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n [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 know what time does your rooster
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crow here is the captain yeah Here Comes the Rooster it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening
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thanks for telling a friend today we are sipping on some nightmare fuel by the scary good Brewers at River
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North Brewery in beautiful Denver Colorado nightmare fuel is a hauntingly powerful coffee Stout in fact a double
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coffee Stout that is very good and very dark ABV 11.9% so drink this one at home garage
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grade 4 and a quarter bottle caps out of five and let's give some thanks and praise to our good friends that helped
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that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
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[Music] crime I don't without [Music] [Music] without in 1970 more than a half century ago
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15-year-old old marily Bert set out to do something that kids did most days back then walk
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home she likely thought nothing of it as she set out to walk the two miles other
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than to shudder at the cold it was February in Littleton Colorado at that time of year the
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temperatures can be dangerous for Mar's walk home it was dark and it was cold and that is why
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perhaps marily might have been open to the idea of accepting a ride but the dark outside was nothing
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compared to the dark traveling next to her in whatever vehicle she may have entered merily was last seen on the side
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of the road talking to the driver of a vehicle and then she was gone her body was found the next day to
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this day the driver of that vehicle has never been found who killed marily Burke this is true crime
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[Music] garage marily Ruth Burke was born January 28th 195 5 to parents Nathan Allen Bert and his wife Sher marily had
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two older brothers Alan Bert Jr and her other older brother Raymond marily grew up in Littleton Colorado which had a
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population of about 26,000 people in 1970 it was a nice small town outside of Denver but Mar's family they weren't the
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farming type or the blue collar family the berts owned a number of car dealers ships in the Denver area and were very
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well to do financially her father Allan was the VP in general manager of Bert Chevrolet in Englewood which was owned
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by his father Nathan mily's Granddad and grandma Mr and Mrs Nate Bert lived in Anglewood and her mom Sherry's parents
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last name Booth lived in Middleton marily Bert was about as normal of a kid as you can find she was a ninth grader
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at go Middle School a b student a member of the student council and very popular
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marily was very pretty she was 110 lbs with blonde hair and a winning smile she was athletic too excelling in both
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ballet and tap dancing and she loved swimming and Diving and was an avid water skier and was on a gymnastics team
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as well it's been reported that her lifelong goal was to join a ballet troop in New York City for now in ninth grade
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she was happy going to school cheering hanging out with friends and pursuing all of her Hobbies on the last day of
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her life marle was excited to cheer at the middle school basketball game she wore her green and gold cheerleading
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uniform emblazened with a large G on the sweater front and her name merily in cursive embroidered on the back she also
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met with her guidance counselor about selecting her classes for her first year of high school in the fall of
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1971 she planned to try out for the High School cheer team and she was excited for the next chapter of her life so
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let's get into the timeline of this case we're going to start in February 26 1970
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this is a Thursday evening we have 15-year-old marily who was scheduled to cheer at the basketball game at her
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school Goddard Middle School we don't have any reports about the basketball game or what went down there marily
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presumably cheered happily with her Squad and everything was a normal evening after the game marily and her
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friend Cheryl cook they decided to walk to Cheryl's home she lives nearby close to the school merily called her mother
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or called the house and left a message and there's varying reports on this message and we'll get back to it but the
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the what we do know about this message or the phone call home Captain is that somehow her location got Lost in
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Translation because she needs a ride home her ride never shows up now what we do know is that her mother actually set
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out in her vehicle and drove to marily school that evening where she had picked up her daughter plenty of times before
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this night but on this night merily wasn't there she wasn't standing out front and she never walked out of the
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building so Mom is puzzled she's sitting in her vehicle engine on and she probably got annoyed and we do know that
