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[music] [music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
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for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who would like to have the sensitive and dumb
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combo platter removed from the world's menu. Here is the captain. [music] >> That's cuz I keep eating it. It's good
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to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks to Tone and Brent. >> [music]
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>> This week we are excited to be featuring Bone Face Killer by longtime friends of
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the show Tactical Brewing Company in beautiful Orlando, Florida. Bone Face Killer is a hazy IPA loaded with Citra,
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Cryo, Mosaic and Northeast Chinook Hops. ABV 7% garage grade four and three-quarter bottle caps out of five
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and let's give some thanks and high praise to some of our good friends for helping us fill up the
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old garage fridge. First up, a cheers, a double cheers to Jerry and Lisa in Arkansas. Treat yourself.
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>> And a big relaxation chip goes out to Ashley P and Woodlands, Texas. >> And last but certainly not least, we
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have a long distance cheers to Arnica, Nasty Painter and Exeter, England. Everyone we just mentioned went to
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truecrimegarage.com and helped us out with this week's beer fund and for that we thank you.
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>> Yeah, be double e double r u n beer run. For everything true crime check out truecrimegarage.com. [music]
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While you're there sign up on the mailing list and Colonel that's enough of the beer news.
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>> All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some
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true crime. >> [music] >> The following is an excerpt from the Orlando Sentinel,
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a Henry Curtis article published in 1992. One day after Christmas titled Osceola killers leave bloody
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trail of terror in '92. Kissimmee, Florida detective John Myers knows almost everything about the day
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Bonnie Goodson died except the final 20 minutes before her killing. Closing that small gap could help
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Kissimmee law enforcement protect its 109 year record of solving murders. A record now threatened by two unsolved
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cases during Osceola County's deadliest year since the Florida Department of Law
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Enforcement began tracking homicide data in 1971. By late 1992, 10 people had died in
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violent crimes in the county. Bonnie Goodson killed in late November of '92 was the 10th.
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Myers says many cases have been solved with community help. Often from details people dismissed as
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minor. Quote, "Sometimes it's been with something someone thought was unimportant, but there's nothing
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unimportant in a homicide investigation." He is seeking any information about Bonnie Goodson's movements on the
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afternoon of November 30th, 1992, especially at the Truck Accessory Superstore located at 205 South Bermuda
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Avenue. That day should be memorable. Murder dominated local conversation after two
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local men were killed in a carjacking outside Kissimmee the day before. Bonnie Goodson, a 34-year-old mother of
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two daughters, went to work as usual riding a red single-speed bicycle. She served a couple of customers until
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around noon when a co-worker brought her soup from Fat Boys Barbecue Restaurant on Vine Street.
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The last known customers, a husband and wife, arrived at 2:30 p.m. and bought a latch for their pickup
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truck cover. About 20 minutes later, Goodson was found bleeding heavily from head wounds.
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She died after being flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Less than $500 was missing from the
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register. Detective Myers describes the attack as brutal and questions the motive.
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Was it anger? Was it robbery or both? The 1992 killings began only three blocks from Goodson's store on the night
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of February 26, 1992, when Dr. Ruth Haut, a Kissimmee chiropractor, was abducted from her
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Bermuda Avenue office. This true crime story focuses on Curtis Huff Jr., a suspect in multiple unsolved
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homicides in Osceola County. In five still unsolved cases, the 1992 murders of Ruth Haut,
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Mary Ellen Wise, Antonio Zucca, and Bonnie Goodson, and the 2006 murder of Helen McPherson.
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This is True Crime Garage. This is suspect number one. >> [music] [music] >> Wednesday [music] evening, February 26,
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1992, this is Kissimmee, Florida. We have Dr. Ruth Haut, age 41. She's going in about what should have been an
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ordinary work day. The good doctor is a chiropractor at the Sandra Roberts Chiropractic Clinic.
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That day, patients came and went as usual. The clinic's rhythm of appointments, phone calls, all led to
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the typical routine end-of-the-day steps. But sometime that evening, those rhythms
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broke. Ruth's partner, Jean Wagner, tried calling the office and reached what sounded like an automated message.
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So, instead of getting a hold of the roommate, they get the automated message instead.
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Ruth does not pick up the phone there at the office. This seemed odd to Jean as she knew that Ruth would be working late
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that evening. It was the kind of small oddity that can nag at a person, especially when paired with another.
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Because when Jean gets home from work, Ruth's car was not there. Expecting to see Ruth's car, if she was
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not at the office, her car should have been been at their home. Jean's worry sharpened into something heavier, an
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intuition that something was incredibly wrong. So, Jean drove to Ruth's office that same night to check for herself.
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What she found looked like a scene absolutely interrupted. The office door to the business was
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ajar. A telephone line had been cut. So, this is the line that runs from the wall
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to the desk phone for Ruth. This line had been cut. >> Well, that's not bizarre at all.
