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Freedom calls we're here to answer call us at 1 888 [Music] [Music] freedom [Music]
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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
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as always ladies and gentlemen the proud owner of a paperback copy of cooking with Coolio fstar meals at a onestar
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price here is the C slide slide slippity slide it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
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telling a [Music] friend October Fest is technically over according to the official calendar but
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here in the garage we are just super festive so let's let the celebration continue this week we are very happy to
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be featuring spets in Octoberfest your Marian beer so we're getting very festive over here in the garage I hope I
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said that right this is a dark copper colored beauty so you're going to want to pour this baby into a glass and it is
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sure to put you in a festive mood as well garage gray three and 3/4 bottle caps out of five and let's give some
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cheers to our friends that are helping us celebrate today first up a big cheers to Rebecca from an Kenny Iowa and a big
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everybody we just mentioned went to True Crim garage.com and clicked on the Donate button which helped us out with
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this week's beer run and for that we thank you yeah bwe r n beerun get you some go to the website store and buy
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the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:43
[Music] crime woo this week's case takes us back to the great state of Virginia now Virginia
00:04:06
has not been a frequent stop for us here at True Crime Garage in fact in the first six or so
00:04:13
years that we have been covering cases I can only think of a few times that we dropped by this state that is home to
00:04:21
the Blue Ridge Mountains and Chesapeake Bay rather we have spent a great deal of
00:04:26
time in other states larger States and sadly states that were home to some strange and unsolved
00:04:35
murders States like Texas California Florida and of course we have spent a good deal of time in our own State Ohio
00:04:46
but that does not for one second mean that Virginia or its people are immune to the tragedies that befell others in
00:04:55
other states nor should one think that virgin irginia is without its share of some
00:05:01
strange and unsolved murders why one would only need to look to the Colonial Parkway murders and the
00:05:08
still unsolved shann andoa murder cases to see that sadly that is not the case both factually and unfortunately
00:05:18
none of our states of 50 are immune to any of this madness recently we have seen an
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increase in cases covered here in the garage coming out of Virginia we covered the short family murders the
00:05:32
murder of social light Denita cuts and Emma Compton Lane all still unsolved this is not to suggest an
00:05:42
uptick in murders and crime in Virginia no we covered the short family case just
00:05:47
this last August on the 20th anniversary of the crime a sad reminder that Justice
00:05:54
is still needed denita's case dates back to the late 70s and unfortunately Emma's
00:06:01
case is now over 5 years old we are still holding out hope here in the garage on all of these cases the
00:06:11
cases we cover are suggested to us from our fine listeners and that is because we are kind enough to allow them to
00:06:18
steer this ship more than one person emailed us about the still unsolved case of Amy Baker a quick internet search
00:06:26
turned up a short news piece from ABC 7 news on your side wjla.com if you would like to read it
00:06:35
for yourself the piece is by Timothy Barber from back in August of 2020 and it's titled murder victims
00:06:44
family hopes Fairfax County Cold Case website will provide answers the title is in bold squatty
00:06:53
little letters I'm unsure of the font and just below there's a very nice picture of the young lady it may even be
00:07:02
a high school senior portrait she has a pretty and somehow familiar face her smile is confident and her eyes and
00:07:11
expression are both full of promise sometimes it might be okay to judge a book by its
00:07:19
cover this cover tells me she was a good kid the picture also tells me that she is missed
00:07:27
dearly the story referenc is a one Sue Baker she's the victim's mother and angel here on Earth still fighting for
00:07:36