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she went inside she went inside looking for her daughter marily was not at the school there were only a couple of
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custodians left in the building cleaning up none of them had seen marily since the end of the game so she's puzzled
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she's concerned and she decides to to return home but she's going to drive slowly because she's looking for her
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daughter expecting to see her walking making her way home she doesn't see her and in fact Merit never came home so
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later that night frantic mom called around to mily's friends this is when she learned that marily had been at her
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friend's house this is Cheryl cook but she had left to walk home hours prior she set out to walk the estimated 2
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miles to The Bert home located at 30 Wedge Way and she's on foot it's hard to imagine
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the Bert's Panic as they called the Arapaho County Sheriff's Office to report merily missing it was 3 and a
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half hours since marily had last been seen so if I'm getting this right after the game marily heads to her friend's
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house instead of waiting for her mother to pick her up police searched for marily immediately throughout the the
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night and it didn't take long before there was news the nude body of a blonde female teen was found on Friday around 1
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p.m. this is about 18 hours after police were called a Jefferson County road crew
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worker saw the crumpled form partially submerged in Deer Creek and radioed the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office they
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had found a dead girl she lay under a bridge in Deer Creek Canyon this is 1 and 1/2 miles west of Philipsburg and 6
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miles from her home this was not one of those High overpass type Bridges this was a one lane Scenic country type
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bridge over a stream crime scene photos show police officers standing on the bridge looking down into the creek where
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merily was found half in the water half on the Rocks she was dumped off of the low bridge likely from a vehicle stopped
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on the roadway the other side of the roadway was Abed by a rocky Hillside her clothing was nowhere to be found all of
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the following items are missing and was missing from this horrific scene a green
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pullover sweater with a large gold G on the front and the numeral 70 on the sleeve with merily embroidered on the
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back a green and gold pleated skirt a white blouse a dark nylon windbreaker and white sneakers now there is no
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mention of these items in the missing list but we have to assume that marily was also wearing socks and
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undergarments also not located was her book bag and the three textbooks that she had been carrying that day police
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officers were dispatched to comb the area looking for these items or any other Clues to what happened to marily a
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Denver police helicopter was sent up on Saturday to fly over this area where they found the girl looking for or the
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bright colored clothing the book bag or anything suspicious mily's personal items have never been found well if
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you're a law enforcement I think you have to then look at the scene where merly is at and say well this is The
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Dumping Ground And by by surveilling the rest of the area you're looking for these items to see if these items were
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discarded of too I think This lends itself to the idea because we know she wasn't walking 6
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miles away from her home so the crime probably took place somewhere else possibly in a vehicle or a house and
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then she was discarded here Jefferson County coroner Ken Renee revealed to the media that Mar's cause of death was
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strangulation what was not revealed at the time was that marily was found with the murder weapon still attached to her
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this is a 10-ft length of sturdy rope that was wrapped around her neck it had been used to strangle her but before she
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was strangled she had been immobilized by a single Blow To The Head was something very heavy it left bruising
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and abrasion and Trauma to her head but did not fracture the skull so the blow would likely not have killed her but was
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believed likely to have knocked her out close inspection of the body detected wood pieces among marly's fingers and
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metal shavings in her hair these shavings were described to a reporter for The Denver Post as similar to those
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found on the floor of a machine shop the coroner also told the media that there was evidence that marily had been
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sexually assaulted a sexual assault kit hair samples and fingernail scrapings were collected a funeral for marily was
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held on Monday and it's it's hard to contemplate just how somber that must have been marily was full of Life on
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Thursday and within 3 days her parents were at her grave site this from The Denver Post blog quote at her funeral at
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the First United Methodist Church Reverend Fred Venable described merily as an angel with the proper amount of
