inside the story itself where Cheryl she states that she didn't see her she
00:33:48
sees her sister looking back right but also the suspicion that maybe she was chloroform so she was she would have
00:33:54
been knocked out she would have been out there wouldn't be somebody with flailing
00:33:58
arms in the back seat yeah if that is if that's what happened right now could she
00:34:04
have come to woke up and tried to fight off her attacker yes that's a possibility the other problem though is
00:34:11
he says he chases after the vehicle and the vehicle loses him a problem with that Captain is if in
00:34:19
fact the attacker went from abduction site to where Nancy was eventually found we already talked about that's pretty
00:34:26
much a straight shot you go around two curves and boom it's a straight shot it's difficult to lose somebody on a
00:34:32
straight shot yeah many pieces of his story just don't add up but you want to kind of give them the
00:34:38
benefit of the doubt because it's a traumatic situation it's a stressful situation but also the time Gap there's
00:34:45
been a lot of time that has passed right and so things that would point to Don roenhouse his statement being
00:34:52
questionable his statement being suspicious would be this for me is he concocting the story so that there
00:35:01
is a reason why somebody would have seen his vehicle at that location that night
00:35:08
in the abduct in the area of the abduction the night that the abduction took place
00:35:13
his story explains it away and his sister and I'm putting that in air quotes being
00:35:21
there with him would also give him an alibi as to yeah I wasn't the bad guy in this story I'm
00:35:27
the good guy in this story so there's there are some questionable things here but again it's it really
00:35:34
truly is either one or the other he's just a good guy that tried to do a good thing and help somebody
00:35:41
and the bad guy won or he's the bad guy it's very tricky very tricky and I know that there are people in Paulding to
00:35:52
this day that are very suspicious of Don's story and of Don himself well I'm sure there's tons of people teachers
00:36:00
school bus drivers people that have never got married that live in the town alone there's probably a whole list
00:36:09
of people that people are suspect of because you have this crime that happened to such a young
00:36:16
beautiful girl and there's no answers so but this brings us up to 2011. yes it does in our timeline but I do want to
00:36:26
speak to what you just said there Captain nope I think that that's a very astute and insightful statement that you
00:36:33
just gave because to this day the suspicions of the locals the people that have been around since 1960 the people
00:36:41
that knew Nancy people that went to school with her right were people that knew her parents
00:36:48
this is a small town this is a small town murder it affected the whole Community the
00:36:54
community is not healed nor moved past the murder of Nancy eagleson and they shouldn't because it's unresolved
00:37:02
there's no justice here and if the killer was a local man he could still be local to this day he
00:37:09
could still be alive there are many people that have been suspected by the public throughout the years that are
00:37:15
still alive and still in the town or near Paulding Ohio now you said that it could be a teacher a
00:37:24
school bus driver you know the mechanic anybody you could look at all these people and raise an eyebrow and go well
00:37:29
maybe it was him maybe it was that guy maybe it was a local all along and that certainly has been the case for 62 years
00:37:38
in Paulding Ohio where the list of suspects per the public man it runs the entire
00:37:49
town of Paulding nobody is safe from suspicion the sheriff John Keeler right has been suspected by people to this day
00:38:01
as possibly either have committed the crimes or covered up the crimes because it was committed by somebody he may may
00:38:09
know now yeah and they go well look it's not soft it should be soft there's a reason
00:38:15
it's not solved oh the reason is you're covering for somebody the reason is you're covering for yourself this is
00:38:22
what happens these are how these rumors uh Build and Grow throughout the years so I'll give you a few examples one
00:38:30
example is Virgil Johnson that we talked about the restaurant owner one thing that people have pointed out
00:38:36
that isn't really something of evidence we talked about the blood earlier but one thing that was pointed out about
00:38:42
Virgil was there's a story that says that he he had a daughter that was roughly Nancy's age
00:38:49
but he was on the phone with Nancy a week maybe two weeks before she was killed inviting her to go skating roller
00:38:58
skating with his daughter and when she said no she couldn't go because she had a previous engagement or something that
00:39:05
was already planned or maybe Mom and Dad just wouldn't let her go for whatever reason
00:39:09
he he became angry with her and angry at the situation that she would not go skating
00:39:15
he was going to take his daughter and several of her friends skating and to me that's a very bizarre if that's true
00:39:21
that's a very weird scenario one for a grown man to call his daughter's friend two to be angry that she wouldn't go I'm
00:39:32
40 years old I do not care if a 14 year old goes skating or not it affects me zero right I'm not going to be angry I'm
00:39:40
not going to be happy I'm not going to be sad no matter how it shakes out another interesting story is that you're
00:39:46
not 40. is it either a day before or a week before her death Nancy babysat for the bowling alley
00:39:55
owner this was somebody that was well known obviously to Nancy's family she babysat their child
00:40:03
she tells her parents after the experience I'm never doing that again I'm never going over there again
00:40:10
but doesn't give any further explanation as to why it could be something as simple as maybe the father shortchanged
00:40:17
her or maybe it was an unpleasant experience because the kid that she babysat sucked