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>> Not at all. Jean recalled that someone had scheduled a late appointment that evening with Ruth. This was an
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appointment that, now in hindsight, felt less like a patient visit and more like
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some kind of lure. Ruth was officially reported missing that night at 10:30 p.m. This is February 26th, 1992,
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and investigators, obviously based off of the details we just covered and what they are seeing at the scene, believe
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that Ruth had been abducted from her place of work and that [clears throat] this likely had occurred hours prior to
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her being reported missing. In fact, they put the believed time of abduction at 7:30 p.m. This from her Bermuda
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Avenue office. >> Yeah, you don't think about how vulnerable some of these jobs are. We've
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talked a lot about real estate agents being vulnerable. I'd think chiropractors or masseuse, and
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especially in situations where you have clients that you're in physical contact with them. Some of
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these men might not understand that this individual is just doing their job. There's no romantic intimacy here.
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>> Well, and anytime you have somebody looking for a victim or looking to victimize someone,
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they're often looking for an individual, right? There's strength in numbers, the
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old buddy system. And so, when you talk about people like a realtor or in this case a chiropractor, if you can arrange
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an appointment, you very likely will encounter that person, whether you they are your specific target or not, on a
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solo one-on-one situation. >> Well, and all these individuals, they're essentially being paid to also be nice
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to you. They're selling a service. >> Ruth's business partner, chiropractor Sandra Roberts, said that the office
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appeared to have been robbed. Though, publicly what was stated is that the stolen items were described as not
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valuable. So, I guess the kind of theft that doesn't seem to quite add up unless
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robbery is only part of the story. >> Yeah, or maybe it's items that the killer touched.
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>> I think it's also we don't want to be too specific when we tell the public what was stolen because you're hoping to
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find these items on your perpetrator. After being abducted from the office, investigators believe Ruth was then
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driven 3 hours away to Vero Beach, Florida. The basis for this belief wasn't rumor or some
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vague theory, it was a camera and a bank card. An ATM camera at the SunTrust Bank
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at 1716 Highway A1A captured an image of a person using Ruth Haut's bank card. The person on the footage seems to have
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taken deliberate steps to hide their identity. What you can see on the footage is an individual wearing a green
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short-sleeved shirt with two buttoned pockets on each side over top. So, the short-sleeved shirt is over top of a
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hooded sweatshirt, and the hood is pulled up and the strings on the hood pulled tight. So, it's concealing the
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face. You cannot see the person's face. So, it looks like a hooded person with no face at all.
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And the hood, again, is completely closed shut. Authorities could not say this was This was weird in the beginning
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parts of this case. So, to I think just to cover all bases here, when reviewing this photo and then when it was released
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to the public, they did state like we >> We can't say that that's not Ruth in the
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underneath the hooded sweatshirt. Because you again, you can't see any features of this person, but they'll do
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further analysis of this security camera footage later that we will have details
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of. But, that was their statement right out the gate that, you know, we can't say if this is Ruth or not, but we do
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not believe it to be Ruth based off of the stature in the uh posture of this individual.
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>> Yeah, you'd think they'd be able to figure out the height pretty quickly. But, if I'm law enforcement, I'm just
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putting out this image and saying, "We're looking for this person." >> The other part of this though, too, is
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this is a walk-up ATM. And part of what I believe that they are saying is Ruth could still be present in this moment,
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just not caught on the camera because the camera is fixed in a way that it's up close and personal to whoever is the
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one accessing that ATM. What they can say it's absolutely Ruth's ATM card. And what they were also saying, you know,
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you can kind of just forget everything that they said right out the gate because what they are saying is we
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believe the person seen here is the person who is responsible for abducting Ruth. It's the only thing that makes
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sense. Why else who else would be this person? Uh Ruth wouldn't stage a scene, I don't
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think, and then disguise herself only to use her her own personal card at a bank 3 hours away.
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>> Well, we've seen a quite a few women like to stage their own kidnapping. >> Now,
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the implication here, while maybe not so clear, should be clear. Financially accessing
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her personal accounts, you're going to need to you're going to use this marker on your timeline to narrow the window
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between her disappearance and what would soon be found. So, on the following morning, this is February 27th, this is
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a Thursday, a child, this is a fifth grader riding the school bus to school, looks out the window and saw something
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that no child should ever have to see. This is around 8:30 a.m. that morning when the child spotted a body in an
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orange grove. >> Now, that's a hell of a way to start the day. >> Yeah, from my understanding, this good
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kid right here, she sits in the very back of the bus and it's believed that she's the only one that spotted or at
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least only one that reported this site based off of her vantage point in the bus. And this poor girl very quietly and
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respectfully reports to the bus driver what she saw or believed she was seeing. And so what we do learn is this was in
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fact a body. And this is about 10 miles east of St. Cloud, Florida. And that body was later determined to be
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that of Ruth Haught. >> Well, the eyewitness almost didn't see the body because she was listening to
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Outcast so loud. >> Ruth was found sprawled in the orange grove. She was fully clothed and
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barefoot. There were no signs of sexual assault, but there was unmistakable violence. Her blouse was covered in
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blood. Ruth was stabbed 11 times and her throat was slashed. She did have defensive wounds.
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Near her body lay a clue that seemed oddly specific. It was a plastic case for a children of the sun cassette tape,
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an album by Billy Thorpe. There was, however, no cassette tape. So it's the case with the album cover and
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the liner notes, but without the actual cassette tape itself. >> And because it's in a field, there is a
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possibility that this doesn't belong to the crime scene, but very strange. >> That is the complication of any outdoor
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crime scene, as we've discussed many times on this show. As investigators tried to reconstruct the final hours of
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their victim, they ba- they began collecting sightings from the same places and the times that they
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suspected that there would be activity. So they wanted information from the public about a red pickup truck that was
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reportedly seen near the orange grove area around the time that Ruth was considered missing.