her daughter the story gives a few details about the case but it is more about introducing a new website for the public
00:07:45
one put together by the Virginia Fairfax County Cold Case Squad unfortunately Amy
00:07:51
Bakers 1989 case is just one of dozens that are featured on the website the story Ends by saying click here to learn
00:08:01
more about Amy's case and other cold cases one click of your mouse will take you to a spreadsheet of Unsolved Cold
00:08:09
Case homicides from Fairfax County spanning from 1980 to 1989 Amy Baker's case and that same nice
00:08:19
picture are found at the top of page five I am not happy to report that when I scroll through the pages there are a
00:08:27
couple of other names and photos of victims that I recognize in a column to the right of
00:08:34
Amy's picture the spreadsheet cell provides a brief description of her case that reads 18-year-old Amy Baker was
00:08:43
last seen leaving a relative's house in Falls Church the evening of March 29 1989 her vehicle was located on the side
00:08:54
of Interstate 995 by Black Lake Road later that evening on March 31st 1989 Amy's body was found in a wooded
00:09:06
area off the interstate personally I don't feel that Amy Baker's case has received enough media attention
00:09:14
over the years and that is why we are covering it here today this is true crime garage
00:09:29
[Music] on the evening of Wednesday March 29th 1989 18-year-old Amy Baker gotten her
00:09:47
car she had just wrapped up a several day visit to her aunt's house this is her mother's sister and she was visiting
00:09:55
some friends as well in Falls Church a Virginia suburb of Washington DC that is quite developed and populous Amy was
00:10:04
heading home to Hartwood in Stafford County where she lived with her parents the drive was not far and consisted
00:10:12
mostly of highways that are busy at all hours of the night in the notoriously congested area Amy headed south on I 95
00:10:22
Interstate 95 unfortunately she never made it home and by 11:00 p.m. Sue Baker Amy's mother was starting to get worried
00:10:33
she knew that Amy had left Falls Church around 8:20 p.m. even in DC's crazy traffic it would not have taken her 2
00:10:42
and 1 half hours to get home to Fairfax the trip should have taken under an hour
00:10:48
Sue managed to catch a few hours sleep but in the morning the first thing she did was call her sister to confirm that
00:10:56
yes Amy had left the night before Amy's frantic parents reported her missing Thursday morning in the age before cell
00:11:05
phones there was no tracking their daughter's location to see where she was but they also knew Amy and that she
00:11:12
wouldn't have likely have deviated from her route there was no reason to she was
00:11:18
18 if she wanted to go somewhere else rather than coming home she would have just told her mom that's what she was
00:11:26
doing but no Amy had said that she was coming home in fact she said I'm coming home I'll be there soon and Sue Baker
00:11:35
didn't know this at the time but the state police had already found Amy's car that's right Captain the vehicle was
00:11:42
spotted by a Virginia state trooper on that Wednesday night it was found abandon on the shoulder of Interstate 95
00:11:51
southbound the massive eight Lane Highway it runs the length of the East Coast it it was just south of the
00:11:59
Newington interchange which is a major commuter area according to the Newport News Daily Press police said Amy pulled
00:12:08
over on the shoulder of Interstate 95 near the Blacklick Road exit in Springfield this was less than 30
00:12:18
minutes away from her parents home her light blue 1970 Volkswagen Beetle was Amy's first car and it was her pride and
00:12:27
joy Amy's vehicle was found with its flashers on by a passing officer this is sometime after 1 p.m. on that Wednesday
00:12:36
night the police seeing that it was abandoned and was a safety hazard radioed to have it towed to an impound
00:12:44
lot that was about 2:45 a.m. Thursday morning all right so just to be clear on a couple things because the timeline
00:12:53
with all of these cases is one of the most important things that we will discuss here today Amy's 1970 Volkswagen
00:13:00
Beetle was spotted sometime after 1 p.m. by the state police so that is fact that's nothing that we can call into
00:13:09
question there right also what is fact is that state police called in to have it towed at 2:45 a.m. we've talked about
00:13:17
this in other cases Captain where and when a vehicle spotted by law enforcement especially Highway Patrol
00:13:25
they're going to Mark the vehicle they're going to note the license plate the description of the vehicle the time
00:13:31
that they see it abandoned on the side of the road especially we're talking about a busy major commuter area a
00:13:38
congested traffic area this interstate 95 southbound they're going to note all of these items and they're going to
00:13:46
allow a certain amount of time for the motorist whoever they may be to return to the vehicle and get the vehicle