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Mischief to make her superbly human end quote well and the whole town must have been shook up because of this because at
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that time there's a lot of people that walked home from school events or walked home from school to set the stage here a
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little the area where merily had gone missing from this is Coline Valley this at the time was only settled
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by about like 120 families so there's not a lot of people here right mily's family lived in the Coline Country Club
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development in Littleton when news got out that a girl from a respectable family in a high-end area had been
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murdered and dumped in Deer Creek Canyon people were shocked horrified and of course devastated when the Jefferson and
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Arapaho County Sheriffs requested anyone who had anything any information at all
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to please come forward the community called in about 70 tips some of these tips backed up some crucial information
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given to police on the night marily disappeared by her own brother Raymond it's a little unclear what exactly
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Raymond saw but here is the gist of of it Raymond who was older than marily was driving on South Middlefield Road
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heading home right around 650 p.m. on Thursday evening according to the Denver Post blog this road was at the time a
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deserted stretch of road bordered by trees on both sides Raymond's car approached and then passed a girl
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walking in the same direction that he was going and he saw a truck flash its lights pull over and stop right where
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the girl was walking on the side of the road now of course people have questioned why Raymond didn't in the
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moment recognize that the girl he saw walking was his sister we have to keep in mind it's dark out he was driving by
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probably fairly fast and he saw the girl from the rear she's going in the same direction that he's driving toward their
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home he did not see her face and merily reportedly did not typically wear her hair in pigtails so she's wearing
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pigtails that day so it didn't occur to him in the moment that the girl walking on the side of the road was his sister
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and the whole thing probably happened very quickly he got a flash of the girl and then the truck pulled over and that
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was it I think this is a piece of information that's rightful that people question because she would have been
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wearing her cheerleading outfit but because he saw her from the backside she would also been been wearing her book
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bag which would have basically covered up any distinguishing marks that he would have
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seen as far as clothing or or anything that would he would recognize easily correct and keep in mind due to the cold
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due to the the time of year she had a a lightweight jacket on over top of that cheerleading outfit this information
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though Captain is a really good clue for the police and their investig a captain Stanley Smith
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of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office told the Associated Press quote all indications suggest that the girl in
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pigtails was merily Burt but I'm guessing he was questioned by law enforcement Raymond was grilled by
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police about every detail relating to the location where he saw his sister what do you know about the truck what
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did you see about the truck can you describe the driver the sighting was on South Middlefield Road in a rapo county
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near the Coline Country Club Raymond told investigators he drove by a man who was driving in the opposite direction
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and as he glanced in his rear viiew mirror he saw the girl turned to speak with the man in the truck Raymond was
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able to remember some of the truck's physical features but police Never released any
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sketches or photos of similar trucks but they did Issue is a request to the public to call in information about this
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vehicle described as a pickup or a carry all which I had to look up what a carry
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all is that's not a term that we use in my neck of the woods a carry all the best way I can describe it is more like
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an outdoor working type of vehicle it is shaped similarly to a pickup truck but it would be I would considered more of
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like an easy go something that you would see maintenance workers or landscap papers using to get around for people
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that maintain a golf course or something of that nature yeah or like you said this is a this is a town where it's not
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heavily populated and we have individuals in this area that are farmers so it's possibly a utility
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vehicle that a farmer would use and I would guess that right now there's somebody that's angry saying well why
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would the police if he said truck if Raymond said truck why would the police include carry all it just seems to kind