00:40:23
really bad or could it be that she went over there to babysit and learned that uh the dad's
00:40:29
a creep yeah he pulled out his pee pee it's an interesting story pulled a Louis CK could it have anything to do with
00:40:35
this case difficult to say showed his turtle head another situation and this is directly related to the Sheriff John
00:40:42
Keeler at the time was that it's been reported that when he was out looking for Nancy now keep in mind the coroner
00:40:52
would list Nancy's approximate time of death as 9 pm November 13 1960. at approximately 8 30 that night we have
00:41:04
Nancy's parents who are in a car with their friends they are driving around frantically looking for their daughter
00:41:10
or the vehicle that took their daughter they go out Route 111 as anybody would because that's the direction that we are
00:41:18
told that the vehicle was traveling that took Nancy so you go out that way and when they got out that way they get to
00:41:27
the intersection where you have to make a left to continue on Route 111 or you can go straight and now you are on
00:41:34
Paulding County Road 176. her body was found off of that road this is approximately 8 30. the coroner says
00:41:45
that she died at approximately 9 pm that night there's reason to believe it's certainly possible that the Killer
00:41:53
and the victim could have been at that location at that time but also at that location is Sheriff
00:42:00
John Keeler who tells the eagle sons and their friends who are out looking for Nancy
00:42:06
go look elsewhere because I already checked back here there's nothing back here many people have wondered
00:42:14
did he find something and was he covering for somebody or was he covering for himself and trying to direct people
00:42:20
away from where Nancy was eventually found the other possibility though is he was
00:42:28
just a good man out trying to do a good thing and trying to help Nancy and help the situation and for whatever reason
00:42:36
didn't see a car or didn't see Nancy and moved past and did in fact do as he said I just searched back here there's
00:42:44
nothing here well and that's not where this story ends there's more to the story
00:42:50
possibly and who knows if this is related to all of that portion well I should say probably more to the rumors
00:42:55
yes yeah because what we have that that takes place is many years later John keeler's son John Keeler Jr his wife
00:43:04
goes and tells police that Junior killed Nancy and was responsible now Junior would have been
00:43:14
of driving age he would have been a little bit older than Nancy a handful of years older so it's certainly a
00:43:20
possibility the thing though that I keep going back to though is the statement of
00:43:25
Cheryl saying that she doesn't know how old the man was but she believed off of that short
00:43:32
experience that the man was older than her father or appeared to be older than her father right and so Junior would not
00:43:39
fall into that category wouldn't fall anywhere close to being in that category the other thing too that I have a
00:43:47
problem with and I'm not saying that we should discount the sheriff and say he's
00:43:51
perfectly innocent or the the son is innocent or the sheriff didn't cover for somebody
00:43:57
I just I simply don't know but what my gut tells me is that no that the sheriff probably was not covering for somebody
00:44:04
because look at what he did we can learn we can learn from the actions of his investigation well you
00:44:12
gotta go with your gut your nut and your butt that he was trying to solve this case right he was contacting other
00:44:19
agencies other law enforcement agencies if he was trying to cover up something he did
00:44:25
or something that he knew the person that did it and was trying to cover for them right he wouldn't be reaching out
00:44:30
to other agencies that just brings that could bring somebody into the area that is an expert and come in and see it for
00:44:38
what it is and go nope the sheriff did this or nope the sheriff knows who did this yeah not to Kaka poo poo all over
00:44:45
your idea but maybe you'd only do that if you're able to control the outside entity you know oh well I can yeah bring
00:44:54
them on board but I'm going to do so so that I can see what they're going to investigate see what leads they they
00:45:01
generate and then that I can kind of steer the direction because even though you bring outside uh bring in outside
00:45:09
sources you're still the lead in command the other thing too If he if he were to cover for somebody
00:45:17
another thing that presents the idea and points to me that he was not covering for anybody would be the fact that he
00:45:24
had several opportunities to have a scapegoat for this crime yeah good point Robert Lee Stovall was arrested
00:45:31
and suspected immediately in both murders and yet he investigates Stovall and basically says it wasn't stovable Virgil
00:45:41
Johnson was investigated and even suspected to the point of the public that they were ready to string this man
00:45:48
up and kill him and yet he steps in intervenes and says it wasn't Virgil Johnson
00:45:54
Thomas ball convicted of similar crimes Keeler says didn't do it clears him yeah
00:46:02
it doesn't sound like a guy that is trying to cover up a crime or cover for somebody he had multiple opportunities
00:46:08
to blame this on somebody that the public very likely would have accepted right as the perpetrator of this murder
00:46:15
and he didn't do that he investigated them and decided that they did not do it leaving it open for
00:46:22
whoever actually did it whether he's covering for them or not to be charged and convicted of this crime now I
00:46:29
presented that argument to the people that think that there that there were some misdealings by the sheriff's office
00:46:35
and said look this is why the sheriff didn't do it this is why he wasn't covering for somebody and I
00:46:41
think it's a valid argument but then they present the flip side of that coin to me and they say was that
00:46:47
happenstance or was that done on purpose Well normally the older cases don't they