00:13:55
themselves off of the side of the road whether it be to drive it away or have it towed so in this situation the
00:14:02
vehicle is spotted by State Police a little after 1 p.m. that Wednesday night and then so we fast forward to about
00:14:09
four four and a half hours later at 2:45 a.m. technically Thursday morning is when it's radioed in to have the vehicle
00:14:17
towed away well and that time is going to vary depending on how much of a hazard the vehicle could be how much of
00:14:25
the vehicle is obstructing the road correct and in this case the vehicle is cleanly off of the road and this is
00:14:33
probably why they why they allowed so much time for someone to return to it the interesting thing here too though in
00:14:41
the notations made by the state police will be that obviously it said that the vehicle was found abandoned so this is
00:14:49
not a situation where they come upon the vehicle and Amy Bakers inside or standing near the vehicle this vehicle
00:14:56
was abandoned meaning the motorist the driver in this case it's Amy Baker is not present when the state police find
00:15:04
the vehicle shortly after 10 p.m. well very scary situation when your daughter does not come home after she says she's
00:15:11
coming home and then to even more of a red alert situation when you find her car abandoned also of note here Captain
00:15:20
it's important to mention that the vehicle was found unlocked I'm a little unclear as to what this means does this
00:15:30
mean that the state police found the vehicle unlocked when they first located it 10 p.m. or was the vehicle discovered
00:15:40
to be unlocked when it was eventually towed away at 2:45 a.m. it sounds to me if I had to
00:15:47
guess that likely the locks the doors were probably not checked until it was time to tow the vehicle away but what is
00:15:55
of importance here is that one the vehicle vcle was found unlocked but it also sounds like they didn't do too much
00:16:04
or go to too much effort to figure out who own the vehicle or to search the the vehicle itself before having it towed
00:16:12
away well you stated that the flashers were on correct see I'm going to disagree with you on this because the
00:16:18
flashers were on I would assume that law enforcement when they come up upon the vehicle one they turned the flashers off
00:16:26
and that's probably when they noticed that the doors were unlocked before having it towed away yeah because if you
00:16:31
leave the flashers on you run the risk of having the battery die and if somebody is coming back for the vehicle
00:16:39
obviously they're not going to be able to move it if the battery is dead that's interesting and that's something that I
00:16:44
would like to learn more about because it from my understanding you would you would leave the flashers on as a this is
00:16:51
nighttime right so that nobody smashes into this vehicle the what I'm curious about is if in fact fact that is the
00:16:59
case if they spot the vehicle and it's found a little after 10 flashers on they leave the flashers on is that the
00:17:07
indicator to the state highway patrol that the owner never returned to the vehicle and now it's time to tow it away
00:17:15
and again I'm not a mechanic but I'm guessing if you leave those flashers on for 4 hours that your battery is going
00:17:22
to be drained dead the thing that I think is interesting here though is that the car is found unlocked locked again
00:17:29
I'm pointing out that I don't think that they took the time to check to see one the contents of the vehicle but more
00:17:37
importantly who owned it right you you check the glove box or you check something inside the vehicle and you're
00:17:43
likely going to figure out who owns this vehicle and the reason why I think that
00:17:47
that's a bit of a misstep here and I know that we've discussed this before they're finding an abandoned vehicle
00:17:55
that's one thing completely different that's a completely different situation than what this situation is going to
00:18:02
lead us to right I don't know it's frustrating looking back on this in hindsight because you would think that
00:18:09
if they did figure out who owned the vehicle that they would be concerned that a young woman who had
00:18:18
just turned 18 years old two weeks before and inside the vehicle we have a backpack her purse containing her wallet
00:18:27
a paycheck her clothing her glasses are also found inside the car so to me if I happen upon this vehicle I find those
00:18:36
items in there as an officer I'm going to be concerned about finding these items in there and just a little rant
00:18:42
because I I know this is 1989 correct correct now of dayss with the technology that we have just on our
00:18:51
smartphones law enforcement when they see a abandoned car could go on there do a voice recording of what they found and
00:19:00
then snap a couple pictures and then send that to a file so then if the person goes missing and the person's