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of confuse the matter but we've seen this in plenty of other cases where the police will go out of their way to be
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extra vague with the information that they're seeking and be extra vague about the information that they know in part
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because you don't want anybody to rationalize away any information a lot of times people have information that
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may be important to the investigation that they don't know is important so you be by being extra vague in a way you are
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opening up the phone lines and opening it up for more information to come in yeah for example if the eyewitness
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thinks the truck was black but possibly could have been dark blue because of the
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lighting or because of the weather or whatever their Vision was somewhat obstructed or maybe their memory is a
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little vague then police will put out that it it's a black truck or possibly a dark blue truck because they don't want
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anybody to eliminate uh calling in a tip on a on a dark blue vehicle and your witness could be misremembering exactly
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the general description here meshing with the somewhat vague description given by Raymond was that it was a late
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model light colored two-tone pickup truck now Raymond may not have been the only eyewitness because we have another
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witness that says that they saw a truck speed away from the area we don't get a great description on if this is the
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exact same spot it's just a truck speeding away from the area but also running a stop sign if in fact this
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truck is the same right as what the perpetrator was driving I worry given this description that maybe that she may have
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been incapacitated that blow to the Head may have already have taken place it seems to me it would be extra risky
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running a stop sign and but maybe he ran the stop sign because he was trying to control her and was struggling to do so
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I feel like this this truck may be the same one that we are looking for now Raymond was also able to describe the
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man that he saw Drive P him he said that the man was white 30 to maybe 40 years old and had dark brown hair with a
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receding hairline and long squared off sideburns it's worth mentioning that at least one of the tip also mentioned that
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the car had pulled into Middlefield Road at about 650 p.m. which is exactly the time when marilene when merily was seen
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near the truck police sought the car and the driver as well although they had no description to guide them so
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they're technically looking for two vehicles and asking the public for help with two vehicles but one of the
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vehicles a car other than saying that it was a car they have no discrep for it we
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don't know if police were ever able to track down this car or of course the driver that went with it the Jefferson
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County Sheriff's Office was involved in the investigation because merily was found in their jurisdiction they
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dispatched eight investigators to go door to-door canvasing families who lived near the dump site to see if they
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had seen anything now note we' already mentioned this is a remote area so the chances of having additional Witnesses
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are very slim of course the abduction was believed to have happened in arapo county and that's where merily
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lived and you see this a lot of times with older cases we have two jurisdictions working this
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investigation arapo County and Jefferson County she lived in arapo her body was found in Jefferson both were heavily
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involved in the investigation they assigned about 20 men under the leadership of Inspector d
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David tetch to investigate what had happened to marily several investigators were
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assigned to talk to everyone merily knew and others were assigned to look into all sex offenders known to police in the
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area Englewood Police Department contributed three detectives to the investigation as well running down tips
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and looking into similar crimes the arapo sheriff's department worked Around the Clock holding meetings behind closed
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doors interrogating Witnesses and bra brainstorming for ideas authorities revealed that they believed whoever
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picked up merily in the truck that he was someone she quote knew and trusted this is according to the
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sheriff this is because they learned that mily's parents had a strict policy about any of their kids not accepting
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rides from strangers so it was felt that merily by all accounts a good girl who followed
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the rules would not have ignored her parents' rules but doesn't this become more complex because it's such a small
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community so she would know a lot more people and so the the idea of how well you need to know this individual before
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you get or before you accept a ride from them well and she's outgoing she's popular and she's in ninth grade right