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>> Was the red truck seen on surveillance footage like the hooded [snorts and clears throat]
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individual? >> No, this is a truck that was seen reported to have been seen by someone in
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the area. I believe possibly by more than one person. >> Right. >> And it's Here's the problem. They think they know
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about what time she was abducted, okay? And this is why I think they they are honing
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in on that 7:30 time period. There's no one there at the office when she's abducted. They have
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some other information that might lead them to believe that it's 7:30, but but your critical piece of evidence here
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that you're going to use is that ATM footage because it's going to have a time stamp on it. You know that the
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distance traveled is roughly 3 hours from point A where the abduction took place at her office to point B the ATM.
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Now, you don't know if she's already been Sorry for the poor terminology here, disposed of
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by this point. But you have that that marker there, okay? So, you're going to use that marker to come up with that
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7:30 abduction time and then you know that obviously she was placed there before 8:30 a.m. So, a a red truck in
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this remote location reported to have been seen in this remote location, its activity unknown, is going to be
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important to you especially you know, if if once it's in that window of time and I bet you that window that
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time frame is much smaller, much more condensed than what they were looking at in this investigation.
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>> Right. So, currently we have the abduction site her office. >> Mhm. >> We have the surveillance on the ATM and
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then we have this truck which might be the transport vehicle. And then we have the disposal site.
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Sorry for the crude term, but do we think that site is where the murder took place or do we think the murder took
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place somewhere else possibly in a vehicle? >> Yeah, so we're looking at a minimum four
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crime scene situation here. No, they they believe that while the science would tell you that
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she expired where she was found, the amount of blood found there does not line up with the amount of blood she
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would have lost. So, the attack started, the physical attack of the stabbing started someplace other than where she
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was eventually found. So, back to the truck here, Captain. Witnesses described the truck as possibly a Chevy S10 or a
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Ford Ranger. So, this would be a smaller sized pickup truck. They have some pretty good detailed information here
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though. >> Right. >> They state that there was a crescent-shaped logo on the driver's
00:20:22
side door and a black side-to-side toolbox in the bed of the truck. >> So, maybe a handyman's vehicle.
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>> They also were looking for answers, of course, at Ruth's last known location or
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at least closer to her office. This leads police to finding another sighting of a different vehicle. This is a white
00:20:47
1979 Monte Carlo sedan that was spotted parked in front of Ruth's office on the night that she disappeared. Now, there's
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another witness that reports seeing a white sedan. The part that's missing from this account is the
00:21:03
79 Monte Carlo, but this is a white sedan similar to a Monte Carlo driving erratically north on Bermuda Avenue,
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then speeding east on Vine Street. And the witness thought that there may have been two people inside the vehicle. So,
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this is This is very difficult here. You see the truck at this location where the
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body is later discovered. So, you have interest in the truck. You would expect that there would be the abductor and the
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the victim here inside a vehicle together. So, now you have two vehicles of interest in your investigation.
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>> So, if you're law enforcement, are you thinking two vehicles possibly involved in this
00:21:47
crime? Are we thinking one perpetrator, or we thinking possibly two? >> That's a great question. I I don't think
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they're closing doors on either of those possibilities. Uh at the at >> Because with the eyewitness seeing the
00:22:02
white sedan with the two with the two passengers, you go, well, is that the perpetrator and the victim,
00:22:11
or is that two perpetrators and the victim somewhere else in the vehicle? >> Exactly. And to your point of the
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cassette tape, does it have anything to do with the case at all? >> Yeah, I am going and pushing eject, my friend,
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and all the car stereos. I'm I'm looking for that tape. There can't be There wasn't millions of records sold.
00:22:35
>> Now, to keep in mind, you know, it's very easy to come in and be a contrarian
00:22:40
on these cases and point to this, that, and the other thing and go, well, it may
00:22:44
not have anything to do with the case at all. It may not have anything to do with
00:22:46
it. But But the way that you need to approach these, if you want to solve a case,
00:22:51
the way that you do it is it has everything to do with your case until it doesn't, until you can prove that it
00:22:56
doesn't. So, right now, as it stands, if I'm the investigator, the red truck means something. It was there where the
00:23:03
body was found. I want to know when and why it was there, who was driving it, and was that truck there before or after
00:23:10
the the body was placed there. Uh the the white vehicle, the white sedan, I want to know it
00:23:16
why was it parked in front of her office? I mean, that's a crime scene. Both of these are crime scenes. So, a
00:23:22
vehicle at either crime scene has everything to do with your crime, with that crime. And same with the plastic
00:23:30
cassette tape [clears throat] uh box or cover, whatever you want to call it, the the case. Now,
00:23:37
our victim, Ruth Hout, was known to see patients in the evening. Now, most of us know typically doctors
00:23:46
are going to do a 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday operation. Ruth would see patients in the evening, but this was
00:23:53
strictly by appointment only. So, we now go back to this appointment, and remember her roommate Jean said, "I knew
00:24:01
that she had an appointment that night, and and that's why it was weird that I got the automated service or the
00:24:07
voicemail when I called the office instead of Ruth picking up the phone." >> Well, and that's why I was curious. When
00:24:13
they state that there was things stolen, I'm starting to think, was there a day planner stolen? Was there contact
00:24:21
information stolen that would lead to the identity of who set up that appointment?