00:19:08
missing for 10 years or 15 years or whatever it is we have that documented from the moment that they found the car
00:19:16
that's correct in my opinion here Captain all of these items being found in the vehicle is a very bad sign and
00:19:23
likely that I mean really this is a bad sign that's going to turn into a very bad Omen rather quickly question for you
00:19:30
the tires were okay correct so what what we have here is we have mom who calls in
00:19:37
and reports her daughter missing the Amy Baker's family reports her missing that
00:19:43
Thursday morning now they didn't know that the vehicle had been found the night before they didn't know that the
00:19:48
vehicle had been towed away it's once they report her missing that the family is informed that a vehicle matching
00:19:57
remember because they didn't check to see who the owner of the vehicle was that they found right but they're saying
00:20:02
hey by the way a vehicle that matched the description of your daughter's vehicle we actually spotted that on
00:20:08
Interstate 95 and we had it towed away early this morning and they were told that the
00:20:15
determination was that Amy's car had run out of gas and sad when you think about
00:20:20
that because just a simple mistake and now we have a missing teenager well yes and this is one of those situations that
00:20:26
you really hate to hear about you know this is something that I experienced in a vehicle that I owned at one time it
00:20:32
had a bad gas gauge and that was the same thing with with Amy's Beetle it had a bad gas gauge look her vehicle was 19
00:20:41
years old and so this wasn't a terribly uncommon thing back then for older especially people driving vehicles that
00:20:49
are of the older State and for my understanding the way that the family has reported this they said that the gas
00:20:56
gauge at times work worked and at other times did not work so this would be and that's even worse than it just not
00:21:04
working all the time because at least if it doesn't work all the time then you can calculate the mileage and all all
00:21:11
that kind of stuff and but sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't work but you've you've been in a old Volkswagen
00:21:19
even going to high school in the 9s there were kids that had Beatles from the 70s that there were their prize
00:21:27
possession and it was kind of a iconic car but those are like basically driving around a golf cart or a little go-kart
00:21:37
well and not to get too far off on a Side Story here but a gas gauge that works sometimes and sometimes does not
00:21:44
work is the same thing that happened to Leonard skinnard so this is not a terribly uncommon thing here it's really
00:21:53
very unfortunate she's traveling alone runs out of gas in the middle of the night and then would be forced to pursue
00:22:00
getting gas or getting help on foot because of it being 1989 and as you pointed out no cell phone for for Amy
00:22:07
Baker it's also should be noted that this was not the first time that this gas problem had occurred she probably
00:22:16
knew what to do anybody that's ever run out of gas the the car behaves in a in a
00:22:21
certain way and vehicles behave differently when this occurs but she clearly recogn Iz the issue once the gas
00:22:30
was out and was able to cleanly get the vehicle off of the road and she must have been awfully frustrated maybe even
00:22:38
a little scared she's in the dark far from home probably one thing that makes her feel a little better that's a little
00:22:45
more comforting in this situation it is a congested area there's a lot of people
00:22:50
a lot of vehicles flying around that I I would think one would feel somewhat better not being alone out there even
00:22:57
even though she is trekking it alone on foot and so she would have to have decided to get out of the vehicle and
00:23:05
pursue help uh which would be in this case means walking to a nearby gas station well it's dangerous not just
00:23:13
because there's humans that become Predators out there the fact that she's walking in the dark on the highway so
00:23:21
after receiving this report the family is told about the vehicle that was towed away Amy Baker's vehicle the mother Sue
00:23:31
she immediately demanded to check out her daughter's vehicle per the Newport Daily News at the impound lot Sue found
00:23:39
Amy's purse wallet and backpack inside the car the car keys were not located in the vehicle actually here Captain the
00:23:48
car keys have never been located never been found their absence remains a mystery to this day it's part of the
00:23:56
larger mystery of what happened to Amy Baker The Bakers feel strongly that the items left behind in the car should have
00:24:03
suggested to law enforcement that a crime had been committed they say after all what you know woman would leave her
00:24:11
unlocked disabled car without taking her person ID she never makes it home that night I agree with the family here we