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just that day alone we talked about she was at school she met with a guidance counselor she went to the basketball
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game after school she was a cheerleader at the basketball game she went to a friend's
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house marily knows a lot of people so this may in some ways May shorten your list or or gives you a nice Theory to be
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working I don't think it trims down the possibilities very much to your point now that we have a rough description and
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I'm sure law enforcement has more details about this description if I'm law enforcement I'm going and
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questioning everybody at that back basketball game to see if anybody saw this individual's vehicle at the
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basketball game during the time that she was Cheerleading police concluded that merily knew the guy even if it was just
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on the fringes of her Social Circle it could be something as simple as a parent of a friend or a teacher or
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an administrator at the school or a coach it could also be somebody that knew somebody that she knew as we
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mentioned it was dark and it was cold she may have been more willing to get into a vehicle due to the
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circumstances and I I keep saying this that may have been willing to get into the vehicle because we don't know for
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certain that she wasn't pulled into a vehicle after talking to the driver she may not have been willing to get into a
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vehicle at all but as said it was cold it was dark her books were heavy and the vehicle may have looked looked warm and
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the man may have seemed nice and it is possible that she just got in and accepted the
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[Music] all right welcome back I want to publicly apologize for my throat issues
00:29:16
I'm struggling through but we'll we'll make it through Colonel cheers to you cheers to you I I was considering
00:29:23
Calling You by a different name so the listeners would think that uh that there was a stand like a special guest yeah a
00:29:30
not so special guest yeah Captain uh grumpy throat yeah all right Captain fans thank you cheers to you and cheers
00:29:39
to all the people in the back there were several witnesses here captain that saw
00:29:44
a young girl walking okay and as we heard earlier the sheriff is pretty convinced based off of these statements
00:29:52
and what they probably know about the case tying everything together it just seems likely that the girl that
00:29:58
everybody saw was our victim merily Bert now this is due to the fact that some of
00:30:08
these Witnesses saw a girl walking at different portions of her route and all of the portions where somebody reports
00:30:16
seeing somebody walking on the side of the road would have been a route that would have been natural for her to take
00:30:23
from her friend's house back to her home now no one saw her get into the truck but nobody saw her walking after that so
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it also seems likely that this truck is what we should be looking for as well right Raymond her brother later said
00:30:38
that when he realized that marily was not home he realized that it was her likely her that he had seen he goes back
00:30:45
to the spot there's there's once they believe her to be missing he and some others go back to the spot where he had
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seen the girl talking to the truck no truck and of course no merily is there and there's no sign or indication of
00:31:00
what what took place well like you said we have missing items clothing backpack jacket all those things so they didn't
00:31:09
find any of that at the scene where he believes that she would have got into that truck and considering the sheriff
00:31:18
and police being so adamant that marily was likely picked up by someone she knew
00:31:24
let's go beyond the rule right established by her parents we have to keep in mind as you've already pointed
00:31:30
out this is a smaller Community this was not a major roadway either where she was
00:31:34
last seen South Middlefield Road is a relatively short Connector Road between commercial West BS Avenue and on its
00:31:43
North End the residential club and Niblick Lanes on its South End its span is all basically in and around the golf
00:31:53
course Community now keep in mind though one thing we do know about the description is that whoever was in that
00:32:01
truck was driving a road that led only to and from the golf course residential community and the Coline Country Club
00:32:11
facilities so this is not a place where one would go trolling for victims after dark you wouldn't expect to see anybody
00:32:19
here there would no be there would be no reason for the driver of the truck to be
00:32:23
there unless they lived or worked there yeah or Poss they were driving home and saw her walking maybe went back switched
00:32:34
Vehicles double back to catch up to her within days of Mar's murder the Metropolitan Denver Automobile Dealers
00:32:43
Association announced a $5,000 reward for information about the case now that is a lot of money in 1970 fact I would
00:32:52
like to have $5,000 right now yeah and plenty of tips were called in keeping investigators busy keeping track of all
00:32:59
the tips and running them down was incredibly timeconsuming in 1970 the days before computers and
00:33:06
cellphones on March 6th the arapo authorities released more information this is when we learned that marily had
00:33:14
been found with a 10-ft piece of rope around her neck we don't know a lot about this rope that was used to
00:33:21
strangle the girl no photos of it have been released so we don't know what it looked like we do that the Rope was sent
00:33:28
to the FBI for analysis reportedly they found a black hair on the Rope merily was blonde but at the time hair analysis
00:33:37
was useful only for comparison and even then it was done imperfectly by imperfect humans using microscopes but
00:33:47
like you said the the brother says this could be a pickup track or it could be some kind of utility vehicle that you
00:33:55
would use on a farm or maybe a golf course if I'm law enforcement I'm going to this golf course to say do you have a
00:34:03