00:24:26
>> Yeah, and they have that information. So, the very rightfully so would not identify
00:24:34
the appointment or the patient of that appointment to the papers. That information was, of course, given to the
00:24:41
investigating officers. >> Right. >> Okay, so let's circle back to some things here.
00:24:47
Ruth's bank card had been used at this automated teller machine to withdraw funds from her account on
00:24:56
the night that she went missing. And again, this is done by someone caught on camera wearing a strange outfit
00:25:02
concealing their identity. And then her body is discovered the following morning
00:25:07
laying in an orange grove. And we will have these images that were captured at the automated teller machine on that
00:25:18
February night in 1992 on our social for you to view for yourself. So, you know me, Captain. I live in the
00:25:26
weeds, baby. So, let's get into the weeds here. >> Shall we? Cuz we have that information.
00:25:33
That information that wasn't given to the papers. We have additional information like the
00:25:38
identity or fake identity, rather, of the after-hours patient. >> Well, like our buddy Ken says, it's a
00:25:44
nice garage, but it's full of weeds. >> According to the police report, Dr. Howe
00:25:50
had been scheduled at the last minute to see a new patient. So, this is somebody
00:25:55
that neither doctor would be familiar with. A new patient who said that their name was Michael Greenwell. This
00:26:01
so-called Michael Greenwell had phoned the office, left a callback number of 870-384-7.
00:26:11
And I believe the area code there would be 407. So, if you're bored this evening, give
00:26:17
that number a call a few times to see who picks up. >> Yeah. Tell them we sent you.
00:26:21
>> That's right. And the caller stated that they had insurance. You know, this is a
00:26:26
medical practice, so that's going to be a common question. And they stated that their insurance carrier was Blue Cross
00:26:32
Blue Shield. >> I don't know any Greenwells. So, I don't know if that makes it a good fake name
00:26:38
or not. >> So, in the weeds here, Captain, on the night of February 26th, 1992, the
00:26:44
Kissimmee Police Department responded to 22 North Bermuda Avenue in Kissimmee, Florida. This in reference to what was
00:26:54
The call was a suspicious incident. Okay, so when the officers arrived, they learned that Dr. Ruth Hoult had been
00:27:01
working late and they talked to the owner, her partner, Dr. Sandra Roberts. She owns that chiropractic office. They
00:27:09
learned that about approximately 10:15 is when Dr. Hoult's roommate went to the office and found
00:27:16
the front door ajar. Okay, so she's missing. The roommate enters the office, finds her missing, finds her car
00:27:25
still parked out front of the building. And this is when she discovers the cut phone line, okay? And I know I'm kind of
00:27:34
rehashing some of this here, but again, the devil is in the details here and there are a lot of details in this
00:27:41
abduction and murder case and I want to make sure that none of them are lost on any of us here in the garage.
00:27:47
>> Yeah, you don't need to apologize. Tell the story the way you want to tell the
00:27:50
story. >> So, some of the items that were missing from the two scenes, right? One, the scene where the body was
00:27:57
found and two, the scene where the likely abduction, the chiropractic office, were as follows. So, they believe that
00:28:03
some additional cards would be missing. So, the bank card or additional bank cards
00:28:10
and personal and business type cards of Dr. Ruth Hoult's. Also missing, and I think this goes
00:28:17
along with the ATM card and the activity at the ATM, the item not described, simply described as not important or not
00:28:26
a value to the newspaper, was actually a silver cash box. So, this would be an item of value that could have cash in
00:28:34
it. In fact, it was the business's petty cash box. >> Right. >> Uh it stated only that this box
00:28:40
contained a small amount of cash, but it also contained two Marriott dinner tickets, which is something that I don't
00:28:47
think exists to this day, but back in the '90s it was a thing. Now, they did find Ruth Houts' car keys on
00:28:58
her desk next to that cut telephone line. And then the following morning when the deputies from the Osceola
00:29:06
County Sheriff's Office responded to an orange grove off of Hickory Tree Road in
00:29:11
St. Cloud, Florida. Again, this is the morning of the 27th. When they arrived, they find that Ruth Houts' body in the
00:29:18
orange grove. Again, this is a rural section of Osceola County and very quickly they connect the dots from the
00:29:26
call the night before to this call that they're getting in the morning that we've located our missing person. We
00:29:35
thought it was an abduction and it's not only unfortunately an abduction, but a straight extremely violent one that
00:29:42
ended in the stabbing death of our victim. And now we have this additional information that there was someone who
00:29:50
stopped and attempted to use her bank card at an ATM approximately a 3-hour drive from the [music] abduction
00:29:58
location. >> [music] [music] >> All right, we are back. Talk hands in the air. Thank you for letting us tickle
00:30:28
your ear balls. Cheers to you, Colonel. >> Cheers to you, Captain. Raise them high.