00:46:53
don't get to me like the newer cases or the the more recent cases but this one it seems like there's a couple missteps
00:47:00
but there doesn't seem like there's a blatant you know [ __ ] in law enforcement you know
00:47:09
it just seems like maybe a couple missteps or maybe just where they just didn't have information on certain
00:47:15
things but this seems like it's definitely solvable well and that was my personal opinion as well when reviewing
00:47:24
this case was I actually thought that the sheriff worked it pretty well for 1960 again not perfect on the
00:47:30
investigation but I thought that that Keeler did some good work on this case and I know that the current Sheriff
00:47:38
Jason Landers he has strong feelings about this case as well and he too believes that it possibly could be still
00:47:48
solved to this day and that's why porchlight and other people are getting involved that's why the garage is
00:47:53
reminding people about this old case because it's not been solved and we need to figure out what happened here now
00:48:00
previous sheriffs and I want to be clear here the current Sheriff spoke at length
00:48:05
with us about this case and so he deserves plenty of kudos for that he went out of his way giving up
00:48:13
his valuable time to speak with us about Nancy's unsolved case he does not fully
00:48:19
agree with this but he passed this along to me he said that previous sheriffs believe that a man named Mark Hodges
00:48:28
committed this murder now Mark Hodges looks really good for something like this something like
00:48:34
Nancy's attack and her murder because he was believed to be driving around the area
00:48:42
of Northwest Ohio back in the day in the 60s committing very similar crimes and I say believed because Hodges is a
00:48:52
slippery dude he's one of these guys captain that he was brought to trial multiple times for
00:48:58
rape multiple times for attempted murder multiple times for murder he seemed to get acquitted every single
00:49:06
time now I did not have the ability to review those Court proceedings or those trials
00:49:13
but what my gut tells me on Mark Hodges sometimes where there's smoke there is fire
00:49:21
and with Mark Hodges there's just too much damn smoke man he's repeatedly accused and tried
00:49:29
not arrested not suspected by the public tried brought to trial for similar crimes and then eventually convicted
00:49:38
in one of those crimes so I see a guy like Mark Hodges and I go it's not impossible it's not out of the
00:49:46
realm of possibility to believe he could have been there he could have been the one that abducted and killed Nancy
00:49:53
eagleson now we should point out that in 2011 a agency that is near and dear to our
00:50:02
hearts the national Center for missing and exploited children they went to Paulding Ohio they met with the
00:50:08
sheriff's office they collected evidence and we are not allowed to say what it is
00:50:13
we've been asked to not say what that evidence was but they collected evidence back then that will help lead to a
00:50:20
conviction if they find the right person so that is a bright spot in this investigation
00:50:28
and then in August of 2022 this year John demuth has filed a motion in Paulding County
00:50:37
Probate Court to allow the body of Nancy eagleson to be disinterred from the local Cemetery where she was buried
00:50:45
nearly 62 years ago a hearing is set for this September for September 20th to determine if we will be allowed to do
00:50:57
that and I'm begging we need to be able to do this because it's the last hope it's our last chance at Justice there
00:51:07
very likely could be something of strong evidentiary value found well I don't think this is going
00:51:15
to hurt the case and I think maybe us covering it and and this happening in the news will bring more attention and
00:51:23
maybe bring some more leads and and maybe we can get some actual evidence to test in
00:51:30
this crime but it's always a good case when you you know it's a good case when the kernel is getting
00:51:37
fired up in the garage so today we sit here with this case remaining unsolved since 1960. Nancy eagleson's family is
00:51:46
still searching for answers to her murder from more than 60 years ago this case is extensive
00:51:53
and time and in the materials but listen the current sheriff is passionate about this case
00:52:02
there will be a fundraiser that will be held this September 18th to help raise money for the exclamation of Nancy to
00:52:12
help further along her investigation and her case and get Justice for the people
00:52:18
of Paulding and for the eagle sins and for her sisters so I encourage anybody that's in the
00:52:24
area to go and experience that and take part in that fundraiser on September 18th in Paulding Ohio
00:52:31
Sheriff Jason Landers believes that this case could still be solved he's a good man he's a reasonable man
00:52:37
if you know something about this crime please contact the Paulding County Sheriff's Office at 419-399-3791
00:52:48
[Music] [Applause] [Music] oh my God thank you so much for joining us here each and every week we appreciate it we
00:53:09
love Whispering into your sweet earlobes Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the listeners this week we
00:53:17
are coming to you with an ask for a little bit of help we don't ask for help very often here at the garage but we're
00:53:23
asking that you take a little bit of time and go to porchlightonline.org that is the website
00:53:29
for the non-profit organization the porch light project which is assisting the eagleson family in hopes of exhuming
00:53:38
Nancy eagleson's body and then re-investigating opening up this investigation again for one last crack
00:53:45
at Justice for Nancy eagleson and for her family members please go to porchlightonline.org and if you wish to
00:53:53
make a donation that will go directly toward the Nancy eagleson case we thank you so much in advance for any help that
00:54:01
you are able to offer and until next week be good be kind and don't litter foreign
00:54:14
[Music]