vehicle that matches this description because the 10-ft Rope would lend itself to be something that maybe you would
00:34:11
have on a utility vehicle if if your job was maintenance well and you're working
00:34:16
off the theory that she may have known the attacker may have known the killer in even if it's in some weird roundabout
00:34:25
way but smaller community and keep in mind where she is believed to have been picked up it's described by
00:34:32
the people that live and work there that this is a stretch of road that would only be traveled by people that live or
00:34:39
work there and then where she's found underneath this Scenic Bridge right is a location where I I don't think that they
00:34:50
ended up there by accident I think that now I have something I've got to get rid of and
00:34:57
they chose to go to that location meaning this is a location that would be known to the locals all of this is
00:35:04
lining up to be highly suggestive that it was somebody from the area and I'm with you Captain the first
00:35:12
place I'm looking is I want to know who was leaving that Country Club who was leaving that golf course and heading in
00:35:19
the direction that her brother described the truck as going I I have a feeling it
00:35:27
it may have been somebody that was simply leaving that area to go to their home right it's all an opportunity
00:35:34
exactly and and we we've talked about this before with these with a sexual predator and they're all a little
00:35:43
different but keep in mind some of them at the very basic of level they you have
00:35:50
the abilities well so if I'm law enforcement I'm going to that golf course and saying hey do you have a a
00:35:56
vehicle that matches this description and who works here who's members here and do they have any
00:36:05
connection whether it's their daughter is friends with her or they are on the same cheer squad or is there any
00:36:13
connection between any worker there and and Marley but we have the three abilities that we always want to keep in
00:36:21
mind desirability vulnerability and availability right sometimes it only takes one of those for a predator to see
00:36:32
an opportunity regarding this hair that was found on the Rope as said it can only be used for
00:36:39
comparison I wouldn't put a lot of weight into that I what I'm hoping Captain is that we do have some suspects
00:36:46
that were ultimately ruled out in this case I'm hoping that none of them fall into the category of having been ruled
00:36:54
out based off of this hair that may be key to solving it or leading you to the right guy or may have no connection
00:37:03
to the killer at all we also mentioned that the coroner believed that merily was raped we can presume that this meant
00:37:11
that simal fluid was detected and hopefully collected back then the only way this would prove useful was for
00:37:18
blood typing right from a Sean sample the investigators could learn the suspect's blood type but again that was
00:37:26
only helpful for elimination purposes and even then was only able to eliminate those of a different blood type which
00:37:34
seems like not that big of a deal but I think in a small community that could help you also have secretors and
00:37:40
nonsecretors we've talked about that in other cases right and sometimes that can
00:37:44
be useful as well let's talk about the metal shavings for a moment police said they were found in marly's hair we don't
00:37:52
have her clothing right we NE the clothing was never found because my first thought when I when I learned
00:37:59
metal shavings found in the hair I wanted to know was it found on her clothing as well but obviously that is
00:38:05
going to be of no help this could be obviously metal shavings could be on the floor of this
00:38:14
truck yes could be in the truck no doubt about that but it Al it also could suggest that she was moved to another
00:38:22
location before she was eventually tossed over the side of the bridge almost right away arapo County Sheriff
00:38:29
Roy Voit said that they would be looking into whether there was any connection between Merle's death in that of
00:38:36
constance Paris who was killed in March of 1968 Connie Paris was a an 18-year-old
00:38:44
blonde woman who had gotten off of a Tramway bus on March 26th at 9:45 p.m. at Gerard Avenue and
00:38:55
South Broadway in Englewood Englewood police said she was attacked on Little Dry Creek path and killed by
00:39:03
strangulation similar look similar M Mo possibly her body was found on March 31st on the side of the road on West
00:39:14
Canyon Avenue AB budding Bear Creek Park in Southwest Denver according to the greenle Daily Tribune she was nuded and
00:39:23
badly beaten did they find any wood shavings or metal shavings that we don't know what we do know is her clothing was
00:39:31
never found either at first look her murder sounds an awful lot like marly's case and we roughly think that marle was
00:39:42
picked up a little bit before 700 p.m. correct and so one of the things that this kind of reminds me of so if I'm law
00:39:50
enforcement I'm also asking the public was there anybody neighbor wise was any of your neighbors did they have a fire
00:39:58
that night did they have a bonfire that seemed abnormal this this kind of reminds me a little bit of uh Wayne
00:40:06
Williams Lena child murderers mhm remember how the the neighbors would say that you know he'd be burning stuff real
00:40:15
late hours at night because somehow you have to discard these clothing and you could do that by simply hiding it in
00:40:25
your Workshop or you could burn it somewhere yeah the the clothing never being found and how
00:40:33
distinctive it is in one of the Articles having her name on it right seems like somebody would have to do a good deal of
00:40:40
work to make it so that these items are never located because in some cases look
00:40:45
sometimes we have situations where items belonging to a victim are found by people that don't know about the case or
00:40:52
don't know or have any or have any way of knowing that it belonged to a murdered victim them things can just be
00:40:59
tossed on the side of the road your mind going to a serial killer we're sharing a
00:41:05
brain Captain not just a garage we're sharing a brain my mind immediately I'm I started thinking about Ted Bundy
00:41:12
picking picking up a victim striking them in the head strangulation rape dumping the body in a wooded area or
00:41:20
near the woods that's all very Ted Bundy is it also made me think of Harvey kman
00:41:26
who we had talked about with he he actually used a truck in most of his cases and sometimes he was
00:41:34
picking up girls on the side of the road and he lived for a bit in Minnesota lived for a bit in Washington state it's
00:41:43
it's very likely that it's a local but this case mirrors some other cases that we've examined in the past law