00:24:20
don't know when an abduction occurred of Amy Baker but we do know that it did take place to me this is a little more
00:24:31
terrifying than I than I would think or or to to picture this situation because this points out to me and again we'll
00:24:41
we'll stay water as we go through this timeline and stay fluid of the situation but when I look at the early findings in
00:24:49
the situation it looks to me like the abduction may have occurred at the vehicle itself or for some reason
00:24:56
whoever took her decided to return an item or two to the vehicle I cannot see her getting out
00:25:06
on foot leaving the vehicle unlocked and not at least taking her purse or her wallet um but again we'll stay water as
00:25:14
we go through this timeline well just you know to throw out some hypotheticals she could have assumed because this
00:25:22
happened before that she just ran out of gas put on her flashers stood outside her car and then she's abducted like you
00:25:31
said outside of her car leaving her valuable items behind so the family is immediately concerned and they are
00:25:41
really worried that something horrible has happened to their daughter but on the other hand the police were not so
00:25:46
quick to embrace a foul play situation as the operative Theory but come on are they ever I mean that you get missing
00:25:56
person cases they'll lean towards suicide or running away to start a new life before they ever lean towards Foul
00:26:04
Play this is from a Washington Post interview with the mother of the victim Sue Baker says quote I was beside myself
00:26:12
and I was trying to get the Fairfax County Police to do something but because Amy was 18 they considered her
00:26:19
an adult and proceeded accordingly they asked us if she might be running away from something and whether she might
00:26:26
have abandoned her car they later told us that they had sent a patrol car to drive along the shoulder where her car
00:26:34
had been and that a helicopter had taken a look but no one saw anything suspicious but Amy's family is left
00:26:43
wondering where is [Music] Amy this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe
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or visit angie.com today you can do this when you Angie [Music] that all right we are back to the
00:29:16
windows to the walls love you all cheers everybody cheers to you Captain before we get too far into the weeds here and
00:29:25
the details of this case let's take a quick look in a few minutes to talk about Amy Baker and we learned a good
00:29:34
deal about Amy this all from a local paper the Fairfax times that said the baker family had moved only months
00:29:43
before from Falls Church to the small community of Hartwood in Stafford County remember we had said that Amy was
00:29:51
visiting friends and relatives in Falls Church so it makes sense that she would want to go go there and visit these
00:29:59
people for several days as she is relatively new to where they are living now the family the baker family composed
00:30:08
of Sue and Mark who are Amy's parents and her younger brother David and the family says well Sue says we wanted a
00:30:18
larger home with some land and to get away from the urban mess in Fairfax County Amy's Father Mark told the new
00:30:27
paper we wanted a larger home with some land and to get away from the urban mess
00:30:32
in Fairfax County Amy Baker attended both FS church and JB Stewart high schools she played
00:30:41
varsity field hockey loved photography and had plans to attend art school in Savannah Georgia she worked at the local
00:30:49
mall as an event photographer taking shots of children with the Easter Bunny in Santa Claus for example Sue Aker her
00:30:57
mother said that as worried as she was when Amy didn't come home that night she tried to tell herself that her daughter
00:31:04
was now 18 and then as a mother she had to start thinking of her daughter that way as an adult and not to be so overly
00:31:13
protective but when Amy failed to come home by 6:00 a.m. she said that she knew something was terribly wrong so Mom
00:31:22
started calling everyone that she could think of she called the hospitals Towing
00:31:27
companies relatives and the police she called everyone and that is when after speaking with police that she learned
00:31:33
that the vehicle was spotted and found the night before well we see this a lot with missing person cases where the
00:31:40
family doesn't believe law enforcement is taking the case serious and like we said law enforcement tends to lean
00:31:49
towards these ideas of well is there some conflict in the family and did Amy decide to start a new life my big issue
00:31:58
with the with Amy's case and you you kind of you kind of leaned on this idea her valuables her purse her
00:32:07
ididentification all this stuff she left behind and the location of the vehicle itself seems
00:32:14