00:30:33
Items at the crime scene that were discovered and information that would later come out about this brutal murder
00:30:43
was the medical examiner's office later determined that the cause of death was multiple sharp force
00:30:48
injuries to the head, neck, trunk, and extremities of the victim. The injuries were caused by a cutting instrument not
00:30:56
less than 2 in and and not greater than 14 in in length. The Osceola County Sheriff's Office and the Kissimmee
00:31:05
Police Department joined together to investigate the death of Dr. Ruth Haut. Again, we have numerous investigative
00:31:14
leads right out of the gate here. Again, we already talked about possibility of a
00:31:19
small model red pickup truck seen at the orange grove. Police in their notes, we
00:31:26
have some portions of the police report and the police file here in this story and
00:31:34
they're stating a lot of obvious stuff in the notes, but I find that to be great thorough police work, okay?
00:31:41
They're saying things as simple as the distance between where her body was found and the abduction location is
00:31:50
it would be necessary for a vehicle to be used. Okay, so they they are asking this
00:31:56
question to the medical examiner. We found her here. She was abducted way over here. We know that a vehicle had to
00:32:04
have been used to transport her. What's your opinion, medical examiner, about what took place between the
00:32:13
abduction time and us discovering the body? And that's when the medical examiner explains, "Look, do The vehicle
00:32:21
used would have had a large amount amount of blood staining in it due to the amount of blood missing from the
00:32:27
victim's body, right?" So, the doctor explains that while Dr. Haut may have been stabbed in a vehicle, she expired
00:32:36
in the orange grove. At the orange grove, they also recovered tire impressions from the crime scene.
00:32:44
These tire castings were examined and found to be that of BFGoodrich Comp T/A model P215/65.
00:32:56
Okay, I say all that just to tell you this. That tire comes from the factory, which
00:33:03
is most often used on a small model pickup truck. Okay, you can also buy it aftermarket and put it on your pickup
00:33:09
truck, but it's most commonly used on on newer GMC S15s and Chevy S10s and other small
00:33:20
GMC pickup trucks. Again, some of these from the factory when you purchase the sports value package.
00:33:28
>> Yeah, so not impossible that it would be on a Ford Ranger, but we have people
00:33:32
saying, well, maybe it's a Ford Ranger. Maybe it's a S10. But, if you're going to go in that direction,
00:33:40
you're probably looking for a S10. >> S10 or GMC. And what's cool about this information is you can kind of pri-
00:33:48
right, you're going to keep a list of all these possible trucks and the models, but you can kind of
00:33:53
prioritize them based off of this information. >> Well, I want to know how far away this
00:33:58
is mile-wise. And depending on if it if we know it's a S10 or or roughly an S10,
00:34:06
then what's the range of an S10 on a full tank of gas and where would the individual possibly have to refill?
00:34:18
And now are there any eyewitnesses in around those areas? >> Yeah, what I'm finding to be the most
00:34:24
interesting here, circling back to one abductor or a team of of abductors, is either way this would appear to me to
00:34:36
be highly thought out and planned. Whether the abductor or abductors knew the victim or not, that's
00:34:43
neither here nor there. That doesn't it will mean something to your investigation, but it doesn't mean
00:34:48
anything to the indicators of this being highly planned. Because what I'm seeing
00:34:55
here is this red truck while spotted at the Orange Grove, never seen at the abduction location.
00:35:03
>> Right. >> The white sedan, white Monte Carlo, seen at the abduction location, never seen at
00:35:09
the location where the body's later discovered. And we don't have any vehicle information regarding the ATM
00:35:17
situation. But what I'm seeing here is the likelihood of one abductor that managed to use two vehicles in the
00:35:26
course of this abduction. >> Yeah, there's a sophistication to this, right? If If one
00:35:32
vehicle is seen at the abduction site and there's a different vehicle seen at the disposal site, then is it possible
00:35:40
that law enforcement won't take certain eyewitness accounts as [clears throat] serious?
00:35:45
>> I would prioritize the small red pickup truck because what's the difference between
00:35:52
the two locations? One's very remote and rural, and the other is uh a business area, highly populated.
00:36:00
So, if I've if I think that my killer is smart enough to think this out and think
00:36:06
this through and put some things into place, >> Right. >> I then would have to believe that he was
00:36:11
would be smart enough to use someone else's vehicle conveniently for the abduction and use his truck, which would
00:36:19
less likely to have been seen for the actual attack, killing, and disposal of the victim.
00:36:25
>> So, with the information we have so far, is your we're talking about this at Crime Con.
00:36:32
You You used to do your own profiles. And I really enjoyed them. But, uh you have kind of gone away from doing
00:36:42
your own profiles. >> Well, I don't know that I I Look, obviously, I'm not qualified to do them,
00:36:50
but it is our show and my show and our garage, so >> Yeah. >> I'm qualified for whatever I claim here
00:36:57
once you stepped into Once you come back press past the threshold of the garage door, my friends, you are at our mercy.