00:41:50
enforcement has to spend a lot of time weeding through these call-ins and these tips but we do end up up with a prime
00:41:58
suspect yeah and it's not clear why Captain this seemed to have taken 11 years but let's fast forward Zoom ahead
00:42:07
to 1981 we have police taking a very hard look at a man who became a prime suspect
00:42:13
in this specific case his name Ronald Bloom he had been a volunteer gymnastics instructor at Goddard Middle School who
00:42:24
helped train merily so he's fitting the bill so far now it's absolutely horrifying to think about him working
00:42:33
with young girls because as it turns out bloom had a history of sexual assaults against women and girls dating back to
00:42:41
1955 yeah but that's what these predators do they put themselves around children they put themselves around
00:42:48
people that they want to make victims and back then it worked yeah in 1981 police investigating Mar's case quote
00:42:56
detained him and interrogated him and he gave a sample of his hair so it could be
00:43:02
compared to the hair found on the murder rope the this must not have matched because Bloom was never charged in Mar's
00:43:10
case even though per The Denver Post citing an affidavit during his interview Bloom told investigators that quote the
00:43:19
problem he had with underage girls involved picking them up in Vans and sexually assaulting them end quote those
00:43:26
are his words to police marily was heavily involved in gymnastics we know that and had a meat scheduled for the
00:43:37
very week after she was killed so she would have known this man she would have known Ronald Bloom right the question is
00:43:46
whether she would have gotten into his truck it's pretty clear police thought that it was highly unlikely to be a
00:43:54
coincidence that Ronald Bloom knew arily she might have trusted him and he was a
00:44:00
pedophile and a rapist who victimized girls and victimized women well this hair that they found might have nothing
00:44:07
to do with the crime in 1998 zooming ahead again there was a major reinvestigation of this case at
00:44:15
that point it's 28 years old detectives decided we're going to start all over with fresh eyes but now they had
00:44:22
something to work with this is from The Denver Post in 1998 quote recently the arapo county sheriff's department
00:44:29
submitted old evidence in the case to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for DNA testing the evidence submitted to us
00:44:38
was collected 28 years ago and never submitted to the laboratory said a Pete mang he's the inspector with the CBI the
00:44:47
Rocky Mountain news had details quote the tests are the results of slides collected and preserved during marily
00:44:54
Le's autopsy Tom Henry of the Denver medical examiner office found the slides still in the original sealed envelope
00:45:03
while making one last sweep through the office's files the discovery gave new life into a stalled investigation
00:45:11
analysis of the slide samples determined that they contained sufficient biological material to develop a full
00:45:18
DNA profile of the offender so this is coming from the the Seaman sample we can't say for certain
00:45:27
but that's what would make the most sense right and what we do know is 1998 was the year that codus the national DNA
00:45:35
database of convicted offenders and arrestes this is when that got up and running in every US state but many of
00:45:43
the states had Statewide databases operating before 98 and Colorado fortunately was one of them they
00:45:51
submitted the DNA samples and searching through these databases they were hopeful that find a match they did not
00:45:59
this is short-lived hope for finally solving this case no match was made whoever had slain merily was not in the
00:46:08
database but at least police did have the DNA sample to work with but with his DNA sample now we with technology
00:46:16
catching up we could do some genealogy testing on this DNA sample so the person might not be in codus cuz they might
00:46:25
never have been arrested or their sample has never been collected but you would think that we could do a
00:46:33
genealogy test and some people were willing to give their DNA to police if they had been questioned or looked at or
00:46:41
if they had any involvement in the case at all even being completely innocent so
00:46:46
what we do know is the sheriff's office is on record saying that they've excluded two dozen suspects or excluded
00:46:54
two dozen persons right because some of these people include family members they
00:47:00
did openly say at this time too that like look we had seven maybe 10 suspects that we really
00:47:08
thought could have been the guy we didn't get a hit on any of them and in fact they went so far as to exume a
00:47:15
body of a suspect who had passed to compare the DNA and still no match and then I know what you're wondering here
00:47:23
Captain everybody's wondering investigators would not confirm that one of those men ruled out was Ronald Bloom
00:47:30
uh this is again 1998 I think they were still locked and loaded on this guy even
00:47:35
though the science would ultimately tell them right he's not the guy they could they had a hard time moving off of him
00:47:41
he knew the victim he was he told the police can you imagine you're a detective you're questioning this rapist
00:47:49
pedophile guy yeah and he tells you he he do even hide from it he says I have a problem my problem is picking up girls
00:47:57
and women and women and sexually assaulting them well it's hard for our brain sometimes to wrap around the idea
00:48:05
that there's different spectrums of monsters to think that somebody could kidnap somebody rape them but not be a
00:48:13
murderer doesn't seem doesn't seem to make a lot of sense and this guy is telling you yeah I'm I I'm a bad dude I
00:48:22
I am a monster but I'm not a monster that kills well and we talked about the old pervert Roundup a dozen times maybe
00:48:31
yeah four dozen times on the show I'd love to make a t-shirt about it but I don't think anybody would wear it it
00:48:36
would be confusing the old pervert Roundup Club to see a man sitting there enjoying a salad at the Olive Garden
00:48:43
wearing a pervert Roundup t-shirt right not something that's going to sell well no on Etsy uh shout out to Olive Garden
00:48:51
hash not a sponsor hash love their bread sticks yes here's the thing so while they couldn't
00:48:59
move off of this guy in in all reality just like you were saying here Captain Ronald
00:49:06
Bloom absolute creep he's a creep and he's a rapist but he wasn't Mar's killer we know this based off of a DNA
00:49:15
comparison that did not match it excluded him and then with the with the Roundup a lot of times when because most