like an odd placement for somebody that's choosing to run away as police were hinting at in the early stages of
00:32:23
this case again Amy is 18 she's a legal adult so they they do have some grounds for that argument but with everything
00:32:32
I'm seeing I think that that was a misstep here by law enforcement the mother Sue Baker she wasn't going to
00:32:40
wait around the family the baker family was not going to wait around to have police come to their side and their way
00:32:47
of thinking in the police's defense they did send a car they did send a helicopter to kind of look around the
00:32:54
area but we're going to find some some issues with that as well as we will get to here in this next part not to come
00:33:02
off as a bootlicker but law enforcement deals with thousands of missing person cases where the next day the family is
00:33:13
calling and saying we we found Amy we found whoever that was missing and they're home now and they're safe Sue
00:33:20
Baker and her sister-in-law Mary bellette quickly threw together missing persons posters and getting ready to put
00:33:31
them up saying quote have you seen Amy Baker and keep in mind this is 1989 so this is no small feet back then it must
00:33:40
have been a terrible feeling to be putting those posters together that of your child asking strangers and posting
00:33:47
them at at spots near her vehicle hoping that a stranger calls with some type of
00:33:54
information about your missing child be it an adult child or or otherwise they distributed these posters
00:34:02
all over the Newington area of course they're also praying that Amy was somewhere safe and someone had seen her
00:34:11
and has information to pass along to the family the police said that they were taking appropriate steps to look into
00:34:19
Amy's whereabouts according to the then Fairfax police spokesman Warren carmichel who gave a
00:34:27
statement to The Washington Post he said in addition to a police Lookout a uniformed officer an officer with a
00:34:36
police dog and a homicide investigator were sent on Thursday to a section of Interstate 95 just south of Blacklick
00:34:45
Road where Amy Baker's vehicle was found by a Virginia State Police Trooper a helicopter also searched the area he
00:34:54
said well this exit area would make more sense if if you saw a picture it'll be on our Facebook or Twitter and Instagram
00:35:01
page this and kudos to Amy Baker's family this was not enough this was not good enough for Amy's mother in
00:35:08
particular so on March 31st Sue insisted that an officer meet her at the location where the car was
00:35:19
found and that they would search the area together so she's offering to help law enforcement and requesting that may
00:35:27
be there when she is out there actively searching boots on the ground for her own daughter right so here's what she
00:35:34
told the Fairfax times she says a police officer was supposed to meet us at noon
00:35:39
that day but they had gotten a call so that officer that was scheduled to meet her at noon got called away to a
00:35:48
different situation a different unrelated scenario and so no one ever showed up so mother Sue Baker says well
00:35:55
me and my sister-in we waited around about 45 minutes and then we decided to start walking the area ourselves you
00:36:04
know they weren't going to go out there for nothing and so her and her sister-in-law Mary started walking the
00:36:11
wooded area near the abandoned cars location this was on Good Friday and unfortunately we will see why this will
00:36:23
never be good for the Bakers ever again Mary the sister-in-law told the Fairfax times we were walking around inside the
00:36:31
Clover Leaf area of the exit ramp when I saw some bright colors among all of the
00:36:38
brown leaves and twigs I saw blue and white and then I saw Amy devastating I saw her but my brain didn't register
00:36:48
what I was seeing until Sue put her hand on my shoulder and screamed that sort of
00:36:53
brought me back to reality end quote Amy lay on the ground just about 200 yards from where her car had been found
00:37:03
her body was covered with leaves this was right near the Blacklick road bridge over Interstate
00:37:11
395 in Newington do you find it odd that law enforcement didn't find her first yes yes that's why I think it's
00:37:20
important in the the telling of this story of this True Crime Story to point out that
00:37:27
law enforcement is saying hey we we did do a brief search of the area given the description of how the body was found I
00:37:36
don't find it terribly weird that the helicopter above didn't spot Amy it it what it points out to me more so Captain
00:37:45
is that I I don't think a lot of effort was made in that search I agree with you
00:37:51
now a lot of our listeners and I was doing this myself when I was looking into Amy's case we like to get on the
00:37:57
different map applications and really kind of scour the area and we gave a great description of where the vehicle
00:38:05