00:37:05
Um here the the problem is I would love to tell you what I think my profile would be, but
00:37:13
I cannot in good faith do so knowing that we are only about a quarter of the way through the
00:37:22
information that will point to our point to what what we think happened here. So, here's some other
00:37:32
things that that may indicate that this was well planned and well thought out. >> So, so what you're saying is this killer
00:37:40
is organized. >> Yeah, so at at the one of the crime scenes, this would be where the the
00:37:45
victim was recovered, they also recovered black duct tape. So, a small portion of
00:37:53
a latex glove and some black duct tape was discovered at the body discovery scene. Okay, so a physical examination
00:38:02
of this black duct tape in comparison with the victim's body indicate that this tape was used to bind her and also
00:38:14
placed over her eyes during the portion of transporting this victim. So, they found a sticky
00:38:21
substance on the victim's forehead and eyebrow that was similar to the substance on the backing of the tape
00:38:30
that was found at that scene. So, while not attached to the body, found near the
00:38:35
body, they've confirmed we have everything indicating that this tape has everything
00:38:41
to do with our crime. Now, they also find near the body a tennis shoe or sneaker impression. Shoe
00:38:50
print impressions were found near the body. They would later determine that this
00:38:55
these impressions came from a Reebok style tennis shoe or sneaker. >> So, we have tire
00:39:02
marks, we have shoe prints. >> Yep. >> So, we're getting some identifiers here. >> Duct tape, a piece of a latex glove. If
00:39:11
If our abductor's using duct tape, I would I would absolutely believe that he's using gloves.
00:39:17
>> Yeah. >> And again, we also have that cassette tape box or case bearing the name Billy Thorpe,
00:39:25
Children of the Sun. >> Classic. >> It's It's It's a good song. I don't know the album, but that's a good song.
00:39:32
Detectives learned that Dr. Haught's SunBank automatic teller card had been used at the SunBank in Vero Beach,
00:39:40
Florida. The unidentified suspect was captured on film by the ATM security camera, and
00:39:46
again, that person's identity concealed, and this wasn't by accident. This was somebody that made sure you were not
00:39:54
going to see who was accessing that machine. Now, they further examination of this security camera footage, they
00:40:07
couldn't confirm this, Captain, but they were saying, "We think that the individual using the machine is wearing
00:40:13
latex gloves." And they also think that the top shirt, remember the person put a short-sleeve
00:40:21
shirt over top of a hooded sweatshirt >> Right. >> can be seen in the ATM footage.
00:40:29
A shirt similar to this is found next to the doctor's body. This shirt was saturated with a red substance, later
00:40:38
determined to be blood. It was never stated whose blood it was. I'm guessing it was the victim's blood. And the shirt
00:40:47
had a label attached to it that was labeled D A X or DAX. Further analysis of the camera footage
00:40:56
determined that the person in that video was between 5'3" tall and 5'6" tall and
00:41:06
they s- openly stated the individual is Caucasian. >> Do we have any indication because that's
00:41:12
a that'd be a short male. Is there any thought that this could be a female? >> Again, based off of the stature and the
00:41:21
the posture of the individual it looks male to me. Now >> Right. >> um I'm basing a lot of that off of the
00:41:29
what I think I can see with the neck and the shoulders, but I've watched American
00:41:35
Gladiators and I've I've seen some pretty cool shoulders on on those women. So it's it
00:41:41
I I think you can't say with a great degree of certainty. And you're right that the height is
00:41:48
interesting. >> Well, the shoulders it's it's um it's a under appreciated thing on women.
00:41:55
I like a woman with some nice shoulders. >> The suspect, whoever it was, was unable
00:42:01
to retrieve any money from the ATM and discarded the receipts from the machine next to the doctor's body.
00:42:12
That particular ATM card has never been recovered. At this point in our investigation, of
00:42:18
course, they are attempting to try to identify the subject who made the appointment under the name of Michael
00:42:25
Greenwell. Detectives contacted Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the supposed insurance company,
00:42:32
and a representative told investigators that they did not have anyone covered under their insurance by the
00:42:40
name of Michael Greenwell. >> One question for you because it seems like this disposal site's not just disposing
00:42:47
of the body, but it's disposing of other parts of the crime. >> Mhm. >> And so, it makes me wonder and and I
00:42:54
don't know how well you know or understand this location, but is it the type of location where it's like
00:43:01
I'm disposing of this victim and they may never find her there? >> It looks a little too open. I I don't
00:43:09
know. I think if they in the this Vero Beach general area once in my lifetime, so I'm
00:43:15
not going to claim to have a good understanding. I certainly don't have a great understanding of this very
00:43:19
specific location, but looking at it on a map and from the pictures I've seen, it looks way too open
00:43:27
to think that the victim would not be found. And in fact, it looks way too open to think that the victim might not
00:43:33
be found relatively quickly. I think that it it was a location that was more about not concealing the body
00:43:41
and more about just >> Getting >> getting rid of something that you needed to get rid of and not being seen in that
00:43:48
moment. Not being connected to it in that moment. Now, investigators did locate one individual by the name of Michael
00:43:56
Greenwell that lived in South Florida. There was Apparently, there was only one of them.
00:44:01
Um and he's a professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox and >> Okay. >> They also noted that while they didn't
00:44:11
give out his specific height, he doesn't match the height requirements of our suspect seen at the ATM machine.
00:44:18
>> You don't have to be tall to be a good baseball player, but >> You don't. But I don't There's not a
00:44:23
whole lot of 5 ft 3, 5 ft 4 >> Right. >> professional baseball players. And so my the
00:44:31
Just to be clear here, this Michael Greenwell very quickly ruled out and I'm sure
00:44:37
I would wager a Franklin here, Captain, that his height is not the only reason why he was
00:44:43
>> Right. I mean, obviously if he's playing for the Red Sox, right? He he probably is
00:44:49
not in the Florida area at the time. >> And well, it's February. >> Well, it's February.