00:49:25
of these guys almost all of them are still on parole when they're doing the Roundup so it's pretty easy to to make
00:49:30
phone calls and knock on doors these guys know that they're being looked at and considered in a major case and so 99% of
00:49:41
the time they're extremely Cooperative they don't want to go back to prison they don't want to end up getting
00:49:46
convicted of something they didn't do right so the Roundup does work it's very successful regardless of what funny name
00:49:55
we choose to give it right this is from February 26 2002 so exactly 32 years after marily was killed this is
00:50:06
from the Rocky Mountain news and here's some excerpts today 32 years to the day after one of Arapaho County's most
00:50:16
notorious homicides investigators are making one last push to crack the heartbreaking mystery Witnesses and
00:50:23
suspects are getting older they are dying said investigator Bruce Isaacson this is probably our last
00:50:31
chance marily had been raped in indignity that investigators now say could give them their best evidence for
00:50:38
the past 3 years authorities have been quietly conducting DNA testing quote we now know if we have DNA it's huge it is
00:50:47
great evidence one way or another to include or exclude Isaacson said we don't have to depend on a confession we
00:50:56
can let let science do some speaking end quote what we do know Captain where it sits today or at least the last time
00:51:04
they gave us a good solid update on this the results of the Laboratory test have
00:51:08
ruled out 24 possible suspects as sources of this DNA the people tested included a child molester who knew
00:51:17
merily a and moved to the top of the suspect list after he told authorities he probably had feelings of wanting to
00:51:23
have sex with her the convicted pedophile was identified years ago as the prime suspect in the slangs his DNA
00:51:30
has been tested twice they couldn't move off of this guy so much that they tested
00:51:34
him twice right and of course we know that it did not match authorities racing the clock racing against the clock have
00:51:41
also tested the DNA of two dead men let me say that more of two dead men in one case the man's DNA was on file from an
00:51:51
autopsy and the other case investigators persuaded the suspect's parents to give
00:51:55
samples both men were cleared the majority of the suspects were more than willing to be tested said the
00:52:04
investigator mily's friends and family hop that the DNA will lead investigators to her killer but said the process of
00:52:11
excluding suspects has also brought some peace since the slaying mily's mother Sherry Bert has devoted her time to
00:52:22
working with victims programs particularly Courthouse Inc which provides court-ordered housing for
00:52:29
young girls many of whom are the victims of sexual assault one of the holes is named after marily Bruce Isaacson and
00:52:39
Rick fallstead the Arapaho Sheriff's investigators who were assigned to work Mar's case after the DNA samples were
00:52:47
analyzed their job was to call through the list of 140 men mentioned in the initial reports some were listed as
00:52:55
Witnesses rather than suspects but they all needed to be Revisited by 2002 they had already contacted 100 of the 140
00:53:06
here's a little more from that Rocky Mountain news this was the friend Cheryl cook the friend whose home merily left
00:53:15
the night that she was killed she said that she was pleased to hear that authorities haven't given up on solving
00:53:21
the crime she said that that would be so great for mily's Mom it was just such an
00:53:26
awful awful time I would love for her to be able to know even if the person is dead she went on to say that sometimes
00:53:34
she dreams about the day her friend disappeared adding you are 15 years old your girlfriend leaves your house and
00:53:42
you never see her again everything just kind of changed after that I'm going to be 47 this year she said I think my God
00:53:51
we were 15 look at all the years she didn't get sadly mily's parents have passed away without having any closure
00:54:00
or answers to who did this to their daughter but this is a very solvable case with technology and we were hearing
00:54:10
as late as 2019 here Captain the this is from the investigators from the authorities
00:54:17
working the case saying that it's the the second oldest unsolved case in the area it's it's probably the most
00:54:25
notorious unsolved case from yester year they did go on record saying that the case still draws about a half dozen or
00:54:33
so tips each year in 2021 the arapo County Sheriff's Office undertook yet another big push to
00:54:42
attempt to solve the now 51-year-old case accompanied by a massive increase in the reward money jumping it up to
00:54:51
$30,000 this was funded by donations Sheriff Tyler Brown said the substantial increase in the reward hopefully allows
00:54:59
us to collect more information and bring the suspects in the merrily Burt case to
00:55:04
Justice it is not a Cold Case by any means every year we receive several tips on this case more tips were called in
00:55:13
after the 2021 publicity push but here we are in 2025 today and nothing has been resolved quote there's got to be
00:55:24
someone out there who knows something said mily's nephew Trevor Bert it really seems that if someone knows anything
00:55:33
about Mar's case they would have come forward by now it's been 55 years if anyone had found her cheer uniform or
00:55:41
her book bag or books police would almost certainly have said as much police have said no tip ever LED them to
00:55:49
the truck it remains unidentified the $30,000 reward has gone unclaimed a a case breaking tip seems very unlikely at
00:55:59
this point but luckily as you said Captain we have the DNA of course knowing that they have DNA we all hope
00:56:08
that the sheriff's office is using forensic genealogy to attempt to solve meril's case it seems likely that this
00:56:16
is the only way mily's case will be solved at this point [Music] without want to thank everybody for
00:56:39
joining us here in the garage each and every week we love you hugs and kisses cheers mates and Colonel do we have any
00:56:47
recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week we are recommending in light of all darkness by New York
00:56:54
Times bestselling author Kim cross this is a fantastic True Crime book paced like a thriller and full of Insider
00:57:03
information this book embeds listeners in one of the most famous true crime stories of Our Generation the kidnapping
00:57:10
of paully class you can find that great title and many more on our recommended page on our website truecrime garage.com
00:57:19
and until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music]