was found keep in mind that was Interstate 95 just south of Blacklick Road what all reports that I've seen
00:38:13
captain and from what I've been told is that this area especially the Blacklick bridge that we just discussed where she
00:38:23
was found this area has changed drastically over the years so if if anybody were to
00:38:31
uh try to to look on some map applications today just be just know that this area is not laid out the same
00:38:39
that it was that's 33 years ago now Sue went on to tell the Fairfax times in her
00:38:45
interview I knew right away what I was seeing it was my daughter she was covered in leaves but I saw the new
00:38:52
tennis shoes she had just gotten for her 18th birthday sticking out and I knew it
00:38:58
was my daughter so the two women they flagged down a passing ambulance and within 20 minutes the area was cording
00:39:06
off with crime scene tape and with officers and investigators on the scene Mary told
00:39:15
the Washington Post that the whole thing left a bad taste in her mouth she was married to a policeman herself but the
00:39:22
family did not like the way that the Fairfax police handled this whole whole thing quote I'm mad because her mother
00:39:29
and I had to find her it took us half an hour the police department couldn't do it in two days she said Amy was a very
00:39:38
sweet girl Mary said her as salent didn't murder one little girl he murdered a whole family well I
00:39:47
think the big word I would use to describe law enforcement in this search effort would be
00:39:54
pathetic and obviously now we go from a missing person case to a homicide the determination was that Amy had been
00:40:03
beaten sexually assaulted and strangled this according to the autopsy she had been dead for two days which was sadly
00:40:12
as expected her mother told the Fairfax times they found change in the pocket of
00:40:19
her khaki shorts and a Coroner's report estimated that it all happened within 30 minutes to an hour of
00:40:27
when she left her car so not a whole lot of time takes place between the time that Amy finds herself on the side of
00:40:35
the interstate and when she is actually killed again according to the coroner 30
00:40:42
to 60 Minutes roughly after Amy left her vehicle now I do want to State the other
00:40:48
problem with their pathetic search is once you find her don't you believe that this is where the crime actually took
00:40:55
place so not only are you finding this missing person and now you know it's a homicide but now you can preserve this
00:41:03
scene which is outside you can do your best but she's been out there for approximately two days right no but what
00:41:11
I'm saying is if they would have done the search correctly they would have found her probably two days
00:41:16
earlier that's correct yes they did that cursor search earlier and had they spotted her and found her then they
00:41:25
would have had a better more preserved crime scene to be investigating and and you can't
00:41:32
blame the baker family for for they have to be furious with this yeah I mean her body's located 200
00:41:42
yards from where the vehicle was originally spotted so we're not talking like a a great distance
00:41:50
here now this is real interesting to me here captain and these are potential leads
00:41:57
and this is based off of the police requesting information in Amy's case so interestingly police asked the public to
00:42:07
call in any information they might have about two possible vehicles that were seen in the area so a statement said
00:42:16
that police were seeking two cars the state trooper spotted quote near the Volkswagen and this was a one was a dark
00:42:25
colored early 80s Buick and the other was a blue Ford Escort now whether they received any calls about these pretty
00:42:33
generic vehicles in their description is unknown once there was news reports that
00:42:40
Amy has been murdered there was a flood of tips so one of these was a caller referencing an article about Amy in the
00:42:50
freelance star of Fredericksburg this caller was a female caller and she called Crim stoppers on
00:42:59
April 3rd police believe the caller was from the Fredricksburg area the caller was assigned identification number
00:43:10
6125 but has never called back again now we don't know what this tip involved we
00:43:19
don't know the details of this tip but the reason why this tip is important here captain captain is in 2005 police
00:43:29
said that they were renewing their plea for this person to call back quote we believe there is somebody out there who
00:43:36
knows about this case end quote this is according to the spokesperson Warren carmichel right for the Fairfax
00:43:45
police who goes on to say quote we hope that person will come forward end quote so it sounds to me like this woman the
00:43:53
the caller who called in way back in April 3rdd of 1989 that this caller hinted that she
00:44:03
had some significant information about the case but police received this information