00:44:56
>> Okay. Well, we need to check his alibis then. >> That's right. Maybe he was on his knees
00:45:02
at the ATM machine. >> hey, very talented man. >> Unfortunately, Captain, Ruth Houts' case
00:45:09
did not stand alone. So later that same year, 1992, this year would become a bleak ledger of
00:45:19
unsolved violence. Another woman's life was torn apart in a crime that investigators
00:45:28
describe as eerily similar in its pattern of both abduction and forced bank activity.
00:45:35
>> Okay, and I know you're moving on to another crime, but just to throw this out there be cuz I
00:45:42
won't have a chance later, is there any reason to believe that this person would
00:45:47
pick this name knowing it was a baseball player? >> There are people that would later
00:45:54
share that suspicion if that is >> Right. >> is a suspicion of yours. Like it >> I'm suspicious of everything, my friend.
00:46:02
>> Yeah, there there are people that say that this name is wasn't completely pulled out of
00:46:07
thin air. >> Cuz I was just watching Catch Me If You Can again. And Frank Abagnale would use names from
00:46:15
comic books. >> So later that same year, again this is 1992, we're now in the month of
00:46:22
November. This is November 2nd. We're again in Vero Beach, Florida. We have Mary Ellen Wise. She's 39 years
00:46:32
old. She's at home doing something as ordinary as laundry. And it's around 7:30 a.m.
00:46:40
And she is working in the garage of her home. So she owns the home. Her boyfriend
00:46:47
lives with her. They've been together about 3 years from what I could find at this time. And the reason why we're
00:46:54
starting this timeline at 7:30 a.m. is because that is when he leaves for work. And so now starting at 7:30 a.m. she is
00:47:04
alone. It's believed that shortly after the boyfriend left that an unknown assailant entered her home. Now, those
00:47:14
are the words that they always use. I would like to push back on that. I think that that's just
00:47:20
I think that's just reporter speak or that's what the cops told the reporters and they ran with it. Because that
00:47:26
what's always stated in this crime is that there's no signs of forced entry. I think that that is a critical point in
00:47:34
this case and in the investigation. The other part of this too is Mary Ellen Wise,
00:47:41
she was a dog mother mother, right? You got the the the Godfather, she's a dog mother. Uh she has two Doberman
00:47:51
Pinscher dogs. Which are which can be very Most dogs can be protective of their owners and
00:47:58
their loved ones, but these dogs are reported to be very protective of Mary Ellen. Number
00:48:05
one, and number two, these are typically dogs that are used for security purposes.
00:48:10
>> Right. >> If I call them aggressive, I'm going to get some nasty email by some overly
00:48:16
affectionate dog person. I love dogs as much as the next guy. I've I've had >> Maybe more.
00:48:21
>> I've been fortunate enough to have many have several in my lifetime, so >> Well, and I had a rescue for just a
00:48:28
little bit just helping out to make sure it got a proper home. A proper home that I wasn't able to give
00:48:35
the dog, but that dog was very protective. Big dog, strong dog. And there's something
00:48:41
empowering by, you know, the UPS driver would knock on the door and I thought the dog was going to jump
00:48:49
through the door and rip the driver's head off just to protect me. So, I think this is a a crucial piece of
00:48:57
information in this case. >> Yes, and as someone who worked in security for a long period of time, you
00:49:03
are always trained to look at every location, building, access point, backyard, front yard, property from the
00:49:14
potential criminal's perspective. What would the criminal looking at this view as a weakness or a deterrent
00:49:23
for the crime that they want to commit? A Doberman to me as a criminal would be a
00:49:30
high-level deterrent because not only are they strong, powerful dogs, they are incredibly fast. They are faster than
00:49:39
human beings. I'm not going to dance with that animal. So, around this time, an assailant, as they say it, entered
00:49:47
her home. Again, no signs of forced entry. What we're going to see here at this crime scene here, Captain, is why I
00:49:54
don't think the assailant ever actually entered her home. I think the assailant entered her garage where she was out
00:50:01
doing laundry. I think that the assailant got lucky that those dogs were inside where they couldn't get outside
00:50:09
to assist Mary Ellen. >> And the timeline starts, like you said, 7:30. The partner is leaving the house.
00:50:18
I'm guessing leaving through the garage. If she's doing laundry, there's a good possibility that she's like I'll just
00:50:25
leave the door open. I'll I'll shut it later. >> Yeah, maybe it's nice outside and leaves
00:50:31
it open because of the the great weather. What we do know that's going to be missing from the scene
00:50:37
is not just our victim, but also the victim's car. So, somebody forcefully abducted Mary Ellen using her own
00:50:44
vehicle. This was a Honda CRX. And from there, what we have is what appears to be a controlled transactional
00:50:54
phase of this abduction. So, Mary Ellen was forced to drive to a bank in Melbourne, Florida to withdraw an
00:51:03
undisclosed amount of money from an ATM. It was undisclosed in '92. I'm here to tell you that all the reports I found
00:51:11
since '92 indicate that it was about $500 that was removed from an ATM. >> Which could be the standard limit on an
00:51:19
ATM. >> Could be the the max amount allowed. >> Right. >> Now, later that day, another withdrawal
00:51:24
was made, this time at a drive-thru window at the United Savings of America Bank on US Highway 1 in Vero Beach,
00:51:33
Florida. So, for this, Mary would have had to have written a check from my understanding. Now, the details of that
00:51:41
drive-thru withdrawal are interesting because the bank teller believes something was off. Maybe in
00:51:49
just a happenstance type of scenario. But the bank teller would later tell police that it was odd
00:51:59
because they had three lanes for the window that you could drive through. And the bank teller was
00:52:06
familiar with Mary Ellen and had waited on Mary Ellen many, many times. She's lived in this area forever.