00:44:11
they beg they plea for her to call back and according to everything I can find she never called back and that's easy to
00:44:18
believe one because we have a second plea public plea in 2005 requesting that she call back well some people are so
00:44:26
scared to call in in the first place so you feel for law enforcement and you feel for the baker family because this
00:44:35
individual look they they might have got scared they might have gotten scared the
00:44:39
other thing that I worry about too is is this person we're talking about a significant amount of time in this case
00:44:47
right we had just said 33 years roughly in this case and in 200 five they're requesting that this caller
00:44:58
call back in this is after several previous requests but 2005 still would have been 16 years after the
00:45:11
fact so if this person if this female caller did have intimate details of the case or knew who was responsible for Amy
00:45:22
Baker's murder there's a chance that that person was not still with us or still around in 2005 be it alive or in
00:45:33
the area or the region at all well this case definitely has some interesting points to it there's a lot of things
00:45:40
that are very interesting to me here in this case Captain I feel like even though we're sitting here 33 years later
00:45:48
that there's still a possibility that this case could be solved and there are some things that we're going to get into
00:45:54
that are of evidentiary value that will point to the possibility of still finding Amy Baker's killer all of these
00:46:03
years later but even in the early stages of this investigation look we can't go back in time and make the police find
00:46:13
Amy's body any sooner than it was eventually located we can't go back in time and and
00:46:20
erase the two days that that took place between the time of her death and when the body was found and then preserve
00:46:26
that crime scene even better but we can take the things and the items that we know to be fact in this case and hone in
00:46:36
on those and see what can be made of those so one we have police asking the public for help on these two vehicles
00:46:44
that were spotted the two vehicles that were spotted are very important to me for a couple of reasons right one one of
00:46:52
the vehicles could in fact belong to the Killer uhhuh or we have a situation where both vehicles do not belong to the
00:47:00
killer but could be potential Witnesses or eyewitnesses to something um even if they call in and talk to police and say
00:47:08
that they didn't see anything at all that is of value to the police because that goes into their timeline to
00:47:16
say well these vehicles were within plain sight of Amy's vehicle and they didn't see Amy they also didn't see uh
00:47:26
the perpetrator so we know that the perpetrator was a male it was whoever's responsible for this is a male now the
00:47:35
two vehicles yes is there a chance that the tip that comes in that they were so concerned about that they were asking
00:47:45
and begging the caller to call back and speak with investigators another time is
00:47:51
there a chance that that caller was the owner or has information based off of one of those vehicles that was spotted
00:48:00
cuz the vehicles that they're they're asking the public about these aren't some random Vehicles yes they're pretty
00:48:07
vague descriptions of the vehicles but these are vehicles that were spotted by the patrol officer who was the one that
00:48:14
noted the abandoned vehicle in the first place and then factor in the situation of this female caller calling into Crim
00:48:24
Stoppers look that in itself points out that this caller likely wanted to remain
00:48:30
anonymous because Crim Stoppers is a great way to provide a tip to law enforcement and remain anonymous but
00:48:37
this tip comes in on April 3D Amy Baker was driving home on March 29th so 5 days
00:48:46
later is when this tip is phoned in and it's not even 5 days later when you think about it because she's not found
00:48:54
until the 30 1 so we really only have about three days between now we have a known
00:49:02
homicide to Wi this tip comes in how long did it take from the time that we have a known homicide and Amy Baker is
00:49:09
identified as the victim that between between that information going out to the public and this call coming in on
00:49:17
April 3rd I'm with police here I feel like this tip whatever was that was stated in the information that this
00:49:24
female caller gave to Crim Stoppers was important to the investigators at the time and has remained important to the
00:49:31
investigators for 33 years I'm with them I I don't know what was said in that tip
00:49:37
but it this tip is of of high priority in this investigation well it seems like this tip was priority to the witness but
00:49:46
then maybe they changed their mind or maybe they just don't want to be [Music] involved
00:49:58
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