00:52:15
And so she the I said she, but I don't know if it was a male or female bank teller, so forgive
00:52:22
me. But the bank teller told police that Mary Ellen would always pull up to the window that was attached to the
00:52:30
building. You know, so that she's pulls up in the nearest lane all the time. And
00:52:34
they exchanged pleasantries and talked for a little bit while they're doing the transaction. But this time
00:52:41
for reasons unknown to the teller, Mary Ellen pulls up to the third lane, the furthest from the window. And remember
00:52:50
she's got this little small Honda CRX car. So this is a two-door vehicle with a very small backseat if it has
00:52:59
much of a backseat at all. The teller would tell police that they they didn't think that they saw anybody
00:53:05
inside the vehicle, but that doesn't mean that somebody isn't in there. And the teller said
00:53:12
>> I was going to say as a bank teller, yeah, most of the time they're friendly. Most of the time we're
00:53:18
we're chatting it up a little bit. But okay. But it didn't happen this time. But
00:53:25
probably no alarm bells are going off. It's just after the fact once you know she was
00:53:31
abducted that you go, oh, well, now these these things that didn't really matter then make sense now.
00:53:40
>> Yes. And the teller would tell police that they had said something to Mary Ellen like, "Oh,
00:53:47
what? You don't like me anymore?" And that Mary Ellen laughed, but wasn't her normal talkative self. And so they
00:53:57
they cashed the check or made the withdrawal, and then Mary Ellen and the CRX Honda moved on.
00:54:04
And everybody went about their day. Now, Mary back at her house, Mary Ellen's living boyfriend, his name is John,
00:54:12
reported her missing, but this would be later that night. So a lot of time has gone by between the time that he leaves
00:54:18
for work when she's reported missing. So he is both believed to be the last person to see her, well, at least the
00:54:27
last person to see her at her home, and the same person to report her missing. Police seem to think after
00:54:36
reviewing the scene that A, she was abducted, and B, that it happened shortly after John had left the house.
00:54:44
They found blood in the garage area and near where her car would have been parked. And another
00:54:54
strange thing here, they found a robe, like a bathrobe, that was like ripped in half or torn, and stuffed inside their
00:55:04
mailbox. >> Mhm. That's bizarre. >> guessing it might be some of the laundry that she was doing.
00:55:11
>> Yeah, but wouldn't the partner be able to identify that? >> Well, just because just because they
00:55:17
didn't tell us where where it came from doesn't mean they don't know. >> Very true.
00:55:21
>> So two days >> to tell me everything, okay? >> Well, I do too. >> How can I solve these crimes if you
00:55:26
don't tell me everything? >> I I'm guessing it doesn't belong to the perpetrator would have be
00:55:32
[clears throat] be some good evidence there. Two days later, her 1991 red Honda CRX is found in Fort Pierce,
00:55:39
Florida. This is in a parking lot at a boat ramp on Seaway Drive and Indian River Drive, so near that
00:55:48
intersection. The car had a broken window and there was glass lying on the ground beside it.
00:55:56
>> But that could have happened afterwards, right? >> And I I apologize here. I'm reviewing my
00:56:01
notes and it states Oh, no, it doesn't. It does not state who the torn robe belong to. It just
00:56:08
simply says torn robe was found in her mailbox and blood was found in the garage where the car had originally been
00:56:13
parked. Authorities declined to say what other evidence might have been found with the vehicle and they did not
00:56:20
discuss details of lab test on the blood. Remember the blood found in the garage. So, she's missing for almost a
00:56:28
week when on November 8th, her fully clothed body, already very badly decomposed, was found in a field about
00:56:37
200 yards northwest of Peanut Lake, roughly 4 miles west of Fort Pierce, discovered by a local Fort Pierce
00:56:46
resident. Reports later concluded she died of she died from blunt force trauma to the
00:56:52
head. Investigators believed that she had struggled and that she had suffered massive trauma, a beating severe enough
00:57:00
to register as brutal even among hardened case investigators. Those who loved Mary Ellen remembered
00:57:08
her not as a headline, but as a person who had already survived enormous pain in her life. In the early 1980s, she had
00:57:18
been in a very very serious car accident and nearly shattered every bone in her body.
00:57:24
Recovery took roughly a decade and she fought her way back to life only for someone in 1992 to take it from her.
00:57:35
>> [music] >> So much more to get to in this true crime story. >> [music] >> Stick around for part two. Until then,
00:57:52
>> be good, be kind, and don't let her >> [music] [music] [music]